Daily Archives: July 31, 2022

A detailed view of a golf bag belonging to Eric Trump reads "Trump 2024" as seen during the pro-am prior to the LIV Golf Invitational - Bedminster at Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster on July 28, 2022 in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Jonathan Ferrey | LIV Golf | Getty Images

Eric Trump is more than ready for his father Donald Trump to tee off in a third bid for the White House, even if the former president himself is holding off for now on a campaign announcement

Eric used a golf bag featuring the lettering "Trump 2024" under an American flag patch Thursday at Donald Trump's Bedminster, New Jersey, club, which was hosting a tournament of LIV Golf, the controversial pro tour backed by Saudi Arabia's public investment fund.

The younger Trump's cheeky public display of the logo at a pro-am competition comes as his father contemplates launching another run for the presidency sooner rather than later.

A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization, the family business that Eric Trump leads with his brother, Donald Jr., did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday on the bag lettering. Donald Trump's spokeswoman also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump and son Eric Trump react to his putt on the 14th green during the pro-am prior to the LIV Golf Invitational - Bedminster at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on July 28, 2022 in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Cliff Hawkins | Getty Images

Donald Trump reportedly is considering formally announcing before this November's midterm elections that he intends to run for president in 2024.

Trump, who lost a reelection effort to President Joe Biden, is said to be motivated at least in part, to blunt the rising popularity among Republicans of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who himself reportedly is eyeing a White House run in 2024.

But some GOP elected officials and candidates are worried that if Trump does announce he is running before November, it would hurt the party's chances of winning majorities in both chambers of Congress this year.

While retaining the support of many Republican voters, Trump remains a deeply controversial figure due to his refusal to accept the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential vote results, the subsequent Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, and other issues.

Read more of CNBC's politics coverage:

On Wednesday, ABC News reported that a Republican National Committee official told that news outlet that the RNC would stop paying legal bills for Trump as soon as he announces he is a candidate, "because the party has a 'neutrality policy' that prohibits it from taking sides in the presidential primary."

ABC noted that since October, the RNC has paid almost $2 million to law firms that represent Trump in lawsuits filed against him, and investigations by government entities.

This weekend's event at Trump's New Jersey golf club has generated controversy on multiple fronts.

The Saudi-backed LIV Golf is challenging the PGA Tour's dominance in professional golf, which has led the PGA to suspend more than 20 players from its events for participating in LIV events without receiving releases for "conflicting event and media rights."

LIV Golf also has been accused of being yet another "sports-wash" effort by the Saudi Arabia to improve its international reputation, which has suffered for decades because of internal government repression and human rights abuses.

Trump, who is from New York City, has been strongly criticized in recent weeks by families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks for hosting the Saudi-backed event at his club.

Of the 19 hijackers of four planes that day, 15 were Saudi nationals. Two of the planes that were hijacked slammed into the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, which collapsed soon afterward. The Saudi government has long denied connection to the attacks.

"How much money to turn your back on your own country?" asked a woman in an ad created by 9/11 survivors and relatives and directed at Trump that began airing this week.

The ad also features a man saying, "This golf tournament is taking place 50 miles from Ground Zero."

When asked about that Thursday, Donald Trump replied, "Well, nobody's gotten to the bottom of 9/11, unfortunately, and they should have."

But six years ago, during his first White House run, Trump said on an appearance on Fox News' "Fox & Friends:" "Who blew up the World Trade Center? It wasn't the Iraqis, it was Saudi take a look at Saudi Arabia, open the documents."

Originally posted here:

Trump in 2024: Eric Trump teases dad's third election run with golf bag at Saudi-backed tour event - CNBC

In the history of our country, no attorney general has ever prosecuted a former president in federal court for crimes committed while in office.

The Jan. 6 congressional hearings credibly present a damning narrative that then-President Donald Trump was the driving force behind a massive conspiracy to obstruct justice, interfere with the official Jan. 6 congressional proceedings and defraud the citizens of the United States of a fair election outcome.

While there appears to be little in the hearings that would undercut a successful criminal prosecution of the former president, neither do the hearings guarantee a successful prosecution.

Unlike congressional hearings, in a criminal prosecution, the former president will challenge all the evidence that prosecutors hope to present before a jury in a criminal trial. The process will test the credibility, biases and memories of witnesses. Federal rules of evidence may exclude certain key evidence or testimony disclosed in the Jan. 6 hearings. In every American courtroom, the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and the burden of proof is on the prosecution. No matter what we may think of Trumps actions on Jan. 6, the picture before 12 open-minded jurors may look quite different once the defense presents its case.

Some havecriticized the paceof the Department of Justices investigation, while others insist the public record alreadyclearly supportsan indictment and likely conviction of the former president. As to timing, it appears the investigation is proceeding in a deliberate fashion, careful and methodical. Out of fairness to prospective targets, the work of any federal investigation is confidential. Grand jury proceedings require confidentiality. The investigation will take as long as it takes. The attorney general will make a charging decision, whether it takes six weeks or six months, only after collecting and analyzing all the evidence, including the work of the Jan. 6 committee.

DOJ guidelines about the timing of a prosecution in proximity to an election are just that guidelines. To be sure, these guidelines are important to maintain a degree of uniformity among federal prosecutions and to protect the reputation of the department against charges of favoritism and bias. However, in the end, the attorney general has wide discretion, guided by what is in the interest of justice.

Whether Congress makes a criminal referral of former President Trump to the Justice Department will matter little in Garlands final decision. For example, Congress may decide that the facts support a referral yet may decline to do so because of concerns it will make their work look political. No one should expect the attorney general to blindly follow decisions or recommendations by the committee or to be constrained by regulations intended to guide decisions by line prosecutors in routine cases across the country.

Finally, the midterm elections will not dictate the timing or decision of the attorney general. Those on the Jan. 6 committee may feel a sense of urgency to complete its work given widely reported views that Republicans will retake control of the house and thendisband the committeeor undermine its work. Whatever happens this November, the department will continue its investigation and Garland will make a decision based on the evidence.

As to the strength of the governments case, only Garland and his highly experienced team of prosecutors can best assess which crimes they can prove have been committed, if any, by the former president and others. They have tools that private individuals and congressional committees do not have to gather evidence and compel testimony.

A primary reason to punish criminal acts is to discourage future behavior. Here the nature of possible offenses is serious and requires accountability. This is especially relevant here given growing signs that former President Trump againintends to run for office. Even if a future prosecution is unsuccessful, the investigation and trial would nevertheless likely provide a strong future deterrent.

There are other serious issues confronting our country today, from abortion and gun rights to the growing threat from China and the war in Ukraine. Our government leaders must focus on these internal and external challenges. A trial of former President Trump will dominate the news and captivate the attention of the public and likely our government leaders for months. President Gerald Fordpardonedformer President Richard Nixon for acts relating to the Watergate break-in, in part because Ford believed it was time for the nation to move on and heal. He thought it best to exercise the power of the sovereign to forgive transgressions by Nixon. President Biden has the power to do the same if he chooses, but granting a pardon is neither within the power of the attorney general nor within his discretion. The job of the attorney general is to prosecute wrongdoing no matter how popular or unpopular.

Merrick Garland enjoys a reputation of integrity and courage. I expect he will be fair in his charging decision with respect to former President Trump as he would with any other potential defendant. However, I suspect that here he will proceed with extra caution. If the government prosecutes a former president, the government should be especially confident of success.

Attorney General Garland will make his charging decision at a time of his choosing. He will not make this decision in a vacuum, nor rely solely on his own experiences. He will consult and listen to the views and recommendations of his senior team. He will weigh all of the evidence gathered by both the Jan. 6 committee and investigators at the Justice Department.

Whatever the decision, at some point Garland should explain how his decision advances the rule of law, and defend it to the American people, Congress and Justice Department personnel. He will have to explain his decision for history.

Alberto Gonzales was the 80th Attorney General of the United States and counsel to the president in the George W. Bush administration. He is now the Dean and Doyle Rogers Distinguished Professor of Law at Belmont University College of Law.

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What to expect from the DOJs investigation of Donald Trump - The Hill

He spoke in lurid detail of cities overrun by violent crime. He railed against the media, deep state and liberal elites. And he touted his wall with a dire warning: Millions of illegal aliens are stampeding across our wide open borders, pouring into our country. Its an invasion.

Donald Trumps return to Washington this week was deja vu all over again. The former US presidents 90-minute speech at a luxury hotel was eerily reminiscent of the nativist-populist campaign that won him the White House in 2016. But while Trump himself never evolves, his audience this time around was different.

While the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a rightwing thinktank, was happy to indulge the garrulous showman at its inaugural summit, it also maintained a cold-eyed focus on the future. Over two days Trumps allies and alumni laid out a blueprint for a return to power and a second term more authoritarian, more extreme and more ruthless than the first.

The institute evidently untroubled by the associations of the phrase America First with Nazi sympathisers who wanted to keep the US out of the second world war has 150 staff, including nine former Trump administration cabinet officials and more than 50 former senior staff and officials. Familiar faces such as Kellyanne Conway, Larry Kudlow and Mark Meadows were feted at the conference.

The AFPI is led by Brooke Rollins, a former domestic policy adviser in the White House, who boasted how the 15-month-old organisation put boots on the ground in 32 states on issues from election integrity to school choice and patriotic education to health care transparency to taxes and spending to fatherhood initiatives to border security to big tech censorship.

The institute has sued Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for alleged censorship, she added, while fighting Joe Bidens vaccine mandates all the way to the supreme court and opposing his Build Back Better plan for climate and social spending.

Critics have described the AFPI as a grift for Trump hangers-on to make money but others perceive a White House in waiting, determined to avoid the mistakes of his uniquely turbulent presidency and, through 22 policy centres, guarantee the survival of Trumpism beyond Trump.

Conway, a former senior counselor to the president, told the Guardian: It certainly is a way to preserve the legacy and for some people its also a way to make sure that the entire body of work of the America First movement is all in one place. Its about policies and principles, not about personalities and politics.

She added: I actually believe, and Ive heard Brooke Rollins say more than once or twice, privately and publicly, that we have this in place in case President Trump runs again and, if he doesnt, then its in place for whomever runs again.

Whoever the Republican nominee is next time, whether its Trump or someone else, will run the way all of these Republican candidates for House and Senate and governor this time, with very few exceptions if any, are running on the America First agenda. They all are doing that this time.

The summit revelled in apocalyptic portrayals of Biden and Democrats posing an existential threat to the American way of life. It also described America First principles such as making the economy work for all, putting patients and doctors back in charge of healthcare, protecting the second amendment right to bear arms and giving parents more control over the education of their children.

The list of priorities included finish the wall, deliver peace through strength, make America energy independent, make it easy to vote and hard to cheat, fighting government corruption by draining the swamp.

Handouts of reading material offered another insight. A parent toolkit warned of the perils of wokeness, critical race theory and the 1619 Project, citing examples such as an elementary school in Philadelphia that forced fifth-grade students to simulate a black power rally. It offered advice on how to run for school boards.

An op-ed by Rollins about the supreme courts decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion quoted the British prime minister Margaret Thatcher during the Falklands war: Just rejoice at that news.

A document on school safety and gun violence emphasised fortifying schools, improving access to mental health services and understanding the relationship between culture and violence rather than limiting access to firearms. Another paper was entitled: Fatherlessness and its effects on American society.

During one panel discussion, Rick Perry, a former energy secretary, insisted that the next Republican administration would not be genuflecting at the altar of the religion of environmentalism, adding: We dont need to apologise to anybody for being for fossil fuels and how they have changed the world that we live in today, the flourishing of the world.

The gathering also heard about plans to follow through on what Steve Bannon, former White House chief strategist, described as the deconstruction of the administrative state, centralising power in the presidency like other strongmen around the world.

In his speech on Tuesday, Trump said: We need to make it much easier to fire rogue bureaucrats who are deliberately undermining democracy or, at a minimum, just want to keep their jobs. Congress should pass historic reforms empowering the president to ensure that any bureaucrat who is corrupt, incompetent or unnecessary for the job can be told did you ever hear this? Youre fired. Get out. Youre fired. Have to do it. Deep state.

The comments followed recent in-depth media reporting about the dramatic scope and scale of planning for President Trump 2.0. The Axios website described how his aides are aiming to transform the federal government by replacing thousands of civil servants with loyalists to him and America First.

Axios wrote that the plan owes much to an executive order known as Schedule F that was secretly developed in the second half of Trumps presidency only to be thwarted by his election defeat.

The site added: The impact could go well beyond typical conservative targets such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Internal Revenue Service. Trump allies are working on plans that would potentially strip layers at the justice department including the FBI, and reaching into national security, intelligence, the state department and the Pentagon, sources close to the former president say.

The AFPI could prove central to this authoritarian vision. Newt Gingrich, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, drew a comparison with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative thinktank that he said was crucial to the Ronald Reagan administration, to the extent that Reagan gave each cabinet secretary a copy of its experts report and told them to implement it.

The America First Policy Institute is going to do for the next few years what the Heritage Foundation did in 1979, 1980, Gingrich said. I think because of the experience over four years under President Trump, we have a seasoned enough cadre that, if we work at it methodically, we can actually have enormous impact on profoundly reshaping the federal government.

Trump remained the undisputed master of the AFPI universe in Washington, with some panelists expressing nostalgic yearning for what they perceived as the golden age of his presidency, seemingly oblivious to the revelations of the congressional committee investigating his role in the deadly January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.

Rollins described him as one of the greatest Americans of all time. Board chair Linda McMahon added: Our nation greatly misses President Trump and we need his voice and perspective more than ever. Senator Lindsey Graham opined that Trump was good for the Republican party and proclaimed: I hope he runs again.

But the thinktank is also seeking to trace an ideological thread in the chaos and carnage of the Trump years, laying the foundation for the future of America First after he has left the political stage or if the mantle passes to another Republican such as Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida.

Marc Lotter, chief communications officer at AFPI, said: Theres no question that President Trump is the visionary that put all this in place and started it but the voters will decide who should carry that leadership forward and, if theyre America First, then theyll have the benefit of our work.

He added: One of the differences between AFPI and many of our fellow folks in the conservative think space is we were actually the ones there doing it in the White House and so know what you need to do when you hit the ground running, whether it is in January 23, when America First retakes control of Congress, or in a state house or a governors office, or eventually in 25 in the White House. Thats what were preparing for.

Policy experts remain sceptical of the AFPI. Bill Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington, said: I looked at the website yesterday and I was astonished by the number of people who appear to be in salaried positions and also by the unimpressive and unoriginal quality of what they turned out on the policy front.

A small team of legislative assistants to a Republican congressman could have written papers with those titles in a week because theres nothing very original about being pro-patriotic and pro-family in the Republican party. Let me know if they come up with anything more impressive than that.

But Galston, a former policy adviser to President Bill Clinton, also noted the Axios report about Trump acolytes plans to purge disloyal civil servants. A second Trump term would be even more dangerous than the first because they now realise how unprepared they were to assume power, he added.

I dont think theyre going to make that same mistake again, and they now have a much clearer idea of what to do to institutionalise their power should they regain it. The next two and a half years will be a game for very high stakes in the United States.

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America First is laying plans to perpetuate Trumpism beyond Trump - The Guardian US

President Biden has been proactively getting in Donald Trumps face in recent days.

Biden has been taunting his predecessor with slights, calling him the defeated former president of the United States.

Hes called him out by name, dubbing him a liar and saying he lacks courage.

Biden has even ripped Trumps patriotism and loyalty to the country, pointing to his actions on Jan. 6, 2021:You cant be pro-insurrection and pro-cop. You cant be pro-insurrection and pro-democracy. You cant be pro-insurrection and pro-American, Biden said in a virtual address Monday to the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives conference.

A day later, Biden took to Twitter, in a rare move, to rip Trump again: Call me old fashioned, but I dont think inciting a mob that attacks a police officer is respect for the law.

Earlier this month, Biden said while he couldnt offer a prediction on if Trump would be the Republican nominee in 2024, he said he would not be disappointed if he were to face off with Trump again in 2024.

After ending his COVID-19 isolation, Biden appeared to take another shot at Trump, noting the former president, who got COVID-19 before vaccines were available, had to be helicoptered to Walter Reed hospital.

The Trump insults are becoming more common, and they are no accident.

With the midterm elections inching closer, Biden is expected to play up the contrast between Democrats and Republicans and at times would be expected to use Trump as his foil.

The House Jan. 6 select committee hearings have offered Biden the perfect backdrop for the rash of new attacks, providing evidence of Trumps alleged involvement in the insurrection on the Capitol and his willingness to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

And it coincides with the hopes of Democratic campaigns that voters will come out and vote against the GOP because of Trump.

Why not compare and contrast the person who truly is the face of the Republican Party? said Democratic strategist Rodell Mollineau. Donald Trump is the face of the opposition, and its smart to remind Americans who he is.

Such strategies have not been entirely effective for Democrats. Just last year, Republican Glenn Youngkin won the Virginia gubernatorial race as Democrats sought to tie him to Trump.

But its still a solid strategy, say Democrats, given dealmaking with Republicans is largely over.

Hes gotten everything he can for now from Senate Republicans and Trump is making noise about announcing soon, so its the perfect time to drop the gloves and get back up in their faces, Democraticstrategist Eddie Valesaid. And then its also perfectly timed up on top of that with the Jan. 6 hearing putting the spotlight on Trumps insurrection to draw the direct contact between his danger and demagoguery and Bidens growing-rapidly-by-the-day achievements.

Though Biden received unwelcome news on Thursday in the form of a Commerce Department report showing the economy shrunk in the second quarter, it hasnt been a bad week for the president.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) struck a deal with Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on what would be the most massive climate change bill in congressional history. If it passes, it would be a significant win at a time when Biden needed one.

Separately, Congress approved a bill to help U.S. production of semiconductors, and Biden is hoping the Senate may still pass a bill codifying same-sex marriage.

Bidens national polling average has lingered around 38 percent, and surveys show most Democrats dont want him to seek reelection in 2024.

Trump, who could launch a new presidential bid any day, has often lobbed attacks at Biden. He has criticized the president on everything from his mental acuity to his handling of economy.

Biden, in contrast, has avoided Trump insults for much of his presidency, not wanting to give attention to his predecessor.

Insults, when they came, were done mostly through veiled asides.

Finally, infrastructure week, Biden quipped in November, referring to an ongoing joke during the Trump administration about the inability to move infrastructure legislation through at that time.

But in recent days, it has been Biden punching first.

He needs to drop the tough guy act, Fox News host Jesse Watters said Wednesday on the networks show The Five.

Biden has positioned himself as the best person who can defeat Trump in 2024, a comment hes made both publicly and privately to aides and allies.

He truly believes hes the only one who can win, one ally said. And I believe hes 100 percent correct.

The ally acknowledged that one of Bidens weaknesses against someone like Trump is the notion that he lacks the stamina to take on the former president or other Republicans, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Democrats also want to elect someone they see as a fighter who isnt afraid to rip the GOP nominee to shreds.

So to have Biden out there taking on Trump without being lured into the fight is a good thing, the ally said. Why shouldnt he be the one to throw the first punches? Why wait for the bully?

At the same time, Democrats say Trumps grip around the base isnt what it used to be.

The Republican Party remains Trumps party, but its bad for their brand among swing voters and in general elections, said Ben LaBolt, a Democratic strategist who served as a spokesman to former President Obama. Theres only one candidate that proved themselves able to take on Donald Trump and win the last election Joe Biden and a tte--tte between the two of them continues to elevate Biden and the Democratic Party.

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Biden turns up the insults on Donald Trump - The Hill

Yesterday, an ex-president who had tried to overturn a democratic election by violence returned to Washington, D.C., to call for law and order. Again and again, the speech reversed reality. The ex-president who had spread an actual big lie against the legitimacy of the 2020 election tried to appropriate the phrase big lie to use against his opponents. The ex-president who had fired an acting FBI director days before that officials pension was due to be vested lamented that police officers might lose their pension for doing their job.

Yet scrape aside the audacity, the self-pity, and the self-aggrandizement, and there was indeed an idea in Donald Trumps speech at a conference hosted by the America First Policy Institute: a sinister idea, but one to take seriously.

Trump sketched out a vision that a new Republican Congress could enact sweeping new emergency powers for the next Republican president. The president would be empowered to disregard state jurisdiction over criminal law. The president would be allowed to push aside a weak, foolish, and stupid governor, and to fire radical and racist prosecutorsracist here meaning anti-white. The president could federalize state National Guards for law-enforcement duties, stop and frisk suspects for illegal weapons, and impose death sentences on drug dealers after expedited trials.

Much of this may be hot air. All of it would require huge legal changes, and some of it would require the 63 conservative majority on the Supreme Court to overturn established precedents. You should listen to Trumps speech less as an agenda of things to be done, and more as an indication of the direction of Trumps thought.

David A. Graham: Trumps 2024 soft launch

The Trump Republican Party faces a strategic problem and a constitutional opportunity. The problem is that under Trump, the Republican Party is a minority force in American life. The opportunity is that an ever more unbalanced federal structure can enable a minority party based in many small states to control the majority population that lives in fewer big states. Abortion rights are one area where Republicans can use this opportunity, but that is not an area that especially interests Donald Trump.

Instead, and as always, the opportunity that most fascinates Trump is the opportunity to use the law as a weapon: a weapon to shield his own wrongdoing, a weapon to wield against his political opponents.

Trumps first term was mitigated by his ignorance, indolence, and incompetence. Since the humiliation of his 2020 defeat, however, Trump has been studying how to use a second chance if he gets one. The one abiding interest of his life, revenge, will provide the impetus. Next time, he will have the wholehearted support of a White House staff selected to enable him. Next time, he will have the backing in Congress of a party remade in his own image. Next time, hell be acting to ensure that his opponents never again get a next time of their own.

He may not succeed, but hell know what hes trying to do.

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Trumps America First Speech Revealed a Plan for Power - The Atlantic

OPINION:

After more than a year of calling him, my predecessor or the other guy President Joe Biden mentioned former President Donald Trump by name this week during a speech about law enforcement. For some pundits, this was used to add fuel to the notion that Democrats are nervous about the former president running again.

But like in the classic Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? things may not be what they seem.

The narrative that Mr. Trump is the only solution or that Democrats are reflexively terrified of his resurgence is at once dubious and silly. Thats not stopping some folks from trying to sell it though.

Americas 45th president clearly remains a tour de force with his hardcore supporters. After the last 18 months, even many Democrats acknowledge that his policies are better for the country. That gives him an opening for a comeback, but its not as wide as some want Americans to believe.

Those close to Mr. Trump either want to drive the perception that hes the invincible, inevitable and only alternative. The numbers though are starting to tell a different story. This months Quinnipiac poll showed 64% of voters dont want to see him make another run, including 27% of Republicans and 68% of independents.

The same New York Times poll that recently showed Mr. Bidens popularity in the tank also showed less than half of Republicans saying Mr. Trump was their preferred choice.

Lesson? Invincibility in politics is an illusion. Selective reading of polls is dangerous.

For Mr. Trump to be truly viable, he and his team need to find a way to drive genuine enthusiasm beyond the adoring crowds. You dont win national elections playing only to your base.

A second Trump term will require him to actually win over moderates, women and even Republicans who grew disenchanted with his style. Despite the collapse of Bidens popularity, Mr. Trump still has plenty of work to do.

The race against Hillary Clinton was a choice between two candidates who were upside down on favorability, forcing voters on the margins to make the less uncomfortable decision.

2024 wont be that kind of a race.

Folks in Mr. Trumps orbit continue to suggest that Democrats and the media will do anything to keep him out of politics. On the contrary, they hope for the exact opposite.

The Jan. 6 hearings, for instance, arent about damaging Mr. Trump enough to prevent him from running for a second term. Democrats are hoping to enrage him enough to ensure hell take the bait and run while making it all but impossible for him to win a general election.

The real impact of the committees work is intended to be the political equivalent of death by a thousand cuts. The one-sided political show trial Republican leaders allowed to happen hasnt even been syndicated into documentaries, television and online advertisements yet.

Democrats know Mr. Trumps entry into the race will box out an exceptional field of other potential candidates and expose significant fissures within the Republican Party. Like a number of Trump-backed Senate candidates, he may lay claim to a solid 30 to 40% of the GOP primary vote, but that means a lot of other voters will still need convincing.

Democrats are terrified that he doesnt run. With unpopular, radical policies driven by the likes of Sen. Bernie Sanders and the far left, poorly parroted by the current occupant of the White House, Mr. Trumps style is all they have to give them hope.

This year Democrats are spending money to boost Trump-backed candidates in GOP primaries they consider more beatable in the general election. If they were really afraid of the former presidents political prowess, they wouldnt be spending that money.

Democrats desperately want another campaign where everything is all Trump, all the time, where the GOP is branded as his party and where the press clamor for the first-person social media message with exclamation points that flattens the news cycle like a steamroller.

Its the only way for the left to win. Democrats arent afraid of Mr. Trump. Theyre desperate for him to stage a comeback. Its proof positive just how bereft they are of ideas and talent.

For the Beltway insiders, this game of illusion is captivating, but for the American people, its corrosive.

There are grave risks for all sides here. Republicans and Trump acolytes, in particular, would do well to remember, that just like in Virginia Woolf, illusion is ultimately never more than illusion and reality, however hard to handle, is inescapable.

Tom Basile is the host of America Right Now on Newsmax Television, an author and a former Bush administration official.

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Who's afraid of Donald Trump? - Washington Times

Commentary

Midway through viewing The Epoch Times excellent documentary about Jan. 6, I started wonderingand not for the first timewhether we are on the brink of civil war and if an indictment of Donald Trump by Attorney General Merrick Garland would take us over that brink.

Consciously or unconsciously, that appears to be the ultimate goal of the committee, especially now that its being reported that few are paying close attention to it. Such an act would clearly garner that attention, to say the least, in a divided land where the former president has in the vicinity of 100 million supporters, many of them adamant.

It also would pretty much erase the word unconsciously from the previous paragraph, barely there in the first place.

Michael Anton, of The Flight 93 Electionfame, wrote just a few days ago in another epochal essay, They Cant Let Him Back, that begins, The people who really run the United States of America have made it clear that they cant, and wont, if they can help it, allow Donald Trump to be president again.

He also writes, Anti-Trump hysteria, in the final analysis, is not about Trump.

Indeed. This hysteria is about the preservation of a system almost as far from our envisioned original democratic republic as you could go and heading further off, a kind of bureaucratic oligarchy commonly called the administrative state. Its ultimately about preserving thousands, probably hundreds of thousands and possibly millions, of lifetime ruling-class jobs, high and low, or jobs related to them or depending on them.

The vast majority of these jobs, as many already and an increasing number know, shouldnt exist. They do nothing to enhance the life of the average citizen and in many, if not most, cases make it worse.

You might even call it Rule-by-Kafka, especially since the advent of COVID-19, the Czech genius having given us the best descriptions of our current existence in works such as The Trial and more specifically The Metamorphosis, when a man awakens to find he has become a cockroach.

Trump was rather naive at the outset of his administration, unwittingly employing and therefore enabling a surprising number of these tribunes of the Deep State. No longer, if his recent statements are any indication. He seems bent on the destruction of the administrative state and a positive return to the republic for which it stands. Its also likely that Gov. Ron DeSantis, having observed the situation well, would behave similarly.

What we could be seeing in the next months is an indictment of Trump, based on findings of the Jan. 6 committee, accompanied by, within weeks either way as a palliative, some kind of indictment of Hunter Biden that would almost certainly come in the form of a settlement. That settlement, given, as Kafka well knew, the behavior of those who control your lives, would include the agreed-upon permanent sealing of documents, including laptop contents, possibly their destruction as well, by all sides, flushing concrete evidence of Biden Family legal and arguably traitorous doings, presidential and otherwise, in China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and wherever else down the proverbial memory hole.

Would that palliative be enough to avoid civil war and get the masses to acquiesce?

If there is a civil war, we can blame, in part, Liz Cheney (somewhat of a comedown from Archduke Franz Ferdinand) whose obvious overwhelming motivationunremitting vengeance for a slight to her fatherwould get an understanding nod from Sophocles and Euripides, both of whom wrote magnificentElectra plays.

Watching the documentary also sent my mind back more than a decade when, for PJTV, I went to Stanford University to video a lecture by the historian/classicist Victor Davis Hanson, well known to almost all readers here. I recall Victor saying something obviously true that I had never thought of before and made me feel a little dumbthat war was the basic human condition and we were living through an exceptionally rare moment of peace or semi-peace.

That the current Ukraine war is relatively contained comports with Hansons observation.

But will it last?

So, to channel Herman Kahn of thermonuclear war fame, it may be time to think about the unthinkable. Thomas Jefferson certainly did when he wrote in a letter to James Madison, I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.

He also wrote in a letter to William Smith: God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion

Of course, those were the days when weaponry was but bows and arrows compared to what we have today.

War has a way of sneaking up on you. As Leon Trotsky is reputed to have put it, You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you. This quote from the famous communist is oft-repeated because, unlike much of his propaganda, it has the ring of truth.

Events spin out of control. Think what an insane-sounding moment in history it would appear if Liz Cheneys fury at Trumps insulting her father about the Iraq War turned out to be the igniting point of a second American civil war. (Insane-sounding, yet straight out of Greek tragedy.) And yet where would the Jan. 6 committee be without the cover of Liz, the putative Republican? Would it even exist?

The second American civil war may already have begun with the arrests of Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon because of their refusal to speak with the committee. These are initial shots across the bow. Bannons relationship with Trump has sometimes been equivocal, but Navarro was his virtual right-hand man, indispensable in how he dealt with China.

Moreover, the two most recent Democratic administrations appear to have been making preparations for such an internal fight by appointing the so-called woke to the highest ranks of the military. This makes no sense if you think about our well-armed adversaries in China and Russia, who must have rolled their eyes in untold delight at such a strategy, even more so after the Afghanistan debacle. What a gift from what was once the strongest military in the world.

But if you think about it in terms of civil war, if you think that the real concern of our present government, is internal, it starts to compute, as do recent activities of our Justice Department, FBI, CIA, and so forth.

Which side would the military be on is definitely a Kahn-style unthinkable question. Its also a hard one to answer. Traditionally, the military would be on the side of the people, especially since its ranks generally consist of the working class young. But considering much of its leadership, it would likely be split, though its unclear in what percentages. A war within the military is a distinct possibility. Similarly, there would be wars among the police.

Whatever the case, given that this wouldnt be nearly as much a NorthSouth war as the first onesince many red enclaves exist in blue states and many blue enclaves, particularly in the cities, exist in red statesand given that more families themselves are riven, everything is unpredictable.

Perhaps its time to give an American separationseceding intelligentlymore serious thought, heartbreaking as it is to contemplate. Maybe if we separate, we can learn to live together, after a time anyway. The Israelis and the Arab world are edging closer together. (Yes, they have a common enemy in Iran, but still )

In any case, Civil War II is horrifying to contemplate, with potentially more corpses than the first time around, when an estimated 620,000 men died. That was out of a paltry 19.2 million population. We are currently well over 300 million. Do the mathand add women who would now more likely be participantsand the numbers are pretty mortifying to calculate.

Continuing to think the unthinkable, doing that Kahn thing, unfortunately also encompasses considering the final result, if we are to be in any way complete.

Pondering this while driving across Middle Tennessee the other day to visit a friend who lives in a rural area, gazing out at the endless farms with the strong men and women working the landwe can call them unabashedly The PatriotsI knew they would win in the end, bitter as it would be. They are godly, they are brave, they would persevere, and they are already armed and know well how to use those weapons.

After all, if we are but Kafkas cockroach, its worth remembering cockroaches have been around for at least 300 million years and are showing no signs of extinction.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

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Roger L. Simon is an award-winning novelist, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, co-founder of PJMedia, and now, editor-at-large for The Epoch Times. His most recent books are The GOAT (fiction) and I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasnt Already (nonfiction). He can be found on GETTR and Parler @rogerlsimon.

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Would the Indictment of Donald Trump Lead to Civil War? - The Epoch Times

We regretfully interrupt this typically joyful moment of time on the NFL calendar, as teams file back into their buildings for training camps, to ask a difficult question that may have been lingering in the back of our collective minds, one we did our best to keep dormant until now.

The following is not a political endorsement or ideological finger-pointing. We are not rehashing the previous term or delving into issues of morality. There will be plenty of time and space for that later.

Instead, this is a question of preparedness, of fitness. Its a question for coaches and general managers and player agents andoverwhelminglyteam owners. What did we learn from 2016 to 20? Lets assume everyone gets a free pass and that no Republican, Democrat or Freak Power party member could have predicted what shape the world would take under a Trump presidency.

Susan Walsh/AP

Is the NFL ready for the return of Donald Trump?

Can the league ensure it will not again be a cowering minnow trying to keep itself from the open mouth of a passing-by shark, like when it altered its national anthem policy in the wake of criticism from the former president? During Trumps campaign and presidency, he successfully convinced supporters that a television ratings dip across the board (thanks to the rise of streaming services and other cable-cutting mechanisms) was proof that fewer people were watching the NFL because of Colin Kaepernick. Actually, it was because of Trump and his now infamous speech in which he implored NFL owners to fire kneeling players, saying: Get that son of a b---- off the field right now. Out! Hes fired. Hes fired! It was a sleight of hand, for sure. It was also a successful tool to promote his cause and stoke his base.

Midterm elections are 103 days away, which means we are mere footsteps from the start of another charged bit of mudslinging, and Trump will surely be on the campaign trail for his desired candidates. We are going to have amplified for us every potentially divisive issue imaginable. We are going to be told that if you believe in X, you cannot vote for Y, and so on and so on. We are going to argue about world conflict, public health and safety, womens rights, economics, gas prices, immigration, racial inequality and the state of our country as a free and fair society. All of those issues will be neatly skewed and distilled for us by our preferred news outlets, bringing us to the public octagon ready to throw hands.

Kaepernicks silent protest of racial inequality and police brutality became a national flash point.

Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

NFL players have become a vehicle for discussion, awareness and collective action, all of which took some teams by surprise six years ago. I remember talking to one coach who feared for players demonstrating during the national anthem, not because of any ideological difference, but because there was nothing they could do to protect the players if that teams owner wanted them gone. The temperature in team facilities was higher than we understood at the time.

If we remember correctly, there was so much awkwardness. Before teams became reluctant, corporate-style partners to various progressive causes, they ranged from outright impediment to or strategic ignorance of any potentially divisive action.

Pointing out that President Joe Biden and former president Trump are stylistically different should not be controversial. Indeed, Biden hinged the hopes of his campaign on a presidency that would rein in the noise instead of amplify it. His only brief shoulder brush with the NFL so far came from a quip about Aaron Rodgerss vaccination status, which Rodgers loudly rebuked in a pre-playoff interview with ESPN. It also shouldnt be controversial to point out that Trump, more than any president in recent history, pulls from the pop culture universe in an effort to help him craft more relatable points. This is how Kaepernicks silent protest of racial inequality and police brutality became a national flash point, with Trump using the demonstration as a way to promote a campaign that would frame your opinion on law enforcement tactics and practices as a matter of good and evil, of pro-country and anti-country.

While Kaepernicks efforts have largely softened societys stanceathletes demonstrating, speaking out or raising awareness of issues has become commonplace nowthey also represented some modicum of success for Trump. Owners were supposedly buried under mountains of fan mail. Kaepernick became unsignable. The idea of removing politics from sportswhich really meant removing the kind of politics I disagree with from sportsbecame a popular battle cry.

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While not a direct parallel, the tactic seems to be standard politically now (and probably, in some lesser sense, always was). Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is battling the Disney corporation (firmly in bed with the NFL as a content partner and owner of ESPN) over its opposition to the statesParental Rights In Educationor 'Dont Say Gay'bill, in what is largely a culture war meant to appease voters in a Trumpian style.

What could Trump latch onto now?

Sports are an important part of the former presidents daily life and consumption habits. Despite pleas from the families of 9/11 victims, Trump spent the past week lauding LIV Golf, a Saudi-backed enterprise looking to dismantle the PGA and steal all its top talent, and urging PGA tour players to take the startups money before an inevitable merger.

The rhetoric will become more heated the closer we get to Nov. 8 and the closer Trump comes to finding his way back to mainstream social media and a stranglehold on the daily news cycle, especially if he decides to run for president in 24. In recent months, the congressional investigation of Commanders owner Daniel Snyder has turned into outright political theater, with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell being asked by Republican senators about the teams fine of defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio for referring to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as a dust-up, and about the NFLs banning of Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy from covering its events. (Goodell said he wasnt familiar with the latter issue).

The NFL is an extraordinarily popular microcosm of society, which means our problems inside these walls are some version of the problems the country faces at large. There are high-profile issues of racial inequality making their way through the courts in relation to the NFL, via the Brian Flores suit. Trump could find sympathy for the similarly raw Jon Gruden, who saw his coaching career come to an end over leaked documents revealing racist, anti-LGBTQ and misogynistic language. (Trump has repeatedly made an issue of leaked documents and utterances in meetings during his presidency, apparently believing the leaks and not the content of the leaked material was the problem.) The NFL is investigating credible accusations of tanking amid a gambling boon, and we all know how much the former president enjoys pointing out an institution he finds rigged.

Player protests became a common occurrence after Trump implored owners to fire kneeling players.

David E. Klutho/Sports Illustrated

In 2020, Falcons owner Arthur Blank topped all fellow owners with more than $1.1 million in donations heading to Democratic causes. The financial support for Trump waned noticeably in comparison to the 16 election cycle, with retired Raiders guard Richie Incognito personally donating nearly as much to the outgoing president directly ($11,549) as most all other NFL personnel combined ($14,738).

This certainly doesnt shield the NFL from any criticism. Trump was, and always will be, a business person with confrontational tendencies. If he views the league as against him, he wont hesitate to yank it into this culture war.

We often wonder whether the NFL is evil, incompetent or, perhaps, still incredibly surprised and incapable of grasping its mammoth reach within society. The last of the three might be true, given the leagues consistent inability to see beyond the financial recourse of its actions. Rarely does the NFL heed warnings. However, the rise of Trumpism is another real speedbump (others being player concussions and domestic violence) for the league amid its massive climb to American Sports Monolith. What happens, after two years of strategizing with a broader political network, a mainstream party supporting his every move and a political war chest greater than both the Republican and Democratic parties?

The NFL will be fine, ultimately. It is too big to truly fail. But that doesnt mean the league will enjoy sweating it out when that status is, even momentarily, in jeopardy. Perhaps its time to make a plan.

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Is the NFL Ready for Donald Trumps Return? - Sports Illustrated

A former president took a shot at another former president when asked a question on a late-night talk show.

What Happened: In an appearance on last weeks Late Late Show With James Corden, former President Bill Clinton was a featured guest.

The economy, international relations and aliens were among the key topics the duo talked about.

Corden also asked Clinton to take part in a segment called Ask a President, which hadmembers of the audience and staff ask the former president questions.

The show, which aired on Paramount Global PARA PARAA owned channel CBS, saw Clinton answer what makes a good leader, what plant-based milk is the best and if we could see a woman president.

Clinton answered yes that we will likely see a woman president, a Latino president and a gay president over the coming years.

Clinton also shared that he drinks almond milk, but it is vodka that is his favorite plant-based drink.

For a question aboutfictional presidents, he answered: I like Tony Goldwyn, I like Martin Sheen, I liked Michael Douglas, I loved Harrison Ford and Morgan Freeman and Donald Trump."

Related Link: 2024 President Election Betting Odds: Is Donald Trump Or Joe Biden The Current Favorite

Why Its Important: Trump served as the 45th president of the U.S. In the 2016 election, Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, the wife of Bill Clinton.

There is a long standing feud between Hillary Clinton and Trump, which likely led to the comments by Clinton on the late night talk show. The rest of the names singled out by Clinton portrayed presidents in movies or on television shows.

Hillary Clinton has ruled out another run for president of the U.S. Neither Trump or current PresidentJoe Biden, the last two presidents, have announced their intentions for the 2024 election, but both are expected to run.

Trump owned Trump Media & Technology Group is working to become a publicly traded company with a pending SPAC merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp DWAC.

Photo:Anthony Correia(Clinton) andEvan El-Amin(Trump) via Shutterstock

Original publication: 2022-06-21

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Bill Clinton Takes A Shot At Donald Trump: Here's What He Said - Benzinga

For many, Tuesday night was an evening of contrasts. There was a calm, measured attorney general assuring the public that the Department of Justice will hold accountable anyone found criminally responsible for the events of Jan. 6, 2021, or for attempting to overturn the 2020 election. When NBC News Lester Holt asked Merrick Garland whether that approach might even apply to former President Donald Trump even if Trump were to announce hes running for president again Garland repeated the refrain that no one is above the law.

Garland remained expressionless while never showing his hand, the consummate poker player.

Garland, likely aware that his every word and movement would be scrutinized for clues, remained expressionless while never showing his hand, the consummate poker player. Later that same night, The Washington Post reported, to much fanfare, that it has seen some of the cards Garland is holding and it sure looks like the Department of Justice is investigating Trump.

While Tuesday night may have been confounding to some, for me, it was an example of how things are supposed to work. Prosecutors and media outlets play different roles and move at different speeds as both seek to ferret out the truth.

Its been so long since we had a by-the-book attorney general that many Americans still dont quite understand if theyre supposed to be encouraged or disappointed by what they heard from Garland Tuesday evening. Since Trump left office, many have demanded swift justice for the man they hold responsible for assaulting our democracy. The pressure on Garland to move faster, say something, arrest somebody, anybody, close to Trump intensified when some members of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol began expressing their own frustration with him. But Garland wasnt going to cave to public pressure. Thats not how a healthy Justice Department is supposed to do things. The department is supposed to follow the facts and the law not the op-ed pages.

The many people demanding immediate action from Garland can be forgiven if theyve forgotten how justice and the rule of law are supposed to be executed. After all, those people saw one of Trumps attorneys general, William Barr, shamelessly jump in front of the release of the Mueller Special Counsel Report with his own press conference that included a fabrication-filled four-page summary. They saw that same attorney general appoint special counsel John Durham to try to destroy the original investigation into Russian interference with Trumps campaign even after the DOJs own inspector general determined the case was properly predicated. And, they saw that same lackey attorney general mislead the public about the perceived perils of mail-in balloting.

Now, we have a Justice Department thats back to methodically focusing on facts. We have an attorney general who wont call a press conference to tell us his opinion about investigative findings or even to tell us that an investigation exists. That may be frustrating for some people, especially those who believed that if there were an investigation, that we would have already seen leaks indicating an investigation. Thats OK. Thats how the Justice Department is supposed to work its not supposed to leak.

People demanding immediate action from Garland can be forgiven if theyve forgotten how justice and the rule of law are supposed to be executed.

Garlands careful approach contrasted with the crashing wave of reporting that soon drowned out his quiet comments. The reporting began Tuesday night with The Washington Posts news that the DOJ had called at least two high-ranking aides to Vice President Mike Pence into a grand jury and questioned them for hours about Trumps actions related to the alternate electors scheme. That report was quickly followed by reporting from NBC News that essentially corroborated the DOJs interest in Trump. The New York Times weighed in with further confirmation. The far-right, including an editor at large at Breitbart News, immediately cried foul about The Washington Posts scoop and claimed that someone at Justice must be leaking. Yet, that report made no mention of DOJ sources. To me it sounded much more like the information came from either the grand jury witnesses or people close to them.

The media doing its job pursuing the facts and sometimes loudly reporting the news with breaking news banners is just as essential as the Justice Department quietly and methodically doing its job. This may seem like a confounding contrast, even a conflict. But thats how things are supposed to be. Its all part of a healthy democracy.

Garland previously responded to questions about the perception that the Justice Department is moving too slowly in its investigation of Jan. 6 by saying, We have to get this right. So far, he is.

Frank Figliuzzi is an MSNBC columnist anda national security contributor for NBC News and MSNBC. He was the assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, where he served 25 years as a special agent and directed all espionage investigations across the government. He is the author of "The FBI Way: Inside the Bureau's Code of Excellence."

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Merrick Garland dropping hints about Donald Trump would be out of line - MSNBC