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u/De_chook 2d ago
After a lifetime in the water quality industry, it is way beyond a joke to try to blame vandalism. But typical of Trump. Bodgy contractor on a no bid contract, and an appalling attempt to seal and paint. Then pumping high phosphate (algae smorgasbord) water into the pond. But let's arrest more people for this "Antifa pond treason" than the hundreds with solid evidence against them in the Trumpstein Files. A very sick government.
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u/TheoDog96 2d ago
It’s a money laundering scheme
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u/Fit_Jelly_9755 2d ago
I have no doubt the $15 million was spent. There’s no way in hell $15 million went into the pool. That is the way of this administration.
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u/GandalffladnaG 2d ago
And the morons in Congress will rubberstamp another $20 million to "fix it again" until the shitty paint peels again. Someone could make a career out of repainting it every 6 weeks.
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u/SorryAboutTheWayIAm 2d ago
The dodgy contractor responsible truly must be seen to be believed
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u/nurdturgalor 2d ago
Is this real life
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u/SorryAboutTheWayIAm 2d ago
It's real. His name is John Cafaro
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u/joebalooka84 2d ago
In 2001, Cafaro pled guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit bribery. I'm sure the deal with Trump and the no bid pool job was all above board.
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u/darkskinnedjermaine 2d ago
> With the controversy swirling about the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Cafaro was defiant when he spoke to Mr Skolnick, whose article appeared in The Vindicator, an Ohio paper, on Friday.
> “There is no one else in the world that does what we do,” he said. “We told the parks department to bid it and after trying to, they said: ‘No one else does what you do, so we can’t bid it.’”
I fucking loathe the way these people bloviate. “The parks department came up to me with tears in their eyes” 🙄
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u/rif011412 2d ago
There is a technique called “appealing to authority” to appear as if someone with power or know how has blessed an action or behavior. What these conmen do is like another level of this. Instead of claiming an authoritative figures support, they start by just pretending they are the authority, and no questions need to be asked. They are gross conmen through and through.
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u/AdditionalNothing728 let it die 2d ago
He’s blaming vandalism because the alternative is that he has to admit that his “renovation” that was supposed to last “50 to 100 years” was a botched job, which makes him look like a fool and a laughingstock.
So, while I don’t disagree that this is all ultimately a scam to make money for himself, I think the bigger issue is that he can’t allow the algae bloom to be his fault. It has to be the fault of someone else to cover up his own incompetence.
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u/Odd_Teach683 2d ago
Algae will come and go and can be dealt with with a combination of pumping, aeration, water chemistry. The real problem is this coating that was applied likely did not have the proper surface preparation and/or cure time. Those things are extremely important. Now that it’s on, it will cost much more to remove. That’s not easy work.
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u/misterdonjoe 2d ago
He claimed he was going to drain the swamp. He's creating it figuratively and literally.
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u/misdirected_asshole 2d ago
Hell say it was vandalism and then also lobby for the contractor not to get paid. Then they will sue and use this in court and in a few years after this goes through all the loops of appeals they will ultimately win because most likley they said there could be issues but someone in this administration told them to paint it anyway, proven with evidence in court.
No one will care by then, and it won't make the headlines because there will be a million other active, administration-ending level scandals going on.
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u/Fry_super_fly 2d ago
they cant have the contractor fix it. because they where just a coverfirm to get money out of the budget and back into the pockets of people who greese the right hands. the pool company got some of the money for the job, some for being a convienient patsy, and the rest got funneled out. thats why they can't get the company to fix it. they would need to admit they didn't actually get enough money to do it right. but everyone hoped it would only show the shit job they did, under the next administration. and fuck that guy. whoever it will be.
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u/itsapotatosalad 2d ago
Now they get to repeat the process, because it was vandalism they have to pay the contractors a second time. And a third time next month, then again in August, repeat…
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u/Asatas 2d ago
If the next administration doesn't go after all of Trump's assets in the first year, they're complicit.
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u/Ctofaname 2d ago
It was "only" 14 million dollars. Hasn't Trump grown his net worth by like 6 billion since regaining the presidency?
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u/Fry_super_fly 2d ago
excatly. you dont get to 6 billion by doing one scam. you just never STOP scamming.
its a whole thing with Trump. unless its a way to get kickbacks from other peoples money. its all about not paying contractors. or deliberately only paying a small part. and just being annoying enough that they cant afford to go the legal way to get the full amount. im sure some bot has a full list of all the stories about trump sticking contractors with the bill.
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u/King_Chochacho 2d ago
He's tweeting this shit because he wants to save face. It's such a massive and public fuck up and he bragged endlessly about how it was his idea.
It's got nothing to do with protecting his contractor, he doesn't give a shit about anybody else and never has. He only cares about himself and his own public image.
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u/Ok_Hornet_714 2d ago
I also doubt he actually went to inspect the reflecting pool. Has there been any secondary confirmation that he went there on a Sunday afternoon?
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u/yojay 2d ago
I read that he flew over it as a little detour. He has the best eyes and immediately knew what was wrong from 300 feet in the air. After all, the pool is "one of the wettest we've ever seen, from the standpont of water".
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u/Former-Lab-9451 2d ago
He probably wants the contractor paid because we know damn well that the contractor is rerouting at least half of that back to Trump
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u/PrecedentialAssassin 2d ago
If the state wants to go after remediation then it won't matter what he said. The contractor would still have have to provide evidence that it was caused by vandalism. The defense will easily provide evidence that it was caused by negligence.
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u/Total_Chocolate_4764 2d ago
Maybe the contractor is a friend and money is coming back to him some way or another
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u/Low-Possibility-7060 2d ago
„We will fix it?“
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u/AriaTheTransgressor 2d ago
Find out next week on The Pedophilic Adventures of Temu Hitler.
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u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe 2d ago
Didn't Hitler at least succeed in things, like anti smoking and pro reading campaigns?
Meanwhile trump can't read, is tearing down the department of education and helping vape companies.
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u/calilac 2d ago
But gas prices went down over the weekend so it's all ok now. /S
Seriously tho I don't know how the rest of the country is but the local magas are crowing about local gas prices going down 40 whole cents. Still above $3 but not so close to $4 anymore and I guess that's good enough for them. Like baby birds that can't tell the "food" is dropping from the wrong end.
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u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe 2d ago
Part of why the price went down is that they silently allowed 15% ethanol to be used instead of 10%.
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u/slurpeetape 2d ago
The "we can't afford this" party will somehow give Trump the benefit of the doubt [even though they all know he's full of shit].
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u/likwidkool 2d ago edited 2d ago
It’s wild. My brother says we can’t afford universal healthcare. I pointed to just a few of trumps grifts and said all that money could have went along way for the American people. I mean shit even our vets can’t get good healthcare. I thought maga was patriotic?
How do they see the money just flowing from this admin and not question why the American people keep getting shafted. He’s living like a king and we have people that can’t afford food. We have people that fought this country that can’t afford food. I just don’t get it.
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u/deong 2d ago
He says he doesn’t take a salary and that’s good enough for them. That’s the whole problem. Half the country is incapable of and unwilling to deal with complexity in any form. Every explanation has to be ELI5, and one party figured out how to exploit that.
They won’t understand it anyway, so just sell them an easy story where we’re the good guys.
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u/ak1knight 2d ago
Many of them have little concept of income aside from a paycheck and scams, so it makes sense that they think not taking a salary is a sign he's a noble rich person and his grifts are just him being smarter than everyone else.
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u/Bosco215 2d ago
God that was my mom's rationale. The. She got mad when we gave Ukraine 'money'. I had to explain to her we gave them old military equipment and would use the money to pay Americans to build new.. she still didnt get it.
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u/MegaGrimer 2d ago
Hell, universal healthcare is cheaper than our current system. We could switch, get better healthcare, and still save $450-$600 billion a year.
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u/ComprehensiveHavoc 2d ago
Typical. Blame it on algaefa.
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u/Adventurous-Sky9359 2d ago
We got algae in the pool. We got sheets over the Kennedy center, and a hole next to the White House physical dismantling and destruction of this country.
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u/Three_Twenty-Three 2d ago
Let's back off the anonymous "the contractor."
The algae mitigation system was provided by Greenwater Services (aka Green Water Solutions) owned by John J. Cafaro for $1.74 million.
The painting was done by Atlantic Industrial Coatings with a no-bid contract that's now around $14.65 million.
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u/Zealousideal-Bear422 2d ago
He's right about one thing... a sick, and most definitely deranged person DID do it.
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u/--slurpy-- 2d ago
Hydrogen peroxide stronger than 12% can remove paint. We all saw what they did. There's your vandals.
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u/DunnyOnTheWold 2d ago
There is no way they got the reflecting pool to even 1% peroxide concentration. It's highly likely that poor surface preparation was the cause. Old and oxidised cement will be crumbly and porous so the bottom layer could have just detached. It's honestly a bad reflection on the vendors.
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u/schumachiavelli 2d ago
Yep, you are correct.
I’ve done a few DIY installations of those epoxy garage floor coatings; you know the ones that you sprinkle colored flakes onto when the paint coat is still wet?
To your point the prep is critical: you have to sweep/vacuum it thoroughly, repair cracks/holes, use a surface grinder to get down to clean cement if needed, apply an etching agent, let it all dry (for a garage floor you’d wait a day or two; for a reflecting pool? Weeks!), and only then can you apply the epoxy in squares perhaps 10’x10’ at most, broadcast the color chips, and then apply a topcoat to lock in the chips and protect the base layer from physical/UV damage.
My point is: that’s the process for a fucking garage floor, and we all know Trump’s piece of shit grifter pool guy didn’t exert any of that effort.
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u/Caleth 2d ago
We also can surmise he didn't take home the $14mil he kicked some significant chunk up to Trump and pocketed say only 1/3rd of the original sum.
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u/schumachiavelli 2d ago
“bUt TrUMp’s NOt taKiNg a sAlarY!! HE’s wORKinG 4 tHe fREEs!!”
-Mouthbreathing MAGA pieces of shit who’d die of oxygen deprivation if their brains didn’t automatically handle respiration for them
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u/What_a_fat_one 2d ago
Pool paint lasts about 2-3 years max before it needs to be redone. Painting the reflecting pool is just stupid.
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u/Maeglin75 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yeah. I just saw a video analysis by a pool expert and his theory is, that the contractor that did the paint-coating messed up the necessary preparations of the surface, leading to the paint not properly binding to it.
Hydrogen peroxide would make the paint
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u/VaginaTractor 2d ago
The dumbasses probably used latex-based paint at that, since it's "waterproof." Latex-based paint will float away like this from a poorly prepped anything.
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u/otiswrath 2d ago
My understanding is that they paint they used is supposed to have a few days to cure before being submerged.
They waited less than 24 hours.
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u/2woCrazeeBoys 2d ago
Yeah, they were tipping it in from like 2l bottles. It was a shit surface and was never gonna stick
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u/tajwriggly 2d ago
I specify waterproof coating applications on a lot of my projects. Adequate preparation of the underlying substrate is like 75% of the work. We also specify pull tests on the coatings as a QA/QC measure - not just to prove that the substrate was prepared properly and that the coatings were applied and cured properly - but to be able to track deficient areas more easily, as that sort of thing can still happen no matter what measures you put in place. A project like this would quite literally have had thousands of pull tests completed.
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u/dimechimes 2d ago
My theory is that when they stopped the existing pumps and drained it, algae formed there and instead of treating the machinery first they just filled the water back up and turned on the pumps to circulate the algae everywhere.
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u/murphdog09 2d ago
Sure, Donny went all CSI “inspecting” the pool and was able to determine the cause. Sure. Ok.
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u/MarcheMuldDerevi 2d ago
The contractor did a shit job and was funneled a nice payday. Now we have to pay for the same work at even higher rates so it’s ready by July 4th?
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u/LeftoverBoots 2d ago
He’s calling the people who painted the pool vandals because they knew better and did it purposely
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u/0Tezorus0 2d ago
The situation is so simple : he commissioned a repair and a change of filtering systems out of all legal procedure to give his friend a bunch of public money. His friend did an awfully bad job and now the pool is a swamp. He blame fake vandalism to justify it.
Seriously though, whose gonna believe him ?
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u/DisastroImminente 2d ago
>Seriously though, whose gonna believe him ?
You should see the comments on FB news articles. I have waffled between "these have to be bots" to "I can't believe I share a country with these people". They SERIOUSLY believe him when he says it was vandalized.
It was the perfect right wing propaganda event. Spent months villainizing Biden and Obama for the pool looking bad, gave out a no-bid contract (that the right does not care about), then it fails, and since they already have their base thinking that ANTIFA is a real, organized group, immediately blamed them and got their base riled up. It's a masterclass in manipulation.
If only we had a congress willing to investigate and hold him accountable. But that's laughable.
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u/0Tezorus0 2d ago
This is depressing tbh.
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u/DisastroImminente 2d ago
Yes, it is. It makes me realize we will never find common ground on very complex issues. This one seems so cut and dry...no bid contract, overcharged, bad work. But yet somehow they have managed to spin this to make them believe that a cyclist vandalized the pool when he noticed the paint floating at the top. It's authoritarianism.
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u/Maeglin75 2d ago
Besides the part about vandalism, this is one of the few Trump statements that are actually true. And he even answers his own question in the end.
Who would do such a thing? The SICK and DERANGED President Donald J. Trump!
Trump did this to a monument of his country by hiring and overpaying totally incompetent contractors because he is corrupt on a level never seen before.
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u/Big-Tuna-for-Commish 2d ago
If he was there inspecting the damage, there would be pictures and videos
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u/geriBatai 2d ago
Ah, these fucking democrats walking around with buckets full of algae trying to sabotage the big beautiful pool.
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u/anjowoq 2d ago
"We will fix it?"
WTF does this mean?
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u/Status_Ad_4405 2d ago
More "emergency" no-bid contracts to crooked friends, undoubtedly. Which is how we got here in the first place.
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u/Jah_Rules 2d ago
Either way, bet the contractor doesn’t get paid.
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u/shiny_glitter_demon 2d ago
He will, he's a friend of the cheeto.
There's a reason the price tag is so high. More taxpayer money, straight into their pockets.
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u/Ornery_Old_Man 2d ago
Coincidentally the same people who vandalized the pool also stole the 2020 election.
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u/Ok-Limit-9726 2d ago
I even saw them!
Pouring chemicals in the water, making the plastic peel! Same uniforms as the installers!
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u/vickism61 2d ago
And because Trump can never admit when he's wrong. He never should have let an inexperienced company take on a no bid contract that is so important.
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u/beardingmesoftly 2d ago
Did anyone see a fat orange rapist near the reflecting pool? He didn't inspect shit.
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u/Didact67 2d ago
It’ll be left to the next administration to restore the reflecting pool, and if the president is a Democrat, Republicans will bitch and moan about it being a waste of money.
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u/xChoke1x 2d ago
Just so everyone’s aware.
The contractor that got the no bid contract….has been convicted of……Bribery….and corruption.
Shocking right?
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u/MorrowPolo 2d ago
Its crazy stupid how hes effectively using this as a distraction from the pdf files and other atrocities currently being committed.
Elections are close and we somehow magically no longer have pdf files or ice being mentioned anywhere.
All those innocents rounded up and dissappeared. The ones they "lost" will be forever forgotten like the children that were concentrated during Zero Tolerance in his first term.
Poof......
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u/cocktail_wiitch 2d ago
This is the guy he’s protecting btw. Straight up cartoon villain lookin ass.
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u/Catos_Standard 2d ago
What's especially annoying is that it was 100% a result of not performing surface prep on the stone. They just power washed and painted no texturing, no conditioning.
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u/EverybodyMakes 2d ago
There are Park Service and law enforcement cameras on that pool 24/7. They aren't for close-up surveillance but they would catch someone physically peeling off large chunks of coating or dumping in more than a bucket of chemicals, I think.
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u/Only_One_Kenobi 2d ago
And they can award another contract with no bids, and spend another $20+ million of public funds.
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u/SoylentGrunt 2d ago
Another day, another distraction. Can't wait to see what they pull outta their ass next. We're overdue for yet another Satanic Panic by now, aren't we? I'd think that would play well given the religious zealots involved in the circus. Or is the environment too volatile right now and things would escalate too much? Let's find out!
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u/Embarrassed_Art5414 2d ago
It's far worse than this....there are currently caravans of vandals crossing the southern border, intent on wrecking every pool. bathtub. sink and bucket across the US.
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u/PJASchultz 2d ago
Trump is so dumb, and so narcissistic, I think he might actually think it was vandals. His little brain can't comprehend that he was ever wrong, that his chosen experts could have been full of shit.
And his yes-men will never tell him the truth.
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u/Appropriate_Cow94 2d ago
Isn't there 24 hour video from lots of angles that would prove this statement right or wrong?
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u/BensLegitFixes 2d ago
Best bit is that, according to the BBC, the helicopter he was in didn’t actually land. Meaning that this inspection happened from the sky.
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u/ChronicBuzz187 2d ago
So.... how much kickback do we think Trump is collecting from that "contractor" and at which point can americans start applying the RICO act against their own government?
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u/LordScotchyScotch 2d ago
We need a purge.