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Donald J. Trump After the White House - Page 2

Vice President Harris said Trump wants "unchecked power" after his former Chief of Staff said the former President praised Hitler. NBC News' Vaughn Hillyard, New York Times White House Correspondent Peter Baker and Jewish Council for Public Affairs President Amy Spitalnick join Chris Jansing to discuss.
Story by Steve Benen

In late 2018, as Donald Trump prepared to launch a lengthy government shutdown, the then-president went out of his way to tell the public exactly who was responsible for the crisis.

“I am proud to shut down the government,” the Republican declared the week before federal operations ceased. Trump added, “I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. I’m not going to blame [then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer] for it. ... I will take the mantle of shutting down.”

When the shutdown actually happened, and it became politically problematic, the then-president briefly tried to shift gears and tell the public that it wasn’t really his fault, but by then, it was too late: Trump had already bragged, with pride and in unambiguous terms, that the shutdown was entirely his creation.

All of this came to mind recently when the former president recently said he wasn’t responsible for killing the bipartisan border bill that he killed months earlier. NBC News ran this report a few weeks ago:

Trump falsely said in remarks in Walker, Michigan ... that he wasn’t responsible for the collapse in the Senate of the bipartisan border bill earlier this year. The former president said that [Vice President Kamala] Harris went to the border today and said she made up “some lies,” including that Trump stopped the border bill in Congress.

“Let me tell you, number one, I didn’t stop it,” Trump said.

In case anyone needs a refresher, it was last fall when congressional Republicans said they were so desperate to deal with U.S./Mexico border policies that they took a radical step: GOP officials said that unless Democrats agreed to a series of conservative reforms, Republicans were prepared to cut off military aid to Ukraine and let Russia take part of Eastern Europe by force.

Democrats, left with little choice, agreed to pay the GOP’s ransom and endorsed a conservative, bipartisan compromise. At that point, Republicans killed the compromise plan they’d demanded — because Trump told them to.

Making matters worse, the calculus was electoral, not substantive: The former president didn’t want Congress to hand President Joe Biden an election-year victory on one of the party’s top priorities. Republicans followed Trump’s lead and concluded that they’d rather have a campaign issue than a solution.

The list of GOP policymakers who said that Trump was responsible killing the bipartisan deal was not short. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, for example, blamed the former president for the legislation’s demise. So did Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, who helped write the bill.
'Will absolutely make sure his enemies pay': Trump has made 100+ direct threats during 2024 campaign
Story by Alex Henderson

When Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), former President Donald Trump's running mate, defends Trump during his appearances on right-wing media outlets, he typically accuses Democrats and Never Trump conservatives of overreacting to things he says. Trump's critics, Vance argues, fail to appreciate his sense of humor and don't realize that he "speaks from the heart."

But Vice President Kamala Harris, on the campaign trail, has emphasized that when Trump praises authoritarians or threatens to jail political opponents, he needs to be taken seriously. And Harris likes to quote poet Maya Angelou's famous warning, "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."

In an article published on October 22, National Public Radio (NPR) reporter Tom Dreisbach demonstrates that Trump's threats to take revenge against political foes aren't merely off-the-cuff remarks he occasionally makes — they are part of a disturbing pattern.

Dreisbach, in fact, cites more than 100 examples of Trump making such threats during his 2024 campaign alone.

"With just two weeks remaining until the presidential election," Dreisbach explains, "former President Donald Trump has used his most recent appearances on podcast and cable interviews to escalate attacks on fellow Americans whom he calls 'the enemy from within.' In one recent interview, Trump said that if 'radical-left lunatics' disrupt the election, 'it should be very easily handled by — if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.'"
'Donald, Come On!': Tim Walz Taunts 'Rambling' Trump With A Hair-Raising Fact-Check
Story by Ed Mazza

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz mocked Donald Trump’s latest excuse for his rambling speeches by taking a shot at the former president’s hair.

Trump calls his wild off-topic rants “the weave,” which he insists is actually “the most brilliant thing.”

But Walz said on Tuesday that Trump has been “rambling more than the normal rambling,” and isn’t buying the “weave” excuse.
Story by David Badash

Fox News host Brian Kilmeade is under fire for what some see as him defending Donald Trump’s embrace of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s regime, including reportedly saying he wanted “Hitler’s generals,” when he was president.

“Donald Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff is warning that the Republican presidential nominee meets the definition of a fascist and that while in office, Trump suggested that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ‘did some good things,'” The Associated Press reports. “The comments from John Kelly, the retired Marine general who worked for Trump in the White House from 2017 to 2019, came in interviews with both The New York Times and The Atlantic. They build on a growing series of warnings from former top Trump officials as the election enters its final weeks.”

“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,’” Kelly (photo above, with Trump) told The New York Times, the AP notes.

“In his interview with The Atlantic, Kelly recalled that when Trump raised the idea of needing ‘German generals,’ Kelly would ask if he meant ‘Bismarck’s generals,’ referring to Otto von Bismarck, the former chancellor of the German Reich who oversaw the unification of Germany. ‘Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals,’ Kelly recalled asking Trump. To which the former president responded, ‘Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.'”
When Donald Trump got the bill for Vanessa Guillén’s funeral in 2020, he reportedly raged, “It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f---ing Mexican!”
Josh Fiallo

Donald Trump raged when he learned the funeral bill for Vanessa Guillén—the U.S. soldier who was sexually harassed and horrifically murdered by a male soldier at Fort Hood in 2020—cost $60,000, a bombshell report revealed Tuesday.

That outburst came after Trump invited Guillén’s loved ones to the White House and offered to pay for her funeral, The Atlantic reported.

Guillén, a 20-year-old American of Mexican ancestry from Houston, was buried in her hometown on Aug. 15, 2020. Months later, in December, Trump reportedly asked his advisers in a meeting, “Did they bill us for the funeral? What did it cost?”

When an aide responded “yes” with the bill’s total, Trump allegedly unraveled. “It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f---ing Mexican,” he said, according to people in the meeting who spoke to the Atlantic.

Rep. Jim Himes, Democratic Congressman from Connecticut and Miles Taylor, Former Chief of Staff at the Department of Homeland Security joins Nicolle Wallace on Deadline White House with reaction to the stunning reporting from Jefferey Goldberg of the Atlantic in the waning days of the Trump Presidency where Trump claims the family of a fallen U.S. soldier tried to ‘rip him off’, and admired the generals that Adolf Hitler were able to surround themselves with. NBC News has not independently verified The Atlantic’s reporting.
Story by Lily Mae Lazarus

Donald Trump kicked off his day-long tour in North Carolina by surveying the damage caused by Hurricane Helene and railing against federal emergency responders.

“I think you have to let people know how they’re doing,” the former president told reporters outside Asheville on Monday when asked about the threats against FEMA workers.

“If they were doing a great job, I think we should say that too because I think they should be rewarded … If they’re doing a poor job, we’re supposed to not say it?”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency recently paused its recovery effort in the area amid a flurry of threats and reports of being targeted by militias, and, on Oct. 12, a North Carolina man, armed with an assault rifle, was arrested for allegedly threatening FEMA workers.
Story by Sareen Habeshian

Former President Trump admitted Monday he has seen no evidence to suggest there has been any election fraud in 2024, but raised doubts about "the other side."

Why it matters: The Republican presidential nominee's admission stands in stark contrast to his typical rhetoric on election integrity that has seen him make baseless claims about "rigged" polling places since 2016.

In echoes of the 2020 campaign, Trump has orchestrated a series of excuses to reject the results of the 2024 election in case he loses, in public remarks, on social media and in more than 100 preemptive lawsuits.

Hours after Trump admitted there was no evidence of election fraud, he reverted to making unfounded claims about "cheating."

Zoom in: During a press conference on the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, Trump was asked by a reporter whether he's seen any evidence to suggest the 2024 election would not be fair.

Trump responded, saying: "I haven't."

He added: "Unfortunately, I know the other side, and they are not good. But I have not seen that."

Trump then turned to Michael Whatley, chair of the Republican National Committee, and asked if he's seen anything suspicious while noting it's early in the voting process.
Story by Andy Hirschfeld

In the United States, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump faces a growing pile of missed payments for rallies and legal bills during his current bid for the presidency, previous campaigns, and in the private sector.

This comes only weeks before the 2024 general election, where he is set to face off against Democratic presidential candidate and US Vice President Kamala Harris, who holds a tight lead in several key polls. A Marist poll out on Wednesday shows her leading the former US president by five points, four points from a Morning Consult poll and four points from an Economist/YouGov poll.

Harris just surpassed $1bn in fundraising and has, in the past three months, raised nearly twice as much as the Trump campaign. The Trump team is experiencing a decline in small-dollar donors, with contributions of $200 or less now making up fewer than a third of donations. At this point in the 2020 election cycle, those contributions accounted for nearly half of all donations, according to an analysis by the Associated Press and Open Secrets, a non-profit organisation based in Washington, DC.

The Trump campaign’s financial challenges are only underscored by the growing list of parties to whom he and the entities he represents owe money.
Story by Lily Mae Lazaru

JD Vance attempted to defend Donald Trump‘s “unfiltered” comments about using the National Guard and military to quash “the enemy within,” claiming they came from “the heart.”

“He’s not just running on slogans,” Vance told Fox News during a Monday appearance on America’s Newsroom. “When people ask him questions, he speaks from the heart sometimes that means he is going to talk about issues that the mainstream media isn’t focused on.”

Trump has repeatedly co-opted the title of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s 1950 speech, “the enemy within,” when referring to Democratic politicians and “radical-left lunatics.” The former president specifically named Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as examples of the “enemy.”

The former president, on Sunday, called Schiff a “crooked politician” and a “threat to democracy” who “wanted to put my son in jail,” in an interview with Fox News. As for Pelosi, Trump has falsely claimed she refused the help of National Guard during the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol and branded her as “so sick” and “so evil.”
Story by Aimee Picchi

Former president Donald Trump's campaign pledges would hasten the insolvency of the Social Security trust fund and lead to a 33% across-the-board cut to all benefits, according to a new analysis from the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB).

The group's report, released Monday, is based on Trump's vow to eliminate income taxes on Social Security benefits, overtime pay and tipped income, as well as his proposal to slap tariffs on all imports and deport millions of immigrants, many of whom currently pay Social Security taxes.

The CRFB, which advocates in favor of lower federal deficits, said Vice President Kamala Harris's plans "would not have large effects on Social Security trust fund solvency." It added, however, that while Harris has pledged to protect Social Security, neither her campaign nor Trump's have specified how they would fix the looming shortfall in funding.

Under Trump's plans, Social Security's trust fund would become insolvent in 2031, which is three years earlier than currently projected by the Congressional Budget Office. At that point, the program would need to cut benefits by 33%, a steeper decrease than the 23% reduction forecast by the CBO in August.

A cut of that size would mean that the typical monthly benefit check of $1,907 in 2024 would be reduced by $629 per month, leaving recipients with average payments of $1,278.
By MICHELLE L. PRICE and WILL WEISSERT

LATROBE, Pa. (AP) — Donald Trump’s campaign suggested he would begin previewing his closing argument Saturday night with Election Day barely two weeks away. But the former president kicked off his rally with a detailed story about Arnold Palmer, at one point even praising the late, legendary golfer’s genitalia.

Trump was campaigning in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where Palmer was born in 1929 and learned to golf from his father, who suffered from polio and was head pro and greenskeeper at the local country club.

Politicians saluting Palmer in his hometown is nothing new. But Trump spent 12 full minutes doing so at the top of his speech and even suggested how much more fun the night would be if Palmer, who died in 2016, could join him on stage.
Story by Peter Stone in Washington

Key rightwing legal groups with ties to Donald Trump and his allies have banked millions of dollars from conservative foundations and filed multiple lawsuits challenging voting rules in swing states that are already sowing distrust of election processes and pushing dangerous conspiracy theories, election watchdogs warn.

They also warn that the groups appear to be laying the groundwork for a concerted challenge to the result of November’s presidential election if Trump is defeated by Kamala Harris.

America First Legal and the Public Interest Legal Foundation together reaped more than $30m dollars from the Wisconsin-based Bradley Impact Fund and its parent, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, from 2017 through 2022, according to a financial analysis from the Center for Media and Democracy.

Lawsuits filed by the groups, which overlap with some Republican party litigation, focus in part on conspiratorial charges of non-citizen voting, which is exceedingly rare, and bloated voter rolls, and pre-sage more lawsuits by Trump if his presidential run fails, in an echo of his 2020 election-denialist claims, say watchdogs.
Story by Zach Schonfeld

The exonerated Central Park Five sued former President Trump for defamation on Monday over his comments at the recent presidential debate about their wrongful convictions for rape and assault.

During a segment on race and politics at the Sept. 10 debate, Trump said “they admitted — they said, they pled guilty.”

“And I said, ‘Well if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately. And if they pled guilty — then they pled we’re not guilty,” Trump continued.

The five Black and Hispanic teenagers were wrongfully convicted of raping and assaulting a woman jogging in Central Park in 1989. They spent years in prison before their convictions were overturned in 2002, once the true culprit ultimately confessed, which was backed by DNA evidence.

The lawsuit notes the five members never pleaded guilty and the victim wasn’t killed, claiming Trump’s comments were made with a “reckless disregard for their falsity” to the tens of millions of Americans who tuned into the debate.
Story by Aliss Higham

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sought legal advice about placing Donald Trump's name on COVID-19 stimulus checks, a new investigation has found.

In April 2020, the Treasury Department ordered that then-President Trump's nameshould appear on Economic Impact Payments—a key pillar of the U.S. government's coronavirus relief measures—that were sent to tens of millions of Americans.

It was the first time a president's name would appear on IRS expenditures. At the time, Democrats said the decision to include the president's name was a political gambit by Trump to garner more support for his reelection and may be illegal.

Now, Bloomberg has found via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that the IRS sought legal advice after a handful of top officials expressed concerns that the move could politicize the government agency. The name inclusion and a letter sent to the IRS by the White House and signed by Trump were both matters of concern, the emails show. Usually, a civil servant will sign checks and letters issued by the Treasury Department as a matter of nonpartisanship.
Story by Josephine Harvey

Former President Barack Obama deconstructed some of Donald Trump’s playbook attacks while campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris in Nevada on Saturday.

Speaking at a rally in Las Vegas, Obama accused the Republican presidential nominee and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), of leaning on scaremongering about immigration as an answer to any issue.

“If you challenge them, they’ll fall back on one answer. It does not matter what it is — housing, health care, education, paying for the bills — one answer: blame the immigrants,” he said.

“He wants you to believe that if you elect him, he will just round up whoever he wants and ship them out and all your problems will be solved,” he added.

He acknowledged that there’s a “real issue” at the border and elements of the system are “broken,” but criticized Trump’s approach.

“When I hear Donald Trump talk ... he’s very quick to say to Kamala, ‘Well, you were vice president for four years,’” he added. “Dude, you were president for four years!”
Republicans will protect you against immigrants but not against Americans with guns that will kill you or family.

Opinion by Daniel P. Mears and Bryan Holmes

Homicide is a serious problem that calls for effective policy responses built on accurate information. Unfortunately, prominent politicians are again propagating the inaccurate notion that immigrants disproportionately contribute to crime, especially murder.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement response to a request from a Texas congressman informed — or misinformed — many of the latest claims of a connection between immigration and violent crime. One statistic from the letter in particular has been in the headlines: ICE counted 13,099 cases of “non-detained” immigrants convicted of homicide.

The implication that some seized upon was that thousands of immigrant murderers are roaming America’s streets and that the Biden administration is to blame. Former President Trump tied the figure to Vice President Kamala Harris on social media, writing: “It was just revealed that 13,000 convicted murderers entered our Country during Kamala’s three and a half year period as Border Czar.”

None of which is true. “Non-detained” simply describes individuals who are not currently in ICE’s custody; it doesn’t mean that they are free and able to do as they wish.
Story by Jordan Green, Raw Story

The man arrested with guns outside Donald Trump’s rally in Coachella, Calif. on Oct. 12 had spoken about assassination attempts against the former president less than two weeks earlier with a retired Army lieutenant colonel who calls himself Trump’s “secretary of retribution.”

Vem Miller, a 49-year-old former music video director who now produces conspiracy-driven documentary films, interviewed retired Lt. Col. Ivan Raiklin, known for circulating a “Deep State target list” against Trump’s political enemies. The interview was produced for the America Happens Network, a company co-founded by Miller that describes itself as “the anti-thesis of what the mockingbird media has to offer.”

“You know, you inspire me,” Miller told Raiklin during the interview, which was posted on the video platform Rumble on Oct. 1. “This episode’s actually going to be called, ‘What are we going to do once they steal the election,’ because that’s certain, 100 percent certainty that they’re going to steal this. And we need to be prepared.”

“I already have a plan,” Raiklin responded. “I have the counter-strategy. I’ve already war-gamed basically their next 15 moves. I got 30 moves ahead of it. I’m doing worse-case [sic] scenario. And if worse-case [sic] scenario doesn’t happen, we win, right? But I’m always planning for the worse case [sic] scenario that they can do, both within their law, legal authority, and beyond of what they’re capable of.
Opinion by Jackie Calmes

10: As president, he violated his oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.”
Ask Mike Pence, who forfeited his place as Trump’s ticket mate to Ohio Sen. JD Vance because Pence wouldn’t violate the Constitution; Vance would. Even after leaving office, Trump called for terminating parts of it so he could regain power. No one should think he’d keep the oath if given a second chance, especially when the Supreme Court that he packed has ruled that presidents are virtually immune from prosecution.

9: He still won’t say that he’ll accept the voters’ verdict.
And that is still unprecedented. Trump has gravely eroded Americans’ faith in the elections that are fundamental to democracy. He lied after his 2016 victory in the electoral college that he lost the popular vote only because up to 5 million people voted illegally for Hillary Clinton. His efforts to flip his 2020 loss to Joe Biden got him criminally indicted, another first.

8: He will be held accountable for his alleged crimes as president only if he is defeated.
If reelected, Trump can order “his” Justice Department to bury the two federal cases that he succeeded in delaying past the election — the Washington trial for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election, and the case in Florida for allegedly making off with and hiding top government secrets. A third case in Georgia, state charges for attempting to subvert its 2020 vote for Biden, could well be shelved if he were back in office.

The “doomsday” book is a series of legal documents and orders that lists the secret and extraordinary powers a President may be authorized to use in a major catastrophe such as a nuclear attack. Time Magazine correspondent Brian Bennett discusses his recent reporting that shows a number of former aides to former President Trump worked to withhold the full contents of the book from him for fear he would abuse it.

This week, former President Trump escalated his rhetoric against his political opponents, saying he would consider using the National Guard or military to address “the enemies within.” U.S. Former FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi joins Alex Witt to discuss this concerning development and security at polling places this year.
Story by Elizabeth Preza

An investigation by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee reveals Donald Trump “overcharged Secret Service agents protecting him and his family for rooms at his hotel in Washington while he was president,” NBC News reports.

According to NBC News, House Democrats released a two-part investigation “into financial benefits Trump received in office,” alleging Trump “benefited from foreign and domestic officials, including people seeking jobs in his administration or pardons from him, who paid for rooms at what was then the Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington.”

Democrats analyzed records of $300,000 in payments to the Trump Corporation from September 2017 to August 2018, finding the organization “[jacked] up the prices of hotel rooms at the property for the Secret Service, in some instances to the tune of 300% more than the approved government per diem rate and beyond what other guests were being charged for rooms on the same nights,” NBC News reports. In addition, “eight U.S. ambassadors, three people Trump appointed to be federal judges, two state governors, a state legislative delegation and a Trump Cabinet secretary stayed and spent money at the Trump hotel while they were serving as state or federal officials.”
Thom Hartmann

There was, it increasingly appears, a conspiracy involving some in the most senior levels of the Trump administration to end American representative democracy and replace it with a strongman oligarchy along the lines of Putin’s Russia or Orbán’s Hungary.

This would be followed, after the January 20th swearing-in of Trump for a second term, by a complete realignment of US foreign policy away from NATO and the EU and toward oligarchic, autocratic nations like Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and Hungary.

As the possibility of this traitorous plan becomes increasingly visible, the GOP, after a frantic two weeks of not knowing what to say or do, has finally settled on a response to Trump’s theft of classified information: “Hillary did the same thing, and she didn’t go to jail!” I heard the comparison made at least a half-dozen times this weekend on various political shows.
Story by Zachary Leeman

Journalist Bob Woodward revealed that former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis seconded his argument that former President Donald Trump is a “dangerous” threat to the country.

Mattis worked briefly in the Trump administration before resigning in 2018 amid a series of foreign policy disagreements with Trump. He’s since occasionally criticized his former boss, including after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and amid the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.

Speaking to The Bulwark Podcast this week, Woodward said he recently got an email from Mattis.

Tim Miller writes:

In an interview on The Bulwark Podcast on Thursday, Woodward said he recently received an email from Mattis, who served under Trump before resigning in protest. In the email, Mattis seconded the assessment offered by Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whom Woodward quotes as calling Trump “the most dangerous person ever.”

In his book, Woodward recounts being approached by Milley at a 2023 gathering at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., during which Milley pleaded with him to “stop” Trump. Milley went on to call Trump, under whom he also served, “fascist to the core!”

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell explains how special prosecutor Jack Smith can use Donald Trump’s words against him in court after Trump directly linked himself to the Jan. 6 insurrectionists in statements at a Univision town hall.

Nicolle Wallace breaks down the latest 24 hours of headlines surrounding Donald Trump which would typically doom a normal Presidential candidate with Trump’s horrible performance on the Univision town hall where the live audience was not interested in Trump’s lies and talking points and the latest reporting about what Mitch McConnell really thinks of the man he has enabled for 8 years and will refuse to endorse.
Story by Brandi Buchman

A four-part appendix detailing more about former President Donald Trump’s alleged criminal attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election hit the public record on Friday.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan approved the public release on the federal criminal docket in Washington, D.C., late Thursday, following weeks of Trump requesting to keep the appendix out of the public eye.

Trump told the judge on Oct. 10 he needed more time to weigh his “litigation options” if she decided to admit the source materials publicly, arguing they could be damaging to jurors and the integrity of the case. Chutkan agreed to give him one week to respond and make his arguments at blocking the release. He filed a last-ditch motion early Thursday asking for more time, but was denied.

The appendix is split into four parts with sensitive information redacted.

All four volumes total more than 1,800 pages.
Story by nmusumeci@businessinsider.com (Natalie Musumeci)

A federal judge on Friday released more of prosecutors' evidence in the election interference case against Donald Trump after the former president failed in an 11th hour attempt to delay the unsealing of the files.

The release of the 1,889 pages of documents by United States District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan comes after the judge, earlier this month, released special counsel Jack Smith's 165-page bombshell motion that included a trove of new evidence against Trump in the case.

“The trains of thought have gotten shorter and shorter and shorter. They've gotten more digressive. And he's doing a lot of media, mostly with very friendly outlets—but when you look at the answers, it is just nonsense,” says Chris Hayes. Michelle Goldberg and Faiz Shakir join to discuss that and the state of the race.
Story by Hadas Gold and Liam Reilly, CNN

Former President Donald Trump said Friday that Fox News staffers helped him write his Al Smith charity dinner speech, in which he cracked jokes and insulted his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump made the comment during an interview on “Fox and Friends,” during which he was asked about his monologue at the Thursday night event in Manhattan. Host Steve Doocy said Democrats historically “turn to the guys from ‘Saturday Night Live’ or the ‘Tonight Show;’ they write all their material,” before asking Trump who helped write his speech.

“I had a lot of people, a couple people from Fox actually, I shouldn’t say that. But they wrote some jokes. For the most part I didn’t like any of them,” Trump said to laughter from the co-hosts.

During his speech to the friendly Catholic charity crowd, Trump disparaged Harris’ intelligence, insulted her family, and complained about how badly he was treated during his presidency, drawing occasional cheers and some laughs.
Story by Sophie Clark

Remarks made by Donald Trump in 2011 about politicians who do not want to debate are coming back to haunt him after being unearthed by CNN and Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign.

The CNN clip of the remarks, which Trump originally made on Fox Business' Imus in the Morning on December 9, 2011, shows him telling anchor Don Imus that people who do not debate are cowards and that presidents are supposed to negotiate against China but are "too afraid to go into a debate."

Trump also said in the 2011 clip that those who did not debate lacked "the courage to do it." In 2024, the former president has refused to commit to a second debate against Harris.

On X, formerly Twitter, @KamalaHQ, an account for Harris' presidential campaign, posted the CNN clip, writing, "Unearthed audio: Trump says candidates who refuse to debate don't have 'courage' and are unfit to be commander-in-chief because they're 'afraid.'"

“The trains of thought have gotten shorter and shorter and shorter. They've gotten more digressive. And he's doing a lot of media, mostly with very friendly outlets—but when you look at the answers, it is just nonsense,” says Chris Hayes. Michelle Goldberg and Faiz Shakir join to discuss that and the state of the race.
Story by Alex Lang

Donald Trump has said “only stupid people put old” people in positions on the Supreme Court – seemingly forgetting that he’s a 78-year-old man running for the top position in the executive branch.

Trump made the remarks during an interview with Bloomberg while in Chicago on Tuesday.

“It’s amazing, because I got three in four years,” Trump said of his appointments to the Supreme Court. “Most people get none. Because, you know, you put them in, they’re young. You tend to put them in young.”

“Only stupid people put old,” he continued. “You know, you don’t put old in, because they’re there for two years or three years, right?”

Trump is running for another four-year term in the White House and is currently the oldest nominee for president in US history. If elected in November, Trump would be 82 years old when he completes his term in 2029.

His age has frequently been a target for the Democrats who have questioned his mental fitness and his ability to serve.
Story by bgriffiths@insider.com (Brent D. Griffiths)

WASHINGTON – Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell privately described then-President Donald Trump as "stupid as well as being ill-tempered," "despicable" and a "narcissist," after the 2020 election, according to excerpts from a forthcoming biography of the longtime Senate power broker.

The remarks, recorded by McConnell and shared with Associated Press Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Michael Tackett, are McConnell's strongest condemnation yet of the former president, despite years of a famously frosty relationship between the two men. The biography written by Tackett and titled "The Price of Power," is set to be released on Oct. 29, just a week before Election Day.

In the weeks following Election Day in 2020, when Trump and his campaign were working to overturn the election results, McConnell said in his recordings that “it’s not just the Democrats who are counting the days” until Trump left office, according to the AP. He also said that Trump’s behavior “only underscores the good judgment of the American people. They’ve had just enough of the misrepresentations, the outright lies almost on a daily basis, and they fired him.”

McConnell said it's been "really hard to take" the results "for a narcissist like him."

"So his behavior since the election has been even worse, by far, than it was before, because he has no filter now at all," he said.

McConnell also alleged Trump's efforts to overturn the election would hurt Republicans in Georgia runoff races for the Senate at the time, which would determine control of the chamber. Now-Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, both Democrats, went on to win both races and take the chamber.

Trump is “stupid as well as being ill-tempered and can’t even figure out where his own best interests lie," he said.
The Senate GOP leader has endorsed Trump. He said Thursday that any remark he made "pales in comparison" to what others, including VP nominee JD Vance, have said.
By Frank Thorp V, Scott Wong and Jesse Rodriguez

WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has endorsed Donald Trump for president this year. But in a new book, the powerful Kentucky Republican is quoted after the 2020 election disparaging Trump as a “despicable human being,” “stupid” and “ill-tempered."

Republicans were counting down the days until he left office, McConnell said at the time. He also called the “narcissistic” Trump unfit for office after he incited the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, and the Senate leader sobbed to his staff that day after their lives were put in danger, according to a copy of the book obtained by NBC News.

Those quotes and scenes are depicted in “The Price of Power,” a new book out this month by veteran journalist Michael Tackett, deputy bureau chief of The Associated Press. His reporting is based on almost three decades of private oral histories McConnell shared with Tackett, as well as more than 50 hours of interviews and thousands of McConnell’s personal and official records.

McConnell did not deny his statements about Trump as quoted in the book, when asked about it Thursday. “Whatever I may have said about President Trump pales in comparison to what JD Vance, Lindsey Graham, and others have said about him,” McConnell said in a statement, “but we are all on the same team now.”
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