Ben Hunt reduced former President Donald Trump's lived life and likely second presidency to one thing, "stripping the country for spare parts."
Stripping the porn star for access to her parts and then paying so the story fails to reach the light of day. That's the underlying motive for Trump's falsifying business records trial.
The political Red Team sent emergency political backup to the New York court. The "reinforcement regiment" served as Trump's mouthpieces given he is under a gag order (that he consistently violates).
Red Team Senator Mitt Romney found the spectacle unsettling. USA Today reported:
The parade of GOP leaders appearing outside the New York City courthouse where former President Donald Trump is on trial is "a little embarrassing," Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said Wednesday.
"I think it’s a little demeaning to show up in front of a courthouse particularly one where we’re talking about an allegation of paying a porn star," Romney told reporters before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting in Washington.
Romney is a former private equity underwriter (PEU) with Bain Capital. The PEU boys know how to lever up an affiliate, bury it under the additional weight of management fees and drastically higher interest costs. They also know how to repackage the parts while pulling out yacht-loads of cash.
The Trump court proxy parade included a smattering of PEUs.
The visitors have included Sens Rick Scott, R-Fla. and J.D. Vance, R-Ohio; Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla.; House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.; North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.Flash back to 2009 when Rick Scott struck his first PEU deal post HCA:
Scott launched the first 13 Solantic clinics in Florida with $28 million in seed money. (The private equity firm Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe has made a $100 million commitment.)
Sen. Scott sold his majority stake in Solantic to Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe in 2011. As of 2022 his vast wealth included a number of private equity holdings.
Red Team PEUs gathered recently to push a second Trump presidency. The billionaire meeting occurred weeks before the Milken Global Institute, essentially a big name gathering of the who's who in PEU land and their handmaid elected officials.
Many of Trump's PEU trial supporters are common names at Milken.
Vivek Ramaswamy cut his PEU teeth with QVT, which has a number of funds based in the Cayman Islands. Vivek went on to found Roivant essentially a pharma PEU. QVT backed his various "vants". Along the way Ramaswamy employed his mother Geetha and brother Shankar.
Flashback to April 2024 and the Red billionaire PEU dinner focused on defeating President Biden.
The guest list reportedly included Peter Thiel, Rupert Murdoch, Michael Milken, Steven Mnuchin and Travis Kalanick.
Peter Thiel backed Vivek's latest venture, according to Politico:
In 2022, Ramaswamy founded Strive Asset Management, an investment firm that branded itself in opposition to the environmental, social and governance framework used by some firms to make investment decisions, amid a broader pushback against so-called “ESG” from conservatives. The firm, backed by billionaires including Peter Thiel and Bill Ackman, said it was managing more than $230 million in assets after two weeks of trading last August
Thiel employed Trump court cheerleader Sen. J.D. Vance at Mithral Capital before backing his Senate run.
The last in this Red Trump PEU court parade is North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. Burgum founded Arthur Ventures. His net worth is estimated at $1.1 billion.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy spoke at the recent Milken Global Initiative, heavily PEU sponsored:
McCarthy spoke about Trump's Vice President pick. Many of Trump's court cheerleaders are possible Vice Presidential picks.
Who Trump picks matters to another Milken star, billionaire Citadel founder Ken Griffin.
“I’m going to wait to see who he picks as his VP candidate."
Will it be someone with a PEU background? If so, Trump will have an able assistant in stripping the country for spare parts.
