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Tag: trump donors
Report: Biden Poll Surge Scaring Trump's Top Donors And Allies

Report: Biden Poll Surge Scaring Trump's Top Donors And Allies

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Politically, a lot could happen between now and November, when voters in the United States will either reelect President Donald Trump or vote him out of office and replace him with former Vice President Joe Biden (the presumptive Democratic nominee). But if recent polls that show Trump trailing Biden in key battleground states like Pennsylvania, Florida, Arizona and Michigan are any indication, Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic is damaging his shot at winning a second term. And according to Politico's Nancy Cook, Republican donors and advisers are growing increasingly worried about Biden's momentum.

"With only five months until the November general election, several Trump advisers, campaign veterans and prominent Republicans see the Trump campaign's efforts to define and damage former Vice President Joe Biden falling short," Cook reports. "These Trump supporters worry the campaign's myriad lines of attack on Biden this spring — from his age to his work with China as vice president to the Obama economic record — are failing to dent the presumptive Democratic nominee."Right-wing groups and pro-Trump donors and advisers, according to Cook, "want the Trump campaign to dramatically ramp up its efforts to tear down and pigeonhole Biden — much the way former President Barack Obama cast Mitt Romney as a plutocrat during the 2012 campaign, a framing from which Romney was never able to escape."

A GOP source described by Cook as someone "close to the White House" told Politico, "Take the gloves off and put him away. If you have the cash advantage and you have all of June, why are you not burying him?"

It isn't as though Trump and other Republicans haven't been attacking Biden, from describing him as "Sleepy Joe" to linking him to the ridiculous "Obamagate" conspiracy theory to describing him as favorable to the authoritarian government in China (which Trump was praising back in January and February). But according to Cook's sources, the lines of attack aren't working so far.A former official from Trump's 2016 campaign, seemingly interviewed on condition of anonymity, told Politico, "Listen, the American voters remember Biden as the happy grandfather during the Obama presidency. The more you can do to imprint a damaging impression of Biden heading into the fall, the better off the Trump campaign will be."

Another source, described by Cook as someone "close to the White House," told Politico that Trump's campaign has "not coalesced around the best message to attack Biden, and the message that Biden is diminished doesn't scare people enough. A lot of Americans just don't want the government to screw things up."

One should never underestimate the GOP's ability to successfully sell snake oil to American voters. The GOP has bounced back from everything from Herbert Hoover's presidency and the 1929 crash to Watergate to Iran/Contra to the disastrous U.S. invasion of Iraq under President George W. Bush. Moreover, Republicans have an especially nasty weapon in their arsenal: voter suppression — and they're great at using it in African-American and Latino areas that are more likely to vote Democrat.

Nonetheless, recent polls have been encouraging for Biden's campaign. For example, recent polls from Firehouse Strategies/0ptimus and Quinnipiac University have found Biden leading Trump by 11 percent And a recent Fox News poll found Biden ahead by eight percent. None of that is to say that U.S. voters will feel that same way in November, but T.J. Ducklo, national press secretary for Biden's campaign, is optimistic.

Ducklo told Politico, "Donald Trump has thrown everything but the kitchen sink at Joe Biden since the day he entered the race, using recycled nicknames, outright lies and even disinformation to try and brand him as something he's not. It failed miserably: VP Biden saw record turnout during sweeping victories this spring and united the Democratic Party around a nominee faster than in 2016 or 2008. Why? Because voters know Joe Biden, they know his character — and it's going to take more than cheap marketing tricks perfected at Trump University to bring down a true public servant who has fought for middle class families for over 45 years."

Boycotting Trump Donors To Save The Country

Boycotting Trump Donors To Save The Country

New York real estate developer Stephen Ross was reportedly shocked by calls to boycott his businesses. The issue was the fundraiser he held last weekend for Donald Trump.

“Steve, welcome to the world of politics,” Trump joked at the posh luncheon. This was one of two back-to-back Hamptons events that put $12 million in his campaign coffers.

“Steve, welcome to the world of Donald Trump” would be more like it. No one cared that the multibillionaire supported Mitt Romney in 2012.

They do care that Ross, who has called himself “an outspoken champion of racial equality, inclusion, diversity, public education and environmental sustainability,” backs a politician who attacks everything on the list. Trump has likened Hispanics to insects, calling their arrival in the U.S. an “invasion” and “infestation.” He machine-gun sprays his Twitter feed with blatant lies and conspiracy theories on a daily basis.

So it can’t be Trump’s winning personality. It must be the money.

Trump ensured that his tax bill included tax-avoidance goodies for real estate moguls like Ross (and, of course, himself). Already worth an estimated $7.7 billion, did Ross need his taxes trimmed?

(Note that the 2017 tax overhaul slashed the deductions for real estate taxes and mortgage interest you or I take on our homes. On commercial real estate, however, taxes remain fully deductible.)

Ross’s posh event had especially bad timing. It came days after a white nationalist parroting Trump’s bigoted language against Hispanics gunned down shoppers in El Paso. Then again, what’s a little domestic terrorism when you’re getting more favorable tax treatment on depreciation?

Two things about Ross especially aggravate his affluent, urban customers. One is he built his fortune, including the sterile-but-pricey Hudson Yards development in Manhattan, off their open, multicultural civilization. His other businesses, notably Equinox gyms and SoulCycle studios, also cater to a generally progressive clientele.

Hence the uprising by the natives. They are canceling their club memberships. Equinox and SoulCycle insist that no company profits go to fund politicians. That’s not accurate. Company profits go to the company owners, and Ross is spending some of them on Trump’s reelection.

Fashion industry folk are now calling for a boycott of event spaces at Hudson Yards during the upcoming Fashion Week. Designer Prabal Gurung has already pulled his show out of Hudson Yards. The decision not to work with Ross companies, Gurung said perceptively, is “no longer about party lines … This is about choosing between two sides, the right or the wrong sides of the history.”

The other thing that aggravates is Ross’s promise that that he would speak up when he disagrees with Trump is amazingly naive. Ross’s moral authority is currently worth less than that of an empty gum wrapper.

Trump has told Ross not to worry. It’ll all blow over.

But in fact, Trump’s own real estate empire has suffered from his own toxicity. And the Trump name has been ripped off of several buildings.

Ross has given a ton of money to the University of Michigan, which named the school of business and an athletic center after him. There is now talk about scrubbing his name off the buildings.

Other fabulously rich Americans, some far richer than Ross, have refused to sell their souls for a tax cut or other Trump-granted favors. They undoubtedly like money, but they love their country more.

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, for one, seems determined to get Trump unelected. His estimated net worth of $55.5 billion is five times that of Trump’s and Ross’s combined.

The stakes here go way beyond matters of money or traditional politics. It’s about America’s future as a home for democratic norms and decency. It’s about choosing sides.

New UN Ambassador Is Billionaire Trump Donor And Science Denier

New UN Ambassador Is Billionaire Trump Donor And Science Denier

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

President Donald Trump promised he’d always hire the “best people” during his presidential campaign, but not only has that turned out to be false, he’s had more turnover than any president in modern history, if not ever.

The president is fond of playing “whack-a-mole” with his personnel problems, by shuffling the players around instead of actually looking for, as he put it, the “best people.”

For example, Mick Mulvaney joined the Trump administration after serving as a U.S Republican Congressman. He served as Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget, then added to his resume the title of Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Mulvaney then became Trump’s Acting White House Chief of Staff, replacing embattled and disgraced John Kelly – while giving up his CFPB job but still retaining the role of Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Fast forward to Friday evening.

President Trump has just announced his latest nominee to become Ambassador to the United Nations, after his earlier nominee, who would have replaced Nikki Haley, was forced to withdraw her nomination after illegally hiring as a nanny an immigrant unauthorized to work in the U.S.

“I am pleased to announce that Kelly Knight Craft, our current Ambassador to Canada, is being nominated to be United States Ambassador to the United Nations,” Trump announced via tweet. No formal White House announcement has been made yet. “Kelly has done an outstanding job representing our Nation and I have no doubt that, under her leadership, our Country will be represented at the highest level. Congratulations to Kelly and her entire family!”

Trump neglected to mention that Knight Craft is Trump’s current Ambassador to Canada, so he’s just shuffling the players around again.

Knight Craft is perhaps best known for her science-denying remarks, saying she believes in “both sides” of climate change. (There are not two sides.)

Meanwhile, the President also neglected to mention Knight Craft, along with her billionaire coal baron husband, donated millions of dollars to Trump’s presidential campaign.

Ambassador to the United Nations is not the same as Ambassador to Canada. There are few national security issues America’s Ambassador to Canada would be relied upon to keep Americans safe.

But the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations holds a key national security role. They sit on the UN Security Council and represent the U.S. to the rest of the world.

There is no indication Knight Craft is qualified for the role.

Knight Craft does hail from Kentucky, where she has also been a major GOP donor, or, as one Canadian news publication described it, “Knight Craft is well known among Republicans, to whom she has donated piles of money.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, also of Kentucky, reportedly recommended her for the role of UN Ambassador.

McConnell is not the only member of his family greasing the wheels. This week Trump Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who happens to be married to the Senate Majority Leader, was embroiled in scandal.

Secretary Chao “has met at least 10 times with Kentucky business leaders or politicians after email requests made by her husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY),” The Daily Beast reports.

“A cache of more than 800 emails—obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the watchdog group American Oversight—shows that some of those meetings led to McConnell’s associates being granted their wishes by the powerful Transportation Secretary—from infrastructure grants to highway project funding. In at least one example, the lobbyist had donated to McConnell’s re-election campaign.”