Welcome To Kill The Body

And its One Big Ground Rule

Welcome to Kill The Body, KTB for short.

KTB’s mission is to call out “back office” apparatchiks in the Trump Administration and the MAGA movement – the working level functionaries whom you haven't heard of but who are just as responsible as Trump, Elon, and all the other big names.

In future posts, I’ll explain why I believe KTB’s mission is worthwhile, and I’ll suggest ways you can use what you read in KTB to help preserve American democracy.

But first, the One Big Ground Rule for all readers:

Do NOT do anything illegal and/or violent to the individuals whom KTB profiles. The phrase “Kill The Body” is an adage and a metaphor, not a command to be taken literally. KTB eschews lawbreaking and violence. You should too. Otherwise, we are no better than Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, or any of the other thugs whom MAGA types crush on.

If you agree to follow that One Big Ground Rule, then great – let’s jump right into today’s naming and shaming.

Should’ve stuck with accounting

A few weeks ago, a little-known organization called the American Accountability Foundation launched its “DEI Watchlist”: a crude website that posts the names and personal info of federal employees, describes them as threats, and labels them as TARGETS (AAF’s caps, not mine).

Yes, TARGETS, with the less-than-subtle “hint, hint” that word implies to violence-loving MAGA extremists.

In effect, the Watchlist is a hit list.

The press rightly castigated AAF’s sleazeball leaders. But I believe the subordinate sleazeballs - AAF’s behind-the-scenes worker bees - are just as responsible, and I want to call out one of them in particular: Jerome Trankle.

Jerome grew up in Erie County, New York where he went to Clarence High School and then University of Buffalo. In both high school and college, Jerome excelled at “MoneySKILL Mania” which seems to be a kids’ quiz competition on financial literacy. Here is young Jerome winning a prize! Good job, son!

Nice shirt, nice smile!

Jerome wanted to be an accountant, but in college, he got interested in politics. He did the DC intern thing, moved to the DC area, worked for a few political consulting firms, and then he followed one of his principals to AAF where he was anointed AAF’s Research Director.

That year, Research Director Jerome produced a longwinded report on “ESG,” an investment philosophy that considers environmental, social, and governance issues. Like any investment philosophy, ESG won’t get your typical person all agitated…but Jerome attacked ESG with a mania (and I don’t mean MoneySKILL Mania):

“The ESG movement, which is an arm of the organized Left, has co-opted the shareholder resolution process to subject the political spending of public companies to the scrutiny of the woke mob.” – Jerome Trankle, quoted in the Washington Examiner

Um, Jerome, most people on the left don’t know what ESG is (and neither do most people on the right or in the center). Nor do they know what a shareholder resolution process is or how to co-opt one. But I guess your report isn’t going for accuracy; it’s going for hyperbole and bias (the “woke” trope is a big hint).

Jerome penned a few follow-up memos, all just as hyperbolic and peppered with “woke” this or that. Then, in 2024, he got more dark, helping to create AAF’s “DHS Watchlist”: a crude website that lists the names and personal info of federal employees, describes them as threats, and labels them as TARGETS.

Wait a sec…didn’t I just write those same exact words up top? Yup, and I copy and pasted them here because the DHS Watchlist is similar to the DEI Watchlist in format, content, and intent. It’s another, earlier hit list.

A hit list with Jerome’s digital fingerprints all over it. Jerome created an Excel spreadsheet of each TARGET’s political campaign contributions, and those spreadsheets have somehow spilled on to the web. I found them just by Googling Jerome’s name - check out this screenshot of a search result:

So much for deniability, Jerome.

Personally, I prefer this version of the DHS Watchlist (not my creation; I stumbled upon it through more Googling). But AAF’s actual version is clearly the model for the DEI Watchlist – as well as for AAF’s “Department of Education Watchlist.”

Wait…a third Watchlist? Yup. Just as threatening as the other two? Yup. Three separate hit lists tied to Jerome and his research team? Busy guy, I guess.

So busy that he couldn’t find time to comment for the Guardian’s superb investigation of AAF. But not too busy to talk up the Bills on social media, post about his favorite hang out spots in DC - and grind out two more memos.

One memo, credited to the “Research Staff” Jerome led, is a long racial dog whistle with lots of “wokes” trashing General C.Q. Brown. The other memo, credited directly to Jerome, trashes Tulsi Gabbard and was apparently scrubbed from AAF’s website when Trump appointed Gabbard to be Leaker of National Intelligence.

Jerome has now left AAF: last month, Mr. MoneySKILL started a new gig with the Senate Commerce Committee. I wonder if Jerome is done proscribing federal employees now that he is one? If I worked in Dirksen, I’d watch my back... And if I saw Jerome pass by, I’d shake my head and ponder how a normal kid who just wanted to be an accountant ended up as a hatchet man for MAGA extremists.

Left: a long-haired Jerome (Hieronymus hirsutus). Right: the short-haired variety (Hieronymus raso).

Contact KTB

Got a hot tip? A recommendation? Additional info to add? A correction? Want to help write KTB? Click below or email me at KTB2025@protonmail.com.

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