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Trump Wanted Courthouse Protests but Instead Got MAGA Misfits

Daily Beast

Trump Wanted Courthouse Protests but Instead Got MAGA Misfits

Kelly Weill, Zachary Petrizzo and Josh Fiallo – June 13, 2023

MIAMI, Florida—Protesters assembled outside the federal courthouse here on Tuesday to express their support for former President Donald Trump—to fly the Trump colors and show prosecutors that they’re up against a MAGA army.

But if protesters sought to show unity and organization, what they accomplished was a disorganized display of MAGA spectacles, flaunting a pig’s head on a pike and getting the street shut down over an abandoned television.

Trump was arraigned on Tuesday afternoon for 37 counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents. On social media, Trump called on fans to come to Miami for his court appearance. “SEE YOU IN MIAMI ON TUESDAY!!!” he wrote. But turnout was modest on Tuesday morning, despite efforts by pro-Trump figures like rapper Forgiato Blow to gin up attendance for a 10 a.m. rally.

“What I like about this, we been supporting Trump since day one and never switch up on Donald Trump, man what’s up. DeSant-heads need to get out here and get with Trump,” Blow (real name Kurt Jantz) said in a video outside the courthouse on Tuesday, referencing Trump’s GOP rival and Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis.

Trump Placed Under Arrest as He Arrives at Court

Blow’s attendance was not purely political. The prolific novelty rapper, who frequently releases songs timed to conservative news items, is promoting a new song called “Trump Indictment” and on Monday tweeted a picture of himself wearing a signboard with a QR code for a download of the tune.

“See Everyone Tomorrow Help Us Get #TrumpIndictment To #1 On iTunes,” Blow tweeted, promoting both the track and the protest against Trump’s second felony arraignment this year.

Other eccentric characters also turned up early to the courthouse.

Osmany Estrada, 40, proudly donned an American and Cuban flag as he paraded around the courthouse with a pig’s head on a pike, posing for photos with anyone who asked, but mostly dodging TV crews that swarmed him.

Like many others who weathered blistering heat and humidity to sing Trump’s praises, Estrada said he was confident the former president would quickly be found not guilty. He said he became even more certain of a Trump victory when Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, was selected to preside over the case.

“She’s one of us,” Estrada said, referencing Cannon’s Cuban heritage. “We already know what’s going to happen—this corruption won’t stand. Everyone here knows that. That’s why you see so many smiles. We’re all just enjoying this beautiful moment before we win again.”

Estrada, who says he came to Miami on a raft from Cuba in 1992, was one of the first protesters to arrive Tuesday morning, sticking around as the crowd of Trump supporters grew into the hundreds by 1 p.m.—a far cry from the thousands expected by Trump and Miami cops. Until noon, protesters were outnumbered by journalists and dozens of cops who carried assault rifles as they circled the area.

Estrada said he didn’t have a good reason for carrying around a pig’s head on a pike, but confirmed the dead animal was real.

“Sometimes you just have to be bold,” he said.

<div class="inline-image__caption"><p>The crowd was smaller than anticipated.</p></div> <div class="inline-image__credit">REUTERS/Marco Bello</div> — The crowd was smaller than anticipated.REUTERS/Marco Bello

Vivek Ramaswamy, a longshot Republican presidential candidate, gave a Tuesday morning speech in which he pledged (if elected president) to pardon Trump.

Meanwhile, Tim Gionet, a far-right personality who goes by “Baked Alaska,” live streamed himself outside the courthouse on Tuesday. Gionet was recently released from prison, where he was serving 60 days for his participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. (He was also found guilty last year of defacing a Hanukkah display. “No more Happy Hanukkah, only Merry Christmas. This is a disgrace,” Gionet said in a live stream of the vandalism.)

At least one member of the far-right group the Proud Boys was in attendance. A Telegram channel for the group Villain City Proud Boys uploaded a video from the grounds, although the group did not appear to have a uniformed presence on Tuesday morning. (The Villain City Proud Boys are a splinter faction of Miami’s longer-standing Vice City Proud Boys, which disavows the former group and calls it illegitimate.)

Lauren Witzke, a far-right conspiracy theorist who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in Delaware, also live-streamed from a demonstration organized by anti-Muslim activist Laura Loomer. During her live stream, she wondered out loud if “federal agents” were undercover at the courthouse protests. “Let’s count the FBI in this protest,” read a sign carried by a pro-Trump protester she interviewed. Witzke later contemplated if the man holding the sign—which had toy-water guns attached—was a “fed” himself.

Witzke, an ally of white-nationalist Nick Fuentes, soon grew tired of covering the lackluster Loomer protest and turned her attention to trolling the media.

“Is CNN here?” she asked on the stream, adding, “Oh shoot, I forgot I was streaming, oops.”

<div class="inline-image__caption"><p>Supporters and anti-Trump demonstrators faced off outside the courthouse. </p></div> <div class="inline-image__credit">REUTERS/Marco Bello</div> — Supporters and anti-Trump demonstrators faced off outside the courthouse.REUTERS/Marco Bello

Various factions of Trump fans scheduled courthouse protests over the course of the day. Loomer’s event was slated to start at noon. A convoy of four buses, organized by the Florida Republican Assembly, arrived at 2 p.m.

Toward the beginning of the rally, Loomer claimed that Trump’s team had called her on Tuesday morning to express their support for her event.

“President Trump, his staff called me this morning,” Loomer yelled. “President Trump is grateful for the rally. His staff personally called me and said they were with President Trump this morning, and he wants to thank everybody for coming out today. They are very happy that this rally is taking place. They want it peaceful.”

“President Trump is very grateful that we are out here today,” she added.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung didn’t return The Daily Beast’s request for comment on Loomer’s claim.

Loomer had good reason to talk up Trump’s support for her efforts, as The Daily Beast reported Monday evening that Trump’s own advisers thought protests outside of the Miami courthouse were a bad idea.

Trump Advisers Quietly Worry Courthouse Protest Could Be a ‘Disaster’

“I would hope it’s not a protest,” one Trump adviser told The Daily Beast.

<div class="inline-image__caption"><p>A law enforcement officer inspects a suspicious device found near the courthouse.</p></div> <div class="inline-image__credit">REUTERS/Brendan McDermid</div> — A law enforcement officer inspects a suspicious device found near the courthouse.REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Even before the rally, Trump’s aides attempted to distance themselves from Loomer and the Roger Stone-promoted event.

“Anybody we’ve heard from at the campaign, it’s been somebody who just wants to come and be supportive of the president,” the Trump adviser added before attempting to make clear that the official Trump campaign wanted no part in any demonstrations.

But despite the worry from inside Trump’s inner circle, in the end, with low turnout numbers, Trump supporters found a familiar boogeyman.

“I think MAGA has to be beyond cautious and weary [sic] of Feds creating another trap like Jan 6,” Trump ally Jackson Lahmeyer told The Daily Beast.

While MAGA supporters were busy contemplating who among them might be federal agents, law enforcement tended to a much more serious concern.

The modest crowd was briefly asked to leave part of the courthouse grounds after law enforcement expressed concerns about an unattended package. The suspicious item was a TV with writing on it, apparently planted by Trump fans, Miami New Times reporter Naomi Feinstein tweeted. Police removed the TV and allowed demonstrators back onto the property.

I don’t want to live in a country where Trump could be held accountable

Opinion – (Satire)

I don’t want to live in a country where Trump could be held accountable

Rex Huppke, USA TODAY – June 11, 2023

Now that my favorite president, Donald Trump, is facing a 37-count indictment from the feds, I join with my brothers and sisters in MAGA, and with all sensible Republicans, in saying this: I’m not sure I want to live in a country where a former president can wave around classified documents he’s not supposed to have and say, “This is secret information. Look at this,” and then be held accountable for his actions.

I mean, what kind of country have we become? One in which federal prosecutors can take “evidence” before a “grand jury,” and that grand jury can “vote to indict” a former president for 37 alleged “crimes”? Look at all the other people out there in America, including Democrats like Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden, who HAVEN’T been indicted for crimes on the flimsy excuse that there is no “evidence” they did crimes. THAT’S TOTALLY UNFAIR!

It’s like Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin wrote in a tweet Friday: “These charges are unprecedented and it’s a sad day for our country, especially in light of what clearly appears to be a two-tiered justice system where some are selectively prosecuted, and others are not.”

What kind of country holds a president accountable for alleged crimes a grand jury charges him with?

Or as Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee tweeted: “Where are the investigations against the Clintons and the Bidens? What about fairness? Two tiers of justice at work.”

GOP sticking with Trump: Trump indicted again, and STILL Republicans flock to support him. Sad!

TWO TIERS! One tier in which President Trump keeps getting indicted via both state and federal justice systems and another in which the people I don’t like keep getting not indicted via all the things Fox News tells me they did wrong.

It’s like America has become a banana republic, as long as you do as I’ve done and refuse to look up the definition of “banana republic.”

A copy of the indictment of former President Donald Trump and Trump aide Walt Nauta, brought by the U.S. Justice Department. They're charged with dozens of counts of allegedly violating eight federal statutes related to the handling of classified documents after the former president left the White House, according to the 44-page indictment unsealed June 9, 2023. — A copy of the indictment of former President Donald Trump and Trump aide Walt Nauta, brought by the U.S. Justice Department. They’re charged with dozens of counts of allegedly violating eight federal statutes related to the handling of classified documents after the former president left the White House, according to the 44-page indictment unsealed June 9, 2023.More

Regardless of the Trump indictment, it’s clear this is all Biden’s fault

And of course, you know who’s behind this travesty of justice, right? It’s so-called President Biden, who is both frail and senile and also a laser-sharp master at conducting witch hunts.

Former President Donald Trump greets supporters in Grimes, Iowa, on June 1, 2023.

Sure, they’ll tell you that the indictment came via a special counsel investigation, and that the federal special counsel statute keeps such investigations walled off from political influence.

But that’s complete nonsense, unless we’re talking about special counsel John Durham, who was appointed by Attorney General Bill Barr while Trump was president and tasked with investigating the NEFARIOUS LEFT-WING CRIMES committed in the Trump-Russia probe. Durham was above reproach, and the fact that The New York Times reported he “charged no high-level F.B.I. or intelligence official with a crime and acknowledged in a footnote that Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign did nothing prosecutable, either” is something I will ignore.

This is a WITCH HUNT, and I believe that because Trump said so!

Current special counsel Jack Smith, on the other hand – he’s bad news. I know this because Trump has said repeatedly that Smith’s investigation is a witch hunt, and I’ve never known Trump to lie about anything.

Keep in mind, in 2016, Trump said: “I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.”

This image, contained in the indictment against former President Donald Trump, shows boxes of records stored in a bathroom and shower in the Lake Room at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. Trump is facing 37 felony charges related to the mishandling of classified documents according to an indictment unsealed Friday, June 9, 2023. — This image, contained in the indictment against former President Donald Trump, shows boxes of records stored in a bathroom and shower in the Lake Room at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. Trump is facing 37 felony charges related to the mishandling of classified documents according to an indictment unsealed Friday, June 9, 2023.More

So after he said that, you expect me to believe he didn’t protect classified information? Just because, according to the indictment, there’s a recording of him holding a classified document in his office at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and saying to two staff members and an interviewer: “See, as president I could have declassified it. … Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”

Winners of Trump indictment: The former president and Joe Biden. DeSantis? Not so much.

You call that “damning evidence.” I call it, “What about Hunter Biden’s laptop?”

Putting Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden in prison? Now THAT makes sense!

Now I can already hear all the libs out there whining and saying that if it were Biden or Hillary or Hunter getting indicted, I wouldn’t be saying a word about two tiers of justice or the weaponization of the Department of Justice or anything like that.

The notably non-indicted President Joe Biden.

Well, those whiners would be right, but the difference is I believe Biden and Hillary and Hunter are all guilty and should be locked up for life, whereas with Trump, I believe he is great and innocent and the best president America has ever known.

It’s like this: If Hillary got indicted for murder, I would say, “Yes, she is absolutely a murderer. Lock her up.”

But if in some outrageous scenario President Trump were indicted for murder just because he told a bunch of people that he did a murder, I would say: “HOW DARE YOU CHARGE THIS MAN WITH MURDER WHEN OTHERS IN THE U.S. HAVE NOT BEEN CHARGED WITH MURDER! THERE ARE CLEARLY TWO TIERS OF JUSTICE, ONE IN WHICH MY FAVORITE PRESIDENT, WHO SAID HE MURDERED SOMEONE, IS CHARGED WITH MURDER AND ONE IN WHICH PEOPLE WHO HAVEN’T MURDERED ARE NOT CHARGED WITH MURDER!”

And that, my liberal friends, makes perfect sense to me and my MAGA companions. So watch out. The Trump Train’s a comin’.

98% of borrowers have a below-market mortgage rate—that’s keeping housing inventory tight

Fortune

98% of borrowers have a below-market mortgage rate—that’s keeping housing inventory tight

Alena Botros – June 12, 2023

Johnas Street and his wife were living in a one-bedroom home in the Bay Area with their, at the time, three kids (they’ve got four now). Then the pandemic happened, and the couple started working from home. In April 2021 they closed on a six-bedroom, $650,000 home in Charlotte, where Street has family. They locked in a 30-year fixed rate at 2.62%, and it’s keeping them there.

“California is home for us, and eventually we’ll go back,” Street told Fortune. “I will say, I don’t know if stuck is the right word, but a 2.62% interest rate is hard to give up right now.”

The housing market has been on a wild ride over the last few years. Starting with the Pandemic Housing Boom, a short-lived era of low mortgage rates and a surge in demand as people shifted to remote work, and ending with a correction that’s lost steam. Still, 98% of outstanding borrowers have a below-market mortgage rate, according to an estimate from Goldman Sachs, and that’s constraining both sides of the market.

Look no further than Street and his wife, who in their mid-to-late thirties work in tech with remote roles that might not last forever. They know that, so they’re looking to move back as more positions in their field transition to hybrid work. But it would cost them a lot to sell their home with a rate below 3% and buy another in San Francisco (or anywhere in the Bay Area), with an average home value that’s much higher than Charlotte’s, coupled with rates that are pushing 7%.

“It’s really keeping us…that’s so much more money in our pockets,” Street said. “That’s so much more money for our kids, you know what I mean, so it’s kind of tough to leave that.”

Mortgage rates that were previously below 3% spiked to above 7%, and currently, the average 30-year fixed rate is hovering around 7%, with the latest reading at 6.94%. That’s of course down from a peak of 7.37% last year, but still much higher than the 3% people got used to during the pandemic. Let’s take a look at the difference that makes in Street’s monthly mortgage payment. On a $500,000 loan with a 30-year fixed rate at 2.62%, his monthly mortgage payment comes out to roughly $2,007 (without taxes and insurance). With the same circumstances but at a 7% rate, his monthly mortgage payment would be around $3,327. That’s a roughly $1,320 monthly difference and a $15,840 difference annually. That’s not taking into account the difference in home values between Charlotte and the Bay Area.

Outstanding borrowers like Street who have a below-market mortgage rate are fueling the so-called lock-in effect or the golden handcuffs of mortgage rates. To put it simply, would-be sellers are holding on to their homes in fear of losing their low rates. With Street’s case, in choosing not to move back to California and buy a home there, retaining their current home in North Carolina, the market lost both a buyer and a seller. Not to mention that Street told Fortune that he gets tons of messages from people wanting to buy their home, likely because of a lack of supply.

As of last month, there were 22.7% fewer newly listed homes for sale compared to last year, according to Realtor.com. All the while, new listings remained 29.4% below pre-pandemic levels. The difference primarily amounts to a segment of people that have almost disappeared from the market: move-up buyers and sellers.

View this interactive chart on Fortune.com

It’s clear that selling a home with a rate below 3% and buying another with a rate over 6% doesn’t make financial sense because of that substantially larger monthly payment. That’s exactly why homeowners are holding on to their low rates and not selling. Some are even becoming “accidental landlords” to keep their low rates.

Take Josh Dudick, CEO and founder of wealth and investment website Top Dollar, who previously told Fortune he was thinking of selling his vacation home in the Hamptons with a 30-year fixed rate below 3%, but decided to rent it out instead. Dudick said he didn’t want to lose that “really low mortgage rate” he locked in. And Bob Wood, finance and economics professor at the University of South Alabama, previously told Fortune that despite wanting to downsize, “it just doesn’t make sense” to sell his home in Mobile with a 15-year fixed rate below 3%.

Even homeowners that want to move feel like they can’t because they’re trapped by their low mortgage rates that were once considered a financial win. This all translates into fewer homes coming into the market, which puts pressure on the supply side and the demand side because every homeowner that decides not to sell equates to one less buyer.

Housing has become so unaffordable that over 75% of homes on the market are too expensive for middle-income buyers

Business Insider

Housing has become so unaffordable that over 75% of homes on the market are too expensive for middle-income buyers

Jennifer Sor – June 12, 2023

The housing affordability crisis has priced middle-income buyers from a majority of homes on the market.
Buyers earning up to $75,000 could only afford 23% of properties listed for sale in the US.
Affordability has been crimped by low inventory and mortgage rates at multi-decade highs.

The US housing market is so unaffordable, over 75% of homes on the market are too expensive for middle class buyers, according to a recent report from the National Association of Realtors and Realtor.com.

That’s largely due to the shortage of housing supply, which has hit middle income buyers the hardest. Thanks to elevated mortgage rates, the housing market is missing around 320,000 homes priced at or below $256,000 – the maximum price a middle-income buyer earning up to $75,000 can afford.

Of the 1.1 million listings on the market in April, middle-income buyers could only afford 23% of them, the report said. That’s less than half of what the group could afford five years ago, when around 50% of all listings on the market were considered affordable for that group.

The three metropolitan areas with the largest inventory of affordable homes are currently located in Ohio, the report added. Meanwhile, El Paso, Texas; Boise, Idaho; and Spokane, Washington have the fewest number of listing considered affordable.

“Even with the current level of listings, the housing affordability and shortage issues wouldn’t be so severe if there were enough homes for all price ranges,” NAR senior economist Nadia Evangelou said in a statement. “Our country needs to add at least two affordable homes for middle-income buyers for every home listed for upper-income buyers.”

The US housing market has slowed in 2023, with high mortgage rates sidelining both buyers and sellers. Existing homeowners are discouraged from listing their properties for sale, as many of their properties were financed in the last decade of ultra-low interest rates.

The result is an inventory shortage that could last for the next several years, industry experts say, which has pushed up home prices and made unaffordability even worse. Housing has never been so unaffordable for Americans, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association, with the group’s Purchase Applications Payment Index rising to a record high of 172.3 in April.

Affordability is also unlikely to improve until mortgage rates ease, which will incentivize more homeowners to list their properties for sale. But that’s an uncertain prospect, as the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate surpassed 7% in May, and has hovered around two-decade highs. Mortgage rates will likely pull back to just 6% by the end of the year, Redfin’s chief economist told Insider.

Democrats need to wake up

Chicago Suntimes

Democrats need to wake up

Federal indictments against Trump are not a turning point.

By Neil Steinberg – June 11, 2023

Donald Trump addressed the North Carolina Republican state convention on Saturday, June 10, 2023. — Donald Trump addressed the North Carolina Republican state convention on Saturday, two days after becoming the first former U.S. president indicted on federal charges.

This Friday, June 16, marks many things. It’s Bloomsday, the day in 1904 when the entirety of James Joyce’s great novel, “Ulysses” takes place. It’s also my parents’ anniversary — 67 years and still going strong. (Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad!) And my younger son’s birthday.

It’s also the date in 2015 when Donald John Trump descended that escalator in the vomit-colored lobby of Trump Tower in New York City, declared himself a candidate for president and promised to save this country from the twin perils of Mexican immigrants and Muslims.

Eight years. Three thousand days, most of which saw Donald Trump twirling like a demented ballerina in drippy orange makeup in the spotlight of American life. From that introductory moment — the first words out of his mouth a lie, natch, inflating the few dozen people present into “thousands” — to last week, when he was indicted by federal authorities on 37 counts related to seven charges under the Espionage Act.

What a strange, terrible time in American history. Sometimes I consider it punishment for, having missed the tumult of the 1960s, wishing I could have lived in a momentous era of American history when great issues were being resolved. I take it back.

No time for regret now. Not with Trump followers urging violence at the prospect of his being prosecuted for his crimes. Not when they question the value of law enforcement before they’ll ever question their Chosen One.

Trump certainly will never pause from lying. Why would he? The lies work. The federal case, outlining his betrayal of national interest and endangering our security by exposing America’s military secrets to her enemies, was instantly shrugged off. Republicans have honed a variety of survival skills — perpetual imaginary victimhood, look-a-squirrel whataboutism, but-the-trains-run-on-time tunnel vision — allowing them to instantly ignore anything Trump does, did, or ever could do.

If Republicans are in a trance, so are Democrats. Because we keep waiting for Republicans to wise up.

“It has become impossible to ignore Trump’s many transgressions over the years,” the Sun-Times said in an editorial Sunday. At the risk of contradicting the editorial board, that’s a complete inversion of the situation. It is not impossible to ignore Trump’s crimes. Rather, it is mandatory, among his followers. Ignoring Trump’s misdeeds is not a flaw, but a feature.

To toss out another date: Jan. 6, 2021. Trump goaded a mob to assault the Capitol trying to overturn a free and fair American election. If that didn’t shake his followers awake to the peril, what is going to now? This latest indictment?

If they can laugh off Jan. 6, what can’t be chuckled at? His being ordered to pay $5 million for slandering the woman who claimed Trump raped her boosted his poll numbers.

His millions of followers are never going to be disillusioned with Trump, just as 40% of Russians approve of Joseph Stalin, the millions starved or pact with Hitler notwithstanding. A hundred years from now, Trump will be a revered figure, like Jesus, and for the same reason: the need to worship something. Charges, investigations, convictions, are just the Romans lashing their savior as he drags his cross to Calvary.

Jan Plemmons, of Columbus, Ga., waits at a private airfield for former President Donald Trump’s arrival in Georgia on Saturday, June 10, 2023. — Jan Plemmons, of Columbus, Ga., waits at a private airfield for former President Donald Trump’s arrival in Georgia on Saturday.

Wake up. Liberal do-gooders are constantly calling upon values that just aren’t there. Remember former Ald. Leon Despres (5th), nicknamed the “conscience” of the Chicago City Council? Paddy Bauler, his notoriously corrupt Council colleague, once said to him: “Leon, the trouble is you think the whole thing’s on the square.”

The trouble with Democrats is they think the whole thing’s on the square. Still. Despite everything that has happened over eight years. We’ve learned nothing, and must start learning, fast. Time to stop invoking decency that isn’t there. If we are to continue to be a nation of laws, votes and varied voices, we must see the Trump menace for what it is: the gravest threat our nation has faced. The peril isn’t weakening; it’s growing stronger.

Someday, should America survive the Trump onslaught and become great enough to view history clearly, perhaps June 16 can become kind of a semi-official Day of Infamy, like Dec. 7 and Sept. 11. A cautionary tale for future generations. Not that we are anywhere near that safe perch where we can look back on the nightmare. Rather, we are in the thick of it, with more, maybe worse shocks to the American spirit speeding toward us.

Stunning details in Trump indictment show the importance of getting case right

Chicago Suntimes

Stunning details in Trump indictment show the importance of getting case right

The laws governing the handling of secret documents are there for a reason: to keep the country safe. Former President Donald Trump has been charged with egregiously violating those laws, and a just resolution to this case is important for America’s future.

Chicago Suntime’s Editorial Board – June 9, 2023

Nadine Seiler, of Waldorf, Maryland, demonstrates in front of the White House after Special Counsel Jack Smith delivered remarks about the unsealed federal indictment against former President Donald Trump on Friday. — People demonstrate in front of the White House after Special Counsel Jack Smith delivered remarks about the unsealed federal indictment against former President Donald Trump on Friday.

Critical times of reckoning define nations’ identities far into the future.

The United States is at such a crossroads, brought to this point by the egregious actions of former President Donald Trump. It has become impossible to ignore Trump’s many transgressions over the years but still assure America is seen, by both its residents and other nations, as a place where rule of law prevails — where no one, not even presidents or former presidents, is granted the royal privilege to do as they like, without regard to laws others must obey.

“We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone,” as Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led the investigation into Trump’s mishandling of secret documents, said in a brief statement Friday.

Hours earlier, a detailed 49-page indictment was unsealed by the Justice Department accusing Trump of 37 felony counts of withholding top secret and other documents, refusing to return them, hiding the documents and lying about it. The indictment says Trump and aide Walt Nauta moved boxes with documents before one of his attorneys could review them and then concealed that fact. Nauta is charged with six counts.

Among the devastating accusations: Upon leaving office, Trump allegedly took documents related to the military capabilities of the United States and other nations, information about America’s nuclear program and other important documents, then stored them at low-security, porous Mar-a-Lago, where all sorts of people wandered around, including possibly foreign intelligence individuals.

Shockingly, some boxes of documents sat at one point unsecured on a ballroom stage at Mar-a-Lago and in other unsecured locations, including a shower and Trump’s bedroom. According to the indictment, Trump, while at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, showed a military map of a country with an ongoing military operation to a political action committee member who didn’t have security clearance.

Trump took documents from seven different departments and intelligence agencies, among them the CIA, the NSA and the Department of Defense. The sensitivity of the documents Trump took is stunning.

Could foreign agents have accessed those documents? No one knows. If that did happen, no one knows how much damage has been done or how much the nation has been put at risk.

The laws governing the handling of secret documents are there for a reason. As Smith said, “Violations of those laws put our country at risk.”

The indictment also contains evidence that Trump knew he was violating the law. At one point, he said, “This is secret information. Look. Look at this.” He knew it was secret and yet invited a writer without security clearance to look at it anyway.

And tellingly, the indictment also points out six instances in which Trump noted the importance of protecting classified information — five times speaking publicly and once in a written statement.

Multiple investigations, lawsuit settlements

Trump has a long history of acting at though the law does not apply to him. In March, he was indicted on 34 counts in New York for allegedly falsifying business records, a felony, in connection with hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.

He was impeached, but not convicted, for trying to get Ukraine to announce an investigation of Joe Biden.

He is under investigation in Georgia for allegedly trying to overturn that state’s results in the 2020 presidential election. He is under investigation by Smith for allegedly inciting an attempted coup on Jan. 6., 2021, at the U.S. Capitol. He was impeached a second time for his conduct on Jan. 6.

Last year, two Trump Organization companies were found guilty on multiple counts of criminal tax fraud. In May, a New York jury found against Trump in a sexual abuse and defamation case filed by author, journalist and advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. In 2018, his Trump University settled for $25 million claims by students who said they were defrauded.

The list goes on and on. Trump’s disregard for the law also can be seen in the number of his political allies and members of his administration who have been indicted. His was a reign of the swamp.

Even now, many Republicans and Trump supporters are trying to explain everything away, absurdly claiming the damning evidence is just a conspiracy to pursue Trump, despite his clearly reckless behavior. There’s also the scary prospect that some of his supporters might threaten those connected to the investigation, an ugly scenario that has happened before. Trump set the pattern on Friday by calling Smith a “deranged lunatic.”

But waving away the abuses alleged in the indictment sets an unacceptable precedent — in effect, green-lighting more legal abuses by future presidents. And imagine, in such scenarios, abuses that are perhaps even more flagrant, scandalous and dangerous than those in this indictment.

The United States is at a pivotal moment in its history. The world is watching. A just resolution of this case, based on the evidence and the law, is imperative.

It felt like I had indigestion. I was having a heart attack.

The Washington Post

It felt like I had indigestion. I was having a heart attack.

Ken Budd, Special To The Washington Post – June 11, 2023

Upper body pain is a common if lesser-known indicator of a heart attack. (Getty Images)

My symptoms started at least a day before I felt any chest pain. I’d become winded and sweaty after carrying some boxes up and down steps. That evening, I felt pain in my shoulder, neck and back that made it hard to sleep. Twice during the night I woke up sweating.

I assumed my ailments were remnants of a stomach bug – I’d thrown up twice two days before – but when pressure began building in my chest, I thought, Whoa, is this my heart? My dad had died of a sudden massive heart attack years before, so even though I didn’t feel terrible, I went to an emergency room. “I’m sure it’s nothing,” I said sheepishly to the triage nurse, feeling a bit like a hypochondriac.

Less than an hour later, I was rushed by helicopter to a hospital with a cardiac catheterization lab, where doctors can identify potential blockages and possibly reopen a clogged artery.

“Most people will say, ‘You know, a couple days ago, I wasn’t feeling good, I had indigestion’ – there’s usually something that’s not right,” said Alan Schneider, a cardiologist and electrophysiologist who works at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, where I was treated. “It doesn’t have to be crushing pain.”

Upper body pain is a common if lesser-known indicator of a heart attack. “Anything between the belly button and the forehead could be heart-related symptoms,” said cardiologist Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, immediate past president of the American Heart Association and chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

Gen Xers like me – I’m 57 – may remember Fred Sanford’s recurring chest-clutching heart attack routines on “Sanford and Son,” but the pain isn’t always dramatic. In my case, I experienced a mild discomfort, like a weight was pressed against my ribs, or my chest was overinflated with air.

“The classic symptom is that elephant sitting on the middle of your chest – this heavy, crushing pressure, mid-chest,” Lloyd-Jones said. “Never ignore that. It’s the most common warning sign.”

Other possible warning signs include arm pain (typically on the left side), stomach pain and even pain in your gums or jaw. If discomfort is accompanied by other symptoms such as sweating, shortness of breath, or lightheadedness or feeling faint, consider calling 911. For women, the symptoms of heart attacks can be more diffuse or vague – sudden arm aches, neck or jaw ache, nausea or vomiting, dizziness or being unusually tired.

Also, heart attack symptoms can appear “hours, days, or weeks in advance,” as the Mayo Clinic explains on its website.

Lloyd-Jones’s advice: “If the symptoms seem more common with exertion and they’re better when you rest, that’s a red flag for any doctor to say, ‘Let’s get you in and see what’s going on.'”

One thing that’s not a predictable heart attack warning sign: elevated blood pressure. Mine was high – 156/84 before I went to the ER – but “some types of heart attacks can lead to very low blood pressure,” Lloyd-Jones said.

Other lessons from my experience include:

Act fast – really fast

My approach to health issues is usually, “Eh – I’m sure it’s nothing.” But once I realized that my symptoms matched many of the Mayo Clinic’s warning signs, I went to the ER.

Within an hour of my arrival, cardiologist Yuri Deychak had received an electrocardiogram (EKG) of my heart at his home, diagnosed a blockage in a coronary artery leading to the heart and activated the catheterization lab team at Suburban Hospital to unblock my artery.

“Time is muscle,” Deychak later told me, and it’s a common phrase among cardiologists. To prevent heart cells from dying, doctors need to quickly restore blood flow and oxygen levels. Their goal: to get a patient into a catheterization lab to insert a stent – a tiny expandable metal mesh coil that once in place will keep an artery open – within 90 minutes of experiencing symptoms.

Procrastination can be deadly, as one of my nurses learned. She shared the story of a friend, age 49, who showed signs of a heart attack. The friend called his primary care physician that evening but decided to see if his symptoms improved overnight. By morning he was dead.

Call 911, not Uber (or a friend)

I made a mistake: I asked a friend to drive me to the ER. That’s smarter than driving yourself, experts say, but I should have called 911. If my heart had stopped during the drive, EMTs could have treated me immediately. They have a defibrillator to restart a heart, an EKG machine to test your heart rhythm, lifesaving medications, and they know which hospitals have the right facilities to treat a heart problem. My friend took me to the nearest hospital, but it didn’t have a catheterization lab, which is why I ended up having to be flown by helicopter to one that did. A cath lab is mandatory for unblocking an artery

The New Jersey-based Atlantic Health System found that heart attack patients who called 911 received treatment 30 minutes faster on average than those who drove themselves. Yet many patients, like me, don’t make that call. My symptoms seemed mild, so 911 felt extreme and an ambulance can be costly depending on circumstances.

Some heart attack sufferers choose ride services like Uber or Lyft. A 2017 study found that ambulance usage rates had dropped by 7 percent in cities where Uber operates. But taking an Uber for a heart attack is no safer than riding with a friend, since your driver’s sedan probably won’t have an EKG machine or defibrillator.

Deychak said he remembers a patient who arrived at the hospital via Uber, then suddenly experienced ventricular fibrillation (a heart arrhythmia that is the most frequent cause of sudden cardiac death). If the driver had arrived even five minutes later, she may have died.

“You want EMTs monitoring you all the way,” Lloyd-Jones said. “If something happens, they can respond instantaneously.”

Embrace gratitude

Having a heart attack is stressful. In the ER at the first hospital, I could hear the alarm in a nurse’s voice after she read my EKG report. I could see the helicopter crew’s concerned faces as they wheeled me to the helipad. In the cath lab, staff darted around the room, shaving parts of me that shouldn’t be shaved, inserting a catheter in an artery and injecting a dye to detect blockages on a screen. (“It’s going to feel hot,” a technician said, and yes, the dye blazed in my arm and my chest.)

And yet to my surprise, the overwhelming emotion I felt was not fear but gratitude. Amid the life-or-death bustle, I felt grateful for the people I love, and the people who love me, and for the team that was treating me. Those peaceful feelings may have reduced the strain on my heart.

For patients who are understandably scared and upset, “one of the treatments we often give in the emergency room is anti-anxiety medicine,” Lloyd-Jones said. “If we can keep the heart rate low, and keep blood pressure moderate, the heart works less hard, and fewer heart muscle cells will die.”

I soon had another reason for gratitude. Once the team had snaked the catheter through my arm to my heart, they expected to find major blockage. But my arteries looked clean. So what happened?

Doctors suspect that a piece of plaque – fatty buildups on artery walls caused by cholesterol and other substances – had ruptured and clotted an artery, and the clotted plaque passed through on its own. I was incredibly lucky. What if the clot had been larger and hadn’t moved through? Sometimes even slight heart attacks can make patients’ heart rhythm “go haywire,” Deychak said.

Instead, less than 36 hours after the heart attack, I was pacing with my IV pole in my hospital room, ready to be released. Scans showed no damage to my heart muscle. I was lucky.

Now that I’ve had one heart attack, I’m a likely candidate for another, Lloyd-Jones said. It’s clear that plaque can form in my arteries. I largely feel okay – the worst part was two weeks of wrist and arm soreness from the catheter. In the weeks following the heart attack, my EKG readings were irregular, and I experienced occasional heart palpitations, sometimes as often as three to five times a day. But nearly five months after my visit to the cath lab, everything is happily back to normal.

I also have an excellent long-term prognosis, Schneider said. I’ve finished cardiac rehab (picture a gym where everyone wears heart monitors and submits to blood-pressure checks), which helped me lose seven pounds and lower my blood pressure. I’m also taking some new heart meds, including a platelet inhibitor and a daily aspirin, to reduce my risks (I was already taking a statin and beta blocker). Even before the heart attack, I was more likely to eat a salad than a burger, but my doctor suggested that I lower my daily sodium consumption, which has meant some sacrifices – including a favorite: pizza.

But from where I stand now, it’s worth it to prevent a return visit to the ER.

“This was a shot across the bow,” Schneider said. “You could have dropped dead, but instead, here you are, alive.”

And yes, I’m grateful.

Senate GOP leaders break with House on Trump indictment

The Hill

Senate GOP leaders break with House on Trump indictment

Alexander Bolton – June 11, 2023

Editor’s note: This report has been updated to clarify that the indictment accuses former President Trump of showing a classified document about attacking Iran to a writer without security clearance.

Senate Republican leaders, including Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), are staying quiet about former President Trump’s indictment on 37 criminal charges, letting him twist in the wind and breaking with House Republican leaders who have rushed to Trump’s defense.

McConnell, who is careful not to comment on Trump or even repeat his name in public, has said to his GOP colleagues that he wants his party to turn the page on the former president, whom he sees as a flawed general election candidate and a drag on Senate Republican candidates.

The Senate GOP leader’s top deputies — Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) — have also indicated they don’t want Trump to win the party’s 2024 presidential nomination.

They along with McConnell are letting Trump’s legal troubles play out without coming to the former president’s defense, in contrast to Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), who both issued statements Thursday criticizing the Justice Department before the indictment was unsealed to the public.

“They want him to go away so they wouldn’t be very upset if this is the thing that finally takes him out,” said a former Senate Republican aide about the Senate Republican leaders’ silence on Trump’s indictment.

Republican senators were more outspoken in defending Trump after liberal Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg unveiled an indictment in early April charging Trump with 34 felony counts related to business records fraud.

Even Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) declined to express confidence in Bragg when asked about him in late March.

Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, whom Attorney General Merrick Garland tapped in November to investigate Trump, has more credibility among Republicans.

“Jack Smith is very credible,” said the former Senate GOP aide.

“There is the reflection that he may have actually found finally the silver bullet” to end Trump’s political career, the former aide said, noting that Smith has a tape of Trump acknowledging that he had retained classified documents after leaving office that he didn’t declassify while president.

A Senate Republican aide said the indictment is “pretty damning.”

“The documents that he did have and who he was showing them to and where he was storing them is all pretty damning,” the aide said. “I don’t know if it will make a difference in the political landscape but it certainly seems pretty bad.”

The indictment accuses Trump of showing a classified document laying out the military strategy for an attack against Iran to a writer who didn’t have security clearance.

The former president also showed a sensitive military map to a staffer for his political action committee.

Photos included in the indictment showed that Trump haphazardly stashed boxes of sensitive materials around his residence at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, including in a ballroom, a bathroom, a shower, office space and his bedroom.

One photo showed documents scattered across the floor of a storage room.

Nevertheless, House Republican leaders are speaking out forcefully against the indictment.

“This is going to disrupt the nation because it goes to the core of equal justice for all, which is not being seen today. And we’re not going to stand for it,” McCarthy told Fox News in an interview Friday.

Scalise tweeted Thursday evening “this sham indictment is the continuation of the endless political persecution of Donald Trump.”

Former Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), a one-time advisor to McConnell’s leadership team and whose home state will host the second contest of next year’s Republican presidential primary, said the Department of Justice’s indictment may prove too much for Trump to overcome.

“At some point there’s a straw that breaks the camel’s back and there’s a whole lot of straws on the back of Donald Trump right now,” he said.

Gregg called the legal problems facing Trump clearly “outside the norm for a major leader of our nation.”

A New York jury last month found Trump liable for sexual abuse and awarded his accuser, the writer E. Jean Carroll, a $5 million judgment.

“Most Republicans want somebody else, even Trump people want somebody else, because they want to win and they recognize Trump is incapable of winning a general election at this point,” Gregg said.

He said Senate Republican leaders should call on the GOP to move past the former president.

“I would be advising them to say, ‘Listen, we have to move on as a party. Let Donald Trump work through his legal issues, which are considerable, but we as a party need to move on and let’s find ourselves a candidate for president who can win,’” he said.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Friday evening said the charges brought by the Department of Justice are “quite serious and cannot be casually dismissed.”

She said in a statement that “mishandling classified documents is a federal crime because it can expose national secrets, as well as the sources and methods they were obtained through.”

Murkowski, who voted to convict Trump on the impeachment charge of inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol joined fellow Republican Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) in being the only two Republican senators to criticize Trump shortly after the indictment became public.

Romney, who voted twice to convict Trump on impeachment charges in 2020 and 2021, defended the Justice Department from criticisms voiced by other Republicans that it is acting unfairly.

“By all appearances, the Justice Department and special counsel have exercised due care, affording Mr. Trump the time and opportunity to avoid charges that would not generally have been afforded to others,” Romney said in a statement.

“Mr. Trump brought these charges upon himself by not only taking classified documents, but by refusing to simply return them when given numerous opportunities to do so,” he said.

Senate conservatives have come to Trump’s defense, notably Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah).

“The Biden administration’s actions can only be compared to the type of oppressive tactics routinely seen in nations such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua, which are absolutely alien and unacceptable in America,” Lee said in a statement. “It is an affront to our country’s glorious 246-year legacy of independence from tyranny, for the incumbent president of the United States to leverage the machinery of justice against a political rival.”

Cruz on his podcast “The Verdict” called the indictment “an assault on democracy,” “garbage” and “a political attack from a thoroughly corrupted and weaponized Department of Justice.”

Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the third-ranking member of the Senate GOP leadership, who voted against the debt deal and is seen within the Senate GOP conference as someone who has tried to ally himself with its most conservative members, also criticized the indictment.

“This indictment certainly looks like an unequal application of justice,” he said in a statement, pointing out that “large amounts of classified materials were found in President Biden’s garage in Delaware” yet “no indictment.”

Yet many other Republican senators, particularly those more closely allied with McConnell, are staying conspicuously quiet about Trump’s legal travails.

One GOP senator who requested anonymity defended the Justice Department’s prosecution against accusations that it was necessarily motivated by politics because Garland is a Biden appointee.

“Where do you draw the line?” the senator said. “Everybody owes their job to someone.

“We have to trust our institutions and there’s not a lot of trust right now,” the senator added.

Tanker fire causes part of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia to collapse; complete rebuild expected to take ‘months’: Updates

USA Today

Tanker fire causes part of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia to collapse; complete rebuild expected to take ‘months’: Updates

Francisco Guzman, Grace Hauck and Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY –

June 11, 2023

A tanker truck fire shut down I-95 in both directions after an elevated portion of the heavily traveled interstate collapsed in Philadelphia on Sunday morning, state officials said, raising concerns about possible travel headaches throughout the Northeast.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said the fire closed all lanes between Exit 25 and Exit 32, which includes Allegheny Avenue, Castor Avenue, Academy Road, and Linden Avenue.

Philadelphia Fire Department Captain Derek Bowmer said emergency crews responded shortly before 6:30 a.m. local time after receiving a report of a vehicle being on fire on the interstate. Authorities later identified the vehicle as a gasoline tanker truck that may have been carrying hundreds of gallons of gasoline.

The fire took about an hour to get under control. City and state officials are “responding to address impacts to residents in the area and travelers affected by the road closure,” the state fire department said in a statement to USA TODAY.

In a Sunday night update, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said at least one vehicle was still trapped under the collapsed roadway but there were no immediate reports of injuries. “We’re still working to identify any individual or individuals who may have been caught in the fire and the collapse,” he said.

Interstate 95 is the main north-south highway on the East Coast and stretches from Florida through Maine to Canada.

“Travelers should expect delays and plan alternative travel routes, especially while planning for their weekday commute,” the City of Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management said.

Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg said he was monitoring the fire and collapse and was in touch with the governor and Federal Highway Administration to offer “help with recovery and reconstruction.” And the National Transportation Safety Board said it was working with the Pennsylvania State Police to conduct a safety investigation.

President Joe Biden was also briefed on the collapse and officials offered assistance to local and state authorities, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

How did the section of I-95 in Philadelphia collapse?

Transportation Department spokesperson Brad Rudolph said some kind of crash occurred on a ramp under northbound I-95 causing the northbound section above the fire to quickly collapse.

Bowmer said runoff from the fire or compromised gas lines caused explosions underground. Because of heat from the fire, Bowmer said the northbound lanes were gone and the southbound lanes were “compromised.”

“Today’s going to be a long day. And obviously, with 95 northbound gone and southbound questionable, it’s going to be even longer than that,” said Dominick Mireles, director of the Philadelphia OEM.

According to Rudolph, the collapsed section of I-95 was part of a $212 million reconstruction project that was completed four years ago. The highway segment is closed indefinitely but Rudolph said officials would consider “a fill-in situation or a temporary structure.”

Witness describes a ‘pretty remarkable’ collapse

Mark Fusetti was driving south toward the city’s airport when he saw black smoke rising above the highway. The retired Philadelphia police sergeant said the road beneath the fire began to “dip,” creating a depression. Traffic soon came to a halt before the northbound lanes of the highway gave way.

“It was crazy timing,” Fusetti said. “For it to buckle and collapse that quickly, it’s pretty remarkable.”

Detour routes recommended

For people traveling on I-95 southbound, officials recommended using Route 63 West (Woodhaven Road), U.S. 1 South, 76 East to 676 East. For people traveling I-95 northbound, officials recommended I-676 West, I-76 West, U.S. 1 North to Route 63 East (Woodhaven Road).

Philadelphia residents should use regional public transits services, such as rapid transit, commuter rail or light rail, the city’s Office of Emergency Management said.

Fire contents did not appear to spread into environment

Concerns about the environmental effects of runoff into the nearby Delaware River were raised after a sheen was seen in the river near the collapse site. The Coast Guard contained the material by deploying a boom.

While the tanker truck had a capacity of 8,500 gallons, Ensign Joshua Ledoux said contents from the fire did not appear to be spreading into the environment and “it seems like things are under control.”

The Philadelphia Water Department said the incident had no impact on drinking water quality but will continue to monitor and work with other agencies in their emergency response.

Mireles said heavy construction equipment would be needed to remove the thousands of tons of debris at the site of the fire.

AERIAL VIEW OF DAMAGE: Gov. Shapiro speaks about Route 95 collapse in northeast Philadelphia

Delays in local waste collection expected

Residents in some areas should expect delays in trash and recycling collections, the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management said.

“The Streets Department is assessing which areas will be impacted as sanitation trucks will have to be diverted to alternative travel routes,” the office said.

Heat from fire can quickly weaken bridge structures, expert says

Tanker truck fires carry a large amount of hydrocarbon fuel and can generate a “fast, intense release of heat,” said Dr. Thomas Gernay, an assistant professor of civil engineering at Johns Hopkins University who studies ways to protect structures from fires.

“These fires can exceed temperatures of 1500 F in just a few minutes,” Gernay said in an email to USA TODAY.

Heat from a fire underneath a bridge, which is generally not designed for fire exposure, can quickly weaken structural members, according to Gernay. The materials, such as steel and concrete, of structural members lose load-carry capacity as temperatures increase.

Gernay also said structural members will expand when heated and contract when cooled down, further damaging the structure.

“The parts of the structure that did not collapse can be permanently damaged by the material degradation and the movements induced by the heat exposure,” Gernay said in an email.

Incident resembles other bridge fire failures

While bridge fire failures are rare, according to Gernay, past incidents have been similar and involved a portion of a busy highway collapsing.

In 2007, the MacArthur Maze connecting ramp in Oakland, California, collapsed after a tank truck carrying 8,600 gallons of unleaded gasoline overturned. And more recently in 2017, an elevated portion of Interstate 85 collapsed in a fire and shut down the heavily traveled route.

Gernay said in both cases, contractors had to work ahead of schedule due to the “economic impact of traffic interruption.” The timeline of reconstruction of the two cases occurred over several weeks.

Shapiro said Sunday night he planned to issue a disaster declaration Monday to speed up federal funds. He said he had spoken with Buttigieg and was assured that there would be “absolutely no delay” in getting federal funds to safely reconstruct what he called a “critical roadway.”

But Shapiro also said the complete rebuild of I-95 would take “some number of months.”

Contributing: Associated Press

Zelenskiy says counteroffensive actions “taking place” in Ukraine

Reuters

Zelenskiy says counteroffensive actions “taking place” in Ukraine

Tom Balmforth – June 10, 2023

Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy speaks during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau in Kyiv

KYIV (Reuters) -President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged on Saturday that his military was engaged in “counter-offensive and defensive operations” a day after Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin said Kyiv’s long-vaunted drive to retake territory was well under way.

But the Ukrainian leader disclosed no details, telling reporters to pass on to Putin that his generals were optimistic.

Sporting his trademark khaki fatigues, Zelenskiy shrugged at a press conference when asked about Putin’s comments on Friday that Kyiv had begun its counter-offensive but made no progress.

“Counter-offensive and defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine, but I will not say in detail what stage they are at,” Zelenskiy said, listing Ukraine’s top military brass by name.

“They (the generals) are all in a positive mood. Pass that on to Putin,” he said with a smile, standing alongside visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

He said Putin’s comments on the counter-offensive were “interesting…It is important that Russia always feels this: That they do not have long left, in my opinion.”

Russia’s Defence Ministry on Saturday said Ukrainian forces had in the past 24 hours made “unsuccessful” attempts to attack in the southern Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions — two areas subject to heavy fighting.

The ministry also mentioned Bakhmut, the eastern town Moscow says it captured last month after 10 months of fierce battles.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the situation on the battlefield.

In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy again provided few details while urging troops to keep fighting.

“Thank you to all those who holds their positions and those who advance,” he said, citing the eastern and southern fronts, where fighting is heaviest.

Ukraine’s general staff said its forces had repelled enemy attacks around Bakhmut and the long besieged town of Maryinka. Russian forces, it said, “continue to suffer heavy losses which they are trying to conceal”.

General Oleksander Syrskyi, commander of ground forces who is in operational control of the counteroffensive, posted a picture on social media of an explosion that he said was a group of Russian soldiers being destroyed near Bakhmut.

Ukrainian military spokesman Serhiy Cherevatyi reported new gains near Bakhmut.

“We’re trying…to conduct strikes on the enemy, we are counter-attacking. We’ve managed to advance up to 1,400 metres (0.87 mile) on various sections of the front,” Cherevatyi said.

Ukraine has said for months it plans a major counter-offensive. But it had denied the main operation has begun.

With scant independent reporting from the front lines, it has been difficult to assess the state of the fighting.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence said Ukraine had conducted “significant” operations in several eastern and southern parts in the last 48 hours, with Russian defences breached in places.

SOME PROGRESS: BRITISH MINISTRY

“In some areas, Ukrainian forces have likely made good progress and penetrated the first line of Russian defences. In others, Ukrainian progress has been slower,” it said, also characterising the Russian military’s performance as mixed.

“Some (Russian) units are likely conducting credible manoeuvre defence operations while others have pulled back in some disorder, amid increased reports of Russian casualties as they withdraw through their own minefields.”

Ukraine’s counter-offensive is expected to use thousands of troops that have been trained and equipped by the West, but Russia has built huge fortifications in occupied territory to prepare, while Kyiv also lacks air supremacy.

The south is seen as a key strategic priority for a Ukrainian push that could aim to recapture Europe’s biggest nuclear plant and cut the Russian land bridge to the occupied Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, dividing Russian forces.

Ukrainian military analyst Oleksiy Hetman told NV Radio the events of recent days were only initial steps.

“What is happening now could be called ‘reconnaissance in battle’ – the first stage of the offensive,” Hetman said. “It was impossible to make progress in depth. The goal was to check the enemy’s defences. Let’s wait a few days and see.”

(Reporting by Tom Balmforth and Felix Hoske; Editing by Alex Richardson, Andrew Cawthorne, Mike Harrison, Ron Popeski and Cynthia Osterman)