Twenty-six days before the vote, the people around Donald Trump are getting paid, all at once. The Narativ starts the count today.
1. Trump's midterm chiefs took a Bosnian Serb government's money. James Blair and Chris LaCivita run Trump's midterm operation. A Washington law firm whose client is the government of Republika Srpska, the Serb half of Bosnia, paid the two of them, and they helped that government. Neither is registered as a foreign agent, as far as The Narativ could find. Trump posted on Wednesday that the two "do not work for me, other than as outside consultants," and that he will fire them if he finds a conflict. Why it matters: Trump's campaign chiefs are billing a Russia-aligned government in the campaign's last month, and Trump's only answer so far is that they can keep their clients.
2. Trump bought SpaceX debt two days before he signed its policy. Trump bought up to $5 million of SpaceX debt on Aug. 18, his August disclosure shows. Two days later he signed a national space transportation policy calling for more than 1,000 launches a year by 2030. SpaceX does the launching. The White House says the portfolio is independently managed and Trump has no ability to influence it. Why it matters: the president's own money moved the week his pen did, and the form that shows it is his.
3. Guilfoyle asked a donor for $100,000 and promised him access. Kimberly Guilfoyle, just before her confirmation hearing as ambassador to Greece, asked a Trump donor to pay a $100,000 credit card bill and promised him access to administration officials if he did. She has denied any wrongdoing. The top Democrats on the House and Senate foreign-relations committees want an investigation, and Marco Rubio won't say whether he will open one. Rubio, at the foot of his plane on Thursday with Guilfoyle looking on: "It's not the gospel. It's not the gospel for me." Why it matters: the door to the administration had a price before she was confirmed, and the Secretary of State is defending her instead of asking.
4. Some of Lukoil's buyers are the negotiators' business partners. Todd Boehly leads the group buying Lukoil's foreign assets. He has given $2 million to pro-Trump causes in the last two years, and he gets a small minority stake. More than half of the equity goes to Middle Eastern investors, including some with business ties to key U.S. officials involved in the negotiations: an Abu Dhabi sheikh whose ventures invested in Jared Kushner's fund, and the Qatari brothers who are Kushner's partners in an Albanian resort. Putin raised the sale with Kushner and Steve Witkoff at the Kremlin last month; there is no indication the two envoys themselves stand to profit. The U.S. government's development bank gets about 15% and puts up no cash. Why it matters: a Russian oil empire changes hands through Trump's envoys, and some of the buyers are the envoys' business partners.
A president who expects to hold the House on Nov. 3 does not let his midterm chiefs work for a Bosnian Serb government in the campaign's last month, or buy a launch company's debt the week he signs its policy. He does it when he doesn't think he's going to win, and the plan is to be paid before the count.
The count stands at four. The midterm operation's quarterly FEC filing shows whose money Blair is spending and whether Boehly's is in it. House and Senate Democrats put their Guilfoyle requests in writing. Lukoil's buyers face a Treasury deadline on Oct. 22, 12 days before the vote.
