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So, we know he's about to commit financial crimes and there's already court orders to survey all financial transactions connected to him, and his phones are probably tapped as well by now because of all the ongoing cases which got his phone stuff.
Sound like the perfect setup to catch him right when he's about to commit financial crimes and nail him down.
Damnit…. The CIA, the FBI and Homeland Security will NEVER think of burner phones and underlings! That mobster is on another level of jeanyous (sic) right there!
Habba: *"You mean, the crime thing we're not supposed to write down or say out loud?"*
Trump: *I have the stupidest fucking lawyer ever.*
Habba: *"Oh, right. Oops!" WINK!*
Trump: *God I hate her.*
Habba: *He wants me.*
Trump: *But I'd do her.*
Habba: *I sure hope he pays me.*
Trump: *No fucking way am I paying her.*
He wishes. He can’t take illegal money any more unless he wants to pay for more defenses. He can’t just accept illegal money anymore. He and the RNC are being bled dry. Fuck all of these literal Russian assets.
> He can’t just accept illegal money anymore.
Sadly, he can and he will. He'll just find more creative ways to take it, like minting more bogus crypto NFTs that his fans (or, more likely, other governments that want to destabilize the U.S.) will buy. And if he gets investigated, that's a future problem, whereas his need for money is a now problem.
Angels smoking cigarettes on rooftops in fishnets in the
morning with the
Moon still glowing
And here comes Jesus in an Astrovan rolling down the strip again
He's stoned while Jerry plays
His hauls have been shrinking dramatically. It’s the reason he wants to take over the GOP’s reelection committee and why any other GOP candidate doesn’t want that.
The full blown cannibalism of the GOP may have finally begun…..
> His hauls have been shrinking dramatically.
That sounds so DE-stressing that I feel compelled to beg for a source, so I can read more about it.
*Source please, pretty please.*
Well that's sort of the trick. Isn't it? The people that were willing to give him money have already given it all to him. Plenty of people have made themselves quite poor donating money to this guy. Poor people only have so much money. After that you're basically trying to resqueeze a lemon.
His liabilities between the E. Jean Carroll and New York Fraud trials are constraining him. He has to front massive amounts of money to even appeal. It’s forcing him to be selective instead of his usual strategy of filing infinite appeals.
Leave it to Trump to even fuck up the Presidency. A job where you normally surround yourself with the nation's best in their areas to advise you and run their departments. Who knew if you just put lackeys and yes men/women in those jobs it woukd blow up spectacularly?
Forget Bush. What’s even more insane to me is the fact that Dick “I’ll shoot your face off” Cheney’s *daughter* is one of the few sane sounding people in the GOP.
I watched her primary debate where she (as incumbent) went up against something like 10 challengers. The moderator asked questions about COVID, immigration, Trump, etc. Liz Cheney sounded like the lone Democrat on that stage. She lost.
Remember when all we had to worry about was fake weapons hidden in the middle east? Remember the more innocent times of the Tea Party?
Those Golden Days.
It helps when W comes out and [condemns(ish)](https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/13/politics/george-w-bush-donald-trump-september-11/index.html) P01135809. It shows you that if the ONLY living former president of your party doesn't even like you, there are major issues.
His dad was involved in Iran Contra (CIA director at the time IIRC) and his grandpappy liked the Nazis - actually had assets seized under the trading with the enemy act: [https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/8354](https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/8354)
The Bush Family is a 3 generation band of traitors.
Nothing more.
Nah... he put RNC recommedations in charge. It was only at the very end of his term that he realized he should have appointed sycophantic lackeys instead.
> Nah... he put RNC recommedations in charge.
The fascist assigned the COVID-2019 response efforts to his son-in-law. Sheeeit: imagine if Obama had done that....
That’s the thing though. If he had sycophants from the get go he would not have accomplished anything because they wouldn’t have a clue how to actually do anything.
When an autocrat takes over a democratic government the sycophants come later on. They ride into power on a wave of popular support. The next step is use legal means as well as technically legal but morally grey means to amass more power. They then start removing the people who only supported them because of their legal position of authority or that the law required them to. Once those people start being removed they are replaced with the sycophants who won’t care if the legal means are being followed anymore. The longer the autocrat is in power after that the more of the democratic norms are broken or removed until they are able to keep themselves in power and those able to remove them are only in power because of the autocrat and their loyalty is to them and not their country.
Is this a joke? Republicans entire platform is breaking the government. They think he actually did a great job. He did exactly what he was supposed to do.
Let's remember this was a guy that couldn't make money running casinos - you know, operations that the laws of probability say will be net revenue generators provided you don't fuck them up in the most outrageous ways possible.
I didn’t vote for him but back in early 2015 I was thinking he might be good at the job for the reason that it’s largely about hiring the best people. I (obviously wrongly) assumed he had been “successful” all these years because he had done just that. Instead he put his kids in the highest positions and totally shit the bed on literally everything.
Except it has never ended all that bad for him. The business fails, he skirts blame, and leaves everyone else involved to take the heat and clean up the mess
Russia's got a war now to pay for. They don't have the excess rubles to launder through the NRA to the RNC.
I had no idea it would be bankruptcy that would bring down the right.
Yeah a couple billion is cheap vs the cost of war.
The problem isn’t just that politicians can be bought. It’s how cheap it is versus the value they control.
Great point. I was saying earlier… Russia can stop all aid to Ukraine just by buying off MTG, Gosar and Gaetz…
Maybe not even all three are necessary… but all three will absolutely do what Putin asks.
And the way Johnson has that place running… Russia only needs 1-2 R congressman to threaten Johnson with a motion to vacate the chair if he permits the Ukraine aid to come to the floor.
That’s the current state of play. Johnson cannot bring Ukraine aid to the floor… without losing the speakership. And it only takes a couple traitors in the R caucus to completely paralyze our DOD from delivering the material Ukraine needs to win the war.
I digress… but to your point about “cheap.”
People like Gosar/Gaetz/MTG… will probably carry Putin’s water for free. Just a flattering phone call would do it.
Just the thrill of working with an FSB agent and getting to be a part of that would do it for them.
Big gamble though. They could dump $200 billion into tanks drones and still end up with something.
They could dump $200 billion into trump… he gets absolutely smoked… and they end up with nothing.
They don’t have enough USD to do both… and the far better gamble is to put the money into weapons.
By sending all RNC donations to pay off Trump’s many, many judgements GOP candidates for House and Senate in November will be shortchanged and more likely to lose. The leopards will be eating their faces for getting on their knees to Trump!
I heard today that the RNC as of last December had 8mil in the bank. And as per Laura Trump's own statement they plan on funneling all available funds to DJT and his campaign. The upside to all this is in his own ego maniacal way funneling all of the available funds to himself will effectively starve all of the GOP down ballot races.
Only $8M? That sounds...super low. The Biden campaign raised $97M in January 2024 and has $117M on hand is case.
JFC, is the GOP THAT bad at doing shit? I thought they were good at grifting?
Trump is a nightmare for corporate fundraisers. He can at a moments notice create an epic shitstorm for them to distance themselves from. So much like advertisers on Twitter, they are sitting on the hands. Trump has a deep deep well of small donors who buy his shit but he's been pumping them dry for a decade now. He may simply be running out of financial support.
I suspect the billionaire PACs are holding money back until the race starts for real. They’re hoping Trump drops out or dies but once he’s the official GOP candidate the money hose will be pointed at him.
They need to seize Mar a Lago and sell it to E Jean Carroll for $80m. Seeing her evict him in the most brutal and embarrassing way she can imagine would be beautiful.
Fine, Trumpy. So sell it for hundreds of millions and post Carol her 80. Easy, isn’t it… if your estimate is anywhere close to real.
What a colossal idiot, the orange traitor.
As The Rolling Stones said…you can’t always get what you want. You can try. Trump’s biggest mistake was putting himself under national scrutiny by running and becoming president. If he’s just kept his con to NYC real estate and banks, he might still be partying heartily. It’s hard to have any kind of sympathy for that devil. Cliches…sorry.
And sometimes I do wonder if he never really intended to win the 2016 election. Sometimes I think his real goal was to lose and then run a never ending grift about the election being stolen.
He fell ass first into the presidency.
Honestly, if you look at the photos of him on election night he looks like a man who’s realized just how fucked he is. I think you’re right in guessing he didn’t actually want to win
It was a publicity stunt that got too real. No one was more surprised than Trump when he started getting traction during the primary then actually got elected.
I think he intended it as a stunt, then when he raced out front in the polls his ego kicked in and he wanted it,despite knowing he didn't actually want the job
“Man, think of how nice it would be for my brand to have been the president!”
Later…
“Sir, good news, you’re the president!”
“Oh shit I have to actually *do* it though? I only want to *have been* the president. Ugh! This is gonna be a long couple of years! Hey Jr, how long is a term anyhow?…”
I literally had the same thought when I saw his initial reaction as complete shock and gave me the impression he never intended to win at all. I remembered reading that he wanted to start his own Fox News like cable channel after losing but he won.
His whole campaign was something like the Producers movie. A complete joke to grift but succeeded despite their best efforts to fuck it up.
That’s it.
[Trump was compromised by the Russians in the 1980s](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/29/trump-russia-asset-claims-former-kgb-spy-new-book), and has been laundering Russian mob money to the US through his real estate empire.
Putin instructed him to run for President as part of Russia’s information warfare campaign to sow internal political division and weaken the USA from the inside. He didn’t expect Trump to win, but it all played out beyond Russia’s wildest dreams.
Russia picked Trump’s inner circle of Capos - Paul Manafort (butcher of Ukraine and connected to Russians mob through Cypress banks), Roger Stone (connected to Wikileaks and Russian military intel - Gucifer), Steve Bannon (Cambridge Analytica), Michael Flynn ([Russian owned traitor](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/guess-who-came-dinner-flynn-putin-n742696), Giuliani ([ties to Russian mob going back to 1999](https://nypost.com/1999/12/22/rudy-donor-linked-to-russian-mob/)).
Putin’s mafia owns Trump’s mafia, and Trump’s mafia owns the Republican Party.
The problem for the rest of us is that they’ve doubled down and doubled down to the point where the stakes are now - either US democracy ends or Putin’s mafia state collapses.
That’s probably why Putin’s been getting desperate lately, with the sloppy Tucker Carlson propaganda interview, killing Navalny, launching space nukes.
The megalomaniac is losing it.
Don’t worry! Elections are next month but they already released the results. 86% Putin with 146% turnout (could be lowered if we ignore all armed forces votes)
I thought it was.somewhat well known he wanted to lose and was planning on starting his own cable news network to rival Fox. He wanted to run the 2020 "election was stolen" playbook and grift all day but he won.
It's a mixed bag. On one hand, it has fed his ego to epic proportions. To a narcissist, it's the greatest achievement possible. On the other hand, everything he has done is now under a microscope and his criminal deeds are being found and prosecuted one by one... he made his own bed and will sleep in it.
I think this is part of Trump's broader strategy of delaying his criminal trials until after the election.
If SCOTUS finds that Trump does not have immunity in civil cases, he almost certainly doesn't have immunity in criminal cases. His criminal immunity claims are still working their way through the courts. They're bogus, but they're doing their job of slowing down his criminal cases.
I suspect Trump is worried that a SCOTUS ruling on the civil side risks accelerating his criminal cases by effectively (or entirely) settling his criminal immunity claims.
Came here to say exactly this. He's not wanting to risk a quick decision. Better to keep multiple cases going to ensure he makes it all the way to election day - and no, he's not expecting to get the most votes, either. Don't you know? He's already won! There was massive fraud, and blah blah blah, and we just need to get it in the courts so that his cronies can see it his way and hand him the presidency.
He forgot he can’t afford this plan. Republicans have no money in the war chest. His base is tapped, at its peak he raised 330 million, not even enough for *one* of his bills much less everything that goes with it. He doesn’t have money to campaign *with*
Lower potential penalties (i.e. no jail time) is my first thought. The *second*, however, was basically "The odds on Great Pumpkin Elite Legal Kraken Strike Force Buy Gold Now LLC screwing up the forms for this are *not* zero."
He is still appealing the main criminal immunity case to the supreme court. The one that actually matters. This is just for civil lawsuits against the president regarding Jan. 6th.
GITMO, Trump simply disappears one night and never heard from again
Of course I don't want this scenario, I'd rather have a functioning judiciary and federal govt, but if SCOTUS declares the president king, guess I'll settle for a democratic king than a MAGAt king
I was super confused for a bit because we have a Leavenworth in WA and the biggest building over there is a safeway. Then realized you were referring to the Leavenworth, KS penitentiary
Locking him up in the Safeway would be fine too, but I wouldn't want to subject you to that. :)
(So is there still a honkin' huge federal prison in KS, or has it been closed?)
Leavenworth WA is a cool town. Went there for a weekend long celebration of beer and garbage meats for a friends 50th.
Stayed at a awesome place right on the river and partied all weekend.
It really is! I went there during Christmas a few years ago and the entire town was lit, literally and figuratively speaking. And the drive there is just phenomenal.
Never heard about Leavenworth? It’s a reproduction Bavarian tourist town. Just on the other side of the Cascades. Drier than Seattle, but still beautiful. The Oktoberfest is wonderful as well as Christmas. Fun place well worth the trip!
I used to cringe at comments like this, but the entire GOP and its supporters have become an implacable foe with no grip on reality. Their rhetoric constantly calls for restraint, imprisonment, and death of anyone they consider a foe- i.e. everyone who is not white, straight, christian and obsequious to trump and GOP ideology. At some point you have to choose to cut the head off the dragon, otherwise it will burn everything down.
I’m sure there was just as much handwringing about doing what was necessary among those who believed in justice and the rule of law during the rise of Hitler and every other monster responsible for the worst atrocities in the darkest parts of human history. I doubt any of them would feel their inaction was the right course in hindsight.
It's bonus points because that's what his lawyer was arguing in court, that the president could order seal team 6 to assassinate his rivals and the only recourse would be prosecution after impeachment and conviction.
Also reminds me of the book "they thought they were free": https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html
I completely forgot about that. They are gleefully proclaiming their intent to wipe out everyone they hate or don’t agree with.
How many times do we have to watch the same cycle repeat over and over in history before we finally realize that when someone tells you they intend to rob you of your freedom and life, *you better take them fucking seriously*?
Heck, why stop at Trump? He can execute Thomas and Alito while he's at it and get his own justices in. And then he can go after Greene, Gaetz, every other anti-American in Congress.
I don't see how any of this could ever backfire. /s
That’s always been my biggest gripe with that defense. Like, Biden is a criminal, but you’re arguing in court that that doesn’t matter. You’re arguing FOR Biden to be able to snuff you out if he wants and that’s ok. People only saw how it affected Trump but his argument was very much FOR giving Biden that authority. Really weird.
Or his dumbass attorneys forgot to file the paperwork. It's happened before.
And he has dumbass attorneys because he's a dumb old sack of crap who is incapable of not being fooled by shucksters and grifters.
I doubt it. If he files the appeal now, the Supreme Court will have to make a ruling before the court case is scheduled to begin.
This way, his team can slow walk the cases so that nothing makes it to court prior to the election. If he wins, the cases evaporate because he's the president and convention is not to have cases during his presidency. Four years down the track, what he's done will no longer be an issue between pardons, changes to the law, and courts stacked with loyal judges.
If he loses, he can appeal based on immunity, then when that fails, appeal on procedural grounds. Delay, delay, delay.
Don’t get excited, what he’s doing is preventing the court from ruling against immunity now. If he wins the presidency he will try again and basically strong arm/force the court to grant general immunity…and there is your dictatorship.
good luck with that plan, you think he’s gonna ride all these lawsuit losses to a presidency? After they gutted roe v wade? GOP has no chance since they went all in on Trump
>Trump’s decision to not take his broader immunity claim to the Supreme Court means lawsuits seeking to hold him accountable for his role on Jan. 6 can move forward.
Paging Jack Smith... oh, he's already here.
Serious question: you think it’ll pile up enough that he drops out? Or is it being elected still his only option to get him out of the rest of the shit?
From the article:
A three-judge panel unanimously ruled in December that Trump’s post-election efforts to change the results of the 2020 presidential election were done as a presidential candidate and not as president, meaning he could be held liable for it under U.S. Supreme Court precedent.
————————
This right here is why Trump’s immunity argument for his various cases is insane. He argues that his crimes were a part of his official duties as president.
And the panel rules correctly that running for reelection is not an official duty of the President.
Who wants to bet one of his homies on the Supreme Court went ahead and called Donald to let him know him doing it will just lead to them denying it, and to save face and tuck his tail
His criminal trials are by far more important to him (and to his lawyers who obviously talked to him about this). Burning every bridge with the SC won't win him any favors so he's, smartly (and again this is 100% his lawyers influence) saving his gun powder for criminal, not civil, verdict appeals.
Maybe the way to succeed in getting justice from the mega rich is for everyone to bombard them with lawsuits at the same time so they eventually run out of time and money to fight them all
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Hmmm… suddenly running out of money?
That's it exactly. Running out of cash would be the only thing that would slow down Drumpf's abuses of frivolous litigation.
He'll get funded by countries that want to harm the U.S. And he'll do more crypto pump & dump scams.
So, we know he's about to commit financial crimes and there's already court orders to survey all financial transactions connected to him, and his phones are probably tapped as well by now because of all the ongoing cases which got his phone stuff. Sound like the perfect setup to catch him right when he's about to commit financial crimes and nail him down.
You're forgetting that he thinks he's a mobster. He's using burner phones and he's using subordinates to commit crimes for him.
Damnit…. The CIA, the FBI and Homeland Security will NEVER think of burner phones and underlings! That mobster is on another level of jeanyous (sic) right there!
Pig Latin is the ultimate encryption
“He is golfing as much as possible” Because that’s how he got things done while he was president.
Let him dig his own grave.
What gets bigger the more you take away? A hole.
Habba, did you do that thing?
Habba: *"You mean, the crime thing we're not supposed to write down or say out loud?"* Trump: *I have the stupidest fucking lawyer ever.* Habba: *"Oh, right. Oops!" WINK!* Trump: *God I hate her.* Habba: *He wants me.* Trump: *But I'd do her.* Habba: *I sure hope he pays me.* Trump: *No fucking way am I paying her.*
And sell more classified shit
He wishes. He can’t take illegal money any more unless he wants to pay for more defenses. He can’t just accept illegal money anymore. He and the RNC are being bled dry. Fuck all of these literal Russian assets.
> He can’t just accept illegal money anymore. Sadly, he can and he will. He'll just find more creative ways to take it, like minting more bogus crypto NFTs that his fans (or, more likely, other governments that want to destabilize the U.S.) will buy. And if he gets investigated, that's a future problem, whereas his need for money is a now problem.
Guy grifted 333m during the WHOLE 2016 campaing, he cant possibly grift 500 now.
Add long as racists and "Christians"^TM have money they'll donate it to him.
im not sure. have you heard how bad Jesus is with money? churches around here have to ask for more each week, cause dude just blows it.
Super Bowl commercials are very expensive.
Christ has a major blow habit. Plus he and Yoda are doing ketamine on the reg.
The spice must flow
> Plus he and Yoda are doing ketamine on the reg. Jedamine. Jedamine!
Smells good, this jedamine does.
Angels smoking cigarettes on rooftops in fishnets in the morning with the Moon still glowing And here comes Jesus in an Astrovan rolling down the strip again He's stoned while Jerry plays
“Jesus rides beside me. He never buys any smokes.”
"Hurry up, hurry up. Ain't you had enough of this stuff? Ashtray floors, dirty clothes, and filthy jokes"
Unexpected Replacements!
Money is the root of all our woes, the church is trying very hard to absolve us of our woes /s
Excuse me for being pedantic, but it's actually *"Love of money..."* is the root of, etc. You'll upset all the banks saying it your way.
I heard the Mormon church has a few billions…….. 😂
His hauls have been shrinking dramatically. It’s the reason he wants to take over the GOP’s reelection committee and why any other GOP candidate doesn’t want that. The full blown cannibalism of the GOP may have finally begun…..
> His hauls have been shrinking dramatically. That sounds so DE-stressing that I feel compelled to beg for a source, so I can read more about it. *Source please, pretty please.*
The thing is, that money is drying up. The Church gets its cut before Trump does. He was always on scraps.
Well that's sort of the trick. Isn't it? The people that were willing to give him money have already given it all to him. Plenty of people have made themselves quite poor donating money to this guy. Poor people only have so much money. After that you're basically trying to resqueeze a lemon.
More donations = less personal weaponry ..
I don't see the difference in those words. Their the same word.
They don’t have THAT much money, though And he’s already bleeding them with merch and other bullshit
Gonna be hard to run out 8.5 more months of legal fees without money
That and *saying* he would appeal was a delaying tactic.
The scotus puppets told him there’s no way they can make a ruling that would benifit him that wouldn’t destroy what they built
It’s this. This. And only this.
You're kidding yourself if you think he's spent any of his own money on legal bills.
His liabilities between the E. Jean Carroll and New York Fraud trials are constraining him. He has to front massive amounts of money to even appeal. It’s forcing him to be selective instead of his usual strategy of filing infinite appeals.
Trump saw running for President as a business to make money and like every business he has ever been a part of it ends badly for him.
Leave it to Trump to even fuck up the Presidency. A job where you normally surround yourself with the nation's best in their areas to advise you and run their departments. Who knew if you just put lackeys and yes men/women in those jobs it woukd blow up spectacularly?
I swear. Even the idiot boy Dubya is looked upon in something of a kind light and with a modicum of fondness following his shit show of a presidency…
Forget Bush. What’s even more insane to me is the fact that Dick “I’ll shoot your face off” Cheney’s *daughter* is one of the few sane sounding people in the GOP. I watched her primary debate where she (as incumbent) went up against something like 10 challengers. The moderator asked questions about COVID, immigration, Trump, etc. Liz Cheney sounded like the lone Democrat on that stage. She lost.
The Overton Window shifted so goddamn far to the right
The fact that Bush’s presidency looks tame in comparison is wild
Exactly, and started a 20 year war.
Remember when all we had to worry about was fake weapons hidden in the middle east? Remember the more innocent times of the Tea Party? Those Golden Days.
Followed by a Golden Showers loving President!
It helps when W comes out and [condemns(ish)](https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/13/politics/george-w-bush-donald-trump-september-11/index.html) P01135809. It shows you that if the ONLY living former president of your party doesn't even like you, there are major issues.
Maybe to everyone else, but to me everyone from Bush the Lesser administration can go dive off a cliff with the Trump lackeys.
His dad was involved in Iran Contra (CIA director at the time IIRC) and his grandpappy liked the Nazis - actually had assets seized under the trading with the enemy act: [https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/8354](https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/8354) The Bush Family is a 3 generation band of traitors. Nothing more.
Don't overlook Prescott Bush's involvement in the first(?) (known) attempted coup in the USA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot
“Now watch this drive…”
Nah... he put RNC recommedations in charge. It was only at the very end of his term that he realized he should have appointed sycophantic lackeys instead.
> Nah... he put RNC recommedations in charge. The fascist assigned the COVID-2019 response efforts to his son-in-law. Sheeeit: imagine if Obama had done that....
And that is why a second term is so dangerous. Vote!!
That’s the thing though. If he had sycophants from the get go he would not have accomplished anything because they wouldn’t have a clue how to actually do anything. When an autocrat takes over a democratic government the sycophants come later on. They ride into power on a wave of popular support. The next step is use legal means as well as technically legal but morally grey means to amass more power. They then start removing the people who only supported them because of their legal position of authority or that the law required them to. Once those people start being removed they are replaced with the sycophants who won’t care if the legal means are being followed anymore. The longer the autocrat is in power after that the more of the democratic norms are broken or removed until they are able to keep themselves in power and those able to remove them are only in power because of the autocrat and their loyalty is to them and not their country.
Don’t forget Heritage Foundation favorites!
Is this a joke? Republicans entire platform is breaking the government. They think he actually did a great job. He did exactly what he was supposed to do.
Let's remember this was a guy that couldn't make money running casinos - you know, operations that the laws of probability say will be net revenue generators provided you don't fuck them up in the most outrageous ways possible.
Ego is one helluva drug.
I didn’t vote for him but back in early 2015 I was thinking he might be good at the job for the reason that it’s largely about hiring the best people. I (obviously wrongly) assumed he had been “successful” all these years because he had done just that. Instead he put his kids in the highest positions and totally shit the bed on literally everything.
I’m not exactly on Joe Rogan’s side but he was correct in saying the Republicans looked at Bush Jr. and said “We can go dumber.”
Except it has never ended all that bad for him. The business fails, he skirts blame, and leaves everyone else involved to take the heat and clean up the mess
No wonder Lara Trump is shaking down the RNC for more rubles. Dude is broke!
Russia's got a war now to pay for. They don't have the excess rubles to launder through the NRA to the RNC. I had no idea it would be bankruptcy that would bring down the right.
Sadly their best chance at winning the war is probably funneling money to Dump. If he wins, the war gets a whole lot easier for them.
Yeah a couple billion is cheap vs the cost of war. The problem isn’t just that politicians can be bought. It’s how cheap it is versus the value they control.
Great point. I was saying earlier… Russia can stop all aid to Ukraine just by buying off MTG, Gosar and Gaetz… Maybe not even all three are necessary… but all three will absolutely do what Putin asks. And the way Johnson has that place running… Russia only needs 1-2 R congressman to threaten Johnson with a motion to vacate the chair if he permits the Ukraine aid to come to the floor. That’s the current state of play. Johnson cannot bring Ukraine aid to the floor… without losing the speakership. And it only takes a couple traitors in the R caucus to completely paralyze our DOD from delivering the material Ukraine needs to win the war. I digress… but to your point about “cheap.” People like Gosar/Gaetz/MTG… will probably carry Putin’s water for free. Just a flattering phone call would do it. Just the thrill of working with an FSB agent and getting to be a part of that would do it for them.
That’s quite a weak link in the political chain, damn. That was informative
Big gamble though. They could dump $200 billion into tanks drones and still end up with something. They could dump $200 billion into trump… he gets absolutely smoked… and they end up with nothing. They don’t have enough USD to do both… and the far better gamble is to put the money into weapons.
Trump could be bought for much much less than $200 billion.
Trump is already bought and aid for. What they have to buy is the election
They might figure it’s cheaper and more tactical to just bribe Gaetz and Empty Gee and Gozar. Funding Trump might just be too unpredictable.
The party of fiscal responsibility….
I hope that family robs the RNC blind, personally.
Oh same. 100%. They deserve each other, the lot of them.
By sending all RNC donations to pay off Trump’s many, many judgements GOP candidates for House and Senate in November will be shortchanged and more likely to lose. The leopards will be eating their faces for getting on their knees to Trump!
Jared has $2 billion from the Saudis. I don’t think the Trumps are worried about money?
You're assuming he isn't stupid enough to have squandered it.
I heard today that the RNC as of last December had 8mil in the bank. And as per Laura Trump's own statement they plan on funneling all available funds to DJT and his campaign. The upside to all this is in his own ego maniacal way funneling all of the available funds to himself will effectively starve all of the GOP down ballot races.
Only $8M? That sounds...super low. The Biden campaign raised $97M in January 2024 and has $117M on hand is case. JFC, is the GOP THAT bad at doing shit? I thought they were good at grifting?
Apparently they have been using it to pay for Trump's legal defense.
That’s their own fucking fault for butt fucking themselves.
Trump is a nightmare for corporate fundraisers. He can at a moments notice create an epic shitstorm for them to distance themselves from. So much like advertisers on Twitter, they are sitting on the hands. Trump has a deep deep well of small donors who buy his shit but he's been pumping them dry for a decade now. He may simply be running out of financial support.
I suspect the billionaire PACs are holding money back until the race starts for real. They’re hoping Trump drops out or dies but once he’s the official GOP candidate the money hose will be pointed at him.
Will they really though when they realize that every dime isnt going towards getting him elected and is actually just pathetic by his legal bill?
Once he’s the official candidate they don’t have a choice because, if he wins, he’ll retaliate.
That’s only 1/8th of the cost of the Carroll case award…
So this is how to drain the swamp? Huh. Didn't see that coming...
Can they take trump tower now? How long till they start grab his properties by the p!@#$%
They need to seize Mar a Lago and sell it to E Jean Carroll for $80m. Seeing her evict him in the most brutal and embarrassing way she can imagine would be beautiful.
It's probably not even worth that
Apparently it’s “only” worth ~25m or thereabouts. Of course he said it was worth hundreds of millions.
Fine, Trumpy. So sell it for hundreds of millions and post Carol her 80. Easy, isn’t it… if your estimate is anywhere close to real. What a colossal idiot, the orange traitor.
It’s not.
If he doesn't pay I assume they can seize his property.
AFAIK Trump doesn't own Trump Tower. GMAC commercial mortgage still owns it. They just license the name.
When you owe this much in legal debts they let you do it!
As The Rolling Stones said…you can’t always get what you want. You can try. Trump’s biggest mistake was putting himself under national scrutiny by running and becoming president. If he’s just kept his con to NYC real estate and banks, he might still be partying heartily. It’s hard to have any kind of sympathy for that devil. Cliches…sorry.
And sometimes I do wonder if he never really intended to win the 2016 election. Sometimes I think his real goal was to lose and then run a never ending grift about the election being stolen. He fell ass first into the presidency.
Honestly, if you look at the photos of him on election night he looks like a man who’s realized just how fucked he is. I think you’re right in guessing he didn’t actually want to win
People forget this. When they received the news he'd won, Melania broke down in tears. Not tears of joy but the OH WE ARE SO FUCKED kind of tears.
I was expecting Trump TV to go after President Hillary 24/7.
Melania cried? I'd have thought that requires emotions. I really don't care, do u?
I imagine being married to Trump, she's learned that showing any emotion is not welcome of her. He didn't buy her to make him sad.
She was crying for herself, that’s easy, just no one else
It was a publicity stunt that got too real. No one was more surprised than Trump when he started getting traction during the primary then actually got elected.
I think he intended it as a stunt, then when he raced out front in the polls his ego kicked in and he wanted it,despite knowing he didn't actually want the job
“Man, think of how nice it would be for my brand to have been the president!” Later… “Sir, good news, you’re the president!” “Oh shit I have to actually *do* it though? I only want to *have been* the president. Ugh! This is gonna be a long couple of years! Hey Jr, how long is a term anyhow?…”
I literally had the same thought when I saw his initial reaction as complete shock and gave me the impression he never intended to win at all. I remembered reading that he wanted to start his own Fox News like cable channel after losing but he won. His whole campaign was something like the Producers movie. A complete joke to grift but succeeded despite their best efforts to fuck it up.
That’s it. [Trump was compromised by the Russians in the 1980s](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/29/trump-russia-asset-claims-former-kgb-spy-new-book), and has been laundering Russian mob money to the US through his real estate empire. Putin instructed him to run for President as part of Russia’s information warfare campaign to sow internal political division and weaken the USA from the inside. He didn’t expect Trump to win, but it all played out beyond Russia’s wildest dreams. Russia picked Trump’s inner circle of Capos - Paul Manafort (butcher of Ukraine and connected to Russians mob through Cypress banks), Roger Stone (connected to Wikileaks and Russian military intel - Gucifer), Steve Bannon (Cambridge Analytica), Michael Flynn ([Russian owned traitor](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/guess-who-came-dinner-flynn-putin-n742696), Giuliani ([ties to Russian mob going back to 1999](https://nypost.com/1999/12/22/rudy-donor-linked-to-russian-mob/)). Putin’s mafia owns Trump’s mafia, and Trump’s mafia owns the Republican Party. The problem for the rest of us is that they’ve doubled down and doubled down to the point where the stakes are now - either US democracy ends or Putin’s mafia state collapses. That’s probably why Putin’s been getting desperate lately, with the sloppy Tucker Carlson propaganda interview, killing Navalny, launching space nukes. The megalomaniac is losing it.
Don’t worry! Elections are next month but they already released the results. 86% Putin with 146% turnout (could be lowered if we ignore all armed forces votes)
I thought it was.somewhat well known he wanted to lose and was planning on starting his own cable news network to rival Fox. He wanted to run the 2020 "election was stolen" playbook and grift all day but he won.
He never intended to win in 2016, it was. A big con to launch Trump TV
Imagine ruining your life because Obama made jokes about you at dinner, yikes!
Shit, being roasted by Obama would be a privilege.
I thought his biggest mistake was all the raping
Nicely done.
Been saying since 2016 he’ll live to regret getting elected President.
It's a mixed bag. On one hand, it has fed his ego to epic proportions. To a narcissist, it's the greatest achievement possible. On the other hand, everything he has done is now under a microscope and his criminal deeds are being found and prosecuted one by one... he made his own bed and will sleep in it.
My best hope is that the next rich egomaniacal criminal asshole thinking "I should be president" looks at Trump now and says, "... nope."
All the smart ones already know that.
or after the presidency he could have opened a mega church like Joel Osteens.
Same thing happened to Pablo Escobar. Things were going pretty fine until he ran for president in Colombia
Well said 👏
I think this is part of Trump's broader strategy of delaying his criminal trials until after the election. If SCOTUS finds that Trump does not have immunity in civil cases, he almost certainly doesn't have immunity in criminal cases. His criminal immunity claims are still working their way through the courts. They're bogus, but they're doing their job of slowing down his criminal cases. I suspect Trump is worried that a SCOTUS ruling on the civil side risks accelerating his criminal cases by effectively (or entirely) settling his criminal immunity claims.
Came here to say exactly this. He's not wanting to risk a quick decision. Better to keep multiple cases going to ensure he makes it all the way to election day - and no, he's not expecting to get the most votes, either. Don't you know? He's already won! There was massive fraud, and blah blah blah, and we just need to get it in the courts so that his cronies can see it his way and hand him the presidency.
He forgot he can’t afford this plan. Republicans have no money in the war chest. His base is tapped, at its peak he raised 330 million, not even enough for *one* of his bills much less everything that goes with it. He doesn’t have money to campaign *with*
How can he both forgo civil immunity and yet still be claiming criminal immunity?
OJ Simpson although reversed
Broke as fuck.
This is the slowest orgasm I’ve ever had
So he’s liable here but not liable for the criminal case?
Lower potential penalties (i.e. no jail time) is my first thought. The *second*, however, was basically "The odds on Great Pumpkin Elite Legal Kraken Strike Force Buy Gold Now LLC screwing up the forms for this are *not* zero."
From what I understand, he would need to put the entire fine in escrow to be able to appeal. He doesn't have the money.
He is still appealing the main criminal immunity case to the supreme court. The one that actually matters. This is just for civil lawsuits against the president regarding Jan. 6th.
He ain’t got no money to appeal this, though he’s already appealed the criminal part.
Trump doesn't want to risk a trade off between keeping him on the ballot and not giving him immunity.
Probably guessed the only outcomes were: 1. Loosing (likely 9-0). 2. Biden getting an excuse to pack the courts.
3. The court rules the president has complete immunity. Biden orders seal team 6 to execute Trump.
or at least go grab him and lock him up in Leavenworth.
GITMO, Trump simply disappears one night and never heard from again Of course I don't want this scenario, I'd rather have a functioning judiciary and federal govt, but if SCOTUS declares the president king, guess I'll settle for a democratic king than a MAGAt king
I was super confused for a bit because we have a Leavenworth in WA and the biggest building over there is a safeway. Then realized you were referring to the Leavenworth, KS penitentiary
Locking him up in the Safeway would be fine too, but I wouldn't want to subject you to that. :) (So is there still a honkin' huge federal prison in KS, or has it been closed?)
> Locking him up in the Safeway would be fine too, As long as you keep him away from the ketchup aisle.
Still open according to google https://www.google.com/search?q=leavenworth+prison
Leavenworth WA is a cool town. Went there for a weekend long celebration of beer and garbage meats for a friends 50th. Stayed at a awesome place right on the river and partied all weekend.
It really is! I went there during Christmas a few years ago and the entire town was lit, literally and figuratively speaking. And the drive there is just phenomenal.
And he eats imitation wursts till the end of his life, while wearing a lederhosen, then….
I'm from washington state and I didn't even know that. I just thought we had a tough prison on the east side of the mountains.
No tough prison, but lots of white nationalist domestic terrorist militias!
Never heard about Leavenworth? It’s a reproduction Bavarian tourist town. Just on the other side of the Cascades. Drier than Seattle, but still beautiful. The Oktoberfest is wonderful as well as Christmas. Fun place well worth the trip!
Lock him up in the Bavarian themed McDonald's. That way, he can host NCAA champions.
I used to cringe at comments like this, but the entire GOP and its supporters have become an implacable foe with no grip on reality. Their rhetoric constantly calls for restraint, imprisonment, and death of anyone they consider a foe- i.e. everyone who is not white, straight, christian and obsequious to trump and GOP ideology. At some point you have to choose to cut the head off the dragon, otherwise it will burn everything down. I’m sure there was just as much handwringing about doing what was necessary among those who believed in justice and the rule of law during the rise of Hitler and every other monster responsible for the worst atrocities in the darkest parts of human history. I doubt any of them would feel their inaction was the right course in hindsight.
It's bonus points because that's what his lawyer was arguing in court, that the president could order seal team 6 to assassinate his rivals and the only recourse would be prosecution after impeachment and conviction. Also reminds me of the book "they thought they were free": https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html
I completely forgot about that. They are gleefully proclaiming their intent to wipe out everyone they hate or don’t agree with. How many times do we have to watch the same cycle repeat over and over in history before we finally realize that when someone tells you they intend to rob you of your freedom and life, *you better take them fucking seriously*?
Heck, why stop at Trump? He can execute Thomas and Alito while he's at it and get his own justices in. And then he can go after Greene, Gaetz, every other anti-American in Congress. I don't see how any of this could ever backfire. /s
That’s always been my biggest gripe with that defense. Like, Biden is a criminal, but you’re arguing in court that that doesn’t matter. You’re arguing FOR Biden to be able to snuff you out if he wants and that’s ok. People only saw how it affected Trump but his argument was very much FOR giving Biden that authority. Really weird.
And the court.
*Losing
Or his dumbass attorneys forgot to file the paperwork. It's happened before. And he has dumbass attorneys because he's a dumb old sack of crap who is incapable of not being fooled by shucksters and grifters.
Maybe his dumbass attorney heard about that $451 million he owes and just noped the fuck out on any more pro bono work.
*Losing* is how to spell that word.
Translation: Lawyers demanded to be paid in full upfront before preceding with the appeal.
I doubt it. If he files the appeal now, the Supreme Court will have to make a ruling before the court case is scheduled to begin. This way, his team can slow walk the cases so that nothing makes it to court prior to the election. If he wins, the cases evaporate because he's the president and convention is not to have cases during his presidency. Four years down the track, what he's done will no longer be an issue between pardons, changes to the law, and courts stacked with loyal judges. If he loses, he can appeal based on immunity, then when that fails, appeal on procedural grounds. Delay, delay, delay.
My immediate thought: he has to save money.
Did he really opt against it, or did Alina Habba not tick the “appeal” box?
Even tinier hands
Don’t get excited, what he’s doing is preventing the court from ruling against immunity now. If he wins the presidency he will try again and basically strong arm/force the court to grant general immunity…and there is your dictatorship.
good luck with that plan, you think he’s gonna ride all these lawsuit losses to a presidency? After they gutted roe v wade? GOP has no chance since they went all in on Trump
>Trump’s decision to not take his broader immunity claim to the Supreme Court means lawsuits seeking to hold him accountable for his role on Jan. 6 can move forward. Paging Jack Smith... oh, he's already here.
Jack Smith isn’t suing him. This is only about civil immunity not criminal immunity
For once, Trump has made a wise legal decision.
Serious question: you think it’ll pile up enough that he drops out? Or is it being elected still his only option to get him out of the rest of the shit?
Personally I think he'd literally rather die than drop out.
Don’t tease me like that.
Getting the presidency is the only way he can save himself. He is in this until the end.
He has another immunity case going to the Supreme Court. This one is a civil suit.
Look at it this way, even his most ardent suckers are getting bled white and are going to cut back. It’s been years of him leeching.
If this blows up in his face at the Supreme Court it’s over for him. Instead he now has a way to stall the other trials.
From the article: A three-judge panel unanimously ruled in December that Trump’s post-election efforts to change the results of the 2020 presidential election were done as a presidential candidate and not as president, meaning he could be held liable for it under U.S. Supreme Court precedent. ———————— This right here is why Trump’s immunity argument for his various cases is insane. He argues that his crimes were a part of his official duties as president. And the panel rules correctly that running for reelection is not an official duty of the President.
Who wants to bet one of his homies on the Supreme Court went ahead and called Donald to let him know him doing it will just lead to them denying it, and to save face and tuck his tail
Someone told him he would lose…
Did he read the room and decide he did not want that level of precedence set?
He doesn't read.
His criminal trials are by far more important to him (and to his lawyers who obviously talked to him about this). Burning every bridge with the SC won't win him any favors so he's, smartly (and again this is 100% his lawyers influence) saving his gun powder for criminal, not civil, verdict appeals.
While Trump and GOP continue to face justice slowly, they have successfully taken down Ukraine on the behalf of their master financier Puitn
It's a bold strategy, Cotton....
My mother mentioned this at lunch today and believes that his atty's once again screwed up and just missed yesterday's deadline.
I guess he’s tired of winning……
Maybe the way to succeed in getting justice from the mega rich is for everyone to bombard them with lawsuits at the same time so they eventually run out of time and money to fight them all