Category Archives: Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s digital trading card collection sells out in less than a day

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NFTs were priced at $99 each and depict the former US president in guises including superhero, astronaut and race car driver

Despite being widely mocked online, former US president Donald Trump’s collection of digital trading cards have sold out in less than a day, netting US$4.5m in sales.

On Wednesday, Trump alerted fans to a “major announcement” on his Truth social media platform. A day later, the 45th president of the United States revealed he was offering “limited edition cards featur[ing] amazing ART of my Life & Career”, which he promised would prove “very much like a baseball card but hopefully much more exciting”.

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US investigators were allowed access to Trump allies’ emails

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Justice department was granted access to emails from former employees and loyalists

Federal investigators have been scrutinizing emails between lawyers for Donald Trump and a loyalist Republican congressman for months, it emerged on Friday, casting new light on the direction of the criminal inquiry into the former president’s alleged insurrection efforts.

Beryl Howell, the US district court chief judge, granted a request from the justice department to unseal an order she made in June.

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‘Losing the plot’: Trump mocked after announcing superhero card collection

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Cards cost ‘only $99 each’ and ‘would make a great Christmas gift’, said former president in video as he made ‘major announcement’

Donald Trump walked into a comic book universe of internet mockery on Thursday, when in a carefully trailed announcement he introduced his “official Donald Trump Digital Trading Card” collection with a picture of himself in superhero costume, cape and “Trump Champion” belt.

“Just when you thought this grifter couldn’t humiliate himself any more than he already has,” wrote John Kiriakou, a CIA whistleblower turned author, “there’s this. THIS is what the big announcement was.”

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Ron DeSantis leads Donald Trump by 23 points in Republican poll

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Florida governor takes enormous lead over embattled ex-president for 2024 race as Mike Pence nears a run of his own

In a new poll regarding potential Republican nominees for president in 2024, the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, led Donald Trump by a whopping 23 points.

Republican and Republican-leaning voters dealt the significant blow to the former president’s ego in a survey carried out by USA Today and Suffolk University and released on Tuesday.

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Judge denies justice department plea to hold Trump in contempt over records

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DoJ told to resolve noncompliance with subpoena demanding return of documents with ex-president’s legal team

A top federal judge denied a request from the justice department to hold Donald Trump’s office in contempt of court for failing to fully comply with a subpoena demanding the return of all documents bearing classified markings, according to sources familiar with proceedings.

The chief US judge for the District of Columbia Beryl Howell told the department during a closed-door hearing on Friday to resolve the matter with the Trump legal team itself because a contempt ruling would not hold, the sources said.

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DoJ seeking to hold Trump team in contempt of court over classified documents

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Trump office did not comply with subpoena issued in May demanding the return of all classified documents, a source says

The US justice department is seeking a top federal judge to hold Donald Trump’s political office in contempt of court for not fully complying with a grand jury subpoena issued in May demanding the return of all classified documents in its possession, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The department in recent weeks asked the chief US district court judge for the District of Columbia, Beryl Howell, to hold Trump’s office in contempt after prosecutors were unable to get the former president’s lawyers to designate a custodian of records to certify all records were returned.

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Trump Organization guilty of tax fraud, New York jury finds

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Twelve-person jury returns guilty verdict against former president’s company after being sent out on Monday to deliberate

A jury in New York has convicted the Trump Organization of criminal tax fraud in a major blow for the former president.

Although Donald Trump was not personally on trial, prosecutors insisted he was fully aware of the 15-year scheme in which they said executives were enriched by off-the-books perks to make up for lower salaries, reducing the company’s tax liabilities.

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Flood of sexual abuse lawsuits expected in New York as new law takes effect

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Adult survivors of sexual abuse can now file lawsuits even if the statute of limitations on their claims had already run out

A trickle of high-profile sexual abuse lawsuits passing through New York’s civil courts is likely to become a flood in the coming months because of a new, one-year window for time-expired claims.

Already, some bold-faced names from the worlds of arts, finance and politics have become involved, including Donald Trump and banker Leon Black.

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Joe Biden condemns antisemitism following Kanye West’s remarks: ‘Silence is complicity’ – as it happened

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Biden alludes to Republican politicians, saying ‘our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides’

It looks like Florida’s legislature will press ahead with a plan to allow Ron DeSantis to continue serving as the state’s governor, while he pursues his expected run for the White House.

An Associated Press report Friday adds credence to the idea floated by Republicans last month, and reported in this blog, to repeal Florida’s so-called “resign to run” rule.

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Republicans delete tweet that appears to support Kanye West after he praises Nazis

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House judiciary committee account contained cryptic post - ‘Kanye. Elon. Trump’ – that seemingly expressed support for Ye

Leading Republicans in the US Congress have deleted a tweet that seemingly expressed support for Ye, a rapper formerly known as Kanye West, after he praised Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

Since October, a Twitter account run by Republicans on the House of Representatives’ judiciary committee has contained a cryptic post that said: “Kanye. Elon. Trump” – apparently claiming Ye, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and former president Donald Trump as their own.

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US court strikes down appointment of special master to review Trump records

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Decision marks decisive defeat as judges opine the request should never have been granted in the first place

A federal appeals court on Thursday terminated the special master review of documents seized from Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago property, paving the way for the justice department to regain access to the entirety of the materials for use in the criminal investigation surrounding the former president.

The decision by the US court of appeals for the 11th circuit marked a decisive defeat for Trump in a ruling that said a lower-court judge should never have granted his request for an independent arbiter in the first place and is unlikely to be overturned in the event of appeal.

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Jewish conservatives condemn Trump for meeting antisemite Nick Fuentes

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Mike Pence, Chris Christie and several Republican senators were also critical, to varying degrees, of former president

Several Republican lawmakers and prominent Jewish conservatives have condemned Donald Trump for meeting with white supremacist and antisemite Nick Fuentes, in a rare distancing from the ex-president.

Trump’s former vice-president Mike Pence, the former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, and several Republican senators were critical, to varying degrees, of Trump, who has come under fire after dining with Fuentes last week.

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Donald Trump ‘shied away from criticising Nick Fuentes’

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Advisers wanted ex-president to distance himself from white supremacist with whom he dined but Trump feared alienating supporters – insiders

Donald Trump repeatedly refused to disavow the outspoken antisemite and white supremacist Nick Fuentes after they spoke over dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort, rejecting the advice from advisers over fears he might alienate a section of his base, two people familiar with the situation said.

The former US president was urged publicly and privately to denounce Fuentes in the aftermath of the dinner, which included the performer Ye, previously known as Kanye West, who has also recently been propagating antisemitic remarks.

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Republican says Trump ‘empowering’ extremists by having dinner with white supremacist

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‘It’s very troubling,’ says Arkansas governor who condemned Trump’s meeting with anti-semite Nick Fuentes

The Republican governor of Arkansas on Sunday joined a chorus of criticism of Donald Trump for having dinner with American white supremacist and anti-semite Nick Fuentes, accusing the former US president of effectively “empowering” such extremists.

“It’s very troubling and it should not happen,” Asa Hutchinson told CNN’s State of the Union show on Sunday morning, becoming the most senior Republican politician to condemn the meeting.

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January 6 report expected to focus on Trump’s role and potential culpability

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Final report by House select committee is scheduled for release in December – but fixation on Trump has opened a rift on the panel

The House January 6 select committee’s final report into its investigation is expected to focus heavily on Donald Trump’s involvement in the Capitol attack and his potential culpability, opening a rift on the panel weeks before its scheduled release in the middle of December.

The nature of the final report – alongside criminal referrals to the justice department – is expected to be the defining legacy of the investigation that brought into sharp relief Trump’s efforts to stop the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election win and return to the White House for a second term.

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Trump condemned for dining with white supremacist Nick Fuentes

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Democrats, anti-racist groups and some Republicans criticize president for meeting Fuentes at dinner with Kanye West

Democrats, anti-racist groups and some Republicans have condemned Donald Trump for having a dinner with American white supremacist and anti-semite Nick Fuentes after details of their encounter at the former US president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida emerged.

The meeting is the latest in a long line of incidents involving the former US president and the far right, including once referencing the Proud Boys in a presidential debate and his comments that there were “very fine people on both sides” after 2017 clashes at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that left one anti-fascist protester dead.

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Elon Musk says he will back Trump rival Ron DeSantis in 2024 if he runs for president

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Billionaire says he prefers ‘someone sensible and centrist’ but that he had been disappointed by the Democrats so far

Elon Musk has said he would support Donald Trump’s arch rival, Ron DeSantis, in 2024 if the Florida governor were to run for president.

“Yes”, Musk said in a tweet when asked if he would support DeSantis in 2024, after suggesting he had not found his ideal candidate among Democrats.

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Trump reportedly dines with white nationalist at Mar-a-Lago

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Ex-president ‘dined and conversed’ with Nick Fuentes and Kanye West a week after announcing his 2024 campaign

Donald Trump reportedly “dined and conversed” with infamous white nationalist Nick Fuentes at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach on Tuesday.

Trump’s encounter with the openly racist Fuentes – who was in the company of disgraced rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye – came one week after the former US president declared his 2024 campaign.

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US supreme court allows Congress to view Trump’s tax returns

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Order ends committee’s three-year battle to receive returns former president has long refused to release

The US supreme court will allow a congressional committee to receive copies of Donald Trump’s tax returns, ending a three-year battle by the Democratic-led body to see the documents the former president has famously refused to release since his first White House bid.

The court did not accompany its decision with any public comment, but it rejected Trump’s plea for an order that would have prevented the treasury department from giving six years of tax returns for Trump and some of his businesses to the House ways and means committee.

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US justice department seeks to void Trump’s special master review of papers

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The end of the process will make the materials seized from Mar-a-Lago available for the criminal investigation of the ex-president

The US justice department is scheduled to ask a court on Tuesday to void the special master review examining documents seized from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and make the materials available to the criminal investigation surrounding the former president.

The hearing is particularly consequential for Trump: should he lose, it could mark the end of the special master process on which he has relied to delay, and gain more insight into, the investigation surrounding his potential mishandling of national security information.

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