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Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney Savagely Mocks Trump's Porn Star Payoff

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) hasn't shied away from criticizing former President Donald Trump in the past. But on Tuesday he gave his frank and candid take on the allegations surrounding the ex-president's ongoing criminal trial.

Trump's attorneys have spent the first portion of the Manhattan trial making their case that the former president is a "family man" who has been unfairly painted in the media as immoral. While speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, the Utah senator — a fifth-generation practicing Mormon — offered his opinion on that characterization of Trump to CNN congressional correspondent Kristin Wilson.

"I think everybody has made their own assessment of President Trump's character, and so far as I know you don't pay someone $130,000 not to have sex with you," Romney said.

Romney — who was the GOP presidential nominee in 2012 — appeared to be referencing the hush money payment Trump allegedly made to buy the silence of adult film star and producer Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Daniels maintains that she and the reality TV star had an affair in 2006, just weeks after Trump's wife, Melania, gave birth to their son, Barron. The former president continues to deny the allegations.

Tuesday's trial proceedings featured the testimony of David Pecker, the former CEO of American Media Inc. — the company that publishes the National Enquirer tabloid newspaper. Daniels' story was part of the so-called "catch and kill" scheme in which Pecker would purchase the rights to certain stories in order to bury them and limit public knowledge. Pecker told prosecutors that he agreed during a 2015 meeting at Trump Tower to be the "eyes and ears" of Trump's 2016 campaign.

One such "catch-and-kill" scheme involved the story of former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who said she had an ongoing relationship with Trump while he was married. When Trump reportedly asked Pecker his thoughts on whether they should pay McDougal, Pecker responded with, "we should take this story off the market.

"And I said, 'it's my understanding that she doesn't want her story published. I think the story should be purchased and I believe that you should buy it,'" Pecker said on the witness stand.

According to the 34-count indictment unveiled by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg last year, Trump's personal lawyer and "fixer" Michael Cohen made the $130,000 payment to Daniels at the behest of Trump, who then reimbursed Cohen and labeled it as a legal retainer. Cohen has said repeatedly that there was no such retainer, and that the $130,000 was explicitly done to prevent Daniels from going public with her story.

Cohen will be one of the prosecution's key witnesses, and will be expected to guide the jury through the hush money payment process. In 2018, he was handed a three-year federal prison sentence for his role in the scheme, among other crimes.

Jurors were excused at approximately 2 PM ET on Tuesday, and the trial will be paused on Wednesday in observance of the Jewish Passover holiday. Proceedings are expected to resume on Thursday morning, with the defense expected to cross-examine Pecker on the stand.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Dave McCormick

GOP Senate Nominee McCormick Grew Up In A Mansion -- Not 'On A Farm'

David McCormick, who is Pennsylvania's presumptive Republican U.S. Senate nominee, has often suggested he grew up poor in a rural community. But a new report finds that his upbringing was far more affluent than he's suggested.

The New York Times reported Friday that McCormick — a former hedge fund executive who lived in Connecticut as recently as 2022 — has been cagey with voters about his childhood. McCormick has tweeted that he was "raised in Bloomsburg working on his family's farm," said on a 2022 podcast that he "started with nothing" and told CBS News that same year that he "didn't have anything" growing up as the son of two schoolteachers.

But according to the Times, McCormick's father, Dr. James H. McCormick, was appointed president of what is now Bloomsburg University by Gov. Milton Schapp (D) in 1973. He moved his family into Buckalew Place — the official mansion for presidents of the school that currently spans 5,500 square feet — when his son was just eight years old. The Times reported that he was paid a salary of $29,000 at the time, which is more than $200,000 in today's dollars.

"He had a very privileged childhood," 76-year-old Linda Cromley — a lifelong Bloomsburg resident who attended church with the McCormicks for a stretch — told the Times. "He didn’t grow up a poor kid. Which doesn’t mean that he has to — but don’t pretend that you were."

During a roundtable discussion earlier this year, McCormick referred to himself as a "farmer that's got a big farm in Columbia County." However, that's a reference to his family's 600-acre Christmas tree farm that they purchased after the McCormicks had already been living at Buckalew Place for several years.

Mary Gummerson, who rented part of the farm with her husband for more than three decades, told the Times that while David McCormick had spent some summers baling hay and trimming trees, his description of himself as a "farmer" was somewhat misleading.

“They were hunters and he grew up in a farm kind of environment," Gummerson said. “But no, he’s not planting corn.”

McCormick didn't respond to the Times' interview request, but clarified in a statement that "growing up, we lived on campus at Bloomsburg State College and my parents owned a farm 10 minutes down the road." He added that the Times' highlighting of the discrepancies between his descriptions of his biographical details and the actual details of his upbringing were "hair-splitting, frivolous, cherry-picked distortions of what I have always said."

Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate primary is Tuesday, though McCormick has no Republican opposition. He will face off with Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) in the November election, who is seeking a fourth six-year term. According to RealClearPolitics' polling average, Casey leads McCormick by more than five points.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Trump Infuriated By Reports He Fell Asleep In Court

Trump Infuriated By Reports He Fell Asleep In Court

During his public remarks in between courtroom appearances, former President Donald Trump has consistently spoken with a defiant tone about the charges he's facing and in maintaining his innocence. However, a new report suggests that he is privately seething with rage about everything from how he's been depicted in official court sketches to various unflattering news reports.

According to Rolling Stone reporter Asawin Suebsaeng, Trump is convinced the courtroom sketch artist is "out to get him," complaining that some of the images the artist produced "were likely drawn to make fun of him."

"One such sketch captured Trump snoozing, with his eyes closed and head tilted," Suebsaeng wrote.

Suebsaeng also reports that Trump is "volcanically angry" about the various reports that emerged in which he was apparently sleeping intermittently during court proceedings. The New York Times' Maggie Haberman — who provided much of the paper's coverage of Trump during his time in the White House — reported earlier this week that he couldn't stay awake for the entirety of jury selection several days this week.

"He appeared to be asleep,” Haberman told CNN. “He didn’t pay attention to a note his lawyer passed him. His jaw kept falling on his chest, and his mouth kept going slack.”

Rolling Stone reported that, according to one unnamed source, the former president's anger is "maxed out, even for him." Suebsaeng wrote that Haberman's report provoked "an irate denial from Trump’s campaign and reigniting the former president’s antipathy towards Haberman."

"The resentment lasted the entire week, the sources add. It did not help Trump’s denial that he continued to doze off while seated in the Manhattan courtroom throughout the rest of the week," Suebsaeng wrote. "Despite his dozing being widely reported, the former president has laid much of the blame for the detail going viral at Haberman’s feet. He was even observed glaring at her on Monday as he exited the courtroom following her CNN appearance."

Trump is also enraged at late night host Jimmy Kimmel, who has turned the 45th president of the United States into a constant punchline for many of his jokes during this week's episodes. He recently attacked the comedian on his Truth Social platform, referencing his hosting of the Academy Awards earlier this year.

The former president lashed out as "Stupid Jimmy Kimmel, who still hasn’t recovered from his horrendous performance and big ratings drop as Host of The Academy Awards, especially when he showed he suffered from TDS, commonly known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, to the entire World by reading on air my TRUTH about how bad a job he was doing that night." The former president additionally shared his opinion that Kimmel pulled a "CLASSIC CHOKE' during his Best Picture announcement, confusing the host with trophy presenter Al Pacino.

The Trump campaign continues to deny the rumors that Trump is angry about his coverage of the trial, with campaign spokesman Steven Cheung insisting to Rolling Stone that Suebsaeng's sources are lying.

“None of these sources know what the hell they’re talking about and clearly have no access to any type of factual information,” Cheung said. “These are the types of losers who will try to peddle fantasy as fact because they live miserable existences.”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Arizona Republicans Mock Protesters After Killing Abortion Ban Repeal

Arizona Republicans Mock Protesters After Killing Abortion Ban Repeal

Republicans in the Arizona legislature weren't afraid to do an endzone dance after voting to keep a Civil War-era law on the books that effectively bans all abortions in the Grand Canyon State.

According to Talking Points Memo reporter Kate Riga, Rep. David Livingston (R) "applauded his supporters" in the gallery overlooking the House of Representatives and raised his fists in a celebratory fashion after the vote to repeal the law failed on party lines. House Majority Whip Teresa Martinez (R) reportedly mouthed the words "we got you" to others in the gallery who were advocating for repeal, and even gave them a mocking thumbs-up gesture.

"They were posing for their far-right base," Assistant House Minority Leader Oscar De Los Santos (D) told Talking Points Memo.

Wednesday marked Democrats' fourth unsuccessful attempt in two weeks to repeal the law, which was passed when Arizona was still a territory that had not yet officially joined the U.S. and before women had the right to vote. The state already had a strict 15-week abortion ban in place before the Arizona Supreme Court recently ruled to uphold the far more stringent law from 1864.

"In light of this Opinion, physicians are now on notice that all abortions, except those necessary to save a woman’s life, are illegal, and that additional criminal and regulatory sanctions may apply to abortions performed after fifteen weeks’ gestation," Justice John Lopez wrote on behalf of the GOP-aligned majority.

The 1864 law, which remains on the books, allows for the punishment of abortion providers who help individuals terminate their pregnancies. Any provider who performs the procedure faces a prison sentence of anywhere from two to five years under the 19th century legislation. Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) clarified her office would not prosecute abortion providers under that law.

"Make no mistake, by effectively striking down a law passed this century and replacing it with one from 160 years ago, the Court has risked the health and lives of Arizonans," Mayes stated, adding that the "decision to reimpose a law from a time when Arizona wasn't a state, the Civil War was raging, and women couldn't even vote will go down in history as a stain on our state."

That 1864 law is likely to mobilize large amounts of Democratic voters to turn out in the 2024 election in the Grand Canyon State, which may end up deciding partisan control of the House, Senate and White House in November. Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake — who ran a failed campaign for governor in 2022 — previously praised the anti-abortion law as "great," before eventually condemning it as "out of step with Arizonans." She has called on Governor Katie Hobbs (D) and the GOP-controlled legislature to pass a work-around.

If Republicans aim to recapture the U.S. Senate, they'll need a net gain of two seats in November. This will require flipping seats like Arizona's, where outgoing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) declined to seek another term in office. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), the likely Democratic nominee, is currently leading in polls with RealClearPolitics showing him ahead of Lake by an average of six points.

Arizona narrowly went blue in 2020, with President Joe Biden taking the state's Electoral College votes with less than 11,000 total votes. That margin could widen with abortion rights on the ballot, as that issue has led to stunning Republican losses even in red states like Kansas, Kentucky and Montana in 2022, and Ohio in 2023.

Click here to read Talking Points Memo's full report.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Matt Gaetz

'Matt Showed This To Me': Gaetz Allegedly Displayed Nude Pics Of Young Women

Even though the US Department of Justice declined to pursue criminal charges against Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) last year, the House Ethics Committee is still investigating him. And a new profile suggests that investigation may soon intensify.

Earlier this week, The Atlantic's Elaine Godfrey reported that, according to several of her sources, the Florida Republican sent explicit photos and videos of women to some of his colleagues in Congress. One video was allegedly of a young woman hula hooping while naked.

"Matt sent this to me, and you’re missing out," one unnamed Gaetz aide said, telling Godfrey that he watched the video from the back of a fan along with another member of Congress.

According to Godfrey, Gaetz has a longtime habit of "bragging about his sexual conquests" that supposedly includes showing nude photos of women to his friends. One of Gaetz's longtime friends, Erin Scot, recalled a time when she met up with Gaetz at a wedding in 2009 — prior to him launching his political career — and wanted to show him a photo of her girlfriend (Scot came out as lesbian to Gaetz when they were young, and she noted that she felt comfortable with him when he appeared unfazed at the news).

"[Scot] says that later, at the bar, Gaetz passed around an image of his own: a cellphone photo of a recent hookup, staring up topless from his bed," Godfrey wrote.

The far-right congressman allegedly took his public boasting about his hookups to a higher level after being elected to the Florida legislature in 2010. Godfrey wrote that Gaetz and several Republican lawmakers are reported to have devised a "points" system in which participants scored one point for sleeping with a lobbyist, three points for hooking up with a lawmaker and six points for a married legislator. The Washington Post reported in 2021 that Gaetz voted against a Florida bill to criminalize "revenge porn," which involves the sharing of explicit photos without the consent of the subject.

"Gaetz and his friends all played the game, at least three people confirmed to me, although none could tell me exactly where Gaetz stood on the scoreboard. (Gaetz has denied creating, having knowledge of, or participating in the game.)," Godfrey reported.

A source Godfrey described as a "former Republican lawmaker" corroborated other claims about Gaetz's propensity to share unsolicited details about his sex life. That source said Gaetz "used to walk around the cloakroom showing people porno of him and his latest girlfriend.

"He’d show me a video, and I’d say, 'That’s great, Matt.’ Like, what kind of a reaction do you want?" The source said.

And while Gaetz was once a close adviser to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, reportedly being the reason former President Donald Trump endorsed DeSantis' candidacy for his first term in 2018, he has since fallen out of favor with the Sunshine State's governor. Political consultant Peter Schorch told Godfrey that Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis "hated all the sex stories that came out" about Gaetz and that the congressman was to be considered "persona non grata."

The House Ethics Committee's probe into Gaetz is ongoing, and will ultimately product a report that could recommend an official censure motion or even expulsion, as it did with former Rep. George Santos (R-NY). Gaetz continues to deny all of the allegations the committee is investigating.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

James Comer

Comer Seeking Book Deal On Failed Biden Impeachment

The GOP-led House Oversight Committee's effort to impeach President Joe Biden is effectively over after its chairman, Rep. James Comer (R-KY), failed to find any smoking gun evidence directly tying Biden to any crime. Now, a Washington-based ethics watchdog group is accusing Comer of capitalizing on his unsuccessful impeachment saga.

In an official letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics, a nonprofit anti-corruption group is now requesting an update on whether the Kentucky Republican followed the law and requested prior approval for a book deal currently being negotiated with publishers.

"Throughout his entire investigation, Representative Comer has used his role as Chairman of the House Oversight Committee for personal and political gain. He has been a frequent guest on conservative news channels pushing conspiracy theories and lies about his investigation and has used this impeachment inquiry to fundraise for his campaign," read the letter from Congressional Integrity Project executive director Kyle Herrig. "The new reporting about a potential book deal is troubling as it appears Representative Comer is planning on using his unique position as Oversight Chair to turn a profit."

Herrig noted in his letter that under House Rule 25, members of Congress have to first have any members receive authorization from the Ethics Committee before they can reap financial rewards from copyright royalties like those for a typical book publishing contract.

"As Representative Comer continues to hold hearings and attempts to build the case to impeach President Biden, the American people deserve to know the extent to which he is benefiting financially," the letter continued. "It is clear already that he has a political motive to impeach the President and it should be revealed if he has a financial motive as well."

The New Republic reported that Comer has admitted that actual articles of impeachment are not likely from his committee, and that the most Republicans could expect would be a criminal referral to the Department of Justice. And while DOJ special counsel David Weiss is already investigating Biden's son, Hunter, for alleged tax-related crimes, an additional indictment of Biden himself is unlikely to emerge from any referral by the Oversight Committee.

"Recent reporting revealed that Representative Comer has been in talks with at least one publisher regarding a book on his impeachment inquiry into President Biden," Herrig wrote in his letter, adding that "Representative Comer and his Republican colleagues have spent the past 15 months relentlessly investigating the president and his family and failed to find any evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden let alone anything impeachable."

Comer's attempt to have Biden impeached was largely based on allegations within an FBI informant report in which Biden and his son were said to have solicited $10 million in bribes from the Ukrainian government. However, the author of that report, 43-year-old Alexander Smirnov, was later indicted for lying to the FBI about those allegations.

Smirnov was also subsequently indicted for attempting to flee prosecution. The disgraced former FBI informant was alleged to have had contact with "high-ranking" members of Russian intelligence agencies who sought to sow disinformation ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Former Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), who left Congress last month after a surprise early retirement announcement, admitted Smirnov's indictment essentially rendered the GOP's efforts to impeach Biden fruitless.

"We were warned at the time that we received the document outlining this witness' testimony — we were warned that the credibility of this statement was not known," Buck told CNN host Caitlan Collins. "And yet, people — my colleagues — went out and talked to the public about how this was credible, and how it was damning. And how it proved President Biden's — at the time, Vice President Biden's — complicity in receiving bribes. It appears to absolutely be false and to really undercut the nature of the charges."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Mike Rogers

Michigan GOP Senate Candidate Exposed -- As Resident Of Florida

Former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) is running in the Republican US Senate primary on his longtime relationship with the Mitten State and his local roots. But a staffer for his Democratic rival just unearthed evidence showing his ties to a state decidedly much further away from his target constituency.

In a Monday tweet, Rogers — who represented Michigan's Eighth Congressional District between 2001 and 2015 — wrote, "I'm proud to be born and raised right here in Michigan. And I will be proud to serve my home in the US Senate." This prompted Austin Cook, the communications director for Democratic US Senate candidate Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), to tweet a screenshot of Rogers' voter registration record that shows a Florida ZIP code and a voter status of "active."

"Fun fact: @MikeRogersForMI is literally registered to vote in Florida right now," Cook wrote, tagging Rogers' official campaign account.

According to Newsweek, Rogers is currently living at his sister-in-law's home in Brighton, Michigan while a home he bought in West Lake Township is undergoing renovations. Michigan Advance reported that Rogers' official residence was a home in Cape Coral, Florida prior to him announcing his candidacy for the US Senate.

The Constitution dictates that in order to run for US Senate, a candidate must be a US citizen for at least nine years, be at least 30 years old, and be a legal resident of the state they seek to represent at the time of election. This means that even as a current Florida resident, Rogers could still represent Michigan in the US Senate if his residency in the Mitten State is established prior to the first Tuesday in November. Being a registered voter at his West Lake Township home would ostensibly meet the Constitution's residency requirements.

However, proving his authentic status as a Michigander may be more difficult to do between now and the time voters cast their ballots if Rogers was indeed a full-time Florida resident until recently. A 4,751 square-foot five-bedroom, four-bathroom house in Cape Coral valued on Zillow at nearly $1.7 million matches the address shown on Rogers' voter registration in Florida. And according to Lee County, Florida property assessment records, that home is in the name of Rogers, his wife, and their family trust. Rogers has not yet publicly clarified whether he is still a full-time Florida resident, which is required to be an actively registered voter in the Sunshine State.

Determining whether Rogers claimed the Cape Coral home as his primary residence could be confirmed by flood insurance claim records. Cape Coral was in the direct path of Hurricane Ian in 2022, which was Florida's most costly storm in history. Ian was also the third-costliest storm in US history according to the National Hurricane Center, causing more than 150 direct and indirect deaths and more than $112 billion in total property damage.

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which is the federal program that underwrites all flood insurance claims in the US, pays replacement cash value (RCV) in claims where the affected property is the insured's principal residence. In cases where a home is a secondary residence, the NFIP instead pays actual cash value (ACV), which is a lesser amount. If Rogers qualified for an RCV claim, that would mean he told the federal government that the Cape Coral house was his principal residence at the time of the flood.

AlterNet has reached out to the Rogers campaign via email to see if his Cape Coral home was damaged by Hurricane Ian, and if it was, if the adjuster assigned to his claim recommended an ACV or RCV payment. This article will be updated in the event Rogers' campaign responds.

Rogers has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump in the Michigan US Senate Republican primary. He's running against Peter Meijer, a scion of the wealthy Meijer family known for their nationwide grocery store chain. Meijer notably voted to impeach Trump following the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, though he has since softened his tone in regard to the former president.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Greg Abbott

How Texas Gov. Abbott Ruined Eclipse Bonanza For A Small Border Town

The local economy of Eagle Pass, Texas was all set to rake in a huge financial windfall this weekend, when the town was expected to play host to tens of thousands of visitors eager to be the first in the US to see Monday's solar eclipse. Instead, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's ongoing border standoff with the federal government ended up scaring most tourists away.

According to the Daily Beast, Aide Castano — the municipality's marketing and tourism director — told a meeting of the local Rotary Club last year that the town of 28,000 residents could expect to see its population temporarily swell to more than 100,000 people on the first weekend of April for the eclipse boom. The city scheduled a music festival to take place dubbed the "57 South Music Festival" set to last three nights, featuring 17 bands on two separate stages.

"If you’re a music lover and a celestial enthusiast, then there’s no better time to start planning your trip to Eagle Pass, Texas!" An advertisement from the city read.

"Mark your calendar for the eclipse, get your grocery shopping done, we’re gonna have 100,000 people in Eagle Pass, we’re gonna have millions of dollars in sales for downtown Eagle Pass," local resident Amerika Garcia-Grewell recalled Castano saying. In an interview with Texas Monthly, Castano said planning for this eclipse weekend first began in 2002, telling the publication that one of her coworkers said "this is like our Super Bowl."

"One of the real estate agents is like, ‘Airbnb will make $10,000 in the eclipse weekend,'" Garcia-Grewell recalled in an interview with the Beast.

However, Eagle Pass' economy became a secondary concern for Gov. Abbott, who heavily militarized the town's border crossing at the Rio Grande River center stage as part of his $10.5 billion Operation Lone Star protest of federal immigration policy under the Biden administration. Earlier this year, Abbott ordered a length of razor wire to be built along the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass to deter immigrants from crossing. The Supreme Court ordered Abbott to take it down, stating that international borders were under the jurisdiction of the federal government, not state governments.

After federal agents cut the razor wire, Abbott retaliated by building even more, and ordering national guardsmen to stand by at the border crossing in a show of force. Former President Donald Trump commended Abbott for his defiance of the Supreme Court, and posted a call to action to his Truth Social platform encouraging Republican governors to likewise deploy their national guard troops to the Southern border in Eagle Pass.

Meanwhile, the intimidating presence of troops and razor wire at the Rio Grande ended up scuttling the original plans for the 57 South Music Festival in Eagle Pass for the weekend of the solar eclipse. The Beast reported that the location for the festival was moved to the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino, which is a 20-minute drive by car. As a result of the change, tickets for the festival dropped significantly in price. And at a March 14 town hall meeting, the town lowered their expectations for eclipse visitors from more than 100,000 to approximately 50,000.

Garcia-Grewell, the Eagle Pass resident, recalled to the Beast that she was told the city spent roughly $3.5 million on the festival, yet sold only 2,500 tickets. She further elaborated that the city would have had to sell tickets at $1,400 apiece just to break even when accounting for the total cost.

The 57 South Music Festival kicked off Friday afternoon, though crowds were sparse. Local music producer Tony Rodriguez said that he counted just 30 people at 4 PM local time, and only 150 people by 6 o'clock.

"The worst flop ever," he said.

Garcia-Grewell maintained that despite the swarm of soldiers and razor wire barrier, Eagle Pass was safe. Border crossings went from 2,000 per day in December to just a few dozen months later. While some of that could be attributed to Operation Lone Star, Mexico's government also stepped up their efforts to stem migrant traffic into the US.

"The State of Texas is making it look like a war zone, even though we’re one of the safest places in Texas,” she said. “And the city of Eagle Pass was not able to counter that. They won’t say anything against the state of Texas because Eagle Pass is so dependent on state funding."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

As Stock Plunges, Trump Sues His Truth Social Partners

As Stock Plunges, Trump Sues His Truth Social Partners

Former President Donald Trump was set to reap a multibillion-dollar payday from the initial public offering (IPO) of Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG). But now, it looks like the stock could be worth a fraction of what it initially traded for by the time he can actually capitalize on it.

The stock (trading as "DJT" on the Nasdaq Composite) has already lost nearly $4 billion in value after its first week of trading, cheapening the value of Trump's shares in the company. As a result of the stock's poor performance, Trump has personally lost $1 billion in his estimated net worth as $DJT continues to crater. This has resulted in Trump lashing out at his partners in the business venture, attempting to zero out their shares as punishment for allegedly setting up the company improperly.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that Trump sued Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss in Florida state court in an attempt to have the court give him their combined 8.6 percent stake in TMTG, which is worth over $600 million. The former president alleges that Litinsky and Moss botched the establishment of the company's corporate governance structure and mishandled its merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) earlier this year dubbed Digital World Acquisition.

"Moss and Litinsky failed spectacularly at every turn," the lawsuit alleges. "They made a series of reckless and wasteful decisions at a critical time that caused significant damage to TMTG and a decline in the stock price of its merger partner."

Trump's lawsuit in Florida comes after Litinsky and Moss filed their own lawsuit against the former president in Delaware Chancery Court in February. The two investors accused Trump of orchestrating a scheme to "drastically dilute" the value of TMTG's shares in what they referred to as "11th hour, pre-merger corporate maneuvering." While Trump initially had control of 90 percent of the company and had 78 million shares in the company, his business partners alleged that he tried to inflate the number of shares to one billion, which would have reduced their stake to less than one percent of the company.

"[Litinsky and Moss' company was] promised 8.6 percent of this company and sadly its business partners are baselessly trying to renege," attorney, Christopher J. Clark told the Washington Post in February. "They feel like: We made Truth Social for you. You get 90 percent. But some people just aren’t happy with 90 percent."

Trump's business partners alleged that the former president's schemed to artificially create new shares to possibly then give to himself and his family members. Prior to going public last week, the SPAC that facilitated TMTG's merger told the Securities and Exchange Commission that the pending litigation could "negatively impact investor confidence and market perception."

According to Bloomberg, the fact that Trump filed a lawsuit in Florida rather than countersuing Litinsky and Moss in Delaware angered chancery court Judge Sam Glasscock III, who may sanction Trump over the suit. Glasscock was reportedly "gobsmacked" at learning of the former president pursuing separate litigation outside of his courtroom.

While the litigation between Trump and his business partners may have played a role in the nosedive of TMTG's stock, the primary cause for $DJT plummeting by $4 billion in value was a recent filing with regulators. That filing stated that TMTG needed the SPAC's funding to remain operational, and that the company suffered $58 million in losses last year.

In raw numbers, Truth Social remains far below its competitors in the social media world, like Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and TikTok. Truth Social is apparently not even counted among the top 100 apps on the Apple App Store.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Nikki Haley

'Never Vote For Him Again': Haley Voters In GOP Strongholds Soured On Trump

Former President Donald Trump appears to be bleeding out critical support in typically redder suburban areas well outside of major cities, according to a new analysis.

Politico analyzed 2024 GOP presidential primary results across more than 1,000 counties across the US and determined that the former president may lose votes in traditionally Republican territory he carried in both 2016 and 2020. This could prove costly in November — particularly in must-win battleground states.

"You hear a lot of moderate Republicans now who say that they’ll never vote for Trump again," Emmet County, Michigan GOP chair Parker Fairbairn told Politico. Fairbairn added that voters there are longing for "commonsense conservatism," as opposed to Trump's blustery retribution-focused rhetoric and his proposed radical restructuring of the federal government.

Politico reported that unlike suburbs on the outskirts of large, Democratic-leaning cities like Detroit where Republicans have already been losing significant ground to Democrats, jurisdictions like Emmet County — which is on the far northern tip of Michigan's lower peninsula and hours from any major city — have usually been reliable Republican strongholds. Trump won the county with 55 percent of the vote in 2020.

Swing states like Michigan, which voted for Trump in 2016 and President Joe Biden in 2020, could be decided by a relatively small number of votes. And those isolated groups of votes could similarly decide who wins a majority of Electoral College votes and thus the White House. In 2016, for example, Trump carried Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin by approximately 77,000 combined votes, with those three states putting him over the 270 electoral vote threshold to win the election. Likewise, Biden won Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin by less than 43,000 combined votes in 2020.

Biden's campaign is hoping to get a competitive edge over Trump by peeling away enough GOP voters in redder areas, or at the very least convince them to stay home in November. Politico reported that Biden is rolling out an ad targeted at GOP voters by showing Trump attacking former UN ambassador Nikki Haley on the campaign trail.

"Nikki Haley voters, Donald Trump doesn’t want your vote," Biden tweeted. "I want to be clear: There is a place for you in my campaign."

Republicans are counting on partisanship to win the day and for disgruntled GOP voters to ultimately vote for Trump anyway by November. But more recent GOP primaries have exposed a chink in the former president's armor. In Georgia, Trump easily won the Peach State's Republican primary, but 77,000 still voted for Haley. And of those voters, roughly 22,000 cast their ballots for the ex-president's former rival even after she suspended her campaign.

Given that Trump lost Georgia by less than 12,000 total votes in 2020, that bloc of anti-Trump Republican voters may help push Biden over the edge in the once-solidly red Southern state.

“There’s still a lot of raw feelings about how Nikki Haley and her family were treated, and about the way that MAGA and Donald Trump are treating Nikki Haley supporters and the whole ‘permanently barred from MAGA,'” said Robert Schwartz, who is a senior adviser to the "Primary Pivot" super PAC.

“As we get closer to the election, those kinds of feelings of resentment are going to fade away... We want to lock in that feeling of resentment and disgust toward the way Trump treated them," he said.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Trump Again Attacks Judge Merchan's Daughter -- This Time By Name

Trump Again Attacks Judge Merchan's Daughter -- This Time By Name

New York Supreme Court acting justice Juan Merchan may have prevented former President Donald Trump from attacking witnesses with his gag order, but Trump is still continuing his attacks on the judge and his daughter, Loren, unabated.

In a Thursday post to his Truth Social account — which is followed by roughly 7 million of the ex-president's most devoted supporters — the 45th president of the United States mentioned the judge's daughter by name in an angry screed calling for Merchan to be removed from the Manhattan hush money case.

"Judge Juan Merchan is totally compromised, and should be removed from this TRUMP Non-Case immediately. His Daughter, Loren, is a Rabid Trump Hater, who has admitted to having conversations with her father about me, and yet he gagged me," Trump wrote. "She works for Crooked Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Adam 'Shifty' Schiff, and other Radical Leftists who Campaign on 'Getting Trump,' and fundraise off the 'Biden Indictments' - including this Witch Hunt, which her father 'presides' over."

The ex-president's attacks Loren Merchan are likely due to her work as a political consultant. Her firm, Authentic Campaigns, has performed services for various high-profile Democratic clients including the Biden-Harris campaign. The company's website also features a testimonial from Schiff.

However, Trump's suggestion that Loren Merchan's political work is playing a role in how her father handles cases in his courtroom is unproven, as is his argument that she currently works for Biden. Earlier this week, NBC News reported that "There’s no available evidence to suggest that Merchan’s daughter has done any subsequent work for Biden and no evidence to suggest that she ‘now’ works for a Biden political operation."

Another major sticking point for Trump in his attacks on Merchan's daughter revolve around an account on X/Twitter with the handle @LorenM426, whose profile avatar is a photo of Trump behind prison bars. However, the Hill reported that Loren Merchan deleted the account more than a year ago. The New York Office of Court Administration (OCA) stated that the account has a different owner.

"It is not linked to her email address, nor has she posted under that screenname since she deleted the account," OCA spokesperson Al Baker said. “Rather, it represents the reconstitution, last April, and manipulation of an account she long ago abandoned.”

Judge Merchan is overseeing Trump's first scheduled criminal trial, in which the former president is defending himself against 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg aims to prove to the jury that the $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star and director Stormy Daniels was an illegal campaign expenditure, as the money was intended to buy her silence in advance of the 2016 presidential election.

While the trial was intiially planned to begin on March 25, the jury selection process was moved to April, after a last-minute document dump from the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). In January, Trump requested records from the SDNY pertaining to its prosecution of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty in 2018 for his role in the hush money scheme, as well as for tax evasion. SDNY released more than 200,000 pages of documents in relation to Trump's request, prompting his attorneys to request a 90-day delay in proceedings. Bragg countered with a 30-day delay. Merchan ruled that the trial would instead start on April 15.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Former President Donald Trump

How Trump Scammed Investors In His Last Public Stock Offering

Former President Donald Trump's Truth Social platform is set for its initial public offering (IPO) as soon as next week after its merger was approved by a special purpose acquisition company. But while Trump himself stands to reap a multibillion-dollar windfall, investors may not be as lucky given Trump's past IPO record.

According to NBC News, Trump's last attempt to go public crashed and burned relatively quickly, with investors getting soaked even as Trump reaped significant benefits. A few months before the 2016 presidential election, the Washington Post reported that when the business mogul took Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts public, it plummeted from a $14 per share IPO to a penny stock in less than a decade.

"In its short life, Trump the company greatly enriched Trump the businessman, paying to have his personal jet piloted and buying heaps of Trump-brand merchandise," the Post's Drew Harwell wrote at the time. "Despite losing money every year under Trump’s leadership, the company paid Trump handsomely, including a $5 million bonus in the year the company’s stock plummeted 70 percent."

NBC reported that Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts performed relatively well for a time, hitting a peak of $35 per share in 1996. However, once it purchased a casino for $100 million more than it was worth, the value of the company's shares started to slide precipitously.

"The year the stock peaked, it lost $66 million. In 1999, it lost $134 million," NBC reporter Dareh Gregorian wrote. "And in 2004 — when the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange — it lost $191 million, according to a CNBC review."

Truth Social may end up suffering a similar fate after its parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group, debuts its IPO on the Nasdaq exchange. Even though Trump himself is expected to net roughly $3.5 billion from the deal, it may be a considerably more risky bet for mom-and-pop investors.

CNN reported that Truth Social is "hemorrhaging users" and has just roughly 860,000 active accounts. That's far less than other far more popular social media networks like Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, X/Twitter and TikTok. Truth Social is reportedly not even among the top 100 apps downloaded on Apple's App Store, and the company's own management worried it could go belly-up if its merger wasn't approved.

"It's grossly overvalued,” University of Florida finance professor Jay Ritter told CNN. "It qualifies as a meme stock for which the price is divorced from fundamental value."

All eyes are on Trump's finances as he struggles under the weight of multiple civil judgments nearing $600 million in total. The former president owes roughly $464 million in penalties and interest to the State of New York after Judge Arthur Engoron found him guilty of artificially inflating the value of his real estate portfolio. He also recently posted a $91 million bond in his appeal of writer E. Jean Carroll's defamation verdict against him. That judgment came down after a 2023 judgment in which Trump was found guilty in a separate civil case of sexual abuse.

Despite his pending $3.5 billion payday, Trump is prohibited from selling any of his shares for six months, meaning he won't have any immediate help from the IPO in paying his legal costs.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Leonard Leo

GOP Lashes Out At D.C. Attorney General Probing Extremist Profiteer Leo

GOP activist Leonard Leo is co-chair of the influential Federalist Society, which has produced all six of the Supreme Court of the United States' (SCOTUS) conservative jurists — including Chief Justice John Roberts. And ever since the office of Washington, DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb started investigating the Federalist Society for alleged violations of its nonprofit status, Leo's allies have been attacking him every step of the way.

Politico reporter Heidi Przybyla wrote Saturday that Schwalb has been steadily battling an onslaught of GOP attacks that include conservative media, 12 Republican state attorneys general and even Congressional committee chairs. This assault began last August, after Schwalb announced he was investigating the Federalist Society for alleged self-dealing. Leo is accused of using millions of dollars in tax-exempt organization funds to prop up his private consulting firm, CRC Advisors.

According to the outlet, both Reps. James Comer (R-KY) and Jim Jordan (R-OH), who chair the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees, respectively, announced their own investigations into Schwalb on October 30 — shortly after Schwalb announced his own investigation into Leo's group. One of Leo's organizations is the Concord Fund (previously known as the Judicial Crisis Network), which has donated $20 million to the Republican Attorneys General Association since 2014. And Przybyla noted that 10 days before Comer and Jordan announced their investigation, Concord hired a Virginia-based lobbying firm to handle issues relating to "law enforcement" and "oversight."

"The decision to launch a probe was not influenced by the lobbying firm," a spokesperson for the House Judiciary Committee told Politico. "Any suggestion that it was is lazy, in bad faith, and completely ridiculous. It’s well-known that this probe is part of a broader portfolio the congressmen are pursuing related to the weaponization of the federal government."

While the suggestion that Leo's money and connections are influencing the attacks on the man investigating him makes Republicans bristle, it's difficult to ignore the timing of large sums of money changing hands. Just one day after both Comer and Jordan threatened to subpoena Schwalb, a House Republican leadership-aligned political action committee received a $250,000 contribution from the Concord Fund. Politico reported that it was Concord's first donation to a federal PAC in nine years.

Republicans' ferocity in attacking Schwalb could be attributed to Leo's outsized influence over today's GOP — particularly as it concerns the GOP's efforts to cement a conservative SCOTUS majority for decades.

"[Leo] has been called former President Donald Trump’s 'court whisperer' for helping to choose and advocate for his Supreme Court nominees," Przybyla wrote. "His aligned network of tax-exempt nonprofits is also a major contributor to Project 2025, an initiative seeking to create a 'government in waiting' for another Trump term."

Caroline Ciccone, who is president of anti-corruption watchdog group Accountability.US, directly attributed the various attacks on Schwalb to Leo's far-right organizational muscle.

"Leonard Leo is working to implement policies with a vision that’s far too extreme for most Americans," Ciccone said. "Now, members of Congress have weaponized their government power against his critics."

In addition to being investigated for self-dealing by Schwalb's office, Leo's group is also being investigated by the Senate Judiciary Committee for its alleged facilitation of lavish gifts to far-right justices like Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. In late November, the committee sent subpoenas to both Leo and billionaire business magnate Harlan Crow, who took Justice Thomas and his family on several exceedingly expensive getaways.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Donald Trump

Trump Begs For Cash To Keep Properties Out Of Letitia James' 'Filthy Hands'

Former President Donald Trump is on the verge of losing two of his valued real estate assets, and the alleged billionaire is now panhandling the public for small-dollar donations to hang onto his wealth.

The Guardian reported that Trump's 2024 campaign is sending emails to supporters specifically asking for their financial support to help pay the $464 million in judgment penalties and interest he owes for defrauding the State of New York. Attorney General Letitia James has already started the process of seizing the real estate tycoon's assets to cover the judgment, including one of his golf courses in Westchester County. She also said she looks at Trump's 40 Wall Street property "each and every day."

"Insane radical Democrat AG Letitia James wants to SEIZE my properties in New York. This includes the iconic Trump Tower," the ex-president wrote in an email with the subject line "Keep your filthy hands off Trump tower!"

"Democrats think that this will intimidate me. They think that if they take my cash to stifle my campaign, that I’ll GIVE UP!" The email continued. "But worst of all? They think that YOU will abandon me, and that you will GIVE UP on our country. Here’s one thing they don’t know: WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER!"

Trump's legal costs are likely far too large to be crowdfunded. A GoFundMe campaign to pay his New York civil fraud judgment that's still online as of this writing has only raised $1.6 million out of a $355 million goal (fundraisers to pay legal restitution are prohibited under GoFundMe's terms and conditions). It's not known yet how much Trump will raise from his email appeal, but the amount raised may not even cover the estimated $111,000 in interest his judgment accumulates with each passing day.

And of course, the civil fraud judgment isn't the only financial blow to Trump's empire. Former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll successfully sued Trump for both sexual abuse and defamation, winning judgments of $5 million and $83.3 million, respectively. The former president posted a $90 million bond guaranteed by insurance giant Chubb Group earlier this month, which includes both the judgment and interest necessary to appeal civil judgments in the Empire State. However, his legal team has complained that obtaining a bond to cover the fraud judgment is a "practical impossibility."

"A bond of this size is rarely if ever seen. In the unusual circumstance that a bond of this size is issued, it is provided to the largest public companies in the world, not to individuals or privately held businesses," said Gary Giulietti of brokerage firm Lockton Companies. Giuletti — whom Trump hired to help him obtain a bond — added that for nine-figure judgments like Trump's, most guarantors won't accept real estate assets as collateral and would only agree to cash or cash equivalent assets, like securities.

If James did move to seize 40 Wall Street, she may be able to obtain as much as $220 million according to a 2012 appraisal. Trump Tower — the ex-president's signature Fifth Avenue property — was valued at $117 million by Forbes in 2017. His Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida could garner close to $20 million, and his Seven Springs property could bring in close to $57 million.

The 45th president of the United States may have a way out of losing his assets depending on how his Truth Social platform's initial public offering (IPO) performs in financial markets after its expected debut next week. The ex-president is expected to make $3 billion off of his stake in the company, which would be more than enough to cover the fraud judgment and his judgments in both E. Jean Carroll lawsuits.

Trump has continued to use Truth Social to attack both James and Judge Arthur Engoron, who handed down the $355 million verdict in the bench trial. He recently called the penalty "CRAZY" and referred to the judgment as "ELECTION INTERFERENCE."

"If I sold assets, and then won the Appeal, the assets would be forever gone," Trump wrote on Thursday. "Also, putting up money before an Appeal is VERY EXPENSIVE. When I win the Appeal, all of that money is gone, and I would have done nothing wrong."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Elise Stefanik

'Serial Liar' Stefanik Grabs Credit For Infrastructure Funds She Voted To Kill

House Republican Conference chair Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) recently patted herself on the back for a $1.8 million federal grant a community within her district received. However, that money came from a bill she and every other Republican opposed.

Local publication North Country This Week — based in Stefanik's 21st House District in upstate New York — reported that the US Department of Agriculture grant went toward the South Raquette Water District in Massena, NY. Stefanik took credit for the funding, telling the outlet that she helped fast-track the grant application through the House Appropriations Committee to quickly get the funds approved.

"Infrastructure has been a top priority for some time and I am able to offer assistance in a very targeted way, whether it be for water projects, sewer projects or supporting our first responders," she said.

"I am proud to announce that I secured $1,857,000 for a Water District Development Project for the Town of Massena in this year’s appropriations process," Stefanik wrote in a Tuesday tweet. "This funding will go toward providing public water service to the residents of Massena."

Stefanik didn't actually vote for those funds, which were part of the Inflation Reduction Act that passed the House of Representatives in 2022. In a now-deleted statement posted to her House.gov website, she called the legislation a "radical spending bill that will raise taxes and crush hardworking families and small businesses."

"[Democrats] have made their priorities clear, and they are not for the American people. I will continue to stand up against reckless government spending and any tax increases," Stefanik said at the time, adding that the bill "also wastes $350 billion on 'Green New Deal' provisions that prioritize large cities over rural communities."

Others on X/Twitter took issue with Stefanik boasting about her district receiving the funds she voted against. In addition to a community note (a public fact-checking feature on the platform) specifying that Stefanik "voted Nay along party lines with every other Republican" against the bill, she was also slammed by various journalists, public figures and commentators for her tweet.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Donald Trump

Nadler Airs Video Of Trump Howlers During House Committee Hearing

During former Department of Justice special counsel Robert Hur's Tuesday testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, the top Democrat on the committee used some of his time to broadcast a video montage of former President Donald Trump's numerous gaffes and verbal blunders on the campaign stump.

Judiciary committee ranking member Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) began his opening statement by commenting on a video Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who chairs the committee, played to the audience, showing President Joe Biden talking in an effort to suggest the octogenarian president was growing senile. Nadler remarked that Jordan must have "admiration" for Biden since he allowed him "to take the first 10 minutes of this hearing."

Hur — who resigned from the DOJ last week — appeared before the committee to testify about his report that ultimately exonerated Biden for allegedly mishandling classified documents from his time as vice president between 2009 and 2017. Despite Hur not charging Biden with crimes, he made several assessments of Biden's mental fitness, and once referred to him in the report as an "elderly man with a poor memory." To prove his argument that Trump's cognitive state was worse than Biden's, Nadler played a video of his own, which showed Trump making repeated verbal slip-ups and sometimes unintelligible statements during various campaign speeches.

"Viktor Orban, did anyone hear from him? He's the leader of Turkey," Trump said in one clip referring to the Hungarian prime minister.

"I don't like mosquitoes!" Trump hollered from the lectern at another rally in Ohio.

"Saudi Arabia and Russia, will re...pa...aahhh," said the former president at a Greensboro, North Carolina rally.

"We have to, we have to win in November, or we're not gonna have — Pennsylvania? They'll change the name," Trump said during a February speech to National Rifle Association activists in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. "They're gonna change the name of Pennsylvania."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

MAGA Enraged As Far-Right Texas Candidate Mocks Trump's Teenage Son

MAGA Enraged As Far-Right Texas Candidate Mocks Trump's Teenage Son

Brandon Herrera — a YouTube content creator running in a Republican primary runoff in Texas — may have buried his chances to get elected after a clip surfaced of him mocking former President Donald Trump's youngest son, Barron.

The Daily Beastreported that both Trumpworld and the MAGA movement have soured on Herrera after viewing the clip, in which Herrera is heard making fun of Barron Trump. The clip shows him on a podcast with three others, who at one point all spend a few minutes ridiculing the 17-year-old. Herrera said Barron Trump was "like nine feet tall" and imitated his voice, saying "daddy is coming, daddy is angry." Others compared Barron to horror figure Slenderman, and called him a "long ventriloquist-like dummy." Herrera also opined that the former president was a weak general election candidate and predicted he would lose in November to President Joe Biden.

Someone the Beast described as "a Trumpworld source" said Herrera would be "a disaster for Republicans" if elected.

"Not only did he mock President Trump’s teenage son, which is totally uncalled for and disgusting behavior, he said Trump cannot win the general," the source said. "This will not go unnoticed."

Herrera is running against Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) — whose district includes Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas — from the right. He has repeatedly accused the congressman of being weak on the Second Amendment, citing his support for "red flag" laws that allow weapons to be taken from people deemed to be a danger to themselves or others. However, Herrera's comments questioning Trump's viability in the general election haven't done him any favors with Republican primary voters in Texas.

"If I had to predict, I think Trump will win the primary by a landslide and lose the general," Herrera said on another podcast. He added that while he "really enjoyed Trump's presidency," he nonetheless "messed up a lot of stuff," specifically about "guns and things." An unnamed source the Beast described as "close to Trump" called Herrera a "s---head" and described his criticism of the former president as "vile."

"I’ve heard that Brandon Herrera has a problem with keeping his mouth shut and has a problem with saying stupid stuff, and this is just the tip of the iceberg," another GOP operative told the Beast. "Brandon Herrera is going to have a very bad time over the next couple months if what I’ve heard is true."On the one-year anniversary of the Uvalde massacre, Rep. Gonzales issued a statement naming all of the victims of the shooting, and boasted of his accomplishments in allocating more mental health resources to Texas' 23rd Congressional District. His statement notably did not include any calls for new restrictions on firearms, like the AR-15 style rifle the killer used to murder 19 students and two teachers.

Gonzales is on the record endorsing Trump, and has already secured the endorsements of several far-right, pro-Trump Republicans like Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. In the March 5 primary on Super Tuesday, Gonzales came in first place by a 45-25 margin, but fell short of the 50% needed to avoid a runoff election. Both he and Herrera have advanced to the runoff, which will take place on May 28.Herrera dismissed the Beast's reporting on his comments mocking Barron Trump, tweeting "it's called having a sense of humor," and told the reporter who authored the story that it would "make you more fun at parties."