Category Archives: Donald Trump

Scott Olson/Getty Images Former President Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally at the I-80 Speedway on May 01, 2022 in Greenwood, Nebraska.

A video of a pro-Trump "prophet" saying that Democrats are going to die and be arrested has begun to circulate on social media.

Pastor Julie Green, who was previously a part of the far-right Christian nationalist ReAwaken America Tour, made the claim in a video she made last week.

Green, who claims her prophecies come directly from God, made the video on February 2, 2023.

The video has since begun circulating on Twitter after being shared by commentator Ron Filipkowski. The video has so far been viewed more than 70,000 times since being posted early Friday morning.

He captioned the video "Trump-loving 'prophet' Julie [Gren] says God told her a bunch of Democrats are going to be arrested."

In the clip she said: "You are about to see many people in leadership step away.

"You will see them step down, you will see them completely walk away, you will see them resign and you will see many die.

"These are days of great judgment the Earth has never seen.

"I made sure to destroy their Gods before their face but now you will see me judge.

"Now you will see judgments be poured out like never before. You will see things in front of your face, you never thought you would see.

"You will see many be hauled out of places in government buildings. You will see them be handcuffed and walked out.

"You will see them being marched out because I will make sure he world sees them fall."

Green has made bold political statement in the past. Following the loss suffered by many MAGA candidates during the midterm elections she claimed that "we are at war."

During an interview in November 2022 with General Mike Flynn, who served as Donald Trump's national security adviser, Green spoke about the ongoing conflict in politics.

She said: "One of the things that we do have to know is that we are in war, and we're in a different war than World War I or World War II. We're in a different war.

"This is a war for the soul of this nation. This is a war for basically the soul of human beings in general."

Green continued that authorities, without naming anyone specifically, want to create a "one-world government" and "put things underneath our skin" to track people.

"There's lots of people who are giving up on this country because of what they just saw for two elections in a row. It's not over.

"And I don't want anybody to think it's over, but it is going to look a little bit differently," she said. "The lord's been saying that it's going to look a little bit worse before it gets better."

Newsweek has contacted Julie Green for comment.

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Donald Trump Prophet Predicts Death of Democrats: 'You Will See Many Die'

With his November announcement that he would seek the 2024 Republican nomination for president, Donald Trump joined a rarified subsection of a rarified group: a former president who sought a return to the White House.

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

With this, former President Gerald Ford announced in March 1980 that he would not make a late entrance into the Republican presidential nomination race after long teasing a potential bid. For decades, this marked the nearest any former president had come to seeking a return to the White House in the modern political era until former President Donald Trump announced his presidential bid in November.

Trumps comeback campaign is unprecedented since the contemporary nomination system took shape in the 1970s. Yet in the broader history of presidential elections, his comeback effort is unusual but not unheard of. Former presidents like Martin Van Buren, Ulysses Grant, Grover Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt each mounted serious post-presidency campaigns to return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue between 1844 and 1912. In fact, five former presidents have won at least some delegates at major-party national conventions, as the table below shows.

Former presidents who won delegate support at a major partys national convention

Largest delegate percentage reflects the largest number of delegate votes won by the former president on a ballot for the presidential nomination, out of the total number of delegate votes at the convention.

*Van Buren earned a majority of the delegate vote on the first ballot at the 1844 Democratic National Convention, but the party required a candidate win two-thirds of the vote to win the nomination at conventions from 1832 to 1932.

The share of delegates that Roosevelt won does not include the approximately three-fourths of Roosevelt-supporting delegates who voted present, not voting on the decisive first ballot, in protest of anti-Roosevelt developments at the 1912 Republican National Convention.

Sources: Brookings Institution, Congressional Quarterly

The American political system has changed enough, at a structural level, that Trump cant expect to retread the paths that any of these men took. And why would he want to? Only one of them successfully made it back to the White House. Still, the broad circumstances surrounding a trio of presidential comeback attempts offer three paths for Trumps 2024 campaign. Like Grant in 1880, Trump could attract ample support for his partys nomination but ultimately fall short after a majority of Republicans coalesce around an opponent. Alternatively, after seeking his partys nomination, Trump could abandon the GOP and launch a third-party bid, as Roosevelt did in 1912. Or Trump could win his partys nomination, as Cleveland did in 1892 and maybe even reclaim the White House.

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If Trump could choose to be in the same shoes as anyone come January 2025, itd be those of Grover Cleveland, the only person ever elected to two nonconsecutive terms as president. Cleveland won the presidency in 1884, lost reelection in 1888, then won back the White House in 1892. Its very hard to say how likely Trump is to win the GOP nomination at this early vantage point, but compared with Cleveland, Trump could have much greater trouble coalescing support from across different factions of his party.

Clevelands comeback developed thanks to a vindication of his views on economic policies. Cleveland, a conservative Democrat, narrowly lost reelection to Republican Benjamin Harrison in 1888 partly because of his support for lower tariff rates, which Republicans criticized. Two years later, though, Democrats won massive majorities in the House after slamming the excesses of the Billion Dollar Congress and connecting rising prices to higher tariffs. Buoyed by the role his core issues played in the 1890 midterm campaign, Cleveland began a comeback bid. His main rival for the Democratic nomination would be Sen. David Hill, a fellow New Yorker who embraced a more pro-silver, inflationary approach to monetary policy a key divide within the party whereas Cleveland opposed weakening gold as the prime guarantor of the dollars value.

But Clevelands profile as a reformer in an era of graft and machine politics also contrasted sharply with Hill, whose reputation as a machine politician loomed as a potential weakness with general-election voters. By the time of the June national convention, Cleveland had become the front-runner, and on the conventions first ballot, he won enough to surpass the two-thirds share necessary to win the nomination. Cleveland went on to defeat Harrison in a rematch of the previous general election, albeit with just 46 percent of the national popular vote, as Harrison led a divided GOP hed struggled to win renomination and third-party efforts by the Populist and Prohibition parties combined to win 11 percent, somewhat scrambling the electoral map.

Jason Koerner / Getty Images for DNC

Clevelands successful comeback offers a precedent and hope for Trumps 2024 campaign. One broad similarity between the two is that Trump, like Cleveland, has remained his partys most high-profile leader after losing a close presidential election. Trumps reshaping of the GOP may not win him the 2024 Republican nomination but its certainly not to the detriment of his candidacy. Under and since Trumps presidency, the Republican Partys congressional membership has changed substantially, and its members are more aligned with Trumps style of politics. Similarly, more than half of the Republican National Committees membership has changed since Trump won the GOP nod in 2016, thanks to an exodus of old-school establishment Republicans. Among the broader electorate, a tad less than 40 percent of Republicans have told The Economist/YouGov in most recent surveys that they identify as a MAGA Republican, compared with a little more than 45 percent who didnt. While larger, that latter group may still embrace some of Trumps anti-establishment and combative approach that other Republicans have used to great effect.

However, Trump and Cleveland do differ in some critical respects. For one thing, Clevelands standing ahead of the 1892 election improved after his partys showing in the 1890 midterms; by contrast, Trumps image has taken a hit in the wake of the GOPs underwhelming performance in the 2022 midterms highlighted by the defeat of many Trump-endorsed candidates in key Senate races. Additionally, concerns about Hills electability in the general election also helped Cleveland build widespread support even among pro-silver southern and western Democrats but Trump might suffer because of worries about his general-election chances. Recent polls suggest another Republican, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, might be a stronger general-election contender against President Biden; although the value of such polls this far from November 2024 is highly suspect, donors and party activists are certainly looking at them.

At the same time, Trump has something going for him that Cleveland didnt: the primary process. Trump doesnt necessarily need to even win electoral majorities in presidential primaries to win a majority of his partys delegates. In 2016, the GOPs preference for primaries and caucuses that were winner-take-all or at least winner-take-most helped Trump win the Republican nomination even though he won only pluralities of the vote in most contests against a crowded field of opponents. We might be headed for a sequel if a sizable number of candidates decide to run in the 2024 Republican contest.

Charles Phelps Cushing / ClassicStock / Getty Images

It is entirely possible, on the other hand, that a majority or larger plurality of Republicans will coalesce around one of Trumps opponents, an outcome that would broadly parallel Ulysses Grants failed bid for the GOP nomination in 1880. Given the two politicians factional support and critics concerns about electability, it is the Grant comparison that arguably looms largest for Trump among those were examining here.

The preeminent hero of the Civil War, Grant left the White House in 1877 after serving two terms. But his image had suffered from his administrations myriad corruption scandals as well as his association with the turbulent Reconstruction era and a deep economic depression. Grants successor, Republican Rutherford Hayes, didnt seek reelection, and favorable press coverage of Grants two-year world tour resuscitated his profile as the 1880 election neared. Grant had support from a faction of the GOP led by a group of political bosses, but he also faced substantial opposition within a party that had lost its once-dominant position following the Civil War. Many Republicans worried that he would struggle to unify the GOP, given his administrations scandals and the fractures that had developed within the party during his presidency.

Like Grant, Trump remains relatively popular among those in his party: His favorability among Republicans sits in the low 70s in Civiqss tracking poll, while only around 15 percent have an unfavorable view of him. While hes lost ground in recent national primary polls, Trump still leads DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence Trumps most-polled potential opponents with a plurality across most surveys. And again like Grant, Trump also has received some early backing from Republican officials in Congress and around the country, a departure from Trumps first run back in 2016.

But one potentially critical difference is that Trump could benefit from his partys delegate rules just as he did winning pluralities in the 2016 primaries whereas Grant ended up losing in part because a pivotal rules decision went against him. At the 1880 Republican National Convention, the anti-Grant faction which was larger than the pro-Grant group defeated implementation of the unit rule, which wouldve required delegates to vote for the candidate preferred by most of their states delegation. Grants backers had supported the proposal, which wouldve been analogous to a winner-take-all primary in some delegate-rich states where Grant had the most support, putting him close to the majority necessary for the nomination.

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And unlike in modern times, the classic convention setting also gave Grants opponents a chance to find an alternative choice even one who wasnt actively seeking the presidency. After 35 ballots, as no candidate managed to overtake Grant, some delegates began turning to Ohio Rep. James Garfield, who had earlier made a strong impression when he gave a nominating speech for another candidate. Sensing things were turning toward Garfield and wanting to avoid Grants nomination at all costs, Grants main opponents called for their delegates to back Garfield on the 36th ballot. As the vote came down, Grant again captured more than 300 votes, but Garfield won 399, a majority that earned him the partys nomination and blocked Grants comeback.

However, as with Grant, many current Republican leaders, donors and voters would like to turn the page on the Trump era in the face of the former presidents struggles in the 2022 midterms, as well as legal proceedings concerning his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, his business interests, his personal life and his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Similarly, a majority of Republicans could rally around a Trump alternative, such as DeSantis, whose strengthening poll numbers, support from party leaders and plaudits from conservative media could make him the most likely preference for Trump opponents.

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Last and definitely least likely, Trump could leave the Republican primary race and run as a third-party candidate in 2024. Such a move would undoubtedly bring to mind comparisons with another former president who opted to run outside the two-party system after losing his partys nomination: Teddy Roosevelt, whose unsuccessful run in 1912 remains the strongest performance by a third-party presidential candidate in U.S. history.

Roosevelt became president following the assassination of William McKinley in 1901, and then won four more years in 1904. But having promised not to run again, Roosevelt positioned his handpicked successor, William Howard Taft, to win the Republican nomination and the presidency in 1908. Out of office, however, Roosevelt became frustrated with Tafts more conservative governing approach, and the Republican Partys divisions and losses in the 1910 midterms created space for a Taft opponent one Roosevelt filled when he decided to challenge Taft in the 1912 Republican nomination race.

Leemage / Corbis via Getty Images

The ensuing campaign broke new ground as some states (13 in all) would select most of their convention delegates via a presidential primary. Roosevelt had previously expressed skepticism toward primaries, but he embraced the popular movement to create direct primaries and encouraged many states to implement them as it became apparent they were the only way he could gain more delegates than Taft, whose allies controlled the party machinery in states where delegates would be picked by local and state conventions. In an unprecedented, popular campaign for president, Roosevelt ended up dominating at the ballot box: He won the popular vote in nine of the 12 primaries that had results, garnering 52 percent to Tafts 34 percent overall. However, heading into the 1912 GOP convention, Roosevelts primary success couldnt win the nomination on its own: Only about 2 in 5 Republican delegates came from the primary states (in 2016, that figure was about 4 in 5). Tafts allies also controlled the convention committees, including the credentials committee, which backed the Taft-supporting delegates on most of the numerous credentials challenges that had resulted from the contentious campaign. Taft narrowly won the nomination on the first ballot, so Roosevelts campaign decided to implement the third-party option.

Third-party bids usually struggle, but Roosevelts Progressive Party often called the Bull Moose Party had both serious financial support and proof of popular support demonstrated by his showing in the GOP primaries. In November, Roosevelt went on to win 27 percent of the popular vote to Tafts 23 percent. But because Roosevelt and Taft largely split the Republican vote, Democrat Woodrow Wilson easily won the presidency with just 42 percent.

Third-party candidates for president who won at least 5 percent of the national popular vote, 1832 to present

Source: Dave Leips Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections

As with Cleveland and Grant, the political circumstances surrounding Trump and Roosevelt differ on many fronts. For one thing, in the 2024 campaign, Trump wont face an incumbent from his own party like Roosevelt did. Trump will also have far more access than Roosevelt to winning support through primaries, as those contests determined only a minority of delegates at the 1912 GOP convention. But if Trump were to actually pursue a third-party bid, hed likely have to make that choice much earlier in 2024 than Roosevelt had to in 1912, thanks to more rigorous and time-sensitive requirements for qualifying for the general-election ballot across the 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

But while the idea of a Trump third-party bid is unlikely, we cant completely laugh it off. After all, he has repeatedly raised the prospect himself, most recently in late December when he shared on his social media platform an article from a pro-Trump website advocating such a move. This is in keeping with a long-running pattern: Following the 2020 election, Trump talked of a new Patriot Party or MAGA Party, and during the 2016 cycle, Trump complained of being treated unfairly by the GOP hierarchy and suggested he might attempt an independent bid. Although this has perhaps been a bargaining tactic a split GOP vote would all but guarantee victory for Democrats its also true that a Trump third-party bid could win a significant number of votes. More plainly, Trump has often claimed that political opponents are conspiring against him. Roosevelt may have had more cause for such feelings in the face of Tafts control of the convention in 1912, but Roosevelt famously summed up his new partys platform as thou shalt not steal.

Todays presidential primary is night and day from the smoke-filled rooms and convention politics that decided the nominations 100-plus years ago. However, one thing remains true: The rules of the nomination, and how campaigns respond to them, matter. Cleveland won because he managed to unify the party sufficiently including support from those who disagreed with him on silver to win the two-thirds majority required by the Democrats. Grant failed in large part because his campaign couldnt outplay the anti-Grant faction to enact the unit rule. And while Roosevelt won smashing victories in the primaries, that wasnt the main mode of delegate selection yet, and his campaigns inability to make sufficient inroads in caucus-convention states cost him the nomination. For Trump in 2024, the partys delegate rules necessitate winning (at least) pluralities in primaries in the early and middle part of the nomination calendar to build up a delegate lead and to push out rivals. He did it once before it remains to be seen whether the GOPs anti-Trump forces can outmaneuver him this time around.

Story editing by Maya Sweedler. Copy editing by Andrew Mangan. Photo research by Emily Scherer.

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How Donald Trumps Unusual Presidential Comeback Could Go

Running for president is a very expensive venture, and thats something Donald Trump is finding out very quickly as his 2024 campaign kicked off to a lackluster start. In order to stay ahead of the pack (even if youre the only one in the Republican race right now), you need a lot of money in the coffers and currently, the former presidents financial situation isnt so hot.

Donald Trump raised around $9.5 million after announcing his third bid for president in mid-November, according to NBC News, who obtained his fundraising figures. He announced his campaign just after the midterm elections which might have seemed like a sound strategy but after a disappointing GOP outcome, it turned out to be bad timing. Now, its time for Donald Trump to catch up, especially with other Republican Party contenders likely to enter the race soon.

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The former president is considered to be the king of small-dollar donors because his supporters may not be high rollers, but they donate what they can frequently. And thats why Donald Trumps expected return to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter will be essential to his campaign. Almost 50% of Republican donors log in to Facebook every single day, Republican fundraiser Eric Wilson, who is not working with the former president, told NBC News. So if you are not able to reach those donors, youre just at a huge fundraising disadvantage.

Donald Trump is going to have to make some big moves soon, and with a lukewarm response during his South Carolina and New Hampshire appearances, he has a lot of ground to cover. Once other Republican contenders enter the race, everyone is going to be fighting over those donors for money.

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Donald Trump Is Reportedly Strapped for Campaign Cash as ...

1. Video of Trump deposition in New York fraud probe shows former president taking the Fifth, repeating "same answer"  CBS News
2. Video shows Donald Trump give deposition ahead of $250 million lawsuit  ABC News
3. NY attorney general asks judge to sanction Trumps and their attorneys  CNN

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Video of Trump deposition in New York fraud probe shows former president taking the Fifth, repeating "same answer" - CBS News

1. DeSantis responds to Trump criticism, says 'verdict has been rendered by' Florida voters  Fox News
2. 'Disappointing': GOP governor reacts to Trump's campaign speech  CNN
3. Trump-DeSantis rivalry approaches boiling point  The Hill

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DeSantis responds to Trump criticism, says 'verdict has been rendered by' Florida voters - Fox News

Meta to restore Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram

Meta is expected to lift former President Trump's Facebook and Instagram ban as he gears up for a 2024 presidential run.

Claire Hardwick, USA TODAY

COLUMBIA, S.C.Donald Trump resumed public campaigning Saturday with renewed attacks on long-standing targets: President Joe Biden, the 2020 election, federal and state prosecutors, and a lengthening list of Republican opponents.

We will do it again, Trump told supporters while introducing his South Carolina Leadership Team during an event at the statehouse in downtown Columbia, capping a day-long trip that also took him to New Hampshire; both states hold early primaries in the 2024 presidential election.

In an earlier speech to members of the New Hampshire Republican Party, Trump said: So, we're here and we start, we begin.

The trip comesafter more than two months of political turmoil for Trump following his mid-November announcement of a 2024 campaign. A rising number of Republicans say the former president cannot win next year and the party should look for another standard-bearer.

"We just want the best normal candidate," New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu told NBC News in the days before Trump's visit.

Among Trump's themes on a renewed campaign:

In rambling speeches in both South Carolina and New Hampshire that bounced rapidly from topic to topic,Trump berated Biden and other Democrats as "radical leftists who have pursued bad policies.

The Trump rollout:Donald Trump plans campaign stops targeting Republican opponents and prosecutors

Polls, polls, polls:Trump trails DeSantis in possible 2024 matchup in New Hampshire, which holds first primary

Trump criticized the presidentover border security, military aid to Ukraine,election rules, drug trafficking, education, energy,military policy and son Hunter Biden's business practices.

While bemoaning Biden's presidency, the ex-president again made false claims about the administration of the 2020 election, despite a lack of proof about systematic voter fraud.

Biden and his allies say they aren't worried about the prospect of running again against Trump, noting that they defeated him in 2020.

Democrats mocked Trumps events. South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Trav Robertson, Jr., noting that former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolinaand maybe Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., might challenge Trump, said his state is sure to be ground zero for MAGA Republicans race for the MAGA base as they push for increasingly extreme abortion bans and tax giveaways to their special interest donors.

As some Republicans wonder if Trump will soon be campaigning while under criminal indictment, Trump has braced supporters by claiming that law enforcement officials are biased against him.

Prosecutors in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., are investigating Trump over efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden, activities that led to the attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2021. Yet another investigation involves Trump's handling of classified material.

On that last item,Trump noted to supporters in his Saturday speeches that Biden recently turned over classified documents improperly in his possession.

One difference betweenthe cases: Trump has been accused of obstruction of justice over refusing to turn over documents to the National Archives. That refusal led to the highly publicized search of his Mar-a-Lago home in South Florida, anothersubject of Trump's stump speeches in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

All those investigations:Jan. 6 Capitol attack 2 years later: Trump still plagued by multiple investigations

The Atlanta case:Decisions in Trump Georgia election probe are 'imminent', but no report yet: Takeaways

Prominent Republicans are considering runs against Trump, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Trump's former vice president Mike Pence.Other potential Trump opponents reside in the states he visited Saturday: Haley and current New Hampshire governor Sununu.

Trump did not single out any potential challengers during his speeches, but he did denigrate the Republican field as a whole. Noting that no other Republican challenged him in 2020, Trump said in New Hampshire that "I don't think we have competition this time either, to be honest."

With primaries still a year away, polls are all over the place on Trump and his place in the Republican Party.

A few days before Trump's trip to New Hampshire, a University of New Hampshire poll showed him trailing DeSantis by double digits, 42% to 30%.

Meanwhile, aNew Hampshire Journal/Coefficient poll gave Trump a 37%-26% lead over the Florida governor. The same poll also said that, asked to pick between Trump and "someone else," 43% went with the ex-president while 42% went with the alternative.

The day-long trip to two early-primary states comes more than two months after Trump announced his 2024 presidential campaign.

Those two months have also featured a bevyof political problems.

Some Republicans blamed Trump for the party's disappointing showing in the 2022 congressional elections, including a failure to win control of the U.S. Senate. Other Republicans citethe many criminal investigations hovering around the former president.

Trump also took heat over a November dinner he hosted featuring anti-Semitic rapper Ye and white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

Trump has yet to schedule one of the mass political rallies that fueled his presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020.

On Saturday, he went for more traditional types of campaigning with the keynote address at the winter meeting of the New Hampshire Republican Party and the event at the statehouse in Columbia, S.C.

Discussing rallies during the New Hampshire event, Trump told supporters:"We're going to do them soon."

Katon Dawson, a former South Carolina Republican Party chairman, said party members in his state are looking for alternatives to Trump.Many hope that Haley jumps into the race.

"They think it's time for the next generation to step up," said Dawson, who did not attend the Trump event.

Dawson said Trump will still be a formidable candidate in 2024. The ex-president will likely retain a strong base of support that could add up to 35%-36% of the vote, enough to win a primary with four or five more candidates who could split up the anti-Trump vote.

"As there are no runoffs in presidential primaries, all Trump needs is a crowded primary in the first ten states," Dawson said.

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Donald Trump hits campaign trail in New Hampshire, South Carolina

Former president Donald Trump hit the campaign trail on Saturday for the first time since announcing his bid to run for the White House in 2024.

He visited New Hampshire and South Carolina, brushing off criticism that his run was off to a slow start.

"I'm more angry now and I'm more committed now than I ever was," he told a small crowd at the New Hampshire Republican Party's annual meeting in Salem, before heading to South Carolina.

There, Trump spoke to about 200 people in the state's capitol building in Columbiain stark contrast to the large rallies in front of thousands of supporters that he often holds.

With Governor Henry McMaster and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina flanking him, Trump said "we have huge rallies planned, bigger than ever before."

His speech saw him go from criticizing President Joe Biden to railing against transgender rights and mocking the the use of electric stoves and electric cars.

Here, Newsweek rounds up some key moments from Trump's remarks in South Carolina.

Referencing the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Trump said Biden had brought the world to the brink of a third world war.

"Through weakness and incompetence, Joe Biden has brought us to the brink of World War III," he said. "We're at the brink of World War III, just in case anybody doesn't know it. As president, I will bring back peace through strength."

During his speech, Trump suggested Biden should acknowledge that his son, Hunter, was "not working out well."

House Republicans have begun a probe into the business dealings of the president's son after winning control of the lower chamber.

"At some point doesn't Biden have to say this son thing is not working out well?" Trump said. "You guys are great politicians, at some point don't you sort of say like this whole deal with the son, with Hunter, it's not working out great. Not working out great."

Trump railed against transgender rights and the teaching of critical race theory, an academic concept that centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation's institutions that has sparked school board protests and classroom bans in some states.

"We're going to stop the left-wing radical racists and perverts who are trying to indoctrinate our youth, and we're going to get their Marxist hands off of our children," Trump said.

"We're going to defeat the cult of gender ideology and reaffirm that God created two genders: men and women. We're not going to allow men to play women's sports."

Trump also criticized the FBI raid at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida and the investigation into classified documents found there. It comes as classified materials have also been found at the residences of President Joe Biden and former vice president Mike Pence.

"We're going to stop the appalling weaponization of our justice system," he said. "There's never been a justice system like this. It's all investigation, investigation. I've been going through it for seven years."

Trump mocked those promoting the use of electric stoves and electric cars, calling it "ridiculous."

"They want mandatory stoves. They want mandatory electric cars," he said.

"The cars go for like two hours. What are you going to do? Everyone's going to be sitting on the highway. We're all going to be looking for a little plug-in. Does anybody have a plug-in? My car just stopped. I've been driving for an hour and 51 minutes. It's ridiculous."

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Key Moments From Donald Trump's South Carolina Rally

Something you may have picked up on by now is that Donald Trump is a bad man whose elevation to the presidency was a net negative for society. Obviously, the examples supporting this claim could literally fill several hundred books, but today, lets focus on one in particular: the absolutely callous regard he showed for human life while breaking multiple records for federal executions.

While we already knew the statsthe Trump administration executed more people than any administration in 120 years, oversaw a federal government that executed more Americans in a one-year period than every state combined, and was the first administration since the 1880s to put people to death during a lame-duck periodnew reporting from Rolling Stone reveals how little the act of ending 13 lives weighed on him, if it weighed on him at all.

According to the outlet, about a year after signing a bipartisan criminal-reform bill, Trump started telling advisers that carrying out capital punishment would insulate him from criticism that he was soft on crime, according to sources familiar with the matter. His attorney general, Bill Barr, was all too happy to oblige, and in July 2019, ordered the Federal Bureau of Prisons to resume executions after a 17-year hiatus. But while taking a human life, even one that may have committed terrible acts in the past, might have kept another president up at night, it appears that Trump barely gave it a thought, beyond what he thought the executions could do for him politically.

Per Rolling Stone:

The sum total of his discussions of the death penalty with his top law enforcement officer, Barr says, was a single, offhand conversation. After an unrelated White House meeting, Barr was preparing to leave the Oval Office when, he says, he gave Trump a heads-up that we would be resuming the death penalty.

Trumps lack of interest in the details had grave repercussions for the people whose fates were in his hands. According to multiple sources inside the administration, Trump completely disregarded the advice of the Office of the Pardon Attorney, an administrative body designed to administer impartial pleas for clemency in death penalty cases and other, lower-level offenses. And Barr says he does not recall discussing any of the 13 inmates who were eventually killed with the president who sent them to the death chamber.

As reporters Asawin Suebsaeng and Patrick Reis write, That means Trump never talked with Barr about Lisa Montgomery, a deeply mentally ill and traumatized person who became thefirst woman executed by the federal government since 1953. Montgomerywho committed an unspeakable act when she arranged a meeting with a dog breeder and then straggled, stabbed, and cut the fetus out of the dead womans womb and attempted to pass it off as her ownwas reportedly raped weekly by her stepfather by the age of 11, raped by her stepfathers friends, and raped by her stepbrother. In exchange for services like free plumbing, her mother would allow men to sexually assault her. The stepfather is said to have severely beaten her and caused traumatic brain injuries; per Rolling Stone, Montgomery was diagnosed with, among other conditions, post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative disorder. MRIs revealed significant brain damage from the childhood beatings, and psychiatrist and University of Pennsylvania professor Ruben Gur said the physical and mental trauma she endured resulted in her brain being neither structurally nor functionally sound. According to Rolling Stone, Its unclear whether Trump ever read the petition her attorneys wrote asking to delay the execution; one of her lawyers told the outlet she is not convinced that Montgomery fully understood that she was about to die.

Then there was the case of Brandon Bernard, whod been sentenced to death for his role, at the age of 18, in the carjacking and murder of a young couple, Todd and Stacie Bagley. Bernard was not the gang member who shot and killed the Bagleys, but he lit the the car that they were in on fire. More than 10 years after his trial, Bernards appellate lawyers argued that the prosecution had withheld key evidence showing that he was not the ringleader of the group but a confused teenager following instructions from his place in the gangs lowest tier, per Rolling Stone. One member of the prosecution team wrote an op-ed saying Bernard did not deserve the death penalty. More than half of the jury members whod sentenced him who were still alive publicly stated that he should be spared. According to Rolling Stone, while recommendations made by the Justice Departments pardon attorney office are not made public, days after it met with Bernards attorneys in 2020, several sources told Bernards team that the attorney had recommended Trump commute the death sentence to life in prison.

It gave us hope, says Stacey Brownstein, who served as an investigator on Bernards defense. It felt for a moment that things were breaking our way.

In another administration, that might have been enough to save Bernards life. But in Trumps world, it barely registered.

In the remaining days of the administration, Barr scheduled a string of back-to-back executions, to squeeze in as many as possible before Biden moved into the White House, with three occurring in Trumps penultimate week in office. These inmates were being exterminated, Kelley Henry, an attorney for Montgomery, told Rolling Stone. When you see the government flex its power that waywith the cold, callous machinery of deathits truly appalling. She added: The administration just didnt care.

Meanwhile, Trump was commuting sentences and issuing pardons for the convicted criminals whod worked on his campaign and for his son-in-laws father, among others.

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Report: Donald Trumps Record-Setting Executions Were Even More ...

Former President Donald Trump plunged back into campaign mode Saturday to kick off his 2024 White House bid, stumping in New Hampshire and South Carolina where he slung insults at Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

The 76-year-old ex-commander in chief called a potential presidential run by his GOP rival a great act of disloyalty.

Trump also took credit for the 44-year-old DeSantis initial election, insisting his political life was over.

If he runs, thats fine. Im way up in the polls, Trump told The Associated Press after his South Carolina speech.

Hes going to have to do what he wants to do, but he may run. I do think it would be a great act of disloyalty because, you know, I got him in. He had no chance. His political life was over.

Appearing first in New Hampshire, Trump told the audience of Republican party leaders that he is more angry at the direction of the country now and more committed to taking back the top job than he ever was.

The former president also took aim at his successor, President Joe Biden.

What a pigsty that place was, right? he said of the garage whereclassified documents from Bidens vice presidency were foundthis month.

He needled Biden for themassive corruptionseen on Hunter Bidens laptopbefore a small crowd of 413 party officials at Salem High School in Salem during the state GOPs annual meeting.

We have a president whose sons laptop from hell exposesmassive corruption, Trump said in the 55-minute speech.

Do you think the father was upset? Trump asked in an aside. Whats on it,son? Every crime that youve ever committed, pop.

The former president said helaunched his third White House run to confront the colossal disasters that Joe Biden is leaving in his wake.

What theyre doing is poisoning our country,he said, citingsuch ills aslax border security, a wokemilitarythatcantfight orwin,and radical left-wing prosecutorswho refuse to put criminals in jail.

Im the only one they go after,he complained,citingtheFBI raid of Mar-a-Lagoand thetax-fraud chargesagainst the Trump Organization. Nobody gets prosecuted,they go after me.

At his second campaign appearance in Columbia, South Carolina, Trump was endorsed by some of the states top Republicans, including Gov. Henry McMaster and Sen. Lindsey Graham.

There are no Trump policies without Donald Trump, Graham said, taking a veiled shot at the GOP primary challengers waiting in the wings.

You can talk about his policies, but you cannot do what he did.

Trumps 40-minute speech focused not only on the border and the troubled economy, but on hot-button social issues as well.

Were going to stop the left-wing radical racists and perverts who are trying to indoctrinate our youth and were going to get their Marxist hands off of our children, he said, promising to cut federal funding to schools that push far-left content in the classroom.

He also pledged to defeat the cult of gender ideology, adding, Were not going to allow men to play in womens sports its ridiculous.

Since declaring in November his plans to run for a second non-consecutive term, Trump has stuck to video-released policy statements rather than his raucous trademark rallies to win back the loyalty of Republicans disillusioned by his bombastic style and his fixation on his 2020 loss to President Biden.

The campaign stops came two days after the respected Granite State poll found Trump trailing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by 12 points among New Hampshire Republicans even though the former president remains the GOPs only announced presidential candidate.

The poll, conducted by the University of New Hampshire, found DeSantis was the choice of 42% of likely GOP primary voters, with Trump at 30% a difference well outside the samples 5.2% margin of error.

The states first-in-the-nation primary status makes it crucial to Trumps nomination chances. But his popularity there crumbled during his presidency: he lost New Hampshire to Joe Biden by 7 points in 2020, after coming within a single point of beating Hillary Clinton there in 2016.

A host of big-name Republicans, including former veep Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, and others are widely expected to challenge Trump for the GOP nomination although recent national polls show all of them in the single digits, far behind both DeSantis and Trump in a hypothetical 2024 presidential primary.

An Emerson College poll this week gave Trump a narrow 44% to 41% lead over Biden in a hypothetical 2024 election, while a Biden-DeSantis race would be a toss-up: 40% for the incumbent president, 39% for the Republican rival.

Continued here:

Donald Trump opens 2024 run in New Hampshire, South Carolina

If Donald Trumps activity on his Truth Social account is a reliable indicator of what his return to Facebook and Instagram will unleash, then Nick Clegg is going to be busy.

The former US president has used his rightwing social media platform to push baseless claims of election fraud and amplified content related to the QAnon conspiracy multiverse. These were two issues that received a special mention from Clegg, the former British deputy prime minister turned president of global affairs at Meta, Facebook and Instagrams parent, as he explained the decision to end Trumps two-year exile on Wednesday.

Clegg, who presided over the Trump reinstatement process, said content that deligitimises an upcoming election or is related to QAnon could be blocked from appearing in other peoples feeds or have the reshare button removed.

He said such content did not violate Metas community standards or content guidelines but could increase the risk of a repeat of the Capitol riot that got Trump banned in the first place. According to US campaign group Media Matters, nearly half of the posts on Trumps Truth Social account in the weeks after the US midterm elections pushed election fraud claims or amplified QAnon accounts or content.

If Trump continues in that vein on Facebook and Instagram, then he will immediately hit the guardrails that Clegg outlined in his post.

Metas founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, recently described his job as a series of body blows: Its almost like everyday you wake up and youre punched in the stomach. The reappearance of Trump will almost certainly result in further pressure on his solar plexus, judging by reaction overnight. Campaign groups warned it would be inflammatory, with the Anti-Defamation League saying Meta had chosen to platform bigotry and divisiveness and that the decision isnt a matter of free speech. If Zuckerberg and Clegg had kept the ban in place, anger from the right of the political spectrum would have been equally loud, of course.

But Clegg was clear that free speech was at the forefront of the decision, saying the public should be able to hear what their politicians are saying including a candidate for office such as Trump. This reflects Zuckerbergs belief that Meta is a champion of free expression. Clegg reiterated that in his blogpost on Wednesday, using the opening sentence to state: Social media is rooted in the belief that open debate and the free flow of ideas are important values.

The measures outlined by Clegg to limit the threat from content that veers towards the risk of real-world harm are largely already in place. These include a repeat offender policy that applies to public figures who have been banned but then allowed to return: if Trump posts further violating content it will be removed and he could be suspended for between one month and two years. The guidelines on restricting election falsehood and QAnon content are an update on the repeat offender policy.

That balance between free speech and real-world harm, and the strength of that repeat offender policy, will be tested when Trump comes back. Although Trump has yet to tweet following his reinstatement to Twitter, he has made clear that he wants to get back on Facebook. In a letter to Meta this month his advisers said the ban dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse and should be rescinded.

That argument about distorting and inhibiting the public realm, where everyone has a right to feel safe, would be of interest to Ruby Freeman. The former Georgia election worker was subjected to a deluge of intimidation, harassment, and threats and was forced to leave her home after Freeman and her daughter were falsely accused of involvement in falsifying ballots in the 2020 presidential election.

Alex Hern's weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives

In a Truth Social post this month, Trump wrote: What will the Great State of Georgia do with the Ruby Freeman MESS? Why not just tell the TRUTH, get rid of the turmoil and guilt, and take our Country back from the evils and treachery of the Radical Left monsters who want to see America die?

Metas community standards on bullying and harassment prohibit calling for, or making statements of intent to engage in, bullying and/or harassment. If Trump repeats his Truth Social posts on Facebook and Instagram, another ban or at least pressure to impose one looms.

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Donald Trumps Truth Social posts bode ill for his return to Facebook ...