Category Archives: Donald Trump

As the U.S. election looms, policymakers and analysts are trying to game out what a possible second term for former President Donald Trump might mean for Washingtons foreign policyand, by extension, for U.S. allies, multilateral organizations, and global security.

As the U.S. election looms, policymakers and analysts are trying to game out what a possible second term for former President Donald Trump might mean for Washingtons foreign policyand, by extension, for U.S. allies, multilateral organizations, and global security.

This edition of Flash Points considers how Trumps unconventional approach to foreign policy could reshape the international order and affect major geopolitical issues, from the war in Ukraine to rising U.S.-China tensions. The following essays offer insight into what institutions, alliances, and governments from Europe to Asia can do to prepare for another Trump White House.

Then-U.S. President Donald Trump participates in an arrival ceremony during a visit in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Nov. 12, 2017.Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

The calm in Asian capitals reflects a dangerous misjudgment, FPs James Crabtree writes.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks to journalists at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 16.Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images

The continent must bolster its own defense capabilities before an isolationist ringleader returns to the White House, Doug Klain and James Batchik write.

Then-U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press prior to departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 23, 2020.Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Its past time to put legal guardrails in place to prevent catastrophe, Adam Mount writes.

G-7 leaders arrive for a photo at the Itsukushima Shrine during the G-7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan on May 19, 2023.Stefan Rousseau Pool/Getty Images

This summers summit needs to be much more than just a 50th anniversary celebration, Robin Niblett writes.

An activist prepares a balloon painted to look like planet Earth and decorated with orange hair and eyebrows in the likeness of U.S. President Donald Trump during a climate protest prior to a meeting of European Union leaders at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, on June 29, 2017. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

A Heritage Foundation report offers a roadmap of sweeping changes, Laura Thornton writes.

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Trump Second Term: How the World and U.S. Allies Can Prepare for the Election - Foreign Policy

Supporters of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are sharply divided across all sorts of lines, including the sources they rely on to get their news, new data from the NBC News poll shows.

Biden is the clear choice of voters who consume newspapers and national network news, while Trump does best among voters who dont follow political news at all.

The stark differences help highlight the strategies both candidates are using as they seek another term in the White House and shed some light on why the presidential race appears relatively stable.

The poll looked at various forms of traditional media (newspapers, national network news and cable news), as well as digital media (social media, digital websites and YouTube/Google). Among registered voters, 54% described themselves as primarily traditional news consumers, while 40% described themselves as primarily digital media consumers.

Biden holds an 11-point lead among traditional news consumers in a head-to-head presidential ballot test, with 52% support among that group to Trumps 41%. But its basically a jump ball among digital media consumers, with Trump at 47% and Biden at 44%.

And Trump has a major lead among those who dont follow political news 53% back him, and 27% back Biden.

Its almost comic. If youre one of the remaining Americans who say you read a newspaper to get news, you are voting for Biden by 49 points, said Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted the poll alongside Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt.

The trends also extend to other questions in the poll. There's a significant difference in how traditional news consumers view Biden, while digital news consumers are far more in line with registered voters overall.

More primarily traditional news consumers have positive views of Biden (48%) than negative ones (44%). Among primarily digital news consumers, 35% view Biden positively, and 54% view him negatively. Vice President Kamala Harris' positive ratings show a similar divide, while Trump is viewed similarly by news consumers of both stripes.

And although the sample size is small, those who don't follow political news feel more positively about Trump and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and more negatively about Biden.

Trumps lead among those not following political news caught Horwitts eye amid Trump's trial on charges related to allegations he paid hush money to quash news of an alleged affair from coming out during the heat of his 2016 presidential campaign and as he faces legal jeopardy in other cases that consistently make news.

These are voters who have tuned out information, by and large, and they know who they are supporting, and they arent moving, Horwitt said.

Thats why its hard to move this race based on actual news. They arent seeing it, and they dont care, he continued.

Third-party candidates also do well with this chunk of the electorate a quarter of the 15% who say they dont follow political news choose one of the other candidates in a five-way ballot test that includes Kennedy, Jill Stein and Cornel West. Third-party supporters also make up similar shares of those who say they get their news primarily from social media and from websites.

But voting behavior among those groups suggests that Biden's stronger showing with those traditional media consumers puts him ahead with a more reliable voting bloc.

Of those polled who could be matched to the voter file, 59% of those who voted in both 2020 and 2022 primarily consume traditional media, 40% primarily consume digital media, and just 9% don't follow political news. (The percentages add up to more than 100% because some people chose media platforms across multiple categories.)

Those who voted less frequently were more likely to say they dont follow political news: 19% of those who voted in the last presidential election but not in 2022 and 27% who voted in neither of the last two elections say they don't follow political news.

The NBC News poll of 1,000 registered voters nationwide 891 contacted via cellphone was conducted April 12-16, and it has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

The rest is here:

Poll: Biden and Trump supporters sharply divided by the media they consume - NBC News

No TV cameras are allowed in Judge Juan Merchans courtroom at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, and so the dispatches from Donald Trumps hush-money trial have arrived mostly via text. The human arrangement on display, in which a man in his late seventies is forced to reckon not with his alleged major political crimes (those cases will be brought at later dates, in other jurisdictions) but with more tawdry matters, has proved delicious for the journalists in the room. Some have taken a vintage reporters hyper-observational approach: Jonathan Alter noted in the Times that although Trump normally wears a red tie, for the last four days in court hes gone with a blue one. Others waxed more poetic: Olivia Nuzzi, of New York, wrote, Trump is tilting his head dramatically and making trout-like movements with his mouth.

All eyes, as usual, were on the defendant. Would Trump make a scene, would he go through with his pledge to testify, would he say something truly wild? Not yet. (Granted, theres another four weeks to go.) In the corridors, he complained to reporters about the chilly courthouse; listening to testimony, he glazed over. Trump appeared to nod off a few times, Maggie Haberman, of the Times, reported, with his mouth going slack and his head drooping onto his chest. The minor drama of the pretrial motions orbited around whether the ex-President, under threat of being held in contempt, would stop saying nasty things on social media about the jurors, the witnesses, and family members of the judge and the prosecutors. Perhaps in anticipation that he wont, the Secret Service is reportedly making contingency plans: according to protocol, if Trump has to spend a few nights in jail, at least one protective escort will join him.

That Joe Biden appears older and somewhat diminished has been a wellspring of liberal panic. But Trump is diminishing, too, right in front of us. Strapped for cash, and facing an estimated seventy-six million dollars in legal fees, he spent much of the winter courting billionaires at Mar-a-Lago. Having inveighed against White House plans to aid the Ukrainian war effort and to either force a sale of TikTok or ban it, Trump watched as Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House, helped propel both proposals into law. (GOP lawmakers take Trumps policy orders with a grain of salt, a headline in The Hill read.) And though Trump had warned for months that any attempt to try him criminally would induce the wrath of his supporters, by last week, according to the Times, the number of Trump fans outside the courthouse had sunk to the mid-single digits.

For those who are paying attention, this trial is shaping up to be an interestingly sleazy spectacle. The case hinges on whether Trump illegally interfered with the 2016 Presidential election by paying the adult-film actor Stormy Daniels not to reveal publicly that she and Trump had had sex, and by conspiring to have the National Enquirer family of tabloids buy off potentially damaging accusers before their stories were publicized. Michael Cohen, Trumps former lawyer and current antagonist, and an emotionally operatic presence, will testify; so will Daniels, a cooler customer. The first witness was David Pecker, the former C.E.O. of National Enquirers parent company, who described a meeting in August, 2015, at which he, Trump, and Cohen had discussed how he might help Trumps campaign. Pecker said that he had promised to publish positive stories about the billionaire and negative ones about his opponents, and to be your eyes and ears.

By Peckers account, his magazines paid thirty thousand dollars to a former doorman at Trump Tower, to keep quiet about a hard-to-credit story that the Presidential candidate had fathered a secret child with a maid, and a hundred and fifty thousand dollars to a Playboy model named Karen McDougal, to not go public with her more convincing account of a nine-month affair with Trump. (Trump denies all the affairs and any wrongdoing.) The boss will take care of it, Pecker said Cohen told him, but, when Trump was slow to reimburse him, the tabloid king refused to act as an intermediary in the effort to buy off Stormy Daniels, leading Cohen to approach her directly. Shortly before the Inauguration, Pecker said, the President-elect invited him to a meeting at Trump Towerwith the soon to be Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chair; and James Comey, the F.B.I. directorwhere Trump thanked Pecker for all hed done. The two worlds that Trump has defined, of tabloid manipulation and of Republican politics, were thus fully intertwined.

These elementsadulterous sex, secret payoffs, a Presidential candidate facing thirty-four felony countscould make for a trial of the century, but, because much of this story has already appeared in investigative reports, including by The New Yorkers Ronan Farrow, and in congressional testimony, it is missing a crucial ingredient: surprise. Some liberal pundits have wondered whether bringing the case was worthwhile. I have a hard time mustering even a meh, the election-law scholar Rick Hasen wrote in the Los Angeles Times, noting the potential for political backlash and the higher-stakes cases to come. (Those cases may become slightly narrowerlast week, the Supreme Court seemed receptive to Trumps arguments that some of the actions for which he has been charged are protected by Presidential immunity.) But the hush-money case is one in which a Presidential candidate is accused of using his wealth to make his election likelier, and whether he committed crimes is a question worth pursuing, especially in the minds of voters who say they wouldnt vote for a felon. (Thats sixty per cent of independents and a quarter of Republicans, according to a Reuters/Ipsos survey.) The sleepy scene at the courthouse doesnt suggest a pro-Trump mob so much as a dawning truth: that, for the first time in a decade, Trump is struggling to command attention.

Even in Manhattan, the action is elsewhere. A few miles uptown, at Columbia University, the student protests over Israels war in Gaza have drawn international attention, and provoked a media frenzy that has overshadowed Trumps trial. (The coverage of the protests, a little bizarrely, has also crowded out news from the actual war.) With polls showing the Presidential race essentially tied, Biden might prefer to run against the omnipresent Trump of the 2020 election cycle, whose lies and threats were easier to get people to notice. The dynamic of the trial could carry over to the election: Trump is diminishing, but the public is tuned out, because everyone already knows exactly who he is.

Read more:

Donald Trump's Sleepy, Sleazy Criminal Trial - The New Yorker

First published on September 5, 2023, last updated on April 28, 2024.

Following a series of court developments in 2023 and this month, former President Donald Trumps 2024 legal schedule has come into focus, as has his political one. In the calendar below, we capture significant events in both domainsand how they interrelate. While the full calendar below tracks hundreds of events, here are the top 9legal and political dates as of now:

1. Thursday, May 2, 2024

2. Wednesday, May 15, 2024

3. Thursday, May 16, 2024

4. Friday, May 31, 2024

5. Friday, June 14, 2024

6. Monday, July 8, 2024

7. Monday-Thursday, July 15-18, 2024

8. Monday, August 12, 2024

9. Monday, September 9, 2024

For the legal filings and other materials in the cases see our Trump Trials Clearinghouse.

Turning to the full calendar below, it is largely self-explanatory for readers who simply want to dive in. However, the following keys allow readers to make maximum use of the information it contains.

Color and Format Key:

Key of Cases:

For those who are checking our calendar frequently, and simply want to know what the most recent updates are since the prior version we published, those updates are listed below. We intend to update the calendar daily or as the legal schedules continue to evolve. We welcome readers feedback and additional information at (email address).

* Judge Chutkans Jan. 18 order stated that, inter alia, Until the [DC Cir.] mandate is returned in this case, the parties shall not file any substantive pretrial motions without first seeking leave of court, and any such request for leave shall state whether the proposed motion concerns matters involved in the appeal or is instead ancillary to it. This follows Chutkans automatic stay last month of any further proceedings that would move Trumps case towards trial or impose additional burdens of litigation on him, which shall include all deadlines and proceedings scheduled in the courts Aug. 28 pretrial order. In response to that stay order, the government said that in light of the publics strong interest in a prompt trial, it would continue to meet all of its deadlines in the courts pretrial order. Approval by the court will now be required to make such filings. The deadlines and proceedings that have stayed and require court approval for any filings have been marked in bold and purple in the calendar below.

** A free account must be made to access this docket. Find a PDF here from 11/28/2023 for GA (Chesebro) and GA (Powell) (these links will be updated if and when the respective dockets are updated). Many of Chesebro and Powells court filings can be found in our Trump Trials Clearinghouse.

Please note that all times are in EST.

NB: Samara Angel and Beth Markman also contributed to co-authoring previous versions of this calendar.

Todays calendar updates (added April 28, 2024):

April 28, 2024

May 2, 2024

May 3, 2024

May 15, 2024

The Calendar is available in two formats: As a standalone PDF (click here) and as a Scribd document below.

Originally posted here:

Master Calendar of Trump Court Dates: Criminal and Civil Cases - Just Security

Former president Donald Trump and other prominent Republicans are seizing on the eruption of campus protests across the country to depict the United States as out of control under President Biden, seeking to use the mostly peaceful demonstrations as a political cudgel against the Democrats.

The pro-Palestinian protests at numerous colleges including Columbia, Yale, Emory, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas at Austin and others include encampments and barricades intended to highlight protesters denunciation of Israels military onslaught in Gaza, as well as to push universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel.

Beyond the disruption to campus life, top Republicans have highlighted the antisemitic chants that have occurred at some of the protests. The issue is complicated by a debate over what constitutes antisemitism and when criticism of Israel crosses that line while some student organizers have denounced the chants or said they are coming from outside activists.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has cited the protests to accuse Biden and Democrats of being unable to maintain order or quash lawlessness, an accusation he has leveled at the president on other hot-button political issues. He has also highlighted the protests as a way to air his own political grievances, including the lack of similar demonstrations around his current criminal trial.

On Monday morning, Trump posted on Truth Social, STOP THE PROTESTS NOW!!!

As the protests have mushroomed in recent days, numerous Republicans have sought ways to highlight them as an example of the countrys slide into chaos. Several Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), have visited the campus of Columbia University, the site of some of the most sweeping protests, to call for its president to resign for purportedly failing to contain the demonstrations.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, dispatched more than 100 state troopers to the University of Texas at Austin to clear out pro-Palestinian protesters, resulting in dozens of arrests. All of the charges against the protesters were later dropped for lack of probable cause.

The campus protests present conservatives with some of their favorite targets: elite universities, progressive activists, woke culture and civil rights leaders. In addition, attacking the protests allows Republicans to change the subject from less friendly political terrain, such as abortion rights and the war in Ukraine.

Their rhetoric is harsh in many cases. Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) have demanded that Biden mobilize the National Guard to protect Jewish Americans on campus. Hawley compared the standoff to the battle over segregation in 1957, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower summoned the National Guard to force the integration of Central High School in Little Rock.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) suggested that the college protesters were mentally unstable. You dont get to turn our public places into a garbage dump. No civilization should tolerate these encampments. Get rid of them, Vance posted on X. If you want to protest peacefully fine. Its your right. But go home and take a shower at the end of the day. These encampments are just gross. Wanting to participate in this is a mental illness.

The GOP rhetoric has not been limited to campus protests, sometimes covering pro-Palestinian actions more broadly, including those that have shut down roads and bridges in some cities. Cotton, in a post on X, urged those who get stuck behind pro-Hamas mobs blocking traffic to take matters into your own hands. Following criticism that some might read that as a call to violence, Cotton amended his post to say take matters into your own hands to get them out of the way.

Supporters of the campus protests say they are peaceful, and that accusations of antisemitism are often a pretext to shut down dissenting voices. Many of the Republicans criticizing the protests, they say, condoned or excused the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, which was far more violent.

The students are peacefully protesting for an end of the Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, the group Jewish Voices for Peace, which supports a cease-fire in Gaza, said of the Columbia protests. We condemn any and all hateful or violent comments targeting Jewish students; however, in shutting down public protest and suspending students, the actions of the University of Columbia are not ensuring safety for Jewish students or any students on campus.

The Israel-Gaza war has deeply fractured the Democratic Party, posing significant political challenges to Biden months ahead of Novembers presidential contest. Biden pledged steadfast support of Israel after Hamas militants stormed through the Israel-Gaza border on Oct. 7 and killed 1,200 people, many of them civilians, and took 253 hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel responded with a punishing military campaign in Gaza that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, imposing a siege that has created a humanitarian catastrophe as Gazas health system has collapsed and the population faces a looming famine. The resulting protest movement has electrified many younger voters and progressives, as well as others in the Democratic coalition that Biden needs to repeat his 2020 win, who have called for the United States to impose conditions for aid to Israel or suspend it altogether.

Democrats have voiced a range of views on the legitimacy of the protests, and Biden has sought a balance between condemning antisemitism and supporting students right to protest. Republicans, in contrast, are largely unified in casting the demonstrations as a disgrace, echoing conservative denunciations of the anti-Vietnam War protests of the 1960s.

Trump this week called a 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville which he said at the time had very fine people on both sides, prompting a bipartisan backlash a peanut compared with the current protests on campuses. Speaking to reporters after attending his criminal trial in New York on Thursday, Trump repeated the comments he wrote on social media and went further. He called the Charlottesville gathering, where a counterprotester was killed, a little peanut and added, it was nothing compared the hate wasnt the kind of hate that you have here.

Trump has contrasted the pro-Palestinian demonstrations with the lack of protests outside the Manhattan courthouse where he is on trial for an alleged hush money scheme. In seeking to blame Biden for the campus protests, Trump has accused the president of hating Israel, Jews and Palestinians, and accused Jewish Democrats of hating their religion. Many of the protesters are Jewish students, and progressive Jewish organizations have helped lead a number of protest movements since the war began in October.

The Courthouse area in Lower Manhattan is in a COMPLETE LOCKDOWN mode, not for reasons of safety, but because they dont want any of the thousands of MAGA supporters to be present, Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. If they did the same thing at Columbia, and other locations, there would be no problem with the protesters!

The tone of the criticism is not new; since Biden took office, Trump and other Republicans have pushed the notion that America is descending into chaos and lawlessness on his watch. From illegal immigration to soaring inflation to violent crime, they have regularly painted a picture of a country out of control.

These assertions have often been exaggerated or without context, but Trump has seized on them to promise a fierce crackdown should he return to power.

And during his 2020 reelection campaign, Trump tweeted in response to the large-scale protests over the police killing of George Floyd, which were mostly peaceful but occasionally turned to looting, writing, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. The post was widely criticized for potentially encouraging private citizens, or police officers, to take deadly aim at looters.

Trumps own position on Israel has often been hard to pin down. He has tried to position himself as a firm defender of Israel, but he has also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus handling of the war and sought to exploit the fissures in Bidens coalition over U.S. support of Israel.

After the Oct. 7 attack, Trump insulted Israels leaders while praising the intelligence of the Hezbollah militant group. Faced with a backlash to that comment, the former president proposed harsh policies against Muslim migrants, saying he would reimpose his ban on travel from Muslim-majority countries and deport students involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

In the weeks after the Hamas massacre, Trump said his administration would revoke student visas of radical, anti-American and antisemitic foreigners. Other Republicans still running for president at the time including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) and GOP members of Congress similarly called for the visas of pro-Hamas foreign students to be revoked.

The spread of the college protests has ignited a renewed Republican response. When word circulated last Wednesday that pro-Palestinian protesters were planning to occupy a lawn at the University of Texas, Gov. Abbott sought to show that his Republican-dominated state would not tolerate a repeat of the encampment at Columbia University, dispatching state troopers.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said it responded to the campus at the direction of Abbott, who applauded the crackdown on social media. He said the protesters belong in jail and that any student participating in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at public colleges should be expelled.

Incidents at some universities have fed the criticisms, though pro-Palestinian activists say they are isolated incidents. Video re-emerged this week of a Columbia student who has taken part in the pro-Palestinian protest encampments declaring that Zionists dont deserve to live. The student, Khymani James, made the comments in a video posted in January, although he has since stated that they were wrong. Columbia said it had barred the student from campus, but it was unclear whether he was suspended or expelled.

In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp (R), following protests in several cities including Chicago and San Francisco, stressed that he would not tolerate anything similar in his state. Recounting a conversation with Georgias public safety commissioner, he said: You know how I feel about people blocking bridges, airports and other things like were seeing around the country. I said, If they do that, lock their ass up.

In New York City, Speaker Johnson and a group of GOP lawmakers visited Columbias campus on Wednesday, where they demanded that the universitys president, Nemat Minouche Shafik, resign for failing to quickly dismantle the pro-Palestine encampments and, in their view, for not doing enough to ensure that Jewish people on campus felt safe.

Their visit appeared to raise tensions, as Johnson was met with boos and pro-Palestinian chants. One student yelled at Johnson to get off our campus, while another shouted, go back to Louisiana, Mike!

And on Capitol Hill, Republicans last week urged the Biden administration to intervene in the demonstrations. Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), a top-ranking House Republican, sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Attorney General Merrick Garland, calling on them to deport students who she said are brazenly endorsing Hamas and other terrorist organizations by participating in demonstrations and related events on campus.

Separately, a group of 27 Senate Republicans, including every member of the Senate GOP leadership team, signed onto a letter to Cardona and Garland calling on the administration to take action to restore order and protect Jewish students on our college campuses.

The Department of Education and federal law enforcement must act immediately to restore order, prosecute the mobs who have perpetuated violence and threats against Jewish students, revoke the visas of all foreign nationals (such as exchange students) who have taken part in promoting terrorism, and hold accountable school administrators who have stood by instead of protecting their students, the letter said.

Isaac Arnsdorf contributed to this report.

See original here:

Trump, GOP seize on campus protests to depict chaos under Biden - The Washington Post

Now that the lawyers are laying out their respective theories of the case in the criminal prosecution of Donald Trump in New York, it would be understandable if peoples heads are spinning. The defense lawyers claimed this is a case about hush money as a legitimate tool in democratic elections, while the prosecutors insisted it is about a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election.

Yet this case is not really about election interference, nor is it a politically motivated attempt to criminalize a benign personal deal. Boring as it may sound, it is a case about business integrity.

Its not surprising that the lawyers on both sides are trying to make this about something sexier. This is a narrative device used to make the jurors and the public side with them, but it has also created confusion. On the one hand, some legal experts claim that the conduct charged in New York was the original election interference. On the other hand, some critics think the criminal case is a witch hunt, and others claim it is trivial at best and at worst the product of selective prosecution.

As someone who worked in the Manhattan district attorneys office and enforced the laws that Mr. Trump is accused of violating, I stand firmly in neither camp. It is an important and straightforward case, albeit workmanlike and unglamorous. In time, after the smoke created by lawyers has cleared, it will be easy to see why the prosecution is both solid and legitimate.

It would hardly make for a dramatic opening statement or cable news sound bite, but the case is about preventing wealthy people from using their businesses to commit crimes and hide from accountability. Manhattan prosecutors have long considered it their province to ensure the integrity of the financial markets. As Robert Morgenthau, a former Manhattan district attorney, liked to say, You cannot prosecute crime in the streets without prosecuting crime in the suites.

Lawmakers in New York, the financial capital of the world, consider access to markets and industry in New York a privilege for businesspeople. It is a felony to abuse that privilege by doctoring records to commit or conceal crimes, even if the businessman never accomplishes the goal and even if the false records never see the light of day. The idea is that an organizations records should reflect an honest accounting. It is not a crime to make a mistake, but lying is a different story. It is easy to evade accountability by turning a business into a cover, providing a false trail for whichever regulator might care to look. The law (falsification of business records) deprives wealthy, powerful businessmen of the ability to do so with impunity, at least when theyre conducting business in the city.

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Opinion | We Are Talking About the Manhattan Case Against Trump All Wrong - The New York Times

President Biden didnt waste time.

Just minutes into his speech at the White House Correspondents Association dinner on Saturday, Mr. Biden launched into the issues dominating the 2024 election, including his age and former President Donald J. Trumps hush-money trial in New York.

The 2024 elections in full swing and yes, age is an issue, Mr. Biden said in a roughly 10-minute speech. Im a grown man running against a 6-year-old.

Donald has had a few tough days lately. You might call it stormy weather, Mr. Biden said, an oblique reference to Stormy Daniels, a porn actress who claims to have had sex with Mr. Trump in 2006 and received a hush-money payment in the days before the 2016 election, a deal at the center of his New York trial.

The comments, even as part of a roast, were notable given Mr. Biden has forbidden his aides to talk publicly about Mr. Trumps legal troubles. But they also came as Mr. Biden has ramped up his attacks on Mr. Trump, sharpening the split-screen between a president on the campaign trail and a former president spending his days in a courtroom.

The annual dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel provided a break to journalists and government officials from their normal jousting for a night of glitz and gossip in celebration of the free press. Mr. Biden, who has held fewer news conferences than his predecessors, extended his roast to the journalists gathered for the dinner.

Some of you complained that I dont take enough of your questions, Mr. Biden said. No comment.

The New York Times issued a statement blasting me for actively and effectively avoiding independent journalists, Mr. Biden said. Hey, if thats what it takes to get The New York Times to say Im active and effective, Im for it.

Outside the gates of the Washington Hilton, however, outrage over Mr. Bidens support for Israels war in Gaza was evident.

As journalists and politicians arrived at the hotel, many were swarmed by pro-Palestinian protesters chanting, Shame on you! Other protesters wearing press vests with the names of more than 100 Palestinian journalists who have been killed in Gaza lay down in front of the dinner venue.

By putting our human bodies on the street, we create a little discomfort for the journalists attending the event, said Hazami Barmada, an organizer of the protest.

Inside the hotel ballroom, many journalists wore pins reading Free Evan to raise awareness of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained in Russia since March 2023 wrongfully, according to the U.S. government.

transcript

transcript

There are some who call you the enemy of the people. Thats wrong and its dangerous. You literally risk your lives doing your job. And some of your colleagues have given their lives, and many have suffered grievous injuries. Other reporters have lost their freedom. Journalism is clearly not a crime, not here, not there, not anywhere in the world. Were doing everything we can to bring home journalists, fellow journalists, Austin and all Americans, like Paul Whelan. You know, who wrongfully detained all around the world. And I give you my word as a Biden, were not going to give up until we get them home. All of them. All of them. At The Wall Street Journal, they are counting, for Moscow correspondent Evan Gershkovich, 396 days since he was jailed in Russia. The U.S. government has designated Evan as wrongfully detained. And Evans parents and his family are with us tonight. And we are with you, always. We remember Austin Tice, 4,276 days, nearly 12 years since he was kidnapped in Syria. His mother, Deborah, is with us, and Mrs. Tice, we are with you. And Mr. President, again, we humbly ask that you do everything you can to bring them home.

Kelly ODonnell, a senior White House reporter for NBC News who is also president of the correspondents association, used her remarks to call attention to journalists who have been captured or killed while doing their jobs, including Mr. Gershkovich; Austin Tice, who was kidnapped while reporting in Syria; and reporters who have been killed in Gaza.

Our profession can be perilous, Ms. ODonnell said. Since October, about 100 journalists have been killed, most of those deaths in Gaza.

Ms. ODonnell also said the association had wanted to choose both a writer and a comedian when it came to their host this year. Colin Jost, the co-anchor of Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live and a former reporter for the Staten Island Advance spent roughly 23 minutes poking fun at the president.

But Mr. Josts speech was relatively light, even supportive of Mr. Biden. He ended it by noting that his grandfather, who recently died, had voted for Mr. Biden in the last election.

The reason he voted for you is because youre a decent man, Mr. Jost said.

Still, Mr. Jost didnt miss an opportunity to needle the president over his poll numbers.

My Weekend Update co-anchor, Michael Che, was going to join me here tonight but in solidarity with President Biden I decided to lose all my Black support, Mr. Jost said, referring to polling that has shown Mr. Biden struggling with Black voters.

Over seared petit filet mignon, celebrities and journalists also had a chance to catch those setting policy that will impact Americans for years to come. Lester Holt, the anchor of NBC News, sat next to Jeffrey D. Zients, the White House chief of staff, who made sure to stand up and speak briefly with the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Not everyone was in a tuxedo or dress Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, showed up wearing a white, hooded sweatshirt emblazoned with a bow-tie design on its front.

Hollywood was well represented at the dinner, with the actress Scarlett Johansson, who is married to Mr. Jost, sitting up front. Popular cable news anchors dined with the actors Jon Hamm and Sean Penn, among others.

Before making their way to their seats, politicians like Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois held court with guests as Biden campaign officials talked about recent polls showing Mr. Biden cutting into Mr. Trumps lead.

Mr. Biden, too, sounded emboldened. While he rarely mentioned Mr. Trump by name early in his presidency, he has aggressively taunted him as of late and kept it going on Saturday.

Did you hear what Donald said about the major Civil War battle? Mr. Biden said. Gettysburg. Wow. Trumps speech was so embarrassing, the statue of Robert E. Lee surrendered again.

Age is the only thing we have in common, Mr. Biden, 81, said of Mr. Trump, 77. My vice president actually endorses me, Mr. Biden said, referring to former Vice President Mike Pences decision not to endorse Mr. Trump.

Mr. Biden also used his speech at the dinner to warn about his political opponents threats on democracy increasingly a focus of his message to voters.

Focus on whats actually at stake, Mr. Biden said. The stakes couldnt be higher.

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Election 2024: Biden jokes, Trump still leads and updates from the Sunday shows. - The New York Times

Donald Trump weighed in on the White House Correspondents Dinner on Sunday, giving a terse, certified rotten review of its key players.

The White House Correspondents Dinner was really bad, he wrote on Truth Social. Colin Jost BOMBED, and Crooked Joe was an absolute disaster! Doesnt get much worse than this!

Though the only Trump in the building on Saturday night was Lara, the presidential daughter-in-law recently named head of the Republican National Committee, the former presidents shadow was felt even in the absence of his distinct orange glow. He was a frequent subject of the roasts by both Biden and the keynote comedians.

Biden poked fun at everything from his ongoing criminal trial (You might call it stormy weather) to his age (Im a grown man running against a 6 year old) to his floundering campaign fundraising, including a jab at the weird merch Trump has peddled this year.

Trumps so desperate, he started reading those Bibles hes selling, Biden said, referencing the $60 Trump-endorsed Bibles the presumptive Republican nominee started hawking around Easter.

Then he got to the First Commandment: You shall have no other gods before me. Thats when he put it down and said, This books not for me.

Saturday Night Live comedian Colin Jost also took shots at Trump, riffing on the courtroom drawings of the former president from his hush-money trial.

Every sketch of Trump looks like the Grinch had sex with the Lorax, he joked.

Comedian Matt Friend joined in the action, too, with a swipe at South Dakota governor and recently confessed puppy-killer Kristi Noem as a bonus. Putting on a Trump voice impression, Friend said, I am killing this dinner harder than Kristi Noem kills the puppies!

Trump famously never attended the event while he was in office, and his hatred for the event has long simmered. When he attended as a guest in 2011, he was thoroughly flamed by President Obamaa humiliation which some speculate may have fueled his desire for the presidency in 2016.

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Donald Trump Pans White House Correspondents' Dinner: 'Colin Jost BOMBED' - The Daily Beast

So thats not true? Thats not true?

The judge in control of Donald J. Trumps Manhattan criminal trial had just cut off the former presidents lawyer, Todd Blanche. Mr. Blanche had been in the midst of defending a social media post in which his client wrote that a statement that had been public for years WAS JUST FOUND!

Mr. Blanche had already acknowledged during the Tuesday hearing that Mr. Trumps post was false. But the judge, Juan M. Merchan, wasnt satisfied.

I need to understand, Justice Merchan said, glaring down at the lawyer from the bench, what I am dealing with.

The question of what is true or at least what can be proven is at the heart of any trial. But this particular defendant, accused by the Manhattan district attorneys office of falsifying business records to conceal a sex scandal, has spent five decades spewing thousands and thousands of words, sometimes contradicting himself within minutes, sometimes within the same breath, with little concern for the consequences of what he said.

Mr. Trump has treated his own words as disposable commodities, intended for single use, and not necessarily indicative of any deeply held beliefs. And his tendency to pile phrases on top of one another has often worked to his benefit, amusing or engaging his supporters sometimes spurring threats and even violence while distracting, enraging or just plain disorienting his critics and adversaries.

If Mr. Blanche seemed unconcerned at the hearing that he was telling a criminal judge that his client had said something false, it may have been simply because the routine has become so familiar.

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Trump's Trial Could Bring a Rarity: Consequences for His Words - The New York Times

As Donald Trump’s “hush money/election interference” trial continues in state court, it implicitly heralds an epic and tragic failure of the United States Supreme Court. This state case is surely not the one the American people needed to have tried and decided prior to the 2024 presidential election.

Of the four criminal cases against Trump and the other state election interference cases naming him as an unindicted co-conspirator, Jack Smith’s case charging him with orchestrating the Jan. 6 attempt to overthrow the lawful results of the 2020 election is paramount.

For two compelling reasons the resolution of that case prior to the 2024 presidential election is indispensable to our constitutional government. First, the American people have a right to know all the facts about Trump’s involvement in the coup attempt before they cast their votes in that election. Second, if the case were postponed until after the election, a Trump victory would allow him to dismiss the case, suppress evidence of his alleged criminal behavior and forever escape the consequences of his actions.

Thus, the Supreme Court’s tragic failure is glaring: It has methodically blocked the prompt and timely resolution of that essential case.  

1.  Instead of hearing Trump’s “absolute” immunity claim in December 2023, it deferred to proceedings in a lower appellate court.

2.  Instead of upholding the excellent and unanimous opinion of that lower court denying the immunity claim, it agreed to hear yet another appeal on the issue.

3.  Instead of recognizing the absence of proper grounds for continuing the stay of the district court’s pre-trial preparations, it ordered a continued stay of those proceedings.

4.  Instead of setting a short briefing schedule to expedite its hearing of the immunity claim — recognizing that the parties had already thoroughly briefed the issue — it set a lazy schedule that gave the parties two additional months to file their briefs.

5.  Instead of setting an early date to hear arguments, it set the date as late as possible, placing it on the very last day of the court’s term.

6. Instead of focusing on the facts of the case in the oral argument, it obscured the actual issue and pretended that the case presented an imagined comprehensive immunity issue, a red herring potentially enabling it to refuse to make a final decision, justify a remand and cause even further delay.   

7. Instead of deciding the case immediately after argument, it confirmed the likelihood that it would not issue its decision before late June or even July.

The court could easily have decided the immunity claim as early as January or February and given the district court ample time to complete pre-trial proceedings and begin the trial by May or June. Instead, it managed to delay the case for countless months, making trial before the election increasingly unlikely if not virtually impossible.

The court’s determination to delay the case is particularly obvious when its actions are compared to its actions in a second case it faced involving Trump and the Jan. 6 riot. There, a Fourteenth Amendment challenge to Trump’s eligibility for federal office, a quick decision served Trump’s interests by ensuring that no state could use the Fourteenth Amendment to exclude him from early primary or later general election ballots. Although the case presented open, difficult and substantially contested constitutional claims, the court decided it swiftly and in Trump’s favor. In revealing contrast, in Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 case, where delay, not speed, served Trump’s interests, the Supreme Court repeatedly imposed delays and abjured speed.

As a constitutional matter, moreover, any delay was wholly unnecessary because no genuine immunity issue even exists in the case. There are no fairly conceivable constitutional grounds — historical, textual, structural, originalist or theoretical — for holding that a president could have immunity from criminal charges that he attempted to overthrow the results of a lawful presidential election in order to stay in office and illegally retain power.

Despite Trump’s groundless assertion of an “absolute” immunity, Jack Smith’s case presents a far narrower and quite specific immunity issue that is neither difficult nor even debatable. A president of the United States cannot possibly enjoy immunity from a criminal prosecution for attempting to overturn a lawful election and illegally seize control of the national government. Thus, the court’s delaying tactics are based on its willingness to feign credence to a constitutional phantasm. 

If and when the court decides the case, it will — as it must — deny Trump’s claim. Thus, the only meaningful result of the court’s methodical foot-dragging is the unavoidable conclusion that it has sought to help Trump avoid trial while he campaigns for the presidency. In effect, the court agreed to grant Trump a de facto absolute immunity through the 2024 election. That is an epic constitutional tragedy. 

Edward Purcell is the Joseph Solomon distinguished professor at New York Law School and an author whose latest book is “Antonin Scalia and American Constitutionalism: The Historical Significance of a Judicial Icon.”

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The Supreme Court's epic failure in dealing with Trump's cases - The Hill