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Donald J. Trump After the White House - Page 2
Coup plotters and coup participants are the real enemy within

Story by Brian Karem

He’s vindictive, shallow, delusional and increasingly dangerous – but no one seems to care. Houston, we have a problem. Actually, we have many problems and Apollo 13 was flawless compared to this presidential race.

We are, of course, talking about Donald Trump. He danced like a nonplayer character, or NPC, in a computer game for 39 minutes at a town hall meeting the other night after taking a handful of questions. His dancing makes “Seinfeld”’s Elaine Benes look like she’s Fred Astaire and I only compare him to a fictional character because during his rambling statements, he once again referred to Hannibal Lecter, his favorite fictional friend he finds so quotable.

“Is Hannibal with us now Mr. Trump?” I want to ask at his necessary therapy session held inside prison walls.

The morning after his St. Vitus dance, in what was described as a “testy appearance” at the Economic Club of Chicago, he played off his incoherence as a sophisticated “weave” of multiple ideas that only a political genius would attempt. At this point, we need to check if Trump is wearing blue contact lenses. As my dad used to say, he’s so full of crap his eyes should be brown.

Among the ideas he tried to “weave” in that appearance is that his crowd in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, was infused with “love and peace.” It was infused with something all right, but peace and love were not among them – not according to what I saw firsthand. This was not John Lennon and Yoko Ono doing a bed-in for peace singing “All we are saying is give peace a chance.” There were plenty, however, who believed that “Happiness is a Warm Gun.”
Story by Roque Planas

At Univision’s town-hall-style event Wednesday, 33-year-old Jesús González asked Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump: “Could you explain your gun control policy to the parents of the victims of school shootings?”

Trump’s response to those parents: They’re better off in a country with more guns.

“We have a Second Amendment and right to bear arms, essentially,” Trump said. “And I’m very strongly an advocate of that — I think you need that. I think that if you ever tried to get rid of it, you wouldn’t be able to do it. You wouldn’t be able to take away the guns, because people need that for security. They need it for entertainment, and for sport and other things — but they also, in many cases, need it for protection.”

Trump echoed former National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre’s famous argument that if more “good people” have guns, it helps keep crime down.

“You want to have a lot of good people have [guns],” the former president said. “But if we didn’t have that, you would see a crime rate that’s crazy.”

Southern and Mountain West states with more permissive gun laws tend to have higher death rates from gun violence than those of the Northeast or California, where gun restrictions are tighter, according to research from the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at Johns Hopkins University.
Story by Griffin Eckstein

Former President Donald Trump abruptly cancelled an appearance at an NRA event in Savannah, Georgia, fueling public concerns about his mental state.

Trump was slated to headline the “Defend the 2nd” rally on Oct. 22. The Trump campaign cited a scheduling conflict in pulling out of that event, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The gun advocacy group later scrapped the entire event.

The cancellation follows an appearance at the Economic Club of Chicago on Tuesday, in which interviewer John Micklethwait repeatedly pressed Trump on his rambling non-answers and topic changes. A day before that appearance, Trump similarly confused an audience at a Pennsylvania town hall when he paused questions for over half an hour to sway along to his playlist on stage.

Trump has been on a cancellation tear, pulling out of several planned interviews in recent days.

Per CNN’s Brian Stelter, Trump reportedly “suddenly scrapped” a planned interview with NBC News senior business correspondent Christine Romans penciled in for Monday morning in Philadelphia. He had previously cancelled a stop by CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” citing another purported scheduling conflict.

The cancellations follow a “60 Minutes” interview which Trump unexpectedly pulled out of two weeks ago. That move followed another appearance where Trump seemed somewhat lost.
For 10 years, Fox has built a fictional informational cocoon around Donald Trump. Kamala Harris just burst it open.
New Republic

Judging by the video that Kamala Harris’s campaign is circulating, her aides are pleased with one particular exchange during her interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier. In it, Harris dressed down Baier for playing video of Donald Trump that sanitized away his threat to unleash the military on “the enemy within.”

Many observers immediately surmised that this moment—which showed Harris digging in hard against Baier—could wreck Trump’s most cherished spin about Harris. As Andrew Egger noted at The Bulwark, Harris punctured the “right-wing caricature” of her as “an insipid airhead with no ability to think on her feet.”

But this is a seminal moment for another reason as well. It starkly revealed the degree to which Fox News—and by extension Trump’s other right-wing media propagandists—has constructed an informational universe around Trump that, at the most fundamental level, is comprehensively fictional.

MAGA’s biggest deception of all may be its portrayal of Trump as enjoying public support that is not just authentically, broadly, deeply majoritarian but also is only constrained from realizing its full explosive potential by interference from corrupt institutions like the media and the Deep State. The reality is the opposite: Without the massive propaganda support system he benefits from—and the gravitational pull it exerts on mainstream news outlets—Trump, who has never enjoyed majority support in this country, probably could not long politically survive.

Harris’s confrontation with Baier illustrates the point. After Harris pointed out that Trump has threatened to target an “enemy within,” Baier said that Fox News had asked Trump to address those comments at its town hall on Wednesday. Baier then played Trump’s response at that town hall, but he left out the footage of Trump recommitting to targeting the “enemy within,” only airing Trump’s insistence that he is the one treated as the enemy.
By Kathryn Watson

Washington — Former President Donald Trump insisted that the Jan. 6 attack, when his supporters stormed the Capitol and assaulted scores of law enforcement officers, was not a day of violence, but a "day of love" when "nothing" was "done wrong."

The Republican presidential nominee was asked about the assault on the Capitol at a Univision town hall on Wednesday, where a voter who said he used to be a registered Republican but was troubled by Trump's behavior during the riot said the former president could still win his vote.

"I want to give you the opportunity to try to win back my vote. OK?" said the voter. "Your — I'm going to say — action and maybe inaction during your presidency, and the last few years, sort of, was a little disturbing to me. What happened Jan. 6 and the fact that, you know, you waited so long to take action while your supporters were attacking the Capitol. ... I'm curious how people so close to you and your administration no longer want to support you, so why would I want to support you? If you would answer these questions for me I would really appreciate it, and give you the opportunity. You know, your own vice president doesn't want to support you now."

Trump responded by blasting former Vice President Mike Pence, saying he "totally disagreed with him on what he did," an apparent reference to Pence's refusal to reject the Electoral College votes after the 2020 presidential election. Pence has repeatedly — and accurately — said he had no constitutional authority to do anything but accept the results, withstanding repeated attacks from Trump and Trump's supporters.
Story by Maya Boddie

Environmental Protection Agency employees worry "they might soon get fired" under a second Donald Trump administration, according to a Tuesday, October 15 Politico report.

Per Politico, the 2024 GOP nominee "and his allies have singled out certain agencies — including those that issue environmental rules — as prime targets," in the case he defeats Vice President Kamala Harris next month.

Furthermore, the news outlet notes that "Trump has pledged to 'demolish the deep state," while 2024 vice presidential nominee JD Vance "has said Trump ought to fire “every civil servant in the administrative state.”
Story by Ed Kilgore

It’s been clear for some time that Donald Trump is laying the groundwork to attempt to deny and challenge an election defeat. But Team Trump is also working to ensure that he won’t have to deny the results — and not just by convincing more voters that his policies are better for America. To put it very simply, the Trump campaign, the Republican Party, and its super-PAC allies are devoting a lot of resources to suppressing the Democratic vote in key states. These strategies include:

In addition to reducing the Harris vote (via a combination of ballot-eligibility challenges or heavy-handed intimidation of voters), all these MAGA boots on the ground can help build the post-election case that a Harris win was tainted with fraud. This time, Team Trump’s legal team will be much more organized than Rudy Giuliani’s Keystone Cops ensemble, which tried to capitalize on scattered election-fraud rumors and social-media claims in 2020. With so many campaign operatives working as election administrators or observers, there will be plenty of election-fraud allegations to fuel Trump lawsuits, with or without merit.
Story by Charles R. Davis

Speaking at the Economic Club of Chicago on Tuesday, an unfocused and irritable Donald Trump botched answers to basic questions about how his agenda would impact American businesses and consumers while not denying that he has been having phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump’s meandering replies consisted of the usual grab-bag of tangential anecdotes and endless grievances, his interviewer repeatedly forced to keep him on track by reminding him of the topic he was supposed to be discussing.

The performance, coming a day after a Trump “town hall” devolved into the Republican nominee meandering on stage for 39 awkward and alarming minutes as his fans listened to his favorite songs, did not reassure critics who say the former president’s recent behavior is a sign of cognitive decline. The Republican nominee was never one for specifics, or staying on message, but his claimed “weave” — rambling about something else before returning to the topic at hand — appears less intentional and more like a man experiencing the inevitable effects of aging.

“Should Google be broken up?” interviewer John Micklethwait, editor in chief of Bloomberg News, asked Trump on Tuesday.

Trump’s immediate response, in full:

"I just haven’t gotten over something the Justice Department did yesterday, where Virginia cleaned up its voter rolls and got rid of thousands and thousands of bad votes. And the Justice Department sued them, that they should be allowed to put those bad votes and illegal votes back in and let the people vote. So I haven’t — I haven’t gotten, I haven’t gotten over that. A lot of people have seen that and they can’t even believe it."
Story by Analysis by Zachary B. Wolf, CNN

Former President Donald Trump’s recent campaign appearances have generated an odd mix of headlines.

These include his worrisome promise to use the US military against his political opponents, whom he called “the enemy from within.”

There’s also the transformation of a staged town hall into a strange 39-minute music listening session that some supporters have said was inspiring but looked very awkward to those paying attention on TV.

While Trump has pulled out of interviews with CBS’ “60 Minutes” and with CNBC, he has taken some questions elsewhere. It’s worth looking a little more broadly at what exactly Trump is saying as the endgame of the presidential election approaches. It shows a man who veers from thought to thought, has an exceptionally high opinion of his abilities, does not think there are any experts who know more than him and would use the power of the presidency in unprecedented ways.

The below quotes will feel long, but Trump has a tendency to make points in a meandering stream of consciousness he calls “the weave.”
At a campaign event last night, Trump got bored—and weirdness ensued.
By David A. Graham

Is Donald Trump well enough to serve as president?

The question is not temperamental or philosophical fitness—he made clear long ago that the answer to both is no—but something more fundamental.

The election is in three weeks, and Pennsylvania is a must-win state for both Trump and Kamala Harris, but during a rally last night in Montgomery County, northwest of Philadelphia, Trump got bored with the event, billed as a “town hall,” and just played music for almost 40 minutes, scowling, smirking, and swaying onstage. Trump is no stranger to surreal moments, yet this was one of the oddest of his political career.

“You’re the one who fights for them,” gushed Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor and animal-abuse enthusiast, who was supposed to be moderating the event. But it soon became evident that Trump wasn’t in a fighting mode. The event began normally enough, at least by Trump standards, but, after two interruptions for apparent medical emergencies in the audience, Trump lost interest. “Let’s just listen to music. Who the hell wants to hear questions?” he said.
Story by Kate Plummer

Vem Miller, the armed man who was arrested outside a Donald Trump rally on Saturday, claimed he has links to members of the former president's family.

Speaking in a video posted to the social media site Rumble, Miller, a 49-year-old Las Vegas resident, outlined the experience of his arrest and said he knows "a lot of people" closely associated with Trump, the Republican presidential candidate.

On Saturday, Miller was arrested after authorities found firearms in his car outside a Trump rally in Coachella Valley, California. He was booked and taken into custody at the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio on charges of possessing a loaded firearm and a high-capacity magazine.

Miller, who was also driving an unregistered vehicle with a homemade license plate and had multiple passports and driver's licenses with different names, according to authorities, was released Saturday on $5,000 bail. He is scheduled to appear at the Indio Larson Justice Center on January 2, 2025, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department inmate database.
Siladitya Ray |Forbes Staff

A man carrying loaded firearms and fake passports was arrested outside the security checkpoint near former president Donald Trump’s weekend rally in Coachella, California, which law enforcement described as a likely “third assassination attempt” against the former president, a claim the suspect, who identifies as a Trump supporter, said was false.

In a press conference Sunday, the Riverside County Sheriff's office said 49-year-old Vem Miller from Nevada was taken into custody after deputies stopped his black SUV at a security checkpoint and found multiple unregistered firearms in his possession—including a shotgun and a loaded handgun—and a high capacity magazine.

While searching his car, deputies also discovered multiple passports and driver’s licenses with different names and found the vehicle’s license plate was “home-made” and unregistered.

Miller was stopped after presenting a fake VIP pass for the Trump rally to the deputies at the checkpoint and, upon being questioned, later informed them he was a member of the far-right group known as the “Sovereign Citizens.”

Miller was hit with two firearms-related charges and released on a $5,000 bail.
Story by Jesus Mesa

Former President Donald Trump sought to return to power months after his defeat in the 2020 election by urging Republican Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks to call for a special election that would reinstall him as president.

The attempt, part of a broader effort to overturn the election results, is detailed in famed Watergate journalist Bob Woodward's upcoming book War, which offers new insights into Trump's relentless pursuit to invalidate Joe Biden's victory four years ago.

By June 2021, six months after Biden's inauguration, Trump continued to privately push claims of a "stolen election," according to Woodward's book. Trump reportedly told his aides that he expected to return to the White House by August 2021, a date that coincided with false predictions circulated by QAnon conspiracy theorists.

"He had an army. An army for Trump. He wants that back," Trump's former campaign manager Brad Parscale is quoted as saying. "I don't think he sees it as a comeback. He sees it as vengeance."

Hundreds of Donald Trump followers were left stranded in the California desert after a rally in the Coachella Valley over the weekend.
Story by Mandy Taheri

Former President Donald Trump suggested that an "enemy from within" could threaten Election Day security, saying in an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday that "if necessary" the National Guard or military may have to intervene, sparking alarm online.

On Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures, Bartiromo asked Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, "What are you expecting? Joe Biden said he doesn't think it's going to be a peaceful Election Day."

During a White House press briefing, Biden said last week that he is confident that the upcoming election will be "free and fair," but said he was concerned about the transfer of power being peaceful on account of Trump's words and actions following his loss in 2020.

Trump responded, "I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within...We have some very bad people, some sick people, radical left lunatics. And it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military."

At another point during the interview, he said, "We have two enemies. We have the outside enemy. And, and then we have the enemy from within. And the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia, and all these countries."

Steven Cheung, Trump's campaign spokesperson, told Newsweek in an email Sunday night: "President Trump is 100% correct—those who seek to undermine democracy by sowing chaos in our elections are a direct threat, just like the terrorist from Afghanistan that was arrested for plotting multiple attacks on Election Day within the United States."
Opinion by Robert Reich

We’ve learned from a forthcoming book by journalist Bob Woodward that in 2020, while he was president, Trump secretly shipped Covid-19 testing equipment to Russian president Vladimir Putin for his own personal use at a time when Americans could not get it.

The author of The Art of the Deal did not demand in return that Putin forego attacking Ukraine or release Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed, two Americans being held by Russia at the time and later released under the Biden administration.

The Trump campaign denies this story, but on Wednesday the Kremlin confirmed it.

Woodward also reported that Trump and Putin have had “as many as seven” personal conversations since Trump left office in 2021.

Let’s be clear about the implications of all this: If Trump wins the election, he’ll likely do whatever Putin wants, including allowing Putin to take much, if not all, of Ukraine.

Trump has repeatedly avoided criticizing Putin, even going so far as to praise him as a “genius” and “very savvy” for his unprovoked invasion. At the same time, Trump has been critical of the Biden administration’s aid to Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s invasion.

During the presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris last month, Trump refused to say he wanted to see Ukraine win the war against Russia.

Earlier this year, Trump suggested he’d encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” if a NATO ally wasn’t paying their fair share to the alliance.
Story by Matt Laslo, Raw Story

WASHINGTON — Some Republican-led states are being sued over last ditch efforts to “purge” their state’s voter rolls, but it may be too little, way too late.

On Monday, a new lawsuit was dropped on Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin from the League of Women Voters in Virginia and immigrant-rights groups who accuse him and his attorney general, Jason Miyares, of running an illegal “Purge Program” ahead of November's elections.

“Defendants’ Purge Program is far from ... a well-designed, well-intended list maintenance effort,” the lawsuit reads. “It is an illegal, discriminatory, and error-ridden program that has directed the cancelation of voter registrations of naturalized U.S. citizens and jeopardizes the rights of countless others.”

That new Virginia lawsuit comes just a couple of weeks after the Department of Justice sued Alabama and its Republican secretary of state, Wes Allen after more than 3,250 people were booted from the state’s voter rolls within the 90-day quiet period mandated by the National Voter Registration Act, claiming they weren’t American citizens.

These last-minute efforts to kick people off state voter lists aren’t accidental. They’re part of former President Donald Trump’s strategy to recapture the White House. And it’s working, at least in some regions.
Story by Ja'han Jones

A report by The New York Times on Elon Musk’s fervent support for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign includes a bombshell detail that undermines right-wingers’ conspiratorial claims about Hunter Biden and anti-conservative bias on social media.

Conservatives have been kvetching for years about so-called collusion by the federal government with Big Tech, which they baselessly claim was a factor in Trump’s loss in 2020. In Republicans’ telling, the internal choices of some social media companies to moderate conspiratorial content about data — some of it pornographic — dubiously retrieved from an old Hunter Biden laptop amounts to a full-blown conspiracy.

Never mind that this purported government collusion would have occurred under the Trump administration — right-wingers have gone all in on the bogus claim, which has been promoted by Elon Musk.

But according to the Times, the Trump campaign and Musk’s social platform, X, recently engaged in conduct remarkably similar to what conservatives have been crying about for years. Per the report:
Opinion by David A. Graham

Donald Trump’s affection for oppressive and bloodthirsty dictators is by now so familiar that it might go unremarked, and yet also so bizarre that it goes unappreciated or even disbelieved.

Sometimes, though, a vivid reminder surfaces. That was the case this week, when stories from Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book, War, became public. In the book, the legendary reporter writes that in 2020, in the depths of the pandemic, Trump prioritized the health of Vladimir Putin over that of Americans, sending the Russian president Abbott COVID-testing machines for his personal use, at a time when the machines were hard to come by and desperately needed. (The Kremlin confirmed the story; Trump’s campaign vaguely denied it.) Meanwhile, Trump told people in the United States they should just test less. So much for “America First.”

“Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me,” Putin told Trump, according to Woodward.

“I don’t care,” Trump said. “Fine.”

“No, no,” Putin said. “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me.”

U.S. relations with Russia have deteriorated since Trump left office, especially since Russia launched a brutal, grinding invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But the former president has stayed in touch with Putin, according to Woodward, who says an aide told him that “there have been multiple phone calls between Trump and Putin, maybe as many as seven in the period since Trump left the White House in 2021.”
Story by Mandy Taheri

Special counsel Jack Smith's brief in the federal election subversion case "clearly contains damning allegations" against former President Donald Trump, according to Fox News legal analyst and law professor Jonathan Turley.

Turley, a professor at George Washington University Law School who often defends Trump, wrote on his personal blog in response to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan's Thursday order to release additional evidence ahead of the election.

Chutkan's order follows a request from Trump's team to block the release of Smith's exhibits related to the lengthy brief unsealed last week that laid out prosecutors' arguments that Trump acted as a private citizen when attempting to overturn his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden.

Trump's team argued that "no further disclosures" of Smith's "so-called 'evidence' that the Special Counsel's Office has unlawfully cherry-picked and mischaracterized" should be unsealed. The defense repeated its argument that Smith's brief was politically motivated, given that it was filed just weeks before voters will cast a ballot in the 2024 presidential election, for which Trump is the Republican candidate against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Story by Andrew Feinberg

Mark Milley, the US Army general who Donald Trump appointed as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, now says the current Republican presidential nominee is a “fascist to the core” and says no person has ever posed more of a danger to the United States than the man who served as the 45th President of the United States.

Milley, a decorated military officer who became a target for right-wing scorn after it became known that he expressed concerns over Trump’s mental stability in the wake of his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, is described by journalist Bob Woodward in his new book, War, as incredibly alarmed at the prospect of a second Trump term in the White House. The Independent obtained a copy ahead of the book’s October 15 release date.

In the wake of the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by a riotous mob of the then-president’s supporters, Woodward writes that Milley insisted on securing a meeting with the then-newly-minted attorney general, Merrick Garland, to urge him to investigate domestic violent extremism and far-right militia movements.

According to Woodward, a senior Department of Justice lawyer said at the time that Milley’s sit-down with Garland might have been the first-ever meeting between a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the country’s top civilian law enforcement official. He writes that the general asked for the meeting because he was “deeply convinced” that Trump remained “a danger to the country” even though he had been forced from office after Biden’s election win.
Story by Isaac Stanley-Becker, Josh Dawsey

When clients tell Mercury Public Affairs, a consulting and lobbying shop with 18 offices worldwide, that they’re concerned about Donald Trump’s possible return to office, the firm has just the person to ease their nerves: Bryan Lanza.

Lanza, a Mercury partner and longtime Republican strategist, is well-suited to the task. In between client breakfasts in far-flung parts of the world, he serves as a senior adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign. So he’s a natural person to help clients understand how Trump’s positions on tariffs and other hot-button issues might play out in a second term, according to two Mercury colleagues who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal business dealings.

“He gives them assurances that there will be life after Nov. 5,” said one of the colleagues, referring to Election Day.

Lanza declined to comment through a Mercury spokesman. A Trump spokesman did not respond to questions.

Eight years after Trump entered politics promising to reduce the influence of Washington lobbyists — to “drain the swamp,” as he put it — advocates for corporate interests, including companies based in China and other foreign countries denounced by Trump, now sit at virtually every level of his campaign. Lobbyists are represented among high-level staff, informal advisers and party faithful who planned the summer convention in Milwaukee, as people with access to Trump or insight into his at-times erratic decision-making turn that knowledge into moneymaking opportunities.

Trump’s de facto campaign manager, Susie Wiles, is a Mercury partner alongside Lanza — and one of at least five people advising Trump who have advocated for tobacco, vaping or cannabis interests in recent years, according to lobbying disclosures and interviews.
Story by Megan Lebowitz and Corky Siemaszko

Former President Donald Trump held a third rally last month in Erie, Pennsylvania, which sits in the northwest corner of a swing state that could decide who wins the White House.

Like the two other times Trump has been to Erie to rev up his supporters, he left without paying the bill.

City officials haven't yet tallied up what the Trump campaign owes Erie for public safety costs for his most recent rally in September.

But according to a city official, Trump owes the city more than $40,000 for the rallies he held there in 2018 and 2023.

Erie, whose bills were previously reported by the Erie Times-News, isn't the only city that has hosted Trump rallies and not been paid by the campaign.

Including Erie, four cities and a county confirmed to NBC News that they're still waiting for the Trump campaign to pay bills often associated with reimbursements for the costs of local law enforcement and other first responder personnel.

The final price tag is more than $750,000 for those five jurisdictions, with some bills dating back eight years.
Story by Alia Shoaib

Former CIA director Leon Panetta said that Russian President Vladimir Putin views former President Donald Trump as a "source" that he can use to his benefit.

Appearing on the One Decision podcast, Panetta discussed allegations in journalist Bob Woodward's new book War that Trump and Putin had as many as seven private phone calls since early 2021, after Trump left office.

Panetta said that it would be "very unusual" for the Russian president to be engaged in communication with a former head of the United States.

He added that Putin "knows how to work a source, and he's got a source that is very near the top in this country, he, himself is going to engage that source."

"That really is what the bottom line is — is that Trump has turned into a source for Putin, and somebody who can help him manipulate what he wants to get done," Panetta said.

Panetta, who was the director of the CIA between 2009 and 2011, said that it would be concerning if the pair remained in private communication.

"The mere fact that a former president of the United States is having regular conversation with our primary adversary raises real questions about where is his basic loyalty. Is it really to the United States of America? Or is it to Donald Trump?" he said.
Opinion by Jeffrey A. Engel

Words matter. Especially when uttered by a president, and especially overseas. “Speak softly, and carry a big stick,” Theodore Roosevelt advised, though he never envisioned a successor would prove capable of obliterating cities half a world away in under half an hour. That nuclear stick is pretty big indeed, capable since 1945 of keeping our most virulent adversaries, including Moscow, Beijing, Tehran and Pyongyang, from their most reckless ambitions. It also keeps allies in line. What do Japan, Saudi Arabia, Germany and South Korea have in common? Each is but a day away from joining the nuclear club. That day is when their leaders stop believing the president of the United States will come to their aid.

This is why I fear a second Trump term. A world increasingly riven by renewed great power rivalries and historic animosities is further weakened by Oval Office instability, exemplified by ill-advised remarks, ill-timed threats and outright lies. Calm captains of the ship of state struggle to navigate the world system’s waves and shoals. An erratic one won’t help. Especially one whose obsessions, personal grievances and loose relationship with the truth make others question not only America’s policy but more fundamentally our reliability.

How trite. The professor in the ivory tower reminds us that words retain meaning. How very 20th century. Does he not realize that legions of bots and ChatGPT enable today’s policymakers to forge the algorithmic reality they desire?

Presidents must be held to higher standards. Their quips move markets. Their words invite or ward off aggression. Save or end lives. Examples abound of even experienced leaders forgetting their rhetorical reach.
With the passage of time, the 78-year-old former president’s speeches have grown darker, harsher, longer, angrier, less focused, more profane and increasingly fixated on the past, according to a review of his public appearances over the years.
By Peter Baker and Dylan Freedman

Former President Donald J. Trump vividly recounted how the audience at his climactic debate with Vice President Kamala Harris was on his side. Except that there was no audience. The debate was held in an empty hall. No one “went crazy,” as Mr. Trump put it, because no one was there.

Anyone can misremember, of course. But the debate had been just a week earlier and a fairly memorable moment. And it was hardly the only time Mr. Trump has seemed confused, forgetful, incoherent or disconnected from reality lately. In fact, it happens so often these days that it no longer even generates much attention.

He rambles, he repeats himself, he roams from thought to thought — some of them hard to understand, some of them unfinished, some of them factually fantastical. He voices outlandish claims that seem to be made up out of whole cloth. He digresses into bizarre tangents about golf, about sharks, about his own “beautiful” body. He relishes “a great day in Louisiana” after spending the day in Georgia. He expresses fear that North Korea is “trying to kill me” when he presumably means Iran. As late as last month, Mr. Trump was still speaking as if he were running against President Biden, five weeks after his withdrawal from the race.

Former President Donald Trump had more than a dozen seasons of "The Apprentice" to cast himself as a businessman and a dealmaker, but a new book is claiming that is all a lie. Russ Buettner, New York Times investigative reporter and author of "Lucky Loser," joins "America Decides" to discuss.
Story by Khaleda Rahman

Former President Donald Trump's pledge to restore the Confederate title of a military base that was renamed has sparked criticism on social media.

During a town hall in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Friday night, Trump, the Republican nominee, said he would restore Fort Liberty's name to Fort Bragg if he wins November's election against Vice President Kamala Harris.

The base was originally named after Confederate General Braxton Bragg, but was officially renamed Fort Liberty last year as part of a broad Department of Defense initiative to rename military installations with titles of Confederate soldiers.

Trump had opposed the move as president, but Congress overrode his veto to approve defense legislation that included the provision. The calls to remove Confederate symbols grew during the racial justice protests that erupted in the summer of 2020 following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police.

"I walked in, the first question that I asked, 'Should we change the name from Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg?'" Trump said during his opening remarks at the town hall, to raucous applause. "So here's what we do. We get elected. I'm doing it, I'm doing it, I'm doing it."
By Melissa Quinn, Robert Legare

Washington — U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has made public a key filing from special counsel Jack Smith that includes evidence compiled in his investigation into former President Donald Trump's alleged efforts to subvert the transfer of presidential power after the 2020 election.

The highly anticipated 165-page filing provides the most comprehensive look at the evidence federal prosecutors have amassed in their case, which was upended by the Supreme Court's July decision finding Trump is entitled to some level of immunity from federal charges.

In the new brief, prosecutors argued that Trump's conduct was private in nature and therefore not covered by immunity. They reiterated the allegations against Trump and revealed new insights into the mountains of evidence they have collected over the course of the case.

The filing described how Trump and his aides allegedly planned to challenge the election results far in advance of Election Day and pressured Vice President Mike Pence to reject Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, 2021. In one striking passage, prosecutors said Trump replied, "So what?" when he was told that Pence could be in danger at the Capitol.

"When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office," Smith and his team wrote.
Sophia Cai

Former President Trump on Monday tried to take political advantage of the devastation from Hurricane Helene — and drew a scolding from President Biden, who called Trump a liar.

Driving the news: Trump began the day on Truth Social, posting unsubstantiated claims that Biden's administration and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) were "going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas" affected by Helene.

"He's lying ... and the governor told him he was lying," Biden said of Trump at the White House on Monday.
"I don't know why he does this," Biden added. "I don't care what he says about me. I care about what he communicates to people that are in need. He implies that we're not doing everything possible. We are."

During a visit to Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday, Trump also claimed that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, hadn't been able to reach Biden to discuss the damage to Kemp's state.

But Kemp said earlier in the day that he'd spoken with Biden at 5 p.m. Sunday — and praised the administration's response to the storm.

Zoom in: Trump's false accusations reflected the risks of injecting loose, campaign-style rhetoric into the ongoing recovery from a disaster that left a triple-digit death toll and millions without water or electricity in six southern states.
Story by James Bickerton

Authorities in Erie, Pennsylvania, are still seeking $40,330 from Donald Trump's presidential campaign to pay for assistance they provided for his 2018 and 2023 campaign visits, bringing the total debt five cities say he owes them to over $740,000.

The Erie claim was made by a spokesman for the city's Democratic Mayor Joe Schember during a conversation with the Erie Times-News newspaper.

It is in addition to more than $700,000 of unpaid debts that four cities—El Paso, Texas; Spokane, Washington; Mesa, Arizona; and Green Bay, Wisconsin—were still seeking last month for rallies that took place between 2016 and 2019, a Newsweek investigation found.

Erie is also calculating a currently undisclosed figure related to the rally Trump held at the city's Bayfront Convention Center on Sunday, which could push the total unpaid debt figure beyond $740,330.

A 2019 report from the Center for Public Integrity found 10 city authorities, including Erie and the four outlined above, were demanding a total of $841,219 as back payments for historic Trump rallies they helped stage.
Story by Lee Moran

As the 2024 election enters its home straight, a Republican group is ramping up its attacks on GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump with a $15 million ad campaign targeting swing voters in key battleground states.

Disillusioned, angry and frustrated former Trump supporters explain why they will vote for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in November in testimonial ads that Republican Voters Against Trump will air digitally, on broadcast and cable networks and radio in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nebraska.

In one of the testimonials, an ex-Trump voter named Ken calls out the former president’s “incessant lying,” said there is “no way” he could support him again and described voting for Harris as a “no-brainer.”
Story by Sean O'Driscoll

Russia hacked into Hillary Clinton's computer about five hours after Donald Trump asked them for her emails, a lawyer involved in the Mueller investigation has said.

Aaron Zebley revealed that Trump couldn't be prosecuted because he made his request publicly and did not directly conspire with the Russian government.

Zebley was speaking on Friday to former federal prosecutor, Preet Bharara, on the Stay Tuned With Preet podcast.

He appeared on the podcast with attorney Andrew Goldstein. Both of them worked on the Mueller investigation into alleged links between Trump and the Russian government and have published a new book: Interference: The Inside Story of Trump, Russia, and the Mueller Investigation.

Zebley said that there was a "call and response" going on between Trump and the Russians but, legally, it could not be considered a conspiracy.

Zebley was referring to a July 27, 2016, press conference in Florida, in which Trump publicly asked Russia to supply Clinton emails.
An unexpected guest joined the former president on stage in Wisconsin
Michelle Del Rey

Former President Donald Trump expressed his frustration over a fly that approached his lectern in a bizarre moment during a rally speech.

Trump was on stage at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, making a point about a hat, when he appeared to get distracted by the creature.

“Oh there’s a fly,” the former president said. “I wonder where the fly came from?”

One audience member shouted out “Kamala.”

Trump continued: “See, two years ago, I wouldn’t have had a fly up here. You’re changing rapidly. We can’t take it any longer.” It wasn’t clear who or what the president was referring to before he changed the subject.

Meanwhile, American Bridge 21st Century, who describe themselves an a Republican accountability group, said: “Trump is exhausted and struggling to stay on track. He begins a story about a hat, but gets distracted by a fly and never finishes. He starts a entirely new story and struggles with the word “unique.”
Opinion by Thomas G. Moukawsher

"We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions."

The Republican Party Reagan led was once dedicated to principles like this and things like law and order. But it's current leader, former President Donald Trump, couldn't be more unlike Reagan and the Republicans of just a few years ago. In addition to attacking American law enforcement agencies like the FBI, in court Trump has refused to accept any responsibility for things he has been accused of and even things he has been found guilty of.

Instead of being the leader of a party of personal responsibility, Trump leads a right-wing MOPE brigade in America—a label often unkindly applied to the Irish— but all too fitting for Trump. He is apparently among the "Most Oppressed People Ever." Trump's claims of victimization in court have at least been consistent—nothing is ever his fault:

Found to have raped E. Jean Carroll by a New York jury, Trump said it was a fake story, totally made-up story," he was the victim, and Carroll was to blame along with a "terrible" "highly corrupt" judge acting in a case that was a "Biden Directed Witch Hunt."

During the prosecution in which Trump was convicted of 34 felonies related to paying hush money to a porn star, Trump attacked the jury and called the district attorney and the presiding judge corrupt.
Story by Carl Gibson

One Senate Democrat investigating the company headed by Jared Kushner — former President Donald Trump's son-in-law (husband of Ivanka Trump) and onetime White House senior advisor — is suggesting the firm may simply be a vehicle for accepting gifts from other governments.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) recently asked numerous questions of Kushner's Miami, Florida-based Affinity Partners firm in a letter sent earlier this week: Namely, why the company has yet to pay out any dividends to investors despite pulling in more than $3 billion since 2021.

According to the Times, More than 99% of the $3 billion Kushner's company has taken in since it was launched is from foreign governments — including roughly $2 billion just from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Other foreign governments that have contributed include the sovereign wealth funds of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Taiwan-based billionaire Terry Gou, who founded tech manufacturer Foxconn. An additional "mystery" investor that Affinity has not revealed to the public is also reportedly a stakeholder in the firm.
Story by Rhian Lubin

Leading mental health experts, including a former White House doctor, have expressed alarm over Donald Trump’s mental faculties, suggesting he’s showing signs of “cognitive decline.”

Several experts told The Independent their concerns about the Republican presidential nominee are similar to those they had about President Joe Biden before he dropped out of the race, warning Trump appears to “have lost touch with reality,” as exhibited by the 78-year-old’s “rambling” speeches and “erratic” debate performance.

They join a growing number of mental health professionals calling for independent and objective cognitive testing as November’s election edges closer.

Biden, 81, faced a deluge of questions about his mental fitness for another four years in office following his disastrous debate against Trump in June when he repeatedly stumbled over his words and trailed off. Now, all eyes are on Trump, who is prone to incoherent tangents and bizarre musings.

That was on full display at Monday night’s rally in Pennsylvania, where Trump was mocked for his “word salads.”He said of Kamala Harris: “She had the other interview with the other guy who was a nice guy I think from Philadelphia from Pennsylvania, he was a nice guy, he was asking her all these [inaudible] — the daily take — they don’t take like I do! Anybody wants to go, go what the hell differences they make — they have — and how dishonest was ABC...”
Story by Matthew Impelli

Former President Donald Trump is set to announce a plan that will provide tax cuts and federal land to foreign companies operating in the U.S.

On Tuesday, Trump is expected to deliver a speech where he will discuss plans to stop U.S. businesses from outsourcing jobs, but also to bring jobs and factories from other countries back to the United States.

One of Trump's key proposals includes offering foreign companies access to federal land as an incentive to bring their operations to the U.S. He hinted at the plan earlier this month, alongside a proposal to cut the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 15 percent—but only for companies manufacturing domestically.

In contrast, Vice President Kamala Harris has called for raising the rate to 28 percent. The corporate tax rate was 35 percent when Trump took office in 2017, before he signed legislation to lower it.
Story by Ariana Baio

Donald Trump scolded those who critique the Supreme Court at a rally on Monday, saying people should be jailed for “the way they talk about our judges and our justices” – despite the First Amendment allowing people to criticize the government.

The former president, who has invoked his First Amendment right to launch a bevy of attacks against federal and state judges, suggested it should be “illegal” to rebuke judicial decisions or try and advocate in favor of a certain decision.

“It should be illegal, what happens,” Trump told a crowd in Pennslyvania. “You know, you have these guys like playing the ref, like the great Bobby Knight. These people should be put in jail the way they talk about our judges and our justices, trying to get them to sway their vote, sway their decision.”

The former president was referring to the backlash the Supreme Court received after overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022. He called the court “very brave” for making a decision that “everybody wanted” – an unfounded claim.

Under the First Amendment, people have the right to complain about government officials and decisions.

Trump himself has been safeguarded by this rule when during his New York criminal trial, Trump called Justice Juan Merchan “highly conflicted.” When a gag order was placed on him, Trump violated it at least 10 times and then utilized his allies to launch more attacks against the judge.
Story by Matthew Chapman

Former President Donald Trump is falling back on his oldest and most dangerous tactic as his campaign falters near the finish line, Salon's Chauncey DeVega wrote Tuesday — inciting racial hatred and violence.

This, the columnist wrote, is how best to understand his promotion of the lie that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio are eating people's pets, which has triggered harassment and even bomb threats in the community.

Far from apologizing, Trump is turning up the heat, inflaming tensions at a recent New York rally with a story about "young American girls being raped and sodomized and murdered by savage criminal aliens.”
Story by Steve Benen

One of the great ironies of the last few years is that Donald Trump and his party have repeatedly accused the Biden administration of weaponizing the Justice Department and federal law enforcement. To date, there is literally no evidence to support the claims — and unambiguous evidence pointing in the opposite direction — but Republicans have eagerly replaced reality with their preferred counternarrative.

Indeed, as we’ve discussed, Republicans don’t just want their conspiracy theory to be true; they need it to be true. This simple, ridiculous idea is at the center of the party’s Trump criminal defense, fundraising, stump speeches, cable news segments, and even legislative campaigns on Capitol Hill.

In 2024, assertions about a “two-tiered” justice system are foundational to Republican politics. They’re also routinely discredited by real-world events.

If, however, GOP voices are looking for a president who actually tried to weaponize law enforcement to target his perceived political foes, I have some good news for them: They don’t have to look very hard.

Though Republicans tend to forget, it was in October 2020 when Trump publicly called on federal prosecutors to charge Joe Biden, accusing him of undefined crimes. That said week, Politico published an especially memorable headline: “‘Where are all of the arrests?’: Trump demands Barr lock up his foes.”
'Illegal stuff': Experts warn Trump’s 'day one' plans are 'blatantly unconstitutional'
Story by Carl Gibson

On the 2024 campaign trail, former President Donald Trump has made more than 200 promises about what he'll do on day one of a second term — famously promising to act as a "dictator" immediately upon taking the oath of office. And some experts are cautioning that many of those promises fly in the face of the U.S. Constitution and federal statutes.

The Washington Post reported that, by its count, Trump has made 82 education-related Day One promises, 74 related to immigration, 41 ties to energy policy, 25 about transgender issues and 33 other promises. Some of those are about his signature border wall proposal and vows to eliminate the teaching of racial and LGBTQ+ curriculum in schools. But others, according to experts, disregard longstanding federal law.

"A lot but not all of what Trump says he wants to do on day one is going to be illegal or impractical," Georgetown University constitutional law professor Steve Vladeck told the Post. "But even the illegal stuff might go into effect for some time, and he might actually succeed in pushing the law in his direction."
Trump Just 'Kneecapped' His Own Defense in Jack Smith Case—Ex-Prosecutor
By Rachel Dobkin

Former President Donald Trump just "kneecapped" his own defense in Department of Justice (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith's federal election subversion case against him, ex-prosecutor and legal analyst Glenn Kirschner said on Friday.

Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, faces four felony counts in the DOJ's case against him in Washington, D.C., after he allegedly tried to overturn Joe Biden's 2020 election victory in the wake of his loss, which culminated in the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.

On that day, Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in a failed attempt to stop Congress from certifying Biden's election win. The riot erupted following repeated claims from Trump that the election was stolen via widespread voter fraud, despite there being no evidence of this. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and claimed the case is politically motivated against him.

Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney and frequent Trump critic, said in a YouTube video on Friday that Trump "kneecapped his January 6 defense" with a new Gutfeld! interview on Fox News.

by Sharon Lerner

Three reports issued by the agency’s inspector general detailed personal attacks suffered by the scientists — including being called “stupid,” “piranhas” and “pot-stirrers” — and called on the EPA to take “appropriate corrective action” in response.

More than three years ago, a small group of government scientists came forward with disturbing allegations.

During President Donald Trump’s administration, they said, their managers at the Environmental Protection Agency began pressuring them to make new chemicals they were vetting seem safer than they really were. They were encouraged to delete evidence of chemicals’ harms, including cancer, miscarriage and neurological problems, from their reports — and in some cases, they said, their managers deleted the information themselves.

After the scientists pushed back, they received negative performance reviews and three of them were removed from their positions in the EPA’s division of new chemicals and reassigned to jobs elsewhere in the agency.
Story by Nikki McCann Ramirez

The House is expected to vote Wednesday on a continuing resolution to keep the government funded and avoid a shutdown at the end of the month, just weeks before the November election. The vote will likely fail.

The bill ties the continued funding of the federal government to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act), a piece of legislation that would make it harder for Americans to cast their ballots by requiring proof of citizenship when one registers to vote.

Packaging the two pieces of legislation together is a doomed endeavor. Still, Republicans in control of the lower chamber, led by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), are taking their marching orders from former President Donald Trump, who is demanding the government be shut down if the SAVE act doesn't pass.
"If Republicans don't get the SAVE Act, and every ounce of it, they should not agree to a Continuing Resolution in any way, shape, or form," Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social.

"Democrats are registering Illegal Voters by the TENS OF THOUSANDS, as we speak – They will be voting in the 2024 Presidential Election, and they shouldn't be allowed to," Trump claimed. "Only American Citizens should be voting in our Most Important Election in History, or any Election!"
By Rob Picheta, Jessie Yeung, Teele Rebane and Lex Harvey, CNN

CNN —

Ryan Wesley Routh put his enmity toward Donald Trump – the man he once supported but then dismissed as an “idiot,” a “buffoon” and a “fool” – at the center of a rambling and fanciful worldview that also fixated on Ukraine, Taiwan, North Korea, and what he called the “end of humanity.”

The 58-year-old, who was detained Sunday in connection with an apparent assassination attempt on the former president, protested in Kyiv after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and committed his ideas to paper in a self-published 291-page book.

Authorities suspect Routh, who owns a small construction company in Hawaii, was planning to attack the former President as he played a round of golf on Sunday, with US Secret Service agents firing at a man with a rifle in the bushes near the golf club. He was later apprehended after being stopped on a nearby highway.

For years, he criticized not only Trump but himself, describing Trump as “my choice” in the 2016 presidential election but later writing that he is “man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake.”

Here’s what we know about Routh so far.
Story by rrommen@insider.com (Rebecca Rommen)

The Trump campaign had to pay a deposit of over $145,000 to secure a spot at the Tucson Convention Center for a rally on Thursday.

In a statement to Business Insider, the City of Tucson City Manager's Office confirmed that the Trump campaign had paid a deposit for estimated costs of $145,222.70 to use the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall at the venue.

"In accordance with City of Tucson policy implemented after the 2016 campaign visits of then candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, we now require users at the TCC to pay all costs associated with public safety response, so that taxpayers do not have to shoulder these expenses," the statement said.
"Users must deposit the City's estimated amount of public safety response and TCC usage expenses in advance of an event," it added.

According to local media, the City of Tucson asked for the deposit because the former president failed to pay a bill of $81,837 after a campaign event at the convention center in 2016.

"You know, the former president is entitled to come to anywhere he wants in Arizona," Regina Romero, the Mayor of Tucson, said, per KOLD News 13. "It's up to the Trump campaign to pay their bills."
Story by Travis Gettys

Donald Trump could rightly be seen as a Russian asset, according to a former FBI director the ex-president fired in his first term.

Andrew McCabe appeared on the One Decision podcast co-hosted by former British intelligence agency chief Sir Richard Dearlove, who asked whether he thought it possible that Trump was a Russian asset, and he said, "I do, I do," reported The Guardian.

“I don’t know that I would characterize it as [an] active, recruited, knowing asset in the way that people in the intelligence community think of that term," McCabe said. "But I do think that Donald Trump has given us many reasons to question his approach to the Russia problem in the United States, and I think his approach to interacting with Vladimir Putin, be it phone calls, face-to-face meetings, the things that he has said in public about Putin, all raise significant questions.”
VERIFY found that Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has unpaid bills in at least six cities for costs associated with his campaign events over the years.
Megan Loe, Mauricio Chamberlin

In mid-August, former President Trump’s plane was diverted from Bozeman, Montana, to Billings. VERIFY debunked claims that the plane was diverted because he owed the Bozeman airport and city money.

While that claim turned out to be false, other social media posts shared around the same time claimed the Trump campaign does owe money to more than a dozen other cities.

Those posts shared an MSNBC map graphic that lists the cities and the alleged amounts of money the Trump campaign owes them. The cities where Trump purportedly owes money include Tucson, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico; El Paso, Texas; and Minneapolis, Minnesota, among others.

Multiple VERIFY readers also asked us if it’s true that Trump’s campaign has unpaid bills in multiple U.S. cities.
Story by Dominic Yeatman For Dailymail.Com

Donald Trump has warned Kamala Harris's campaign donors that they will not escape his retribution if they play a role in a 2024 election 'steal'.

The GOP candidate promised he would not allow a repeat of the 'rampant Cheating and Skullduggery' he claims cost him the White House in 2020, and threatened unprecedented legal action against those who try.

Posting on X and his own Truth Social channel under the heading 'cease and desist' he said 'lawyers, political operatives, donors, illegal voters, and corrupt election officials' would all find themselves targeted.

The swipe at donors came as Trump's Democrat rival reported raising a whopping $230 million more than Trump in campaign contributions during the month of August.
'Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country,' Trump wrote.
By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK, Sept 6 (Reuters) - A New York judge on Friday delayed former U.S. President Donald Trump's sentencing in his hush money criminal case until after the Nov. 5 election, writing that he wants to avoid the unwarranted perception of a political motive.

Trump, the Republican nominee for president, had previously been scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 18. His lawyers in August asked Justice Juan Merchan to push back his sentencing date until after the vote, citing "naked election-interference objectives." Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the charges against Trump, is a Democrat.

Merchan said on Friday he now planned to sentence Trump on Nov. 26, unless the case is dismissed before then. "The imposition of sentence will be adjourned to avoid any appearance - however unwarranted - that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching Presidential election in which the Defendant is a candidate," the judge wrote, opens new tab. "The Court is a fair, impartial and apolitical institution."
Story by David Badash

Donald Trump’s latest attack on American rule of law and the U.S. Dept. of Justice is facing condemnation. The GOP presidential nominee and convicted felon awaiting sentencing, while speaking at a courthouse press conference on his efforts to appeal a $5 million judgment in a New York sexual abuse and defamation civil case, called the DOJ’s bombshell indictments in the Kremlin cash and Russian disinformation case a “scam.”

“It’s always the same,” observed foreign policy, national security, and political affairs analyst and commentator David Rothkopf. “Defend Putin. Defend Russia. Defend corruption. Accuse those who are enforcing the law of being engaged in a scam. Why does he sound this way? Because he is a traitor and a criminal.”
Trump told reporters Friday, “This is a long and complicated web and story, but it all goes back to the DOJ and Kamala and sleepy Joe and all the rest of them.”

“We have a whole rigged election system,” he declared, as he often does, promoting his “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen while appearing to be paving the ground for the same response should he lose in November.
By Andrew Goudsward

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. judge on Thursday accused Donald Trump's lawyers of trying to stop potentially damaging evidence of his effort to overturn his 2020 election loss from becoming public before the Nov. 5 election, while acknowledging the case would not go to trial before then.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan also gave prosecutors what is likely their last chance to divulge evidence in the case before the election, ordering Special Counsel Jack Smith to respond by Sept. 26 to a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that former presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution.

Thomas Windom, a prosecutor in Smith's office, told Chutkan prosecutors were prepared to reveal potentially new evidence in their filing to argue that their remaining case against Trump is not affected by the high court's ruling and should proceed to trial.
Story by Dan Gooding

Donald Trump's defense attorney, John Lauro, quickly corrected himself in court on Thursday after saying Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had "directed" him to challenge special counsel Jack Smith's authority in the election subversion case.

During a hearing in Washington, D.C., addressing an updated indictment brought by Smith against the former president following a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity, Lauro referenced concerns raised by Thomas in a note on that ruling as a reason the case should be dismissed.

The reference from Lauro is to a note from Thomas that he wrote in the concurrence regarding the immunity ruling. Some speculated that note was written to be seen by Judge Aileen Cannon, A Trump appointed judge who is presiding over the classified documents case against the former president in Florida.
By Flynn Nicholls

Billionaire business owner Mark Cuban has criticized Donald Trump's answers to policy questions, describing them as "gibberish."

On Thursday, Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate, gave a speech at the Economic Club of New York and answered several policy questions in a long-winded fashion.

When asked how the U.S. could better coordinate trade policy and national security policy with China, Trump said he had a good relationship with President Xi Jinping, whom he described as "smart" and "tough." He added that Xi had been his "dear, dear friend" before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump said he would reestablish a good relationship with China and then discussed why it was important that the U.S. got along with the rest of the world, touching on nuclear weapons, his uncle John Trump, former President Barack Obama and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Story by Ed Mazza

Donald Trump on Sunday tried to defend himself from the criminal charges he’s facing in the election interference case ― but experts say it sounded more like a confession.

Trump on Fox News bragged that his poll numbers go up every time he’s indicted.

“Whoever heard, you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election, where you have every right to do it, you get indicted, and your poll numbers go up,” he said.
Story by atecotzky@businessinsider.com (Alice Tecotzky)

A batch of new footage of then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi's reaction to January 6 reveals her scathing anger toward Donald Trump, whom she called a "domestic enemy." Pelosi wasted no time pivoting her attention from her own safety to the former president and security failures.

Pelosi's daughter, Alexandra Pelosi, filmed key moments on Jan. 5, 6, and 7, 2021 as part of a documentary. HBO handed the footage over to the House Committee on Administration, a Republican-led panel that is working to counteract the January 6 select committee's conclusion that Trump alone is responsible for the day's chaos, Politico reported.
"I just feel sick about what he did to the Capitol and the country," Pelosi said while riding in her SUV in the early hours of January 7. "He's got to pay a price for that."

Later that day, Pelosi sat with aides in her ravaged office, wearing a multicolor floral mask and discussing the "failure of leadership at the top of the Capitol Police." By the end of the discussion, Pelosi turned her attention toward Trump and took on a sharper tone.

"There is a domestic enemy in the White House," she said. "And let's not mince words about this."
Story by Sean O'Driscoll

Donald Trump has twice been accused of accepting Middle East payments, an attorney has said.

New York lawyer Colleen Kerwick was reacting to an investigation by The Washington Post on August 2 into an alleged $10 million cash payment from the Egyptian president to Donald Trump.

Newsweek approached the Trump campaign for comment on Monday.

The Washington Post article suggested that Trump's attorney general, Bill Barr, thwarted an investigation into the alleged payment and transferred the prosecutor involved in the case.

Kerwick said that this is not the first time that Barr has been accused of blocking an investigation into payments to Trump from a Middle Eastern government.

"Barr also allegedly intervened to have Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the SDNY, resign in 2020 when Berman was investigating cases that had potential political implications, including those involving Turkish interests."
"Businessman Wadie Habboush and family made a $1,000,000.00 donation to Trump and facilitated a meeting with Erdogan. Erdogan-tied businessman granted access to Trump through a donor," she said.
Asif Merchant flew from Pakistan to the U.S. to find hitmen, prosecutors said.
By Aaron Katersky and Jack Date

A Pakistani national with purported ties to Iran was arrested last month on charges he plotted to assassinate former President Donald Trump and multiple other public officials, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court.

While the criminal complaint does not mention Trump by name, multiple sources familiar with the case told ABC News one of the intended targets of the alleged plot was Trump. Other possible targets included government officials from both sides of the aisle, the sources said.

After spending time in Iran, Asif Merchant flew from Pakistan to the U.S. to recruit hitmen to carry out the alleged plot, according to a detention memo. The person he contacted was a confidential informant working with the FBI, according to the criminal complaint.
Story by Alex Woodward

Donald Trump said he would “fire” the ABC News journalist who grilled him about his past comments during a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists convention on July 31.

During his appearance on Adin Ross’s livestream on Kick on Monday, Trump was asked for his reaction to the event, which his campaign appeared to cut short by 30 minutes when it was clear that he led the session off the rails.

“This woman starts talking … about racism, and I said, ‘You didn’t even say hello to me,’ and I’m doing them a favor by doing this,” Trump told Ross on Monday. “I’m doing this out of respect to the Black community.”

Last week, ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott asked Trump about his history of false claims about his rivals and his inflammatory remarks to officials and reporters of color.

“Why would Black voters trust you when you have used language like that?” she asked.

“I don’t think I’ve been asked a question in such a horrible manner,” Trump replied. “You don’t even say hello, how are you.”

Trump told Ross that he didn’t “know who she was.”

“She was nasty. Terrible person,” he said. “She is horrible. She was very nasty.”

He later said that “if I owned that network I would fire her so fast.”
Donald J. Trump News   Find out more about the real Donald j. Trump and the Mueller investigation. Is Donald j. Trump a traitor? Was there collusion with the Russians? Did the trump campaign collude or conspire with Putin and the Russians? Trump is the king of fake news alternative facts. Donald Trump is a liar. Donald Trump is a racist. Find out more about trump the Mueller investigation Russia. Learn about don the con trump and Russia. Find out about the trump Russia Putin connection. Find out more about don the con, con man don and learn about the trump university, trump foundation, trump Russia, Russian collusion, money laundering, Trump the money launder and more…      
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