Former President Donald Trump on Thursday raged at a report from the Associated Press earlier this week that staff at his Mar-a-Lago club would boost their security screening for guests after they let Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes in to have dinner with him.
Writing on Truth Social, Trump argued that the security protocols at Mar-a-Lago were just fine and that any reports suggesting otherwise were "fake news."
"The story in AP, written by the untalented and very unreliable Jill Colvin, who I unfortunately got to know at the White House, is Fake News," the former president wrote. "We have very strong security, especially with the extremely talented Secret Service Agents on premises, but when I know someone, as I did Ye, we’re not going to have my guests strip searched, thrown against walls, and otherwise physically beaten. The anonymous sources don’t exist. Stories to the contrary are FAKE NEWS!"
In reality, security concerns about Mar-a-Lago didn't only arise when Fuentes got through, as a Russian national posing as a phony heiress also gained access to the club on multiple occasions.
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Such security concerns are particularly relevant given that Trump also stashed top-secret government documents at his resort and refused to return them even when served a lawful subpoena requesting that he do so.
During an appearance on MSNBC's 'The Alex Witt Show. the Guardian's Hugo Lowell claimed Donald Trump has been going through mood swings at the prospect of his indictment and now he is vacillating over being handcuffed when he appears at his arraignment in Manhattan next week.
"I know a couple of weeks ago, you reported that Trump wanted to be handcuffed, wanted to make a spectacle of his arrest," host Witt prompted. "Now that his arraignment is imminent, does he still want t be handcuffed in public? What are you hearing on that?"
"Yeah, it's difficult to get a sense of what Trump feels at this moment," the reporter replied. "You know, his mood has fluctuated in recent weeks -- he's gone from real anger towards the fact that he was going to get indicted, to this resignation that if he was going to get indicted then, you know, might as well come to New York and he wanted to be handcuffed."
"And he was very specific to aides about, you know, he wanted his hands behind his back and so he could project this sharp defiance--,'" he continued with Witt interrupting, "Hang on a second. Wait, wait he wanted his hands behind his back? We don't even see that anymore, don't we see people with the hands cuffed in front? So, he wanted to take the extra dramatic step to show himself, like, 'oh, you know,' ... that's strange."
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"No, he was very specific in that instruction and I think it kind of took his aides by the surprise," Lowell replied. "They did not anticipate this level of insistence from Trump. Certainly when he then said, you know, 'I don't care if it's a security concern, I want to be a martyr,' I think that solidified in that moment what Trump wanted. But when the indictment actually came down, his response was much more muted and, I think, it's one thing to be talking about a potential indictment, but once you actually get hit with an indictment it is a completely different story."
Watch below or at the link:
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With pundits and Republicans claiming the indictment of Donald Trump by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will only boost his 2024 presidential prospects, not everyone on the conservative side sees a criminal indictment as a positive game-changer for the embattled former president.
According to a report from the New York Times, Trump's rivals for the 2024 presidential nod have not only balked at using it to their advantage -- for now -- but have lined up behind Trump and expressed outrage at the historic indictment, which can only end up increasing his chances of skating through the primary.
The report went on to add that Trump's team was surprised at the outpouring of support and he was urged by them to thank them -- but to no avail so far.
As much as the former president has solidified the GOP ranks behind him -- with the exception of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) being conspicuously silent -- big-money donors are reportedly not flocking to jump back on the Trump train.
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As the Times reported, "One major donor, who is not yet committed to a 2024 candidate, doubted that the indictment would sway many deep-pocketed Republicans who have already made up their mind one way or the other about Mr. Trump, calling it a 'so what?' moment."
A top GOP strategist also suggested that the outrage by Trump zealots that the indictment is "political" won't move the needle for independent voters who stayed away from voting for the former president in droves in 2020 and contributed to his loss to Joe Biden.
According to the Times, "Mike DuHaime, a veteran Republican strategist, wrote on Twitter that Mr. Trump’s indictment 'wins back absolutely zero voters who left him between 2016 and 2020,'"
“No independent who voted for Biden thinks Trump is a martyr or victim suddenly worthy of support,” Mr. DuHaime wrote.
You can read more here.
During an appearance on MSNBC on Saturday morning, investigative reporter and author of one of the many biographies of Donald Trump warned Americans they should expect violence due to the Manhattan grand jury's indictment of the former president.
Speaking with host Ali Velshi, David Cay Johnston said he had no doubt blood will be spilled as the former president's fans act out on their fury at his legal problems.
"I am worried that there is some effort to fuel armed resistance or violent resistance," host Velshi stated.
"There will be blood," Cay Johnston agreed. "There's going to be people who believe Donald Trump's nonsense and think he is a demi-god or a god. They are going to commit some violent acts, but you are not going to see mass insurrection the way we did on Jan. 6."
"There are lots of studies that have been done, that I have read, on revolutions; revolutions are led by highly-educated people -- Fidel Castro was a lawyer -- and by young men who conclude that the known future is so horrible that they will go with an unknown future," he explained. "That is not the condition in America. The people who stormed the Capitol were in their late twenties, 30s, 40s, 50s. They were not young men. And, now that they have seen how seriously those crimes are being prosecuted, it is highly unlikely Trump could get people to replicate that kind of behavior."
ALSO IN THE NEWS: Marjorie Taylor Greene's Manhattan protest plans undercut by fellow lawmaker: 'Not to be taken seriously'
'On the other hand, look at the Republican leaders who are fomenting an anti-law and order message, attacking the legitimacy of a routine criminal investigation that is being carried out by prosecutors, detectives, and a grand jury," he continued. "This is a stunning and important development, this abandonment of the rule of law by people who should know better."
Watch below or at the link:
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