OUR DAILY THREAD: Everything Is A Scam
Rigged systems
THE SET-UP: Two apparently different stories published today tell the same sordid tale: everything in Trump’s America is a grift or a scam, and nothing—absolutely nothing—is off limits.
The first sordid tale was told by New York Times finance reporter Maureen Farrell under this mind-numbing headline: Donald Trump Jr.’s Investment Firm Posts Staggering Returns of 200 Percent.
And how did 1789 Capital deliver those “staggering returns”?
According to Farrell’s reporting, Donald Trump Jr. and his partner Omeed Malik are “cashing in on the policies of the current administration openly and without apology”:
Many of the companies 1789 has invested in have large government contracts while others, like Polymarket, have benefited directly from new Trump policies or rollbacks of existing laws. The firm bought shares in some of the most coveted private companies before many went public, including SpaceX, Anduril, Cerebras and Reflection AI, often by leveraging their political and business connections to secure a stake or to help boost the companies’ sales.
“Boost” is an understatement:
Just two years ago, 1789 managed a few hundred million dollars. It now oversees more than $3 billion. Its main investment fund generated returns of roughly 200 percent as of June 30, according to a person familiar with the firm’s performance. While still early in its investment cycle, those returns eclipse the average returns of about 21 percent from venture capital firms started in 2023, according to PitchBook, a provider of financial data.
One of the more glaring and troubling “boosts” came from Don Jr.’s association with and the firm’s investment in Polymarket:
In the case of Polymarket, the government had banned it from taking monetary wagers from U.S. residents, but last year a federal regulator granted it an operating license in the United States. Worth $300 million when 1789 invested, the platform is now valued at $15 billion.
Just as amazing as 1789’s massive $14.7 billion gain is the fact that Don Jr. also holds a substantial stake in Polymarket’s main competitor. For some reason (wink-wink), Kalshi gave Trump’s namesake approximately $300,000 in equity back in 2025 when the company was valued at just under $2 billion. Now it’s worth $22 billion, meaning Don Jr. has realized a tenfold increase in his gifted investment as a “strategic advisor” to a company that Trump’s teleprompter operator was using to make “predictive bets” on the speeches the teleprompter operator scrolled for Don Jr’s dad.
The teleprompter operator has been put on leave during the investigation into the latest likely example of insider trading on Trump’s words and deeds as president.
The second sordid story comes from Sam Fortier at NOTUS and in some ways it’s far more demoralizing than yet another Trump grift: Suspicion and Doubt at the National Civics Contest.
At issue is the outcome of the Presidential 1776 Award, which the Department of Education describes as “a national student competition recognizing excellence in American founding history.” It was a spelling bee for civics that culminated in a televised final phase hosted by professional wrestling magnate Linda McMahon.
One of the finalists was a 15 year-old son of Indian immigrants who excelled in the grand finale, but somehow finished out of the top three. His name is Aangad Singh and he got the ultimate lesson in the current state of his parents beloved adopted nation when it dawned on him and his parents that he’d been screwed out of his rightful place alongside the other winners:
Although Aangad nailed most, if not all of his answers, his parents were crestfallen by the inexplicable result. The problem was the lack of any official scoreboard. It was impossible to know who scored what. To make matters worse, numerous other contestants and their families were “shocked” by Aangad’s absence from the top three. The final straw came when one of the youngsters approached Aangad’s mother and said a group of contestants had kept score themselves:
“We thought he won,” the boy said.
When Aangad’s mother approached an official from the Department of Education seeking access to the final scores, the official told her the scores are “proprietary.”
Proprietary?
Or inconvenient?
Still, they thought they’d be able to get their answer when the competition eventually and fittingly aired on CBS.
Nope.
They watched in vain as each round passed by without a scoreboard. And as they tried to keep track themselves, Aangad realized that he’d been dinged on answers that were correct, but may have been misunderstood or misheard by the judges. The other possibility is that Linda McMahon’s “competition” had a preordained outcome in mind, and the judges made sure that the picture in the Oval Office would not have this face in the frame:
Now, Aangad and his family have split into “two factions” over the incident: Aangad and his father thought the judges must just be incompetent or mistaken; Aangad’s mother and uncle suspected a conspiracy. Either way, Aangad and his family may never know what happened or why their son’s stellar performance was not enough.
But they did learn a valuable civics lesson about Trump’s America.
Judge Williams Trump Settlement Ruling: A 56-Page Demolition of Presidential Self-Dealing
https://www.lawnews.co.uk/featured-2/judge-williams-trump-settlement-ruling-a-56-page-demolition-of-presidential-self-dealing/
In New Corruption Report, Senate Democrats Shine Light on ‘Eye-Popping’ Trump Profiteering
https://www.causes.com/post/corruption-report-senate-democrats-shine-light-eye-popping-trump-profiteering
Senators Question ‘Insider’ Access to Trump Truth Social Posts
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-21/senators-question-insider-access-to-trump-truth-social-posts
SEC Asked to Probe Trump’s $100K ‘Truth API’ Over Insider Trading
https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/07/22/sec-asked-to-probe-trumps-100k-truth-api-over-insider-trading/
Sources: Aide Trump called ‘excellent’ now facing insider trading probe
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/07/17/us/video/ebof-tom-foreman-trump-teleprompter
How Tether Benefited as Trump Insiders Shaped First US Crypto Law
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2026-07-22/how-tether-benefited-as-trump-insiders-shaped-first-us-crypto-law
Clarity Act Language Would Immunize Trump Digital Asset Ventures from Oversight
https://www.democracydefendersaction.org/news/clarity-act-language-would-immunize-trump-digital-asset-ventures-from-oversight/
Trump Reportedly Made $2.4B in 2025—Equal to 6,000 Years of Presidential Salary—as Family Crypto Ventures Boomed
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/donald-trump-2025-income-crypto-ventures-1810058
Trump threatens to destroy Iranian infrastructure over Strait of Hormuz attacks, rattling oil and crypto markets
https://cryptobriefing.com/trump-iran-strait-hormuz-infrastructure-threat/
Trump’s escalating trade fights create a strange safe harbor for crypto
https://cryptobriefing.com/trump-trade-fights-crypto-safe-harbor/