Trump’s Unreal Bust-Up With Foreign Leader Claims Unlikely Victim

Donald Trump wants to crush The Swamp. The leaks, the sneaks, and the secrets are all there. Our writers, David Gardner, Farrah Tomazin, Sarah Ewall-Wice, and Laura Esposito, are sifting through the ooze so you don’t have to. Don’t miss out.

Pulled from the depths of the Reflecting Pool this week: Ruben Gallego, Lucian Wintrich, Marco Rubio, Milli Vanilli, Katie Martin, Patrick Henry, Usha Vance, Marco Peronaci, and Kash Patel.

Seething Officials Want Some Omerta from Trump

The collateral damage from Donald Trump’s latest international spat is starting to pile up.

Administration officials and global diplomats are privately seething after a U.S.-Italy business and innovation forum scheduled for Miami this week collapsed in spectacular fashion following the president’s very public feud with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The June 22 event was set to be held at the prestigious Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, home to a championship golf course and rooms charging up to $900 a night. It was supposed to be a showcase of transatlantic cooperation, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio slated to headline alongside a roster of corporate heavyweights, government officials and diplomats from both countries.

Months of planning had gone into the gathering. Speeches were finalized. Deliverables were ready for rollout. Officials expected announcements aimed at boosting investment and trade ties. “Mark your calendars!” beamed Marco Peronaci, Italy’s ambassador to the U.S., on Instagram last week. “Together – insieme – Italy and the U.S. will generate new opportunities, investments, and innovation!”

Then Trump happened.

First on Italian television and then via social media, Trump claimed that Meloni “begged” him to pose for a photo with her during the recent G7 summit. Within minutes, Meloni took to her socials with a strong denial and a reminder to the US President that, “Italy and I do not beg.” Soon after, Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani pulled out of his planned trip to Washington—and organizers immediately knew they had a problem. What followed, according to frustrated officials, was a rapid unraveling that ended with the entire event being scrapped at the eleventh hour.

“The president couldn’t keep his mouth shut,” one exasperated source complained, summing up the mood inside parts of the administration.

For Rubio and the administration’s economic team, a week that was supposed to be about jobs, investment and partnership instead became another exercise in damage control. The cancellation is of course more than just an embarrassing scheduling hiccup. It’s the latest example of career officials and cabinet members spending months building relationships, negotiating agreements and organizing splashy diplomatic events—only to watch everything go sideways after a presidential outburst. Perhaps Rubio could persuade his boss to try some omerta?

Drain The Swamp? We Were Here First!

The Swamp is not used to sharing the limelight with anyone. But for the last week, there have been two homes for the worst ooze in D.C.: This newsletter, and a certain Reflecting Pool. The Swamp is proud to say that we were filled with the worst slime first. And we’re the one brackish pool you really need to read every week. We’ve broken scoop after scoop—from Ted Cruz’s vacation in Greece while Texas flooded, to the inside story about the Kennedy Center’s ructions under Ric Grenell, and what Keystone Kash Patel was really doing during the hunt for Nancy Guthrie. Today we’ve got lots more to dish, including more of Ruben Gallego’s lavish spending. Thank you for reading, and a special thank you to everyone who can’t stop leaking to us. Because of our network of spies, we’re going to be spilling toxic secrets long after the algae has gone home!

Trump Turns ‘Patriot Games’ Into Weird TikTok Challenge

Remember when Donald Trump promised the “Patriot Games,” a national competition pitting student athletes against one another as part of America’s 250th birthday celebrations? It was immediately compared to The Hunger Games. But it turns out, it’s more like The Apprentice.

According to application materials reviewed by The Swamp, aspiring competitors must do far more than run fast, throw far, or sink a jump shot. Hopefuls are asked to submit video auditions, hand over their social media handles, and answer a myriad of questions about what America means to them. Applicants, who must be aged between 14 and 17, must also agree to extensive filming as part of a televised production expected to air on ESPN. The result feels less like a nationwide sporting competition and more like a casting call for America’s Got Patriotism.

The games were originally billed as a four-day showdown featuring one male and one female high school athlete from every state and territory. But with details about the actual athletic events still scarce, the emphasis appears to be on finding contestants who can deliver a compelling backstory, smile for the cameras, and profess sufficient enthusiasm for the red, white, and blue. No word on who has been selected yet but the young apprentices, sorry athletes, should look at where reality television got some of its previous stars: The Oval Office.

Teaching Tips from The Guys Who Brought You Concert Chaos

If you were worried America’s 250th birthday celebrations might not involve enough rote memorization, forced patriotism, or children cosplaying as dead Founding Fathers, fear not: Freedom 250 has released a teacher’s guide that reads like it was brainstormed during a colonial molasses sugar high. Yes, that Freedom 250. The ones who couldn’t put together a Milli Vanilli concert. Among the suggestions for schools: have students memorize the Declaration of Independence—potentially all 1,300 words—recite Patrick Henry speeches, perform scenes from 1776 (but not Hamilton), host a “colonial meal,” and write essays explaining why they love America. There’s also a proposal to fly a special Freedom 250-branded “1776 flag,” recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day, and launch a daily “Freedom Minute” celebrating a different moment in American history. The high schoolers get the really exciting stuff: a mock Continental Congress, a forthcoming “1776 Presidential Award” competition (we have some ideas…), and, of course Trump’s tacky “Patriot Games.” At least there isn’t “recite Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby.” Students may be forgiven for wondering whether they’re celebrating America’s birthday or enlisting in it. One slight flaw… aren’t students on summer vacation?

Why Ruben Prefers Steak to Sandwich

When not spending leadership PAC funds on lavish adventures, Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego appears to be living it up in D.C. New expenditure reports passed to The Swamp show that he is a big fan of Minetta Tavern, the bistro the Washington Post’s Tom Sietsema raved about as “swoon” worthy and a “class act” where the côte de boeuf for two goes for $175 (but that does include a gem lettuce salad.) Also on the Gallego dining circuit? The Occidental, where Dover sole meunière is a snip at $82 and the pheasant under glass comes with foie gras; and that old-fashioned haunt of the city’s trenchermen, the Capital Grille. (The Snake River Farms Gold Wagyu filet mignon comes in at $95 for 8oz, best served rare.) The Juntos PAC picked up those tabs. And Gallego also billed taxpayers $19,330 for “per diem” expenses in D.C. for the six months between October and March alone, according to the Secretary of the Senate report, which would break down to about $106 a day if he never left DC for the six months. It’s a heck of a lot more than the taxpayer-covered “per diem” expenses of some other senators the Swamp reviewed. His Arizona colleague Sen. Mark Kelly had just one incidental expense totalling $8 for the same period. Gallego has been scrambling to explain the lavish spending, which the Daily Beast was first to report. His PAC paid for flights to St. Bart’s for second wife Sydney Gallego’s boss’s birthday. Thousands in donor money has covered childcare expenses for his three kids. Add to that the PAC-covered family trips to Disney and donor-funded attendance at the Super Bowl with his then-pal disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell, and it’s a far cry from the lives of average Americans working to make ends meet. His office responded to The Swamp’s inquiry about his per diem expenses, by pointing out the guidance, which states senators have a “high degree of flexibility to use” their official office expense accounts for office operations. Five other senators spent more. Err so that’s ok then?

MAGA Mike’s Ole Miss-Fire

Mike Collins is the newly minted GOP nominee to take on rising Democratic star Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia,but a resurfaced X post by the right-wing Trump ally raises questions about whether Collins is the right stuff for a general election matchup in one of the most competitive states. Back in 2024–an entire two years ago!–Collins promoted a grotesque video showing blatantly racist behavior exhibited at Ole Miss. In it, a group of white male college students jeer at a black woman. One of the men is even seen acting like a monkey as he taunts her. The officers appear to be more interested in challenging the woman than the large group of shouting men. “Ole Miss taking care of business,” Collins wrote in his post, which as of Tuesday was still up online, but even with the Senate bid, he’s standing by such behavior as “taking care of business” as his campaign sent The Swamp the same statement he put out amid the 2024 backlash where he said he does not tolerate any form of racism and claimed “Frankly, I did not believe that to be the focal point of the video.”

Green Slime Crisis: Slimy Comms Chief Unmasked

Doug Burgum’s Department of the Interior is, of course, dealing with a flood of green slime in the Reflecting Pool it was supposed to be MAGA-fying. But spraying the green slime around is metaphorical as well as literal. Look no further than Katie Martin, Burgum’s communications director. Martin isn’t an expert in slime proper. She certainly isn’t a bio-chemist: Her degree is communications. And the only job she’s ever had which wasn’t courtesy of the Republican Party was as a student intern at a local TV affiliate in Detroit. But she’s become an expert in sliming. Martin and her goons have been responding to press inquiries about what went wrong with the Reflecting Pool from an anonymous “Interior Press” email address. First, inevitably, they accused critics of the green slime ~~glow~~–up glow-down of having “TDS,” and echoed the words of their overlord that this was all the fault of Barack Obama. When the Daily Beast asked about contractors throwing in the common bleaching agent hydrogen peroxide, the anonymous response denied that the bleaching agent is, err, bleach, and lashed out, “Should you ask Copilot for help on this one?” (No need, Katie.) Martin herself called federal judge Angel Kelley “a liberal activist” for daring to rule against Burgum. Fair to say someone is getting into the slimy spirit!

Young Republicans Take On College Republicans

Gosh it’s confusing to be a Republican in New York City.

Word reaches The Swamp that what is, let’s be honest, not the biggest social scene, is being torn apart by a civil war between, in the red corner, the New York Young Republican Club (NYYRC), and in the other red corner, New York University’s College Republican Club (NYUCRC).

This replay of Monty Python’s People’s Front of Judea vs. the Judean People’s Front is being fought after a bitter falling out between the NYYRC and its spokesman, Lucian Wintrich. Wintrich was the club’s braggadocious hype man who granted entry to its annual gala in December 2025 to The Swamp with a distasteful email saying, “Congratulations, because if you are receiving this coveted email, you have crossed the finish line and been granted final approval to cover an event that many journalists have attempted to sleep their way into.”

As it turned out, he was not a fan of the gala. Apparently he was upset that members of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party were given prominence over the media personalities he wanted featured at the event at Cipriani Wall Street, such as white nationalist Nick Fuentes, who lingered outside after organizers barred him from entering. “This is the worst event they’ve ever thrown,” Wintrich told reporters at the gala.

The next day, he started tweeting the club’s innermost secrets, and was fired 24 hours later. His next step was to allege on Proud Boy founder Gavin McInnes’ podcast that the club embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from a fundraising company that NYYRC executives allegedly used as a “shell corporation.”

Now fed up MAGA members of the NYYRC are suing Wintrich for defamation, alleging $5 million in damages. Wintrich claims that club president Stefano Forte and other executive members are targeting him for blowing the whistle on what he claims are their misdeeds, which they deny.

So far, so simple… But now the NYUCRC has issued a mass email stating its support for Wintrich, an unusual move in any legal battle, putting the Young Republicans and the College Republicans at war. Good luck with this year’s gala!

Spotted:

Politico’s Playbook writer Jack Blanchard—a man whose name always comes with an addendum asking if he is on his way out—opining on the little-viewed BBC News channel about British politics, including the fall of Keir Starmer and the rise of Andy Burnham. He eventually got to talking Trump, but his forensic grasp of the Westminster Parliament couldn’t be questioned (or ignored!).

Tubby Little Cubby All Stuffed with Fluff

Guess who showed up to read Winnie-the-Pooh on the Father’s Day episode of Usha Vance’s cable access-cum-Youtube show Storytime with the Second Lady? Yep, the Vice President himself sat down with his pregnant wife for a lengthy discussion which he dominated. Speaking for all of us, Usha asked him to explain exactly what his job is. “I’m lucky to serve under a President who gives me a lot of responsibility,” responds JD, without mentioning the name Trump. JD also discusses how his daughter annoys him by asking him to re-read books and that he wanted to have another baby because “I was sick of my kids growing up.” Comments on the video are locked but on socials, many viewers mentioned Vance’s awkward patting of his wife’s knee. Anyone sticking around til the end was treated to the VP uttering an equally perfunctory “I love you.”) The Swamp noticed something else: Vance’s clownish, ill-fitting shoes.

Was this an attempt to show solidarity with Secretary of State Marco Rubio? Or a chance to flaunt his thin and graceful ankles to his unnamed boss who suffers from unsightly bulges in that area? Unlike Storytime with the Second Lady, the Swamp is a free speech absolutist. Our comments are always open…

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