From§Each

Page G3From§Each9 September 2026

The Family Octagon

The chair, not the family: the roles outlive the occupants, which is how one strip spans presidencies. A new panel Sundays. The dotted line is the receipt path; the captions identify no one — the reader does that.

The cast

THE CHAIR — The office itself; whoever sits it inherits the strip. The chair never speaks.

THE BROTHER — Seventy years of him: Donald Nixon, $205,000 from Howard Hughes in 1956 to float the family burger chain — the vice president's brother, later wiretapped by the Secret Service on his own brother's say-so; Billy Carter, registered foreign agent of Libya after $220,000 he called a loan, no agreement signed, no collateral (Senate inquiry, 1980); Roger Clinton, Secret Service codename "Headache," pardoned on his brother's last morning (Jan. 20, 2001); Neil Bush, Silverado director 1985-88, $1.6 billion bailout, FDIC settlement with his own $50,000 piece.

THE SON — Pardoned Dec. 1, 2024 — full and unconditional, for anything from Jan. 1, 2014 through the date of signing; the years chosen, not served.

THE SON-IN-LAW — Six months out of the West Wing, $2 billion from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund — whose own screening panel found the new firm "unsatisfactory in all aspects" and was overruled by the crown prince's board (2021; Senate Finance inquiry, 2024).

THE HEIRS — Found liable with the company for fraud at trial (Feb. 2024); the half-billion penalty thrown out on appeal (Aug. 2025), liability findings partly affirmed, the case still climbing.

THE PROPERTY — The house that charges admission: Mar-a-Lago's initiation fee doubled to $200,000 effective the January the presidency began (2017), and stood at $1 million by the next election (2024).

THE GIFT SHOP — The coin: the top 220 holders of $TRUMP bought dinner with the president at his golf club, May 22, 2025 — $148 million among them; the top 25 got a private reception and a White House tour (House inquiry, 2025).

The Permission Slip Their dad writes the best notes. This one covers everything back to 2014. Dec. 1, 2024 · the warrant · the statement · By Otis · Photo: Ed Brown, released to the public domain You can't return a toothbrush to CVS without a receipt, but this note covers eleven years of anything — including, and this is in there, things he “may have committed.” That's not a pardon. That's a tarp. You throw it over the decade, and whatever's under there is covered.
the facts “…a full and unconditional pardon for those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.” — the Executive Grant of Clemency
Moving Day The moving truck was still in the driveway when they pardoned Uncle Headache. Jan. 20, 2001 · the last-day pardons · the list · the codename · By Otis · Photo: Abbie Rowe, National Park Service, 1948 — National Archives, public domain A hundred and seventy-six pardons on the last morning. That's not clemency — that's a yard sale. Everything must go. The truck is idling, the boxes are taped, and on the way out the door he signs one more, for the man the Secret Service code-named “Headache.”
the facts On his last morning in office, among 176 grants of clemency, the president pardoned his half-brother's 1985 cocaine conviction. The Secret Service's codename for him was “Headache.”