USA 2024: -222, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has chosen his running mate, Nicole Shanahan

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one of the wild cards of USA 2024, perhaps the most influential, has announced that his running mate in the presidential race will be Nicole Shanahan, a California-based lawyer and philanthropist who has never held public office.

Shanahan, 38, the ex-wife of Google founder Sergey Brin, before backing Kennedy, was for many years a generous supporter of Democratic candidates’ election campaigns, including Joe Biden‘s in USA 2020.

Heading an environmental foundation, Shanahan has been in the spotlight of gossip due to her divorce from Brin and rumors of a brief relationship with Elon Musk, which allegedly led to a rupture in the friendship between the two Silicon Valley giants.

Kennedy’s candidacy is not supported by the family clan, which has instead decided to actively support Biden for his reelection to the White House. For the Kennedy family, it is unacceptable for one of their own to contribute to splitting the Democratic front, essentially favoring Donald Trump.

Members of the clan have already issued statements clarifying their support for Biden. Others with political experience will take on a direct role in the election campaign, especially where RFK Jr. qualifies for the vote. Still, others will intensify interventions in the media or lend the family name to initiatives that counteract their relative’s campaign.

There has also been a ‘clan visit’ to the White House, sealed by a ‘family’ photo with Biden in front of the Rose Garden: there were three generations and four branches of Kennedy relatives present.

Against this backdrop, The New York Times has dug up an embarrassing story. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., before gaining notoriety as a COVID denier and anti-vaxxer, built his public profile as an environmental activist and crusader against fossil fuels. It appears contradictory that his trust fund earned tens of thousands of dollars through an oil and gas extraction leasing company.

According to The New York Times, the presidential candidate reported earnings in the financial statement filed in June 2023 from the Arctic Royalty Limited Partnership, which leases extraction rights in Oklahoma, Texas, and other states. Arctic Royalty, part of a portfolio of investments from the Kennedy family’s trust accounts, also leases land to companies that have been fined for pollution, as well as to the chemical subsidiary of the company that polluted East Palestine, Ohio, after a train derailment just over a year ago.

Kennedy earned between $17,759 and $29,257 from Arctic Royalty between January 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023. When asked about his earnings by Politico, the candidate said he sold most of his stake in Arctic Royalty last December: “I sold all my stake in this company in December. I retain a very small stake indirectly, through my brother David’s estate.”

USA 2024: Trump, money from the stock market and Qatar, and a ‘gag order’ from the judges
The Trump Media & Technology Group soars in its Wall Street debut: the company linked to the former president’s Truth social media platform rises by 58% and is then suspended due to excessive volatility after gains rapidly drop to 32%.

The media company, of which the former president holds almost three-fifths, is listed on the Nasdaq as ‘DJT’, the initials of Donald J. Trump. The mogul cannot sell the group’s shares for six months but can use them as collateral to seek financing. Trump Media & Technology recorded losses of $49 million in the first nine months of 2023, against revenues of only $3.4 million.

Meanwhile, it has been learned from media sources that a member of the Qatari royal family invested around $50 million in Newsmax in 2019/20, a pro-Trump network: the investment was made at a time when Qatar was under pressure from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and sought support in the United States – Trump was president at the time. According to some former Newsmax employees, the network’s staff was asked to soften media coverage of Qatar, both before and after the investment.

In New York, the judge presiding over the trial against Trump, scheduled to begin on April 15, has ordered the former president not to attack witnesses, jurors, and prosecutors. The order was issued at the request of New York prosecutor Alvin Bragg. This is not the first time the mogul has been subject to such measures.