The Republican VP nominee's Venmo network reveals connections ranging from the architects of Project 2025 to enemies of Donald Trump—and the populist's close ties to the very elites he rails against.
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More than 200 people appear on Vance’s Venmo “friends” list. Among them is Amalia Halikias, government relations director at the Heritage Foundation—the conservative think tank coordinating the controversial Project 2025. So is an assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York, among many other lawyers for the Department of Justice, frequently decried by Trump loyalists as enemies and part of the “deep state.” So are Jeff Flake, the famously anti-Trump former Arizona senator and current ambassador to Turkey; lobbyists from organizations like the Government Strategies Group; people affiliated with other conservative think tanks like the Hoover Institution and the American Enterprise Institute; journalists and media personalities like Bari Weiss and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson; and tech executives from Anthropic and AOL. (None of these people responded to requests for comment.)
Here's what I think is happening:
1. The media, with low ratings, saw blood in the water after the debate and ran with sensational and inaccurate headlines to generate profit. They have admitted this.
2. That, in turn, influenced big money dem donors who then threatened to pull their big money because the MEDIA was tanking some polls.
3. That, in turn, worried party leaders who need that big money to win because shitheads like Musk can donate $45M per month to trump thanks to Citizens United, and those dem leaders expressed their concern about losing that money.
4. That, in turn, caused the media - again with garbage ratings bleeding cash - to report that party leaders want Biden to step aside (not because they don't think he can do the job, but because other rich people were extorting them)
5. And that greed has led to the snowball effect we are seeing.
It's all about money. Not democracy.
The media and big donors are selling out democracy and the will of the voters over money.
Corporate media has failed us.