The News You Need, Wednesday, August 12, 2026
National Park Service is Trump’s Latest Slush Fund/ The Times Hides Who The “Centrists” Are / Mamdani’s New Tech Team / A Capitalist for President in Cuba? / When Capitalism and Humanity Part Ways / Bessent Wastes $10 billion Propping up the Yen
Trump Uses the National Park Service Budget as a Private Slush Fund
Scott MacFarlane Reports
Scott: It’s not just the $1.8 billion “settlement agreement” slush fund that Todd Blanche bamboozled a group of Republican senators into thinking was dead (hint: it isn’t. It’s awaiting reinstatement after a favorable appeal.) Trump is pocketing bits and pieces of the federal budget in many diverse corners… and there’s nothing he has brutalized quite like the budget of the woefully underfunded National Park Service. CBS News refugee Scott MacFarlane has the rundown.
There are enormous canyons. Geysers. Majestic cliffs. Waterfalls and wildlife. Rainforests and reindeer. But in America’s national parks under President Trump, the most dramatic sight might be the rapid shifting of taxpayer and donor money.
Internal park service records obtained by Scott MacFarlane Reports reveal a controversial and overwhelming re-routing of money to Trump vanity projects.
The topline dollar figures are astounding, according to multiple sources inside the US Department of Interior, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to news media.
The records show more than $323 million have been made available for upgrades and projects on the White House grounds this year.
That’s a dramatic, nearly 5000 percent increase from the $7.5 million spent on White House grounds projects in 2024.
On the National Mall in Washington, nearly $100 million was made available for projects this year. That’s more than ten times larger than the $9 million provided for the Mall in 2024.
The internal park service records show declines in the money allotted to – or projected for use at - dozens of other major U.S. parks this year. There were multi-million dollar reductions in funds for Yellowstone, Yosemite and Grand Canyon national parks, which are some of the flagship attractions of America’s National Park Service.
Now we know where that money has gone.
How The Times Maligns Progressives
New York Times
Charles: The default position of political reporters for The New York Times is to promote fear and loathing whenever a progressive Democrat with socialist tendencies triumphs at the polls.
New York Times national political correspondent Shane Goldmacher is a repeat offender in this department. His latest journalistic felony: last week’s story headlined “Moderate Democrats Prepare for ‘War’ Against an Ascendant Left.”
Barely suppressing his hysteria over the progress of progressives, Goldmacher wrote, “The embattled establishment of the Democratic Party searched furiously for a political reset after Dr. Abdul El-Sayed’s progressive victory in Michigan handed the party’s long-dominant moderate wing its most painful defeat of the year.”
Abdul El-Sayed
Goldmacher’s exhibit A: “We are preparing for the next war that is coming,” said Jonathan Cowan, the president of Third Way, a leading centrist Democratic group, revealing to The New York Times a new $15 million effort between now and 2028 to discredit democratic socialism.
Goldmacher was so excited about his $15 million scoop, he completely forgot to answer most of the basic questions every journalist is paid to answer: Who, What, Where, When and Why.
Goldmacher’s most abject failure here: the “Who” category.
As Robert Reich pointed out, Goldmacher’s 1600-word article told the reader literally nothing about the composition of this “leading centrist Democratic group.”
It turns out every single publicly identified trustee of Third Way is a current or former Wall Street Poobah. Shocking that they would be opposed to candidates supporting Medicare for all. Here’s the list, care of Mr. Reich:
Jonathan Vogelstein, chairman of New Providence Asset Management and senior adviser to private equity firm Warburg Pincus.
David Heller, formerly global head of equity trading for Goldman Sachs.
David Horvitz, chairman of the board and CEO of SouthOcean Capital Partners LLC and SouthOcean Investment Partners LLC.
David Coulter, managing director and senior adviser at Warburg Pincus, focusing on the firm’s financial services practice, and former vice chair of JPMorganChase.
William Daley, vice chairman of Bank of New York Mellon, former vice chairman of JPMorganChase, former board member of pharmaceutical companies Abbott Labs and Merck.
John Dyson, chairman of Millbrook Capital Management Inc., a private investment firm that manages a manufacturing company, a vineyard and wine group and a hedge fund.
Michael Edwards, deputy chief investment officer of investment adviser Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisors.
Andrew Feldstein, CEO and co-CIO of BlueMountain Capital Management, board member of PNC Financial Services Group, former managing director of JPMorganChase.
Brian Frank, founder and managing partner of Declaration Partners LP, an investment firm seeded by the founder of a large private equity firm.
David Greenwald, chairman emeritus of finance law firm Fried Frank, former international general counsel and a deputy general counsel of Goldman Sachs.
Derek Kaufman, former head of global fixed income for the Citadel hedge fund and a member of the firm’s portfolio committee, former managing director at JPMorganChase.
Derek Kirkland, former managing director and co-head of the Global Financial Institutions Group at Morgan Stanley’s Financial Institutions Group in Investment Banking.
Doug Lawrence, CEO of DPL Green Investment and also managing principal and co-founder of 5 Stone Green Capital, formerly a managing director at JPMorganChase.
Joseph Zimlich, CEO of the private family financial manager the Bohemian Group, board member of First Western Trust Bank.
Marc Spilker, founding member of GPS Investment Partners LLC, chairman of Chiron Investment Management LLC, former co-head of Goldman Sachs’s investment management division, former president of Apollo Global Management, former member of Google’s investment advisory committee.
Barbara Manfrey Vogelstein, former venture capitalist, former partner at Warburg Pincus and Apax Partners & Co. Ventures.
William Reeves, co-founder of BlueCrest Capital Management, former managing director at JPMorganChase.
Oh, and Third Way’s honorary co-chairs have included West Virginia’s former Sen. Joe Manchin and Arizona’s former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. Enough said about its governing structure.
