Six things voters are about to find out about Trump.
Hopium Chronicles By Simon Rosenberg
Why I'm Optimistic We'll Win This Year
SIMON ROSENBERG
Apr 17, 2024
The Republican Party as an institution is an unprecedented dumpster fire.
There's an unprecedented rebellion against Trump happening from two former vice presidents to the former nominee of their party to Liz Cheney, Adam Kissinger, make your long list of people. There is an incredible unprecedented effort by Republicans to prevent Trump from being president. We've never seen anything like this in our lifetime.
Donald Trump is the ugliest political thing we've ever seen. And the Republican Party is an incredible dumpster fire. And then that gets us to Trump, right?
And not only is Trump all of those things that I just discussed, but I think what's going to become very material in this debate, in this election, is there are six things voters are about to find out about Donald Trump that they didn't know about him before.
[snip]
What they're going to come to learn is six things that I think are gonna become very material in people's understanding of who he is now, Trump 2024.
Number one is that he raped E. Jean Carroll in a department store dressing room. That's a fact.
Number two, that he oversaw one of the largest financial frauds in American history, and the penalties could be up close to half a billion dollars.
Number three is that he stole America's secrets. He lied to the FBI about it. He shared those secrets with other people and committed what may be one of the largest security breaches in the history of the modern West.
Fourth is that he led an insurrection against the United States of America, that he led an armed attack on the Capitol, that he tried to end American democracy for all time, and that he's promised to finish the job in January of 2025 if he's in the White House.
Fifth, that he and his family have corruptly taken more money from foreign governments than any political family in American history.
And sixth, something that we were reminded of, remarkably, this week, is that he's singularly responsible for ending Roe and stripping the rights and freedoms away of more than half the population.
I do want to note that what happened in this last, I think Donald Trump is having a truly awful April. Not only is he in trial and looking ridiculous and falling asleep and all the things that are in, and is a shade of orange that doesn't exist in nature these days, for reasons that is hard to even understand.
But what happened, I think, on abortion, it's really important we drill down on this for a second, because I think this is going to really matter.
So Arizona and Florida, the Supreme Court in both states, strip away the rights and freedoms away of women in those two states where abortion was legal up until a few, where it will become illegal in a few days. And it's a sign that MAGA is expanding and growing, that if you are scared of MAGA in 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2023, MAGA 2024 is far scarier, more dangerous, because it's continuing to escalate and grow.
It's continuing to take rights and freedoms away from people. It's not receding. But what Trump did in his management of this, I think is really important to talk about for a minute. Because it was a sign, I think, of his decline and his idiocy and his inability to really navigate the complexity of this election.
He came out of the box with this kind of, what he believed to be this really genius idea that "I'm going to come out to let the states decide this." But what that was, was an endorsement of the most extreme abortion restrictions in the country. Donald Trump now is for the Idaho bill law, which is no exceptions and also has penalties for doctors and trafficking of minors in getting abortion out of state.
He's now for the six week abortion ban in Florida, which is polling at 22% in Florida. He's for the Arizona ban, even though he now somehow tried to claim that he wasn't, right? But if he's for the states deciding, then he has now embraced and endorsed the most restrictive possible manifestations of right-wing extremism on this issue.
And so, whereas two weeks ago, Donald Trump was the guy singularly responsible for ending Roe, now he's the most dangerous abortion extremist in America with no near peer. And because he embraced and endorsed all these incredibly restrictive abortion initiatives.
And if he's okay with Idaho doing it, then he'll be okay with any state doing it, which means that he's okay with the whole country doing it. And that Donald Trump has made it very clear where he stands, which is that he's an enthusiast.
He's ambitious about stripping the rights and freedoms away of women. That's core to who he is.
Simon Rosenberg is a veteran political analyst, strategist and commentator. Worked on two Presidential campaigns (including the Clinton War Room), senior roles at DNC, DCCC, NDN.
. Dr. John Carpenter, M.D. Stop, look and listen, baby <<--->> that's my philosophy!
The body bags keep piling up. Drugs and human trafficking run rampant.
Our cities and towns are overrun and strained to the max. The number of
illegal migrants in the United States has roughly doubled under President
biden. Under his watch the number of migrants has reached an average of
2 million per year - the highest levels in the agency's 100-year history.
President biden continues to play chicken with our lives and refuses to use
executive authority to secure the border. In fact, he walked back many of the
restrictions that were keeping the crisis under control before he took office.
This is a deliberate political move. biden has held office for 50 years; he's
playing dumb when he pretends he doesn't know what to do. And he's playing
politics when he ties border security to overseas war funding.
Enough is enough...
Taken from an RFK Jr. campaign email
RFK, Jr. is a deceitful, vaccine-denying nutcase. His campaign is being underwritten by right-wing interests.
And today President Joseph R. Biden posted his family's individual endorsements.
End of story.
. Dr. John Carpenter, M.D. Stop, look and listen, baby <<--->> that's my philosophy!
Trump forced to listen silently to people insulting him as he trades a cocoon of adulation for court
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BY JILL COLVIN, April 20, 2024
NEW YORK (AP) — He seems “selfish and self-serving,” said one woman.
The way he carries himself in public “leaves something to be desired,” said another.
His “negative rhetoric and bias,” said another man, is what is “most harmful.”
Over the past week, Donald Trump has been forced to sit inside a frigid New York courtroom and listen to a parade of potential jurors in his criminal hush money trial share their unvarnished assessments of him.
It’s been a dramatic departure for the former president and presumptive GOP nominee, who is accustomed to spending his days in a cocoon of cheering crowds and constant adulation. Now a criminal defendant, Trump will instead spend the next several weeks subjected to strict rules that strip him of control over everything from what he is permitted to say to the temperature of the room.
“He’s the object of derision. It’s his nightmare. He can’t control the script. He can’t control the cinematography. He can’t control what’s being said about him. And the outcome could go in a direction he really doesn’t want,” said Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer and critic.
While Trump is occasionally confronted by protesters, generally he lives a life sheltered from criticism. After leaving the White House, Trump moved to his Mar-a-Lago waterfront club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he is surrounded by doting paid staff and dues-paying members who have shelled out tens of thousands of dollars to be near him.
Many days, Trump heads to his nearby golf course, where he is “swarmed by people wanting to shake his hand, take pictures of him, and tell him how amazing he is,” said Stephanie Grisham, a longtime aide who broke with Trump after the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
When he returns to Mar-a-Lago in the afternoon, members lunching on the patio often stand and applaud. He receives the same standing ovation at dinner, which often ends with Trump playing DJ on his iPad, blasting favorites like “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” by James Brown.
Grisham, who spent long stretches traveling with Trump and at Mar-a-Lago during his 2016 campaign and as White House press secretary, described staff constantly serving as cheerleaders and telling Trump what he wanted to hear. To avoid angry outbursts, they requested motorcade routes that avoided protests and left a stack of positive press clips every morning on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.
Now, Trump faces a trial that could result in felony convictions and possible prison time. And he will have to listen to more critics, without being able to punch back verbally — something he revels in doing.
Among the expected witnesses in the trial are his former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, and the porn actor who alleged she had sex with him, Stormy Daniels. Both have savaged him in interviews and books as well as on social media.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Trump proved during his first week in court that “he will remain defiant in the face of this unprecedented political lawfare” and said, “It is clear that his support from the American people will only grow as they watch Joe Biden, Alvin Bragg and the Democrats putting on this bogus show trial six months before the election.”
New Yorkers who said they couldn’t approach the case fairly were excused during jury selection. But one of the women with the harshest assessments of him will be among those who will determine his fate on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
“I don’t like his persona, how he presents himself in public,” said the woman, who has lived in upper Manhattan for the last 15 years. The woman said she didn’t agree with some of Trump’s politics, which she called “outrageous.”
“He just seems very selfish and self-serving, so I don’t really appreciate that in any public servant,” she said, adding that while she doesn’t “know him as a person,” how he “portrays himself in public, it just seems to me it is not my cup of tea.”
Trump’s legal team took issue with her responses, but they were out of challenges by the time she was up for consideration.
Judge Juan Manuel Merchan has withheld the names of prospective jurors for safety concerns.
On Friday, one prospective juror, who said she had attended the 2017 Women’s March protesting Trump’s inauguration, complained of the influence he has over his base.
“I think his rhetoric at times enables people to feel as if they have permission to discriminate or act on their negative impulses,” she said, citing people she has heard make homophobic or racist comments. Still, she said she didn’t have strong feelings about the former president and wasn’t sure of his current policy positions.
Another man said he’d grown up admiring the former president and business mogul’s real estate portfolio and even thinking he might someday live in Trump Tower. But he had come to oppose Trump’s “negative rhetoric and bias against people that he speaks about.”
At other times, lawyers read aloud social media posts from prospective jurors mocking Trump and celebrating his defeats.
One prospective juror, an older white woman, was struck from the jury pool by the judge after Trump’s legal team uncovered years-old social media posts that described Trump as a “racist, sexist” narcissist.
One of Trump’s attorneys called the posts “vitriolic.”
“She harbors a deep hatred for him,” said the lawyer, Susan Necheles. “She said that ’I wouldn’t believe Donald Trump if his tongue were notarized’” and that he was “anathema” to everything she was taught about love.
Confronted with the posts inside the courtroom, the juror said she understood why they’d be concerning to the defense, but her views had evolved. “Election policies can get pretty spicy and Mr. Trump can get pretty spicy,” she said.
Merchan, the judge, also dismissed a man who in 2017 had shared a Facebook post celebrating the defeat of one of Trump’s policies in court. “Get him out and lock him up!” it read in part.
Court rules require Trump to be present throughout the trial. He can’t storm out of the courtroom like he did during a recent defamation trial. He is also barred by a gag order from attacking any of the jurors, including on his Truth Social platform.
He has already been admonished by Merchan for audibly uttering something and gesturing while one juror was answering questions.
“I will not tolerate any jurors being intimidated in this courtroom,” said Merchan, who previously warned Trump he could be sent to jail for engaging in disruptive behavior in court.
Trump’s assessments in the courthouse weren’t all bad, however, with a perhaps surprising number of potential jurors saying they had no strong opinions about one of the best known and most divisive men on the planet.
In fact, the process seemed to reveal more supporters than might be expected in a borough where President Joe Biden captured 87% of the vote in 2020.
One potential juror Thursday who spoke of Trump in glowing terms said he was “impressed” with Trump’s career as a successful businessman.
“I mean he was our president, pretty amazing. He is a businessman in New York. He has forged his way, you know, he made kind of history in terms of like where he started and where he has become,” said the man, who said he saw his own story similarly.
On Tuesday, another man expressed regret that he couldn’t juggle the trial with his job.
“Your Honor, as much as I would love to serve for New York and one of our great presidents, I could not give up my job for six-plus weeks,” he said.
Many said they had read his book “The Art of the Deal.”
Even the woman who criticized his persona and ended up on the jury anyway acknowledged his appeal to voters.
“Sometimes the way he may carry himself in public leaves something to be desired. At the same time, I can relate to sometimes being a bit unfiltered,” she said. “I see him speak to a lot of people in America. I think there is something to be said about that.”
~~~
Freedom of the Press is a fine thing, isn't it? 'Specially this kind of press!
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Perspective by Robin Givhan
Senior critic-at-large, The Washington Post
April 23, 2024 at 4:43 p.m. EDT
Donald Trump is shrinking. Not by choice and not without a fight, but the bombast and bluster that have kept his public persona afloat is fading — at least during these early days of the New York criminal trial in which he is accused of falsifying business records to influence the 2016 election.
Each day, Trump is forced to sit in a courtroom in Lower Manhattan where the hallways are lined with industrial fans, the lighting is best suited for autopsies, the walls are the color of dust, the wood paneling looks sticky, and the trailing wires and cables connecting speakers and monitors make everything look dismally last century. Trump’s designated place is in a burgundy padded chair in the midst of his lawyers. They insist on referring to him as “President Trump” — rather than simply Mr. Trump. He earned the title, said his lawyer Todd Blanche, “he was our 45th president.” They throw him this bone of authority and prestige at a time when he has been stripped of both. The man who loves buildings with sweeping views framed in shiny gold must settle into a space that exudes musty claustrophobia.
Trump’s lawyers speak for him while he sits mostly in silence — his raspy tenor of a voice reduced to the occasional whisper in the ear of his attorneys. He sits, sometimes with his eyes closed and his head drooping, sometimes at a distinct remove from whatever issue his lawyers, the prosecutors and the judge are sorting through. Mostly he nods and shakes his head, sometimes vigorously, like an agitated mime.
The first day of jury selection merged into the second and then whoosh, the jury was seated, the trial was in its second week and the first witness was called. David Pecker, the former CEO of the company that published the National Enquirer, was a longtime friend of Trump’s. The prosecution called Pecker to discuss his relationship with Trump, which allegedly evolved into a conspiracy to bury negative stories about Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign while highlighting possibly damaging stories abut his political adversaries.
Through all of this, the defendant has been little more than a blur in a red tie. Then a blue-striped tie. Then a solid blue tie. Then a red-striped tie. Then a blue tie. And so on. His French-cuffed shirt is sometimes stretched tight across his midsection. His suit jacket hangs off his shoulder. The courtroom sketch artists do not treat him kindly. He is slouching and gaunt-faced with his hair sitting atop his head like a ragged ship’s sail inflated with air.
On most days, Trump has an American flag pin affixed to his lapel, as political candidates do. But he sits and stands at New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan’s instruction, as defendants must. Trump has been rewarded by the electorate for his unfiltered speech, for his put-upon verbiage, and for his ease with slinging insults and decrying unflattering facts as fake news. Now his ability to speak about the trial’s witnesses and jury is bound up in a gag order — one that the prosecution says he has already violated nearly a dozen times. Any caterwauling is likely to put him at odds with the judge. As a political candidate Trump popularized the phrase “fake news,” using it as a shield to protect himself from any criticism, but according to Pecker, Trump was a key instigator of the fake news stories that ran in the National Enquirer about his political rivals. Trump used them as a sword.
Trump has been diminished. For now. The American judicial system has brought a former president down from his lofty perch. That’s a testament to a system that can be clunky, unyielding and discriminatory; but in this case, has operated with a measure of elegance.
Trump comes to court with his Secret Service detail, but when he settles into his place at the defense table, what the public is able to see in the images captured by photographers, is often just the sight of a defendant bookended by court officers. Instead of the men and women in dark suits with earpiece wires snaking down their collar — the telltale sign that a VIP is in the room — the former president is just another defendant under the steely gaze of law enforcement. He has assumed the position of countless other defendants who awkwardly aim to occupy their hands, settle their gaze and hope for the best. Trump is not the most important person in the room. The 12 jurors and the six alternates are. It’s their needs to which the judge rightfully has been most attuned.
When Trump steps outside of the courtroom and his tongue is somewhat unbound, he holds court in the hallway — pontificating and sometimes answering questions from the news media. He waves. Because of security, metal bicycle racks cordon off the area. The point is to keep the public away from Trump, to keep the media at bay. The result, however, is that Trump is left standing in his own little fenced-off court. He doesn’t look like the man whose coat everyone is desperately trying to touch. Instead, he’s the guy separated from polite society. He’s not in jail, but he’s nonetheless behind bars.
Each day, Trump prepares himself for the flurry of pictures when photographers are allowed into the courtroom to capture the moment for the historical record. He sticks out his jaw, furrows his brow and offers up a tough guy glare. The look isn’t quite as dramatic as the one captured in the Georgia mug shot taken in connection with his alleged election interference. That one had the benefit — or the curse — of harsh lighting and graininess. In the New York pictures, Trump doesn’t seem to be aiming for the title of America’s Most Wanted. Instead, he gives the impression of reaching for something more elevated, something loftier. It’s similar to the expression that often punctuated his White House photographs when he was seeking to telegraph toughness or resoluteness.
Back then, he had the benefit of the Oval Office as his backdrop. With its history and symbolism, it shines a light like no other on its occupant. In Room 1530 at New York County Supreme Court, the light is not nearly as flattering.
