The Trump campaign has launched an internal audit of spending irregularities during Brad Parscale's tenure as campaign manager
Hello everyone! Welcome to this weekly roundup of Business Insider stories from executive editor Matt Turner. Please subscribe to Business Insider here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Sunday.
Hello!
What a week from our new DC bureau. Here's bureau chief Darren Samuelsohn:
Tom LoBianco landed a major league scoop to close out the week detailing the Trump campaign's internal audit of spending during the tenure of now-demoted campaign manager Brad Parscale.
Not only did the story rattle political circles, it clearly got under the Trump campaign's skin. Parscale issued a tweet three minutes before the article published calling the media a "criminal network that has very few honest people." And Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien in a statement an hour after the article went online described Tom as a "poor man's gossip columnist."
Read the story in full here:
The Trump campaign is investigating campaign spending, Parscale contracts
Elsewhere:
- Policy correspondent Robin Bravender published a dive inside EPA that reveals pent-up frustration among career staffers eager to see a Biden administration. "We can't do four more years of this," one person who works at EPA told Robin. Robin also landed an interview with EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, who told her that he was planning for a second Trump term.
- Kimberly Leonard got a draft of Republicans' plan to protect businesses from coronavirus lawsuits that's circulating among lawmakers and the White House.
- Using the Freedom of Information Act and shoe-leather reporting, Dave Levinthal managed to pry loose from US officials the fact that Trump's administration has decided to cancel the Presidential Rank Awards, the highest annual honor for career civil servants.
- Kayla Epstein gave readers this week an illuminating look at 16 of the most powerful people shaping the tech industry from the nation's capital. Her list includes lobbyists, public policy experts and communications pros, including veterans from the George W. Bush and Obama administrations.
- And in light of the massive Twitter hack this week, Sonam Sheth and Kayla took a look at what's keeping Trump's Twitter from being hacked.
Turmoil at Red Bull
From Patrick Coffee:
Red Bull fired its top two North American executives, CEO Stefan Kozak and president and CMO Amy Taylor, and global head of music, entertainment, and culture marketing Florian Klaass.
A person with direct knowledge of the firings, who is known to Business Insider but requested anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss it, said Klaass was let go over his role in a February corporate event, first reported by Business Insider, where a presentation slide was shown that featured racist stereotypes.
The slide, which was leaked to Business Insider, showed a world map that labeled the Middle East and Southeast Asia as "evil doers," continental Europe as "pussies," and South America as "coffee comes from here I think." Multiple employees said Klaass' Austria-based team included the slide despite being warned not to do so by US colleagues.
Red Bull more recently has been rife with internal tensions over Black Lives Matter. Employees leaked a letter that was sent June 1 to Kozak and Taylor criticizing the company's "public silence" on the movement.
You can read the story in full here:
In related news:
- When colleagues accused Mark Zuckerberg's personal security chief of racism and harassment, the family said there was no evidence. In sworn declarations, 3 workers said otherwise.
- G/O Media fired a queer employee of color who wore crop tops, shorts, and heels to work, violating a brand-new dress code that others say they routinely violated without being punished
- SoulCycle poster child Soeuraya Wilson quit on Instagram, saying she's tired of being 'used' by a company that supports activism only 'when it is convenient for their bottom line' — we spoke with 2 Black instructors who agree
- GMMB insiders say the top progressive ad and PR agency has a problem with microaggressions
A guide to real-estate investing
Chris Competiello, Libertina Brandt, and Natasha Solo-Lyons this week combined to produce a guide to getting started in real-estate investing. From their story:
In the US, the allure of real estate hasn't let up. In a recent Gallup survey, of the 1,012 US adults polled, 35% said that real-estate was the best way to build long-term wealth.
And in the past several years, real estate has created returns comparable to other investment assets.
According to the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries, expected annual total returns on apartment investments have fluctuated between 6% and 15% since 2012. Over the same period, the S&P 500 had an annualized return of about 10%.
To help you get going, we've collected insights into mistakes to avoid, how to scale your business, and what it takes to nail the management side of property management.
You can read that in full here:
In related news:
- Natasha took a look at five cities real estate investors should target in the 2020s, according to a property manager who built an $8 million portfolio from scratch.
- And Libertina had a story on the four cities where housing prices are most likely to fall in the next year.
Below are headlines on some of the stories you might have missed from the past week.
— Matt
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