DONALD TRUMP

Robert McCoy, New Republic - In his 1987 book, The Art of the Deal, Donald Trump let readers in on a promotional strategy of his. “I play to people’s fantasies,” the real estate developer wrote, by insisting that a project “is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular.” It’s a tactic Trump has also employed in his political career—most effectively this election cycle, when many voters were drawn to him based on perceptions of his second-term plans that had little to no basis in reality.

Consider these archetypal dispatches from the 2024 campaign trail. “A lot of people are happy to vote for [Trump] because they simply do not believe he will do many of the things he says he will,” an October New York Times “campaign notebook” entry observed. The following week, The Washington Post noted of prospective Trump voters: “Some read between Trump’s lines about how he would govern, while others disregard parts of his past or present platform.”

Then there was the phenomenon Paul Krugman, the retiring Times columnist, dubbed “Trump-stalgia,” which could just as well have been called “Trump-nesia.” Most Americans are undoubtedly better off than they were four years ago, he wrote in May. “But for reasons that still remain unclear, many seem disinclined to believe it.” This sentiment held true through the election. As TNR’s Greg Sargent reported on November 9, citing internal Democratic polling, “It proved disturbingly difficult to persuade undecided voters that Trump had been a bad president.”

In other words, for many, Trump was whoever they wanted him to be—a choose-your-own-candidate. Voters projected their wishes onto his candidacy, regardless of his stated policy program. They remembered positive aspects of his presidency and either memory-holed the negative parts (his deadly mishandling of the pandemic, say, or his nomination of Supreme Court justices who eliminated abortion rights) or simply didn’t blame him for them. But Trump’s rhetorical slipperiness made this possible. His relentless lying, flip-flopping, and vagueness about his plans made it difficult to pin him down, thereby attracting voters from both sides of certain issues.

But the chimerical allure that helped propel Trump to the White House has an expiration date. He sold myriad, and often conflicting, fantasies to voters. In three weeks’ time, he’ll face reality. And many Trump voters will undoubtedly start to realize that he is not at all the person they thought they were voting for...

USA Today - President-elect Donald Trump lashed out Friday over plans for the U.S. flag to be flown at half-staff during his upcoming inauguration to honor the late President Jimmy Carter ‒ but the White House said it isn't reconsidering the order. U.S. flags have been flying at half-staff at all federal properties including the Capitol since Dec. 29, when President Joe Biden ordered the measure of respect following Carter's death for 30 days ‒ the prescribed federal timeframe for lowering flags after a president's death since 1954.

Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president on Jan. 20, which falls within the 30-day window.  "The Democrats are all 'giddy' about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at 'half mast' during my Inauguration," Trump said in a post on Truth Social, incorrectly using the term that refers to flags being flown halfway up the mast on a ship, not a flag pole. "They think it’s so great, and are so happy about it because, in actuality, they don’t love our Country, they only think about themselves." 

Daily Beast -  President-elect Donald Trump’s social media posts about annexing Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal startled America’s allies and delighted foreign foes. In Russia, the statements were interpreted to mean that Trump isn’t really opposed to foreign wars of conquest after all. To them, Trump’s tirades revealed that—just like Russian President Vladimir Putin—Trump would be delighted to invade any country that couldn’t fight back. He would expect accolades and a lavish victory parade after seizing foreign territories, just like the fallout from Russia stealing Crimea in 2014.

Trump infamously described the annexation of Crimea as a “genius” and “savvy” move. Putin tried to repeat the trick and take the rest of Ukraine in three days in 2022, and the Kremlin insiders believe Trump only disapproves of the war because it turned out to be lengthy and costly.

Jen Psaki, MSMBC - In the wake of the devastating terrorist attack in New Orleans, President-elect Donald Trump and far too many Republicans wasted no time using the tragedy to inaccurately and outrageously connect the attack to border security and migrants. On Wednesday morning, an erroneous Fox News report stated the suspect’s truck had been observed crossing the U.S.-Mexico border just days previously, implying that border security failures were to blame for the attack. From there, the floodgates opened.

According to Media Matters, within minutes of the report, Trump blamed the terrorist attack on “criminals coming in” to the United States. Predictably, others followed suit: Vice President-elect JD Vance retweeted Trump’s post, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene declared “New Orleans terrorist attacker is said to have come across the border in Eagle Pass TWO DAYS AGO!!! Shut the border down!!!” House Speaker Mike Johnson joined “Fox & Friends” to blame the attack on Biden’s “wide-open border,” as did Trump’s incoming border czar Tom Homan...

 

The New Orleans attacker was a U.S. citizen, born in the United States, and an Army veteran. Fox News retracted its report hours later, clarifying that the truck had crossed the border months ago, driven by a totally different person. (We now know the owner of the truck rented it out online via the app Turo.) Yet Johnson and others continued to echo this claim on Fox well after the network corrected itself. And GOP Rep. Mike Waltz is still exploiting this tragedy to push for confirmations of Trump’s national security picks — including himself — “on day one.” 

 

The Guardian - A judge on Friday set Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush-money case for 10 January – little over a week before he is due to return to the White House – but promised not to jail him.

Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over Trump’s trial in New York, denied the president-elect’s motion to dismiss the case due to his election victory in November. He said Trump is expected to appear for sentencing either in-person or virtually. But Merchan signalled in an 18-page written decision that he does not intend to impose a prison sentence since prosecutors “concede they no longer view [it] as a practicable recommendation” in the light of Trump’s election win in November.

A sentence of “unconditional discharge” – meaning no custody, monetary fine or probation – would be “the most viable solution”, Merchan wrote.

Even so, the sentencing would be a high profile reminder that America is about to swear in a president with a criminal record for the first time. However, Trump could yet ask an appeals court to intervene and postpone the sentencing.

The surprise development marks yet another twist in the singular case. Trump was convicted in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records. The case involved an alleged scheme to hide a hush money payment to the adult film performer Stormy Daniels in the last weeks of Trump’s first campaign in 2016. The payout was made to keep her from publicising claims she had sex with the married Trump years earlier.

Trump pleaded not guilty and claimed, without evidence, that he was a victim of political persecution. On Friday, Trump lashed out at Merchan on his Truth Social platform, writing that it “would be the end of the Presidency as we know it” if the judge’s ruling was allowed to stand.

Trump repeated his claims that the case was an “illegitimate political attack” and “nothing but a Rigged Charade” perpetuated by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat. He didn’t elaborate on potential next legal moves.

Trump’s spokesperson, Steven Cheung, said in a statement: “This lawless case should have never been brought and the Constitution demands that it be immediately dismissed.

“President Trump must be allowed to continue the Presidential Transition process and to execute the vital duties of the presidency, unobstructed by the remains of this or any remnants of the witch hunts. There should be no sentencing, and President Trump will continue fighting against these hoaxes until they are all dead.”

Trump was initially scheduled to be sentenced on 26 November but Merchan pushed that back indefinitely after the Republican nominee defeated vice-president Kamala Harris in the 5 November election.

The postponement allowed the defence and prosecution to weigh in on the future of the case. Trump’s lawyers urged Merchan to toss it out. They said it would otherwise pose unconstitutional “disruptions” to the incoming president’s ability to run the country. Merchan rejected that argument, writing that setting aside the jury’s verdict would “undermine the Rule of Law in immeasurable ways”.