One Year Out Of Office Trump Continued Profiting From His Presidency
Donald Trump is a twice-impeached, one-term president who continues to spout lies that led to an attempted violent overthrow of a free and fair election that he lost, but in the year since slinking away from the White House, his businesses have thrived on Republican officials treating his properties as their de facto headquarters. In the past year, candidates running for federal and state office and sitting members of Congress looking to keep their seats and appeal to a Trump-loving base have visited Trumps properties in droves, and many have held expensive fundraising events at them. According to tracking by CREW, public officials and candidates for office have made at least 235 visits to Trump properties and have held 51 events.
These visits bring more than just profit to the for-profit kingmaker of the Republican Party, they bring an alternate reality. At Mar-a-Lago, Trump won in 2020. These visits and events, where Trump is often present and frequently gives remarks, perpetuate that false belief. Many of Trumps top customers are the same people most involved in spreading it.
Trumps Out Of Office But The Maga Merchandise Machine Keeps Chugging
President Bidens recent criticism of ultra-MAGA Republicans has led to a new business opportunity for entrepreneurial conservatives.
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Denouncing ultra-MAGA Republicans in a recent speech about fighting inflation, President Biden clearly saw an opportunity to tie the party to Donald Trump and the far-right fringe.
Ronald Solomon, the president of the clothing and merchandising company MAGA Mall, also saw an opportunity.
Now, he says, demand is way up for ultra-MAGA hats.
Every time theres some attack on people like that, they gladly wear it and theyre proud of it, he said.
Solomon, an investment banker and lifelong Republican whose activism stretches back to making phone calls as a teenager for Ronald Reagan in 1976, began selling Trump-inspired merchandise in 2016. Solomon had initially volunteered for Senator Ted Cruzs presidential campaign, but he switched sides as the Make America Great Again movement took off.
Fast-forward to the present day, and the MAGA Mall website offers more than 180 hats and over a dozen product categories, including greeting cards, rhinestone caps and Not My Dictator T-shirts featuring Democrats like Biden and Gov. Steve Sisolak of Nevada.
We have the Rolls-Royce of political hats, he said, at Chevrolet prices.
Transparency Data Availability And Record Keeping
The Washington Post reported in May 2017, “a wide variety of information that until recently was provided to the public, limiting access, for instance, to disclosures about workplace violations, energy efficiency, and animal welfare abuses” had been removed or tucked away. The Obama administration had used the publication of enforcement actions taken by federal agencies against companies as a way to name and shame companies that engaged in unethical and illegal behaviors.
The Trump administration stopped the longstanding practice of logging visitors to the White House, making it difficult to tell who has visited the White House. In July 2018, CNN reported that the White House had suspended the practice of publishing public summaries of Trump’s phone calls with world leaders, bringing an end to a common exercise from previous administrations.
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Could The 14th Amendment Keep Trump Out Of The Oval Office
- Louis JacobsonPolitiFact Senior Correspondent
An obscure portion of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says that public officials cannot serve in any future federal, state, or military office if they engaged in insurrection or rebellion. Would that apply to people who participated in the Jan. 6 attack on Congress?
Some legal experts say the clause could be used against former officeholders up to and including former President Donald Trump who supported the events of that day.
In a notable test case, plaintiffs in North Carolina are seeking to apply the clause to GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who spoke at the rally on Jan. 6 just before Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. The trespassers temporarily delayed Congress official counting of the electoral votes for the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden. Observers argue this qualifies as an insurrection.
Heres some background on the Disqualification Clause and its potential impact this year and beyond.
White House Lobbying Ban Scrapped
Another act taken in his final hours at the White House was to revoke the so-called “Drain the Swamp” ethics order he signed when he first took office.
That prevented officials who have recently left the government from immediately joining lobbying firms for a five year period.
The 2017 executive order’s goal was to prevent his aides from using their influence for personal gain. Ethics experts at the time said the move was a step in the right direction.
It’s not the first time a departing president has done a U-turn like that.
Former President Bill Clinton controversially scrapped his own ban barring senior White House officials from lobbying when he left office in 2001.
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Republicans Who Voted To Impeach Trump Are Getting Voted Out Of Office
Those House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump are being kicked out of Congress, Yahoo News reports.
There are ten of them altogether: Reps. RINO Liz Cheney , Peter Meijer , Tom Rice , Anthony Gonzalez , John Katko , Adam ‘Cry-Baby’ Kinzinger , Fred Upton , David Valadao , Jaime Herrera Beutler , and Dan Newhouse .
As Yahoo puts it, it is now a legitimate question as to whether any of these ten individuals will be still in Congress following the midterm elections.
United States Presidential Election
2016 United States presidential election| 46.1% | 48.2% |
Redblue
| President before election |
The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial , held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The ticket of businessman and Indiana governor defeated the ticket of former and the United States senator from Virginia , in what was considered one of the greatest in . Trump as the , and Pence as the , on January 20, 2017. It was the fifth and most recent presidential election in which the . It was also the sixth and most recent presidential election in which both major party candidates were registered in the same home state, with the others being in , , , , and .
Per the , then-incumbent president was ineligible to seek a third term. Clinton defeated self-described Senator in the , and became the of a major American political party. Trump emerged as his party’s front-runner amidst a wide field of candidates in the , defeating Senator , Senator , and Governor , among other candidates. The former Governor , and the . Trump’s campaign, which promised to “” and opposed , , and many garnered extensive coverage due to Trump’s inflammatory comments. Clinton emphasized her extensive political experience, denounced Trump and many of his supporters as a “”, bigots and extremists, and advocated the expansion of , , and and .
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Center For Popular Democracy
- See also: Center for Popular Democracy
- In May 2017, at the spring gala for the Center for Popular Democracy Action, the 501 organization announced a plan to spend $80 million to coordinate work with 48 smaller donor groups in 32 states. According to CNN, the effort began as an attempt “on the left to channel anger at the Trump administration into a lasting power base, with the ability to influence policy debates within the Democratic Party while boosting candidates on the local, state and federal levels.”
Report: Trump Thinks A 2024 Presidential Run Will Keep Him Out Of Prison
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Donald Trump famously hated the actual job of being president of the United States, given its emphasis on reading documents, listening to experts, and giving a crap about other people. On the other hand, he did enjoy the power, and one aspect of the power he really seemed to like was the fact that, according to his lawyers, he couldnt be held accountable for any crimes while in office.
Now, at the moment, Donald Trump is not president, and his legal situation isnt looking so hot. For one thing, the January 6 committee has given the Justice Department a whole bunch of reasons to indict the guy, and on Sunday, vice-chair Liz Cheneysaid the panel may make its own criminal referral. For another, the Fulton County criminal investigation into Trumps attempt to overturn the 2020 election is heating up and actually appears to have legs. Anyway, can you see where this is going?
Meanwhile, during an interview with ABCs This Week on Sunday, Cheney confirmed that the January 6 committee could refer Trump for criminal charges to the DOJ, while also noting that the Justice Department does not need to wait on the panel to make its own indictment. Which Trumpidiot as he may beis apparently aware of.
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Turns out, it doesnt. Heres CNN again:
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Meet The Winners And The Losers:
Of those remaining six House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, two have been voted out of Congress.
Rice, in June, lost his South Carolina GOP primary contest big time to state Rep. Russell Fry , who had the endorsement of Trump. Meijer, more recently, lost Michigans GOP primary to another Trump-endorsed candidate John Gibbs.
So, that leaves us with four. Two Valadao and Newhouse have won their primary contests, meaning that they will now move on to the general election in November. It also appears that Beutler is likely to be declared the winner of her primary. But, there are, of course, no guarantees that any of these three individuals will beat their Democrat opponents in December.
White Nationalists And Charlottesville Rally
On August 13, 2017, Trump condemned violence “on many sides” after a gathering of hundreds of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, the previous day turned deadly. A white supremacist drove a car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring 19 others. According to Sessions, that action met the definition of domestic terrorism. During the rally there had been other violence, as some counter-protesters charged at the white nationalists with swinging clubs and mace, throwing bottles, rocks, and paint. Trump did not expressly mention Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, or the alt-right movement in his remarks on August 13, but the following day condemned “the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups“. On August 15, he again blamed “both sides”.
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Distrust Cuts Both Ways
Trumps antipathy toward the career federal workforce may have been sealed on Inauguration Day, after a National Park Service employee retweeted Twitter messages comparing crowd sizes at the 2017 ceremony with those of the 2008 inauguration of President Obama. The effect, not favorable to Trump, prompted the new president to phone acting NPS Director Michael Reynolds to complain that his crowd size was underplayed.
One can see how this might have informed Trumps impression of a deep state. Just six weeks later, Trump accused President Obama of wiretapping his conversations at Trump Tower in New York.
More than half of federal employees had said the previous October they would vote for Hillary Clinton, according to a Government Executive/Government Business Council survey. Just 34 percent were for Trump.
Campaign donations from federal employees for the 2016 cycle skewed toward Democrats, in some agencies by a factor of 10-to-1, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In recent months, the news media, which Trump often derides as fake, have published numerous essays and interviews with disgruntled federal employees, including one from a former State Department employee who accused Secretary Rex Tillerson of an inherent distrust of the State Department and career officers.
Closure Of Pennsylvania Avenue
On May 20, 1995, primarily as a response to the of April 19, 1995, the closed off Pennsylvania Avenue to vehicular traffic in front of the White House from the eastern edge of Lafayette Park to 17th Street. Later, the closure was extended an additional block to the east to 15th Street, and East Executive Avenue, a small street between the White House and the .
After , this change was made permanent, in addition to closing E Street between the South Portico of the White House and . In response to the , the road was closed to the public in its entirety for a period of two days.
The Pennsylvania Avenue closure has been opposed by organized civic groups in Washington, D.C. They argue that the closing impedes traffic flow unnecessarily and is inconsistent with the well-conceived historic plan for the city. As for security considerations, they note that the White House is set much farther back from the street than numerous other sensitive federal buildings are.
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Leaving The White House
A little after 08:00 local time, Mr Trump left the White House for the last time as president.
Trump leaves the White House for the last time as US president
Along with First Lady Melania Trump, he got into the presidential helicopter, but not before saying a few words.
In brief remarks Mr Trump said the White House was the greatest home in the world.
“We’ve had an amazing four years and we’ve accomplished a lot,” Trump said.
“We love the American people and it has been something very special,” he added.
And with a final fist pump and wave, Mr Trump boarded Marine One, which took them on a loop around the US capital – including over the inauguration site at the US Capitol – before heading to Joint Base Andrews.
Out Of Office Trump Still The Center Of Attention Investigations
Former U.S. President Donald Trump left office more than a year ago, but his conduct in the waning weeks of his presidency as he tirelessly sought to remain in power and his reported role in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, remain a focal point of the American political scene and multiple investigations.
Trump, with a wide base of Republican voter support, is teasing another run for the presidency in 2024 after losing in 2020 to Democrat Joe Biden, now the 46th U.S. president. Both men are in their 70s, but an electoral rematch in two years is possible.
Trump is already assailing Bidens performance during his first year in office, while Biden and his aides attack Trump, zeroing in on his baseless claims that he was cheated out of a second term by electoral fraud.
But for the moment, the focus is not on 2024 or the nationwide congressional elections coming up in nine months. The current focus is on how the Trump presidency ended.
Special grand jury
A prosecutor in the southern city of Atlanta, Georgia, has convened a special grand jury to investigate Trumps phone call to the top Georgia election official, Brad Raffensperger, in early 2021 asking him to find enough votes to overturn his loss in the state.
So, look. All I want to do is this, Trump said in a recording of the call to Raffensperger. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state.
Congressional investigation
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Transition Period Inauguration And First 100 Days
Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2017. He was sworn in by Chief JusticeJohn Roberts. In his seventeen-minute inaugural address, Trump painted a dark picture of contemporary America, pledging to end “American carnage” caused by urban crime and saying America’s “wealth, strength, and confidence has dissipated” by jobs lost overseas. He declared his strategy would be “America First.” The largest single-day protest in U.S. history, the Women’s March, took place the day after his inauguration and was driven by opposition to Trump and his policies and views.
One of Trump’s major first year accomplishments, made as part of a “100day pledge,” was the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. Despite the Republican Party holding a majority in both houses of Congress, however, he was unable to fulfill another hundred-day promise, repealing the Affordable Care Act .
Overcrowding And Building The West Wing
By the time of the , the White House had become overcrowded. The location of the White House, just north of a canal and swampy lands, which provided conditions ripe for and other unhealthy conditions, was questioned. Brigadier General Nathaniel Michler was tasked with proposing solutions to address these concerns. He proposed abandoning the use of the White House as a residence, and he designed a new estate for the first family at in Washington, D.C. Congress, however, rejected the plan. Another option was Metropolis View, which is now the campus of .
When took office in 1881, he ordered renovations to the White House to take place as soon as the recently widowed moved out. Arthur inspected the work almost nightly and made several suggestions. was asked to send selected designers to assist. Over twenty wagonloads of furniture and household items were removed from the building and sold at a . All that was saved were bust portraits of and . A proposal was made to build a new residence south of the White House, but it failed to gain support.
In 1891, First Lady proposed major extensions to the White House, including a National Wing on the east for a historical art gallery, and a wing on the west for official functions. A plan was devised by Colonel Theodore A. Bingham that reflected the Harrison proposal. These plans were ultimately rejected.
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