The Memo: Trump’s future includes several paths

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President Trump will likely never admit that he lost the 2020 election, but the attention of the political world is shifting to what he will do after leaving the White House.

It’s a tricky subject among those close to Trump, who don’t want to draw his ire for acknowledging that he was defeated by President-elect Biden, who will take office on Jan. 20

Trump will clearly try to maintain his relevance after he leaves office. There are a number of overlapping roles he could play in order to do that: likely candidate in 2024, a GOP “kingmaker” for that race if he does not end up running, and a major media presence.

“I would certainly expect we will continue to see him do some sort of rallies and I expect we will see him try to make news,” said GOP strategist Alex Conant. “He will certainly try to advance controversies, which he did before he was president and which there is no reason he can’t do after he has been president.” Continue reading.

Fox News airs point-by-point fact check of wild election fraud claims during 3 of network’s most pro-Trump shows

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Fox News this weekend is airing a stunning point-by-point fact check to claims made on programs hosted by the network’s most pro-Trump voices after voting technology company Smartmatic send a 20-page legal letter demanding “a full and complete retraction of all false and defamatory statements and reports.”

The segment, which features an interview with Palo Open Source Election Technology Institute voting technology expert Eddie Perez, aired on Lou Dobb’s Friday show and Jeanine Pirro’s Saturday show. Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo will also show the segment.

In its Dec. 10 letter to Fox News Media, Smartmatic charged the company and its hosts with waging “a concerted disinformation campaign against Smartmatic. Fox News told its millions of viewers and readers that Smartmatic was founded by [the late Venezuelan President] Hugo Chávez, that its software was designed to fix elections, and that Smartmatic conspired with others to defraud the American people and fix the 2020 U.S. election by changing, inflating, and deleting votes.” The company also demanded the company “match the attention and audience targeted with the original defamatory publications.” Continue reading.

Businesses see transformed landscape even after vaccines

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The coronavirus pandemic and its aftermath could transform the landscape for U.S. businesses. 

With a larger remote workforce, expanded delivery options and lingering health fears likely to last long after the pandemic is under control, business owners and entrepreneurs are asking tough questions and bracing for an uncertain future.

Businesses that pay richly for offices and storefronts in bustling downtowns are reconsidering whether high rents and tight crowds still make sense. A national wipeout of small businesses may leave plenty of vacated real estate for major companies to fill. And shortfalls in federal aid for struggling businesses could deepen the economic damage to be repaired when the pandemic subsides. Continue reading.

Scathing report finds Trump economic legacy ‘one of the worst among all US presidents’

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When President Donald Trump departs the White House next month, he will leave in his wake a nation devastated by a pandemic he failed to confront and an economic scene characterized by rising poverty, widespread hunger, a looming eviction tsunami, and mass layoffs that have left the U.S. with fewer jobs than when his administration began.

And for that, a scathing new report (pdf) by Democrats on the congressional Joint Economic Committee (JEC) argues, the outgoing president “only has himself to blame.”

Released Friday in response to the 2020 Economic Report of the President (pdf), the assessment of Trump’s economic performance during his four years in office runs directly counter to the rosy depiction frequently offered by the president himself, who seldom missed an opportunity to boast about the state of the stock market even in the midst of nationwide material suffering brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading.

Court records, FBI contradict Trump’s claims of organized ‘antifa-led’ riots in Minneapolis after George Floyd’s death

Court documents show wide variety of motives, little, if any, cohesion. 

In the months since riots erupted in Minneapolis this summer, state and federal court documents have told a story that largely contradicts the widely disseminated narratives from Republican and Democratic politicians of what happened in that chaotic week.

President Donald Trump blamed the violence in Minneapolis on radical leftists, saying “antifa” led the riots. Gov. Tim Walz warned that Minneapolis and St. Paul were “under assault” by an “organized attempt to destabilize civil society.” Other public officials said waves of out-of-state agitators descended on the Twin Cities and caused the bulk of the violence.

But documents in dozens of state and federal criminal charges, reviewed by the Star Tribune, present a much more complicated narrative of splintered and disorganized crowds with no single goal or affiliation, and in some cases contradictory motives, that vastly outnumbered police and took advantage of a lawless scene. Continue reading.

Former Trump official: President will face legal jeopardy for campaign cash that went to his businesses

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On MSNBC Saturday, former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci predicted that President Donald Trump will face legal and political consequences for the newly reported scheme in which he and his son-in-law Jared Kushner allegedly skimmed money from the campaign through a shell company to enrich the family businesses.

“Of course he knows he’s lost,” said Scaramucci, who famously served in the Trump administration only ten days before being fired. “He’s already planning possibly a television show, a network. Lots of things to do when he leaves. And he’s bundled a tremendous amount of money, over $250 million bundled. He’s going to have to answer for the shell companies inside the campaign, and the disappearance of some of that money.”

“I don’t see him as a political force going forward,” continued Scaramucci. “I think he’ll have too many things to do. There’ll be legal consequences to some of his actions. There’s ongoing investigations in New York. And I think he’s going to be distracted, as his political power wanes, distracted. Remember, whether Secretary Pompeo or others, ten or so younger men and women that look in the mirror every morning and see a future president in his party. They’re going to come after him very hard once he leaves power.” Continue reading.

GOP lawmakers are showing up more frequently on Newsmax

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Watch the conservative cable television outlet Newsmax on a given night and you’ll see a parade of GOP lawmakers and other influential conservatives.

As President Trump openly feuds with Fox News, conservative lawmakers and loyal Trump officials have increasingly added Newsmax to their rotation of media stops, giving a sheen of credibility to the fledgling network as it seeks to compete for conservative viewers.

Newsmax is still not in the same ratings stratosphere as Fox, which draws millions of viewers nightly to its flagship opinion shows and has a robust, around-the-clock news division. Continue reading.

In Last Rush, Trump Grants Mining and Energy Firms Access to Public Lands

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The outgoing administration is pushing through approval of corporate projects over the opposition of environmental groups and tribal communities.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is rushing to approve a final wave of large-scale mining and energy projects on federal lands, encouraged by investors who want to try to ensure the projects move ahead even after President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. takes office.

In Arizona, the Forest Service is preparing to sign off on the transfer of federal forest land — considered sacred by a neighboring Native American tribe — to allow construction of one of the nation’s largest copper mines.

In Utah, the Interior Department may grant final approval as soon as next week to a team of energy speculators targeting a remote spot inside an iconic national wilderness area — where new energy leasing is currently banned — so they can start drilling into what they believe is a huge underground supply of helium. Continue reading.

Trump suggested naming Sidney Powell as special counsel on election in Oval Office meeting, reports say

During a White House meeting Friday, President Donald Trump floated the idea of naming conservative attorney Sidney Powell as a special counsel to investigate his election loss to President-elect Joe Biden, according to multiple media reports. 

In the Oval Office meeting, which was first reported by The New York Times, Trump discussedwith his advisers the possibility of appointing Powell to investigate election fraud claims and to potentially seize voting machines that Trump claimed were rigged against him.

Most of the advisers at the White House meeting, which included Powell, opposed the ideas. According to the Times, among those objecting to the suggestion of Powell as special counsel were Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani – who joined by phone – White House counsel Pat Cipollone and chief of staff Mark Meadows. Continue reading.