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Abraham Lincoln was a formidable physical fighter in an era of eye-gouging and ear-biting on the Illinois frontier. A gang from the opposing party backed his political career because he had proven himself in a fight — a bipartisan origin story you won't find in most textbooks.
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At 11:00 · chapter starts 6:58
Wagner raises the MAGA talking point that Teddy Roosevelt also fought at the White House, inviting Richardson to either validate or demolish the parallel. Richardson does both with relish: she first gives full context to TR's boxing — rooted in his anxiety about urban decay, masculine decline, and the rise of an underclass in the industrial era — before identifying two critical differences from Trump's UFC event. No taxpayer money financed Roosevelt's fights, and they were decidedly not a branding or corruption opportunity tied to pay-per-view deals and cryptocurrency sponsors. [1] — Heather Cox Richardson "Yes, Teddy Roosevelt boxed at the White House — but no taxpayer money was involved and it wasn't a branding opportunity for corrupt allies.…" 06:58 She then pivots to Lincoln — who came up through an even rougher frontier fighting tradition, including possible ear-biting — whose reputation as a brawler earned him the bipartisan backing that launched his political career.
Yes, Teddy Roosevelt boxed at the White House — but no taxpayer money was involved and it wasn't a branding opportunity for corrupt allies. Trump's UFC fight is almost the opposite: a pay-per-view profit center bankrolled by the public and wrapped in cryptocurrency sponsorship.
Theodore Roosevelt's White House boxing exhibitions cost taxpayers nothing and were not branding or corruption opportunities — the opposite of Trump's UFC fight on the South Lawn.
Factories that replaced coal engines with electric ones in the early 1900s got only 6% efficiency gains. Those that redesigned their entire factory around electricity got a 3x productivity improvement. Swapping AI tools into your existing structure will give you 6%. Rebuilding around AI will give you 10x.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
The CIA supply operation used a front company called Southern Air Transport, widely known to be a CIA cover. Crew members of the downed plane carried their Southern Air Transport employee IDs in their wallets. One also had a business card directly linking him to Oliver North's office in Washington.
When the scandal broke, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall conducted what became known as a 'shredding party,' destroying a day's worth of documents. The full truth of Iran-Contra may never be known because of what was fed through that shredder.
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