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Friends,
According to a report
submitted to Trump by several of his attorneys, Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn —
the man who coordinated legal defenses in Trump’s criminal cases and has been a
powerful figure in the Mar-a-Lago palace intrigue transition — asked potential
appointees to pay him in order for him to promote them for jobs in the new
administration.
Epshteyn’s shakedowns
included Scott Bessent, from whom Epshteyn sought $30,000 to $40,000 a month to
“promote” him for treasury secretary.
Another whom Epshteyn
shook down was a defense contractor, from whom Epshteyn sought $100,000 a
month, telling him that the payments would be “do or die” for the defense
contractor’s prospects. The contractor did not hire Epshteyn and is fearful of
retaliation.
The report concluded
that Epshteyn’s proximity to Trump should be “terminated.”
Trump’s response to the
report was “I suppose every president has people around them who try to make
money off them on the outside. It’s a shame, but it happens. But no one working
for me in any capacity should be looking to make money.”
Epshteyn is currently
under indictment in Arizona in connection with trying to overturn the 2020
election results.
Epshteyn has been at
Mar-a-Lago since Trump’s election, and Trump has repeatedly sought his counsel
on appointments. One of Epshteyn’s strong recommendations, The New York Times has reported, was Matt Gaetz for attorney
general.
**
Epshteyn was only doing
what Trump himself has done — shaking down just about anyone who wants anything
from him.
During the 2024
campaign, Trump shook down every one of his current appointees, seeking large
donations with the understanding that they’d be in line for big jobs in the
Trump administration. Elon Musk’s tab was $200 million. Stephen Bessent’s hedge
fund donated at least $6 million.
This isn’t a new
practice. Seeking to curry Trump’s favor, representatives of foreign
governments have stayed at Trump hotels and played on Trump golf courses.
During the 2024
campaign, Trump proposed to Big Oil executives that they come up with $1
billion for his campaign, in return for which he’d roll back environmental
regulations.
In his first term, Trump
asked Ukraine’s President Zelensky to come up with dirt on Biden, in return for
which Trump would release military aide to Ukraine.
Everything in Trumpworld is transactional. In his very first presidential debate,
Trump boasted of paying politicians so they would do whatever he wanted. “When
they call, I give. And you know what, when I need something from them two years
later, three years later, I call them. They are there for me.”
Making money through
connections with Trump is common. Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner has made a
bundle in deals with the Arab petro-states to which he was Trump’s de facto
emissary.
In Trumpworld,
Epshteyn’s real mistake was not that he shook down prospective Trump
appointees. It was that he failed to share the proceeds of his shakedowns with
Trump.
Indeed, as Epshteyn
faces the prospect of being bounced from Mar-a-Lago’s hallowed halls, he could
say in his defense that he was only doing what Trump himself has long been
doing. He might cite Trump’s meeting last May with Big Oil executives, in which
he asked them for a nice $1 billion campaign contribution in return for which
he’d let them drill on every square inch of American soil. It was this kind of
transactionalism, Epshteyn might argue, that he was just seeking to emulate.
