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| The circus is in New York City. |
The Drudge Report was an early backer of the former reality TV star and business mogul in his rise to the presidency. Matt Drudge, a reclusive media mogul and conservative agitator backed him in 2016. But things turned sour and The Drudge Report has been extremely critical of the former president. He even went as far to blast the junk food media for its relentless coverage of him post presidency.
As he is running for president again in 2024, the junk food media has given more airtime to him instead of the current president. The same noise that helped him win in 2016 will help him win in 2024.
Trump became the first U.S. president to be impeached twice while in office. His first was trying to pressure Ukraine president Volodamyrr Zelenskyy into investigating Joe Biden and inciting an insurrection to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.
Trump's failure to win the 2020 election was his coronavirus pandemic. He did not take action and let nearly 600,000 Americans die from it.
Trump had overseen unrest in the country after George Floyd's murder, the mass shootings in El Paso, Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, Dayton, Parkland and Sutherland Springs.
Trump had increased the debt from $21 trillion to $35 trillion during his term.
Trump refused to attend Joe Biden inauguration. He ordered his administration to delay and refuse to acknowledge Biden and Kamala Harris access to sensitive material.
Trump is under federal watch for his mishandling of classified documents and the insurrection.
Trump is under state investigation for his role in trying to interfere in the Georgia elections
Trump had four U.S. Press Secretaries in his one term.
Trump will be indicted for his role in hush money payments to adult entertainer and activist Stormy Daniels. He is also under investigation for getting the National Enquirer to stop a story about Karen McDougal. He allegedly had affairs with the women.
Trump also has a federal lawsuit from E. Jean Carroll. She claimed that the former president groped her and forcibly kissed her.
Today, the former president will appear at Manhattan Superior Court where he is expected to surrender to authorities. The U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Marshals, the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspectors will be on high alert. The New York Police Department will be watching for potential unrest and violent threats.
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| The Drudge Report front page. |
Mayor Eric Adams warns out of state travelers and the insufferable lawmaker Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) that any antics that incite violence will lead to a criminal arrest.
Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon after an investigation into payments made during his 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter. The indictment itself remains sealed for now in the first criminal case ever brought against a former U.S. president.
Trump — a Republican who assailed the case Thursday as a Democratic prosecutor’s “political persecution” of “a completely innocent person” — is expected to turn himself in to authorities next week, according to three people familiar with the matter but not authorized to discuss it publicly.
The booking and appearance before Judge Juan Merchan should be relatively brief — though hardly routine — as Trump is fingerprinted, learns the charges against him and pleads, as expected, not guilty. Merchan has ruled that TV cameras won’t be allowed in the courtroom.
Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina said Tuesday that the former president wouldn’t plead guilty to lesser charges, even if it might resolve the case. He said he didn’t believe the case would ever make it to a jury, but conceded, “Really, there’s a lot of mystery here because we’re doing something that’s never been done before.”
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| Insufferable lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene will be outside her congressional district to protest Trump's indictment. |
“I think there will be a typical processing, which does not take long, 20-30 minutes. There won’t be handcuffs,” Tacopina told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “But, yeah, he’ll be processed the way anyone else would be — to a degree.”
New York police said they were ready for large protests by Trump supporters, who share the Republican former president’s belief that the New York grand jury indictment and three additional pending investigations are politically motivated and intended to weaken his bid to retake the White House in 2024. As Tuesday wore on, however, journalists often vastly outnumbered the protesters.
Trump, a former reality TV star, has been hyping that narrative to his political advantage, saying he raised $8 million in the less than a week since the indictment on claims of a “witch hunt.” He has assailed the Manhattan district attorney, egged on supporters to protest and claimed without evidence that the judge presiding over the case “hates me” — something his own lawyer has said is not true.
Trump is scheduled to return to his Palm Beach, Florida, home, Mar-a-Lago, on Tuesday evening to hold a rally, punctuating his new reality: submitting to the dour demands of the American criminal justice system while projecting an aura of defiance and victimhood at celebratory campaign events. At least 500 prominent supporters have been invited, with some of the most pro-Trump congressional Republicans expected to attend.
A conviction would not prevent Trump from running for or winning the presidency in 2024.
Inside the Manhattan courtroom, prosecutors led by New York’s district attorney, Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, are expected to unseal the indictment issued last week by a grand jury. This is when Trump and his defense lawyers will get their first glimpse of the precise allegations against him.
The indictment contains multiple charges of falsifying business records, including at least one felony offense, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press last week.
After the arraignment, Trump is expected to be released by authorities because the charges against him don’t require that bail be set.
The investigation is scrutinizing six-figure payments made to porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Both say they had sexual encounters with the married Trump years before he got into politics. Trump denies having sexual liaisons with either woman and has denied any wrongdoing involving payments.
The arraignment will unfold against the backdrop of heavy security in New York, coming more than two years after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to halt the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s win.
Though police said they had no intelligence suggesting any violence was likely, they were on high alert for any potential disruptions.
Trump pollster John McLaughlin said the former president would approach the day with “dignity.”
“He will be a gentleman,” McLaughlin said. “He’ll show strength and he’ll show dignity and ... we’ll get through this and win the election.”
But Trump was also defiant. He used his social media network to lash out at Biden, suggesting the president should be facing legal troubles of his own.
Despite that, the scenes around Trump Tower and the courthouse where Trump will stand before a judge were mostly quiet. There were some arguments, but police tried to keep protesters supporting the former president and those opposing him apart, confining them to separate sides of the nearby park using metal barricades.
One demonstrator hoisted a sign reading “Trump or death 1776 2024,” but others carried placards showed images of Trump in prison. The dueling sentiments also played out on nearby posts, were one flyer urged passers-by to donate to help fund Trump’s presidential library and another showed a shouting Trump behind bars — together with police signs instructing that no parking was allowed near the area.
The public fascination with the case was evident Monday as national television carried live images of Trump’s motorcade from his Mar-a-Lago club to a private, red, white and blue Boeing 757 stenciled with his name. From there, Trump was flown to New York, where cameras followed his motorcade into Manhattan and he spent the night at Trump Tower as he prepared to turn himself in.
The former president and his aides are embracing the media circus. After initially being caught off guard when news of the indictment broke Thursday evening, Trump and his team are hoping to use the case to his advantage. Still, they asked the judge in a Monday filing to ban photo and video coverage of the arraignment.
Though prosecutors routinely insist that no person is above the law, bringing criminal charges against a former president carries instant logistical complications.
New York’s ability to carry out safe and drama-free courthouse proceedings in a case involving a polarizing ex-president could be an important test case as prosecutors in Atlanta and Washington conduct their own investigations of Trump that could also result in charges. Those investigations concern efforts to undo the 2020 election results as well as the possible mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Top Republicans, including some of Trump’s potential rivals in next year’s GOP presidential primary, have criticized the case against him. Biden, who has yet to formally announce that he’s seeking reelection next year, and other leading Democrats have largely had little to say about it.
Prosecutors insist their case against Trump has nothing to do with politics.
Trump's antics are a money maker for Fox, MSNBC, NewsNation and CNN. They continue to cover him despite most of Americans viewers being tired of him.
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