‘Uncharacteristically glum’ Trump speech surprises historian Beschloss: The president ‘does not look happy’

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Donald Trump put on an uncommonly sad face at his rally today in Pennsylvania, and it’s triggering his minions’ fear that the monarchy is in jeopardy.

Their fears may not be irrational, based on early accounts of the rally’s dour tone from reputable sources. Trump was speaking from Newton, PA, the first of four rallies planned for Trump in the critical state of Pennsylvania today.

Historian Michael Beschloss, as credible and circumspect as it comes, offered multiple tweets describing Trump’s “dejected speech.” Continue reading.

Mark Meadows Accused Of Blowing Campaign Cash On Clubs, Cupcakes And Trump Hotel

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said Trump’s chief of staff likely violated campaign finance rules by using the money on personal expenses.

A watchdog group filed a complaint on Friday against President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, accusing him of spending tens of thousands of dollars of campaign funds on clubs, gourmet cupcakes, a jeweler and Trump hotels.

Meadows, a former congressman from North Carolina, announced last year that he would not run for reelection. But his campaign committee, Meadows for Congress, reportedly continued racking up expenses, including at the Trump International Hotel and its in-house restaurant, BLT Prime. Other payments went to grocery stores and the Lavender Moon Cupcakery in Washington, D.C., according to the complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

The complaint was apparently sparked by an investigation by Salon, which also found that Meadows’ campaign dropped $2,650 at a Washington jewelry store the day Meadows officially resigned from Congress to become Trump’s chief of staff. Continue reading.

Trump Camp Uses Online Gimmick to Fuel Donations Into December

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The Trump campaign is now automatically checking a box to create recurring weekly donations from supporters until mid-December.

President Trump’s campaign is raising money for a prolonged political and legal fight long after Nov. 3 and recently began automatically checking a box to withdraw additional weekly contributions from online donors through mid-December — nearly six weeks after Election Day.

Predicting “FRAUD like you’ve never seen,” the language on Mr. Trump’s website opts contributors into making the weekly post-election donations “to ensure we have the resources to protect the results and keep fighting even after Election Day.” Users must proactively click to avoid making multiple contributions.

The unusual post-election revenue stream would help Mr. Trump pay off any bills that his campaign accumulates before Tuesday — a campaign spokesman said no such debts had been incurred — and could help fund a lengthy legal fight if the results are contested. Continue reading.

Exposed Corruption Swamps Trump Campaign In Final Week

It’s been a long, difficult week in Trumpworld with all of the incriminating reports of corruption surrounding President Donald Trump and his administration. With Election Day less than five days away, Trump is likely feeling the pressure as the opposing forces work over time to state their case and prove that he is unfit for the office of the presidency.

Many of the stories raise more questions about Trump’s leadership and the hidden agendas of his White House officials and other members of his administration.

Here’s a breakdown of the stories circulating this week:

1. Trump, Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the Turkish Bank A new report by the New York Times has uncovered details about Trump and U.S. Attorney Bill Barr questionable handling of possible violations of U.S. sanctions involving billions of dollars worth of gold and cash that was funneled to Iran. Continue reading.

How Donald Trump’s insatiable hunger for more bilked the US government for $2.5 billion

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Remember this number: $3. 

That’s how much Trump charged the federal government for a glass of water in April of 2018 when he and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. According to the Washington Post, Trump’s company also charged the government “$13,700 for guest rooms, $16,500 for food and wine and $6,000 for the roses and other floral arrangements,” over the two days he held meetings with Abe at the resort. But one day, Trump was scheduled to meet with Abe without aides and advisers, with no meal service or cocktails or any other celebratory nonsense. Just the two leaders, alone in a room, talking. According to the Post, the bill for that day contained a line item reading, “Bilateral meeting. Water. $3.00 each.”

Donald Trump has been paid “at least $2.5 million by the U.S. government,” since taking office, according to official documents obtained by the Post. Trump has made more than 280 visits to his own hotels and golf clubs over the last four years, and the payments covered costs for “hotel rooms, ballrooms, cottages, rental houses, golf carts, votive candles, floating candles, candelabras, furniture moving, resort fees, decorative palm trees, strip steak, chocolate cake, breakfast buffets, $88 bottles of wine and $1,000 worth of liquor for White House aides.” according to the Post. Continue reading.

Trump Cheers on MAGA Caravan That Ambushed Biden Bus

President Donald Trump tweeted his support late Saturday for the MAGA caravan that reportedly tried to run a Biden campaign bus off the road in Texas, causing the former vice president to cancel a planned event in Austin. “I LOVE TEXAS!” Trump tweeted along with a video of the incident. 

“What the President tweeted in regards to Texas is reckless, dangerous and an intimidation tactic,” Biden campaign spokesperson Symone Sanders tweeted in response. “It’s not something we should come to accept from our leaders. The people of our great country have the opportunity to turn the corner here. VOTE. HIM. OUT.”

Trump is ending his campaign on an ugly new low — and barely anyone noticed

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Donald Trump, tragically occupying the office of president of the United States, possibly has uttered the ugliest words of an ugly career defacing the national stage. And they barely led the news anywhere.

Trump has been claiming at his super-spreader rallies for the past week that American doctors are profiting from the death of COVID-19 patients. Take a step back and absorb this atrocity. This man just invented a mendacious lie from scratch, not even remotely rational and in the process denigrated the frontline heroes who have been risking their lives and those of their families in a 9-month struggle against the worst pandemic in a century.

It didn’t even dominate a news cycle. The nation has been so numbed by this Hitlerian character that this singular slander cannot be distinguished from all his other regurgitations. Continue reading.

When He’s Not Whining, Even Trump Is Bored at His Closing Rallies

“He’s been doing so many of these [recently]. You’d be tired, too,” one senior Trump 2020 aide told The Daily Beast.

At the first rally during his final three days of campaigning against the one he calls “Sleepy Joe,” President Donald Trump couldn’t help but sound tired.

During his campaign stop in Newtown, Bucks County, the president was conspicuously subdued, delivering one of his laziest, most bored-sounding rally speeches in recent memory. Lacking his standard energy and lib-owning peppiness, Trump sleepwalked his way through his prepared and ad-libbed remarks about how the Hunter Biden emails and foreign-dealings story was somehow the “biggest” story in the country, a country ravaged by Trump’s own mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis and an economic implosion.

He mocked The New York Times for having “apologized” to its readers for something or other. He accused his enemies during his self-described “little special speech” of trying to “silence his voice.” He spoke of “the riots,” the politicians who “let Minneapolis burn,” and the progressives and left-wing educators who wanted American schoolkids “indoctrinated” with history that put greater emphasis on matters such as the horrors of slavery. (His solution? “Patriotic education,” whatever that means.) He sneered at the crowd sizes former President Barack Obama was attracting recently, in support of the current Democratic nominee. And he, of course, mocked “Joe Biden, who’s not all there,” to the crowd’s giddy laughter. Continue reading.

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Trump campaign rallies led to more than 30,000 coronavirus cases, Stanford researchers say

President Donald Trump’s campaign rallies led to more than 30,000 coronavirus cases, according to a new paper posted by researchers at Stanford.

Researchers looked at 18 Trump rallies held between June 20 and Sept. 22 and analyzed Covid-19 data the weeks following each event. They compared the counties where the events were held to other counties that had a similar trajectory of confirmed Covid-19 cases prior to the rally date. Out of the 18 rallies analyzed, only three were indoors, according to the research.

The researchers found that the rallies ultimately resulted in more than 30,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19. They also concluded that the rallies likely led to more than 700 deaths, though not necessarily among attendees. Continue reading.