Daily Archives: February 2, 2021

Millions of Americans 88.7 million of them, to be precise have been waking up for the last three weeks with an unfamiliar sense of emptiness. Reaching for their phones for their accustomed fix of outrage and bemusement, an erratically capitalized, eccentrically punctuated guide to the obsessions and grievances that would drive the days news cycle, they are forced to acknowledge that the once unthinkable has occurred: @RealDonaldTrump is really gone for good from Twitter.

And not just Twitter: The man whose office refers to him as 45th President Donald J. Trump has been almost entirely silent in public since Jan. 20, when he became what the rest of the country knows as former President Trump. No raucous rallies featuring two-minute hates against the media. No impromptu tarmac question-and-answer sessions with reporters. No rambling phone chats with Fox News hosts, the ones that sometimes went on so long the interviewers had to gently cut him off by reminding him of how busy he must be. Even the 2024 campaign that he was widely expected to launch on Jan. 21 hasnt gotten off the ground, except for the part that involves raising money.

The once ubiquitous Trump has been plotting out his political future, Politico wrote not long after he went into his Florida exile. But without a social media loudspeaker through which to tease his plans, few know what to expect next, including his own former aides.

One person who has heard from Trump is the QAnon congresswoman, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who bragged about receiving a GREAT call from Trump on Saturday, as she faced calls for her resignation or removal from Congress in light of conspiratorial and anti-Semitic rantings that keep coming to light. She didnt specify what was great about the call, and Trump hasnt commented publicly.

The obvious explanation for Trumps unaccustomed reticence is that he is busy preparing his defense for his upcoming impeachment trial in the Senate. Part of his preparations involved replacing one set of lawyers over the weekend with new ones, including a former Pennsylvania district attorney best known for declining to prosecute actor Bill Cosby over allegations he drugged and sexually assaulted a woman, allegations that resurfaced years later and resulted in Cosbys conviction.

Story continues

Consistent with his refusal to concede defeat, Trump reportedly wants to base his defense on his own bogus claims that he actually won reelection, rather than the procedural argument that his impeachment was mooted when he left office. That is a claim that 45 Republican senators have already signaled they accept, which would give him an automatic acquittal. The case that the election was stolen from him by Democrats was raised in dozens of lawsuits filed by his campaign and other Republican officials in November and December and has been uniformly rejected in the courts. He will almost certainly be acquitted anyway it takes 67 senators for a conviction but for Trumps lawyers to try to make the case could just as easily call attention to how flimsy it was in the first place.

But theres not much evidence of activity on that front. Where are the investigators fanning out across the country looking for the legendary hordes of deceased citizens who cast votes on Nov. 3? The subpoenas for the Dominion voting machines that in Trumps fantasies were rigged against him? (His bulldog defender, Rudy Giuliani, has been sued for defamation by Dominion for an eye-catching $1.3 billion, which might largely have foreclosed that line of inquiry.) Indeed, Trumps insistent claim that the election was stolen from him which his supporters took as signifying license to steal it back by invading the Capitol is central to the case against him. Raising it as a defense runs the paradoxical risk of making the accusation seem more credible.

Another possible explanation for Trumps silence is that he is, belatedly, discovering the virtues of discretion particularly now that he no longer enjoys the immunities and perks of office, such as having the Department of Justice to do his bidding. The writer E. Jean Carroll, who claims Trump raped her in a New York department store dressing room years ago, is suing him for defamation because in denying her accusation he called her a liar. Under Attorney General William Barr, the Department of Justice undertook to defend the suit, but the Biden administration might not be so compliant.

Or maybe its just that Trump hasnt yet found a form of expression as convenient and congenial as Twitter. It is no exaggeration that Trumps political career owes as much to Twitter as to The Apprentice. He understood, better than any other political figure, that he could use that platform to reach voters directly, without the expense of buying TV commercials or the inconvenience of media fact-checkers or the awkward constraints of grammar or logic. It was a venue for him to feed his insatiable desire for approval (Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow - if so, will he become my new best friend? he tweeted on June 18, 2013) and to boast about his television ratings, approval ratings, IQ, money, golf game (Just won The Club Championship at Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach) and even his hair (retweeting a fan who wrote that his hair is magnificent. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.)

But above all, Twitters staccato, telegraphic style is the perfect medium for Trumps preferred form of discourse, the insult that gains force by sheer repetition, rather than, say, plausibility. Trump gleefully pursued grudges and resentments against enemies including Barack Obama, who was the subject of fully 1,686 of his posts nearly one out of 30 as recently as Dec. 30; Hillary Clinton (887, of which 366 refer to her as Crooked Hillary); Rosie ODonnell (66); and Fox News (348, which sequentially chart his delight at being interviewed on air, appreciation for their obsequious coverage and, more recently, outrage toward anchors he considered insufficiently fawning). The New York Times has compiled a comprehensive list of the hundreds of people, organizations, places and ideas Trump insulted on Twitter from when he declared his candidacy, in 2015, through Jan. 19, 2021, running alphabetically from ABC News (knowingly have a sick and biased AGENDA) through Kim Jong-un (I would NEVER call him short and fat), to media proprietor Mort Zuckerman (a dopey clown). You cant put out a press release under the letterhead of 45th President Trump just to insult Whoopi Goldberg (never had what it took), or maybe you can, but it lacks the emotional satisfaction of sending out a tweet and watching the likes and retweets pile up by the thousands.

In fact, as with so many things about Trump, an explanation rooted in the mans personality may be the simplest and closest to the truth, the implicit point of Mary Trumps biography of her estranged uncle, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the Worlds Most Dangerous Man. Mary Trump, a mental health professional herself, describes the 45th president as unstable, cruel, vain, greedy and as numerous armchair psychologists have discerned narcissistic, a personality type that reacts with rage and/or hurt withdrawal to any form of rejection. And what could be a greater rejection than losing a presidential election?

Author Laurence Leamer, a Palm Beach resident who wrote the 2019 book Mar-a-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trumps Presidential Palace, told the Associated Press that Trumps interest since leaving Washington is having sycophants stroke his ego.

He goes through his days and people tell him hes fantastic, hes great, hes unbelievable thats what he wants, Leamer said.

Its worth remembering that during the campaign Trump promised that if he lost, youll never see me again. Not many people believed him, but maybe we should have taken him at his word.

____

Read more from Yahoo News:

Originally published February 2, 2021, 11:14 AM

Continue reading here:

When will we hear from Donald Trump again? - Yahoo News

City leaders in Frostproof, a small town in Florida where officials boast former President TrumpDonald TrumpGraham shoots down request for Merrick Garland confirmation hearing Feb. 8 Trump lawyer to make First Amendment case at impeachment trial Biden faces crossroads on virus relief bill MORE has previously enjoyed an overwhelming amount of support from local voters, have declared the first week of February Donald J. Trump week.

According to a local NBC affiliate station, the citys leaders decided to greenlight the declaration, under which the first six days of Black History Month will fall under the new designation, at a meeting on Monday.

The town has a population of roughly 3,180 people, of which more than 90 percent belong to non-Hispanic white and Hispanic white ethnic groups, according to 2018 figuresprovided byData USA.

Polk County,where the city lies, went for Trump heavily in the 2016 presidential election, with 55.4 of the countys voters backing the Republican.

The proclamation claimed Trump won more than 75 percent of the town's vote.

Former President Donald J. Trump was overwhelmingly supported, and received 76.43% of the votes in Frostproof, Florida, Precinct 537, won the state of Florida twice and received more votes than any incumbent in United States History, the proclamation states, according to a copy obtained by the local outlet.

The brief measure also boasts of employmentnumbers under the previous administration and growth in manufacturing jobs.

Austin Gravley, a member of the Frostproof City Council, told the news station the proclamationis the"first of its kind and said he was proud to be a part of the effort.

According to the outlet, the move comes weeks after a GOP state representative, Anthony Sabatini, also drew attention for proposing to rename the U.S. Highway 27 in Florida to President Donald J. Trump Highway.

The rest is here:

Leaders of Florida town declare first week of February 'Donald J. Trump week' | TheHill - The Hill

After the invasion of the US Capitol by a mob, the certification of the election and Joe Biden's inauguration, you'd think it would be hard to find media organisations still peddling fake claims about a stolen election.

Almost everyone at Fox News has distanced themselves from the claims, even if some hosts persisted right up until the Capitol riots.

But that isn't the case at two of America's fringe news organisations, One America News Network (OAN) and Newsmax.

Guests and hosts on those networks have still been pushing the election misinformation backed by former president Donald Trump.

Covering a Biden Presidency presents a huge challenge for these media outlets, which at times promoted an alternate reality.

But the 'MAGA'-aligned cable news upstarts a nod to Donald Trump's oft-used slogan "make America great again" will be keen to find a way to continue the spectacular rise in audience and influence they've seen in the past 12 months.

In March last year, there was an extraordinary question asked to then-president Trump in the White House Press Briefing room:

"Is it alarming that major media players, just to oppose you, are siding with foreign state propaganda, Islamic radicals, and Latin gangs and cartels, and they work right here out of the White House with direct access to you and your team?"

This question, asked by a journalist holding a legitimate press pass, brought a smile to the face of Mr Trump.

It was not, however, a surprise to him, given the source: Chanel Rion, White House correspondent for OAN.

At the time she was building a reputation for taking Trump's side on every issue, and providing the President with opportunities to sound off at his political enemies while he was meant to be answering questions.

At a subsequent briefing she asked Mr Trump this question:

"Two-thousand, four-hundred and five Americans have died from coronavirus in the last 60 days. Meanwhile, you have 2,369 children who are killed by their mothers through elective abortions each day. That's 16-and-a-half thousand children killed every week... Do you agree with states who are placing coronavirus victims above elective abortions?"

It was the first time many Americans had heard of OAN, which launched in 2013.

Despite its low budget, it had distinguished itself by amplifying every pro-Trump conspiracy theory it could find.

Subscribe to Matt Bevan's ABC News podcast about how Donald Trump changed the United States and the world.

Listen

Mr Trump assisted their reach by amplifying their stories on Twitter at any opportunity.

He also took a particular interest in Newsmax, which despite a history of being a reputable news network had become known as a landing ground for news personalities unable to find work at Fox.

By 2020, they were running shows by ex-Fox News host Bill O'Reilly and ex-ABC News America political editor Mark Halperin, who were both exiled due to sexual misconduct scandals.

They were also the home of Spicer & Co, hosted by the bumbling former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer.

As the 2020 election approached, Mr Trump began tweeting regularly that his followers should abandon Fox News for Newsmax and OAN, who up until this point had mainly found audiences on YouTube.

It wasn't particularly effective.

Fox News has an average primetime audience of 3.6 million Americans, meanwhile Newsmax was struggling to break 100,000 viewers (OAN has said it can't afford to sign up to get viewership data from TV ratings companies).

Though their content leaned further to the right than Fox News, they struggled to differentiate themselves enough to gain an audience.

While Fox News remained tethered in some sense to the reality that Joe Biden had defeated President Trump, OAN and Newsmax attached themselves to the conspiracy theory spread by Mr Trump and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, that the election had been stolen by massive fraud.

Newsmax's top host, Greg Kelly, reached an audience of more than a million in his primetime slot, briefly out-rating Fox News.

OAN claimed to have seen a 40 per cent rise in viewership following the election.

It wasn't confined to traditional linear television though.

Their web content reached an even larger audience, posted on outlets like YouTube and Facebook and shared farther and wider than ever before.

Their reach became so significant that YouTube decided to censor some of their reports, arguing that they were spreading dangerous misinformation.

While the frenzy of post-election conspiracy theories seems to have cooled, bringing down their audience penetration with it, they successfully announced themselves as the home of unabashedly pro-Trump news content.

For years there has been speculation about whether a post-presidency Donald Trump may seek to gain a more permanent foothold in news media.

With his significant following across America, a Trump-branded TV network has been discussed, with the idea floated of a takeover or partnership between Mr Trump and either OAN or Newsmax.

Robert Herring Sr, the owner of OAN, denied the Trump family had been in talks with him about a partnership or acquisition.

Chris Ruddy, the owner of Newsmax, said that he has not closed the door on such a possibility.

But Mr Trump may be more interested in going it alone, reportedly suggesting that a Trump-branded subscription streaming service may be the best way of capitalising on his enormous national support.

Since leaving office, Mr Trump has been uncharacteristically quiet.

Despite his permanent ban from Twitter, he still has the option of calling friends at Fox, OAN or Newsmax to give his perspective on politics yet he has largely resisted flooding the airwaves just yet.

OAN and Newsmax may or may not be looking to do a deal with Mr Trump to give them exclusive access to his thoughts, feelings and supporters, but they are almost certainly hoping that he will break his silence soon.

They need something to talk about.

Go here to read the rest:

The US media organisations loyal to Donald Trump could struggle to find the same oxygen under President Joe Biden - ABC News

SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports' Nancy Armour asks Tom Brady if he thinks Black athletes have an equal amount of leeway when broaching political and controversial topics as white athletes do. USA TODAY

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady evaded a question about whether he's gotten a pass from criticism forsporting a Donald Trump hat in his locker in 2015 because he is white.

In a Jan. 26segment on Fox Sports, analyst Shannon Sharpe was critical of Brady's brief support of Trump. The six-time Super Bowl champion later backpedaled on his support of Trump, dismissing any political-oriented questions during the former president's campaign trail and presidency over the last four years. But Sharpe said Brady was given a pass as a white athlete that a Black athlete like LeBron James wouldn't have gotten.

"Lets just say for sake of argument, LeBron James says my friend is Minister (Louis) Farrakhan," Sharpe said, referring to the controversial Nation of Islam leader."How would America react? Blacks have always had to be very, very quiet about who our friends are. ...LeBron James can never say, a prominent black athlete can never say, Minister Farrakhan is just my friend. Theyd try to cancel anybody with the just mere mention of Mister Farrakhans name. Because we like Tom Brady."

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady playing against the Kansas City Chiefs in November.(Photo: Kim Klement, USA TODAY Sports)

Brady, in response to a question by USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on a Super Bowl news conference Monday, dodged a direct answer.

"I'm not sure how to respond to hypothetical like that," Brady said over Zoomduring Super Bowl media availability. "I hope everyone canwe're in this position like I am to, again, try to be the best I can be every day as an athlete, as a player, as a person in my community, for my team and so forth, so yeah, I'm not sure what else."

In Sharpe's initial comments on Fox Sports, he said: "I understood what Tom was for a very, very long time. He put that hat in there for a reason. 'Letting you know that I support my friend, Donald Trump, and no matter what he says, I support him.' ... If we like somebody, were more forgiving of their actions. Were more forgiving of their words, their deeds. If we dont like you, we will go to heaven and earth, well go back 15 years."

Autoplay

Show Thumbnails

Show Captions

See the original post here:

Tom Brady dodges question about getting pass for supporting Trump because he is white - USA TODAY

Dolly Parton said in an interview on NBC News Today that she twice turned down receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Donald Trump, but the reasons were not political.

I couldnt accept it because my husband was ill, and then they asked me again about it, and I wouldnt travel because of the Covid, Parton said.

Barack Obama has said that he wishes he awarded Parton with the honor, and said that he would recommend that President Joe Biden offer the award to her. But Parton said that now if I take it I will feel like I am doing politics, so I am not sure.

Parton donated $1 million to fund coronavirus research at Vanderbilt University, and the money was used to help develop the Moderna vaccine. She also has donated to literacy programs via Dolly Partons Imagination Library.

Trump awarded the Medal of Freedom to figures such as Tiger Woods, Rush Limbaugh and. posthumously, to Elvis Presley. After the siege on the Capitol, one intended recipient, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, declined to accept the honor.

The Medal of Freedom was established by President John F. Kennedy and is regarded as the highest civilian honor, along with the Congressional Gold Medal.

View post:

Dolly Parton Says That She Twice Turned Down Medal Of Freedom From Donald Trump, But Not For Political Reasons - Deadline

Re Opposing views on whether Joe Biden should pardon Donald Trump (Jan 20): As a Republican, I accept that Joe Biden is our president. Biden says he is going to unite us as a nation. I want him to succeed just as I did for past presidents. Trump lost the election. He had every right to challenge up until Jan. 6 just as others did before him.

Why is it that those on the left wanted to impeach Trump for a second time? He did not incite by his speech and the radicals had an organized goal planned. How does a second impeachment of a now-private citizen Trump unite us as a nation today?

What a colossal waste of time for the American people and President Biden. Biden should take a stand, carpe diem and just say no.

Derrick HaunValley Center

Opinion resources

The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters.

Perhaps the ultimate oxymoron can be summarized by glancing at the San Diego Union-Tribune headlines of Jan. 23, Senate agrees to begin impeachment trial Feb. 9 and Jan. 24, How does a nation heal?.

Daniel CollinsSan Diego

See the original post here:

Opinion: Punishing Donald Trump wont bring nation together - The San Diego Union-Tribune

President Joe Biden has vowed to revitalize America's traditional alliances and put multilateralism at the heart of his foreign policy over the next four years. His predecessor Donald Trump, he said, left America's global reputation "in tatters" and part of his job will be to clean up the mess.

NATO was a favored Trump punching bag. The Cold War-era alliance had been a pillar of the American-led international system since its founding and a bulwark against first the Soviet Union and later Russia, as well as global terrorism.

But Trump repeatedly undermined the bloc and even threatened to withdraw the U.S. from it. During his time in office, the former president repeatedly attacked allies and dismissed the bloc's foundational principleArticle 5, the commitment to collective defense.

The pugnacious former president also highlighted long-term American critiques of NATO, however, legitimate grievances that will not disappear just because he has left office.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who served as NATO secretary-general from 2009 to 2014 and worked with Biden when he was vice president to Barack Obama, said the alliance was "absolutely" relieved that the era of Trump is over.

"Trump is the worst president that the U.S. has ever had," he told Newsweek.

"The election of Biden and his demonstration of a clear global leadership will make the world a safer place," Rasmussen said.

The bloc will also be looking back on Trump's term to consider the lessons learned. His NATO legacy is somewhat contradictoryhe was dismissive of the organisation and undermined its political cohesion, but under his watch the U.S. led the way in rising military spending by alliance members and strengthening its defenses, particularly along the Russian border.

"Militarily, I think NATO has become stronger during the Trump term," Rasmussen said, noting the rapid reaction force deployed to eastern Europe and the former president's constant pressure on allies to increase military spending to 2 percent of GDP, a target agreed in 2014 with a 2024 deadline.

"He has used harsh rhetoric to push allies to actually fulfil their commitment," Rasmussen said. How much credit Trump deserves is up for debate, but several leaders including NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg have been happy enough to praise the president.

Alexander Vershbow, former NATO deputy secretary-general, gave much of the credit to the team around him. "Trump clearly took every opportunity to bully allies and even threaten to pull out of NATO," Vershbow told Newsweek.

"But it's one of those many cases where the administration somehow managed to keep the overall policy on track, despite the president's clear lack of commitment to the alliance or to the values of the alliance."

Figures including James Mattis, Trump's first secretary of defense, were known as the "adults" in the early years of his administration, for a time curtailing his worst instincts and largely maintaining long-held foreign affairs conventions; among them membership of NATO.

"Trump's bark was worse than his bite," Verhsbow said. Nonetheless, the feeling at NATO headquarters now is "certainly relief," he added, with Biden's victory interpreted as a "reaffirmation" of the values on which the alliance is built.

Trump's real damage came on the political front. He clashed with the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Turkey and the U.K. during his time in office, often opining on the domestic policies of other allied nations. His grievances dominated NATO meetings and calculations, with always unsure of how far he was willing to go.

"Politically, NATO has been weakened significantly," Rasmussen said, noting in particular Trump's hesitation about committing to Article 5. Trump's suggestion that the U.S. might not heed the call to defend nations such as Montenegro struck at the heart of the alliance, even though the president eventually walked back his comments.

This was even more distasteful to allied nations because the only time Article 5 has been invoked was in support of the U.S. after the 9/11 attacks.

Trump might be gone for now, but he is the product of a deeper seam of American nationalism, isolationism and chauvinism. Even if he does not run again in 2024, someone like him could. Trump has shown that "America First" wins votes and a younger, more politically adept figure could use his playbook to chart a course to the White House.

"Trump was a symptom of a deeply rooted feeling in the U.S. and it's not a new sentiment," Rasmussen said. A nationalist president in office fosters that isolationist sentiment. "That's why it was so important to get rid of President Trump," Rasmussen said. "It's crucial to get a person like Biden, who is strongly committed to not only the transatlantic race, but also global American leadership."

"The U.S. is the only superpower with a global reach," Rasmussen added. "And some of them may not like it, but it is the destiny of the U.S. to bear the burden of being the world's policeman."

Biden's election alone won't solve most of the problems facing NATO. During Obama's term, the U.S. pushed allies to fulfil the military spending requirements agreed in 2014. Biden will be no different, though he will do so with more tact than Trump. "The Europeans shouldn't think that they are off the hook," Rasmussen said.

Now could be the time for the Europeans to make a goodwill gesture on burden sharing, Rasmussen said. "NATO allies have learned a lesson ... it's clear to everybody that if we are to ensure continued American engagement in Europe, the Europeans carry their fair share of the burden."

Internal disagreements and external challenges also remain. Turkey's slide into authoritarianism and foreign adventurism is a big problem for the alliance. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has shown he is willing to blow up NATO decision-making to protect his own ambitions, and Turkish activities in Syria, Libya and the eastern Mediterranean are all bringing Ankara into conflict with other NATO nations.

The Trump administration was unable to stop Turkey purchasing the S-400 anti-aircraft system from Russia, a deal that U.S. leaders said could threaten NATO's collective defense and risk the security of the F-35 stealth fighter program, in which Turkey was a partner.

Trump allowed Erdogan to operate largely unmolestedhis critics allege this was partly because of his own financial interests in Turkey. But the strongman leader will know he is now facing a different kind of president. "Erdogan realises that he has lost his friend in the White House, and that Biden will take a tough stance on Turkey," Rasmussen said.

Erdogan's authoritarianism represents a "backing away from NATO's common values," according to Vershbow. Conservative movements in other nations including Hungary and Poland also threaten the globalist, liberal founding ethos of the alliance, something Biden wants to protect.

In addition, disagreements between member states can threaten NATO business. "The alliance is going to have to find some ways to discipline its own members to keep bilateral issues out of alliance business," Vershbow said.

Germany's Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline with Russia will remain unpopular in Washington. The White House said last week that Biden considers it a "bad deal for Europe" and his administration will review restrictions on the project put in place by Trump.

Externally, NATO must continue battling international terrorism, cyber-threats and current and future pandemics. The rise of China could also give the alliance a new competitor, one already using its mammoth economic clout to build footholds in NATO nations.

Biden has signalled that he will take a tough line on China if required, but signals from Europe indicate a softer approach. Last month the European Union signed a major investment deal with Beijing; not the kind of pushback on China the new president has promised.

"Now the Chinese have achieved a diplomatic victory," Rasmussen said. "I think they wanted to split Europe and the U.S."

All these issues will bring internal disagreements, but Biden and his team are likely to use a softer touch than their predecessors. Allies are glad that one unstable element is out of the mix butVershbow said"there's trepidation that the U.S. may actually put them on spot to do more."

Read the original here:

As NATO Reflects on Donald Trump, Joe Biden Can't Solve Old Problems - Newsweek

Former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party entered this year having stockpiled more than $175 million from fundraising in November and December based on his false claims of voter fraud, spending only a tiny fraction on lawyers and bills for his effort to overturn the presidential election, according to new campaign finance reports filed Sunday night.

The picture that emerges in the new Federal Election Commission reports is of Trump mounting a furious public relations effort to spread the lie and keep generating money from it, rather than making a sustained legal push to try to support his conspiracy theories.

His campaigns single biggest expense in December was a nearly $5 million media buy paid to the firm that bought his television advertisements. His second-largest payment, $4.4 million, was for online advertising. And the Republican National Committee pocketed millions of dollars in donations collecting 25 cents for every dollar Trump raised online in the final weeks of the year as it spent relatively little on legal costs.

All told, Trumps campaign spent only $10 million on legal costs about one-fifth of what it spent on advertising and fundraising, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission filings from Nov. 4 through the end of the year.

During that period, Trumps conspiracy-fueled accusations that votes had been miscounted or misappropriated repeatedly fell flat in the courts. Joe Biden was elected president by voters on Nov. 3, confirmed by the Electoral College on Dec. 14 and ratified by Congress on Jan. 6 the same day that Trump incited a mob that stormed the Capitol.

But while Trumps efforts to delegitimize the election did not keep him in power, they did spur millions in contributions from loyal supporters and provided both him and the party with an enormous infusion of cash.

The Republican National Committee ended the year with more than $80 million in the bank after the fundraising blitz, and Trump had $31 million in the new political action committee he formed in November for his post-presidential political ventures.

That accounts for just some of their haul. The party and the former president had roughly $63 million more in two shared accounts waiting to be distributed between them, with Trumps PAC entitled to 75% of the money raised in December, giving him an estimated $70 million PAC war chest.

Most of the money appears to have come online and from smaller contributors, with relatively few five- and six-figure checks, especially once the calendar turned to December. One $100,000 check in early December came from Elaine J. Wold, a major Republican donor in Florida.

Though his race was over, Trumps voracious online fundraising from Nov. 24 through the end of the year even outpaced that of the two Republican senators, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who were competing in the Georgia runoff elections that would determine control of the chamber.

During those 39 days, Trump and his shared committees with the RNC raised $80 million online; Loeffler and Perdue combined for closer to $75 million. Both lost.

Trump did incur some legal costs from more than a dozen law firms.

He paid $1.6 million to Kasowitz Benson Torres, more than $500,000 to Jones Day and about $600,000 to Dechert. The law firm of Kurt Hilbert, who was on Trumps phone call pressuring the Republican secretary of state in Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, to find votes to overturn the election outcome, was paid more than $480,000. A $3 million payment went to the Wisconsin election commission to pay for a recount.

One major Republican donor, C. Boyden Gray, who contributed more than $2 million to Republicans in the 2020 cycle, also provided legal consulting for Trump, earning $114,000.

The man who made so many public appearances on behalf of Trump as his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, reported no payments by the former presidents campaign. His firm was reimbursed for $63,423 in travel in mid-December.

An associate of Giulianis had asked that he be paid $20,000 a day for his work for Trump, which Giuliani initially denied. He later acknowledged the request to The New York Times, but he has continued to publicly deny making money for his work, including in a radio appearance Sunday.

I havent made a penny on it, Giuliani said.

The Trump campaign also spent $20,130 in mid-December for what were described as travel reimbursements to the Kerik Group, led by former New York Police Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik, whom Trump pardoned last year for his 2010 conviction on eight felonies. Kerik is a close ally of Giulianis.

The Trump operation continued to spend on fundraising, pouring millions more into a secretive limited liability company, American Made Media Consultants, for online and text-message advertising. Family members of Trump and Vice President Mike Pence once served on the board of that company, which had more than $700 million in spending flow through it during the 2020 campaign.

One of Trumps shared committees with the Republican National Committee spent $237,000 on books through a company, Reagan Investments, that has also done work for a PAC controlled by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. The Trump campaign offered signed copies of Cruzs book last fall to donors who gave $75 or more.

And, as they have since the beginning of his candidacy in 2015, Trumps campaign accounts patronized his businesses in the postelection period.

The Trump Victory committee paid $34,000 to the Trump Hotel Collection in its final 2020 filing. The same committee also paid a Trump-owned limited liability company that operates a private plane, DT Endeavor, $39,200 on Nov. 24.

Another Trump campaign committee paid $75,000 in rent to the Trump Tower building in December.

Read the original here:

As Trump raked in cash denying his loss, little went to actual legal fight - WION