Near the courts and on the road

In a double hitter, the New York Court of Appeals decline to hear Donald Trump’s lawyers appeal on the gag order in his hush money case. The gag order remains in effect after the felon had asked Merchan to terminate the gag order ahead of his sentencing scheduled for July.

Trump repeatedly praised Milwaukee just weeks before it hosts the Republican National Convention, playing cleanup after he reportedly used the word “horrible” in talking about swing-state Wisconsin’s largest city. Trump’s excuse was to blame “radical left lunatics” who “lie, lie, lie.”

“I love Milwaukee,” Trump told the crowd in nearby Racine, Wisconsin. He was reported to have used the word “horrible” in a closed-door meeting with Republicans in the US House. Trying to find excuses, several of his allies who were in the meeting later suggested he was talking about crime and voter fraud.

[If you believe them…. First it was crime and later voter fraud was added. Seems voter fraud is their “go to”. Oh it is snowing in the summer in Montana. Must be voter fraud.)

In more backtracking, Trump claims that he selected Milwaukee for the RNC convention. But the mayor of Milwaukee said Trump was “nowhere to be found.”

[Interesting to note that a man who was interviewed said because of increased violence that his two brothers have died from gun violence in the Milwaukee area. The man never explained when they died. Last 3.5 years? 20 years ago?]

Trump also denied reports that, during the convention, he was planning to stay overnight in Chicago, Milwaukee’s rival 90 miles to the south, where Trump also has a downtown skyscraper along the Chicago River.

“The people coming across the border — all those millions of people — they’re inflicting tremendous harm to our Black population and to our Hispanic population,” Trump said at a rally with Blacks in Detroit. “They’re not human beings. They’re animals,” he said later in referencing members of violent immigrant gangs. He argued that the Black community “is being hurt” by immigrants in the country illegally. “They’re invading your jobs,” he said.

[According to some, there were plenty of the people in the crowd that were not Black or Hispanic but white.]

Trump then criticized Biden’s handling of the economy and inflation. Trump was fundraising “with out-of-touch elitist Hollywood celebrities,” a Trump campaign spokeswoman said.

[Is that better or worse than asking oil barons for $1 billion in donations. One can influence the government more that the other.]

Trump also addressed the Turning Point conference – known to be run by white nationalists.

Trump argues he can pull in more Black voters due to his economic and border security message, and that his felony indictments make him more relatable.

[Does equating being a felon make him more relatable because there are more Blacks in US than any other race?]

Trump has suggested that President Biden should take a cognitive test like he supposedly did. When Trump took the test, at a rally he called his doctor – Ronnie Johnson. It’s Ron Jackson, who is now a congressman.

[There was always a but of suspicion if Trump actually took the test. Mini-Mental Status Exam (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) are the two most common tests to take.]

The Black community, Trump said, “needs to stop the crime.”

[Isn’t stopping crime done by the police?]

Trump is still whining on his failed social network that all [?] presidents should get immunity even after their time as president is over.

[I don’t think Richard Nixon would of resigned.]

Trump is back to his far right anti-immigration antics when he said “Virtually 100% of the new jobs under Biden have also gone to illegal aliens.”
[Unsure how he is defining “illegal aliens” but almost sure he means undocumented illegal migrants – although he could be throwing in anyone who isn’t an American.]

The Supreme Court upheld a Trump-era tax on overseas investments, rejecting an argument from a Washington state couple in a case that could have jeopardized existing tax provisions and torpedoed Democratic talk of a wealth tax. At issue in the closely watched tax case was whether the government could levy a tax on investment proceeds that had not yet been received.

The tax involved was enacted by Congress in 2017 as part of a larger package signed by Trump. The one-time mandatory repatriation tax was levied on shareholders on undistributed profits accrued between 1986 and the end of 2017 by certain foreign corporations that are majority owned by Americans. The provision was expected to raise $340 billion over a decade.

Two federal judges from Florida, including a chief district judge had urged Aileen Cannon to step down from Trump classified documents case. Attorneys who have practised in front of Cannon have said that she tends to allow irrelevant legal questions distract from core issues. She has slowed down the case to a crawl. So the case won’t even go to trial until 2025 – assuming Trump doesn’t get the case killed if he wins in November.

[When other judges are complaining about you ability to do you job, you know you have a problem.]

Meanwhile, a Trump lawyer are arguing that Jack Smith – who has brought charges against Trump in Florida and Washington, DC – was unlawfully appointed as special counsel. At the center of Trump’s argument is the claim that the Attorney General Merrick Garland does not have legal authority to appoint someone as special counsel who hasn’t confirmed by the Senate. The Justice Department says the attorney general has ample authority to appoint “inferior officers,” which would include special counsels. Trump’s lawyer to defend his claim that Smith’s position amounted to a “shadow government.”

When former Trump adviser Steve Bannon goes to prison, he won’t be serving time at what’s known as a “Club Fed,” the most comfortable type of facility in the federal system, as he had wanted. Instead of a minimal-security prison camp, where many nonviolent offenders serve their time, Bannon – now a right-wing podcaster with a following of loyal Trump supporters – is set to report next month to the low-security federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut.

[So no “supermax” in Colorado?]

Bannon vowed investigations and prosecutions of those who have probed the former president and his political allies, declaring at a conservative gathering that Inauguration Day in 2025 will be “accountability day.” “You are going to be investigated, prosecuted and incarcerated,” he said. “This has nothing to do with retribution. It has nothing to do with revenge. Because retribution and revenge might be another order of magnitude. This has to do with justice.”

He also added “Are you prepared to leave it all on the battlefield in 2024? … It’s very simple: victory or death!”

When a poll came out this week having President Biden overall leaning and easily leading in 4 of the 6 major categories [losing from men voters and rural voters], Fox News’ prime-time anchors didn’t even mention a word about it. Maybe unlike the rest of the anchors, these are all Trump loyalists.

Trump is now claiming that foreign students who graduate from an American college or university should automatically receive a green card. Trump made the comments on a podcast whose hosts included prominent tech venture capitalists David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya, who recently hosted a fundraiser for Trump in San Francisco. Trump campaign had to backtrack as a campaign spokeswoman said that graduates would be screened “to exclude all communists, radical Islamists, Hamas supporters, America haters and public charges.”

[So much for automatically. Trump is doing this so his tech giants buddies can get the best of the graduates coming out of American universities. From a man who has campaigned for almost 10 years to block immigrants from coming into the US illegally, this is his way to sneak around his policy as these would be for jobs that require a good education.]

[When looking at the top 6 Trump donors, all of them are quite wealthy (one at a net worth of $47 billion) and in technology or resources while top 6 Biden donors have few in technology.]

Ramin Setoodeh, co-editor-in-chief of Variety, has an audio tape in an interview he did with Trump where Trump did say that he lost the 2020 election and then backtrack.

Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, a leading candidate to be Trump’s vice president. But like the majority of potential candidates he has a two-faced history with Trump:

• Vance said Trump committed “serial sexual assault.”
• Vance once privately wondered whether Trump was ‘America’s Hitler’ in February 2016.
• In mid-2016, Vance later wrote in The Atlantic that Trump was “cultural heroin.”
• He described himself as a “Never Trump” Republican.
• In 2017, he tweeted “Maybe the Central Park 5 could take out a full-page ad to condemn the coddling of thug real estate barons who commit serial sexual assault.”
• In a since-removed set of tweets, he harshly criticized Trump’s response to the deadly 2017 White nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia – something Vance now defends Trump over.
• In February 2016, Vance liked a tweet featuring a photo of Trump, two women and O.J. Simpson with the caption, “Here is an old picture of one of USA’s most hated, villainous, douchey celebs. Also in picture: OJ Simpson.”
• In 2016, Vance liked a series of tweets calling then-candidate Trump a “monster” and a “nemesis of the GOP.”
• Vance said he even contemplated voting for Hillary Clinton [and even be part of her administration], but ultimately said he would vote for independent candidate Evan McMullin for president in 2016.
• In a previously unreported blog post Vance wrote in April 2010 under his previous legal name, J.D. Hamel, he wrote in support of legal immigration, advocating to “massively increase” the number of migrants allowed into the country.

Stephen K. Bannon has lost another bid to delay his July 1 deadline to report to prison, leaving the former Trump aide little chance of avoiding incarceration for refusing to testify about efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. With the ruling, both the judge who oversaw Bannon’s trial for contempt of Congress and the judges who heard the appeal of his conviction have denied his requests to remain free while petitioning the Supreme Court to overturn the verdict.

Various Republicans including Vance and Sen. Lindsey Graham have suggested returning to compulsory military service to boost the numbers in the US military. Trump hasn’t said no or yes.

[I’m sure Barron Trump would be excluded from the service. Probably a bone spurs issue like his father.]

Trump arrested (but you knew that)!

Recently, Donald Trump had been arrested by deputy US Marshals at the federal courthouse in Miami and will be arraigned on charges related to mishandling classified documents. The hearing will operate as both an “initial appearance” and as a so-called arraignment as well, with Trump having the opportunity to enter his plea in the case.

“…a corrupt sitting president had his top political opponent arrested on fake and fabricated charges of which he and numerous other presidents would be guilty, right in the middle of a presidential election in which he’s losing very badly…” said Trump after the courthouse appearance. Let’s see: how is President Biden corrupt, other presidents were corrupt [whom?], losing very badly? The voting started already? An Reuters/Ipsos poll from mid-May 2023 gives Biden a 6 point lead. As for “middle of a presidential election”, not really. The elections don’t really start until both parties have their nominees and the US is in a perpetual campaigning with mid-term elections followed by party candidates trying to win their party nomination 18 months before the actual elections. So that’s falsehoods in one sentence. Nice and compact really.

For Trump’s legal team, his top attorneys Jim Trusty and John Rowley resigned recently, and Trump announced the addition of Todd Blanche [a white-collar criminal defense lawyer] to the classified documents case. This after having problems securing lawyers, needs lawyers who is admitted to practice law in the southern district of Florida. Some of his team have been searching for lawyers there while some lawyers have expressed interest. [But what kind of lawyers have applied? MAGA fans but otherwise inexperienced? Those searching for 15 minutes of fame?]

Trump has said that it’s more problematic for President Biden to have retained classified documents when he was vice president than it is for a president, though the laws treat the records the same. Inventing laws that suits his needs [and ego].

Trump falsely claimed no one objected to his “perfect phone call” urging Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to change the outcome, when a recording shows that Raffensperger and his lawyer repeatedly pushed back on his unsubstantiated claims.

“You’re watching Joe Biden — think of it, Biden is trying to jail his leading political opponent,” Trump said in the speech. “As far as the joke of an indictment, it’s a horrible thing. It’s a horrible thing for this country. I mean, the only good thing about it is it’s driven my poll numbers way up. Can you believe it?” As if all of the Justice Department are Democrats.

Attorneys for Trump are continuing the legal fight to move Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s criminal case against the former president from New York state court to federal court. Trump’s lawyers first filed a motion to move the case to federal court in May, arguing that the charges are related to his duties as president. Bragg’s office has argued that Trump’s alleged hush money scheme was largely perpetrated before Trump became president and wants to keep the case at the New York state Supreme Court.

Trump allies have argued that at least there’s no evidence he gave these documents to America’s enemies. They’ve also effectively suggested that, absent such a breach, it’s time to move on because the documents have been recovered. Uh huh.

Marjorie Taylor Greene was on the airplane when Trump had a rally in Georgia recently. Did she provide the entertainment? Maybe a bit of dancing around a pole. I’m sure Trump has one of those somewhere on his airplane.

“Think of it: [Biden had] 1,850 boxes. Mine is peanuts,” Trump said. Trump’s comparison is highly misleading. The approximately 1,850 boxes that Biden legally and properly donated in 2012 to the University of Delaware are a collection of records from his 36 years in the US Senate.

Trump said Biden “has so many classified documents,” but “he’s trying to prevent them from seeing it – that’s obstruction. But we didn’t do any obstruction.” There is no indication that Biden is fighting to retrieve the documents. [These are the documents while as Vice President or now President and Biden consented the FBI to search – unlike Trump.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy defends Trump by comparing putting the boxes in a garage [that would probably be locked] compared to putting the boxes in a bathroom that he says would be locked. Locked? Generally if someone is in there or is off bounds but it is in a public area.

Trump allies are going after others after the indictment:

• Adam Schiff: Censure Schiff in his role in investigations of Trump. It failed as 20 [sane] Republicans sided with the Democrats. The Republican who sponsored it, will try again with different wording.
• FBI and director: Defund the FBI and/or impeach director Christopher Wray.
• Department of Justice and attorney general: Dismantle part of Department of Justice and/or impeach AG Merrick Garland.

Seems all the Republicans care about is revenge.

Trump appointee Judge Aileen Cannon will handle the trial. Interesting in what he will say and do if he’s convicted of anything.

Another former Trump attorney, Christopher Kise, wanted to quietly approach Justice to see if he could negotiate a settlement that would preclude charges, hoping Attorney General Merrick Garland and the department would want an exit ramp to avoid prosecuting Trump. Kise would hopefully “take the temperature down,” he told others, by promising a professional approach and the return of all documents. But Trump was not interested after listening to other lawyers who urged a more pugilistic approach, so Kise never approached prosecutors.

“If you want to get to President Trump, you’re going to have to go through me and you’re going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me,” losing Arizona Kari Lake [for governor] told the GOP convention to roaring cheers and a standing ovation. “Most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA [National Rifle Association]” ….. “That’s not a threat, that’s a public service announcement.” Only 5.5 million NRA members. So we assume Republicans as some NRA could be Democrats.]

Trump headed to Miami’s famous Cuban restaurant Versailles after his arraignment at the city’s federal courthouse and is said to have declared to a crowd of admirers “Food for everyone!” after walking inside. He stayed for 10 minutes and then left – without paying the bill. Supposedly he picked up food at a McDonald’s on the way to the airport to take him to New Jersey.

In the Capitol complex, Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene and four other far-right lawmakers, held a “hearing” that honored participants in the riot, family members of Trump Insurrection rioters and organizers of the attempted overthrow of the 2020 vote. Technically, Gaetz couldn’t call such a hearing, because he isn’t a committee chairman. But House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who is trying to win back the support of extremists such as Gaetz, allowed him to do it.

Time to fork over your taxes

The Supreme Court cleared the way for a congressional committee to examine Donald Trump’s tax returns, denying without comment Trump’s last-ditch effort to extend a legal battle that has consumed Congress and the courts for years. The justices’ brief order means that the Treasury Department may quickly hand over six years of tax records from Trump and some of his companies to the House Ways and Means Committee. There were no recorded dissents and, as is often the case in emergency applications.

“Why would anybody be surprised that the Supreme Court has ruled against me, they always do!” Trump wrote TruthSocial. Trump said the court’s decision not to block the release of the tax returns “creates terrible precedent for future Presidents . . . The Supreme Court has lost its honor, prestige, and standing, & has become nothing more than a political body, with our Country paying the price.”

The US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit judges expressed deep skepticism that the federal government violated Trump’s rights when it searched Mar-a-Lago in August, questioning whether a lower-court judge erred in appointing an outside expert to review documents seized from the Florida property. As well, the government said the neutral arbiter, known as a special master, should never have been appointed. Justice Department attorney Sopan Joshi told the judges Trump has failed to prove that he suffered the “irreparable harm” from the FBI search that would legally necessitate a special master. Joshi called the appointment an “intrusion” on the executive branch.

In Trump’s first extended response to Attorney General Merrick Garland’s announcement that he had appointed a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigation into Trump’s retention of government documents after he left office, Trump defended himself with dishonesty – repeating his false and thoroughly have been debunked by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) itself.

Trump, speaking night at a gala at his Mar-a-Lago resort and residence, asked why there is not an investigation into “all of the other presidents that preceded me,” including but not limited to Republicans George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. He claimed that these previous presidents “kept documents,” and he continued: “In one case, they had it in a Chinese restaurant with broken windows. And in another case they had a Chinese restaurant connected to a bowling alley. This is where the documents were kept. They took documents with them. President Obama took documents.”

Rep. Jim Comer, likely the next chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said that, “we’re just waiting to see what comes out of that” [the chamber’s investigation into classified documents found at Trump’s Florida estate] and it “will not be a priority” in the new Congress. So it seems politicians in Congress and government are not a priority. A good sign for companies and foreign governments to bribe officials.

“I’m proud of the accomplishments [during the Trump administration] – of the tax reform, the deregulation and criminal justice reform – I’m really excited about the judges we got on the bench, not just the Supreme Court, but throughout the judiciary. But I am a Never-Again Trumper. Why? Because I want to win, and we lose with Trump,” said former House Speaker Paul Ryan in an interview.

Trump hosted White nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and rapper Kanye West at his Mar-a-Lago estate recently, demonstrating his continued willingness to associate with figures who have well-publicized antisemitic views as he embarks on another White House run. Fuentes was a guest of Kanye’s and was not invited by Trump. Of course, Trump was happy to see West.

Jesse Benton, 44, was pardoned by Trump in 2020 for a different campaign finance crime, months before he was indicted again on six counts related to facilitating an illegal foreign campaign donation. He was found guilty on all six counts. Elections “reflect the values and the priorities and the beliefs of American citizens,” Assistant US Attorney Michelle Parikh said in her closing argument this week. “Jesse Benton by his actions did damage to those principles.”

Benton bought a $25,000 ticket to a September 2016 Republican National Committee (RNC) event on behalf of Roman Vasilenko, a Russian naval officer turned multilevel marketer. [Vasilenko is under investigation in Russia for allegedly running a pyramid scheme, according to the Kommersant newspaper; he could not be reached for comment.] The donation got Vasilenko a picture with Trump and entrance to a “business roundtable” with Trump.

Ex-magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll has sued Trump for battery and defamation under a new New York law that allows adults alleging sexual assault to bring claims years after the attack. Carroll filed the lawsuit on the first day that civil lawsuits can be brought under the new law, the Adult Survivors Act, which gives adults a one-year window to file a claim. Carroll is asking a judge to order Trump to retract his defamatory statements and award compensatory, punitive and exemplary damages in an amount to be determined at trial.

The lawsuit is the second Carroll has brought against Trump, but the first to seek to hold him accountable for battery for allegedly raping Carroll in the dressing room of a New York department store in the mid-1990s. The lawsuit also alleges a new defamation claim based on statements Trump made last month.

Televangelist James Robison, the president of the Christian group Life Outreach International, who served as a spiritual adviser to Trump says he has the tendency to act “like a little elementary schoolchild” and suggests that Trump’s focus on minor spats was preventing progress on larger goals. Uh. We knew that already.

Support is running away from Trump

Billionaire cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder, Citadel hedge fund CEO and founder Ken Griffin, metal mogul Andy Sabin and private equity CEO Stephen Schwarzman have stated that they won’t support Trump in the upcoming election.

“I wouldn’t give him a f—ing nickel,” Sabin told. “Trump does nothing to help my life. My businesses couldn’t be better without Trump.” Sabin acknowledged that if Trump’s early entry clears the GOP field, he would hold his nose and vote for him again. “I would vote for him over a Democrat,” he told The Post. “I would vote for a turtle over a Democrat.

“Now that the Election in Florida is over, and everything went quite well, shouldn’t it be said that in 2020, I got 1.1 Million more votes in Florida than Ron D got this year, 5.7 Million to 4.6 Million? Just asking?” Trump wrote on Nov. 10.

A day later, he bizarrely said Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s last name “Sounds Chinese” and claimed the Virginian “couldn’t have won without me” last year. “Young Kin (now that’s an interesting take. Sounds Chinese, doesn’t it?) in Virginia couldn’t have won without me… I Endorsed him, did a very big Trump Rally for him telephonically, got MAGA to Vote for him – or he couldn’t have come close to winning.”

Rupert Murdoch’s paper, The New York Post, covered the launch of Trump’s re-election campaign and at the very bottom of the front page they wrote “Florida Man Makes Announcement: see page 26”. Trump must be fuming.

Following the mid-term elections, The New York Post, mocked “Trumpty Dumpty,” with the children’s rhyme: “Don (who couldn’t build a wall) had a great fall — can all the GOP’s men put the party back together again?” In another Murdoch property, The Wall Street Journal, the editorial board argued that Trump was the Republican party’s biggest loser.

Even on Fox News, hosts have been lukewarm on Trump, after weeks of gloating over an expected “red wave” or “red tsunami.” Laura Ingraham, without naming Trump, said the GOP needs candidates who are “focused on winning, not scoring a point or settling a score.”

For Trump’s announcement, ABC, NBC and CBS all decided to stick with previously scheduled entertainment programming — reality show “Bachelor in Paradise” on ABC, science fiction drama “La Brea” on NBC and a fictionalized show about the FBI on CBS. Fox News Channel aired most of the speech live while CNN carried the first 25 minutes before switching back to a panel discussion after Trump formally announced his 2024 candidacy. MSNBC, however, chose not to air the speech. In the old days, at least Fox News would of shown the full announcement.

After Trump’s presidential launch, Isaac Hayes’ estate threatened legal actions for music played at his 2024 campaign announcement. On November 15, the music legend’s estate tweeted: “Once again, The estate and family of Isaac Hayes DID NOT approve the use of ‘Hold on I’m Coming’ by Sam and Dave by Donald Trump at his 2024 Presidential announcement tonight. We are exploring multiple legal options to stop this unauthorized use.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as special counsel to “oversee two ongoing criminal investigations” into Trump. “The first is the investigation into whether any person or entity unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the Electoral College vote held on or about January 6, 2021,” the Department of Justice said. “The second is the ongoing investigation involving classified documents and other presidential records, as well as the possible obstruction of that investigation.” And no shocker that the “No IQ Club” [including Marjorie Taylor Greene, Andy Biggs and others] are defending Trump.

“Interesting that two days day after my father announces his presidential run, and a day after the House launches investigations into the Biden family corruptions, Biden (his likely challenger) announces a special counsel to prosecute him,” Eric Trump posted to his father’s Truth Social website. “This is communism,” he inaccurately alleged. “But, I’m sure this wasn’t planned…American political corruption at its finest!”

Trump has sued the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021 [a.k.a. Trump Insurrection], as a way to challenge its subpoena for documents and his testimony, according to filings in a federal court in Florida. Trump is challenging both the legitimacy of the committee – which multiple courts have upheld – and is claiming he should be immune from testimony about the time he was president.

Regarding his tax issues, Trump said without providing any evidence “The D.A. case against two small Trump entities has fallen apart. Even the Media is saying so… There has never been a ‘Fringe Benefits’ case such as this brought before. Did a long time executive pay tax on the use of a company car, or a company apartment, or payments for the education of his grandchildren? …. VERY UNFAIR!” Waaaaaah!

“Many people, perhaps most, don’t pay tax on the use of a company car or company apartment.” These were perks but the Trump Organization gave them the perks. The Trump Organization don’t own them.

Allen Weisselberg, the company’s long-time chief financial officer, testified that Eric Trump raised his pay US$200,000 after an internal audit spurred by Trump’s 2016 election found that Weisselberg had been reducing his salary and bonuses by the cost of the perks. The company continues to pay Weisselberg $640,000 in salary and $500,000 in holiday bonuses and punished him only nominally after his arrest in July 2021, reassigning him to senior adviser and moving his office at Trump Tower. He’s now on paid leave. Other executives accused of scheming to avoid taxes also kept their jobs and pay, Weisselberg said.

Trump said that he has been following along, defending Weisselberg and bashing prosecutors in posts to his Truth Social platform. Surprising since Weisselberg made a nice deal. Trump wrote that the case had “fallen apart” after Weisselberg testified that neither Trump nor Trump’s family were involved in his tax avoidance scheme. OK, he and his family aren’t involved [maybe] but his company is.

I can see Trump saying in January 2025: “The radical left Democrats now cheated me out of 2 elections.” And then Trump Insurrection II on January 8, 2025….

Among the falsehoods in Trump’s announcement speech [Trump’s quotes]:

• When the virus hit our shores, I took decisive action and saved lives and the U.S. economy.
• Because the border was so tight, drugs were coming into our country at the lowest level in many, many years.
• Our southern border has been erased, and our country is being invaded by millions and millions of unknown people. [But he just said the “border was so tight”?]
• But one of the reasons we had so much success at the border was because of the fact that we got Mexico to give us free of charge 28,000 soldiers.
• The United States had finally attained the impossible dream of American energy independence, which soon would have turned into energy dominance.
• They say the ocean will rise one eighth of an inch over the next two hundred to three hundred years.
• China was paying billions and billions of dollars in taxes … No president had ever saw or received one dollar for our country from China until I came along.
• Gas prices have reached the highest levels in history, and expect them to go much higher now that the strategic national reserves, which I filled up, have been virtually drained to keep gasoline prices lower.
• We had practically, just about, not that I can think of, no Islamic attacks, terrorist attacks during the Trump administration.
• Businesses were pouring back because of our historic tax and regulation cuts, the biggest in both categories in history.
• Every drug dealer during his or her life on average will kill 500 people with the drugs they sell, not to mention the destruction of families.

You get the idea.

Trump’s Florida residence raided

The FBI executed a search warrant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, as part of an investigation into the handling of presidential documents, including classified documents, that may have been brought there. Trump confirmed that FBI agents were at Mar-a-Lago and said “they even broke into my safe.” Ummm. It’s probably part of a search warrant. If you don’t open it, they will. He was at Trump Tower in New York when the search warrant was executed in Florida. [Maybe done on purpose?] “My beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents.”

Trump, after the FBI raid, decided to profit from it by sending out a flood [spam] of Emails requesting money from donors to help defend him. “As they watch my endorsed candidates win big victories and see my dominance in all polls, they are trying to stop the Republican Party and me once more,” Trump said in a fundraising email. “The lawlessness, political persecution, and Witch Hunt, must be exposed and stopped.”

Two days later, Trump suspicious said in his continuing rants on the raid: “The FBI and others from the Federal Government would not let anyone, including my lawyers, be anywhere near the areas that were rummaged and otherwise looked at during the raid on Mar-a-Lago,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Everyone was asked to leave the premises, they wanted to be left alone, without any witnesses to see what they were doing, taking or, hopefully not, ‘planting.'”

I am suspecting that his potential party rivals like Nikki Haley and Rick DeSantis won’t defend him. His Save America political action committee has already an estimated $100 million in the coffers but has done very little with it. Shouldn’t that be “Save Trump”?

Trump allies are defending him. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Attorney General Merrick Garland to “preserve your documents and clear your calendar,” warning of an oversight probe “when” Republicans take back the chamber in the midterm elections.

“The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization,” said McCarthy. That’s not politics. That’s revenge. Garland approved the raid on Mar-A-Lago.

Classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items FBI agents sought in a search of Trump’s residence. Experts in classified information said the unusual search underscores deep concern among government officials about the types of information they thought could be located at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club and potentially in danger of falling into the wrong hands. Trump of course denied that classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were at the residence calling it a “hoax”.

The FBI search of Trump’s home found four sets of top-secret documents and seven sets of less-secret but still classified information, according to a list of items seized in the high-profile raid and unsealed by a federal magistrate judge.

The written inventory — a document provided by investigators after a search — says the FBI took about 20 boxes of items from the club, including photo binders, information about the president of France, and a variety of classified material.

Garland said that the Justice Department had filed in court a request that the search warrant and property receipt from the search be unsealed. Garland also said he “personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter” and he noted that the department did not comment on the search on the day that it occurred. He pointed out that the search was confirmed by Trump that evening. He said that copies of the warrant and the warrant receipt were provided to the Trump lawyers who were on site during the search.

“The Department filed the motion to make public the warrant and receipt in light of the former president’s public confirmation of the search, the surrounding circumstances and the substantial public interest in this matter,” Garland said.

“The government could have had whatever they wanted, if we had it,” Trump said. “Everything was fine, better than most previous Presidents, and then, out of nowhere and with no warning, Mar-a-Lago was raided”. As if he has a way to compare how previous presidents were treated. I was expecting him to say he was treated the worst ever.

Trump invoked the Fifth Amendment and wouldn’t answer questions under oath at an office building in the New York attorney general’s long-running civil investigation into his business dealings. An hour after his meeting he “declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution.” Donald Jr. and Ivanka Trump testified in recent days, but it’s unclear whether they invoked the Fifth Amendment during their depositions. When their brother Eric Trump sat for a deposition in the same investigation in 2020, he invoked the Fifth more than 500 times, according to court papers.

[Interesting fact: The Manhattan office tower that Trump went to has doubled as the headquarters of the fictional conglomerate Waystar Royco — run by a character inspired partly by Trump — on HBO’s “Succession.”]

A federal appeals court signed off on a House Ways and Means Committee request to obtain Trump’s tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service. The 3-0 ruling from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals is a blow to Trump, who has argued for years in court against releasing his tax returns to any investigators. A trial-level judge [trial judge?] he appointed while president previously rejected his arguments in the case. But Trump still could appeal, making the litigation unlikely to end at this time. One of the three judges was appointed by George H.W. Bush.

Remember when Trump denied flushing documents down the toilet after read instead of having them archives as is required by law? There are pictures floating around with Trump’s handwriting on paper sitting at the bottom of a toilet. And for further evidence, a plumber had to be called in to fix them.

At the Conservative Political Action Conference Texas, Trump easily [69%] won an unofficial straw poll of attendees who were asked who they preferred as the Republican nominee for president in 2024. Of course this is the same group that allowed the Hungarian authoritarian leader to the conference and cheered him. It Trump didn’t run, they’d pick Florida “governor” Rick DeSantis at 65%. Trump had 70% in 2021. And yet a pollster for Trump who conducted the straw poll said “He’s more popular than ever.” More popular but lost 1%?

With Rudy Giuliani just days away from his scheduled appearance before an Atlanta grand jury related to the election probe about Trump, his lawyer asked for a last-minute delay — providing a doctor’s note saying the 78-year-old was not cleared to fly because of a recent “invasive procedure.” The email response from the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was unyielding. “We do not consent to change the date,” wrote a deputy to Willis, adding: “We will provide alternate transportation including bus or train if your client maintains he is unable to fly.”

Someone flew a banner over Mar-A-Lago this week with the message “Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha”.