Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[gondrin]

Hmm, I'll just let the headline speak for itself.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/techn...e249f57c68b129

'I don’t need financing. I’m really rich!': Trump snaps at reports that Truth Social is in trouble

Donald Trump was up early on Saturday morning firing back at reports that his Truth Social platform is in financial straits as he claimed he can self-finance the floundering company.

Two days ago it was reported that the Truth Social app will not be available in the Google store over moderation problems.

According to AFP, "A Google spokesperson said the company notified Truth Social on August 19 that its app violated Play policies and required 'effective systems for moderating user-generated content' in order to be offered on the platform. The app breaks rules barring content that incites physical threats and violence, according to the tech firm."

With that in mind, and other reports that the social media platform is a "disaster," Trump tried to pump up his company on Saturday.

"TRUTH is doing really well," he insisted in a post on the platform. "It has truly become our MAGA VOICE, but also a voice for the RINOs and Radical Left Lunatics. Engagements are far better, more interesting, and spirited than anywhere else. I like it much better than Twitter, which is a complete mess. Sign up on TRUTH now, only getting stronger. Google is coming along nicely (I think?)."

He added, "SEC trying to hurt company doing financing (SPAC). Who knows? In any event, I don’t need financing, 'I’m really rich!' Private company anyone???"

[Poopymonster]

We've seen various thoughts about why those folders were empty. Cohen, for example, thinks Trump split them up and has copies. Federal prosecuter Weissman, damn he's been making the rounds these days, said this:



So both subjective experts like Cohen, and objective experts like Weissman, agree that the documents themselves might still be at large.

Another somewhat reassuring option for the empty folders: they were separated by the FBI for cataloguing. Honestly, I hope it's one of the lesser ones, because while Trump is an intentionally ill-informed intentionally incompetent moron and sociopath, I'd rather he had not successfully sold government secrets to our enemies.

But on the Pretty Princess Dress Up angle, there's this:



Yeah, Trump made a bar themed about himself called 45 Wine and Whiskey...which he doesn't drink...and decorated it with various items. I'm still pretty sure the folder itself isn't classified, but it and some of those pictures are probably government property Trump stole.

But since the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago, at least we know the stolen property is on its way back to--

"That's not in Mar-a-Lago."

...what?

"That's in Trump Tower."

Wait, so, Trump had evidence of his crimes on display in multiple places? Is this probable cause to raid Trump's other properties?

"It's possible those items were specially cleared, but again, we don't have any evidence either way. We know that you can't just think 'bigly declassified' and it works. There needs to be some kind of record. If Team Trump can prove that list of items, sitting there in public, are all his personal property and not a danger to democracy, that's one thing. But stealing from the WH is a crime, even when Trump does it."

As I said yesterday, there should be warrants for all his places. And Javanka's. Beavis and Butthead's too.
Anything found, let's see, 2 or more people involved in a crime that was planned...sounds quite conspiratorial to me.
But I'm no lawyer.

[Breccia]

"I don’t need financing. I’m really rich!"

Let's unpack this one line for every speck of information, like we're the FBI.

How rich is Trump, anymore? How much is his social media platform worth?

As always, Forbes has the answer. This April 5 article says Truth Social boosted his net worth by $430 million, whic added to Mar-a-Lago's price increases lifted him up to $3 billion. (He is still not worth TEN BILLION DOLLARS! and he never was)

Trump Media plans to merge with a SPAC that retail traders are buying like crazy, boosting its shares from $10 to more than $50. Based on clues buried in regulatory filings, Trump probably owns at least 50%. We estimated the value of the shares Trump should eventually receive at $10 apiece, reflecting the discounted rate that a handful of smart-money investors recently agreed to pay to jump into the frenzy.

Since the deal hasn’t gone through, Trump can’t sell his presumed shares on the open market today. There are also some doubts about whether the merger will happen at all. Both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority are probing the deal. Bottom line: The SPAC is good news for Trump, but it’s not something he should be banking on quite yet.

Gosh. Kind of a lot has happened since then.

Okay, so, what does this mean in current context? Well, CyberTrump 2077 is kind of a money pit. They merged with Rumble (not exactly a media juggernaut) just to stay on the air, they can't sell ads, and they can't pay their bills. We don't even know who works there.

DWAC's stock price hit $25 this week, down about 20% for the month of August. According to these SEC filings, they've lost $6 million just sitting around doing nothing, and they're asking for money just to stay afloat.

Yes, that sounds stupid when mixed with begging to delay the merger which should be happening soon. Like, next week soon. DWAC needs 65% of their paying members to vote "yes" on the extension, or they'll be forced to either buy, or give up and refund their money. Um...they can't do either. The same SEC filings say they have $293 million, and as mentioned before that's down. I could be wrong, but I don't think they have the money to either buy CyberTrump 2077 at their promised price, or to pay back everyone who invested.

Refunding is the smart move. If Trump had a free and clear path to run in 2024, maybe CyberTrump 2077 would turn around. But even with his legal troubles driving the faithful into his wallet, it's not even treading water. It's a bad buy and DWAC should run like the wind. But, if they do buy, they only have $293 million.

Forbes said in April that they thought Trump's shares were worth $430 million. And that's based on Trump owning half or so. If DWAC buys, Trump's net worth drops about $300 million since April.

I think the people setting up Trump's social media platform were hoping for a quick, poorly-thought-out buyout and they barely needed to keep the lights on for a few months. That's objectively not happening. Until DWAC buys them out, which again they don't have to, they're funding it themselves. Also, CyberTrump 2077 can't take on partners or merge. That would be a breach of their SPAC contract, and the SEC (already investigating) would immediately crash down on them like a golden toilet after Taco Tuesday.

So how much would Trump have to pay for all this?

I'll be honest, I have no idea what Trump is paying these people.

"Trump doesn't pay--"

Yeah yeah I know, but, it's been nearly a year. You can't get people to work for an entire year and literally not pay anything. If nothing else, he has to pay the power bill, for example.

Fortunately, I have help: Elon Musk.

Luck is with me, the SEC filings I listed above were filed by everyone else too. Twitter's operating expenses in the last-ish 12 months were $6.275 billion.

Holly fucking tree, that's ridiculous. Twitter's yearly expenses were over two entire Trumps total values.

As I posted earlier, the claim was that Trump's social media platform was worth a billion, and Elon Musk said Twitter was worth $44 billion. Are these correct? Well, not anymore, they're not. But let's use that as a starting point.

Dividing Twitter by 44 gives us operating expenses of...$142 million a year.

Funny story: that upcoming DWAC vote? It's for another year. Therefore, I theorize Trump will have to self-finance $142 million just to keep it afloat. He can't bring on outside investors as I said before, but I suppose he could start a paywall or hosting ads. He will have to do this until DWAC buys or, more and more likely, indefinitely.

Now, as posted above, in a vacuum, Trump could do this for the rest of his life. Problem is, Trump doesn't live in a vacuum, no matter how much he sucks¹. Trump is facing multiple attacks on his wealth, most notably
1) He owes Deutsche Bank and likely others and those debts are coming due soon. As of last year, Forbes had Trump owing $1.3 billion and I haven't seen him selling anything since making a dent in this. If Trump doesn't have the cash, and is facing jail time, oh wait hold on
2) Trump is facing jail time. That alone will drop his "stock value".
1) Banks don't like to give extensions or refinancing to customers who are in jail. Trump will have to pay up, and with the DWAC deal not happening anytime soon (or at all?) he's going to have to sell shit off.
3) NYState hasn't slowed down. I've said repeatedly, NYState and Deutche Bank are going to have to rock-paper-scissors over who gets to name Trump Tower when they become the co-owners. While Weaselberg has not turned on Trump personally, we do he turned on Trump Org as part of his plea deal. Trump Org is the target of the NYState civil proceedings, and at this point, it's pretty assured they have Trump's taxes or newly-released financial records. Also, Cohen. At the minimum, Trump Org is going to have to pay some back taxes and added damages, and once again, Trump isn't bringing in business like he used to when he wasn't in the FBI's crosshairs. And Trump basically refused to help his company out by taking the Fifth 400 times.

Finding out how much Trump Org will have to pay didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped. PBS mentioned that they tripled Trump's penthouse value to $200 million when talking to banks and insurers. Other reports back that same scaling in other properties, such as Ivanka's apartment valued at either $8.5 million or $25 million depending on who was asking. NYState could, for example, demand the taxes Trump shorted them based on that value. (Or, Trump could admit under oath he lied to banks to get loans. That'd be just fucking stupid, and surely a reason he doesn't want to answer any questions under oath)

I am not an accountant, but I do live in NYState, and know how they figure their property taxes. This is not my finest work, but, I estimate Trump shorted NYState by about $2.25 million dollars.

Per year.

Indefinitely.

Didn't Trump say he was under audit since 2001? Using 20 years and a relatively mild 2% interest plus very mild 10% extra in fines, that's $60 million.

Oh, and that was just for the penthouse. Not the rest of his NY properties.

And I'll remind everyone with glee, that during his 4 years squatting in the WH (read into that verb what you will) he lost hundreds of millions a year, while still running his businesses, mostly because his name became toxic. That has not changed, although inflation might have raised the values of his physical holdings.

Is Trump rich? I mean, compared to me, sure. Can he self-finance? I'm estimating that, if Trump continues to support CyberTrump 2077 (he did say "private") and do business as poorly as he has, his money has between five and ten years to live.

TL,DR is "Maybe, but not for very long, he isn't/he can't."

Whoa...that was a lot more than I thought it was going to be. I think I'm going to play Fallout 76 for a while, a piece of software that's proven over time to be better run than Truth Social. See y'all around.

---

¹I don't waste the good jokes on something as trivial as "Trump is still broke".

[gondrin]

And I'll remind everyone with glee, that during his 4 years squatting in the WH (read into that verb what you will) he lost hundreds of millions a year, while still running his businesses, mostly because his name became toxic. That has not changed, although inflation might have raised the values of his physical holdings.

Well, his name was always toxic if you would ask anyone that knew him. It was always known as someone who never paid his bills. It became publicly toxic to everyone else in a very major way after becoming President.

[postman1782]

You think so? I’d like to believe that, but if these past 6 years have taught me anything it’s not to take this shit for granted…

Besides, who else would they run? DeSantis is just Trump-lite…not exactly inspiring for the base.

Its going to be pretty fucking tough for him to run from Prison.

[Gorsameth]

Its going to be pretty fucking tough for him to run from Prison.

No law against running from Prison. Its been done before.

[Kaleredar]

No law against running from Prison. Its been done before.

I imagine that the appeal to non-sycophant Trumpsters will be very small if Trump is actually convicted, even if that acquiesces to real jail time or not.

[postman1782]

No law against running from Prison. Its been done before.

He won't be able to travel the country, he won't be able to televise anything, he won't have the same freedoms he did running in 2016 or 2020.

[Edge-]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b2159176.html

Apparently Meadows is handing over more texts and communications now...that he may have intentionally withheld earlier.

Is the National Archives going to be the instigator for bringing down the organized crime that took place in the White House? It's looking like it, which is pretty wild.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.businessinsider.com/ron-...hortage-2022-9

And Ron Johnson, continuing to be a piece of shit, thinks that seniors need to get off their lazy bums and come out of retirement to fill job vacancies.

Which many are doing out of necessity to begin with. But he's proposing no payroll tax for these seniors, so at least he sorta came up with a new idea for it. Kinda. Not really. But he's trying!

[Breccia]

he's proposing no payroll tax for these seniors

Whaaaaat? The tax cut for the rich wasn't enough? It's almost like, gasp, it didn't go to most working-class people!

- - - Updated - - -

Rep. Jamie Raskin (Ph-D-MD) went on the Sunday talk circuit and said two people basically need to testify: Pence and Ginni Thomas.

Pence, from what we've heard, seems more or less okay with that. It's not like he committed any crimes.

This might be the first time a SCOTUS family member is given a subpoena, should it come to that. It'd be a gutsy move...but no-one is above the law.

[Ursus]

This might be the first time a SCOTUS family member is given a subpoena, should it come to that. It'd be a gutsy move...but no-one is above the law.

Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures.

[Corvus]

Trump seems to be frothing at the brain even more than usual in his latest rally speech in Pennsylvania. He has called Biden a 'enemy of the state' over the FBI raids. You may be large enough to be a state, but that isn't how it works, fatso.

He also said the raids will lead to "a backlash the likes of which nobody has ever seen". Does that sound like an incitement to violence there?

[Bakis]

I wonder what diagnoses history will give Trump. Its far more than extreme narcissism and hubris.
Maybe someone with knowledge of psychological diagnoses can pop some possible options

[Breccia]

He also said the raids will lead to "a backlash the likes of which nobody has ever seen". Does that sound like an incitement to violence there?

No, he was intentionally vague enough.

Of course, look at what the GOP is saying on the news. There isn't a backlash against Biden. It's more against him.

[gondrin]

Trump, proving for the millionth time he is a whiney bitch, is complaining "That's unfair." then asks "Why haven't they've raided Joe Biden's house?"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...69fb5723750161

'That’s unfair': Trump complains that the FBI never raided Joe Biden’s house

Donald Trump lashed out at the FBI and President Joe Biden in a post on his Truth Social platform on Labor Day.

The former president claimed that federal agents should have raided Biden’s house over corruption allegations against the president's son.

“So they riffled through the living quarters of my 16 year old son, Barron, and the loved and respected former First Lady of the United States, Melania,” the former president wrote Monday morning, “but, despite proven high crimes and treason, and just plain common theft, all pointed out in the Laptop from Hell (and elsewhere), they never Raided or Broke Into the house of Hunter Biden or, perhaps even more importantly, the house of Joe Biden - A treasure trove! This is a Country that’s unfair and broken. We are truly a Nation in Decline!!!”

On Saturday, Trump branded Biden an "enemy of the state" as he hit back at the US president's assertion that the Republican and his supporters are undermining American democracy, and slammed last month's FBI raid of his Florida home.

On Sunday, Trump insisted he was innocent and was being wrongly targeted by the FBI.

“So much talk, back and forth, including from my many patriotic ‘defenders & supporters,’ about our Federal Government working every seldom (or never used) rule and regulation in order to get and destroy, at any cost, President Donald J. Trump,” he wrote on Truth Social. “Same concepts, anger, and Radical Left maniacs and RINOs who have been working the system of Hoaxes and Scams ever since I came down the ‘golden escalator’ in Trump Tower seven years ago. They also have the same problem, however - I DID NOTHING WRONG!!!”

The Justice Department has said in court filings that highly classified government documents, including some marked "Top Secret," were discovered in Trump's personal office during the raid.

A detailed list of what was seized also showed Trump held on to more than 11,000 unclassified government records that he claims are his to keep -- but legally are owned by the National Archives.

Among the papers seized were 18 documents labelled "top secret", 53 labelled "secret" and another 31 marked "confidential."

Of those, seven top secret files, 17 secret files and three confidential files were retrieved from Trump's private office.

Agents also found several dozen empty folders labelled "classified" in the office, raising speculation that sensitive documents may have been lost, destroyed or moved.

[Breccia]

he is a whiney bitch

Trump not only could have had the FBI raid Hunter and/or other Bidens while he was in the WH, but was elected in no small part based on his promise to prosecute Clinton -- for which he was met with thunderous applause.

There are plenty of terms to describe someone who only complains about the rules when they're being penalized for not following them. "Whiny bitch" is at least in the top ten, probably top three.

[gondrin]

Trump not only could have had the FBI raid Hunter and/or other Bidens while he was in the WH, but was elected in no small part based on his promise to prosecute Clinton -- for which he was met with thunderous applause.

There are plenty of terms to describe someone who only complains about the rules when they're being penalized for not following them. "Whiny bitch" is at least in the top ten, probably top three.

I love how he claims that somehow Biden did "High crimes and treason" and it was on the laptop. Whenever he speaks, projection is the game.

[gondrin]

This is still one of his major talking points, too.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1566216111179415553

Half of those clips, might as well call Trump "The Ramblin Man".

[Breccia]

This TheAtlantic article and this Republican former House member agree: Biden's address acc--

"Wrong thread."

Nope. Biden's address accomplished what it was supposed to do: bait Trump into being Trump. @gondrin nailed it, too.

Simply put, Trump heard that someone didn't like him and spent what could have been a coherent speech about the direction of this country and how He Alone Could Fix It and instead made it about how thin his skin is, and how much of a whiney bitch he was.

Most Republican candidates don’t want anything to do with Donald Trump in this general election. They want this to be about Joe Biden and the Democrats, but to the extent Trump inserts himself into this conversation, he’s giving the Democrats a major gift right now.

I am not so sure that the Trump did anyone any good with that speech tonight. Just by showing up in Pennsylvania, he is making the election much more about himself.

-- Charles Dent (R-PA, former)

"Why was he even there?"

Backing Dr. Oz.

"...he knows that's a lost cause, right?"

If it wasn't him, it'd be someone else. Maybe Biden intentionally planned for the "Trump is a danger to democracy" speech to be just before his Pennsylvania rally and was designed to sabotage it specifically, as Trump isn't physically travelling much -- he has to buy his ass an extra seat and his ego fills the entire cargo compartment. Poor Kushner has to cling to the wing.

For the 2022 election cycle, smart Republicans had a clear and simple plan: Don’t let the election be about Trump. Make it about gas prices, or crime, or the border, or race, or sex education, or anything—anything but Trump. Trump lost the popular vote in 2016. He lost control of the House in 2018. He lost the presidency in 2020. He lost both Senate seats in Georgia in 2021. Republicans had good reason to dread the havoc he’d create if he joined the fight in 2022.

So they pleaded with Trump to keep out of the 2022 race. A Republican lawmaker in a close contest told CNN on August 19, “I don’t say his name, ever.”

Maybe the pleas were always doomed to fail. Show Trump a spotlight, and he’s going to step into it. But Republicans pinned their hopes on the chance that Trump might muster some self-discipline this one time, some regard for the interests and wishes of his partners and allies.

One of the purposes of Biden’s Philadelphia attack on Trump’s faction within the Republican Party was surely to goad Trump. It worked.

Trump has spent his whole life not just being told how important he is, but also using his wealth and power to crush the people who worked for him and dared to ask to be paid. He's basically a high-level elite in a low-level zone.

Biden is a tank. There's nothing Trump can throw at him that does any damage, but Biden can focus Trump's attacks on himself while the DPS (with and without search warrants) whittle down that orange health bar of his.

But, there's more.

Trump spoke at length about the FBI search of his house for stolen government documents. He lashed out at the FBI, attacking the bureau and the Department of Justice as “vicious monsters.” He complained about the FBI searching his closets for stolen government documents, inadvertently reminding everyone that the FBI had actually found stolen government documents in his closet—and in his bathroom too. Trump called Biden an “enemy of the state.” He abused his party’s leader in the U.S. Senate as someone who “should be ashamed.” He claimed to have won the popular vote in the state of Pennsylvania, which, in fact, he lost by more than 80,000 votes.

The rally format allowed time for only brief remarks by the two candidates actually on the ballot, Oz and Mastriano. Its message was otherwise all Trump, Trump, Trump. A Republican vote is a Trump vote. A Republican vote is a vote to endorse lies about the 2020 presidential election.

On and on it went, in a protracted display of narcissistic injury that was exactly the behavior that Biden’s Philadelphia speech had been designed to elicit.

Here's a question: why doesn't the fish section of your grocery store smell bad? Well, they use ice to keep the fish at a safe temperature. If you smell it, they're spoiling, don't buy it.

Here's a relevant question: why wouldn't this Biden taunting the boss thing work next time? Or the time after that? Or indefinitely? Trump has a long, public history of rising to any perceived challenge to his bigliness, even as the feds walk out of his house with all the top secret information he stole.

Trump is, quite possibly, literally insane. Sociopath, dementia, maybe. Narcisist, definitely. And we all know the definition of insanity, currently displayed by Trump and his big fat Vaas.

[gondrin]

This TheAtlantic article and this Republican former House member agree: Biden's address acc--

"Wrong thread."

Nope. Biden's address accomplished what it was supposed to do: bait Trump into being Trump. @gondrin nailed it, too.

Simply put, Trump heard that someone didn't like him and spent what could have been a coherent speech about the direction of this country and how He Alone Could Fix It and instead made it about how thin his skin is, and how much of a whiney bitch he was.


-- Charles Dent (R-PA, former)

"Why was he even there?"

Backing Dr. Oz.

"...he knows that's a lost cause, right?"

If it wasn't him, it'd be someone else. Maybe Biden intentionally planned for the "Trump is a danger to democracy" speech to be just before his Pennsylvania rally and was designed to sabotage it specifically, as Trump isn't physically travelling much -- he has to buy his ass an extra seat and his ego fills the entire cargo compartment. Poor Kushner has to cling to the wing.



Trump has spent his whole life not just being told how important he is, but also using his wealth and power to crush the people who worked for him and dared to ask to be paid. He's basically a high-level elite in a low-level zone.

Biden is a tank. There's nothing Trump can throw at him that does any damage, but Biden can focus Trump's attacks on himself while the DPS (with and without search warrants) whittle down that orange health bar of his.

But, there's more.



Here's a question: why doesn't the fish section of your grocery store smell bad? Well, they use ice to keep the fish at a safe temperature. If you smell it, they're spoiling, don't buy it.

Here's a relevant question: why wouldn't this Biden taunting the boss thing work next time? Or the time after that? Or indefinitely? Trump has a long, public history of rising to any perceived challenge to his bigliness, even as the feds walk out of his house with all the top secret information he stole.

Trump is, quite possibly, literally insane. Sociopath, dementia, maybe. Narcisist, definitely. And we all know the definition of insanity, currently displayed by Trump and his big fat Vaas.

You know, I think he still thinks Hoover is in control of the FBI as much as he brings up going through Melania's clothes. Maybe he is afraid zombie Hoover was going to tell the agents to steal him some clothes so he can wear them.

- - - Updated - - -

Remember folks, Trump is so attached to his money that he will attempt to pay off bills by giving stuff away to people he owes things to.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...c0b10d3d3b76bb

Trump Attempted To Pay Attorney With Horse, Upcoming Book Says

Reputed attorney-stiffer Donald Trump once tried to pay a lawyer with a horse, according to a new book by The New York Times’ David Enrich.

In a segment of “Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump and the Corruption of Justice” reported Monday by the Guardian, Trump owed $2 million to “a lawyer at a white-shoe firm” in the 1990s.

The lawyer showed up unannounced at Trump Tower to confront Trump.

″‘I’m not going to pay your bill. I’m going to give you something more valuable,’ Trump replied, according to the book, due out later this month. “What on earth is he talking about? the lawyer wondered. ‘I have a stallion,’ Trump continued. ‘It’s worth $5 million.’ Trump rummaged around in a filing cabinet and pulled out what he said was a deed to a horse. He handed it to the lawyer.”

“This isn’t the 1800s. You can’t pay me with a horse,” the stunned attorney replied, threatening to sue.

Trump eventually “eventually coughed up at least a portion of what he owed,” the author wrote.

The colorful anecdote bolsters Trump’s alleged history of shirking attorney fees.

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said last week that Trump is having difficulty securing legal help for various probes because attorneys fear they won’t be paid.

He even reportedly failed to pay Rudy Giuliani for millions of dollars of services.

I wonder if he named him Mr. Ed.