Lay down with dogs, get up with fleas.  That old adage was never more true than when it comes to TFG in ANY endeavor.  Let’s take the cases of Andy Litinsky and Will Wilkerson, co-founders of TFG Media & Technology, the owner of Truth Social, the Twitter of racists, insurrectionists, and weirdos.  When the company was founded, Trump demanded 90% of the stock for the use of his name and his occasional involvement.  Classic TFG, taking almost all the money for doing nothing.

But it gets worse.  According to Wilkerson’s SEC whistleblower report, last year, after the company launched, TFG called Litinsky and demanded he gift some of his company stock to Melania.  That’s right, he actually demanded that the president of the company give up his stock to TFG’s wife.  This is also classic TFG – 90% of OPM (Other People’s Money) is not enough.  He wants it all.  Litinsky refused, pointing out not only how absurd the idea was but that it would trigger a large tax bill.  Nonetheless, TFG persisted in his demand, ultimately removing him from the board 5 months later.  Litinsky has hired lawyers to sue the company.

Wilkerson, who was a senior vice president at the time, filed a whistleblower complaint against TFG with the SEC and then gave an interview to the Washington Post.  The company fired him the next day in retaliation, which is also illegal.  It goes without saying that the SEC is investigating.

I know of no one who’s worked for, or done business with TFG who has benefitted from the relationship.  Trump cheats, steals, and intimidates everyone around him.  Talk about fleas; if a person stays with him, the results are generally not good, and can ultimately lead to fleas like jail time and financial ruin.  And yet people follow him and do his bidding.

It is truly bewildering.

You’ve probably heard about Trump politicizing the U.S. Agency for Global Media which manages Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, and Radio Free Asia by installing loyalist Michael Pack.  Pack has packed the board of the agency, as well as senior staff with other Trumpists, ideologues, and conservative activists.  Biden has already signaled a housecleaning and fumigation of the agency when he takes over in a few weeks, but Pack is not planning on going quietly.

In secret, Pack has unilaterally attempted to execute binding employment contracts with said Trumpists intended to block any Biden firings for two years.  When the career staff found out what Pack was doing, they said not no, but hell no, and blew the whistle.  Day before yesterday, they sent a four page letter to McConnell, Pelosi, and Senate and House leaders, the Inspector General, and the presidential transition team.  The letter was signed by over two dozen staffers including the editorial board, the editor in chief, and all the heads of the global regional operations.  In the letter, they made this statement:

When Pack took over last June (after a two year Senate confirmation battle), he made sweeping changes to the agency including dissolving all of the boards of the agencies under his authority and packing the boards and staff with a rogue’s gallery of religious fanatics, activists, ideologues and weirdos.  What’s particularly galling is that in October a Superior Court Judge in DC ruled that Pack had acted illegally in dissolving the board and seizing control of the Open Technology Fund which was established to help areas of the world access to open and secure internet access.  Pack has ignored the court order and to reestablish the boards he dissolved.

Pack is a bad guy who represents all that is truly odious about Trump who is continually trying to destroy our democracy.  Many thanks to those career staffers and true Americans who stood up to Pack and said NO.

They are the only thing right now standing between democracy and the Trump abyss.

Another great read, this time by David Frum about Trump’s lawbreaking to retaliate against the person identified as reporting his past lawbreaking.  Must read.