Category Archives: Donald Trump

1. Trump collaborates on song with Jan. 6 defendants  The Hill
2. Singin the coups: Donald Trump releases single with January 6 prisoners  The Guardian US
3. Trump takes support for Jan. 6 rioters to new level, collaborates on a song  The Washington Post

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Trump collaborates on song with Jan. 6 defendants - The Hill

It is also a conversation reminiscent of one many had before. Back in 2016, senior Republicans fretted that putting Trump on top of the ticket would spell certain doom. If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed, later Trump acolyte Lindsey Graham notoriously tweeted. And we will deserve it. Those concerns proved to be unfounded, of course, as Trump prevailed over a split Republican field and then went on to defeat Hillary Clinton while Republicans held the House and Senate. But this time around, few Republicans think Trump can pull it off again, not after spending the last three years nursing his grievances over 2020, and especially not after his hand-picked candidates were walloped in the midterms.

Back in 2020, the buzzword among Democrats was electability, as the need to defeat Trump came to outweigh any other concerns or considerations including those of ideology, vision, competence and style. And the winner of the electability primary, at least for donors and liberal pundits, was Joe Biden, which led to most of his competitors dropping out and endorsing him when he was still trailing in the delegate count to Bernie Sanders. Republicans are now hoping that a similar dynamic plays out on their side this year and that even Trump loyalists will understand the stakes. Trump did not respond to requests for comment.

I dont think it is fair to call Donald Trump a damaged candidate, said Eric Levine, a top GOP fundraiser who has been calling on the party to move on from Trump since the 2020 election and the uprising at the Capitol. He is a metastasizing cancer who if he is not stopped is going to destroy the party. Donald Trump is a loser. He is the first president since Hoover to lose the House, the Senate and the presidency in a single term. Because of him Chuck Schumer is the Leader Schumer, and the progressive agenda is threatening to take over the country. And he is probably the only Republican in the country, if not the only person in the country, who cant beat Joe Biden.

The big fear among donors like Levine and other party players is that, like in 2016, a number of challengers to Trump will jump into the primary and linger too long, splitting the field and allowing Trump to win. And some of these top Republicans are meeting with potential candidates and telling them that if they want to run, they should by all means do so but that they should also be prepared to drop out well before voting begins in order to make sure that the GOP puts their best candidate forward against Biden.

I am worried about this, but experience is a good teacher, and there is no education in the second kick of a mule, said Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist and longtime adviser to Senator Mitch McConnell. My hope is that those exploring a race [for president] right now are asking themselves what is best for the party.

Bob Vander Plaats, the president of The Family Leader, a socially conservative advocacy group, is one of the most sought-after endorsers in the Iowa Caucus. He said that he is speaking with every potential candidate about the need to not overstay their welcome in the race.

I tell them that there is an open and fair playing field here in the state of Iowa, and that we will introduce you to our base, and we will give you all kinds of opportunities for you to introduce yourself. And if you have the call in your heart to run for president, I am the last person to tell you to not to.

But, he also tells them. Do not listen to your consultants, who have a vested interest in you staying in. I can help you decide if you should stay in or not.

They all agree right away, he added.

Leading donors who have spoken with the top-non-Trump contenders like Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo and Mike Pence say that all get it, that none of them are looking to play the spoiler and are aware of the dangers to the party, if not the country, of a Trump Redux. For evidence, these donors point to the potential candidates public statements and recent memoirs, in which all are critical of Trump in one way or another.

Does Mike Pence really want his legacy to be that he got four percent of the vote and helped elected Donald Trump? asked one adviser to a major Republican giver. Same goes for [Mike] Pompeo, same goes for [Nikki] Haley. They want to get traction, of course, but there is a higher motivation to pull out more quickly based on what it would mean for the country and the party.

Yet if the Haleys and Pompeos of the world end up running, they are doing so to win, and despite what they tell donors now, once they start getting a warm reception on the stump it can be hard to stop. Everybody on every campaign says, Why is it our responsibility to keep Donald Trump from winning? said GOP strategist Dave Carney. You have some people that are just running to sell books, but most of the folks that are looking at this are doing so because they think there is a path for them to win.

Trump seems to recognize how the prospect of a crowded field would help him, keeping quiet even as some of his former closest aides consider their own campaigns, and training his fire instead on Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who is leading him in some polls. Trump has been reluctant to take the bait as his former ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, taunts her former boss by calling for a new generation of leadership. Trump is Trump, so he has hit back occasionally, but has also said publicly that Haley should do it, a sign that, as former chair of the South Carolina Republican Party Katon Dawson put it, Trump has a solid 31 [percent]. And if its a big field a solid 31 can carry you to the nomination. The only way to defeat him is if some of these folks team up.

The question is how, and on this, even some of the Republican rich are at a loss on how to proceed. No more are there party bosses with the power to clear the field. The rise of online fundraising means that even the effect of the donor class can be limited. And while leaders of religious and grassroots groups hold sway, they have their own politics to think about, and cant very well step much beyond where their members want to go.

I dont even know who would be having these kinds of conversations, said Jennings. There is no convening authority. You just hope the candidates figure it out and we dont come in to next January with another John Kasich running around dividing the field.

On the Democratic side, back in 2016, the partys donors and senior leadership united well before the primaries behind Hillary Clinton only to see the folly of that approach when her weaknesses as a candidate revealed themselves as she struggled to fend off a challenge from Bernie Sanders.

For Republicans, the likeliest beneficiary of any similar effort would be DeSantis, who is outpacing Trump in some head-to-head polls. DeSantis has advantages, not least among them the fact that he just raised over $200 million for his reelection bid, and that he has a knack for using his perch in the Florida statehouse to hammer Democrats over culture war issues. But he is untested on the national stage, and there are persistent whispers that he can be clumsy about the normal give-and-take of politics. Many party bigwigs say they would rather watch the process play out for at least a year before picking favorites, with the understanding that if candidates now polling in the single digits dont see their prospects improve, they move to consolidate behind one Not Trump after the first couple of primaries. The great hope for DeSantis is that he breaks through quickly, and that convinces everyone else there is no path, said one former Trump adviser who now thinks the former president cant win.

One oddity of the current moment is that the weaker Trump seems, with federal and local investigations piling up and his campaign launch landing with a thud, the higher the chances that more possible candidates will launch their own bids, seeing a path to victory more likely. And the more candidates enter, the easier it becomes for Trump to win with an increasingly smaller share of the vote.

There may be no convening authority, but there are conversations among donors and party activists who point to how on the other side of the aisle, in 2020, nearly the entire remaining Democratic field dropped out almost at the same time and endorsed Biden. Republicans fret that there is no equivalent of a Nancy Pelosi or a Jim Clyburn in their party who can apply pressure to the dreams of would-be presidents. Still, donors are talking now about pooling money together once the primary gets under way in earnest and a true Trump alternative emerges.

Donors have wised up, said Liam Donovan, a GOP strategist. That is the main control mechanism. There is not going to be oxygen for a lot of these guys, and there are not going to be resources.

There is already some movement along these lines.

I dont see a big bunch of donors coming behind Trump at this point, said Andy Sabin, a metal mogul who gave over $100,000 to Trump over the years and who opened his Hamptons estate for a Trump fundraiser in 2019. I wouldnt give Trump a fucking nickel, and that hasnt changed. As we get closer Trump is going to see the handwriting on the wall. Now, he may not care if he fucks everybody up. Trump worries only about Trump, so he may not care if we lose as long as he has his day in the park, but I dont know any donor that wants to give a red nickel to Trump.

Sabin isnt alone. Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO of Blackstone who donated $3.7 million to Trump and Trump affiliated groups over the last several years, said after the midterms that It is time for the Republican Party to turn to a new generation of leaders, and I intend to support one of them in the presidential primaries. Ken Griffin, the CEO of Citadel who gave $60 million to Republican candidates and campaigns in the 2022 cycle, also said after the midterms that Id like to think that the Republican Party is ready to move on from somebody who has been for this party a three-time loser, and announced his support for DeSantis.

These public clarion calls, donors and party leaders say, are all part of a larger strategy to raise an alarm on Trumps weaknesses; they hope that GOP primary voters start prioritizing electability like their Democratic counterparts did four years ago. Republicans tend to get enthralled with several candidates throughout the course of a presidential primary. The hope this year, senior strategists said, is that voters minds stay focused on who can best beat Biden, so that even if DeSantis or whomever the frontrunner of the moment is stumbles, attention and affection coalesces around the next Non-Trump in the field.

There is a concerted effort afoot to reach out even to some of Trumps most loyal voters. Evangelical leaders have said they are reminding their voters about comments Trump made after the midterms in which he seemed to blame evangelicals for the disappointing results and accused them of disloyalty for not already lining up behind his 24 effort. Plus, they say, even the evangelical movement needs to start thinking long term, and Trump would come into office an immediate lame duck.

Trump can only offer four more years, said Dave Wilson, the president of the Palmetto Family Council, an influential evangelical group in South Carolina. How are we going to build a movement that goes beyond the next four years to the next eight years to the next twenty years, that parallels what we have seen over on the progressive side?

For many party leaders however, such sentiments are just a hope. There is as of now no real effort to consolidate the field, no real plan among the donor class to pull their billions behind a single non-Trump candidate. There is a belief that somehow the Republican collective consciousness has learned from 2016 and that candidates, donors and party leaders will move in concert behind the right person once the process starts to play out.

Republicans are very motivated to defeat Joe Biden, said Tom Rath, a longtime Republican hand in New Hampshire. The Trump people arent at the table for them, but there are already discussions happening about what we do. If we get in a situation where Trump is winning primaries with 40 percent of the vote and losing badly to Biden, I think you are going to see those discussion begin to accelerate, to say the least. We just hope its not too late by then.

CLARIFICATION: This article has been updated to clarify the recipients of Ken Griffins recent political donations.

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The GOP Is Starting to Plot Against Donald Trump - POLITICO

Provided by 1945 Donald Trump

Donald Trump Wants to Lose in 2024 Picks Fight With Singer Rihanna - This Sunday, billions of people around the world will turn in for Super Bowl LVII, which will be played between the American Football Conference champion Kansas City Chiefs and the National Football Conference champion Philadelphia Eagles.

This is now among the most-watched TV programs of the year, and it is also known for its star-studded halftime show.

The colossal event has become known as much for the music as the sports, with marquee artists taking the stage in a super production spectacle.

This year that star is pop/R&B singer/actress Rihanna, now the second-best-selling female artist of all time earning 14 number-one and 31 top-ten singles in the U.S.

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She's also a former Academy Award nominee and an NAACP's President Award winner, who has been twice named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Of course, none of that stopped former President Donald Trump from sharing his dislike about the 34-year-old icon.

"Without her 'Stylist' she'd be NOTHING. Bad everything, and NO TALENT!" Trump wrote on Truth Social, responding to Ronny Jackson, his former White House physician.

Jackson posted to the forum on Thursday, "Rihanna spray painted 'F*** Donald Trump on a car at the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo. She's made a career of spewing degenerate filth while badmouthing America every chance she gets. Why is the NFL showcasing this crap? Rihanna SHOULD NOT be the halftime performer!!"

It is absolutely true that Rihanna who, for the record, like many celebrities has a stylist and creative director. Her image is part of her brand. In the process, she's become a billionaire, and is now the wealthiest female celebrity in the world.

Donald Trump has never been known to have a "filter" especially when it comes to social media.

Drawing attention to the fact that Rihanna doesn't like the former president shouldn't be brought into the public.

It won't endear Donald Trump to her fans.

This is often dismissed as "playing to the base," and it is very likely that few who wear MAGA hats have her songs "S&M," "Diamonds" or "Love the Way You Lie" on their playlists. But Rihanna still has 107.8 million followers on Twitter, and millions more on the other social media platforms.

That greatly exceeds the 87.6 million Trump followers on Twitter.

Rihanna is also a millennial who is a digital native, who has used social media in a way that is far more from just spewing the first thought that pops into her head. She has built a following from the platforms.

That is why this could result in a very public spat that Trump and his followers can't win, and therefore should have never started.

There is nothing to gain, and a whole lot to lose.

There is all likelihood that his supporters will make vile, racist or other comments that wiill drive away Rihanna's fans but also others who may not even listen to her music.

Once again, Trump comes off looking like a bully who is simply out of touch with anyone but his most loyal followers.

And there just aren't enough of those individuals to get him elected. It is almost like he wants to lose.

BONUS: The Fall of Joe Biden Has Started

BONUS: Donald Trump Looks At His End

BONUS: Kamala Harris Should Quit

A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.

Want more 19FortyFive military, defense, and national security, as well as politics and economics analysis from the best experts on Earth? Follow us on Google News, Flipboard, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. Also, sign up for our newsletter. You can also find our code of publishing ethics and standards. Dont hesitate to get in touch with us with any questions.

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Donald Trump Just Picked a Fight with the Wrong Person

1. Trump was issued subpoena for folder marked Classified Evening Briefing discovered at Mar-a-Lago  The Guardian US
2. Trump team turns over additional classified records and laptop to federal prosecutors  CNN
3. Trump legal team hands over additional classified folder to Justice Dept.  The Washington Post

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Trump was issued subpoena for folder marked Classified Evening Briefing discovered at Mar-a-Lago - The Guardian US

1. Trump attacks Rihanna ahead of Super Bowl: Without her Stylist shed be NOTHING  The Hill
2. Trump Slams 'NO TALENT' Rihanna Ahead of Super Bowl  The Daily Beast
3. Trump picks fight with Rihanna, insults her ahead of Super Bowl set  Business Insider

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Trump attacks Rihanna ahead of Super Bowl: Without her Stylist shed be NOTHING - The Hill

Former President Trump lashed out on Tuesday at the Club for Growth, a leading conservative group, after he was left off the guest list of its annual donor retreat.

In apost on his social media site, Truth Social, Trump ripped the group as the Club For NO Growth and recounted how his ties to the group fell apart after disagreements over his endorsements in high-profile races in Alabama and Ohio last year.

He also blasted the club for initially opposing his candidacy in 2016 before repeating his false claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him.

The Club For NO Growth, an assemblage of political misfits, globalists, and losers, fought me incessantly and rather viciously during my presidential run in 2016, Trump wrote. They said I couldnt win, I did, and won even bigger in 2020, with millions of more votes than 16, but the Election was Rigged & Stollen.

They asked to get together on Endorsements of candidates, we did, and had MANY WINS & NO losses. Relationship broke up over my Endorsement of certain great people in Alabama & Ohio. I won them all!

Trumps comments came after the Clubs president, David McIntosh, told reporters on Monday that the group had invited several prospective Republican presidential contenders to its annual donor retreat in Florida, but had left Trump off its list. Trump is so far the only declared candidate in the race.

Among those invited to the gathering are former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

Weve invited all of the folks listed here, McIntosh said. Not Trump. But weve invited the others.

While he hasnt announced whether he intends to run for the White House in 2024, DeSantis has emerged as an early favorite for the Republican nomination and perhaps the biggest threat to Trumps hopes of recapturing the White House.

Anew poll from the Club for Growthreleased on Monday showed DeSantis leading Trump in a hypothetical head-to-head 2024 primary match-up, with the Florida governor taking 49 percent of the vote to Trumps 40 percent.

McIntosh told reporters on Monday that he hoped to have DeSantis deliver one of the keynote speeches at the clubs donor retreat, but said that the Florida governor is still finalizing his schedule.

McIntosh also expressed concern about the GOPs prospects of winning the presidency in 2024 if Trump is once again the nominee, saying that Republicans should be open to another candidate.

McIntoshs comments and Trumps subsequent attack were the latest signs of just how bitter the relationship between Trump and the Club for Growth has become. While the Club initially opposed Trump in 2016, it eventually rallied to his side in the general election.

After he captured the White House, Trump and the Club formed something of a political alliance, coordinating endorsements in key races.

But things soured last year after Trump and the Club backed opposing candidates in the GOP Senate primary in Ohio. Trumps decision to rescind his endorsement of former Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) in Alabamas Republican Senate primary also caused friction between him and the Club, which continued to stand behind Brooks.

In November, on the eve of Trumps latest campaign launch, the Club for Growth released a batch of internal polling that showed DeSantis leading Trump among GOP voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, the two states that will kick off the Republican nominating contest next year.

Al Weaver contributed reporting.

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Trump rips Club for Growth after he wasnt invited to donor retreat

Briefers would also be willing to discuss Beijings similar operations in East Asia, South Asia and Europe over the last several years, the official said.

The proposal to brief the Trump officials is the latest development following the militarys shootdown of a Chinese spy balloon on Saturday, seven days after it entered U.S. airspace. Republicans and former Trump officials said this week that they would have downed the airship as soon as it appeared, and criticized President Joe Biden for waiting until the balloon was over water before bringing it down.

Yet on Saturday, a senior Defense Department official said that Chinese spy balloons entered American airspace three times during Trumps tenure and once before during the current administration. The administration officials didnt detail how they learned of those events long after they happened.

Still, it helps explain why five senior Trump administration officials POLITICO spoke with on Sunday said they were never told of such incidents occurring when they were in office. This never happened. It would have never happened, Trump told Fox News on Sunday.

Im not aware of a single civilian national security leader from the Trump administration who heard of this, a Trump administration national security official said.

But the difference between past instances and the one from last week, Defense Department officials said, is that those balloons never stayed above U.S. territory for a significant period of time. When pressed for specifics, such as the date, location and duration of those instances, Biden administration officials refused to provide them to POLITICO, citing the classified nature of that information.

Some officials did speak in generalities, however. DoD tracks hundreds of balloons every day, but they are typically not deemed a threat. Their presence close to or over the United States would not be brought to the attention of senior leaders unless their behavior was completely out of the ordinary, like this one, said one senior Pentagon official.

At lower levels, officials have tracked multiple instances of balloon activity over U.S. territories in recent years. One of the Trump-era balloons hovered over Guam, according to two U.S. officials. And in 2020, the intelligence community assessed that much smaller balloons detected off the coast of Virginia were Chinese radar-jamming devices, according to a former senior DoD official.

Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), a House Armed Services Committee member, tweeted Sunday that the Pentagon had informed his office that several Chinese balloon incidents have happened in the past few years - including over Florida.

Why werent they shot down? he added. And according to several Trump Admin national security officials - they were never informed of these intrusions by the Pentagon.

The other time a similar airship appeared with Biden in the White House was last February near Hawaii.

Those and potentially other events were seemingly not discovered in real-time. One senior administration official said the events went undetected.

Weve gotten better at detection over time, a second senior Biden administration official said, noting that those responsible for surveilling Chinese spy balloons can remain in government even with a new president in the Oval Office.

Before the Biden administrations new offer, Trump officials denied any of this ever happened. I dont ever recall somebody coming into my office or reading anything that the Chinese had a surveillance balloon above the United States, Trumps second Defense Secretary Mark Esper told CNN on Friday.

This never happened in the first two years of the Trump administration, a former senior DoD official said. A senior Trump intelligence official said nothing like what transpired over the past week happened during all four years of the previous administration.

Bidens team has given no indication it will downgrade intelligence to make a public case that there were past examples of Chinese spy balloons above the U.S. from 2017 to 2021. At this point, all briefings will apparently take place behind closed doors.

In fact, all senators will receive a briefing on the just-downed vehicles flight on Feb. 15, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday.

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Biden admin offers to brief Trump officials on past Chinese spy balloon ...

1. DeSantis on Trump's attack: 'I don't spend my time trying to smear other Republicans'  POLITICO
2. DeSantis responds to Trump's latest attack: 'Don't spend my time trying to smear other Republicans'  ABC News
3. Well, Trump Is Now Suggesting Ron DeSantis Is a Pedophile  Rolling Stone

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DeSantis on Trump's attack: 'I don't spend my time trying to smear other Republicans' - POLITICO

1. Mark Pomerantz on investigating Donald Trump - 60 Minutes  CBS News
2. Indict Trump? Prosecutor who built NY case pressed on MSNBC  MSNBC
3. Trump Does Not React Well to Prosecutor Declaring He Should Be Indicted Immediately  Vanity Fair

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Mark Pomerantz on investigating Donald Trump - 60 Minutes - CBS News

1. Trump Stages His Own State of the Union After Bidens Official Speech  The New York Times
2. Trump on Biden's State of the Union address: "Give him credit."  Slate
3. Donald Trump Responds to State of the Union Address  C-SPAN

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Trump Stages His Own State of the Union After Bidens Official Speech - The New York Times