Trump attacks Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter again as he attends NYPD officer’s funeral: Updates

One moment, the former president is a commercial busted flush, drowning in lawsuits over his business and tax affairs and facing the distinctly possible threat of having to sell his eponymous properties across North America or his beloved Mar-a-Lago country club in Palm Beach. The next moment, he is soaring up the wealth charts, on his way to reclaiming a spot as one of the world’s richest men. It’s unreal. But then, not much about Trump ever does turn out to be real.

He trades in empty boasts and falsehoods. He’s got where he is by stirring a whirlwind of activity. Stopping would risk exposure; better to keep spinning.

And here’s the response from Ian Sams, White House spokesperson on Oversight and Investigations:

During what Mr Biden’s re-election campaign called an “armchair conversation” with the 46th president, former president Bill Clinton and former president Barack Obama, one protester began shouting “shame on you, Joe Biden!” before being ushered out by security.

And as Mr Clinton began to answer a question about what he missed most about the presidency, another protester began shouting obscenities about Ukraine and Russia before being joined by other protesters.

Texas Trey, a lifelong Republican voter from Texas, spoke with CNN’s Laura Coates about why he plans to leave the party before the 2024 election in November.

Mr Trey explained that he was a straight-ticket Republican voter before politics began to permeate every aspect of life “from the beer you drink to the stores you shop in”. Coming into 2016 he said his vote for Donald Trump wasn’t so much a vote for him but a vote against Hillary Clinton.

“She didn’t have anything to offer that necessarily appealed to me. I felt the election was hers to lose and the whole thing seemed pretty much seemed to be sewn up as far everybody thought including her, and I was very shocked to learn the next day that he had actually won when I really didn’t think that he would,” Mr Trey said.

Asked if he has any evolution in his thoughts about Hillary Clinton in the wake of the past eight years, Mr Trey chuckled.

“Yes, yes, absolutely … she was absolutely right, she was absolutely right about everything that she said, although I didn’t necessarily pay too much attention to the things that she said but going back in hindsight, it’s very clear.

Kentucky lawmakers gave final approval Thursday to a bill stripping the state’s Democratic governor of any role in picking someone to occupy a U.S. Senate seat if a vacancy occurred in the home state of 82-year-old Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

The legislation calls for a special election to fill any Senate vacancy from the Bluegrass State. The special election winner would hold the seat for the remainder of the unexpired term.

“So it would be a direct voice of the people determining how the vacancy is filled,” Republican Senate President Robert Stivers said while presenting the bill to his colleagues.

The state Senate voted 34-3 after a brief discussion to send the bill to Gov. Andy Beshear. The governor has denounced the measure as driven by partisanship, but the GOP supermajority legislature could override a veto when lawmakers reconvene for the final two days of this year’s session in mid-April.

The bill’s lead sponsor is Republican House Majority Floor Leader Steven Rudy. He has said the measure has nothing to do with McConnell, but instead reflected his long-running policy stance on how an empty Senate seat should be filled.

Rudy refers to McConnell as a “great friend and a political mentor,” and credits the state’s senior senator for playing an important role in the GOP’s rise to dominance in the Kentucky legislature.

Rudy has said his bill would treat a Senate vacancy like that of a vacancy for a congressional or legislative seat in Kentucky — by holding a special election to fill the seat. The bill includes an emergency clause, meaning it would take effect immediately if enacted into law.

Rudy introduced the bill in February and it cleared a House committee a day after McConnell’s announcement that he will step down from his longtime Senate leadership position in November. The decision set off a wave of speculation back home in Kentucky about the future of his seat.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine has shocked probably absolutely no one by saying on Thursday that she will not be voting for Donald Trump in November, The Portland Press Herald reports.

The five-term Republican senator, who previously endorsed Nikki Haley in the primary, says she “cannot support” the former president as makes a third run for the White House.

“I don’t think it should surprise anyone that I will not support him,” she said.

Ms Collins was one of the seven Republican senators who voted to convict Mr Trump at his second impeachment trial in January 2021 on charges that he incited the mob that stormed the US Capitol.

During a tour of a medical centre in Portland, Maine, she told media that she would not leave the Republican Party, unlike her colleague Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who has mulled running an independent who caucuses with Republicans.

When asked about the other candidates in November’s election she said she is “not happy with President Biden’s administration” and laughed when asked about Robert F Kennedy Jr.

“Like many Mainers, I don’t like the choice that appears to be coming our way since I do not think either President Trump or President Biden should be president.

“I don’t know what I shall do. It’s a long ways between now and November.”

Republican Senator Todd Young of Indiana has also said he will not endorse Mr Trump.

Ms Cheney wrote on X: “Trump is repeatedly and maliciously attacking a judge’s daughter on social media. He knows this will bring threats of violence against her and the judge. Trump is depraved and unstable. This unconscionable behavior shows yet again why he is unfit for any office.”

Let’s check in on how shares in Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) are trading a couple of days after they were launched on Tuesday.

As you may recall, Donald Trump’s fledgling social media company debuted on the Nasdaq, opening at $70.90 per share, before soaring to $79.38 as fans of the former president and traders (who presumably have some sort of clever plan?) bought in.

The initial lustre quickly wore off and by the close of trading on Thursday it was down $4.26 on the opening, settling at $61.96.

So… what are the prospects now?

Its market valuation, just over $8 billion, is still stunning for a social media fledgling with an unproven business model that has struggled to attract users and advertisers, burned through cash and wracked up losses.

“The valuation of the company should be several hundred million, not the billions it is currently valued at,” University of Florida professor Jay Ritter said.

Thursday’s slide into the red could be just the beginning, market observers say. Ritter predicts the vanity stock ticker DJT will bottom out around $2 a share – or worse.

“The stock will continue to be very volatile, with sharp moves up and down. But the long-term trend will be down,” he said. “The company has about $2 in cash per share, but it will probably burn through that money and the most likely outcome is eventual bankruptcy.”

Trump also used a vanity ticker for his Atlantic City casino business, Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, when it went public in 1995. The company never turned a profit and ended up bankrupt in 2004.

Here’s some more background on trading in Truth Social:

Donald Trump describes attending the wake of slain NYPD officer Jonathan Diller in his own inimitable way…