Former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio and four allies are charged with seditious conspiracy, a plot to violently keep Trump in office anchored in part by preventing Congress from certifying the election on Jan. 6, 2021.
The prospect of Trump appearing on the witness stand seems remote, but until Thursday, the intention of the defendants to call the former president was uncertain.
“We’re going to ask the government for assistance in serving Mr. Trump,” Pattis said.
The Proud Boys defense attorneys have hinted at times throughout the trial that Trump bears responsibility for the actions of their own clients and thousands of others who marched on the Capitol at his urging. Putting him on the witness stand, while still a longshot, would give them a chance to probe his mindset under oath in a way that federal investigators have been unable to so far.
Other Jan. 6 defendants have sought Trump’s testimony but gotten no support from judges, who found their claims to need the former president’s testimony dubious. But the Proud Boys may have the clearest case, given Trump’s explicit reference to the group during the debate and the group’s centrality to the riot that unfolded on Jan. 6.
Prosecutors say the Proud Boys are singularly responsible for the violence that unfolded, helping trigger key breaches of police defenses — including the actual breach of the building itself, when Dominic Pezzola, one of the five defendants, used a stolen riot shield to smash a Senate-wing window.
U.S. District Court Judge Tim Kelly didn’t give any indication Thursday about whether he would permit the subpoena of the former president.
Tarrio has been a figure of interest to investigators not just for his role on Jan. 6 but for his ties to figures in Trump’s orbit like Roger Stone. Tarrio took a White House tour on Dec. 12, 2020 that drew alarm from the Secret Service and may have reached the ears of then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
Prosecutors have also shown evidence of Tarrio’s close relationship with a D.C. police officer who appeared to repeatedly give him inside information about law enforcement matters — including Tarrio’s own subsequent arrest on Jan. 4 for burning a Black Lives Matter flag at a pro-Trump rally in December.
Prosecutors are expected to call North Carolina Proud Boy Jeremy Bertino – who pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy and is cooperating with the government – to the stand on Tuesday. During arguments related to pieces of evidence the government intends to introduce, prosecutors displayed messages showing Bertino lamenting the group’s failure to stop the transfer of power on the night of Jan. 6.
“We failed. The House is meeting again. That woman died for nothing,” Bertino said, referencing Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer as she attempted to breach the House chamber.
Bertino was also in a series of leadership chats ahead of Jan. 6 but didn’t go to Washington in part because of injuries he suffered when he was stabbed during a melee in December.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Speaking to a packed covered pavilion, Haley, 51, made her opening case to the Republican electorate to take her bid for the White House seriously. She avoided any direct mention of her former boss, despite painting a picture of a party that should dump “the stale ideas and faded names of the past,” while requiring “mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years.”
“America is not past our prime,” Haley said. “It’s just that our politicians are past theirs.”
The event was not devoid of the pugilism and politics of personality that Trump has come to personify. Haley touted her standoffs with world despots as U.N. ambassador and denounced the social liberal culture that has become a bogeyman on the right.
But, stylistically, it was nothing like the rallies that have dominated the conservative movement since Trump’s rise in 2015, when his freewheeling, populist-tinged monologues to a crowd of costumed, adoring supporters became standard affairs. Indeed, the most attention-grabbing outfit at Haley’s downtown event was on a man wearing khaki pants and a Declaration of Independence golf shirt.
It remains to be seen whether Haley’s offering of pre-Trump style of politics will resonate beyond the bastion of support the former South Carolina governor has in her home state. But the response to her campaign launch will provide an early test as to what — if any — approach may work for a candidate without Trump as their surname.
The former president loomed over the event, and not just as the subtext of Haley’s jabs.
Outside the arena, a white pickup truck drove up and down King Street flying Trump flags from its bed, a reminder that the attempted un-MAGA-fication of the Republican Party has only just begun — and may well stall before the South Carolina primary. When Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a Haley endorser, mentioned Trump by name and suggested that Republicans should thank him for his past leadership as they look toward a new direction, he received tepid applause.
“In 2016, President Trump was exactly what our country and our party needed,” said Norman, who was part of Haley’s 2004 freshman class in the South Carolina statehouse, and endorsed her longshot bid for governor in 2010. The congressman, who had been a vocal supporter of Trump and voted against certifying the 2020 election results, called Haley a “fierce, bold leader who will fight for America.”
It was a sign that the constituency of voters who will be enthusiastic about Haley may be ready to move on from Trump but not repudiate him outright.
Voters like Diane Whitten of Georgia, who came to Haley’s rally with a friend. She said she had long supported the 45th president but believed “one of Trump’s biggest faults is his mouth.” She was interested in hearing from other potential GOP leaders, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Like other Republicans expected to enter the field, Haley will have to walk a fine line in how she criticizes the former president and his policies and personality. Trump put Haley on the international stage when he appointed her ambassador to the United Nations in 2017, an experience she touts as part of her pitch to voters.
Her announcement speech was a relatively paint-by-numbers expression of conservatism without the ad libs. She highlighted general GOP priorities like strengthening border security and boosting police resources, shrinking the national debt and allowing parents to have school choice. Calling for a “strong and proud, not weak and woke” country, Haley said America could prevent, not start wars, if it invests in a “strong military.”
Left unmentioned were some of the darker chapters of the Trump era — mainly the end of it.
Having once declared Trump toxic because of his handling of the insurrection on Jan. 6, Haley did not talk about or allude to that day in her remarks. While she will undoubtedly need Never Trumpers and traditional Republicans in her camp to remain viable, the calculation on Wednesday seemed to be that she must continue to appeal to the most conservative, anti-establishment wing of the party.
But Haley’s subtle touch didn’t go unnoticed at Mar-a-Lago. Trump’s campaign sent out a news release titled “The Real Nikki Haley” as her event concluded, and allies of the former president bashed Haley for failing to offer policies that clearly differed from Trump’s.
By entering the race early, Haley positioned herself to not only capture much-needed earned media in the coming weeks — she heads to New Hampshire on Thursday, and to Iowa after that — but campaign funds too. Many of her potential GOP opponents are limited in their ability to raise federal funds until they enter the race, though her fellow South Carolina Republican, Sen. Tim Scott, has nearly $22 million on hand that could be transferred to a presidential campaign account.
Diana Stevenson of Columbia, who was already in Charleston for another event, came by Haley’s announcement to cheer on the woman she supported for governor in 2010 — whom she watched on the primary debate stage take on a handful of accomplished male candidates. “And she tore them all up,” Stevenson said. “It was gorgeous to watch. I think she could do it again.”
But Stevenson, like some other Haley fans in attendance on Wednesday, said she was also eager to see which other candidates jumped into the race. In Stevenson’s case, she also remains interested in Scott.
“We have an open slate — even though we have a former president running, we’re going to have a competitive primary field for the first time since 2016,” said Michael Bayham, who traveled to Haley’s announcement from outside New Orleans. He previously served as secretary of the Louisiana Republican Party, and remains active in GOP politics there.
“Nikki’s always presented herself well,” Bayham said, “so I’m curious how she’s going to make her case and create a constituency right now in a field being dominated by Trump and DeSantis.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
A Jamestown representative did not respond to a request for comment, nor did spokespeople for Haley. But those familiar with the discussions said that Barney Keller, the consulting firm’s president, had signed on with Haley. Keller arranged to work for Haley independently of Jamestown, staying firewalled off from the rest of the firm during the campaign.
But the Trump campaign was not willing to participate in the arrangement.
The prominent GOP media firm has been in Trump’s orbit since 2016, when it began crafting commercials for the former president’s first campaign. Two Jamestown partners, Larry Weitzner and Jason Miller, were key architects of Trump’s advertising strategy, and Miller joined the campaign as a top adviser.
The Trump-Jamestown partnership carried over to the 2020 election, when the firm cut a series of ads for the reelection campaign, including a pair that aired during the Super Bowl.
Jamestown continued to work for Trump after his unsuccessful reelection bid. And Trump’s 2024 campaign paid the firm more than $30,000 in December to produce videos of the former president speaking direct-to-camera.
Jamestown has a long history in Republican politics, working for candidates across the country and up and down the ballot. The firm worked for a number of GOP candidates during the 2022 midterm election, including Pennsylvania Senate candidate Mehmet Oz, New Hampshire congressional hopeful Matt Mowers and New Jersey Rep. Tom Kean Jr.
Trump has begun filling out his campaign team with top adividers, including Republican operatives Brian Jack, Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles. Last week, the Trump campaign also announced that Miller, who left Jamestown in 2017, would be joining the effort.
It remains unclear who will be replacing Jamestown in producing Trump’s 2024 ads.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
World Bank president David Malpass on Wednesday said he would leave his post by the end of June, months after running afoul of the White House for failing to say whether he accepts the scientific consensus on global warming.
Malpass, appointed by Donald Trump, will vacate the helm of the multilateral development bank, which provides billions of dollars a year in funding for developing economies, with less than a year remaining in a five-year term. He offered no specific reason for the move, saying in a statement, “after a good deal of thought, I’ve decided to pursue new challenges”.
Treasury secretary Janet Yellen thanked Malpass for his service in a statement, saying: “The world has benefited from his strong support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion, his vital work to assist the Afghan people, and his commitment to helping low-income countries achieve debt sustainability through debt reduction.”
Yellen said the United States would soon nominate a replacement for Malpass and looked forward to the bank’s board undertaking a “transparent, merit-based and swift nomination process for the next World Bank president”.
By long-standing tradition, the US government selects the head of the World Bank, while European leaders choose the leader of its larger partner, the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Pressure to shake up the leadership of the World Bank to pave the way for a new president who would reform the bank to more aggressively respond to climate change has been building for over two years from the United Nations, other world leaders and environmental groups.
In November 2021, special adviser to the UN secretary-general on climate change Selwin Hart called out the World Bank for “fiddling while the developing world burns” and said that the institution has been an “ongoing underperformer” on climate action.
Pressure on Malpass was reignited last September when the World Bank chief fumbled answering a question about whether he believed in the scientific consensus around climate change, which drew condemnation from the White House.
In November, special envoy on climate change John Kerry said he wants to work with Germany to come up with a strategy by the next World Bank Group meetings in April 2022 to “enlarge the capacity of the bank” to put more money into circulation and help countries deal with climate change.
More recently, Yellen has launched a major push to reform the way the World Bank operates to ensure broader lending to combat climate change and other global challenges.
Malpass took up the World Bank helm in April 2019 after serving as the top official for international affairs at US treasury in the Trump administration. In 2022, the World Bank committed more than $104bn to projects around the globe, according to the bank’s annual report.
A source familiar with his thinking said Malpass had informed Yellen of his decision on Tuesday.
The end of the fiscal year at the end of June was a natural time to step aside, the source said. The World Bank’s governors are expected to approve the bank’s roadmap for reforms with only minor changes at the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank set for mid-April.
Still, World Bank sources said they were surprised by his decision to step down before the joint meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Morocco in October.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Donald Trump missed his chance to use his DNA to try to prove he did not rape the writer E Jean Carroll, a federal judge said on Wednesday, clearing a potential roadblock to an April trial.
The judge, Lewis A Kaplan, rejected the 11th-hour offer by Trump’s legal team to provide a DNA sample to rebut claims Carroll first made publicly in a 2019 book.
Kaplan said lawyers for Trump and Carroll had more than three years to make DNA an issue in the case and both chose not to do so.
He said it would almost surely delay the trial scheduled to start on 25 April to reopen the DNA issue four months after the deadline passed to litigate concerns over trial evidence and weeks before trial.
Trump’s lawyers did not immediately comment. Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, declined to comment.
Carroll’s lawyers have sought Trump’s DNA for three years to compare it with stains found on the dress Carroll wore the day she says Trump raped her in a department store dressing room in late 1995 or early 1996. Analysis of DNA on the dress concluded it did contain traces of an unknown man’s DNA.
Trump has denied knowing Carroll, saying repeatedly he never raped her and accusing her of making the claim to stoke sales of her book. She has sued him for defamation and under a New York law which allows alleged victims of sexual assault to sue over alleged crimes outside the usual statute of limitations.
After refusing to provide a DNA sample, Trump’s lawyers switched tactics, saying they would provide one if Carroll’s lawyers turned over the full DNA report on the dress.
But Kaplan said Trump had provided no persuasive reason to relieve him of the consequences of his failure to seek the full DNA report in a timely fashion.
The judge also noted that the report did not find evidence of sperm cells and that reopening the dispute would raise a “complicated new subject into this case that both sides elected not to pursue over a period of years”.
He said a positive match of Trump’s DNA to that on the dress would prove only that there had been an encounter between Trump and Carroll on a day when she wore the dress, but would not prove or disprove that a rape occurred and might prove entirely inconclusive.
Kaplan added: “His conditional invitation to open a door that he kept closed for years threatens to change the nature of a trial for which both parties now have been preparing for years. Whether Mr Trump’s application is intended for a dilatory purpose or not, the potential prejudice to Ms Carroll is apparent.”
The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done.
The Carroll case is just one source of legal jeopardy for Trump, who is now one of two candidates for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
He also faces an investigation of a hush money payment to a porn star who claims an affair, investigations of his financial and tax affairs, investigations of his election subversion attempts, and investigation of his retention of classified records.
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Santos was defensive about the unusually high price tag for a local event.
“Understand that I’m not here for personal gains or for any kind of financial gains,” he said in a spring 2019 video message to the group posted on its Facebook page. “All monies raised are solely for structuring this movement slash organization.”
Santos was only able to pull in $645 out of a $20,000 goal. It’s unclear what happened to the funds.
While Santos was ultimately unsuccessful in raising $20,000 for the Trump group, his extravagant asks drew questions about whether he was out for personal, financial gain. The episode has echoes of other fundraising efforts that have made Santos the target of state and federal prosecutors. The Federal Election Commission is probing questionable campaign expenses including nearly $11,000 spent on rent for his Long Island home and the FBI is investigating claims that he absconded with $3,000 in donations meant for a disabled U.S. Navy veteran’s dying service dog.
Santos was a fringe player in 2019. He’s now a national political figure — but not for anything he’s accomplished. Instead, the Republican congressman who was elected in November in a swing district on Long Island, is best known for largely inventing his campaign biography. He has resisted calls for his resignation, saying his resume was only embellished, although he did step away from committee assignments citing the “ongoing attention surrounding both my personal and campaign financial investigations.”
Naysa Woomer, Santos’ communications director, said she could not comment on any campaign or personal matters, and calls to Santos’ personal attorney were not returned.
In spring 2019, a year before his first, unsuccessful run for Congress, Santos became a founding member of United for Trump, a grassroots group supporting President Donald Trump’s reelection. At a March 23 rally at Trump Tower in Manhattan, Santos was filmed holding a “Gays for Trump” sign.
By March 25, Santos set up a GoFundMe account that other United for Trump members pushed to the group to raise money for a future “Northeast tour” of Trump rallies.
He posted a video in the United for Trump Facebook group to introduce himself to other members that month.
Santos had a few specific asks: He said he wanted to establish an LLC with an accountant, at a cost of $500 to $750. United for Trump also needed a lawyer — “to keep in our back pocket and just to retain” — for $2,500.
In the March video, Santos alluded to “a lot of confusion as to what we are raising money for,” acknowledging it can cost less than $100 to get permits for rallies. But, he explained, United for Trump would be different than what members were used to, calling it “an organization to actually give power.”
In May 2019, Santos was listed in a Facebook post as the group’s “president” using part of his full legal name, George Anthony Devolder. Other United for Trump committee members included Joseph, who organized central New York rallies for a group called ACT for America, described as a “national anti-Muslim hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Joseph said she met Santos when he introduced himself to her at the March Trump Tower rally and that he “seemed like a sweet kid.”
“In grassroots, we accept everyone who wants to join and do a little work,” she said, adding that after the New York City rally, most of United for Trump’s other events envisioned for that year “didn’t get off the ground.”
Joseph said she was preoccupied with other things and began fading away from the group around the time Santos became its president, and said she didn’t remember the group getting very far with organizing events while she was involved.
In July 2019, Santos did help organize a counterprotest to an Impeach Trump rally in Buffalo — an event that turned violent.
Rus Thompson, a longtime conservative activist from Buffalo, was the lead organizer of the counter-rally. He had no recollection of Santos attending the event. The New York congressman should “never have been elected,” Thompson said in a recent telephone interview.
United for Trump planned to hold another Erie County rally at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center on August 3, 2019, according to administrator posts in the group’s Facebook page.
Santos had asked United for Trump members to help raise six-figures for the August event.
“Need your help. The est. cost to bring the pro-Trump rally to Buffalo with credible speakers is $20,000,” according to a call for donations that went out in the Facebook group.
Thompson questioned the $20,000 price tag for Buffalo speakers.
“I never paid speakers,” he said.
Planning for the August Buffalo rally was the last time Santos seemed to be involved with United for Trump. In October 2019, he announced his 2020 candidacy for Congress at a Queens Village Republican Club dinner. His biography for the event doesn’t mention United for Trump.
Thompson said he didn’t remember an event happening in Buffalo around that time. The location Santos proposed, he said, didn’t make sense.
“That’s really expensive and not set up for a rally,” Thompson said. “Car or boat show, yes, but political rally? No.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
It’s unclear what criminality Smith contends Corcoran’s testimony could expose, but previously unsealed court records show that prosecutors convinced a magistrate who issued a search warrant in August for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate that there was evidence of obstruction of justice as well as potential offenses related to classified information.
The search found about 100 documents with classification markings that prosecutors contend should have been returned to the National Archives.
Corcoran did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. A spokesperson for Smith declined to comment.
A Trump spokesperson referred to the special counsel’s investigation as a “targeted, politically motivated witch hunt,” adding: “The weaponized Department of Injustice has shown no regard for common decency and key rules that govern the legal system.”
Under court rules, Smith’s motion to compel Corcoran’s testimony would be heard by the chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington, Beryl Howell, an appointee of former President Barack Obama. Such proceedings are typically held in secret, although rulings sometimes become public.
Howell is set to turn over the chief judge’s post next month to a colleague, James Boasberg, also an Obama appointee.
Attorney General Merrick Garland named Smith as a special counsel in November, assigning him to take over the ongoing investigation into the sensitive documents at Trump’s home, as well as separate probes into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and issues related to fundraising associated with the election and its aftermath.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Los Angeles: Former U.S. President Donald Trump has attacked Grammy-winner Rihanna, calling her “nothing” and claimed that she has “no talent.”
The 76-year-old got riled up after Texas congressman Ronny Jackson called on the NFL to remove the Barbadian songstress from the halftime show after “badmouthing America.” In his post on Truth Social account, he also pointed out that Rihanna is anti-Trump, reports aceshowbiz.com.
“Rihanna spray painted ‘F*** Donald Trump’ on a car at the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. She’s made a career of spewing degenerate filth while badmouthing America every chance she gets,” Jackson, who is Trump’s former White House doctor, wrote on Friday.
“Why is the NFL showcasing this crap? Rihanna SHOULD NOT be the halftime performer!”
Responding to Ronny’s remarks, Trump wrote: “Without her ‘Stylist’ she’d be NOTHING.” He added: “Bad everything, and NO TALENT!”
Trump didn’t seem to hate Rihanna that much before as his team used her song ‘Don’t Stop the Music’ for a campaign rally during the mid-terms. She, however, sent a cease and desist to prevent them from using her music in the future. She added that she wouldn’t be seen at one of the “tragic rallies.”
Rihanna has been a vocal critic of the 45th POTUS. She criticised his stance on immigration, sharing a photo of herself holding a T-shirt that read “Immigrants” around the time he ordered the delay of ICE deportations.
“Wherever I go, except for Barbados, I’m an immigrant,” she explained why it’s a topic she holds close to her heart.
“But I think it’s important for people to remember, if you love me, everyone out here is just like me. A million Rihannas out there, getting treated like dirt.”
It is also a conversation reminiscent of one many had before. Back in 2016, senior Republicans fretted that putting Trump on top of the ticket would spell certain doom. “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed,” later Trump acolyte Lindsey Graham notoriously tweeted. “And we will deserve it.” Those concerns proved to be unfounded, of course, as Trump prevailed over a split Republican field and then went on to defeat Hillary Clinton while Republicans held the House and Senate. But this time around, few Republicans think Trump can pull it off again, not after spending the last three years nursing his grievances over 2020, and especially not after his hand-picked candidates were walloped in the midterms.
Back in 2020, the buzzword among Democrats was “electability,” as the need to defeat Trump came to outweigh any other concerns or considerations including those of ideology, vision, competence and style. And the winner of the “electability” primary, at least for donors and liberal pundits, was Joe Biden, which led to most of his competitors dropping out and endorsing him when he was still trailing in the delegate count to Bernie Sanders. Republicans are now hoping that a similar dynamic plays out on their side this year and that even Trump loyalists will understand the stakes. Trump did not respond to requests for comment.
“I don’t think it is fair to call Donald Trump a damaged candidate,” said Eric Levine, a top GOP fundraiser who has been calling on the party to move on from Trump since the 2020 election and the uprising at the Capitol. “He is a metastasizing cancer who if he is not stopped is going to destroy the party. Donald Trump is a loser. He is the first president since Hoover to lose the House, the Senate and the presidency in a single term. Because of him Chuck Schumer is the Leader Schumer, and the progressive agenda is threatening to take over the country. And he is probably the only Republican in the country, if not the only person in the country, who can’t beat Joe Biden.”
The big fear amongdonors like Levine and other party players is that, like in 2016, a number of challengers to Trump will jump into the primary and linger too long, splitting the field and allowing Trump to win. And some of these top Republicans are meeting with potential candidates and telling them that if they want to run, they should by all means do so — but that they should also be prepared to drop out well before voting begins in order to make sure that the GOP puts their best candidate forward against Biden.
“I am worried about this, but experience is a good teacher, and there is no education in the second kick of a mule,” said Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist and longtime adviser to Senator Mitch McConnell. “My hope is that those exploring a race [for president] right now are asking themselves what is best for the party.”
Bob Vander Plaats, the president of The Family Leader, a socially conservative advocacy group, is one of the most sought-after endorsers in the Iowa Caucus. He said that he is speaking with every potential candidate about the need to not overstay their welcome in the race.
“I tell them that there is an open and fair playing field here in the state of Iowa, and that we will introduce you to our base, and we will give you all kinds of opportunities for you to introduce yourself. And if you have the call in your heart to run for president, I am the last person to tell you to not to.
“But,” he also tells them. “Do not listen to your consultants, who have a vested interest in you staying in. I can help you decide if you should stay in or not.”
“They all agree right away,” he added.
Leading donors who have spoken with the top-non-Trump contenders like Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo and Mike Pence say that all get it, that none of them are looking to play the spoiler and are aware of the dangers to the party, if not the country, of a Trump Redux. For evidence, these donors point to the potential candidate’s public statements and recent memoirs, in which all are critical of Trump in one way or another.
“Does Mike Pence really want his legacy to be that he got four percent of the vote and helped elected Donald Trump?” asked one adviser to a major Republican giver. “Same goes for [Mike] Pompeo, same goes for [Nikki] Haley. They want to get traction, of course, but there is a higher motivation to pull out more quickly based on what it would mean for the country and the party.”
Yet if the Haleys and Pompeos of the world end up running, they are doing so to win, and despite what they tell donors now, once they start getting a warm reception on the stump it can be hard to stop. “Everybody on every campaign says, ‘Why is it our responsibility to keep Donald Trump from winning?’” said GOP strategist Dave Carney. “You have some people that are just running to sell books, but most of the folks that are looking at this are doing so because they think there is a path for them to win.”
Trump seems to recognize how the prospect of a crowded field would help him, keeping quiet even as some of his former closest aides consider their own campaigns, and training his fire instead on Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who is leading him in some polls. Trump has been reluctant to take the bait as his former ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, taunts her former boss by calling for a “new generation” of leadership. Trump is Trump, so he has hit back occasionally, but has also said publicly that Haley “should do it,” a sign that, as former chair of the South Carolina Republican Party Katon Dawson put it, “Trump has a solid 31 [percent]. And if it’s a big field a solid 31 can carry you to the nomination. The only way to defeat him is if some of these folks team up.”
The question is how, and on this, even some of the Republican rich are at a loss on how to proceed. No more are there party bosses with the power to clear the field. The rise of online fundraising means that even the effect of the donor class can be limited. And while leaders of religious and grassroots groups hold sway, they have their own politics to think about, and can’t very well step much beyond where their members want to go.
“I don’t even know who would be having these kinds of conversations,” said Jennings. “There is no convening authority. You just hope the candidates figure it out and we don’t come in to next January with another John Kasich running around dividing the field.”
On the Democratic side, back in 2016, the party’s donors and senior leadership united well before the primaries behind Hillary Clinton only to see the folly of that approach when her weaknesses as a candidate revealed themselves as she struggled to fend off a challenge from Bernie Sanders.
For Republicans, the likeliest beneficiary of any similar effort would be DeSantis, who is outpacing Trump in some head-to-head polls. DeSantis has advantages, not least among them the fact that he just raised over $200 million for his reelection bid, and that he has a knack for using his perch in the Florida statehouse to hammer Democrats over culture war issues. But he is untested on the national stage, and there are persistent whispers that he can be clumsy about the normal give-and-take of politics. Many party bigwigs say they would rather watch the process play out for at least a year before picking favorites, with the understanding that if candidates now polling in the single digits don’t see their prospects improve, they move to consolidate behind one Not Trump after the first couple of primaries. “The great hope for DeSantis is that he breaks through quickly, and that convinces everyone else there is no path,” said one former Trump adviser who now thinks the former president can’t win.
One oddity of the current moment is that the weaker Trump seems, with federal and local investigations piling up and his campaign launch landing with a thud, the higher the chances that more possible candidates will launch their own bids, seeing a path to victory more likely. And the more candidates enter, the easier it becomes for Trump to win with an increasingly smaller share of the vote.
There may be no convening authority, but there are conversations among donors and party activists who point to how on the other side of the aisle, in 2020, nearly the entire remaining Democratic field dropped out almost at the same time and endorsed Biden. Republicans fret that there is no equivalent of a Nancy Pelosi or a Jim Clyburn in their party who can apply pressure to the dreams of would-be presidents. Still, donors are talking now about pooling money together once the primary gets under way in earnest and a true Trump alternative emerges.
“Donors have wised up,” said Liam Donovan, a GOP strategist. “That is the main control mechanism. There is not going to be oxygen for a lot of these guys, and there are not going to be resources.”
There is already some movement along these lines.
“I don’t see a big bunch of donors coming behind Trump at this point,” said Andy Sabin, a metal mogul who gave over $100,000 to Trump over the years and who opened his Hamptons estate for a Trump fundraiser in 2019. “I wouldn’t give Trump a fucking nickel, and that hasn’t changed. As we get closer Trump is going to see the handwriting on the wall. Now, he may not care if he fucks everybody up. Trump worries only about Trump, so he may not care if we lose as long as he has his day in the park, but I don’t know any donor that wants to give a red nickel to Trump.”
Sabin isn’t alone. Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO of Blackstone who donated $3.7 million to Trump and Trump affiliated groups over the last several years, said after the midterms that “It is time for the Republican Party to turn to a new generation of leaders, and I intend to support one of them in the presidential primaries.” Ken Griffin, the CEO of Citadel who gave $60 million to Republican candidates and campaigns in the 2022 cycle, also said after the midterms that “I’d like to think that the Republican Party is ready to move on from somebody who has been for this party a three-time loser,” and announced his support for DeSantis.
These public clarion calls, donors and party leaders say, are all part of a larger strategy to raise an alarm on Trump’s weaknesses; they hope that GOP primary voters start prioritizing electability like their Democratic counterparts did four years ago. Republicans tend to get enthralled with several candidates throughout the course of a presidential primary. The hope this year, senior strategists said, is that voters’ minds stay focused on who can best beat Biden, so that even if DeSantis — or whomever the frontrunner of the moment is — stumbles, attention and affection coalesces around the next Non-Trump in the field.
There is a concerted effort afoot to reach out even to some of Trump’s most loyal voters. Evangelical leaders have said they are reminding their voters about comments Trump made after the midterms in which he seemed to blame evangelicals for the disappointing results and accused them of “disloyalty” for not already lining up behind his ’24 effort. Plus, they say, even the evangelical movement needs to start thinking long term, and Trump would come into office an immediate lame duck.
“Trump can only offer four more years,” said Dave Wilson, the president of the Palmetto Family Council, an influential evangelical group in South Carolina. “How are we going to build a movement that goes beyond the next four years to the next eight years to the next twenty years, that parallels what we have seen over on the progressive side?”
For many party leaders however, such sentiments are just a hope. There is as of now no real effort to consolidate the field, no real plan among the donor class to pull their billions behind a single non-Trump candidate. There is a belief that somehow the Republican collective consciousness has learned from 2016 and that candidates, donors and party leaders will move in concert behind the right person once the process starts to play out.
“Republicans are very motivated to defeat Joe Biden,” said Tom Rath, a longtime Republican hand in New Hampshire. “The Trump people aren’t at the table for them, but there are already discussions happening about what we do. If we get in a situation where Trump is winning primaries with 40 percent of the vote and losing badly to Biden, I think you are going to see those discussion begin to accelerate, to say the least. We just hope it’s not too late by then.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Cohen declined to give specifics about the sit-down, which he said was his 15th time talking with the district attorney’s office. He did say another meeting is planned.
“A 16th meeting has already been set, which indicates to me DA Bragg’s resolve in not allowing this matter to be forgotten,” he said in the text.
Cohen’s appearance comes as former Trump prosecutor Mark Pomerantz is promoting his book, “The People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account,” that criticizes his former boss Bragg for dropping a similar grand jury probe last year.
Cohen said he agreed with Bragg’s decision to stop pursing the case because there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Trump.
“The plane wasn’t ready,” he said outside the courthouse Wednesday of last year’s probe.
But things have changed.
“I think the plane may be right now on the tarmac and ready to take off,” Cohen said.
He was continuing a metaphor used by Pomerantz in the book, which says Bragg led the 2022 probe “into the legal equivalent of the plane crash.”
The revived investigation centers around whether the former president covered up money The Trump Organization paid to Daniels during the 2016 presidential election over an alleged affair, which he has denied having. Cohen has admitted to paying $130,000 to Daniels, which he said was at Trump’s direction.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
