Trump’s farce of a campaign is struggling in South Carolina, an early Presidential state

Advisers to Donald Trump have blanketed South Carolina Republican officials with pleading phone calls in recent weeks in an effort to drum up endorsements and attendees for the former president’s first campaign swing of the 2024 cycle next week.

But the appeals have run headlong into a complicated new reality: Many of the state’s lawmakers and political operatives, and even some of his previous supporters, are not ready to pick a presidential candidate.

They find themselves divided between their support for Trump, their desire for a competitive nomination fight in the state and their allegiance to two South Carolina natives, former governor Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott, who have taken steps to challenge Trump for the nomination. Both are said by people close to them to be seriously considering a bid, and Haley is expected to announce in the coming weeks, South Carolina operatives said.

The result foretells a Trump launch event in the early primary state — with an expected endorsement by Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and a reaffirmation of support from Gov. Henry McMaster (R) — that positions the former president as a serious contender but stops short of demonstrating the dominance that he once enjoyed.

“Nikki Haley is probably our first South Carolinian since we voted for George Washington that has really had a chance of being president of the United States,” said former South Carolina GOP chair Katon Dawson, a supporter of the former governor, explaining the challenge. “And I think the Trump folks are going to run into that history.”

Conservative Christian leaders start to break with Trump — with an eye on Desantis

Dave Wilson, president of Palmetto Family Council, an influential evangelical group, said “there is more than a little bit of softening” of Trump support in South Carolina, saying many had been turned off by some of his recent comments, including questioning the loyalty of evangelical voters. Wilson said many evangelicals in the state wanted to wait and see who got into the race.

“A lot of people recognize the importance of the Trump presidency who are stepping back and are saying, ‘Is there another standard-bearer for the party and the issues we believe in?’ Someone who can carry us not just four more years, but eight more years and create momentum,” he said.

State party chairman Drew McKissick will not be attending the Jan. 28 Trump event, because of the RNC meeting next week in California, and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a close ally of both Trump and Haley, has a prior commitment on Jan. 28 that he may not be able to break to attend the rally, according to their advisers. Hope Walker, executive director of the state party, recently turned down a job offer from the Trump campaign because she has decided to stay in her role for the cycle.

Several other state lawmakers have also told Trump’s team that they will not be able to make it, according to people familiar with the conversations, who like others for this story requested anonymity to describe private conversations. Graham has been trying to rally support for Trump, three people familiar with the calls said, telling people they should get on board because he is likely to be the nominee.

Trump cannot keep his mouth shut . . . dumbass Trump followers love it . . . and so do the prosecutors

Donald Trump’s inability to keep his motor-mouth shut about his legal problems, and his penchant for floating possible defenses on his social media accounts, will likely come back to haunt him, explained one legal expert.

During an appearance on MSNBC early Sunday morning, former Army prosecutor Glenn Kirschner was asked by host Katie Phang about the former president’s inability to keep quiet while he is under multiple investigations.

Brought on to talk about a report that new government documents were recovered from President Joe Biden’s home, Kirschner first pointed out the distinction between the Biden investigation and special counsel Jack Smith looking at obstruction by Trump over his Mar-a-Lago documents.

That led host Phang to ask, “We do know that Donald Trump, and you mentioned it a couple of minutes ago, he is his own worst enemy. He cannot shut up. He posted on Truth Social, for example, that these were ‘cool keepsake folders that the Gestapo, the FBI took when they raided Mar-a-Lago,’ quote.”

“Does he keep on making admissions and confessions every time he opens his mouth with a post on Truth Social?” she asked.

 

“He does, that is incriminating evidence from heaven for prosecutors,” the legal analyst replied. “One, somebody who is the target of a criminal probe, which he clearly is, special counsel Jack Smith is investigating these precise crimes, the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.”

“Everything he says, everything he posts is what we call it an admission by a party opponent,” he elaborated. “It’s not hearsay, it comes in as criminal information.”

“When Donald Trump says, on the one hand, the FBI planted them, on the other hand, okay, if they are there I declassified them with my mind. On the next post, well, you know, it was a bunch of empty folders — we know that to be untrue,” he continued. “All of this may play to a certain segment of the base. You know who won’t play too? When prosecutors line it all up and present it to 12 people in the jury box. It’s not going to play to a jury.”

All of which raises the question:
Who is more stupid:  Trump or the people who worship him?

Trump’s 2024 campaign: Duds, no energy, failed suits, legal problems, no one gives a damn

While Donald Trump still leads in the polls as the favorite to win the Republican Party 2024 presidential nomination, his campaign which should be putting more distance between himself and some of his potential rivals is going nowhere since his November announcement.

As former Trump administration officials like former vice president Mike Pence, ex-U.N ambassador Nikki Haley and former secretary of state Mike Pompeo maneuver and battle each other for expected runs, the former president is barely venturing out of Mar-a-Lago, losing lawsuits, and facing criminal investigations as his money begins to dry up.

And then there is current top rival Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).

According to a report from the Guardian’s Lloyd Green, Trump’s early campaign events — from his 2024 announcement to his later “major” events have been “duds.”

For those looking for uplift from a Trump campaign, those days are over. Rather, personal grievance and claims of a stolen 2020 election will likely be his dominant themes. For the 45th president, that may bring catharsis for Trump.  For everyone else in the Republican party, Trump’s antics spell chaos, headache and the possibility of another Trump defeat at the hands of Joe Biden and the Democrats.

Trump’s speech announcing his campaign was one the public never heard and  now is another self-inflicted nothingburger, up there with his much-touted Trump NFT superhero trading cards – a waste of time and attention, a lost opportunity.

Trump had vowed to deliver a major political announcement later that night. He also promised to resume his signature rallies. Instead, he spoke behind closed doors at Trump Doral, his resort in Miami, to Judicial Watch, a tax-exempt group.  Yet for all of his would-be opponents’ missteps, Trump’s road to re-nomination won’t be a coronation. His mojo is missing, his aura of inevitability damaged, if not gone. In the two months since Trump announced his candidacy, he has barely ventured from the confines of Mar-a-Lago, his redoubt by the Atlantic.

Trump is also facing trouble right out of the gate when the Republican primary season begins.

Trump could well face Chris Sununu, New Hampshire’s popular governor, in the state’s primary. A Trump loss in the Granite State would be monumental. He won that contest seven years ago.

Beyond that, Trump has suffered a series of recent legal setbacks. Last month, a Manhattan jury convicted the Trump Organization on tax and fraud charges. As a coda, the court imposed $1.6m in fines, the maximum allowed under state law.  A federal judge in Georgia hit Trump and his lawyers with an almost $1 million sanction for filing frivolous suits and wasting the court’s time, after which Trump quietly withdrew his loony suit against Hillary Clinton.  To top it off, in Georgia, a Fulton county court will hear arguments this coming week on whether to release a grand jury report on the 2020 election.

If indicted in Georgia Trump may need to be extradited to Georgia from Florida, a decision that will rest with Governor Ron DeSantis !!! 

Remember The Chrisleys?

Remember the Chrisley’s, you know, the squeaky-clean coup0le and their children who were featured in the (un)reality TV show “Chrisley Knows Best”?

Remember them?

You know — the couple who held themselves up as paragons of virtue and “proof” that God rewards the hardworking faithful.  Turns out they are starting their prison sentences. He will serve 12 years; she will serve 7. It seems their “success” was nothing but a series of frauds that yielded them over 30 million dollars and made it possible for them to spend $300,000 a year on clothes.

But, hey—at least they weren’t gay — amIright?

They spent $300,000 per year on clothes.

Trump sued Hillary. Court told Trump to go pound sand and STOP WASTING OUR TIME.

And then, the Court fined Trump and his attorneys almost $1 million for frivolous suits.

It came out yesterday, 19 January 2023

US District Court, So. District of Florida
DONALD J. TRUMP Plaintiff, v. HILLARY R. CLINTON, et al., Defendants.

After waiting six years, in a suit filed in March of 2022, Trump alleged that Hillary Clinton and others had orchestrated “a malicious conspiracy” to spread false information that his campaign had colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential race. The one he claimed he “won” that was actually given to him by legal default.

So how’d that turn out…?

U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks, in a searing 46-page judgment wrote Trump is a “prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries.”

That’s our boy!

Let’s start with Page ONE of the Court’s decision on Trump’s suit against Hillary Clinton:

“This case should never have been brought. Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start. No reasonable lawyer would have filed it. Intended for a political purpose, none of the counts of the amended complaint stated a cognizable legal claim. Thirty-one individuals and entities were needlessly harmed in order to dishonestly advance a political narrative. A continuing pattern of misuse of the courts by Mr. Trump and his lawyers undermines the rule of law, portrays judges as partisans, and diverts resources from those who have suffered actual legal harm. – Case 2:22-cv-14102-DMM, Page 1.

Whoa!!! And that’s just the opening paragraph! It can only get worse and it does – here:

“…we are confronted with a lawsuit that should never have been filed, which was completely frivolous, both factually and legally, and which was brought in bad faith for an improper purpose. Mr. Trump is a prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries. He is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process, and he cannot be seen as a litigant blindly following the advice of a lawyer. He knew full well the impact of his actions. As such, I find that sanctions should be imposed upon Mr. Trump and his lead counsel, Ms. Habba.” – Case 2:22-cv-14102-DMM, Page 6.

BOOM! Trump and his parking lot real estate lawyer, Alina Habba, have been fined almost $1 million by the judge!

More deliciousness from the dish-best-served-cold; the Judge:

“The deliberate use of a shotgun pleading is an abusive litigation tactic which amounts to obstruction of justice. This case involved three categories of shotgun pleadings condemned by the Eleventh Circuit. …I find that the pleadings here were abusive litigation tactics. The Complaint and Amended Complaint were drafted to advance a political narrative; not to address legal harm caused by any Defendant.

The 819 paragraphs of the 186-page Amended Complaint are filled with immaterial, conclusory facts not connected to any particular cause of action.” – Case 2:22-cv-14102-DMM, pages 6-7.

In their Amended Complaint, Trump and Habba cited a letter from the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliff, to Senator Lindsey Graham as evidence of a false collusion:

“Ratcliff’s letter stated that Clinton and her campaign conceived the false Russia collision [sic] story to protect Clinton’s presidential bid, which was at the time, in trouble because of revelations about her illegally using a private email server to handle classified information. Ratcliff confirmed in the letter that Obama, Comey and Strzok knew about it. – Case 2:22-cv-14102-DMM, page 8.

And the Coup de Grace! You read the Judge’s personal footnote on that:

“This provocative allegation stirred my curiosity, so I looked up the Ratcliff letter. The allegation in the Amended Complaint fails to mention that the information came from a Russian intelligence analysis and that Mr. Ratcliffe commented:

The (intelligence community) does not know the accuracy of this allegation or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication.” – Letter from John Ratcliff, to Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sept. 29, 2020, almost four years after the election.”

NB: In 2016 when this ‘conspiracy’ allegedly took place, Ratcliff was not Director of National Intelligence, he was a not-so-great member of Congress and Reich-wing toady.

“Mr. Trump’s lawyers saw no professional impediment or irony in relying upon Russian intelligence as the good faith basis for their allegation.

Trump used RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE to back his claim and attack U.S. citizens. That’s balls of solid brass. No wonder the Judge was pissed.

Read it all here: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.610157/gov.uscourts.flsd.610157.302.0.pdf

Meanwhile, Trump had filed a $250 million suit against the NY Attorney General who successfully prosecuted the Trump organization for tax, bank, and insurance fraud.  Within 24 hours of his suit against Hillary being thrown out, Trump withdrew his suit against the NY AG.

Trump’s attorneys had better watch out.  Trump and his lawyers have been fined almost $1 million for filing the frivolous suit against Hillary.  If Trump does not pay his share, then, his lawyers are on the hook for the whole amount. HIs main attorney — Allina Habba — is a rookie lawyer who has done nothing but serve as the attorney for a company that builds parking lots.  She does not have the $$$ to pay the fine.

NY attorney Roy Cohn was Trump’s father’s attorney.  After he took over his father’s businesses, Trump continued to use Cohn./

Roy Cohn. Cohn was one of the biggest swindlers known to man. He taught Trump everything he knows. Then, when Cohn was dying from AIDS, Trump completely abandoned him. Never visited him in the hospital, wouldn’t return Cohn’s phone calls, didn’t even attend Cohn’s funeral.

That’s what sort of “friend” DJT is.

It’s about time the judicial system made him pay back a tiny fraction of what he’s cost thousands of people, and the courts, with his weaponized use of frivolous lawsuits.

Memo to Kyle Rittenhouse: Go fuck yourself

Kyle Rittenhouse has spoken out during an interview with Sebastian Gorka on the America First podcast about how “unfair” it is that events he was scheduled to appear at keep getting canceled.

Rittenhouse, who was found not guilty of murdering two people during civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020 and has since turned into a Republican poster boy, hit out at the “woke mob” who he blames for his planned public appearances being scrapped by companies.

On Friday, the Southern Star Brewing Company in Conroe, Texas, announced it would be pulling out of hosting a right-wing “Rally Against Censorship” event where Rittenhouse was due to appear. The company said the event did not “reflect our own values,” adding “we don’t do rallies, we make beer for people who like beer.”

It has also been confirmed that a private reception at the Oak Room in Las Vegas’ Venetian Resort scheduled for today that was due to feature Rittenhouse has also been canceled. In a statement, the Grand Canal Shoppes said the event, which was sponsored by the National Association for Gun Rights, did not “align with our property’s core event guidelines.”

When asked by Gorka about the Texas rally being nixed, Rittenhouse said: “I was supposed to be giving a speech at Southern Star Brewery with Defiance Press, and they booted us because the woke mob found out I posted about it.”

Why would anyone go anywhere to listen to this fool speak?  He’s barely a high school graduate and has nothing of any consequence to say.  He’s being played for a fool by the NRA who will dump him like a bad habit after his shine has worn off . . . which will not be long.

Trump and family continue to receive millions from the Saudis

It’s not often that an article in Golfweek sets the tone for the actual week, but on Saturday the premier golfing  journal noted continuing problems for the nascent LIV Golf tour. The schedule of tournaments isn’t full. The roster of big name players that LIV needs to make itself seem a legit competitor to the 93-year-old PGA Tour have failed to materialize. The team-based structure of LIV has failed to create the kind of rivalries that the creators suggested would help raise interest in the new offering.  (NOTE:  LIV Golf  is a professional golf tour  financed by the “Public Investment Fund”, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia.   This fund is owned entirely by Saudi ruler  Mohammed bin Salman.)

However, all those concerns could turn out to be minor. That’s because a court case in California, where LIV has filed an antitrust suit against the PGA, has gone in a direction that LIV definitely, definitely did not want. While fighting back against this suit, the PGA has sought to compel discovery about the real sources behind the fund picking up the ticket on LIV’s considerable expenses. As it happens, a slip of the tongue from a LIV attorney during the trial revealed that the fund owns 93% of LIV Golf and covers all of its expenses. 

[LIV Golf] has paid Trump-owned golf resorts unknown millions of dollars to hold its events there, and former President Trump has publicly championed the new league, made prominent appearances at its events, and urged PGA players to sign on with LIV Golf.

Exactly how many millions is bin Salman funneling to Donald Trump through LIV? We don’t know.

That LIV Golf was at least partially owned by Saudi sources was never a secret and has been a concern since the tour began. However, as a private company, its internal ownership and funding was obscured until the unfolding court case opened up the details of just how little involvement there is from anyone else. It’s not just that bin Salman owns 93% of the tour on paper. He’s picking up 100% of the bill.

In response to the effort to compel discovery on LIV’s finances, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) insisted that it could not be forced to reveal anything. They don’t have to talk, because they are an “organ of the Saudi state” and protected by “foreign sovereign immunity.”

That doesn’t exactly make things better.

According to Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, “The revelation that a fund controlled by Crown Prince MBS actually 100% funds LIV Golf means that MBS has been paying Donald Trump unknown millions for the past two years, via their mutual corporate covers.” She also stresses that this has implications that go way beyond golf and beyond Trump fattening his wallet. “The national security implications of payments from a grotesquely abusive foreign dictator to a president of the United States who provided extraordinary favors to him are as dangerous as they are shocking,” said Whitson.

In 2018, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner paid a visit to bin Salman at a time when he was seeking $1.8 billion to bail his company out of a devastatingly bad real estate investment. At the time, there was great suspicion that Kushner, who later received his rescue in the form of a secret bailout, may have been selling bin Salman national security secrets, including the names of U.S. sources and dissidents in Saudi Arabia.

Also in 2018, bin Salman had Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi lured into a Saudi embassy, bound, tortured, dissected, killed, and burned. In that order. Later reports showed that, while he would not admit it, Trump was aware of bin Salman’s role in the journalist’s horrific death.

In 2022, the classified documents found in Trump’s private office in Mar-a-Lago reportedly included nuclear secrets from a foreign nation. Many reports have indicated that this information related to the Iranian nuclear program — information that would certainly be of direct interest to bin Salman.

Still, Donald Trump is being paid millions by Mohammed bin Salman. How many millions? We don’t know. What did bin Salman get from Trump in return? We don’t know.

But we shouldn’t be getting revelations from Golfweek.