DONALD TRUMP

Newsweek - President-elect Donald Trump unveiled a collection of guitars that he has endorsed, including "signature edition" guitars signed by Trump, which are selling for $10,000 apiece. Even before he entered politics, Trump had used his celebrity status as a New York real estate businessman to sell merchandise from vodka to steaks. He's continued to promote branded products like Bibles, sneakers, watches, photo books and NFTs (nonfungible tokens)—and that's just during his latest election campaign.

On Wednesday, Trump announced the new collection of guitars on Truth Social, posting a picture of himself holding what he called the "Limited Edition '45' Guitar." It is an electric guitar with the words "Make America Great Again" on the neck and a photo of a bald eagle in front of an American flag on the body. The guitar Trump was holding also included his signature.

Trump shared a link to a website called GetTrumpGuitars.com. When you click the link it brings you to a webpage titled "Trump Guitars" which lists the guitar Trump was holding for $10,000. It was available in both electric and acoustic styles.

According to the webpage, there are only 275 guitars in each style available, and only 125 of each style are currently available for shipping. The webpage also says all in-stock guitars will arrive in time for Christmas.

MSNBC - Donald Trump has said that he would pardon Jan. 6 defendants as president, but one of his own judicial appointees is expressing disapproval of widespread clemency for such defendants across the board.The Washington Post reported that U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols said Tuesday: “Blanket pardons for all Jan. 6 defendants or anything close would be beyond frustrating and disappointing, but that’s not my call.” 

MSNBC - NBC News reported on Tuesday that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence had begun providing Trump with the briefings that have been given to presidents-elect for over 70 years. (The Washington Post first reported that the briefings are taking place.) But there’s no statutory requirement that Trump be given early access to the country’s most closely guarded secrets. It could more accurately be described as a courtesy from the ODNI.

The decision looks especially odd considering the Justice Department’s Mar-a-Lago documents case against Trump. When he left office in 2021, Trump took with him boxes and boxes of papers that should have been handed over to the National Archives and Records Administration for preservation. Instead, he refused to do so when asked, allegedly going so far as to attempt to obstruct a subpoena for him to turn over all the presidential documents in his possession.

According to the indictment that special counsel Jack Smith obtained, Trump wasn’t exactly careful with those documents he kept. Now-infamous photos showed a small mountain of boxes stuffed into one of the estate’s bathrooms. The lack of care meant that classified documents were probably among the contents. Worse, an audio recording of a meeting at Trump’s Bedminster estate in New Jersey included the former president showing off a sensitive map that he said was related to potential military plans against Iran.