Category Archives: Donald Trump

When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, it quickly became clear that much of the media was not up to the challenge of covering a candidate who openly lied, espoused racist ideologies, bragged about sexual assault, and encouraged his supporters to embrace a toxic vision for America by playing on their fears and insecurities.

Part of the problem was that coverage of Trump was a ratings boon for the struggling news industrywith the Trump bump sending record numbers of viewers and readers to newspapers, online publications, and TV shows. It was intoxicating for the industry. News channels were captivated by Trumps roadshow, famously airing empty podiums as they waited for him to arrive, instead of going live to his opponent Hillary Clinton giving a speech about her plans to raise incomes for working families. Newspaper journalists spent countless hours in red state diners trying to probe the psyche of Trump voters as if they were unknowable mysteries, instead of people who regularly expressed exactly who they were and what they were about.

Even so, the American media establishment was blindsided by Trumps 2016 victory, and vastly underestimated his ability to carry out his far-right agenda as president. While he was in the White House, many in the press fell back upon euphemisms and false equivalencies, as Perry Bacon, Jr. wrote recently in the Washington Post: They played down Trumps radicalism to appear neutral and objective, to get access to Trump and his top aides or to appeal to Republican officials and consumers. And even now, they continue to curry favor with Trump and traffic in the rhetoric of both sidesas if there is more than one side to bigotry.

After Trump lost the 2020 election, fomented an insurrection, and has continued, to this day, to promote the big lie, that he was robbed of a second term as president, I dared hope that the media had learned its lesson about how to cover Trump on the campaign trail.

In these early days of the 2024 election cycle, though, it would seem that nothing was learned at all.

Trump looked tired when he strolled onto the New Hampshire stage for CNNs town hall on Wednesday, visibly wearing every one of his 76 years. The day before, a federal jury had found him liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s, and then defaming her. Still, CNN opted to move forward with the televised event, moderated by This Morning anchor and chief correspondent Kaitlan Collins in front of an audience of Republicans and Independent voters inclined to vote for hima curious choice, at best.

From the very first moment to the abrupt last, Trump was exactly who he has long revealed himself to be.

The candidate was bombastic, arrogant, and rude. He lied time and time again. When Collins, who came across as well-prepared and well-versed in all the political issues, corrected his lies in real time, he spoke over her, smirking as he declared his warped version of the truth to be the final word on everything from election fraud to the Jan. 6 insurrection to the debt ceiling. He continued to denigrate Carroll (who now says shes considering suing him again). And save for the final minutes of the town hall, Collins ended up looking helpless in the face of the former presidents performanceexactly as he and his camp wanted it.

At times, Trump looked like a lunatic, babbling incoherent nonsense. At opportune moments, he threw out the words sure to rile up his base. Radical. Border. Patriot. Nasty person. Rarely did he answer the question being asked, instead using each one as an invitation to continue discussing whatever he wanted. The audience applauded and laughed and applauded and laughed. That was, perhaps, the most disappointing aspect of the prime time TV event, watched by 3.3 million people.

But the morning after this debacle was even more disappointing, perhaps, when CNNs chairman, Chris Licht, congratulated Collins on a masterful performance and himself on his bravery in airing it. I absolutely, unequivocally believe America was served very well by what we did last night, he declared on the networks morning editorial call. He went on to say that Kaitlan pressed him again and again, and made news, made a lot of news.

Lets be clear: Media organizations are, mostly, businesses. They are struggling businesses in the midst of a downward spiral, making it harder to walk away from a spectacle that will bring them a big audience, even if the spectacle is destructive, corrosive to democracy, and criminal. Any one of CNNs rival networks would likely have jumped at the opportunity to air the town hall. I would like to believe, however, that they would have done so with slightly more integrity.

Most media enterprises employ great journalists who know how to call out liars and criminalsseveral did so at CNN, criticizing their own employers. But those people, doing the right thing and holding power to account, cant compete with the spectacle. Trump and people like him know this, which is why they rarely face the press without bringing their own circus to town.

This town hall will consume peoples attention until we move on to the next garish spectacle. But there are far more critical issues we should be discussing: That Trump remains the frontrunner to represent his party by a wide margin; that the GOP considers him a viable candidate despite everything that has happened; that his base remains unrelentingly loyal to him. These are real problems. In the face of all that, the fact that CNN gave him a primetime platform for monologuing lies and misinformation, thereby conferring legitimacy on his ideological viewpoints, is a real problem.

In the discourse cycle following the town hall, some pundits have raised the specter of ideological silosadmonishing those who criticize Wednesdays farce that we shouldnt only surround ourselves with people who reflect our values and beliefs. But those of us who find Trump odious are not living in a silo. We absolutely see and understand that half the country is fine with who Trump is and what he stands for.

Bigotry is not merely a different opinion that we should expose ourselves to. It isnt an intellectual exercise or a useful contribution to a range of diverse viewpoints. It is an evil that must be eradicated. It must be identified as unacceptable, as often as necessary. And it should be denied the oxygen of the media. Freedom of speech does not guarantee unfettered access to media coverage.

Time and again, journalists say they just dont know how to cover Trump, that he is impossible to cover. But he is only impossible to cover because he receives an inordinate amount of the media attention he so desperately craves. He is impossible to cover because he does whatever he wants, and no one truly challenges him. He is impossible to cover because we continue to let him dictate the terms of engagement.

Its time to stop. If journalism is really about truth, there is nothing newsworthy about giving free airtime to the prime minister of mendacity. Trump has been found guilty of crimes and faces several other criminal investigations. He disdains democracy and openly embraces autocracy.

There should be standards for people seeking to lead the United States. Donald Trump does not meet those standards, by any measure. We should stop using euphemisms when it comes to his words and deeds. We should stop pretending that because he is the leading candidate, what he has to say is automatically newsworthy. When he refuses to speak truthfully or acknowledge election results, we should simply stop the interview and walk away. Enough is enough; too much is at stake. We should protect, at all costs, the many vulnerable populations that will be made less safe in a second Trump presidency. No matter what we believe or which party we are aligned with, we should want better for this country, for our communities, for the world we are a part of.

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The media is not equipped to handle the return of Donald Trump - Fortune

Donald Trump

That Republican elders dare not alienate the ex-presidents fanbase shows how fully he has shaped the party in his image

One day he was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation. The next he was on prime-time television pushing election lies, defending his own coup attempt and refusing to back Ukraine.

To his millions of critics, it was another week that proved Donald Trump is unfit for office and dangerous to democracy. But to the top leaders of Trumps Republican party, it was another week to keep heads down and say nothing.

Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the House of Representatives; Mitch McConnell, the minority leader in the Senate; leading state governors and even most of Trumps potential rivals for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 have made a habit of siding with him or remaining silent as each scandal comes and goes.

Critics say their complicity underlines how comprehensively Trump took over the Republican party and shaped it in his own image. Even though McConnell and others privately loathe Trump and wish him gone, they dare not alienate his fervent support base. Rick Wilson, a former Republican consultant and co-founder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group, sums it up in one word: fear.

They are afraid of the mob, theyre afraid of the horde, theyre afraid of the anger and the craziness and the rage and the threats that come any time a Republican elected official really stands up and opposes Donald Trump, Wilson said.

He added: None of the major elected officials McConnell, McCarthy, the big state governors are going to come out and say what they believe and know: that he is a monstrous figure and he is a dangerous figure.

Trump ran against the Republican establishment in 2016, exciting a grassroots army of supporters and eventually bending the party to his will. His victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the presidential election and pursuit of an agenda that fit many Republican priorities, from sweeping tax cuts to rightwing supreme court justices, persuaded many in leadership to overlook his chaotic style.

But relations with McConnell soured over time, culminating in the 6 January 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol, for which he said Trump was practically and morally responsible. The former president has branded McConnell an old crow and repeatedly hurled racist insults at his Taiwanese-born wife, former transportation secretary Elaine Chao.

Even so, despite their mutual animosity, the minority leader made clear this week that he will support Trump if he is the Republican nominee in 2024. Asked about the former presidents improving poll numbers, McConnell told CNN: Im going to support the nominee of our party for president, no matter who that may be.

Meanwhile Steve Daines, chair of the Senate Republicans campaign arm, has endorsed Trump for president in what many see as an attempt to curry favour with him and curb his meddling in next years Senate elections. Trumps backing of extremists in last years midterms cost McConnell control of the Senate an outcome that he is eager to avoid repeating.

Wilson, author of Everything Trump Touches Dies, commented: He can say, See, Mr Trump, Im loyal to you. I love you. Im a good person. You should listen to me. Please, please, please dont tell Tudor Dixon she should run again or dont tell Kari Lake she should run again. These are very transactional and tactical approaches but nonetheless they are approaches that these people are willing to do to survive in a war with Trump.

He added: There is no Republican party. Its just Trump. It is only about his desires and his political power, his political goals. If you told the average Republican elected official, you have to cut off your arm to get an endorsement from Trump, theyre going to ask you for a saw and some Band-Aids.

McCarthy, for his part, also seemed shaken by the events of January 6, but later that month he visited Trumps Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, signalling that all was forgiven. When McCarthy was elected speaker earlier this year after a gruelling series of votes, he paid tribute to Trump for working the phones to help him secure victory.

Since then he has swatted aside every legal controversy, including last month when, as Trump became the first former president to face criminal charges, McCarthy tweeted that the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, had weaponized our sacred system of justice against President Donald Trump.

This week, in a civil case, a New York jury determined that Trump sexually abused and defamed the writer E Jean Carroll, awarding her $5m in damages (Trump is appealing the verdict). That alone would be enough to sink most political careers but McCarthy repeatedly dodged the issue when asked to comment by reporters on Capitol Hill.

Other Republicans went further in expressing their fealty to Trump. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida told reporters: That jurys a joke. The whole case is a joke. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina added: When it comes to Donald Trump, the New York legal system is off the rails. Former vice-president Mike Pence told NBC News: I would tell you, in my four and a half years serving alongside the president, I never heard or witnessed behaviour of that nature.

The following day, Trump gave an unhinged, falsehood-filled performance in a town hall event broadcast live on the CNN network. He vowed to pardon a large portion of the January 6 rioters, suggested that Republicans should let the government default on its debts and refused to call Vladimir Putin a war criminal over the killing of Ukrainian civilians.

Strikingly, many in the audience in Manchester, New Hampshire, burst into applause and egged Trump on. When he made fun of Carroll they laughed. It was a glimpse of the Make America great again base that keeps party leaders awake at night.

Donna Brazile, a former chairperson of the Democratic National Committee, said: The voters stand by Donald Trump and as long as he has a grip on the Republican party and its voters, the leaders cannot step out ahead of where the voters are.

People should not condemn these voters, these voters who need to be educated, listened to and respected. After all, over 70 million Americans supported Donald Trump in the last election. Thats nothing to sneeze at. Thats voters who know what he stands for, know what he represents and still theyre with him.

She added: As long as theyre sticking with Trump, I do believe that the leaders of the Republican party will also stand by Trump. Regardless of what they say behind his back, theyll stick with Trump.

Even in the Trump era, the Republican party is not a monolith. The sexual abuse verdict prompted criticism from senators including John Cornyn, Mitt Romney, Mike Rounds and John Thune. In an interview with Punchbowl News, Bill Cassidy asked: What if it was your sister? How could it not create concern?

After the chaotic CNN town hall, Chris Christie, a former governor of New Jersey, described Trump as Putins puppet and there was condemnation from Chris Sununu, the governor of New Hampshire, and Asa Hutchinson, a former governor of Arkansas running for president. But these are exceptions that prove the rule. Other confirmed or likely primary candidates steered clear in what is now a familiar pattern.

After all, the Trump era is littered with the political corpses of Republicans who tried to oppose him only to suffer online abuse, public heckling, death threats or retribution at the ballot box. Senators Bob Corker, Jeff Flake and Ben Sasse and Representatives Justin Amash, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are among those who quit or were purged. They left behind a party that increasingly resembles Trump.

Kurt Bardella, a Democratic strategist, said: They have refused to divorce themselves from someone that they know is both a political loser for them and who represents things that are completely destructive to our democracy. After everything that we have seen, after everything that the Republican party itself has endured in terms of its underperforming in multiple election cycles, the only reason why they havent divorced themselves from Donald Trump is because they dont want to.

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As Trumps lies and scandals deepen, the GOP responds as usual with silence - The Guardian US

In November, Representative Byron Donalds scored a coveted speaking slot: introducing Gov. Ron DeSantis after a landslide re-election turned the swing state of Florida deep red. Standing onstage at a victory party for Mr. DeSantis in Tampa, Mr. Donalds praised him as Americas governor.

By April, Mr. Donalds was seated at a table next to another Florida Republican: Donald J. Trump. He was at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trumps private club, for a multicourse dinner with nine other House Republicans from Florida who had spurned their home-state governor to endorse the former presidents 2024 run. Red Make America Great Again hats decorated their place settings.

In six short months from November to May, Mr. DeSantiss 2024 run has faltered before it has even begun.

Allies have abandoned him. Tales of his icy interpersonal touch have spread. Donors have groused. And a legislative session in Tallahassee designed to burnish his conservative credentials has instead coincided with a drop in the polls.

His decision not to begin any formal campaign until after the Florida legislative session allowing him to cast himself as a conservative fighter who not only won but actually delivered results instead opened a window of opportunity for Mr. Trump. The former president filled the void with personal attacks and a heavy rotation of negative advertising from his super PAC. Combined with Mr. DeSantiss cocooning himself in the right-wing media and the Trump teams success in outflanking him on several fronts, the governor has lost control of his own national narrative.

Now, as Mr. DeSantiss Tallahassee-based operation pivots to formally entering the race in the coming weeks, Mr. DeSantis and his allies are retooling for a more aggressive new phase. His staunchest supporters privately acknowledge that Mr. DeSantis needs to recalibrate a political outreach and media strategy that has allowed Mr. Trump to define the race.

Changes are afoot. Mr. DeSantis is building a strong Iowa operation. He has been calling influential Republicans in Iowa and is rolling out a large slate of state legislator endorsements before a weekend trip there.

He definitely indicated that if he gets in, he will work exceptionally hard nothing will be below him, said Bob Vander Plaats, an influential Iowa evangelical leader whom Mr. DeSantis hosted recently for a meal at the governors mansion. I think he understands I emphasized that Iowas a retail politics state. You need to shake peoples hands, look them in the eye.

Still, his central electability pitch MAGA without the mess has been badly bruised.

A book tour that was supposed to have introduced him nationally was marked by missteps that deepened concerns about his readiness for the biggest stage. He took positions on two pressing domestic and international issues abortion and the war in Ukraine that generated second-guessing and backlash among some allies and would-be benefactors. And the moves he has made to appeal to the hard right escalating his feud with Disney, signing a strict six-week abortion ban have unnerved donors who are worried about the general election.

I was in the DeSantis camp, said Andrew Sabin, a metals magnate who gave the Florida governor $50,000 last year. But he started opening his mouth, and a lot of big donors said his views arent tolerable. He specifically cited abortion and Ukraine.

Three billionaires who are major G.O.P. donors Steve Wynn, Ike Perlmutter and Thomas Peterffy, a past DeSantis patron who has publicly soured on him dined recently with Vivek Ramaswamy, the 37-year-old long-shot Republican.

The early months of 2023 have exposed a central challenge for Mr. DeSantis. He needs to stitch together an unwieldy ideological coalition bridging both anti-Trump Republicans and Trump supporters who are nonetheless considering turning the page on the past president. Hitting and hugging Mr. Trump at the same time has bedeviled rivals since Senator Ted Cruz tried to do so in 2016, and Cruz veterans fill key roles in Mr. DeSantiss campaign and his super PAC.

Allies of both leading Republicans caution that its still early.

Mr. DeSantis has more than $100 million stored across various pro-DeSantis accounts. He is building good will with state party leaders by headlining fund-raisers. He remains, in public polls, the most serious rival to Mr. Trump. And a supportive super PAC called Never Back Down is staffing up across more than a dozen states, has already spent more than $10 million on television ads and has peppered early states with direct mail.

DeSantis supporters point to polls showing that the governor remains well-liked by Republicans.

The hits arent working, said Kristin Davison, chief operating officer of Never Back Down. His favorability has not changed.

The DeSantis team declined to provide any comment for this story.

Six months ago, as Republicans were blaming Mr. Trump for the partys 2022 midterm underperformance, a high-flying Mr. DeSantis made the traditional political decision that he would govern first in early 2023 and campaign second. The rush of conservative priorities that Mr. DeSantis has turned into law in Florida on guns, immigration, abortion, school vouchers, opposing China is expected to form the backbone of his campaign.

Now, the governor can create momentum by spending time publicly touting his endless accomplishments, calling supporters and engaging more publicly to push back on the false narratives his potential competitors are spewing, said Nick Iarossi, a lobbyist in Florida and a longtime DeSantis supporter.

A turning point this year for Mr. Trump was his Manhattan indictment, which Mr. DeSantis waffled on responding to as the G.O.P. base rallied to Mr. Trumps defense.

Yet Mr. Trumps compounding legal woes and potential future indictments could eventually have the opposite effect exhausting voters, which is Mr. DeSantiss hope. A jury found Mr. Trump liable this week for sexual abuse and defamation. When you get all these lawsuits coming at you, Mr. DeSantis told one associate recently, its just distracting.

The DeSantis team seemed to buy its own hype.

Days before the midterms, the DeSantis campaign released a video that cast his rise as ordained from on high. On the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, I need a protector, a narrator booms as Mr. DeSantis appears onscreen. So God made a fighter.

For years, the self-confident Mr. DeSantis has relied on his own instincts and the counsel of his wife, Casey DeSantis, who posted the video, to set his political course, according to past aides and current associates. Mr. DeSantis has been written off before in his first primary for governor; in his first congressional primary so both he and his wife have gotten used to tuning out critics.

Today, allies say there are few people around who are willing to tell Mr. DeSantis hes wrong, even in private.

In late 2022, the thinking was that a decision on 2024 could wait, and Mr. Trumps midterm hangover would linger. Mr. DeSantis published a book I was, you know, kind of a hot commodity, he said of writing it that became a best seller. And Mr. DeSantis was on the offensive, tweaking Mr. Trump with a February donor retreat held only miles from Mar-a-Lago that drew Trump contributors.

But it has been Mr. Trump who has consistently one-upped Mr. DeSantis, flying into East Palestine, Ohio, after the rail disaster there, appearing with a larger crowd in the same Iowa city days after Mr. DeSantis and swiping Florida congressional endorsements while Mr. DeSantis traveled to Washington.

One Trump endorser, Representative Lance Gooden of Texas, backed the former president only hours after attending a private group meeting with Mr. DeSantis. In an interview, Mr. Gooden likened Mr. DeSantiss decision to delay entry until after a legislative session to the example of a past Texas governor, Rick Perry, who did the same a decade ago and quickly flamed out of the 2012 contest.

Hes relied, much like Rick Perry did, on local political experts in his home state that just dont know the presidential landscape, Mr. Gooden said.

Mr. Trump has insinuated, without providing evidence, that Mr. DeSantis had inappropriate relationships with high school girls during a stint as a teacher in the early 2000s and that Mr. DeSantis might be gay.

His team has portrayed Mr. DeSantis as socially inept, and a pro-Trump super PAC distributed a video dubbed Pudding Fingers playing off news articles about Mr. DeSantiss uncouth eating habits.

People close to Mr. Trump have been blunt in private discussions that the hits so far are just the start: If Mr. DeSantis ever appears poised to capture the nomination, the former president will do everything he can to tear him apart.

Beginning with his response to the coronavirus outbreak, Mr. DeSantiss national rise has been uniquely powered by his ability to make the right enemies: in academia, in the news media, among liberal activists and at the White House. But Mr. Trumps broadsides and some of his own actions have put Mr. DeSantis crosswise with the right for the first time. It has been a disorienting experience for the DeSantis operation, according to allies.

For the past three years, Mr. DeSantis has had the luxury of completely shutting out what he pejoratively brands the national regime media or the corporate media though Rupert Murdochs Fox Corporation does not, in his view, count as corporate media.

This strategy served Mr. DeSantis well in Florida. But avoiding sit-down interviews with skeptical journalists has left him out of practice as he prepares for the most intense scrutiny of his career.

The Murdochs encapsulated him in a bubble and force-fed him to a conservative audience, said Steve Bannon, a former strategist for Mr. Trump. He hasnt been scuffed up. He hasnt had these questions put in his grill.

Even in friendly settings, Mr. DeSantis has stumbled. In a February interview with The Times of London, a Murdoch property, Mr. DeSantis cut off questions after the reporter pushed him on how he thought President Biden should handle Ukraine differently.

The former Fox News host Tucker Carlson was so irked by Mr. DeSantiss evasion that he sent a detailed questionnaire to potential Republican presidential candidates to force them to state their positions on the war, according to two people familiar with his decision.

In a written response, Mr. DeSantis characterized Russias invasion as a territorial dispute. Republican hawks and some of Mr. DeSantiss top donors were troubled. In public, the governor soon cleaned up his statement to say Russia had not had a right to invade. In private, Mr. DeSantis tried to calm supporters by noting that his statement had not taken a position against aid to Ukraine.

While Mr. DeSantis has stuck to his preferred way of doing things, Mr. Trump has given seats on his plane to reporters from outlets that have published harsh stories about him. And despite having spent years calling CNN fake news, Mr. Trump recently attended a CNN town hall.

DeSantis allies said the governor would begrudgingly bring in some of the national regime media. Some early proof: The governors tight-lipped team invited a Politico columnist to Tallahassee and supplied rare on-the-record access.

Not long after Mr. DeSantis had won in a landslide last fall, the incoming freshman, Representative Cory Mills, a Florida Republican, called the governors team to try to thank him for his support. Mr. Mills had campaigned on the eve of the election with Casey DeSantis and had appeared with the governor, too. I called to show my appreciation and never even got a call back, Mr. Mills said in an interview. To be honest with you, I was a bit insulted by it.

The lack of relationships on Capitol Hill became a public headache in April when Mr. Trump rolled out what eventually became 10 Florida House Republican endorsements during Mr. DeSantiss trip to Washington.

Donors who contributed to Mr. DeSantiss previous campaigns tell stories of meetings in which the candidate looked as though he would rather be anywhere else. He fiddled with his phone, showed no interest in his hosts and escaped as quickly as possible. But people who have recently met with Mr. DeSantis say he has been far more engaged. At recent Wisconsin and New Hampshire events, the governor worked the room as he had rarely done before.

The governor and his team have had internal conversations acknowledging the need for him to engage in the basics of political courtship: small talk, handshaking, eye contact.

For his part, Mr. Trump recently relished hosting the Florida House Republicans who had endorsed him.

On one side of him was Mr. Mills. On the other was Mr. Donalds, who had introduced Mr. DeSantis on election night and who had been in Mr. DeSantiss orbit since helping with debate prep during Mr. DeSantiss 2018 run for governor.

Mr. Donalds declined an interview. But footage of those private debate-prep sessions, first reported by ABC News, shows Mr. DeSantis trying to formulate an answer to a question that will define his imminent 2024 run: how to disagree with Mr. Trump without appearing disagreeable to Trump supporters.

I have to frame it in a way, Mr. DeSantis said then, thats not going to piss off all his voters.

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The 2024 DeSantis Campaign Faltered Before it Even Started. What ... - The New York Times

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It may seem like crackpot Hollywood history, but, as they say, this one is inspired by true events: You can draw a straight line from the last Writers Guild of America strike in 2007 to Donald Trumps presidential election.

Put simply: If theres no WGA strike 15 years ago, Trumps reality TV stardom goes away, and because hes no longer as famous, he doesnt have a base upon which he could run for the nations highest office.

Yes, there are many factors that influence world history, but what is true is that before November 2007, Donald Trump was a fading reality TV star. But the 2007 strike gave new life to his failed The Apprentice series, which NBC had pulled from its schedule after steadily sinking ratings.

The spinoff The Celebrity Apprentice ran for seven seasons, reestablishing Trump not only as a TV celebrity but also leading millions to believe he was a successful and shrewd businessman. Trump rode the show all the way to his famous escalator campaign launch speech. In 2016, he was elected president.

Writers Guild of America members and supporters picket near the Tonight Show with Jay Leno theater at NBC studios in 2008.

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As were currently seeing with todays strike, when the WGA declared its stoppage in 2007, production was immediately hit. Many thought the strike would be brief. It wasnt. After a few months, dozens of shows simply ran out of scripts and couldnt produce new episodes.

Steve Carell, the star of NBCs The Office, refused to cross WGA picket lines, in apparent violation of Screen Actors Guild rules saying actors were obligated to show up to work during a writers strike.

The show had filmed only eight of its 25 planned episodes before the strike; the show that followed The Office on NBCs Thursday night schedule, Scrubs, had completed 11 of 18 planned episodes.

Pretty soon, NBC had a one-hour hole to fill. And it looked in its discards for the answer an answer like reality TV, which is considered unscripted and not covered under the WGA collective bargaining agreement.

Donald Trump, his then girlfriend Melania Knauss, actor Dennis Hopper, publisher Jason Binn and actress Victoria Duffy (L-R) attend a party for "The Apprentice" on Feb. 26, 2004 at Bliss in West Hollywood.

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In the '90s, when Survivor creator Mark Burnett first approached Trump about taking part in a competition show about peoples business acumen, to be called The Apprentice, Trump said reality television "was for the bottom-feeders of society." He later overcame his misgivings, however, and The Apprentice premiered on NBC in January 2004. It was an immediate ratings hit.

That first season attracted more than 20 million viewers, but the audience declined steadily and sharply; by 2007, The Apprentice had lost nearly two-thirds of its viewers. Trump falsely claimed that The Apprentice was still winning its time slot in its sixth season in 2007 (some single years had multiple seasons), but NBC knew the shows popularity had waned.

In May of that year, after seeing that NBC hadnt placed The Apprentice on its fall schedule, Trump told the network he was moving on to another, unnamed TV venture before NBC could cancel the series.

NBC held out hope for another Trump partnership, and no sooner had the network and Trump parted ways that reality television producer Ben Silverman was named co-chairman for NBC Entertainment.

In July, the network, Burnett and Trump announced an Apprentice spin-off was in the works.

In The Hollywood Reporters history of the 2007-08 strike, Silverman said he wasnt sure if Trump would come back.

I came up with the idea of doing Celebrity Apprentice, Silverman said. I reached out to Mark Burnett, who said, Theres no way Donald will want to be around other celebrities. He has to be the biggest celebrity. And I said, Actually, hes going to be the biggest celebrity because hes going to be the boss. I called up Trump and he agreed.

Four months later, the WGA went on strike, chiefly over payments for shows premiering on the Internet.

Donald and Melania Trump arrive at a viewing party for "The Celebrity Apprentice" viewing party on Feb. 7, 2008 in New York City.

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A general view of the atmosphere during the arrivals portion of the Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences' Evening with "The Celebrity Apprentice" on April 26, 2011 in New York City.

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In January 2008, two months into the writers strike, The Celebrity Apprentice premiered on NBC. The ratings were half of what they had been for The Apprentice, but were good enough to keep the show on the air with Trump as its host for seven more years even after the strike ended.

It reinvigorated Trumps career, and made him both richer and even more famous. In its 2020 investigation into Trumps tax records, The New York Times reported that Trump earned some $197 million directly from The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice, along with an additional $230 million [that] flowed from the fame associated with it, including Trumps earning a combined $1 million for touting Double Stuf Oreos and Dominos Pizza.

When he eventually announced that he was running for president, in 2015, the outsider candidate wasnt taken seriously by the political elite. But his name recognition and imperious Youre fired! style largely tied to his reality TV work gave him a huge advantage.

NBC ultimately canceled the show, citing his presidential bid and racist comments he made in his campaign.

In a statement at the time, NBC said: Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBCUniversal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump. At NBC, respect and dignity for all people are cornerstones of our values.

But by then Trump was a household name. He was elected president the next year.

What questions do you have about film, TV, music, or arts and entertainment?

John Horn, entertainment reporter and host of our weekly podcast Retake, explores whether the stories that Hollywood tells about itself really reflect what's going on?

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How The WGA Strike Of 2007 Brought Donald Trump To Power - LAist

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WISH) In an interview with CNN and posted to Twitter on Thursday, Indianas GOP Sen. Todd Young said he will not support Donald Trump in his presidential bid.

Young told CNNs Manu Raju I think President Trumps judgment is wrong. In this case, President Putin and his government have engaged in war crimes. I dont believe thats disputedThats why I dont intend to support him for the Republican nomination.

When asked what was the reason for Young not supporting Trump, Young replied Where do I begin?

In a CNN town hall meeting on Wednesday night, Trump did not express support for Ukraine and would not condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal.

Trump stated I want everybody to stop dying. He also said he didnt think of the conflict in terms of winning and losing.

Young was one of four senators to not support Trump in his 2020 re-election run, and has often been a critic of the former president, including Trumps desire to have former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election.

Young also said he would reserve judgement on the raid of Donald Trumps Mar-A-Lago estate.

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Indiana Senator Todd Young says he will not support Donald Trump - WISH TV Indianapolis, IN

Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is doing something other Republican candidates so far havent: aiming his criticism directly at former President Donald Trump.

Hutchinsons approach to hitting Trump has so far included calling on the former president to drop out of the race, and saying Trump has a moral responsibility for what happened on January 6th.

We do not want to have a repeat of 2020 with a Trump/Biden race, Hutchinson said during an interview Sunday with Meet the Press. We want something different that we can win, and thats the case that we make.

Republican candidates hoping to replace Trump as their partys nominee face the challenge of criticizing him without alienating his supporters. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haleys taken a dig by calling on Republicans to support her if theyre tired of losing, and she attempted to hit two birds with one stone when she floated a mandatory competency test for politicians over the age of 75, which cover both Trump, 76, and Biden, 80.

But Hutchinson, a former U.S. attorney who served in the George W. Bush administration and three terms in the U.S. House, hasnt beat around the bush. Earlier this year, Hutchinson said Trumps actions on Jan. 6, 2021, should disqualify him from seeking the White House, and after a federal jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation Tuesday, Hutchinson said in a statement to the Hill that it was another example of the indefensible behavior of Donald Trump.

Over the course of my over 25 years of experience in the courtroom, I have seen firsthand how a cavalier and arrogant contempt for the rule of law can backfire, he said. The jury verdict should be treated with seriousness.

Hutchinson avoided talking about Trump in his announcement speech and told Meet the Press he wanted to focus on persuading Americans that we need to go a different direction. Polling, however, shows he faces an uphill battle as Trump grows his lead over his nearest potential competitor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. A Washington Post-ABC News poll found Hutchinson trailing behind behind Trump, DeSantis, former President Mike Pence, Haley and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.

Hutchinson said he expects to make it to the debate stage where he could potentially square off against Trump face-to-face. The first Republican debate is scheduled to be held in August in Milwaukee and candidates may need to reach a minimum threshold in polling and donors to be eligible to debate. Trump has not yet committed to attending.

While Republican voters have increasingly rallied behind Trump in recent months, Hutchinson said he believes Trumps record at the ballot box shows his true numbers.

You look back to the true numbers, which is after the last midterm elections, and his numbers were down, Hutchinson told Meet the Press. He was responsible for a lot of the failure in growth that we expected and wins in a number of different states, and so his numbers were down. Since then, his numbers have gone up because hes played the victim.

He said some people believe Trump has been picked on because of some prosecutions and said he jokes that Trumps campaign manager is Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who brought the case that indicted Trump.

That indictment caused those numbers to go up because they dont believe theyre fair, Hutchinson said. This will settle out over time. And so lets judge it, understanding that were early in the campaign. Weve got a lot of, lot of room to grow.

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Asa Hutchinson is taking on Donald Trump directly - Deseret News

Donald Trumps ex-director of strategic communications has revealed that she saw a number of problematic behavior and comments by the former president during his tenure at the White House, largely towards young female staffers. She said she went so far as to report itbut that nothing was ever apparently done about it.

Alyssa Farah Griffin, who is now a co-host of The View but was at the time among the dozen most senior staff in the West Wing, is sharing her experience in the Trump administration in the hopes that it will deter other women from working for the real estate mogul and reality TV star.

Listen, the mans the former commander-in-chief, hes currently far and away the Republican frontrunner for president, and I think the American public needs to know who Donald Trump is, Griffin says.

I saw behavior and engagement with very young junior female staffers from the former president that made me uncomfortable, she adds, alleging Trumps behavior was an open secret, open discussion in the West Wing.

The way I was brought up, the way that Ive behaved professionally is it is my duty to report that. So I took it to my direct report, which was the then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, she added. He seemed very aware of the issue and said he was going to handle it.

Subscribe to The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Overcast.

Griffin says to her knowledge nothing was ever done but that I cant say that definitively.

Its a pattern. It was visible. It didnt take a genius to see it. It was reported, I dont know if it was handled, but this is a man who does not respect women, she continued. Its a man who objectified women.

Weve heard it in his own words countless times. And I thought it was important to state it yet again after the E. Jean Carroll decision, because hes now been found liable by a jury of his peers for predatory behavior. And if I could help protect any woman who might think about working around him, think about being around him, I just wanted to share that.

Plus! The Daily Beast reporters Kelly Weill joins the podcast to discuss the Allen Outlet Mall shooting in Texasand a neo-Nazi diary the gunman kept on a Russian social media site.

If you read this guys writing[he is] very alone, does not seem happy at all, Weill said.

Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.

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Donald Trump's Actions to Young Staff at White House Was an 'Open Secret,' Says Alyssa Farah Griffin - The Daily Beast

It took barely a minute for Donald Trump to say rigged election. From there, he rambled. He ranted. He lied. And he lied some more. And that was the response to the first question of the evening to the first President in American history to refuse to concede his defeat and accept the peaceful transfer of power: Why should Americans put you back in the White House?

The disaster that was the CNN town hall with Trump in New Hampshire on Wednesday night was both predictable and predicted. None of it was a surprise. The Donald Trump running in the 2024 Presidential election is the same Donald Trump he always was, a purveyor of industrial-strength untruths. A demagogue. A hater. The struggle of the interviewer, CNNs Kaitlan Collins, to fact-check his fire hose of falsehoods was painful to watch. The kindest thing to say is that she tried. It is not easy when the former President of the United States is calling you a nasty person in front of a cheering crowd of his voters.

The cheering crowd, in fact, was the tell, the most revealing part of the whole exercise. Trump without the approval of the mob, his mob, would be just another angry old American man, an unwilling Florida retiree shouting at the television after a round of golf. Instead, he still commands his following, which means that he gets to be an angry old man shouting on the television and not merely at it. CNN described the audience on Wednesday night at Saint Anselm College as a collection of Republican and undecided New Hampshire voters who would consider voting Republican in the upcoming G.O.P. primary. But the whoops and cheers for Trump throughout did not convey undecidedness.

The crowd hooted, chuckled, or clapped when Trump called the former Speaker of the House Crazy Nancy and when he insisted that his former Vice-President, Mike Pence, had the power to single-handedly overturn the election results on January 6, 2021. They laughed when he insulted Collins. The more offensive Trumps words, it seemed, the more they cheered. Only a day before the CNN event, a jury in New York had found Trump civilly liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll and awarded her five million dollars in damages. Trumps response was to insult Carroll again on national TV. When he said that he felt sorry for her ex-husband, the audience laughed. When he called her a whack job, they laughed once more. When the show was finally over, the audience offered Trump a standing ovation.

Throughout, Collins struggled, and how could she not, having been assigned a near-impossible task? One revealing moment, among so many, came well into the hour, after Trump interrupted a long, untruthful speech about how he had finished the border wall, which he had not in fact finished, to mention, yet again, the rigged election of 2020. Collins tried once more to interject. The election was not rigged, Mr. President, she said. You cant keep saying that all night long.

But he could, and he did.

The question, of course, was why this was happening in the first placea question that is ever more pressing, considering that Trump is now and will likely remain the front-runner for the Republican nomination to reclaim the office he lost in 2020. One awful hour of television will not resolve the matter. Right up until Trump finally exits public life, whenever that will be, this debate will continue: Should Trump be given a platform to make his attacks on American democracy, and, if so, should you listen? Does the mere fact of his large following in an increasingly radicalized and extremist Republican Party require that news organizations broadcast his views to millions?

In the immediate aftermath of Trumps 2020 defeat, with the memory still fresh of his summoning of a violent horde to the U.S. Capitol to do his bidding, there seemed to be a clear answer. The answer was no. He was kicked off Twitter and Facebook. Even Fox News mostly cancelled him. And yet here we are, little more than two years later. Trump has not changed his views or become any less untruthful, inflammatory, or dangerous. If anything, he has become more extreme, even saying that the Constitution itself should be subject to termination if that is what it takes to reinstate him to power. But the outrage over Trumps post-election offenses turned out to have an expiration date. His banishment, it seems, came with an unspoken codicil: it was contingent on Republicans repudiating him, which they have not done. The polls are almighty; he leads, so he can speak.

Whatever else it was, the Trump show on CNN certainly did remind viewers, all too clearly, of who he is. He repeated a litany of his favored lines from the past, about other countries ripping us off and Antifa ruining American cities and impeachment hoax No. 1. He gleefully slung insults at RINOs and Democrats and Europeans. He said words like horrible a lot. Our country is being destroyed by stupid people, by very stupid people, he said. It was the same garbled nonsense, empty catchphrases, and nasty gibberish so familiar from his four years in the White House. This 2024 Trump still does not speak in coherent sentences, or make arguments. Hes a demagogue. He demagogued.

Aside from the sheer awful spectacle, its hard to say that any actual news came out of the questioning. Nor was it clear what CNN executives expected from a CNN-manufactured event that, as Trump said in a social-media post before it began, appeared to be all about an effort by the network to get those fantastic Trump ratings back! It certainly was not news that a former President who, according to the Post, made more than thirty thousand falsehoods and misleading statements while in office would ceaselessly lie on air. By the time the farce was over, Trump had made false claims about the 2020 election, about supposedly offering the use of ten thousand soldiers on January 6th, about creating the greatest economy in history and the biggest tax cuts ever. He had lied about President Obama taking classified documents when he left office. Among others. No surprise there: a lying liar is going to lie. Trump is nothing if not consistent in that.

He is also a believer in another time-honored technique of the propagandist: repetition. His provocations on Wednesday night were familiar to anyone who has been paying attention. We already knew that Trump does not want Ukraine to win the war, that he will pardon the January 6th insurrectionists, and that he does not want to say where he stands on Republican efforts to further restrict reproductive rights after the Trump-majority Supreme Court threw out Roe v. Wade. Along with expressing a willingness to see the United States default on its debt if Biden does not give in to Republican demands for spending cuts, those were the newsiest things he said, and they were not new. The shocking revelation on Wednesday was not what he said, it was that he was given the platform to say it.

But, as a matter of politics, both Trump and Biden could claim to have benefitted from the evening. No less a Trump cheerleader and frequent media basher than Stephen Miller thanked CNN for giving Trump the airtime. His advisers were said, per the plugged-in reporter Jonathan Swan, to be thrilled. Trump critics also saw some gain for their side from the wretched performance. They imagined all the attack ads that could come out of it, all the fresh material Trump had just provided for those millions who loathe him. With a highly unpopular President of their own who has just announced a relection bid at the age of eighty, Democrats will need to make the race a referendum not on Biden but on Trump. Both parties in this age of polarization have become skilled at ramping up the outrage and anxiety of their voters.

Soon after the town hall was over, Biden tweeted: Its simple, folks. Do you want four more years of that? This, in short, is the 2024 campaign. It is coming fast upon us. Beware.

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Don't Say You Haven't Been Warned About Trump and 2024 - The New Yorker

When former President Donald J. Trump was inveighing against E. Jean Carroll on CNN Wednesday night, at least one person was not watching: Ms. Carroll.

She was asleep and did not learn of his comments calling her claim of a decades-old sexual assault fake and a made-up story until Thursday morning, when her lawyer sent her a transcript, she said.

Its just stupid, its just disgusting, vile, foul, it wounds people, Ms. Carroll said in an interview with The New York Times on Thursday, adding that she had been insulted by better people.

Mr. Trumps comments came just one day after a Manhattan jury awarded Ms. Carroll $5 million in damages and found him liable for sexually abusing her in the mid-1990s in a department store dressing room and also for defaming her on his Truth Social platform.

Mr. Trump, in response to questions from the CNN moderator about the Manhattan jurys verdict Tuesday, called Ms. Carroll a wack job and said her civil trial was a rigged deal. The audience had been drawn primarily from Republican groups, and his comments drew applause and laughter.

Ms. Carroll said she was infuriated when her longtime stylist told her on Thursday morning that the stylists 15-year-old son was talking about what Mr. Trump had said on television Wednesday.

I am upset on the behalf of young men in America, Ms. Carroll said. They cannot listen to this balderdash and this old-timey view of women, which is a cave man view.

Ms. Carroll, 79, is now weighing whether to file a new defamation lawsuit against Mr. Trump, said her lawyer, Roberta A. Kaplan. In addition to the case that ended Tuesday, Ms. Carroll has an earlier defamation suit against Mr. Trump, 76, that is still pending. Mr. Trump has argued in that case that he cannot be sued because he made those comments in his official capacity as president.

Ms. Carroll made it clear in the interview that despite Mr. Trumps mockery, she saw the jurys verdict this week as validating her account that he sexually assaulted her in the mid-1990s, something he has denied repeatedly and loudly.

Im thrilled that we won, she said. Thats it. He did it. He knows he did it.

Mr. Trumps lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, filed a notice of appeal for Mr. Trump on Thursday.

In the wide-ranging interview, Ms. Carroll, accompanied by her lawyers, addressed why she believes the jury found Mr. Trump liable for sexually abusing her but not for raping her, as she had long claimed; how she felt being aggressively cross-examined by Mr. Tacopina; why she did not scream when Mr. Trump assaulted her; and the rituals she and her lawyers performed each day of the two-week trial.

She made it clear that she respected the jurors six men and three women who were kept anonymous by the judge and who, she said, remained an enigma to her.

It was like Saturday Night Mystery Theater every time they walked in, Ms. Carroll said. I studied their faces and they were absolutely deadpan like nine statues. She added: Never cracked a smile, never lifted an eyebrow, never batted a left eyelash.

It was those jurors who parsed the evidence and testimony by Ms. Carroll and 10 other witnesses called on her behalf before rendering a verdict in less than three hours.

Ms. Carroll, in the interview, blamed herself for their decision to find Mr. Trump liable for sexually abusing her but not for rape.

I didnt make myself clear when I was testifying, Ms. Carroll said.

Under New York law, according to Ms. Carrolls lawyer, Ms. Kaplan, penetration by the penis must occur for there to be a rape. Ms. Carroll had testified that after Mr. Trump led her into the Bergdorfs lingerie department and into a dressing room, he shoved her against a wall and inserted his fingers and then his penis into her vagina.

I couldnt see anything that was happening, Ms. Carroll had told the jury. But I could certainly feel it. I could certainly feel that pain in the finger jamming up.

In the interview Thursday, Ms. Carroll noted that she had twice been married, and she said, I know what a penis feels like, and he did insert his penis.

Mr. Trump has not only denied any assault, he has claimed he was never even at Bergdorfs, did not know Ms. Carroll and has said he would not have raped her in any case, because she was not his type.

By its verdict, the jury indicated it believed Ms. Carroll. Michael Ferrara, another of Ms. Carrolls lawyers, noted in the interview that the jurors handling of the case showed that the process was not rigged.

If they were out to just get Donald Trump, why not check the rape box? Mr. Ferrara said. They didnt do that because they actually considered the evidence.

Ms. Carroll delivered visceral testimony, telling the jury of the attack in every grim particular and that it had ended her romantic life.

Then, she was cross-examined by Mr. Tacopina for almost two days. She described in the interview how her lawyers prepared her to be questioned by Mr. Tacopina, who is known for his charm but also for his aggressiveness: They told me he would pull out all stops.

By the time I was sitting down, I was braced up. If you notice, I always wore a tight-fitting jacket just to keep myself together, you know, as sort of a little bit of armor against Joe Tacopina.

Mr. Tacopina pressed her repeatedly about why she had not screamed during the assault. She told him that she was in too much of a panic and had been fighting. After more back and forth, she declared, Im telling you, he raped me, whether I screamed or not.

In the interview, Ms. Carroll recalled the exchange. This is not the 16th century, she said. I was almost embarrassed for him. Just embarrassed. How dare he?

To malign a woman for not screaming is preposterous, she said.

Mr. Tacopina, reached Friday, said, that as a father of two daughters, I would never suggest there is an appropriate way to respond when you are a true rape victim. The issue is obviously I didnt view Ms. Carroll as a true rape victim, nor did the jury.

He added, The only reason I questioned her about her not screaming is because she gave four different reasons why she didnt scream.

During the trial, Ms. Carroll said, she tried to stay off social media. At night, she said, she was in bed by 7, and each morning, her stylist visited and prayed with her, even though Ms. Carroll said she is not a religious person.

That became the ritual, Ms. Carroll said.

Ms. Carroll said that after the verdict, she returned to Ms. Kaplans office. Wine was flowing.

There was such joy, Ms. Carroll said. We almost floated to the top of the ceiling.

Ms. Kaplan, her lawyer, said Thursday that a decision would be made soon on whether Ms. Carroll will file another defamation suit in light of Mr. Trumps comments on CNN.

Everythings on the table, obviously, and we have to give serious consideration to it, Ms. Kaplan said.

As for Ms. Carroll, she said she feels ready to move forward in her personal life perhaps even dating again.

I wasnt having romance, and I was aware something was desperately wrong, Ms. Carroll said.

She had testified at the trial that she long had blamed herself for flirting with Mr. Trump after their chance encounter at Bergdorfs and allowing him to lead her to the lingerie section and into the dressing room, where he attacked her.

With her lawsuit over and Mr. Trump held accountable, Ms. Carroll said she was open again to exploring that part of her life.

Lets see if I can do it," she said.

She paused briefly.

Yes, Im going to do it, Im going to do it, so watch out.

Excerpt from:

E. Jean Carroll May Sue Trump a Third Time After 'Vile' Comments on CNN - The New York Times

The Justice Department is seeking to stop a deposition with Donald Trump this month in lawsuits filed by two former FBI officials who have been frequent targets of criticism by the former president.

In a redacted court filing Thursday, Justice Department attorneys said Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar authorized an appeal to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C., unless a lower court judge reconsiders an earlier ruling allowing Trumps deposition to take place before a deposition with FBI Director Christopher Wray.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled in February that Trump and Wray could be deposed in the lawsuits, which Peter StrzokandLisa Page brought against the Justice Department and the FBI in 2019.

Justice Department attorneys said in Thursday's filing that they just recently learned that Trump's deposition has been scheduled for May 24, before any deposition for Wray.

Contrary to the request of the United States, Mr. Strzok seeks to depose former President Trump before Director Wray, thereby making it impossible to determine if the Directors deposition might obviate the need to depose the former President, Justice Department attorneys wrote in a 10-page motion to block Trump's deposition.

They asked the appeals court to resolve the matter by Tuesday.

Lawyers for Strzok declined to comment. Attorneys for Page and Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In a court filing in March, the Justice Department said Trump has not requested an assertion of privilege over any of the information within the scope of the authorized depositions.

Jackson's ruling in February said the Trump and Wray depositions must be limited to two hours and to a narrow set of topics that were discussed at a sealed hearing.

Trump frequently targeted Strzok and Page during his presidency. They made headlines in December 2017 when it was announced that they had been removed from then-special counsel Robert Muellers investigation over text messages that disparaged Trump.

Pages lawsuit alleges privacy violations and Strzoks alleges wrongful termination, with both citing the release of text messages.

Page, who resigned as the FBIs counsel in May 2018, had argued in her lawsuitthat thetext messagesshe exchanged with Strzok were unlawfully released and that attacks by Trumpand his allies had damaged her reputation.

Strzok's lawyers are seeking Trump's deposition to determine whether he met with and directly pressured FBI and Justice Department officials to fire Strzok or directed any White House staff members to do so.

If the deposition moves ahead as planned, it would come on the heels of a finding by a federal jury in New York that Trump is liable for sexual abuse and defamation in a lawsuit filed by writer E. Jean Carroll. Trump has indicated he will appeal the verdict.

He also faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments from 2016. Trump pleaded not guilty last month to all charges.

Zo Richards

Zo Richards is the evening politics reporter for NBC News.

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DOJ seeks to prevent Trump deposition in Strzok and Page lawsuits - NBC News