In ancient Rome, the Tribune was a person who upheld or defended the rights of the people. And we plan to do the same with this ongoing series.

In this edition of the Grifty Tribune, Azi and Sari break down the latest in American politics with a focus on how the GOP got so darn grifty - from Sarah Palins’s $150,000 wardrobe back in 2008 to the Obama Birther Conspiracy to the Trump Mug Shot of 2023. Azi and Sari even go back to the Roman Empire - yes, the Roman Empire - and try to figure out how we got to this place in America, once founded on lofty principles of republican virtue, to one where Trump is able to galvanize and grift off of an anti-intellectual, conspiracy theory obsessed, and bigoted voting bloc.

That didn’t stop the smear from gaining traction, in an effort fueled by people including hard-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of InfoWars — and by future president Donald Trump himself, who fanned the “birther” flames in 2011 as he advanced in the political arena. According to Trump’s longtime associate Roger Stone, it was an effective strategy: “Trump understands among Republicans there’s a very substantial majority who have questions about Obama’s origins and how he just pops up out of nowhere to become a national figure and whether he was, in fact, eligible to serve as president,” Stone told FRONTLINE in 2016.