Copyright The Daily Beast
One of the nation’s most prominent right-wing media personalities just got into bed with Donald Trump Jr. as the scion of MAGA’s first clan now forges ahead with a new business venture. Laura Ingraham—host of Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, and a key ally of President Donald Trump at the overwhelmingly MAGA-aligned news network—has joined Colombier Acquisition Corp III., a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) headed up by the younger member of the First Family. It’s not clear at this stage which private firm or firms Colombier Acquisition Corp. III will eventually merge with, though it plans to “fund the next chapter of American Exceptionalism and help Make America Grow Again,” according to SEC filings. The group filed for an initial public offering on Friday, issuing shares with an estimated total value of $260 million. Omeed Malik, a close friend of the Trump family and chief executive officer of 1789 Capital, where Trump Jr. joined as partner last November, will head up the new vehicle. Alongside the younger Trump and Ingraham, it lists billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya, 1789 Capital founder Chris Buskirk and former Republican Senatorial candidate Blake Masters as directors. Ingraham’s appointment marks only the freshest tie between the Trump family and Fox News. Earlier this year, Trump also appointed her to the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as part of a wider drive to rid the influential cultural center of a perceived liberal bias. MAGA Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, both appointed by Trump, are also former network mainstays. Host Lara Trump, meanwhile, is married to the president’s son, Eric Trump. The new venture also comes amid mounting concerns over what critics describe as the Trump family leveraging their patriarch’s second presidency for their own profit and that of the president’s political allies.
