Lawrence O’Donnell Sums Up Donald Trump’s Latest Move With A Shakespearean Burn
Trump is “the most ignorant, least educated man in the history of the American presidency,” said the MSNBC anchor.
By Lee Moran – February 1, 2024
MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell on Wednesday mocked Donald Trump’s search for a new lawyer, saying the former president has unwittingly found himself “in agreement” with famed British playwright William Shakespeare.
“Donald Trump doesn’t know that of course, because Donald Trump is the most ignorant, least educated man in the history of the American presidency, including all of those presidents who didn’t go to college and were self-educated,” said O’Donnell.
The “Last Word” anchor pointed to the legendary line from the Bard’s “Henry VI” in which character Dick The Butcher says, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”
“In that play, Shakespeare was actually making the point that a cruel ruler cannot afford to have lawyers getting in his way. Shakespeare very much wanted his audience on the side of the lawyers,” noted O’Donnell.
Trump was now firmly “on the side of Dick The Butcher” as he appeared to give up on the legal team “who helped him get hit with an $83.3 million verdict in the E. Jean Carroll case last week,” O’Donnell said. Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that he is “in the process […] of interviewing various law firms to represent me in an appeal,” O’Donnell added.
Republican Senator Puts Trump On Blast With 1 Simple Piece Of Advice
Ben Blanchet – February 1, 2024
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) is calling on Donald Trump to not be “ignorant” after the former president ripped a bipartisan border security bill being negotiated in the Senate.
Trump, in a Nevada speech Saturday, said there was “zero chance” he’d support what he described as “this horrible open borders betrayal of America.”
“It’s not gonna happen. And I’ll fight it all the way. I noticed a lot of the senators are trying to say, respectfully, they’re blaming it on me. I say, that’s OK, please blame it on me. Please,” he said of efforts to tank the bill.
Cassidy, in an interview with CNN’s Manu Raju, questioned if Trump has access to the bill.
“Doesn’t seem that way,” Raju replied.
“It hasn’t been released, how does he know it’s a betrayal if he hasn’t read it?” Cassidy said, then offered the ex-president some free advice.
“I mean, don’t be ignorant,” he said. “Read the bill.”
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), when asked about Trump’s characterization, said it’s “certainly not a betrayal.”
“We’ve got to be able to deal with issues in law. That’s how we actually deal with things in America,” said Lankford, the lead GOP negotiator.
The comments from the two senators arrive one day after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Raju it was “absurd” when asked if he was trying to kill a bipartisan border security bill to help Trump on his presidential campaign.
Trump Spent $50 Million in Donor Money on Legal Bills Last Year: Report
Nikki McCann Ramirez – January 30, 2024
Donald Trump’s PACs spent a staggering $50 million on the former president’s legal defense in 2023, according to a report from The New York Times.
According to two sources who spoke to the Times, the former president’s massive legal bills were paid out through funds from the Save America PAC and the Make America Great Again PAC, his two primary political action committees. The full details of the PAC spending will be made available Wednesday, the deadline for Federal Election Commission year-end campaign filings.
Given the multiple civil and criminal cases leveled against Trump in the last year, the mountain of legal bills is not necessarily a surprise. In August of last year, Save America revealed that it had burned through the majority of its cash-on-hand on Trump and his associates’ legal defenses. The Times reported at the time that Save America had requested a $60 million refund from another Trump-affiliated group to keep itself afloat.
According to the Times, 10 cents of every dollar donated to Trump’s campaign is being directed towards Save America, which in the last year has operated virtually exclusively as a legal slush fund for the former president.
Trump is raking in millions in donations fundraising off his various legal indictments. In the days after Trump’s New York indictment on charges related to his 2016 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, the former president raised more than $7 million on the news.
Trump was not photographed when he was booked in New York, but it didn’t stop his campaign from hawking merchandise using a fake mugshot. When Trump did finally make history in August as the first American president to have his mugshot taken, the campaign was prepared with a slew of fundraising emails and campaign merch featuring the image. In December, he began offering scraps of the suit and tie he wore in the now infamous photo to convince fans to buy into his NFT trading card cash grab.
The influx and outflow converting donations to legal bills would normally be enough of a concern to send major donors and grassroots contributors running for the hills, but it’s having virtually no effect on Trump’s momentum toward securing the Republican 2024 nomination. The former president secured decisive victories in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, and has all but crowned for his November rematch with Joe Biden.
Trump says he’s looking for new lawyers on Truth Social amid report he’s not “happy” after $83M loss
Tatyana Tandanpolie – January 31, 2024
Donald Trimp; Alina Habba Brendan McDermid-Pool/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced on social media he’s searching for a new law firm to represent him in an appeal against last week’s jury verdict awarding $83.3 million to writer E. Jean Carroll.
He left a message to prospective hires in the Truth Social post, writing: “Any lawyer who takes a TRUMP CASE is either ‘CRAZY,’ or a TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOT.” The former president’s announcement follows his vow to appeal the jury’s decision last Friday, predicated by the presiding federal judge’s September ruling finding him liable for defamation.
“I am in the process, along with my team, of interviewing various law firms to represent me in an Appeal of one of the most ridiculous and unfair Witch Hunts our Country has ever seen – The defamation Sham presided over by a Clinton appointed, highly partisan, Trump Hating Judge, Lewis Kaplan, who was, together with certain other Radical Left Democrat Judges, one of the most partisan and out of control activists that I have ever appeared before,” Trump’s Tuesday night post began. He further bemoaned the rules the federal judge implemented barring him from denying he sexually abused and defamed Carroll, which a jury last spring found him liable for. “This entire HOAX is a disgrace to our American System of Justice,” Trump added.
Representing Trump is a tough task, according to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.
“He’s almost never happy with his legal team,” she said during a Tuesday CNN appearance.
Trial attorney Joe Tacopina withdrew from Trump’s counsel ahead of the trial, and lawyer Alina Habba assumed the role, often drawing sharp rebuke from Kaplan during the proceedings.
“I don’t know how winnable this case was for anybody, Alina Habba or not,” Haberman added. “But, you know, Trump has certain things he wants from his lawyers and I think you see that.
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Wednesday joked that Trump had “83.3 million reasons” to ditch Habba, calling her “one of the most ill-prepared attorneys for a case of this magnitude, maybe in the history of the planet.”
“He’s had bad lawyers but at least they knew their way around the courtroom,” he added, “and by the way, you either know your way around the courtroom or you don’t, and speaking as a lawyer that didn’t know his way around the courtroom, I can tell you, it can be a very frightening thing and you would not want to be in this type of case.
Trump Was Accused of Calling Fallen US Soldiers ‘Suckers’ and ‘Losers.’ We Examined the Evidence
Nur Ibrahim – January 30, 2024
Liam Enea/Wikimedia Commons
In January 2024, U.S. President Joe Bidencalled former President Donald Trump a “loser,” resurrecting a years-old accusation against Trump that allegedly revealed his true opinion of U.S. military service members. According to alleged eyewitnesses, Trump had called veterans and fallen U.S. soldiers “suckers” and “losers.”
At about the same time, a liberal veterans group launched an advertisement targeting Trump over those alleged past comments. In the ad, a mother who lost her son to war said, “My son is not a loser.”
Trump and his allies have denied the accusation since it first emerged in 2020, shortly before the election between Trump and Biden. Whether performative or authentic, Trump’s apparent support for soldiers in the U.S. military, both active and veteran members, has been part of his presidential campaigns.
Following a story by The Atlantic, a number of reputable news outlets reported on the alleged comments in 2020, relying entirely on anonymous sources from his administration.
However, there appeared to be no evidence of an audio or video recording of the remarks in question, nor was there any documentation, such as transcripts or presidential notes, to independently confirm or deny the alleged quotes’ authenticity. Moreover, since Snopes did not witness the in-question comments firsthand, we can’t say for certain whether Trump called fallen soldiers “suckers” and “losers.”
We reached out to Trump’s representatives to see if they had any supplemental evidence to help substantiate their denial, as well as for a response to renewed attention on the comments in 2023. We will update this story when, or if, we receive a response.
How the Accusations Emerged
Citing anonymous officials from the administration, the 2020 article by The Atlantic, titled, “Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’,” unpacked Trump’s trip to Paris in 2018 when he allegedly did not want to visit a cemetery of American war dead. The visit was cancelled.
Trump did not want to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery — which is home to the graves of Americans who fought and died in World War I — for two reasons, according to The Atlantic: He feared the rain would dishevel his hair, and “because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day.” The Atlantic continued (emphasis ours):
Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.
Shortly after the publication of The Atlantic report, one unnamed senior official with the U.S. Department of Defense and one senior U.S. Marine Corps officer confirmed the 2018 cemetery remarks from the above report in interviews with The Associated Press (AP). According to the AP, the official had firsthand knowledge of Trump’s remarks, and the officer had been told about them.
Trump Allies Deny the Claims
The White House blamed the canceled cemetery visit on poor weather. Responding to The Atlantic’s reporting, Trump said the accusation was “a disgraceful situation” by a “terrible magazine.”
Trump strongly denied calling fallen soldiers “losers” and “suckers.” Speaking to reporters on Sept. 3, 2020, upon returning from a campaign rally to Washington, D.C., just after the report came out, Trump said: “I would be willing to swear on anything that I never said that about our fallen heroes. There is nobody that respects them more. No animal — nobody — what animal would say such a thing?”
Just days later, Zach Fuentes, a former White House aide who left the administration in early 2019 and was with the president on the Paris trip and presumably near him during the in-question conversations about the cemetery visit, stood up for Trump in an interview with Breitbart.
Referring to Gen. John Kelly, who was with Trump during the trip as his chief of staff, he said, “I did not hear POTUS call anyone losers when I told him about the weather. Honestly, do you think General Kelly would have stood by and let ANYONE call fallen Marines losers?”
Reporting on Fuentes’ interview with Breitbart, The Washington Post noted that the phrase “I did not hear…” is not the same as “it didn’t happen.” Furthermore, there was no evidence of Kelly being around Trump to hear the alleged comments.
Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, who said he was on the trip, also issued a denial to Fox News, days after the article came out, saying it was “simply false.”
Then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also denied the claims in an interview with Fox News in September 2020. He said, “I was with him for a good part of that trip, if I’m thinking about this visit and the timing right, and I never heard him use the words that are described in that article. Just, I never saw it.”
How the Claims Resurfaced in 2023
On Oct. 2, 2023, Biden’s official account on X resurfaced the accusation, saying Trump once allegedly “referred to American service members as ‘suckers’ and ‘losers.'” The post (displayed above) included video footage of Biden speaking at a September 2023 event to honor the late U.S. Sen. John McCain, who was a military veteran and prisoner of war. (In that speech, Biden referenced the 2020 story by The Atlantic.)
The day after Biden’s post on X, Kelly repeated the claim, as well. Speaking to CNN story, he said (emphasis, ours):
What can I add that has not already been said? A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.‘ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.
In other words, Kelly, who was with Trump in Paris, confirmed that Trump did call American troops “losers” and “suckers,” though it was unclear whether he witnessed the comments firsthand or heard about them from someone else, or from news reports. (The 2020 Atlantic story detailed a separate incident of Trump visiting the grave of Kelly’s son who was killed in action in Afghanistan, for which Kelly was supposedly present. In that case, Trump allegedly asked of military personnel who volunteered to join the service, “What was in it for them?”)
Responding to the CNN interview, a Trump official issued a statement to CNN, saying, “John Kelly has totally clowned himself with these debunked stories he’s made up because he didn’t serve his president well while working as chief of staff.”
In addition to the alleged statements about service members generally, Trump has publicly insulted McCain, in particular, by calling him “not a war hero,” and “I like people who weren’t captured,” according to footage on C-SPAN. Also, for The Atlantic story, anonymous sources said he called former President George H.W. Bush a “loser” for getting shot down by the Japanese while a Navy pilot during World War II.
In sum, the claim stemmed from a story by The Atlantic, which relied on anonymous, second-hand reports of Trump’s alleged words; there was no independent footage or documented proof to substantiate the in-question comments; and Trump vehemently denies that he once called service members “losers” and “suckers.” While it was certainly possible that he said those things, Snopes was unable to independently verify the claim.
Sources:
Baker, Peter, and Maggie Haberman. “Trump Faces Uproar Over Reported Remarks Disparaging Fallen Soldiers.” The New York Times, 4 Sept. 2020. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/04/us/politics/trump-veterans-losers.html. Accessed 4 Oct. 2023.
Blake, Aaron. “Analysis | What Trump Officials Really Say — and Don’t Say — in Denying That He Disparaged Fallen Troops.” Washington Post, 8 Sept. 2020. www.washingtonpost.com, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/09/08/trump-officials-military-disparagement-denials/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2023.
Goldberg, Jeffrey. “Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers.'” The Atlantic, 3 Sept. 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2023.
Mason, Jeff, et al. “Biden Warns Trump, ‘MAGA’ Movement Threaten American Democracy.” Reuters, 29 Sept. 2023. www.reuters.com, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-warn-threat-democracy-trump-honor-mccain-2023-09-28/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2023.
“Report: Trump Disparaged US War Dead as ‘Losers,’ ‘Suckers.'” AP News, 4 Sept. 2020, https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-ap-top-news-politics-b823f2c285641a4a09a96a0b195636ed. Accessed 4 Oct. 2023.
Tapper, Jake. “Exclusive: John Kelly Goes on the Record to Confirm Several Disturbing Stories about Trump | CNN Politics.” CNN, 2 Oct. 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/02/politics/john-kelly-donald-trump-us-service-members-veterans/index.html. Accessed 4 Oct. 2023.
“Trump: “He’s a War Hero Because He Was Captured. I like People That Weren’t Captured.”” C-SPAN. www.youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=541Cg2Jnb8s. Accessed 4 Oct. 2023.
Trump Privately Pressuring GOP Senators To ‘Kill’ Border Deal To Deny Biden A Win
The former president is telling Republicans he “doesn’t want Biden to have a victory” in 2024, said a source familiar with the bipartisan negotiations.
By Jennifer Bendery and Igor Bobic – January 24, 2024
WASHINGTON – Donald Trump on Wednesday privately pressured Senate Republicans to “kill” a bipartisan deal to secure the U.S. border because he doesn’t want President Joe Biden to chalk up a win ahead of the 2024 presidential election, according to a source familiar with the tenuous negotiations on the package.
Trump directly reached out to several GOP senators on Wednesday to tell them to reject any deal, said this source, who requested anonymity to speak freely. The GOP presidential frontrunner also personally reached out to some Senate Republicans over the weekend, the source told HuffPost.
“Trump wants them to kill it because he doesn’t want Biden to have a victory,” said the source. “He told them he will fix the border when he is president… He said he only wants the perfect deal.”
Trump’s meddling generated an “emotional” discussion in a closed door meeting between Senate Republicans on Wednesday, as senators vented their frustrations for hours about the largely secret negotiations over emergency aid for Ukraine, Israel and immigration. The conference is splintering into two camps: those who believe Republicans should take the deal, and those who are opposed at any cost.
“The rational Republicans want the deal because they want Ukraine and Israel and an actual border solution,” said the source. “But the others are afraid of Trump, or they’re the chaos caucus who never wants to pass anything.”
“They’re having a little crisis in their conference right now,” the source added.
A bipartisan group of senators has been working for months to craft a border deal, and Trump has made it no secret that he opposes it. Last Wednesday, he wrote on Truth Social, his conservative social media site, “I do not think we should do a Border Deal, at all, unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions and Millions of people.”
What’s different now, though, is that Trump, who appears to have the GOP presidential nomination locked up, is now directly telling GOP senators to oppose any deal. His meddling has left their conference in even more disarray than it was already in, and a potential border deal in limbo.
Donald Trump is privately telling Senate Republicans to kill a bipartisan deal to secure the U.S. border because he doesn’t want President Joe Biden to chalk up a win ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) demurred when asked if he thinks it’s constructive for Trump to tell Republicans not to make any border deals.
“I could probably go through any number of things that Biden is saying that are not constructive when he’s on the campaign trail, but that’s the nature of campaigns,” Tillis said. “So I’m not going to criticize President Trump or his positions.”
But, bucking Trump, he said he supported passing the bipartisan border deal, which Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) has been working on with Democrats.
“Based on what I’ve seen and based on the work that James Lankford has put in, it goes far enough for me,” said Tillis. “If anyone’s intellectually honest with themselves, they all know these would be extraordinary tools for President Trump.”
During Wednesday’s meeting, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) referenced comments Trump made as president in 2018 about the difficulty of getting Democrats to agree to changes to immigration laws. McConnell, who is no fan of Trump, was making the case that Republicans should agree to a border deal now, since the likelihood of Democrats potentially cutting a deal with Trump in the White House again would be highly unlikely.
At the meeting, senators also viewed footage of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) making a prophetic warning about Russia’s designs on Europe after Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Crimea in 2014 — a bid by Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) to build support for Ukraine aid.
Tillis, who is an advocate of aid to Ukraine, told HuffPost there is “a general consensus in the majority of our conference that we need to support Ukraine.”
He warned what it would mean if the U.S. gives up on Ukraine: “This won’t take decades to regret. This will be in a matter of years. People who choose to ultimately exit Ukraine, if they are successful, for as long as I am breathing, I will remind them of the consequences I am convinced we will have to live through.”
Multiple senators described the meeting as a healthy airing of views, but none believed that it changed any minds.
“I don’t think Russia’s going to keep going,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), said when asked about the dangers of abandoning Ukraine.
Conservative CNN Pundit Says Nikki Haley Baited Trump Into ‘A Strategic Mistake’
Josephine Harvey – January 25, 2024
Donald Trump missed an opportunity after winning New Hampshire’s GOP presidential primary against Nikki Haley on Tuesday, according to a conservative commentator for CNN.
“He made a mistake last night,” Scott Jennings said Wednesday on the network.
“He could’ve walked out there and just said: ‘This race is over. I appreciate all my opponents. I appreciate Ambassador Haley. All Republicans are welcome to join. Let’s go beat [Democratic incumbent] Joe Biden,’” added Jennings, a former aide to President George W. Bush.
“And he just couldn’t do it.”
Haley, Trump’s onetime United Nations ambassador, gave an upbeat speech after her 11-point loss, criticizing the former president and vowing to continue her campaign through next month’s primary in her home state of South Carolina.
In the days prior to the New Hampshire vote, she had stepped up her criticism of Trump, questioning his mental acuity. The tactic appeared to get under his skin, as Trump’s victory speech was filled with grievances and insults directed at the former South Carolina governor.
“The Haley people went out and spoke early to try to bait him into that reaction. And he took the bait,” Jennings said on CNN. “Now we’re going to fight it out … for another month.”
He added, “It was a strategic mistake.”
During the victory speech, Trump fumed that Haley hadn’t dropped out of the 2024 race, commented on the way she dressed and said, “I don’t get too angry — I get even.”
The Haley campaign responded by mocking his “angry rant.”
“This is why so many voters want to move on from Trump’s chaos and are rallying to Nikki Haley’s new generation of conservative leadership,” a Haley spokesperson said.
Trump didn’t seem to have cooled off by Wednesday, with his criticism of Haley only increasing in vitriol. In one social media tirade, he said that anyone who donates to the Haley campaign would be “permanently barred” from his “Make America Great Again” movement.
Ex-Trump Staffer Brilliantly Responds To Trump’s Warning To Haley Donors
Ron Dicker – January 25, 2024
Sarah Matthews, who briefly served as Donald Trump’s deputy press secretary, happily defied Trump’s warning to Nikki Haley donors by giving money to Haley’s campaign on Wednesday.
Matthews took that as encouragement and shared a receipt for her contribution to Haley’s underdog bid against the GOP front-runner while attaching Trump’s threat on Truth Social.
“Done. Join me in donating to @NikkiHaley,” she wrote while including the link.
Matthews resigned on Jan. 6, 2021, the day a Trump-inspired mob laid siege to the Capitol. She said she was “deeply disturbed” by what happened and held Trump accountable for not keeping the peace. She later testified before a Jan. 6 panel and has periodically sounded the alarm on Trump’s rhetoric.
Haley also worked in the Trump administration as the U.N. ambassador and has been dismissed by the former president as a “birdbrain” while she carries on her presidential campaign against him despite long odds.
Trump is getting ruthlessly ROASTED over this humiliating photo of his makeup & we’re giggling
Ariel Messman-Rucker – January 25, 2024
Donald Trump
Talk of Trump wearing makeup resurfaced this week when a photo of the former president with a face full of melting makeup started circulating online.
The photo going viral features Trump wearing what looks like orange makeup nearly dripping off of his face — he clearly needs someone at Sephora to teach him about undertones — and was taken at a campaign rally in Iowa in the lead-up to the state’s caucuses, LGBTQ Nation reports.
Mary, this is what happens when you don’t have any gays in your life — or you do and they really don’t like you.
Yesterday, the Lincoln Project, a group of moderate conservative Never Trumpers, posted the photo on X asking people to “Name this foundation shade.”
Apparently the library is open because even conservatives are reading Trump for filth!
The photo has been so widely circulated on social media that Snopes looked into it. The fact-checking site found that the image is real and was taken by photojournalist Tannen Maury, who confirmed that the shot was “authentic” and was taken on January 6, 2024, at a Trump rally in Clinton, Iowa, for Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“I suppose that Trump could look worse, but it wouldn’t be easy,” Psychologist Dr. David A Lustig wrote on X, sharing a different photo of Trump in ridiculous makeup. “You’d think that a claimed billionaire could hire a makeup artist who wouldn’t make him look like a dirty old shoe.”
People took to X in droves to mock the Republican front-runner for his sloppy makeup job, with some pointing out the inherent hypocrisy of Republicans passing drag bans while also worshiping at the altar of a presidential candidate who piles on the makeup.
“Quick question: How much more makeup & wig work will Trump need before he is officially in drag?” one person quipped on X.
“Seriously the Republicans are against LGBITQ but love a fellow who wears more makeup than a drag queen and claims $70,000 a year in Tax deductions for maintaining and dying his hair,” another person wrote.
Between Trump wearing makeup and Ron DeSantis trying to cheat his height with heels, you’d think that Republicans would be in favor of drag, not trying to villainize it. But that would require conservatives to not be GIANT hypocrites, and clearly, they are incapable of that.
While there are countless photos that show Trump’s poor foundation application, both former National Security Advisor John Bolton and former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson have talked about the MAGA leader wearing makeup.
Even comedian Patton Oswalt took the time to mock Trump’s makeup in the mostly hilariously patronizing way possible. “I’m not his biggest fan, but these are adorable,” he wrote on X. “Like a well-meaning, slow-witted lunkhead who couldn’t resist when he saw an open jar of Nutella. He should not be president again but he should be allowed to have goofy adventures like this.”
The ironic thing is that if he made friends with drag queens instead of accusing them of grooming children, Trump would have flawless makeup because no drag queen would ever let a friend go out in public looking like such a fool.
Check out the most hilarious reactions to Trump’s photo below!
Darryl Ellis: Seriously the Republicans are against LGBITQ but love a fellow who wears more makeup than a drag queen and claims $70,000 a year in Tax deductions for maintaining and dying his hair. If we did not know Trump sleeps with prostitutes the line could be blurry.Li’l: I found a picture of someone applying Trump’s makeup before the rally:The Lincoln Project: Name this foundation shade.
Gary Arthur: I think it’s safe to say that Trump wears more makeup than Nikki Haley.
She was loaded for bear, scripted, wired and with a camera operator at the ready to bushwhack the congressman, who is also running for U.S. Senate.
Jeff DeWit was MAGA personified
Now comes the leak of a recorded conversation in which Arizona Republican Party chairman Jeff DeWit clumsily offers Lake a lucrative opportunity to step away from politics for a few years in exchange for … “is there a number … .”
The big story, for now, is all about DeWit’s ham-handed inducement, which took place back in March and is being released this week in what looks like a no holds barred effort to get DeWit ousted from his job.
He was the chief operating officer for Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He was rewarded by Dear Leader, who made him the chief financial officer of NASA in the Trump administration.
He has been the head of Arizona’s GOP since January 2023.
Who else said something they shouldn’t?
If someone like that was recorded during a private conversation with Lake, how many other good and loyal MAGAs are now wondering if they might have said something in private they should be worried about?
Arizona is a one-party consent state, meaning our law allows any conversation to be recorded so long as one party in the conversation is aware it is being recorded.
Lots and lots of big-time MAGAs have trooped through Arizona over the past couple of years. I’d guess most of them didn’t know about Arizona’s one-party consent law.
I’d also guess that more than a few of them are now thinking that maybe they should have brought along an electronic listening device detector.
Would Trump ask about other recordings?
Candidate for U.S. Senate Kari Lake arrives at the caucus night party hosted by Republican presidential candidate former U.S. President Donald Trump at the Iowa Events Center on Jan. 15, 2024 in Des Moines, Iowa.
Lake spent a lot of time at Mar-a-Lago as well. But Florida is a two-party consent state, requiring everyone in a conversation to know if they’re being recorded.
Of course, Trump has spent a lot of time in Arizona. In fact, he’s coming back this week. I can’t imagine Lake won’t be with him on the stage, or that the two of them won’t have a few quiet minutes together to chat.
The former president is known to be a suspicious guy. He envisions Deep State plots all around him.
If you were Trump, would you ask Lake if she was aware if any of their previous conversations were recorded?
Would you trust her answer if she said no?
What we can learn about Kari Lake
Would you ask her if she was aware of any other recorded conversations that might make MAGA folks look bad?
Would you trust her answer if she said no?
Would you have your Secret Service detail electronically sweep the room (with her in it) for bugs?
There is no doubt that in the leaked recording between Lake and DeWit, the chairman of the Arizona Republican Party comes off as the clumsiest of corruptors.
But in the long run, it may have been Lake’s character that was most plainly exposed.
