PIF's Big Week for PEUs

Semafor reported:

Public Investment Fund’s senior management, along with representatives of some of its biggest portfolio companies, will meet with Apollo, Blackstone, Brookfield, Carlyle, KKR, and Stonepeak, as well as the US Export-Import Bank, in a swing through New York this week. 

Investment bankers from Lazard are brokering the meetings, which aren’t fundraising for a specific project but rather laying the groundwork for future cash raises, people familiar with the matter said. Saudi Arabia needs billions of dollars to remake its oil-centric economy, and heavy spending by PIF and other entities hasn’t catalyzed the $100 billion in annual foreign investment the kingdom is targeting.

The Saudis will meet with storied private equity underwriters (PEU) like Carlyle, Blackstone, KKR & Apollo.  The U.S. Export-Import Bank is headed by a former PEU who happens to be married to Dr. Oz's daughter.  Oz is Trump II's head of Medicare/Medicaid.

Lazard is headed by Peter Orszag, former OMB Chief under Obama.  Lazard helped the Saudis with Masar, a massive development project in Mecca.

PIF will undertake more PEU strategies in the near future:

PIF is preparing to make a more aggressive push to sell mature assets, pursue listings and divestments, and finance more of its operations and investments with external capital

As most PEU affiliates are sold to other PEUs, these upcoming meetings could be a shuffling of sponsor cards.  I'll trade you for this, loan you "x amount" for that.  Deal or No Deal?

And where will Jared Kushner be when these PIF-PEU meetings occur?  His Affinity Partners has billions of PIF money.  Let's hope Affinity's holdings do better than LIV Golf.  

The Saudi government has no obligation to share information with citizens or the media.  The U.S. has legal requirements that increasingly are optional or ignored under Trump II's Department of "Just Us."

The public is waiting to see Jared's financial disclosure, which is months overdue.  I'll be shocked if they ever show up.

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one and they look out after their own.

John Hussman wrote on Seeking Alpha:

An economy that prospers at the top, struggles at the bottom, and runs massive government deficits to bridge the gap is the predicable outcome of deliberate policy choices.

Thus endeth the PEU lesson.

Trump-Rubenstein Feud Continues

Trump II's compliant Kennedy Center board (with him as Chair) ordered art work removed from the plaza in front of the Kennedy Center.  

Carlyle Group co-founder and former Kennedy Center Chair David Rubenstein purchased that work of art.  It will be installed at the National Gallery of Art and reside in its Sculpture Garden.

The (Kennedy Center) board also voted to name the grounds where the building stands after Trump. Under the resolution, that space will be called “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”

I hope they put a wingman sculpture in its place.  If so, I will forever call it the Trump-Epstein Plaza.  

Meanwhile Trump's war on our nation's friends continues evermore.  

The Great Usurper is not done sucking money, property and souls.  

The Kennedy Center board may wish to recall Trump Plaza's prior bankruptcy as they continue their renaming Trump-a-pallooza.

There is no such thing as a free buffet or an independent board appointment under Trump II and his ilk.  

People who play ball with Trump become pawns.  Those who don't become enemies.  It helps to have a few billion in assets and serious political connections to ride out Trump's savage whims.  Most of us aren't in such a position.

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one and Trump II is far and away above them all.

Data Hating Trump Wants AI to Reign

 Trump II recently wrote "Let data reign" on Truth Social.

"If you want to pay lower taxes, if you want to create tremendous wealth, if you want your house to be more valuable and everything else, you're going to want a data center," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "If you want to go through poverty, crime and squalor, I would say don't approve data centers." 

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick chalked up opposition to "propaganda by our adversaries" and said the benefits to communities are "obvious." 

Trump's former AI czar, David Sacks, asserted that "misinformation" was to blame for the  backlash and said "no one is trying to force these data centers down anyone's throats."

Actually a collection of someones is trying to just that, Mr. Sacks.  It's a combination of elected and unelected government officials, various TechGods and their financiers (private equity underwriters (PEU)),  Sacks knows them well. 

Surely data exists on home valuations in close proximity to data centers.  I can't imagine it supports Trump II's assertions (which often are not fact based).  That said, if homes across from data centers become unsellable then that data could be missing.  Abandoned homes often become magnets for poverty, crime and squalor.  

The benefits of data centers to billionaires Trump II, Howard Lutnick and David Sacks are obvious.  The investor class has multiple ways to profit from data center proliferation.  They can front run government policy and federal budget priorities.  Annual financial disclosures will indicate how these "public servants" are profiting from their private holdings.

Also, Mr. Lutnick's getting a multimillion dollar house from Jeffrey Epstein for $10 is not available to common folk.

Trump II and his kingly court want data to reign.

 

Data cannot be a sovereign power.  It should not be chief of state or have the authority of a monarch.

TechGods' social media usurped children's brains, their physical/emotional safety, social development and individual autonomy.  With AI they are shooting to distort whole societies.  

Data is incapable of reigning.  It's purveyors have shown their ability to feign to maximize their financial position and personal power.  "Everyone can have a penthouse" and "AI will cure cancer."  

Trump II, Lutnick and Sacks are selling something.  It's called their own book.  Normally, those come with disclosures but we are in a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) world.  Leon Black is telling us that very thing with his non-testimony.

The only data that rains is what they want us to see and that is very little in regard to their personal affairs.  AI cannot explore what isn't there, cannot mine areas where it lacks access.  

--cross posted at StateoftheDivision as three data centers may locate in the author's community

Two Flavors, One System

SHFT Holdings website states:

"Federal Bureau of Prisons purchasers: New users must register before ordering. If you have already registered, log in to place your order."

SHFT Holdings was formed in May 2026, one week after the Bureau of Prisons sought a supplier for nicotine pouches for federal prison commissaries.  The supplier was required to provide FDA approved products but SHFT's products currently lack that approval.  

A whistleblower raised concerns within the Justice Department and the contract is currently on hold.  

SHFT is part of a holding company, Ameribrands which is an affiliate of Little River Partners.  

It has a Trump I "slim suit crowd" feel to it as it echoes popup companies to provide masks and other personal protective equipment during the COVID outbreak.

But this is Trump II in the era of the fat shot and the ever ballooning waist of our Chief Executive.  So far there is no Trump offspring tie to this arrangement.  Time will reveal if SHFT Holdings accepts payment in USD1, WLFI token or $TRUMP.  

Investors love recurring revenue streams and nicotine addiction provides just that.  

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU (private equity underwriters) and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one.  Two flavors, one system...

Worker's Share of Income Hits Record Low

The big money boys don't like to share.  Corporate executive compensation has far outstripped worker pay increases for decades.  

Private equity underwriters (PEU) grew like locusts in our economy, wielding inordinate political influence.  Their operating models add massive interest costs, deal and annual management fees to sponsor.  Headcount and benefits are usually reduced and wage increases become a footnote in corporate history.

TechGods rode those PEU coattails into political prominence but they've lacked the ability to use their influence behind the scenes, until Trump II.  The Tech/Crypto/PEU juggernaut has traded all sense for access to Uncle Sam's wallet.  

Trump II has no limitations (at least in his mind) and insiders feel likewise.  

Note how Leon Black thumbed his nose at a Congressional Committee by failing to show for his testimony.  Add that Black is actually suing them for asking for his non-disclosure agreements (NDA).  Leon's son Ben Black is Trump II's head of the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

They will take until there is nothing left.  It's the next step of the hollowing and occurs under Trump II, the Great Usurper of All Things.  

It is the Age of Mammon where politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one and for that, many people suffer.

Update:  Jesse wrote about the preponderance of our elected officials and their PEU/TechGod sponsors.

The reckless disregard the power elite have for their own country is just astonishing until you realize that they do not consider themselves to be Americans, but a superior transnational class.

Trump II posted a Labor Day graphic on his Instagram account, nothing on WhiteHouse.gov or his Truth Social site.

Trump did post a Labor Day message on Truth Social in 2024, when he was running for President.

Leon Black Shows Congress Who Reports to Who

Apollo co-founder Leon Black slapped Congress with a lawsuit over not revealing his various non-disclosure agreements (NDA).  Black did not show up personally to deliver the message before the House Oversight Committee expecting his testimony.  

For decades elected officials did the bidding of the private equity underwriter (PEU) class.  Leon is used to giving them orders, not taking them.

As for attorneys, they exist to enact the will of the PEU class.  NDAs have been front and center as citizens try to find out the most basic information on data centers wanting to locate in their backyard.  Many of those data centers are being developed by PEU affiliates and/or financed by PEU private credit.

The PEU class knows full well how to protect their rights to the detriment of yours.  It's an old game but this version started in the 1980's and ramped up decade after decade.  

TechGods have joined the party.  They've learned well from their PEU forefathers how to keep the most basic information from public eyes.

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Like all abusers, Leon believes power only goes one way.  It's time for that to change.  Congress?  DOJ?  The Supremes?  Your job is far more than protecting the insider class.  

There are days where common folk need protection from those very people.  Thus, the term survivor.

Pentagon Pete's Drone Purge Starts at the Top

Army Chief Dan Driscoll left office today with many things officially unsaid.  At least one Senator took umbrage to the ceaseless firings of top brass under Pentagon Pete Hegseth.  

One story listed the military leaders let go under Trump II.  All had ties to the military's drone warfare development, a space recently targeted by the Trump boys, Don Jr. and Eric.

 

General CQ Brown was no longer good enough for Trump II but worked out fine for drone maker Powerus (a Trump/Dominari investment) and tech focused Shield Capital.

TechGod Eric Schmidt is also in the military drone space.  There may be room enough for both the Trump boys and various TechGods and there may not.

Changing leaders in order to change programs that changes contractors to benefit the Trump boys, now that would take AI to track.  Or would it?  Trump II claims to be transparent and accessible.  

Will Dan Driscoll head back to Flex Capital or will another Washington, D.C. based private equity underwriter (PEU) land his services?  John Phelan went back to Rugger Management LLC after his Navy Chief stint under Trump II.  

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one.  

Their sons shall be far richer than their fathers in today's PEU world, where all the lines are blurred.

Update 9-4-26:  Axios wrote about the tech side of Driscoll's resignation and other personnel moves.  The former Army Chief of Staff now works at Snowpoint Ventures.  They have a drone affiliate, Shield AI, that is achieving success in Ukraine.

NYT noted the pattern of military chiefs going to work for investment firms.

The Pentagon gave 3 million military associated people access to ChatGPT and GrokAI.  

Update 9-6-26:  The Daily Beast reported on Hegseth's firing of Chris Donahue.