Trump

Huffington Post - Former president Donald Trump on Thursday raised the prospect of scrapping the U.S. income tax system and replacing it with something very different: much higher tariffs on imported goods...The consensus among economists is that tariffs jack up consumer prices because companies would need to charge more for goods and services to make up what they’re paying in tariffs. Economists have also said Trump’s other proposals for new levies would boost inflation in general. Inflation and the price of consumer goods have already become a major talking point ahead of the 2024 election, even as the economy has grown briskly.

Currently, tariffs bring in only a small portion of the $4.4 trillion in revenues the U.S. government brings in every year. According to the Treasury Department, annual Customs duties, which include tariff payments, amounted to $88.3 billion in the 2023 fiscal year. Income taxes, on the other hand, raised more than 20 times as much, $2.2 trillion.

Occupy Democrats - The details of Donald Trump's scheming phone call to MAGA Speaker Mike Johnson right after his felony conviction leak — and they're absolutely damning. Trump used "frequent F-bombs" as he begged Johnson to "overturn" his guilty verdict. And it gets so much worse... "We have to overturn this," Trump told Johnson. Politico reports that Johnson "didn’t really need to be convinced" according to at least one person familiar with the conversation. The two of them have spoken several times since to discuss how the Republican-controlled House might be able to help Trump exact revenge on Democrats. One option Johnson is considering is granting presidents the power to move state cases to federal court — allowing Trump to slither off the hook.

Occupy Democrats - Nancy Pelosi's daughter Christine brutally torches Donald Trump after he makes unhinged remarks about her being a "whacko" and bizarrely fantasizes about being in a romantic relationship with her mother. He shouldn't have messed with family... "Speaking for all 4 Pelosi daughters — this is a LIE. His deceitful, deranged obsession with our mother is yet another reason Donald Trump is unwell, unhinged and unfit to step foot anywhere near her — or the White House,” Christine Pelosi wrote X. 

The daughter of the Speaker Emerita was responding to the deeply strange remarks Trump made during a morning meeting with House Republicans. "Nancy Pelosi’s daughter is a whacko, her daughter told me if things were different Nancy and I would be perfect together, there’s an age difference though," Trump said, according to a tweet from Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman, who added that it was "close to an exact quote." "That guy has clearly lost his marbles. Not that he had many to begin with,” a spokesperson for Nancy Pelosi said. More than anything, Trump's comments demonstrate how rotted his mind has become.

Matt Young, Daily Beast -   Money raised by Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign is being sent right back into the former president’s pockets in various forms, according to a new report from Forbes based on Federal Election Commission records. Trump has not donated any money personally to his 2024 presidential campaign, but he is certainly charging others for it, according to the records, which show $4.6 million worth of campaign money has been transferred to his business empire. Much of that money, the Forbes report claims, has been sent to Trump’s aviation company, Tag Air.

The Secret Service forked out $800,000 in airfare to travel with the former president. Though Trump has charged the campaign for services in prior elections, this year is different, according to Forbes. The 77-year-old is expected to rake in more cash than ever this election cycle and will continue to use his private jet as he makes his way along the campaign trail. When approached by Forbes about the transactions, a spokesperson “deflected,” and took aim at Joe and Hunter Biden instead. On top of the payments to his aviation company, the campaign spent $332,000 at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club and residence. Another $20,000 went to Trump National Doral, a Trump-owned golf resort in Miami, while $36,000 went to the Trump hotel in Las Vegas.

Guardian  - Donald Trump’s lawyers are preparing to redirect their focus on the charges that the former president illegally retained classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, moving on after Trump was found guilty of 34 felonies in his New York criminal trial last month. The documents case now stands with singular importance for Trump, as it is the only case with ongoing proceedings. The other two cases where Trump is a defendant – the 2020 election interference cases in Washington and Georgia – are now indefinitely delayed with appeals... The documents case is also bogged down with delays after the Trump lawyers filed motion after motion and sought extension after extension from Cannon, a Trump appointee who has invariably been skeptical of prosecutors and has a reluctance to rule on even minor issues, allowing a logjam to build.

NBC News - Trump held a closed-door meeting with at least 80 CEOs yesterday in Washington. He had a clear pitch, according to people familiar with the meeting — that CEOs are going to see tax cuts and a curtailment of business regulations if he is re-elected.