Category Archives: Donald Trump

Can you believe these are my customers? Donald Trump once asked while surveying the crowd in the Taj Mahal casinos poker room. Look at those losers, he said to his consultant Tom ONeil, of people spending money on the floor of the Trump Plaza casino. Visiting the Iowa State Fair as a presidential candidate in 2015, he was astounded that locals fell in line to support him because of a few free rides in his branded helicopter. In the White House, he was sometimes stunned at his own backers fervor, telling aides, Theyre fucking crazy. Yet they loved him and wanted to own a piece of him, and that was what mattered most.

Almost immediately after his defeat in 2020, Trump began fundraising off his claims of fraud, turning to his ardent fans for support. Plenty of people donated small amounts of money to continue a fight he swore was valid and building toward action. It was difficult to discern, though, whether Trump actually believed what he was saying about the election.

I learned in the spring that Trump was repeating a claim from one of his most vocal allies, the self-made pillow-company CEO Mike Lindell, that Trump would be reinstated as president by August 2021. Trump liked the idea, telling aides he did not want to have to sit through another three and a half years of a Biden presidency. He quietly encouraged some conservative writers to publicize the idea in their own voices, telling the National Review editor Rich Lowry as well that he anticipated being reinstated by August 2021. Trump encouraged Lowry to write about it, saying it could help the magazine. When Jenna Ellis, his former adviser, protested on Twitter the notion that Trump could be reinstated to office, Trump told Ellis that her reputation would be damaged. She took that as pressure to reverse her statement. Trump conceded to her that the scenario was almost impossible, but that he wanted to keep the idea alive.

Other moneymaking opportunities arrived, ostensibly tied to the reverent memory of the Trump presidency. The most audacious plan was for a social-media company of Trumps own. In the days immediately following the riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Trump was suspended from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube; he spent most of the next year insisting that he did not care about being banned while also suing the companies to get his accounts restored. In October, he announced that he would launch his own social network as part of a merger with a so-called blank-check company, whose stock price shot up when the merger was announced. The funding mechanism, which sparked an SEC investigation prior to the platforms launch, was completely opaque.

None of this came as any surprise to me. For much of the past decade, reporting on Trump has been my full-time job as a correspondent for The New York Times. To fully reckon with Donald Trump, his presidency, and his political future, people need to know where he comes from. The New York from which Trump emerged was its own morass of corruption and dysfunction, stretching from seats of executive power to portions of the media to the real-estate industry in which his family found its wealth. The world of New York developers was filled with shady figures and rife with backbiting and financial knife fighting; engaging with them was often the cost of doing business. But Trump nevertheless stood out to the journalists covering him as particularly brazen.

I have found myself on the receiving end of the two types of behavior Donald Trump exhibits toward reporters: his relentless desire to hold the medias gaze, and his poison-pen notes and angry statements in response to coverage. His impulse to try to sell his preferred version of himself was undeterred by the stain that January 6 left on his legacy and on the democratic foundations of the countryif anything, it grew stronger. He had an almost reflexive desire to meet with nearly every author writing a book about him. Trumps aides offered me an interview, and I asked for two additional ones.

Trump typically welcomed visiting authors for interviews in an indoor area at Mar-a-Lago that gets converted to a dining room at night, where a model of the redesigned Air Force One sits proudly on a low table. But after the headiness of being at the center of the worlds gaze, his time after the White House made him seem shrunken. He often played golf and then went to his newly built office at the club for meetings with whoever traveled down to seek his approval. He would watch television before going to dinner, where club members would sometimes applaud him, and then it would start all over again the next day, so removed from the daily rhythms of the broader world that he was oblivious to holidays on the calendar and staff had to remind him.

When I arrived for the first interview, in March 2021, I was ushered away from the usual room to a smaller area where Trump sometimes dined with guests. I learned as we wrapped up that the club was empty because it had been closed off after a COVID-19 scare, but Trump decided to have us sit there regardless, without checking to see if I was vaccinated. COVID, Trump said as he described the clubs closure, turns out, not good.

Trump greeted me cordially before taking a seat across the table from me; he was in sales mode, not combat mode. His history in New York was the focus of our interview. He thought back to the first major political figure he had observed up close, the Democratic Party boss Meade Esposito, who dominated Brooklyn politics when Trump joined his fathers real-estate business. Meade ruled with an iron fist, Trump said. And he was a very strong leader, to put it mildly. And when I came to Washington, I said, Oh, well, this is now the big league. So as tough as they were, this must be even tougher. But I said, How could anybody be tougher than Meade? Meade had a cane at the end. He used to start swinging the cane at people. I mean, he was wild.

Trump had seemed to try to emulate Espositos style in his post-presidency, receiving visitors who came to kiss his ring, and picking favorites in primaries to try to determine the outcomes of those races. Trumps view of strength never changes, regardless of the context, flattening all situations so they appear the same. He used identical languagewith an iron fistwhen describing how Esposito presided over his boroughwide fiefdom and when he praised Chinas President Xi Jinping after his own term ended.

I asked him if he had expected the presidency to function the same way. Rather, Trump said, that is how he thought congressional leaders would act on his behalf: Well, I figured that the Mitch McConnells would be like him, in the sense of strength. There were plenty of factual problems with the criticism. In fact, McConnell had kept Republican senators in line over and over to advance Trumps policy and personnel concerns and generally protect his political standing as the leader of the Republican Party. Nevertheless, Trump said to me in another session, using his favorite new nickname for McConnell, The Old Crows a piece of shit.

Trump also complained to me about senators successfully practicing this type of power politics against him, as Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz had when they persuaded Trump not to back a challenge to a colleague, Nebraskas Ben Sasse; Trump gave a surprise endorsement to Sasse, who then, after winning reelection, voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment. Like a schmuck, I went along with it, Trump said.

Trump was clear that he did not believe he would have faced any of the same legal problems that had dogged him if Manhattans longtime district attorney, Robert Morgenthau, had still been in office. No. He was a friend of mine. He was a great gentleman. He was a great man. He was highly respected. No. And I run a clean organization. This is a continuation of the witch hunt. He added, Bob Morgenthau would not have stood for this. The investigation by Morgenthaus successor, he insisted, was part of an attack on the Republic. He was perhaps even more dire when describing the threat he had faced from the special counsel investigation into his campaigns ties to Russia. It forced him, he said, to perform two jobs when I was president, running the country and survival.

At one point, Trump made a candid admission that was as jarring as it was ultimately unsurprising. The question I get asked more than any other question: If you had it to do again, would you have done it? Trump said of running for president. The answer is, yeah, I think so. Because heres the way I look at it. I have so many rich friends and nobody knows who they are. He then went on to talk about how much easier his life would have been had he not run. Yet there it was: Reflecting on the meaning of having been president of the United States, his first impulse was not to mention public service, or what he felt hed accomplished, only that it appeared to be a vehicle for fame, and that many experiences were only worth having if someone else envied them. (When I asked him in a later interview about what hed liked about the job, he replied, Getting things done, and listed a few accomplishments.)

We met for a follow-up interview five weeks later, again at Mar-a-Lago, again in the late afternoon. He was not in a good mood. By way of greeting, he told me, Im watching the Arizona situation very carefully. A private company called the Cyber Ninjas was conducting a so-called audit of Maricopa County ballots and tabulation equipment that had been handed over by the Republican-led state senate. He had talked about his claims of widespread fraud in our first interview, but not about trying to undo the results. He seemed to be going backward. I learned later that hed tried getting the Republican National Committee to fund the audit in Arizona, to no avail (the audit ultimately affirmed the results of the states election).

He was at his most animated when I asked about why he had trusted Sidney Powell, given the concerns his other advisers had had about her. Since then, Powell had faced libel suits from voting-machine manufacturers she had accused of corruption; her defense had been, essentially, that no one should have taken what she had to say seriously. I was very disappointed in her statement, Trump said. That is so demeaning for her to say about herself. Then he essentially read stage directions on how to use public claims in lawsuits. All she had to say, he said, was Upon information and belief, I think such and such. Now all she says there, was take a thousand stories that were written over the last 10 years long before all of this, that are bad stories, he said, and that is information and belief, she read them. And thats the end of that case. Thats true for everybody: Its upon information and belief and lets go to court to find out if its true.

I pressed him on what, at that point, was one of the persistent mysteries of January 6, which would become central to the congressional select committees investigation: what he had been doing in the hours when the Capitol was under assault from his supporters. He insisted that he was not watching television, despite volumes of witness testimony and other evidence to the contrary. I didnt usually have the television on. Id have it on if there was something. I then later turned it on and I saw what was happening, he said. He lied throughout that bit of our interview: I had heard that afterward and actually on the late side. I was having meetings. I was also with Mark Meadows and others. I was not watching television.

Our third meeting was at the end of the summer, which he had largely spent at the quarters that he kept on the grounds of his New Jersey golf course.

When I arrived at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, I waited in a small room off the front entrance. I spotted Lindsey Graham outside, in golf pants; it was the second time I had encountered him in Trumps vicinity that year. Trump eventually entered the room, having lost a noticeable amount of weight since I had seen him last. Graham followed a minute later and gestured toward Trump. The greatest comeback in American history! Graham declared. Trump looked at me. You know why Lindsey kisses my ass? he asked. So Ill endorse his friends. Graham laughed uproariously.

I was curious when Trump said he had kept in touch with other world leaders since leaving office. I asked whether that included Russias Vladimir Putin and Chinas Xi Jinping, and he said no. But when I mentioned North Koreas Kim Jong-un, he responded, Well, I dont want to say exactly, but before trailing off. I learned after the interview that he had been telling people at Mar-a-Lago that he was still in contact with North Koreas supreme leader, whose picture with Trump hung on the wall of his new office at his club.

He demurred when I asked if he had taken any documents of note upon departing the White Housenothing of great urgency, no, he said, before mentioning the letters that Kim Jong-un had sent him, which he had showed off to so many Oval Office visitors that advisers were concerned he was being careless with sensitive material. You were able to take those with you? I asked. He kept talking, seeming to have registered my surprise, and said, No, I think thats in the archives, but Most of it is in the archives, but the Kim Jong-un letters We have incredible things.

In fact, Trump did not return the letterswhich were included in boxes he had brought to Mar-a-Lagoto the National Archives until months later. The Washington Post reported on it in early 2022; the Justice Department began investigating how the classified material made its way in and out of the White House residence. (In one of our earlier interviews, I had asked him separately about some of the texts between the FBI agent and the FBI official working on the Robert Mueller investigation whose affair prompted the agents removal from the case; we had learned the night before Bidens inauguration that Trump was planning to make the texts public. He ultimately didnt, but he told me that Meadows had the material in his possession and offered to connect me with him.)

Over the course of our conversations, he appeared reluctant to take shots at many of those people on whom I knew him to have been toughest behind closed doors. His campaign manager Brad Parscale spent money unwisely, he said, but he did not criticize him beyond that. I asked why he had given Jared Kushner expansive power. I didnt, Trump said, although he had done exactly that. When I pressed, Trump said, Look, my daughter has a great relationship with him and thats very important. (In the fall of 2016, ahead of the election, Trump once tried to call Kushner to complain about why the situation in Florida was bad for him. Kushner, who usually didnt answer his phone on the Sabbath, was unresponsive. Fucking Shabbat, Trump groused, asking no one in particular if his Jewish son-in-law was really religious or just avoiding work. When I later asked him about this, he denied that he had said it.)

He was not so sanguine about Mike Pence, who had begun to defend his own actions on January 6 with increasing stridency, prompting Trump to escalate his condemnation of his former vice presidents judgment that day. I said, Mike, you have a chance to be Thomas Jefferson, or you can be Mike Pence, Trump recounted to me, repeating an inaccurate comparison to the election of 1800. He chose to be Mike Pence.

I brought up another potential future primary rival, by mentioning that he had been compared to New Jerseys feisty Governor Chris Christie before the two men faced off in the 2016 primary. Trump replied, I was compared to him? Why? I didnt know I had that big of a weight problem. A small smirk followed. Then: Hes an opportunist. I heard that Trump was describing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in similar terms, calling him fat, phony, and whiny, while claiming credit for making his candidacy in 2018.

Even as he talked about launching another campaign for the presidency, Trump was more comfortable looking backward than forward. When I told Trump I wanted to talk about 2024, he asked, quizzically, 2024?

By the time we spoke at Mar-a-Lago, I had covered Trump as a political figure for many years, and little was surprising. And still the choreography of in-person interviews could reveal moments of unintended candor. He started to explain why he doesnt like when audiotapes of his interviews are released. Being on camera was much different, he said. Whereas, he said, in a written interview, Ill repeat it 20 times, because I want to drum it into your beautiful brain. Do you understand that? He repeated himself again. One of the things Ill do, if Im doing, like with you, for the written word, is I got to drum it into your head. So Ill repeat something six times.

His interest in repetition was not news to me, but his self-awareness of it was notable. At another point, he was going on a stem-winder about New Yorks then-outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio canceling a contract with the Trump Organization to manage a public golf course in the Bronx after January 6. De Blasios choice to replace Trump was deeply controversial, and a judge later ruled in Trumps favor.

Its like communism, Trump said, asking what the word was for when someone takes your property. (It came to him 20 minutes later. Confiscate is the word, he declared in the middle of another thought.) I tried redirecting him, but he cut me off. Let me just finish it, he said. Just let me do this, and then Im going to tell you. He seemed to hear himself, and smiled. Then he turned to the two aides he had sitting in on our interview, gestured toward me with his hand, and said, I love being with her; shes like my psychiatrist.

It was a meaningless line, almost certainly intended to flatter, the kind of thing he has said about the power of release he got from his Twitter feed or other interviews he has given over the years. The reality is that he treats everyone like they are his psychiatristsreporters, government aides, and members of Congress, friends and pseudo-friends and rally attendees and White House staff and customers. All present a chance for him to vent or test reactions or gauge how his statements are playing or discover how he is feeling. He works things out in real time in front of all of us. Along the way, he reoriented an entire country to react to his moods and emotions.

I spent the four years of his presidency getting asked by people to decipher why he was doing what he was doing, but the truth is, ultimately, almost no one really knows him. Some know him better than others, but he is often simply, purely opaque, permitting people to read meaning and depth into every action, no matter how empty they might be.

This article is adapted from Habermans forthcoming book Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.

Go here to see the original:

Maggie Haberman: A Reckoning With Donald Trump - The Atlantic

U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney said she would do whatever it takes to make sure former President Donald Trump is not the GOP presidential nominee during the 2024 elections, including stumping for Democrats running against election deniers running as Republicans.

When asked by Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith if she would consider running for president toward that end, the Republican congresswoman reiterated she would do everything in her power to prevent the former president from representing her party in the next presidential election.

I certainly will do whatever it takes to make sure Donald Trump isn't anywhere close to the Oval Office, Cheney said during the closing night of The Texas Tribune Festival.

Cheney, who lost to a Republican primary challenger in August but will continue as vice chair of the House Jan. 6 Committee until she leaves office in January, said she continues to identify as a Republican, celebrating the legacy of the likes of Ronald Reagan and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

But she said she would no longer be a Republican if Trump gets the partys nomination in 2024.

I'm going to make sure Donald Trump, make sure he's not the nominee, Cheney said. And if he is the nominee, I won't be a Republican.

Cheney maintained that she is an ardent conservative on policy issues, voting in near lockstep with Trumps legislative agenda when he was in office. But she warned a House Republican majority would give outsized power to members who have been staunch allies of the former president and his efforts to keep the White House, including U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and Jim Jordan.

Cheney excoriated Trump for his failure to call off rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. She said without equivocation that any decision by the investigating committee about whether there should be criminal prosecution would be unanimous across the seven Democrats and two Republicans. She did not say whether the committee would decide in favor of a criminal prosecution.

One of the things that has surprised me the most about my work on this committee is how sophisticated the plan was that Donald Trump was involved in and oversaw every step of the way, Cheney said. It was a multipart plan that he oversaw, he was involved in personally and directly.

While leaders in Congress were begging him, Please, tell the mob to go home, Donald Trump wouldn't, Cheney said. And just set the politics aside for a minute and think to yourself, What kind of human being does that?

The committee is gearing up to wrap up its work in the coming weeks and is slated to meet this Wednesday for another public hearing, offering no details about what will be discussed then. She said next weeks hearing is unlikely to be the committees last, despite committee Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., suggesting the opposite earlier this week.

When asked if she would like Trump to testify before the committee, she paused for a moment before offering the following: Any interaction that Donald Trump has with the committee will be under oath and subject to penalty of perjury.

Cheney suffered a precipitous loss in the Republican primary for her Wyoming seat for her role on the committee, and she said Saturday that she would not vote for the Republican nominee for her seat, Harriet Hageman, in the general election.

But she challenged the audience not to question her ability to keep fighting against Trump after she leaves the House.

When asked about her own presidential ambitions, Cheney demurred.

It's really important not to just immediately jump to the horse race and to think about what we need as a country, Cheney said.

Her criticisms arent limited to the former president. Cheney also flatly said she does not believe House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy should ever become Speaker of the House, which would put him second in line to the presidency behind the vice president.

At every single moment, when our time of testing came and Kevin had to make a decision hes made the politically easy-for-him, or the politically expedient, decision instead of what the country needed, she said.

But Cheney didnt give up hope in her party, saying: I think we have to have a Republican Party that can be trusted to fight for issues such as limited government and strong national security.

Cheneys father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, is another vocal opponent of Trump. He called the former president a coward and the greatest threat to our republic in history in a campaign ad supporting his daughters primary run. Liz Cheney said that her father offered her a piece of advice on New Years Day this year: Defend the republic, daughter. And I will, she said.

View original post here:

Liz Cheney says she will do whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump from the White House, even if it means leaving the GOP - The Texas Tribune

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Politico founding editor John F. Harris declared "The Best Way To Save The Constitution From Donald Trump Is To Rewrite It" in a Thursday column.

Harris claimed that the former president, though "a constitutional menace," exploited the Constitutions "defects" in order to hold his position. For the sake of holding back a second Trump term as well as promote several progressive causes, he wrote that working around the Constitution might become a necessity.

"Correcting or circumventing what progressives reasonably perceive as the infirmities of the Constitution, in fact, seems likely to be the preeminent liberal objective of the next generation. Progress on issues ranging from climate change to ensuring that technology giants act in the public interest will hinge on creating a new constitutional consensus. Trying to place more sympathetic justices on the Supreme Court is not likely to be a fully adequate remedy," Harris wrote.

He added, "There are more fundamental challenges embedded in the document itself in particular the outsized power it gives to states, at a time when the most urgent problems and most credible remedies are national in character."

Facimile of The Constitution for the United States of America dated September 17, 1787. (Fotosearch/Getty Images)

PROFESSOR FINDS MOST STUDENTS CANT DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN US AND RUSSIAN CONSTITUTIONS

Harris also complained how Trump supporters hold an almost divine perspective of the Constitution.

"Expressing solemn reverence for the Constitution has become a way of signaling right-mindedness across the political spectrum, even among Trump supporters whose actions plainly undermine constitutional order. In much of this rhetoric, the Constitution is elevated from a secular document to a sacred one, infused with mystical dimensions," Harris wrote.

While Harris did acknowledge there was something "wondrous and enduring" about the document, he didnt hold the same reverence for the Constitution.

We The People - An old USA Constitution on parchment paper lying on a old American flag. (iStock)

"Another answer, however, is: Who cares what [the Founders] thought then? The Constitution was written at a time when states were indeed foundational a central part of peoples identity and way of life. This has not been true for nearly a century, as both national government and national identity have become stronger," he wrote.

POLITICO EDITOR SLAMS JOURNO FOR NOT REPORTING RBGS POOR HEALTH AND HELPING SAVE ROE V. WADE

Harris continued on to list several amendments, most of which were framed around liberal priorities, that could already gain "majority support" from the nation including "altering or abolishing the Electoral College, term limits for the Court, creating some check on abuse of the pardon authority" and cleaning up "the infuriatingly murky language of the Second Amendment."

Progressive activists have increasingly called to amend or ignore the Constitution. (istock)

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Within the last year, several media outlets and pundits have criticized or called for amending the Constitution after the failure to promote several progressive causes. In August, the New York Times featured a guest essay insisting that liberals stop caring about the "broken" Constitution.

Lindsay Kornick is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to lindsay.kornick@fox.com and on Twitter: @lmkornick.

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Constitution must be rewritten to stop Donald Trump, Politico's founding editor writes - Fox News

Happy Monday, OnPolitics readers!

Without being a candidate for any federal office, former President Donald Trump is trying to reshape the Republican Party into a movement focused on devotion to him rather than to ideological principles.

At the top of the agenda for the former president is enlisting loyalists to help him settle his grievances over his loss in the 2020 presidential race.

Trumps vehicle for this is a fundraising machine called Save America. Started just after he lost the 2020 election and at the height of his efforts to overturn the results, the PACs surrogates routinely send out misinformation including conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and the FBI's search of Trump's Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, to rake in donations from the public. It operates like a veritable slush fund, paying for personal expenses like luxurious hotels and even a fashion designer.

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The money given directly to the candidates by Save America usually $5,000 each is a lever that the former president can pull on to encourage loyalty and exert influence.

Save America has backed 28 candidates for state office in nine states. In three of those states, Save America has backed candidates for state legislature, a level virtually unheard of for a PAC of a former high-ranking federal official. At the federal level, Save America has backed candidates for 131 seats in the House and 18 seats in the Senate. The vast majority are election deniers.

And theyve been largely successful. Two-thirds of Save America candidates running at the state level won their primaries, including all of them in Arizona and Texas. All but a handful of the PACs federal candidates have advanced from their primaries and will be on the ballot Nov. 8.

For a breakdown of PAC-supported campaigns by state, check out this interactive map at the bottom of the story.

It's Amy with today's top stories out of Washington.

What's next On Politics: The next hearing for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitolresumes Wednesday. Check back at USATODAY.com tomorrow and Wednesday as the news develops. -- Amy

Excerpt from:

How Donald Trump's Save America PAC is influencing the 2022 midterms - USA TODAY

The social media app will be developed by Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG).

Rafael Henrique | LightRocket | Getty Images

Digital World Acquisition Corp., the blank-check company looking to take Trump Media and Technology Group public, has changed its listed address to a UPS Store in Miami.

The change from a Miami office building to a UPS address came with DWAC's regulatory filing on Friday disclosing that some investors pulled out tens of millions of dollars.

The company said it had lost $138.5 millionof the $1 billion in financing from private investors in public equity, also known as PIPE, to fund Trump Media after the merger. The contractual obligation for those investors to contribute to former President Donald Trump's media company after the deal had expired last Tuesday, allowing them to pull their funding.

One of the former private investors told CNBC that it pulled financing from DWAC because of the many legal obstacles facing the company. The investor,who declined to be named due to the sensitive nature of the matter, was also underwhelmed by the popularity of Trump Media's Truth Social app as measured by Donald Trump's follower counts.

Trump had more than 80 million followers on Twitter. On Truth Social, which he founded after he was banned from Twitter following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, he has 4.1 million. The app is also currently barred from the Google Play store.

Representatives from DWAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

After DWAC failed to garner enough shareholder support to extend its deal deadline earlier this month, CEO Patrick Orlando contributed $2.8 million from his company Arc Global Investments II to push back the deadline to December.

The merger delay comes as Trump Media and DWAC are the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission probe into whether alleged discussions between the two companies prior to the merger violated securities laws.

Trump himself is also the subject of multiple investigations, including civil allegations of fraud from New York's attorney general, as well as criminal investigations relating to the removal of sensitive documents from the White House, his involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and attempts to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

DWAC's address change was first reported by the Financial Times.

Shares of DWAC were trading around $17 after hours Monday, down significantly from their $97 peak in March of this year.

Read more here:

Trump-linked SPAC changes address to UPS Store as investors pull more than $130 million - CNBC

Donald Trump was the 45th president of the United States.Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Getty Images

Donald Trump was the first billionaire to enter the White House when he became the 45th President.

Forbes estimates he is worth $3 billion, with a property empire including Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

Other assets he controls include hotels, office buildings, and golf courses.

Donald Trump went from real-estate magnate to reality-TV star to being elected the 45th president of the United States.

Worth $3 billion, according to a Forbes tally of all the assets Trump owns, he is the first billionaire to enter the White House.

Trump's fortune mainly stems from his property-and-hospitality businesses.

On Wednesday New York's attorney general filed a sweeping civil suit against Trump, his business, and his three eldest children. Letitia James said Trump "falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars" and "repeatedly and persistently manipulated the value of assets to induce banks to lend money to the Trump Organization."

Here's what Trump's portfolio of golf courses, luxury cars, hotels, yachts, a vineyard, and aircraft looks like.

Katie CanalesandKatie Warrencontributed reporting to a previous version of this article.

Donald Trump, 76, is worth an estimated $3 billion, according to Forbes, after falling by $1 billion during the pandemic. His holdings include several golf courses, hotels, luxury cars, yachts, a vineyard, planes, and helicopters.

James Devaney/GC Images

The former president's fortune peaked in 2016, when he was worth an estimated $4.5 billion.

His wealth is centered around his commercial-real-estate holdings, which were worth an estimated $1.9 billion before the COVID-19 pandemic and after deducting debt, per Forbes.

While running for the presidency, Trump spent $66 million of his own money to help fund his campaign, according to campaign-finance disclosures examined by Reuters.

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Trump was the first billionaire to become a US president and donated his annual salary of $400,000.

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Trump's New York City properties account for more than $1 billion of his net worth, per Forbes.

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Getty Images

Revenue sources include licensing, branding, golf resorts, and the Central Park ice-skating rink.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Source: Business Insider

The Trump Tower penthouse was the 45th president's main residence before moving to Washington, DC. It is valued at $50 million, according to Forbes.

Reuters / Eduardo Munoz

Source: Forbes

Trump companies own at least 14 properties in New York City, including, from left to right, Trump World Tower and Trump Tower. Forbes estimated his NYC portfolio to be worth $960 million.

Getty Images

Source: The Trump Organization, Forbes

Trump owns properties in Palm Beach, Florida, including Trump Grande, Trump Tower Sunny Isles, and Trump Hollywood, according to the Trump Organization's website. They are worth an estimated $25 million,according to Forbes.

Bing Maps

Source: Forbes

Forbes estimated that Trump Organization-owned Mar-a-Lago was worth $350 million. The President has used the private-members' club as his main residence since leaving the White House.

Steve Helber/AP

Sources: Business Insider, Forbes

Trump also owns an estate on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin called Le Chteau des Palmiers. It's on the market for $15.5 million.

Shutterstock

Sources: Business Insider, Sotheby's

The former president also owns residential properties in New Jersey, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, and Nevada, as well as Europe, Asia, and South America.

Jose More/Getty Images

Source: The Trump Organization

Trump's assets also include hotels in Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, Virginia, and New York, as well as Ireland and Scotland.

Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Source: The Trump Organization

Trump owns 19 golf courses and played golf almost 300 times during his presidency, according to the website Trump Golf Count.

AP Photo/Seth Wenig

Source: Trump Golf Count, GAO

Aside from his real-estate portfolio, Trump has a penchant for aircraft and luxury cars. He owns five aircraft and a variety of cars, from a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud to a Mercedes-Benz 3600, according to The Washington Post.

Trump's Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud.Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Source: The Washington Post

Trump also bought his wife Melania Trump a $455,000 SLR McLaren, the Washington Post reported.

Bryan Mitchell/Getty Images

Source: The Washington Post

Trump bought his Boeing 727 nicknamed "Trump Force One" during his 2016 election campaign from billionaire Paul Allen in 2010 for $100 million. The aircraft costs thousands of dollars an hour to fly, per The New York Times.

Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

Source: New York Times

Trump also has a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter that costs between $5 million and $7 million.

Scott Halleran/Getty Images

Source: Wired

In 2013, Trump spent $60,000 to buy a portrait of himself by the artist William Quigley. In 2019, Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, accused him of paying for it with money from the Donald J. Trump Foundation charity.

Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images; AP Photo/Jonathan Carroll, FIle

Sources: Haute Living, The Art Newspaper

Trump owns a copy of "GOAT," a book about the boxer Muhammed Ali, that is worth an estimated $15,000. Just 1,000 copies were printed, with each one signed by Ali.

Photo by Getty Images

Sources: Daily Mail, Maxim

In 2017 Trump spent $70,000 on hairstylists, according to The New York Times expenses he claimed as a tax deduction.

Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Sources: New York Times

Trump's suits are mostly made by the Italian label Brioni, a spokesperson told The New York Times, and cost between $6,000 and $17,000.

STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images

Sources: New York Times, Insider

Another expense for Trump is sending his son Barron to the Oxbridge Academy, a private school in Palm Beach close to Mar-a-Lago that charges $35,000 a year for tuition.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Sources: The Palm Beach Post, Oxbridge Academy

Read the original article on Business Insider

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Donald Trump is worth billions here's how the former president has spent his cash - Yahoo Finance

9:15 p.m.: Trump addresses the crowd

Former President Donald Trump spoke for about 90 minutes in Wilmington Friday night, wrapping up around 9:15 p.m.

Trump spoke on a number of issues, including border security, the Jan. 6 insurrection investigation and the 2020 election results.

He also addressed North Carolina issues, criticizing Gov. Roy Cooper for vetoing a bill that would require sheriffs to obtain immigration status of jail inmates. He also called Cheri Beasley, Ted Budds opponent in the race for US Senate, a Marxist, radical leftist.

He encouraged the crowd to vote for Budd, who promised to uphold North Carolina values, and other Republican congressional candidates like Sandy Smith and Russell Fry.

-- Sydney Hoover

More from Trump's speech:Thousands show up to support former President Trump, NC congressional candidates

Former President Donald Trump has taken the stage in Wilmington to speak before a crowd of thousands of supporters. Trump came to Wilmington Friday to share his support for US Senate candidate Ted Budd.

The 45thPresident of the United States was greeted with cheers and a standing ovation as he took the stage. Some began chanting We want Trump! USA! and Lets go Brandon!

Its good to be back in the beautiful state of North Carolina, Trump told the crowd.

He immediately went into his hope that the midterm election unseats many radical left politicians, particularly Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

If you want the decline and fall of America, then you should vote for the crazy, radical left Democrats, he said, saying Republicans will save the American dream.

We'll have full coverage of Trump's remarks once he concludes.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people began steadily streaming out of the rally, just 15 minutes after Trump took the stage.

Trump was 45 minutes late -- his typical fashion, according to Ryan Cooper, frequent rally participant and vendor. Cooper said the exodus is also typical, as many attendees have been at the rally for hours.

After getting a glimpse of the former president, many in the crowd were satisfied, ready to beat the impending traffic and watch the rest of his speech from home. Cooper rushed back to his vending booth, hoping to get rid of the rest of my stuff.

Cooper said he was selling T-shirts, hats and pins, as hes done seven other rallies in the last two election cycles.

-- Sydney Hoover, John Orona, Jamey Cross

Former President Donald Trump's plane landed at the Wilmington airport around 7 p.m. As of 7:30 p.m., he had not taken the stage yet.

The crowd of thousands was chanting: "Let's go Brandon!" and "We want Trump!"

Trump is in Wilmington for a Save America that also featured other politicians, including Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and U.S. Senate candidate Ted Budd.

Ted Budd, a Republican running for US Senate, took the stage a little before 5:30 p.m. to a cheering crowd. Budd has been endorsed by Trump in his race against Democrat Cheri Beasley.

Im running because of everything Joe Biden has done and the policies that have made your life worse, Budd told the crowd after taking the stage a little before 5:30 p.m.

Budd told the crowd he would vote to get food and energy prices under control, to finish that wall and fully fund the border patrol, and to give parents more authority in their students schooling. He said Beasley would be a rubber stamp for President Joe Bidens agenda.

I will always vote to make life better for you and your families, Budd said.

-- Sydney Hoover

Shortly after 6 p.m., most event goers had filed into the rally, with a few hanging back waiting for Trump to take the podium.

Perusing the Trump related merchandise on offer all along the road leading to the rally, friends Cathy Amour and Isabelle Myers lamented the country's trajectory post-Trump presidency.

"The talk has changed since he left," Amour, 66, said. "The discourse has just gotten a lot meaner."

While economic issues were their main concerns politically, more importantly, they both felt that the country better united and more God-centered under Trump.

-- John Orona, Jamey Cross

As 4 p.m. passed and the event officially began inside, outside vendors felt the day calm.

Dawn Kenny traveled from her home state of South Carolina Friday to sell merchandise at the rally.

Commuting to Trump rallies across the nation has been part of Kennys life since Trumps first campaign for president in 2016.

Kenny said the day had proven calmer in comparison to some of Trumps other rallies in various states, and her printed T-shirts, sweatshirts and selection of bags were selling slowly.

Her best seller a black T-shirt with Raise Lions Not Sheep printed in white ink proved popular among the Wilmington crowd. She said the inspiration came from another shirt boasting Lion, Not Sheep.

I took that as the individual wearing the shirt, but thought we need to raise our children up into lions as well, so I added that, she said.

Tennessee native Phil Colwell rolled a blue cart filled with hats down the strip lined with other venders. He was selling them for $5.

No one was selling more than another Friday, he said.

If its got his name on it, itll sell, he said.

Meanwhile, Vachery Hopkins said he's has followed Donald Trump around the country since 2016.

The Lexington resident started by selling buttons, shirts and other Trump paraphernalia and now rents folding chairs to rallygoers who sometimes wait hours in line before events.

Hopkins, a Black man, said Trump supporters never gave him grief even at the more chaotic rallies.

"It was only people against Trump who would say, 'What are you doing here? Why are you supporting him?'"

After the rally, he and other vendors will move on to Michigan.

-- John Orona, Jamey Cross

Past visits:Trump's past Wilmington visits: From viral news clips to 'the proudest day of my life'

More:Ahead of Donald Trump's visit, Democratic candidates, supporters protest in Wilmington

Hundreds of rallygoers began shuffling into the Aero Center shortly after 3 p.m.

Some, like Mike Reed and Amber Blue, had already waited for hours but were happy to stay to show their support.

The engaged couple traveled from the Fayetteville area to see former President Trump and N.C. Lt. Governor Mark Robinson.

Reed, 46, said he supports Trump for his policies like lowering taxes, but more than anything else trusts him to "not take anything from anyone."

Blue, 45, said the couple weren't politically active before Trump came to power, and aren't particularly interested in the candidates he's endorsing.

"We like to think for ourselves," Reed said. "He's endorsed people before and gone back."

-- John Orona, Jamey Cross

Gary Lewis' political awakening began in 2009, shortly after the housing market crash.

He built homes in the Southport area for most of his life, but suddenly found it hard to make a living during the downturn.

"I never went to college," Lewis, 44, said. "I thought I'd always be able to support my family building homes; everyone needs a home."

Since then he started paying closer attention to politics and the economy. Following the crash, he became a Tabor City police officer and loyal Republican.

Between mini doughnut bites, he described the issues that brought him to the rally: immigration, sex trafficking, qualified immunity, and making Democrats angry.

Lewis said Trump's visit to Wilmington is important because it gives hope to people like him, who for so long felt they didn't have a voice in politics.

"He's the only politician to tell the truth," Lewis said. "The rest are hypocrites."

-- John Orona, Jamey Cross

Edward Young has big expectations for the moment Donald Trump takes the stage in Wilmington Friday night.

My expectations are that something big is going to happen, he said. Its not just going to be the same old rally.

Thats one reason Young drove 12 hours through the night to get to Wilmington from his home in Point Pleasant, N.J. He wanted to be in the front row for his 55th Trump rally, he said.

What to know:From tickets to security, what to know ahead of Donald Trumps visit to Wilmington

Young said hes supported Trump since he announced his run for president. He volunteered for Trumps campaign in the early days for his presidential bid and attended his first rally at Trump Tower, he said.

The crowd gathering around 1 p.m. looked light, Young said, compared to the number of people Trump has drawn during his campaign and presidency.

Young, who said he works in finance and acts on the weekends, said he was drawn to the show Trump puts on during his rallies.

There has never ever, ever been a political candidate like this and nobodys going to follow this act, he said. Donald Trump is our first rock star, superhero president.

But hes still anticipating Trumps announcement of his presidential run in the 2024 election.

Were all waiting with baited breathto hear him say, I am running, he said.

Just before 11 a.m. Friday, Linda Knight sat in a lawn chair outside a motorhome with the words Trump Girls printed on its windshield. Knight is one of several women who travelled to Wilmington Thursday from the Myrtle Beach area to attend Fridays Donald Trump rally.

The motorhome, which is decorated with stars and stripes, is owned by Robin Holley. Holley, who lives in Georgetown, S.C., formed a group called Im a Trump girl shortly after Trump announced his first presidential bid because everyone said that women didnt like Trump. The Facebook group now has more than 30,000 members, Holley said.

I wanted to do everything I could to support him, she said.

The interior of the motorhome, too, is decked out with Trump memorabilia from rally buttons, photos of Trump and pictures of the groups members. A framed painting at the front of the bus even appears to show the former president walking on water.

Both Holley and Knight said Trump is more than another candidate to them.

The first time I shook his hand, there was something so spiritual that went from my toes to the top of my head, Holley said. Im not saying hes God, but I think what he did for our country, our United States of America, was fabulous.

Knight said she considers Trump a friend even though shes never met him personally. At Fridays rally, the Trump Girls will be sitting within feet of Trump, Holley said. They have VIP tickets and plan to sit just a few rows behind him during the speech.

Were all excited, just waiting, Knight said.

As people started filing into a holding area outside the Aero Center around 9:30 a.m. Friday, the grassy field took on a festival-like atmosphere as oldies, classic country and show tunes blared and food vendors set up shop.

Outside the holding area, Colleen Funston, Vicki Wescott and Angela Robinson stood watching rally-goers enter.

This will be the second Trump rally Funston, a small business owner from Shallotte, has attended in Wilmington. Her first was Trumps 2020 speech from Battleship North Carolina.

Funston said shes a long-time supporter of Trump and believes in what he stands for, including efforts to put America first.

Trump is an American citizen who wants to do right by our country, Funston said. People want to make it seem like were all cultist and stuff and were not cultist.

If you look around, people here are good, decent hard-working people, she added. Thats what I expect from a Trump rally.

Wescott of Bolivia said shes looking forward to Friday nights rally. For her, its a first.

Im hysterically excited about being here, she said. I watch all the rallies usually online.

Robinson, a small business owner from Bolivia, said she supported Trump to make a better world for her children and her grandchildren.

If we dont stop whats going on now you all dont have a chance, she said.

More than 10 hours before former president Donald Trump was set to take the stage at Wilmingtons Aero Center, a line more than 50 people deep had formed to get into the venue.

Meanwhile, vendors walked up and down the strip of road that served as the events main staging area.

Jonas Williams had traveled to Wilmington from his home in Greensboro to sell hats of all kinds embroidered with Trumps name. Williams said hes been selling Trump merchandise since he came down that elevator to announce his first presidential bid.

He said he follows Trump across the country, selling merchandise at his rallies.

Elsewhere on the grounds, a man dressed as Uncle Sam rode a motorized hoverboard in the staging area while waving a large flag adorned with Trumps face and the words Trumps front row Joes.

Trump is scheduled to appear to campaign for U.S. Senate candidate Ted Budd. Alongside Trump and Budd, other Republicans are scheduled to speak.

Doors are scheduled to open at 2 p.m. as entertainment begins at the Aero Center. At 4, guest speakers will deliver remarks, such as local U.S. Representative David Rouzer and Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson.

Trump is then set to speak at 7.

StarNews will cover the event live throughout the day and have updates here.

Link:

Live updates from Donald Trump's visit to Wilmington - StarNewsOnline.com

This article was originally published on June 21, 2022.

A former president took a shot at another former president when asked a question on a late-night talk show.

What Happened: In a June appearance onLate Late Show With James Corden, former President Bill Clinton was a featured guest.

The economy, international relations and aliens were among the key topics the duo talked about.

Corden also asked Clinton to take part in a segment called Ask a President, which hadmembers of the audience and staff ask the former president questions.

The show, which aired on Paramount Global PARA PARAA owned channel CBS, saw Clinton answer what makes a good leader, what plant-based milk is the best and if we could see a woman president.

Clinton answered yes that we will likely see a woman president, a Latino president and a gay president over the coming years.

Clinton also shared that he drinks almond milk, but it is vodka that is his favorite plant-based drink.

For a question aboutfictional presidents, he answered: I like Tony Goldwyn, I like Martin Sheen, I liked Michael Douglas, I loved Harrison Ford and Morgan Freeman and Donald Trump."

Related Link: 2024 President Election Betting Odds: Is Donald Trump Or Joe Biden The Current Favorite

Why Its Important: Trump served as the 45th president of the U.S. In the 2016 election, Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, the wife of Bill Clinton.

There is a long standing feud between Hillary Clinton and Trump, which likely led to the comments by Clinton on the late night talk show. The rest of the names singled out by Clinton portrayed presidents in movies or on television shows.

Hillary Clinton has ruled out another run for president of the U.S. Neither Trump or current PresidentJoe Biden, the last two presidents, have announced their intentions for the 2024 election, but both are expected to run.

Trump owned Trump Media & Technology Group is working to become a publicly traded company with a pending SPAC merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp DWAC.

Photo:Anthony Correia(Clinton) andEvan El-Amin(Trump) via Shutterstock

More:

Bill Clinton Takes A Shot At Donald Trump: Here's What He Said - Paramount Global (NASDAQ:PARA) - Benzinga

Donald Trumps legal perils have become insurmountable and could snuff out the former US presidents hopes of an election-winning comeback, according to political analysts and legal experts.

On Wednesday, Trump and three of his adult children were accused of lying to tax collectors, lenders and insurers in a staggering fraud scheme that routinely misstated the value of his properties to enrich themselves.

The civil lawsuit, filed by New Yorks attorney general, came as the FBI investigates Trumps holding of sensitive government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and a special grand jury in Georgia considers whether he and others attempted to influence state election officials after his defeat there by Joe Biden.

The former US president has repeatedly hinted that he intends to run for the White House again in 2024. But the cascade of criminal, civil and congressional investigations could yet derail that bid.

Hes done, said Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University, in Washington, who has accurately predicted every presidential election since 1984. Hes got too many burdens, too much baggage to be able to run again even presuming he escapes jail, he escapes bankruptcy. Im not sure hes going to escape jail.

After a three-year investigation, Letitia James, the New York attorney general, alleged that Trump provided fraudulent statements of his net worth and false asset valuations to obtain and satisfy loans, get insurance benefits and pay lower taxes. Offspring Don Jr, Ivanka and Eric were also named as defendants.

At a press conference, James riffed on the title of Trumps 1987 memoir and business how-to book, The Art of the Deal.

This investigation revealed that Donald Trump engaged in years of illegal conduct to inflate his net worth, to deceive banks and the people of the great state of New York. Claiming you have money that you do not have does not amount to the art of the deal. Its the art of the steal, she said.

Her office requested that the former president pay at least $250m in penalties and that his family be banned from running businesses in the state.

James cannot bring criminal charges against Trump in this civil investigation but she said she was referring allegations of criminal fraud to federal prosecutors in Manhattan as well as the Internal Revenue Service.

Trump repeated his go-to defence that the suit is another witch hunt against him and again referred to James, who is Black, as racist, via his Truth Social platform, also calling her a fraud who campaigned on a get Trump platform, despite the fact that the city is one of the crime and murder disasters of the world under her watch!

But critics said the suit strikes at the heart of Trumps self-portrayal as a successful property developer who made billions, hosted the reality TV show The Apprentice and promised to apply that business acumen to the presidency.

Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard University, noted that the civil component involves things of particular significance to Trump and his family and his organisation, namely their ability to defraud the public, to defraud banks, to defraud insurance companies, and to continue to subsist through corruption. Without all of that corruption, the entire Trump empire is involved in something like meltdown.

Tribe added: Trump is probably more concerned with things of this kind than he is with having to wear an orange jumpsuit and maybe answer a criminal indictment As a practical matter, this is probably going to cause more sleepless nights for Mr Trump than almost anything else.

No previous former president has faced investigations so numerous and so serious. Last month FBI agents searched Mar-a-Lago and seized official documents marked Top Secret, Secret and Confidential. Trump faces possible indictment for violating the Espionage Act, obstruction of a federal investigation or mishandling sensitive government records.

As so often during his business career, Trump sought to throw sand in the legal gears. He bought time by persuading a court to appoint a judge, Raymond Dearie, as a special master to review the documents. But so far Dearie appears to be far from a yes-man. On Tuesday he warned Trumps lawyers: My view is you cant have your cake and eat it too.

Start the day with the top stories from the US, plus the days must-reads from across the Guardian

The ex-president also faces a state grand jury investigation in Georgia over efforts to subvert that states election result in 2020.

The justice department is investigating his role in the deadly January 6 attack on the US Capitol by a mob of his supporters intent on preventing the certification of Bidens election victory. Its efforts have been boosted by the parallel investigation by a House of Representatives committee, whose hearings are set to resume next week.

In addition, the Trump Organization which manages hotels, golf courses and other properties around the world is set to go on trial next month in a criminal case alleging that it schemed to give untaxed perks to senior executives, including its longtime finance chief Allen Weisselberg, who alone took more than $1.7m in extras.

In a further setback on Wednesday, arguably Trumps worst-ever day of legal defeats, a federal appeals court permitted the justice department to resume its review of classified records seized from Mar-a-Lago as part of its criminal investigation.

The former president, meanwhile, insisted that he did nothing wrong in retaining the documents. There doesnt have to be a process, as I understand it, he told the Fox News host Sean Hannity. If youre the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying: Its declassified.

Even by thinking about it, because youre sending it to Mar-a-Lago or to wherever youre sending it ... There can be a process, but there doesnt have to be.

Despite it all, Trump has been laying the groundwork for a potential comeback campaign and has accused Bidens administration of targeting him to undermine his political prospects.

Asked by a conservative radio host what would happen if he was indicted over the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, Trump replied: I think youd have problems in this country the likes of which perhaps weve never seen before. I dont think the people of the United States would stand for it.

Kurt Bardella, an adviser to the Democratic National Committee, said: If the best defence you have for your conduct is: if you hold me accountable, there will be violence, that sounds like someone who has no business being either in public service or being outside of jail.

Bardella expressed hope that, at long last, Trump would be held to account. Everything about Donald Trump has always been about the grift. Its always been about the con. And now his unmasking is at hand.

Read this article:

Hes done: how Donald Trumps legal woes have just gotten a lot worse - The Guardian US

Deference to the Constitution, as Trumps depredations make plain, is the indispensable foundation of American democracy. But deference is different than reverence. Constitution Day of 2022 arrived with more reasons to be frustrated by the defects of our national charter than at any time in generations.

The occasion underlined two related Trump-era paradoxes that likely will shape our politics long after Trumps shadow lifts.

First, Trump is properly seen as a constitutional menace, but from a progressive perspective many of the most offensive features of his tenure were not in defiance of the Constitution. Instead, they flowed directly from its most problematic provisions. He was in office in the first place because the presidency is chosen by the Electoral College rather than by the popular vote. His influence will live for decades because partisan manipulation of the Senates judicial confirmation power gave him three Supreme Court justices, who have no term limits and face no practical mechanisms of accountability. Like some other presidents, but more so, he used the Constitutions absolute pardon power for nakedly self-interested reasons. In short, Trump may be an enemy of the Constitution but he is also the president who most zealously exploited its defects.

That leads to the second paradox. Anyone who is not a Trump backer properly bemoans the breakdown in constitutional consensus that allows his supporters to tolerate or celebrate his election denialism, in addition to other efforts to insulate himself from rule of law. Long-term, however, the more bracing challenge to constitutional consensus is likely to come from the left, from believers in activist government.

Correcting or circumventing what progressives reasonably perceive as the infirmities of the Constitution, in fact, seems likely to be the preeminent liberal objective of the next generation. Progress on issues ranging from climate change to ensuring that technology giants act in the public interest will hinge on creating a new constitutional consensus. Trying to place more sympathetic justices on the Supreme Court is not likely to be a fully adequate remedy. There are more fundamental challenges embedded in the document itself in particular the outsized power it gives to states, at a time when the most urgent problems and most credible remedies are national in character.

To be clear, there is much that is wondrous and enduring in the Constitution. The things that are weak could be corrected by amendments that would easily draw majority support from a national electorate. In addition to the list above altering or abolishing the Electoral College, term limits for the Court, creating some check on abuse of the pardon authority there are other obvious targets. A constitutional renovation would clean up the infuriatingly murky language of the Second Amendment to make clear if effective gun control is allowed if the guns have nothing do with a well-regulated militia.

Here, though, is where the breakdown in constitutional consensus becomes potentially climactic as it did during the Civil War, and threatened to in the New Deal. Popular majority or no, most of those amendments would be opposed by conservatives which under the terms of the existing Constitution means they likely would not pass. It takes three quarters of the states to approve an amendment, a provision that gives many small, conservative states wildly disproportionate power over the fate of the nation.

This is hardly a new problem, but it is one that threatens to reach a breaking point. The political scientist Norman Ornstein has popularized an arresting statistic, one that is validated by demographic experts. By 2040, 70 percent of Americans will live in just 15 states. That means 30 percent of the population coming from places that are less diverse and more conservative will choose 70 senators. Already each senator from Wyoming, the least populous state, exercises his power on behalf of less than 600,000 people, while each senator from California, the most populous, represents nearly 40 million. This distortion of democracy, already hard to defend, could become the defining feature of national life.

This distortion, far more than Trumps vandalism, is the most likely the source of a true constitutional crisis in the years ahead.

But isnt this exactly what the Founders had in mind, with their conviction that the country was a union of states that retained ample sovereignty? One answer is that the current conflicts plaguing U.S. democracy may not be at all what they wished for. The great concern of the framers was creating a system of government with the capacity for self-critique and self-correction. Several features of the Constitution now interfere with that capacity.

Another answer, however, is: Who cares what they thought then? The Constitution was written at a time when states were indeed foundational a central part of peoples identity and way of life. This has not been true for nearly a century, as both national government and national identity have become stronger. States are still essential administrative units. But the rural conservative voter in California which had more Trump voters than any state, even as he lost it by nearly 30 points has more in common politically with a rural conservative from South Dakota than either have with urban progressives in New York or San Francisco.

The most effective leaders have not cleaved to constitutional understandings that have been overtaken by new moral imperatives. Abraham Lincoln used the exigencies of war to eradicate slavery, even as slavery until that time had been regarded as a protected constitutional right. By general law life and limb must be protected; yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely given to save a limb, Lincoln wrote in a famous letter. I felt that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful, by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the constitution, through the preservation of the nation.

So what will happen this time, when amending the Constitution seems improbable but living indefinitely with outdated provisions seems intolerable?

History suggests multiple possibilities. A decisive conflict is one answer the reason talk of a new Civil War is increasingly common. Harvard Law professor Noah Feldman (who gave his Constitution Day speech this year at Brigham Young University) wrote in last years The Broken Constitution: Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America that Lincoln did not so much save the Constitution as something more dramatic and more extreme: the frank breaking and frank remaking of the entire order of union, rights, constitution, and liberty.

But there are other ways short of violent rupture to survive those moments, as now, when the Constitution no longer reflects the imperatives of the moment. One of those ways is when artful improvisation creates a new consensus. The Supreme Court struck down much of FDRs initial program, but the New Deals core assumption that we live in a national economy with a robust and responsive national government prevailed, helped along by a dramatically new understanding of the interstate commerce clause. Another way to survive is good luck. In the Cold War, presidents had (and still have) a power never contemplated in the Constitution the ability to blow up the world with nuclear bombs on command, in minutes, with no approval by Congress or anyone else.

Conflict, improvisation, good luck likely all three will be required for the country to survive the coming constitutional showdown. If successful, we can someday go back to not paying much attention to Constitution Day.

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The Best Way To Save The Constitution From Donald Trump Is To Rewrite It - POLITICO