Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Benggaul]

Side note: that can't be the guy's real name, right?

Yes, and surprising nobody it appears it's not very apropos:

Trump's loose-lipped lawyers overheard spilling secrets in a restaurant: report

"But Trusty, who played a leading role in the special master litigation, was already frustrated with how things were going," reported Hugo Lowell for the newspaper. "Trusty’s private frame of mind emerged over dinner with Halligan and Corcoran at the five-star Breakers hotel in West Palm Beach, Florida, hours after the special master court hearing.

"The conversation was overheard by this Guardian reporter who happened to be sitting at the table next to them."

Trusty was frustrated that Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn was making the attorneys run legal decisions through him, even though he didn't consider him to be a trial lawyer, and Trusty didn't like that Epshteyn seemed to focus more on Trump's public-relations problems than legal issues.

Lowell then overheard the attorney rip Epshteyn for trying to "troubleshoot" legal problems instead of letting him candidly brief his own client himself, which he compared to "'Game of Thrones' nonsense," and Trusty and Parlatore agreed several weeks later, after the Justice Department told them they believed Trump still had classified documents, that Epshteyn improperly inserted himself into their work.

"The pair chafed that when they spoke to Trump on the phone, Epshteyn was typically also on the line," Lowell reported. "At other times, they sniped that Epshteyn would give overly rosy outlooks to Trump and, in March, traveled to Mar-a-Lago to seek Trump’s permission to exclude him from future deliberations."

Clicking through to the original Guardian reporting on the matter...

In one instance, the clashes became so acute that some of the lawyers agreed to a so-called “murder-suicide” pact where if Parlatore got fired, others would resign in solidarity. And as some of the lawyers tried to exclude Epshteyn, they withheld information from co-counsel who they suspected might brief him.

The infighting eventually reached the point at which some of the lawyers started to believe the biggest impediment to defending Trump might just be the distrust and interpersonal conflict, rather than someone like Parlatore deciding to cooperate with prosecutors.

(Apologies if someone else had already posted this. I hadn't noticed it until now.)

[Edge-]

Yes, and surprising nobody it appears it's not very apropos:

Trump's loose-lipped lawyers overheard spilling secrets in a restaurant: report



Clicking through to the original Guardian reporting on the matter...



(Apologies if someone else had already posted this. I hadn't noticed it until now.)

I had to double check the date on this article because this is not the first time Trump lawyers have talked business in a public setting whilst reporters just happen to be around: http://www.usnews.com/news/national-...-at-restaurant

You get what you (don't?) pay for, I guess.

[Poopymonster]

Yes, and surprising nobody it appears it's not very apropos:

Trump's loose-lipped lawyers overheard spilling secrets in a restaurant: report



Clicking through to the original Guardian reporting on the matter...



(Apologies if someone else had already posted this. I hadn't noticed it until now.)

It's too little too late for Trump.
My view: Epstein, I mean Epshteyn is being used as a buffer. When things go totally pear shaped, Trump can go "Epstein? Good parties. Best parties. Cute kids. Party kids. Epshteyn? Covfefe boy. Didn't know him. Never met him." Boris might think he's Genco, but there is one huge difference.

Vito would never throw Genco under the bus. It would have been handled quietly.
and don't forget the cannoli.

[Edge-]

https://www.salon.com/2023/06/02/sea...-booed-anyway/

I didn't know Trump did a Fox town hall last night?

At another point during the event, Hannity moved to question Trump about his tendency to hurl insults at his political opposition and suggested he might tamp down the remarks to appeal to moderate voters.

"People ask me, 'Why does he have to fight so hard? Why doesn't he pick his fights a little more? Why does he have to call people names?' And the only reason I think this is an important question is because these… I think everyone here tonight is likely voting for you, right?" Hannity said, prompting cheers of agreement from the crowd.

Hannity continued, saying that the results of the 2024 election would likely rest in the hands of those who want Trump to "just tone it down a hair, stop a little of the name-calling."

Boos and shouts of "No!" erupted from the audience

"I said it's their question. Leave me alone," Hannity fired back before further pushing the suggestion to Trump. The presidential candidate dismissed it.

Yep, seems to have gone about as expected.

I don't think Van Jones can survive another four years of Trump if he doesn't at least have a dozen opportunities to say, "Finally, Trump has grown into the presidency." again.

[postman1782]

Remember that tape that was just revealed a few days ago about Trump bragging about having an attack plan that was going to be used on Iran?

Well, that document is missing still.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerro...h=400be5904ab0
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b2350522.html
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/02/polit...ena/index.html

They can't find it anywhere where Trump had documents. So, everything keeps getting worse for Trump.

[Edge-]

Remember that tape that was just revealed a few days ago about Trump bragging about having an attack plan that was going to be used on Iran?

Well, that document is missing still.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerro...h=400be5904ab0
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b2350522.html
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/02/polit...ena/index.html

They can't find it anywhere where Trump had documents. So, everything keeps getting worse for Trump.

I wonder if that has anything to do with the $2B Kushner got from the Saudis? Or that golf deal Trump got with the Saudis?

Has anyone called up Iran to ask them if they have it?

[Breccia]

In addition to @Edge- and @postman1782's posts -- the town hall was a CNN-level farce and the missing document is legally lethal -- there's two or more issues to discuss.

RICO.

Atlanta Prosecutors Contact Firms That Consulted With Trump Campaign

So, we all know Trump hired Simpatico Software Systems and Berkeley Research Group to find election fraud, and we know neither found it because it didn't exist, and Trump buried the reports and pretended there was election fraud anyhow. WaPo link past this paywall, but WaPo reported this in Feb and April 2023, so we're only now learning about it, but WaPo also reports that both serviced Trump hired told him "there is no fraud" before 2020 ended. As in, before Jan 6th.

One, maybe both, of these firms have been subpoena'd.

Joyce Vance, a former federal prosecutor and law professor at the University of Alabama, said that Ms. Willis is probably interested in the companies’ failure to find significant fraud because it could help establish that Mr. Trump acted with criminal intent.

One of the campaign’s lawyers, Alex Cannon, who was a contact point for Simpatico, told Mr. Trump’s son Eric around Thanksgiving 2020 that fraud claims coming in were largely unreliable, according to testimony Mr. Cannon gave to House investigators in their inquiry into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Trump continued to fundraise on lies. That's wire fraud.

It's been suspected for a while that GA DA Willis is looking at racketeering on exactly that. And is likely talking to other states where Trump fairly and legally lost but refused to admit this because he was making money.

We have until August to review what Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization means.

- - - Updated - - -

What do you do when your client lies all the time about everything? Use it as a defense. Ex-Trump lawyer predicts defense of "Trump was lying in the recording".

"But isn't the document still miss--"

That's his guess. Best option they have, really.

[Finlandia WOAT]

I wonder if that has anything to do with the $2B Kushner got from the Saudis? Or that golf deal Trump got with the Saudis?

Has anyone called up Iran to ask them if they have it?

Or that Smith issued a subpoena for all info on Trump's foreign business deals since he left office.

It's amusing. Right wingers have spent *years* salivating over the nothingburger Hunter Biden's laptop, and here we are with a narrative that Trump sold national security secrets for a golf club.

[Breccia]

Or that Smith issued a subpoena for all info on Trump's foreign business deals since he left office.

Sure, why not. Let's revisit this article from May 23.

The subpoena — drafted by the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith — sought details on the Trump Organization’s real estate licensing and development dealings in seven countries: China, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, according to the people familiar with the matter. The subpoena sought the records for deals reached since 2017, when Mr. Trump was sworn in as president.

It remains unclear precisely what the prosecutors were hoping to find by sending the subpoena to Mr. Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, or when it was issued. But the subpoena suggests that investigators have cast a wider net than previously understood as they scrutinize whether he broke the law in taking sensitive government materials with him upon leaving the White House and then not fully complying with demands for their return.

The push by Mr. Smith’s prosecutors to gain insight into the former president’s foreign business was part of a subpoena — previously reported by The New York Times — that was sent to the Trump Organization and sought records related to Mr. Trump’s dealings with a Saudi-backed golf venture known as LIV Golf, which is holding tournaments at some of his golf clubs. (Mr. Trump’s arrangement with LIV Golf was reached well after he removed documents from the White House.)

Collectively, the subpoena’s demand for records related to the golf venture and other foreign ventures since 2017 suggests that Mr. Smith is exploring whether there is any connection between Mr. Trump’s deal-making abroad and the classified documents he took with him when he left office.

Even a special assignment like Agent Smith's doesnt get to magically break the rules -- even less so than normal, I'd suspect. You don't get a subpoena just because you feel like it. You have to show a judge reasonable cause exists to believe you'd find evidence of a crime there, and also, a crime related to the matter at hand. If Smith found evidence of an unrelated crime by accident, that's one thing. But he doesn't get to say "Your Honor, I want to check the tires of all of Trump's cars because I saw a movie where they put cocaine in those once".

We don't know what's in the classified documents. That's what "classified" means. But we do know some are related to Middle East affairs. Which would have been a very easy guess, a lot of stuff goes on there.

I suppose Smith could have said "Your Honor, since there were Middle East documents found, it's reasonable to believe he would have tried to leverage them for personal gain." But that feels like a stretch. We've also been told there were documents involving France and we haven't heard anything about French subpoena's. Smith needed reason to believe Trump's Middle Eastern business dealings -- including that Kushner thing @Edge- mentioned -- contained evidence of a crime other than "he had stolen documents" which we know because we have most of those back.

It sure sounds like Smith suggested, and a judge agreed, that Trump could realistically be selling out the United States interests for his own money.

[gondrin]

So, while it has unofficially been a cult for a long while, might as well make it official.

They shall be named the "MAGAdonians". Sounds like a bad B rated sci-fi creature from the 50s.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...016597d7&ei=18

Trump Rebrands His Followers "Magadonians" - Here's What It Means

Former President Donald Trump usually reserves his nicknames for his political enemies — Lyin' Ted Cruz, Low-Energy Jeb Bush, Sleepy Joe Biden, Pocahontas. But Trump has finally given his own followers a nickname so they can more easily band together under a single identity — and likely so he can increase his already formidable merch sales.

Having coined MAGA — an acronym for Make America Great Again — so successfully that the moniker is now common shorthand for the far right wing of the GOP, Trump has now extended and transformed the word into “Magadonians,” a brand identity for members of his political tribe.

The name has an ancient, even prehistoric, echo, which opens it to snarky jabs from the left, but appeals to the MAGA mindset.

Trump knows better than anyone that a sense of belonging, of not being forgotten, of group grievance is what he offers those who pledge fealty to him. A comprehensive survey found that “long-term pessimism was also widespread among Trump supporters. Two-thirds of Trump primary supporters thought life today for people like them is worse than it was 50 years ago.”

The former President nourishes this sense of pessimistic community and resentment by promising solidarity with even its most transgressive members, exemplified by his promise to pardon those convicted for January 6 crimes.

With Magadonians, Trump now creates an identity group for his followers to belong to, a category more refined than the catchall “Republican.” After all, Ron DeSantis and Liz Cheney are Republicans. Magadonians they are not.

In ripping former friend Fox News, Trump said Fox was losing out on servicing his “brilliant Magadonians,” who, he asserts, don’t want to hear about DeSantis.

“FOX should embrace MAGA,” Trump writes on social media, “because the very smart, even brilliant, Magadonians know that, despite all the fake lip service, FoxNews is pushing Ron DeSanctus, or anyone else for that matter, because they hate the greatest ‘america first' president to ever put on a suit and tie, me."

Soundwise, “Magadonians” brings to mind “Macedonians,” which refers to the people from Macedonia, a region in Southeastern Europe. Of course, the most famous Macedonian in history is Alexander the Great, the ancient Greek king from Macedon.

A renowned tough guy and tactician, Alexander the Great is someone Trump may hope to be associated with, even if anti-globalist America First agenda is diametrically opposed to Alexander’s goals — he created one of the largest empires in history, stretching from Greece to Egypt and as far east as India.

Magadonians also has a sonic — and slightly comic — resemblance to Guardians, a nod to the Marvel Universe and its fantasy world of heroic activity — again a point that draws snark from the left and pride from those who like to cheer on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The penetration of the word into everyday news coverage and election-cycle identity politics may be a good metric about whether Trump’s power to influence is rising or waning. If, like MAGA, it becomes a commonplace, expect GOP challengers to fold.

Also, they also have a saying they have to do.

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/s...at-it-means%2F

WE ARE MAGADONIANS, WE ARE VERY SMART, WE STICK TOGETHER, WE FOLLOW TRUTH SOCIAL, WE PUT "AMERICA FIRST," AND WE WILL "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

[Captain N]

They shall be named the "MAGAdonians". Sounds like a bad B rated sci-fi creature from the 50s.

If this is the case I look forward to the next season of MST3K.

[Breccia]

"Alexander the Great is someone Trump may hope to be associated with"

Only if he's serious about expanding his LBGT base.

[unfilteredJW]

If this is the case I look forward to the next season of MST3K.

New episode drops tomorrow night on Twitch if you care. It’s just a bad sci fi movie though.

[Breccia]

Two things are happening in August. Well, lots of things are happening in August. Two deserve to be put here.

One, Georgia filing charges. Maybe.

Two, the first RNC debate, scheduled for Aug 23 in Milwaukee, hosted by what's left of FOX News.

The RNC debates seem to have a couple of new rules.

To qualify for the stage, candidates must garner support of at least 1 percent in multiple national polls recognized by the committee, and some polling from the early-voting states will count as well. The candidates must also have a minimum of 40,000 unique donors to their campaign, with at least 200 unique donors per state or territory, in 20 states and territories, according to the committee.

The 40,000-donor debate threshold is likely to prove a consequential and costly barrier to some underfunded candidates. Republican campaigns had already been told informally about the criteria, and some were racing to ensure they had enough donors. Some super PACs are spending money for online ads to drive small donations to the campaigns.

Already, some names are probably going to be weeded out.

Doesn't sound too bad, does it? Well, that's because you're not running for President.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, who has struggled to gain traction in the polls, insisted that he intended to make the debate stage in a statement on Friday, even as he expressed a range of concerns about the criteria.

“The 40,000 donor threshold will keep some candidates from being on the debate stage and benefits candidates who generate online donations through extreme rhetoric and scare tactics,” he said in the statement. “It also deprives the voters in Iowa and other early states of an opportunity to evaluate the entire field of candidates.”

And Larry Elder, a conservative commentator who also faces an uphill battle in the presidential race, said in an interview that while he expected to meet the polling threshold, the 40,000-donor rule was “onerous.”

“It’s hard to get 40,000 individual donors,” Mr. Elder said, declining to specify how many donors he had so far. “We’re working hard. I’ve got a professional team to do it, but I think it’s hard, and I know that other campaigns have complained about it as well.”

I assume from context individual donors aren't good enough. I could throw in $5 to Chris Christie, I don't think 39,999 of my friends are enough to get him on stage, even as a joke.

I think there was one other new rule, something minor, should be in here somewhere...

Candidates hoping to debate in the August matchup are also expected to promise not to participate in any debate not approved by the party committee for the rest of the election cycle, and to pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee.

Oh, um, whoops, RNC did you just throw down this gauntlet?

So, yeah, vain snowflake fat coward felon Donald J-bird Trump has already flirted with the idea of skipping the debates so hard, he was found liable for sexual assault. While Trump strikes me as the type of person to claim he'll agree to the rules and then just, you know, not doing that (see also: balanced budget, wedding vows, and The Wall) I think this case might be different. He'll see it as a personal attack, because it is.

This will leave him with three choices, all bad for Trump.

1) Agree to the rules and debate as intended by the RNC, then if needed break the rules as suggested. Should this happen, he splits the vote and loses by a historic margin. This is the most likely option.

2) Refuse the rules and not debate. Trump is likely right that he'd still have a decent following. He's wrong that he can win without the RNC. All this does is ensure a party split and his historic loss.

3) Die.

[Edge-]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/05/polit...nts/index.html

An employee at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence drained the resort’s swimming pool last October and ended up flooding a room where computer servers containing surveillance video logs were kept, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

While it’s unclear if the room was intentionally flooded or if it happened by mistake, the incident occurred amid a series of events that federal prosecutors found suspicious.

At least one witness has been asked by prosecutors about the flooded server room as part of the federal investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents, according to one of the sources.

The incident, which has not been previously reported, came roughly two months after the FBI retrieved hundreds of classified documents from the Florida residence and as prosecutors obtained surveillance footage to track how White House records were moved around the resort. Prosecutors have been examining any effort to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation after Trump received a subpoena in May 2022 for classified documents.

Prosecutors have heard testimony that the IT equipment in the room was not damaged in the flood, according to one source.

Yet the flooded room as well as conversations and actions by Trump’s employees while the criminal investigation bore down on the club has caught the attention of prosecutors. The circumstances may factor into a possible obstruction conspiracy case, multiple sources tell CNN, as investigators try to determine whether the events of last year around Mar-a-Lago indicate that Trump or a small group of people working for him, took steps to try to interfere with the Justice Department’s evidence-gathering.

Fuck CNN and all, but oh boy does it sure seem like there are a lot of coincidences! No damage to data, but sure is weird that draining the pool would result in flooding the server room. What a weird coincidence.

[Breccia]

No damage to data, but sure is weird that draining the pool would result in flooding the server room. What a weird coincidence.

I say "accident'. No way was the server room built with a pool drain kill switch exactly for this reason. Anything more elaborate ("drain the pool into the basement on purpose") leaves witnesses and a paper trail.

[Benggaul]

Maybe they just really didn't get how water cooling works...

[Bakis]

Usually it is standard practice to keep highly important data in a safe spot.
Such as a server contra a clerks desk.
It is also common practice to no only put it beside a contained body of water but to let there be easy access of water flowing over to flood a server room in case of an emergency hm... server room forest fire?

Benefit of the doubt I say.
Especially since a server needed by Mar-a-Lago & other Trump dealings hosted at the premiss would most likely be cooled with air cooling and not water cooling.

[Breccia]

I think we've heard this before.

New Hampshire Gov. Sununu Rules Out 2024 Presidential Bid, Warns That Crowded GOP Field Helps Trump

The stakes are too high for a crowded field to hand the nomination to a candidate who earns just 35 percent of the vote, and I will help to ensure this does not happen.

If he is the nominee, Republicans will lose again. Just as we did in 2018, 2020 and 2022. This is indisputable, and I am not willing to let it happen without a fight.

No one can stop candidates from entering this race, but candidates with no path to victory must have the discipline to get out. Anyone polling in the low single digits by this winter needs to have the courage to hang it up and head home. Too many other candidates who have entered this race are simply running to be Trump’s vice president.

Obviously it's a chaotic situation, but I'm pretty sure he's more right than wrong, especially that bolded. And it remains gratifying to see GOP members calling out Trump as bad for their party.

"Isn't he saying more 'Trump can't win' and less 'Trump is fat miserable rapist failure who broke every promise he made to every carbon-based life form he met'?"

Well, in this specific article, yes. But he did call out Trump's broken campaign promises. Sununu has sided with Trump in the past but that seems to have stopped after Trump led a murderous insurrection, if not earlier.

[s_bushido]

And it remains gratifying to see GOP members calling out Trump as bad for their party.

eh... Trump being bad for the party makes him good for America. At least in the sense that it means we get through one more election cycle where they're not in power.

Of course, I have no idea who else they'd run at this point. Given that the other guy is DeSantis...and he's proving himself to be just as toxic and incompetent a politician as Trump was.