Free Republic

Donald J. Trump didn’t wait for the opening bell before blaming Monday’s market sell-off on Vice President Kamala Harris. “Stock markets are crashing, jobs numbers are terrible, we are heading to World War III, and we have two of the most incompetent ‘leaders’ in history,” the former president and Republican presidential nominee wrote in a post on Truth Social at 8:12 a.m. Eastern time. “This is not good.” Mr. Trump did not mention that markets had suffered far greater single-day losses when he was president, or that economists blamed a variety of factors — including a disappointing July jobs report,...

Donald J. Trump and his political team spent nearly two years tailoring a campaign to defeat an old white male president who is conspicuously frail and who most Americans had told pollsters they doubted could handle another four-year term.Suddenly, Mr. Trump faces a starkly different opponent: a vice president who is a Black woman, nearly 20 years younger, and who brings her own strengths and weaknesses but who adds new uncertainty into what had been a remarkably static race.Allies of Ms. Harris have already telegraphed that she will run a campaign framed around a “prosecutor versus felon” theme, highlighting her...

Joseph Tacopina, the trial lawyer on Donald J. Trump’s legal team with the most successes defending high-profile clients, will no longer represent the former president in his criminal trial in Manhattan, according to a notice sent to the court on Monday. Mr. Tacopina also withdrew on Monday from another case in which he was still legally representing Mr. Trump: an appeal of the verdict in a lawsuit brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll. Mr. Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation last year and was ordered to pay Ms. Carroll $5 million. It was not clear why...

On his last day as president on Jan. 20, 2021, Donald Trump stood in a snapping wind and waved goodbye to relatives and supporters before he took his final flight on Air Force One back to Mar-a-Lago. No elected Republican of any stature showed up at Joint Base Andrews for the bleak farewell. Trump, at that moment, was a pariah among Republican elites. The party’s leaders in the House and Senate, Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell, blamed him for the Capitol siege. Party fundraisers assured donors they were done with him. On conference calls, House Republican leaders contemplated a “post-Trump”...

Former President Donald Trump recently told aides to hire Laura Loomer, a far-right, anti-Muslim activist with a history of expressing bigoted views, for a campaign role, according to four people familiar with the plans. Trump met with Loomer recently and directed advisers to give her a role in support of his candidacy, two of the people familiar with the move said. On Tuesday, after Trump’s arraignment in New York, Loomer attended the former president’s speech at Mar-a-Lago, his resort and residence in Palm Beach, Florida. Some of Trump’s aides were said to have concerns that such a hire would cause...

NBC) New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman on Sunday said former President Trump is “very anxious” about possibly being indicted as part of a New York probe into an alleged hush-money payment to adult-film star Stormy Daniels. Trump posted on Truth Social Saturday to say he thinks he’ll be arrested on Tuesday as the Manhattan district attorney’s office pursues the payment that came amid his 2016 presidential run. “Protest, take our nation back!” Trump wrote.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has sharply broken with Republicans who are determined to defend Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, saying in a statement made public on Monday night that protecting the European nation’s borders is not a vital U.S. interest and that policymakers should instead focus attention at home.###“While the U.S. has many vital national interests — securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness with our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural and military power of the Chinese Communist Party — becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not...

Are we back to this nonsense again? Remember the hush payments Stormy Daniels was receiving, which led to her soliciting the legal advice of now-ex-attorney Michael Avenatti, which ended with her losing her lawsuit against Donald Trump, including paying the former president’s attorney fees? Yeah, that’s back in the news because someone at The New York Times went off half-cocked and said that criminal charges would likely be filed against the former president. It’s ‘the walls are closing in’ part LXXXVII, and it’s not happening, according to NYT reporter Maggie Haberman (via Mediaite): "ANDERSON COOPER: I mean, how do you...

Former President Trump is reportedly still communicating with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, according to a new book set to be released by a New York Times journalist. The news comes amid reports in recent weeks that the country had continued to conduct missile tests. In her new book titled "Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America," New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman reports that the former president says he has continued to stay in contact with the North Korean leader.

As a federal investigation into Rudolph W. Giuliani escalates, his advisers have been pressing aides to former President Donald J. Trump to reach into a $250 million war chest to pay Mr. Giuliani for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election on Mr. Trump’s behalf. The pressure from Mr. Giuliani’s camp has intensified since F.B.I. agents executed search warrants at Mr. Giuliani’s home and office last week, according to people familiar with the discussions, and comes as Mr. Giuliani has hired new lawyers and is facing his own protracted — and costly — legal battles. Federal prosecutors...