Still another crazy week in Trumpland

Donald Trump posted a $175 million bond to prevent New York authorities from seizing his assets, including properties such as Trump Tower, pending appeal of a civil fraud judgment against him of nearly a half-billion dollars. Trump posting of the bond was necessary to keep New York Attorney General Letitia James from initiating legal steps to take over his properties. The bond arrangement was made with Knight Specialty Insurance Company, according to a court document. About 30 surety companies he consulted with would not accept his real estate as collateral, only liquid assets.

[The CEO of Knight Specialty Insurance Company is also a large investor in Internet bank named Axos. Axos’ CEO and top investors have strong financial ties to the GOP. Axos loan Trump $100 million previously. Not surprising with the 30 companies. Between going bankrupt 4 times and inflating the worth of those properties he owned, it’s no surprise he wasn’t popular with them.]

If he does not win his appeal, Trump will still owe more than $450 million from a civil court judgment after James won the fraud case against him, alleging he deceived lenders and insurance companies by inflating his net worth by up to $2.2 billion annually from 2011 to 2021. Trump’s tab is growing by about $100,000 per day because interest will continue to accrue until the appeal ends.

Trump attacked Judge Juan Merchan for issuing the gag order – and he went after the judge’s daughter for her liberal political work, exploiting the ambiguous language in the order that didn’t explicitly forbid discussion of Merchan’s family. It didn’t take long for Merchan pushed back, expanding the gag order to cover his family – though the judge remains fair game for Trump – and attempting to limit Trump’s vitriol two weeks before the trial is set to begin.

[It should be standard practice that when you have Trump as a defendant, a gag order should be issued to cover the judge, court personnel and their families. The Republicans and their propaganda backers are saying that since the judge’s daughter works as a Democrat “activists”, she will influence her father’s decision. She did post something a while back saying Trump should be in prison. But that could be the same thoughts of most left leaning voters. Does Trump want a right leaning judge with a right leaning family who want no prison time for Trump?]

Then Merchan denied his motion to delay its start until after the US Supreme Court rules on Trump’s presidential immunity claim, calling it untimely and noting Trump’s lawyers had months to file a motion over the issue.

The prosecutor, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, in Trump’s upcoming hush money trial has asked Judge Merchan to clarify whether a gag order issued for Trump recently bars him from publicly attacking the judge’s adult daughter — and to expand the order if it doesn’t.

Trump’s lawyers said Merchan’s gag order does not apply to comments about the judge’s family members and Trump’s recent posts had not violated the order and repeatedly argued that any limitation on his speech is a clear violation of his First Amendment rights and his rights as a presidential candidate.

[It would basically be open season any judge and his/her family if someone like Trump can constantly lie, harass and abuse the judge and his family. What judge would want to be a judge knowing him/her as well as the family could be threatened?]

A criminal case that was once viewed as the most open-and-shut prosecution against Trump has been mired in delay, unresolved logistical questions and fringe legal arguments that appear to have hijacked US District Judge Aileen Cannon’s attention. Special counsel Jack Smith said Cannon had asked for briefs that were premised on a “fundamentally flawed” understanding of the case that had “no basis in law or fact.”

In a 2022 lawsuit Trump brought attacking the FBI’s documents investigation, Cannon granted an extraordinary Trump request for a third-party review of the FBI’s 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago resort for the classified documents. A conservative appeals court repeatedly reversed her rulings in the lawsuit, scolding her for giving Trump special treatment no other private citizen would receive, and shut down the review. Cannon’s rulings in the 2022 lawsuit were so outside the bounds that people rightly became suspicious of her motives.

[Cannon was appointed by Trump in 2020 and it shows that she is inexperienced. The probability of having the trial begin before the election is fading. On top of that, if Trump does win the election, he will shut down this and any other open cases against him.]

Observers were shocked when Cannon summoned the parties to Florida to present their theories on the validity of the charges.

[A judge generally doesn’t do that. She is judging 32 of the 91 charges against Trump.]

Judge Cannon will not dismiss the classified documents charges against Trump, who argued that he had the authority to take classified or sensitive documents with him after he left the White House. The short order from Judge Cannon leaves open the possibility that Trump could still use the argument to defend himself at trial.

[Well, at least she did something that is mostly right.]

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee upheld the criminal indictment against Trump in Georgia, rejecting the argument that Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election were protected under the First Amendment. “The defense has not presented, nor is the Court able to find, any authority that the speech and conduct alleged is protected political speech,” Judge McAfee wrote in his order.

[Unsure how Trump could ask for a dismissal when he clearly asked for an exact number of votes to be found that would declare him barely the winner.]

Lawyers for several defendants in the Georgia criminal case against Trump and others have been weighing whether to press for a gag order against Atlanta-area prosecutor Fani Willis, especially if efforts to disqualify her fail. Willis has continued to speak publicly about the case. A gag order against one of Trump’s biggest foes could score political points and help him and his co-defendants in the short term. But it could also backfire by undercutting their efforts to have Willis disqualified from the case, or by inspiring efforts to seek a gag order against Trump and other defendants who have publicly criticized Willis.

In one of Trump’s ever growing number of lies, after a 25 year old woman was killed by a migrant, Trump said “She lit up that room, and I’ve heard that from so many people…. I spoke to some of her family.” Except the family said he never spoke to them.

[Shocked? I’m not.]

“What the hell was Biden thinking when he declared Easter Sunday to be Trans Visibility Day?” Trump said, suggesting that the declaration showed “total disrespect to Christians.”

[Trans Visibility Day has always been May 31st. It just so happens that Easter was early this year. He said nothing about National Crayon Day.]

In the federal election interference case, Judge Tanya Chutkan previously also heard – and rejected – the argument that Trump’s actions should be considered protected political speech.

“Sending eight emails and texts a day that promise an artificial match, threaten to take away your GOP membership, or call you a traitor if you don’t donate doesn’t build a long-term relationship with donors,” said a Republican fundraiser.

[Spam, abuse, and threats all rolled into one.]

Trump said recently if he does not win November’s presidential election it will mean the likely end of American democracy.

[More like if he wins….]

Just a couple weeks after saying there will be a “bloodbath” if he doesn’t win the election in November, Trump repeated his call as well as repeatedly calling illegal immigrants “animals” and claiming they bring in disease and violence. After the first time he mentioned bloodbath, his campaign after claimed the word was intended for the auto industry.

[If you believe that I have a nice piece of land to sell you on Pluto.]

Some Trump cronies are thinking of pushing Nebraska to change their electoral vote. Nebraska and Maine are the only two states where their House representatives are not an all or nothing but by district. MAGA people think that they have a better change of getting the Nebraska state House of Representatives [note that they don’t have a senate] to switch to all or nothing before the elections and before the state House session ends.

The reason for the push to change? If the states won by Biden stays the same except Nevada and New Mexico, Biden would be ahead by 2 House representatives. If Nebraska went all to Trump [instead of one district that would go to Biden], it would be an even 269 representatives for each. In a tie, each state would then have one vote to cast and there are more Trump states than Biden states.

[Another dumb way to break a “tie breaker”. Just as bad as the NHL tiebreaker by having a shoot-out.]

At least six Republicans want to change the name of Washington Dulles International Airport to Donald J. Trump International Airport.

“Donald Trump is facing 91 felony charges,” Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly, whose district includes part of Dulles, said in a statement. “If Republicans want to name something after him, I’d suggest they find a federal prison.”

[Or maybe Rikers Island? Dulles is considered as one of the worst airports in the world. It is old and antiquated.]

Trump’s DJT stock on NASDAQ lost over $4 billion in worth at one point in its first week of trading. In about ten days the stock was half the price of the highest price [almost $80 on March 26].

Trump has filed a lawsuit against two of the company’s co-founders, both former contestants on “The Apprentice.” Trump Media’s lawsuit accuses them of “mismanagement,” saying they “failed spectacularly at every turn” and “made a series of reckless and wasteful decisions.”

[And why wait so long to release this lawsuit? Unlike the morons who he hires in his cabinet who later on say things he doesn’t like, he can’t sue them. But he can sue the two co-founders.]

A Florida venture capitalist and his brother moved toward potential guilty pleas in an insider trading case connected to the merger that took Donald Trump’s social media company public. A third man was also involved in the insider trading. They pleaded innocent from the 2021 case but could change their pleas. Prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of a bank account, the yacht and three Yamaha Jet Skis that were tendered to the vessel by one of the three men.

Trump has previously called immigrants “animals” and blamed migrants for “coming into our country with contagious diseases.” He warned of “illegal alien criminals crawling through your windows and ransacking your drawers,” where they “loot the jewellery.” When migrants aren’t busy doing that, they’re fixing to “obliterate Medicare and Social Security” and fill schools with “new migrant students who don’t speak a word of English.”

Regarding Trump [and the various conspiracy nuts] regarding that immigrants are causing higher crime, homicide and violent crime, after rising during the pandemic, have dropped for two straight years and are lower than during Trump’s final year in office. There is scant evidence that immigrants — legal or undocumented — commit more than their share of crime, and a lot of evidence that migrants are more law-abiding.

Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro asked the Supreme Court to take another look at his request to avoid prison, filing a long-shot request on Tuesday that the high court rarely grants. This after serving so far 15 days of his four month vacation. He’s in prison for his contempt of Congress conviction.

[He wants out early maybe because he was a bad boy and his TV privileges were reduced. ]

Trump still takes claim for killing Roe vs Wade but all he did was load the supreme court with right wing justices unless he ordered them to kill Roe vs Wade.

Trump also takes at least partial credit from the various states who have reduced or banned abortions.

Former Republican leaning contributor, George Conway, donated over $900,000 to Biden’s campaign and will headline a fundraiser for Biden.

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.

Trump says he wants to testify – should be fun

Donald Trump says that he wants to testify at the trial in Fulton County. [You think he will? He is a narcissist with this huge ego. So that part says he will. However, his lawyers will tell him not to do as he has a very good chance of perjuring himself or get out of line.]

The Fulton County district attorney’s office said it’s planned a four months-long trial with more than 150 witnesses, while defense attorneys for two of the defendants, pro-Trump lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, argued their cases should be severed from the other defendants.

The state judge presiding over Trump’s election subversion case, Scott McAfee, denied the motion for Chesebro and Powell – who have both filed to hold a speedy trial – to sever their cases from each other, but he was skeptical of the district attorney’s desire to hold a trial for all 19 defendants beginning next month.

[To make sure they have enough room, maybe hold the trial at the Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium.]

An Atlanta-area special grand jury that spent months investigating alleged 2020 election interference in Georgia by Trump and his allies agreed Trump should be indicted in the case and also recommended charging one of Trump’s closest associates, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and 37 other people — a far larger group than a prosecutor ultimately charged. The recommendations were contained in a 26-page final report presented in January to Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis and made public by a judge.

Special counsel Jack Smith [“Saint Jack” to some] is still pursuing his investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election a month after indicting Trump for orchestrating a broad conspiracy to remain in power. Smith is focusing on how money raised off baseless claims of voter fraud was used to fund attempts to breach voting equipment in several states won by President Biden.

Prosecutors have focused their questions on the role of former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell. Powell’s non-profit, Defending the Republic, hired forensics firms that ultimately accessed voting equipment in four swing states won by Biden: Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona.

Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro has been convicted of contempt of Congress for two charges for not complying to a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Each charges carries a range of 30 days to a year [very unlikely] plus a fine. Navarro will already said [not surprisingly] that he will appeal.

Just before his press conference after the announcement, Navarro had a slight run-in with an anti-Trump demonstrator where he tried twice to pull down her sign. [She may have been hoping that he’d grab her which could lead to an assault charge – all this on camera.]

Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has filed his notice of appeal to the US 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in his bid to move his Georgia criminal case to federal court. “When questioned about the scope of his authority, Meadows was unable to explain the limits of his authority, other than his inability to stump for the President or work on behalf of the campaign,” the judge wrote, saying he would give Meadows’ testimony on that topic “less weight” than the other evidence. Jones also cited Meadows’ acknowledgement that the lawyers he included in an infamous 2021 phone call with Georgia’s secretary of state were working for Trump or his campaign — not the government.

A liberal group filed a lawsuit to bar Trump from the primary ballot in Colorado, arguing he is ineligible to run for the White House again under a rarely used clause in the US Constitution aimed at candidates who have supported an “insurrection.” The lawsuit, citing the 14th Amendment, is likely the initial step in a legal challenge that seems destined for the US Supreme Court. The complaint was filed on behalf of six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters by the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem endorsed Trump at a campaign rally in her home state. There are rumors going around that she is hoping that Trump pick her as his vice presidential running mate when he wins the nomination. This of course goes against the norm as the running mate tends to be from a state where it could flip to either party and where possible from the other side of the country where the presidential candidate is from. Picking Noem would be twice against the norm as Pence was from Indiana and more conservative than Trump [or Noem].

Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and onetime attorney to Trump, owes an estimated $5 million in legal fees, a debt that Giuliani hopes to eat into at a fundraiser at Trump’s Bedminster golf club. Giuliani is expected to take in more than $1 million for his legal defense fund at a $100,000-a-plate fundraiser hosted by Trump. It is the first of two fundraisers Trump is expected to sponsor for Giuliani. There are estimates that Giuliani has lost between $10-$20 million in business because of his work for Trump.

Mar-a-Lago IT worker Yuscil Taveras has struck a cooperation agreement with the special counsel’s office in the federal case over Trump’s handling of classified documents, Taveras’ former defense attorney said in a new court filing.

Taveras struck the deal with prosecutors after he was threatened with prosecution, defense attorney Stanley Woodward wrote in the filing. Taveras is referred to in the filing and in the superseding indictment as “Trump Employee 4.”

Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that the jury hearing E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit will only need to decide how much money Trump will have to pay her, after the judge found him was liable for making defamatory statements. Kaplan said that a federal jury’s verdict earlier this year against Trump will carry over to the defamation case set to go to trial in January involving statements Trump made in 2019 about Carroll’s sexual assault allegations.

Carroll, a former magazine columnist, alleged Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s and then defamed her when he denied her claim. In May 2023, after a two-week trial, a jury found Trump sexually abused Carroll and defamed her when he said in 2022 that he didn’t rape her, didn’t know her, and that she wasn’t his “type.” In that case, the jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages.

So President Biden visited Maui and Florida and didn’t throw paper towels at anyone.

Trump’s media start-up, Truth Social, back in announced in October 2021 that it planned to merge with a Miami-based company called Digital World Acquisition and would close within 12 to 18 months. With the $300 million Digital World had already raised from investors, Trump Media & Technology Group, creator of the pro-Trump social network Truth Social, pledged then that the merger would create a tech titan worth $875 million at the start and, depending on the stock’s performance, up to $1.7 billion later.

With the merger stalled for months, Digital World is fast approaching a Sept. 8 deadline for the merger to close and has scheduled a shareholder meeting in hopes of getting enough votes to extend the deadline another year. If the vote fails, Digital World will be required by law to liquidate and return $300 million to its shareholders, leaving Trump’s company with nothing from the transaction. Digital World’s share price, which peaked in its first hours at $175, has since fallen to about $14.

Digital World’s efforts to merge with Trump Media have been troubled almost from the start:

• allegations that it began its conversations with Trump’s company before they were permitted under SPAC rules
• the company agreed to pay an $18 million settlement to resolve charges that it had misled investors and given false information to the Securities and Exchange Commission
• its chief executive was terminated by the board
• a former board member was arrested on charges of insider trading

Another Trump lawsuit tossed

Donald Trump’s lawsuit against Attorney General Letitia James — which claimed that her long-term civil investigation into his business practices was an abuse of authority that needed to be stopped — has been dismissed US District Judge Brenda K. Sannes in Syracuse, NY. His attempt to halt James’ probe into the Trump Organization and its dealings with lenders and tax authorities was rejected in a 43-page decision made public by Sannes. In a statement, James said her office would “continue this investigation undeterred,” suggesting that Trump has made efforts to “choose how the law” applies to him.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has begun testifying before a special grand jury investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. Raffensperger arrived roughly half an hour before his scheduled testimony, saying it would be “hopefully short” on his way into the courthouse. The Republican is a central witness in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ investigation, which kicked off after Raffensperger’s infamous January 2021 call with Trump came to light. During the call, Trump pressured Raffensperger to “find” the votes necessary for Trump to win Georgia — a state Joe Biden won by nearly 12,000 votes.

As the House committee investigating the Trump Insurrection continues, more information comes to light with quite a few Trump allies asking what Trump is doing about it and maybe tell his supports to stop the insurrection. Of course it came too late.

Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro has been subpoenaed by the Justice Department as part of the probe into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. Navarro, who was a trade adviser to Trump, revealed the subpoena in a lawsuit he filed against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the bipartisan House committee investigating the attack.

Navarro said in February with a statement rejecting the request and the committee’s legitimacy and blaming Pelosi, among others, for the violence that occurred at the Trump Insurrection. He argued that Trump “has invoked Executive Privilege; and it is not my privilege to waive.” How was Pelosi and others [I’m sure all Democrats] were to blame for the Trump Insurrection?

John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the FBI’s original investigation of Russia’s effort to help Trump get elected president in 2016 is basically over. Durham, a prosecutor appointed in 2019 by then-Attorney General William Barr, would blow the lid off the real scandal, they said, which was a conspiracy between Democrats and the FBI to get Trump. After $3.8 million spent, what came out of it? He delivered two indictments, both of people no one ever would have heard of and both for the crime of lying to investigators. One just acquitted and the other one is pending.

A poll released in February found that among Republican voters who were considering candidates for the 2024 presidential race, 54% supported Trump, which made him the top choice for securing the party’s nomination. Florida “governor” Ron DeSantis polled second at 21%, while other possible candidates such as former Vice President Mike Pence polled at no more than 1%.

House select committee ramps up

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot [a.k.a. Trump Insurrection] is moving forward with criminal contempt proceedings against former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows after he halted cooperation with the panel.

“He’s got to condemn this sh?t ASAP,” Donald Trump Jr. told Meadows via text during the day of the Trump Insurrection. Donald Trump’s allies were privately crying out for an Oval Office statement or anything by Trump to call off the rioters. Still, Trump did nothing while the sacking of the Capitol carried on.

Meadows then complained that the committee was selectively choosing messages related to the insurrection. Of course! Why would the committee choose text message about a hockey game the prior night or where to go for lunch? Meadows didn’t mind sending out excerpts of his new book and going on talk shows related to his time with Trump but not for an investigation that is one of the most violent on the capitol probably since the Civil War.

The House select committee issued six additional subpoenas, including one to former aide to Trump and current Ohio congressional candidate Max Miller. Miller took to Twitter to say he would accept the subpoena. But he also railed against the committee’s investigation, pledging that one of his first acts as a member of the House would be to help disband the panel. Most expect the committee to be finished prior to the mid-term elections. [I’m surprised Miller didn’t complain that the investigation will hurt his chances of winning his seat.

DC Attorney General Karl A. Racine sued the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers over the Jan. 6 attack on Congress, seeking to use a law written to cripple the Ku Klux Klan to seek stiff financial penalties from the far-right groups that Racine alleges were responsible for the violence. The lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington cites the modern version of an 1871 law known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, which was enacted after the Civil War to safeguard government officials carrying out their duties and protect civil rights.

Peter Navarro, who served as Trump’s incompetent trade adviser and closely consulted on the White House’s pathetic virus strategy, cited a “direct order” from Trump to claim executive privilege, according to a letter released by the panel. “[T]his matter is out of my hands and something that the Sub-Committee should discuss with President Trump’s counsel,” Navarro wrote to the Trump Insurrection committee on Dec. 7, rejecting their requests to turn over documents and share other information about the White House coronavirus response by their Dec. 8 deadline.

Roger Stone, a staunch ally of Trump, met briefly with the House select committee investigating the January 6 riot and asserted his Fifth Amendment rights to every question asked, he said. Stone emerged from the deposition after only an hour-and-a-half and told reporters he invoked the Fifth Amendment, which offers protection against self-incrimination, “not because I have done anything wrong, but because I am fully aware of the House Democrats’ long history of fabricating perjury charges. “I question the legitimacy of this inquiry,” Stone said, “based on the fact that Speaker Pelosi rejected the appointment of Republicans to this committee and seated two anti-Trump Republicans. This is witch hunt 3.0.” [Pelosi had the right to reject any appointments to the committee and as for “long history of fabricating perjury charges”, I wonder if he could give examples. Nah. Forget it.]

Stone used the hours before his deposition to raise money for his legal defence fund on his social media accounts and to insist he hasn’t done anything wrong. He’ll need his defence fund now. Stone not only promoted his appearance at a January 6 “Stop the Steal” event but solicited donations for it and stated his purpose at the rally was to “lead a march to the Capitol,” according to the panel’s subpoena letter to him. The committee added that Stone used members of the Oath Keepers as personal security guards.

Trump’s social media venture said it has entered into a technology and cloud-services agreement with Canadian video platform Rumble. As part of the agreement, Rumble will deliver video and streaming for TRUTH Social, the proposed social media app from Trump. Rumble was launched in 2013 by tech entrepreneur Chris Pavlovski as an alternative YouTube-style site, and is popular among US conservatives seeking an alternative to Big Tech.

From mayhem at the G6 plus 1 to a summit with many unanswers

….. What a week!

Republican and Democratic leaders aren’t quite celebrating Donald Trump’s historic meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, saying the initial agreement they struck won’t mean much unless the North completely denuclearizes. The agreement on the North Korean side seems more like a pledge. Trump agreed to stop military maneuvers with South Korea and remove the US military from there as well but no other details. The 28,500 personnel would return home and Trump claims this is to save money.

Seems nothing was done with North Korea’s human rights records where for the simplest crime, it can send you to as gulag for years. Or shot at a firing squad or even blown up [the former is what he did to his own uncle].

Is Trump doing this to show he did something that no US leader in the last 60+ years could do and/or to increase his chances of getting a Nobel Peace Prize. Seems his critics said he gave everything away and got nothing in return as North Korea has previously reneged on deals. The Trump-Kim agreement does not define what denuclearization would mean. Wonder, as well, if this is a way for the North Korea to invade as the South Koreans could be defenseless.

Trump called Un someone he can trust and talented… Sure. Even an invitation to invite Un to the White House.

At least one Republican, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., took a harsher stance at Trump’s “agreement” with Kim Jun Un: “While I know @potus is trying to butter him up to get a good deal, #KJU is NOT a talented guy,” Rubio tweeted. “He inherited the family business from his dad & grandfather. He is a total weirdo who would not be elected assistant dog catcher in any democracy.”

At the G7, Trump said that his relationships with other Western leaders are perfect [this prior to the end of the summit]. Fat chance on that. Implementing tariffs, leaving trade pacts, leaving security pacts. He also insisted that the Quebec summit had been “tremendously, tremendously successful” despite accusing other nations of using the United States as a “piggy bank.”

Trump rescinded his support for a closing communique he had endorsed only hours earlier. This is because Trump clearly took offence to comments made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who let Trump have it at his own news conference closing the event. Why was Trump upset with the comments made by Trudeau: “Canadians, we’re polite, we’re reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around.”

Trump had left the summit early [and he showed up at the Saturday morning talks late], supposedly to get to Singapore early for him meeting with Kim Jun Un.  But he may have also left early because the last topics weren’t to his taste: environment and climate control.

It wasn’t just Trudeau who spoke after left. Trudeau’s comments were made before, during and after the summit – even to Trump in private meetings. Did this really upset Trump or maybe Trump felt he wasn’t the big winner at the summit [for his ego]. While Trudeau did it at a press conference, Trump’s remarks were on [of course] Twitter where no real reports can question him. Coward.

As for the communique, all seven leaders had agreed to what it said. To rescind it later for something another leaders said and not the contents of the communique is childish.
After saying that they are close to a deal in NAFTA, there are some hints that this spat could even halt or slow down the talks. Seriously?

Trump even said at one point that his relationship with the other leaders is “a 10”. This was before his Twitter comments and reneging on the communique.

Peter Navarro, a trade adviser to Trump, said “There’s a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door.” Great diplomacy there Peter.  Hilariously, Navarro said Trump “did the courtesy to Justin Trudeau to travel up to Quebec for that summit” and that Trump had “bigger things on his plate” than the G7 meeting. What leader has never attended a G7 summit? Navarro late did apologize.

Trump, in a tweet, asked why the US should allow countries to continue to make “massive trade surpluses,” asserting that it is “not fair to the people of America” and that the US is suffering under a “$800 billion trade deficit.” Whining again. Does he know economics? Would other countries’ leaders be whining about this subject? The US is a country that needs more resources than sales. In some cases, those resources are cheaper to bring in from elsewhere than manufacture domestically.

“Germany pays 1% (slowly) of GDP towards NATO, while we pay 4% of a MUCH larger GDP. Does anybody believe that makes sense? We protect Europe (which is good) at great financial loss, and then get unfairly clobbered on Trade. Change is coming!” Didn’t he say changes were coming last year?

Trump has whined about the tariffs protecting the Canadian industry when he forgets [or did he] that his government gives the US industry $22 billion in subsidies.

France and Germany have criticized Trump for threatening to pull the United States out of a joint statement with key G7 allies. This picture says it all.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made clear her disquiet with Trump’s policies, arguing that Germany may no longer be able to rely on its US ally. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said “It’s actually not a real surprise. We have seen this with the climate agreement or the Iran deal. In a matter of seconds, you can destroy trust with 280 Twitter characters.”

Following the G7, Trump suggested that Russia be allowed back into the global group despite their continued occupation of Crimea. “I would say that the G8 is a more meaningful group than the G7, absolutely,” Trump said. “You’ll have to ask Obama, because he was the one that let Crimea get away” he said when asked about the annexation. “He allowed Russia to take Crimea. I may have had a much different attitude.”

This comments is sort of the equivalent of a mass murderer getting pardoned because it happened a couple of years ago and not on his “watch”. The other G7 counties [except Italy] plus the European Union do not want Russia to be back in the group as long as Crimea is in Russia’s hands.

The European Union backed a Group of Seven declaration that Trump abruptly left. European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas added that EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker thanked Trudeau “for the excellent preparation and chairing of this challenging summit.” British Prime Minister Theresa May also went out of her way to thank her Canadian counterpart “for his leadership and skilful [sic] chairing” of what she called “a difficult summit with at times some very candid discussions.”

Trump told French President Emmanuel Macron during their recent meeting in Washington that there are too many German cars in the United States. The source did not say that Trump explicitly said he wanted all German-made cars out of the US.

Trump declared he thinks the Russia probe is “very biased” and has reservations about being interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller, raising more questions on whether he will consent to an interview as part of the investigation. Not even a month ago he said he wanted to be interviewed. He [of course] didn’t say what changed his mind – if anything – but he changes his mind as often the stock market index changes.

Trump’s comments came a day after the Justice Department watchdog released a report critical of how former FBI Director James Comey handled the 2016 Hillary Clinton email probe. The report contained messages from FBI agents who spoke critically of Trump. Unsure how you equate FBI agents and a separate investigation by Mueller who isn’t even using FBI agents. The report didn’t find evidence that political bias influenced the investigation of Clinton’s email practices prior to the election.

Trump sought to further discredit the probe, saying the “problem with the Mueller investigation is everybody’s got massive conflicts.” And he doesn’t? He reiterated his longstanding contention there was no collusion between his campaign and Russians and the report exonerates him. He has said this before. The report isn’t really about him directly.

Trump tweeted “I worked hard on this, along with a Great Team of talented people” when asked about the US co-hosting the winning bid for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. He sent signed letters [I’m sure written by someone else] to the FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Then he spoiled things by saying “Why should we be supporting these countries when they don’t support us (including at the United Nations)?” to those nations that did vote for the Canada/Mexico/US bid.

There is talk of a bipartisan bill where announcements of tariffs would be removed from a president’s hands and to Congress.

Woops. EPA administrator Scott Pruitt is in trouble again. It seems and aide and donors used their pull to find a job for Pruitt’s wife. When will he lose his?

Trump, it seems, broke a[nother] law. White House aides realized earlier on that they could not stop Trump from tearing up papers he must preserve to stay in line with the Presidential Records Act. So to avoid clashing with the law, some staffers have taped his pieces back together like a jigsaw puzzle. The Presidential Records Act requires presidential records be preserved and transferred to the National Archives. [The same act says tweets can’t be deleted.]

Trump hit back at Robert De Niro, calling him a “very low IQ individual,” after the Oscar-winning actor’s expletive-laden attack on the American president on live television for the Tony Awards. The network has a delay – so most Americans didn’t hear what Bobby said. Trump said he had watched the clip “and (I) truly believe he may be punch drunk.” I would guess prior to this De Niro is/was one of Trump’s favorite actors.

Fox News criticized former President Obama for his willingness to “talk to dictators.” Now, conservative media praises Trump’s work with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The Trump administration is creating an office within the agency that grants US citizenship to root out fraudsters and have their citizenship taken away. The targets are people who have already been rejected from the US, but who create a new identity to gain citizenship afterward. A 2016 Homeland Security Department Inspector General report found that at least 858 people had been given US citizenship despite having been deported under a different identity, because their fingerprints had not been in the system.

Congressional Republicans distanced themselves from the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their parents at the southern border, even as the White House cited the Bible in defending its “zero tolerance” approach to illegal border crossings. “I can say that it is very biblical to enforce the law. That is actually repeated a number of times throughout the Bible,” said White House press secretary Sarah “Simpleton” Sanders.

When a reporter asked about her “very biblical” remark, Sanders suggested he was taking her words out of context, adding: “I know it’s hard for you to understand, even short sentences, I guess.” She sounds like her boss.

Trump accuses the Democrats of causing the problem with the separated children but he refuses to sign any bills that would fix the problem since he entered office. There are at least 2000 children separated from their parents in a period of 7 weeks. Yet the policy of separating children began this April.

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort will await his trial for foreign lobbying charges from jail. Two weeks after Robert Mueller’s prosecutors dropped new accusations of witness tampering on him, US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson revoked Manafort’s bail, which allowed him out on house arrest. Trump tweeted after ” Didn’t know Manafort was the head of the Mob.” Yes. Trump is a mob boss.

Last week, Mueller’s team alleged they found evidence Manafort had tried to tell possible witnesses in his case to lie about their lobbying efforts under him in the US. The witness tampering allegations, which also resulted in new criminal charges, were enough for him to lose his house arrest privileges.

China accused the United States of firing the first shot when the White House said that it would impose tariffs of 25% on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods. The Chinese government said it would respond in kind to the US tariffs, which will apply to roughly 1,100 exports and will target China’s aerospace, robotics, manufacturing and auto industries.

Beijing will impose tariffs on 545 US items worth $34 billion [same amount as the first wave of American tariffs] starting on July 6. Tariffs on the remaining 114 items will start later.

Trump endorsed GOP Senate candidate Corey Stewart, a candidate who the National Republican Senate Committee is refusing to endorse for his extreme views.

With this busy week, looks like I will add another posting early next week!