Can Trump pay his big bill?

Donald Trump doesn’t have the cash he needs to stop the state of New York from potentially seizing his assets. He’s asking the court — an institution he’s shown little but contempt for — for a bit of mercy. In a court filing, Trump’s lawyers laid out the stark economic reality facing the leading Republican candidate for president. His team spent “countless hours” negotiating with some 30 entities that could finance the roughly half-a-billion-dollar bond he’s on the hook for. But none would take the deal.

If Trump doesn’t pony up the $500 million or so he needs to set aside, pending his appeal of last month’s order against him for ill-gotten gains on his properties, Judge Arthur Engoron says the judgment may be enforced, and New York Attorney General Letitia James can start seizing Trump’s properties and selling them to pay down what he owes.

The New York attorney general’s office has filed judgments in Westchester County, the first indication that the state is preparing to try to seize Trump’s golf course and private estate north of Manhattan, known as Seven Springs. State lawyers entered the judgments with the clerk’s office in Westchester County on March 6, just one week after Judge Arthur Engoron made official his $464 million decision against Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization.

The judgment is already entered in New York city where Trump’s properties including Trump Tower, his penthouse at Trump Tower, 40 Wall Street, his hotel abutting Central Park, and numerous apartment buildings are located.

Trump invoked a dual loyalty trope by claiming Jews who vote for Democrats hate Israel. “Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion,” Trump said in an interview with Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump administration official, on Gorka’s web show. “They hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves, because Israel will be destroyed,” Trump continued, going on to discuss Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The remarks echoed a trope that American Jews have split loyalties to the U.S. and Israel.

[He is aiming at the Jewish population because 70% of voters in the 2020 elections voted for President Biden. Notice that he hasn’t gone after other minorities like this – although he hasn’t gone after Muslims in a little while.]

[And to add to the craziness….]

“President Trump is right — the Democrat Party has turned into a full-blown anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist cabal,” Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

[She really has been drinking the Kool-Aid after losing her election in the House elections in 2022 and before that working as an intern for Fox.]

Trump warned hat if he were to lose the 2024 election, it would be a “bloodbath” for the US auto industry and the country. “We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those guys if I get elected,” Trump said during a rally in Ohio. “Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole – that’s gonna be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it.”

[So Trump is getting desperate? Threatening an industry? Where would he threaten next? Does he think other countries won’t do the same on American made goods?]

On the morning of January 6, 2021, in a last-ditch bid to overturn his election loss, Trump told then-Vice President Mike Pence that his decision to uphold his constitutional duty and certify the results later that day would be “a political career killer,” according to an unnamed witness who overheard part of the call.

Trump came a step closer to reaping a major windfall from his social media firm after investors in a blank-check acquisition company approved a tie-up currently worth about $5.7 billion. The deal values Trump’s majority stake in the company that holds his app Truth Social at about $3.3 billion. The windfall could prove vital as Trump grapples with the financial fallout of a string of legal cases against him.

[However, while Trump will have that stake, it will be quite a while before he actually has it all.]

It is a bit bad when Nikki Haley, who is not a candidate for the Republican party anymore, garnered 108,000 votes [18%] in the Arizona primary. No response from the Trump campaign.

Trump is expected to enlist Paul Manafort, the former campaign manager he pardoned, as a campaign adviser later this year.

[No one will be shocked if he hires others who have been convicted and I’m sure some who never were in politics.]

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. refused to delay prison time for Peter Navarro, a former senior aide to Trump, as he appeals his conviction for refusing to testify before Congress about his involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Roberts, who oversees emergency requests from the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, said he saw no basis to disagree with an appeals court ruling that Navarro must serve time while his appeal is underway. Navarro was sentenced in January to four months after a jury convicted him on two counts of contempt of Congress.

Trump suffered arguably his worst loss[es] in any criminal matter recently when, in his New York trial for alleged falsification of business records, Judge Juan M. Merchan ruled against him in virtually all of his motions to exclude evidence.

US District Judge Aileen M. Cannon ordered the defense lawyers and the prosecutors in the case to file submissions outlining proposed jury instructions based on two scenarios, each of which badly misstates the law and facts of the case, according to legal experts. She has given the sides two weeks to craft jury instructions around competing interpretations of the Presidential Records Act, often referred to as the PRA. While the law says presidential records belong to the public and are to be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration at the end of a presidency, Trump’s lawyers have argued the PRA gave Trump the right to keep classified materials as his personal property.

Trump filed yet another lawsuit against the news media, accusing ABC News and George Stephanopoulos of defamation over assertions the anchor made in a combative interview. In an interview on “This Week,” Stephanopoulos pressed Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, a rape survivor, over her continued support of Trump after a jury found he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in 1996, awarding her $88 million for battery and defamation. Stephanopoulos asserted multiple times in the interview with Mace that Trump had “raped” Carroll. “You endorsed Donald Trump for president. Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape. How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony that we just saw?” Stephanopoulos asked Mace. The South Carolina Republican defended her support of the former president, arguing that the jury decision was merely in a civil case.

According to February 2024 statistics, Truth Social has so far had 8.9 million sign-ups, of which Trump has 6.7 million followers. X, by comparison, has more than half a billion monthly users, according to Elon Musk.

A pro-Trump lawyer, Stefanie Lambert, who tried to overturn the 2020 election was arrested after a court hearing about her recent leak of internal emails belonging to Dominion Voting Systems. There was an existing arrest warrant for Lambert stemming from her failure to appear at recent court hearings in her separate criminal case in Michigan, where she was charged with conspiring to seize voting machines after the 2020 election.

Where will he get the money?

Donald Trump, his adult sons, and two former Trump Organization officials have appealed the $464 million judgment entered against them in the New York attorney general’s civil fraud case. The Trumps filed a notice of appeal with the court, the first business day after Judge Arthur Engoron made the judgment official. Donald Trump is personally on the hook for $454 million, including interest payments. If he does not provide all those dollars then that interest is going to keep ticking throughout the entirety of the case.

Trump must come up with the full amount to cover the $454 million verdict in the civil fraud trial, an appeals court Associate Justice Anil Singh ruled. Singh lifted a ban on Trump’s ability to obtain loans from New York regulated financial institutions, which could allow him to access the equity in his assets to back the full bond amount. Singh denied Trump’s request to delay his obligation to post $454 million until a full appellate panel hears his motion to stay enforcement of that judgment until his appeals of the civil fraud ruling are over.

Trump could post the cash amount to cover the judgment. But if he decides to secure a loan, his lawyers told the judge, he would need to raise more than $550 million. Bond underwriters charge about 120% of the judgment and often require cash and other easy-to-sell assets like stocks or bonds as collateral.

Trump has asked the judge overseeing the defamation case with writer E. Jean Carroll to postpone enforcement of that judgment or allow him to post a smaller amount until all post-trial arguments are over. The judge has not yet ruled.

Trump sought to appeal to Black voters night in South Carolina by repeatedly citing the 91 felony charges he faces and comparing them to unfair treatment from the criminal justice system toward minorities in America. Funny.

[This is the same joker who claims that New Yorkers will leave the state after that recent $355 million judgment.]

A bipartisan ethics panel in Wisconsin has recommended felony charges against one of Trump’s fundraising arms in relation to an alleged scheme that it says was meant to circumvent campaign finance laws to take out a powerful GOP lawmaker who has turned against Trump. The Wisconsin Ethics Commission found probable cause that Trump’s Save America committee, a state lawmaker and multiple local Republican officials committed felonies and recommended six district attorneys investigate and prosecute them. The commission’s investigation centers on the 2022 primary race between Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, one of the most influential Republicans in Wisconsin, and Adam Steen, a political newcomer who embraced Trump.

The conservative Koch group has decided to pull funding for Nikki Haley after her showing in South Carolina. They originally decided to back Haley late last fall because they didn’t like what they see in Trump. They are now backing Republicans in tight races.

The co-founders of Trump’s media company, Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, filed a lawsuit, claiming that Trump and other leaders had schemed to deprive them of a stake in the company that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The case could complicate a long-delayed bid by Trump Media & Technology Group, owner of the social network Truth Social, to merge with a special purpose acquisition company called Digital World Acquisition and become a publicly traded company. That merger deal, which could value Trump’s stake in the company at more than $3 billion.

The two’s attorneys allege in the motion that Trump has recently attempted to “drastically dilute” the partnership’s stake as part of what they called an “11th hour, pre-merger corporate manoeuvring” tactic designed to increase the amount of authorized stock, from 120 million shares to 1 billion shares. They would get a watered down of under one percent instead of 8.6 percent.

From a speech at the Texas-Mexico border Trump repeated his familiar story about how migrants are supposedly arriving in the US after having been deliberately freed by foreign leaders from prisons and mental health facilities.

[Has he been watching the movie Scarface with Al Pacino too many times? That was 40+ years ago!]

From a CPAC speech:

• Trump claimed, as he has on numerous previous occasions, that although he was told it would take “four years” to defeat the ISIS terror group, “I knocked it out in four weeks.” The ISIS “caliphate” was declared fully liberated more than two years into Trump’s presidency, in 2019 after two additional years when President Obama made major progress. Even if Trump was starting the clock at the time of his visit to Iraq in late December 2018, as he suggested later in a speech, the liberation was proclaimed more than two and a half months later.

[Trump, of course, ignored the Kurdish forces who did much of the ground fighting. Do anyone really believe he did it in four weeks?]

• “Remember I used to say a long time ago, ‘Don’t go into Iraq. Don’t do it!’” claims Trump. In his 2000 book, “The America We Deserve,” Trump argued a military strike on Iraq might be necessary. In a September 2002 interview whether he is “for invading Iraq,” Trump responded, “Yeah, I guess so. I wish the first time it was done correctly.” Trump began criticizing the war in 2003, after the invasion.

• Trump said, “And then you wonder why we have a $2 trillion deficit. If you look at it now, it’s gotten to a level that nobody can even believe; it’s so bad under Biden.” The US has never had a $2 trillion annual trade deficit. The overall deficit, which includes trade in both goods and services, was about $773 billion in 2023, down from a record high of about $951 billion in 2022.

• Trump said, “We built 571 miles of border wall.” An official report by US Customs and Border Protection, written two days after Trump left office said the total number built under Trump was 458 miles [including both wall built where no barriers had existed before and wall built to replace previous barriers].

[And if you remember, some of the walls were made so bad that supposedly the wind tipped over a section of the wall that was made.]

• Trump also claimed “I ended Nord Stream” [actually Nord Stream 2 pipeline] and that “I stopped it, it was over.” While he did approve sanctions on companies working on the project, that move came nearly three years into his presidency, when the pipeline was already around 90% complete – and the state-owned Russian gas company behind the project said shortly after the sanctions that it would complete the pipeline itself.

• Trump claimed that, as president, he had threatened that he would cut off all US business with China if China bought even “one barrel of oil from Iran.” China’s oil imports from Iran did briefly plummet under Trump in 2019, the year the Trump administration made a concerted effort to deter such purchases, but they never stopped – and then they rose sharply again while Trump was still president.

• Then Trump said, “I’ve been indicted more than Alphonse Capone,” even though Capone was a notoriously vicious gangster. Trump has been indicted four times. Capone was indicted at least six times.

[Maybe he just watched the movie The Untouchables and thought that was it.]

In the Republican South Carolina exit polls:

• 54% preferred Haley over Trump. This is typical as more educated people prefer anyone but Trump.
• Two thirds of independent voters prefer Haley. Same for moderate/liberal voters.
• 55% of non-White evangelical Christians voted for Haley.
• With 61% of voters believed that Biden didn’t win the election, 87% were Trump voters
• 60% of votes would still vote for Trump if convicted – almost all are Trump voters.
• 31% are unsure if they’d vote for Trump if he is the Republican nominee with most are independent and moderate/liberal voters.

Pro-Russia and ignoring cases

In this past week, Donald Trump continues to spin things and then ignores the facts that things he has said are already at different courts to be decided or have already been denied.

More than 72 hours after Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death in an Arctic penal colony, Trump mentioned him by name for the first time in a post on his social media site that focused not on Navalny, but his own legal woes. President Joe Biden and other Western leaders have blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the 47-year-old’s death, responding with anger and demands for answers. But Trump made no mention of Putin or Navalny’s family in the post that instead cast himself as a victim and continued to paint the US as a nation in decline.

“The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country. It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians…. WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE, A FAILING NATION! MAGA2024.” [I removed the usual whining comments from his post.]

Trump’s reference to Navalny’s “sudden death” was notable. Prison officials allegedly told Navalny’s mother when she arrived at the penal colony hat her son had perished from “sudden death syndrome.” The previous time when someone saw him alive, just within 48 hours, he was alive and looked well. At one point Trump compares Navalny’s time persecuted by the Russian regime him being persecuted by the Biden government.

[Navalny death was listed by Russian authorities as natural causes. You just don’t collapse and die from natural causes.]

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the merger proposal of Trump’s media start-up with a special purpose acquisition company, a critical step for a long-delayed deal that would make the owner of Trump’s website Truth Social a publicly traded company and unlock $300 million in investor funds. The approval is a victory for Trump, who will hold more than 78 million shares in the post-merger company, a filing shows — a stake that, at current prices, would be worth nearly $4 billion. Trump, who would own between 58 and 69 percent of the company.

[Being worth $4 billion is not the same as selling at that price.]

Trump could be at risk of losing some of his prized properties if he can’t pay his staggering New York civil fraud penalty. With interest, he owes the state nearly $454 million — and the amount is going up $87,502 each day until he pays. New York Attorney General Letitia James said that she will seek to seize some of Trump’s assets if he’s unable to cover the bill from Judge Arthur Engoron’s Feb. 16 ruling. Under state law, he is being charged interest on that amount at an annual rate of 9%. Any appeal requires a 10% bond on the judgment. So to appeal the $355 million ruling, he will need a $70 million bond.

Engoron has denied Trump’s request to delay the judgment for a month. Once the judgment is officially entered, it will start the 30-day clock for Trump to file an appeal. During that period, Trump will need to put up cash or post bond to cover the $355 million and roughly $100 million in interest he was ordered to pay the state.

So with Trump having a big bill to pay, he could use his Super PAC contributions but after spending $50 million in 2023 on legal matters, he has just over $5 million in the piggy bank. He needs money to pay his legal bills but also needs it for his campaign.

So what is he doing? He is selling Trump branded running shoes called “The Never Surrender High-Tops”. They go for $399 each pair. [We will assume it is a pair! You never know!] He is also dishing out perfume and cologne for $99 each. [Did he rip off a perfume or cologne manufacturer? Or maybe just filled up the containers with water and some smelly chemical.] He announced the running shoes at [get this] Sneaker Con in Philadelphia.

Trump urged a Florida judge to dismiss the criminal case charging him with illegally retaining classified documents, claiming in part that presidential immunity protects him from prosecution even as that sweeping argument has so far in failed in federal appeals courts in a separate case. Trump’s lawyers wrote that the classified documents charges turn on his alleged decision to designate the papers as “personal” records under the Presidential Records Act, and argued that he cannot be prosecuted since that was an “official act” made while he was still in the White House.

[Just like with everything else, his lawyers push for something that has already been decided elsewhere. You can’t dis miss a case when the validity in presidential immunity is still in question. And those documents were supposed to be returned to the government in January 2021 but were not and much of it was left unsecured.]

Washington’s federal appeals court in its decision this month was unsparing in its repudiation of Trump’s novel claim that former presidents enjoy absolute immunity for actions that fall within their official job duties. But Trump’s lawyers argued that the appeals court’s decision was wrong, telling US District Judge Aileen Cannon she should not follow the court’s “poorly reasoned decision” in the classified documents case.
[Wow! It was a poorly reasoned decision. OK. So Trump should be off the hook. Not.]

Trump’s lawyers argued that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of special counsel Smith to investigate Trump was “unlawful” and grounds for dismissing the documents case. They also are attacking the law Trump is accused of violating as “unconstitutionally vague” as applied in his case.

[Might as well just say the case should be dismissed because the floors were not clean or they ran out of cappuccino at a nearby coffee (covfefe!) shop.]

The Supreme Court declined to revisit sanctions levied against two pro-Trump attorneys who filed frivolous lawsuits challenging the outcome of the 2020 election in Michigan. Sidney Powell and Lin Wood filed separate appeals asking the justices to review sanctions imposed by a US district court in 2021. The Supreme Court denied both appeals without offering any comment on the case.

Trump said that he supports women having access to in vitro fertilization in response to the Alabama Supreme Court’s IVF ruling and called on Alabama lawmakers to “act quickly to find an immediate solution” to keep the procedure available in the state.

[I wonder if Trump has enough clout to get Alabama to reverse or modify its position.]

Trump’s campaign has released an ad attacking rival Nikki Haley over her supposed stance on the state’s gasoline tax when she served as governor. But the Trump ad leaves out critical context about Haley’s position on the gas tax, omitting key comments to make her sound like the unequivocal tax-hiker she never was. In her speech, Haley said “Let’s increase the gas tax by 10 cents over the next three years” but the ad failed to include “when coupled with the 30% income tax cut, it still represents one of the largest tax cuts in South Carolina history.”

In a recent survey conducted by a panel of experts specializing in the American presidency, President Biden was ranked the 14th-best president, while his likely 2024 presidential opponent Trump found himself at the very bottom of the list. From 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey, President Obama is ranked 7th [was 15th last year]. However, a noticeable partisan split emerged in the rankings for Obama and Biden, with Democrat respondents placing them at an average of sixth and 13th, while Republicans ranked them at 15th and 30th, respectively.

In 2021, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell offered $5 million to anyone who could disprove his claim that he had data showing voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Now, he must pay a 64-year-old from Nevada that award, a federal judge ruled. Lindell, a prominent election denier and staunch supporter of Trump, claimed to have data showing Chinese interference in the 2020 race.

Robert Zeidman, a computer forensics expert who voted for Trump twice, did just that, a federal judge in Minnesota determined Wednesday, upholding a previous ruling from a private arbitration panel. Zeidman is owed the $5 million payout plus interest, Judge John Tunheim wrote in his ruling.

Abraham Josephine Riesman, author of the 2023 unauthorized biography of WWE’s Vince McMahon, said a young Trump has been watching McMahon family wrestling since he was a child in the 1950s. Riesman says Trump took his “showmanship” from how the WEE has evolved into not just wrestling. McMahon and his wife are major donors to Trump’s campaign.

[McMahon has faced multiple allegations of sexual misconduct over the years. He remains under federal investigation, and he has not commented publicly on millions of dollars in hush-money payments he reportedly made to several women at WWE. McMahon, who is 78, resigned last month as executive chairman of TKO, pro wrestling’s parent company, after being sued by a former employee who says she was sexually abused and trafficked by McMahon to other men at WWE. I guess fitting. Trump hangs around with Jeffrey Epstein and McMahon.]

18% of Americans believe in the Taylor Swift election conspiracy theory – that is she was secretly involved with the Biden administration to get him re-elected. It jumps to 32% for Republican voters! In comparison 12% think the moon landing was faked and 10% believe the earth is flat.

[Seriously. Why is it that these whack job crazy conspiracy theories seem to comes from the right. It is fitting that some of them are liars (Trump, George Santos, Mike Johnson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, etc.)]

Trump to pay by the nose

Judge Arthur Engoron found Donald Trump liable for issuing false financial statements, falsifying business records, and conspiracy, all part of a lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The judge has ordered Trump and his companies to pay nearly $355 million in a ruling in the New York civil fraud case. He is also barred from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in the state for three years, and he cannot apply for loans from any financial institution registered in New York for three years. Add possibly another $100 million in interest.

Meanwhile, his adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, have been ordered to pay $4 million for their personal profits from the fraud and are barred from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation for two years. A Trump lawyer has already said they’d appeal.

“A crooked New York judge working with the very corrupt attorney general of New York State, who ran on the basis of ‘I will get Trump’ before knowing me — before even knowing anything about me — just ruled that I have to pay a fine of $355 million based on absolutely nothing… No victims. No damages. Great financial statements, with full disclaimer clauses, only success.”

“This is a witch hunt where the judge ruled against me before he even saw the case,” Trump said, noting that Engoron “strongly stated that said Mar-a-Lago was worth $18 million- when it is worth anywhere from 50 to 100 times more than that.” If that place is worth up to $1.8 billion…
Trump also said Engoron has “already been overturned on this case four times — a record” which did not happen.

“I built a great company and now this whacked out clubhouse politician judge bars me for three years” and Engoron “is a political hack working in conjunction with a crooked attorney general in the greatest case of election interference anyone has ever seen in this country.” Everything is the greatest or fantastic.

“I answered the questions very directly and the financial statements speak for themselves — they are fantastic financial statements.” He didn’t answer according to the judge. Who do you believe?

“My main finding is that there is no evidence whatsoever of any accounting fraud,” New York University accounting professor Eli Bartov, testified. Trump’s financial statements, he said, “were not materially misstated.” I wonder how long Bartov will keep his job.

“He is just a clubhouse politician… This country is becoming worse than Russia ever was.”

“They are doing this because I am beating Biden in the polls by so much… They are trying to stop me, but they will not be successful.” He claimed that he was winning Biden by 20 points. Where?

“Great cash. Great buildings…” in New York City and then he claims citizens of New York City will leave the city because of this ruling. I’m not joking.

Trump also repeated about his usual enemies: Department of Justice, President Biden, the greatest hoax ever, … You know them.
For the major US news site, only Fox News [surprised?] didn’t have the story at the top of their web site.

Threats, lies, and Trump

Wow. What a week compared to the last one.

The Supreme Court said that it will decide whether Donald Trump’s name can appear on primary election ballots, scheduling arguments in early February in a case that will have a major impact on this year’s presidential election.

While the states of Maine and Colorado have reason for kicking Trump off the ballot because of the 14th Amendment, Missouri and maybe Florida are looking for ways to kick off President Joe Biden from their ballots but for no reasons that can be considered legal. While Trump’s 14th Amendment issue will be decided by the Supreme Court [see above], Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has his reasons.

Ashcroft said that he’s “let an invasion unstopped into our country from the border.” Vice President Kamala Harris, he added, “supported people that were rebelling against the U.S. government during the riots in 2020,” referring to racial justice protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. I don’t think those are in the same leagues as what Trump did and nobody is trying to impeach [for now] Biden and it isn’t a crime either – you can’t get arrested.

So now Trump has gone into threats: Trump has long vowed to prosecute Biden if Trump wins November’s election and the two trade places. He upped the stakes dramatically, contending that if criminal charges against him aren’t dropped, any current and future ex-presidents also could be prosecuted. “I feel that as a president, you have to have immunity, very simple,” Trump said after a court hearing where a panel of three federal judges seemed deeply skeptical of his attorneys’ arguments that presidents have immunity from prosecution for official business. “It’s the opening of a Pandora’s box and it’s a very, very sad thing that’s happened with this whole situation.”

Trump said Biden might not be the only one targeted. Former President Barack Obama could end up being prosecuted, he said, citing Obama administration drone strikes in the Middle East that killed a US citizen who was identified as a leader of the terrorist group al-Qaida and that man’s 16-year-old son, also a US citizen. In court, Trump’s attorney suggested that former President George W. Bush could be prosecuted for providing false information that launched the Iraq War.

[Well, good luck on this. Any court will probably throw out any of these charges. Trump just doesn’t get it. What he is primarily charged for is that while he was in his reign, he did things that were illegal and had nothing to do with running the country, but instead benefited himself. No other president has ever asked a governor to find thousands of jobs, for example.]

So in his New York fraud case, Trump wanted to speak at the closing arguments. New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron said he would allow it as long as he stuck to the case and not make it a campaign speech, go after political opponents, go after him or his court staff, etc. Trump decided to decline. Smart move as he probably would of perjured himself at one point. But he then claims that the judge did not allow him to do his closing argument. In the same rant, he claims that legal experts are already saying that what has happened to him will be in all the legal books in the future. Yes, not for how he was basically crucified by the justice system and the Biden administration together but how he was unbelievable and a narcissist.

Trump’s attorney Christopher Kise wrapped up his remarks just before the morning break, arguing that New York Attorney General Letitia James was “weaponizing a consumer protection statute never before used in this context… You just cannot allow the attorney general to pursue a victimless fraud and impose the corporate death penalty.”

[Next time, don’t defraud the government and banking institutions, among others.]

Kise said in his summation that Trump is “a person who has been the heart of the fabric of the commercial real estate industry” in New York for 50 years and echoed Trump’s claims that the case was politically motivated.

[So Trump has been frauding the city for 50 years.]

New York Attorney General Letitia James is now seeking a $370 million penalty against Trump and his company instead of the $250 million the state sought when it filed a civil fraud lawsuit in 2022, according to a court filing.

Oh, Judge Engoron received a bomb threat to his Long Island home early morning hours, just hours before closing arguments were set to begin in the $370 million civil fraud trial against Trump, his company and others.

Biden detailed the events of January 6, 2021, Trump Insurrection, at a rally describing a “violent mob” that was “whipped up by lies from a defeated former president.” Trump’s actions that day “were among the worst derelictions of duty by any president in American history… Losers are taught to concede when they lose. And he’s a loser,” Biden said to cheers. Biden cast Trump’s actions and the events of January 6 as “an attempt to overturn a free and fair election by force of violence.”

He warned broadly that Trump’s movement – “the same movement” of January 6 – “isn’t just trying to rewrite history on January 6, they were trying to determine to erase history and your future,” he said, pointing to efforts to ban books, deny the right to vote, and “destroying diversity, equality and inclusion all across America. Harboring hate and replacing hope with anger and resentment.”

Why it took Trump so long to do this: A far-right news site, reposting on Truth Social the false claim that Haley is not constitutionally eligible to be president because her parents were not US citizens when she was born in South Carolina. This specious claim flies in the face of the 14th amendment, which says people born in the US are automatically citizens. The amendment says nothing about the parents. Of course Trump will ignore what the amendment says. He is already doing it regarding his immunity legal cases. Trump has previously made claims about birther rights regarding “Lyin’” Ted Cruz, Kamala Harris, Barrack Obama, etc.

“So many mistakes were made. See, there was something I think could have been negotiated, to be honest with you,” Trump said at a campaign event in Newton, Iowa. “I think you could have negotiated that. All the people died. So many people died.” Trump did not say how he would have prevented the conflict, which he also called “so horrible but so fascinating… It was, I don’t know, it was just different,” Trump said of the war. “I just find it – I’m so attracted to seeing it.”’

[Negotiated? After Nikki Haley left out slavery just days earlier, do you think there was any chance of negotiations around 165 years ago? Would Lincoln agree to maybe a percentage of blacks would still be slaves but not the others? Slavery was the biggest reason that there was a civil war then. There has been, however, a growing movement among the right to rewrite history saying slavery was not a major issue for the civil war. Attracted? You are generally attracted to another person for example but not war and bloodshed.]

“Just a few days ago, the defeated former president was asked about the recent shooting in Iowa. …. You know what his response was?,” he said. “‘We have to get over it,’ end of quote,’” said Biden in South Carolina.

Trump claimed that the stock market is up because he is leading in the polls.

[And if he were trailing in the polls then the stock market would be crashing. Trump has been leading most polls (against Biden) for the last little while. To say that it is because he’s leading is hogwash.]

Trump feels sorry for the “J6 hostages”. Who are they? It is what he calls the January 6 Trump Insurrectionists who have been arrested and sentenced in courts. A former leader of the right-wing extremist group Proud Boys was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in the Trump Insurrection.

Trump opened his first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign with a popular recording of the J6 Prison Choir — riot defendants singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” recorded over a phone line from jail, interspersed with Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

“They suffered enough” said Trump. How did they suffer? If you want to have suffered prisoners, stay in a Russian prison in Siberia.

[If Trump gets in, and hopefully not, he will probably order each state to name schools and/or streets after each of the “hostages” if they are released – assuming Trump pardons them if he wins the election.]

Trump has now invented a new “front” in his claims against Biden. “When there’s a [economic] crash, I hope it’s going to be during this next 12 months because I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover. The one president – I just don’t want to be Herbert Hoover,” Trump said. The stock market crashed during Hoover’s first year in office in 1929.

[Is Trump wishing for a crash? Maybe he will ask some of his buddies to help in it. Of course, there is no indication that the economy is tanking. It isn’t. It is just another lie that will be added to his other lies. Expect him to say in future rallies that the country is already in a recession. It isn’t. Either he doesn’t know the definition of a recession or he does but doesn’t care.]

The House Democrats on the Committee on Oversight and Accountability released a bombshell report on the extent of Trump’s financial haul is astounding. “President Trump’s businesses received, at a minimum, $7.8 million in foreign payments from at least 20 countries during his presidency. These included payments from foreign governments and foreign government-owned or -controlled entities to properties owned by Donald Trump.”

Countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malaysia, Albania and Kosovo “spent — often lavishly — on apartments and hotel stays at Trump’s properties personally enriching Trump [in his reign] while he made foreign policy decisions connected to their policy agendas with far-reaching ramifications for the United States.” [All very upstanding countries.]

[This doesn’t include the millions of dollars pocketed by his daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, while they were in the White House.]

Republican Kevin McCarthy, who went on to become House speaker, had called January 6 the “saddest day” he ever had in Congress. But McCarthy retired last month he endorsed Trump for president and said he would consider joining his cabinet.

Trump has proposed imposing unprecedented new tariffs on trillions of dollars worth of imports and deporting undocumented workers on a vast scale to decrease inflation that has already come down quite a bit. Experts are already saying that these moves would actually increase prices as if a tariff is increased on items with little to no US made equivalent, prices will go up. With less [undocumented] workers, who exactly will pick crops in US fields? Most of your typical unemployment Americans are looking for a job that pays more than a burger flipper. The lack of workers will increase prices and will also result in crops thrown out. The increase in prices will then be passed onto the consumers.

[Are they all undocumented? Some are but many aren’t.]

Melania Trump’s mother died recently. So what did Donald do? Busy with his campaigning. What a nice son-in-law. [Sarcastic.] Some of his lame followers on social media were complaining that his closing arguments in the New York fraud case should have been delayed? If he was campaigning the days between her passing and the court case, why delay the court case?

In a video on Trump’s social platform, in 1946 the narrator said “God created Trump.” So he is higher than Bishops, Archbishops and maybe even the Pope?

Former Vice President Mike Pence denounced the debunked conspiracy theory that the FBI instigated the January 6, 2021, Trump Insurrection. Pence said “We’ve been assured again and again that it was not the case…. I just must tell you, having been there that day, to see people literally breaking windows, ransacking the Capitol, it just infuriated me. I remember thinking ‘not this, not here, not at the United States Capitol”.

Trump criticized late Sen. John McCain for standing in the way of Republicans’ efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, known colloquially as Obamacare. Trump is behind the times as most Americans want the ACA. Trump also mocks McCain’s war injury while on campaign.

[Remember this: Republicans asked if they wanted to get rid of Obamacare and most said yes. When asked about ACA, those who said yest about Obamacare said no to ACA.]

Trump booted from Colorado ballot, other states could follow

The Colorado Supreme Court removed Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 ballot, ruling that he isn’t an eligible presidential candidate because of the 14^th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban.” The ruling was 4-3 and will be placed on hold pending appeal until January 4^th.

In November, a Colorado judge issued a ruling that concluded that Trump “engaged in an insurrection” on that day — but the decision fell just short of removing Trump from the state’s 2024 ballot based on the 14^th Amendment’s insurrectionist ban. The Colorado decision is expected to be appealed to the US Supreme Court, regardless of the ruling.

[The ruling says the primary ballot. It’s like saying you are guilty of killing someone. So you can’t run in the primary but no problem for the actual November election.]

Surprisingly or not, Republican candidates Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy are all siding with Trump even though they could have an easier time winning the nomination if Trump was out. Haley did give the excuse that she wanted to win fair and square. The other two didn’t give much of a reason. Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson, both longtime anti-Trumpers were in favor of the decision.

Some Republican’s are bashing the court because they are “unelected”. Not true. The governor appoints them but they still have to win state-wide elections. You would figure the Republicans would want judges with no affiliation [i.e. unbiased].

[In a Democrat leaning state, the Republicans would probably bash the court because of there are more Democrat judges than Republicans. Have they heard of the US Supreme Court?]

Trump’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to reject special counsel Jack Smith’s request to bypass a federal appeals court and take up the case deciding if Trump, as a president, is immune from charges related to election subversion efforts after his 2020 loss to Joe Biden. The move echoed what Trump’s legal strategy has been in all of his criminal cases to date – to delay the proceedings, ideally beyond the 2024 election.

[While he was president at the time, he was the outgoing president as he had lost the election.]

There is a recording of a call by Trump made to two Michigan county officials in 2020, urging them not to certify the election results from Detroit. The call was previously known and condemned at the time by election experts and Michigan Democrats, who said it was a stunning attempt by a sitting president to pressure local officials to interfere with an election. RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who was also on the call told the officials, regarding the certification: “Do not sign it. … We will get you attorneys.”

Trump asked, “How can anybody sign” the election certification “when you have more votes than people,” referring to his false claim that large numbers of dead people voted in Michigan. 878,102 people voted for Trump in Wayne County [which includes Detroit], which had a population of over 1.7 million, according to the US Census Bureau.

Laughably, Trump campaign spokesperson/lackey Steven Cheung said in a statement that “all of President Trump’s actions were taken in furtherance of his duty as President of the United States to faithfully take care of the laws and ensure election integrity.”

[Could this lead to another indictment?]

Trump quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin to attack President Joe Biden as a “threat to democracy” and doubled down on language condemned for its ties to White supremacist rhetoric, saying at a campaign event in New Hampshire that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” Trump said “Even Vladimir Putin … says that Biden’s — and this is a quote – ‘politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy.’” Trump also praised two other authoritarian foreign leaders, calling Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban “highly respected” and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “very nice.”

When asked about it, Republican nominee, Ron DeSantis, said he didn’t hear about it. Sure Ronnie.

[With Trump, the US is heading more and more to the far right.]

Trump is asking a federal appeals court to reconsider its decision earlier this month largely upholding the gag order issued against him in his federal election subversion case. Trump, in a filing to the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals, asked the three-judge panel that handled the issue to either rehear it or for the issue to be considered en banc, meaning the case would be heard by the full court. Trump’s attorneys also asked the court to temporarily freeze the gag order while it considers their request for the case to be reheard.

Trump said at a rally pushing back on recent criticism that his rhetoric has echoed Adolf Hitler, telling a crowd in Iowa that he’s never read “Mein Kampf.” This was regarding his comments about immigrants “poisoning the blood of our country” sounding a bit like the Nazis.

[This coming from a man that has lied constantly.]

In an 1990 Vanity Fair report, Ivana Trump told her lawyer her ex-husband Donald use to keep Hitler speeches beside bed. Yikes.

Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have come to the defense of a one time social media influencer, Douglass Mackey, who has been convicted of election interference and has a well-known history of pushing deeply racist, antisemitic, anti-Muslim and homophobic content online. Trump accused President Biden of seeking to jail Mackey for “sharing a joking meme about Hillary Clinton several years ago. Nobody ever heard of anything like that.” Nope.

Mackey’s Twitter account at the time featured a slew of hateful content and he was ranked as 107th in a list of “election influencers” in the runup to the 2016 election, according to an analysis conducted by the MIT Media Lab. Mackey was charged seven days after Biden took office and convicted earlier this year. He was sentenced to seven months in prison but is currently out pending an appeal of his case.

In his New York fraud case, Judge Arthur Engoron issued a written ruling denying Trump’s request for a verdict in his favor in a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Engoron wrote that the “most glaring” flaw of Trump’s argument was to assume that the testimony provided by Eli Bartov, an accounting professor at New York University, and other expert witnesses would be accepted by the court as “true and accurate…. Bartov is a tenured professor, but the only thing his testimony proves is that for a million or so dollars, some experts will say whatever you want them to say,” Engoron wrote. Bartov was paid $900,000 for his testimony.

Bartov said there was “no evidence whatsoever of any accounting fraud.” But Engoron, in his ruling, noted that he had already ruled that there were “numerous obvious errors” in Trump’s financial statements. “By doggedly attempting to justify every misstatement, Professor Bartov lost all credibility,” the judge wrote. Trump took to his defense, calling Engoron’s comments about Bartov a “great insult to a man of impeccable character and qualifications” as he excoriated the judge’s decision.

A federal appeals court has rejected former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ attempt to move his Georgia election interference criminal case to federal court. The opinion of the three-judge panel of the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals, delivered by a conservative jurist who appointed to the court by former President George W. Bush.

Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the two Georgia election workers who won a nearly $150 million verdict against Trump’s former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, for defamation, have sued him again, asking a federal judge to permanently prohibit him from lying about them. Giuliani has since declared bankruptcy.

One of Trump’s legal battles is heading to the Supreme Court

Special counsel Jack Smith asked the Supreme Court to decide whether Donald Trump has any immunity from criminal prosecution for alleged crimes he committed while in office – the first time that the high court will weigh in on the historic prosecution of Trump. The extraordinary request is an attempt by Smith to keep the election subversion trial – currently scheduled for early March – on track. Smith is asking the Supreme Court to take the rare step of skipping a federal appeals court and quickly decide a fundamental issue of the case against Trump.

But Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan overseeing Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case has temporarily paused all procedural deadlines while appeals over a major issue play out – which could lead to his March 2024 trial date being pushed back. The judge acknowledged that she no longer has jurisdiction over aspects of the criminal case while the DC Circuit Court of Appeals considers whether Trump is immune and can be tried.

Smith’s team has asked the court to review Judge Chutkan’s ruling that as a former president, Trump is not immune from the election subversion prosecution case brought in Washington DC. Lawyers for Trump have argued that Trump’s alleged actions over the 2020 election results were part of his official duties at the time and therefore he is protected by presidential immunity. If the court rules against Smith, it could cause problems in this case and another.

A New York appellate court rejected Trump’s challenge of the gag order in his civil fraud trial. Trump’s attorneys petitioned the court over the gag order that bars him and the attorneys from speaking publicly about Judge Arthur Engoron’s court staff. In rejecting the challenge, the appeals court said Trump didn’t use the proper legal vehicle to challenge the gag order and sanctions. The appellate court in another order also rejected a Trump request to allow his legal team to seek a review of the gag order by the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court.

Trump said he has decided against testifying for a second time at his New York civil fraud trial claiming that he “very successfully & conclusively” testified last month and saw no need to appear again. He was expected to add more testimony this past week. When he was questioned by the state lawyers who are suing him, he often responded with lengthy diatribes. Trump’s verbose answers irked the judge, who repeatedly asked Trump to keep his answers short. “This is not a political rally,” the judge said. Had Trump returned to the stand Monday, his defence lawyers would have led the questioning, but state lawyers could have cross-examined him.

[Trump’s lawyers may try to ask the Supreme Court but I suspect they won’t even hear it (if they are really smart). If you got nothing to hide, then you would testify. If your first round of testimony didn’t go well, you wouldn’t want to testify.]

A federal appeals court rejected Trump’s use of presidential immunity in a bid to dismiss a civil defamation lawsuit brought by former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll. The judges found that Trump waived using presidential immunity as a defense by not raising it earlier in the litigation over Carroll’s claim that Trump defamed her when, as president, he denied her allegations of sexual assault. The appeals court also affirmed the lower court’s ruling by Judge Kaplan that rejected Trump’s motion for summary judgment.

[Not really surprising as well as the assault happened way before his reign (of terror).]

Trump’s ex-lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has lost his defamation to two women in Georgia. They were election workers. One was paid $16/hour and the other one was a volunteer. After Giuliani accused them of some shenanigans that he could never prove, they were harassed by him verbally and then by followers of Trump. Throughout the whole time since his accusations, Giuliani said he would show proof of what they did. [We are still waiting!]

Of course he doesn’t have the money. He can’t pay his legal bills. He probably will go bankrupt first. He probably can’t afford an appeal. He probably won’t be able to pay his alimony [3 wives].

[His buddy, Trump, claims to be a billionaire but probably won’t give Giuliani a nickel because Trump likes to throw people under a steamroller while he rolls over them a few times. Donnie was a co-conspirator.]

Trump characterized warnings that his victory in 2024 would represent a threat to democracy as a “hoax” and “Democrat misinformation.” He said in a speech hosted by the New York Young Republican Club that President Joe Biden “is the real threat to democracy.” He said “We call it now the threat-to-democracy hoax, because that’s what it is.”

[This is the man who claimed he would become a dictator on day one of his second reign. He also suggested even a third term which is against the constitution and even scrap parts of the constitution (that he doesn’t like). As well, this from a man who wants to weaponize the Department of Justice and others to go after those who went against him.]

“They think the threat-to-democracy hoax will save Biden from having created the worst inflation in our country’s history, a fragile economy that may soon end in a depression.”

[The inflation came right after his reign when the nation was at least shut down while his administration could not figure out how to handle the pandemic. The world was looking for the US for leadership. Instead the world got turmoil. And of course he knows nothing. Inflation was a whopping 20% in the late 1940s, 15% around the 1980s and about 9% in 2022. The “worst inflation”? Source.]

While on Fox, Trump made 24 false or iffy claims. A good chuckle. Some of the comments by users are quite funny.

Trump can be sued for the insurrection

Lawsuits against Donald Trump brought by Capitol Police officers and Democratic lawmakers over the US Capitol riot [a.k.a. Trump Insurrection], can move forward, a federal appeals court ruled. A three-judge panel of the US Circuit Court of Appeals denied Trump’s request to dismiss the lawsuits that accuse him of inciting the violent mob on Jan. 6, 2021. But the court said it’s ruling was not the final word on whether presidential immunity shields the Republican from liability in the case and said the judges express “no view on the ultimate merits of the claims” against Trump.

A New York appellate court has reinstated a gag order prohibiting Trump and attorneys from making public statements about the court staff in the ongoing $250 million civil fraud trial. Judge Arthur Engoron originally issued the order barring Trump from making public statements about court staff after Trump made numerous comments about a clerk, who Trump says is biased against him.

Trump had urged a New York appeals court to continue to pause the gag order against him, saying that threats to the judge and his law clerk do not “justify” limiting Trump’s constitutional right to defend himself. Lawyers for the New York attorney general’s office and the court last week urged the appeals court to put the gag order back in place following “serious and credible” threats that have inundated Judge Arthur Engoron’s chambers since the trial began in October.

“At base, the disturbing behavior engaged in by anonymous, third-party actors towards the judge and Principal Law Clerk publicly presiding over an extremely polarizing and high-profile trial merits appropriate security measures,” Trump’s attorneys wrote.

[Ummm. Trump has followers. If he says for them to dance naked on 5th Avenue in Toronto, they would. This is incitement.]

New York court officials have knocked down Trump’s angry social media claims that the wife of Engoron, who’s presiding over his civil fraud trial, has been posting anti-Trump rhetoric on X. Engoron’s wife does not have an X – formerly Twitter – account, according to a spokesperson for the state court system.

[I guess he will do anything to say that the judge (or his wife) is biased. His followers will believe him whether or not it is true. Even if the judge’s wife said something negative, it doesn’t mean her opinion counts in how he judges. Next Trump will say the pet gets angry (bark, hiss) when the Trump name is mentioned.]

The federal judge, Judge Tanya Chutkan, overseeing Trump’s election subversion case in Washington, denied Trump’s effort to subpoena records from the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Trump’s attorneys had claimed in their motion to subpoena records from the committee, its Chairman Bennie Thompson, and others that the committee and federal officials withheld some materials related to the investigation. Thompson has defended his panel’s archival process. He said this summer that the committee wasn’t required to keep all of the records it amassed during the months long investigation.

Trump’s legal team is seeking a trove of classified documents from the Justice Department as it prepares to argue at his upcoming criminal trial that he was right to doubt the results of the 2020 election. The approach will bring Trump’s continued political broadside against his loss of the presidency into court as Trump alleges a vast government conspiracy against him, all as he seeks to retake the White House. Trump’s defense team is asking for information from several past government investigations, including around the election results and about the recent classified documents probe into his former Vice President Mike Pence. He says these records could be exculpatory, helping in his defense, if they show some agencies exploring election interference in 2020.

Trump’s renewed focus on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, known colloquially as Obamacare, has alarmed some Republicans scarred by the GOP’s failure to deliver on promises to dismantle the law and who view the issue as a political loser with the American people.

A Nevada state-level criminal investigation into the fake electors plot intended to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election win is ramping up with prosecutors securing the cooperation of a key witness, even as some of those who served as pro-Trump electors remain politically active ahead of the 2024 election. Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer who helped orchestrate the fake electors plot across multiple states, has agreed to sit down with Nevada investigators in hopes of avoiding prosecution there.

Americans for Prosperity, the political arm of the powerful Koch network [a.k.a. Koch brothers], formally endorsed Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign, promising to commit its nationwide coalition of activists — and virtually unlimited funds — to helping Haley defeat Trump in the GOP primary contest. AFP has roughly %75 million available. A Trump lackey responded by saying Americans for Prosperity is the “the political arm of the China-first, America-last movement.” They didn’t seem to mind when the Koch network previously endorsed them.

A former server at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster has filed a lawsuit against the club in New Jersey, alleging that she was sexually harassed by her manager and then pressured to sign an illegal non-disclosure agreement by Alina Habba, who is now an attorney for Trump. The woman, Alice Bianco, alleged in the lawsuit that she was given “very short uniform skirts” to wear by her boss Pavel Melichar. Bianco, who was 21 at the time, alleged that Melichar, who was in his mid-50s, showered her with gifts and coerced her to engage in sex in exchange for “protection” and job security.

Brian Swensen formally resigned from his role as national political director for the Vivek Ramaswamy campaign recently and has joined the Trump campaign. Not a good sign for Ramaswamy. Earlier this month, Brandon Goodyear, the Ramaswamy team’s director of content, stepped away from the campaign.

Ryan Fournier, a co-founder of the political organization Students for Trump, was arrested and charged with assault on November 21 in North Carolina after allegedly hitting a woman with a gun. Fournier was charged with misdemeanor assault on a female and assault with a deadly weapon and was released on a $2,500 bond later that day, the documents say. He is accused of grabbing a woman by her arm and hitting her in the forehead with a firearm.

Bullying in chief

Donald Trump sent a Thanksgiving post at 2 AM on Thursday saying “Happy Thanksgiving to ALL, including the Racist & Incompetent Attorney General of New York State, Letitia ‘Peekaboo’ James, who has let Murder & Violence Crime FLOURISH, & Businesses FLEE; the Radical Left Trump Hating Judge, a ‘Psycho,’ Arthur Engoron, who Criminally Defrauded the State of New York, & ME, by purposely Valuing my Assets at a ‘tiny’ Fraction of what they are really worth in order to convict me of Fraud before even a Trial, or seeing any PROOF, & used his Politically Biased & Corrupt Campaign Finance Violator, Chief Clerk Alison Greenfield, to sit by his side on the ‘Bench’ & tell him what to do.”

[Let’s see what happens next as at one point there was a gag order where Trump couldn’t say anything about his case in front of Engoron. If he actually listened to his lawyers, he would know how his fraud case works.]

Trump said that Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who broke with the general practice of Iowa governors not to support a candidate before the caucuses as she is supporting Ron DeSantis. “I was really good to her and then she said she was going to remain neutral. And I said, ‘That’s OK,’ but I didn’t really want her particularly…. I don’t think it’s made any difference.”

[Uh huh. And if he got the governor’s endorsement, he would be raving about her.]

Bob Vander Plaats, an influential Iowa evangelical leader, endorsed Ron DeSantis for president, boosting the Florida governor as he goes all in on the lead off caucus state. Unlike the 2016 and 2020 elections, Trump is losing support from the evangelical.

A federal appeals panel appears inclined to restore the limited gag order in Trump’s federal election subversion case, but may loosen some restrictions so he can more directly criticize special counsel Jack Smith. A three-judge panel of the DC US Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the closely watched case, which stems from Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election and obstruct the lawful transfer of power. He pleaded not guilty. None of the three judges, are all Democratic appointees, embraced Trump’s claims that the gag order should be wiped away for good because it is a “categorically unprecedented” violation of his free speech rights.

Trump marked President Joe Biden ‘s 81st birthday by releasing a letter from his physician that reports Trump is in “excellent” physical and mental health. The letter contained no details to support its claims — measures like weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, or the results of any test. Dr. Bruce A. Aronwald, a New Jersey physician who says he has been Trump’s doctor since 2021 and most recently examined him in September, reported that Trump’s “physical exams were well within the normal range and his cognitive exams were exceptional.” The doctor concluded the 77-year old is “currently in excellent health” and “will continue to enjoy a healthy active lifestyle for years to come.”

[We are sure the doctor was told what to report from Trump or his cronies. The doctor shouldn’t make comments like how Trump will be in the future. He knows that Trump is not in perfect health. Overweight among other things. If Trump died within the next little while, it wouldn’t look good on the doctor. Knowing the Trump family, the doctor would probably get sued.]

House Speaker Mike Johnson said he plans to publicly release 40,000 hours of footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, The Trump Insurrection, making good on a promise he made to far-right members of his party when he was campaigning for the job.

[Have fun going though all that footage to find something juicy. If one person looked at it for 10 hours a day, it would take 11 years.]

Trump testifies

[He should get use to where he is sitting. He will be seeing that view quite a bit over the next year or so.]

An hour into his testimony in his fraud case in New York, Donald Trump’s commentary on the witness stand in his civil fraud trial has led to multiple admonishments from Judge Arthur Engoron, who has repeatedly told Trump not to make speeches and just answer questions. Trump has paid little attention to the judge’s instructions, continuing to give lengthy asides about the values of his properties, his perceived unfairness of the case, and in general not answering the question asked.

Just like what his sons said, he said “All I did was authorize and tell people to give whatever is necessary for the accountants to do the statements.” However, don’t the accountants work for him. Ultimately he is responsible.

[I’m not going to bother mentioning what Trump has said in his testimony unless something is new because most of it is a subset of his usual ranting.]

Judge Aileen Cannon has decided that, for now, Trump will still have a May 2024 trial before her on charges of mishandling classified documents. The classified records indictment has questions raised – with substantial known witnesses and even audio evidence – about how casually Trump treated national security information after his presidency.

A plumber, a maid, a chauffeur and a woodworker are among Mar-a-Lago staffers and contract workers who federal prosecutors may call to testify against Trump and his two co-defendants at their upcoming criminal trial in Florida. Other likely witnesses also include Trump Secret Service agents, former intelligence officials, as well as people who were in the room with Trump when he was captured on multiple audio recordings referencing a military document about potential plans to bomb Iran, according to the sources. [Well, those four are about to be fired.]

In another rally in Texas of falsehoods “They want to go all electric,” Trump said while criticizing the Biden administration, “even though we don’t have enough electricity to cool down California in the summers. Did you see, they had blackouts all over the place this summer? It was a disaster. The winter’s no good … the whole thing is crazy. ‘Let’s go all electric, but we don’t have enough electric to take care of somebody’s air conditioner in California.’” California Independent System Operator, which manages the power grid for 80% of the state, said they had no outages. The Trump campaign couldn’t show proof where there were outages.

In the November elections, endorsed by Trump but often described as Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell’s protégé, Daniel Cameron’s defeat will stir a lot of finger-pointing within the Republican Party. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was directing his at Trump after the polls closed, calling the result “another loss for Trump.” Trump had endorsed Cameron. Not a good track record for real races [not the ones where his candidate won easily as expected.]