Letters from an American - The Stench of Corruption

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

August 27, 2026RFK appears to have lied about the purpose of his Samoa trip, Information on his testimony and conduct could lead to hearings, and could prove embarrassing to the Trump administration, The war on Iran has created a financial crisis that is affecting the Navy, There is speculation that the shortages are a deliberate and political decision, The administration’s latest move, to cancel an offshore wind project, is funneling a fortune to a donor to Trump’s inaugural committee, The deal and others like it are corrupt and illegal, The Trump family’s crypto ventures are funded by foreign governments and others seeking favor, Trump’s crypto schemes are leaving investors under water, Trump’s approval ratings continue to fall, Trump is trying to make the midterm elections all about him, Perhaps to bully Canada, Trump is directing Interior Secretary Burgum to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in official documents. Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ-Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribeYou can also find me:Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

August 27, 26. This morning, a headline in the Guardian read, RFK Jr. lied in Senate confirmation hearings, newly revealed documents indicate. The story by Michelle R. Smith reports that letters, newly obtained by members of the press, contradict Kennedy's repeated assertions to members of Congress in early 2025 during his confirmation process to head the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, that his 2019 visit to Samoa had nothing to do with vaccines. In fact, in a letter to the Samoan Prime Minister before the trip, Kennedy said explicitly that he wanted to investigate

the measles, mumps, and rebella vaccine used there. Observers claim that Kennedy's visit empowered anti-vaccine activists in Samoa. after he left, a measles epidemic killed 83 people. Smith notes that knowingly lying to Congress is a crime, although it is rarely prosecuted. Still, Smith points out, the apparent proof that Kennedy lied to Congress is a clear opening for hearings into Kennedy's testimony, history, and conduct in office, including changing the vaccine schedule after promising not to, that would illuminate, what has been happening to the U.S. government, information that would likely prove embarrassing to the Trump

administration. The U.S. is now in the midst of its own measles outbreak, which has killed two unvaccinated people in Pennsylvania. One of them was a newborn, too young for the vaccine, and thus dependent on herd immunity. Yesterday, Kennedy suggested that Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro's announcement of the deaths might have been altogether fabricated by one of the governor's hopeful staffers. Smith reports that a spokesperson for HHS said, Secretary Kennedy's visit to Samoa in 2019 was unrelated to vaccines. Any claim or insinuation based on these letters that Secretary Kennedy lied under oath or to Congress is not only false, but outright defamatory. Kennedy was not under oath in the hearings.

This afternoon, Aram Rostin of The Guardian reported that Trump's war in Iran has driven the U.S. military into a severe financial crisis. Rosten reports that the U.S. Navy, which is bearing the brunt of the operation, is transferring money from payroll to combat operations, creating shortfalls. Officials are covering that shortfall by raiding other accounts. This issue has already come up in a July hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee when Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat of Washington, the top-ranking Democrat on the committee, noted that Defense Secretary Heggzeth was using a funding mechanism that does not make a lot of sense. Hegseth responded by blaming the gross negligence of the Biden administration and its woke policies. The ways in which he has spent the department's budget were not closely examined.

Defense analyst Todd Harrison of the Conservative American Enterprise Institute told Rosten that the shortages are no secret, but speculated that that is a deliberate decision of the civilian leaders in the Pentagon, starting at Secretary, that this is for political reasons, that they don't want to look like their damaging future military readiness over a war. that is becoming increasingly a political liability. A former military officer who now works for a company that contracts with the Navy told Rosten, they're f***. They shot all their weapons, they trashed all their ships, they ran out of their money. A spokesperson for the U.S. Navy denied that funds for maintenance and operations have been run down.

The Department of the Navy, the statement said, is actively managing its resources to meet current pay obligations on time. We continue to work closely with Congress to address ongoing operational demands and sustain our personnel and readiness throughout the fiscal year. In the Washington Post, Evan Halper reported that the administration's latest move to cancel an offshore wind project and nurture the fossil fuel industry will funnel a fortune to Australian billionaire Michael Dorrell, who donated about a million dollars to Trump's inaugural committee. The way it works is this. The German company RWE will get $1.2 billion from the U.S. government to give up its wind leases for projects off of New York, California, and Louisiana,

if it invests instead in conventional energy projects. will spend $900 million of that $1.2 billion for a stake in a giant liquefied natural gas project in Louisiana. Helper reports that that stake is currently owned by a private equity fund run by Doral, meaning that the $900 million dollars RWE invests in the conventional energy project after abandoning its wind projects, will go to Dorrell's private equity fund. Administration officials told Halper they had nothing to do with RWE's decision. White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said,

this story is a brazen attempt to insinuate a conflict of interest that does not exist. Representative Jared Huffman, a Democrat of California, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, had already called for investigations of the more than $4 billion the administration has spent buying the abandonment of offshore wind development. After the news story dropped, he told Halper, These fake settlements were already an insane waste of taxpayer funds and a ridiculous charade that seems to be blatantly illegal.

This now adds the stench of corruption. Huffman said of the buyouts of offshore wind projects, the deals are deeply corrupt and illegal. When the accountability comes, and I promise you accountability is coming, everyone involved in them will answer for it. Last week, Kenneth P. Vogel and Hamad Aliazis of the New York Times reported that three days after Trump administration officials awarded a five years,

federal contract worth $85 million a year to the private prison company, Geo Group, to house people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, a subsidiary of Geo Group donated a million dollars to MAGA, Inc., a political super PAC run by Trump's allies. Two days after announcing another ICE contract worth $80 million annually, The company donated another $413,000. White House spokesperson, Lauren Biss, said in a statement, any allegation that political donations play a role in agencies awarding government contracts are false.

It is not shocking that ICE is announcing more contracts to detain illegal aliens as President Trump carries out the largest deportation operation in American history. In a major story for public citizen, Zach Everson examined the Trump family's cryptocurrency products, reporting that Trump appears to have made at least $1.4 billion off crypto in 2025, although he put none of his own money into the ventures. The money, Everson says, comes from $1.4 billion off crypto in 2025, although he put none of his own money into the ventures. The money, Everson says, comes from $1, foreign governments, pardon seekers, corporate interests, and targets of government investigations.

It also comes from retirement accounts and MAGA supporters who believe Trump when he tells them his coins are a good investment. Everson reports that Trump's crypto schemes have left investors at least an estimated $4.7 billion underwater. The losses reflect wealth transferred to a small group of early buyers, rather than money that simply vanished. The White House claims, neither the president nor his family have ever engaged or will ever engage in conflicts of interest. This afternoon, Rebecca Ballhouse, Sam Kessler, and Angus Berwick of the Wall Street Journal, reported that the Trump family's new crypto bank is backed by Sheikh Tanun bin Zayed El Nahan. The

national security advisor of the United Arab Emirates, who is also the brother of the country's president. Last year, the Abu Dhabi Royal invested $500 million in the Trump's World Liberty Financial. Such an investment in a president's company by a foreign government official is unprecedented. Even more alarming is that Trump is currently negotiating with the UAE over whether it can have access to U.S. artificial intelligence chips that experts fear will make their way from the UAE to China. How many red flags do we need, ethics lawyer Kathleen Clark told the reporters. Trump is selling out our national security in exchange for his own wealth maximization. If voters put Democrats in control of either or both chambers of Congress this fall,

investigations and hearings into the machinations of administration officials will be epic. It's no wonder Trump appears frantic at the idea of midterm losses. And the ranks of his supporters appear to be thinning. G. Eliot Morris, of strength and numbers, reported yesterday that Trump's approval among American adults is underwater on every single issue, including border security. and there is a strong intensity gap, 49% strongly disapprove of his job as president, while only 17% strongly approve.

Morris notes that the movement against the president is now primarily in his own coalition, with significant softening in the share who say they strongly support the job he's doing. As his popularity falls, Trump appears to be adopting the belief that people don't like him because they don't understand all he's done for them. Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Michael Shearer, and Ashley Parker of the Atlantic reported Tuesday that Trump intends to buy a blitz of midterm ads that focus on him, rather than the candidates on the ballot, making the election all about him. He's already trying to sell that story.

Yesterday morning, he tried to recast his disastrous Iran war as a success, posting an AI image of himself in front of a giant American flag, an aircraft carrier, and military aircraft. In the image, he leans over dirt as if it were a desk, with President George W. Bush in the lower left corner of the image, surrounded by flames and a pair of empty soldiers' boots. In front of Bush is a sign that reads Mission Not Accomplished, 2001, 2021. In the lower right corner of the image is a picture of the former leader of Iran, killed in Trump strikes, with a sign that reads Mission Accomplished, 2026. Journalist Jim Acosta noted, this is delusional for Trump to post this, and it should be covered as such. It was a massive story when Bush declared mission accomplished during the Iraq war. The image dogged Bush throughout much of his presidency.

Should be the same for Trump. After the Mission Accomplished Post, Trump reposted someone else's social media post, warning that voters are mad at the Republicans, not because of Trump, but because Republicans in Congress have not gone far enough in implementing Trump's will. I don't think the Republicans fully grasp how badly they're f***ing up right now, the post read. I'm talking to people who normally have zero interest in politics who are legitimately pissed off. They're not seeing the major reform they thought would happen and are really mad about it. No true accountability. No true mass deportations. No meaningful decrease in the deficit.

Lots of very long vacations and no work. no bills being passed that reduce the government involvement in their lives. The poster continued, I'm very worried the Republican Party is sleepwalking toward a midterm reckoning they don't see coming. People are p-hipped off that they voted Trump into office, and then the Republican Party continues to slow walk every reform people want. Later this afternoon, in what seemed to be an attempt to bully Canada, although Canadians and Americans both have made it very clear that strategy is backfiring.

Trump signed an executive order directing Interior Secretary Doug Bergam to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in official U.S. government documents and communications as well as the geographic names information system. As Marianne Levine, Natalie Andrews, and Amanda Colleta of the Wall Street Journal reported, In Trump's discussion of his executive order, he harked back to his change of the name of the Gulf of Mexico in official U.S. documents. We took something called the Gulf of Mexico. We changed it, the president of the United States said. So if you think about it, we have a Gulf and we have a lake. Now all we need is an ocean. So maybe we'll have to change the name of the Atlantic.

and or the Pacific. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.