Today in Trump

[Kirkland Laing]

3 Expert Shoemakers Say Ron DeSantis Is Probably Wearing Height Boosters



DeSantis’ go-go boots aren’t the problem; his relentless politicking is



True or not, DeSantis can't escape the raised boot rumors as his campaign falters



Trump Declares Ron DeSantis’ Boot Lifts Drama Is His ‘Kiss of Death’



Bootgate and the perils of drafting off Donald Trump




https://therickwilson.substack.com/p...utm_medium=web





Told you. Too short to be president.

[Kirkland Laing]

Donald Trump and his allies have begun mapping out specific plans for using the federal government to punish critics and opponents should he win a second term, with the former president naming individuals he wants to investigate or prosecute and his associates drafting plans to potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations.




Keeping up with politics is easy with The 5-Minute Fix Newsletter, in your inbox weekdays.




In private, Trump has told advisers and friends in recent months that he wants the Justice Department to investigate onetime officials and allies who have become critical of his time in office, including his former chief of staff, John Kelly, and former attorney general William P. Barr, as well as his ex-attorney Ty Cobb and former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Mark A. Milley, according to people who have talked to him, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymityto describe private conversations.Trump has also talked of prosecuting officials at the FBI and Justice Department, a person familiar with the matter said.

In public, Trump has vowed to appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” President Biden and his family. The former president has frequently made corruption accusations against them that are not supported by available evidence.



To facilitate Trump’s ability to direct Justice Department actions, his associates have been drafting plans to dispense with 50 years of policy and practice intended to shield criminal prosecutions from political considerations. Critics have called such ideas dangerous and unconstitutional.



https://wapo.st/49mZXWU





And it's a racing certainty that he's going to get reelected. People are going OK, so he's a soon to be convicted felon but the economy was really good under him and he says he'll fix it so it's like that again:



A shocking new poll appears to show President Joe Biden to be in deep water — as former President Donald Trump leads his successor in almost all of the most important battleground states.
The poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena College determined that Biden’s support base is fracturing as voters are dissatisfied with his immigration, national security, and economic policies. The Times poll found African-American voters are expressing an unusually high 22 percent support for Trump, and Biden is also hemorrhaging support from younger voters, Hispanics, and urban voters.
As 67 percent of registered voters say that the country is moving in the wrong direction, Biden’s troubles come into clear view with how badly he’s faring in the swing states. Trump, according to the poll, is beating Biden 49 to 43 in Georgia, 49 to 44 in Arizona, 48 to 43 in Michigan, and 48 to 44 in Pennsylvania and even holds a stunning double-digit lead in Nevada, 52-41. Biden currently has the lead in Wisconsin, but just barely — with 47 percent to Trump’s 45.



https://www.mediaite.com/news/shock-...es-poll-finds/

[TitoFan]

The Israel-Hamas war has come at a wonderful time for Trump. Biden is in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" position, where his support can only get weaker. Trump has ample time to second guess the crap out of every decision made by the White House.

That Trump is a vindictive bastard who will be looking for blood should he get reelected is a no-brainer. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. In four more years of Trump, he'll turn the U.S. into the same 3rd world banana republic he's so fond of accusing other countries of being.

The onus is firmly on the US Department of Justice, in which I personally have little faith on anything regarding Trump. The infamous Trump quote about shooting someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and still maintaining his support has been the only truth ever spoken by Trump... but magnified several times over.

The late John Gotti, for which the term "Teflon Don" was coined, should be rolling over in his grave, knowing there is a much more deserving recipient of that nickname... and whose first name is Don, to boot.

It is the ultimate travesty for what used to be the most powerful nation of the free world... to reelect the man mostly responsible for inciting the riot on the US Capitol on January 6th. It is a travesty to have a Justice System that hems and haws and grinds the wheels of "justice", when even aliens from other planets know that it was Trump's insistence that the 2020 election was stolen from him... that worked his brainless Minions into a lather and pissed enough to storm the US Capitol, resulting in several deaths. The supposed 3rd world countries Trump likes to make fun of have been laughing at the USA ever since.

[NoSavingByTheBell]

America and UK are hypocritical colonialist genocidal garbage regardless of Trump, Biden, or Jo The College Dorm Whore Jorgensen

[Kirkland Laing]

NEWS: GOP lawmaker bestows tribute to men acquitted in Whitmer kidnapping plot -- and their attorneys@GovWhitmer
's office called the tribute "disturbing" and said it would "embolden radical extremists."

https://twitter.com/ChadLivengood/st...76775740174787



Trump wants to model the United States after Hungary, an authoritarian country with 20% inflation and a per capita GDP that’s less than half of Mississippi’s, which ranks dead last out of out every state in per capita GDP.

https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/stat...53156473217027



A Trump victory in 2024 would probably end American democracy as we know it. But, as a journalist, I am duty bound to report on whatever made-up story the Republicans are throwing out this week.

https://twitter.com/DougJBalloon/sta...21954703057028

[NoSavingByTheBell]

America and UK are hypocritical colonialist genocidal garbage regardless of Trump, Biden, or Jo The College Dorm Whore Jorgensen

This post requires you to click the likes button in order to view the content. This post requires you to click the thanks button in order to view the content. This post requires you to hit the dislike button in order to view the content.

[Kirkland Laing]

The guy who took this should get photojournalist of the year:

[NoSavingByTheBell]

Although I will forever I feel disgusted that Donald Trump has to be emergency act for authorizing leaky at the very least and very dangerous clot-causing and heart damage causing stroke causing and Spike proteins crossing the blood-brain barrier and lodging in the organs forever and causing cancer to rise exponentially and young people to die suddenly during sports like never before and genetically modifying mRNA injections which seem to only have gotten people infected three and four and five times even though they had three and four and five injections, because like a little child he wanted to appear as the hero who saved the world from covid-19 and he wanted to show that he was a president who could solve the pandemic quickly, even though I will forever hate him for this, I still feel he would be a much better president for the country than Joe Biden without any doubt and so I will take the mean tweets and I will take the sarcastic and sometimes offensive remarks over what we have had since open borders Joe took over with that clown Mayorkas and that clown camel toe and the whole team like Anthony blinking and John Kirby and all the rest of the clowns like Millie and Austin

[TitoFan]

Although I will forever I feel disgusted that Donald Trump has to be emergency act for authorizing leaky at the very least and very dangerous clot-causing and heart damage causing stroke causing and Spike proteins crossing the blood-brain barrier and lodging in the organs forever and causing cancer to rise exponentially and young people to die suddenly during sports like never before and genetically modifying mRNA injections which seem to only have gotten people infected three and four and five times even though they had three and four and five injections...

Quit beating around the bush and tell us what you really think about the shots.

[NoSavingByTheBell]

Although I will forever I feel disgusted that Donald Trump has to be emergency act for authorizing leaky at the very least and very dangerous clot-causing and heart damage causing stroke causing and Spike proteins crossing the blood-brain barrier and lodging in the organs forever and causing cancer to rise exponentially and young people to die suddenly during sports like never before and genetically modifying mRNA injections which seem to only have gotten people infected three and four and five times even though they had three and four and five injections...

Quit beating around the bush and tell us what you really think about the shots.

Accidentally hit the dislikes button there! Tried to like it but I didn't zoom in enough on this Android and the writing is so small that I hit the wrong button slightly to the right.

I tried to reverse it but it won't allow it. I hereby make a complaint to the website formatting! If we accidentally hit the wrong button we should be able to reverse it.

😠😠😠

[TitoFan]

Although I will forever I feel disgusted that Donald Trump has to be emergency act for authorizing leaky at the very least and very dangerous clot-causing and heart damage causing stroke causing and Spike proteins crossing the blood-brain barrier and lodging in the organs forever and causing cancer to rise exponentially and young people to die suddenly during sports like never before and genetically modifying mRNA injections which seem to only have gotten people infected three and four and five times even though they had three and four and five injections...

Quit beating around the bush and tell us what you really think about the shots.

Accidentally hit the dislikes button there! Tried to like it but I didn't zoom in enough on this Android and the writing is so small that I hit the wrong button slightly to the right.

I tried to reverse it but it won't allow it. I hereby make a complaint to the website formatting! If we accidentally hit the wrong button we should be able to reverse it.

😠😠😠

Haha... no worries, bro. It would probably happen to me all the time, if I used my phone more. I tried to respond to your PM but the system didn't let me. Sometimes I worry about the kinks in this place.

[Master]

This week marked the end of the most dramatic phase of Donald Trump's New York business fraud trial, which saw high-profile members of his family make the journey to Lower Manhattan one by one to answer probing questions from prosecutors.

On Monday Mr Trump's defence team will begin presenting their side, calling the former president's oldest son back to the stand as their first witness. But legal analysts told the BBC that after two damaging weeks of testimony from members of the Trump family, salvaging their case now will be a herculean task.

"It's been a disaster from a legal perspective," said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers.

He believes that Mr Trump is "going to lose this case, and lose badly".

In a worst-case scenario for Mr Trump, Judge Arthur Engoron could bar him and his fellow defendants from doing business in New York, and issue fines of at least $250m (£204m) in penalties.

Perhaps the most harmful of all the testimony came from Mr Trump himself. When he took the stand on Monday, he called New York Attorney General Letitia James a "political hack", declared the case "a disgrace" and personally attacked Judge Engoron.

At several points, Judge Engoron demanded Mr Trump's lawyers rein in his behaviour, and answer the questions posed to him. If they did not, the judge pledged to "draw every negative inference that I can".

"If Donald Trump was anybody other than a person with Secret Service protection, he would have been jailed for contempt of court," said Mitchell Epner, an attorney who handles commercial litigation.

When he did directly respond to prosecutors' questions, Mr Trump did perhaps even more damage to his cause.

At the heart of the attorney general's lawsuit are documents known as statements of financial condition, the balance sheets that the Trump Organization used to demonstrate the value of its properties and Mr Trump's net worth so they could obtain loans and insurance rates.

The attorney general's office alleges those documents were fraudulently inflated to obtain deals they could not have received based on their true financials.

The judge had already ruled those documents were false. He is now weighing whether there was an intent to defraud, whether the defendants did so for personal gain, and other charges. The judge will also determine whether to issue penalties and if so, how severe.

On the stand, Mr Trump boasted that his properties like Mar-a-Lago and 40 Wall Street were in fact worth more than their value on paper, but acknowledged he believed at least one of his properties may have been overvalued.

At another point, a prosecutor questioned him about the size of his Trump Tower penthouse, which the company had claimed was over 30,000sq ft but really took up just over 10,000. Mr Trump first acknowledged he had believed the claimed square footage was "high" - but then began to throw around larger estimates of its size.

Over the course of his testimony, Mr Trump admitted he had given his input, and that some of those values on paper were wrong.

But he insisted that even if he did offer this input, he did not direct his accountants or employees on what valuations to use.

Mr Trump denies any wrongdoing and has accused the New York attorney general of waging a campaign of political persecution against him.

Speaking to reporters after Mr Trump testified, his attorney Alina Habba said he had "built a great company, it's worth a ton more than that statement of financial condition."

She added that Ms James, the attorney general, "doesn't know how to get out of it because her politics won't allow her."

His children, Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump, were all more composed in their testimony and took a different approach to that of their father. But they did not necessarily help the family's case.

Each one, in their own way, attempted to deflect the responsibility for the false documents onto the company's accountants and lawyers.

Mr Trump Jr said he was unfamiliar with the standard accounting guidelines to which companies like his must adhere. Eric Trump testified he was not involved with the creation of the statements of financial condition. Both are executive vice-presidents at the Trump Organization.

They stuck to this defence even as they were presented with various emails they sent or were copied on, or documents they signed, that contained information based on the false financial statements.

Ms Trump, who was not a defendant, tried to give prosecutors as little to work with as possible, repeatedly saying she could not recall documents they presented to her.

When confronted with emails that showed her discussing the terms of a loan Deutsche Bank was about to grant her father for a real estate project, Ms Trump stated she could not recall the exchanges.

Her declarations were unlikely to help, Mr Rahmani said. Mr Trump Jr and Eric Trump were "still liable for some of the claims like financial fraud, even if they didn't have intent", he observed.

And, he added, the Trump Organization was liable for the actions of Donald Trump and his sons in the course of their employment.

Legal experts agreed Mr Trump's defence team, led by veteran attorney Chris Kise, will be starting on the back foot next week.

They could attempt to introduce reams of new evidence or continue to prod and goad Judge Engoron to give them grounds for an appeal.

The lawyers spent the last few weeks attacking the judge over his alleged lack of impartiality. Other accusations of bias launched against Judge Engoron's clerk led to angry reprimands from the bench and a gag order on the attorneys themselves.

"I'm sure the judge will rule against me, because he always rules against me," Mr Trump said at one point on Monday.

Despite the aggressive attacks, experts told the BBC that Mr Trump's legal team had failed to undermine the state's case.

"The defence needs someone to get up there and justify these valuations," Mr Rahmani said. "Accountants, CPAs, real estate experts, appraisers. And they just haven't done that yet."

At this point, they face an uphill battle in salvaging their case, analysts told the BBC.

"The reason that they are in such a bad situation is that the judge has already found that the most important documents in this case were all false," Mr Epner said. "As of now, the judge has also been given an enormous amount of evidence to show that they were knowingly false, and provided with the intent to defraud."

"Since they don't have the ability to get into a Back to the Future DeLorean and turn back time," Mr Epner said of the defence team, "I can't imagine what they can do to turn around this case."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-67366022

[Spicoli]

The guy who took this should get photojournalist of the year:

My god. He's literally wearing Kiss boots . Sad to see Tim Scott jump ship immediately after being roasted by SNL. Oddly in a skit that was actually funny for a change.

[NoSavingByTheBell]

"Gene Simmons, Ace Freehly and Randy"

by Baba Booey

There he was on the sand dunes
Near Lake Pontchartrain
He didn't know if it was going to snow
He didn't know if it was going to rain

He was listening to "god of thunder"
Not men down under
Once in a while Stevie Wonder
Waiting for the Moon to burst asunder

That's when Trump came walking by
Making Randy wonder why
Detroit Rock City in Trump Tower
Peter Chris and Robin Trower

[TitoFan]

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-...025-rcna125352


Why the fukk is this even news?? I've been shouting this since Day One. After the $$$$$$$$ that have been poured down the drain in this pathetic attempt to hold Trump accountable for what he's done.....

Do some morons STILL consider it astonishing that Trump may still get elected?

Give me the banana republics any day of the week. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Trump's dirty paw prints are all over the shameful events of January 6th. In fact, a slow 5th grader could've figured that one out.

WTF is there to still mull over? For all the chest-thumping about the U.S. justice system... for things like this it is worthless. If you read the article, you'll see how people in power and authority are pawning these critically needed decisions like a giant hot potato. Everyone is scared of what Trump will do to them once (not "if") he's in power.

Hey press... do us all a favor. Quit reporting useless bullshet, and start getting ready to kiss Trump's in order to save your own.