Trump: Buy American, Unless It’s for My Ballroom
President Trump, who has long married “protecting American steel” with his “Make America Great Again” slogan, reportedly accepted tens of millions of dollars in donated steel from a foreign firm for his ballroom just days before he slashed tariffs in half that could help one of its plants.
According to a report by the New York Times from earlier this week, two people familiar with the White House ballroom plans said the steel was made in Europe by ArcelorMittal, a Luxembourg-based steel manufacturer.
European Steel?! Get a rope.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/04/trump-steel-white-house-ballroom-tarriffs/
#uspol #uspolitics #architecture #corruption #cronyism #DarkMoney #fascism
"The Lobbying Disclosure Act is enforced by the US Attorney for DC, an office currently held by former Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro. Those who “knowingly fail to comply” with the law are subject to civil fines maxing out at $200,000, while those who “knowingly and corruptly [fail] to comply” face up to five years in prison.
In the case of the revamped East Wing and ballroom, only one corporation reported its donation to the fund on lobbying disclosure files. Yet twenty-six other firms have been identified as donors by media reports or the White House itself. Those include corporations with lucrative contracts or high-stakes legal matters before the Trump administration in the last year.
That includes Micron, which last year shut down its consumer-facing computer chip business after accepting more than $6.1 billion in data center semiconductor contracts from the Trump administration; Union Pacific Railroad, which is seeking merger approval for its plan to create the company’s first single-line transcontinental megarailroad; and Palantir, the Silicon Valley surveillance giant that recently scored a historic ten-year, $10 billion Pentagon contract (as well as one for bossware at the Agriculture Department.)
“The hidden influence being exerted on the current Trump administration by lobbyists — who are also not making the required disclosures — is unprecedented,” said Kedric Payne, vice president, general counsel, and senior director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center."
https://jacobin.com/2026/04/dark-money-trump-legacy-projects
Outside Funds Dwarf Candidate Spending in Democratic Primaries
External groups spent more than candidates in recent Democratic primaries. See who is affected and why it matters for voter choice.
#OutsideSpending, #DemocraticPrimaries, #CampaignFinance, #DarkMoney, #VoterChoice
https://newsletter.tf/outside-groups-outspend-candidates-democratic-primaries/
Outside groups spent more money than candidates in Democratic primaries this year, making it harder for voters to hear directly from the people running.
#OutsideSpending, #DemocraticPrimaries, #CampaignFinance, #DarkMoney, #VoterChoice
https://newsletter.tf/outside-groups-outspend-candidates-democratic-primaries/
And speaking of someone somewhere funding "studies' and movements to spread right-wing American-style evangelicalism overseas, Alice McCool reports on a new investigation exposing a global network of anti-abortion groups and US Christian nationalists using UK courts to target women's bodily autonomy.
#evangelicals #women #abortion #DarkMoney
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https://www.bylinesupplement.com/p/how-the-us-christian-right-and-anti
If you're concerned about #surveillance and want to understand how corporations like #meta are behind the global #age_verification laws being pushed, I highly recommend this site. The research is extensive and heavily cited.
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