The Bulwark at the Briefing

What you missed this week from The Bulwark.

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Don’t Call It a Kickback

by Andrew Egger

Karoline Leavitt’s “the president’s crypto ventures abide by all conflict of interest laws” t-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by her shirt.

It sure looks like brazen self-dealing corruption, the dinner President Trump is planning to have later this month with the top purchasers of his “official $TRUMP token.” The memecoin’s price jumped 50 percent when the dinner was announced two weeks ago, pumping millions into the portfolios of the president and his associates, who own 80 percent of the coin’s supply. But you never know—maybe there’s a reasonable explanation?

If there is, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt didn’t bother to try to conjure it during yesterday’s White House briefing. When I asked her why the president had planned the dinner, she had only this to say:

Look, the president is abiding by all conflict of interest laws. The president has been incredibly transparent with his own personal financial obligations throughout the years. The president is a successful businessman and I think frankly it’s one of the many reasons that people reelected him back to this office.

I followed up, pointing out that at least some entities are buying the coin in an open attempt to influence the president’s views. Alas, Leavitt stonewalled again: “Look, I can assure you the president acts with only the interests of the American public in mind, putting our country first and doing what’s best for our country, full stop.”

Which, even if it were true, still didn’t supply any alternate theory of why the president would pull the stunt in the first place, beyond the obvious one: to take a few easy bucks out of the wallets of his supporters.

For all her detractors, you can’t say Leavitt’s not good at her job. Subtlety isn’t her strong suit, but subtlety’s not the brief: She hits her marks and gives the president’s spin with unflappable aplomb. Still, she can’t spin shit into gold, so it wasn’t exactly a shock she declined to address the $TRUMP dinner on the merits.

Although I’ve got a White House press pass, I rarely attend Leavitt’s briefings. They’re a jungle, and as a representative of a small outlet—not to mention a Trump-hostile one—the odds of getting in a question are usually pretty slim.

This week, though, the White House reached out to me, asking if I’d be interested in attending the briefing in the “new media” seat—part of the administration’s dual goals of opening the briefing to less traditional outlets and socking it to the Associated Press and the White House Correspondents Association. I hadn’t applied for a seat, and they didn’t say why they tapped me in. The revolving group has been an oddball mix—from sycophants like the podcaster Tim Pool, who asked Leavitt to comment on the “unprofessional behavior” of the White House press corps, to reporters for media startups like Semafor and NOTUS. And now me, I guess.

When the sycophants show up, they get clowned on plenty on social media, of course. But it’s not even clear how much Leavitt enjoys them—feeling obliged as she does to flatter their inane questions as important and insightful and what a shame the media doesn’t ask this enough. You get the sense she has more fun with the adversarial questions and the opportunity to style on the #fakenews. If so, hey: They can have me back anytime.

Editor’s Note: Andrew is there in the White House, asking questions, because you guys helped put him there. Pretty wild to think about considering Andrew and I were among the first employees! Thank you.

If you’re not yet a member and want to keep Andrew asking questions like this:

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Donald Trump’s Information Warfare Against America

Pope Donald I

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America is Torching Its Credibility

How to Remember David Horowitz

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🚨OVERTIME🚨

Onlookers pay their respects to Sheriff’s Deputy Larry Henderson of Hamilton County, Ohio. Henderson was tragically killed in the line of duty.

Happy Saturday! It’s not too late to improve your Mother’s Day plans, gentlemen! I hope you have a nice weekend planned, and especially our mothers.

🎵On the Jukebox…🎵Sam Fender - Little Bit Closer

Maybe he’s running?! While the Ohio GOP endorsed Vivek Ramaswamy despite others wanting the job. Dave Yost, the state’s AG, was at the funeral depicted above, and missed the endorsement meeting. The party declined to postpone it. Newly appointed Lt. Gov. and former National Championship-winning OSU coach Jim Tressel, has gone out of his way to state he hasn’t ruled out running. Interestingly, Friday, his name prominently appeared on a road sign in a newly dropped Ohio tourism ad.

I’m the Private Messaging App Signal… and the Trump Administration Is Ruining My Brand (McSweeney’s)

States, Cities Face Funding Collapse Threat With Trump Cuts… Officials are confronting deep uncertainty about funding for programs that undergird their economies — just as Trump’s trade war has raised fears of a recession. (Bloomberg)

Week after week… The Oval Office is getting more gilded (and weird looking).

‘Don’t you need to uphold the Constitution?’… ‘I don’t know.’ It’s literally in the oath, pal.

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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.