The eldest son of Donald Trump was accused of “peak grift” over a video in which he promoted the “We The People” Bible that he said defended America’s “Judeo-Christian” values that he claimed are currently under attack.
Twitter account PatriotTakes shared the clip of Trump Jr. online last week.
It went viral for the wrong reasons on Monday after being retweeted by outgoing Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a fierce critic of Donald Trump and his administration, among others:
Will Wilkerson, a co-founder of Truth Social’s media parent company, told The Washington Post that Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump requested financial stakes in the social media platform despite having never worked for the company.
“They were coming in and asking for a handout,” Wilkerson told the Post in an article published Saturday. “They had no bearing in this company … and they were taking equity away from hard-working individuals.”
One of the first Trump Media & Technology Group employees, Wilkerson served as senior vice president of operations until he was forced off the board Thursday after sharing that and other allegations with the Post. Wilkerson’s other revelations included that Donald Trump had asked co-founder Andy Litinsky to relinquish his stock to Melania Trump.
“The gift would have meant a huge tax bill he couldn’t pay,” Wilkerson told the Post. “Trump didn’t care. He said, ‘Do whatever you need to do.’”
That request last October followed Truth Social receiving millions of dollars in new investments. Trump had already taken 90% of shares in Trump Media and left its employees to split the rest. Litinsky refused to part with his stock for Melania and was fired five months later.
“Ignoring these achievements [of launching Truth Social on the Apple and Google app stores to millions of downloads], the Washington Post published a story rife with knowingly false and defamatory statements and other concocted psychodramas,” Trump Media & Technology Group told Insider.
Wilkerson filed a whistleblower complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission in August. His attorney told the Post that he is currently cooperating with investigations into Trump Media by the SEC and by federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York.
He provided the SEC with a daily computer log that he, Litinsky and co-founder Wes Moss kept during their time at Trump Media. Obtained by the Post, it chronicled infighting in the Trump business and detailed what his lawyers called “fraudulent misrepresentations … in violation of federal securities laws.”
The log also showed the trio of co-founders debating how to market the Trump family’s ties to the business and showed one of them telling another that Trump Jr. “needs a bedtime story and some love.” Trump Media dismissed Wilkerson’s claims; Wilkerson said the company threatened him for speaking out.
“We weren’t trying to be Trump Org 2.0,” Wilkerson told the Post. “We always saw Trump as the rocket fuel to send this thing to space. I wanted this to succeed more than anything. … But these are glaring issues, and they’re threatening me now for calling them out. I couldn’t stay quiet anymore.”
An MSNBC interview with California Gov. Gavin Newsom took a dishy turn Wednesday when host Alex Wagner asked if he ever talks to ex-wife Kimberly Guilfoyle, who’s now engaged to Donald Trump Jr. (Watch the video below.)
“Nope, not lately,” the governor replied.
“It must be weird for you,” Wagner said.
“Yeah, of course,” Newsom answered. “We had a different relationship with [Ex-President Donald) Trump when I was governor as well. I mean, we had an interesting, not-as-combative relationship. Even though we went at it on a lot of issues, we also found ways to get along.”
Newsom had been discussing how he had close Republican colleagues and Guilfoyle came up in the conversation, Business Insider reported.
But the governor, seen as a Democratic presidential hopeful at some point, looked uncomfortable when Wagner raised the question.
Newsom and Guilfoyle were married in the early 2000s into his stint as San Francisco mayor.
But they would seem to be an unlikely pair now. Guilfoyle, a former prosecutor, worked for Fox News and served as an adviser to Trump.
In March, she was subpoenaed by the House Jan. 6 committee about her role in the 2021 insurrection after she backed out of an interview with the panel. She reportedly was with Trump in the Oval Office as he tried to pressure Vice President Mike Pence into overturning the election for him. She also spoke at the rally preceeding the Capitol riot, and was said to have arranged for many of the speakers.
In a 2018 interview, Guilfoyle said she’d always been a conservative and lamented Newsom’s progressiveness. “Gavin was not as far left as he’s gone now,” Guilfoyle said. “Sadly, now that he’s not under my tutelage and influence, he’s strayed.”
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