Category Archives: Donald Trump

Former U.S. President Donald Trump says that crypto is a very dangerous thing. Commenting on cryptocurrencies, he warned of an explosion someday that will make the big tech explosion look like baby stuff. He also talked about his new social media platform, Truth Social, and his wifes non-fungible token (NFT) venture.

Donald Trump commented on cryptocurrency, his wifes non-fungible token (NFT) endeavor, and his new social media platform, Truth Social, in an interview with Maria Bartiromo over the weekend. Fox Business published the interview Tuesday.

What do you think about crypto? Trump was asked. Bartiromo noted that New York and Miami are really getting cryptocurrency into their financial systems.

The former U.S. president reiterated his anti-crypto stance: Well, I never loved it because I like to have the dollar. I think the currency should be the dollar so I was never a big fan. But its spilling up bigger and bigger, and nobody is doing anything about it.

Emphasizing, Look, I want a currency called the dollar, he warned:

I dont want to have all these others, and that could be an explosion someday the likes of which weve never seen. It will make the big tech explosion look like baby stuff. I think its a very dangerous thing.

Trump has never been a fan of crypto. In August, he predicted that cryptocurrencies are a disaster waiting to happen. In June, he called bitcoin a scam that needs heavy regulation.

Trump was also asked about the former first ladys non-fungible token (NFT) endeavor. Melania Trump announced last week that shes selling an NFT, titled Melanias Vision, on her newly launched NFT platform, which plans to release NFTs regularly. I am proud to announce my new NFT endeavor, which embodies my passion for the arts, and will support my ongoing commitment to children through my Be Best initiative, she said in a statement.

Commenting on his wifes NFT plans, Trump said: Shes going to do great She got a great imagination. And people love our former first lady, I can tell you that. They really do, they love her.

Regarding his social media platform Truth Social, he stressed, Its going to be so big. Trump previously explained that the new platform will be an alternative to Silicon Valley internet companies that he says are biased against him and other conservative voices. He plans to launch Truth Social nationally early next year.

The former U.S. president was further asked how he is going to compete with big tech companies like Twitter and Google. We have no choice, he replied, reiterating that he thinks its going to be very big.

What do you think about Donald Trumps crypto warning, Truth Social, and Melania Trumps NFT venture? Let us know in the comments section below.

A student of Austrian Economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open-source systems, network effects and the intersection between economics and cryptography.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Donald Trump Says Crypto Is 'Very Dangerous' Warns of 'Explosion Like We've Never Seen' Featured Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

Unless the Supreme Court intervenes on former President Donald Trumps behalf, a US House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol will soon know a lot more about the Trump White Houses involvement in this attack.

Earlier this month, a federal appeals court held that the January 6 committee may obtain records that Trump wants to keep away from this investigation. That leaves the Supreme Court, where a third of the seats are occupied by Trumps own appointees, as Trumps last recourse in his bid to keep whatever is in these records secret.

The appeals court panel that rejected Trumps request to keep the documents secret in Trump v. Thompson was made up entirely of Democratic appointees, so their opinion offers no real insight into how a Supreme Court dominated by conservative Republican appointees will approach this case. Although the Thompson opinion accurately describes the current state of federal law governing congressional investigations, the Supreme Court may very well change that law to accommodate Trump after all, it already did so once when Trump was president.

But there is one very important distinction between Thompson and Trump v. Mazars (2020), the Trump-era Supreme Court decision that effectively allowed Trump to keep his financial records secret from Congress until after the 2020 election. Trump was president when Mazars rewrote much of the law governing congressional investigations, at least when those investigations target a sitting president. Now, Trump is merely a private citizen.

Thompson, in other words, will reveal whether the Supreme Court is willing to create another carve-out to Congresss investigatory powers this time to benefit a Republican political leader who holds no public office.

Thompson specifically concerns hundreds of pages of records from the Trump White House, which the January 6 committee seeks as part of its investigation and that are currently held in a federal archive. Trump claims that these records should not be disclosed to the committee, and his most salient argument is that they are protected by executive privilege.

The Supreme Court did hold in Nixon v. Administrator of General Services (GSA) (1977) that this privilege, which protects the secrecy of certain internal White House deliberations, survives the individual Presidents tenure. But a former presidents power to keep such deliberations secret is much weaker than the power of a sitting president to do the same, and it is especially weak when the current president believes that a former administrations documents should not remain secret.

As the Court held in the GSA case, the fact that neither President Gerald Ford nor President Jimmy Carter supported former President Richard Nixons claim that certain documents should remain confidential detracts from the weight of Nixons claim.

In Thompson, President Joe Biden determined that the documents at issue in that case should not remain secret because they shed light on events within the White House on and about January 6 and bear on the Select Committees need to understand the facts underlying the most serious attack on the operations of the Federal Government since the Civil War.

Its now up to the justices to decide if those documents should nonetheless remain hidden.

According to the appeals court that upheld the January 6 committee's request, the committee seeks documents and other Trump White House communications generated within the White House on January 6, 2021, that relate to . . . the violence at the Capitol and the pro-Trump rallies that took place earlier in the day. It also seeks calendars and schedules documenting meetings or events attended by President Trump, White House visitor records, and call logs and telephone records from January 6, and a range of other documents concerning Capitol security, the transfer of power from Trump to Biden, and Trumps efforts to contest the 2020 election.

Trump raises several arguments attacking these requests, two of which can be disposed of in a few sentences.

The former presidents lawyers claim, for example, that the courts should apply a special rule announced in Mazars, which governs congressional investigations into a sitting president. But Mazars is quite clear that this rule applies only to the nations current president because the President is the only person who alone composes a branch of government. The key words here are only person and alone. Only one person at a time is entitled to the special solicitude the courts sometimes apply to a sitting president. And right now that person is Joe Biden, not Donald Trump.

Similarly, Trump claims that the contested records are beyond Congresss power to conduct investigations. But this argument borders on frivolous. The Supreme Court has long held that Congress may investigate any subject matter on which legislation could be had. And the January 6 investigation could inform all sorts of potential legislation, including laws governing the certification of a presidential election, laws governing police resources at the Capitol, and laws shaping the governments response to domestic terrorism.

That leaves Trumps claim that the documents are protected by executive privilege. As the Court explained in United States v. Nixon (1974), such a privilege exists to ensure that presidents receive candid advice from staffers who may be more circumspect if they fear that their communications will become public. Those who expect public dissemination of their remarks, the 1974 Nixon case explained, may well temper candor with a concern for appearances and for their own interests to the detriment of the decisionmaking process.

For this reason, GSAs holding that executive privilege does not evaporate completely when a president leaves office makes sense. A presidential adviser might be reluctant to offer unpopular advice in 2020 if they fear that this advice could become widely known in 2021.

Still, as mentioned above, executive privilege is weaker for a former president. And it is especially weak when the sitting president disagrees with their predecessors decision to assert executive privilege. It must be presumed that the incumbent President is vitally concerned with and in the best position to assess the present and future needs of the Executive Branch, the Court explained in GSA, including the executive branchs need to keep the advice offered by past presidential advisers secret.

Even if Trump were still the incumbent president, the House committee seeks to investigate a matter of transcendent importance a mob that breached the Capitol and that sought to undermine the duly elected government of the United States of America. So its unlikely that, at least under current law, Trump could keep the documents the January 6 committee seeks secret even if he were still in office.

In Nixon, the Court ordered then-sitting President Richard Nixon to turn over tape recordings that incriminated him and led to his resignation from office. As the Court explained, executive privilege is neither absolute nor unqualified. Thus, absent a claim of need to protect military, diplomatic, or sensitive national security secrets, the justice systems need to conduct a full investigation into the Watergate scandal that eventually brought down Nixon, and to prosecute anyone who committed a crime, overcame the White Houses interest in keeping Nixons communications secret.

As the Court would later hold in GSA, executive privilege is not for the benefit of the President as an individual, but for the benefit of the Republic. It, accordingly, should not be used to bolster efforts to harm the Republic itself.

That said, there is one important distinction between the Nixon case and the January 6 investigation at issue in Thompson. While Nixon involved a special prosecutors investigation and the Nixon opinion speaks of the need to preserve the primary constitutional duty of the Judicial Branch to do justice in criminal prosecutions Thompson involves a congressional investigation. So Trump could argue that Congresss investigatory power is less expansive than the authority of a federal prosecutor and the courts that enforce that prosecutors subpoenas.

But this argument is undercut by GSA, which upheld a federal statute that required the federal government to take custody of Nixons presidential records after Nixon left office. Nixon held that a generalized assertion of privilege must yield to the demonstrated, specified need for evidence in a pending criminal trial. GSA held that an assertion of privilege similarly must yield to substantial public interests, such as Congress need to understand how the executive branch behaved during Watergate.

Read together, in other words, Nixon and GSA stand for several important propositions. One is that executive privilege is not absolute. A second is that it must yield to an investigation into matters that potentially endanger the country itself. A third is that a former presidents power to assert the privilege is much weaker than an incumbents. A fourth is that this power is especially weak when the incumbent president believes that the privilege should not be asserted in a particular case.

In light of these four propositions, Trumps claim that the documents sought by the January 6 committee should be shielded by executive privilege is exceedingly weak at least if the Supreme Court decides not to change the law.

Read outside its political context, the Courts mid-2020 decision in Mazars could be read as a defeat for Trump. Although the Court announced a new rule that governs investigations into a sitting president, it did not immediately shut down the House investigation into Trumps financial records. In theory, Mazars still permitted the House to seek those records in subsequent litigation.

But the practical impact of Mazars was that it allowed Trump to keep his records secret until after the 2020 election. That was an enormous victory for Trump.

A similar dynamic could play out in the Thompson case. Although the appeals court ruled against Trump in Thompson, it blocked its own order until December 23 to give Trump enough time to seek review of this case in the Supreme Court. In the overwhelmingly likely event that Trumps lawyers do seek Supreme Court review, the appeals court order will not take effect until after the justices decide whether to act on the case.

If the Court agrees to hear the case, Trumps records will almost certainly remain secret while the case is pending before the justices and, depending on when the justices schedule the oral argument in Thompson and when they hand down their decision, the Court could potentially delay its own ruling until after a newly elected Congress takes office in January 2023.

In part because of gerrymandering and in part because the party that controls the White House tends to lose seats in midterm elections, Republicans are favored to regain control of Congress in the next election. If they do, they can shut down the January 6 committee and quash any of its ongoing efforts to obtain Trumps documents.

The Supreme Court, in other words, doesnt even need to overrule any existing precedents in order to carry Trumps water in the Thompson case. All it has to do is run out the clock.

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Supreme Court: Trump wants the courts to help him sabotage the January 6 investigation - Vox.com

In his 1981 inaugural address, President Ronald Reagan famously proclaimed, Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem. The goal, plain and simple, was to paint the federal government as an unnecessary evil.

Reagan succeeded beyond his and his advisors wildest dreams, setting the political stage for a Republican Party that has elevated anti-government grievance to an article of faith. The destructive impacts of the ensuing cuts to Medicaid, housing aid, food assistance, unemployment compensation and other crucial programs are still with us.

The Trump administration, despite some vaguely unorthodox campaign rhetoric, followed the same playbook. Trump chief of staff Mick MulvaneyMick MulvaneyJan. 6 committee issues latest round of subpoenas for rally organizers The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Alibaba - To vote or not? Pelosi faces infrastructure decision Jan. 6 panel subpoenas 11, including Pierson, other rally organizers MOREopenly gloatedabout how many federal employees he was going to force out of a job by making their lives miserable.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO)report, released last month, offers firsthand insights into the harm done by Trump and his lieutenants as they mistreated federal employees, both intentionally and through gross neglect. It lays out a very clear warning of whats in store the next time a Republican president uses this same playbooka warning every American should heed.

Almost as soon as he took office, Trump appointed federal agency leaders who openly despised the agencies they were appointed to lead. Secretary of Energy Rick PerryRick PerryWhat we've learned from the Meadows documents Trump war with GOP seeps into midterms Republicans eager to take on Spanberger in Virginia MORE ran for president promising to abolish the department he later oversaw. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott PruittEdward (Scott) Scott PruittUnderstanding the barriers between scientists, the public and the truth Overnight Energy & Environment Biden makes return to pre-Trump national monument boundaries official Trump-era EPA board member sues over firing MORE was given his job because he relentlessly sued the agency as Oklahomas attorney general.

As chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources, I saw this play out at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages more than 245 million acres of public landone in every 10 acres of the United States. To head the agency, Trump nominated a man named William Perry Pendley, whocalledBLM the worst neighbor you can imagine and, in a former position in the Reagan administration, had beencaughtunderpricing coal mining leases to benefit industry at public expense.

One of Pendleys top objectives under Trump was to move BLM staff headquarters from the Washington, D.C., area to Grand Junction, Colo. The plan was originally devised by former Secretary of the Interior Ryan ZinkeRyan Keith ZinkeWatchdog: Trump official boosted former employer in Interior committeemembership Overnight Energy & Environment Biden makes return to pre-Trump national monument boundaries official Want to evaluate Donald Trump's judgment? Listen to Donald Trump MORE, who resigned amid multiple ethical investigations less than a year into his tenure. Thestated reasonfor BLMs relocation was to get staff closer to the lands and resources they manage, which Pendley spoke of with great urgency despite 97 percent of the agencys employees already working in the field

BLM isnt as recognizable by name as the National Park Service, but the agency is hugely important to the fossil fuel industry, which leases millions of acres of public land for drilling and mining. One of the few groups tocheerthe move was a fossil fuel lobbying group called the Western Energy Alliance, which pushes for more drilling and mining on federal land, weak environmental standards and low public royalties.

When my colleagues on the committee and I asked for analyses showing the need to relocate BLM headquarters, or the plans for keeping key staff in place to maintain institutional knowledge, or an understanding of how the move might impact the agencys Black employees, more than 40 percent of whom worked in the headquarters office, we were either given perfunctory answers or met with total silence. The Committee sentletterafterletterafterletterafterletterafterletterasking for straight answers. In September 2019, we held a hearing on the plan where Mr. Pendley testified. In every instance, the administration dodged our questions and answered our requests with irrelevant information or already public documents.

In March 2020, under threat ofsubpoena, the administration finally sent the committee an approximately20-page Business Casefor relocation. It offers little more than vague descriptions of the moves alleged public benefits, no workforce impact analysis beyond wishful thinking (as GAO documented) and no realistic preview of the damage the move ultimately did.

As theWashington Postfirst reported, the new GAO analysis found that in the year following the move, BLM headquarters saw an increase of more than 200 staff vacancies, with the number of Black employees being reduced by more than half. BLM employees said the move impeded their ability to do their jobs, and those who hadnt already quit described a team with no sense of leadership and little ability to function beyond day-to-day operations.

The unfortunate truth is that this was Republicanism in action. Moving BLMs headquarters wasnt designed to solve a real problem. Just as Reagan before him, Trump was happy to throw public employees under the bus in the name of the angry anti-government philosophy that still animates party leaders in Washington today.

Kicking dedicated career public servants to the curb and giving more power to huge corporations and their lobbyists is not a good path forward, but its what Republican leaders keep promising and keep doing. We should start paying closer attention to the consequences and remind ourselves that the alternative to a fairly treated, productive, hard-working federal workforce is not some free enterprise utopia. Its the Robber Baron era all over again.

Ral M. Grijalva chairs the House Committee on Natural Resources. He has represented Southern Arizona in Congress since 2003.

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Trump's relocation of the Bureau of Land Management was part of a familiar Republican playbook - The Hill

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World War II ended when Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies inMay 1945. That year was concurrent with the early days of television. By 1951, they were in 12 million homes and by 1955, half of all U.S. homes had one. Growing up, since television was so new, my generation was fascinated by television and watched for many hours. During the 1950s and early 1960s, we watched so many war movies on television and saw the horrors committed by the Nazi regime. In fighting the Nazis, over 400,000 Americans were killed and almost 700,000 were wounded. In total, 15 million to 30 million people were murdered by the Nazis, a death toll that included the state-sponsored persecution of 6 million Jews known as the Holocaust.

What about the next generation, our children, ages 45 to 53? For them, World War II ended approximately 25 years before they were born. Thats like my generation relating to World War I. We didnt. And then theres our grandchildrens generation, ages 21-30. For them, World War II took place over 75 years ago. Do you think the subject is covered thoroughly in schools? Therefore, if those two subsequent generations know so little about World War II, how can we expect them to really know who Adolf Hitler was and the atrocities he and his Nazis committed?

Nazism was a totalitarian movement, led by Adolf Hitler, of intense nationalism, mass appeal and dictatorial rule as well as anti-intellectualism, emphasizing the will of the charismatic dictator as the sole source of inspiration of people and a nation. The one and only goal of Nazi policy was the annihilation of all enemies of the Aryan nation. It also emphasized the inequality of humans and races and the right of the strong to rule the weak and purge or suppress competing political, religious and social institutions.

Adolf Hitler had a deep understanding of mass psychology and mass propaganda and stressed the fact that all propaganda must hold its intellectual level at the capacity of the least intelligent of those at whom it is directed and that its truthfulness is much less important than its success.

In the most basic terms, if you tell a lie often enough and keep repeating it, people will come to believe it, especially if the people are not smart enough to realize that lies are repeated to them. The law of propaganda states: Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth. This is known as the BIG LIE and it originally appeared in Mein Kampf, Hitlers manifesto.

Sound similar to Trumps manifesto? Trump rejects rationalism, liberalism, democracy, the rule of law, human rights and all movements of international cooperation and peace. He stressed the subordination of the individual to the state and the necessity of blind and unswerving obedience to leaders. He also emphasized the inequality of humans and races and the right of the strong to rule the weak and purge or suppress competing political, religious and social institutions.

Hitler took pride in being a master salesman and showman. We know that Trump takes pride in having the same abilities. He is also a great storyteller, specializing in lies. Again, tell a lie often enough and keep repeating it and people will come to believe it, especially if the people are not smart enough to realize that lies are repeated to them.

Hitler had power. Anyone who disagreed with him or his policies usually ended up imprisoned or dead. Protecting Hitler was the SS, headed by Heinrich Himmler one of the most feared organizations in all of Nazi Germany with more than 250,000 members engaged in activities ranging from intelligence operations to running Nazi concentration camps.

Trump also has power. On Jan. 6, a mob of thousands of Trump supporters, some carrying Nazi flags, attacked the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.. Many innocent people were injured, including 138 police officers plus four who died. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell denounced President Trump and his supporters for instigating the insurrection. The mob was fed lies, McConnell said. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people.

Its not only subsequent generations who need to be informed. How about the millions of Trump supporters who dont understand what Trump really thinks of them? He believes most are not smart or intelligent enough to recognize the lies he constantly tells them. When are they going to realize that hes playing them as suckers? TrumpSuckers! What an appropriate name. Please TrumpSuckers. Get smart. Help save America and Democracy.

Alvin Goldberg

Great Neck

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Readers Write: Adolf Hitler, Donald Trump and TrumpSuckers - Readers Write - The Island Now

On Sunday, Turning Point USA hosted Donald Trump Jr. where he praised a crowd of young conservatives as the frontline of freedom but cautioned that following biblical teaching like turn the other cheek was holding them back and has gotten us nothing.

If we band together, we can take on these institutions, Trump told the crowd in Arizona. Thats where weve gone wrong for a long time.

They cannot cancel us all, he continued. This will be contrary to a lot of our beliefs because Id love not to have to participate in cancel culture. Id love that it didnt exist. But as long as it does, folks, we better be playing the same game.

Weve turned the other cheek and I understand sort of thebiblical reference I understand the mentality but its gotten us nothing, Trump said. OK? Its gotten us nothing while weve ceded ground in every major institution.

Trump is more correct than he probably knows here. Christianity is a poor device for gaining worldly influence. Nearly every page of the Gospels has stories of Jesus refusing earthly power and exhorting his followers to do the same. In fact, there are few things Jesus talked as much about as the upside down Kingdom of God where the last shall be first and blessed are the meek. Moreover, he cautioned against seeking earthly influence, going so far as to proclaim woe to you who are rich. The most cursory reading of Scripture would leave anyone with the sense that this is not a manual for getting stuff.

Thats why Christians who do seek earthly power have often had to either ignore inconvenient parts (like love your enemies or, yes, turn the other cheek) or trivialize them into meaninglessness. This is a particularly robust American tradition. Thomas Jefferson famously cut together his own personal Bible in which he had clipped out any references to Jesus miracles, preferring to focus on Jesus as a moral teacher. But you dont have to take things that far, as Trump demonstrates here. You can just tell your fans that you want your side to gain more control and the Bible is getting in the way. There is some honesty in that, at least.

You can see Trumps comments below.

Tyler Huckabee is RELEVANT's senior editor. He lives in Nashville with his wife, dog and Twitter account.

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Biblical Scholar Donald Trump Jr. Tells Young Conservatives That Following the Bible Has 'Gotten Us Nothing' - RELEVANT - RELEVANT Magazine

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Voters care more about what you do as a senator, what you bring up, what you voted against, how you fight for it, said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who won in 2020 with Trumps endorsement and believes McConnell is doing a good job.

The former president, who remains critical of McConnell for declining to help him overturn the results of the 2020 election, has ramped up his calls for the Kentucky Republicans ouster from leadership in recent weeks. This week alone, Trump issued several official statements lambasting McConnell, saying the GOP leader saved the Democrats by striking a deal to allow them to raise the debt ceiling, which caused some consternation within the Senate GOP.

How this guy can stay as Leader is beyond comprehensionthis is coming not only from me, but from virtually everyone in the Republican Party, Trump wrote Thursday. He is a disaster and should be replaced as Leader ASAP!

The barrage of attacks on McConnell have been amplified by Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, who have also gone after the GOP leader on air this fall. Carlson, during a segment last week, announced that his show would begin regularly highlighting problems with McConnell, whom he described as an instrument of the left.

Still, anti-McConnell sentiment has yet to become a dominant theme on the campaign trail ahead of 2022 elections. Republican campaign staffers in multiple states said their candidates have so far received only one or two questions at events about their support for McConnell far short of a rallying cry from the conservative base.

Im sure some consultants telling them youve got to be anti-establishment, said Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.). I dont think most people are going to vote for a candidate based on who they are going to vote for leader.

To date, just two prominent GOP Senate candidates have called for McConnells ouster Kelly Tshibaka, an Alaska Republican who is challenging incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and Eric Greitens, the former governor of Missouri who is running for a seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Roy Blunt.

Youre going to see a whole lot of leaders in the Senate, like me, not support Mitch McConnell for leadership because hes anything but a leader, said Tshibaka, who is challenging one of Trumps top targets in the chamber.

Tshibaka, who made the declaration Monday on Steve Bannons War Room podcast, is so far the only Trump-endorsed candidate to publicly reject McConnell. Greitens, who in September became the first 2022 Senate candidate to vow to oppose McConnell as leader, also did it on Bannons popular conservative show. Trump has so far not endorsed in the Missouri race.

In an interview, Murkowski said she supports McConnells leadership and disparaged Tshibakas tactics: Theres probably a national playbook for campaigns; I dont think Alaskans play by a national playbook.

Aside from Tshibaka, Trump-endorsed Senate candidates elsewhere have declined to take the bait on the McConnell issue, suggesting Trumps now yearlong crusade against the Senate Republican leader has failed to emerge as an effective litmus test in Senate primaries.

Thats despite Trumps status as the de facto leader of the Republican Party and his widespread popularity among GOP voters 83 percent of whom have a favorable opinion of him. McConnells favorability rating, by contrast, is 41 percent, according to a new poll from POLITICO and Morning Consult.

In North Carolinas Senate race, Trump-backed Rep. Ted Budd has repeatedly declined to answer whether he supports McConnell. In a statement to POLITICO this week, his campaign adviser, Jonathan Felts, said Budd is focused on winning.

Our only thought on future leadership elections is that we want to do our part to ensure that the Republican Leader is the majority leader, not the minority leader, so we can stop Joe Bidens liberal agenda, Felts said.

Meanwhile, the campaign of Budds Republican opponent, former Gov. Pat McCrory, openly praises McConnells leadership.

Gov. McCrory had a great discussion with Sen. McConnell before deciding to run for the Senate, and he will absolutely support him for leader, said Jordan Shaw, an adviser on McCrorys campaign.

McConnell declined to comment for this story. When asked Thursday about Trump's push to replace him as leader, the Kentucky Republican declined to engage, only telling reporters good try. His advisers say the GOP leader is only focused on winning back the majority and point out that no one has ever voted against McConnell as leader, a position he has held since 2007.

The last senator to pledge to vote against a party leader, Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, ended up not opposing Chuck Schumer because there was no alternative to consider.

Trump-endorsed Senate candidate Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) whom McConnell opposed in a 2017 Senate primary told POLITICO earlier this month he wouldnt rule out supporting McConnell for leader, an election the Republican conference has every two years. But he also made clear McConnell is not his favorite Republican, and he would support McConnell if he's the most conservative.

There are some that he's more conservative than, and some not, he added.Tuberville said Brooks is seeing from the outside of what were doing he doesnt see the inside of the meetings and the talks and the strategy and all that.

McConnell's strength in the GOP was on display at a party lunch on Thursday when he was praised by roughly half the caucus for his leadership, according to a senior Republican aide briefed on the gathering. Conservative Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) touted McConnell's decision to hold open a Supreme Court seat in 2016, while moderates Murkowski and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) also delivered warm words for McConnell.

Other Republicans trying to distinguish themselves in the crowded Missouri primary including Rep. Billy Long, a longtime Trump ally who is angling for an endorsement have declined to join Greitens in opposing McConnell, even as the former governor has tried to make it a central issue in the campaign.

We believe every candidate running that wants to call themselves MAGA should be asked the question, said Dylan Johnson, Greitens campaign manager. Are they going to support Mitch McConnell or not?

Long said in a recent interview that he wouldn't take that same step.

If Republicans are in the majority and the only one on the Republican side is Mitch McConnell, you can't tell me that Eric Greitens is not going to vote for him, Long said. I mean, it's a great talking point. I'll give it to Eric.

State Attorney General Eric Schmitts campaign did not respond to an inquiry about his position on the GOP leader, while Rep. Vicky Hartzler said in a statement she was not beholden to anyone in Washington and would vote for leaders who stand up against the liberal madness spewing from a toxic woke minority.

In Ohio, where Trump has also yet to endorse in the contentious Republican primary, only frontrunner Josh Mandels campaign responded to POLITICOs inquiry about his position on McConnell.

His spokesperson pointed to Mandels previous comment about the issue, where he questioned whether anyone was running against McConnell and said he wouldnt entertain hypothetical situations that dont even exist in reality.

J.D. Vance, the author of Hillbilly Elegy who has recanted his past remarks disparaging Trump and has sought to portray himself as a born-again MAGA devotee, in September told conservative podcast host Jack Murphy he had misgivings about McConnell continuing as leader, but came short of vowing to oppose him.

I have no idea who should be the majority leader of the Senate, Vance said on the podcast. I think that McConnell has clearly shown hes a little, sometimes a little out of touch with where the base is.

Later in the interview, Vance said it was time we move beyond the very old leadership class thats dominated the Republican Party for a long time, though his campaign did not clarify to POLITICO whether he intends to actually vote against McConnell who personally encouraged Vance to run for Senate in 2018 if elected.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said candidate announcements about opposing McConnell are designed for an audience of one: Trump.

Ive been through a few leadership elections here, and Ive seen a lot of people on the outside try to influence those elections, Cornyn said. And Ive never seen it work because people are making their own evaluation based on a lot of different criteria about who they want their leaders to be.

Marianne LeVine contributed to this report.

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GOP blows off Trumps bid to oust McConnell - POLITICO

Ex-President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen is suing his one-time boss, claiming retaliatory imprisonment over his return to federal prison in 2019.

Cohen alleges that the decision to return him to prison was in retaliation for writing a memoir that was strongly critical of the former president. He is seeking damages for "extreme physical and emotional harm" and violations of his First Amendment rights.

The lawsuit is just the latest legal action taken against Trump, who is now dealing with more than a dozen cases in addition to investigations that could result in further lawsuits. Here is a summary of the lawsuits against the former president and ongoing investigations.

Trump is facing four separate civil lawsuits relating to the events of January 6 and the storming of the Capitol. On Thursday, a federal district judge set a date of January 10, 2022, for oral arguments to consider whether three of those cases should be dismissed.

One of those suits was filed against Trump by Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell, a second by two Capitol police officers and a third by a group of Democratic lawmakers which previously included Representative Bennie Thompson. He withdrew from the case when he became chair of the House of Representatives' Select Committee investigating January 6.

A fourth lawsuit was filed by seven Capitol police officers over injuries they sustained on January 6 and accuses Trump of conspiring to incite a riot along with co-defendants including the Proud Boys.

Trump is facing two investigations in New York into the Trump Organization's finances.

Attorney General Letitia James is examining allegations that Trump's company misstated property values in order to avoid tax liability and announced in May that the investigation is now criminal.

James' office is working with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, who has also been investigating the Trump Organization and its finances. In July, the company and its chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg were charged over an alleged 15-year tax fraud scheme. They plead not guilty.

The former president's niece, Mary Trump, is suing him alleging that she was defrauded out of millions of dollars in inheritance. Trump has filed a lawsuit against his niece as well as The New York Times and some of its reporters over disclosure of some of his tax information published in the newspaper, further adding to the lawsuits he's currently involved in. Mary Trump has emerged as a strong critic of her uncle.

Writer E. Jean Carroll is suing Trump for defamation over remarks where he said she had falsely accused him of rape. Trump's attorneys and the Department of Justice have argued that the U.S. government should take his place as defendant in the case as Trump was acting in his official capacity as president when he answered reporters' questions about Carroll's 2019 book.

The attorney general of the District of Columbia (D.C.), Karl Racine, is suing several groups affiliated with Trump for allegedly misusing funds for the former president's 2017 inauguration. The attorney general alleges that more than $1 million was used to improperly enrich the Trump family's businesses, including by paying very high rates for space at the Trump International Hotel.

The district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia has opened a criminal investigation into possible election interference by Trump in 2020. Two grand juries have reportedly already been convened and reports in November suggested that a special grand jury could be established dedicated to examining allegations of election tampering.

The Trump family has been sued by an anonymous group of plaintiffs who claim the Trumps used their brand to scam investors. Some investors with American Communications Network claim Trump promoted a fraud for years through The Apprentice. The lawsuit suggests it was a pyramid scheme. In July, a court ruled the matter could not be settled through arbitration and the case could advance.

The NAACP's Legal Defense Fund is suing Trump, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee for violating the Voting Rights Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act for their alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Six protesters are suing Trump alleging that his security guards assaulted them outside Trump Tower in 2015. The former president sat for a four-hour deposition on the matter on October 18, 2021.

The district attorney's office in Westchester, New York has launched an investigation examining whether the Trump Organization misled local officials about the value of the Trump National Golf Club Westchester. The allegation is similar to those being pursued by the New York attorney general and Manhattan district attorney.

D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine has launched a criminal probe into whether Trump had a role in inciting the riots on January 6. Racine said in January that the former president could potentially face a misdemeanor charge arising from the investigation that could result in a six-month prison sentence.

In addition to lawsuits taken against him and ongoing investigations, Trump is also party to other litigation. He is suing the House Select Committee investigating January 6 to prevent the disclosure of documents he argues are covered by executive privilege. He has so far been unsuccessful in the courts but the Supreme Court is likely to make the final decision.

Trump is also in a legal battle with another House committee, the Oversight Committee, over access to his financial records that were originally requested in 2019. That litigation is ongoing and likely headed back to the Supreme Court.

Separately, Trump has filed suit against social media companies Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for suspending his accounts in the wake of the Capitol riot. In addition, there is the suit against his niece, Mary Trump, and The New York Times.

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Donald Trump Inundated With Over a Dozen Lawsuits - Newsweek

The Republican National Committee has agreed to cover up to $1.6 million of Donald J. Trumps personal legal bills, according to a person familiar with the matter, in an unusual arrangement under which the party is paying to defend the former president from ongoing investigations that focus on his private business practices.

The first payments, for $121,670, were made in October to the firm of Mr. Trumps lawyer Ronald P. Fischetti, and were publicly reported last month to the Federal Election Commission.

The decision by the Republican Party to cover up to $1.6 million in legal fees was first reported on Thursday by The Washington Post and was confirmed by the person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations.

Emma Vaughn, an R.N.C. spokeswoman, said in a statement that the partys executive committee had approved paying for certain legal expenses related to Mr. Trump.

As a leader of our party, defending President Trump and his record of achievement is critical to the G.O.P., she said. It is entirely appropriate for the R.N.C. to continue assisting in fighting back against the Democrats never-ending witch hunt and attacks on him.

Mr. Fischetti is representing Mr. Trump as prosecutors in Manhattan weigh the possibility of charging him with fraud. At issue is whether he inflated the value of his assets to defraud lenders, according to people familiar with the investigation. The office of the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., has questioned one of Mr. Trumps accountants before a grand jury in recent weeks.

In a parallel civil fraud investigation, the New York State attorney general, Letitia James, whose office is also involved in the criminal inquiry, is seeking to question Mr. Trump under oath. The former president has accused both investigations of being politically motivated, and many Republican leaders have echoed his arguments.

Letitia James wants to politically weaponize her position as Attorney General instead of exemplifying impartiality and protecting the interests of all New Yorkers, Mr. Trump said in a statement on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for Mr. Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Fischetti declined to comment. The Republican National Committee will disclose its November spending, including any lawyer fees for Mr. Trump, by Dec. 20.

Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University and an expert on legal ethics, said that the payments did not necessarily raise any ethical problem from a legal perspective, as long as the party neither influenced Mr. Trumps lawyers in any way nor gained access to confidential information that might arise in the course of the investigations.

Numerous inquiries. Since former President Donald Trumpleft office, there have been many investigations and inquiries into his businesses and personal affairs. Heres a list of those ongoing:

Investigation into insurance fraud. The Manhattan district attorneys office and the New York attorney generals officeare investigating whether Mr. Trump or his family business, the Trump Organization, engaged in criminal fraud by intentionally submitting false property values to potential lenders.

Investigation into tax evasion. In July 2021, the Manhattan district attorneys office charged the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer with orchestrating a 15-year scheme to evade taxes.A trial in that case is scheduled for summer 2022.

Investigation into election interference. The Atlanta district attorney is conducting a criminal investigation of election interference in Georgiaby Mr. Trump and his allies.

But the payments showed Mr. Trumps enduring hold on the party he led for four years in the White House. The party continues to lean heavily on his name and popularity in its online fund-raising appeals. He is a lure for major donors as well, and headlined the National Republican Congressional Committees fall fund-raiser last month in Florida.

Daron Shaw, a political scientist at the University of Texas at Austin and a former strategist for George W. Bushs 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns, said the payments pointed to Mr. Trumps total command of the party apparatus.

Organizationally, the Republican Party is still a wholly owned subsidiary of Donald Trump for president, Professor Shaw said. Until the next heir to the throne is apparent, hes still the king.

Adonna Biel, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, said that if we were the R.N.C.s donors, we would certainly be asking questions.

In the past, several of Mr. Trumps lawyers have clashed with him over their legal fees. In 2019, his former personal lawyer Michael D. Cohen sued the Trump Organization, Mr. Trumps family business, saying that the company had not fulfilled an agreement to cover its legal costs. In May, The New York Times reported that another lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, had been pressing aides to the former president to pay him for his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

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R.N.C. Is Said to Agree to Pay Up to $1.6 Million of Trumps Personal Legal Bills - The New York Times