“Honey please I need you to get this done for me today.... You could just send it here. It won’t show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express that’s all that will show. Please.”
U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle allegedly sent those messages over Signal to Eric Deters, a former congressional candidate and longtime Trump ally, just days before her confirmation hearing in 2025. Between that, Trump’s crypto coin corruption, and his taxpayer-funded campaign ads, the past few weeks have been among the most grifty we’ve seen in this administration so far. But the good news is that my pro-democracy litigation colleagues and I are pushing back in the courts of law and public opinion — thanks to your paid subscriptions. Please consider joining the pushback.
1. Ambassadorial Misconduct
Let’s start with Guilfoyle. She reportedly pressured Deters to wire $100,000 directly into her American Express account just days before her confirmation hearing in 2025. The exchange is just one of a series of damning text messages reportedly revealing how Deters allegedly repeatedly paid Guilfoyle to pressure executive branch officials on his behalf. And Guilfoyle knew this conduct was unacceptable — she even chastised Deters for sending requests in writing: “Eric, I really wish you would stop papering all these things…just call me on signal.” This is one of the most blatant scandals I’ve seen involving a U.S. ambassador. She, of course, denies these allegations, but the Signal exchanges the WSJ released stink to high heaven. The federal law that makes it illegal to bribe public officials or witnesses or offer them unlawful rewards also explicitly covers nominees (which Guilfoyle was at the time), and though the Supreme Court has made it very hard to bring federal bribery charges, the DOJ must investigate.
That’s not even the only Guilfoyle scandal this week! Guilfoyle also faces allegations that she has abused her diplomatic position to promote a Greek energy and construction company and permit a registered lobbyist for the firm to take part in official diplomatic meetings, raising serious concerns about conflicts of interest. We were busy this week calling for a congressional investigation if Congress changes hands — as seems increasingly likely. This one is a doozy.
2. Meme Coin Madness
Guilfoyle’s story is about so much more than her particular interaction with Deters. She, of course, was allegedly attempting to sell access to Donald Trump — but that was minor league ball compared with Trump himself. The president publicly sells access to himself all the time — in fact, the firm behind his meme coin continues to auction off spots to “the most exclusive dinner in the world” for those who are the largest holders of the $TRUMP coin.
My Democracy Defenders colleagues and I have been hammering away to expose these conflicts. We recently received Trump’s annual financial disclosures — and they are damning. They reveal that his $TRUMP meme coin alone accounted for a staggering $636 million of his crypto-related earnings in 2025. And, as of this summer, nearly one million buyers had collectively lost an estimated $3.81 billion on this worthless meme coin, whose value had plunged roughly 97 percent from its peak.
No wonder nearly 90 percent of Americans think corruption in government is widespread and roughly 80 percent believe government corruption is causing their costs to increase.
3. Taxpayer-Funded Political Ads
Trump reportedly ordered his budget director to divert millions of dollars in taxpayer funds from the Department of Homeland Security to run political ads — including one recycled from his 2024 campaign. This is against the law. Full stop. Congress has made it perfectly clear: You cannot use taxpayer money to fund political ads. Trump has now run multiple ads with our money, all of which aired on major networks during prime time. This is expensive airtime, and we are paying for it.
Facing backlash, including from a number of congressional Republicans, Trump said that his super PAC, MAGA Inc., will begin covering the cost of these ads. But his announcement on Truth Social implicated him in another violation of federal law. As a federal official, he cannot direct super PAC spending. And the madness doesn’t stop there. He’s compounded numerous illegalities, including using music in these campaign-style ads without permission. Trying to get out of breaking one law by breaking other laws is quintessential Trump.
The illegality doesn’t stop there. JMSN, our client, saw his song “Love Me” play illegally as the score of one of these television ads. We are proud to represent JMSN alongside Ballard Spahr LLP and Hecker Fink LLP to demand that the Trump administration and MAGA Inc. immediately stop using his song in their ad.
Enough is enough. This week, we and our colleagues sued the Trump administration on behalf of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and a candidate for Wisconsin treasurer, Yee Leng Xiong, for its illegal use of millions in taxpayer dollars for these political ads. We will not allow Trump to take funds, some of which were meant to honor fallen officers, and redirect them to his election propaganda.
4. Pickpocketing the Public
Trump’s willingness effectively to steal from taxpayers doesn’t just stop at ads or meme coins. It’s also infecting our federal agencies. In May, Trump’s Justice Department settled his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS by creating a $1.776 billion so-called “Anti-Weaponization” fund. The plot — with Trump on both sides of the v — effectively forced taxpayers to funnel money from our schools and roads directly to his political allies, including individuals charged in connection with the January 6 insurrection.
We at Democracy Defenders Action serve as co-counsel with Platkin LLP and Susman Godfrey LLP for a bipartisan group of 35 former judges who urged the court to reject this scheme. Fortunately, Judge Kathleen Williams did exactly that, denying the settlement in its entirety. She concluded that the lawsuit had been filed in bad faith and was intended “to gain the imprimatur of judicial legitimacy for a ‘settlement’ that had no viable basis in law or fact.” Indeed, she found that the suit was brought in such bad faith that the lawyers who litigated the case had violated their professional ethics obligations — and should be sanctioned. She later reinforced her decision, rejecting Trump’s bid to block enforcement of her order and the sanctions it imposed.
Trump’s team filed an emergency request with the 11th Circuit appellate court to stay these sanctions, but we vigorously opposed it. The 11th Circuit agreed with us and rejected it. With your support, we are proud to have played a key role in stopping the slush fund from coming to fruition and ensure that the appropriate sanctions arising from this sham lawsuit and slush fund remain in place. So much winning — thanks to the help made possible by our paid subscribers.
5. The Epstein Files Cover-Up
For more than a year, Democracy Defenders Fund has been fighting on behalf of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein to expose the truth and secure justice. DDF has filed multiple FOIA requests and has helped to build the case that the DOJ is blatantly violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
In April, the DOJ Office of the Inspector General opened an audit in direct response to our complaints, and just last week Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly granted our motion for summary judgment, directing the DOJ to expedite the production of records referencing Donald Trump or Mar-a-Lago. We have no doubt that this administration will continue to stall and obstruct, but we will not back down, especially with the Contrarian community behind us. We will get the Trump-Epstein files.
6. Last-Minute Attempt to Rewrite the Rules of Mail-In Voting
Desperate to assert his will over our elections, Trump attempted to use the U.S. Postal Service to impose new restrictions on mail-in ballots. He issued an executive order purporting to give the USPS authority not just to deliver mail-in and absentee ballots but also to control how they are handled. The EO directed the agency to impose new rules that would be virtually impossible to implement ahead of the election, intentionally trying to sow chaos and undermine voter confidence. This is patently illegal: The Constitution grants the president no such authority. The power to regulate elections rests with Congress and the states.
My colleagues and I at DDF, along with wonderful partners across the pro-democracy ecosystem, immediately jumped in and filed motions in all 13 mail-in voting proceedings to ensure voting remains free and fair. A federal judge blocked the rule nationwide, and the Supreme Court left in place the lower-court order preventing its implementation before the midterms. I’m confident my mail-in ballot will count, and I want each of you to feel that same confidence in your vote, however you choose to cast it.
7. Insider Truth: Selling Trump’s Posts
In August, Truth Social turned presidential communications into a pay-to-play scheme. Trump Media & Technology Group, which runs the social media app, launched a paid service to give Wall Street firms early access to Trump’s posts. Firms that opt in could reportedly be charged as much as $100,000 a month for this advance access. The service will allow the big banks to execute trades based on information that other investors don’t have — allowing them to make a nearly risk-free profit off less sophisticated or powerful investors. But this wouldn’t harm just everyday investors and retail traders who can’t pay an exorbitant fee; it will drive up the costs of entering the market — a cost that will be passed down to banks’ clients like you. Just when you think Trump and his cronies couldn’t find any more ways to profit from their power, they somehow manage to reach new heights, even by their own standards.
We are proud with Platkin LLP and the Washington Litigation Group to represent San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, who is courageously taking action and using the tools at his disposal to oppose this. Chiu recently filed a lawsuit attempting to stop this program, arguing that it violates California’s Unfair Competition Law as it gives wealthy traders access to government information before others have a chance to benefit. As Chiu put it: “This scheme turns the public trust into private profit. It is corruption, plain and simple.” Indeed it is. Trump is the largest shareholder of Truth Social and is positioned to profit the most from this new offering. We must stop it.
8. Trump’s Kennedy Center Renovation Racket
When Trump tried to add his name to the Kennedy Center, we sued and stopped him, convincing a federal judge to rule that the name change was unlawful. And again the administration refused to abide by the ruling and pursued further attempts to inscribe Trump’s name on the center. So we went back to court. This time, Judge Christopher Cooper issued a permanent injunction barring the board from installing memorials to Trump without congressional authorization. He later blocked Trump’s plan to demolish the center without notice, allowing us to litigate the matter, and granted us discovery into Trump’s temper tantrum demolition threat. Now we are digging into the evidence underlying this outrageous behavior. We won’t stop until we have safeguarded the future of the Kennedy Center for good.
With your support, Contrarians, we will continue to fight these kinds of egregious abuses of power and prevent any further desecration of our nation’s capital.
9. Reflecting Pool Insanity
After Trump’s attempted renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool failed spectacularly, the administration was in desperate search for a scapegoat. A 67-year-old Olympic canoeist named Davey Hearn became their primary target simply because he wanted to see for himself what had happened to this beloved American monument. For the crime of caring about our shared history and our monuments and without any evidence of wrongdoing, the administration arrested him and charged him with vandalizing the Reflecting Pool. We filed seven motions, forcing the government to admit that the Reflecting Pool renovation was a botched job and had nothing to do with our client. And we won. The charges were so bogus a judge dismissed them with prejudice, permanently barring the government from bringing them again.
We and our wonderful partners at the Washington Litigation Group and Steptoe LLP are determined to ensure that what happened to Hearn can never happen again. And we don’t have faith in this DOJ. That’s why we filed a complaint to the department’s Inspector’s General calling for a full investigation into Hearn’s wrongful arrest. This is just the beginning: With your help, we will fight for more accountability and further legal remedies for Davey and anyone else the administration wrongfully targets.
10. It’s a Family Affair
From billion-dollar defense contracts to lucrative investment deals, the Trump family’s profiteering from the presidency knows no bounds. To call their activity an unprecedented level of corruption would be far too charitable. Donald Trump Jr.’s 1789 Capital has ballooned from a few hundred million dollars in assets to several billion and is reportedly in talks to raise another $3 billion, while Eric Trump is cashing in through investments in defense startups and critical minerals. And let’s not forget son-in-law Jared Kushner, who continues to pursue massive Middle East investments through his private equity firm even as he takes on a diplomatic role in the region. And these are just a few examples of their self-serving dealings. Corruption is the family trade; the emperor has no clothes and his family is naked, too. Nakedly corrupt, that is.
Contrarians, your paid subscriptions help make possible the fight against this corruption. If you’re not a paid subscriber, won’t you please consider becoming one?
And of course, those same paid subscriptions also fund the excellent journalism at The Contrarian, which you can see below in the roundup of this week’s best.
Women Speaking Out
Ciera Stone gave us a searing essay on the institutional failures and cultural vitriol around the alleged “Cornell Gang Rape” case — and what the case reveals about the dark realities all American women live with. “It’s not about men’s feelings. It’s about our survival.”
No, You Don’t Know That Jane Doe ‘Changed Her Story.’ No One Does.
Mimi Rocah wrote on efforts to discredit the Cornell case’s Jane Doe, which have been long on misogyny and short on legal merit. “We do know that Jane Doe’s 2024 report never received the caliber of care it deserved.”
‘Tell Me More’: Margaret Atwood, Menopause, the Midterms — and Me
Jennifer Weiss-Wolf spoke with The Handmaid’s Tale author about what’s at stake for women’s health ahead of the midterms and beyond, “from the soaring cost of medical care to inadequate health insurance to lagging scientific research.” She also joined Jennifer Rubin on the podcast this week to discuss her fantastic new book, When in Menopause: A User’s Manual and Citizen’s Guide.
Foreign Fallacies
For Midterm Voters, Foreign Policy Isn’t Feeling so Foreign
Maher Bitar of National Security Action wrote on new polling showing that, for many voters, Trump’s disastrous choices on the world stage are hitting all too close to home. “More than half of all respondents say the war is responsible ‘a great deal’ for higher gas prices.”
Don’t Dismiss Trump’s Los Angeles-San Diego Comment as a ‘Joke’
Jill Lawrence cautioned against shrugging off Trump’s deranged asides. “There’s a term for Trump’s bullying, often racist sneers and attacks, accompanied by indirect (always indirect) calls to violence: stochastic terrorism.”
‘Peace Through Strength?’ I Have Heard This Before
John F. Terzano wrote on the ongoing insult to strategic vision and human dignity that is Pete Hegseth’s tenure at the Defense Department. “Hegseth can tell us how much we have destroyed. He can tell us how lethal our military has become…. But he cannot answer the most important question: Why are we still at war?”
Midterm Watch
Data Center Backlash Is MAGA’s Comeuppance
Jennifer Rubin wrote on how data centers have become a stand-in for bigger fights: affordability, corporate power, soaring energy costs, and a Republican Party that won’t cross Trump even when their constituents are paying the price.
Are Democrats Gettin’ Religion?
Natalie Fertig wrote on how Democratic candidates in states like Kansas and Texas are bringing up faith more often on the campaign trail in 2026. “The accusations that Democratic Christians are heretics or ‘pastors in name only’ ... are the ‘rearguard battle just for exclusive control of the Christian environment.’”
Why a Wealth Tax Is Fracturing the Golden State
Tim Dickinson wrote on how a proposal to tax California’s superrich is dividing the working class from the billionaires — and Democratic leaders from the party’s base. “The measure is also becoming a national litmus test, as could-be presidential candidates begin jockeying for 2028.”
Fighting Back
Tim Dickinson and Jennifer Rubin spoke with Democratic candidates hoping to make the blue wave bigger this November: Congressional hopeful Bob Brooks, a Pennsylvania firefighter sounding the alarm on affordability, and Mississippi District Attorney Scott Colom, who is ready to take his anti-corruption platform to the Senate.
Stand Against Sexual Violence; Read a Banned Book
In this week’s Calls to Action, we highlighted Thursday’s Women’s March and other events nationwide against sexual violence, celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, upcoming actions for gun safety, No Kings 4 planning, how you can door knock (or dial) for democracy, and more.
The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement
This week, we saw democracy defenders in Texas, Connecticut, Washington, Pennsylvania, California, and more across the country. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.
Culture, Cartoons, & Fun Stuff
Our cartoonists took on bold strategies (The Trump Dividend, Michael de Adder; Propaganda Machine; Nick Anderson) and bald failures (The Incredible Shrinking Trump, Nick Anderson; Full Speed Ahead, Michael de Adder).
What It Feels Like to Have the Most Banned Book in the Country
In honor of Banned Books Week, Meredith Blake interviewed author Patricia McCormick, whose 2006 novel Sold, a deeply researched portrait of child sex trafficking, is the most banned book of the year. “I feel really confused, because it’s a book about child trafficking, which is an issue that people on the right end of the political spectrum tend to care a lot about.”
‘Notes on a Blacklash’ Reflects On Decades of White House Journalism
April Ryan joined Jen and me on the podcast this week to talk about her new book and Trump’s latest unhinged comments. “The blacklash is the 600,000 Black women who have lost their jobs under Donald John Trump … [but] it’s not just one single thing. I felt the blacklash. It is real. It is so real.”
Dear everyone. I am a canadian and i am pleased that my subscription (and yours) is helping in the battle to return democracy, humanity, common sense, and honesty to your poor beleaguered nation
Has Krasnov succeeded?
Did the diesel oil deal PROVE it.
By supporting Trump every Republican candidate is a willing idiot for Putin.