Grifty Like Daddy

I hope Eric Trump doesn't sue me for this cartoon

Eric Trump is threatening to sue Jen Psaki for a segment on her MS NOW show.

Psaki questioned on her show, The Briefing with Jen Psaki, if there's a conflict of interest by Eric joining his father on his trip to China. She cited an article by the Financial Times that reported that Alt5 Sigma, a company with ties to Eric Trump, was pursuing a deal to build data centers in the US with a Chinese chipmaker that American lawmakers have warned is connected to the ruling Communist Party.

Presidents usually put a blind trust in charge of their finances while they are in office, but not Donald Trump. Instead of a blind trust, he has put Eric in charge of the family business. That does not prevent Donald from controlling his money, and in fact, he has been making a lot of trades and investments lately himself. Psaki pointed out that this arrangement with Eric was supposed to prevent conflicts of interest, “but there he is.”

In his threat to Psaki, which he posted on Twitter, Eric said he has never been on the board of Alt5, has “zero business interests in China,” and only joined the trip “as a loving son who adores my father.” Well, ain't that sweet?

Eric wrote, “Contrary to her monologue and blatant lies, I have NEVER been on the board of ALT5—not now, not ever. Any person with basic access to Google and willing to open a company’s annual report or proxy statements would know this.”

Eric added that he “had zero involvement in any merger discussions involving any public entity I do not run or control,” and “I have zero business interests in China. No properties, no investments, nothing!”

He also wrote, “I joined this trip for one reason: as a loving son who adores my father and wouldn’t miss being by his side for this incredible moment. During the bilateral talks, @LaraLeaTrump and I went to the Great Wall of China.” Well, good for you.

Psaki responded to this threat on her show last Friday, noting, among other things, that Eric was introduced as a board member of Alt5 during a Nasdaq opening bell ceremony in August last year.

She said that Eric’s comments were “confusing,” given how he was introduced during Nasdaq’s opening bell ceremony in August last year. “It is my great pleasure to welcome Alt5 board member Eric Trump,” the announcer said in a clip that Psaki aired.

Another clip shows Zack Witkoff, the chairman of Alt5, who, alongside Eric, is one of the co-founders of the Trump family’s cryptocurrency business World Liberty Financial, which has earned the family hundreds of millions of dollars. In the clip, Witkoff says, “I now want to welcome fellow board member and World Liberty co-founder, Eric Trump.”

Psaki said, “Now, to be as fair as possible to Eric, I should say that his role at Alt5 has, at the very least, been complicated. We do know that he’s not currently a director on the board, but as you just heard, the company initially announced that he was becoming a director on Alt5’s board of directors.”

She noted that at one point, a company filing said he was being appointed as a director on the board, and the company’s website had listed him as a director on its leadership page.

Bloomberg reported last month that Eric’s name had disappeared from the leadership page of Alt5’s website, but had been there as recently as March. Alt5 has acquired 7.5 percent of World Liberty Financial’s token supply, which is a 1 1/2 billion dollar deal.

Psaki said, “So, Eric Trump says he has never been on the board of Alt Five, not now, not ever. Company that publicly introduced him as a board member at the Nasdaq, a company that in SEC filings has described him as a board observer, a company that bought hundreds of millions of dollars worth of World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency, a company that World Liberty Financial is a major stakeholder in, and a company that the Financial Times reported was chasing a deal with a Chinese firm that members of Congress say is connected to the Chinese Communist Party.”

“Eric, of course, says that he has no business interests in China at all, and that he joined his dad’s official trip there for one reason and one reason alone: as a loving son who adores his dad. I’ll let you be the judge.”

So, instead of being on the board of directors, Eric is listed as an “observer” of the board. What the fuck does that mean? What I am observing is all the grifting being done by the Trump family. Did you know that the brand new sweetheart deal that Trump made with the Justice Department and the IRS that created this slush fund for goons also includes a stipulation that the IRS will drop all audits of Donald Trump and his family? Donald Trump's taxes for 2025 are probably very interesting.

Of course, Republicans and MAGAts are not going to care about this. They care more about their fantasies of Joe Biden's corruption than they do about Donald Trump's real corruption.

Republicans like to point at Hunter Biden's laptop as proof that Joe Biden had business interests in China. The only problem is that the laptop never showed any evidence of that. Even if it did show that Joe Biden had business interests in China, it was at a time when he was not in office.

While they were screaming about Joe Biden's pretend corruption, Donald Trump was engaging in international business deals while running for the presidency. In one minute, Donald Trump would attack Joe Biden for engaging in international business deals, and the next minute, he would be promoting a LIV golf tournament at one of his properties. LIV, as you know, is owned by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, who likes to murder journalists.

Of course, instead of filing a lawsuit, Eric announces he's going to sue. But is he really? Does Eric Trump really want to go through a deposition where we can find out all of the countries where he currently has business deals? Spoiler alert: It's a lot.

During Donald Trump's first term, he promised that he would not start any new international business deals. For his second term, that promise was canceled. During his trip to the Middle East last year, the Trump organization, headed by Eric, created new deals in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE. Now, we are supposed to believe that he doesn't have any business in China or that he won't?

So if Eric wants to see me for this cartoon, bring it on. Hell, maybe the crown friends will wanna see me for accusing him of murdering journalists, you know, because he is a murderer who's killed journalists.

Creative note: Last week, a MAGAt got mad at me for the way that I portray them. He cried that they don't all look like the yokels I always draw, with the brown noses and one snaggly green tooth. I didn't tell him that the more upset they get, the more it encourages me to draw them like this.

What I’m watching: Netflix has a slew of new presidential documentaries that they released yesterday, and I have been waiting for these. They include Washington, Lincoln, Grant, Teddy Roosevelt, and FDR. If there is one that I am not aware of, let me know. I'm going to watch these things in order, and I started with Washington last night. In case you are a Republican, he was the first president. These things are miniseries with each one being two or three episodes. I may not be able to watch anything else for the next week or so.

Netflix also released The Great War, a documentary about World War I, which I found illuminating. In case you are a republican, World War I was the war before World War II. This documentary covers a lot of the racism that black soldiers had to deal with before, during, and after the war. It really pisses me off that Donald Trump had Henry Johnson's name removed from one of our bases to revert it to Fort Polk, which is named after a Confederate. Trump is just as racist as Woodrow Wilson and General Pershing were.

Donald Trump likes to name things after racists.

Drawn in 30 seconds:

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