A former Trump executive has proven that his future livelihood has not been affected by the ETTD syndrome.
Will Wilkerson was the executive vice president at Truth Social, until he handed over a massive pile of documents to investigators and alleged that Donald Trump’s social media company was in violation of securities laws.
Now he’s taken his talents to Starbucks, where he’s training baristas instead, and says he loves it — “an honest day’s work.”
By all available accounts, working for Trump is a high-stress environment.
Attorneys working on his behalf have gone to prison or been disbarred, and if you believe witnesses who shared their experience with the January 6th Committee last year, working for him can involve dealing with rages and messes ranging from shredded documents to ketchup-streaked walls.
For Wilkerson, it meant overseeing a company that was already being investigated by the SEC after a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) was prevented from purchasing it. When he’d had enough and turned over a mass of emails and other internal documents to investigators, he was swiftly fired — officially for “concocting psychodramas.”
Working a day job at Starbucks might carry less prestige than a fancy title at the top of a social media company, and have a smaller paycheck, but there are clear advantages.
Wilkerson says that most of his co-workers aren’t involved in the political and legal drama around Trump, and that he’s escaped internal drama as well. The Washington Post reports:
“This month, the company’s chief executive, the former Republican congressman Devin Nunes, sued Wilkerson for defamation in a Florida circuit court, claiming he had been subjected to ‘anxiety,’ ‘insecurity,’ ‘mental anguish’ and ’emotional distress’ as a result of Wilkerson’s comments.”
In some cases the drama and alleged illegalities overlap. For instance, some of the emails he turned over reportedly show detail the firing of Andy Litinsky, who Wilkerson says initially floated the idea of a SPAC acquiring a social media company to profit from the furor around Trump’s ouster from mainstream sites.
He says Litinsky was fired for refusing to turn over some of his own shares in the company to Melania Trump, according to the New York Post.
What does this all mean for Trump?
Well, aside from the clear warning to any potential new hires, it’s one more insider recognizing the seriousness of potential culpability both for Trump and those who assist him in allegedly illegal activity, and another heap of evidence in one more of his legal struggles.