All the reform efforts just went up in smoke

It is with great sadness that I must report that the last hope of saving the U.S. has just vanished:

Yesterday Trump pardoned a stock fraudster named Trevor Milton.

Now, unless you follow the stock market closely, that name means nothing to ya.   In 2014, as the mania over "electric vehicles" was ramping up, Milton founded a company to build electric-powered 18-wheelers.  He called it Nikola--the first name of electrical genius Nikola Tesla-- cuz "Tesla" was already taken.

In January of 2018 the company posted a "promotional video" on YouTube showing what it claimed was a prototype of its electric semi rolling along a highway.  This will be important.

Americans--swept up in the mania (which it certainly was) for battery-powered transportation eagerly bought billions of dollars in the company's stock.

In September of 2020, General Motors bought an 11% stake in Nikola for roughly $2 BILLION.  Because investors believed GM's CEO was smaht--and viewed the company's YouTube video from two years earlier--stock in Nikola immediately jumped 53%.  Nice.

The CEO of GM--then and now--was Mary Barra.  Mary is the only female to be CEO of a Big Three U.S. auto maker.  In 1985 she got a B.S in electrical engineering from the General Motors Institute, and as "wokiez" took over all major companies, was named CEO in 2014.  So if Mary urged GM to invest $2 billion in Nikola, every small investor saw that as the best endorsement evah!

And right after the GM investment, Nikola had a market capitalization of $30 billion--more than Ford-- *before it had sold a single vehicle!*  Cuz if the CEO of GM was eager to invest $2 BILLION of GM cash in Nikola, it had to be a totally solid company, eh?

Now, remember that promotional video from January of 2018--the one with the company's prototype electric semi rolling along the desert highway?  In September of 2020 it was revealed that the truck wasn't functional.  Wasn't moving under its own power.  They'd towed it to the top of a hill and let it roll down.

The video was revealed as fake on September 14, 2020--just six DAYS after GM announced its faaabulous $2 BILLION investment in the company.  Wow, timing, eh?

After that revelation the company issued a long statement saying they never claimed the truck was being powered by its engine, but merely that it was "in motion."  Ahhh, so totally not misleading, eh?

Nikola stock began sliding, and in July of 2021 Trevor Milton was indicted for fraud.  In October of 2022 he was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison.  He appealed, and has never served a day in jail, as he's been free while that unfolded.  

Yesterday Trump pardoned Nikola founder/fraudster Trevor Milton.

The pardon came two weeks after prosecutors urged the judge in the case to order Milton to pay $680 million to Nikola shareholders.  But due to the pardon, no restitution can be ordered.

The White House confirmed the pardon.

The utterly damning thing here is that CNBC says a month before last November's election, Milton donated $920,000 to Trump's campaign.

CNBC then notes that earlier this month Trump pardoned former Tennessee state Sen. Brian Kelsey, who had just begun serving a 21-month prison term after pleading guilty in a federal campaign finance conspiracy case.

SO...Nikola's cunning statement defending its YouTube video showing its truck rolling, claiming "We just said it was 'in motion,' nevah claimed it was under its own power'" clearly shows intent to defraud.  Milton was clearly a fraudster, and unless there was misconduct by the government he should never have been pardoned.

This scandal makes the "Signal" blunder look like a nothing.  Trump's pardon of this obvious fraudster has given the Democrats exactly the weapon they've been searching for.  It's ended any chance of the GOP retaining control of congress in the 2026 mid-term elections.

More crucially, this absurd blunder further emboldens leftist judges to block all efforts to reform government spending and deport illegals (which the judges have been doing all along anyway).

Finally, it worries me that none of Trump's supposedly astute advisors, like Susie Wiles, was able to dissuade him from pardoning the fraudster.  Definitely a cause for concern.

This shouldn't have happened.  The fact that it did sets off all my alarm bells.

Source: CNBC

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/28/trump-pardons-nikola-trevor-milton-ceo-securities-fraud-electric-vehicle.html