The Washington Post recently published two op-eds by Scott Greer, a far-right writer who contributed a series of racist and anti-Semitic items to Richard Spencer’s Radix Journal, Politico reported yesterday. For context: Greer was fired from the Daily Caller in 2018 after it was revealed he’d written for Radix under a pseudonym. This is an easily searchable fact and it is no way a secret in 2026. Right after Politico reached out for comment, WaPo removed the articles.
That move might come across as a squirrelly act of insecurity in the middle of a turbulent time for Post Opinions. After all, WaPo has been widely criticized for editorial decisions downstream of Jeff Bezos’s new vision for the paper – including his declaration that Opinions would henceforth only publish writing that was in defense of “personal freedoms and free markets” – two values he deemed central to America’s success and underrepresented in American media.
Another core aspect of the Post’s rebrand was its new goal of reaching “all of America.” Supposedly in service of this goal, a mysterious new section lives on the Washington Post’s website called “Ripple.” The page appears to be syndicating articles from various websites. Just under the word “Ripple” reads “Opinions from across America.” However, there is no clear evidence that Ripple is under the control of Post Opinions because it lives at the top of the general website in a list of sections, separate from Opinions, between “WP Intelligence” and “Games.”
In June 2025, the New York Times’s Benjamin Mullin wrote that the Post was planning to expand its lineup to include “many published opinion articles from other newspapers across America, writers on Substack and eventually nonprofessional writers, according to four people familiar with the plan.”
Mullin wrote that the Post had just hired an editor to oversee the program, referred to as Ripple. The program was set to include a “final phase, allowing nonprofessionals to submit columns with help from an A.I. writing coach called Ember” beginning in the fall of 2026. “Human editors would review submissions before publication.”
Greer has a sizable following on X and Substack, where he publishes pieces of cultural criticism that veer into race science and esoteric musings on “real America” and what real America wants. (In real life, Greer is a bit of a puppy. But you wouldn’t know based on his writing).
It would, in fact, be a shock that a Post editor would choose to publish someone with his track record, even under the current masthead. It is also, however, very possible that an automated syndication program partially powered by AI, responding primarily to algorithms, would select an article by him for publication. The program seems to have been pushed by Jeff Bezos himself and lives somewhat separately from the rest of editorial. This would help to explain the immediate removal of Greer’s articles after the slightest acknowledgment of their presence on the website. Politico, it seems, may not have been the only outlet surprised by the news.
On our radar
DOWN BOY During a bilateral meeting with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed in France, President Trump marveled over an Emirati reporter who asked him a question. “What a nice-looking person,” said the President. “Is he from your country? He has got such a nice way about him. My people are so mean. Look at him, handsome guy. I could put him in a movie right now.”
DRONE PLOT FOILED The FBI announced this morning that it interceded in an alleged plot targeting Sunday’s UFC Freedom 250 event, which would supposedly have involved explosive drones, snipers and a planned attempt to storm the White House.
DC VOTES TODAY Polls are open in the DC primary until 8 p.m. Voters will select candidates for mayor and the District’s delegate to Congress, among other positions.
Duck soup
Efforts to tidy up the nation’s capital ahead of America’s 250th birthday are well under way. While it’s not clear whether “the Claw” lighting rig from Sunday’s UFC fight will stay up as Trump suggested – God help those who plan to fly through Reagan for the festivities – other aesthetic adjustments are proving more nettlesome.
Trump ordered the National Mall reflecting pool that lies between the World War Two and Lincoln Memorials to be emptied and painted blue at a cost of $14.2 million. Since the pool was refilled, algal blooms have reemerged, turning the water a sickly green. This morning, to address the algae, workers were spotted pouring flagons of hydrogen peroxide into the pool.
A number of people have pointed out that while bleach might be useful in tackling algae, it also could prove harmful to the ducks that regularly occupy the pool. The fowl could end up with a Marilyn Monroe makeover or, likelier, die. Anything in pursuit of beauty…?
Who’s footing the bill for the ballroom?
President Trump’s ballroom has been mired in controversy since its inception, but the President has insisted it is a “gift to the United States of America,” paid for by private donors and “tax-free.” Yet it appears there’s a $307 million price tag to be covered by taxpayer dollars.
The Washington Post obtained a series of contractor estimates showing that the project cost has been on the rise for months. Newest cost estimates from contractor Clark Construction put the price at $600 million. That estimate was made before Trump’s comments on March 31 that the ballroom would only be $400 million.
Although $293 million is still expected to be paid by “private sources,” the remaining $307 million will come from the Secret Service, White House Military Office, (WHMO) and Executive Residence – all groups that rely on taxpayer dollars.
The ballroom, Trump claims, is crucial for national security after the assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Since the dinner was at a downtown hotel, security was not as stringent as it could have been in a ballroom on the White House premises.
How does a ballroom end up with such an exorbitant price tag? Answer: it’s not just a ballroom. The high-security event venue is only the ground floor: underneath, six more stories of underground operations are in construction, including a military hospital and top-secret meeting and research facilities. Then, of course, there is the drone port planned for the roof, (which retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg wrote about for The Spectator last week).
Hypothetically, it is these security initiatives that will be paid for by the Secret Service and WHMO rather than the event space, but as Stan Soloway at the National Academy of Public Administration pointed out, “you can’t disentangle the entertainment space from all of the other parts that are in here.”
VivekCoin
Vivek Ramaswamy, the 2024 presidential candidate and former deputy to Elon Musk at DoGE, continues his campaign for the Ohio governor’s mansion.
He has won the backing of the cryptocurrency sector. A series of crypto entrepreneurs including Chase Herro, Zak Folkman and Zach Witkoff (son of the President’s special envoy Steve Witkoff) have each contributed $16,615 – as much as Ohio electoral law allows – to Vivek, totaling $116,000.
It’s easy to see why. Ramaswamy has pledged to be the “strongest pro-Bitcoin governor in the nation.” If elected, he has promised to pass the Ohio Strategic Cryptocurrency Reserve Act, which would let the state treasurer invest up to 10 percent of state funds in select cryptocurrencies and appoint a pro-crypto trustee of the state’s public pension system.
Ramaswamy fell somewhat out of favor in MAGAworld in December 2024, when he criticized American workers for showing insufficient gumption and grit. Now he has become the greatest advocate of an entirely passive asset class. The irony is not lost on Cockburn.
Cockburn’s Diary will return on Tuesday June 23. Happy Juneteenth!
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