One of the stupidest decisions of my PR career was keeping accurate work records. In 2015, when the Obama administration subpoenaed my emails and text messages — including my personal, off-the-record conversations with the media — my attorney strongly hinted that I should’ve gotten a new phone.
I’m paraphrasing his advice: “I’m not telling you to delete anything, but y’know, lots of my clients REALLY love new tech! That’s why they buy new phones every few months and trash their old ones!”
Of course, it’s a lot easier for someone in the private sector to play fast and loose with his records than a government employee. If you work for the federal government, your electronic communications are preserved by law.
And if/when the Democrats take control of the House in the midterms, that’s exactly what they’ll investigate first.
Prediction: The next big GOP scandal will be all about predictions. The predictive market, to be more precise — namely Polymarket and Kalshi.
It’s a loosely regulated form of gambling and has all the ingredients of snowballing into a colossal headache for the Trump White House. It’s already gotten one of the soldiers who helped plan ex-Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro’s ouster in hot water:
NBC News (April 23, 2026): U.S. Soldier Involved in Maduro Raid Charged With Betting on the Operation
Federal authorities arrested and charged a U.S. special forces soldier who is accused of using classified information about the raid that removed Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro from office to make prediction market bets.
The soldier was identified as Gannon Ken Van Dyke in a news release announcing the indictment.
Van Dyke “bet a total of approximately $33,034” on the Maduro operation on the prediction market platform Polymarket, federal authorities said. He ultimately made more than $409,000 as a result of the bets placed on the U.S. operation, an unsealed indictment alleges.
Authorities said he “participated in the planning and execution of the U.S. military operation to capture Nicolás Maduro.”
Was that soldier the only guy who tried to make a quick buck? Based on what we know about human nature — and the nature of D.C. — that seems unlikely. There’s been an awful lot of whispers about suspicious-appearing bets, as the BBC noted on April 20:
Throughout U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term in office, traders have been betting millions of dollars just before he makes major announcements.
The BBC has examined trade volume data on several financial markets and matched them to some of the president’s most significant market-moving statements.
It found a consistent pattern of spikes just hours, or sometimes minutes, before a social media post or media interview was made public.
Some analysts say it bears the hallmarks of illegal insider trading, whereby bets are made by people based on information that is not available to the general public.
It’s a great PR issue for the Democrats, because it paints Republicans as privileged, unethical elites who care more about personal profiteering than governing. (Plus, it implies that our economic system is rigged, thus putting a smile on socialist faces.) And it creates an optics problem, because Donald Trump Jr. is an advisor to both Kalshi and Polymarket.
But the beauty of investigating this “scandal” is that Democrats must dig through ALL the Trump administration’s emails and text messages to see who had access to this “insider information.”
This means, of course, that they’ll subpoena everything they can — and leak the juiciest morsels to the media. Because it doesn’t really matter if the “scandal” is real — all that matters is if it’ll hurt Republicans.
It’s the smartest, quickest way for the Dems to justify intrusive, never-ending investigations into White House communications, financial records, and so much more. (All under the auspices of “fighting corruption.”) For Democrats, the PR value is less about the betting itself — and more about gaining access to all those texts, emails, and personal data of Trump officials.
And because it’s such an obvious Democratic tactic, the GOP is committing political malpractice if they’re not taking steps RIGHT NOW to mitigate the fallout.
But the Republican Party has PR cards to play, too. Including an intriguing “Trump card” that would play exceptionally well in the heartland — has vast appeal to the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) movement — and could deliver a deathblow to the mainstream media.
It’s an issue that hasn’t gotten much attention, but today, the timing is perfect: The Republican Party should support banning pharmaceutical companies from advertising directly to the public.
With TV audiences dwindling, losing ad revenue from Big Pharma would be a killer for the networks. Prescription drug brands are responsible for 11.6% of commercial purchases.
Without that revenue, less-successful networks, programs, and TV shows couldn’t survive.
Unlike other ad verticals that have been steadily shifting to digital, pharma advertising remains heavily concentrated on traditional TV. That’s because older audiences—the ones most likely to need prescription drugs—are still watching broadcast and cable. It’s also because pharma ads tend to be long, with many running 60 or even 90 seconds, making them a perfect fit for news networks and other linear programming that relies on longer ad blocks.
This means that if a ban were to take effect, it wouldn’t just hurt TV—it would crush it in some key areas. Cable news networks, for example, would take a huge hit, as pharma brands make up a significant portion of their ad inventory. CBS, ABC, and NBC would also feel the squeeze since nearly half of all pharma ad dollars are spent on programming that airs on these networks.
David Campanelli, president of global investment at Horizon Media, didn’t mince words: “This would be pretty crippling for linear TV. Younger people aren’t watching, but they aren’t the pharma audience.”
The effects wouldn’t stop there. Former Paramount sales executive David Lawenda warned that a ban could trigger a ripple effect across the entire ad ecosystem. TV networks, faced with a sudden revenue shortfall, might be forced to scale back on programming.
It’s also a position that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. supported when he ran for president — and one he pledged to fulfill after backing Donald Trump:
Let’s get President Trump back in the White House and me to DC so we can ban pharmaceutical advertising. pic.twitter.com/Qp7fj9xskU
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) November 3, 2024
Nearly half of all Big Pharma’s TV ad-buys are spent on ABC (16.91%), CBS (15.46%), and NBC (14.73%) — three networks that aren’t exactly known for being helpful to conservatives. The net impact of reducing their influence would damage the Democrats a helluva lot more than Republicans.
Interestingly, Fox News only accounts for 1.92% of Big Pharma dollars, roughly the same amount as HGTV (1.85%) and the Food Network (1.79%). Losing those Pharma dollars would still hurt Fox News, but it would hurt the major networks a whole lot more.
It’s also worth noting that banning Big Pharma ads has populist appeal. In December of 2025, the Fierce Pharma media outlet wrote about a SiriusXM consumer study:
Almost 80% of those surveyed said they think there are too many pharma ads on TV and streaming video.
Regarding those visual ads, about half of the respondents suggested that the typically “pleasant and happy” imagery feels “unrealistic or out of touch” when shown alongside information about a drug’s potential side effects. Indeed, 45% said those visuals are “misleading,” while 28% called them “distracting,” and 40% said they can make the listed side effects seem less serious.
Meanwhile, many consumers favor more patient-focused pharma ads: More than half (55%) said they prefer ads that include the stories of real patients rather than paid actors, and 35% said they think unbranded ads that share information about certain diseases or conditions without naming any specific drug are “helpful and informative.”
An MX8 Labs survey shows that just 32% of Americans oppose a Big Pharma ad ban. Positioned correctly, this is an issue that not only boosts Republicans — it also hurts Democrats AND the platforms that help Democrats the most.
That’s a double whammy!
And knowing what we do about the Democratic mind (such as it is), if Trump supports banning Big Pharma ads, the Democrats will instantly — and instinctively — line up in steadfast opposition.
Well, good: Let ‘em!
It sets the perfect PR contrast: One party is in the pocket of the billionaires who push drugs on our children and families. The other wants Big Pharma to focus less on advertising — and more on research, development, and corporate responsibility.
From influential podcasters like Joe Rogan to MAHA moms to COVID vaccine skeptics to everyday Americans, this is an issue that would energize the MAGA base.
It’s not all upside. (Nothing ever is.) I’m unsure of the First Amendment implications, and there’s a foreseeable danger that it would spike DNC campaign donations from Big Pharma. (Then again, if we can keep cigarette ads off TV, there’s probably a constitutional solution.)
But there’s significantly more upside than downside — and it just might give the GOP the edge it needs to win the 2026 midterms, especially with the Virginia Supreme Court striking down the Dems’ most recent gerrymandering scheme.
Which would take House investigations into predictive markets off the table.
Politics isn’t just a battle of ideas — it’s also a competition of tactics. Now’s the time for the GOP to play its Big Pharma card. It’s the right tactic at the right moment.
The health of our country depends on it.
One Last Thing: 2026 is a critical year for America First. It began with Mayor Mamdani declaring war on “rugged individualism” and will reach a crescendo with the midterm elections. Nothing less than the fate of the America First movement teeters in the balance.
Never before have the political battle lines been so clearly defined. Win or lose, 2026 will transform our country.
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