Hey everyone. Welcome back. Happy Friday!
Last night, the President went on primetime television and claimed that China stole the 2020 election. He assembled his intelligence chiefs and released a mountain of newly declassified documents. There was just one problem. The documents he released say the opposite of what he says. In a lot of places, they prove him wrong. We’ll break it all down for you here so you don’t have to put yourself through the speech.
We will also get into the White House teleprompter operator who was betting on the President’s speeches, Trump selling early-access to his Truth Social posts, an update on the reflecting pool, and the acting Attorney General who had to meet with Epstein’s survivors to save his nomination, but may have sunk it instead.
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Let’s get to it.
1. Trump's Own Files Debunk His Stolen Election Speech
For years, the President has told you the 2020 election was stolen. Last night, he tried to show his work. He stood in the East Room, put his top law enforcement and intelligence officials behind him, and released hundreds of pages of newly declassified intelligence that he said prove China rigged the vote.
The speech itself was the one he always gives. China. The deep state. A stolen election. He claimed China pulled off the largest compromise of election data in history and illicitly grabbed millions of American voter files. He said Venezuela conspired to digitally rig elections. He said our systems are vulnerable.
But here is the thing about actually releasing the documents. Now the rest of us can read them. And in a lot of places, they say the opposite of what he says.
Start with China. The central assessment, an October 2020 memo, says China took “low level exploratory steps” that year. Exploratory steps. Not a stolen election.
On Venezuela, his bombshell documents say the CIA could not confirm that Venezuela pulled off large scale fraud in its own elections. Let alone ours.
But the newly released documents do show one country with observed attempts on American voting systems. Russia. The one country he doesn’t want to talk about.
The release includes an assessment that states: “we assess that vote tabulation systems would be difficult to manipulate on a wide enough scale to compromise election results.”
That is the evidence he chose to declassify. It’s almost like the President didn’t think people were going to go through and read these documents. Although, given his base, that actually makes a lot of sense.
But the clearest rebuttal came from his own guy. John Solomon is a longtime election denier and a member of Trump’s election task force. The architect of last night’s speech. Here he is talking with a reporter afterwards:
He goes on to confirm that Venezuela did not tamper with voting machines in the United States. That much truth-telling is frowned upon on the White House grounds though, so his staff pretty much dragged him away from the reporter.
Two networks, NBC and ABC, decided not to carry the speech live. So the President turned on them. He said they and others in the media were “part of a plot” and “want to continue this fraud.” He then called for a revocation of their broadcast licenses.
Unsurprisingly, Fox News aired the speech. But the moment it ended, Brett Baier told viewers Fox couldn’t vouch for a word of it. When even Fox is putting a disclaimer on your speech, maybe the speech is the problem. Not the networks.
And by the way, every bit of tampering he describes supposedly happened in 2020, on his own watch, when he was President. He claims no wrongdoing at all in 2016 or 2024, the two elections he won. Which is when the big bad democrats were running the government. I guess democrats are just better at holding free and fair elections, right Mr. President?
Look, deep down, Trump does care about 2020. He hates that he lost. But that’s not the main factor in why he’s bringing all of this stuff up again. It’s about November. Hours before the speech, a reporter asked the press secretary a simple question:
The spin there is not an accident. Trump wants to inject as much confusion and doubt into the electoral process as he can, so if things don’t go his way in the midterms, he can call it fraud.
The problem is, the big lie is still a lie. There is no evidence. The election was not stolen. And if anything, Trump’s speech last night only proved that even more.
2. Trump's Teleprompter Operator Caught Betting on His Speeches
Meet Gabriel Perez. He has operated Donald Trump’s teleprompter since 2016. He is, by all accounts, the last set of eyes on nearly every speech the President gives. He knows the words before Trump says them.
And according to federal investigators, he used that to his advantage. Perez placed bets on more than a dozen of Trump’s speeches on the prediction market Kalshi, on a feature where you can wager on which specific words and phrases a speaker will say. He knew the script. So he knew the answers.
Investigators say he won more than a hundred thousand dollars. The State of the Union. The World Economic Forum. A Medal of Honor ceremony. And here is the detail that gives it away. When Trump went off script and skipped a word Perez had bet on, Perez pulled the bet mid-speech. He could see what was coming, and the room could not.
Kalshi’s own surveillance flagged the trades, froze the funds in his account, and referred him to federal regulators. He is now on unpaid leave.
Asked what the White House would do to stop this from happening again, here’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt:
“Extremely strict ethical guidelines.” Where? When? The only reason he got caught was because the betting sites’ own security measures flagged it. And to be fair to Perez, he was just following office culture. He watched Trump monetize the presidency every day. Why doesn’t the teleprompter guy get a cut?
3. Wall Street Can Now Buy Trump's Posts Before You See Them
Yesterday, Trump Media announced that Wall Street firms can now buy the fastest access to Truth Social posts, delivering updates to traders ahead of everyone else.
Why would they want it? As the company’s CEO put it, “Markets already move on Truth Social posts.” That is the sales pitch, and it’s clear who they’re talking about. The President moving markets with a post isn’t a problem to them, it’s a feature. And firms should pay so they can react first.
This lands the same week that CNN published an investigation showing Trump bought stock in more than twenty companies and then promoted those same firms to his followers days later. Apple. Tesla. Nvidia. In that last case, he bought as much as half a million dollars in shares before announcing expedited permits for the company.
So put it together. The President buys a stock. The President posts something that moves that stock. And now, for a price, you can get your hands on it before anyone else.
Look, we should not be surprised he found a way to charge for his own social media app. But what is remarkable is the sales pitch. It’s being marketed to investors as a tool. The President’s words, sold by the President’s company, as raw material for Wall Street’s trading machines.
For this product to survive, the President has to keep doing this. Trump Media isn’t selling past posts. They’re selling the promise of the next one.
4. The Washington Post Dismantles Trump's Reflecting Pool Story
We’ve talked about this one before, but here’s a quick recap: The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool got a fourteen million dollar renovation last month. Within about two weeks, the new lining started peeling off in chunks and floating in the water. And the President had only one explanation: vandals.
He doubled down on that claim this week, writing on Truth Social that “the floor of the pool was cut and then pulled upward, with great force, by these thugs.” So the Washington Post decided to check. Here is what they found:
The failures all lined up along the seams, where two sections of coating never fully bonded. Looking at the evidence, four experts told the Post the same thing. It was not a knife. Not thugs. Just a rush job.
Now, you’d think that would settle it. But today, the President was back on Truth Social with a response: “We are looking for a Vandal Proof material, but such a thing should not have been necessary.”
Vandal proof. Two months ago we were told this material was knife-proof. Now we need an upgrade? The President still hasn’t shown a shred of proof these vandals exist. But now he’s going to armor the pool against them.
5. Blanche's Meeting With Epstein Survivors Backfires
After Todd Blanche dodged his way through a confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Republican Thom Tillis added a condition to his approval:
Tillis is a key vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Republicans currently hold just a one-seat majority after Senator Graham’s death. Out of options, Blanche did what he’s been avoiding for weeks and met with Epstein survivors yesterday afternoon.
It did not go the way the White House had hoped. The survivors went in wanting specific answers about the Epstein files and accountability, but never got them. Afterward, one survivor described him as “abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal to survivors” in the meeting. Even Blanche admitted that it “wasn’t all cordial.”
But none of that seemed to matter to the senator who demanded the meeting in the first place. Hours later, Tillis put out a statement applauding Blanche’s “willingness to directly engage and listen.” Where he saw that willingness, I have no clue. But one thing is clear: he didn’t need the meeting to go well at all. He just needed it to happen, so he’d have cover to vote yes.
And here’s what makes this even worse: Tillis is retiring. He has no primary to lose, no seat to protect, nothing to fear from a no. He’s one of the few people on that committee who could actually vote their conscience. But it appears he is passing up on that opportunity.
Some other stories that caught my eye:
Reports yesterday revealed that Kenneth Kies, an assistant Treasury secretary and acting chief counsel of the IRS, will leave his posts in the next few weeks. According to people familiar with the matter, Kies clashed with White House officials and argued in a recent meeting that a potential request from them would violate Section 7217 of the tax code, the statute that bars the president, vice president, and White House staff from asking the IRS to start or stop an audit of any specific taxpayer. The IRS has now gone nearly a year without a Senate-confirmed leader in either of its top posts.
Court documents released yesterday show that President Trump has dropped BBC Studios, the broadcaster’s commercial arm, from his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC. Those claims were dismissed with prejudice and cannot be refiled, while Trump continues to press the rest of the suit against the BBC itself. At the same time, reports say the U.S. government is considering joining the litigation. That would let the administration withhold documents the BBC has requested, such as phone records and diary entries, by invoking executive privilege or national security. Trump sued the BBC in December over a documentary that combined remarks from different points in his January 6 speech. The BBC has apologized for the edit, but refuses to pay and vows to defend the case.
