Tara Palmeri: “If there’s one thing 2025 has made clear, it’s that in today’s Washington, scandal is just noise. The people who survive it are the ones who learned from President Trump that endurance—not accountability—is the real strategy. Ride out the shame long enough and it eventually fades.”
“This year alone, a series of old allegations resurfaced around some of the president’s allies. There was reporting about border czar Tom Homan allegedly accepting a $50,000 Cava bag stuffed with cash in exchange for government contracts, only to have it brushed aside by FBI Director Kash Patel, who has reportedly been using FBI Boeing aircraft like a personal jet to visit his country singer girlfriend.”
“Then there are the lingering and newly revived scandals involving Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who seems largely immune, perhaps because he presents as a Ken-doll version of a war secretary, untouched by consequences.”
