Trump 53: Orange Florida Man Awaiting Indictment

[SassyPants]

When Trump failed to separate himself from his businesses—and in fact used the presidency to increase his business earnings—he made it clear that his top priority was his personal profits. In that regard, the Trump administration was a ringing success. 
 

Hey Trumpsters, is that how you thought we’d drain the swamp and MAGA?  This makes me so angry. If you’re going to pick a rogue candidate, at least try to pick one who is better, smarter, more honest and successful than your average politician Ted Cruz. It’s pretty bad when 70 million people select a candidate akin to amoebic dysentery for POTUS, and  then mount an insurrection when 80 million sane people say NFW! 

[AmazonGrace]

Apart from, whatever did Scaramucci ever do to stick to the law and defend the Republic, the former guy thinks the SC justices work for him?

ah nm, it's from Borowitz report

Edited February 22, 2021 by AmazonGrace

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump is only welcoming to Mar-a-Lago those who are eager to "exact vengeance" on his GOP enemies"

Quote

As President Donald Trump enters his new life post-presidency, he's getting exactly what he wanted when he was in the White House: Zero responsibility with all of the perks and power, according to Vanity Fair.

The Former Presidents Act provides that Trump gets a pension without pressure to donate it to charity, taxpayer-funded healthcare, security and $1 million a year to handle his staff.

According to a report in Vanity Fair, Trump is relishing his power as ex-president and in his control of the Republican Party's voters. That power is coming in handy as he looks to his next goal of taking down anyone who opposes him.

"If you're Trump, you don't gotta play nice with these people anymore," the report said, citing someone close to Trump. "You don't have to do the whole fake political thing where you pretend to like people you don't actually like."

So, instead of meeting with people like Nikki Haley, who he refused, according to a Politico report this week, Trump has only been meeting with those who are in the pro-MAGA orbit.

Over the weekend, Politico also reported that former Florida Attorney General and Trump impeachment defense attorney Pam Bondi met with Trump. Corey Lewandowski and Dave Bossie came for dinner. Trump has also enjoyed meeting with political candidates "eager to fulfill his promise to exact vengeance upon incumbent Republicans who've scorned him" said Politico. The former president is working diligently to ensure MAGA has a huge presence in the 2022 midterm elections, which could ramp up soon.

While Trump has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in wake of the 2020 election, it's unclear if he intends to share the money with candidates he supports in 2022. He has several mounting lawsuits against him that could hamper fundraising — and his attention — as these investigations move forward.

 

[Cartmann99]

17 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

While Trump has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in wake of the 2020 election, it's unclear if he intends to share the money with candidates he supports in 2022.

He'll speak at their events if they let him bitch about his "stolen" election and how mean he thinks the media is to him, but when it comes to sharing his grifting proceeds, he's the captain of Team Bootstraps.

 

[Mela99]

I suppose we can all hope that his tax returns will land him in federal jail


 

Edited February 23, 2021 by HerNameIsBuffy
removed tapa sig

[Alisamer]

The former guy? Share? Money?!?!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

[47of74]

The former guy may have to talk under oath. 

Quote

During a December visit to New York City, writer E. Jean Carroll says she went shopping with a fashion consultant to find the “best outfit” for one of the most important days of her life - when she’ll sit face-to-face with the man she accuses of raping her decades ago, former President Donald Trump.

The author and journalist hopes that day will come this year. Her lawyers are seeking to depose Trump in a defamation lawsuit that Carroll filed against the former president in November 2019 after he denied her accusation that he raped her at a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s. Trump said he never knew Carroll and accused her of lying to sell her new book, adding: “She’s not my type.”

She plans to be there if Trump is deposed.

“I am living for the moment to walk into that room to sit across the table from him,” Carroll told Reuters in an interview. “I think of it everyday.”

Maybe they’ll be able to get him for perjury.  

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump’s politics hurt his businesses. Will he sell as he looks to a potential 2024 campaign?"

Quote

Donald Trump’s new office is the Mar-a-Lago Club’s old bridal suite. There — exiled from Washington, avoiding New York, working from a repurposed dressing room in Florida — the former president faces a choice.

Is it time to start selling his properties?

Some of Trump’s businesses are now in crisis, facing sharp drops in revenue and an exodus of clients, lenders, lawyers and business partners. Now, sharks are circling.

The Washington Post spoke with four investors who said they are exploring efforts to buy Trump’s properties or the loans he has taken out on them. They believe Trump has fatally wounded his brand — a view shared by some independent analysts — and they are hoping he will cut his losses by selling them luxe properties for cheap.

“The first thing you do is you take the Trump name off them — which, by the way, could be a multiple-week effort, because it’s on everything,” said one of the four, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because no offer has been made yet. “Once it’s gone, it’s a competitive asset.”

Selling off properties would free Trump to focus on a political revival rather than the struggle to rebuild his holdings, which now include 10 hotels, 13 clubs, about 20 name-branded office or residential towers, two ice rinks and a winery. But it may also mean giving up a key piece of his old identity — his image as a world-spanning business titan, which carried him to reality-TV fame and to the White House.

That Trump cut deals from a corner office in Manhattan. Would he now prefer practicing politics and selling red hats from a converted suite in Florida?

Trump already has indicated that he plans some kind of future in politics. On Sunday, he will make his first post-White House political appearance, with a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Orlando.

He has not announced a run for president in 2024 but has pointedly declined to rule it out. “We have tremendous support,” he said in an interview on the pro-Trump network One America News last week.

For now, however, Trump is a businessman again. Since he left office, his eldest sons — who ran the business while Trump was in the White House — have briefed their father extensively, according to Trump’s advisers.

But people who have spoken with Trump recently say he has shown little interest in taking back day-to-day control.

Instead, these people — who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations — said Trump has focused almost entirely on politics. They said he has talked about exacting revenge on his political enemies, securing more money for his political action committee and running for president again.

Trump did not respond to requests for comment for this report. His son Eric Trump issued a statement saying the family is optimistic about its future in business.

“We have an unbelievable company with some of the best and most valuable real estate assets in the world,” he said in a statement to The Post. “There is no shortage of opportunities for us in real estate and beyond. Our brand has never been stronger and we are very excited about the future.”

From the outside, it is impossible to get a full picture of the Trump Organization’s financial health. The company is private. It releases no details about its overall profits, losses or cash reserves.

The company still has properties on four continents, an ability to book GOP fundraisers, and one of the most famous names in the world. Even after the events of Jan. 6 — when a mob of the then-president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol — the family still has allies and partners.

“I would welcome the opportunity of expanding our relationship with the brand,” said Hussain Sajwani, chairman of Damac Group, who is partnered with Donald Trump on a golf club in Dubai and said he would relish more deals with the former president.

But the data that is available shows that the Trump Organization is diminished — having lost revenue and properties since Trump entered politics.

The main problems appear to be the pandemic, which has hammered the hotel and resort business, and Trump’s sharply altered public image.

Industry analysts sum it up this way: Trump has a brand, and he has a business. But now, they are aimed at entirely different sets of people.

Trump’s hotels and resorts are still targeted at the clientele they attracted before Trump entered politics: wealthy, city-dwelling customers and big-time convention planners. But in the meantime, Trump’s caustic politics have alienated many of those customers — and his new, partisan fans can’t make up the difference.

“The whole [company] was built — and very well constructed, I might say — on aspiration, on luxury, on wealth. And hey, he did that real well,” said Robert Passikoff of the firm Brand Keys, who has been studying Trump as a “human brand” since the 1980s. “But now that’s not part of who he is.”

Passikoff said Trump’s brand had shifted to target a smaller, politically sympathetic audience. That may be enough to win GOP primaries, but not to fill huge hotels and golf resorts.

“It’s a political brand forever. He’s made the decision,” Passikoff said. He said that as somebody who studies brands, he was sorry to see Trump tarnish one that had such broad appeal: “It’s so hard to find human brands.”

Since Trump took office, four Trump-branded hotels have shut down. The remaining 10 hotels have been hit hard. Last year, revenue at Trump’s Washington hotel fell 60 percent, according to Trump’s last presidential disclosures. It fell 44 percent at Doral in Miami. Both properties are key to Trump’s finances, because they carry large outstanding loans from Deutsche Bank.

One of Trump’s business partners called off an attempt to sell two office buildings that Trump co-owns in San Francisco and New York, depriving Trump of a payday likely in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Trump’s name is not on those buildings. But his role was still enough to dissuade potential buyers, according to Trump’s partner in the buildings, Steven Roth of real estate giant Vornado.

“There are some people who his presence affected. . . . Okay, that’s true,” Roth said in a call with investors, analysts and journalists before quickly adding that “it is not of sufficient issue to be of any trouble to us at all.” Roth said the buildings will be refinanced instead. That would in all likelihood prevent a large payout to Trump.

Trump also owns a 74,000-square-foot retail space near Trump Tower in Manhattan, formerly a Niketown, but Bloomberg reported Friday that it will soon go empty.

Trump’s chain of residential buildings shrank again this month, as a building in Stamford, Conn., called “Trump Parc” removed the “Trump” part — leaving only the ghost of the name, shadowed in grime. Messages from the condo board, obtained by The Post, said that 75 percent of owners had voted to remove the sign after Trump’s company had abruptly decided to end its management of the building. The removal was first reported by the Stamford Advocate.

At other Trump-branded residential buildings, brokers say that property values have been dropping. In Chicago, broker Phil Skowron said the only sliver of good news has come in the past few weeks, since Trump has largely disappeared from the news.

People started asking about Trump Tower condos again, Skowron said.

“Just already since he’s been out of office, since he’s been off Twitter, it’s already started to pick up,” Skowron said. He said he thought people were willing to forget Trump’s past actions, as long as they stayed in the past and as long as Trump units were still selling at a discount. “It’s gotten so cheap there. . . . You get a 30 or 40 percent discount, that’s real money.”

Now, other investors say they believe that these problems — as well as Trump’s desire to focus on politics — may lead him to sell off large properties.

If that happened, Trump could reap hundreds of millions that he could use to pay off outstanding loans and to pay lawyers helping with a raft of investigations and lawsuits he faces.

The buyers would gain properties that — once stripped of Trump’s name — might instantly attract a broader nonpartisan audience and command higher prices. The downside could be a hit to their own public image, if it appeared they were bailing out Trump during a time of crisis.

But buyers need a seller. And so far, Trump has given no indication he will sell.

Some potential buyers have indicated interest in buying up Trump’s loans, in theory allowing them to foreclose and seize the properties if Trump ever defaulted. But a spokesman for Deutsche Bank, which owns more than $300 million in outstanding loans on the Trump properties in Washington, Miami and Chicago, declined to comment on whether the borrowing agreements allowed Deutsche to sell the loans.

For now, the former president’s online Trump Store has begun selling goods explicitly aimed at Trump’s political fans, such as $36 red hats with the number “45” on them, alluding to Trump being the 45th president, and copies of Donald Trump Jr.’s books attacking liberals. Donald Trump’s businesses had promised not to trade on the presidency while Trump was in office.

Otherwise, the company has not transitioned away from the old Trump brand — an icon of nonpartisan, filthy-rich luxury, created in a world that no longer exists.

On Jan. 1, for instance, Trump Hotels tweeted a photo of a couple — apparently meant to be Trump customers — walking from Trump’s Sikorsky helicopter, featured in the credits of “The Apprentice,” to Trump’s famous 757, the backdrop at his 2016 campaign rallies.

“Flying into 2021 in style,” the caption read.

But the brand is not the same. Nor are the aircraft.

The helicopter in the photo was recently sold, according to the broker Jet Edge Partners. The 757 in the photo is parked at an airport in exurban New Windsor, N.Y., and has not flown since July 2019, according to flight records obtained by The Washington Post. The Trump Organization did not respond to questions about the grounded plane.

 

[Dandruff]

7 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Trump’s politics hurt his businesses. Will he sell as he looks to a potential 2024 campaign?"

 

I suspect he's staying in politics so he can collect campaign $$s (and associated small print regarding its use) and influence who the next R candidate will be (setting up family/cronies for future benefits).

As far as selling...that may depend on loans coming due and potential lawsuits.  I have no doubt he's looking for angles to stay in the real estate game.

[Ozlsn]

10 hours ago, Dandruff said:

As far as selling...that may depend on loans coming due and potential lawsuits.  I have no doubt he's looking for angles to stay in the real estate game.

I suspect there will be sales, but once you get through the shell companies it'll have essentially been a sale to himself or Ivanka.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump’s tax returns have been turned over to Manhattan district attorney"

Quote

NEW YORK — The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has taken possession of former president Donald Trump's tax returns and a wealth of other financial data deemed central to prosecutors' ongoing criminal case, officials confirmed Thursday.

The transfer, involving millions of pages of records, occurred Monday after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the former president’s last-ditch bid to shield his financial records from the district attorney, Democrat Cyrus R. Vance Jr.

In a statement, a spokesman for Vance’s office, Danny Frost, confirmed that Trump’s longtime accounting firm, Mazars, had complied with the subpoena after 18 months of delay while the former president’s lawyers fought tooth and nail to keep the information private. The transfer occurred Monday, within hours of the Supreme Court’s one-line order, Frost said.

“As we have maintained throughout this process, Mazars will comply with all its legal and professional obligations,” a spokesman for Mazars said Thursday.

A team of analysts in the district attorney’s office, including some from an outside forensics accounting firm, FTI Consulting, have been at the ready for months to dissect the records and scour for any evidence of criminal activity at Trump Organization or by its executive employees. The group includes Trump, three of his adult children — Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump — and Allen Weisselberg, the company’s longtime chief financial officer.

Vance’s investigators are evaluating whether the values of property assets in the Trump Organization portfolio were manipulated to gain tax advantages or favorable loans and insurance rates under false pretenses.

The records are voluminous, dating back eight years. Vance’s examination could take months.

Trump has rigorously and at times angrily denied any wrongdoing, labeling the district attorney’s investigation a “fishing expedition” and political hit job orchestrated by Democrats.

Trump’s lawyers had sought to block the records’ release to Vance by asking the Supreme Court to issue a stay, a legal order to pause proceedings while his legal team mounted an appeal challenging the subpoena’s legality. The appeal has not been filed. His attorneys initially argued that Trump was immune to a state-level investigation while he was in office, but the Supreme Court rejected that claim in July.

Trump faces unprecedented legal jeopardy for a former president.

Vance’s investigation is one of two known criminal probes involving him. The other was opened this month in Atlanta, where the Fulton County district attorney is investigating Trump’s controversial conversations with Georgia state officials amid his failed bid to overturn the election results there.

The New York state attorney general is conducting a separate investigation into the Trump Organization’s business and real estate activities.

The former president also faces defamation lawsuits brought separately by two women who have accused him of sexual assault. His niece, Mary L. Trump, is suing him and his siblings over an inheritance dispute.

He’s also being sued by the former tenants of apartments his family once owned, and by people who say they saw little to no profit after joining a multilevel marketing organization touted by Trump and his children.

 

[47of74]

Yep we’re at the golden calf worship stage of Branch Trumpvidism. 

Quote

A golden statue of Donald Trump, wearing shorts in the print of the US flag and carrying a wand, has caused a stir on Twitter since a video of it being wheeled into the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) conference surfaced on the social networking site.

A Bloomberg reporter shared footage of staff at the conservative conference wheeling a golden statue of the former US president across the conference floor.

The statue of the former US president has caused a stir on social media, with Twitter users responding to Bloomberg reporter William Turton’s tweet calling it everything from “obscene” to “perfect.”

Other Twitter users went as far as to compare the model of Mr Trump to Moses’ golden calf in the Bible, with caricatures and even a spoof YouTube video springing up in response.

Glad I’m not the only one who reached that conclusion.

Can you all imagine the shit fit the Republicans would’ve had if our side did a golden calf made of President Obama?  

[47of74]

And oh yeah, where’s Chuck Heston and OT God when ya need them?  
 

 

[fraurosena]

OFM is afraid an announcement will trigger the 14th Amendment, banning him from ever running. Wanna bet he'll only announce he's running if the GQP wins the Senate in 2022. 

Trump backs out of announcing new presidential campaign at CPAC

Quote

Former President Donald Trump is not expected to announce a new presidential campaign at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Sunday.

Aides gave Fox News a preview of the former president's speech after some reports said that he would declare himself the "presumptive 2024 nominee" at CPAC.

But instead of declaring his intentions to run, sources told Fox News that he would walk "right up to the line of announcing another campaign."

Fox News also obtained an excerpt from Trump's speech indicating that he does not want to form his own party.

"We are not starting new parties, and we will not be dividing our power and our strength. Instead, we will be united and strong like never before," Trump will say.

He is expected to attack Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a fellow Republican who voted to impeach him. President Joe Biden's efforts to undo Trump's legacy will also be addressed, the report said.

It was not immediately clear if Trump will repeat lies he's told about the election being stolen.

In my view it's a bad sign that he's not going to form his own party, as it suggests that he believes the GOP is firmly in his grip.

[Dandruff]

3 hours ago, fraurosena said:

OFM is afraid an announcement will trigger the 14th Amendment, banning him from ever running. Wanna bet he'll only announce he's running if the GQP wins the Senate in 2022. 

Trump backs out of announcing new presidential campaign at CPAC

In my view it's a bad sign that he's not going to form his own party, as it suggests that he believes the GOP is firmly in his grip.

I'm thinking that he figured out or was quietly notified about the support he wouldn't be getting from the GOP, and decided nope.  If he keeps tugging on the GOP he could, IMO, have them attacking and weakening each other vs. doing it to him, then maybe have a chance of stepping in (over the debris) later.

[Cartmann99]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I like this take on OFM's speech:

[47of74]

Q: How many members of the PCCF Administration did it take to screw in a light bulb?

A: Twelve.

1. One to deny that a light bulb needs to be changed
2. One to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the light bulb needs to be changed
3. One to blame President Obama for burning out the light bulb
4. One to tell the country that people who want to change the light bulbs are socialists.
5. One to figure out how PCCF can milk the government for a billion dollars for a new light bulb.
6. One to arrange a photograph of PCCF standing under a MAGA banner.
7. One administration insider to resign and write a book documenting in detail how Bush was literally in the dark.
8. One to viciously smear that administration insider.
9. One surrogate to campaign on TV and at rallies on how PCCF had a strong light-bulb-changing policy all along.
10. One to confuse Americans about the difference between screwing a light bulb and screwing the country.
11. One to egg Branch Trumpvidians on to attempt to violently overthrow the Government for trying to change to Democratic brand lightbulbs.
12. One to file frivolous lawsuits in a variety of courts to stop the changing of the bulb that just piss judges off.

 

[WiseGirl]

I would like to see this trend continue in the U.S.

l

[GreyhoundFan]

Great video:

 

[WiseGirl]

What the fuck. He's such a vile, vile man.

 

 

[thoughtful]

4 hours ago, WiseGirl said:

I would like to see this trend continue in the U.S.

l

[Cartmann99]

 

[church_of_dog]

Endorsed by @MaryLTrump, this is a litigation tracker listing all the current criminal and civil lawsuits against Former Guy, and their current status.

https://www.justsecurity.org/75032/litigation-tracker-pending-criminal-and-civil-cases-against-donald-trump/

Edited March 3, 2021 by church_of_dog
edit: oops, that @ was supposed to link to Mary Trump's twitter, where she promoted the tracker.

[GreyhoundFan]

I'm no fan of Rove, but this made my eyes roll: