Category Archives: Donald Trump

Swedens Justice Minister, Morgan Johansson, has reportedly claimed that former US President Donald Trump threatened a trade war against the European nation in his bid to have A$AP Rocky released from prison.

The rapper (real name Rakim Mayers) was arrested in Stockholm on June 30, 2019, and spent close to a month imprisoned in the city he was held in police custody from July 3 to August 2 before ultimately being found guilty of assault against a 19-year-old man. After a two-week trial, Mayers was handed a conditional sentence and ordered to pay damages.

Trump became embroiled in the drama midway through July 2019, when a report claimed that Kanye West and his (now ex-)wife Kim Kardashian lobbied the former Presidents administration to secure Mayers release. Trump himself then corroborated the report, Tweeting that he will be calling the very talented Prime Minister of Sweden to see what we can do about helping A$AP Rocky.

Trumps intervention in the matter proved controversial, earning the ire of both Mayers fellow musicians and the Swedish government, a representative of whom declared that everyone is equal before the law and the government cannot interfere in legal proceedings.

In a new interview with Swedish news outlet Dagens Nyheter, Johansson reportedly expounded on the way Trump approached his plea to have Mayers released, saying the country was warned about trade restrictions they would face if the rapper was not freed. As The Independent reports, Trump allegedly sought additional support from the European Commission.

This story demonstrates how important it really is to stand up for our legal principles and not to take our democracy for granted, Johansson is said to have argued. If you can try and do something like this against Sweden, what will you then try and do to slightly weaker countries that dont have the European Union behind them?

Trump was the first to break the news of Mayers eventual release from Swedish prison, though it was reported that he turned against the rapper less than a month later, when Mayers and his manager allegedly didnt thank Trump and his team for their involvement in his release.

Mayers later denied that he didnt express any gratitude towards Trump. Last June, however, he reflected on the situation and admitted that Trumps interference in it made it a little worse.

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Swedish official says Donald Trump threatened trade war to have A$AP Rocky released from prison - NME

To his credit, Donald Trump Jr.'s holiday message was simple and uncontroversial. He tweeted, "Happy 4th of July America," followed by three American flag emojis. However, apart from the lack of punctuation, the tweet had just one teeny flaw: he posted it on July 1, three days early.Twitter rushed to set the former first son straight. "Today's the 1st, Einstein," replied a follower. Another respondent followed up, "His math has never been good. His timing even worse."One commenter had a simple wish: "Just go away. That is what America wants for this birthday."

Many responders noted the irony of celebrating the holiday just days after the reversal of Roe v. Wade, a decision that will have far-reaching effects for the country. Several replied with the meme,"4th of July has been canceled due to a shortage of independence. Sincerely, Women." Then there was the person who took issuewith Trump Jr. calling the holiday "July 4." They posted a meme saying, "Remember, it's INDEPENDENCE DAY, not the 4th of July. We celebrate sweet liberty and the founding fathers, not a calendar date."

Still, Trump Jr. did have a few supporters. One pointed out that the holiday falls on a long weekend in 2022, so he might be busy on the 4th. "Everyone says it logging off for the end of the week. How's this a criticism to celebrate freedom for 3 days? Should be celebrated 365."

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Donald Trump Jr.'s July 4 Message Is Being Roasted On Twitter - The List

During its astonishing Tuesday hearing about Donald Trumps actions on the day of January 6, the House select committee investigating the insurrection made clear that the integrity of its work is under threat. The same people who drove the former presidents pressure campaign to overturn the election are now trying to cover up the truth about January 6, warned committee chair Bennie Thompson. But thanks to the courage of certain individuals, the truth wont be buried. The main individual he seemed to have in mind was Cassidy Hutchinson, once an aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who testified to the former presidents violent and bizarre behaviordemanding that rally-goers with guns and knives be allowed onto the Ellipse to hear his speech and exploding in rage when his security detail refused to drive him to the Capitol, as rioters there began to overwhelm law enforcement.

At the hearings end, the committee displayed messages received by some of those interviewed by investigators, apparently in an effort to push them to toe Trumps party line rather than speak honestly. (Reporting has since revealed that one of those messages was sent to Hutchinson herself.) Speaking again of Hutchinson, Thompson declared to witnesses who had bowed to such threats or participated in making them: Because of this courageous woman and others like her, your attempt to hide the truth from the American people will fail.

David A. Graham: The most damning January 6 testimony yet

As Thompsons comments suggest, the January 6 committee has made the work of uncovering truth the lodestar of its public hearings. In a sense, of course, every congressional hearing is an effort to establish facts: Witnesses commonly swear, as Hutchinson did, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; false statements before Congress can be prosecuted even if theyre not made under oath. And as a committee established to uncover what happened on January 6, naturally the panel would be focused on the truth of the matter. But the January 6 committees hearings have so far been unusually powerful as a paean to the value of facts. The committee seems to take seriously its responsibility to establish an official record of the insurrection, and to communicate that record to the public in as accessible a manner as possible. That clarity is bracing in a political moment fogged with lies.

Almost from the beginning of this series of blockbuster hearings, the committee has been up-front about its intention not just to tell the truth, but to do so bluntly and directly. During the committees first open session in June, Thompson attempted to cut through legal jargon that might be off-putting to viewers, telling them that all discussion of arcane criminal statutes and legal culpability boils down to this: January 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup. Trump and his supporters, Thompson argued, had tried to rewrite history by playing down what happened. And so, Thompson said, it was crucial that the committee remind youthe publicof the reality of what happened that day.

The absence of pro-Trump Republicans on the committeethanks to an early decision by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy that the GOP leadership reportedly now regretshas allowed investigators an unusual degree of freedom in pinning the blame for January 6 exactly where it belongs: on Trump himself. Each of the six public hearings convened so far has zeroed in on different aspects of Trumps personal involvement with the Big Lie and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. This is a notable shift from the very first congressional report on January 6, released last year by the bipartisan Senate Rules and Administration Committee and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. That document cataloged a cascade of failures across the Capitol Police, the Pentagon, and the Justice Department, but pulled its punches when it came to the question of the former presidents involvementreportedly, according to The New York Times, because Republicans have refused to ask questions about the riot that could turn up unflattering information about Mr. Trump or members of their party.

No such soft-pedaling was evident during the select committees Tuesday hearing, when Hutchinson testified again and again about Trumps enthusiasm for the riot. He thinks Mike deserves it, she remembered Meadows saying of Trumps response to insurrectionists chants of Hang Mike Pence. Likewise, previous January 6 hearings were brutally blunt in displaying the disturbing violence of the insurrection and its lasting effects on the Capitol Police officers who were injuredand the ugliness and racism of the threats leveled by Trump supporters against election officials who were trying to do the essential work of counting votes.

This stands in contrast to the sheer volume of election lies produced by Trump and his campaign. The committee emphasized how the Trump campaign sent millions of fundraising emails to Trump supporters between Election Day and January 6, built on false claims of fraud. Likewise, the former Justice Department official Richard Donoghue testified that there were so many of these allegations of voter fraud that even when officials provided Trump with a very direct answer on one of them, he wouldnt fight us on it, but he would move on to another allegation. As a colleague, the former Lawfare managing editor Jacob Schulz, observed to me, the committee has presented Trump and his campaigns approach to selling the Big Lie as essentially a project of spamming: drowning out the facts of what really happened, and the possibility of understanding that truth, with an endless barrage of falsehoods.

Sorting through this flood of information (and disinformation) to figure out whats really true is a difficult taskwhich is why the committees focus on providing viewers with a clear, easy-to-follow narrative is so valuable, especially after a year and a half of intentional obfuscation by Republicans about what happened. The panel is reestablishing the facts in a fashion that leaves the GOP with little room to confuse people once again. Investigators have been aided by former ABC News President James Goldston, who has helped produce the hearings as something more akin to an engaging television series than a typical congressional panel. With each days hearing, the Jan. 6 committee has committed to a single story with a narrative arc, NPRs media critic, David Folkenflik, wrote. One television producer told The New York Times, For the first time since Trump became president, there is a clarity of message and a clear story that is being told.

The committees use of journalistic tools points to something important. In recent years, many discussions of the falsehoods drowning out American political discourse have framed the battle for attention as a fight between a dwindling number of media organizations committed to the facts, on one side, and shameless liars pursuing their own self-interest, on the other. But as the committee is vividly demonstrating, other institutions can have a commitment to the truth as welleven a political institution such as Congress.

The legislative branch is not usually known as a temple to candor. Yet the committees work shows just how much Congress can be capable of when it tries. As Thompson; the committee vice chair, Liz Cheney; and others on the committee have emphasized, as members of Congress they have all sworn an oath to support and defend the Constitution. That oath, Cheney declared during the committees first hearing, must mean somethingarguing for the significance of the committees work and the integrity of the democracy it seeks to protect. The committee is creating a definitive record and insisting on the importance of the values that Trump sought to undermine, truth among them.

Anne Applebaum: The reason Liz Cheney is narrating the January 6 story

Trump himself seems to recognize the effectiveness of the panels approach, reportedly complaining about how the absence of pro-Trump Republicans on the committee makes it difficult to complicate the story with his version of events. But the former president and his allies are still doing their best to muddy the waters. In response to Hutchinsons damning testimony, Trump seized on her memory of being told that the president had lunged for the steering wheel of the SUV carrying him away from the Ellipse, grappling with a Secret Service agent to try to direct the car toward the Capitol. Her Fake story is sick and fraudulent, he wrote on his Twitter look-alike, Truth Social. After anonymous sources close to the Secret Service suggested to reporters that the altercation hadnt taken place, the far-right Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene argued that Congress should focus its energy on taking apart the SUV story.

There seems to be at least some degree of legitimate confusion about what happened in the SUV. But in large part, these criticisms are bad-faith attacks by people uninterested in what the committee has to say. They intentionally ignore the fact that the Secret Service reportedly does not dispute that Trump wanted to go to the Capitol after his speech on the Ellipsewhich is far more relevant in evaluating Trumps intentions to gin up the riot than a tussle over a steering wheel. By focusing on one minor if salacious anecdote, they also draw attention away from the volumes of other incriminating and undisputed material in Hutchinsons testimony about Trumps role in engineering the insurrection. Meanwhile, committee members have expressed confidence in what Hutchinson had to say, noting that she swore an oath to tell the truth in front of millions of viewersunlike many of those challenging her testimony in anonymous comments to reporters.

All the same, this odd sideshow underlines just how difficult creating a definitive factual record isparticularly of an event that involved so many different narrative threads, and in which so many liars were involved. Its easier to confuse than to clarify, and its easier to lose trust than to regain that trust after a mistake is made.

So the committees investigators are engaged in a perilous high-wire act. But so far, they havent fallen.

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The January 6 Committee Is Going to Have the Final Word - The Atlantic

In a tweet that went viral, Randy Rainbow slammed former President Donald Trump after the Houses January 6 committee hearing Tuesday.

Trump is alleged to have lunged at a Secret Service officer and even tried to reach for the steering wheel to drive himself to the Capitol during 2021s insurrection.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide made the shocking statements at the hearing. She told officials that even though Trump knew that the mob that had gathered at the Capitol had weapons, he still had supporters go there.

Online, social media users had a field day with the hearing's revelations.

One such user was singer and comedian Randy Rainbow.

He really thought he could simultaneously hijack a vehicle and choke out a mf with those tiny little hands, Rainbow wrote.

The tweet has gone viral with more than 46,000 likes.

Others also commented and created memes based on Hutchinsons testimony which also included her telling the committee that Trump threw his lunch against a wall, splattering ketchup on it.

Tuesdays tweet is not the first time Rainbow has taken to Twitter to call out a Republican or Trump, for that matter. He recently slammed U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado after she posted about him in a tweet calling Democrats groomers.

A North Carolina preschool is using LGBT flag flashcards with a pregnant man to teach kids colors,wrote the Colorado congresswoman. But she wasnt done she also name-checked Rainbow. We went fromReading Rainbowto Randy Rainbow in a few decades, but dont dare say the left is grooming our kids! she added.

Rainbow saw the post and responded in kind to the unprovoked attack. Sweetie your homophobia is showing and for the record, Ive had my tubes tied, hetweeted back.

In March, he dropped the video Gurl, Youre a Karen in the style of Dentist fromLittle Shop of Horrors. In the video, Rainbow calls out Boebert and fellow Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia for their bigoted views.

The video begins with a mock interview where Rainbow asks, Youve had a busy few weeks speaking at white nationalist conventions, heckling the presidents State of the Union. Tell us, how do you balance your day job as a bigoted, fame-hungry conspiracy theorist with your personal life as a bigoted, hypocritical, traditionalist, and overall threat to civilization and a mom? He then breaks into song, calling out both congresswomen for their support of Nazis, rejection of science, and anti-American beliefs.

Watch the Gurl, Youre a Karen video below.

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Randy Rainbow & the Internet Mock Donald Trump Over Jan. 6 Hearings - Advocate.com

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YARBROUGH: Donald Trump and the ghost of elections past - Gwinnettdailypost.com

The Secret Service said it would soon respond to the House select committee investigating last years Capitol riot after former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson claimed President Donald Trump made a lunge at his protection officer when he was unable to join his supporters at the Capitol that day.

The United States Secret Service has been cooperating with the Select Committee since its inception in spring 2021 and will continue to do so, including by responding on the record to the Committee regarding the new allegations surfaced in [Tuesdays] testimony, spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement.

Hutchinson, a top aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified that after she returned to the West Wing following Trumps speech at the Stop the Steal rally that preceded the riot, White House deputy chief of staff for operations Tony Ornato told her about a clash inside the SUV the president was using that day.

I looked at Tony, and he said, Did you fing hear what happened in the Beast? Hutchinson said, using the nickname for the vehicle.

Nobody had told Trump that the Secret Service had determined it wasnt possible to go to the Capitol as the president had wanted, said Hutchinson, who explained that Trump was in the vehicle with Secret Service agent Bobby Engel.

Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.

So when the president had gotten into the vehicle with Bobby, he thought that they were going up to the Capitol. And when Bobby had relayed to him, Were not, we dont have the assets to do it, its not secure, were going back to the West Wing, the president had a very strong and very angry response to that, Hutchinson added.

Tony described him as being irate. The president said something to the effect of Im the fing president! Take me up to the Capitol now! To which Bobby responded, Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing.

Hutchinson then claimed that Trump reached toward the front of the Beast to grab the steering wheel before Engel said, Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. Were going back to the West Wing. Were not going to the Capitol.

Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge toward Bobby Engel, Hutchinson said.

Trump disputed Hutchinsons accusation, saying in a statement: Her Fake story that I tried to grab the steering wheel of the White House Limousine in order to steer it to the Capitol Building is sick and fraudulent, very much like the Unselect Committee itself Wouldnt even have been possible to do such a ridiculous thing.

An unnamed source close to the Secret Service also denied the account to multiple news organizations including ABC, CBS and NBC, adding that both Engel and the SUVs driver were willing to testify under oath. On Wednesday, NBC News reported that the two men did not deny Trump was irate and demanded to be taken to the Capitol following the rally.

At least one source close to Ornato alleged to Fox News that he was surprised when Hutchinson testified that Trump reached for the steering wheel of the car.

Engel and Ornato have both provided closed-door testimony to the committee, according to multiple reports. Those sessions were reportedly recorded.

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Secret Service will respond to Donald Trump 'lunge' claim

Donald Trump and his two closest advisers could face widening criminal exposure over the Capitol attack after ex-White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified about their potentially unlawful conduct to the House January 6 select committee at a special hearing on Thursday.

The testimony revolved around the disclosure one of several major revelations from Hutchinson that the former president directed supporters to descend on the Capitol even though he knew they were armed and probably intended to cause harm.

Hutchinson testified under oath that Trump was deeply angered by the fact that some of his supporters who had gathered on the National Mall were not entering the secure perimeter for the Save America rally at the Ellipse, where he was due to make remarks.

The supporters did not want to enter the secure perimeter, Hutchinson testified, because many were armed with knives, blades, pepper-spray and, as it later turned out, guns, and did not want to surrender their weapons to the Secret Service to attend the rally.

I dont fucking care that they have weapons. Theyre not here to hurt me, Trump exclaimed in an extraordinary outburst of fury, according to Hutchinson. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the fucking mags [magnetometers] away.

The response from the former president is significant for two main reasons: it makes clear that he had been informed that his supporters were carrying weapons, and that he knew those armed people intended to make a non-permitted march to the Capitol.

Trump then took the stage at the Save America rally and told his supporters both there at the Ellipse and around the Washington monument that he would march to the Capitol with them giving them the strongest incentive to descend on the joint session of Congress.

The former president additionally made the comments, Hutchinson said, despite the White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, desperately trying to stop Trump and Trumps chief of staff, Mark Meadows, going to the Capitol for fear of potential legal exposure.

Were going to get charged with every crime imaginable, if Trump went to the Capitol, Hutchinson said Cipollone told her the morning of January 6, alluding to obstruction of an official proceeding and defrauding the United States.

The legal analysis from Cipollone was prescient: the select committee, even before hearing from Hutchinson for the first time earlier this year in closed-door depositions, has argued Trump and his top advisers violated multiple federal laws over January 6.

At the special hearing, Hutchinson also revealed that Trumps then attorney Rudy Giuliani and Meadows expressed an interest in receiving pre-emptive presidential pardons in the immediate aftermath of the Capitol attack.

The disclosure from Hutchinson marked a new degree of apparent consciousness of guilt among Trumps closest advisers in addition to that of at least half a dozen Republican congressmen and the Trump lawyer John Eastman or fear that they might have committed a crime.

In raising Giulianis interest in a pardon, Hutchinson also testified that Trumps former attorney may have also been central to a crime with respect to his seeming knowledge of what the far-right Oath Keepers and Proud Boys groups were planning for January 6.

Oath Keepers and Proud Boys were words heard at the White House when Giuliani was around the complex in the days before the Capitol attack, Hutchinson testified at the hearing.

The new connection between Giuliani and the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys raised the spectre that the former presidents then attorney was broadly aware of the intentions of two far-right groups whose senior members have since been indicted for seditious conspiracy.

Meanwhile, on the eve of the Capitol attack, Trump asked Meadows to speak to the far-right political operative Roger Stone and Trumps former national security adviser Michael Flynn, which Meadows did, according to Hutchinsons testimony.

The former presidents chief of staff then repeatedly raised the prospect of travelling to the Trump war room at the Willard hotel in Washington DC, though Meadows ultimately demurred and ended up calling the Trump war room instead, Hutchinson testified.

The Guardian first reported last year that from the White House, Trump then called Giuliani and a cadre of lawyers working at the Trump war room at the Willard and discussed ways to stop the certification of Joe Bidens election win.

Meadowss connection to the Trump war room appears to be as significant as Giuliani discussing the far-right groups, not least because the Willard was also the base for Stone, who has ties to the Proud Boys, and Flynn, who previously worked with the Oath Keepers.

The select committees vice-chair, Liz Cheney, ended the special hearing with evidence of potential attempted witness tampering by people apparently close to the former president. In one mafia-style call, one witness was warned that Trump knew they would remain loyal.

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January 6 testimony puts Donald Trump in even greater legal peril

There were so many revelations in Cassidy Hutchinsons blockbuster testimony in the January 6 hearings Tuesday: Donald Trump allegedly grabbing the wheel of an SUV! Known guns in the crowd! But forgive this food editor if the image I cant get out of my head is ketchup dripping down the wall.

As the aide to former chief of staff Mark Meadows testified, Trump was so irate that then Attorney General Bill Barr gave an interview to the AP saying there was no widespread voter fraud that he threw his lunch at the wall, leaving behind a shattered porcelain plate and goopy red condiment.

Its no secret that the fast-food-loving ex-Presidents condiment of choice is ketchup. (Perhaps lesser known: Trump may, possibly, be a distant relative of the Heinz family.) Its been widely reported that Trump enjoyed ketchup with his well-done steaks. The tidbit originated from an anonymous server at Trump hotel steakhouse BLT Prime in an Independent Journal Review story thats since been deleted. Badger Russell, another former server at BLT Prime, toldWashingtonian in 2019 that this rumor was overblown. As far as Russell could tell, Trump ate the ketchup with his fries.

However Trump enjoyed the condiment, he certainly enjoyed it, and those around him did their best to accommodate his tastes. When Trump made his first presidential visit to Saudi Arabia in 2017, officials served him steak with a side of ketchup, alongside more traditional halal lamb and rice.And when Trump dined in the steakhouse of his own DC hotel, staff had very specific instructions on how to serve the ketchup. According to a Standard Operating Procedure document obtained byWashingtonian, the Presidents server was to open mini glass bottles of Heinz in front of him, taking care to ensure he could hear the seal make the pop sound. (Other detailed instructions included a seven-step process, with photo illustrations, for pouring Diet Coke.)

Trump wasnt always so formal about his ketchup consumption, though. In 2017, Politico reported that the White House kitchen staff couldnt adequately replicate a McDonalds Quarter Pounder with cheese, so bodyguard and Trump whisperer Keith Schiller would fetch him the real deal with no pickles and extra ketchup.

If we had to make an educated guess, it was probably a burger that Trump threw at the wall in his fury over the 2020 electionwith extra ketchup, of course.

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Food Editor

Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.

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Donald Trump and Ketchup: A History - Washingtonian

Congresswoman Liz Cheney, vice-chair of the congressional panel investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, has warned that former president Donald Trump represents a domestic threat that we have never faced before.

Cheney, the daughter of former vice-president Dick Cheney, told fellow Republicans that it was impossible to be loyal to both Trump and the American constitution.

The Wyoming congresswoman, ostracized by much of her party, was speaking on Wednesday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, a day after the January 6 committees latest explosive hearing.

At this moment, we are confronting a domestic threat that we have never faced before, Cheney told the audience. And that is a former president who is attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional republic. And he is aided by Republican leaders and elected officials who have made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man.

The 55-year-old noted that some in her party were embracing Trump and enabling his lies while others are choosing to look the other way because it is the easier path. One need only look at the threats that are facing the witnesses whove come before the January 6 committee to understand the nature and the magnitude of that threat.

But to argue that the threat posed by Donald Trump can be ignored is to cast aside the responsibility that every citizen every one of us bears to perpetuate the republic. We must not do that, and we cannot do that.

The six hearings of the House of Representatives January 6 committee so far have pointed the finger at Trump for encouraging an armed mob of supporters to march on the US Capitol in an effort to slow and stop the counting of electoral votes. The presidents own top aides told him there was no evidence of widespread fraud in Joe Bidens victory.

It has become clear that the efforts Donald Trump oversaw and engaged in were even more chilling and more threatening than we could have imagined, Cheney said. As we have shown, Donald Trump attempted to overturn the presidential election. He attempted to stay in office and to prevent the transfer of presidential power.

She added: Its undeniable. Its also painful for Republicans to accept and I think we all have to recognize and understand what it means to say those words, and what it means that those things happened. But the reality that we face today as Republicans, as we think about the choice in front of us we have to choose. Because Republicans cannot both be loyal to Donald Trump and loyal to the constitution. We must choose.

Cheney praised Cassidy Hutchinson, a 25-year-old former aide to the former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who on Tuesday told the House panel that Trump knew the mob was armed and asked for metal detectors be removed, as well as lunging at a Secret Service agents throat as he demanded to be driven to the Capitol.

Her superiors men many years older a number of them are hiding behind executive privilege, anonymity and intimidation. But her bravery and patriotism yesterday were awesome to behold. Little girls all across this great nation are seeing what it really means to love this country and what it really means to be a patriot.

Cheneys remarks gained cheers and applause but she looks set to pay a heavy political price for her eviscerations of Trump. After being ousted from party leadership in the House, censured by the Republican National Committee and no longer recognised by her state party, she is facing a showdown in a 16 August Republican primary in Wyoming.

Harriet Hageman, her Trump-endorsed challenger, responded to Cheneys speech with a statement that said: Liz Cheney is the last one who should be giving lectures about the future of the Republican party when she is singlehandedly trying to burn it to the ground.

Cheney is using Wyomings only House seat to further her own personal war on President Trump, while helping Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats achieve their own political goals at the same time. Shes doing more to help the future of the Democratic party than anything else.

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Liz Cheney calls Trump a domestic threat we have never faced before - The Guardian US

A video of former U.S. President Donald Trump from his January 6th Rose Garden statement is played as Cassidy Hutchinson, who was an aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows during the Trump administration, testifies during House Select Committee a public hearing to investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, at the Capitol, in Washington, June 28, 2022.

Shawn Thew | Pool | Reuters

Support from some of the Republican Party's biggest donors for a 2024 White House run by former President Donald Trump is dwindling, especially after damaging new details of his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, were revealed at a hearing Tuesday by the House select committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Republican financiers and their advisors have been privately meeting since the committee started to release the initial findings of its probe in a series of public hearings earlier this month, according to interviews with top GOP fundraisers who have helped the party raise millions of dollars. Most of the people asked not to be named because they didn't want to provoke retribution from Trump or his allies.

The people have been discussing the November midterms and who they're going to support in 2024. One name that doesn't often get brought up as a potential presidential candidate is Trump, these people explained.

"Donors are very concerned that Trump is the one Republican who can lose in 2024," Eric Levine, an attorney and longtime GOP fundraiser, said after the hearing Tuesday featuring testimony from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. "I think donors were already moving away from Trump," he noted. Levine is co-hosting a fundraising event for the Trump-endorsed former TV host and current Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz in New York in September, according to an invitation reviewed by CNBC.

For Trump, it's a similar theme to his first run for president. At that time, many corporate business leaders backed other Republican candidates like Jeb Bush early on in the race only later to back Trump when it was obvious he was going to capture the nomination.

A person close to some of the biggest real estate executives in New York who backed Trump during both of his runs for the White House said this time is different. Their view is he's taken "major hits" during the Jan. 6 hearings. None from that group are coming to defend him, at least for now.

"The silence is deafening," this person added.

The lack of interest in Trump by some of the wealthiest Republican donors could boost fundraising efforts for other GOP presidential hopefuls. Multiple Republicans could run in 2024, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. Scott is up for reelection in 2022 but recently headlined an event in Iowa, a key state for candidates running for president. Cotton reportedly has huddled with donors to discuss a possible 2024 run.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, on Feb. 24, 2022.

Marco Bello | Reuters

The former president has not publicly ruled out running for the White House again in two years after losing to President Joe Biden in 2020. Despite a lack of support from corporate leaders, Trump has maintained a massive campaign war chest thanks largely to small-dollar donors.

His political action committee, Save America, had over a $100 million on hand going into June, according to the latest Federal Election Commission filing. Trump's affiliated super PAC Make America Great Again, Again saw support from a small group of wealthy donors in May, including $150,000 from real estate mogul Geoffrey Palmer and $250,000 from David Frecka, the founder of Next Generation Films. The super PAC raised over $770,000 in May.

Taylor Budowich, a spokesman for Trump, boasted about the former president's record on endorsing GOP candidates and their fundraising success.

"President Trump's endorsement record stands at 146-10, his Save America political committee continues to raise unprecedented amounts of money and the American people remain hungry for his leadership," Budowich said. "And as another witch hunt is blowing up in the faces of Democrats, President Trump is in a stronger position now than at anytime before."

Still, some potential Republican candidates have already been gathering enough donations that show they can compete against Trump's political juggernaut if they were to run for president.

DeSantis raised just over $10 million in May for his 2022 reelection bid for governor. That brought his total fundraising haul in the current election cycle to over $120 million, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. Meanwhile, Pence has been meeting with political donors as he lays the groundwork for a potential 2024 run. Trump has criticized his former No. 2 for certifying the 2020 election results on Jan. 6, as rioters called for him to be hanged.

Pence spoke to the New York State Conservative Party last week, with tickets going for up to $5,000 per person, according to an invitation reviewed by CNBC. He's also set to meet with dozens of donors at a private retreat in Montana in September, according to a person briefed on the matter. A Pence political advisor confirmed the retreat will take place in support of the former vice president's 501(c)(4), Advancing American Freedom.

In this image from video, Vice President Mike Pence speaks as the Senate reconvenes after protesters stormed into the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021.

Senate Television via AP

"There will be a mix of major donors, conservative thought leaders and elected officials," this advisor said. "The focus will be on the work AAF is doing, plans to impact policy issues important to midterms and a larger discussion on the agenda for the conservative movement."

The group recently launched a video that celebrated the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Similar to a campaign style ad, it also highlighted Pence's positions on abortion and his role in advising Trump on choosing Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. The ad notably does not mention Trump by name.

The testimony by Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump's then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, was one of many recent breaking points for Republican megadonors who were waiting to decide whether to help Trump again, according to the people who helped in past campaigns.

Cassidy Hutchinson, who was an aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows during the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump, testifies during a public hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, at the Capitol, in Washington, June 28, 2022.

Andrew Harnik | Pool | Reuters

Hutchinson delivered some of the Jan. 6 committee's most explosive testimony to date. She said she was told Trump lunged at a Secret Service agent after his security detail refused to take the former president to the U.S. Capitol to meet protestors who later rioted in the halls of Congress. Trump and his allies have tried to discredit her claims. The former president took to Truth Social to distance himself from Hutchinson, saying he barely knew her.

A Republican fundraiser, who actively raised money for Trump and the Republican National Committee in 2020, told CNBC after Tuesday's hearing, "I don't think any major donor with business interests would support a Trump presidential run after today's hearing." That person said they wouldn't feel comfortable, based on these findings, working for Trump's campaign again or raising money for another presidential run.

Some of Trump's business supporters had already disappeared from his corner immediately after the Jan. 6 attack. Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone, who openly supported Trump's policies when he was president, said after the riot that he felt "betrayed" by him.

Trump had a bevy of big name GOP backers, including members of the Mercer family, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, casino magnates Miriam Adelson and her late husband Sheldon Adelson and Wall Street executive Nelson Peltz. Many of those donors supported Trump in 2016 as the Republican primary came to a close and later his 2020 reelection bid.

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GOP megadonors turn on Trump after Jan. 6 hearings, set sights on DeSantis, Pence and other 2024 hopefuls - CNBC