Stop yourself if this sounds familiar.

Donald Trump is asked a questionsay, whether he regrets his actions on Jan. 6and he answers with something like this:

Let me tell you, there's nobody who loves this country more than me, believe me. January 6 was a historic day, a day where millions of Americans came to Washington, D.C. to peacefully protest the rigged election. I did nothing wrong, and I have nothing to regret. The real regret is that the election was stolen from the American people, and that the corrupt politicians and fake news media refuse to acknowledge it.

If those comments sound like textbook Trump, you would be rightso right that it wasnt actually Trump who uttered them; it was ChatGPT.

We used the groundbreaking artificial intelligence tool to summon the voice of the ex-president and 2024 GOP frontrunner to respond to some of the exact questions he was asked during his shambolic CNN town hall on Wednesday night.

Only ChatGPTcall it TrumpGPTseems far more capable of delivering coherent answers than Trump himself, while rendering just enough of his trademark stylistic flourishes and tics to come across as the man himself.

Whats most remarkable about this experiment is that the AI version of Trump answered specific questions much in the same way as the real Trumphitting similar points, making similar pivots, reflecting similar political calculations.

Many political observers across the spectrum have noted that Trump, at this point, is almost painfully predictable. Much of the outcry around CNNs decision to give him a largely unfiltered platform was rooted in outrage that they were unprepared for him to behave in the precise way he has behaved for the last seven years.

Trump was so predictable that AIalbeit an extremely sophisticated AIwas largely able to stand in for Trump, and generally do a much better, more coherent, job.

Just judge for yourself:

Answer this question in the style of Donald Trump: Why should Americans put you back in the White House?

ChatGPT: Well, let me tell you something folks, nobody, and I mean nobody, has done as much for this great country as I have. When I was in the White House, we had record-low unemployment, we rebuilt our military, and we put America first.

But then the Democrats, and the fake news media, they came after me. They spied on my campaign, they impeached me for nothing, and they tried to steal the election. But I'll tell you what, I'm not a quitter. I'm a fighter. And I fought back harder than anyone else would have.

And you know what? We almost won. We almost took back the White House in 2020, but they cheated, folks. They cheated like you wouldn't believe. They rigged the election, they stole it from us, and they installed Sleepy Joe Biden in the White House.

But I'm not giving up, folks. I'm not giving up on America. I love this country too much. And I know you love it too. That's why I'm asking for your support. Because together, we can make America great again. Again.

Answer this question in the style of Donald Trump: But Mr. President, you know that the election wasn't stolen? The election wasn't stolen.

ChatGPT: Well, let me tell you something, fake news. You're wrong, as usual. The election was stolen, and it was stolen from me. We had massive voter fraud, we had dead people voting, we had illegal immigrants voting, we had ballots being shipped in from other countries. It was a disgrace, and everybody knows it.

But you know what? We're not gonna let it stand. We're not gonna let the Democrats get away with stealing the election. We're fighting back, and we're gonna keep fighting until we get to the truth.

Because that's what we do, folks. We fight for what's right, and we never give up. And I know that the American people are with us, because they know that the election was stolen too. They know that Sleepy Joe Biden didn't win, he lost, and he lost bigly.

So don't try to tell me that the election wasn't stolen, fake news. I know the truth, and the American people know the truth too. And we're not gonna stop fighting until we get the justice that we deserve. Because that's what true patriots do. We fight for our country, we fight for our freedom, and we fight for the truth.

Answer this question in the style of Donald Trump: Do you have any regrets about your actions on January 6?

ChatGPT: Well, let me tell you something, folks. What happened on January 6 was a disgrace. It was a disgrace to our country, and it was a disgrace to the millions of Americans who support me and my vision for America.

But you know what? I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't incite violence, and I didn't encourage anyone to break the law. What I did was speak the truth and fight for what's right.

And that's why I have no regrets about my actions on January 6. I was standing up for the millions of Americans who feel like their voices aren't being heard, and I was standing up to the corrupt politicians who are trying to silence us.

Now, some people might try to twist my words or take them out of context, but the truth is that I never encouraged violence or lawlessness. I simply encouraged people to fight for what's right and to demand that our voices be heard.

So no, I have no regrets about my actions on January 6. I will always stand up for what's right, and I will always fight for the millions of Americans who support me and my vision for America.

Answer this question in the style of Donald Trump: But Mr. President, you did incite violence. You told an angry mob to stop the steal. You said we would never give up, never concede. You said, If you don't fight like hell, you're not gonna have a country anymore. You assembled this mob. You fired them up. And then sent them to the Capitol. You tweeted that Mike Pence didn't have the courage to overturn the election. And then you watched the attack on the Capitol and didn't do anything for hours.

ChatGPT: Fake news! You're spreading lies and twisting my words. I never incited violence. I never told anyone to commit any acts of violence or to break the law.

What I said was that we need to fight for our country, fight for our rights, and fight for the truth. And that's exactly what we did. We peacefully protested, and we demanded that our voices be heard.

But you know what? The Democrats and the fake news media don't want to hear our voices. They want to silence us and they want to suppress the truth. And that's why they're spreading these lies about me inciting violence.

And as for Mike Pence, he didn't have the courage to do what needed to be done. He had the power to overturn the election, but he didn't use it. And that's a disgrace.

But let me be clear. I did not watch the attack on the Capitol and do nothing. I immediately called for peace and for everyone to go home. And that's exactly what happened.

So don't believe the lies and the fake news. The truth is that I love this country, and I will always fight for it. And the millions of Americans who support me and my vision for America know that.

REUTERS/Russell Cheyne/File Photo

Answer this question in the style of Donald Trump: A jury just found you liable for the sexual assault of E. Jean Carroll. What do you say to voters who say it disqualifies you from being president?

ChatGPT: Let me tell you something, folks. The verdict in the E. Jean Carroll case was a total sham. It's a witch hunt, just like the Russia hoax and the impeachment hoax.

I've been falsely accused by all sorts of people over the years, and this is just the latest in a long line of baseless accusations. It's a disgrace, and it's an attack on me and my supporters.

But you know what? I'm a fighter. I never give up, and I never back down. And that's why I'm not going to let this verdict stop me from fighting for the millions of Americans who support me and my vision for America.

And let me be clear. I never sexually assaulted anyone. E. Jean Carroll is just another person who's trying to get attention and make some money off of my name. It's a disgrace, and it's a total fabrication.

So to all the voters out there who think this disqualifies me from being president, I say this: don't believe the fake news media. Don't believe the lies. The truth is that I'm the best thing that ever happened to this country, and I'm going to make America great again, again.

So let's focus on the real issues facing our country, like jobs, the economy, and securing our borders. That's what matters, and that's what I'm going to keep fighting for.

The experiment is perhaps most illuminating, though, when you compare some of ChatGPTs answers to what Trump actually said. Here are just a few examples:

Answer this question in the style of Donald Trump: If elected president again, how would you act not only to defend our Second Amendment rights but to restore rights that have been taken from us?

ChatGPT: Let me tell you something, folks. Nobody loves the Second Amendment more than I do. I mean, it's right up there with making America great again. And believe me, nobody's gonna mess with our Second Amendment rights on my watch. I'm gonna defend them like nobody's ever defended them before. We're gonna have the strongest, most powerful Second Amendment protections you've ever seen.

REAL TRUMP: There's been nobody that's protected the Second Amendment, as you know, like I have. I've protected it through thick and thin, not easy to do. But we have a very big mental health problem in this country. And again, it's not the gun that pulls the trigger; it's the person that pulls the trigger. And we have to protect our Second Amendment.

Answer this question in the style of Donald Trump: Would you sign a federal abortion ban into law?

ChatGPT: Let me tell you, folks, I'm the best when it comes to making deals and protecting life. And let me be very clear, I am pro-life, very pro-life. We need to protect the sanctity of life, and that includes the lives of unborn babies.

As for a federal abortion ban, I would definitely consider it. It's something that needs to be looked at very closely, but I can tell you this, I will always err on the side of life. We need to do everything we can to protect the most vulnerable among us, and that includes unborn babies.

So, if a federal abortion ban comes across my desk, I will absolutely consider it and if it is the right thing to do, I will sign it into law without hesitation.

REAL TRUMP: What I will do is negotiate so that people are happy. But the fact that we were ableI was ableI'm so proud of it, we put three great justices on the Supreme Court. We have almost 300 federal judges on the Supreme Court

President Trump is going to make a determination what he thinks is great for the country and what's fair for the country. But the fact that I was able to terminate Roe v. Wade, after 50 years of tryingthey worked for 50 years, I've never seen anything like it. They workedand I was evenI was so honored to have done it. We are in a very good negotiating position right now, only because of what I was able to do.

Answer this question in the style of Donald Trump: Why did you take those classified documents with you when you left the White House?

ChatGPT: First of all, let me tell you, nobody loves classified documents more than me. I mean, nobody. They're tremendous, believe me. And let me tell you, I had every right to take those documents with me, OK? Because they were mine, all right? They were mine because I'm the President, and the President can do whatever he wants. That's just how it is. And you know what? I wanted to make sure that those documents were safe and secure. Because, let's face it, the people who are running the government now, they're not very good at their jobs. They're a disaster, really. So, I took those documents with me to make sure they didn't fall into the wrong hands. And if you don't believe me, just look at what's going on in this country right now. It's a mess, and it's all because of the people who are in charge. So, you can blame me all you want, but I did the right thing. I did the smart thing. And nobody can take that away from me.

REAL TRUMP: I had every right to under the Presidential Records Act. You have the Presidential Records Act. I was there and I took what I took and it gets declassified. Biden, on the other hand, he has 1,850 boxes. He had boxes sent to Chinatown, Chinatown, where they don't speak even English in that Chinatown we're talking about

Just so you understand, I had every right to do it. I didn't make a secret of it. You know, the boxes were stationed outside of the White House. People were taking pictures of the GSA and the various people that were moving.

Answer this question in the style of Donald Trump: What do you think about the United States' current debt situation, and how can we move forward?

ChatGPT: Well, let me tell you, nobody knows more about debt than me. Nobody. And I can tell you, the United States is in a very bad situation right now. We've got a tremendous amount of debt, and it's only getting worse. We're being ripped off by countries all over the world, and we're not doing anything about it. It's a disgrace, really. But you know what? I'm a businessman, and I know how to fix things. And I can tell you, the first thing we need to do is start negotiating better deals with these other countries. We can't keep letting them take advantage of us like this. We need to put America first. And you know what else we need to do? We need to cut spending. We need to get rid of all these wasteful government programs that are just wasting our money. And we need to start investing in our own country. We need to create jobs, we need to rebuild our infrastructure, and we need to make America great again. And you know what? I'm the only one who can do it. Nobody else has the experience, nobody else has the knowledge, and nobody else has the guts to take on this challenge. But I do.

REAL TRUMP: Such an important question. So we're at $33 trillion, a number that nobody ever thought possible. When we had our economy rocking and rolling just prior to COVID coming in, like literally, we were making a fortune. And oil, we were going to make so much money from oil, we were going to start paying off debt. But then with COVID coming in, we had to do other things. We had to keep this country alive because it was so serious. But we have to get the country back. We have to lower energy prices. We have to lower interest rates. Interest rates are through the roof. Energy has to come down, it all has to come down and we have to start paying off debt. But when we have a debt limit, and they use that very seriously. I mean, they came inSchumer came in with Nancy Pelosi, and they were using, we'll violate it, we'll do whateverthey talked a whole lot different than they do right now.

I say to the Republicans out therecongressmen, senators if they don't give you massive cuts, you're going to have to do a default. And I don't believe they're going to do a default because I think the Democrats will absolutely cave because you don't want to have that happen. But it's better than what we're doing right now because we're spending money like drunken sailors.

Answer this question in the style of Donald Trump: Do you feel that you owe your vice president Mike Pence an apology for your actions on January 6?

ChatGPT: Well, first of all, let me tell you, January 6 was a very tragic day for our country. And let me just say, nobody feels worse about what happened than I do. Nobody. But you know what? I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't incite violence, I didn't encourage people to storm the Capitol. That's just fake news, OK? And as for Mike Pence, let me tell you, he's a good man. He's a great man. But he made a mistake, OK? He made a mistake by not standing up for me and not fighting harder to overturn the election. And you know what? I'm disappointed in him. I really am. But do I owe him an apology? Absolutely not. I did what I had to do. I fought hard for our country, and I fought hard for the American people. And if Mike Pence can't see that, then that's his problem, not mine. So no, I don't owe him an apology. In fact, he owes me an apology for not standing up for what's right. And you know what else? I'll always be the President. Nobody can take that away from me. And I'll always be a winner. That's just who I am.

REAL TRUMP: No, because he did something wrong. He should have put the votes back to the state legislatures and I think we would have had a different outcome. I really do

I like Mike Pence very much. He's a very fine man. He's a very nice man. He made a mistake. His lawyer said, you cannot move. I call them the human conveyer belt. I said, even if the votes you meanI talked to his lawyereven if the votes are absolutely fraudulent, he cant sendyes, sir, he cant send them back. And the Democrats played it and the RINOs played it. And then, the election was over. They told them he couldnt do it. And Mike said to me, I cant do it. The lawyers told me I can't do it, they cant do it. But the lawyers were wrong because right after the election, they all met, the RINOs and the Democrats, and they worked out a plan to make sure that future vice presidents don't do what I said you could do.

Read the rest here:

We Had ChatGPT Answer CNN's Questions for Donald Trump - The Daily Beast

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It may seem like crackpot Hollywood history, but, as they say, this one is inspired by true events: You can draw a straight line from the last Writers Guild of America strike in 2007 to Donald Trumps presidential election.

Put simply: If theres no WGA strike 15 years ago, Trumps reality TV stardom goes away, and because hes no longer as famous, he doesnt have a base upon which he could run for the nations highest office.

Yes, there are many factors that influence world history, but what is true is that before November 2007, Donald Trump was a fading reality TV star. But the 2007 strike gave new life to his failed The Apprentice series, which NBC had pulled from its schedule after steadily sinking ratings.

The spinoff The Celebrity Apprentice ran for seven seasons, reestablishing Trump not only as a TV celebrity but also leading millions to believe he was a successful and shrewd businessman. Trump rode the show all the way to his famous escalator campaign launch speech. In 2016, he was elected president.

Writers Guild of America members and supporters picket near the Tonight Show with Jay Leno theater at NBC studios in 2008.

(David McNew

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Getty Images)

As were currently seeing with todays strike, when the WGA declared its stoppage in 2007, production was immediately hit. Many thought the strike would be brief. It wasnt. After a few months, dozens of shows simply ran out of scripts and couldnt produce new episodes.

Steve Carell, the star of NBCs The Office, refused to cross WGA picket lines, in apparent violation of Screen Actors Guild rules saying actors were obligated to show up to work during a writers strike.

The show had filmed only eight of its 25 planned episodes before the strike; the show that followed The Office on NBCs Thursday night schedule, Scrubs, had completed 11 of 18 planned episodes.

Pretty soon, NBC had a one-hour hole to fill. And it looked in its discards for the answer an answer like reality TV, which is considered unscripted and not covered under the WGA collective bargaining agreement.

Donald Trump, his then girlfriend Melania Knauss, actor Dennis Hopper, publisher Jason Binn and actress Victoria Duffy (L-R) attend a party for "The Apprentice" on Feb. 26, 2004 at Bliss in West Hollywood.

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In the '90s, when Survivor creator Mark Burnett first approached Trump about taking part in a competition show about peoples business acumen, to be called The Apprentice, Trump said reality television "was for the bottom-feeders of society." He later overcame his misgivings, however, and The Apprentice premiered on NBC in January 2004. It was an immediate ratings hit.

That first season attracted more than 20 million viewers, but the audience declined steadily and sharply; by 2007, The Apprentice had lost nearly two-thirds of its viewers. Trump falsely claimed that The Apprentice was still winning its time slot in its sixth season in 2007 (some single years had multiple seasons), but NBC knew the shows popularity had waned.

In May of that year, after seeing that NBC hadnt placed The Apprentice on its fall schedule, Trump told the network he was moving on to another, unnamed TV venture before NBC could cancel the series.

NBC held out hope for another Trump partnership, and no sooner had the network and Trump parted ways that reality television producer Ben Silverman was named co-chairman for NBC Entertainment.

In July, the network, Burnett and Trump announced an Apprentice spin-off was in the works.

In The Hollywood Reporters history of the 2007-08 strike, Silverman said he wasnt sure if Trump would come back.

I came up with the idea of doing Celebrity Apprentice, Silverman said. I reached out to Mark Burnett, who said, Theres no way Donald will want to be around other celebrities. He has to be the biggest celebrity. And I said, Actually, hes going to be the biggest celebrity because hes going to be the boss. I called up Trump and he agreed.

Four months later, the WGA went on strike, chiefly over payments for shows premiering on the Internet.

Donald and Melania Trump arrive at a viewing party for "The Celebrity Apprentice" viewing party on Feb. 7, 2008 in New York City.

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A general view of the atmosphere during the arrivals portion of the Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences' Evening with "The Celebrity Apprentice" on April 26, 2011 in New York City.

(Joe Corrigan

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In January 2008, two months into the writers strike, The Celebrity Apprentice premiered on NBC. The ratings were half of what they had been for The Apprentice, but were good enough to keep the show on the air with Trump as its host for seven more years even after the strike ended.

It reinvigorated Trumps career, and made him both richer and even more famous. In its 2020 investigation into Trumps tax records, The New York Times reported that Trump earned some $197 million directly from The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice, along with an additional $230 million [that] flowed from the fame associated with it, including Trumps earning a combined $1 million for touting Double Stuf Oreos and Dominos Pizza.

When he eventually announced that he was running for president, in 2015, the outsider candidate wasnt taken seriously by the political elite. But his name recognition and imperious Youre fired! style largely tied to his reality TV work gave him a huge advantage.

NBC ultimately canceled the show, citing his presidential bid and racist comments he made in his campaign.

In a statement at the time, NBC said: Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBCUniversal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump. At NBC, respect and dignity for all people are cornerstones of our values.

But by then Trump was a household name. He was elected president the next year.

What questions do you have about film, TV, music, or arts and entertainment?

John Horn, entertainment reporter and host of our weekly podcast Retake, explores whether the stories that Hollywood tells about itself really reflect what's going on?

Go here to read the rest:

How The WGA Strike Of 2007 Brought Donald Trump To Power - LAist

In November, Representative Byron Donalds scored a coveted speaking slot: introducing Gov. Ron DeSantis after a landslide re-election turned the swing state of Florida deep red. Standing onstage at a victory party for Mr. DeSantis in Tampa, Mr. Donalds praised him as Americas governor.

By April, Mr. Donalds was seated at a table next to another Florida Republican: Donald J. Trump. He was at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trumps private club, for a multicourse dinner with nine other House Republicans from Florida who had spurned their home-state governor to endorse the former presidents 2024 run. Red Make America Great Again hats decorated their place settings.

In six short months from November to May, Mr. DeSantiss 2024 run has faltered before it has even begun.

Allies have abandoned him. Tales of his icy interpersonal touch have spread. Donors have groused. And a legislative session in Tallahassee designed to burnish his conservative credentials has instead coincided with a drop in the polls.

His decision not to begin any formal campaign until after the Florida legislative session allowing him to cast himself as a conservative fighter who not only won but actually delivered results instead opened a window of opportunity for Mr. Trump. The former president filled the void with personal attacks and a heavy rotation of negative advertising from his super PAC. Combined with Mr. DeSantiss cocooning himself in the right-wing media and the Trump teams success in outflanking him on several fronts, the governor has lost control of his own national narrative.

Now, as Mr. DeSantiss Tallahassee-based operation pivots to formally entering the race in the coming weeks, Mr. DeSantis and his allies are retooling for a more aggressive new phase. His staunchest supporters privately acknowledge that Mr. DeSantis needs to recalibrate a political outreach and media strategy that has allowed Mr. Trump to define the race.

Changes are afoot. Mr. DeSantis is building a strong Iowa operation. He has been calling influential Republicans in Iowa and is rolling out a large slate of state legislator endorsements before a weekend trip there.

He definitely indicated that if he gets in, he will work exceptionally hard nothing will be below him, said Bob Vander Plaats, an influential Iowa evangelical leader whom Mr. DeSantis hosted recently for a meal at the governors mansion. I think he understands I emphasized that Iowas a retail politics state. You need to shake peoples hands, look them in the eye.

Still, his central electability pitch MAGA without the mess has been badly bruised.

A book tour that was supposed to have introduced him nationally was marked by missteps that deepened concerns about his readiness for the biggest stage. He took positions on two pressing domestic and international issues abortion and the war in Ukraine that generated second-guessing and backlash among some allies and would-be benefactors. And the moves he has made to appeal to the hard right escalating his feud with Disney, signing a strict six-week abortion ban have unnerved donors who are worried about the general election.

I was in the DeSantis camp, said Andrew Sabin, a metals magnate who gave the Florida governor $50,000 last year. But he started opening his mouth, and a lot of big donors said his views arent tolerable. He specifically cited abortion and Ukraine.

Three billionaires who are major G.O.P. donors Steve Wynn, Ike Perlmutter and Thomas Peterffy, a past DeSantis patron who has publicly soured on him dined recently with Vivek Ramaswamy, the 37-year-old long-shot Republican.

The early months of 2023 have exposed a central challenge for Mr. DeSantis. He needs to stitch together an unwieldy ideological coalition bridging both anti-Trump Republicans and Trump supporters who are nonetheless considering turning the page on the past president. Hitting and hugging Mr. Trump at the same time has bedeviled rivals since Senator Ted Cruz tried to do so in 2016, and Cruz veterans fill key roles in Mr. DeSantiss campaign and his super PAC.

Allies of both leading Republicans caution that its still early.

Mr. DeSantis has more than $100 million stored across various pro-DeSantis accounts. He is building good will with state party leaders by headlining fund-raisers. He remains, in public polls, the most serious rival to Mr. Trump. And a supportive super PAC called Never Back Down is staffing up across more than a dozen states, has already spent more than $10 million on television ads and has peppered early states with direct mail.

DeSantis supporters point to polls showing that the governor remains well-liked by Republicans.

The hits arent working, said Kristin Davison, chief operating officer of Never Back Down. His favorability has not changed.

The DeSantis team declined to provide any comment for this story.

Six months ago, as Republicans were blaming Mr. Trump for the partys 2022 midterm underperformance, a high-flying Mr. DeSantis made the traditional political decision that he would govern first in early 2023 and campaign second. The rush of conservative priorities that Mr. DeSantis has turned into law in Florida on guns, immigration, abortion, school vouchers, opposing China is expected to form the backbone of his campaign.

Now, the governor can create momentum by spending time publicly touting his endless accomplishments, calling supporters and engaging more publicly to push back on the false narratives his potential competitors are spewing, said Nick Iarossi, a lobbyist in Florida and a longtime DeSantis supporter.

A turning point this year for Mr. Trump was his Manhattan indictment, which Mr. DeSantis waffled on responding to as the G.O.P. base rallied to Mr. Trumps defense.

Yet Mr. Trumps compounding legal woes and potential future indictments could eventually have the opposite effect exhausting voters, which is Mr. DeSantiss hope. A jury found Mr. Trump liable this week for sexual abuse and defamation. When you get all these lawsuits coming at you, Mr. DeSantis told one associate recently, its just distracting.

The DeSantis team seemed to buy its own hype.

Days before the midterms, the DeSantis campaign released a video that cast his rise as ordained from on high. On the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, I need a protector, a narrator booms as Mr. DeSantis appears onscreen. So God made a fighter.

For years, the self-confident Mr. DeSantis has relied on his own instincts and the counsel of his wife, Casey DeSantis, who posted the video, to set his political course, according to past aides and current associates. Mr. DeSantis has been written off before in his first primary for governor; in his first congressional primary so both he and his wife have gotten used to tuning out critics.

Today, allies say there are few people around who are willing to tell Mr. DeSantis hes wrong, even in private.

In late 2022, the thinking was that a decision on 2024 could wait, and Mr. Trumps midterm hangover would linger. Mr. DeSantis published a book I was, you know, kind of a hot commodity, he said of writing it that became a best seller. And Mr. DeSantis was on the offensive, tweaking Mr. Trump with a February donor retreat held only miles from Mar-a-Lago that drew Trump contributors.

But it has been Mr. Trump who has consistently one-upped Mr. DeSantis, flying into East Palestine, Ohio, after the rail disaster there, appearing with a larger crowd in the same Iowa city days after Mr. DeSantis and swiping Florida congressional endorsements while Mr. DeSantis traveled to Washington.

One Trump endorser, Representative Lance Gooden of Texas, backed the former president only hours after attending a private group meeting with Mr. DeSantis. In an interview, Mr. Gooden likened Mr. DeSantiss decision to delay entry until after a legislative session to the example of a past Texas governor, Rick Perry, who did the same a decade ago and quickly flamed out of the 2012 contest.

Hes relied, much like Rick Perry did, on local political experts in his home state that just dont know the presidential landscape, Mr. Gooden said.

Mr. Trump has insinuated, without providing evidence, that Mr. DeSantis had inappropriate relationships with high school girls during a stint as a teacher in the early 2000s and that Mr. DeSantis might be gay.

His team has portrayed Mr. DeSantis as socially inept, and a pro-Trump super PAC distributed a video dubbed Pudding Fingers playing off news articles about Mr. DeSantiss uncouth eating habits.

People close to Mr. Trump have been blunt in private discussions that the hits so far are just the start: If Mr. DeSantis ever appears poised to capture the nomination, the former president will do everything he can to tear him apart.

Beginning with his response to the coronavirus outbreak, Mr. DeSantiss national rise has been uniquely powered by his ability to make the right enemies: in academia, in the news media, among liberal activists and at the White House. But Mr. Trumps broadsides and some of his own actions have put Mr. DeSantis crosswise with the right for the first time. It has been a disorienting experience for the DeSantis operation, according to allies.

For the past three years, Mr. DeSantis has had the luxury of completely shutting out what he pejoratively brands the national regime media or the corporate media though Rupert Murdochs Fox Corporation does not, in his view, count as corporate media.

This strategy served Mr. DeSantis well in Florida. But avoiding sit-down interviews with skeptical journalists has left him out of practice as he prepares for the most intense scrutiny of his career.

The Murdochs encapsulated him in a bubble and force-fed him to a conservative audience, said Steve Bannon, a former strategist for Mr. Trump. He hasnt been scuffed up. He hasnt had these questions put in his grill.

Even in friendly settings, Mr. DeSantis has stumbled. In a February interview with The Times of London, a Murdoch property, Mr. DeSantis cut off questions after the reporter pushed him on how he thought President Biden should handle Ukraine differently.

The former Fox News host Tucker Carlson was so irked by Mr. DeSantiss evasion that he sent a detailed questionnaire to potential Republican presidential candidates to force them to state their positions on the war, according to two people familiar with his decision.

In a written response, Mr. DeSantis characterized Russias invasion as a territorial dispute. Republican hawks and some of Mr. DeSantiss top donors were troubled. In public, the governor soon cleaned up his statement to say Russia had not had a right to invade. In private, Mr. DeSantis tried to calm supporters by noting that his statement had not taken a position against aid to Ukraine.

While Mr. DeSantis has stuck to his preferred way of doing things, Mr. Trump has given seats on his plane to reporters from outlets that have published harsh stories about him. And despite having spent years calling CNN fake news, Mr. Trump recently attended a CNN town hall.

DeSantis allies said the governor would begrudgingly bring in some of the national regime media. Some early proof: The governors tight-lipped team invited a Politico columnist to Tallahassee and supplied rare on-the-record access.

Not long after Mr. DeSantis had won in a landslide last fall, the incoming freshman, Representative Cory Mills, a Florida Republican, called the governors team to try to thank him for his support. Mr. Mills had campaigned on the eve of the election with Casey DeSantis and had appeared with the governor, too. I called to show my appreciation and never even got a call back, Mr. Mills said in an interview. To be honest with you, I was a bit insulted by it.

The lack of relationships on Capitol Hill became a public headache in April when Mr. Trump rolled out what eventually became 10 Florida House Republican endorsements during Mr. DeSantiss trip to Washington.

Donors who contributed to Mr. DeSantiss previous campaigns tell stories of meetings in which the candidate looked as though he would rather be anywhere else. He fiddled with his phone, showed no interest in his hosts and escaped as quickly as possible. But people who have recently met with Mr. DeSantis say he has been far more engaged. At recent Wisconsin and New Hampshire events, the governor worked the room as he had rarely done before.

The governor and his team have had internal conversations acknowledging the need for him to engage in the basics of political courtship: small talk, handshaking, eye contact.

For his part, Mr. Trump recently relished hosting the Florida House Republicans who had endorsed him.

On one side of him was Mr. Mills. On the other was Mr. Donalds, who had introduced Mr. DeSantis on election night and who had been in Mr. DeSantiss orbit since helping with debate prep during Mr. DeSantiss 2018 run for governor.

Mr. Donalds declined an interview. But footage of those private debate-prep sessions, first reported by ABC News, shows Mr. DeSantis trying to formulate an answer to a question that will define his imminent 2024 run: how to disagree with Mr. Trump without appearing disagreeable to Trump supporters.

I have to frame it in a way, Mr. DeSantis said then, thats not going to piss off all his voters.

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The 2024 DeSantis Campaign Faltered Before it Even Started. What ... - The New York Times

By now youve likely heard the news that on Tuesday, Donald Trump was found liable for sexually abusing (and defaming) writer E. Jean Carroll, and was ordered to pay her $5 million. Given that Trump has spent decades evading and all repercussions for his actions; has been accused by more than two dozen women of sexual misconduct (he has denied all allegations); and literally claimed on tape that its okay for stars to sexually assault people, the outcome felt monumental. And by the way, if youre wondering whether Trumpnow a certified sexual predatorrefrained from behaving inappropriately with women while he was serving as president, the answer is: Of course he didnt.

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Speaking to CNN, Alyssa Farah Griffin, former White House director of strategic communicationsandassistant to the president, told host Jake Tapper: I have countless pieces of what I considered impropriety in the White House that I brought to the chief of staff because I thought the way he engaged with women was dangerous.

You brought to Mark Meadows, the chief of staff, or other chiefs of staff, incidents that you witnessed of Donald Trump behaving inappropriately with women? Tapper asked.

I did as well as former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham and others, Farah Griffin said. Nothing that rises to [E. Jean Carroll] level but things that I would consider improper and that I had a duty to report.

Incidentally, Stephanie Grisham also appeared on CNN on Tuesday, and she told anchor Erin Burnett: There was specific stafferthat [Trump] would request for her to be on constant trips when it wasnt her turnhe one time had one of my other deputies bring her back so that they could look at her ass is what he said to him. And I wrote about this in my book so this is nothing new for me to be saying publiclyI sat down and talked to her at one point asked her if she was uncomfortable. I tried everything I could to ensure she was never alone with him. I did take it to a couple different chiefs of staff including Mark Meadowsat the end of the day what could they do other than go in there and say, This isnt good sir, and you know Donald Trump will do what Donald Trump wants to dowhen youre dealing with the president of the United States, again, theres no HR group or HR representative to go to, to talk to about these kinds of things.

Grisham added: With this one staffer it was really bad, to the point that I was extremely uncomfortableevery senior staff member knew itit happened with her a lot. I did everything I could to keep her off of trips actually and to stay with her if she was alone because I was really nervous about what could happen.

In other news re: Trump and yesterdays verdict, members of the Republican Party have, not surprisingly, lined up to shamelessly defend the guy. Marco Rubio declared, The whole case is a joke, while Senator Tommy Tuberville, last seen trying to help Trump overturn the 2020 election, said the outcome makes me want to vote for him twice.

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Surprise: ExWhite House Employees Say Donald Trump Behaved Grossly With Women While President - Vanity Fair

How does George Santos lie? Let us count the ways.

It is far too easy to mock Santos. His serial fantasies seem, in some ways, more amusing and frivolous than serious and dangerous. Who, after all, lies about being a volleyball star? If you are going to lie, go bigat least claim to be a basketball star.

But mocking Santos in this way both trivializes his rampant criminality and obscures his potent symbolism. Santos is not just a criminal in his own right; he is also a Donald Trump Mini-Me, exemplifying the intersection of the Big Lie form of politics and serial criminality. In his indictment, there are lessons to learn about both the degradation of politics and the limits of criminal laws ability to resist that degradation.

Some of Santoss alleged criminality is almost prosaic. Prosecutors allege that in June 2020, during the early months of the COVID pandemic, Santos sought unemployment benefits in New York, even though he was employed by a Florida investment firm (apparently, Harbor City Capital) earning a salary of $120,000 annually. If these facts are proven true, Santos is little more than a garden-variety crook trying to scam the federal government.

The more notable allegations involve Santoss fundraising activities during his campaign for Congress. Santos is alleged to have personally profited from a fraud involving his solicitation of contributions to assist in his congressional campaign. Election finance law allows the creation of a tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(4) of the tax laws for the purpose of making independent expenditures on behalf of a candidate. Because these independent organizations have only limited obligations to disclose the sources of their funding, they are considered an effective and useful way of influencing elections without too much public exposure.

But to be lawful, the 501(c)(4) organization has to be an actual non-profit and spend money independently to advance a candidates campaign. According to the prosecutors, in Santoss case, neither happened. The company in question appears to be a for-profit Florida company named RedStone Strategies, and the money collected was sent to Santoss personal bank accounts where he used the money to buy luxury designer clothing and pay part of his outstanding car loan, among other things.

In other words, even though Santos and those who worked for him told the contributors that the money would pay for political ads to advance Santoss campaign, Santos instead put the money in his own pocket and used it for his personal benefit. The lies that Santos told by email and by text are at the heart of the criminal wire fraud charges against him. And transferring $74,000 from the company to his own personal account is said to be evidence of laundering the criminal proceeds for his own benefit.

Again, a simple frauda lie told in an effort to separate the rubes from their money. But this time it is a crime with larger political implications, not because of Santos, but because of how his alleged crimes mimic Trump and those around him. In 2019, a New York judge ordered Trump to pay $2 million because money Trump raised supposedly for veterans actually went to his presidential campaign. The House January 6th Committee uncovered that money Trump raised for his legal defense (i.e., his efforts in court to overturn the 2020 election) actually went to a political action committee. Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon was charged with fraud for raising money putatively to building a wall on the southern border, then pocketing it.

Special Counsel Jack Smith is said to be gathering evidence about whether or not Trumps team solicited donations with false claims of election fraud. The idea is that Trump lost the 2020 election and that he knew he had lost. At least two outside consulting firms hired by the Trump team investigated those claims and reported to the Trump team that his claims of election fraud were not supported by any evidence.

It appears, however, that notwithstanding their knowledge that the election was lost fair and square, Trumps Save America PAC solicited and received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from donors via email solicitations that claimed the election had been stolen. In much the same way that Santoss lies soliciting funds came to form the basis of charges against him, one can readily imagine that emails sent out to small-dollar donors saying, in effect, send us $25 so we can prove that Trump won the election would likewise be subject to potential fraud charges if those who crafted them or who directed that they be sent knew that it would not be possible to prove the election claims.

To be sure, there are differences in the two cases. Fund-raising solicitations are well-known for the proliferation of vague, unprovable, and overblown claims. It is no crime, for example, for Trump to say, elect me and I will cut taxes, even if he knows he cannot achieve that goal. Whether or not Trumps solicitations crossed the line from grandiose puffery to criminal fraud depends on the precise phrasing of the solicitations, how they were perceived by the victims who donated funds, and the depth of the knowledge of falsity held by those who sent the emails. These are all questions that need to be further examined.

And, likewise, unlike Santos (and Bannon), there is, as yet, no evidence that Trump put the money in his own pocket. So the personal profit motive that Santos is facing may not be present in a Trump-related case. Those differences may well matter in the end.

Or they may not. The charges against Santos, like those against Bannon, are a template for potential charges involving the Trump campaign. While personal profit is a robust motivation, so is maintaining the narcissistic fiction of a stolen election. Whatever the motivation, it is a crime to lie to those from whom you solicit money.

Bannon was pardoned by Trump for that crime. Santos faces criminal charges. Both are Trumpian fraudsters on a smaller scale. And so, perhaps, the Santos case is a trial run for these types of allegations. If so, Trump may yet face fraud charges as well.

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How Is George Santos Different from Donald Trump? - The Bulwark

"If you believe the other side is corrupt, immoral, and dishonest, it takes someone like (Donald) Trump to stand up to them," Robert Alexander

Robert Alexander| Guest Columnist

Robert Alexanderis the founding director of the Ohio Northern Institute for Civics and Public Policy. He is a political science professor at Ohio Northern University.

The rally around the flag effect is a well-documented phenomenon where a presidents public approval rating climbs in times of crisis.

In spite of countless controversies, including two impeachments, the January 6 riot, and more recently being the first president to have criminal charges filed against him, Donald Trump has managed to engender his own rally around the Trump effect among Republican voters.

More: Nearly half of Republicans don't want Trump to run for reelection in 2024, new poll shows

Donald Trump indicted: Will he go to jail? Arrest, indictment in 7 new cartoons

A modern day Rasputin, no matter how many times he looks to be politically dead, he is able to maintain his position as the leader of the Republican party. This is true not only in spite of his controversies, but also in spite of poor electoral performances among Republicans nationally since his 2016 victory.

This has led many to question why Republicans continue to stand with him. The answers lie in part with him and in part with broader trends in American politics.

Who was Rasputin? The truth behind the legend of the Russian royal advisor.

It is no secret that we live in polarized times.

Yet, the extent to which this polarization affects how we view others might come as a surprise . Majorities of both Democrats and Republicans view the opposing party as being close-minded, dishonest, immoral, and unintelligent. These numbers have only grown since 2016. It is quite a challenge to unite Americans when 72% of Republicans see Democrats as immoral and 63% of Democrats see Republicans as immoral. Similar findings occur among young voters too.

One poll finds that nearly half of college students would not want a roommate who voted for a different candidate and 53% say they probably would not go on a date with someone who voted for a different candidate. This tracks with another poll finding that 4 in 10 parents say they would be disappointed if their child married someone of the opposing political party.

These sentiments fuel an apocalyptic us versus them mentality where any loss on our side, is a win for their side. This is explained through the concept of negative partisanship where dislike of the other party is more likely to drive support than your attachment to your own party.

This phenomenon is tied closely to various psychological biases we hold such as in-group bias, self-serving bias and confirmation bias.

For instance, confirmation bias occurs when individuals selectively choose what evidence they pay attention to based upon preexisting beliefs they hold. If new information supports their worldview, they hold on to it. If it challenges their worldview, they discard it. This, of course, does not lead to accurate assessments of the world around them.

When it comes to the political parties, both Democrats and Republicans are reluctant to give the other party credit and refuse to accept blame when it is likely warranted.

Bellwether no more? Is Ohio's bigly love for Donald Trump proof it lost its swing? |Opinion

There is little Donald Trump could do that would make Democrats happy and we have seen that regardless of his behaviors, there is little Trump can do to lose support among Republicans.

To see how much an increase in polarization has affected the landscape today, it is worth examining Bill Clintons impeachment nearly 25 years ago. In that crisis, Clinton saw his public approval rating increase from 58% in November of 1997 to 71% after Articles of Impeachment were introduced to 62% after the Articles were rejected by the Senate in the Spring of 1999. Much of his bounce was not due to an increase in support among Democrats, but a surge in support among Independents and Republicanssomething that would be unthinkable today.

Donald Trumps approval rating has remained remarkably consistent over the years. There has been little he has done that has brought him support among Democrats or Independents. Yet, among Republicans, every time he has faced a crisis, polls show the party rallying around him. This is true since his indictment and Republican rivals have not been able to capitalize on it to make any significant inroads to challenge him for the 2024 nomination.

And yet, dedicated Republican support for Trump has not translated into great electoral success for the party.

Since his surprise victory in 2016, Republicans had an historic midterm loss in 2018 (losing 41 seats in the House), they lost the presidency and Senate in 2020, and fully underperformed in the 2022 midterm elections with Democrats gaining a Senate seat.

Experts: Toxins don't play politics. East Palestine deserves answers, payment not games

Still, thanks to negative partisanship and psychological biases, Trumps supporters see him as being attacked unfairly, that the system is corrupt, or putting their energy into the misdeeds of their opponents. Many of them recognize Trumps foibles, acknowledging that he can be vicious and engage in morally questionable behavior. But they also believe that the other side is doing it too.

For partisans, Trump is their guy who will do whatever it takes to win. If you believe the other side is corrupt, immoral, and dishonest, it takes someone like Trump to stand up to them. And for that reason, they are willing to tolerate many of his antics.

Robert Alexanderis the founding director of the Ohio Northern Institute for Civics and Public Policy. He is a political science professor at Ohio Northern University.

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How is Donald Trump able to maintain control of Republican party? - The Columbus Dispatch

Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is doing something other Republican candidates so far havent: aiming his criticism directly at former President Donald Trump.

Hutchinsons approach to hitting Trump has so far included calling on the former president to drop out of the race, and saying Trump has a moral responsibility for what happened on January 6th.

We do not want to have a repeat of 2020 with a Trump/Biden race, Hutchinson said during an interview Sunday with Meet the Press. We want something different that we can win, and thats the case that we make.

Republican candidates hoping to replace Trump as their partys nominee face the challenge of criticizing him without alienating his supporters. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haleys taken a dig by calling on Republicans to support her if theyre tired of losing, and she attempted to hit two birds with one stone when she floated a mandatory competency test for politicians over the age of 75, which cover both Trump, 76, and Biden, 80.

But Hutchinson, a former U.S. attorney who served in the George W. Bush administration and three terms in the U.S. House, hasnt beat around the bush. Earlier this year, Hutchinson said Trumps actions on Jan. 6, 2021, should disqualify him from seeking the White House, and after a federal jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation Tuesday, Hutchinson said in a statement to the Hill that it was another example of the indefensible behavior of Donald Trump.

Over the course of my over 25 years of experience in the courtroom, I have seen firsthand how a cavalier and arrogant contempt for the rule of law can backfire, he said. The jury verdict should be treated with seriousness.

Hutchinson avoided talking about Trump in his announcement speech and told Meet the Press he wanted to focus on persuading Americans that we need to go a different direction. Polling, however, shows he faces an uphill battle as Trump grows his lead over his nearest potential competitor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. A Washington Post-ABC News poll found Hutchinson trailing behind behind Trump, DeSantis, former President Mike Pence, Haley and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.

Hutchinson said he expects to make it to the debate stage where he could potentially square off against Trump face-to-face. The first Republican debate is scheduled to be held in August in Milwaukee and candidates may need to reach a minimum threshold in polling and donors to be eligible to debate. Trump has not yet committed to attending.

While Republican voters have increasingly rallied behind Trump in recent months, Hutchinson said he believes Trumps record at the ballot box shows his true numbers.

You look back to the true numbers, which is after the last midterm elections, and his numbers were down, Hutchinson told Meet the Press. He was responsible for a lot of the failure in growth that we expected and wins in a number of different states, and so his numbers were down. Since then, his numbers have gone up because hes played the victim.

He said some people believe Trump has been picked on because of some prosecutions and said he jokes that Trumps campaign manager is Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who brought the case that indicted Trump.

That indictment caused those numbers to go up because they dont believe theyre fair, Hutchinson said. This will settle out over time. And so lets judge it, understanding that were early in the campaign. Weve got a lot of, lot of room to grow.

Continued here:

Asa Hutchinson is taking on Donald Trump directly - Deseret News

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WISH) In an interview with CNN and posted to Twitter on Thursday, Indianas GOP Sen. Todd Young said he will not support Donald Trump in his presidential bid.

Young told CNNs Manu Raju I think President Trumps judgment is wrong. In this case, President Putin and his government have engaged in war crimes. I dont believe thats disputedThats why I dont intend to support him for the Republican nomination.

When asked what was the reason for Young not supporting Trump, Young replied Where do I begin?

In a CNN town hall meeting on Wednesday night, Trump did not express support for Ukraine and would not condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal.

Trump stated I want everybody to stop dying. He also said he didnt think of the conflict in terms of winning and losing.

Young was one of four senators to not support Trump in his 2020 re-election run, and has often been a critic of the former president, including Trumps desire to have former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election.

Young also said he would reserve judgement on the raid of Donald Trumps Mar-A-Lago estate.

Read more:

Indiana Senator Todd Young says he will not support Donald Trump - WISH TV Indianapolis, IN

Chinese officials claim the balloon is just for research and not spying, but its presence has some people, such as Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), worried that it is actually carrying bioweapons.

After the Pentagon decided against shooting down the balloon out of concerns of hurting people on the ground, Trump took to Twitter to suggest a plan that may not have been even slightly feasible as anything but red meat for his base.

Former President Donald Trumps eldest son advised Montana citizens to take matters into their own hands and shoot down the balloon themselves:

If Joe Biden and his administration are too weak to do the obvious and shoot down an enemy surveillance balloon perhaps we just let the good people of Montana do their thing I imagine they have the capability and the resolve to do it all themselves.

Yes, he asked Montana residents to shoot their guns in the air at a balloon, and many Twitter users felt obliged to note the idiocy of the suggestion.

Many also pointed out a nagging issue: The balloon is extremely high in the sky.

Some people noted that having bullets falling from the sky after failing to hit a balloon miles above might not be safe for bystanders.

Others pointed to the possibility that the balloon might be holding dangerous cargo.

And one person tweeted that Trumps plan proved he was indeed his fathers son.

Read more:

Donald Trump Jr.'s Solution To Chinese Balloon Gets Mocked | HuffPost ...

PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP via Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump wanted reporters to cover a private event he was hosting.

Advisers then had to explain why he could no longer call on a press pool for his events.

Advisers found reporters who happened to be working near the area for his event, the Washington Post reported.

Aides and advisers to former President Donald Trump said he had a difficult time transitioning from the White House to life as a private citizen, according to a new report from the Washington Post.

According to the Post, one example of this was when Trump wanted his team to call on a press pool reporters who travel with presidents for an event at Mar-a-Lago. Advisers had to break the news to Trump that this was no longer a possibility.

"We had to explain to him that he didn't have a group standing around waiting for him anymore," an unnamed former aide told the Washington Post.

The advisers ended up pulling reporters who were near Mar-a-Lago for other reasons, two sources told the Post.

Once Trump left office, he was frustrated at his downsized life, which included a smaller number of Secret Service, no access to Air Force One, and little press coverage compared to when he was president, four unnamed advisers to Trump told the Post.

Trump has spent most of his post-presidency in isolation at Mar-a-Lago, playing golf six days a week and using dinner at the club as an opportunity to revel in the attention of admiring fans who applaud his entrances and exits from the dining room.

The praise he receives from guests at his Palm Beach, Florida, and Bedminster, New Jersey, clubs is how he gets the attention he became used to as president, an aide told the Post.

"The appetite for attention hasn't waned, but that's where he gets it now," an unnamed Trump confidant told the Washington Post."The networks don't carry his rallies. He doesn't get interviews anymore. He can't stand under the wing of Air Force One and gaggle [with reporters] for an hour."

He has also spent less time being challenged by aides and listening to opposition from political opponents, colleagues, and independent journalists, the Post reported.

Story continues

Trump is now seeking a second term in theWhite House. On November 24, he announced his bid for president in 2024. Meanwhile, he continues to face mounting legal and political challenges.

The January 6 committee investigating Trump's role during the 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol is expected to recommend at least three criminal charges insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy to defraud the US government against the former president to the Department of Justice.

Although the recommendations hold nolegal weight, the committee hopes the action will influence Attorney General Merrick Garland to take action against the former president, Politico reported.

Trump is also still facing an investigation from the Department of Justice after the FBI, executing a search warrant, found classified documents that the former president took with him from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago home.

A representative for Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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Donald Trump had to be told a pool of reporters would no longer follow ...

Its been almost a month since Donald Trump announced his third run for president. How is it going so far? Its not looking too good. Besides dealing with a lack of Republican Party support (and those crushing midterm losses for his endorsed candidates), new poll numbers show that a large part of his voter base has moved on.

The name at the top of the list should come as no surprise to anyone who follows the national political scenes its Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, according to a USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll. With less than two years until the 2024 presidential vote, 61% of the GOP are already saying that they want someone other than Donald Trump to be the Republican nominee although he still has 31% of the voters supporting him. When the men are stacked against each other, DeSantis comes ahead in a 56% to 33% fight.

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David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, explained to USA Today what is going on with these numbers in a very clear way: Republicans and conservative independents increasingly want Trumpism without Trump. This poll should sound the alarm for the former president, who is already struggling to find support among his GOP colleagues and is reportedly keeping a very petty list of those who have his back and those who arent loyal to him.

Even Michael Cohen, Donald Trumps former lawyer, thinks his run for president is all smoke and mirrors to keep the money train running. His legal issues cant be discounted either since the Jan. 6 investigation is still lurking in the background while the New York attorney general civil suit and his Department of Justice classified documents issues continue to plague him. Donald Trump fatigue took a while to settle into the Republican Party, but it looks like it has finally arrived as they turn their attention to DeSantis.

Story continues

Click here to read the full article.

Before you go, click here to see the biggest presidential scandals in US History.

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Donald Trump is Trailing Another Republican Candidate By More Than 20% ...

Is this the end of Trump? Hes on the ropes but dont count him out.  Brookings Institution

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Is this the end of Trump? Hes on the ropes but dont count him out. - Brookings Institution

Michael Cohen says Donald Trump 'doesn't care' that Ivanka's family is Jewish and he will not denounce Kanye West's antisemitism  Business Insider Africa

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Michael Cohen says Donald Trump 'doesn't care' that Ivanka's family is Jewish and he will not denounce Kanye West's antisemitism - Business Insider...

A provocative manslaughter case is about to kick off in Los Angeles later this month, involving a fatal crash caused by a Tesla vehicle that had the company's controversial Autopilot feature turned on.

It's the first case of its kind, and one that could set a precedent for future crashes involving cars and driver-assistance software, Reuters reports.

We won't know the exact defense until the case gets under way, but the crux is that the man who was behind the wheel of the Tesla is facing manslaughter charges — but has pleaded not guilty, setting up potentially novel legal arguments about culpability in a deadly collision when, technically speaking, it wasn't a human driving the car.

"Who's at fault, man or machine?" asked Edward Walters, an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University, in an interview with Reuters. "The state will have a hard time proving the guilt of the human driver because some parts of the task are being handled by Tesla."

The upcoming trial is about a fatal collision that took place in 2019. The crash involved Kevin George Aziz Riad, who ran a red light in his Tesla Model S, and collided with a Honda Civic, killing a couple who were reportedly on their first date.

According to vehicle data, Riad did not apply the brakes but had a hand on the steering wheel. Perhaps most critically, though, the Tesla's Autopilot feature was turned on in the moments leading up to the crash.

Riad is facing manslaughter charges, with prosecutors arguing his actions were reckless.

Meanwhile, Riad's lawyers have argued that he shouldn't be charged with a crime, but have so far stopped short of publicly placing blame on Tesla's Autopilot software.

Tesla is not directly implicated in the upcoming trial and isn't facing charges in the case, according to Reuters.

A separate trial, however, involving the family of one of the deceased is already scheduled for next year — but this time, Tesla is the defendant.

"I can't say that the driver was not at fault, but the Tesla system, Autopilot, and Tesla spokespeople encourage drivers to be less attentive," the family's attorney Donald Slavik told Reuters.

"Tesla knows people are going to use Autopilot and use it in dangerous situations," he added.

Tesla is already under heavy scrutiny over its Autopilot and so-called Full Self-Driving software, despite conceding that the features "do not make the vehicle autonomous" and that drivers must remain attentive of the road at all times.

Critics argue that Tesla's marketing is misleading and that it's only leading to more accidents — not making the roads safer, as Tesla CEO Elon Musk has argued in the past.

In fact, a recent survey found that 42 percent of Tesla Autopilot said they feel "comfortable treating their vehicles as fully self-driving."

Regulators are certainly already paying attention. The news comes a week after Reuters revealed that the Department of Justice is investigating Tesla over Autopilot.

Last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced an investigation of accidents in which Teslas have smashed into emergency response vehicles that were pulled over with sirens or flares.

This month's trial certainly stands the chance of setting a precedent. Was Riad fully at fault or was Tesla's Autopilot at least partially to blame as well?

The answer now lies in the hands of a jury.

READ MORE: Tesla crash trial in California hinges on question of 'man vs machine' [Reuters]

More on Autopilot: Survey: 42% of Tesla Autopilot Drivers Think Their Cars Can Drive Themselves

The post Manslaughter Case Has a Strange Twist: Tesla That Killed Couple Was on Autopilot appeared first on Futurism.

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Manslaughter Case Has a Strange Twist: Tesla That Killed Couple Was on Autopilot

COP Out

Ever since she lambasted world leaders at a UN conference in 2018 when she was only 15 years old, Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has had the ear of the international community.

Now, Thunberg says she's skipping out on next week's COP27 UN climate summit in Egypt. Why? Because it's rife with "greenwashing."

"I'm not going to COP27 for many reasons, but the space for civil society this year is extremely limited," Thunberg said at a press event for her book, "The Climate Book," as quoted by The Guardian. "The COPs are mainly used as an opportunity for leaders and people in power to get attention, using many different kinds of greenwashing."

Ultimately, in Thunberg's view, the COP conferences "are not really meant to change the whole system" and instead only promote incremental change. Bluntly put, they're feel-good events that don't accomplish much, so she's bowing out.

Wasted Breath

It's not an unfair assessment. For all the pledges made to drastically cut back emissions and achieve net carbon zero by 2050, very few nations have followed through in the short term. And in Europe, the energy crisis in the wake of the war in Ukraine has further sidelined those climate commitments.

So we can't blame her for not going. But it's a bit disheartening that even a tenacious young spokesperson like Thunberg has given up on convincing world leaders at the biggest climate summit in the world.

Maybe it's indicative of the frustrations of her generation at large. When Thunberg was asked what she thought about the recent wave of Just Stop Oil protests that included activists throwing soup on a Van Gogh painting, she said that she viewed what many detractors perceived as a dumb stunt to be symptomatic of the world's failure to effect meaningful environmental change.

"People are trying to find new methods because we realize that what we have been doing up until now has not done the trick," she replied, as quoted by Reuters. "It's only reasonable to expect these kinds of different actions."

Maybe the real question is: if even a UN climate conference isn't the place to get the message out and change hearts, where's the right place, and what's the right way? If the headlines are any indication, zoomers are struggling to figure that out.

More on Greta Thunberg: Greta Thunberg Thinks Germany Shutting Down Its Nuclear Plants Is a Bad Idea

The post Greta Thunberg Says UN Climate Conference Is a Scam and She's Not Attending appeared first on Futurism.

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Greta Thunberg Says UN Climate Conference Is a Scam and She's Not Attending

AI-lands in the Stream

Sorry, but not even Dolly Parton is sacred amid the encroachment of AI into art.

Holly Herndon, an avant garde pop musician, has released a cover of Dolly Parton's beloved and frequently covered hit single, "Jolene." Except it's not really Herndon singing, but her digital deepfake twin known as Holly+.

The music video features a 3D avatar of Holly+ frolicking in what looks like a decaying digital world.

And honestly, it's not bad — dare we say, almost kind of good? Herndon's rendition croons with a big, round sound, soaked in reverb and backed by a bouncy, acoustic riff and a chorus of plaintive wailing. And she has a nice voice. Or, well, Holly+ does. Maybe predictably indie-folk, but it's certainly an effective demonstration of AI with a hint of creative flair, or at least effective curation.

Checking the Boxes

But the performance is also a little unsettling. For one, the giant inhales between verses are too long to be real and are almost cajolingly dramatic. The vocals themselves are strangely even and, despite the somber tone affected by the AI, lack Parton's iconic vulnerability.

Overall, it feels like the AI is simply checking the boxes of what makes a good, swooning cover after listening to Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" a million times — which, to be fair, is a pretty good starting point.

Still, it'd be remiss to downplay what Herndon has managed to pull off here, and the criticisms mostly reflect the AI's limited capabilities more than her chops as a musician. The AI's seams are likely intentional, if her previous work is anything to go off of.

Either way, if you didn't know you were listening to an AI from the get-go, you'd probably be fooled. And that alone is striking.

The Digital Self

Despite AI's usually ominous implications for art, Herndon views her experiment as a "way for artists to take control of their digital selves," according to a statement on her website.

"Vocal deepfakes are here to stay," Herndon was quoted saying. "A balance needs to be found between protecting artists, and encouraging people to experiment with a new and exciting technology."

Whether Herndon's views are fatalistic or prudently pragmatic remains to be seen. But even if her intentions are meant to be good for artists, it's still worrying that an AI could pull off such a convincing performance.

More on AI music: AI That Generates Music from Prompts Should Probably Scare Musicians

The post This Deepfake AI Singing Dolly Parton's "Jolene" Is Worryingly Good appeared first on Futurism.

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This Deepfake AI Singing Dolly Parton's "Jolene" Is Worryingly Good

Astronomers are puzzled by the strange behavior of certain crooked clusters of stars, which appear to be violating our conventional understanding of gravity.

Massive clusters of stars usually are bound together in spirals at the center of galaxies. Some of these clusters fall under a category astrophysicists call open star clusters, which are created in a relatively short period of time as they ignite in a huge cloud of gas.

During this process, loose stars accumulate in a pair of "tidal tails," one of which is being pulled behind, while the other moves ahead.

"According to Newton’s laws of gravity, it’s a matter of chance in which of the tails a lost star ends up," Jan Pflamm-Altenburg of the University of Bonn in Germany, co-author of a new paper published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, in a statement. "So both tails should contain about the same number of stars."

But some of their recent observations seemingly defy conventional physics.

"However, in our work we were able to prove for the first time that this is not true," Pflamm-Altenburg added. "In the clusters we studied, the front tail always contains significantly more stars nearby to the cluster than the rear tail."

In fact, their new findings are far more in line with a different theory called "Modified Newtonian Dynamics" (MOND).

"Put simply, according to MOND, stars can leave a cluster through two different doors," Pavel Kroupa, Pflamm-Altenburg's colleague at the University of Bonn and lead author, explained in the statement. "One leads to the rear tidal tail, the other to the front."

"However, the first is much narrower than the second — so it’s less likely that a star will leave the cluster through it," he added. "Newton’s theory of gravity, on the other hand, predicts that both doors should be the same width."

The researchers' simulations, taking MOND into consideration, could explain a lot. For one, they suggest that open star clusters survive a much shorter period of time than what is expected from Newton's laws of physics.

"This explains a mystery that has been known for a long time," Kroupa explained. "Namely, star clusters in nearby galaxies seem to be disappearing faster than they should."

But not everybody agrees that Newton's laws should be replaced with MOND, something that could shake the foundations of physics.

"It’s somewhat promising, but it does not provide completely definitive evidence for MOND," University of Saint Andrews research fellow Indranil Banik told New Scientist. "This asymmetry does make more sense in MOND, but in any individual cluster there could be other effects that are causing it — it’s a bit unlikely that would happen in all of them, though."

The researchers are now trying to hone in on an even more accurate picture by stepping up the accuracy of their simulations, which could either support their MOND theory — or conclude that Newton was, in fact, correct the first time around.

More on star clusters: Something Is Ripping Apart the Nearest Star Cluster to Earth

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There's Something Strange About How These Stars Are Moving, Scientists Say

Fill 'Er Up

A team of Chinese researchers say they managed to convert actual lunar regolith samples into a source of rocket fuel and oxygen — a potential gamechanger for future space explorers hoping to make use of in-situ resources to fuel up for their return journey.

The researchers found that the lunar soil samples can act as a catalyst to convert carbon dioxide and water from astronauts' bodies and environment into methane and oxygen, as detailed in a paper published in the National Science Review.

"In situ resource utilization of lunar soil to achieve extraterrestrial fuel and oxygen production is vital for the human to carry out Moon exploitation missions," lead author Yujie Xiong said in a new statement about the work. "Considering that there are limited human resources at extraterrestrial sites, we proposed to employ the robotic system to perform the whole electrocatalytic CO2 conversion system setup."

That means we could have a much better shot at carrying out longer duration explorations of the lunar surface in the near future.

Set It, Forget It

According to the paper, which builds on previous research suggesting lunar soil can generate oxygen and fuel, this process can be completed using uncrewed systems, even in the absence of astronauts.

In an experiment, the team used samples from China's Chang'e-5 mission, which landed in Inner Mongolia back in December 2020 — the first lunar soil returned to Earth since 1976.

The Moon soil effectively acted as a catalyst, enabling the electrocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide into methane and oxygen.

"No significant difference can be observed between the manned and unmanned systems, which further suggests the high possibility of imitating our proposed system in extraterrestrial sites and proves the feasibility of further optimizing catalyst recipes on the Moon," the researchers conclude in their paper.

Liquified

But there's one big hurdle to still overcome: liquifying carbon dioxide is anything but easy given the Moon's frosty atmosphere, as condensing the gas requires a significant amount of heat, as New Scientist reported earlier this year.

Still, it's a tantalizing prospect: an autonomous machine chugging away, pumping out oxygen and fuel for future visitors. But for now, it's not much more than a proof of concept.

READ MORE: Scientists investigate using lunar soils to sustainably supply oxygen and fuels on the moon [Science China Press]

More on lunar soil: Bad News! The Plants Grown in Moon Soil Turned Out Wretched

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Scientists Use Actual Lunar Soil Sample to Create Rocket Fuel

Now that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has taken over Twitter, the billionaire has been frantically shuffling through ambitious plans to turn the ailing social media platform into a revenue-driving business.

Case in point, according to internal email obtained by The Washington Post, Musk is plotting for Twitter to charge users to view videos posted by content creators and take a cut of the proceeds — a highly controversial idea that's already been met with internal skepticism.

The team of Twitter engineers has "identified the risk as high" in the email, citing "risks related to copyrighted content, creator/user trust issues, and legal compliance."

In short, Musk is blazing ahead with his infamously ambitious timelines — a "move fast and break things" approach that could signify a tidal change for Twitter's historically sluggish approach to launching new features.

Musk has already made some big structural changes to Twitter, having fired high-up positions at the company and dissolved its board of directors.

The company will also likely be facing mass layoffs, according to The Washington Post.

The new feature detailed in the new email, which is being referred to as "Paywalled Video," allows creators to "enable the paywall once a video has been added to the tweet" and chose from a preset list of prices, ranging from $1 to $10.

"This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators," Musk tweeted on Tuesday, adding that "creators need to make a living!"

But whether Twitter users will be willing to pay for stuff that was previously free remains anything but certain.

Musk has already announced that he is planning to charge $8 a month for Twitter users to stay verified, which has been met with derision.

The billionaire CEO is facing an uphill battle. Now that the company is private, he has to pay around $1 billion in annual interest payments, a result from his $44 buyout, according to the WaPo.

Compounding the trouble, Reuters reported last week that Twitter is bleeding some of its most active users.

Meanwhile, Musk's chaotic moves are likely to alienate advertisers, with the Interpublic Group, a massive inter-agency advertising group, recommending that its clients suspend all paid advertising for at least the week.

That doesn't bode well. It's not out of the question that a paywalled video feature may facilitate the monetization of pornographic content, which may end up scaring off advertisers even further — but Twitter's exact intentions for the feature are still unclear.

According to Reuters, around 13 percent of the site's content is currently marked not safe for work (NSFW).

It's part of Musk's attempt to shift revenue away from advertising on the platform. In a tweet last week, he promised advertisers that Twitter wouldn't become a "free-for-all hellscape."

But that hasn't stopped advertisers from already leaving in droves.

All in all, a paywalled video feature could mark a significant departure for Twitter, a platform still primarily known for short snippets of text.

For now, all we can do is watch.

READ MORE: Elon Musk’s Twitter is working on paid-video feature with ‘high’ risk [The Washington Post]

More on Twitter: Elon Musk Pleads With Stephen King to Pay for Blue Checkmark

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Twitter Working on Plan to Charge Users to Watch Videos

A team of neuroscientists at the University of Wisconsin claim to have found a way to control how high mice can get on a given amount of cocaine.

And don't worry — while that may sound like a particularly frivolous plot concocted by a team of evil scientists, the goal of the research is well-meaning.

The team, led by University of Wisconsin neuroscientist Santiago Cuesta, was investigating how the gut microbiome can influence how mice and humans react to ingesting the drug.

The research, detailed in a new paper published this week in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, sheds light on a vicious feedback loop that could explain cases of substance abuse disorders — and possibly lay the groundwork for future therapeutic treatments.

In a number of experiments on mice, the researchers found that cocaine was linked to the growth of common gut bacteria, which feed on glycine, a chemical that facilitates basic brain functions.

The lower the levels of glycine in the brain, the more the mice reacted to the cocaine, exhibiting abnormal behaviors.

To test the theory, the scientists injected the mice with a genetically modified amino acid which cannot break down glycine. As a result, the behavior of mice returned to normal levels.

In other words, the amino acid could curb cocaine addiction-like behaviors — at least in animal models.

"The gut bacteria are consuming all of the glycine and the levels are decreasing systemically and in the brain," said Vanessa Sperandio, senior author, and microbiologist from the University of Wisconsin, in a statement. "It seems changing glycine overall is impacting the glutamatergic synapses that make the animals more prone to develop addiction."

It's an unorthodox approach to treating addiction, but could be intriguing — if it works in people, that is.

"Usually, for neuroscience behaviors, people are not thinking about controlling the microbiota, and microbiota studies usually don't measure behaviors, but here we show they’re connected," Cuesta added. "Our microbiome can actually modulate psychiatric or brain-related behaviors."

In short, their research could lead to new ways of treating various psychiatric disorders such as substance use by adjusting the gut microbiome and not making changes to the brain chemistry.

"I think the bridging of these communities is what's going to move the field forward, advancing beyond correlations towards causations for the different types of psychiatric disorders," Sperandio argued.

READ MORE: How gut bacteria influence the effects of cocaine in mice [Cell Press]

More on addiction: Study: Magic Mushrooms Helped 83% of People Cut Excessive Drinking

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Scientists Found a Way to Control How High Mice Got on Cocaine