Trump 55: The Bronze Baron Of Bedminster Wants Back On Twitter And the Forbes 400

[church_of_dog]

2 hours ago, Howl said:

Craig Unger's House of Trump House of Putin (2018) is an excellent read about Russian corruption, Russian mafias (there are different kinds of Russian mafias) and Russia Russia Russia. Putin's Russia is a corrupt mobliarchy.  Anything goes AS LONG AS PUTIN GETS A CUT.  Unger speculates that Putin may be the world's richest man, because a cut of all Russian corruption flows up to Putin. 

When Rudy G. kicked the Italian mob out of New York, it gave a space for the Russian mob to move in, although they operated differently and targeted different sources of money.  The key element to remember is that corrupt dirt Russian money isn't going to launder itself and what better way than real estate! 

Trump was saved financially by laundering Russian money through his real estate, and especially apartments in Trump Tower.  

IIRC,  Allison Gill (Lincoln's Bible on twitter) characterizes Trump as a wholly owned asset rather than a "member" of the Russian mob and Putin. He's simply an asset to be used however they see fit. 

Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction (David Enrich, 2020) is also a great read, although it really is about Deutsche Bank and how it went from an extremely staid German bank to epic global wheelings and dealings flirting with corruption and not so much specific to Trump's dealings with them.  Also, remember the name Rosemary Vlabic,  Trump's personal wealth banker at Deutsche Bank, who abruptly resigned at age 60 in Dec. 2020. 

I need to go back and research more about the NRA and Russian money.  The hugely influential NRA is kaput, the honey pot scandal is forgotten and the "dirty Russian money being laundered into election donations" story quickly disappeared from view. 

Thanks for posting the link to Tomi's twitter thread; it hits all of the high spots. I follow Tomi but somehow missed this.  

A trip down memory lane to a more innocent time.  I was driving along, listening to NPR on the radio and news came on about Paul Manafort's Ukraine connection and his resignation from the Trump campaign. I was absolutely gobsmacked, so stunned in fact that I almost pulled over to listen to the rest of the story.  HOLY F**K, Manafort +Trump's ! Ukraine! Corruption!  That's how naive we were then.   Now it's not even possible to grok the scope the Trump Crime family's global corruption that happened between Manafort's resignation and current times.  

Thanks for the book mentions -- I just got in line for both of them.

And -- I thought Allison Gill is MuellerSheWrote on twitter?  Is she LincolnsBible too?  Off to check...

 

EDIT:  I couldn't find who is LincolsBible but I'm now following them both regardless...

Edited January 28, 2022 by church_of_dog

[Alisamer]

11 hours ago, Dandruff said:

I don't think it's too late for things to turn around, but what can we (in the US) expect if all hell really does break loose?  Who, in the world, is going to be willing and able to come help?

I think Russia might help the right wingers, since it would be super easy to then put Trump on the new throne as figurehead while Putin happily drains all the assets he can get his fingers on as the actual ruler behind the scenes. Then Trump will either die or disappear (Putin can make either one happen) and no election will be held, and either Putin will take over for real or put another useful stooge on the throne to do his bidding. 

The rest of us? Damn. Maybe Canada can annex us or something? Or Mexico? 

I'm not sure how much of a catch we'll be, other than land and stuff. Chances are anyone with money will have evacuated to wherever they can find that will take them. It'll be us poors hoping the anti-communists who will have turned half the country over to the actual communists don't kill us all. 

[fraurosena]

11 hours ago, Dandruff said:

Who, in the world, is going to be willing and able to come help?

It won't be a question of willing, now Biden is in office and busy undoing the damage Trump did with America's allies. But who, in the world, is actually able to come to help? No one has the military power to match the US. 

So what it will come down to, in the end, is who controls the military. So far, they have chosen the side of democracy. Let's hope it stays that way...

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, clueliss said:

I don't like Spotify to begin with

 

Thanks for this. I didn't realize it was a Kushner company. I just cancelled my subscription.

[Dandruff]

7 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Thanks for this. I didn't realize it was a Kushner company. I just cancelled my subscription.

I was thinking about joining and now have one less thing to think about.

[fraurosena]

I may be a little backward in this regard, but I've never quite understood the charm of spotify. Why subscribe to something when most music I like is also available on YouTube? 🤷‍♀️

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

I may be a little backward in this regard, but I've never quite understood the charm of spotify. Why subscribe to something when most music I like is also available on YouTube? 🤷‍♀️

I actually had it for no extra charge through my NYT subscription.

[Ozlsn]

5 hours ago, fraurosena said:

It won't be a question of willing, now Biden is in office and busy undoing the damage Trump did with America's allies. But who, in the world, is actually able to come to help? No one has the military power to match the US. 

So what it will come down to, in the end, is who controls the military. So far, they have chosen the side of democracy. Let's hope it stays that way...

And if the military splits between factions... then God help us all. I sincerely hope that loyalty to the concept of America, the nation, will prevent that, and that even if some leaders attempt to take troops in the direction of a coup that those troops will not obey. 

[Xan]

On 1/28/2022 at 9:44 AM, Howl said:

Trump was saved financially by laundering Russian money through his real estate, and especially apartments in Trump Tower.  

Thank you for posting about those books.  I've been reading about Trump's connections to Russia for quite some time.  In fact, (maybe I'm paranoid) I wonder if Putin has decided that now is the time to invade Ukraine precisely because all the dirt is coming out about Trump and he realizes that the laundering of dirty Russian money might be exposed as well.  The press wouldn't linger on a story about financial corruption when there's a bigger story about a land invasion.

I was on Twitter over a year ago and followed stories about Navalny and Putin.  I think I made one too many comments because my Twitter account started going weird and kicking me off.  Again, maybe I'm paranoid but every time I've gotten into online discussions about Russian corruption, whatever account I was on went odd.  I ended up closing that Twitter account and opened another not long ago but now avoid making many comments.  I honestly believe that Putin pays a lot of hackers to squash dissent and to sow discontent with politics in other countries.  He's a monster.  And, yes -- very, very rich.

[Ozlsn]

On 1/29/2022 at 1:44 AM, Howl said:

IIRC,  Allison Gill (Lincoln's Bible on twitter) characterizes Trump as a wholly owned asset rather than a "member" of the Russian mob and Putin. He's simply an asset to be used however they see fit. 

Now I am very curious about Rupert Murdoch, and who he's beholden to and why. 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Books, speeches, hats for sale: Post-presidency, the Trumps try to make money the pre-presidency way"

Quote

Donald Trump’s advisers sent a “breaking” alert a few weeks before Christmas to his political supporters, informing them of a new opportunity to show their “loyalty” through a book of photographs.

“ARE YOU GOING TO BUY PRESIDENT TRUMP’S NEW BOOK?” the email read.

The book, based largely on photographs in the public domain, and sold unsigned for $75 and over three times that with Trump’s signature, has been published by a new company founded by his son, Donald Trump Jr. It paid the former president a multimillion-dollar advance for signing copies, writing captions and helping curate photos, according to a person familiar with the arrangement, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect private discussions.

Former first lady Melania Trump has sold digital images of a painting of her eyes for about $180 each, with payments that had to be submitted to her website in the form of a cryptocurrency called Solana. She has also offered for sale a hat she wore on a state visit to France, a painting of her wearing the hat, and a digital image of the same, for a minimum bid that she originally pegged at $250,000, though that amount fell precipitously in recent weeks as the value of Solana plunged.

Trump and his family have also been hitting the road, with both the former president and Trump Jr. expected to attend a for-profit speaking event in Houston on Saturday, before a free political rally just outside the city. Tickets for the American Freedom Tour range from $9 for satellite room viewing, $25 for a general admission seat, or $3,995 for a meeting and photo with the younger Trump and other perks.

The lines between political and for-profit efforts by the former president and his family have blurred for months as they have moved to reestablish and expand the branding empire they enjoyed before he entered the White House. Major Republican committees are promoting Trump’s private business interests, and Trump has repeatedly used his political action committee to promote his private products, in addition to building a political war chest of more than $110 million.

Years after shuttering businesses selling Trump steaks, Trump vodka and Trump mattresses, the Trumps have returned to unconventional direct-to-consumer appeals that trade on his continued popularity among a devoted base to the tune of millions of dollars in receipts. Even as some of his traditional businesses have struggled after a polarizing presidency, Trump and his family have been launching a whole set designed to target his die-hard followers.

The moves come as he continues to travel the country for political rallies while teasing a potential 2024 presidential campaign. He has also been fighting off multiple investigations into his business and political practices, much of which he has paid for with help from his political fundraising operation and his allies at the Republican National Committee.

“He has an incredibly solid base of people who think the election was stolen and their country is being stolen from them,” said former campaign manager Brad Parscale of Trump’s customers. Parscale’s company manages the digital operations for his enterprises, the full profits of which are unknown because they fall outside his political operation.

Taylor Budowich, a spokesman for Trump, said “unprecedented demand for President Trump, his thoughts, and his products continues to grow unlike anything politics has ever seen.” He added, “That demand will only expand further.”

Presidents have long monetized the office after leaving, if usually more quietly by giving largely private paid speeches and sometimes by sitting on corporate boards. But none has done it in Trump’s flashy fashion.

Michael Cohen, a former Trump political and business adviser, said the new Trump ventures follow the same strategies that Trump employed before his election, when Cohen was often involved in striking branding deals on behalf of his boss. Those projects included everything from Trump brand bottled water to Trump University, a real estate investment seminar that ended with Trump paying $25 million to former students who had sued him for misrepresenting the program.

“All of this was presented to him and accepted because they flashed some cash in front of his face,” said Cohen, who fell out with his former boss after the 2016 election and was sentenced to three years in prison for multiple charges including campaign finance violations in support of Trump, of the current Trump efforts. “They would sell ice to an Eskimo signed by Trump if they could.”

Timothy O’Brien, a Trump biographer, said Trump’s traditional hospitality businesses have been sideswiped by the coronavirus and fallout from his presidency at the same time he has debt coming due on some of his properties.

Trump faces more than $400 million in outstanding loans, including more than $290 million in debts to Deutsche Bank on his D.C. hotel and his Doral golf resort, both of which suffered from declining revenue during the pandemic. Much of that debt is personally guaranteed, putting his fortune at risk if he defaults. He has made recent moves to address the future of both properties, including a proposed sale of his D.C. hotel lease, for which he is expected to make a handsome profit.

O’Brien and others also noted that Trump saw throughout his presidency that supporters would give to him, even if they barely had the money, and gave more than $70 million to a fund intended to help him overturn the election.

“He learned he could monetize his political standing,” O’Brien said. “And if there is a pile of cash on a desk, Donald Trump is going to take it.”

The former president’s new ventures have supplemented a pension of over $200,000 and hundreds of thousands more taxpayer dollars for office rentals, travel, staff and supplies.

Trump pocketed between $3 million and $4 million on a recent four-stop speaking tour with conservative pundit Bill O’Reilly, according to a person familiar with the deal. Tickets for the general public started at $100 each. Trump also used his political action committee to promote the event through a news release. Even though many of the arenas appeared somewhat empty, the evenings were lucrative.

Trump has also given private speeches in Texas and Florida, where he collected six-figure checks, and has done virtual events, allies say. He has signed thousands of the $230 photo books. “The boxes are everywhere,” one person in his orbit said.

Sometimes, the money comes to Trump. He has agreed to appear at fundraisers at his club for candidates who pay to use his facilities, and he regularly appears at five or six fundraisers a week, advisers say. Additionally, he routinely attends weddings at the club, where couples sometimes book hoping to see him. His team is also renting his lists of supporters to other candidates, in exchange for a large cut of the money.

“He always wants to be making money and sees everything as a branding exercise,” said a senior Trump adviser, who like the others spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect Trump’s private views.

For supporters accustomed to getting multiple pleas a day for money to support Trump, often by selling hats or shirts, the pitch to buy his new book of photographs in December did not appear exceptional.

But there was a difference. Unlike most of the money requests, sales of the book did not go to Trump’s political operation, Save America, which sent the email. Save America often sends supporters five or more emails a day offering contests, merchandise and other perks for those who donate, and sometimes gives misleading claims about their donations being matched or Trump asking about them in particular.

“The demand for President Donald Trump remains unmatched. No one generates more enthusiasm, more support and more excitement,” said Sergio Gor, the president of Winning Team Publishing, who worked on Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign and the 2016 presidential effort of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). “As his publisher, we never expected to sell over 200,000 copies in just a few weeks.”

Trump’s biggest for-profit effort is a new social network, called Truth Social, which has yet to be launched. Because of the structure of the company, which is being merged with another firm, the former president is poised to reap a large windfall from the effort if he can maintain or increase the company’s stock price. But regulators are probing the deal to create the company, and no such social network has emerged, frustrating Trump at times, according to advisers.

The social network’s ambitions have been aided by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Republican National Committee, which have been advertising it on Facebook, where Trump himself is banned from posting, to drum up interest in the new company.

“Do you want to join Donald Trump’s social media site?” asks an ad for the Senate committee. “Vote in the link below.”

The spots, which drive interest in the Trump effort, link to online polls and opportunities to contribute to the Republican causes. Facebook users who click on the ads are given a chance to donate and submit their contact information to the committees, which are independent from Trump’s new online effort.

Of all the family’s endeavors, Melania Trump’s new venture is perhaps the most unusual.

She has told others that she is keeping the proceeds from her sales separate from her husband’s operation, and she has promised to donate some of the proceeds to charity. Several of Trump’s top advisers have said they don’t understand why she requires payment in Solana. Solana Labs, which built the blockchain, released a statement last month saying her offerings were not part of a “Solana-led initiative.”

First ladies have not traditionally sold their worn items to make money for themselves but have occasionally given them to charities for auctions, said Anita McBride, a White House historian and former chief of staff to first lady Laura Bush. McBride said unlike her predecessors, Melania Trump seemed less interested in buttressing her husband’s legacy and participating in the types of charitable endeavors that first ladies traditionally have done to boost their own images.

“I’ve really not seen anything like this,” she said, of the cryptocurrency auctions.

Melania Trump’s former chief of staff, Stephanie Grisham, said Trump, a former model, would like that the art is of herself and getting to control the images. Grisham said she had never heard Melania Trump speak about cryptocurrency before leaving the White House. “I think she’s just stockpiling money for herself right now,” she said.

A statement from Melania Trump’s office said her business efforts flow from a passion for technology and culture and a commitment to philanthropy.

“Today, Mrs. Trump has built a blueprint to support her philanthropic platform, which provides children with computer science skills required to secure an entry level job in the tech sector,” the statement said.

But her experimentation with cryptocurrency appeared to have backfired this month, when the value of Solana fell as part of a broader sell-off of digital coins. Bids on her hat reached as high as $275,000 at one point, before dropping to the equivalent of just over $150,000 before the auction ended. She has not announced the final sale price of the hat in either dollars or Solana.

Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has branched out on his own with the help of his personal email list, which he has built in part by warning his 5 million Facebook followers that he may soon be kicked off the platform.

He rented his email list at an unknown cost in December to HobbyTron.com, an online toy vendor that uses celebrities for marketing, telling his followers the company was an “American-owned small business, so your support matters.” In the email appeal, he included a photoshopped meme of President Biden standing amid empty store shelves with a photo of his son, Hunter Biden, in his underwear.

Donald Trump Jr., who calls himself a “general in the meme wars,” also operates his own merchandise shop which is focused on selling clothing with messages meant to upset liberals. In 2020, he founded an outdoor adventure brand, Field Ethos Journal, which has now published its first print magazine.

The book publishing project has been major success, according to a person involved in its activities. The company, which has not disclosed its investors, claims to have projects by three other authors in the pipeline, including Donald Trump Jr., who is working on his third book. The company has had discussions with former president Trump about doing another book with the publisher, the person said, but nothing has yet been agreed.

At the Trump rally in Arizona last Saturday, the new company set up a small stand to sell the photo book directly to supporters.

Trump has also returned to work on his existing suite of golf and resort properties. He released a statement this month, using his taxpayer-funded post-presidential office, boasting of a recent investment in his Doral golf course in Miami and promising that thousands of homes would be built on the property.

“Check it out!” Trump said in the statement.

 

[fraurosena]

He probably doesn't realize this is a taped confession to treason.

 

[Becky]

11 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Books, speeches, hats for sale: Post-presidency, the Trumps try to make money the pre-presidency way"

 

P.T. Barnum would be proud.  Apparently, there IS a sucker born every minute.

[fraurosena]

Still inciting, still on camera, still a traitor.

Trump calls for 'the biggest protest we have ever had' in DC and other cities if prosecutors investigating him 'do anything illegal'

Quote

Speaking at a Texas rally, former President Donald Trump called for nationwide protests if prosecutors investigating him and his businesses "do anything illegal."

In the speech, he appeared to link the investigations to his baseless claim that the 2020 election was rigged, which led to the January 6 Capitol riot.

"If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protest we have ever had in Washington DC, in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere because our country and our elections are corrupt," Trump told the crowd in Conroe, Texas on Saturday night.

Since leaving office, Trump has faced a flurry of investigations into his actions as president and his private businesses.

"In reality, they're not after me, they're after you, and I just happen to be the person in the way," Trump told his supporters at the rally.

The House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection is probing Trump's actions on that day and is considering whether Trump or his allies committed any crimes. 

The Trump Organization's financial dealings are also the subject of years-long investigations from the New York attorney general and the Manhattan district attorney's office.

According to New York Attorney General Letitia James, her office has so far uncovered "significant evidence" that the Trump Organization used fraudulent and misleading asset valuations on multiple properties.

"In reality, they're not after me, they're after you, and I just happen to be the person in the way," Trump told his supporters at the rally.

The House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection is probing Trump's actions on that day and is considering whether Trump or his allies committed any crimes. 

The Trump Organization's financial dealings are also the subject of years-long investigations from the New York attorney general and the Manhattan district attorney's office.

According to New York Attorney General Letitia James, her office has so far uncovered "significant evidence" that the Trump Organization used fraudulent and misleading asset valuations on multiple properties.

"For years, they've been going after my company, many years, using every trick in the book in an attempt to literally, if they can, put me in jail. They want to put me in jail," Trump said at the rally on Saturday.

The former president repeatedly called the prosecutors "racist," said they were "mentally sick," and accused them of "prosecutorial misconduct at the highest level."

"They're going after me without any protection of my rights by the Supreme Court or most other courts," Trump said.

On several occasions, Trump has appealed to the US Supreme Court to try and prevent investigators from obtaining documents and records relating to their probes.

This month, the Supreme Court denied his request to block the January 6 committee from obtaining presidential records, which he tried to withhold by citing executive privilege.

Last year, the Supreme Court also rejected a challenge from Trump to keep his tax returns secret.

 

[Dandruff]

He sounds desperate, among other things.

[Audrey2]

3 minutes ago, Dandruff said:

He sounds desperate, among other things.

The thing is no matter how desperate he sounds his Red hat society is eating this up with a spoon. Look what happened when he and others inside of them to march to the capital on January 6th. This really terrifies me.

[Dandruff]

10 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

The thing is no matter how desperate he sounds his Red hat society is eating this up with a spoon. Look what happened when he and others inside of them to march to the capital on January 6th. This really terrifies me.

They're eating it, but I believe most will prefer to puke it up before inviting arrest.  Their Jan. 6th buddies aren't faring too well and Dumps doesn't appear to be helping.

[Audrey2]

30 minutes ago, Dandruff said:

They're eating it, but I believe most will prefer to puke it up before inviting arrest.  Their Jan. 6th buddies aren't faring too well and Dumps doesn't appear to be helping.

He just talk about pardoning those who are treated unfairly for January 6th if he becomes president again and I can see more people than what I'd like to see take him at his word and do the marches that he's asking for.

[AlmostSavedAtTacoBell]

27 minutes ago, Dandruff said:

They're eating it, but I believe most will prefer to puke it up before inviting arrest.  Their Jan. 6th buddies aren't faring too well and Dumps doesn't appear to be helping.

May your words reach whatever ears needs to hear them. I truly hope even his most fervent believers realize it all hinges on him first getting re-elected and second following through on his promise. He has also just signaled states to start enacting statutes that criminalize activity surrounding seditious or other insurrectionist activities including planning or provoking so that state charges can be pursued, which would be exempt from POTUS pardon.  There is definitely an argument that each state has its own separate interest in enacting legislation against such actions. 

[Dandruff]

2 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

He just talk about pardoning those who are treated unfairly for January 6th if he becomes president again and I can see more people than what I'd like to see take him at his word and do the marches that he's asking for.

He was also going to join the Jan. 6th rioters in their walk to the Capitol and crapped out, and Lindell was going to get him reinstated as President by the SC, as if.  Most of his supporters should have noticed the trend of BS and considered their own investment in the process.

While I agree that some of his hard-core fans will take him at his word no matter what, I suspect most are noticing the lack of results and the numbers of people who have been arrested who aren't him.  He's also no longer in charge, as he was on Jan. 6th, so he's lost a chunk of his authoritarian appeal.  He isn't even allowed to whine and bleat on Twitter anymore.

No telling what might happen, but I believe he's going to have a hard time motivating his supporters to the point of critical mass.  They're building more on failure than success at this point so I think most might be willing to make some noise and/or send him their money, but not risk jail.

[Jana814]

Trump sees nothing wrong with what the rioters did on January 6th. I think he’s proud with what they did. The rioters were crazy enough to believe that if they storm the capital they could change the outcome of the election. 

[Cartmann99]

 

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, Cartmann99 said:

 

And now his seditous incitement is also in writing.

"... Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome [...] he could have overturned the Election!"

 

[Dandruff]

14 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

And now his seditous incitement is also in writing.

"... Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome [...] he could have overturned the Election!"

 

Looks like he's acknowledging that he lost.  Oops.

[Xan]

I just read an article this morning that Trump and his inner circle are floating the idea that Jan. 6 is all the fault of the Democrats and the FBI.  Yeah, I know it sounds ridiculous.  Trump is telling people that if they win back the House in 2022, they can start massive investigations on Democrats and pin the entire insurrection on them.  The truth is, if they do take back the house, this is exactly what they'll do.  Remember Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi?  They already have the Republicans believing that Trump won the election.  It wouldn't take many more sound bites and help from the media to get enough people to buy in so that they can paper over the whole affair.

I do hope that we start seeing more prosecution of higher ups.  This has got to be mostly completed before the election.