I hate Scott Presler.
Mostly because I’m jealous of him: He’s way more famous than me, and every now and then, when I’m speed-reading through an article and he’s mentioned, I’ll get super-excited ‘cause I think it’ll be about me.
But nope, it’s always about that accursed Scott Presler. [Waves fist menacingly] Blast him and his gorgeous hair!
See, that’s the upside — and sometimes the downside — of having an unusual last name: You stand out more than you want to.
And your family relationships are obvious.
Normally, the media loves writing about family relationships — especially Republican families. It’s one of their favorite topics, and journalists use it in one of two ways:
- Use a family member to diminish and discredit a Republican: “Well, gee, if his third-cousin-once-removed doesn’t trust him, we shouldn’t either.”
- Taint the Republican via the “sins” of his kinfolk.
It’s a simple strategy: When journalists can’t elevate the Democrats and diminish the Republicans with the available facts, they find a source who’ll legitimize the story they wanted to write anyway.
The trouble is, credible sources are in critically short supply. Cultivating high-level sources requires elbow grease, pounding the pavement, and (most of all) mutual trust. Most of today’s journalists, alas, are less Woodward and Bernstein and more Abbot and Costello: They don’t have sources; they have echo chambers.
But if your source has the same surname as the candidate, you bypass all that hard work. His/her credibility is implied!
Which explains the media’s fascination with Mary Trump, the estranged niece of President Donald Trump. The two haven’t spoken in 20+ years, yet every mainstream media outlet has used her to bash the president:
CNN: Mary Trump Says Bigotry Ran in Donald’s Family
CBS News: Trump a ‘Narcissist’ Still Seeking Late Father’s ‘Favor,’ Niece Mary Trump Says in Tell-All Book
MS NOW: Mary Trump: Trump’s Reelection Would ‘Be the End of the American Experiment’
Politico: The Mystery of Mary Trump
Washington Post: A Conversation with Mary L. Trump
The Guardian: Mary Trump on her Uncle Donald: ‘I Used to Feel Compassion for Him. That Became Impossible’
BBC: Five Shocking Passages in Mary Trump’s Tell-All Book
New York Times: The Inside Story Why Mary Trump Wrote a Tell-All Memoir
NPR: Trump’s Niece Describes a Toxic Family Dynamic Where Kindness Was Weakness
The Telegraph: Mary Trump: My Uncle Wants to Be President for Life
Newsweek has already run more stories about Mary Trump than most world leaders. Go through ‘em and count: There are over 300 articles!
So, we have a clear precedent: When it comes to Republicans, cousins are legitimate sources — even when the cousin has been estranged for decades.
Not so for Democrats, it seems.
Before delving into the heart of our story, here’s a quick thought experiment: Imagine if the Epstein Files were dripping with encounters between Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump’s first cousins.
Don’tcha think the media might find that a wee bit newsworthy?
It’s a no-brainer: Of course they would!
After all, the Trump surname is big business. Billions of dollars are shared within the Trump family. Given the accounting complexities of managing all that money, it’s impossible to know where one trust fund ends and the others begin.
Between all the stocks, bonds, wills, trusts, and backend ownerships, everything is almost certainly intermingled.
So, if it turned out that Trump’s family members had continued to correspond with Epstein and/or request favors AFTER his 2008 conviction for felony solicitation and procurement of underage prostitutes, there’d be hell to pay.
It’d be the lead story on every newscast!
Which is why the media’s silence over Gov. JB Pritzker's (D-Ill.) family involvement in the Epstein Files is so deafening: The media has gone out of its way to shield Gov. Pritzker from culpability.
Yesterday afternoon, the Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced the retirement of its chairman, Thomas Pritzker, “effective immediately.” Although there was no mention of Jeffrey Epstein in the Hyatt’s official press release, other outlets put two and two together:
CNN: Hyatt Executive Chairman Steps Down Over Epstein Ties
BBC: Hyatt Hotels Chairman Steps Down Over Jeffrey Epstein Ties
Wall Street Journal: Thomas Pritzker, Named in Epstein Files, Retires as Hyatt Executive Chairman
The Hill: Hyatt Hotels Chair Steps Down Over Epstein Association
Forbes: Billionaire Hyatt Hotels Chair Tom Pritzker Retires Over Epstein Association
Business Insider: Thomas Pritzker Steps Down as Hyatt Chair After Epstein Fallout
Yet only one U.S. mainstream media member — CBS News — noted the Pritzker family connection in its headline: “Thomas Pritzker, Cousin of Illinois Governor, Steps Down as Head of Hyatt Due to Ties With Jeffrey Epstein.”
Most didn’t mention Gov. Pritzker at all.
It’s a stunning oversight, because Gov. Pritzker isn’t a no-name politician: He’s a Democratic presidential frontrunner in 2028!
Just two weeks ago, The Hill ran the story: “Carville: Pritzker Has Best Shot to Win 2028 Democratic Nomination.”
Pritzker’s national profile has risen in recent months due to clashes with President Trump over immigration enforcement in the Windy City. The Democratic governor took a strong stance against Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) use of force against local residents, which sparked protests on the ground and clashes with Chicago police.
He also filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to push back against the deployment of National Guard soldiers.
Prtizker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), another potential 2028 nominee, have emerged as key antagonists to Trump.
And one of the key reasons James Carville chose Pritzker was because of his family wealth:
Carville said the two both rise to the level needed for the 2028 presidential race, in addition to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D). But he argued Pritzker beats the others due to his relatability and personal wealth that has the potential to fuel a successful campaign.
“They like him, man. He campaigns hard. I bet you there’s not a Black church in South Carolina that JB’s not a part of the building fund committee,” Carville said. [emphasis added]
Carville wasn’t lying about Pritzker’s coffers: The Pritzker family is worth over $41.6 billion, with Gov. Pritzker himself worth nearly $4 billion. The source of the family fortune is Hyatt Hotels — which makes the conduct of Hyatt chairman Thomas Pritzker enormously relevant — economically, politically, and perceptually.
And some of the Epstein allegations are beyond disturbing.
[Thomas] Pritzker’s name has also appeared in several previously released documents related to cases against Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Partially redacted versions of Epstein’s 2004–05 contact book released by the Department of Justice in February include Pritzker’s name. Epstein’s “little black book” includes more than a dozen email addresses and phone numbers for Pritzker, along with an annotation from Epstein’s former house manager reading “Numero Uno.”
Pritzker is also included on the passenger list for a December 7, 2000 flight from London to the Marham Royal Air Force Base in Norfolk along with Epstein, Maxwell, a person named Kelly Spamm, and another passenger identified only as “1 Female.” That same weekend, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor—formerly Prince Andrew, Duke of York—hosted Epstein, Maxwell, and Pritzker at nearby Sandringham House for what he described as “just… a straightforward shooting weekend.”
Thomas Pritzker was also named by the late Virginia Giuffre as one her sexual “partners.”
From The Architect’s Newspaper:
Sexual allegations against Pritzker by the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre were first made public in 2019 after three years of court depositions, as reported by AN. Giuffre said in 2016 she had sex with an “owner of a large hotel chain” in France. Giuffre also said she was “sent” by Ghislaine Maxwell to perform the sex acts. Giuffre later took her own life in 2025. Pritzker has denied Giuffre’s allegations.
Question for the peanut gallery: If Thomas Pritzker’s last name were “Trump” — and if he were the sitting chairman of the company that, quite literally, controlled the vast majority of the Trump family wealth — how would the mainstream media frame this story?
Would they AVOID mentioning the family connection in the headline? Would they AVOID mentioning the family connection in the story? Would they try to pretend it was simply a business story?
Or would the entire story be about the twisted, sordid Trump family relationship to Jeffrey Epstein — the scandal, abuses, outrages, and “What did President Trump know and when did he know it?”
I think we all know the answer.
To the mainstream media, Mary Trump, the estranged first cousin of Donald Trump, is a legitimate, go-to news source. Whenever the media wants to write about President Trump’s deepest, darkest psychological secrets, they turn to a cousin who hasn’t spoken to the president in 20+ years.
Yet Thomas Pritzker, the non-estranged first cousin of JB Pritzker, is just some rando who inexplicably shares the governor’s last name, it seems. Nothing to see, nothing to cover, nothing to write.
It’s a shameful double standard that highlights the institutional media advantage for Democrats: Bad news is buried, big names are protected, and most of the public is left in the dark.
And it’s become so normalized, you’re probably not gonna read about it anywhere else but here!
There’s only one person we should blame:
Curse you, Scott Presler. Curse you and your gorgeous hair.
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