Trump responds favorably to a post that likens him to Jesus. Trump compares himself to Jesus Christ – again excerpt: "On Monday, Mr Trump claimed that he received a message stating: “It’s ironic that Christ walked through His greatest persecution the very week they are trying to steal your property from you.” “Beautiful, thank you!” Mr Trump responded, seemingly moved by the message that his $464m fine for decades of financial fraud is on the same level as the crucifixion and subsequent resurrection of Jesus Christ. The fine stems from a civil case in which New York State prosecuted Mr Trump for inflating the value of his assets to get better deals on loans and insurance."
Trump suggests conviction in hush money case could make him more popular | WDTN.com excerpt: "Exit polling from Super Tuesday earlier this month found 37 percent of primary voters in Virginia and 31 percent of primary voters in North Carolina said Trump would not be fit to be president if he’s convicted of a crime."
Mulvaney calls Trump a ‘trampoline president’ after bond reduced excerpt: “If he’s acquitted in New York under … the … hush money case, he’s gonna say, ‘Look, there, it proves it. It was nothing to begin with; it was politically motivated to begin with,’” Mulvaney said on NewsNation’s “Dan Abrams Live” in an interview with host Jesse Weber. “So, in a certain sense, and I know this sound contrived, the man wins when he wins, and wins when he loses, and that’s just the nature of Donald Trump. He is the ultimate, not only Teflon, but he’s sort of a — the trampoline president,” Mulvaney said.
Trump’s Truth Social is now a public company. Experts warn its multibillion-dollar valuation defies logic | CNN Business excerpt: “This is a very unusual situation. The stock is pretty much divorced from fundamentals,” said Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business, who has been studying initial public offerings (IPOs) for over 40 years. Ritter said the closest parallel would be GameStop, AMC and other so-called meme stocks that skyrocketed during Covid-19 as an army of retail traders piled in. He said Trump Media is likely worth somewhere around $2 a share — nowhere near its implied stock price of $50. “The underlying business doesn’t seem to be worth much. There is no evidence this is going to become a large, highly profitable company,” he said. “I’m reasonably confident the stock price will eventually drop to $2 a share and could even go below that if the company blows through the money it got from the merger.”
Trump's media stock is trading under the name DJT, the same name used for his casino businesses that went bankrupt in the 1990's.
He painted himself red for the Cardinals years before Trump started MAGA. He didn't have to change his attire much to be one of Trump's rioters. image:
Although his bond was reduced by about 60%, Trump still has the $464 million judgments against him that he will have to pay, unless an appeals court ultimately rules in his favor on the judgment like it did on his bond.
Newly released transcripts reveal a MAGA betrayal: Donald Trump never cared about Ashli Babbitt excerpt: "Trump in particular likes to get maudlin, calling Babbitt an "innocent, wonderful, incredible woman." He also spent months demonizing the Capitol police officer, Michael Byrd, who was forced to shoot Babbitt that day. (Byrd's actions have been exonerated through multiple investigations, though anyone who has seen the footage of the shooting can see he had no choice.) Trump has suggested Byrd should face extra-legal execution, complaining, "if that were on the other side, the person that did the shooting would be strung up and hung." It's language that should remind us that his "bloodbath" talk is both serious and literal."
A Demographic and Legal Profile of January 6 Prosecutions excerpt: "With the exception of race and gender, in many ways, the 716 charged for their actions on January 6 mirror America," said Donna Crawley, Professor Emeritus at Ramapo College and consulting statistician to the report. "For example, based on the information that was available, the 716 were not statistically different in educational attainment from the American white adult population as a whole. In addition, they don’t look radically different from the rest of the country in general occupational categories."
How to Finally Outrun Trump’s Efforts to Outrun the Law excerpt: "For reasons we’ve been writing about for years, the political press tends to cover the Supreme Court within its own ecosystem and on its own terms, which makes it a salient political story for only really the last two weeks of June, when the big cases come down. But as the court has been drawn into Trump’s legal woes, it has become front-page news in recent weeks, both for the strikingly political and deeply consequentialist “per curiam” decision to rewrite the text of the 14th Amendment to keep Donald Trump on the ballot last month, and its even more harmful decision to allow his D.C. criminal trial to be delayed pending Supreme Court review, even though everyone and his cat knows that Trump’s immunity theory is risible and untenable."
How to Finally Outrun Trump’s Efforts to Outrun the Law excerpt: "A criminal conviction before the November election could seriously affect Trump’s chances in the presidential contest, but also that Trump’s criminal legal woes do not seem to be moving the electoral needle all that much in the meantime."
Although the polls show Trump would be hurt by a criminal conviction, it is questionable because nothing yet has hurt him significantly in the long run, in spite of expectations before his behaviors that it would hurt him (i.e., 91 felony charges against him, his insurrection at the Capitol, civil case losses involving hundred of millions of dollars and civil rape). The public's view of Trump's culpability and the violence at the insurrection at the Capitol has softened over the past three years. It's possible that a number of criminal convictions of him a month or two before the 2024 election might damage him significantly before the shock reaction of it wears off like it did for the insurrection. A conviction needs to actually occur to see if the public will give Trump yet another chance, such as allowing him to exhaust all of his appeals options, which would be years after the 2024 election, before concluding that he isn't qualified to be president.
In what could be considered horrific in the 80's era compared to Trump's 91 felony charges, Gary Hart dropped out of the 1988 race because he was seen with Donna Rice.
Trump's 2024 campaign is like Al Capone running for president to try to stay out of prison. How to Finally Outrun Trump’s Efforts to Outrun the Law excerpt: "Brian Beutler had a very smart column last week pointing out something that should be obvious to everyone: Donald Trump is not so much running a presidential campaign as he is spearheading a criminal immunity racket. This “campaign” bears none of the hallmarks of a typical presidential run, no softening Melania, no silky Ivanka, no “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” messaging, and almost no discussion of policy or politics. It’s just stadium rallies and Witch Hunt postings and “Please rise for the horribly and unfairly treated January 6 hostages.” None of this, notes Beutler, is about making an argument for the presidency, and all of it is about evading legal accountability:"
Trump is listed in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index for the first time in his life. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/25/tru...-billion-after-media-company-stock-jumps.html excerpt: "Trump owns nearly 80 million shares, or roughly 58%, of Trump Media, which operates his social media site Truth Social. At DWAC's closing price Monday of $49.95 a share, Trump's stock was worth $4 billion on paper. The newly merged social media company said it will begin trading Tuesday under the ticker symbol DJT. DWAC's share price soared 35% in Monday trading, after a New York appeals court slashed the amount of cash the former president needs to get a bond saving him from having to immediately pay a $454 million civil fraud penalty."
So much for voting for Rubio as an alternative to Trump. That was in 2016. Now Rubio is a possible VP for Trump in 2024. image:
House GOP threatens to hold AG Garland in contempt over Biden documents. Republicans threaten to hold Attorney General Garland in contempt over Biden documents case
Trump spirals as bond deadline in fraud case nears | The Hill excerpt: "The case’s core allegations threatened several areas Trump takes particular pride in. It struck at the heart of his reputation as a savvy deal-maker and wealthy businessman, which helped propel him into a successful run for the White House in 2016. “It has to do with his business and his family and his brand,” said one former Trump White House official. The trial and its aftermath have also enveloped his adult children, specifically Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., both of whom serve as executive vice presidents of the Trump Organization. The brothers were ordered to pay more than $4.6 million each and were barred for two years from serving in top leadership roles for any New York company."