Trump 54: A Grand Jury Has Been Called For The Former Guy!

[Cartmann99]

Poster for the conference:

Spoiler

Universal Peace Federation used to be called the Unification church which you probably know as the Moonies. If you remember hearing about a church where the members incorporate AR-15s into their worship services, the leader of that group is the son of the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon and Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon. Vice did a article on them if you'd like more information.

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited September 12, 2021 by Cartmann99

[Jana814]

I’m not surprised that Trump wasn’t at any of the memorials. He doesn’t care about anyone or anything but himself. 

[Audrey2]

3 minutes ago, Jana814 said:

I’m not surprised that Trump wasn’t at any of the memorials. He doesn’t care about anyone or anything but himself. 

But to hear Trump tell it he was one of the heroes of 9/11, at least as I recall.

[Jana814]

2 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

But to hear Trump tell it he was one of the heroes of 9/11, at least as I recall.

Not surprised by this either!  

[JordynDarby5]

3 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

He was probably prepping for his big boxing commentator gig. 
 

Personally I’m glad he didn’t show up. He would have made it all about himself. Also, he doesn’t want to be around the other former presidents. And Melania has moved back to Florida with Barron, so he would have been the odd man out, even more than usual. 

So am I. That's exactly what he would have done. The day is hard enough without that asshole showing up and making it all about him. The memorials got to be what they should be about those killed on 9/11, their families, the first responders and etc. 

[Dandruff]

1 hour ago, JordynDarby5 said:

So am I. That's exactly what he would have done. The day is hard enough without that asshole showing up and making it all about him. The memorials got to be what they should be about those killed on 9/11, their families, the first responders and etc. 

I think he would have been perfectly happy to show up and make everyone else more miserable, but had been discreetly notified to not even try it.

[GreyhoundFan]

6 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

But to hear Trump tell it he was one of the heroes of 9/11, at least as I recall.

I saw this badly photoshopped meme promoted by Charlie Kirk’s turning point USA. 
 

 

Trump wouldn’t carry one of his children if they were injured. And the MAGAts forget that Obama wasn’t president in 9/11/01. He wasn’t even a US senator at that point. Though, to be fair, I try to forget G.W. Bush too. 
 

 

Edited to add: we all know where TFG was that day. He was comfortably ensconced in his golden tower, calling news channels to crow that his building was now the tallest in NYC. (It wasn’t)

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump takes aim at George W. Bush, saying he shouldn’t ‘lecture’ about threat of domestic terrorism"

Quote

Former president Donald Trump lashed out Monday at former president George W. Bush, saying his fellow Republican had “a failed and uninspiring presidency” and shouldn’t be “lecturing” Americans about the threat posed by domestic terrorism.

Trump’s comments came two days after Bush, during remarks on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which occurred during his presidency, warned that there is growing evidence that domestic terrorism could pose as much of a threat to the United States as terrorism originating abroad.

In decrying “violent extremists at home,” Bush appeared to condemn the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, when a pro-Trump mob overran the complex in a violent siege that resulted in the deaths of five people.

“So interesting to watch former President Bush, who is responsible for getting us into the quicksand of the Middle East (and then not winning!), as he lectures us that terrorists on the ‘right’ are a bigger problem than those from foreign countries that hate America, and that are pouring into our Country right now,” Trump said in his statement, which took aim at Bush for the lengthy war in Afghanistan that followed the terrorist attacks.

“If that is so, why was he willing to spend trillions of dollars and be responsible for the death of perhaps millions of people?” Trump said. “He shouldn’t be lecturing us about anything. The World Trade Center came down during his watch. Bush led a failed and uninspiring presidency. He shouldn’t be lecturing anybody!”

During his speech Saturday at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa., Bush said that “there is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home.”

“But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols — they are children of the same foul spirit, and it is our continuing duty to confront them,” he added.

Bush continually invoked “the nation I know” in his remarks Saturday, an echo of his previous rejection of the rhetoric of Trump.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed by the planes that hijackers crashed Sept. 11, 2001, in New York, Arlington and Shanksville.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the majority whip, on Monday called on lawmakers to confront domestic terrorism.

“Do you remember the national unity we felt after 9/11? That tragedy brought us together. Imagine then — fast-forward to January 6, 2021, when the insurrectionist mob overran this Capitol,” Durbin said in remarks on the Senate floor. “It is heartbreaking that 20 years later, the gravest threat to America is not just the international terrorism, but some terrorism that comes from within. Al-Qaeda did not succeed in attacking this Capitol, but nine months ago, homegrown American terrorists did.”

 

[GreyhoundFan]

That time the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was so worried the Tangerine Toddler was going to provoke a war as part of a tantrum: "Top general was so fearful Trump might spark war that he made secret calls to his Chinese counterpart, new book says"

Quote

Twice in the final months of the Trump administration, the country’s top military officer was so fearful that the president’s actions might spark a war with China that he moved urgently to avert armed conflict.

In a pair of secret phone calls, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assured his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army, that the United States would not strike, according to a new book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward and national political reporter Robert Costa.

One call took place on Oct. 30, 2020, four days before the election that unseated President Trump, and the other on Jan. 8, 2021, two days after the Capitol siege carried out by his supporters in a quest to cancel the vote.

The first call was prompted by Milley’s review of intelligence suggesting the Chinese believed the United States was preparing to attack. That belief, the authors write, was based on tensions over military exercises in the South China Sea, and deepened by Trump’s belligerent rhetoric toward China.

“General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay,” Milley told him. “We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.”

In the book’s account, Milley went so far as to pledge he would alert his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, stressing the rapport they’d established through a backchannel. “General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise.”

Li took the chairman at his word, the authors write in the book, “Peril,” which is set to be released next week.

In the second call, placed to address Chinese fears about the events of Jan. 6, Li wasn’t as easily assuaged, even after Milley promised him, “We are 100 percent steady. Everything’s fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.”

Li remained rattled, and Milley, who did not relay the conversation to Trump, according to the book, understood why. The chairman, 62 at the time and chosen by Trump in 2018, believed the president had suffered a mental decline after the election, the authors write, a view he communicated to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a phone call on Jan. 8. He agreed with her evaluation that Trump was unstable, according to a call transcript obtained by the authors.

Believing that China could lash out if it felt at risk from an unpredictable and vengeful American president, Milley took action. The same day, he called the admiral overseeing the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the military unit responsible for Asia and the Pacific region, and recommended postponing the military exercises, according to the book. The admiral complied.

Milley also summoned senior officers to review the procedures for launching nuclear weapons, saying the president alone could give the order — but, crucially, that he, Milley, also had to be involved. Looking each in the eye, Milley asked the officers to affirm that they had understood, the authors write, in what he considered an “oath.”

The chairman knew that he was “pulling a Schlesinger,” the authors write, resorting to measures resembling the ones taken in August 1974 by James R. Schlesinger, the secretary of defense at the time. Schlesinger told military officials to check with him and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs before carrying out orders from President Richard M. Nixon, who was facing impeachment at the time.

Though Milley went furthest in seeking to stave off a national security crisis, his alarm was shared throughout the highest ranks of the administration, the authors reveal. CIA Director Gina Haspel, for instance, reportedly told Milley, “We are on the way to a right-wing coup.”

The book also provides new reporting on President Biden’s campaign — waged to unseat a man he told a top adviser “isn’t really an American president” — and his early struggle to govern. During a March 5 phone call to discuss Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, his first major legislative undertaking, the president reportedly told Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va), “if you don’t come along, you’re really f---ing me.” The measure ultimately cleared the Senate through an elaborate sequencing of amendments designed to satisfy the centrist Democrat.

The president’s frustration with Manchin is matched only by his debt to House Majority Whip Rep. James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, whose endorsement before that state’s primary propelled Biden to the nomination and gave rise to promises about how he would govern.

When Clyburn offered his endorsement in February 2020, it came with conditions, according to the book. One was that Biden would commit to naming a Black woman to the Supreme Court, if given the opportunity. During a debate two days later, Clyburn went backstage during a break to urge Biden to reveal his intentions for the Supreme Court that night. Biden issued the pledge in his final answer, and the congressman endorsed him the next day.

“Peril,” the authors say, is based on interviews with more than 200 people, conducted on the condition they not be named as sources. Exact quotations or conclusions are drawn from the participant in the described event, a colleague with direct knowledge or relevant documents, according to an author’s note. Trump and Biden declined to be interviewed.

On Afghanistan, the book examines how Biden’s experience as vice president shaped his approach to the withdrawal. Convinced that President Barack Obama had been manipulated by his own commanders, Biden vowed privately in 2009, “The military doesn’t f--- around with me.”

It also documents how Biden’s top advisers spent the spring weighing, but ultimately rejecting, alternatives to a full withdrawal. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin returned from a NATO meeting in March envisioning ways to extend the mission, including through a “gated” withdrawal seeking diplomatic leverage. But they came to see that meaningful leverage would require a more expansive commitment, and instead came back around to a full exit.

Milley, for his part, took what the authors describe as a deferential approach to Biden on Afghanistan, in contrast to his earlier efforts to constrain Trump. The book reveals recent remarks the chairman delivered to the Joint Chiefs in which he said, “Here’s a couple of rules of the road here that we’re going to follow. One is you never, ever ever box in a president of the United States. You always give him decision space.” Referring to Biden, he said, “You’re dealing with a seasoned politician here who has been in Washington, D.C., 50 years, whatever it is.”

His decision just months earlier to place himself between Trump and potential war was triggered by several important events — a phone call, a photo op and a refusal to rule out war with another adversary, Iran.

The immediate motivation, according to the book, was the Jan. 8 call from Pelosi, who demanded to know, “What precautions are available to prevent an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or from accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike?” Milley assured her that there were “a lot of checks in the system.”

The call transcript obtained by the authors shows Pelosi telling Milley, referring to Trump, “He’s crazy. You know he’s crazy. … He’s crazy and what he did yesterday is further evidence of his craziness.” Milley replied, “I agree with you on everything.”

Milley’s resolve was deepened by the events of June 1, 2020 when he felt Trump had used him as part of a photo op in his walk across Lafayette Square during protests that began after the killing of George Floyd. The chairman came to see his role as ensuring that, “We’re not going to turn our guns on the American people and we’re not going to have a ‘Wag the Dog’ scenario overseas,” the authors quote him saying privately.

Trump’s posture, not just to China but also to Iran, tested that promise. In discussions about Iran’s nuclear program, Trump declined to rule out striking the country, at times even displaying curiosity about the prospect, according to the book. Haspel was so alarmed after a meeting in November that she called Milley to say, “This is a highly dangerous situation. We are going to lash out for his ego?”

Trump’s fragile ego drove many decisions by the nation’s leaders, from lawmakers to the vice president, according to the book. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was so worried that a call from President-elect Biden would send Trump into a fury that the then-Majority Leader used a backchannel to fend off Biden. He asked Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, formerly the No. 2 Senate Republican, to ask Sen. Christopher A. Coons, the Democrat of Delaware and close Biden ally, to tell Biden not to call him.

So intent was Pence on being Trump’s loyal second-in-command — and potential successor — that he asked confidants if there were ways he could accede to Trump’s demands and avoid certifying the results of the election on Jan. 6. In late December, the authors reveal, Pence called Dan Quayle, a former vice president and fellow Indiana Republican, for advice.

Quayle was adamant, according to the authors. “Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away,” he said.

But Pence pressed him, the authors write, asking if there were any grounds to pause the certification because of ongoing legal challenges. Quayle was unmoved, and Pence ultimately agreed, according to the book.

When Pence said he planned to certify the results, the president lashed out. In the Oval Office on Jan. 5, the authors write, Pence told Trump he could not thwart the process, that his role was simply to “open the envelopes.”

“I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this,” Trump replied, according to the book, later telling his vice president, “You’ve betrayed us. I made you. You were nothing.”

Within days, Trump was out of office, his governing power reduced to nothing. But if stability had returned to Washington, Milley feared it would be short-lived, the authors write.

The general saw parallels between Jan. 6 and the 1905 Russian Revolution, which set off unrest throughout the Russian Empire and, though it failed, helped create the conditions for the October Revolution of 1917, in which the Bolsheviks executed a successful coup that set up the world’s first communist state. Vladimir Lenin, who led the revolution, called 1905 a “dress rehearsal.”

A similar logic could apply with Jan. 6, Milley thought as he wrestled with the meaning of that day, telling senior staff: “What you might have seen was a precursor to something far worse down the road.”

 

[47of74]

Yeah what got me was that the fucker was so crazy that his own people were worried about him launching nuclear weapons and that General Milley took measures to keep him from starting World War III. 

Quote

Two days after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, President Donald Trump's top military adviser, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, single-handedly took top-secret action to limit Trump from potentially ordering a dangerous military strike or launching nuclear weapons, according to "Peril," a new book by legendary journalist Bob Woodward and veteran Washington Post reporter Robert Costa.

In response, Milley took extraordinary action, and called a secret meeting in his Pentagon office on January 8 to review the process for military action, including launching nuclear weapons. Speaking to senior military officials in charge of the National Military Command Center, the Pentagon's war room, Milley instructed them not to take orders from anyone unless he was involved.

"No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I'm part of that procedure," Milley told the officers, according to the book. He then went around the room, looked each officer in the eye, and asked them to verbally confirm they understood.

He probably would have launched nuclear weapons against American citizens if he thought he could've gotten away with it or if it would change the election.

[Ozlsn]

14 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this,” Trump replied, according to the book, later telling his vice president, “You’ve betrayed us. I made you. You were nothing.”

How old is he, five?!

[Becky]

I am having trouble quoting, but that is a chilling read, @GreyhoundFan. 
For me , the most frightening part is the final evaluation that what we saw on January 6 could be a precursor to something worse. Unfortunately, I think that is a real fear. 

[47of74]

Fuck knob thinks the country will end in three years 

Quote

How’s this for a paradox? Donald Trump is predicting America will end in three years and is also hinting that he may run for office in 2024 ― three years from now.

The former president made the contradictory claims during a Newsmax interview on Tuesday with his former White House press secretary Sean Spicer. True to form, he also falsely claimed the 2020 presidential election was rigged.

After Trump said “our country has gone really downhill in the last eight months like nobody’s ever seen before,” he suggested, without offering any proof, that the country will end.

“And you go to these elections coming up in ’22 and ’24 — we’re not going to have a country left,” Trump said. “The election was rigged, and we’re not going to have a country left in three years, I’ll tell you that.”

Only way it would end is if fuck knob got back into power. 

[fraurosena]

Yes!!

 

[GreyhoundFan]

TFG is a loser!

[fraurosena]

Oooh, that money part must hurt! But not as much as the uppercut to his attention-whoring soul. 

[Dandruff]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

Oooh, that money part must hurt! But not as much as the uppercut to his attention-whoring soul. 

May this be a trend that continues toward his eventual irrelevancy.

[47of74]

Yeah it was a bust

Quote

In a fight that never should have happened, Evander Holyfield was embarrassed in his return to the ring last week against Vitor Belfort, getting KO’d in the first round. But the real loser might be Triller Fight Club.

According to boxing journalist Dan Rafael, sources say the fight generated around 150,000 PPV buys. If that number holds, it will represent a massive fail for Triller, who promoted and sold the PPV event for $49.99.

 

[fraurosena]

How wonderfully delicious! 

Remember how Trump was in the habit of not paying his contractors for their work?

Well, Triller not being able to pay all their expenses means that Trump probably won’t get paid for his efforts.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I can't stand that we've wasted so much money on these grifters: "Trump gave six months extra Secret Service protection to his kids, three officials. It cost taxpayers $1.7 million. "

Quote

In June, former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin visited Israel to scout investments for his new company, then flew to Qatar for a conference. At the time, Mnuchin had been out of office for five months.

But, because of an order given by President Donald Trump, he was still entitled to protection by Secret Service agents. As agents followed Mnuchin across the Middle East, the U.S. government paid up to $3,000 each for their plane tickets, and $11,000 for rooms at Qatar’s luxe St. Regis Doha, according to government spending records.

In all, the records show U.S. taxpayers spent more than $52,000 to guard a multimillionaire on a business trip.

These payments were among $1.7 million in additional government spending triggered by Trump’s highly unusual order — which awarded six extra months of Secret Service protection for his four adult children and three top administration officials — according to a Washington Post analysis of new spending documents.

That $1.7 million in extra spending is still tiny in comparison to the Secret Service’s $2.4 billion budget.

But, as the records show, Trump’s order required the Secret Service to devote agents and money to an unexpected set of people: wealthy adults, with no role in government, whom the agents trailed to ski vacations, weekend houses, a resort in Cabo San Lucas, and business trips abroad.

“Who wouldn’t enjoy continuing their free limo service and easy access to restaurant tables?” said Jim Helminski, a former Secret Service executive, who said the decision appeared to show Trump giving a public service as a private benefit to his inner circle. “Even if there was a credible risk to family and associates of Trump, these people are now private citizens who can afford to hire some very talented private security firms for their personal protection.”

The Secret Service declined to comment, beyond a statement that it “balances operational security requirements with judicious allocation of resources.”

Trump’s post-presidential office did not respond to questions. The Post sent messages to all seven of the people who received the additional protection. Five, including all of Trump’s adult children, did not respond. Another, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, declined to comment.

The seventh, Mnuchin, said through a spokesman that he had not asked Trump to provide the extra protection. After it was given, Mnuchin — like all the others — could have declined Secret Service protection.

But he did not, “because government officials advised him to maintain it,” said Devin O’Malley, a spokesperson for Mnuchin. O’Malley declined to provide further details.

O’Malley also said that Mnuchin had told the Secret Service “that he intends to reimburse certain expenses” that resulted from his extra protection. But he declined to say when Mnuchin would do so, or how much of the expenses he would repay.

By law, the Secret Service is supposed to protect ex-presidents and their spouses for life, and their children until they turn 16. In recent years, former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and George W. Bush have also ordered agents to protect slightly older, college-aged children for a short time after leaving office.

Trump went far beyond that.

He extended six months of extra protection to his children Trump Jr., 43; Ivanka, 39; Eric, 37; Tiffany, 27; and their spouses — as well as to Mnuchin, Meadows and former national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien.

Trump did not publish any public order announcing the decision at the time, or explaining his rationale.

To estimate the cost of Trump’s decision, The Post requested Secret Service records detailing the cost of protecting all seven people. For five of them, The Post received records covering the full six months, showing the costs of buying airplane tickets, renting cars and booking hotel rooms for agents on protective duty. For the other two — Tiffany Trump and O’Brien — The Post examined records covering the first four months, which had previously been obtained by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

The records began on Jan. 20, in the first hours after Trump left office.

Among the first payments the Secret Service made was to Trump’s own company.

That day, the records showed, Ivanka Trump and her family left Washington for Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J. — where Ivanka Trump has a cottage on the grounds. Secret Service agents came along, and Trump’s club charged them for the rooms they used.

The bill was $708.30 for one night, the records showed. The rate appeared to be $141.66 per room, the same rate that the club charged the Secret Service while Trump was still president.

In the next six months, the Secret Service spent about $347,000 on airfare, hotels and rental cars while protecting Ivanka Trump and her husband, former White House adviser Jared Kushner, the records show. The receipts showed the pair visiting resort destinations: Hawaii, Utah ski country, an upscale Wyoming ranch and Kiawah Island, S.C.

Agents also followed Kushner — now a private businessman — to the United Arab Emirates in May, paying $9,000 for hotel rooms, according to federal spending data posted online. The Secret Service did not say what the airfare costs were for this Kushner trip. The Daily Beast reported that the hotel was the Ritz Carlton in Abu Dhabi, citing a government spending document that said the hotel was Kushner’s choice.

Spokespeople for Ivanka Trump and Kushner did not respond to requests for comment this week.

Ivanka Trump’s adult siblings were, according to the records, less expensive to protect. Tiffany Trump, a recently married law school graduate, appeared to cost the least to guard. The partial records showed that, as of May, the Secret Service had spent $56,000 on airfare, rental cars and hotels while protecting her.

The costs of protecting Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. were similar: $241,000 for Eric and $213,000 for Trump Jr.

The records showed that the brothers mainly shuttled between their homes in New York and South Florida, with an occasional side trip. Trump Jr. went fishing in Montana. Eric Trump — who has become the most visible leader of the Trump Organization — visited Trump hotels in Washington and Chicago.

When he did, just as when his sister visited the Bedminster club, the Trump Organization charged agents who stayed in the former president’s properties: $350 for rooms in Washington, $1,415 in Chicago.

Jordan Libowitz, a spokesman for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said these charges — though small — represented a moral choice for the Trump family. If they wanted to reduce the burden of their extended protection on taxpayers, here was an easy chance to do it. Just don’t bill for rooms at Trump properties.

“The patriotic thing would obviously be not charging the government to stay at your properties and not profiting or profiteering off the government. It is just so easy for them to write off the rooms,” Libowitz said. “And we’re not seeing that.”

In that way, Trump’s children were following an example set by their father. Since he left office, he has lived full-time at his own properties — and charged the Secret Service for rooms every night. The total bill is now more than $72,000. It is almost certain to grow: Trump, unlike his children, has protection for life.

In examining expenses among the three White House officials who received an six extra months of protection, The Post could find little data on the cost of guarding O’Brien, the former national security adviser. The Secret Service spent $17,000 on rental cars while guarding him, but other expenses were not released.

Meadows, the former chief of staff, accounted for $342,000 in protection costs, the records showed. The Secret Service released few details, beyond a list of car rentals that showed visits to Washington, Florida and Meadows’s home state of North Carolina.

The most expensive of the seven to protect, it appears, was Mnuchin — an investment banker and Hollywood producer who served all four years of Trump’s term. In all, the Secret Service reported spending $479,000 while protecting him.

The receipts showed that agents spent $114,000 over the six months to rent rooms at a W Hotel in Los Angeles, where Mnuchin has a home.

They also followed Mnuchin on three trips to the Middle East, where Mnuchin is reportedly seeking to raise money from sovereign wealth funds for a new venture called Liberty Strategic Capital.

On one of those visits, Mnuchin told the Jerusalem Post that he was hoping to capitalize on the Trump administration’s efforts to build ties between Israel and some majority-Muslim neighbors — which culminated with the “Abraham Accords,” normalizing relations between Israel, the UAE and several other nations.

“Given our relationships here, the opportunity to bridge the economic transactions between different Abraham Accords member states is also a tremendous opportunity for us,” Mnuchin said in Tel Aviv in June. The Secret Service spent $23,000 on hotel rooms in Israel related to Mnuchin’s travel, records show.

Mnuchin’s travels with the Secret Service weren’t all business, however. Over the six months, the records show three separate trips to Cabo San Lucas — the Mexican resort, where Mnuchin had also vacationed during Trump’s presidency.

To guard Mnuchin during those three trips, the records show, the Secret Service paid $56,000 for hotel rooms and $2,000 to rent golf carts.

 

[AlmostSavedAtTacoBell]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I can't stand that we've wasted so much money on these grifters: "Trump gave six months extra Secret Service protection to his kids, three officials. It cost taxpayers $1.7 million. "

 

The really aggravating part is Eric's Secret Service detail's main assignment was to keep him from eating crayons and making sure he didn't stick his fingers into electrical outlets.  

[Dandruff]

5 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I can't stand that we've wasted so much money on these grifters: "Trump gave six months extra Secret Service protection to his kids, three officials. It cost taxpayers $1.7 million. "

If the adult children are feeling unsafe they should pay for their own extra protection.

[GreyhoundFan]

Shaking my head.

[GreyhoundFan]

What's next? Trump-branded Covid tests with fake news results?

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Because of course: "Trump sues New York Times and niece Mary Trump over tax records story"

Quote

Former president Donald Trump has sued his niece, Mary L. Trump, and the New York Times over the publication of a 2018 article detailing allegations that he “participated in dubious tax schemes … including instances of outright fraud” that allowed him to receive over $413 million from his father, Fred Trump Sr., while significantly reducing taxes.

The suit, filed in a Dutchess County, N.Y., court on Tuesday, alleges that Mary Trump, the New York Times and at least three of its reporters “engaged in an insidious plot to obtain confidential and highly-sensitive records” about the former president’s finances. According to the lawsuit, Donald Trump suffered at least $100 million in damages as a result of the alleged actions.

Trump, unlike every other major-party presidential nominee in recent history, has declined to make his tax records public.

The New York Times and the three reporters named in the suit — David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner — won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for their 18-month investigation that culminated in the article. Their work “debunked [Trump’s] claims of self-made wealth and revealed a business empire riddled with tax dodges,” according to the Pulitzer Prize board.

After the article’s publication, Trump dismissed the story as a “hit piece” that was “boring.”

Donald Trump’s suit alleges that the New York Times influenced Mary Trump to help them acquire confidential documents despite a settlement agreement that she had signed after a legal challenge to Fred Trump Sr.’s will. In her 2020 book “Too Much and Never Enough,” Mary Trump detailed how she helped the reporters obtain Donald Trump’s financial records.

At 3 a.m. one day in 2017, she took 19 boxes of documents from Farrell Fritz, the law firm that helped her challenge the estate of Fred Trump Sr., and handed them over to the journalists. A lawyer at the firm had told her she was entitled to take the documents, as long as at least one copy was left behind, Mary Trump said.

“It wasn’t enough for me to volunteer at an organization helping Syrian refugees,” she wrote. “I had to take Donald down.”

In 2020, Mary Trump also sued Donald Trump and two of the former president’s siblings, saying that they defrauded her out of tens of millions of dollars decades ago by allegedly manipulating the value of properties and lying to her about the worth of her inheritance.

News of Donald Trump’s lawsuit was first reported by the Daily Beast. Mary Trump told the news website that the legal action was motivated by “desperation. … The walls are closing in and he is throwing anything against the wall that will stick. As is always the case with Donald, he’ll try and change the subject.”

A spokeswoman for the Times said that the paper’s coverage of Donald Trump’s taxes “helped inform citizens through meticulous reporting on a subject of overriding public interest. This lawsuit is an attempt to silence independent news organizations, and we plan to vigorously defend against it.”

Donald Trump and Mary Trump didn’t immediately return requests for comment.

“I knocked on Mary Trump’s door. She opened it,” tweeted Craig on Wednesday. “I think they call that journalism.”