Two months ago, in the bustling democracy of the r/instantpot subreddit—565,000 members strong—one of its most prolific posters, the enigmatically named 000ArdeliaLortz000, sounded the alarm. “Instant Pot goes to the dark side,” they wrote. The post read like a kitchen-appliance thriller: when Instant Brands went bankrupt in 2023, the company was scooped up by a New York private equity firm, Centre Lane Partners, which — according to the post — planned to release a Trump-branded Instant Pot to bankroll the Trump Presidential Library. “If you’re as horrified as I am,” the user urged, “write to them.” In the comments, dismay...