Truth Social (Social Network) Archivi - Page 3 of 4 - politic-news.space

More stories

63 Shares159 Views
in Elections
The Roots of Trump Nostalgia
by Aurelia Butler 19 January 2024, 18:00
Jonathan Chait has a long lament in New York magazine about the diminishing intensity of anti-Trump politics in America. Even as the former president shoulders his way toward the Republican nomination and leads President Biden in many polls, Chait frets that “the imperative to keep Trump out of the Oval Office has become tiresome.” Indeed, a kind of “exhaustion” with anti-Trumpism, Chait writes, “may be the most dominant attribute of our national mood.”His essay goes on to interpret this exhaustion as more psychological and even spiritual than simply political. Chait argues that the general mood in Biden’s America has become untethered from the reality of material conditions, as many Americans have embraced “an immutable belief in economic decline that no real-world statistical improvement can dislodge.” And he suggests that the defense of liberalism against authoritarian populism is always prone to fractures and fatal shrugs — because authoritarianism can invoke the apocalypse and promise utopia while rallying a determined minority, even as liberal politics is stuck trying to maintain a united pan-ideological front based only on an “appeal to maintaining the system with all its flaws.”It’s a very interesting piece, and I think that the framework of exhaustion captures something important about the path to a potential Donald Trump restoration. The way that so many anti-Trump Republican donors and politicians seemed to essentially give up on the hope of a competitive primary once Trump was indicted and Ron DeSantis didn’t set the world on fire fits this framework. So does the way that the Democratic Party has seemingly sleepwalked into renominating Biden despite his lousy polling numbers and obvious age-related issues.But I also think more than just exhaustion is at work here, and that some of the different groups Chait identifies as insufficiently anti-Trump — left-wingers, establishment Republicans, pocketbook-conscious swing voters — are actually experiencing something that might be more accurately characterized as a kind of Trump nostalgia.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? More
138 Shares189 Views
in Elections
Trump Assails Debbie Dingell in His Latest Escalation on Social Media
by Aurelia Butler 27 December 2023, 21:08
The former president, who has stepped up his incendiary language on Truth Social, attacked Representative Debbie Dingell, the widow of John D. Dingell Jr.Former President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday fired off a new attack against Representative Debbie Dingell, the widow of John D. Dingell Jr., the longest-serving member of Congress in American history, calling her a “loser” and suggesting that she had not been grateful for funeral honors granted by Mr. Trump for her husband.The salvo from Mr. Trump, the Republican front-runner in the 2024 presidential race, followed an appearance by Ms. Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan, on CNN earlier on Tuesday in which she criticized Mr. Trump’s increasingly incendiary language on social media.Weeks before the first nominating contests are held in Iowa and New Hampshire, the former president has amplified his vitriol. He shared a word cloud this week that prominently featured the word “dictatorship” and recently described people who entered the United States illegally as “poisoning the blood of our country,” comments that were condemned for being similar to the words of Adolf Hitler.Ms. Dingell had been reacting to a grievance-filled Christmas message on Truth Social from Mr. Trump. Referring to his political opponents as “deranged” and “thugs” and accusing them of trying to destroy the country, he wrote, “MAY THEY ROT IN HELL. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!”The congresswoman — whom Mr. Trump has held a grudge against for years, implying in 2019 that her recently deceased husband was “looking up” from hell — said that it was another example of the former president fomenting anger.“I think it was one of the most pathetic Christmas greetings I’ve heard when a former president of the United States who wants to return tells people on Christmas Day that they can rot in hell,” she told CNN. “He is contributing to the divisiveness and division in this country.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? More
100 Shares139 Views
in Elections
Biden, Trolling Trump, Joins Truth Social: ‘Converts Welcome’
by Aurelia Butler 16 October 2023, 23:34
The Biden campaign is in search of any edge with voters who could be persuaded to his side.Officials with President Biden’s re-election campaign have long pledged to meet voters where they are. On Monday the campaign began a project to meet former President Donald J. Trump’s voters where they are — on his social media platform.“Let’s see how this goes,” the campaign’s account wrote on Monday in its first post on Truth Social. “Converts welcome!”The Biden campaign painted its debut on Mr. Trump’s outlet as a cheeky opportunity to troll the president’s likely general election opponent. Mr. Trump launched Truth Social in April 2022 in response to being blocked from mainstream social media platforms a day after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Their actions came after he published inaccurate and inflammatory messages during that day of violence.“There’s very little ‘truth’ happening on Truth Social, but at least now it’ll be a little fun,” Kevin Munoz, a Biden campaign spokesman, said.On X, formerly known as Twitter, the Biden campaign said it had joined the platform “mostly because we thought it would be very funny.” The decision marks a shift from the campaign’s previously stated position that it would not join the Trump platform, as reported by Axios in May.Mr. Biden, who won the 2020 presidential election by narrow margins in just a handful of battleground states, is in search of any edge he can get with voters who could be persuaded to vote for him.Voters who consume conservative media have long been considered a rich target for Democratic candidates. During the 2020 campaign, Democrats were split on engaging with Fox News, which party officials at the time said had more persuadable voters among its viewers than any other cable network had.Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts called Fox News a “hate for profit” operation and refused its invitations for a town hall, while Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent, and Pete Buttigieg, then a former mayor of South Bend, Ind., accepted. Mr. Buttigieg, now Mr. Biden’s transportation secretary, is often dispatched to explain the administration’s positions on Fox News. More
163 Shares199 Views
in Elections
Trump Said Shoplifters Should Be Shot, Part of a String of Violent Remarks
by Aurelia Butler 3 October 2023, 20:16
Recent incendiary statements by the former president come at a time when his supporters are already angry over his indictments.Former President Donald J. Trump had a lot to say on the first day of the fraud trial against him and his company. Speaking to reporters at a Manhattan courthouse on Monday, he dismissed the judge as a “rogue” justice and said he did not “think the people of this country are going to stand for it.” And he focused on the official who filed the lawsuit against him, New York’s attorney general, Letitia James.“This is a disgrace,” he said, “and you ought to go after this attorney general.”The remark urging people to “go after” a top elected official in New York, by a former president whose invective has become a familiar backdrop of American life, was part of a pattern of increasingly sharp language from Mr. Trump.Days earlier, he told hundreds of Republican activists in California that shoplifters should be shot. Not long before that, he insinuated that the military general he personally appointed as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff should be executed for treason.Since he first became a political candidate in the 2016 presidential race, Mr. Trump has glorified violence, suggesting he wanted to hit a protester and offering to pay the legal fees if his supporters struck protesters at his rallies. But as Mr. Trump has been indicted four times in four jurisdictions in the last five months, and now faces a civil fraud trial in New York, his violent speech has escalated.Mr. Trump’s public remarks, whether online, in interviews or at rallies, have always had the potential for incendiary effects. A number of defendants prosecuted over the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, said they believed they were acting on Mr. Trump’s orders.Part of what has changed is that his violent remarks now come at a time when the indictments have already stoked anger among his supporters and when attacks against institutions, judges and prosecutors around the country have increased. The special counsel, Jack Smith, has asked the federal judge overseeing the case in which Mr. Trump was charged with trying to subvert the democratic process in 2020 for a limited gag order because of his threatening statements against witnesses, prosecutors and others.In a statement, Mr. Trump’s spokesman, Steven Cheung, was unapologetic, saying, “President Trump is a truth teller and calls it like he sees it. He has laid out the most transparent policy proposal of any campaign and voters will know who they are voting for — someone who will Make America Great Again!”On Tuesday, Mr. Trump was given a gag order in the New York case, after sending around a campaign email with lengthy attacks on Justice Arthur F. Engoron, who is presiding over the civil fraud trial, as well as a post on his own social-media website attacking the judge’s clerk. The judge told the courtroom he ordered Mr. Trump to delete the post, and Mr. Trump did.Any gag orders will be legally constraining for Mr. Trump in a way he has rarely experienced. But in the political realm, where he is increasingly trying to focus attention on the cases, gag orders may only increase Mr. Trump’s appeal with his supporters: The former president, who claims to be a victim of political persecution, is finding a receptive audience for his increasingly menacing language at campaign appearances. Mr. Trump has always leavened his sharpest words with humor, which can have a softening effect, a pattern that has continued with his recent appearances.At the G.O.P. convention in California last week, Mr. Trump mocked Paul Pelosi, the husband of Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker. Last year, Mr. Pelosi was brutally attacked in his home by a man who was wielding a hammer and who was motivated by right-wing conspiracy theories. “We’ll stand up to crazy Nancy Pelosi, who ruined San Francisco,” Mr. Trump said, before pausing and looking out at the crowd.“How’s her husband doing, by the way, anybody know?” he deadpanned, drawing laughter and a smattering of applause. “She’s against building a wall at our border even though she has a wall around her house, which obviously didn’t do a very good job.”Mr. Trump also talked about mass shoplifting incidents at stores in major cities. Republicans have focused on the shoplifting sprees as examples of lawlessness, saying the punishment should be severe.“Very simply, if you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store,” Mr. Trump told the crowd at a hotel ballroom in Anaheim. The audience cheered wildly. “Shot!” he added for emphasis.The moment was Mr. Trump’s biggest applause line of the day. Attendees rose to their feet and chanted: “Trump! Trump! Trump!”Mr. Trump holds relatively few campaign appearances compared with his rivals running for the Republican presidential nomination. And several of his recent public appearances have been connected to his indictments and court-mandated appearances.That reality, in which his legal travails and his political campaign are merging into one, has meant that Mr. Trump’s defenses of himself — and his calls for supporters to refuse to “stand” for what he insists is a broad miscarriage of justice — are front and center in nearly every statement he makes.Mr. Trump voices most of his anger these days in a far less visible forum: Truth Social, the social media website he started in early February 2022, just over a year after he was barred from X, formerly known as Twitter. His X account was reinstated by the new owner, Elon Musk, but he has used it only once: to post the mug shot that officials took when he was arrested in Fulton County, Ga., in connection with his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.On Truth Social, he criticizes the prosecutors, reposts videos and memes attacking his critics and rivals, and blasts out clips from his own speeches. In one recent clip of a speech he gave in Michigan, he complained that if he hadn’t run for president, he “would have had the nicest softest life” but that “instead, I have to beat these lunatics up all day long.”It was on Truth Social where Mr. Trump made the comment about the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley. The general was increasingly critical of Mr. Trump as his role came to an end, an extraordinary rebuke of a former president by a senior military leader.In a Truth Social post, Mr. Trump wrote of the general’s calls with his Chinese counterpart, “This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!”At a ceremony honoring his departure, General Milley said, “We don’t take an oath to a country, we don’t take an oath to a tribe, we don’t take an oath to a religion, we don’t take an oath to a king or a queen, or to a tyrant or a dictator, and we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator.” More
138 Shares179 Views
in Elections
Prosecutors Reassert Need for Gag Order on Trump in Elections Case
by Aurelia Butler 30 September 2023, 01:41
Federal prosecutors argued that the former president has continued to make threatening statements after their initial request to limit his public discussion of the case.Federal prosecutors on Friday reasserted the need to impose a gag order on former President Donald J. Trump in the case accusing him of seeking to overturn the 2020 election.They said that even after they first asked a judge three weeks ago to limit his remarks, Mr. Trump has continued to wage “a sustained campaign of prejudicial public statements” against witnesses, prosecutors and others.The prosecutors cited several threatening statements that Mr. Trump made since they initially asked Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is overseeing the election interference case in Federal District Court in Washington, to impose the gag order. Their request was first filed under seal on Sept. 5 and a public version was released 10 days later. Judge Chutkan has yet to rule on the matter.Since their request, prosecutors said in their filing on Friday night, Mr. Trump has continued to attack potential witnesses in the case like former Vice President Mike Pence — who, Mr. Trump wrote online, had lied about him and had gone to the “Dark Side.”The filing noted that Mr. Trump had lashed out at another witness in the case, “the former attorney general” — an apparent reference to William P. Barr — saying he had not done his job after the election “because he was afraid of being impeached.”Moreover, prosecutors cited a menacing message that Mr. Trump posted on his social media site last week about Gen. Mark A. Milley, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs. After General Milley gave several interviews that were critical of Mr. Trump, the former president suggested that he had committed treason and that in the past he might have faced execution.“No other criminal defendant would be permitted to issue public statements insinuating that a known witness in his case should be executed,” Molly Gaston, one of the prosecutors, wrote. “This defendant should not be, either.”As the prosecutions of Mr. Trump have accelerated — he is facing three other criminal indictments beyond the case in Washington — so too have threats against law enforcement authorities, judges, elected officials and others. The threats have prompted protective measures, including increased security for many people involved in the cases against him.In their filing, the prosecutors, who work for the special counsel, Jack Smith, pressed another issue, saying Mr. Trump may have violated the terms of his release in the election interference case by suggesting that he might have purchased a firearm on Monday during a campaign stop at a gun store in Summerville, S.C.That day, prosecutors noted, Mr. Trump’s spokesman posted a video online of the former president handling a Glock pistol at the store. The spokesman said in the post that Mr. Trump had purchased it, but aides quickly denied that he had actually done so.In the government’s filing, Ms. Gaston said Mr. Trump had “either purchased a gun in violation of the law and his conditions of release or seeks to benefit from his supporters’ mistaken belief that he did so.”On Tuesday, Mr. Trump’s lawyers offered an outraged response to the government’s initial request for a gag order, saying the attempt to “muzzle” him during his presidential campaign violated his free speech rights.But Ms. Gaston, in her filing, claimed that Mr. Trump was trying to make a special case for himself because he was running for president.“He demands special treatment, asserting that because he is a political candidate, he should have free rein to publicly intimidate witnesses and malign the court, citizens of this district, and prosecutors,” she wrote. “But in this case, Donald J. Trump is a criminal defendant like any other.”The competing claims about whether or not to impose a gag order will come to a head in Washington on Oct. 16. That is when Judge Chutkan has ordered the defense and prosecution to appear in her courtroom for oral arguments. More
125 Shares189 Views
in Elections
Jan. 6 Prosecutors Ask for Protective Order, Citing Trump Post
by Aurelia Butler 5 August 2023, 14:52
In seeking a judge’s order, the government was drawing attention to the former president’s longstanding habit of attacking those involved in criminal cases against him.The federal prosecutors overseeing the indictment of former President Donald J. Trump on charges of seeking to overturn the 2020 election asked a judge on Friday night to impose a protective order over the discovery evidence in the case, citing a threatening message that Mr. Trump had posted on social media.By mentioning the incendiary post in an otherwise routine request seeking to keep Mr. Trump from making evidence public, the prosecutors in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, were drawing the attention of the judge, Tanya S. Chutkan, to Mr. Trump’s longstanding habit of attacking those involved in criminal cases against him.Hours later, Mr. Trump’s campaign responded with a statement calling the post “the definition of political speech.” The statement suggested that the post had not been directed at anyone involved in the election interference case, saying it was meant for Mr. Trump’s political adversaries.The exchange of words began on Friday evening when Mr. Trump posted a message on Truth Social, his social media platform, issuing a vague but strongly worded threat.“IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” he wrote.Shortly after, in a standard move early in a criminal prosecution, the government filed its request for a protective order in the case to Judge Chutkan. Prosecutors noted that protections over discovery were “particularly important” in this instance because Mr. Trump “has previously issued public statements on social media regarding witnesses, judges, attorneys and others associated with legal matters pending against him.”To prove their point, they included a screenshot of the former president’s threatening post from that same evening.A short time after the government’s filing, Mr. Trump’s campaign issued a statement with no aide’s name attached, insisting he was practicing his First Amendment rights.“The Truth post cited is the definition of political speech,” the statement said, adding that it was in response to “dishonest special interest groups” and political committees attacking him.That Mr. Trump is a political candidate exercising free speech is going to be an element of his defense in the latest case against him. Mr. Trump’s campaign on Friday also posted on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, a 60-second ad describing the prosecutors who have considered cases against him as the “fraud squad” acting on behalf of President Biden. (It includes the New York attorney general, Letitia James, who has brought a civil action case.)The ad is one of Mr. Trump’s most aggressive denigrations of the prosecutors, whom he has consistently denounced. He has also promised that if elected, he would appoint a “real” special prosecutor to investigate Mr. Biden and his family, proposing to eliminate the post-Watergate norm of Justice Department independence.But the Truth Social post was more direct than his past comments, in a case where a key aspect of the indictment describes how Mr. Trump’s repeated and false public claims that he was a victim of widespread election fraud led to the violent attack by a pro-Trump mob at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Judge Chutkan, who was randomly assigned the case when the indictment was filed on Tuesday, has not yet responded to the government’s request. But other judges in cases involving Mr. Trump have warned him about using threatening language.At a court hearing in Manhattan in April, Justice Juan M. Merchan, who is overseeing Mr. Trump’s state prosecution on charges stemming from a hush payment to a porn actress, warned the former president to refrain from making comments that were “likely to incite violence or civil unrest.”Justice Merchan’s admonition came after Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social saying that “death and destruction” could follow if he were charged in the case in Manhattan.That same month, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who was presiding over a federal rape and defamation lawsuit filed by the writer E. Jean Carroll against Mr. Trump, criticized the former president for posting messages about the case. The ones he had already written were “entirely inappropriate,” the judge said.Mr. Trump had derided the case on social media as a “scam” and personally mocked Ms. Carroll.The former president has often ignored such warnings and continued to post threatening or spiteful messages with impunity.After the hearing in front of Justice Merchan, Mr. Trump returned to Florida and to his customary practice, calling the district attorney who brought the New York charges against him, Alvin L. Bragg, a “criminal,” and Justice Merchan “a Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife and family.”Days after Judge Kaplan’s admonition, Mr. Trump attacked him, too, saying on a trip to one of his golf courses in Ireland that the judge was “extremely hostile.” More
113 Shares119 Views
in Elections
¿En qué consiste el nuevo informe financiero de Trump?
by Aurelia Butler 17 April 2023, 10:00
En un expediente de 101 páginas, Donald Trump reveló valores inferiores a los esperados en su compañía de redes sociales y préstamos bancarios considerables.El viernes, el expresidente Donald Trump proporcionó el primer vistazo a sus transacciones comerciales posteriores a la presidencia con un nuevo informe de sus finanzas personales. Aunque no ofrece detalles específicos, los documentos presentados en la Comisión de Elecciones Federales mostraron valores menores a los esperados en su empresa de redes sociales, otros dos cuantiosos préstamos bancarios y una nueva fuente de ingresos para la ex primera dama Melania Trump.El expresidente presentó su declaración después de solicitar varias prórrogas. Le habían advertido que sería objeto de sanciones si no declaraba a los 30 días de la fecha límite del 16 de marzo.De acuerdo con una persona informada acerca de esos documentos, la declaración financiera muestra ingresos acumulados desde enero de 2021 hasta el 15 de diciembre de 2022, según lo requerido por la Comisión de Elecciones Federales, y el valor de los activos hasta diciembre de 2022.Estas son seis conclusiones del expediente de 101 páginas.La empresa de redes sociales de Trump disminuye mucho su valoraciónLa declaración tasó la empresa matriz de Truth Social, la plataforma de redes sociales y megáfono personal del expresidente, entre 5 y 25 millones de dólares. Dicho valor reportado para la empresa matriz, Trump Media & Technology Group, era considerablemente menor que el de la posible valuación de 9000 millones de dólares para esta compañía cuando en octubre de 2021 anunció una fusión con una empresa de adquisición de propósito especial de gran liquidez llamada Digital World Acquisition Company.Alguien que contaba con información sobre el expediente afirmó que el cálculo reflejaba el valor actual de la participación de Trump y no era un intento por establecer el precio de los activos después de un posible cálculo. No obstante, el valor intrínseco de Trump Media es mucho menor de lo que él había esperado cuando puso en marcha la empresa a principios de 2021.El acuerdo de fusión ha sido retrasado por las investigaciones tanto de los fiscales federales como de los reguladores de valores, cosa que ha llevado al desplome de las acciones de Digital World, de 97 dólares por acción a su precio actual de 13,10 dólares por cada acción. Sin embargo, si se llega a concluir el acuerdo, habrá por lo menos 300 millones de dólares de una liquidez muy necesaria para Trump Media y posiblemente aumente, en un monto considerable, la riqueza en papel de Trump. Además, Trump se dispone a obtener 70 millones de acciones.La fecha límite para que Trump Media y Digital World completen la fusión es a principios de septiembre. La Comisión de Bolsa y Valores, que está investigando los eventos relacionados con la fusión propuesta junto con los fiscales federales, aún no ha firmado el acuerdo.Una portavoz de Trump Media dijo que la compañía seguía convencida de que alcanzaría “un valor de miles de millones de dólares”.La presentación también mostró que Trump, quien figura como presidente de Trump Media, posee el 90 por ciento de la empresa. La presentación no identifica a los propietarios del otro 10 por ciento de la empresa. El director ejecutivo de la compañía es Devin Nunes, el excongresista republicano de California.Las tarjetas digitales coleccionables de Trump presentan ventas iniciales insignificantesA fines del año pasado, Trump anunció su incursión en activos digitales conocidos como NFT, o token no fungible. Las tarjetas de Trump, unas tarjetas coleccionables virtuales ilustradas con una variedad de imágenes en caricatura del expresidente, salieron a la venta el 15 de diciembre.Este negocio —coordinado por Bill Zanker, un emprendedor que ya antes había escrito un libro con Trump y le había pagado millones de dólares en honorarios por sus conferencias— tenía expectativas muy altas: los NFT habían impuesto precios impresionantes en los últimos años y un solo token superó los 22 millones de dólares a principios de 2022.En privado, a Trump le habían garantizado que el proyecto podría alcanzar hasta 100 millones de dólares en ventas, pero las ganancias iniciales insinuaban un resultado menos espectacular y los analistas calcularon menos de seis millones de dólares de ingresos totales para principios de febrero.La nueva declaración financiera de Trump establece que la empresa que creó para el proyecto de los NFT, CIC Digital LLC, tuvo entre 100.001 dólares y un millón de dólares en ingresos. Pero debido a que el documento tiene información hasta el 15 de diciembre —el día exacto en que las tarjetas de Trump comenzaron a venderse—, no se supo qué tanto se incluyó de las primeras ventas de los NFT.La información pública relacionada con el comercio de criptomonedas muestra que en las primeras 24 horas de operaciones se vendieron 44.000 de las tarjetas de Trump en 99 dólares cada una. Además, el 15 de diciembre se vendieron varias tarjetas en el mercado secundario, cada una de las cuales obtuvo el diez por ciento en regalías de acuerdo con los términos de la oferta.Zanker se ha rehusado a hacer comentarios acerca de cómo se dividen las ventas de las tarjetas de Trump o qué costos indirectos podría haber. Pero el informe sí ofrece una pista del acuerdo desde la perspectiva de Trump. Registra el valor general de CIC Digital entre 500.000 y un millón de dólares, lo cual sugiere que tal vez el proyecto de los NFT no constituye las enormes ganancias repentinas que se creía que iba a tener.Un ejecutivo comentó que los ingresos que se mencionan en el informe financiero no reflejaban una gran parte del dinero que Trump ha ganado en las ventas de los NFT. Según este ejecutivo, en general, se han vendido varios millones de dólares y, en los términos del acuerdo, la mayor parte de las ventas brutas corresponden a Trump.Aparte, el informe mostraba que Trump ganó “más de cinco millones” a través de CIC Ventures Inc., una empresa no relacionada, pero con un nombre parecido que se creó en 2021. (“CIC” son las siglas de commander in chief: comandante en jefe). Esos ingresos fueron registrados como honorarios por conferencias, y es muy probable que estas se hayan incluido en los mítines que celebró antes de convertirse en candidato oficial en el mes de noviembre.Trump saldó algunos préstamos, pero adquirió otrosDesde que salió de la presidencia, Trump ha pagado seis préstamos pendientes, entre ellos uno con un valor de más de 50 millones de dólares sobre sus propiedades Trump Tower de Nueva York y Trump Doral, un club de golf en las afueras de Miami que ha sido la propiedad que por separado genera mayores ingresos en su empresa familiar.También contrajo dos préstamos nuevos, ambos de Axos Bank por un total de más de 50 millones de dólares cada uno, sobre las propiedades de Doral y Trump Tower.Asimismo, saldó un préstamo con un valor de más de 50 millones de dólares sobre el edificio Trump Old Post Office, el hotel de Washington que vendió el año pasado. La mayor parte de los préstamos que recibió del Deutsche Bank, que llegaron a ser por un total de más de 295 millones de dólares, ya están pagados y solo restan cerca de 45 millones de dólares que aún le debe a ese banco, el cual solía ser uno de sus principales acreedores.Trump enumeró deudas por un total de más de 200 millones de dólares.Trump vio otros ingresos derivados de un acuerdo con una empresa en Arabia SauditaLa declaración financiera muestra los primeros pagos a Trump por un nuevo acuerdo que respalda una empresa de inversión inmobiliaria con sede en Arabia Saudita para construir un complejo de hotel y campo de golf en Omán. Hasta ahora, los pagos están registrados con un valor de más de cinco millones de dólares.Un ejecutivo de la empresa explicó que la idea es desarrollar el proyecto en Mascate, Omán, sobre una colina que está junto al golfo de Omán y que este incluirá un campo de golf, villas y dos hoteles.Para este proyecto, la familia Trump está trabajando con Dar Al Arkan, una de las empresas inmobiliarias más grandes de Arabia Saudita. El terreno pertenece al gobierno de Omán, lo que significa que ahora Trump está prácticamente haciendo negocios con el gobierno de ese país.Melania Trump informa sobre una nueva fuente de ingresosEn 2021, la ex primera dama incorporó una empresa, MKT World LLC, con el mismo domicilio que el Trump International Golf Club, de acuerdo con los registros del Departamento de Estado de Florida. Dicha empresa reportó entre uno y cinco millones de dólares por regalías.Aunque no se sabía muy bien cuáles eran las actividades comerciales exactas de la empresa, Melania Trump ha encontrado varias formas de obtener beneficios económicos a partir de su relación con Donald Trump desde que salió de la Casa Blanca. En enero de 2022, subastó un retrato digital de ella misma elaborado por un artista francés, una impresión del retrato y un sombrero blanco que usó en la Casa Blanca cuando recibió al presidente de Francia.También se sumó al sitio de la red social conservadora Parler, la cual anunció un acuerdo con Melania Trump cuyos términos financieros no se revelaron. En un comunicado, Melania Trump señaló que le proporcionaría al sitio contenido exclusivo para “motivar a otras personas” y promover una serie de futuras subastas por internet de “objetos coleccionables”, como el sombrero que usó en la Casa Blanca.La ex primera dama Melania Trump, en la Casa Blanca en 2017, informó nuevas fuentes de ingresos en una divulgación financiera.Tom Brenner para The New York TimesEsta vez, Trump reveló menos detallesLas declaraciones financieras de Donald Trump fueron rastreadas con atención durante su primera contienda por la Casa Blanca y durante su presidencia. Los expedientes proporcionaron información importante acerca del efecto que tuvo en su riqueza el desempeño del cargo. Y aunque gran parte de sus ingresos y activos solo se reportaron en rangos muy amplios, Trump ya había reportado los montos específicos de los ingresos procedentes de algunas propiedades.Todo eso cambió en su última declaración.Esta vez, los ingresos de Trump se reportaron en rangos amplios, que es todo lo que requiere la legislación federal.Por ejemplo, Trump informó que los ingresos de Mar-a-Lago, su complejo turístico del sur de Florida, ascendieron a un total de 24,2 millones de dólares en 2020, un aumento del 13 por ciento en comparación con el año anterior. En su último informe, reportó que el complejo obtuvo “más de cinco millones de dólares”, la declaración más elevada en el expediente, cosa que en definitiva les dificulta a los electores tener una idea clara de sus finanzas.La divulgación muestra una lista mucho más extensa de acciones individuales y bonos por parte de Trump, a través de varias cuentas de inversión, por un total de varios cientos de millones de dólares en fondos adicionales invertidos, según los rangos de valores proporcionados. La presentación enumera las participaciones en cientos de acciones y bonos, incluidos petróleo y gas, servicios eléctricos, bancos, atención médica, compañías farmacéuticas, contratistas militares y muchos otros sectores.Esto refleja, en parte, los nuevos ingresos que obtuvo Trump a través de la venta el año pasado del Trump International Hotel en Washington y la refinanciación de hipotecas sobre dos valiosos edificios de oficinas controlados por Vornado Realty Trust en los que Trump tiene una participación, uno en Manhattan y el otro en San Francisco. Cuando estos préstamos fueron refinanciados, resultó en un gran pago para la familia Trump.El viernes, Eric Trump, quien ayuda a administrar la empresa familiar, dijo en un comunicado que la declaración financiera mostraba una compañía diversificada de bienes raíces y medios de comunicación relativamente saludable. “Contamos con una enorme liquidez y mantenemos una deuda increíblemente reducida en relación con el valor de nuestros activos”, señaló en el comunicado.No aludió a los diversos problemas jurídicos e investigaciones a las que se enfrenta la familia.Steve Eder More
88 Shares149 Views
in Elections
Six Takeaways From Trump’s New Financial Disclosure
by Aurelia Butler 15 April 2023, 02:40
In a 101-page filing, Donald J. Trump revealed lower-than-expected values on his social media company and sizable bank loans.Former President Donald J. Trump provided the first look at his post-presidency business dealings on Friday with a new personal financial disclosure. Though light on specifics, the documents filed with the Federal Election Commission revealed lower-than-expected values on his social media company, two additional hefty bank loans and a new income stream for former first lady Melania Trump.The former president filed his disclosure after requesting multiple extensions. He had been warned that he would face fines if he failed to file within 30 days of a March 16 deadline.The financial disclosure shows cumulative income from January 2021 to Dec. 15, 2022, as required by the Federal Election Commission, and the value of assets as of December 2022, according to a person familiar with the documents.Here are six takeaways from the 101-page filing.Trump’s social media company takes a valuation hitThe disclosure valued the parent company of Truth Social, the former president’s social media platform and personal megaphone, at between $5 million and $25 million. That reported value for the parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group, was considerably less than the potential $9 billion valuation for the company when it announced a merger in October 2021 with a cash-rich special purpose acquisition company called Digital World Acquisition Company.The estimate reflected the current value for Mr. Trump’s holding and was not an attempt to price the assets after a potential estimate, a person familiar with the filing said. Still, the intrinsic value of Trump Media is considerably less than he had hoped for when he launched the company in early 2021.The merger deal has been held up by dual investigations by federal prosecutors and securities regulators, causing the stock of Digital World to tumble from a high of $97 a share to its current price of $13.10 a share. Still, if the deal is ever completed, it will bring at least $300 million in badly needed cash to Trump Media and potentially increase Mr. Trump’s paper wealth by a considerable amount. And Mr. Trump stands to get 70 million shares.The deadline for Trump Media and Digital World to complete the merger is early September. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which is investigating events surrounding the proposed merger along with federal prosecutors, has yet to sign off on the deal.A spokeswoman for Trump Media said the company remained convinced it was going to reach “billions of dollars in value.”The filing also showed that Mr. Trump, who is listed as chairman of Trump Media, owns 90 percent of the company. The filing does not identify the owners of the other 10 percent of the company. The company’s chief executive is Devin Nunes, the former Republican congressman from California.Trump’s online trading cards show underwhelming early salesLate last year, Mr. Trump announced a foray into digital assets known as NFTs, or nonfungible tokens. Trump Cards, virtual trading cards illustrated with a variety of cartoonish images of the former president, first went up for sale on Dec. 15.Expectations for the deal — orchestrated by Bill Zanker, a serial entrepreneur who had previously co-authored a book with Mr. Trump and paid him millions of dollars in speaking fees — were high: NFTs had commanded stunning prices in recent years, with one single token topping $22 million in early 2022.Privately, Mr. Trump had been assured the venture could hit as much as $100 million in sales, but early returns suggested a less spectacular outcome, with analysts estimating less than $6 million in total revenue by early February.Mr. Trump’s new financial disclosure states that the company he created for the NFT project, CIC Digital LLC, had between $100,001 and $1 million in income. But because the filing cuts off on Dec. 15 — the exact day that Trump Cards began trading — it was unclear how much of the early sales of the NFTs was included.Public data on cryptocurrency trading shows that 44,000 of the Trump Cards were sold, at $99 apiece, in the first 24 hours of trading. In addition, numerous cards were sold on the secondary market on Dec. 15, each of which would net a royalty of 10 percent under terms of the offering.Mr. Zanker has declined requests to comment on how sales of the Trump Cards are split or what overhead costs might be. But the report does provide one clue about the deal from Mr. Trump’s perspective. It lists the overall value of CIC Digital at between $500,000 and $1 million — suggesting that the NFT venture may not represent the vast windfall it was supposed to be.One executive said the income listed in the financial report did not reflect much of the money Mr. Trump has made in NFT sales. Overall, several million dollars of Trump NFTs have been sold, the executive said, with the bulk of the gross sales going to Mr. Trump under terms of the deal.Separately, the report showed Mr. Trump earned “over $5 million” through CIC Ventures Inc., an unconnected but similarly named company formed in 2021. (“CIC” stands for commander in chief.) That income was described as being for speaking engagements, which most likely included the campaign-style events he held before becoming an official candidate in November.Trump paid off certain loans, but took out othersSince leaving office, Mr. Trump has paid off six outstanding loans, including ones valued at more than $50 million on Trump Tower in New York and Trump Doral, a golf club outside Miami that has been his family company’s single-biggest revenue-generating property.He also took out new loans, both from Axos Bank and totaling more than $50 million each, on the Trump Tower and Doral properties.He also paid off a loan valued at more than $50 million on Trump Old Post Office, the Washington hotel he sold last year. Most of the loans he had received from Deutsche Bank, which once totaled more than $295 million, have now been paid off, leaving only about $45 million still owed to the bank, which was once a major lender to Mr. Trump.In total, Mr. Trump listed more than $200 million in debts.Trump saw new income from a deal with a Saudi-based firmThe financial disclosure shows the first payments to Mr. Trump for a new deal backed by a Saudi Arabia-based real estate investment firm to build a new golf and hotel complex in Oman. The payments so far are listed simply as worth more than $5 million.The project is slated to be built in Muscat, Oman, on a hillside adjacent to the Gulf of Oman, and will include a golf resort, villas and two hotels, a company executive said.The Trump family is teaming up with Dar Al Arkan, one of Saudi Arabia’s largest real estate companies, for the project. The government of Oman owns the land, meaning Mr. Trump is now essentially in a business deal with the government there.Melania Trump reports a fresh revenue streamThe former first lady incorporated one company, MKT World LLC, in 2021, using the same address as Trump International Golf Club, according to Florida Department of State records. The company reported earning royalties of between $1 million and $5 million.While the company’s exact business dealings were unclear, Ms. Trump has found multiple ways to monetize her ties to Mr. Trump since leaving the White House. In January 2022, she put up for auction a digital portrait of herself by a French artist, a print of the portrait and a white hat she once wore at the White House while meeting the president of France.She also joined the conservative social-media site Parler, which announced a deal with Ms. Trump whose financial terms were not disclosed. In a statement, she said she would provide the site exclusive content “to inspire others” and promote a series of future online auctions of “collectibles” like the hat she wore at the White House.Former first lady Melania Trump, at a holiday preview at the White House in 2017, reported new revenue streams in a financial disclosure.Tom Brenner for The New York TimesTrump revealed fewer details this timeMr. Trump’s financial disclosures were closely tracked during his first White House run and his presidency. The filings provided notable insights about the effect that holding office had on his wealth. And while much of his income and assets were reported only in wide ranges, Mr. Trump had previously reported specific amounts of income from certain properties.That all changed in his latest filing.This time, all of Mr. Trump’s income was reported in broad ranges — which is all that the federal law requires.For example, Mr. Trump reported that revenue from Mar-a-Lago, his South Florida resort, totaled $24.2 million in 2020, an increase of 13 percent from the previous year. In his latest report, he reported that the resort earned “over $5 million” — the highest disclosure in the filing, which ultimately makes it difficult for voters to get a clear picture of his finances.The disclosure shows a much more extensive list of individual stock and bond holdings by Mr. Trump, through various investment accounts, totaling several hundred million dollars in additional funds invested, based on the value ranges provided. The filing lists holdings in hundreds of stocks and bonds, including oil and gas, electric utilities, banks, health care, pharmaceutical companies, military contractors and many other sectors.This reflects, in part, new income Mr. Trump earned through the sale last year of the Trump International Hotel in Washington and the refinancing of mortgages on two valuable office buildings controlled by Vornado Realty Trust that Mr. Trump owns a stake in, one in Manhattan and the other in San Francisco. When these loans were refinanced, it resulted in a large payout to the Trump family.Eric Trump, who helps run the family company, said in a statement Friday that the financial disclosure reflected a diversified real estate and media company that is relatively healthy. “We have tremendous cash, maintain incredibly low debt relative to the value of our assets,” he said in a statement.He did not address the various legal challenges and investigations the family is facing.Steve Eder More

Truth Social (Social Network)

More stories

ITALIAN LANGUAGE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE