Category Archives: Donald Trump

Donald Trump was the 45th president of the United States.Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Getty Images

Donald Trump was the first billionaire to enter the White House when he became the 45th President.

Forbes estimates he is worth $3 billion, with a property empire including Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

Other assets he controls include hotels, office buildings, and golf courses.

Donald Trump went from real-estate magnate to reality-TV star to being elected the 45th president of the United States.

Worth $3 billion, according to a Forbes tally of all the assets Trump owns, he is the first billionaire to enter the White House.

Trump's fortune mainly stems from his property-and-hospitality businesses.

On Wednesday New York's attorney general filed a sweeping civil suit against Trump, his business, and his three eldest children. Letitia James said Trump "falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars" and "repeatedly and persistently manipulated the value of assets to induce banks to lend money to the Trump Organization."

Here's what Trump's portfolio of golf courses, luxury cars, hotels, yachts, a vineyard, and aircraft looks like.

Katie CanalesandKatie Warrencontributed reporting to a previous version of this article.

Donald Trump, 76, is worth an estimated $3 billion, according to Forbes, after falling by $1 billion during the pandemic. His holdings include several golf courses, hotels, luxury cars, yachts, a vineyard, planes, and helicopters.

James Devaney/GC Images

The former president's fortune peaked in 2016, when he was worth an estimated $4.5 billion.

His wealth is centered around his commercial-real-estate holdings, which were worth an estimated $1.9 billion before the COVID-19 pandemic and after deducting debt, per Forbes.

While running for the presidency, Trump spent $66 million of his own money to help fund his campaign, according to campaign-finance disclosures examined by Reuters.

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Trump was the first billionaire to become a US president and donated his annual salary of $400,000.

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Trump's New York City properties account for more than $1 billion of his net worth, per Forbes.

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Getty Images

Revenue sources include licensing, branding, golf resorts, and the Central Park ice-skating rink.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Source: Business Insider

The Trump Tower penthouse was the 45th president's main residence before moving to Washington, DC. It is valued at $50 million, according to Forbes.

Reuters / Eduardo Munoz

Source: Forbes

Trump companies own at least 14 properties in New York City, including, from left to right, Trump World Tower and Trump Tower. Forbes estimated his NYC portfolio to be worth $960 million.

Getty Images

Source: The Trump Organization, Forbes

Trump owns properties in Palm Beach, Florida, including Trump Grande, Trump Tower Sunny Isles, and Trump Hollywood, according to the Trump Organization's website. They are worth an estimated $25 million,according to Forbes.

Bing Maps

Source: Forbes

Forbes estimated that Trump Organization-owned Mar-a-Lago was worth $350 million. The President has used the private-members' club as his main residence since leaving the White House.

Steve Helber/AP

Sources: Business Insider, Forbes

Trump also owns an estate on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin called Le Chteau des Palmiers. It's on the market for $15.5 million.

Shutterstock

Sources: Business Insider, Sotheby's

The former president also owns residential properties in New Jersey, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, and Nevada, as well as Europe, Asia, and South America.

Jose More/Getty Images

Source: The Trump Organization

Trump's assets also include hotels in Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, Virginia, and New York, as well as Ireland and Scotland.

Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Source: The Trump Organization

Trump owns 19 golf courses and played golf almost 300 times during his presidency, according to the website Trump Golf Count.

AP Photo/Seth Wenig

Source: Trump Golf Count, GAO

Aside from his real-estate portfolio, Trump has a penchant for aircraft and luxury cars. He owns five aircraft and a variety of cars, from a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud to a Mercedes-Benz 3600, according to The Washington Post.

Trump's Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud.Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Source: The Washington Post

Trump also bought his wife Melania Trump a $455,000 SLR McLaren, the Washington Post reported.

Bryan Mitchell/Getty Images

Source: The Washington Post

Trump bought his Boeing 727 nicknamed "Trump Force One" during his 2016 election campaign from billionaire Paul Allen in 2010 for $100 million. The aircraft costs thousands of dollars an hour to fly, per The New York Times.

Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

Source: New York Times

Trump also has a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter that costs between $5 million and $7 million.

Scott Halleran/Getty Images

Source: Wired

In 2013, Trump spent $60,000 to buy a portrait of himself by the artist William Quigley. In 2019, Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, accused him of paying for it with money from the Donald J. Trump Foundation charity.

Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images; AP Photo/Jonathan Carroll, FIle

Sources: Haute Living, The Art Newspaper

Trump owns a copy of "GOAT," a book about the boxer Muhammed Ali, that is worth an estimated $15,000. Just 1,000 copies were printed, with each one signed by Ali.

Photo by Getty Images

Sources: Daily Mail, Maxim

In 2017 Trump spent $70,000 on hairstylists, according to The New York Times expenses he claimed as a tax deduction.

Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Sources: New York Times

Trump's suits are mostly made by the Italian label Brioni, a spokesperson told The New York Times, and cost between $6,000 and $17,000.

STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images

Sources: New York Times, Insider

Another expense for Trump is sending his son Barron to the Oxbridge Academy, a private school in Palm Beach close to Mar-a-Lago that charges $35,000 a year for tuition.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Sources: The Palm Beach Post, Oxbridge Academy

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Donald Trump is worth billions here's how the former president has spent his cash - Yahoo Finance

9:15 p.m.: Trump addresses the crowd

Former President Donald Trump spoke for about 90 minutes in Wilmington Friday night, wrapping up around 9:15 p.m.

Trump spoke on a number of issues, including border security, the Jan. 6 insurrection investigation and the 2020 election results.

He also addressed North Carolina issues, criticizing Gov. Roy Cooper for vetoing a bill that would require sheriffs to obtain immigration status of jail inmates. He also called Cheri Beasley, Ted Budds opponent in the race for US Senate, a Marxist, radical leftist.

He encouraged the crowd to vote for Budd, who promised to uphold North Carolina values, and other Republican congressional candidates like Sandy Smith and Russell Fry.

-- Sydney Hoover

More from Trump's speech:Thousands show up to support former President Trump, NC congressional candidates

Former President Donald Trump has taken the stage in Wilmington to speak before a crowd of thousands of supporters. Trump came to Wilmington Friday to share his support for US Senate candidate Ted Budd.

The 45thPresident of the United States was greeted with cheers and a standing ovation as he took the stage. Some began chanting We want Trump! USA! and Lets go Brandon!

Its good to be back in the beautiful state of North Carolina, Trump told the crowd.

He immediately went into his hope that the midterm election unseats many radical left politicians, particularly Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

If you want the decline and fall of America, then you should vote for the crazy, radical left Democrats, he said, saying Republicans will save the American dream.

We'll have full coverage of Trump's remarks once he concludes.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people began steadily streaming out of the rally, just 15 minutes after Trump took the stage.

Trump was 45 minutes late -- his typical fashion, according to Ryan Cooper, frequent rally participant and vendor. Cooper said the exodus is also typical, as many attendees have been at the rally for hours.

After getting a glimpse of the former president, many in the crowd were satisfied, ready to beat the impending traffic and watch the rest of his speech from home. Cooper rushed back to his vending booth, hoping to get rid of the rest of my stuff.

Cooper said he was selling T-shirts, hats and pins, as hes done seven other rallies in the last two election cycles.

-- Sydney Hoover, John Orona, Jamey Cross

Former President Donald Trump's plane landed at the Wilmington airport around 7 p.m. As of 7:30 p.m., he had not taken the stage yet.

The crowd of thousands was chanting: "Let's go Brandon!" and "We want Trump!"

Trump is in Wilmington for a Save America that also featured other politicians, including Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and U.S. Senate candidate Ted Budd.

Ted Budd, a Republican running for US Senate, took the stage a little before 5:30 p.m. to a cheering crowd. Budd has been endorsed by Trump in his race against Democrat Cheri Beasley.

Im running because of everything Joe Biden has done and the policies that have made your life worse, Budd told the crowd after taking the stage a little before 5:30 p.m.

Budd told the crowd he would vote to get food and energy prices under control, to finish that wall and fully fund the border patrol, and to give parents more authority in their students schooling. He said Beasley would be a rubber stamp for President Joe Bidens agenda.

I will always vote to make life better for you and your families, Budd said.

-- Sydney Hoover

Shortly after 6 p.m., most event goers had filed into the rally, with a few hanging back waiting for Trump to take the podium.

Perusing the Trump related merchandise on offer all along the road leading to the rally, friends Cathy Amour and Isabelle Myers lamented the country's trajectory post-Trump presidency.

"The talk has changed since he left," Amour, 66, said. "The discourse has just gotten a lot meaner."

While economic issues were their main concerns politically, more importantly, they both felt that the country better united and more God-centered under Trump.

-- John Orona, Jamey Cross

As 4 p.m. passed and the event officially began inside, outside vendors felt the day calm.

Dawn Kenny traveled from her home state of South Carolina Friday to sell merchandise at the rally.

Commuting to Trump rallies across the nation has been part of Kennys life since Trumps first campaign for president in 2016.

Kenny said the day had proven calmer in comparison to some of Trumps other rallies in various states, and her printed T-shirts, sweatshirts and selection of bags were selling slowly.

Her best seller a black T-shirt with Raise Lions Not Sheep printed in white ink proved popular among the Wilmington crowd. She said the inspiration came from another shirt boasting Lion, Not Sheep.

I took that as the individual wearing the shirt, but thought we need to raise our children up into lions as well, so I added that, she said.

Tennessee native Phil Colwell rolled a blue cart filled with hats down the strip lined with other venders. He was selling them for $5.

No one was selling more than another Friday, he said.

If its got his name on it, itll sell, he said.

Meanwhile, Vachery Hopkins said he's has followed Donald Trump around the country since 2016.

The Lexington resident started by selling buttons, shirts and other Trump paraphernalia and now rents folding chairs to rallygoers who sometimes wait hours in line before events.

Hopkins, a Black man, said Trump supporters never gave him grief even at the more chaotic rallies.

"It was only people against Trump who would say, 'What are you doing here? Why are you supporting him?'"

After the rally, he and other vendors will move on to Michigan.

-- John Orona, Jamey Cross

Past visits:Trump's past Wilmington visits: From viral news clips to 'the proudest day of my life'

More:Ahead of Donald Trump's visit, Democratic candidates, supporters protest in Wilmington

Hundreds of rallygoers began shuffling into the Aero Center shortly after 3 p.m.

Some, like Mike Reed and Amber Blue, had already waited for hours but were happy to stay to show their support.

The engaged couple traveled from the Fayetteville area to see former President Trump and N.C. Lt. Governor Mark Robinson.

Reed, 46, said he supports Trump for his policies like lowering taxes, but more than anything else trusts him to "not take anything from anyone."

Blue, 45, said the couple weren't politically active before Trump came to power, and aren't particularly interested in the candidates he's endorsing.

"We like to think for ourselves," Reed said. "He's endorsed people before and gone back."

-- John Orona, Jamey Cross

Gary Lewis' political awakening began in 2009, shortly after the housing market crash.

He built homes in the Southport area for most of his life, but suddenly found it hard to make a living during the downturn.

"I never went to college," Lewis, 44, said. "I thought I'd always be able to support my family building homes; everyone needs a home."

Since then he started paying closer attention to politics and the economy. Following the crash, he became a Tabor City police officer and loyal Republican.

Between mini doughnut bites, he described the issues that brought him to the rally: immigration, sex trafficking, qualified immunity, and making Democrats angry.

Lewis said Trump's visit to Wilmington is important because it gives hope to people like him, who for so long felt they didn't have a voice in politics.

"He's the only politician to tell the truth," Lewis said. "The rest are hypocrites."

-- John Orona, Jamey Cross

Edward Young has big expectations for the moment Donald Trump takes the stage in Wilmington Friday night.

My expectations are that something big is going to happen, he said. Its not just going to be the same old rally.

Thats one reason Young drove 12 hours through the night to get to Wilmington from his home in Point Pleasant, N.J. He wanted to be in the front row for his 55th Trump rally, he said.

What to know:From tickets to security, what to know ahead of Donald Trumps visit to Wilmington

Young said hes supported Trump since he announced his run for president. He volunteered for Trumps campaign in the early days for his presidential bid and attended his first rally at Trump Tower, he said.

The crowd gathering around 1 p.m. looked light, Young said, compared to the number of people Trump has drawn during his campaign and presidency.

Young, who said he works in finance and acts on the weekends, said he was drawn to the show Trump puts on during his rallies.

There has never ever, ever been a political candidate like this and nobodys going to follow this act, he said. Donald Trump is our first rock star, superhero president.

But hes still anticipating Trumps announcement of his presidential run in the 2024 election.

Were all waiting with baited breathto hear him say, I am running, he said.

Just before 11 a.m. Friday, Linda Knight sat in a lawn chair outside a motorhome with the words Trump Girls printed on its windshield. Knight is one of several women who travelled to Wilmington Thursday from the Myrtle Beach area to attend Fridays Donald Trump rally.

The motorhome, which is decorated with stars and stripes, is owned by Robin Holley. Holley, who lives in Georgetown, S.C., formed a group called Im a Trump girl shortly after Trump announced his first presidential bid because everyone said that women didnt like Trump. The Facebook group now has more than 30,000 members, Holley said.

I wanted to do everything I could to support him, she said.

The interior of the motorhome, too, is decked out with Trump memorabilia from rally buttons, photos of Trump and pictures of the groups members. A framed painting at the front of the bus even appears to show the former president walking on water.

Both Holley and Knight said Trump is more than another candidate to them.

The first time I shook his hand, there was something so spiritual that went from my toes to the top of my head, Holley said. Im not saying hes God, but I think what he did for our country, our United States of America, was fabulous.

Knight said she considers Trump a friend even though shes never met him personally. At Fridays rally, the Trump Girls will be sitting within feet of Trump, Holley said. They have VIP tickets and plan to sit just a few rows behind him during the speech.

Were all excited, just waiting, Knight said.

As people started filing into a holding area outside the Aero Center around 9:30 a.m. Friday, the grassy field took on a festival-like atmosphere as oldies, classic country and show tunes blared and food vendors set up shop.

Outside the holding area, Colleen Funston, Vicki Wescott and Angela Robinson stood watching rally-goers enter.

This will be the second Trump rally Funston, a small business owner from Shallotte, has attended in Wilmington. Her first was Trumps 2020 speech from Battleship North Carolina.

Funston said shes a long-time supporter of Trump and believes in what he stands for, including efforts to put America first.

Trump is an American citizen who wants to do right by our country, Funston said. People want to make it seem like were all cultist and stuff and were not cultist.

If you look around, people here are good, decent hard-working people, she added. Thats what I expect from a Trump rally.

Wescott of Bolivia said shes looking forward to Friday nights rally. For her, its a first.

Im hysterically excited about being here, she said. I watch all the rallies usually online.

Robinson, a small business owner from Bolivia, said she supported Trump to make a better world for her children and her grandchildren.

If we dont stop whats going on now you all dont have a chance, she said.

More than 10 hours before former president Donald Trump was set to take the stage at Wilmingtons Aero Center, a line more than 50 people deep had formed to get into the venue.

Meanwhile, vendors walked up and down the strip of road that served as the events main staging area.

Jonas Williams had traveled to Wilmington from his home in Greensboro to sell hats of all kinds embroidered with Trumps name. Williams said hes been selling Trump merchandise since he came down that elevator to announce his first presidential bid.

He said he follows Trump across the country, selling merchandise at his rallies.

Elsewhere on the grounds, a man dressed as Uncle Sam rode a motorized hoverboard in the staging area while waving a large flag adorned with Trumps face and the words Trumps front row Joes.

Trump is scheduled to appear to campaign for U.S. Senate candidate Ted Budd. Alongside Trump and Budd, other Republicans are scheduled to speak.

Doors are scheduled to open at 2 p.m. as entertainment begins at the Aero Center. At 4, guest speakers will deliver remarks, such as local U.S. Representative David Rouzer and Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson.

Trump is then set to speak at 7.

StarNews will cover the event live throughout the day and have updates here.

Link:

Live updates from Donald Trump's visit to Wilmington - StarNewsOnline.com

This article was originally published on June 21, 2022.

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

What Happened: In a June appearance onLate Late Show With James Corden, former President Bill Clinton was a featured guest.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Bill Clinton Takes A Shot At Donald Trump: Here's What He Said - Paramount Global (NASDAQ:PARA) - Benzinga

Donald Trumps legal perils have become insurmountable and could snuff out the former US presidents hopes of an election-winning comeback, according to political analysts and legal experts.

On Wednesday, Trump and three of his adult children were accused of lying to tax collectors, lenders and insurers in a staggering fraud scheme that routinely misstated the value of his properties to enrich themselves.

The civil lawsuit, filed by New Yorks attorney general, came as the FBI investigates Trumps holding of sensitive government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and a special grand jury in Georgia considers whether he and others attempted to influence state election officials after his defeat there by Joe Biden.

The former US president has repeatedly hinted that he intends to run for the White House again in 2024. But the cascade of criminal, civil and congressional investigations could yet derail that bid.

Hes done, said Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University, in Washington, who has accurately predicted every presidential election since 1984. Hes got too many burdens, too much baggage to be able to run again even presuming he escapes jail, he escapes bankruptcy. Im not sure hes going to escape jail.

After a three-year investigation, Letitia James, the New York attorney general, alleged that Trump provided fraudulent statements of his net worth and false asset valuations to obtain and satisfy loans, get insurance benefits and pay lower taxes. Offspring Don Jr, Ivanka and Eric were also named as defendants.

At a press conference, James riffed on the title of Trumps 1987 memoir and business how-to book, The Art of the Deal.

This investigation revealed that Donald Trump engaged in years of illegal conduct to inflate his net worth, to deceive banks and the people of the great state of New York. Claiming you have money that you do not have does not amount to the art of the deal. Its the art of the steal, she said.

Her office requested that the former president pay at least $250m in penalties and that his family be banned from running businesses in the state.

James cannot bring criminal charges against Trump in this civil investigation but she said she was referring allegations of criminal fraud to federal prosecutors in Manhattan as well as the Internal Revenue Service.

Trump repeated his go-to defence that the suit is another witch hunt against him and again referred to James, who is Black, as racist, via his Truth Social platform, also calling her a fraud who campaigned on a get Trump platform, despite the fact that the city is one of the crime and murder disasters of the world under her watch!

But critics said the suit strikes at the heart of Trumps self-portrayal as a successful property developer who made billions, hosted the reality TV show The Apprentice and promised to apply that business acumen to the presidency.

Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard University, noted that the civil component involves things of particular significance to Trump and his family and his organisation, namely their ability to defraud the public, to defraud banks, to defraud insurance companies, and to continue to subsist through corruption. Without all of that corruption, the entire Trump empire is involved in something like meltdown.

Tribe added: Trump is probably more concerned with things of this kind than he is with having to wear an orange jumpsuit and maybe answer a criminal indictment As a practical matter, this is probably going to cause more sleepless nights for Mr Trump than almost anything else.

No previous former president has faced investigations so numerous and so serious. Last month FBI agents searched Mar-a-Lago and seized official documents marked Top Secret, Secret and Confidential. Trump faces possible indictment for violating the Espionage Act, obstruction of a federal investigation or mishandling sensitive government records.

As so often during his business career, Trump sought to throw sand in the legal gears. He bought time by persuading a court to appoint a judge, Raymond Dearie, as a special master to review the documents. But so far Dearie appears to be far from a yes-man. On Tuesday he warned Trumps lawyers: My view is you cant have your cake and eat it too.

Start the day with the top stories from the US, plus the days must-reads from across the Guardian

The ex-president also faces a state grand jury investigation in Georgia over efforts to subvert that states election result in 2020.

The justice department is investigating his role in the deadly January 6 attack on the US Capitol by a mob of his supporters intent on preventing the certification of Bidens election victory. Its efforts have been boosted by the parallel investigation by a House of Representatives committee, whose hearings are set to resume next week.

In addition, the Trump Organization which manages hotels, golf courses and other properties around the world is set to go on trial next month in a criminal case alleging that it schemed to give untaxed perks to senior executives, including its longtime finance chief Allen Weisselberg, who alone took more than $1.7m in extras.

In a further setback on Wednesday, arguably Trumps worst-ever day of legal defeats, a federal appeals court permitted the justice department to resume its review of classified records seized from Mar-a-Lago as part of its criminal investigation.

The former president, meanwhile, insisted that he did nothing wrong in retaining the documents. There doesnt have to be a process, as I understand it, he told the Fox News host Sean Hannity. If youre the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying: Its declassified.

Even by thinking about it, because youre sending it to Mar-a-Lago or to wherever youre sending it ... There can be a process, but there doesnt have to be.

Despite it all, Trump has been laying the groundwork for a potential comeback campaign and has accused Bidens administration of targeting him to undermine his political prospects.

Asked by a conservative radio host what would happen if he was indicted over the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, Trump replied: I think youd have problems in this country the likes of which perhaps weve never seen before. I dont think the people of the United States would stand for it.

Kurt Bardella, an adviser to the Democratic National Committee, said: If the best defence you have for your conduct is: if you hold me accountable, there will be violence, that sounds like someone who has no business being either in public service or being outside of jail.

Bardella expressed hope that, at long last, Trump would be held to account. Everything about Donald Trump has always been about the grift. Its always been about the con. And now his unmasking is at hand.

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Hes done: how Donald Trumps legal woes have just gotten a lot worse - The Guardian US

Deference to the Constitution, as Trumps depredations make plain, is the indispensable foundation of American democracy. But deference is different than reverence. Constitution Day of 2022 arrived with more reasons to be frustrated by the defects of our national charter than at any time in generations.

The occasion underlined two related Trump-era paradoxes that likely will shape our politics long after Trumps shadow lifts.

First, Trump is properly seen as a constitutional menace, but from a progressive perspective many of the most offensive features of his tenure were not in defiance of the Constitution. Instead, they flowed directly from its most problematic provisions. He was in office in the first place because the presidency is chosen by the Electoral College rather than by the popular vote. His influence will live for decades because partisan manipulation of the Senates judicial confirmation power gave him three Supreme Court justices, who have no term limits and face no practical mechanisms of accountability. Like some other presidents, but more so, he used the Constitutions absolute pardon power for nakedly self-interested reasons. In short, Trump may be an enemy of the Constitution but he is also the president who most zealously exploited its defects.

That leads to the second paradox. Anyone who is not a Trump backer properly bemoans the breakdown in constitutional consensus that allows his supporters to tolerate or celebrate his election denialism, in addition to other efforts to insulate himself from rule of law. Long-term, however, the more bracing challenge to constitutional consensus is likely to come from the left, from believers in activist government.

Correcting or circumventing what progressives reasonably perceive as the infirmities of the Constitution, in fact, seems likely to be the preeminent liberal objective of the next generation. Progress on issues ranging from climate change to ensuring that technology giants act in the public interest will hinge on creating a new constitutional consensus. Trying to place more sympathetic justices on the Supreme Court is not likely to be a fully adequate remedy. There are more fundamental challenges embedded in the document itself in particular the outsized power it gives to states, at a time when the most urgent problems and most credible remedies are national in character.

To be clear, there is much that is wondrous and enduring in the Constitution. The things that are weak could be corrected by amendments that would easily draw majority support from a national electorate. In addition to the list above altering or abolishing the Electoral College, term limits for the Court, creating some check on abuse of the pardon authority there are other obvious targets. A constitutional renovation would clean up the infuriatingly murky language of the Second Amendment to make clear if effective gun control is allowed if the guns have nothing do with a well-regulated militia.

Here, though, is where the breakdown in constitutional consensus becomes potentially climactic as it did during the Civil War, and threatened to in the New Deal. Popular majority or no, most of those amendments would be opposed by conservatives which under the terms of the existing Constitution means they likely would not pass. It takes three quarters of the states to approve an amendment, a provision that gives many small, conservative states wildly disproportionate power over the fate of the nation.

This is hardly a new problem, but it is one that threatens to reach a breaking point. The political scientist Norman Ornstein has popularized an arresting statistic, one that is validated by demographic experts. By 2040, 70 percent of Americans will live in just 15 states. That means 30 percent of the population coming from places that are less diverse and more conservative will choose 70 senators. Already each senator from Wyoming, the least populous state, exercises his power on behalf of less than 600,000 people, while each senator from California, the most populous, represents nearly 40 million. This distortion of democracy, already hard to defend, could become the defining feature of national life.

This distortion, far more than Trumps vandalism, is the most likely the source of a true constitutional crisis in the years ahead.

But isnt this exactly what the Founders had in mind, with their conviction that the country was a union of states that retained ample sovereignty? One answer is that the current conflicts plaguing U.S. democracy may not be at all what they wished for. The great concern of the framers was creating a system of government with the capacity for self-critique and self-correction. Several features of the Constitution now interfere with that capacity.

Another answer, however, is: Who cares what they thought then? The Constitution was written at a time when states were indeed foundational a central part of peoples identity and way of life. This has not been true for nearly a century, as both national government and national identity have become stronger. States are still essential administrative units. But the rural conservative voter in California which had more Trump voters than any state, even as he lost it by nearly 30 points has more in common politically with a rural conservative from South Dakota than either have with urban progressives in New York or San Francisco.

The most effective leaders have not cleaved to constitutional understandings that have been overtaken by new moral imperatives. Abraham Lincoln used the exigencies of war to eradicate slavery, even as slavery until that time had been regarded as a protected constitutional right. By general law life and limb must be protected; yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely given to save a limb, Lincoln wrote in a famous letter. I felt that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful, by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the constitution, through the preservation of the nation.

So what will happen this time, when amending the Constitution seems improbable but living indefinitely with outdated provisions seems intolerable?

History suggests multiple possibilities. A decisive conflict is one answer the reason talk of a new Civil War is increasingly common. Harvard Law professor Noah Feldman (who gave his Constitution Day speech this year at Brigham Young University) wrote in last years The Broken Constitution: Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America that Lincoln did not so much save the Constitution as something more dramatic and more extreme: the frank breaking and frank remaking of the entire order of union, rights, constitution, and liberty.

But there are other ways short of violent rupture to survive those moments, as now, when the Constitution no longer reflects the imperatives of the moment. One of those ways is when artful improvisation creates a new consensus. The Supreme Court struck down much of FDRs initial program, but the New Deals core assumption that we live in a national economy with a robust and responsive national government prevailed, helped along by a dramatically new understanding of the interstate commerce clause. Another way to survive is good luck. In the Cold War, presidents had (and still have) a power never contemplated in the Constitution the ability to blow up the world with nuclear bombs on command, in minutes, with no approval by Congress or anyone else.

Conflict, improvisation, good luck likely all three will be required for the country to survive the coming constitutional showdown. If successful, we can someday go back to not paying much attention to Constitution Day.

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The Best Way To Save The Constitution From Donald Trump Is To Rewrite It - POLITICO

UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres opened the first post-pandemic meeting of the General Assembly in New York this week warning that the world is in a dangerous place: more divided than ever, teetering on the edge of totalitarianism due to economic inequity and facing a mountain of problems due to climate change. "Divides are growing deeper. Inequalities are growing wider," he said. "And challenges are spreading farther."

We all know the source of the great divide in the United States: former President Donald Trump. He's the large rock thrown into the world's political ocean, causing tsunamis and ripple effects that can tear nations asunder.

God bless his pointed, dyed and empty head, he's still hard at it. A few days earlier, Trump held a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, before his faithful QAnon followers in a half-empty arena. They raised a one-finger salute to him at such an angle that for many it invited comparison to the Nazi salute. To me it looked more like something from a Three Stooges skit. And no, it wasn't "that" finger.

Meanwhile, Marjorie Taylor Greene was accused of kicking child activists, Matt Gaetz was reported to have sought a preemptive pardon for sex-crime charges he has yet to face and Ron DeSantis and his Texas confederate, Greg Abbott, are using asylum seekers as pawns, shipping them off to Northern cities like a pair of human traffickers in training. All of this highlights the growing sense that we are two nations, instead of the United States, while also showing the world how regressive, hateful and fear-mongering the Republicans have become.

I don't feel completely certain this reality isn't just the LSD flashback my college dealer promised before I took some bad blotter acid. Meanwhile, most who have a conscience and are conscious believe there will never be a reckoning for the loathsome, dehumanizing, racist, misogynistic, rage-fueled, empty-headed, divisive actions of politicians across the globe.

I don't feel completely certain that this reality isn't just the LSD flashback my college dealer promised me before I took that blotter acid.

There is a certain unity among the fans of authoritarianism, and today the American far right is replete with Vladimir Putin lovers. Putin is the ultimate strongman in today's world and wants to get the old Soviet Union band back together. He hates democracy and, with the exception of Donald Trump, has never gotten along with American presidents. He's funneled money into politics across the globe to try and destroy democratic governments even dumping money into the NRA to spread his authoritarian message to those Americans who worship guns before Jesus, while still claiming they are Christian.

Those gun-loving evangelicals are pushing hard to make sure women die or are forced to give birth, and don't really seem to care which happens. If women die in childbirth, they'll shrug their shoulders and say, "Whatever God wills." If unwanted children are born, those same so-called Christians will shrug their shoulders and refuse the mother and child sustenance, health care or infrastructure. But they'll happily support hiring those children a few years later to pick lettuce or work in coal mines, if only they can crush the unions that once pushed for child labor laws. They are eager to defend the right to choose when it comes to COVID vaccines, but not when it comes to women. They remain chattel.

The Democrats are struggling to hold onto both their sanity and a majority in Congress. They just can't seem to figure out why anyone would still support Trump, Abbott, DeSantis, Greene, Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Jim Jordan, Mitch McConnell or the other rancorous horsefly larvae in the Republican Party.

Rusty Bowers, an Arizona conservative Republican who testified before the House Jan. 6 committee, recently lost the GOP primary for a state Senate seat to former state Sen. David Farnsworth, who said he had "no doubt" the 2020 election was stolen from Trump by a "conspiracy headed up by the devil himself." Hmm maybe he's the one who took the wrong acid and is now having his flashback.

At any rate, Bowers said "welcome to fascism" afterward, and that seems to be where we are just six weeks from the 2022 midterm elections. That's a significant timeframe: It was six weeks before the 2020 general election when Trump told me in the White House briefing room that he wouldn't accept a peaceful transfer of power. We all know where that ended. He has never accepted his defeat.

It appears we're still in the same boat, rowing toward the Trump-induced tsunami an existential horror show highlighted by crimes against humanity and underscored by an especially scary week in news.

But let's take some time to understand what we're actually seeing this week: It's the end of Donald Trump, the death throes of an anachronistic political party and the destruction of authoritarianism (if we choose) on a global scale.

Sure, it's frightening to see Donald Trump sucking up to QAnon supporters while continuing to beg for money in the dozens of daily emails sent out to his supporters. Those QAnon folks are batshit nuts. But if they're your core supporters, you're cooked. National polls show Trump's post-presidential popularity continuing to fade. Are those QAnon supporters violent? Sure, some are. But can Trump move the mainstream like he did in 2016? Not a chance. He's supported by a continually dwindling number of malcontents, morons and mavens of autocracy. He's losing his mojo.

Sure, it's frightening to see Donald Trump sucking up to QAnon supporters they're bats**t nuts. But if they're your core supporters, you're cooked.

This week's $250 million civil suit filed in New York by state Attorney General Letitia James against Trump, his company and his three adult children underscores how little time Trump has left as a grifter preying upon a gullible public. Trump had "violated several state criminal laws, including falsifying business records, issuing false financial statements and insurance fraud," James said. She added that Trump wasn't going to get away with it just because he was an ex-president. Thank God.

Let's face it, we all knew it was going to end this way. If you saw Trump make fun of a reporter with a disability, if you ever saw him on his TV show or if you ever met the man in person you had to know. If you didn't, then you were his mark.

For months I've said that all this ends with an indictment, and I see no reason to change my mind now. Trump's former fixer, Michael Cohen, who was thanked by James in her press conference, told me afterward that he was appreciative of the shout-out (after all, the original investigation began with him) but was surprised as well. "The last few years have been filled with sadness, pain and anger," he told me, but Wednesday's announcement by James "makes all that hell worth it." Cohen also believes Trump will be indicted, and still thinks he won't run for president again. "It's all about the con," he said.

And Trump's powers to run the con are waning. He convinced a judge (who he had appointed) to order a special master to review classified and other material seized after the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago in August, but that hasn't gone so well for Trump to this point. Judge Raymond Dearie of Brooklyn the guy Trump's team wanted told Trump's lawyers, "You can't have your cake and eat it," after they consistently declined to repeat Trump's public assertions that he had declassified all the documents taken from his home. (In an interview with Sean Hannity on Wednesday evening, Trump claimed that as president he could declassify documents "just by thinking about it.") It appears Trump is no longer the master of his domain.

The news got worse for him on Wednesday when a panel of judges on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals granted a Justice Department request that will allow prosecutors to continue investigating the former president while Dearie evaluates the materials taken by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago even if the agents refused to take their shoes off.

But Trump isn't the only racist, fear-mongering con man whose time is running out.

Ron DeSantis thinks he's a pretty smart guy. He's managed to limit press coverage and criticism of his more Mussolini-like tendencies. He also really likes to stick it to the Democrats, the Walt Disney Company and anyone else in Florida who doesn't bend over and take it. He is one of the biggest peddlers of fear in our country right now. His "stunt" in shipping immigration asylum seekers to Martha's Vineyard could actually be considered a criminal act and at the very least was irrational and hateful.

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Joe Walsh, the former Tea Party congressman who was Trump's only GOP opponent in 2020, pointed directly at DeSantis for creating fear where there should be none. "This needs to be said again: There are people every day who sneak across the border and enter this country illegally," Walsh wrote on Twitter. "But people seeking asylum are NOT entering this country illegally. And those people DeSantis put on a plane were seeking asylum. They were NOT here illegally."

Turns out some of those asylum seekers are now suing DeSantis. After that he reportedly backtracked from the chorus of hearty guffaws, allegedly saying he wasn't the architect of the plan to spend Florida's tax dollars on shipping asylum seekers from Texas all the way to Massachusetts. He'll be cooked before he can ever become another Donald Trump.

Matt Gaetz is on the outs, and apparently can't find a date on Tinder or Bumble. Ted Cruz can't find a Cancn cabana in which to hide. Jim Jordan is facing scrutiny for his role in a college sexual abuse scandal, the focus of an upcoming HBO documentary produced by George Clooney. Greene and Boebert are pariahs with little actual power, just big mouths. They gain attention like the kid in the sandbox who constantly soils themselves, through indiscriminate yelling. That leaves Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, two devilish freaks of nature who must have a special ingredient in their Kentucky bourbon to keep them standing despite their fascist tendencies. Those two, along with Bill Barr, seem to have preternatural survival instincts.

That's on the domestic front. Guterres pointed out that the problem of totalitarianism is spreading across the globe. Trump, with his bombast and open disregard for the law, enabled petty dictators everywhere. That point was underscored this week as Putin announced he would call up 300,000 reserves for the war on Ukraine and threatened to retaliate against the West with nuclear weapons if he so chooses.

"He has 81 percent of his army committed in Ukraine," a source at the National Security Council told me. "He is losing and has no other play." This move shows both Putin's weakness and his danger. Much like Trump, he's a cornered rat the man behind the rise of global authoritarianism. He's a master of deflection, propaganda and the long con, and he's made the world much more dangerous. Still, there is hope.

In Guterres' speech this week he made one thing exceptionally clear: If you can still speak out against the fascists, then there's still hope they can be defeated.

But it was Letitia James and the 11th Circuit Court on Wednesday who made that deliciously clear.

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It's a scary time in America but know this: Donald Trump is finished - Salon

Hewitt asked Trump what he meant by problems.

I think theyd have big problems. Big problems. I just dont think theyd stand for it. They will not sit still and stand for this ultimate of hoaxes, Trump said.

Its not the first time Republicans have hinted at potential civil unrest if the DOJ indicts Trump. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham made headlines last month when he said there would be riots in the street if there is a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information. Grahams comments were slammed as irresponsible and shameful. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, without naming the South Carolina senator, said these comments from extreme Republicans were dangerous.

Hewitt appeared to see Trumps comments as a nod toward potential unrest, asking the former president how he would respond when the legacy media accuses him of inciting violence.

Thats not inciting. Im just saying what my opinion is, Trump said. I dont think the people of this country would stand for it.

On Capitol Hill, senior FBI and DHS officials briefed members of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees Thursday on the uptick in threats against federal law enforcement in the aftermath of the Mar-a-Lago search. Senators said the briefers didnt specifically pinpoint a politician or political party when it comes to the threats, but they said the trend was clear.

It was stunning the number of threats that have been cataloged since the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago, Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said after the briefing, specifically mentioning the gunman who tried to enter an FBI building in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the days following the search. Its a much more dangerous environment because of the political statements made by some individuals since Aug. 8 its alarming to me.

Durbin said the threats ranged from explicit and specific to more generalized ones, most notably on social media. He also called out Trump for his rhetoric.

Inviting a mob to return to the streets is exactly what happened here on Jan. 6, 2021. This president knew what he was doing...and we saw the results, Durbin added. His careless, inflammatory rhetoric has its consequences.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), a Trump ally and member of the Homeland Security Committee, said after the briefing that the Justice Department needed to be more transparent about the justification for the search in order to push back against conspiracies.

You have to give people good information so these rumors dont continue, Scott said, condemning attacks on law enforcement. I dont know why they raided the former presidents house ... They know the conspiracy theories that are out there. So convince people that theyre not true.

The FBI search of Trumps Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida sparked a political firestorm last month. According to a Justice Department court filing released in August, prosecutors obtained a search warrant for the estate after receiving evidence there was likely an effort to conceal classified documents at the residence in defiance of a grand jury subpoena. Agents recovered highly classified records mixed among personal items, in addition to dozens of empty folders with classified markings.

The DOJ and Trumps lawyers are now in the midst of legal deliberations on an outside review of the seized documents.

Graham, one of Trumps staunchest Capitol Hill allies, echoed concerns that the Justice Department may have overstepped in its dealings with the former president. But he left open the possibility that the departments probe could uncover material that might justify an indictment.

Theres a belief from many on the right that the DOJ and the FBI have been less than unbiased when it comes to Trump. But having said that, nobodys above the law including the president, but the laws gonna be about politics, Graham said. So lets wait and see what they find. Ive got an open mind about what they find, but they need to have something that would justify what I think is political escalation.

Speaking with Hewitt on Thursday, Trump continued to use the defense that he declassified everything he took to Mar-a-Lago, a claim his legal team has thus far declined to make in court.

Rhetoric that could be seen as alluding to violence is not out of character for Trump. In his speech on Jan. 6, 2021, to supporters before rioters stormed the Capitol in an effort to block the certification of President Joe Bidens Electoral College victory, the then-president told the crowd to fight much harder against bad people and to show strength. His comments that day have been a focal point of Jan. 6 select committees investigation into the president and his inner circle, with investigators using one of their summer hearings to make the case that Trumps efforts to hold on to power resonated with extremist groups and brought them to the Capitol.

Nancy Vu contributed to this report.

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Trump warns of 'problems' like 'we've never seen' if he's indicted - POLITICO

Donald Trump is privately raging at fellow Republican Ron DeSantis over the governors decision to authorise flights carrying roughly 50 migrants last week from the southern border to Marthas Vineyard, Rolling Stone reported.

The Florida governor patted himself on the back over the weekend while delivering a speech in Wisconsin to stump for GOP candidates, announcing that he intended to tap every penny from the $12m Freedom First budget allocated to the Florida Department of Transportations efforts to transport unauthorised aliens.

And though both Mr DeSantis and anti-immigration sympathisers on Fox News and within the Republican party celebrated the firebrand politicians actions with Texas Senator Ted Cruz even calling for governors to increase their controversial relocation programs and send half a million undocumented migrants on to Washington DC not everyone in right-wing circles was happy with last weeks headlines.

Namely, former president Donald Trump found himself scowling at how his potential rival for the Republican ticket in the 2024 presidential election was dominating the headlines and drawing attention away from his own antics.

Rolling Stone reported that two inside sources close to the twice-impeached president had heard him vent about the Republican governor taking the limelight off Trump and accused him of using the migrant flights to prop up his national profile ahead of a potential bid for the White House.

Neither Mr DeSantis nor Mr Trump have made public commitments to run in 2024, though both men are considered to be frontrunners to challenge President Joe Biden for the Oval Office.

Mr Trump also reportedly raged at his aides in the wake of Mr DeSantiss highly publicised stunt, noting that the Florida governor had taken a page from his own playbook as he contended that flying migrants on planes from the southern border was his idea.

Rolling Stones report on Mr Trump privately seething at Mr DeSantiss rising star is just the latest slight in an ongoing Cold War between two of the most outspoken and divisive figures in US politics.

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When polls last summer began to point to the Florida governors potential to outpace the man who had once endorsed his campaign, Mr Trump seemed to begin to walk back his full-throated support for the Republican he credits himself as being responsible for landing in the governors office.

In June, the University of New Hampshire shared the results of a survey which showed a shocking change of fortune for the former president who for the first time began to trail the Florida governor among likely primary voters in the state.

On the same day those results were shared, the former president took to his own social media platform Truth Social to post the results of a separate poll from the right-leaning pollster Zogby. In those results, unlike the University of New Hampshires, it indicated that he was the clear favourite for winning the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, 42 points ahead of Mr DeSantis in a survey of GOP voters nationally.

The former president has even struck out at his once-avowed network of preference, Fox News, for airing what he viewed as inaccurate polling results during one of their morning news programs.

@foxandfriends just botched my poll numbers, no doubt on purpose, the one-term president wrote on Truth Social back in July, calling out a segment where hosts had presented the findings from both the University of New Hampshire survey and Blueprint in Florida that showed Mr DeSantis being the favourite of the two. That show has been terrible gone to the dark side, he added.

One of the pillars of Trumps 2016 platform zeroed in on the countrys southern border policies, with his build the wall tagline becoming nearly as synonymous with his campaign as the make America great again slogan.

Though he pledged on the campaign trail that he would build a great, great wall on our southern border that the Mexican government would pay for, by the end of his presidency his administration had constructed 452 miles in total, according to the latest US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Most of those 452 miles, however, were reinforcing walls that had been built during previous US administrations as only 80 miles of new structures were erected where there had previously been nothing.

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Donald Trump rages that Ron DeSantiss Marthas Vineyard stunt was his ...

But even this was just part of the build-up to what ended up being a full QAnon passion play, as the rally culminated with Trump fulminatingreciting a series of grievances over swelling strings. His followers, commanded to raise their fingers in salute, did soresulting in a scene that looked like it was freshly plucked from Leni Riefenstahls back catalogue. The swelling music over which he ranted was eerily similar to the QAnon anthem Wwg1wgaa reference to the conspiracy theorys slogan Where we go one, we go all. The one finger salute was also a nod to the title of that song. Two other speakers at the rally, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, have promoted QAnon over the last several years. Trump himself has recently posted or reposted several QAnon-linked images on his Truth Social platform.

Now we are a nation in decline. We are a failing nation, Trump said, riffing on what has become a familiar theme in his speechesreferencing high inflation and energy costs and the need for more domestic energy production. It was very much akin to traditional fascist myth-making: Only one man can restore the glory and wealth and prestige of the motherland and that person is a real estate developer/con man turned insurrectionist.

That Trumps eventual embrace of QAnon was pretty much fore-ordained, its still disturbing. The conspiracy theory is propped up by his most devoted followers, who believe, among other things, that he will be reinstated as president of the United States and that the Democratic Party is run by a cabal of child sex traffickers. That combination of extreme loyalty to himself and an extraordinary antipathy to his rivals is what he has always promoted among his supporters. As Trump has become more and more obsessed with the investigations engulfing himinto the attempt to overturn the 2020 election, into his apparent theft of hundreds of classified documents, into his corrupt businessesit only grows more necessary to play more directly to those most willing to believe his claims of victimhood.

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Donald Trump Is More Deranged Than Ever - The New Republic

Former President Donald Trump and Hope Hicks on March 29, 2018.MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

Longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks didn't buy into his false claims that he won the 2020 election.

She told him to move on, according to the book "The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021."

"Trump responded bitterly. "Well, Hope doesn't believe in me," he'd say in meetings," they wrote.

After the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump's longtime aide Hope Hicks told him what he didn't want to hear: He lost.

The close aide was preparing to leave the White House and stayed away from Trump's 2020 election challenges, even as he brooded and "talked of little else" in the aftermath of the race being called for President Joe Biden, wrote New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker and New Yorker staff writer and CNN global affairs analyst Susan Glasser in their new book "The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021."

Hicks told Trump it was time to move on, according to the book set to publish Tuesday.

"Trump responded bitterly. 'Well, Hope doesn't believe in me,' he would say in meetings," they wrote. "'No, I don't,' she would reply. 'Nobody's convinced me otherwise.' She concluded any further efforts to try to steer Trump would simply be, as she told an associate, 'a waste of time.'"

Hicks worked for the Trump Organization and campaign before serving on the White House communications team and then, after some time at Fox Corporation, as counselor to Trump. But she was "marginalized" after telling Trump his election challenge was wrong and "did not even bother to go into the office" on January 6, 2021, the day of the Capitol insurrection, according to the authors.

Some advisors thought Trump "wavered" on the big lie in the first few days after his loss and that he understood he had come up short. Once, the authors wrote, when seeing Biden on television, he said, "'Can you believe I lost to this fucking guy?'"

"But the kind of advisers who might have steered him toward acceptance were no longer around the brooding president, who remained cloistered for days after the election and talked of little else," the authors wrote.

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Alyssa Farah, Trump's strategic communications director, soon resigned "out of disgust."

Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner "surrendered the field" when they saw the outgoing president was empowering his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who they blamed for his first impeachment, the authors wrote.

"'Obviously, I support you, but I can't help you on that,'" Kushner told Trump, as he related the story to another Republican at the time," the authors wrote.

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Hope Hicks told Donald Trump he lost the 2020 election and that 'nobody's convinced me otherwise," book says - Yahoo News