Katie Zacharia was let go at three in the afternoon, five days after she started; Zev had said she would not last a week. Three people told The New York Times she was fired. Trump told reporters what he had said to her: "Katie, do you need this? I don't think you need this." Guilfoyle Tuesday, Zampolli Thursday, Zacharia Friday.
5️⃣ Trump's allies talk martial law for a lost midterm. Peter Ticktin, Trump's military-school classmate and Tina Peters' lawyer, told MAGA election activists on a Sept. 30 call that "there would have to be martial law" after "another rigged election." He told Axios the remedy would "probably need to be commandeering of ballots and election equipment." He and Peters visited the White House in June.
4️⃣ Musk buys the midterms while Russia fakes the ads. Elon Musk gave Republican super PACs $178 million in three months, FEC filings showed Thursday, the biggest known donor to the midterms. Bloomberg reported a Russia-linked network called Matryoshka has pushed fake CNN clips at American voters since September. The Telegraph reported Friday, on four sources, that Musk proposed the Starlink speed cap on Ukraine to Trump and Trump agreed; Trump said the same day that neither he nor Musk was responsible. The show replayed Trump on Jan. 19, 2025: Musk "knows those computers better than anybody," meaning "those vote counting computers."
3️⃣ Blood diesel: there is no contract. Trump promised Russian diesel "immediately" a week ago. Russia's deputy prime minister said Wednesday the ministries are still negotiating; the first loading after the deal sailed for Morocco, and the tanker tracked to the East Coast docked in North Carolina carrying fertilizer. What exists is General License 135, which lets Russian diesel into the United States until April 7, 2027. Solovyov told Russian state television: "quite a bit of money will flow into our state coffers."
2️⃣ The Grift Count: 11 in one week. Eleven payments next to eleven decisions, Monday to Friday, from LaCivita and Blair on Republika Srpska's money to Trump's drugmaker stocks and Musk's 2024 lottery settlement. The full list is on the Narativ front page.
The Grift Count: 11 Scandals in One Week
The Narativ is a full stack of original news reports and intelligent analysis on the day’s biggest stories delivered to your inbox 5 days a week. The Front Page is free to all subscribers while deeper dives are reserved for paid subscribers - now at 20% off annual subscriptions.
1️⃣ State fires Zampolli without probing his "possibly unlawful" deals. Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau wrote Zampolli on Nov. 15, 2025, copying 15 colleagues, that he meant to carry on "unauthorized and possibly unlawful ventures." Nobody investigated. State fired him the afternoon Politico printed the emails, and he left quoting Trump: "Why do you want to work in government when you can close all these deals?" Katie Wiles, the chief of staff's daughter, is a partner at the firm Srpska pays $35,000 a month; LaCivita and Blair were paid through Srpska's law firm; Guilfoyle pushed LNG up the corridor to Romania. One Russia-aligned client, four Trump names.
Bonus: Mark Carney told a Forever Canadian rally in Alberta the Pacific pipeline "will reduce our dependence on the United States," then, as the room roared: "Careful, they might think that's election interference."
