The Never-ending Grift
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Not saying anybody from the President Trump administration was involved, but.............
For one prediction market trader, the Trump administration's weekend capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was a nearly half-million-dollar payday.
On Polymarket, a popular site for making bets on the outcome of real world events, a user wagered $32,000 that Maduro would be toppled by the end of January hours before Trump ordered the operation. When it was clear the U.S. had captured Maduro, the trader made more than $400,000 in profit.
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/05/nx-s1-5667232/polymarket-maduro-bet-insider-trading
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https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/28/melania-trump-documentary-amazon-release
Re: Melania documentary
But no one paid $40m to acquire Am I Racist? – or an additional $35m to market it. That’s how much Amazon has poured into Melania – remarkably, the most the deep-pocketed company has ever paid to secure distribution of a single film. This is seemingly the result of a post-election bidding war when corporate panic over matching a seeming rightward turn in the populace was at its peak.
Technically, paying the president-elect’s wife this much money – Melania reportedly pocketed nearly $30m of Amazon’s initial $40m outlay – was legal, because the first lady isn’t part of the government. She’s just a private citizen who happens to be married to the president and happened to receive a multimillion-dollar check from a company with many government contracts through its web services and other divisions.
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https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/28/melania-trump-documentary-amazon-release
Re: Melania documentary
But no one paid $40m to acquire Am I Racist? – or an additional $35m to market it. That’s how much Amazon has poured into Melania – remarkably, the most the deep-pocketed company has ever paid to secure distribution of a single film. This is seemingly the result of a post-election bidding war when corporate panic over matching a seeming rightward turn in the populace was at its peak.
Technically, paying the president-elect’s wife this much money – Melania reportedly pocketed nearly $30m of Amazon’s initial $40m outlay – was legal, because the first lady isn’t part of the government. She’s just a private citizen who happens to be married to the president and happened to receive a multimillion-dollar check from a company with many government contracts through its web services and other divisions.
@taiwan_girl said in The Never-ending Grift:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/28/melania-trump-documentary-amazon-release
Re: Melania documentary
But no one paid $40m to acquire Am I Racist? – or an additional $35m to market it. That’s how much Amazon has poured into Melania – remarkably, the most the deep-pocketed company has ever paid to secure distribution of a single film. This is seemingly the result of a post-election bidding war when corporate panic over matching a seeming rightward turn in the populace was at its peak.
Technically, paying the president-elect’s wife this much money – Melania reportedly pocketed nearly $30m of Amazon’s initial $40m outlay – was legal, because the first lady isn’t part of the government. She’s just a private citizen who happens to be married to the president and happened to receive a multimillion-dollar check from a company with many government contracts through its web services and other divisions.
Apparently Melania has been nominated for a FIFA film award.
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Re: Melania documentary
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/amazon-pulls-melania-movie-theater-1236494861/
As first reported by The Oregonian, and then nationally spotted by The Daily Beast, an Oregon theater long known for finding creatively witty ways to advertise its movies was asked by Amazon to stop screening Melania.
The Lake Theater and Cafe in Lake Oswego had touted last week's release of Amazon MGM's controversial documentary with declarations such as "Does Melania wear Prada? Find out Friday" and -- quoting Sun Tzu's The Art of War -- "To defeat your enemy, you must know them. Melania starts Friday."
Then manager Jordan Perry says their booker received a call from somebody at Amazon asking the theater to pull the film.
"The studio was not happy and/or did not appreciate my take on marketing their film to our own public," Perry told The Oregonian. The theater marquee was then changed to: "Amazon called. Our marquee made them mad. All Melania showings cancelled. Show your support at Whole Foods instead." This was followed by "Join Amazon Prime for Free Two-Day Shipping." (Amazon had no immediate comment on the matter).
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Investors in World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture co-founded by President Trump and his sons, have secured what the company described on its website as “guaranteed direct access” to certain members of its team for those who lock up $5 million worth of their tokens for a six-month period in exchange for voting rights.
Among those listed on World Liberty documents as the firm's "Supporting Team" are the sons of the U.S. president, Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Barron Trump. The company said Trump and other family members won't be part of the direct access arrangement.
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“Among the privileges for Super Nodes is preferential access to the World Liberty Financial business development team and executives – not to specific founders – to discuss partnership opportunities,” said its spokesman, David Wachsman. The World Liberty proposal first issued in February said the "Super Nodes" would gain “guaranteed direct access to the WLFI team” for “partnership discussions.”
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A section of the World Liberty website entitled “Meet our team” previously listed, among others, Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Barron Trump. Following Reuters' questions about the proposal, the website page was altered with the "Meet our team" section removed entirely.
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Under the terms of World Liberty’s business, 75% of all new token sales go to the family of President Trump, meaning that those who have purchased $5 million of the tokens effectively sent $3.75 million to the Trumps. Under a previous version of the terms, the Witkoffs were entitled to 12.5% of all new token sales, meaning they would effectively be sent $625,000, though the most recent version says only that they receive an unspecified portion of a 25% stake.
Meet the Team page that was scrubbed
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