Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Poopymonster]

At least he didn't call her McDonald's.

My vote was him referring to her as Melanoma.

[Gabriel]

He has such a way with words.

You could say he has his way with them.

I'll see myself out.

[Breccia]

In the FOX News safe space "town hall" *ding*

"Really, that's seven from one event."

As this article continues to point out, Ingraham asked softball questions, Trump lied in the answers, and Ingraham did nothing. I'd be tempted to remove some of those points if they offered a correction or retraction, but to the best of my knowledge, they did not.

“But they say there’s no evidence that Joe Biden received any financial benefit personally. And to that you say?” Ingraham asked Mr Trump.

The former president gave a vague response, telling the Fox News host: “Well, he’s got a lot of houses all over the place. And he’s never been paid more than about $179,000.”

"Interesting. Trump has a lot of houses. What's his salary?"

He won't say, he hasn't shown his taxes.

"What's the salary Biden got as Vice President?"

It's more than $179,000.

"Has Biden published any books, or gotten any speaking fees?"

They total sixteen million and change.

"How many houses is 'a lot of houses all over the place'?"

Two, both in Delaware. Even a Discworld Troll can count higher than that. Even a Krynn gully dwarf doesn't think "two" is "many".

That's all Trump has -- some vague terms which don't seem to line up with reality. Trump does nothing but lie, to project his failures, character flaws, and crimes onto other people.

There is no evidence Biden took a bribe. There is evidence Trump ran multiple fraudulent businesses -- one of which he flat-out admitted in a settlement.

[Benggaul]

As this article continues to point out, Ingraham asked softball questions, Trump lied in the answers, and Ingraham did nothing.

From what little I read about it it sounds like one thing she did actually do was interrupt him when he started going on about 2020 being "stolen" and steered him away from it. Once bitten twice shy, I suppose.

[Twdft]

Managed to catch about 20 minutes of the car crash that was his CPAC speech. I say speech, but it was more like watching a man's brain melt in real time.

If you want to melt your own brain get a transcript of his speech and read it straight without imagining his voice in your head.

[Breccia]

steered him away from it

She did, yes. Insufficient. He lied, she knew he lied, she did not address the situation.

Man, I'm looking forward to the debates. Surely by now, both the Committee and any press organization trusted to host/moderate will not let that slide. It really needs to be that a candidate that blatantly, objectively lies gets called out by the moderator and loses time for it. Anything else, and they're just as bad as...wait, no, FOX News even cut away from his speech.

Don't make me say "even FOX News is better", debate moderators.

"Won't Trump refuse to debate, with or without this rule?"

I don't think he can afford to. That close to the election, giving up free advertising plus giving Biden free reign to say "he's a coward" will cost him numbers he can't afford to lose.

- - - Updated - - -

get a transcript of his speech

I legit looked and didn't find one.

[Poopymonster]

I legit looked and didn't find one.

Probably looks like having subtitles on during a Cannibal Corpses video.
*undecipherable growling*

[Gigantique]

Probably looks like having subtitles on during a Cannibal Corpses video.
*undecipherable growling*

I know John Oliver had the uhh... Some voice actor read out one his script in a monotone voice and it legit sounds like someone took the red thread of five different topics, put them through the shredder and then made one disjointed thread out of the scraps.

[Breccia]

So outside of Trump and his attorney's arguing, once again, that he has immunity for stealing documents and keeping them what else are his "world class" attorney's arguing? Well that Trump shouldn't have to pay Carroll because he'll appeal and will be "reduced or eliminated."

UPDATE: Failure.

Judge Lewis Kaplan has declined to grant a stay of Donald Trump's $83.3 million judgment in his defamation case and requested a written response from columnist E. Jean Carroll's lawyers.

"The Court declines to grant any stay, much less an unsecured stay, without first having afforded plaintiff a meaningful opportunity to be heard," Kaplan wrote in an order filed Sunday morning. Kaplan set a Thursday deadline for Carroll's response and a March 2 deadline for Trump's reply.

Oh, so Habba was asking for an unsecured stay. By now, we all know Trump can't file an appeal of the damages without putting the money aside. Habba was apparently trying to do an end-run around that on the grounds of "Trump doesn't want to do that".

This did buy Trump a week, but it's unlikely it'll do much more than that. Again, the judge could have reduced the amount of damages on the spot. That didn't happen. For the judge to now say "oh, you're right, the damages were too high" doesn't fit.

Trump is free to appeal like everyone else. Well, "free" might be the wrong word.

[Draco-Onis]

I wonder why all those billionaires getting on TV and social media defending Trump like Kevin O'Leary and Greg Cardone aren't going into their own pockets to help out their buddy.

[Lenonis]

Eh, it bears repeating. Seriously having seen that clip, he 100% said the word "Mercedes" and I am looking forward to the defense of this.

The defense, which alas may actually be true, is that he addressed that to Mercedes Schlapp who was the emcee (or something) at CPAC and was all "look Mercedes see how much they are applauding"

[Breccia]

This NBC News article

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump on Monday officially filed notice that they're appealing the $464 million civil fraud judgment against him and his company.

but then goes on to say

The judgment was officially entered on Friday, which opened a 30-day window for Trump to appeal. If Trump wants to stay the judgment, he'll either need to post a bond for the full amount or get a judge to agree to a freeze or to accept a reduced amount. If that doesn't happen within the 30-day period, James' office will be able to start seizing his assets.

In the meantime, the award will continue to grow by $114,000 a day because of interest.

The court filing made no mention of the bond.

So I'm a bit confused. Is this "notice" basically an official declaration of "we're going to appeal, don't you worry!" because...I just assumed they were trying. Maybe the notice is required, seems a little unnecessary to say "here is something I plan to do" when there's a timeline to actually do it.

Trump's attorneys said in a filing that they want an appeals court to determine whether Judge Arthur Engoron “committed errors of law and/or fact, and whether he abused his discretion and/or acted in excess of his jurisdiction” when he handed down the massive judgment against Trump and his company earlier this month.

NBC does not say what those errors are. I suspect they are not listed in the notice. Quite frankly, I don't think they exist. Engoron has gone out of his way to give Trump more credit than he's due. Quite frankly, Weaselberg committed perjury and Engoron still didn't impose the maximum penalty. But if memory serves, he did say he could add more penalties later if Trump doesn't cooperate with those court-appointed overseers.

But, yeah, no news yet of Trump having the bond money. I checked a few other sources too, no surprise they didn't see it either -- all they have to work on is one filing that says nothing.

So, yes, big breaking headline, Trump says he's going to appeal. If he can find the money.

In unrelated news, Ronna McDaniel makes it official and resigns.

Some of my proudest accomplishments include firing Nancy Pelosi, winning the popular vote in 2022, creating an Election Integrity Department, building the committee’s first small dollar grassroots donor program, strengthening our state parties through our Growing Republican Organizations to Win program, expanding the Party through minority outreach at our community centers, and launching Bank Your Vote to get Republicans to commit to voting early.

I have decided to step aside at our Spring Training on March 8 in Houston to allow our nominee to select a Chair of their choosing. The RNC has historically undergone change once we have a nominee and it has always been my intention to honor that tradition."

Yeah, they're going to put a bunch of Trumps in charge. We all saw this coming, of course, but I think McDaniel is taking the correct course -- getting out while she still can salvage something. When the RNC crumbles without her, she'll get years of "I told you so" in books and speaking fees.

- - - Updated - - -

The defense, which alas may actually be true, is that he addressed that to Mercedes Schlapp who was the emcee (or something) at CPAC and was all "look Mercedes see how much they are applauding"

So he just...talked about his absent wife, got half the room to applaud (the other half was empty) for his absent wife, and chose that time to call out a woman who is not his wife, but one of the other people who were there, who he hadn't mentioned yet in the speech.

Okay. I will admit, "Trump goes on incoherent tangents for no reason" does fit with his history. I hope they're proud of having that to fall back on as a defense. "No, he's not demented, he's never made any sense!"

[Edge-]

In unrelated news, Ronna McDaniel makes it official and resigns.

Yeah, they're going to put a bunch of Trumps in charge. We all saw this coming, of course, but I think McDaniel is taking the correct course -- getting out while she still can salvage something. When the RNC crumbles without her, she'll get years of "I told you so" in books and speaking fees.

RNC legal slush fund unlocked! We'll see if that actually happens, but it's sure amusing seeing the party leader be the party leader that we were assured he wasn't after his 2020 loss by some folks. Because he's still not the nominee, yet.

[Gorsameth]

Kinda sounds like Trump shouted angrily at his lawyers to appeal, and refused to provide the money needed for said appeal, so the lawyers shrugged, filed the paperwork and now hope that he doesn't fire them whenever they remind him that he still needs to cough up half a billion dollars.

And I can't wait to read to review about how the election went so bad for Republicans because the RNC was scammed out of all its campaign funds by Trump in a years time.

[Breccia]

Kinda sounds like Trump shouted angrily at his lawyers to appeal, and refused to provide the money needed for said appeal, so the lawyers shrugged, filed the paperwork and now hope that he doesn't fire them whenever they remind him that he still needs to cough up half a billion dollars.

That does fit what we've seen so far, and the term "notice to appeal". I share that read that Trump lawyers feel the need to DO SOMETHING! and this was what they had access to.

Again, I am morbidly curious who will actually lend Trump the money. I don't believe it can be his PAC funds, which are being watched carefully for exactly this reason. But that award looks solid and I don't think Trump is getting the money back, and we all know Trump never honors his end of the contract so whoever loans him the money should not expect to get it back, either.

Realistically, Trump would have the most luck splitting it up. 500 people each put forth $1 million, each thinking "well surely he'll pay me back before the others". That would totally work, I'm convinced. Splitting it into fewer pieces means he needs smarter people to contribute...and smarter people don't loan money to Donald Trump.

Like you and @Edge- I can't wait to see Trump ruin hundreds of Republican races by draining their accounts. Hopefully he does this so blatantly, that it's exposed that he's paying Trump Org's fraud penalties and the defamation payments to the women he raped -- neither of which are political contributions -- and gets the tax-free donation part of the RNC shut down as well.

[Edge-]

Kinda sounds like Trump shouted angrily at his lawyers to appeal, and refused to provide the money needed for said appeal, so the lawyers shrugged, filed the paperwork and now hope that he doesn't fire them whenever they remind him that he still needs to cough up half a billion dollars.

And I can't wait to read to review about how the election went so bad for Republicans because the RNC was scammed out of all its campaign funds by Trump in a years time.

Why appeal at the start of the 30-day window when you could appeal at the end of the 30-day window to continue to drag the process out and then also claim you're a victim because the appeals court will not stay the fine during the appeal or whatever and the interest is still accruing?

It's not a very deep playbook. There's like, one double-sided page. Unclear if the reverse side actually has any information on it.

[Drutt]

Why appeal at the start of the 30-day window when you could appeal at the end of the 30-day window to continue to drag the process out and then also claim you're a victim because the appeals court will not stay the fine during the appeal or whatever and the interest is still accruing?

It's not a very deep playbook. There's like, one double-sided page. Unclear if the reverse side actually has any information on it.

Right. I'm starting to be concerned he's actually going to be successful in running the clock down on some of his legal issues. He's getting away with too much blatantly bad faith behavior.

[Edge-]

https://twitter.com/NewYorkStateAG/s...84719971061828

NY AG Leticia James is live-tweeting the daily balance Donald owes with daily updates based on additional interest accrued.

[Breccia]

Why appeal at the start of the 30-day window when you could appeal at the end of the 30-day window to continue to drag the process out and then also claim you're a victim because the appeals court will not stay the fine during the appeal or whatever and the interest is still accruing?

Nothing can stop Trump from playing the victim. Oh, that sad Trump, who claims to be the best at everything and super rich, how unfair things are for him. Boo fuckity hoo.

But nothing Trump does playing the victim will have any effect in court. I don't think it'll move the political dial much, either, it's already shifted as far as it'll get.

Your point about a last-minute appeal is...hopefully not an issue. Even if Engoron and his associates hadn't found a spot in the docket right now -- a headline I've seen in his Cannon case -- as a placeholder, Trump filed notice to appeal today, so they're looking now. That spot shouldn't move just because he waits until the last second.

Also...I don't think Trump will wait until the last second. Yes, yes, he's done that plenty, I've pointed it out. This case is different. If he's late, he forfeits, and NY gets to start taking his buildings. This is not something Trump wants to risk. And as you've pointed out, his lawyers are desperately scrambling for anything they can possibly do at this point to salvage their paychecks. If Trump gets a bond from, say, Pladimir Vutin in two weeks, they'll post in two weeks and five seconds.

[Edge-]

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/26/trum...its-snags.html

Every so often, Matthew Hurtt receives concerning emails. The subject lines are each slightly different: “Stop charging my account,” “Urgent!” and “Donation not approved,” but the people who send them all want the same thing: to halt the Republican political contribution platform WinRed from making any more automatic, recurring withdrawals from their accounts.

Hurtt is chairman of the Virginia-based Arlington County Republican Committee and says he’s reviewed a “few dozen” of these types of emails since the 2020 election. When WinRed processes a contribution to a Republican campaign, the charge shows up on the donor’s credit card or bank statement as a payment to “WINRED www.GOP.com, Arlington VA,” according to a statement provided by Hurtt and reviewed by CNBC.

As a result, people often mistakenly believe their money went to the Arlington County Republican Party, he said.

“Cancel account and stop billing my credit card,” Oklahoma resident Samie Elliot wrote in a January email that landed in Hurtt’s inbox. She later explained to him that neither she nor her husband, who are both retired, recalled ever signing up for recurring monthly political donations and that these charges have been occurring for at least a year.

Federal Election Commission records, however, paint a very different picture of the Elliots. According to campaign finance reports, WinRed processed $14,300 in political contributions from Elliot and her husband, Orin Elliot, between 2020 and the end of 2023.

These donations all appear to have been small, recurring contributions. Exactly the kind that Elliot said they did not recall signing up for. Samie Elliot did not respond to requests for comment.

“Every one of them has told me a similar story: elderly, sometimes dementia, and don’t remember donating month after month,” said Hurtt, who shared nine email exchanges with CNBC for this story.

“As a county committee chairman who struggles to raise money, it infuriates me,” he said.

WinRed did not respond to requests for comment.

Is Republicans/Donald's "WinRed" platform scamming seniors and other folks out of potentially thousands of dollars by signing them up for recurring donations they did not want to sign up for? Sure seems like it!

Gosh, Republicans really do love redistribution of wealth after all. Just instead of taking from the rich to give to the poor, they ask the poor and middle-class to donate to the allegedly uber-rich.