Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Odinfrost]

Yep, two people Trump hired to work for him on purpose, both saying in public on purpose that Trump is for sale.

Only issue I see in that is the assumption that Trump is open to the highest bidder.
Unless it's impossible to appease one without pissing the other, then Trump is definitely open to every bidder.

[bladeXcrasher]

Yep, two people Trump hired to work for him on purpose, both saying in public on purpose that Trump is for sale.

It's amazing how someone with so much debt can even be considered to a position with the most access to classified information...normal people can't even get some of the most basic access oweing taxes to the IRS.

[Gigantique]

I mean let's not pretend Trump wouldn't be for sale if he had an infinite money glitch installed in his bank account.

Throw him an insignificant compliment and he'll shower you with classified documents to show how bigly yugely important he is.

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It's amazing how someone with so much debt can even be considered to a position with the most access to classified information...normal people can't even get some of the most basic access oweing taxes to the IRS.

Also this, if I had a fraction of his debt I would be denied to do my job (ATC) and I'm "only" able to view 'Secret' information from the sidelines (seeing military traffic on the radars).

Assuming the classification process works similarly in the US (considering it's also NATO I would assume so) the amount of associates in his circle with issues that would deny anyone else access when we're talking Cosmic Top Secret is... Well, there would be a lot of them.

(For anyone not in the know, the higher the classification the further out in your social/family circle they will background check. Confidential will IIRC only check immediate family, Secret checks siblings, Top Secret cousins etc etc)

[Gorsameth]

I mean let's not pretend Trump wouldn't be for sale if he had an infinite money glitch installed in his bank account.

Throw him an insignificant compliment and he'll shower you with classified documents to show how bigly yugely important he is.

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Also this, if I had a fraction of his debt I would be denied to do my job (ATC) and I'm "only" able to view 'Secret' information from the sidelines (seeing military traffic on the radars).

Assuming the classification process works similarly in the US (considering it's also NATO I would assume so) the amount of associates in his circle with issues that would deny anyone else access when we're talking Cosmic Top Secret is... Well, there would be a lot of them.

(For anyone not in the know, the higher the classification the further out in your social/family circle they will background check. Confidential will IIRC only check immediate family, Secret checks siblings, Top Secret cousins etc etc)

Well we know Trump forced through classified access for his direct associates (see Jared Kushner) who were initially denied clearance. Trump would 110% be denied clearance while the person doing the check would be rolling on the floor laughing for even suggesting it.
But you can't have a President without security clearance. So he just gets it, no questions asked.

[Breccia]

Sanctioned lawyer Sydney Powell and her entire sidecar of clowns (Lin Wood, et al.) have been ordered to pay Michigan officials and the city of Detroit a total of over $175,000 in lawyers fees for the infamous "Kraken" lawsuit.

Surely Trump will step forward to pay these fees, right?


* crickets *


* crickets *


Oh, right.

FINAL UPDATE: Powell has appealed twice, but SCOTUS will not hear the case. Sanctions stand.

To date, Trump has not paid them.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected appeals brought by Trump-allied lawyers who faced legal sanctions for baselessly alleging in court that the 2020 election in Michigan was fraudulently won by President Joe Biden.

By rejecting the appeals, the court left in place a June 2023 ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that partially upheld the sanctions.

Prominent cheerleaders of former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the election including Sidney Powell and Lin Wood were among the nine lawyers who initially faced sanctions for filing the lawsuit. Powell called the group "the Kraken."

The appeals court upheld sanctions against seven of them, including Powell and Wood.

The lawyers were ordered to pay legal fees, undertake new legal training and were referred to their respective state bar associations for any disciplinary procedures.

That bolded...imagine being found so inept you were court-ordered to go back to school. I've only seen that in traffic court.

I didn't know the courts had say about whether or not the Bar could take action. But, they will now.

By the way, add Trump's biographer to the list of people Trump hired on purpose who now say he's for sale.

Trump biographer Tim O’Brien told MSNBC on Monday that money troubles are nothing new for the former president.

"This problem was there in 2016 when Trump was elected. Trump was trying to get a real estate deal done in Moscow while he was running for president,” O’Brien said, noting that Trump went on to do favors for the Saudis in office before his son-in-law “got billions” from the Saudis after leaving office.

"Trump has always been a human billboard. He's been willing to sell his name and his voice to anyone who will put a bag of cash on his desk,” O’Brien said. "That is fine when you are a self-promoter and a serial bankruptcy artist, who has never been able to operate a business very effectively. It's a world of difference when you become president."

O’Brien predicted that Trump is “going to be scrambling to pay his bills” after the “massive judgments” against him.

“That makes him a mark,” he said. “When you have a president that is a mark, it's bad for public interest."

The same article also quotes Cohen as saying Trump doesn't have the cash to appeal. In the past, I trusted him on such matters, but I believe he's working with old data. Cohen has been out of Trump's inner circle since Trump ordered him to commit a felony on his behalf and got caught.

[Edge-]

That bolded...imagine being found so inept you were court-ordered to go back to school. I've only seen that in traffic court.

Come now. The current Attorney General of Kansas, Kris Kobach, was ordered to take remedial courses when he was Secretary of State due to how inept and unclear he was on how one argues a case at trial and follows rules.

It is not clear to the Court whether [Kobach] repeatedly failed to meet his disclosure obligations intentionally or due to his unfamiliarity with the federal rules. Therefore, the Court finds that an additional sanction is appropriate in the form of Continuing Legal Education. [Kobach] chose to represent his own office in this matter, and as such, had a duty to familiarize himself with the governing rules of procedure, and to ensure as the lead attorney on this case that his discovery obligations were satisfied despite his many duties as a busy public servant. The Court therefore imposes a CLE requirement of 6 hours for the 2018-2019 reporting year in addition to any other CLE education required by his law license. These 6 additional hours must pertain to federal or Kansas civil rules of procedure or evidence.

Because unsurprisingly, "Being such a shitty, terrible, no-good lawyer that sucks at your job that you're ordered to take remedial courses." seems to be not terribly uncommon amongst Republicans. I wonder when Ken Paxton will be ordered to take his.

[Breccia]

Well, hasn't today been interesting for Arizona.

AZCentral has this article that seems to be, basically, Kari Lake attempting non-apologies to make people like her again.

Attention all you Arizona moderates. Kari Lake was just joking when she told supporters of the late Sen. John McCain to “get the hell out” of one of her campaign events during her run for governor.

And when she called the late senator a loser? I know. Hilarious stuff.

“It was said in jest,” Lake explained, during a Monday interview on KTAR, “and I think if John McCain, who had a great sense of humor, would have heard it he would have laughed.”

And before you ask, yes, Meghan McCain saw that.

Kari Lake is trying to walk back her continued attacks on my Dad (& family) and all of his loyal supporters after telling them to “get the hell out”. Guess she realized she can’t become a Senator without us.

No peace, bitch. We see you for who you are - and are repulsed by it.

Lake has made multiple attacks on McCain.

Sadly, Markson and St. James didn’t ask Lake about whether she was also joking months after calling McCain a loser, when she celebrated her win the 2022 primary win by proclaiming, “We drove a stake through the heart of the McCain machine."

I don't think there's a single person that believes that she was joking. And even if it was a joke, which it wasn't, waiting a year and a half to admit that undoes the effect. This is objectively worse than Trump claiming he swapped up Pelosi and Haley on purpose a week ago, and I took that as proof of dementia. This is just a blatant lie.

"Okay, but the 'I was only kidding' doesn't seem all that bad."

First, it's a sign of her character. Namely, the minus sign.

Second, she wasn't done making a mockery of her own statements.

But perhaps Lake’s most jaw-dropping revelation came when discussing her signature issue – her supposedly stolen election for governor.

It seems Lake – who has spent 15 months fuming, filing lawsuits, accusing people of “rigging elections” and generally proclaiming herself to be Arizona’s legitimate governor – no longer wants to talk about it and in fact, isn’t really sure who stolen her election.

“I don’t want sit and look backwards,” Lake said.

Markson pressed: “Can you tell us who stole the election from you and how they did it?”

“I don’t know who exactly stole the election but there are a lot of people who are running elections poorly,” she replied.

This, no doubt, comes as a surprise to everybody in Maricopa County whom she has savaged but most especially Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer.

For 15 months, Lake has gone all scorched earth on elections workers in general and on Richer in particular, buying herself a defamation lawsuit along the way.

Lake has repeatedly said that Richer personally sabotaged the 2022 election by adding 300,000 phony ballots into the vote tally and that he intentionally set printers to shrink Election Day ballots so they couldn’t be counted.

She's been long on accusations but painfully short on anything approaching proof, which is why she lost her election challenge in court and every appeal thus far.

Yet now, suddenly, she says she doesn’t know how the election was stolen?

Worth noting: Lake is still saying the election was stolen, and still has no proof.

Lake just seems desperate at this point. Like, you know how vindictive and sarcastic I can be, but...this isn't funny, this is sad. She went all-in on Trump and now she's just some crazy person, wandering the streets alone and raving about some Mysterious Dude who stole her election.

This is Trump Derangement Syndrome.

I hope she finds peace...but it doesn't seem like she's looking for it yet.

[Edge-]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/20/polit...nts/index.html

Former Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro could be held in contempt of court if he doesn’t turn over to emails he has that are presidential records, a federal judge said on Tuesday.

The Justice Department sued Navarro more than a year ago, trying to reclaim federal records they said he wrongfully kept after leaving the government. Navarro lost the lawsuit in DC’s federal court last spring, but the case has dragged on without him providing all of the records.

“It is clear that Defendant continues to possess Presidential records that have not been produced to their rightful owner, the United States,” federal district Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote in a 6-page opinion on Tuesday.

That this has taken a year is kinda a fucking joke.

[Poopymonster]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/20/polit...nts/index.html



That this has taken a year is kinda a fucking joke.

Idiot is probably ordering bleach off Temu and having it sent to the servers location thinking that's what Trump meant.

[Breccia]

Donald Trump Mocked for Empty Seats at Mar-a-Lago Event

"Lots of empty seats and people moving and talking as Trump is speaking at his own home," Patriot Takes, an account that documents right-wing extremism, posted Monday night on X (formerly Twitter). "Not even the most loyal MAGA Republicans who make the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago can stand listening to him go on and on."

It's difficult to discern what Trump is saying in the video, which has been viewed over 290,000 times since it was shared on different social media accounts. As he is speaking to a room seemingly full of empty chairs, people are seen standing up and leaving the seating area.

Newsweek goes on to post the video, of course, then talks about Trump's shoes.

Trump was in Mar-a-Lago two days after he appeared at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia for a launch of his $399 "Never Surrender" high-top sneakers, which have been listed on sites like eBay for as high as $7,500.

The website set up to sell the sneakers says that the designs are trademarked by CIC Ventures LLC and "are not designed, manufactured, distributed or sold by Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization or any of their respective affiliates or principals."

The shoes are also not due to come out till July and Trump claims he's not liable if they're delayed.

Also, about those: the website Trump is using was his second choice.

Trump unveiled the garish kicks, which his fans can find at GetTrumpSneakers.com, on Saturday at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia. If the website name seems a bit awkward, it may be because Hogg quickly snapped up the more obvious choice: ShopTrumpSneakers.com.

Hogg, a survivor of the 2018 Parkland school shooting and a co-founder of the gun control advocacy group March for Our Lives, announced his purchase on Saturday. The URL leads to a page called The Shotline, which Hogg explained allows people to send an automated call to their member of Congress urging gun law reform.

“Thank you to team trump for being dumb enough to not pay the $12 for the website,” Hogg tweeted Monday night, celebrating his website’s success. “I’ll give it to you for a small donation of $1 million to March For Our Lives.”

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

On the off chance that he wins the election, half a billion to gain leverage on the president of the most powerful country in the world is pretty cheap. Screw the buildings. Most of his buildings are pretty old anyway and Mar Lago is tacky.

I wish people would stop saying "on the off chance he wins the election". It's not an "off chance". The odds are about even.

[Breccia]

Giuliani asks judge for new trial of defamation case.

"On what grounds this time?"

Giuliani’s lawyer argued during trial that others besides Giuliani were more responsible for the harm to Freeman and Moss.

In other words, he only told the cult who to blame, everyone else was the ones sending death threats.

"That seems destined to fail."

Yes, and I don't think he's even allowed that motion at all. The judge said he could appeal the damages. I haven't yet seen the judge saying he should get a whole new trial. As a reminder, Giuliani effectively "plead guilty" by refusing to comply with subpoenas. He had a chance at a trial, he chose to give it away.

Also, "other people defamed my victims worse than I did" doesn't sound like a winning strategy at all.

Giuliani is bankrupt and desperate. I hope the cult is paying attention -- everything Trump touches dies.

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So FOX News gave Trump his safe space again *ding* because he's too much of a coward-ass pussy to debate Haley, so Ingraham gave him a town hall filled with softball questions and never challenged him.

“Navalny is a very sad situation, and he’s very brave,” Trump said

"Is? As in, present tense? Has anyone told him Navalny died?"

Well he corrected immediately after, and he did tweet three days after Navalny's death. He knows Navalny's dead. He just, you know, did exactly the same thing that when Biden does it, he calls Biden senile.

during a Fox News town hall with Laura Ingraham. “He was a very brave guy. He went back, he could’ve stayed away. And, frankly, probably would’ve been a lot better off staying away and talking from outside of the country as opposed to going back in, because people thought that could happen, and it did happen. And It’s a horrible thing.”

“But it’s happening in our country, too,” Trump continued. “We are turning into a communist country in many ways."

"Does Trump know what communism is?"

Yes, it's a word with negative connotations he can use as an insult on anything he doesn't like.

"But, like, the actual meaning."

Honestly, it's impossible to tell. I think he, like many, confuse communism with authoritarianism because many Communist leaders -- including his good friends in Russia, China, and North Korea -- are both Communist, and also, dictators. If he knows the official meaning of the political term/party, he doesn't use it that way very often.

"And if you look at it. I’m the leading candidate, I get indicted—I never heard of being indicted before"

"Never heard of? So, he's just blatantly lying about everything, then?"

Yes. Or, he's got dementia and forgot what indictment means. Kind of a bad situation for someone who used to lead the Executive Branch.

"I get indicted four times. I have eight or nine trials… all because of the fact that I’m in politics. They indicted me on things that are so ridiculous.”

Asked later about a judge ordering him to pay $355 million as part of a civil fraud trial decision over his business practices, Trump called it “a form of Navalny.”

“It is a form of communism or fascism,” Trump said.

Ingraham asked Trump multiple times if he sees himself as a potential political prisoner. Trump did not directly answer, and he mused that his critics “hate me so much” that they would have perhaps pursued charges even if he were not running for office.

Trump is continuing to push the idea that all of the consequences of his actions are unfair, because he has nothing that will stand up in court. So he goes to FOX News for a pity party because his fragile fucking snowflake feewings are hurt.

Such a "strong man", people saying mean things so he runs off to cry to a woman.

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Here's an interesting line from the Giuliani trial/appeal:

Any fees and expenses incurred by the Debtor and his advisors in the Freeman Litigation in connection with any Post-Trial Filings and the Notice of Appeal shall not be paid by, and shall not result in a claim against, the Debtor or his estate

So...the court ordered that Giuliani isn't allowed to pay his own lawyers.

Non-expert here, but I'm guessing the line of thinking is "Giuliani spends all his money on the Giuilani Defense Fund, which his son runs, then magically has no money to pay defamation claims".

I also have more from the FOX News *ding* Ingraham safe space pretending to be a town hall:

INGRAHAM: Why didn’t you just hand them over when they requested them? I mean, they requested them. You could’ve just handed them over, probably save yourself a lot of trouble.

TRUMP: First of all, I didn’t have to hand them over. But second of all, I would’ve done that. We were talking and then all of a sudden they raided Mar-a-Lago.

Yep, that's Trump saying he could have kept them, and also, that he wasn't asked for them back -- two things objectively false -- and Ingraham challenged him on neither.

Trump wasn't the only one meeting the press, or in Ingraham's case, people pretending to be the press.

Letitia James says she's prepared to seize Trump's buildings if he can't pay his $354M civil fraud fine

"If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets," James said in an interview with ABC News' Aaron Katersky.

"We are prepared to make sure that the judgment is paid to New Yorkers, and yes, I look at 40 Wall Street each and every day," James said of the standard court process for collecting judgments in civil cases.

"Isn't that a little premature?"

I mean, Trump did already lose. We've been talking about how the amount he'd have to put up and lock away to appeal is oddly close to what Forbes says he has in cash. He has a few weeks to find the money. If he cannot appeal, the judgement stands. Also, the case seems very strong and will likely survive appeal anyhow.

"Financial frauds are not victimless crimes. He engaged in this massive amount of fraud. It wasn't just a simple mistake, a slight oversight, the variations are wildly exaggerated, and the extent of the fraud was staggering," James said. "If average New Yorkers went into a bank and submitted false documents, the government would throw the book at them, and the same should be true for former presidents."

[Gorsameth]

Well Giuliani that's what happens when you declare bankruptcy. You lose control of your finances. Would be a bit weird to say you can't afford the judgement against you and then proceed to pay expensive lawyers with money that legally should go towards the judgement.

[Breccia]

Well Giuliani that's what happens when you declare bankruptcy. You lose control of your finances. Would be a bit weird to say you can't afford the judgement against you and then proceed to pay expensive lawyers with money that legally should go towards the judgement.

I think I understand the legal argument he's trying, even if I disagree with it. In bankruptcy you pay off your secured loans first, and yes, that would involve contracts such as "I promise to pay my lawyers". Of course, there are two major flaws.

1) As mentioned before, the fund paying his lawyers is, well, himself. So he's just laundering money.

2) He's trying to do it pushing forwards. You can't declare bankruptcy, then also go out and buy a bunch of stuff.

Like you said, he's trying to cheese the system. It's not laughable, but it is villainous. It needs to fail.

[Gorsameth]

I think I understand the legal argument he's trying, even if I disagree with it. In bankruptcy you pay off your secured loans first, and yes, that would involve contracts such as "I promise to pay my lawyers". Of course, there are two major flaws.

1) As mentioned before, the fund paying his lawyers is, well, himself. So he's just laundering money.

2) He's trying to do it pushing forwards. You can't declare bankruptcy, then also go out and buy a bunch of stuff.

Like you said, he's trying to cheese the system. It's not laughable, but it is villainous. It needs to fail.

the lawyers you had for the case you lost yes. Not future lawyers for the appeal.

[Breccia]

the lawyers you had for the case you lost yes. Not future lawyers for the appeal.

Exactly. It's a transparent move, and the judge saw it from orbit. At best, Giuliani could appeal that and hope to find a technicality. I don't think he'll do either.

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More from the Trump safe space "interview": he tells FOX News *ding* his VP short list.

"Are you really giving yourself a point for every time you reference this?"

FOX News keeps making each individual point in the interview its own article and its own headline. So, yes, yes I am.

The list was Sen. Tim Scott, Rep. Byron Donalds, Noem, Ramaswamy, Gabbard, and...Ron DeSantis.

Huh. Did not see that coming.

"You forgot to mention Elise Stefanik."

No, I didn't.

For what it's worth, I don't think he'll pick DeSantis. One, he'll get Florida anyhow. Two, Trump is a vengeful motherfucker and I'm surprised he'd say this even as a joke.

"Was he joking?"

Eh, we'll have to wait several days for him to retroactively decide based on poll numbers. Three, Trump is probably worried that DeSantis would kill Trump in his sleep. Four, DeSantis would kill Trump in his sleep. We've seen how he governs, he's clearly not afraid to murder for power. Paranoia and distrust is common amongst people with dementia, which we've all established Trump must have because he forgot who Carroll was, but in this case he'd actually have a point.

Trump is, of course, looking for someone who would pledge loyalty to Trump and only Trump, and would overturn election results if asked. This makes Ramaswamy the most likely choice on that list. I do not see Trump ceding power to a woman, ever. Sen. Tim Scott says the election was not stolen, so he's out. Rep. Byron Donalds said the election was stolen making him a better choice, although again, Trump already has Florida, taking him won't help. DeSantis, again, killed in his sleep. That leaves Ramaswamy, who has been posturing as the next Trump for some time.

I'm...curious...as to what picking Ramaswamy would do for Trump's many violent racist followers.

But no, Stefanik didn't make the list. I guess Trump doesn't bother remembering the names of the whores he's fucked over. It'll be interesting to watch what she does next -- will she keep stumping for him, or realize she's out, give up, and go home? Oh, wait, "home" is her district and she's never here. No, really, she doesn't even come to visit. She's pathetic.

[DarkTZeratul]

I don't think he'll pick DeSantis. One, he'll get Florida anyhow.... Rep. Byron Donalds said the election was stolen making him a better choice, although again, Trump already has Florida, taking him won't help.

The Constitution also makes it functionally impossible for the president and vice president to be from the same state.

[Breccia]

The Constitution also makes it functionally impossible for the president and vice president to be from the same state.

Oh...well, gee, that's something I didn't know this morning. Hey, where does Ramaswamy live?

(15 seconds later)

Ah, Ohio. Blue state. Still a solid pick, then.

[bladeXcrasher]

The Constitution also makes it functionally impossible for the president and vice president to be from the same state.

This is false...see Bush and Cheney. It's wording from the old system when first place was President and second place was VP.

[DarkTZeratul]

This is false...see Bush and Cheney. It's wording from the old system when first place was President and second place was VP.

Unless it's been overwritten by a different Amendment, per the 12th Amendment that changed that system, an elector cannot vote for a president and vice president that both reside in the elector's state.