Daily Archives: September 2, 2021

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference announcing a class action lawsuit against big tech companies at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on July 07, 2021 in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

Several of the Republican Party's biggest and most influential donors are signaling that they don't plan on helping fund former President Donald Trump's political operation, at least for the moment.

Wealthy financiers such as Stephen Ross and Larry Ellison have instead opted to spend money on the GOP's efforts to take back Congress during next year's midterm elections or have shown support for potential 2024 presidential candidates such as Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina.

Donors are also concerned about how Trump's organization is spending the piles of money it has raised from smaller donations.

"Big money, sophisticated people are just losing interest in this s--- show," said an advisor to longtime Trump allies in Silicon Valley. Many donors are tired of seeing the former president use his resources on rallies during which he often makes false claims including that the election was stolen from him,this person said.

Trump has not ruled out running for president in 2024, and he has not made any official announcements. His political action committees have raised a great deal of money through email and text message appeals to supporters thatoften criticize President Joe Biden's performance,including, most recently, his handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal.

TheTrump PACs had over $100 million on hand after the first half of 2021. CNBC has previously reported that his PACs spent nearly$8 million on legal feesandover $200,000on Trump's properties earlier this year.

"Donors don't contribute out of the goodness of their heart. And right now they're being asked to donate to an organization that has no other purpose than pumping cash into someone who doesn't need it and isn't using it," said a Republican strategist whorepresents financiers on Wall Street. "They have better things to do."

The donor consultants who spoke to CNBC declined to be identified in this story in order to avoid retribution from Trump and his supporters.

A Trump spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

The pro-Trump Make America Great Again Action super PAC, which raised over $1.5 million in July and August, is not without some wealthy donors, according to newFederal Election Commission filings. MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who is an ardent spreader of false claims about the 2020 election, is among its donors, as are businesswoman and former GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler, Texas banking executive Andrew Beal and casino magnate Phillip Ruffin.

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But bigger forces in Republican fundraising are instead focusing onHouse Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and GOP leadership's efforts to retake the House and funding pro-GOP redistricting efforts such as the National Republican Redistricting Trust. Others are helping the reelection campaigns of potential 2024 presidential contenders such as Scott, Rubio and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Several people who previously backed Trump held a fundraiser recently for DeSantis' 2022 gubernatorial campaign in the upper-crust Hamptons on Long Island. Theinvitationto the July event shows that the co-hosts for the event included former Trump Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, along with billionaire investors Stephen Ross, John Paulson and Ken Griffin.

Paulson was one of thefew Wall Street donors who backedTrump's 2020 bid for president during the final stretch of the campaign.

Stephen Ross, who is also the owner of the Miami Dolphins, came under fire in 2019 whenhe hosteda fundraiser in the Hamptons for Trump. Ross and other principals of Related Cos. are investors in the luxury fitness brand Equinox. SoulCycle and Equinoxdistancedthemselves from the Trump event as customers threatened to boycott.

Wilbur Ross and a representative for Paulson did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Stephen Ross declined to comment.

Neither Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison nor Oracle CEO Safra Catz have given large sums of money to Trump's PACs post the election. Both helped raise money for Trump's reelection campaign. Ellison's California home was the site of a Trump fundraising event last year. In June of this year, however, Ellison gave $5 million to a super PAC supporting Scott's reelection efforts in South Carolina.

A spokesman for Catz and Ellison did not respond to a request for comment.

The Republican Jewish Coalition, whose PACendorsed Trumpduring last year's election, is co-hosting a New York fundraiser for Rubio's 2022 reelection campaign in September, according to an invitation. The RJC's board of directors includes a slew of influential Republicans, including Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, former Trump advisor Jason Greenblatt and former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.

Trump also might not be able to count on financial help from Miriam Adelson, a megadonor and the widow of the late casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, whodied earlier this year. The couple were among the few business leaders who supported Trump during the last election.They gave millions to a pro-Trump super PAC in the final months of the campaign.

Since her husband's death, Adelson has privately indicated to allies that for now she doesn't have any immediate plans to use much of her money in politics. That could change as the midterms approach. Records show that Adelson contributed $5,000 in June to the Stand for America PAC, a committee founded by potential 2024 contender and former Trump United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley.

A spokesman for Adelson's company, Las Vegas Sands, declined to comment.

Another key Trump and GOP financier is in legal hot water. Investor Tom Barrack was arrested on charges of illegally lobbying then-President Trump on behalf of the United Arab Emirates. Barrack has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Even if he weren't in trouble with the feds, Barrack had indicated that he might not have ended up supporting Trump, his longtime friend, for a 2024 run.

"Today it looks like it's a campaign of divisiveness, which I'm not interested in," Barrack told Bloomberg News before he was arrested.

A spokesman for Barrack did not respond to a request for comment.

Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah were big Trump supporters during the 2016 campaign, yet there's no indication they'll throw their backing to him in 2024. CNBC reported in 2018 that the Mercers were planning to scale back their financial support for Trump.

Records show that the Mercers have not written major checks to any of Trump's PACs after his presidency.

For the time being, they're backing a new face in GOPpolitics: "Hillbilly Elegy" author and venture capitalist J.D. Vance, who has adopted several Trump-style nationalist policy stances after having criticized the former president in the past.

Robert and Rebekah Mercer donated a combined $150,000 in March to a super PAC backing Vance's candidacy for the Ohio U.S. Senate seat that will be vacated by retiring Republican Rob Portman.

Representatives for the Mercers did not respond to requests for comment.

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'They have better things to do' Major Republican donors are staying away from Trump - CNBC

The causes behind the great media crash are self-evident. Last year was a campaign year, which always causes news consumption to spike. It was also the last year barring his reelection in 2024 of President Donald Trump. Trump was a one-man perpetual news machine, forever feeding reporters high-calorie, low-nutrition tidbits and serving dumpsters of coverable commotion, some of which was forgotten the day after it was reported. Remember when the White House promoted Melania Trumps jewelry line or when Kellyanne Conway hyped Ivanka Trumps clothing line? Sometimes he would uncork two or three mini-scandals a day. The press corps was sometimes unable to discern which of his threats were empty (Would he torch North Korea, inject the ill with bleach or stop the election count?) because so many of the threats turned out to be full (He did have reporters banned from the White House, he did back the murderous Saudis to the hilt, he did impose a Muslim travel ban, incarcerate children and declare the 2020 election fixed).

The saturation Trump coverage was justified journalistically a rogue and unpredictable chief executive is a very dangerous thing, and if he uses the Constitution as a kitchen towel youve got to call him on it. Preserving a record of Trumps transgressions was essential, so lets not quarrel with the volume of coverage. But in retrospect, once Trump had self-stereotyped himself as a liar, a cheat, a scoundrel and a crybaby, few of us had to read beyond the headline and first paragraph to get the message. We let the Trump Show become delicious breakaway entertainment, served in round-the-clock installments, like a bundle of your favorite Netflix serials. The more we read about Trump, the more we wanted to read about him, and the more we looked forward to the conveyor belt of books about Trump steered our way. We bolted down so much Trump news its a wonder readers and viewers livers didnt grow so enlarged you could make human foie gras from them.

Weve been indoctrinated since grade school to believe that partaking the news was essential to citizenship, democracy and our American way of life: Study the issues! Debate the issues! But nobody ever told us that a thing thats a nutrient at one dosage can become a poison when quintupled. During Trumpmania, billions of man-hours were needlessly burned reading and viewing Trump stories that could have better gone toward gardening, parenting, reading, hobbying, drinking, sexting and even sitting on the porch doing nothing. Each of us could have learned a foreign language or learned to play guitar instead of reading about him from day to night for four years. We really should have known better. Guy DeBord (Society of the Spectacle) and Daniel Boorstin (The Image) warned us in the 1960s that our appetite for mass spectacle would make us a target for political extremism if somebody appeared who knew how to use the media and exploit it. Trump appeared, he made for excellent copy and we all got hooked.

Having been towed to the depths by the news binge, we have only now surfaced to reorder our priorities. First, we must never forget the way we let Trumpmania upend our media diet and turn us all into fatted hogs. When Trump returns or the next Trump uses his attention-grabbing methods we should be prepared to resist his caterwauling. Somebody should create a browser add-in that would remind us when weve over-partaken of the news. CNN could add a product disclaimer to its programs noting that over-watching TV news can mess with your mind and that TV is only safe when taken as directed. I kid, but only a little. Like Facebook and YouTube, TV news narcotizes its clientele. Because we know the media cant and shouldnt show restraint in its coverage when it covers norm-flouting politicians, its up to us to know when to turn away.

If Trump deserves major blame for boosting viewership, Joe Biden should get some credit for relieving us of our 24/7 news duties. You dont have to be a Biden fan Im not to appreciate the way his conduct has reduced national political news from the totality of existence to something more like a companion. If anything, Biden has downplayed his role in the national drama to levels just below perception. Had we not bolted from Afghanistan, how much would we be reading about him? Sometimes I Google the name of the president of the United States to remind me who occupies the White House.

Ask anybody who has successfully lost weight, and theyll tell you the first task is portion control. To push the metaphor, go ahead and fill your plate with all the news you like, but use a nine-inch plate from the 1950s instead of a modern 13-inch platter. And as you read, consult your sense of satiety and act accordingly.

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One reason for the decline the New York Times uniques is the newspaper ended its distribution deal with Apple News in June 2020. But its decline is still consistent with other outlets. Juice my email numbers with messages to [emailprotected]. My email alerts have a weight problem. My Twitter feed never turns its TV off. My RSS feed cant read.

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Opinion | The Trump News Show Is Over and Were All Healthier For It - POLITICO

Republican Senator Ron Johnson, one of Donald Trump's most loyal allies in Congress, was caught on video blaming the former president for his election defeat in 2020.

Mr Johnson made the comments to a liberal activist pretending to be a conservative while she questioned him during an event in Milwaukee. The woman pretended to buy into Mr Trump's election conspiracy theories, and suggested that voter fraud was the reason the former president lost in Wisconsin.

Mr Johnson tells the woman that he disagreed, noting that there was "nothing obviously skewed about the results.

If all the Republicans voted for Trump the way they voted for the Assembly candidates, he would have won. He didnt get 51,000 votes that other Republicans got, and thats why he lost, Mr Johnson said.

Mr Johnson was asked about the incident by The Washington Post. He defended his comments, saying they were in line with his other public statements, but complained that a "Democrat political operative" recorded him without his knowledge.

Ever since the Electoral College met, I acknowledged that former vice president Joe Biden was the president-elect and repeatedly said I could not envision any scenario where any Biden electors would be rejected, he said.

He noted that in the past he acknowledged that we should respect our system of individual state certification of election results, and that in Wisconsin, there is nothing obviously wrong with the statewide results.

Despite his comments, the senator still backs an election audit in Wisconsin similar to the much-maligned audit in Maricopa County, Arizona.

Joe Biden defeated Mr Trump in the 2020 election by 21,000 votes, and despite numerous challenges and recounts, no evidence has ever emerged to suggest voter fraud occurred.

There were many irregularities that have yet to be fully explained, fully investigated, and solutions passed to restore confidence in future elections, Mr Johnson said. Ive investigated many of the irregularities, explained some, and have not gotten answers on many.

While previous calls for election audits have focused on conspiracy-driven concerns over the legitimacy of voting machines, Mr Johnson said "the last thing I'd focus on would be the machines," admitting that Republicans were "too concentrated on the machines.

Wisconsin's legislature recently approved diverting up to $680,000 in public funds to conduct an audit of the state's election results.

Much like the Maricopa County audit, Wisconsin's audit will be led by an avid Trump supporter who repeated the former president's election conspiracy theories, former state Supreme Court Justice Michale Gableman.

Wisconsin's Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, said the audit was a "continued attack on our democracy," calling it "outrageous.

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Senator Ron Johnson recorded saying Donald Trump lost Wisconsin - The Independent

Former USPresident Donald Trump is not a big fan of cryptocurrency. Trump has been vocal about his dislike for digital currency several times. On Tuesday, he told FoxBusiness that investing in crypto could be potentially a disaster waiting to happen. In an exclusive interview on the show Varney & Co., Trump was asked by host Stuart Varney, Do you have a dabble in Bitcoin or cryptos? Trump noted that he does not invest in Bitcoin or other digital currencies. I like the currency of the United States, he said.

Trump did not budge from his point and added, I feel that it (cryptocurrency) hurts the United States currency. Instead of supporting the digital currency, Trump kept his faith in the US dollar. He said, I think we should be invested in our currency.

His attack continued when he said that cryptocurrencies may be fake. He added, Who knows what they are? But they certainly are something that people don't know very much about.

Even earlier, Trump had expressed his dislike for towards cryptocurrency. Once, he had called it a scam and alleged that it was taking the edge off of the dollar and the importance of the dollar.

Trump's statements come at a time when cryptocurrency still remains unregulated under US legislation. However, Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Gary Gensler looks like he's in favour of cryptocurrencies. He believes that the field is not going to reach any of its potential if it tries to stay outside of our laws.

Gensler also called cryptocurrency innovative technologies while also being aware of the risks in the industry.

Over the years, cryptocurrencies have had mixed responses from people. While they have received a lot of support from the likes of Elon Musk, there have been others like Trump who have slammed the digital assets. A few days ago, billionaire John Paulson had called cryptocurrencies a worthless bubble. He said that no matter where cryptocurrencies are trading now, eventually they will go to zero, once the exuberance wears off.

However, on the other hand, looks like defending US Open champion Naomi Osaka, has taken a keen interest in Dogecoin, which was spurred by all the noise around the meme-based cryptocurrency. In an interview a few days ago, Osaka said that she's even had discussions with her agent about cryptocurrencies and that she had read about Dogecoin as well. Dogecoin price in India was around Rs. 23 at7pm on September 2.

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Former US President Donald Trump Says Cryptocurrency is a Disaster Waiting to Happen - Gadgets 360

Kanye West invited several celebrities to appear onstage at his Chicago Donda event, but there was one more person he reportedly wanted to attend. According to Radar Online, the 44-year-old rapper reached out to Donald Trump in hopes that the former president would join him onstage at the Soldier Field stadium.

Kanye reached out to Donald Trumps team to get the former president to make an appearance alongside him and join DaBaby, Marilyn Manson and Kim Kardashian in Chicago, a source reportedly told the outlet.

Getting a former president to help sell his new album would have been huge for Kanye, who was a big supporter of Donald Trump, the source added. ... Kanye loves to press buttons. Expect a lot more press stunts over the next few days.

After three listening events, Donda arrived without warning on streaming services on Sunday (Aug. 29). On Instagram, Kanye claimed the record was released by Universal Music Group without his permission. So far, the music company has not responded to Yes claims.

Donda also arrived on streaming platforms in a few different versions. Initially, the album was missing Jail pt 2, Kanyes collaboration with DaBaby. Furthermore, the Chris Brown-featuring track New Again was later replaced with a version that only hears Kanye and the Sunday Service Choir.

Aside from inviting him to the Donda event, Kanyes connection to Trump also returned to headlines this week in regard to Chrisette Michele. As reported by REVOLT, the singer posted about being canceled after performing at Trumps inauguration while Kanye, who openly supported Trump, continued to see commercial success.

Being compared to Kanye & Travis [Greene] for the last [five] years. Watching them soar into the highest realms of stardom. Waiting on Gods hand to show me exactly what my story will look like, she wrote online. Ive made a choice to stay full of gratitude and master peace, but today, this post has inspired me to allow the energy of comparison to enter my feed.

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Kanye West reportedly invited Donald Trump to Chicago Donda event - REVOLT TV

As ever, Trump oscillates back and forth between the fantasy world of his mind where the Taliban quaked in such fear of him that they never would have done such a thing and the real world where he acknowledges the premise of Hewitts softball question. But the point is this: Based on what he said in that interview, hed have escalated matters and, at that moment, blown up the whole deal.

Trumps instinct against imperialist adventure was one of the few decent and humane notions the man entertained. But that decent instinct was forever at war within his tortured soul with his insatiable macho instinct to dominate and destroy. On the one hand, he wanted to negotiate with people like the Talibans Abdul Baradar and North Koreas Kim Jong Un to prove to the world that he was a master negotiator. On the other, he thinks theyre all shithole people hed like to destroy, as he did ISISs Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi and Irans Gen. Qassem Soleimani. I have no objection to those two assassinations, but I also dont think they were the biggest thing to happen in the Middle East in 100 years, as he bragged to Hewitt.

Biden, after a rocky first week, has looked steadier on Afghanistan in recent days. His remarks after the 13 deaths of U.S. Marines were appropriate, and nobody doubts that Joe Biden, who has spent the past 20 years showing up without the media paying attention to the Dover, Delaware, air base to which military corpses are often returned, and who ends every speech with God bless our troops, cares about our soldiers.

Well see what the fateful next couple days bring. We cant know what will happen. But Ill say this much. Theres no doubt in my mind which president Id rather see in the White House. A megalomaniac whose first thought is his own personal glory, or a man who sees himself as an actual public servant whose first thought is the families of Americans in harms way. Its a pretty obvious choice.

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Be Glad Donald Trump Isn't Running the Show in Afghanistan - The New Republic

A social media platform similar to YouTube is powering up its offerings by paying some people to produce content and putting popular conservative voices such as Dan Bongino front and center on the site.

The platform, called Rumble, was started in 2013, but its seen steady growth this year from people who believe Google, Twitter and Facebook, collectively known as Big Tech, are censoring voices on the right.

Last summer, Rumble had about 1 million active users but now it has about 30 million, founder and CEO Chris Pavlovski told The Washington Post. Rumbles fans include Donald Trump Jr., the 45th presidents son, Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz and Bongino, a talk-radio star who owns a share in the company.

Former President Donald Trump also has a verified Rumble account, which was set up in June and most recently shared what looks like a 2024 campaign ad. The video disparages President Joe Biden and the Afghanistan withdrawal and is entitled Surrenderer-in-Chief.

However, with the recent news that it will pay eight content creators, including journalist Glenn Greenwald and former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Rumble seems to be signaling larger ambitions than being a home for Trump and his supporters. Greenwald told The Washington Post that Rumble, based in Toronto, wants to be a hospitable place for non-MAGA people.

The other people the company is paying for content include documentary producer Matt Orfalea, the comedian known as Bridget Phetasy, and commentators Siraj Hashmi, Mijahed Kobbe, Shant Mesrobian and Zaid Jilani. What these people have in common, besides massive Twitter followings, is a distaste for tech monopolies, according to Rumbles announcement.

For too long, the incumbent platforms have been able to subjectively ban or deliberately steer people away from content all without any accountability and competition to keep them in check, Pavlovski said in a statement. Rumble is challenging this power structure, and the addition of these prominent creators further strengthens the cause of free thinking, open debate and discussion.

Other social media platforms that sought to challenge the dominance of Twitter and Facebook, such as Gab and Parler, still operate in their shadow, in part because they were quickly dubbed a haven for extreme views. Thats because in seeking to create free-speech zones on the internet, they attract not only conservatives enraged that Twitter permanently banned Trump from the platform, but people who were banned from other platforms for things widely seen as offensive. This has led to conservatives taking up an old slogan of the American Civil Liberties Union: protecting the speech we hate.

For many people troubled by the power that Google, Twitter and Facebook hold over public discourse, thats a worthy tradeoff. The U.S. Supreme Court, in its 2017 ruling in Packingham v. North Carolina, called social media the modern public square.

But therein lies the the challenge facing Rumble and Big Tech competitors: With substantially fewer users than Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, theyre near the public square, but not squarely in it.

Rumbles traffic was about 1% of YouTubes 1.5 billion visits last week, according to Washington Post technology reporter Drew Harwell. Parler, which enjoyed the endorsement of conservative lawmakers like Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas, had around 200,000 visits last month, Harwell reported. Twitter, in comparison, has about 73 million users.

But its too soon to count the upstarts out.

Google, Twitter and Facebook are the subjects of a congressional antitrust investigation. And both Parler and Rumble have investors with deep pockets. Conservative businesswoman Rebekah Mercer is a major investor in Parler and is reported to be involved with the management of that platform. And Rumble announced in May new investments by venture capitalist Peter Thiel and by a venture capital firm co-founded by J.D. Vance and Colin Greenspon.

In a video talking about the venture, Greenwald, a founder of the website The Intercept who quit over censorship of his reporting on Hunter Biden, said that the new venture will allow independent journalists like himself to present a more polished product without the fear of censorship by the largest social media platforms and of liberal corporate media.

But like many critics of Big Tech, Greenwald remains on Twitter, where he has 1.6 million followers.

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Donald Trump, conservatives are on Rumble. Does it compare to YouTube? - Deseret News

Media top headlines September 2

In media news today, Chris Hayes downplays Biden's phone call with ex-Afghanistan president Ghani, ex-CBS anchor Dan Rather gets crushed for tweet comparing pro-lifers to the Taliban, and an MSNBC analyst likens the Texas abortion law to slavery

An old tweet from White House press secretary Jen Psaki is coming back to haunt her amid reports of the controversial July phone call between President Joe Biden and then-Afghan President Ashraf Ghani as the administration pursued the military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

According to a transcript of the July 23 presidential callreviewed by Reuters, Biden didnt anticipate the Talibans rapid advance across Afghanistan, which ended when its fighters stormed Kabul on Aug. 15 and Ghani fled the presidential palace. Instead, Biden focused much of the 14-minute call on the Afghan governments "perception" problem, Reuters reported.

"I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things are not going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban," Biden said. "And there is a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture."

PSAKI DODGES QUESTIONS ABOUT BIDEN PRESSING AFGHAN PRESIDENT TO CHANGE PERCEPTION OF TALIBAN DOMINANCE

That exchange has fueled accusations that Biden misled the nation about Afghanistan's stability in order to follow through with the military withdrawal despite the underlining threat from the Taliban.

However, a 2019 tweet from the then-CNN contributor called for transparency in the early weeks of then-President Donald Trump's Ukraine scandal that ultimately resulted in his impeachment. It chiefly involved a phone call Trump had with counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy about investigating Biden and his son Hunter.

"It is not just the call transcript. The whistleblower complaint would likely have more details. We need both. And not just the call," Psaki wrote at the time.

Some critics appeared to hail Psaki's call for transparency while others called out her apparent double standard.

"100% Agree," Spectator contributor Stephen Miller reacted, adding "Will be weird if journos decide to just ignore this one."

MSNBC'S CHRIS HAYES DOWNPLAYS BIDEN'S PHONE CALL WITH GHANI: NOT A SCANDAL ANY MORE THAN THE WAR ITSELF WAS

"But now you refuse to answer questions on Bidens call with Ghani? What happened to the promise that this administration will be about truth and transparency?" political strategist VF Castro told Psaki.

Psaki did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.

At the White House press briefing on Wednesday, Psaki dodged questions about Biden's phone call with Ghani.

"Well, I'm not going to get into private, diplomatic conversations or leaked transcripts of phone calls," Psaki said. "But what I can reiterate for you is that we have stated many times that no one anticipated that the Taliban would be able to take over the country as quickly as they did or that the Afghan National Security Forces would fold as quickly as they did."

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"So even the content of the reporting is consistent with what weve said many times publicly," she continued. "Ill also note something the president said in his press conference around the same time of this reported phone call: The Afghan government and leadership has to come together. They clearly have the capacity to sustain the government in place. The question is, will they generate the kind of cohesion to do it."

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Psaki's tweet on Trump phone call with Ukraine president comes back to haunt her - Fox News