Thursday, April 6, 2023

4/6 Wake-Up Call: Trump's Upside to Indictment


Online donations to Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign have topped $12 million since news of his looming indictment broke a week ago, according to The NYTimes. About one-third of those donors had never before given money to Trump. His political associates reportedly think that the fact that he is facing criminal charges could help him with his base but is unlikely to draw support from moderate suburban and independent voters. And here’s a fact check: That Trump mugshot which has been viewed 783,000 times on Twitter is a fake, Newsweek has confirmed. No mugshot was taken when the former president was arraigned on Tuesday, although he was fingerprinted.

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is also trying to enlist donors who have supported Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, by presenting the former president’s rising poll numbers as an unstoppable force in the race for the US Republican nomination.  An elaborate three-page memo from longtime Trump pollster John McLaughlin containing color-coded graphics was attached to an email sent by the campaign on Wednesday — a day after Trump was arraigned in a New York courtroom on charges that he falsified business records to conceal a payment of hush money to an adult-film actress. Like others in the former president’s circle, the campaign tried to present the candidate’s legal troubles as beneficial to his latest quest for the White House, while simultaneously denouncing the prosecution by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.  The memo, which was seen by Bloomberg News and reported earlier by Politico, presents Trump’s “fantastic trends” as he has pulled away from DeSantis in voter surveys.

 ➤MELANIA SAID TO BE IN DENIAL: Melania Trump “lives in an ivory tower of denial,” said a friend of the former first lady — who was absent as her husband made his first public comments after becoming the first commander-in-chief in US history to be arraigned on criminal charges.  Former President Donald Trump delivered a defiant speech at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Tuesday following the arraignment where he thanked his family for their support. But Melania, 52, was nowhere to be seen as Trump decried the charges stemming from payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep quiet about purported extramarital affairs. Former Melania aide and best friend Stephanie Winston Wolkoff — who previously revealed the former first lady privately referred to Daniels as “the porn hooker” — told Page Six, “Melania lives in an ivory tower of denial.” Wolkoff, a former senior Vogue staffer who was Melania’s advisor until 2018, said of the former first lady’s absence at Mar-a-Lago’s ballroom, “I never expected to see her there. Her silence is deliberate, it is her weapon of choice and her protective armor.”

➤A KENNEDY TO CHALLENGE BIDEN: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (left), a scion of one of America’s foremost political dynasties who has emerged as a prominent anti-vaccine activist in recent years, will challenge Joe Biden for president in 2024. Kennedy, 69, filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday, listing a Los Angeles address and a Democratic Party affiliation. He had been running a low-profile exploratory committee and spoke in the early-primary state of New Hampshire last month.  He is the son of Robert F. Kennedy, the former US attorney general and New York senator who was assassinated in 1968 during his own campaign for president.

➤US-RUSSIAN RELATIONS IN 'DEEP CRISIS': Russian President Vladimir Putin said relations between the US and Russia are “experiencing a deep crisis,” as he sought to blame Washington for his invasion of neighboring Ukraine.French President Emmanuel Macron said on a visit to China that the Asian country can play a “major role” in Ukraine while adding that he opposes moves to decouple from the world’s second-biggest economy. NATO foreign ministers held a second day of talks in Brussels on Wednesday, focusing on threats and spending after Finland became the 31st member.  President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was visiting Poland, one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies, to discuss defense and economic cooperation.

➤REPORT DETAILS ABUSE BY BALTIMORE PRIESTS: More than 150 Catholic priests and clergymen associated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore are accused of abusing at least 600 children from the 1940s through 2002 in a report released by the Maryland attorney general’s office. The accusation is based on hundreds of thousands of documents obtained through church records and interviews with victims and witnesses. Most of the accused are dead and the statute of limitations prevents enforcement of most of the cases. The Maryland Legislature passed a bill yesterday to end the statute of limitations for child abuse cases. Baltimore Archbishop William Lori apologized to the victims yesterday and said that radical reforms have transformed the Archdiocese since the crimes occurred.


➤TECH TITAN MURDERED: Bob Lee, 43, was fatally-stabbed in the early hours of Tuesday morning in San Francisco, where he used to live. On Wednesday night his friend Jake Shields said Lee (right) had left the city due to crime. 'He did comment on San Francisco deteriorating, which is why he actually had just relocated to Miami,' said Shields, a champion UFC fighter who knew Lee well. Shields himself took the decision to leave San Francisco after his girlfriend was robbed, and is now based in Las Vegas.

➤OIL SURGES..AGAIN: Oil headed for a third straight weekly gain after OPEC+ surprised the market with a production cut and US inventories dropped. West Texas Intermediate futures eased toward $80 a barrel, but are still almost 6% higher this week. Monday’s surge was the largest in a year after an unexpected move by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies to shave more than 1 million barrels of daily output from next month. Saudi Arabia has since hiked prices of all its oil sales to customers in Asia. Crude has risen about 25% since mid-March, when it collapsed to a 15-month low on the back of a banking crisis that prompted a flight from riskier assets. The move by OPEC+ took out some speculative short sellers, pushing prices higher just as expectations of a recovery in Chinese demand, shrinking US inventories, and a weakening dollar also lifted the commodity’s allure.

➤PROPERTY TAXES JUMP: Property taxes increased twice as fast last year than in 2021 in the US, with many areas in the South and West increasing by more than the national average. Even after the gains, single-family-home property taxes remain much lower in the Sun Belt than in the Northeast, according to a report released by real estate data firm Attom on Thursday. On average, people in Florida paid less than $4,100 a year on property taxes in 2022 — not even half the bill for a typical New Jersey resident. In that state’s Essex and Bergen counties, the charge per homeowner exceeded $13,000 — more than $1,000 a month. “Property taxes continued their never-ending climb last year, with wide disparities continuing from one area of the country to another, connected to varying costs, services, and tax bases,” Rob Barber, chief executive officer at Attom, said in the report.

➤MICHIGAN GOVERNOR REPEALS 1931 ABORTION BAN: Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has repealed a state abortion ban dating from 1931. The law banned abortions and criminalized medical professionals who assisted in the procedure or provided a drug that induced a miscarriage in almost all cases.

➤JOHNSON & JOHNSON SETTLES SUIT OVER TALCUM POWDER: After a decade-long legal fight, the Johnson & Johnson company has agreed to pay a total of $8.9 billion to almost 70,000 people who claim its iconic talcum powder products caused cancer. If it gets final approval by a bankruptcy court, the agreement will resolve all current and future claims over company products that contained talc, such as baby powder. The company no longer sells talc-based powder in the U.S. and plans to introduce a new baby powder using cornstarch.

🏀MILWAUKEE BUCKS MAKE IT TO #1: The Milwaukee Bucks took the top seeding in the Eastern Conference playoffs last night after defeating the Chicago Bulls 105-92. And they did it without much help from Khris Middleton, who hobbled off in the first quarter with a sore knee. They were also missing Giannis Antetokounmpo, Pat Connaughton and Grayson Allen, all of whom had to sit out the game. The Bucks play their final home game of the regular season against the Memphis Grizzlies tomorrow.

🏀CLIPPERS IMPROVE THEIR CHANCES: The Los Angeles Clippers improved their playoff seeding chances last night with a 124-118 win over the Los Angeles Lakers. The Clippers are now in a tie with Golden State for fifth in the West. The Lakers are guaranteed a spot in the playoffs but hope to finish in the top six.


🏈AUSTIN EKELER COOLS ON THE CHARGERS: Los Angeles Chargers running back Austin Ekeler, now a free agent, hasn’t ruled out returning to the Chargers but let’s say he’s not enthusiastic at the prospect. He told Sirius XM Fantasy Sports radio that he felt “disrespected” by the team’s refusal to offer him an extension and another year with the team would be a “worst-case scenario” for him. Ekeler is entering the last year of a four-year, $24.5 million deal. He scored the most total touchdowns in the NFL in the past two seasons.

🎾TWO BIG NAMES OUT AT MONTE CARLO MASTERS: Two tennis stars, Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, have both indicated that they’ll miss the upcoming Monte Carlo Masters due to painful injuries. It’s been a bad year for Nadal, who withdrew earlier from the Indian Wells and Miami tournaments after sustaining a hip injury at the Australian Open. Alcaraz defeated Daniil Medvedev in the Indian Wells final, then lost to Jannik Sinner in the semifinals in Miami. He’s seeing a doctor for treatment of physical discomfort.

🤠BIG DEAL FOR NASHVILLE: A proposal to build a $2.1 billion stadium for pro football and other events is nearing a final vote in Nashville. The Metro Nashville Sports Authority unanimously approved the deal this week and a final Metro Council decision will be made towards the end of this month.

⚾LIAM HENDRIKS DECLARES VICTORY: Liam Hendriks of the Chicago White Sox rang a victory bell yesterday to celebrate his successful completion of chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. There’s no firm timetable for his return to the game but he sent a video message to the fans on opening day: “I’ll see you guys on the South Side soon,” he said.

⚾BABE RUTH’S BAT SELLS FOR $1.85 MILLION: A bat used by Babe Ruth in the 1921 and 1922 seasons just sold at auction for a record $1.85 million. The bat was last sold in 2018 for a bit over $400,000. Since then, photographic evidence proved that Ruth used the bat during his stellar 1921 season, increasing its value to collectors.

➤DEADLY STORM STRIKES MISSOURI: At least five people were killed and five more were injured yesterday when a tornado struck Bollinger County, Missouri. At least 11 tornado reports were recorded as part of a destructive storm system that brought high winds and hail to a wide swath of the U.S. from eastern Texas through western New York State late last night.



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