https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/26/trump-mugshot-fundraising-00113118
The former president raised $4.18 million on Friday alone, the single-highest 24 hour period of his campaign to date.
The former president raised $4.18 million on Friday alone, the single-highest 24 hour period of his campaign to date.
no it's completely ridiculous how many things they will misuse in exactly this way.. there is strange magic afoot, friends.. keep your wits about you..
Or maybe everything in life has nuance and can't be simply boiled down to "winning" and "losing".
Trump is not only mega rich, but he's also the head of an actual cult of personality. Those are feathers in his cap no doubt. On the other hand, not only has he lost multiple elections, he's a twice impeached criminal with 91 very serious charges (and counting) against him and a pile of hard evidence to back it all up. The odds of him spending what few remaining years he has left behind bars are non-zero, and no matter what happens he will incur massive financial costs one way or another.
In an alternate reality he could have sat out 2016 and spent the last decade of his life golfing and stuffing his fat fucking face, and he would have still been rich enough to live however he wanted. But instead he has put the world's biggest magnifying glass up his own corrupt asshole, and it's all not looking so great.
Trump is actually very bad with money, historically. His father was the clever businessman, and Trump apparently squandered his inheritance. His partially public tax returns reveal as much. He’s lost absolute fortunes. He couldn’t even get a casino in Atlantic City to stay afloat. I’m pretty sure that everything about his public image is a lie.
I’m pretty sure the Atlantic City bankruptcy was intentional, and was the result of a money laundering scheme. His high rise condos are the same thing but easier to manage (because he is not that smart and has alienated most of his more intelligent co-conspirators at this point in his life.)
At that point at his age you may as well just go for broke. I'd do the same thing. Leave a legacy. Cement your family name in the history books.
What else are you gonna do? Not like the uber wealthy lack for luxury and entertainment. Billionaires get bored and start doing things like submarines and space tourism.
Anyhow, obviously there is no clear distinction between "winning" and "losing" unless we define a clear set of qualifications. If we were to define "how well is Trump dominating the Republican party" he is absolutely winning.
Remember some short months ago him and DeSantis were neck and neck in the polls. Now Trump has shot ahead and DeSantis might even lose his #2 spot to an Indian.
Trump is going to win the Republican primary. This much is clear unless he has a stroke.
Criminal charges will ultimately do nothing to stop him and would probably help him. His base is now convinced there is a concerted effort by the state to hold him down. And to be honest, they're not wrong.
I don't think these indictments would have happened if Trump didn't have a serious chance to win in 2024. It's too risky. It's what really worries me. Feels like an attempt at a hail mary pass. If the establishment is so concerned they're willing to take these types of risks, the future is very uncertain.
At that point at his age you may as well just go for broke. I’d do the same thing.
No offense but I seriously doubt it. At 78 years old you'll probably just be hanging out, not trying to commit as many crimes as you can. I can't read the future or anything, but I think Trump's legacy is going to be one of unprecedented corruption and selfishness.
If we were to define “how well is Trump dominating the Republican party” he is absolutely winning.
He's certainly winning the Republican primary in terms of polling and fundraising, no question about it. But skipping the debate was a sign of vulnerability, projecting to everyone that he and his team believe that he has everything to lose and nothing to gain by going. In order to win a game of tug-o-war, you gotta keep pulling though, and I'm not sure that any of this helps him in a general election especially as there are many more shoes to drop.
Criminal charges will ultimately do nothing to stop him and would probably help him. His base is now convinced there is a concerted effort by the state to hold him down. And to be honest, they’re not wrong.
I don’t think these indictments would have happened if Trump didn’t have a serious chance to win in 2024. It’s too risky. It’s what really worries me. Feels like an attempt at a hail mary pass. If the establishment is so concerned they’re willing to take these types of risks, the future is very uncertain.
This is a conspiracy theory. It makes perfect sense if you don't think about it too hard.
Trump has been indicted in 3 different and unrelated cases so far: 2020 election interference with the goal of overturning a democratic election (federal and state charges in Georgia), mishandling of classified documents (federal charges), and finally hush money payments to Stormy Daniels as campaign action in 2016 (New York). In each case there is a significant pile of evidence against him, and in each case due process has been upheld. 4 separate grand juries have now seen fit to charge him and these cases are going to trial.
Unfortunately for Trump, he is a high profile criminal and his legal woes are very, very real. Presidents should not be above the law, and that goes for ex-presidents as well. He could be on his death bed and a lot of people, including myself, would still want to see him brought to justice for the crimes he has committed against our country.
People like Trump or Biden aren't built like regular people. Me or you at 78 would have put our hat down a decade prior. But these guys feel some sort of need to continue, for whatever reason.
And as long as they can a) speak with lucidity and charisma and b) make decisions then they are fine. Any hard work is done by advisors.
Skipping the debate I think was probably the right move. If he gets on stage, he's one guy in a crowd of many having to wait his turn to speak. In addition he could get difficult questions about his legal position for example.
By doing the interview with Tucker Carlson not only is he cementing this weird alliance between Carlson / Elon / Trump but he's basically saying "I'm not a part of the establishment" which is a main pull from his supporters
I think the recent indictments happening now, right before Republican primaries and election season starts in ernest, and not two years ago, shows there are people pulling strings in the back here.
Call it a conspiracy theory, but I've seen it in my home country of Brazil. A president conspired with members of the judiciary to charge an ex-president with a crime and got him in prison.
There are many corrupt people in Brazil who did not get charged. You see what I mean? The fact Lula went to prison was politically motivated. And it's not a conspiracy- he was eventually released because it was proven in court that it was politically motivated. Just because a system has checks and balances against this type of thing doesn't mean it's immune. Enough pressure and everything breaks. And where there's incentive to put pressure, people with power will do so
I think Trump should answer for his crimes- no president should be above the law. But I also doubt this ends well for us as a country. We're in a position where all paths lead to hell. You put such a figure like Trump in jail right before a tight election and there will be consequences. Regardless of whether it's justified or not.
And it will be tight. Last I checked polling in a hypothetical Biden v Trump was a coin flip. Unfortunately for Biden, the record inflation along with increasing interest rates will seriously hurt his chances at re-election. He obviously has that historical incumbent advantage - but so did Trump.
So far nothing of real significance has happened to him, and there are still opportunities for fuckery everywhere.
My bet is that it ends badly for him, but he's wriggled out of many many things before, and he has the House and SCOTUS backing him, as well as every republican state legislature.
I'm scared, frankly. We can all pretend we know what's going to happen, but we don't and we haven't the entire time. He hasn't been convicted of anything and a good 40% of the country want it to stay that way.
The 40% that already tried one coup because he asked nicely. Who knows what kind of crazy they try now.
20-25% of the country, max. And it's the same 20-25% that has voted wannabe dictators into office this whole time.
40% is based on his polling with republicans and assuming they make up a full half of the electorate. They do not. 50% don't usually vote, so you have to basically halve any percentage when it's just d vs r.
Literally unprecedented 4 indictments more on the way, the evidence and witness testimony is incredibly damning in basically all of them, he majority of the nation is taking it seriously, etc
Nothing of real significance eh? Fuck off doomer, no doubt you’ve been crying “nothing will ever happen” since 2016
I think you're misreading this. I've been varying levels of nauseous for 7 years now and every single hour of every single one of those days, I've screamed internally, "something is going to be done, this will get better, he will be stopped." And absolutely nothing happens. It just gets worse and worse and it's been deeply destructive to my mental health. It's emotionally safer to distance yourself from this. Pessimism is a shield against the arrows of disappointment.
I won't feel safe until that man expires while serving several lifetime sentences behind bars and all of his followers are shunned into obscurity. If then. Such is the nature of trauma.
I recommend listening to Legal AF. They're lawyers following the Trump case, and I think they'll give you some hope and a good perspective on how fucked Trump is (the episode titles are a bit clickbait-y, but the core information is good). It's helped me not completely give up and say, "Well, rich people always get off scot free."
Trump hasn't seen justice, yet, but he also hasn't been to court except to be arraigned. We all want justice yesterday, but he'll have to defend himself for real early next year.
I said "so far" and that "it was likely to end badly".
Thought experiment: all the cases are thrown out on procedural grounds tomorrow.
Would you feel like the inconvenience of a few court dates, an embarrassing photo, and some expenses borne by his dupes corresponded to the gravity of what he is alleged to have done?
I wouldn't.
7 million dollars, for one. I don't see him going to jail. I fucking HOPE he does but I have zero faith he will.
They gave his PAC money, not him directly. With the federal and state governments watching his every move, I'm sure one of them would love to add additional fraud to the list of charges.
It's not like he can just use it how he wants (anymore).
And as jail goes, the court proceedings haven't happened yet. He's out of jail, sure, but that doesn't mean he's free.
Looked it up, and sorta. If it goes to a specific 'PAC', "Save America PAC' he can absolutely use it.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-pac-pays-his-legal-bills-save-america/
https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-donations-legal-bills.html
TBH, how do his followers have any money left? They've bankrolled all of his endeavors for the last 7-8 years, plus bankrolled the other various grifters who kiss Trump's ring.
"...according to figures provided first to POLITICO by his campaign."
The same group that said 6'3" 215, right?
STOP taking headlines on face value and check/challenge actual sources of information (I.e. trump campaign)
Good. Every dime he gets takes a dime from GOP candidates.
He bankrupted two casinos, let's hope he destroys the GOP
He definitely helped destroy the GOP currently. They split their voter base between typical conservatives and Trump (tm) voters. And with with desaints falling flat in Florida recently i doubt there will be enough support for him as a mainline conservative
I had hoped that the split would have come much sooner. I want to see an unbeatable Dem majority in 2024.
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. How the fuck do people still think this guy is what we need. Such a cult
Because they've compromised their morals so much to get to where they are that they feel like there's no turning back.
Because until recently, we didn't teach kids that making a mistake or changing one's mind is ok and a sign of learning and growth. You know, that same social-emotional learning that became a conservative boogeyman.
So a bunch of people grew up to be assholes who feel less masculine or powerful if they admit they were wrong or consider new information. Sprinkle in the narcissists, and behold, the cognitive dissonance olympics.
We punish kids for every little mistake they make. Instead of learning that we all make mistakes and that's okay, they learn that if you make a mistake you'll get in trouble, so you're better off sweeping it under the rug, lying about it, and pretending it never happened.
He talks like they do on Facebook (just like me fr fr) and was first white guy elected after Obama.
He is the Avatar of their impotent rage that we elevated a half black guy to highest office. It could have been Jeb or any other white Republican if they were just a tad more racist.
Because they’re totally telling the truth right? Even if they are…. Who fucking cares? That ain’t gonna sway the judge or jury
I wonder if Italians or Germans said the same before WWII. Are Americans so uniquely deranged? I feel crazy, too. I wonder how long before my brain is feeble enough to fall for fascist dogma.
There's a great book about that... "They thought they were free" by Milton Mayer
I feel the exact same as you do. I'm an American and none of what is happening makes sense.
Or somehow succeeding while failing... HOw you can get people to give you 7 million after pulling that shit is exactly why people still stake him. They somehow belive that he will pulle throught whatever. The worst thing is that he actually might, thats why they sonehow love him, because they all want that power.
IDK I wouldn't call raising $7 millions while detained a complete failure. I hate Trump and I wish to see him rot in prison for the rest of his life, but until that happens, he's getting away with murder.
villagers throwing money down a well, because they believe something down there likes them
I just do not understand how this Zoolander mugshot can motivate people for anything but laughter. But apparently they even give money after seeing it.
Oh for sure. This is the most iconic image in us political history and all sides are fundraising off of it.
The biggest thing I've got from the mugshot is that Crybaby Trump must never again have any nuclear launch codes.
Biden ended a war and started no wars, so he has the better record. And Convicted Sex Offender Treason Trump tried his best to start a war with Iran, and got dozens of our servicemen killed or injured in their retaliation.
Why does Crybaby Trump's mugshot look like a pouting and crying 5 year old? It is hilarious. He looks like he has been totally owned by the libs.
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/fe792f17-6e1f-494f-bc6b-a9e740f16bf7.jpeg
Hell no I don't want this deranged maniac's finger on The Button. Absolutely no sane person does.
Eh, let's be honest. You're giving him too much credit. He wasn't allowed to start a war because the smarter people in the room wouldn't let him. That's still not saying that much since his cabinet was comprised of sycophants and yes men... but even the dumbest of them were still had the presence of mind to distract him with some coloring books or something when he started talking about international policy
He set the bar VERY low, I agree. Biden as old and mostly dead that he is managed to limbo under it though.
IDK about most iconic. Raising flag over Iwo Jima photo? 9/11 photos? JFK portrait photo? Just off the top of my head.
Trump doing a mini fundraiser over the whole "look how mad I am for the true Americans" B.S. expression he put on. Dems basically just saying "look at this dumbass" and ready to forget it within a week.
The first 2 are historical events and when was the last time the JFK photo made the rounds on every media outlet?
This photo will be used by the left in every election for the next 50 years, and will be used by Trump until the day he dies.
This is also a historical event, Trump getting arrested. A little less interesting of one, for that matter, since COVID didn't exactly match up to WWII in terms of national impact, nor did the public really care about a president in the last 30 years as much as they did about JFK.
Can you actually imagine someone running for president as Dem in 2073 using that picture? 2033, even? The reaction would pretty much be "enough already". Even 9/11 imagery and talk got worn out after 10 years or so (and they milked that to the last drop). I'd be surprised (and disappointed) if the current system of government is still in place in 50 years.
It's historical for how political it is, Biden is even fundraising on it. I didn't think "Russian interference" talking points would last past inauguration day 2017 and then I was sure it was dead when Mueller found jack shit, but i was way wrong on that. so I wouldn't be surprised if it's used in every attack ad for the rest of my life. It will be a pop culture image forever like Al Capone, Rosa Parks, Johnny Cash, David Bowie, and Pablo Escobar's mugshots.
When I was a bit younger, during the Bush era, I bought into people saying everything was historical and this was going to be the catalyst for some huge change in politics. The reality is more depressing, there's just a constant stream of this kind of thing, and they just fades away and gets replaced in a couple weeks by the next thing. Since this is literally a mug shot of a president, yeah it's a bit of a historic pic, but don't get drawn into thinking it's like The Symbolic Image That Will Define This Generation Of Politics. Although maybe 2016-2022 of U.S. politics to be fair, like if the news 30 years from now is going to show a montage of what happened in politics around now.
Oh it's not going to change anything. This rico case is DOA and Trump win or lose is still going to be Trump. The only image more iconic to come from this would be Trump in a orange jumpsuit, but that's not going to happen.
If he's convicted, does this count as proceeds gained via criminal activity, which he would then forfeit?
Nah, it's specifically not a crime to be arrested, that'd be an infinite jail glitch.
He'll waste it all on lawyers whose job will be to disprove hard evidence though, since he's very guilty, so it'll be fine.
None of his lawyers been paid period. They get told fame is the payment. Plus few sued him and he didn't even pay lawyers who defended against that.
The one guy from Atlanta got $3M up front.
His PAC admits they spent something like $20M on lawyers so far this year.
Some have gotten paid. The ones who demanded it up front. Giuliani got hosed.
To be fair, that mug shot was going to be printed on Tshirts and sold for millions to both sides of the spectrum regardless of who was selling it. It somehow really is an awesome mugshot.
The Trump campaign doesn’t own it, so Trump shouldn’t profit from it unless you buy directly from their merch shop. Best thing to do is sell T shirts and donate the profits
This confirms the narrative his machine has been pushing. It can't help but mobilize his base.
Morally and legally it's the right thing to do. Politically, I'm not sure - I don't know what would be better, but this will likely help him in the short/medium term.
Before I write this, I want one thing to be clear. I find Trump to an absolutely repugnant person, and elevating him to the Presidency has debased the office. I found him unfit for office in 2016, and I don’t believe he should be eligible for 2024.
For better or worse, however, there are a couple of truths about this whole mess as it currently stands. A former President is being prosecuted by the Justice Department of a political rival’s administration. It’s the right thing to do, but it does create a certain precedent that could be disastrous for our democracy. I think Biden saw that, and I think that’s why the Justice Department has waited this long to do anything about it. If his polling numbers were garbage, and he was unlikely to get the Republican nomination, I doubt he’d be getting prosecuted to avoid the appearance of political persecution.
Luckily though, I don’t think Trump is popular enough among independent voters to win the office. Until more polling comes out to tell me otherwise, I don’t think he can beat Biden. He’ll take the Republican primaries in a landslide, but once he needs the independent vote, I doubt he’ll perform nearly as well.
It’ll be a real mess if he catches a conviction too. The man is a walking constitutional crisis.
the absence of prosecution is very much as political as the prosecution. Not prosecuting what is, in reality, a failed attempt at a coup.... is what would be disastrous for our democracy. not that there's a lot of that left, given the sheer number of dumb-asses that think it was "justified".
Absolutely concur. I hate that they waited this long to bring charges. I really do think that Biden instructed Garland to avoid prosecution as long as possible to avoid the appearance of this being politically motivated.
The best scenario would have been for Congress to have convicted him during one of his impeachment trials. We wouldn’t be dealing with this bullshit at this point.
Biden was reported to be irritated at Garland's laziness/cowardice.
I think he expected Garland to, I don't know, value the survival of the Republic over his future invitations to FedSoc junkets, but we know how that worked out.
No sweat.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/02/us/politics/merrick-garland-biden-trump.html
The attorney general’s deliberative approach has come to frustrate Democratic allies of the White House and, at times, President Biden himself. As recently as late last year, Mr. Biden confided to his inner circle that he believed former President Donald J. Trump was a threat to democracy and should be prosecuted, according to two people familiar with his comments. And while the president has never communicated his frustrations directly to Mr. Garland, he has said privately that he wanted Mr. Garland to act less like a ponderous judge and more like a prosecutor who is willing to take decisive action over the events of Jan. 6.
Awesome, thanks. I’ll read this. I’ve been under the impression to this point that Biden wanted to avoid the appearance of prosecuting Trump based upon political grounds, so he wanted to avoid it if possible. I based that on a NYT article I read a week or two ago and I’ll see if I can’t dig it up.
We can't not prosecute him.
We can't set the precedent. Yes he's the first. I hope he's the only.
I'm going to leave the above statements here. If you object, down vote. So be it.
If you support the rule of law and don't agree that he needs a fair trial, tell us here.
He should have been convicted in his at least one of his impeachment trials… then we wouldn’t be in this mess…
Well, regardless of that, it’s a process to remove someone from office and make them ineligible for office ever again…
I hate that you feel that you have to preface this with a disclaimer so people don't dogpile you.
I think Brazil is a nice little preview of what will happen next here in America. Bolsonaro used the Justice system to imprison a political rival, Lula. Lula of course was corrupt, but the fact of whether he's guilty or not doesn't matter. He was prosecuted because he was polling well.
He ended up going to jail but then shortly after was released. What happened next? Lula is now president of Brazil and now his administration is trying to prosecute Bolsonaro and throw him in jail.
No matter how you slice it, this prosecution of Trump is bad news. We are in for a rough time and an unclear future. They may ultimately only be helping Trump take over the country.
If there was a god, Trump would die from a heart attack in the near future. The only way to prevent further damage is for the sack of shit to die asap.
But if Trump taught us anything, there is no God or justice in the universe. He's done more to damage our country than almost any single person, and has made a mockery of the concept of equality under the law. It's truly pathetic
What happens if he wins the primary, and then is convicted and ineligible for the office? Does the RNC just pick the runner up or what?
Pretty much. The parties have vacancy committees. So if Trump got convicted and can't serve, the vacancy committee will pick his replacement. Probably his running mate, or the second-place candidate.
I'm already laughing, but I'm going to be laughing even harder when this all backfires on the Trump haters.
He won't stop until he takes everything from them. Their money. Their dignity. Their friends and family. Their soul.
Trump is a dangerous cult leader.
You think this is going to change anyone's vote?
You think someone that was going to vote for Biden saw this and said "well actually I'll vote for a criminal instead!"
Get ready to get fucked in the ass at the polls in 2024. You guys just love to lose so you can play the victim
