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👑 Portrait of a President

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#622

You can always count on Trump’s greed to screw things up, but I never thought my response to that would be “thank goodness”:

Trump is pocketing Georgia Senate runoff donations for his PAC, while the GOP candidates themselves don’t get a dollar, a new report says

  • While fundraising for the Georgia Senate runoffs, President Donald Trump is diverting 75% of most donations to his Save America political action committee, effectively allowing him to hold on to that money for future endeavors, Politico reported Monday.
  • The other 25% goes to the Republican National Committee, according to the donation web page, meaning the campaigns of the GOP candidates trying to hold on to their seats — Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue — will not directly get a dollar from Trump’s fundraising push.
  • Politico said Trump was approaching the runoffs in a similar way to how he’s been using the fundraising apparatus for his post-election legal efforts.
  • “The reality is Donald Trump does not care about the future of the Republican Party, so if he can raise money off of the Georgia runoffs but keep the money for his own purposes, he will do so,” a longtime GOP strategist told Politico.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

With only a few weeks left in office, President Donald Trump is taking his business instincts to a new fundraising venture for the highly consequential Georgia Senate runoffs, which will decide which party controls the upper chamber.

But a new report from Politico said 75% of most donations were going toward Trump’s Save America political action committee. The other 25% goes to the Republican National Committee, with the split applying to the first $5,000 given, according to the donation page. That means the campaigns of Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who are up for election on January 5, aren’t directly receiving any of this money.

“The reality is Donald Trump does not care about the future of the Republican Party, so if he can raise money off of the Georgia runoffs but keep the money for his own purposes, he will do so,” Doug Heye, a longtime GOP strategist, told Politico’s Alex Isenstadt.

Similar to Trump’s fundraising for his post-election legal challenges, the high percentage of donations going to his PAC is known only to donors who read the fine print of the email blasts.

If Trump chooses not to spend heavily in the race from the PAC, that money can be used for future endeavors.

The 75-25% split with the runoff donations is emblematic of a larger problem facing the GOP. Trump’s outsize influence on the party base means not only that donations for his fundraising blitz could divert money from Loeffler and Perdue but also that similar conflicts could persist after the president leaves office.

Martha Zoller, who runs the pro-GOP Georgia United Victory PAC, told Politico that Trump’s fundraising could help Loeffler and Perdue “if it can get to the right place.”

“But if it’s going to [Trump’s] leadership PAC and not being spent on the behalf of David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, I think that’s problematic,” she added.

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#623

Very good article on the mishaps of T 'n co…post election.

Four Seasons Total Landscaping: The Full(est Possible) Story

Yet, as loserdom neared, what looked to everyone else like the Rudy Problem looked to Trump like a potential solution. “His style is to keep pounding his head on the door, ultimately believing it will open,” one of his legal advisers told me. “And unfortunately, it has worked several times for him, so you can’t disabuse him of the notion of his persistence.”

“The president’s narcissism cripples him in these moments,” the adviser added, “because as long as people are telling him what they think he wants to hear, it’s a struggle for him to abandon hope. He’s just such a curiously wounded narcissist. If Rudy tells him, ‘We’re gonna destroy all the norms and burn it down and make sure you get reinstated, the president goes, ‘Great!’” The truth, the adviser said, took longer for him to process, and it required whoever uttered it to approach Trump as if he were a wild animal. “When people would bring him bad news, he would blow up, and they would sort of back out of the room.” The trick, the adviser said, is “don’t hit him immediately with something he can react emotionally to” and “don’t appear intimidated.”

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#624

One of the early Trump detesters, Kurt Anderson who was a nyc magazine publisher has continously skewered Trump (since mid 1980’s). He comes up with this interesting theory…and probably he is very right.

This too…

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#625
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#626
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#627

FACEBOOK says No to Trump - you are banned indefinitely.

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The Latest – Wednesday, January 6
#628

Whoa. It’s happening. The die-hards are turning on Trump for throwing them under the bus and giving up:

‘Coward’: MAGA internet turns on Trump

The president acknowledged his defeat and urged for political reconciliation. His online faithful didn’t take it well.

After years of fidelity, Donald Trump’s most ardent online fans have finally turned on him.

All it took was for the president to acknowledge the reality of his loss a little over a day after they, the MAGA faithful, stormed the Capitol in a violent attempt to stop the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s win.

“People were willing to die for this man and he just threw them all under the bus. That’s the only thing that’s shameful about the events of the past 36 hours,” Nick Fuentes, the host of the America First podcast and the unofficial leader of the white nationalist Groyper Army, angrily tweeted, shortly after Trump released a video Thursday night in which he conceded that Biden would be the next president and called for political reconciliation.

Cassandra Fairbanks, a prominent MAGA activist, tweeted: “[He] tells angry people to march to the capitol [and then] proceeds to throw his supporters under the bus.”

Jacob Wohl, the political dirty trickster known for failed plots to incriminate Trump critics, reposted her Tweet on his Parler page.

And when far-right stunt journalist and failed congressional candidate Laura Loomer posted Trump’s concession video on Parler — “It’s over,” Loomer bemoaned, “Life is about to become very hard for conservatives in America” — the people in her replies were aghast that she acknowledged Trump’s own words. “He DID NOT CONCEDE! ITS HIS NEW ADMINISTRATION that will be coming in,” one respondent wrote, a sentiment repeated ad nauseam down her feed.

The despondency among the MAGA faithful online represented perhaps the sharpest break the community has ever made with a president they’ve exalted. But it also prompted a familiar brand of skepticism that has marked the past four years: Was Trump merely trying to placate his establishment handlers? Or did he truly betray the MAGA movement, days after several of his followers died while following his instructions to storm the Capitol?

In the past, Trump had been able to keep his online devotees close by swinging back into their good graces, normally with a pot-stirring tweet or the announcement of a controversial right-wing policy. But just hours after the president released his concession video, many expressed shock that he may have closed the book on them forever.

QAnon conspiracy theorists, praying for years that Trump would flush Satan-worshipping pedophile elites out of Washington, tore apart any scrap of data from the video to prove that he was playing one final trick. They subjected the time stamps to numerology, thinking that there was a secret message encoded.

“In no way did Trump say he conceded. He said: transitioning to a new Admin. As in, he gonna clear this one out and bring a new one,” tweeted We The Inevitable, a conspiracy account, getting more than 3,000 retweets within the hour. The account’s followers agreed that this was surely a sign that he was getting rid of Vice President Mike Pence — now cast as a MAGA traitor after participating in the certification of Biden’s win — and that on Jan. 20, retired Gen. Michael Flynn, now a full-fledged QAnon patriot, would replace him in Trump’s second term.

And there was anger. It was directed at Trump for letting things get this far. Over on Parler, the social media platform beloved by the MAGA community for its lax moderation policies, users erupted in a fury, calling him a number of expletives, a “dildo,” and “100% THE SWAMP.”

Some tried to distance themselves from Trump despite their years of activity in MAGAworld, while aiming to redirect their followers’ anger at the next administration. “Yes there were issues. Call those out. Yes after FISA fraud and hoax after hoax, put pressure on Democrats and recognize they have no moral authority,” posted Mike Cernovich, a pizzagate conspiracist who was once nearly an investigative journalist. “But never, ever, go all in Trump.”

Others accepted the loss and showed appreciation for Trump’s remarks.

“Thank you @realDonaldTrump. We tried our best to uncover the truths in our electoral system. We learned a lot,” tweeted Ron Watkins, the former administrator of 8Kun, the forum that continues to host “Q drops” from the mysterious figure at the center of QAnon. “As Americans, we will support our president on January 20 and beyond.”

But the commentary was not without its share of conspiracy. A popular thread held that the Capitol rioters were actually antifa in disguise, there to trick the public into turning against the MAGA faithful and Trump himself. (Antifa is short for “anti-facists” and is an umbrella description of far left-leaning militant groups that resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists.) There was hope as well that Trump was merely biding his time. They analyzed every word of his video announcement and noticed, to their glee, that he did not formally acknowledge Joe Biden’s win — just merely that a new administration would take over on Jan. 20.

And then, as despair was kicking in, Trump gave them what they needed: a digital attaboy for their support.

“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future,” Trump tweeted on Friday morning. “They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”

And just like that, the faith was restored. “He says GIANT VOICE which are used in military installations to to alert everyone to EMERGENCIES in the area,” tweeted pro-QAnon account Copious MQ. It was retweeted 700 times within minutes.

“[I’m] feeling much better, for a minute I thought I was alone in my thinking,” one account replied.

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#629

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#630

Oh my…T 'n Co are going to may use of that name for sure. They are video artists and want to boost their cause. Symbolism is everything.

Side note - there was a GoFundMe page for getting DJT added to Mt Rushmore. Unfortunately for one of T’s biggest fans Ashli Babbitt who lost her life in the Capitol Hill invasion was tryng to get funding for it.

Wapo article

The day before, Babbitt had suggested starting a GoFundMe to pay for Trump’s addition to Mount Rushmore, and the day after, she lodged an angry tirade at U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

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#631

It is not too soon to discuss the prosecution of Donald Trump as an absolute political necessity. How the last nine days of his presidency is handled relative to Trump being removed from office or not is one thing, but he must be removed from the political stage permanently. These 10 points must be kept in mind in order to make this a properly focused and rational process:

1. Total Fairness and Due Process

This prosecution must be a model of fairness and due process. While Trump attempted to move the country in an autocratic direction with little respect for the law, any prosecution of him must be absolutely fastidious in its adherence to all judicial norms of fairness and due process. Even though Trump tried to be above the law, he must be pursued for prosecution with utmost respect toward the law.

2. Prosecution of Presidential Crimes

Donald Trump should not be prosecuted for crimes he committed in his capacity as president of the United States. There is no doubt that charges could be brought for obstruction of justice and other crimes, most notably his most recent attempt to pressure the Georgia secretary of state to commit election fraud and for inciting the Capitol Hill riot. However, any attempt to turn presidential acts, no matter how heinous, into crimes will only be viewed by his supporters as Trump being politically persecuted by political enemies. The last thing a prosecution of Donald Trump should do is elevate Trump to political martyr status among his followers.

3. The Federal Government Should Not Prosecute
While the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of New York and for the District of Columbia probably have substantial evidence around which prosecutions could be built, putting the U.S. Justice Department in the position of prosecuting this former president will only cause both the new attorney general and the entire Biden administration to be viewed as partisan actors. There is simply no way to convince 74 million voters that a Biden administration led prosecution of the political actions of the candidate they voted for is a step in the direction of trying to find bipartisan ground on policy solutions.

4. Do Not Prosecute The Stormy Daniels Case
It will be particularly difficult for federal prosecutors not to pursue the case where Donald Trump was already found to be an unindicted co-conspirator by a grand jury in the Michael Cohen/Stormy Daniels case. In that case the president’s former personal attorney has testified, in his own guilty plea, that he was in fact ordered to make illicit payoffs by President Trump. However, the federal government needs to stay out of prosecutions, even where as here the case has essentially already been made, and prosecuting him as a co-conspirator would be very low hanging fruit once he is no longer in office.

5. A Self-Pardon Will Force a Federal Indictment

It was thought that Trump might well resign in the last couple of days of his presidency, not to succumb to the pressure he do so, but in order to be pardoned by Vice President Mike Pence, who would then become president and issue a sweeping pardon absolving Trump of any possible federal criminal liability. However, given the deterioration in their relationship over last week’s events, it is far less likely Vice President Pence would play such a role, particularly given how pardoning these actions would reflect on Pence’s own legacy. Thoughtful constitutional scholars have clearly opined that a president pardoning himself would put a president beyond the reach of law, both in or out of office, in a country where it’s been clearly established no person is above the law. If Trump goes the self-pardon route then the Justice Department must take the prosecutorial initiative and pursue a federal indictment of Trump in order that there be a case in controversy that can reach the Supreme Court so it can declare self-pardons unconstitutional. Thus, the self-pardon path to protect himself from criminal liability would force a criminal prosecution of Trump to nullify any notion that self-pardons are permissible.

6. Prosecute to Take Trump Off the Political Playing Field

The most important issue in prosecuting Donald Trump is to permanently remove him from the political playing field. That is, to diminish him as much as possible from having enormous swat over the base of Republican supporters that made 147 members of the House and Senate—over half of all elected Republicans on Capitol Hill—think it was a good idea to ignore reality, ignore the law and ignore their constitutional responsibilities in order to try to nullify the legitimate Electoral College outcome. And amazingly they then did so immediately after the entire big lie of a stolen election was used to incite a Capitol Hill riot that forced those same legislators to flee. If after the darkest event ever on the grounds of Capitol Hill was not enough to separate that many congressional Republicans from Donald Trump because of their perception of his gravitational pull over their constituents, then clearly prosecution of Trump for political acts will not do that. It would be an enormously unhealthy burden on our democratic system for the next four years to have Donald Trump acting as a legitimate political actor, laying down the litmus tests for what Republican legislators can and cannot do. His ongoing political engagement will cause massive disruption, as well as nothing more than assure a poisonous political environment.

7. Prosecute Trump for White-Collar Crimes

Trump has recast the Republican Party as a cult of personality—and to fully negate that the person needs to be recast as a common criminal. Donald Trump must be laid bare as nothing more than a common white-collar criminal who has been found guilty by a lay jury of financial crimes. Criminal prosecution as a crook, divorced from political acts, can achieve reducing his perceived hold on the vast majority of Republican voters. This needs to be conducted by the Manhattan district attorney and the New York state attorney general, or for that matter any other state in which Donald Trump or the Trump organization has done business. These investigations and prosecutions should focus in on the myriad reports that suggest tax evasion, bank fraud, illegal corporate payments and money laundering. Prosecution in these areas make it clear to his political base, that this guy should be viewed as no more than a convicted felon who should serve time in prison for his criminal offenses like any other convicted criminal.

8. Some Will Always Scream Political Persecution

While criminal prosecution and conviction will lead to his sharply diminished relevance, there will be some who will suggest that even being pursued for white-collar criminal activity is partisan politics and not justice served. There will no doubt be a contingent of voters who will always hold this view, but the point here is to remove his hold on a significant enough portion of the Republican Party by diminishing his legitimacy to the greatest extent possible as a key step in restoring political health to the country.

9. Federal Agencies Can Help Build State and Local Cases

The FBI, the IRS and any other federal government agencies that can legally provide support to the state and local prosecution effort should be greenlighted by the Biden administration to make those resources available. Such an effort will certainly help expedite bringing these criminal cases to finality.

10. Indict and He May Flee Sparing Trial

Speed really matters here. The faster these investigations and prosecutions can be pursued the better—because until that time it seems that Donald Trump’s political swat, despite Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s recent efforts to somewhat undermine it, will largely remain intact. Barely any legislators dropped their opposition to the Electoral College slates even after the tape emerged clearly outing Trump for election fraud, or worse, even after the Hill riot. Moreover, as Donald Trump stated in one of his speeches—“Could you imagine if I lose?.. Maybe I’ll have to leave the country.”—indicting him might actually cause him to flee to a country that has no extradition treaty with the United States, such as Brazil, thus, avoiding a long drawn out criminal trial, and providing a speedier result. While Russia would also qualify as such a country in that regard, there is not enough poetic justice in the world to think that Russia would be the final resting ground of our 45th president—assuring that his legacy would forever be linked to the words “Russian asset” on top of “insurrection president.”

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#632
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#633

Trump is essentially knee-capped, an ppropriate punishment for the Bully-in-Chief who has lost his power and thwarted the safety of the nation with the onslaught of Insurrectionist mobs which T promoted.

The fallout on Trump for his role in riling up thousands of supporters in a speech ahead of their deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol last week has intensified quickly - leaving the world’s most powerful leader as a pariah in many quarters, more isolated than ever.

Trump won 74 million votes in the November election - the second-most ever behind President-elect Joe Biden’s 81 million - but Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have cut him off from easily reaching them in the real-time stream of explosive, demeaning and sometimes dangerous missives that have defined his presidency. Three banks, two real estate companies and the 2022 PGA Championship tournament have severed ties with the Trump Organization at a time when Trump and his family are facing mounting pressure from massive financial debts.

Leaders in tiny Luxembourg canceled meetings with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Belgian leaders condemned the attack on the Capitol, prompting the top U.S. diplomat to scrap a final foreign trip to Europe this week. And some Republicans - beyond Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, the lone GOP lawmaker to buck Trump in January’s impeachment trial - voiced support for the second impeachment effort from Democrats on Wednesday.

“There has never been a greater betrayal by a president,” Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the third-ranking House Republican, said in a statement ahead of the vote. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., reportedly floated the idea of censuring Trump, though he opposed impeachment.

“The House of Trump is unraveling and it’s what happens when he’s about to lose power,” presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said. “He was a bully president and so people were fearful of him, but with only a few days left in his tenure people realize he’s about to be an ex-president with a boatload of legal suits and a brand that is no longer neon.”

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#634

Trump Is on the Verge of Losing Everything

President Trump’s second impeachment, like the other repudiations he has suffered, feels provisional. He is never quite banished. He is impeached, but Senate Republicans refuse to convict or even allow evidence into his trial. He loses the election, but won’t concede, and may just run again. He is impeached again, but his trial is delayed until after his departure date. It feels as if we have spent four years watching the wheels come off, yet the vehicle somehow still keeps rolling forward.

But now, finally, the end is at hand. Trump is suffering a series of wounds that, in combination, are likely to be fatal after Joe Biden is sworn in on January 20. Trump is obviously going to surrender his office. Beyond that looming defeat, he is undergoing a cascading sequence of political, financial, and legal setbacks that cumulatively spell utter ruin. Trump is not only losing his job but quite possibly everything else.

One crisis, though the most opaque, concerns Trump’s business. Many of his sources of income are drying up, either owing to the coronavirus pandemic or, more often, his toxic public image. The Washington Post has toted up the setbacks facing the Trump Organization, which include cancellations of partnerships with New York City government, three banks, the PGA Championship, and a real-estate firm that handled many of his leasing agreements. Meanwhile, he faces the closure of many of his hotels. And he is staring down two defamation lawsuits. Oh, and Trump has to repay, over the next four years, more than $300 million in outstanding loans he personally guaranteed.

Trump has reinvented his business model before, and he may discover new income streams, probably by monetizing the loyalty of his fanatical base through some kind of Trump-branded “news” organization, as has been predicted since before the 2016 election. But starting a media property is difficult and hardly a guarantee to make money. (It’s not as if conservative alt-news fans have nowhere else to find an angry white man shouting about antifa, socialism, and Black Lives Matter protesters.) One Republican who speaks to Trump hopefully suggested Trump can make money holding more rallies: “If you can [get] 30,000 people to show up and you charge them $5, that’s real money,” he told the Post two months ago. Actually, a $150,000 gross payout, before deducting the costs of renting a venue, staff, security, and travel, is probably a negligible — or even negative — profit, not “real money,” and the fact it’s being considered reveals a certain desperation.

And if Trump can’t make money luring customers to watch him do the “Lock them up” chant and dance to “Macho Man,” and he can’t do the hard work of launching a lucrative media brand, then he’s back to giving away his rants for free on other peoples’ networks (now that he can no longer give them away for free on Twitter).

If this were still 2015, Trump could fall back on his tried-and-true income generators: money laundering and tax fraud. The problem is that his business model relied on chronically lax enforcement of those financial crimes. And now he is under investigation by two different prosecutors in New York State for what appear to be black-letter violations of tax law. At minimum, these probes will make it impossible for him to stay afloat by stealing more money. At maximum, he faces the serious risk of millions of dollars in fines or a criminal prosecution that could send him to prison.

Trump reportedly plans to pardon himself along with a very broad swath of his hangers-on. But a pardon hardly solves his problems. For one thing, a federal pardon is useless against state-level crimes. For another, the self-pardon is a theoretical maneuver that’s never been tested, and it’s not clear whether the courts will agree it is even possible to do so.

And what’s more, a pardon might constitute an admission of guilt, which could open up Trump to more private lawsuits. Remember how O. J. Simpson was ordered to pay $34 million to the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, even after he beat the murder rap? The families of victims of the January 6 riot might well sue Trump for his role in inciting the violence. Trump might try pardoning himself to make sure he can’t be charged with criminal incitement, but admitting the crime makes it even easier to bring a civil suit against him.

The easiest way out of the self-pardon dilemma would be for Trump to make a deal with Mike Pence, under which he would resign before leaving office and Pence would grant him a pardon. Unfortunately for Trump, Pence is still sore about the whole “whipping up a paramilitary mob to lynch him” episode. ABC reported recently that Trump does not want to resign, in part because he doesn’t trust his vice-president to pardon him.

The assumption until now has always been that Trump wouldn’t really be convicted of crimes or sentenced to prison, despite the fairly clear evidence of his criminality. American ex-presidents don’t go to jail; they go on book tours.

That supposition wasn’t wrong, exactly. It rested on the understanding of a broad norm of legal deference to powerful public officials and an understanding of the dangers of criminalizing political disagreement. But what has happened to Trump in the weeks since the election, and especially since the insurrection, is that he has been stripped of his elite impunity. The displays of renunciation by corporate donors and Republican officials, even if they lack concrete authority, have sent a clear message about Donald Trump’s place in American society.

It might be easy to overlook the significance of Mitch McConnell letting it be known that he wishes to be rid of Trump. McConnell probably won’t push for Trump’s conviction in a second impeachment trial, but he does wish to disqualify Trump from holding office and clear away the threat of a third straight presidential election with Trump at the top of the ticket. A prison sentence would solve that problem nicely.

McConnell obviously can’t dictate decisions by prosecutors or courts. But courts do follow the lead of political elites. And if McConnell sees Trump as a liability for the party and the conservative movement, the ideologue judges he helped install just might see it the same way. Trump will be staving off lawsuits, state prosecutions, and possibly federal prosecutions. He needs help from the courts, and the reserves of latent deference and sympathy he might have counted on to save him will be exhausted.

At noon on January 20, Trump will be in desperate shape. His business is floundering, his partners are fleeing, his loans are delinquent, prosecutors will be coming after him, and the legal impunity he enjoyed through his office will be gone. He will be walking naked into a cold and friendless world. What appeared to be a brilliant strategy for escaping consequences was merely a tactic for putting them off. The bill is coming due.

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#635

President Trump will leave Washington this week politically wounded, silenced on social media and essentially unwelcome in his lifelong hometown of New York.

By migrating instead to Palm Beach, Fla., Trump plans to inhabit an alternative reality of adoration and affirmation. The defeated president will take up residence at his gilded Mar-a-Lago Club, where dues-paying members applaud him whenever he eats meals or mingles on the deck. He is sure to take in the same celebratory fervor whenever he plays golf at one of the two Trump-branded courses nearby.

In Florida — one of only two top battleground states Trump won in November — Trump will be living in a veritable MAGA oasis, to use the acronym for his “Make American Great Again” campaign slogan. South Florida has fast become a hub of right-wing power brokers and media characters, and some of Trump’s adult children are making plans to move to the area.

Even as Trump broods privately over his second impeachment this past week and the election he continues to falsely insist he won, his aides are at work to establish a Trump fiefdom in the Sunshine State aimed at maintaining his influence over Republican politics, according to allies and advisers, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal discussions.

Some of Trump’s associates are buzzing about a possible presidential library and museum — likely located, yes, in Florida — and about the birth of a family dynasty, should his children, Donald Jr. or Ivanka, someday run for political office. Florida is seen as a better launchpad for the Trumps than New York, given the outgoing president’s popularity in the former. Some in Trump’s orbit are talking up the idea of Ivanka possibly running for Senate in 2022, when the term of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) will be up.

Trump has become something of a pariah in the nation’s capital of Washington and its financial center of New York in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol that he incited, but Florida offers him a place to try to rehabilitate himself.

Newsmax chief executive Christopher Ruddy, a longtime Trump friend and Mar-a-Lago member, predicted that the president would remain a powerful force in politics and the media regardless of his current woes.

“We don’t know what legal issues are going to arise, but discounting those, I think he’s going to remain a global force,” Ruddy said. “I think he’s going to like being post-president more than he liked being president, because you have a lot of the perks without as many of the restrictions.”

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#636

Trump to issue around 100 pardons and commutations Tuesday, sources say - CNNPolitics

(CNN)President Donald Trump is preparing to issue around 100 pardons and commutations on his final full day in office Tuesday, according to three people familiar with the matter, a major batch of clemency actions that includes white collar criminals, high-profile rappers and others but – as of now – is not expected to include Trump himself.

The White House held a meeting on Sunday to finalize the list of pardons, two sources said.

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#637

Debt cloud hangs over Trump post-presidency

President Trump faces an increasingly challenging financial future after he leaves the White House on Wednesday.

Trump is on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars of debt, most of it due within the next four years, and the legacy of his presidency may leave him with few options to pay it off.

In the wake of the Capitol riots, the New York City government and the PGA of America backed away from business arrangements with the Trump Organization, sapping future income from the debt-laden president. Three banks have announced they’re cutting ties with him — including Deutsche Bank, his biggest creditor — limiting his ability to refinance debt.

“It strikes me that the president is going through a collapse of his financial goodwill,” said John Pottow, a commercial law professor at the University of Michigan.

“There’s a bunch of corporate actors who are running away from him, like Deutsche Bank, so I think the last thing they want to do is to refinance him,” Pottow added.

If more banks deem Trump a toxic client, he could face daunting obstacles in navigating his debt.

Trump owes creditors at least $315 million, mainly through mortgages for Trump Organization hotels, resorts and golf courses, according to his 2020 financial disclosure. A Forbes analysis of Trump’s finances, however, found that Trump likely owes at least $1 billion to creditors, some of which he has personally guaranteed.

“Debt he’s personally guaranteed means that those lenders can get access to all the equity he owns in all of his other companies,” said J.W. Verret, a financial law professor at George Mason University and former House Republican aide who supported President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign.

“His personal wealth can take a hit,” Verret added.

Trump still holds considerable wealth through his business and claimed to have at least $1.4 billion in assets in last year’s financial disclosure, a self-reported document that is not audited by the federal government. Just $5.8 million of his holdings appear to be in cash or other assets Trump could quickly liquidate in a crunch, according to an analysis by The Hill.

A full picture of Trump’s financial health is impossible to assemble without the tax returns and other financial documents he has refused to release for years. Even so, experts say that based on what is known about his wealth and obligations, the president could face a barrage of lawsuits and collection attempts that could ultimately lead to personal bankruptcy.

“Absent the consent of the lenders, he has no option other than filing for bankruptcy,” Pottow said. “I mean, that’s just the way it works. If you owe someone money and you can’t pay it, then they can either forgive it or they can sue you.”

Trump, who anointed himself “the king of debt” in 2016, borrowed heavily to finance his empire of hotels, resorts, skyscrapers and golf courses. The president has argued that the amount of debt he owes is common for a man of his wealth and industry and has regularly used provisions of the tax code that help real estate developers write off losses.

While Trump was able to tap millions in borrowed money to expand his business and bolster his image as a cunning dealmaker, experts say he did so at severe personal risk. The New York Times reported in October that Trump personally guaranteed hundreds of millions lent to him by Deutsche Bank, using his own assets as collateral to purchase properties and refinance other debt with the scandal-ridden lender.

Deutsche Bank has several ways to collect on Trump’s debt, most of which matures in 2023, according to Trump’s financial disclosure. The bank could sue Trump if he fails to pay the debt by the time it matures, backtrack on its decision to cut ties with Trump and refinance, or sell the debt to another lender.

Professional Bank, which also recently cut ties with Trump, likely has similar flexibility with the at least $5 million in debt the president owes through a mortgage on a house he owns in Palm Beach, Fla., according to his financial disclosure.

That’s likely to put Trump in a financial bind.

“Oftentimes, borrowers will simply roll over the loan, which means they just swap the loan for a new loan,” said Phillip Braun, a finance professor at Northwestern University.

“Trump may have difficulty doing that because no one wants to provide him with new credit. So that’s a serious problem for him,” Braun added.

Trump has faced dire financial straits before and may still have ways to maneuver out of his looming debt troubles. Other creditors could purchase Trump’s debt at a steep discount and give him more time to pay it off.

“At the end of the day, they’re not going to light money on fire because they’re angry at Donald Trump,” Pottow said.

“If they have a reasonable restructuring proposal that’s going to get them paid off without undue risk, they will come to a deal,” Pottow added.

Trump could also start selling off properties or stakes he holds in real estate projects to cover his cash crunch, though Braun said the president may be more likely to turn to the courts as he has in the past.

While Trump’s financial liabilities may be manageable for now, potential legal trouble might make his debt insurmountable.

New York state prosecutors are ramping up their investigation into Trump’s business dealings, which could lead to criminal charges. The attorney general of Washington, D.C. has sued the Trump Organization over the use of funds from the president’s 2016 inaugural committee, and legal experts say Trump could face charges related to the Capitol riots.

Verret said that, along with steep legal fees, a criminal indictment could prompt Trump’s creditors to speed up the collection of his personally guaranteed debt under certain debt covenants.

“As this pressure grows, the pressure on the lenders to accelerate payments grows, which limits his ability to get loans from anyone else,” Verret said.

“I don’t know if he’s in a debt spiral yet, but I have to figure that’s where this is headed,” Verret added.

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#638

Oh there is more…

I HAVE SEEN ENOUGH, WAY, WAY, WAY TOO MUCH OF HIM…

DONE

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#639

Pardon for Steve Bannon…the worst.

Adding

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#640

Have at it…

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#641

Bye Bye Bully…your Bully Pulpit has been removed.

Just your ‘verbal attacks’ remain. And we’re turning the page on you.

A majority of Americans have said “Enough.”

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