There’s also an old saying about how a democratic system taken over by a single party quickly becomes corrupt because the ruling party lacks oversight.
asserted
party → ’ → oversight
Then, as corruption becomes the party’s driving force, the only people willing to work for it are either corrupt themselves or so unqualified they support the corrupt leadership to gain power, knowing that in a merit-based system it would be entirely out of their reach.
asserted
it → become → reach
OK, that second old saying is shared mostly among political scientists, but it’s accurate, and it’s right up there with the rats and the ships to describe what’s happening in Trump’s orbit now.
asserted
what → share → orbit
The saga of Kimberly Guilfoyle, who was recently forced to resign from her post as U.S. Ambassador to Greece, continues to expand.
asserted
who → force → Greece
Guilfoyle left her post after news broke that she had tried to get a donor, Eric Deters, to pay down her credit card debt.
asserted
donor → leave → debt
She and her lawyers countered the story by claiming Deters was withholding money she had earned, and said the text messages he shared with news outlets were false.
asserted
he → counter → outlets
Guilfoyle dated Don Jr. from 2018 to 2024 and was engaged to him the last four years of that time.
asserted
Guilfoyle → date → time
Now there are rumors that during her time inside the family as a trusted loyalist, she kept a “burn book” about the family.
asserted
she → be → family
While that may or may not be true, the fact that there’s such a threat out there reflects the cracking loyalties of Trump insiders.
uncertain
fact → ’ → insiders
More to the point might be the video released today by Deters himself, saying that he had launched a lawsuit against Guilfoyle for defamation and that he would depose her and Don Jr. and demand subpoenas to clear his name.
uncertain
he → release → name
He also vowed to play a 16-minute phone conversation tomorrow that he claims has information which “might just bring down the entire Trump administration, an administration which I have supported from Day One.”
uncertain
I → vow → Day
Note that the story of Guilfoyle’s alleged shakedown is breaking now, although it happened more than a year ago.
asserted
it → note → shakedown
Also in the category of old stories coming to the surface is one reported yesterday by Marc Caputo of Axios.
asserted
one → come → Axios
He wrote that Trump’s former lawyer Alina Habba is saying that another one of Trump’s advisors, Ric Grenell, did not deposit her billionaire husband’s $5.6 million donation to the Kennedy Center.
asserted
one → write → Center
According to Habba, Grenell asked that the donation be routed through a $17.6 million payment for a business deal, an accusation Grenell called “absurd.”
uncertain
Grenell → accord → deal
Trump appointed Grenell to be U.S. ambassador to Germany and then acting director of national intelligence during his first term.
asserted
Trump → appoint → term
After retaking office, he named Grenell as a special envoy to Venezuela before putting him in charge of the Kennedy Center.
asserted
he → retake → Center
A fight that has been going on for more than a year in the administration broke into the open this morning in a Politico story by Daniel Lippman.
asserted
that → go → Lippman
He explained that Trump named Italian Paolo Zampolli, a former modeling agent who introduced Trump to First Lady Melania Trump at a party in New York City, as a special envoy at the State Department with a portfolio of cultural diplomacy.
asserted
who → explain → diplomacy
But Zampolli apparently ignored that assignment and struck out on his own on a wide range of issues, infuriating Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
asserted
Zampolli → ignore → Landau
“My number-one boss is the president of America,” Zampolli told James Fontanella-Khan of the Financial Times in April.
asserted
Zampolli → tell → April
“I get my instructions from the White House, Commerce and the Department of War…anything to advance the America First agenda.”
asserted
I → get → agenda
More than 16 administration officials have been included in the angry email chains Zampolli and Landau have exchanged, which at one point led to communications about the fight with a top-level foreign official.
asserted
which → include → official
At one point Zampolli accused Landau of leaking to reporters what appeared to be the story that Zampolli had tried to get custody of his son by asking Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to deport Amanda Ungaro, the boy’s mother.
asserted
Zampolli → accuse → Ungaro
That story created its own scandal when Ungaro, a former model, threatened to expose information about the president and first lady.
asserted
Ungaro → create → president
Landau responded to Zampolli’s accusation, which he sent to more than a dozen other officials, saying: “Your threats and accusations are getting more and more bizarre, defamatory, and inappropriate for broad dissemination on email.”
asserted
threats → respond → email
An administration official told Lippman that the State Department was “generally squeaky clean and professional and above it all.”
asserted
Department → tell → it
By this afternoon, Lippman had a follow-up story: Zampolli had been fired.
asserted
Zampolli → fire → story
Today, news broke that two women have named former Republican representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL), along with his friend former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg and others, in a civil lawsuit, alleging that from 2017 through January 2019, “Gaetz and Greenberg coordinated recruitment, payments, drugs, and travel to obtain commercial sexual acts….”
asserted
Gaetz → break → acts
In 2024, the House Ethics Committee reported that Gaetz “regularly” paid women, as well as a 17-year-old girl, for sex, and bought and used illicit drugs while a member of Congress.
asserted
Gaetz → report → Congress
Those accusations helped to sink Trump’s nomination of Gaetz for U.S. attorney general in 2025.
asserted
accusations → help → 2025
Gaetz’s response was hardly a denial: “I look forward to taking the plaintiffs’ depositions because much of the conduct alleged against me is false,” he wrote.
asserted
he → look → me
“The lawsuit relies almost exclusively on a Congressional Committee Report that didn’t allow me to confront my accusers.
asserted
me → rely → accusers
Now I will finally have that chance.”
asserted
I → have → chance
One has to wonder why anyone would want to be part of such a mess, but Trump’s new White House press secretary provides an answer: in a normal administration she would never make it through the door.
asserted
she → have → door
Trump has described Katie Zacharia as an “attorney,” and she has identified herself as a “general counsel” and seemed to claim she worked as an attorney in China.
uncertain
she → describe → China
But after Judd Legum of Popular Information noted there was no sign she had ever passed the bar exam or been admitted to a state bar, Philip Wegmann and Alexandra Bruell of the Wall Street Journal reported today that, in fact, she failed the California bar exam when she took it.
asserted
she → note → it
That, itself, is not unusual—the California bar exam is notoriously difficult—but it does mean she is not qualified to call herself an attorney.
asserted
she → mean → herself
Democracy Defenders Fund, a nonpartisan team defending democracy led by attorney Norm Eisen, has asked the State Bar of California and California Attorney General Rob Bonta to investigate whether Zacharia practiced law without a license in California, where doing so is a crime.
asserted
doing → defend → California
Tonight, on his show, Fox News Channel personality Sean Hannity seemed to undercut Zacharia, asking her why she had chosen to describe herself as an attorney when she could just have said she “went to Pepperdine Law School and then took a different career path.”
uncertain
she → seem → path
…and 25 more, not listed.
The Aporia
