Trump Campaign 4

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est 3 24

merri ok

see lacivita

gotv outsrc to musk?

his superpac? rAN NEG ADS PRO HAMAS and PRO ISRAEL TO DIFF GPS

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morn joe tons of ads football kamala sex surgery prisoners

taxpayer prison sex change density of trigger terms

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NO LNX

alternet-logo

Trump spokesman launches unhinged attack on Harris campaign official

Former President Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida on July 26, 2024 (Gage Skidmore)

Alex HendersonNovember 04, 2024

Spokesman Steven Cheung has maintained a snarky, combative tone throughout Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. And he aimed an insult at Patrick Dillon — the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign manager Jennifer O’Malley Dillon — on Saturday, November 2.

Cheung was offended when Patrick Dillon tweeted about an article by The Atlantic's Tim Alberta, which was headlined, "Inside the Ruthless, Restless Final Days of the Trump Campaign."

On X, formerly Twitter, Cheung attacked Patrick Dillon as a "cuck husband" who "has no idea what he's talking about because he's used to not knowing what’s going on behind his back."

READ MORE:Harassing letters threatening biblical hell fire targets Democratic voters in Wisconsin

"Cuck," an insult that is commonly used by MAGA Republicans, comes from an adult film genre. In the "cuck" genre, a "cuck's" fetish is seeing his wife or girlfriend having sex with another man.

The word "cuckservative" has been used by MAGA Republicans to attack traditional conservatives and non-MAGA Republicans they consider weak.

Cheung once described Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a "cuck" for challenging Trump in the 2024 GOP presidential primary.

In response to Cheung's attack on Patrick Dillon, former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann tweeted, "Anybody who whores himself out for psychotrump should be a little more reluctant to call somebody else a 'cuck.'"

READ MORE: 5 ways Trump is planning to thwart election results: report

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AN RAW 10 24

An ad buyer who said she was fired by the Donald Trump campaign after trying to expose alleged "grift and greed" by top campaign officials and deep distrust at the operation's highest levels has spoken out to the Daily Beast.

The fired worker told the Beast under the condition of anonymity that she wrote an email after she was terminated that laid out her concerns that the campaign's most senior leaders — Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles — appeared to be directing millions of dollars toward companies that may be overcharging the former president. One of them, she said, is run by a major Kamala Harris donor.

“The grift and greed I‘ve witnessed makes me sick and I think leadership has been bad stewards of generous donors money,” the campaign employee wrote to a former colleague after her Oct. 18 firing. “I‘m 100% on Team Trump — I want the very best for this campaign, but what I’ve witnessed is greedy and wrong.”

The woman also alleged that campaign employees had become convinced that leadership had installed a "listening device" in a conference room at the West Palm Beach campaign headquarters, and she said chief financial officer Sean Dollman was so concerned that he and others rummaged through the conference room to find the device.

“[Dollman] has alluded to the fact that he can’t say things for fear of retaliation,” the woman said. “There are napkins stuffed in all the gaps in the conference room now. It seems like they’re willing to go to extremes.”

Sources told The Daily Beast that the woman became so concerned over the summer that Wiles and LaCivita were sending large digital ad purchases to outside firms Strategic Media Services and Zeta Global instead of using the campaign's in-house Launchpad firm — for which she worked — and she concluded the outside firms were charging far more for the same work.

ALSO READ:Kamala's secret weapon against Trump: The F-word that's changing everything

The woman doesn't specify in her email what she meant by "grift and greed," but sources said she had raised concerns for months with Dollman about ad money spending by LaCivita and Wiles, and she was fired three days after The Daily Beast revealed last week that LaCivita's consulting firm had already raked in $22 million from the campaign and two Trump super PACs, although she was not the source of that report.

“Launchpad made the decision to terminate her for spreading rumors about clients, and repeatedly showing poor judgment," Dollman told The Daily Beast, but declined to comment further on her firing.

The whistleblower alleges that Zeta Global, a company run by Democratic donor David Steinberg that was chosen by LaCivita and Wiles, had charged the campaign $20 million for placing media ads, which she said was significantly more than the $13.9 million that Launchpad would have charged.

She does not directly accuse LaCivita or Wiles of receiving a cut from the higher commissions from outside firms, and a senior campaign officials tersely responded to questions about them receiving undisclosed payments.

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mma

October 24, 2024 edition of Fox News's The Five

JESSICA TARLOV, HOST: So Trump's message, which has admittedly been buried, I guess, over the last few days — he did give that speech yesterday at the Turning Point conference — but he has been talking about this "enemy within" stuff, he has talked about "women love me except for abortion" which is obvious the major issue in the election. Defending tariffs, talking about deporting illegals, and also that Kamala is terrible, and that will be the centerpiece of it.

But there was data I saw today that I found really interesting: the number one topic that Republicans are spending money on ads is about trans issues. So number five was the economy; number one, all of this anti-trans stuff, where they're saying Kamala is going to give sex changes to undocumented people in prison. That doesn't seem like the strongest message to end on, on a national campaign.

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Loomer, who last year shared a video claiming that “9/11 was an Inside Job!,” accompanied Trump to a 9/11 memorial ceremony at Ground Zero. Trump advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles were also present at the event. }:Media Matters, [9/11/24; Associated Press, 9/11/24]

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AN 10 24

Corey Lewandowski has “lost” a “power struggle” within Donald Trump’s campaign a mere two months after joining the former president as a senior adviser, the Guardian reports.

According to the report, Lewandowski has been reassigned to a surrogate role after the former 2016 campaign chief suggested this summer “he would be taking” over Trump's third bid for office. Lewandowski also ruffled feathers by suggesting campaign funds may have been “mismanaged.”

“Trump had wanted Lewandowski by his side through the summer until he soured on his antics in recent weeks,” the Guardian reports, citing people familiar with the Trump campaign.

“[Lewandowski] blew himself up,” a Trump official said. “The entire staff has been working together for two years. You think you’re going to come in at the end and throw your weight around? A bit misguided.”

The Guardian reports:

*In 2016, Lewandowski was unceremoniously fired as campaign chief after he repeatedly clashed with Trump’s children, only to return in 2021 to run a pro-Trump super Pac until he was ousted from that, too, over unwanted sexual advances towards a female donor.

An ally of the former president told the Guardian Lewandowski is “Trump’s comfort blanket.”

“And he’s like a cockroach. He never dies,” that ally said.

READ MORE: ['He’s a sociopath:' JD Vance has Congressional Democrats freaking out]

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trmp in own spin room after fail; next day said polls won 65-95%

The right’s post-debate assault on ABC is a preview of Trump’s authoritarian agenda

Written by Matt Gertz

Published 09/13/24 mma

Donald Trump’s flailing performance at Tuesday night’s debate triggered a multiday right-wing freakout at the ABC News moderators, punctuated by calls from the former president and his allies to target the network and its parent company with a regulatory crackdown, congressional investigation, and even prosecutions. It’s a dark preview of the authoritarian tactics they could use if Trump returns to the White House and carries out his stated desire to retaliate against news outlets whose coverage displeases him.

Trump used Tuesday’s opportunity to address a massive national audience at the debate to spew nonsense incomprehensible to people who aren’t familiar with the deep lore of the right-wing fever swamps and repeatedly take the bait offered by Vice President Kamala Harris. The result was such a disaster for Trump’s campaign that he quickly called off future debates.

Trump’s right-wing media allies reacted to his disastrous performance in real time by lashing out at ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis, who fact-checked the former president on a handful of occasions. While debate moderators typically come in for criticism from pundits who take issue with how they handled the high-profile job, it is difficult to blame Muir or Davis for a candidate picking up a racist and false fourthhand internet rumor about Haitian immigrants in Ohio and, [vid]“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

Moreover, the right’s discussion quickly blew past mere critiques of ABC’s performance to far-reaching conspiracy theories about its purportedly corrupt behavior and calls for government retribution against the network.

“Remove ABC’s broadcast license and criminally charge the moderators and executives for campaign finance fraud,” Sean Davis, CEO of the right-wing digital outlet The Federalist, declared on X the night of the debate.

Trump himself began calling for the stripping of ABC’s broadcast license the following morning.

“ABC took a big hit last night,” he said in an interview on Fox News’ Fox & Friends. “I mean, to be honest, they're a news organization. They have to be licensed to do it. They ought to take away their license for the way they did that.”

Trump’s remarks drew cheers from MAGA figures like Laura Loomer, who posted that “ABC News deserves to be INVESTIGATED.”

Trump reiterated his demand for retaliation in a Thursday night Truth Social post, claiming that “people are saying that Comrade Kamala Harris had the questions from Fake News ABC” and that if “an investigation” determines that that is the case, “ABC’s license should be TERMINATED.”

The former president then reposted a claim that an “ABC whistleblower allegedly will release an affidavit” showing that “the Harris campaign was given sample questions.” That claim originates with a random X poster — whose profile states, “Black Insurrectionist--I FOLLOW BACK TRUE PATRIOTS” — who claimed earlier that day to have received the purported document, which he promised to release ”before the weekend is out.”

Trump’s call for retribution has support from some Republican legislators. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) said he would demand from ABC News and the Harris campaign “all correspondence, records, and potential coordination between the two parties ahead of Tuesday’s presidential debate,” while Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is threatening to “re-examine the laws” he claims allow “the left’s near-complete domination of broadcast TV”

Meanwhile, Trumpists like Eric Metaxas and Hugh Hewitt are floating boycotts of ABC parent company Disney, and Mark Penn wants an independent review of ABC’s internal communications to assess whether the network was “rigging the outcome of this debate.”

The credibility of Trump’s call to strip ABC’s license is unclear. The Federal Communications Commission does not license broadcast networks — but it does license individual broadcast stations, including the eight owned and operated directly by ABC and the hundreds of additional affiliates. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, a Biden appointee, responded to Trump’s call by suggesting it runs afoul of the First Amendment, and Ajit Pai, her Trump-appointed predecessor, offered a similar response when Trump called for retaliation against NBC as president. That said, one of the goals of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 is to ensure future Trump appointees are willing to prioritize his personal whims.

Moreover, Trump’s eagerness to use such tactics to halt critical coverage — and the right’s support for them — is a dire sign for the future, even if the specific deployment of retaliatory FCC licensing decisions doesn’t work out.

The New Republic’s Greg Sargent has a cover story in its latest issue detailing the possibility that a second Trump administration could be characterized by “slow-burn authoritarianism,” which Sargent describes as “lower-profile” efforts to use state power to create hardships for Trump’s critics and benefits for his allies.

Trump’s attack on the media is likely to follow such a pattern if he returns to the White House, as I told Sargent on The Daily Blast podcast earlier this week. Rather than the high-profile action of stripping broadcast licenses, Trump’s allies could use the threat of adverse regulation or congressional investigations to more quietly encourage corporate owners to clamp down on critical coverage or sell their networks to someone who will.

Indeed, the Trump administration pursued that strategy, albeit largely unsuccessfully, during his presidency. Trump-controlled agencies issued unfavorable regulatory decisions to the corporate owners of disfavored outlets like CNN and The Washington Post, and favorable ones to the Trump-aligned owners of Fox News and Sinclair Broadcast Group.

The owners of CNN and The Washington Post held out against this pressure before but it’s unclear how they would respond to a second Trump term, particularly if the coercion becomes more intense. Nor is it clear what ABC’s Disney ownership — with sprawling business interests that produce numerous bureaucratic pressure points — would do if Trump moved it to the top of the target list.

Trump campaign touts support of Michael Knowles, a leading opponent of “evil” and “immoral” IVF 09/06/24 mma

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outspent on ads, 2x $ vph

an 9 24

Although many of the national and battleground state polls released in late August have showed 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris with small single-digit leads over GOP rival Donald Trump, quite a few Democratic strategists have cautioned that it's still a close race. And Harris continues to make a point of describing herself as a the "underdog," even with a national Fairleigh Dickinson University poll released on August 23 showing her with a 7 percent lead.

Democrats are also cautioning that Trump campaign leaders Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita are skilled GOP operatives. LaCivita, in fact, helped sink 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's campaign with his infamous "Swift Boat Veterans" attack.

In a report published on August 26, however, The Guardian's Hugo Lowell addresses concerns that infighting could damage Trump's campaign — including fears of a "power struggle" between campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski and others.

Lowell explains, "The momentary power play among the senior advisers is widely seen to be over, for now, after the 2016 campaign chief, Corey Lewandowski, distanced himself from suggestions he was returning to the fold to run the campaign and the current leadership remained in their roles…. But there has been trepidation that if the Trump campaign hits more rough patches in the race against Vice-President Kamala Harris, any disagreements, for instance, on strategy between Lewandowski and the current chiefs, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, could cause a blow-up, the people (familiar with the matter) said."

The Guardian reports that a "power struggle" within Trump's campaign could prove detrimental at a time when the campaign is dealing with some major challenges — including all the criticism of his "widely panned" running, mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio).

"The Trump campaign is also trying, late in the election cycle, to prepare a larger ground game in battleground states, run Trump through a slew of rallies and prepare him for a crunch presidential debate in September — while Harris' honeymoon period continues with a vengeance," Lowell observes. "What the campaign cannot afford, the people said, is a sapping power struggle like a clash between LaCivita, who is ensconced, and Lewandowski, who has remained close to Trump despite being ousted from a Trump-aligned PAC after a donor's wife complained of unwanted sexual advances…. The jitters have calmed down for now because no one expects Lewandowski or anyone else to become the head of the Trump campaign, after the other senior advisers in effect revolted at the idea of Lewandowski taking over and privately complained to Trump, the people said."

Lowell adds, "The morning that Trump formally decided to add Lewandowski to the campaign leadership, Trump told his team to 'find something for Corey to do,' according to two people in the room."

*Read The Guardian's full article at this link.

an 8 24 badash bit neglected

As Donald Trump’s Arlington National Cemetery scandal grows deeper and deeper, his campaign co-manager and senior advisor, Chris LaCivita, is lashing out at the Secretary of the Army, Christine Wormuth, after the Dept. of the Army issued a “rare” yet “stark rebuke,” as CNN reported, of the campaign’s efforts to politicize the cemetery where 400,000 service members, many of whom gave their lives for their country, are buried.

Secretary Wormuth is the first woman to become Secretary of the Army. The Trump campaign and Donald Trump himself have been attacking women recently. The cemetery official who filed a report allegedly stating they had been verbally and physically accosted is a woman. Trump himself made a sexual and sexist attack on Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic political opponent, just this morning. The Guardian described it as a “lewd” and “crudely misogynistic comment,” originally posted by another Truth Social user. On Wednesday, WIRED published a story titled, “The Trump Campaign’s Rhetoric About Women Sounds a Lot Like Andrew Tate’s.”

“As the Trump campaign overtly appeals to the manosphere, a WIRED investigation shows that the view of women espoused by alleged rapist and trafficker Andrew Tate matches perfectly with that of Trump and his allies,” the news site reported.

Chris LaCivita is a Republican strategist perhaps best-known as the architect of the manufactured and debunked “Swiftboat” smear campaign against Democratic 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry and his military record.

On Monday, Trump and several of his top campaign aides attended a wreath-laying ceremony held by two Gold Star families whose loved ones were among the 13 service members who died three years earlier in the suicide bombing attack on Abbey Gate at the Kabul airport on Afghanistan. The Dept. of the Army, which oversees Arlington National Cemetery, had warned Trump he could attend but only as a private individual, and no campaign staffers would be allowed. It also informed him of other restrictions, in keeping with both ANC policy and federal law. It is a violation of federal law to use Arlington National Cemetery for political purposes or events.

But Trump ignored those rules and regulations, according to the Army, which defended a cemetery official who reportedly alleges Trump campaign staffers pushed her out of their way, in a physical and verbal assault as she tried to enforce the cemetery’s rules.

The Trump campaign also shot photographs and video, and released video on several social media platforms, in apparent violation of federal law.

“Arlington National Cemetery routinely hosts public wreath laying ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for individuals and groups who submit requests in advance. ANC conducts nearly 3,000 such public ceremonies a year without incident,” the Army’s statement reads, according to Talking Points Memo.

“Participants in the August 26th ceremony and the subsequent Section 60 visit were made aware of federal laws, Army regulations and DoD policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds. An ANC employee who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside. Consistent with the decorum expected at ANC, this employee acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption. The incident was reported to the JBM-HH police department, but the employee subsequently decided not to press charges. Therefore, the Army considers this matter closed.”

“This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked. ANC is a national shrine to the honored dead of the Armed Forces, and its dedicated staff will continue to ensure public ceremonies are conducted with the dignity and respect the nation’s fallen deserve.”

The Trump campaign on Tuesday edited its captured video from the Arlington events into a TikTok video (here), complete with music and Trump’s commentary as the narration.

On Monday, LaCivita had posted this short clip:

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mma 7 24

MAGA figures are suddenly afraid that Trump will lose and are looking for someone to blame.

On July 30, Project 2025 Director Paul Dans suddenly stepped down, even after promoting his work on War Room earlier in the day. The Trump campaign, in a memo signed by senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, celebrated, even claiming they would welcome Project 2025’s demise.

But outside of the right-wing bubble, the PR move seems to have failed in its attempt to distance Trump from Project 2025.

As New York Times reporter Jonathan Swan noted, the Trump campaign reportedly has no transition plan — even compared to 2016 — and will need to rely on Project 2025 for staffing should he prevail in the election this fall. (This is also a reason why Project 2025 partner positions matter as much as what is in the official Project 2025 book: These are the people who would be in a position of power for staffing the federal government, especially if Trump follows through on threats to lay off thousands of federal civil servants.)

Other journalists and analysts reported similarly.

Project 2025 is the policy platform and staffing database organized by the Heritage Foundation for the next Republican presidential administration. The extreme policies have proved to be very unpopular with the American people, and this unpopularity seemingly led the Trump campaign to force Dans to resign.

The situation was already a tinderbox since Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democrats' likely presidential nominee, replacing President Joe Biden, since Trump’s campaign was reportedly designed to face Biden instead of Harris; switching MAGA’s messaging on a dime was going to be no easy task.

Before Harris took the reins, Trump had complained about Project 2025, even as Project 2025 contributors were invited to speak at the Republican National Convention, a key Project 2025 figure was appointed to the RNC’s platform committee, and Trump himself named the elected official perhaps most closely tied to Project 2025 as his new vice presidential nominee.

Inside the MAGA bubble, recriminations and blame are growing as Trump’s electoral position apparently grows weaker.

Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist, Holocaust denier, and groyper leader who dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2022, has been railing at LaCivita for a while. Just days ago, Fuentes bragged that his audience is more loyal to him than it is to Trump and said that he would not vote in 2024 because the people closest to Trump, like LaCivita and Wiles, are not loyal to America First ideals.

Wiles and LaCivita’s decision to turn on Project 2025 so publicly has only made this wound larger.

Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich jumped in, writing that Project 2025 people were “loyal to the end” and that LaCivita is “preparing a coup against Trump.”

MAGA figures the Hodgetwins wrote that they don’t trust LaCivita and Wiles and that Trump needs “OG loyalists” to win the election.

Fuentes posted about the LaCivita/Wiles statement, and in replies and quotes, groypers directed rage against the pair. Groyper-aligned figure Tyler Russell reacted on a stream to Dans’ resignation, saying Fuentes was correct and LaCivita “needs to be the first person in jail.” He also added, “Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita — fuck both of you.”

White nationalist Vincent James Foxx also wrote that “Trump disavowing Project 2025 should be concerning because he's literally disavowing what he ran on in 2016.”

Daily Wire host Matt Walsh implored the Trump campaign to stop trying to disavow Project 2025.

Fox contributor Mollie Hemingway claimed that the Trump campaign was bowing to “left wing media lies.”

Noted extremist Pedro Gonzalez also criticized the decision.

This is not to say that all of MAGA is on the side of Project 2025 here. MAGA thought leader Catturd railed against the project, writing, “The Heritage Foundation doesn’t get to write this dumb 2025 project and get to pretend it’s Trump’s idea or something we real citizens (grassroots Trump supporters) support. Seriously, who in TF do these narcissists think they are speaking for us and Trump?”

Trump meme team leader Brenden Dilley simply wrote, “Fuck Heritage. Right in the ass.” (Bannon acolyte Grace Chong in turn harshly criticized Dilley.)

This is all quite reminiscent of 2016, when frequent turmoil roiled the Trump campaign, and he on a few occasions switched who was in charge, eventually settling on Steve Bannon less than 90 days before the election. Whatever solution Trump lands on this time will have to be different: Bannon is currently in federal prison.

Opinion

The GOP pretends it's pro-union

Robert Reich

Labor reporter disputes Trump 'unity' push as GOP runs 'voter suppression campaign that dwarfs' 2020

Alex Henderson

'Moment of shame': Teamsters president ripped for GOP convention speech

recall fake union rally ~ UAW picket line (also jdv?) ~ Scranton Joe

'A corporate CEO’s dream': Labor unions blast Trump-Vance ticket

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bogus pivot capitalizing on shooting, those dems are violent extremists, gaslighting? earth2 trump polarizing racist so conv rnc theme of unifying cty utter BS ca delegate spout talk pt latina

Only two days after former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Western Pennsylvania, the 2024 Republican National Convention got underway in Milwaukee on Monday, July 15. Trump officially received his party's nomination, and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) was announced as his running mate.

Far-right Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) was among the speakers and vigorously attacked President Joe Biden on stage.

But now, the far-right GOP senator is saying that he read the wrong speech.

"Today's Democrat agenda, their policies, are a clear and present danger to America, to our institutions, our values and our people," Johnson told the Milwaukee crowd.

However, Johnson later told PBS that the teleprompter had loaded a previous version of the speech that he had decided not to use.

Johnson told PBS, "That speech was written last week. They literally loaded the wrong speech. I had taken that out. …. We should heed President Trump's call to unite."

The senator added, "We must heal and unify this nation. I didn't know how to take that out without screwing up the teleprompter."

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an 7 24

on Thursday, in the midst of the July 4th holiday, a former Donald Trump staffer who worked on his 2016 campaign went public with a series of texts she allegedly made with Trump attorney Jenna Ellis asking about secret lawsuit settlements for accusations of "sexual harassment and gender discrimination" within the campaign.

In replies to those texts from attorney A.J. Delgado, who posted them on-line, Ellis appears to reply, "Yes off record — Boris The campaign settled multiple lawsuits. Have your investigator contact [campaign staffer] Michael Glassner. I will of course tell you the truth."

As the Daily Beast's Josh Fiallo wrote, the "bombshell" texts were included in a filing by Delgado as part of a lawsuit she filed against Trump campaign adviser and he supervisor, Jason Miller, whom she has accused of raping her while they were having an affair.

The video player is currently playing an ad.

According to the report, "As part of that lawsuit, Delgado, a lawyer who’s representing herself, filed a motion Thursday that included a text thread she claims to be between her and Jenna Ellis, another ex-Trump staffer who is a co-defendant in his election subversion case in Georgia."

Ellis pleaded guilty in the Georgia case.

The report adds that the Boris in question appears to be Boris Epshteyn, who has been at Trump's side during his courtroom appearances.

The report states, "The Daily Beast has not independently verified the authenticity of the texts, and neither Ellis, Delgado or a Trump representative responded to questions messaged and emailed on Thursday night. It’s the second time the texts were submitted as evidence by Delgado, after the Trump campaign’s lawyers asked her to re-submit them without names redacted and an offer to mark them as “confidential” appeared to be ignored."

Fiallo added, "The texts did not specify what sort of lawsuits “Boris” may have faced, but Epshteyn was accused of repeatedly groping two sisters at an Arizona bar in 2021 until a bouncer and cops intervened to remove him. "

You can read more here.

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sold jet to donor Mehrdad Moayedi 5 24 an

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newsweek has fairness meter/poll?]

billionaire Dan Snyder thought he was funding a movie that would portray former President Donald Trump in a positive light, but he is now reportedly fuming to learn the opposite is true.

The former owner of NFL team Washington Commanders invested in the film The Apprentice, in which Sebastian Stan portrays a young Trump.

The Apprenticepremiered this week at the Cannes Film Festival in France to a reported 11-minute standing ovation, and Snyder was one of the few people who had insight into the plot before its launch.

He is said to be furious at the portrayal of Trump, according to Variety.

Snyder has been a major donor to Trump's presidential campaigns, contributing more than $1.1 million in 2016 and $100,000 in 2020. It is unclear if he has donated to Trump's 2024 campaign.

The movie tells the story of Trump's younger years, including his relationship with political fixer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) and his marriage to his first wife, Ivana (Maria Bakalova).

But a Snyder-backed company called Kinetics has gone to war with The Apprentice'sfilmmakers, including director Ali Abbasi, in hopes of changing the film.

Kinetics' boss, Emanuel Nuñez, told Variety that the conflict over the film was entirely between it and the filmmakers and that Snyder was not involved.

"All creative and business decisions involving The Apprentice have always been and continue to be solely made by Kinematics. Mark and I run our company without the involvement of any other third parties," he said.

Joe Rogan Fact Checks Himself Over His Hillary Clinton Remark

Newsweek reached out to Snyder and Trump via email for comment.

According to the media report, sources close to the drama said the film includes a scene where Trump sexually assaults his wife, Ivana, describing it as "violent" and "uncomfortable."

Ivana, who passed away in 2022, previously claimed during a deposition for their divorce that Trump had raped her while they were married. But she told CNN in a 2015 statement that, "The story is totally without merit. Donald and I are the best of friends and together have raised three children that we love and are very proud of."

Snyder was mocked on X, formerly Twitter, after the news broke.

"BREAKING: A billionaire Donald Trump donor humiliates himself on the world stage as he realizes far too late that the movie he funded is actually anti-Trump — and then tries to scuttle it. This is just too funny..." wrote the official Occupy Democrats account, adding, "Apparently, Snyder mistakenly believed that he was funding a pro-Trump propaganda film."

"An insider told Variety that Snyder is furious about the film and has his lawyers working to block its release with desperate cease-and-desist letters and might skip the premiere," the post continued.

"Unfortunately for Snyder (and Trump), they have no control over the movie at this point. It will be released as planned."

Andy Barr, the managing director of Uplift, a media firm for Democratic campaigns and progressive political organizations, according to its website, posted, "Dan Snyder is an unintentional comedic genius."

But some defended Snyder and Trump, arguing it does not matter how a fictional film portrays the former president.

"Let's put it this way we do not give a dam about flattering etc we want a strong president with guts and that is Trump," wrote @Carol96208870.

"Dan Snyder probably isn't the only investor who financially supported a movie, then was surprised how different the finished movie was from what he expected," said @starwolf_oakley.

Snyder is not the only person unhappy with the movie. Trump plans to sue the filmmakers.

"We will be filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers," Trump's spokesperson, Steven Cheung, told Variety.

"This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked. As with the illegal Biden Trials, this is election interference by Hollywood elites, who know that President Trump will retake the White House and beat their candidate of choice because nothing they have done has worked."

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huh? an 5 24

Trump’s presidential campaign received a nastygram from the Federal Election Commission again — this time, in the form of a 243-page letter flagging suspected illegal contributions.

Trump’s campaign appears to have accepted dozens of donations that exceed federal contribution limits — $3,300 per person to a candidate per election — from supporters who often made miniscule but repeated donations in a bizarre, seemingly random, manner.

Take Gail D. Lopez, listed in public documents as a retiree from Lacombe, La., who made 1,450 separate contributions to Trump’s campaign in less than 17 months.

Of those, 116 were for one penny.

Lopez made 228 additional contributions for less than a nickel.

And 1,000 contributions were for less than a dollar.

ALSO READ:8 ways Trump doesn’t become president

Her total giving was $4,272, some of which the Trump campaign listed as having refunded. But even with the refunds, she nickel and dimed herself well over the legal limit without the Trump campaign adequately stopping her, according to the FEC.

Contributions that exceed federal limits are supposed to be refunded by a campaign — or redesignated by the donor from, say, a primary election to a general election.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to Raw Story’s request for comment. The FEC, a independent federal regulatory agency with the power to issue fines for campaign finance-related violations, gave Trump's campaign until June 17 to respond to its inquiry.

Donor Karen Anjoorian, listed in FEC records as being retired and from Suffolk, Va., made 12 contributions for nine cents, including two such contributions on the same day.

ALSO READ:Trump-nominated FEC leader: let political donors hide their identities

She made numerous other contributions for odd amounts — 18 cents, 23 cents, 32 cents.

Her total giving of $3,523.49 went over the federal limit.The FEC lists more than 100 people whose contributions to Donald J. Trump For President 2024, Inc., violated election law.

While Trump’s campaign has experienced habitual problems keeping track of donors who give too much, many large-scale federal campaigns, particularly presidential campaigns — Republican and Democratic alike — have also struggled with such accounting from time to time.

Trump, meanwhile, frequently boasts about his wealth.

But the former president, who is facing 88 felony counts across four criminal cases against him, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in civil judgments against him, is not self-funding his 2024 presidential campaign in any meaningful way.

an 5 24

during an early May interview with NBC News, Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) — who is being mentioned as a possible running mate for presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump — refused to say whether or not he would accept the election results if incumbent President Joe Biden wins.

To Scott's critics, this is a troubling example of Trump's influence on the Republican Party.

2024 marks Trump's fourth presidential campaign and his third as a Republican candidate (in 2000, Trump ran for president with the Reform Party). MSNBC Opinion Editor James Downie, in a May 5 column, lays out some reasons why he believes this campaign is Trump's most dangerous yet.

"Trump's approach to election results has become his approach, and his devotees' approach, to the law more broadly," Downie argues. "Even as their policies and rhetoric have become more extreme, Trump and his MAGA acolytes are already lining up the justifications — legal and otherwise — to buttress their extremist and authoritarian agenda in ways that simply didn't occur to the first Trump Administration."

This time, Downie stresses, Trump has much more of a legal strategy than he did in the past — from immigration to abortion rights.

"Immigration is just the tip of a very dangerous iceberg," the MSNBC.com opinion editor warns. "In close advisers like Stephen Miller and aligned projects like Project 2025, we can see not only the policies, but also, the underlying justifications and legal authorities they have ready to go…. Trump's supporters are determined not to waste time this round."

Downie elaborates, "There's no better example of this than the Comstock Act: Rather than wait for congressional Republicans to pass a new national abortion ban, they could simply resurrect a 'zombie law' to criminalize any materials used in abortions and count on the more Trump-friendly courts to back them up."

READ MORE:[Trumpism and the myth of the 'free market'

*James Downie's full MSNBC column is available at this link.

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4 24

far-right media have received press passes from the Trump campaign, while mainstream reporters have been denied access

The campaign has seemingly retaliated against mainstream reporters who cover Trump critically, while rewarding conspiracy theorists and extremist sycophants with press access to events

WRITTEN BY JACK WINSTANLEY

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ALEX KAPLAN

PUBLISHED 04/22/24

Vanity Fair recently reported that several journalists from mainstream publications, including The Washington Post, NBC News, Axios, and Vanity Fair, were denied press access to Trump’s campaign events, seemingly in retaliation for their previous critical coverage. Meanwhile, Media Matters found that the campaign has granted press credentials to the QAnon-promoting MG Show and Brenden Dilley, a podcaster who has promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory and leads a “meme team” that creates pro-Trump content.

Washington Post reporter Isaac Arnsdorf has allegedly been barred from Trump’s campaign events since February, according to Vanity Fair, over his rejection of a campaign request to change the title of his book Finish What We Started: The MAGA Movement’s Ground War to End Democracy. Several other reporters also allegedly had press access revoked over critical coverage or public spats with campaign officials. Vanity Fair reported:

In recent weeks, the [Trump] campaign has taken similar punitive measures against other reporters, according to multiple sources familiar with the moves. An Axios reporter had their credentials approved for an event and then revoked the same day, following the publication of a story about the Trump-led Republican National Committee’s struggles in swing states. (An Axios spokesperson declined to comment.) At least one other Post reporter was temporarily denied press credentials to multiple events after accurately reporting on Trump’s public statements. Most recently, Brian Stelter, a special correspondent for Vanity Fair, was denied press access to Trump’s rally in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.

While it has barred mainstream journalists, the campaign has granted press credentials to a QAnon-promoting show and a podcaster who creates pro-Trump content.

At least one host of the QAnon-promoting podcast MG Show was seemingly given a press pass for Trump’s December 17 campaign rally in Reno, Nevada. Days before the rally, co-host Shannon Townsend announced on the podcast that after seeking press passes for the rally, the show was granted the status of “accredited media with Donald Trump and the rally campaign.” Afterward, Townsend posted images from the rally, including one that appears to show him holding a press pass in a media area.

In response to reporter Brian Stelter posting on April 19, “I applied for press credentials for Trump's most recent rally in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania and was rejected,” Townsend shared an image of his credentials for the Nevada rally, and said, “I have mine.”

MG Show had previously received press credentials for a 2021 Trump rally in Sarasota, Florida, at which host Townsend wore a wristband with the QAnon slogan “where we go one, we go all” — or “WWG1WGA” for short — and led a crowd in chanting the slogan. The Trump campaign was forced to publicly distance itself from QAnon and MG Show after receiving backlash for credentialing the conspiracy theorists.

In January, Brenden Dilley, a podcaster who has previously promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory, bragged that he was given press credentials for the Trump campaign's Iowa caucus event.

Dilley has been the leader of a pro-Trump online “meme team” which calls itself “Trump’s Online War Machine,” and he has admitted that he “make[s] shit up” to further Trump’s agenda and hurt his political opponents. During an episode of his show, Dilley displayed the press pass, bragging that he got a “special” and “exclusive” press credential that got him into the “Trump War Room,” where he said “pretty much the entire Team Trump comes through.”

Video

CitationFrom the January 17, 2024, edition of The Dilley Show, streamed on Rumble

Barring mainstream journalists from campaign rallies and other events is hardly new for the Trump team. During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump and his allies waged an all-out war on the press, including banning certain journalists from events, and attacking critical coverage and entire mainstream news outlets as “fake news.”

Trump's presidential term was also marked by repeated instances where mainstream journalists were barred from official events and press conferences over unflattering coverage and unwanted questions. And his reelection campaign also reportedly issued a blanket credential denial against Bloomberg News over the outlet’s perceived “bias” against him.

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pt man on voter suppression 2024?

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Trump campaign says it plans to change tactics from 2020 when Joe Biden beat the then-incumbent president by more than 7 million votes, and this time go on “offense” by having “soldiers” and “poll watchers” at polling places.

Despite the Trump campaign’s relentless claims of voter fraud, more than 60 court rulings found those claims to be unsupported by facts: there was no significant voter fraud. Last year The Brookings Institution cited an extensive report from the right-wing Heritage Foundation, which found, for example, voter “fraud in Texas amounted to 0.000096% of all ballots cast.”

Vowing to “to play offense this time around,” Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday, appearing on “The Kimberly Guilfoyle Show,” said they are “investing a lot of money into voter integrity efforts to ensure that every American knows their ballot will be cast and counted and matter.”

“We’re not going to play defense, like we unfortunately did in 2020. We’re going to have soldiers, poll watchers on the ground who are making sure that there are no irregularities and fraud like we saw in the last election.”

Guilfoyle, who is engaged to Donald Trump Jr., was at the January 6, 2021 rally at the Ellipse, and helped organize and fundraise for the event. Propublica that year reported she had “boasted to a GOP operative that she had raised $3 million for the rally that helped fuel the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.”

“Guilfoyle’s texts, reviewed by ProPublica, represent the strongest indication yet that members of the Trump family circle were directly involved in the financing and organization of the rally. The attack on the Capitol that followed it left five dead and scores injured.”

“I love it,” Guilfoyle told Leavitt. “I cannot wait.”

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mma 3 24

Alex Pfeiffer, communications director at the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc. received kudos from Breitbart News on Saturday for developing an “analytical mindset” and factual approach in his prior career in right-wing journalism. While he was a producer for Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight, Pfeiffer privately blamed Donald Trump for the January 6 insurrection and described the then-president’s supporters as “terrorists, but especially dumb ones.”

Pfeiffer, a former reporter at Carlson’s The Daily Caller who followed him to Fox, appeared on Breitbart’s Sirius XM show March 15.

“I like that you’re a journalist by trade, before you got into the political game, because I think you approach things factually and with an analytical mindset, very similar to how we do at Breitbart,” Breitbart Washington bureau chief Matthew Boyle told him.

Boyle is correct to the extent that, in practice, success in right-wing journalism means looking past or lying about Trump’s depraved behavior in order to make money from his zealous supporters and own the libs.

Pfeiffer was one of numerous Fox employees whose private messages were revealed through Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation suit against Fox. Those communications showed that Fox’s top executives and big stars, including Carlson, amplified Trump’s lies that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen even though they knew those claims were false out of fears that if they did not do so, their Trump-obsessed viewers would abandon the network.

The Dominion filings show Pfeiffer describing Sidney Powell, the Trump lawyer responsible for some of the most absurd conspiracy theories about Dominion that aired on Fox, as “a fucking nutcase” who was “lying.” Trying to push back against the election denial conspiracy theories that Fox viewers wanted to believe was like “negotiating with terrorists,” he complained, “but especially dumb ones. Cousin f----- types not saudi royalty.”

But Pfeiffer’s most revelatory comments came in messages to Carlson during the host’s January 6, 2021, broadcast, just hours after a violent mob of Trump supporters stalled the peaceful transition of power by storming the U.S. Capitol. In language that could have come from a member of the January 6 select committee, Pfeiffer condemned Trump “for everything that happened today.”

“Millions believe that the election was stolen because of Donald Trump and demagogues like this Drew guy,” Pfeiffer said, referring to right-wing reporter Drew Hernandez, who had suggested to Carlson’s audience that antifa infiltrators had been responsible for the violence that day.

“They take the president literally,” Pfeiffer continued. “He said it was stolen. They believe him. He is to blame for everything that happened today.”

“The problem is a little deeper than that I’d say,” Carlson responded.

“Obviously the problems are deep but at the core of it is Trump saying it was stolen,” Pfeiffer replied.

“Not the core,” Carlson replied. “Awful but a symptom.”

“He promoted today’s rally a month ago and said it would be ‘wild,’” Pfeiffer said. “Come on.”

“There is just too much circular logic going around,” he added an hour later. “Yes millions of people think the election was stolen, but they didn’t just wake up with that belief. They were told it was stolen and that was amplified in talk radio/memes etc.”

Texts between Tucker Carlson and Alex Pfeiffer from a filing in Dominion Voting System's lawsuit against Fox News.

“The president of the United States has told his supporters daily for months that the election was stolen,” Pfeiffer texted Carlson later that night. “His allies parroted this. He promoted a massive rally in DC. They all flew in. He then encouraged them to go to the Capitol and the rest is history.”

He went on to criticize Trump’s “lies giving people hope” that the election would be overturned and his refusal to “disavow” the QAnon movement.

Pfeiffer apparently got over all that pretty quickly. His LinkedIn profile shows that he was promoted that month from investigative producer on Carlson’s Fox show to investigative & editorial producer with his hand in Carlson’s Fox Nation programming as well. He remained in that role for more than a year, as Carlson launched a 1/6 Truth movement based on the fraudulent premise that the federal government had masterminded the attack as a pretense to target Trump’s supporters and mocked concerns about QAnon.

Pfeiffer finally left Fox to start his own communications firm in June 2022 and quickly aligned with the former president’s most loyal supporters. He joined the MAGA Inc. super PAC three months later, alongside Trump stalwarts Chris LaCivita, Steven Cheung, and Tony Fabrizio; the former two now play senior roles in the Trump campaign.

The group has raised tens of millions of dollars from major Republican donors and made headlines earlier this month for an ad which aired before the State of the Union attacking President Joe Biden for his age. For right-wing journalists like Boyle and operatives like Pfeiffer, that is apparently worse than his opponent “making the Jan. 6 attack a cornerstone of his bid for the White House.”

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March 14, 2024 rww

Tim Dickinson @ Rolling Stone: Trump Campaign Ads Are Monetizing Pro-Nazi Content on Rumble

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign is running online advertising to raise cash for 2024 — and a portion of that ad spending is monetizing pro-Nazi content on the streaming service Rumble, Rolling Stone has observed.

Justin Horowitz @ Media Matters: Misogynistic manosphere influencers embrace Nazism

Right-wing “manosphere” influencers including Sneako, Jon Zherka, and Myron Gaines are embracing Nazism and defending Adolf Hitler online.

Matt Shuham @ HuffPost: Election Deniers Have Taken Over The RNC After A Trump Shake-Up

Donald Trump never gave up his lies about the 2020 election. Now, party leadership is stocked with his picks.

Matthew Choi @ The Texas Tribune: Political novice Brandon Gill seeks to be Trump’s biggest advocate in Congress

Brandon Gill is on a glide path to becoming the next congressman of Texas’ ruby red 26th Congressional District, after beating a crowded pool of Republicans in the primary to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess. For those wondering how the likely congressional newcomer intends to conduct himself on Capitol Hill, Gill says it’s simple — he will follow Donald Trump’s lead.

Wendy Suares @ KOKH: Oklahoma tax dollars funding national promotion of State Superintendent Walters

A DC-based firm is pocketing tens of thousands of your tax dollars to promote State Superintendent Ryan Walters on a national stage.

Telling Jefferson Lies: Wolfe in Wolf’s Clothing

Stephen Wolfe’s book The Case for Christian Nationalism ignited a firestorm of controversy when it was released in 2022. In the book, Wolfe calls for revolt against tyranny and for Christians to mobilize at the state and local level to enact self-conscious Christian governments. In principle, according to Wolfe, Christian state’s could use violence to maintain a Christian social order.

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