Donald Trump wants to crush The Swamp. The leaks, the sneaks, and the secrets are all there. Our writers, David Gardner, Farrah Tomazin, and Sarah Ewall-Wice, are sifting through the ooze so you don’t have to. Don’t miss out.
In this week’s news from the ooze: Dan Scavino, Stephen Miller, Barack Obama, King Lear, Hilary Hahn, Ric Grenell, Philip Glass, Marco Rubio, Edward “Big Balls” Coristin, Paul Ingrassia, Andrew Yang, Caitlyn Jenner, Miss Universe Fatima Bosch, Miss Universe Persia Sahar Biniaz, Miss Universe Czech Republic Michaela Tomanová, Nawat Itsaragrisil, and Bad Bunny.
Close Encounters of the Little Marco Kind
Marco Rubio was already Donald Trump’s man of many hats, and now he is trying yet another one on for size—a tin foil hat.
Just when you thought Trump’s Close Encounter of the Second Kind couldn’t get any more X-Files, the president is now ordering the Pentagon to cough up whatever it has on “alien and extraterrestrial life.”
“Tremendous interest,” Trump declared as the reason for his latest bizarre demand, entirely omitting that he was clearly fuming that his predecessor Barack Obama had just said there definitely are aliens*.
But The Swamp has learned that the person most interested is his own National Security Adviser (yes, remember, Marco’s that, too).
Long before Trump was promising to find out if “the truth is out there,” Rubio was a key member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and one of Capitol Hill’s most persistent voices demanding the government take the matter seriously.
On the committee, Rubio received countless briefings about Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, and as its acting chair in 2020, he helped ensure that funding and reporting requirements for UAPs were included in the year-end omnibus spending bill attached to the COVID-19 relief package. That maneuver forced the intelligence community to produce the widely publicized UAP report delivered to Congress in June 2021—the one that acknowledged dozens of unexplained encounters and an alleged crash-retrieval effort examining unidentified craft and materials known by insiders as the “Legacy Program.”
Rubio’s line has been consistent: this isn’t about little green men; it’s about national security. “I want us to take it seriously and have a process to analyse the data every time it comes in,” he said at the time.
Others in Trump-world have also circled the saucer. In 2020, Trump’s first Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, received a briefing from former intelligence official Jay Stratton, who was then the head of the UAP Task Force, a program within the Office of Naval Intelligence examining UFO sightings.
Mnuchin’s reported response wasn’t “take me to your leader” but a pointed question, as Stratton recalls in Dan Farah’s documentary Age of Disclosure. “What are the economic impacts of the President going to the microphone and telling the world we’re not alone?” he asked.
Now, with Trump promising disclosure, Rubio has gone from Senate UFO hawk to West Wing truth-seeker-in-chief. The only remaining question: is this about extra-terrestrial transparency—or just the ultimate distraction from the missing Epstein files?
*Obama had to walk it back, saying he hadn’t seen any evidence. Sorry, Marco.
More Musicians Join Kennedy Center Requiem
Three weeks after Donald Trump announced the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts would close in July for a two-year renovation, staff have been told to “buckle up” for more cancellations as artists continue to head for the door. The Swamp can reveal that acclaimed violinist Hilary Hahn and cellist Seth Parker Woods have become the latest artists to withdraw from the center, where they had been scheduled to perform the world premiere of Carlos Simon’s “Double Concerto Suite” for violin, cello and orchestra in March. Insiders say that attempts to get clarity from interim president Ric Grenell have also occasionally devolved into a “screaming match”, while outside the center, patrons can’t even get refunds for canceled events.
Indeed, when one punter sought a refund for their Hahn-loving son, the Center refused, arguing that the violinist would be replaced with a National Symphony Orchestra musician playing the same pieces. “This is like advertising King Lear with Ian McKellen and replacing him with a guy from the local college,” the patron fumed. “Like sure—he’s still doing Shakespeare, but the draw was obviously Ian McKellen.” The exit of Hahn and Parker Woods is the latest exit in a string of defections since Trump moved to rebrand the storied Kennedy Center in his own image. Composers Philip Glass and Stephen Schwartz, soprano Renée Fleming, and singer-songwriter Ben Rector have also cancelled in recent weeks, while the National Symphony Orchestra was forced to postpone this month’s much-touted world premiere program, “American Promise” (a collaboration with folksy trio Girl Named Tom) due to painfully low ticket sales,. Meanwhile, the NSO has five 53-foot trucks stuffed with instruments and gear. Where will they park during Trump’s renovations? Who will load them? No one seems to know. Management is reportedly scouting alternative D.C. venues — The Anthem, Lisner Auditorium, DAR Constitution Hall — as if planning a 52-week season on the fly is just a light administrative lift. Travel logistics alone will require more crew, not less. One estimate pegs operational costs rising by 30 percent. The bigger fear? That in two years the Kennedy Center reopens, less performing arts, more Live Nation — unions gone, Ticketmaster installed, rock tours rolling through.
Asked about Hahn and Parker Woods withdrawing, and whether attempts by his staff to get answers from him have descended into “screaming matches,” Grenell responded in an epic, breathless, and fact-challenged 99-word meltdown: “The Daily Beast and its private equity owner IAC* have descended into radical leftist gossip* whether it’s in People Magazine or Southern Living*, both of which they own and have hijacked*, or the daily meltdowns from The Daily Beast reporters* who obviously have no adult supervision leading us to conclude that it is a waste of time for our leadership* to discuss serious issues with because rational conversations don’t exist at IAC brands – so you will have to read about the Trump Kennedy Center* happenings from other sources who don’t just make up stories as your group does*.”
*IAC is not “private equity,” it is a traded company.
*Hahn and Parker Woods’ withdrawal is documented on the Kennedy Center website.
*We do indeed share ownership with Southern Living, but it hasn’t covered the Kennedy Center. Sorry.
*News to us.
*Meaning, we assume, Ric Grenell.
*You can’t “hijack” something you own, but sure, Ric.
*It’s the Kennedy Center, just ask Congress.
*We’ll definitely take that as confirmation of the screaming matches. Thanks Ric.
How Is Congress Working? Let’s Run the Numbers
Trump delivers the first official State of the Union address of his second term to a Congress that is barely functioning despite the GOP trifecta. Some numbers tell the story. Just 5.5 percent of bills have gotten past the House floor. Is it then any wonder lawmakers have turned to what were once vanishingly rare discharge petitions to try to force votes on bills Speaker Mike Johnson won’t bring to the floor? An extraordinary 25 percent of discharge petitions have received the necessary 218 votes to advance this Congress. Seven have passed in the past two years. That’s the same number as in the whole of the previous four decades. Couple that with three shutdowns in the last 100 days, including the longest in U.S. history in October, and a current partial shutdown, and it’s hard to convince Americans that the chances of Johnson keeping the gavel can be expressed in a very low number. In fact: Zero.
Why Trump’s State of The Union is Anyone’s Guess
Former golf club manager and current White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino was running his own poll on how long Donald Trump’s State of My Ego speech would last, with 120 minutes plus offered as a likely favorite.
Surely he should know in advance? In fact, no. Trump’s refusal to stick to the script is notorious inside the White House. On Tuesday evening, Ross Worthington (incidentally, a close buddy of beleaguered FBI Director Keystone Kash Patel) was putting the final touches to Trump’s State of the Union speech with the help of his boss, Stephen Miller. But Worthington told lawmakers investigating Trump’s role in the January 6 insurrection that he couldn’t guarantee his boss would stick to the final draft of his speeches.
A transcript reviewed by The Swamp shows that Worthington said Trump made it up as he went along.
After running through the process he used during Trump’s first term—sending a first draft to Miller—he told the committee that he was as much in the dark as anyone else about what would come out of his boss’s mouth. Asked about his reaction to Trump’s Jan. 6 speech that he helped write, Worthington said: “Um, I don’t remember generically, other than that he was ad-libbing…Certainly, I remember that from that day, and in general, when the president spoke, he ad-libbed.”
Looking for some suggestions for a bingo card? We’ve got windmills, whales, shower heads, penis size, marble, his “movie star” wife, the stock market, the greatest ballroom in the history of the world, and how he could destroy the world if he wanted to. Enjoy… and let Dan Scavino know if you guessed right.
Big Balls’ New Hustle Could Leave Nazi Aftertaste
Readers of The Swamp would be familiar with Edward “Big Balls” Coristine’s latest side hustle: helping Donald Trump build freedom.gov, a State Department portal designed to let Europeans bypass their own governments’ content bans. On paper, it’s about democratic values. Overseeing this digital “liberation” project is Sarah B. Rogers, who was appointed Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy in October. The lawyer has already made waves for provocative rhetoric, including a post warning of “Barbarian Rapist Hordes” in Germany, and been accused of being very much opposed to free speech at home if it isn’t what she and Trump like. Rogers casts herself as a free speech absolutist exporting American liberty abroad.
In practice, however, freedom.gov raises some awkward questions the department doesn’t seem eager to answer: how far is Trump willing to go? Take Mein Kampf — Adolf Hitler’s antisemetic manifesto —which faces tight restrictions in Germany and other countries due to its racist content and incitement of hate. Berlin has spent decades constructing legal guardrails around Nazi propaganda, and especially Holocaust denial. So when Washington starts building a government-backed portal explicitly designed to blast through local content laws in the name of free speech, does that include historically toxic material many countries have deliberately constrained? The Swamp asked the department this very question. But notably, they have refused to answer. Apparently, they don’t feel free to speak.
The Yang Gang Is Back With a Bang
Andrew Yang, the serial seeker after higher office, rolled into Washington to host one of his new Offline parties at Hush Harbor, H Street’s boutique phone-free cocktail bar. The parties are pitched as the antidote to doom-scrolling culture: no screens, no alerts, just curated conversation and booze. Earlier in the evening, the 51-year-old entrepreneur held court at the Politics and Prose Bookstore with tech journalist Nancy Scola, talking up his latest book and the old campaign days to a mix of loyal Yang Gang members and curious D.C. scenesters.
On Joe Biden, who Yang backed after dropping out of the Dem primaries in 2020, he still believes he could have done a better job in the White House. “Biden failed us all by running again,” he said. Reflecting on his own exit, he joked that he was the “indefatigable magical Asian man from the future who wants to give everyone money,” only to be convinced to leave the race early — a decision he says still stings. (Yang also ran for New York mayor and lost to Eric Adams.) And when asked if he takes any credit for Gavin Newsom’s trademark trolling of Donald Trump on X? “Gavin’s a bro, honestly. He figured a lot of this stuff out for himself,” Yang said, praising the governor’s “political athlete” instincts—and his appearance. “The dude’s really tall and good-looking.” We’ll take that as an endorsement.
Is Melania a Closet Bad Bunny Fan?
While her husband raged at Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime performance as “absolutely terrible,” is the first lady secretly a fan of the Puerto Rican superstar? Melania Trump used Bad Bunny’s song “DtMF” on both her personal and the first lady’s official Instagram account for a post about the Smithsonian adding her inaugural gown to its exhibit. The president might be enraged that a performer would dare to perform the entire halftime show in Spanish, but Mrs. Trump selected the very song that closed out his blockbuster performance. The Swamp’s question about Karoline Leavitt watching the Bad Bunny halftime show in person went unanswered. Now, we’re curious if Melania personally picked her Bad Bunny song and just how many songs by the artist does she have on her playlist. Perhaps she’s planning to add Spanish to her supposed list of languages? We’ll let you know if we hear back…
Promoting ‘Peace’ at Mar-a-Lago
Freshly minted Trump official Katie Zacharia was spotted at Mar-a-Lago just days after being named the spokesperson for Ice Barbie’s DHS in succession to Tricia McLaughlin. Zacharia was presenting a “Concert for Peace” over the weekend, which was billed as a showcase of, err, musical diplomacy. The 41-year-old blond lawyer (yes, MAGA has a type) served as MC for the event at the president’s private Florida club where attendees celebrated her new gig and wished her luck. The event was drawn from the eccentric end of the Mar-a-Lago spectrum. Omar Harfouch, a French-Lebanese-Ukrainian pianist, composer and businessman who says he is promoting “peace and unity” performed. Somewhat bizarrely, Nawat Itsaragrisil, the Miss Grand International president who went viral for his confrontation with Miss Universe Fatima Bosch last year was at the party, along with Miss Universe Persia Sahar Biniaz and Miss Universe Czech Republic Michaela Tomanová. Also there: Paul Ingrassia, who lost a DOJ nomination after his “Nazi streak” texts surfaced; Caitlyn Jenner; and Philip Nicozisis, a singing MAHA campaigner known as The Traveling Vegan (not sure Trump would approve.) Back in Washington on Monday, Zacharia, who once advised none other than Ric Grenell during the first Trump term, was spotted at the White House, looming over DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s shoulder. Tricia, we barely knew you.
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