Trump 2024

Highlights from Donald Trump's rally in Ohio at Delaware County Fairgrounds
Mary Jane Sanese and Haley BeMiller, The Columbus Dispatch
Sat, April 23, 2022, 8:19 PM

https://news.yahoo.com/live-updates-donald-trump-holds-173002343.html

Temple wrote:

Fact is--
The media doesn't give a shit about trump.

pffffff ...sheah right!

I suggest maybe the democrat's media could be focused more on the Musk-twitter thing lately and not keeping Temple fed with the usual Trump bashing material he's accustomed to, so he's concluded that they no longer give a shit

Trump sees 'vengeance' on the political horizon
David Knowles·Senior Editor | Yahoo News
Thu, May 12, 2022, 3:00 AM

During a closed-door speech Monday to the National Republican Congressional Committee, former President Donald Trump told the invited guests that “we” are coming back with “vengeance” in an apparent reference to his as-yet-unannounced decision to seek a return to power in 2024.

Given that Trump has resumed holding rallies nationwide, continues to dominate Republican primary polling and has, since losing to Joe Biden in 2020, repeatedly hinted that he plans to mount another White House bid, it’s not exactly a closely guarded secret that he wants his old job back. Equally unsurprising is the promise that a second Trump term would hold its share of political payback.

Trump, after all, has repeatedly spoken over the years about how exacting revenge is a guiding principle.

“If somebody hits you, you’ve got to hit ’em back five times harder than they ever thought possible. You’ve got to get even. Get even,” Trump said in a 2012 speech.

Seven years later, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon remarked that if the then president won reelection in 2020, “You’re going to get pure Trump off the chain. Four years of Donald Trump in payback mode.”

In further anticipation of a second Trump term, Bannon this week went after former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who had detailed numerous instances of what he saw as Trump's faulty judgment in a new book.

“When we come to power, don’t think you're going to be skipping away from this,” Bannon said of Esper.

Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham warned in October that a Trump victory in 2024 would usher in four years of reprisals.

“He’s clearly the frontrunner in the Republican Party,” Grisham said in an interview with ABC’s "Good Morning America."

“Everybody’s showing their fealty to him. He’s on his revenge tour, for people who dared to vote for impeachment. And I want to just warn people that once he takes office if he were to win, he doesn’t have to worry about reelection any more. He will be about revenge, he will probably have some pretty draconian policies.”

Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina was one of 10 House Republicans who voted in 2021 to impeach Trump for "incitement of insurrection" for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol that year. That vote, Rice knows, effectively painted a target on his back because Trump is "driven by revenge."

“He is, of anybody I’ve ever met, he’s probably the most spiteful, vengeful person I’ve ever met,” Rice said in an April interview with “Meet the Press.”

Of the Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, just six, including Rice, are seeking reelection. The former president has endorsed GOP challengers in each race.

Trump’s “revenge tour,” as Grisham has put it, also takes aim at those who refused to go along with his false contention that the 2020 election was fraudulent.

On Wednesday, Trump issued a statement criticizing Republicans who still supported the reelection of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. Trump wants Kemp defeated over the governor’s refusal in December 2020 to block the certification of the vote in Georgia and hand Trump the swing state's electoral votes.

“Today, the worst ‘election integrity’ Governor in the country, Brian Kemp, loaded the great state of Georgia up with RINOs. That’s right, he had them all. Chris Christie, Doug Ducey from Arizona, and Pete Rickets from Nebraska,” Trump said in a statement, adding that the grouping represented “just a continuation of bad elections and a real RINO if you vote for Brian Kemp.”

While most Republicans who may have to again work with Trump should he win in 2024 are careful not to publicly criticize Trump out of fears of retribution, Christie didn’t hesitate to return fire.

“Insightful commentary about three Republican Governors who were overwhelmingly reelected by their people from a former President who lost to Joe Biden. Maybe the ‘R’ in RINO really stands for re-elected,” he tweeted Wednesday.

Yet, according to polls on a hypothetical rematch between Trump and Biden, the 45th president appears to have a good chance at becoming the 47th.

For former Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele, if those polls are right, Trump’s effort to weed out dissent from the GOP regarding the false claim that election fraud cost him the 2020 election will extend beyond members of Congress.

“His four years would be consumed with validating his lie,” Steele told the New Republic. “His four years would be consumed with retribution against those who, in his view, wronged him, and [he] would then corrupt the instruments of power in Washington, from Congress — because he’d have a compliant, complicit House and Senate Republicans who would do every bidding that he put in front of them — and then corrupt the various institutions that would be required to execute his revenge, which would include the Department of Justice, etc.”

In January, the former president offered yet another possible preview of how he’d settle scores if he wins reelection: pardoning those convicted for crimes committed on Jan. 6, 2021, when his supporters attempted to block the congressional certification of the Electoral College vote.

“If I run and I win, we will treat those people from January 6 fairly,” he said at a campaign rally in Conroe, Texas. “And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly.”

On Dec. 15, 2020, immediately after the Electoral College count confirmed Biden’s victory over Trump, former Attorney General William Barr tendered his resignation to the then president. The schism followed disagreements about whether the election had been marred by fraud and whether Justice Department could intervene to overturn the results.

“I told him that all this stuff was bulls*** about election fraud,” Barr told NBC News.

In his memoir, “One Damn Thing After Another,” Barr has since offered his own take about what ultimately guides the former president.

“That Trump, of all people, should consider himself an arbiter of ideological purity — a man whose political allegiances oscillated randomly for decades — is comical,” Barr wrote. “In reality, he has no concern with ideology or political principle. His motive is revenge, and it is entirely personal.”

Trump Responds To NY Times Report Claiming He’ll Announce 2024 Presidential Run Early
Jon Dougherty
July 3, 2022

Former President Donald Trump has responded to a story published by The New York Times on Friday that he is planning to announce a 2024 presidential run ahead of the November midterms.

In a post on his Truth Social media platform, Trump called the report “fake news” though he did not elaborate.

“12 wins & zero losses this week (Mary Miller won against all odds), 33 & 0 in Texas, 132 & 7 this cycle — there has never been anything like ‘our’ endorsement — and the Fake News New York Times writes that I may announce an early presidential run because I haven’t done well with my endorsements,” Trump fired back at the Times on Saturday morning in a Truth Social post.

“Actually, doing better than ever, breaking all records. We are dealing with very sick, bad people in the fake news media,” he continued.

“Also, beating everybody in the polls by really big, record type, numbers!” Trump added in another post.

In a late Friday breaking story, the Times reported: “The timing of a formal announcement from Mr. Trump remains uncertain. But he recently surprised some advisers by saying he might declare his candidacy on social media without warning even his own team, and aides are scrambling to build out basic campaign infrastructure in time for an announcement as early as this month.”

The report said that some Republicans are concerned that an announcement before the midterms could help the Democrats use the former president as a campaign issue.

“Republicans want to win badly in 2022, and it is dawning on many of them that relitigating the 2020 election with Trump’s daily conspiracy diatribes are sure losers,” Republican strategist and former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, Dick Wadhams, said.

There are additional concerns about an announcement this far in advance of the next presidential election.

“One of the most compelling arguments against an early announcement had been federal campaign finance laws. If and when Mr. Trump announces, he would be ineligible to use any of the $100 million that he has parked in his political action committee to directly support his presidential run. His campaign would also be constrained by a strict $2,900-per-person donation cap for the primaries, meaning he could tap his largest donors only once over the next period of roughly two years to directly fund a candidacy,” The Times reported.

Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is said to be one of the people close to the former president that is encouraging him to make the announcement sooner.

“It’s up to him if he runs or not,” Graham said. “But the key to him being successful is comparing his policy agenda and policy successes with what is going on today.”

NBC News reported in June that an announcement by Trump could actually come over the Independence Day holiday. And while some believe he should wait until after the midterm elections to make his announcement, others say he out to make an announcement before then in order to cut off other possible contenders who are gaining steam.

“I’ve laid out my case on why I think he should do it,” his longtime adviser Jason Miller, said as he accompanied the former president to a rally in Wyoming over Memorial Day weekend. “I think that there being clarity about what his intentions are [is important] so he can start building that operation while it’s still fresh in people’s minds and they’re still active — a lot of that can be converted into 2024 action.”

Another adviser who thinks the former president should wait until after the midterms — which forecasts indicate Republicans should do well — nevertheless said they think the announcement will come “sooner rather than later.”

The adviser said that one question is “whether he can sort of suppress his excitement about a 2024 rematch and not, say, go ahead and put that statement out … and waits for a big event, a big speech to do it.”

The Times reported that Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel wants the former president to wait until after the midterms to make any announcement.

Trump, Allies Planning Massive New Assault on DC ‘Swamp’ If He Wins in ’24
Jon Dougherty, July 23, 2022

Donald Trump is already making plans for his first day back in office should he win the 2024 presidential election.

In fact, according to a Thursday report, Trump and his allies have spent the last several months meticulously planning not only his return to the White House but also a massive overhaul of the federal bureaucracy down to the mid-staff level that could lead to tens of thousands of firings.

According to Axios, whose correspondents spent three months interviewing some two dozen Trump insiders and others familiar with the planning, Trump will reimplement “Schedule F,” an executive order he issued just days before the 2020 election and which was quickly rescinded by President Joe Biden that calls for completely reshaping hundreds of federal agencies.

The plan calls for replacing current bureaucrats with young professionals who are all-in with his “MAGA” agenda. Schedule F formed a new category of federal employees who are in “positions of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character,” and allows for those employees to be replaced following a presidential transition.

“The Federal Government benefits from career professionals in positions that are not normally subject to change as a result of a Presidential transition,” the order says.

Axios adds:

Former President Trump’s top allies are preparing to radically reshape the federal government if he is re-elected, purging potentially thousands of civil servants and filling career posts with loyalists to him and his “America First” ideology, people involved in the discussions tell Axios.

The impact could go well beyond typical conservative targets such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Internal Revenue Service. Trump allies are working on plans that would potentially strip layers at the Justice Department — including the FBI, and reaching into national security, intelligence, the State Department and the Pentagon, sources close to the former president say.

As many as 50,000 employees could immediately be fired, including many at the Justice Department, Pentagon, and the FBI.

Axios further explained that the Trump effort to reshape government institutions and change their culture, politically, is extensive, multi-layered, and ongoing.

“Well-funded groups are already developing lists of candidates selected often for their animus against the system — in line with Trump’s long-running obsession with draining ‘the swamp,’” the outlet reported. “This includes building extensive databases of people vetted as being committed to Trump and his agenda.”

“The preparations are far more advanced and ambitious than previously reported. What is happening now is an inversion of the slapdash and virtually non-existent infrastructure surrounding Trump ahead of his 2017 presidential transition,” the report continued.

“These groups are operating on multiple fronts: shaping policies, identifying top lieutenants, curating an alternative labor force of unprecedented scale, and preparing for legal challenges and defenses that might go before Trump-friendly judges, all the way to a 6-3 Supreme Court,” Axios added.

Though Biden rescinded Schedule F, the order is serving as the blueprint for reshaping and reforming the federal bureaucracy that Trump’s lieutenants are using to plan for his return.

“We are consciously bringing on the toughest and most courageous fighters with the know-how and credibility to crush the deep state,” Russ Vought, who heads the Center for Renewing America (CRA), told Axios. The organization’s mission is to “renew a consensus of America as a nation under God with unique interests worthy of defending.”

Other Trump-aligned organizations are involved as well, including America First Legal, a group formed by former senior adviser Steven Miller — an organization that has challenged several of Biden’s policies. The group is involved in forming a cadre of attorneys who could fill roles in a new Trump administration.

Also, American Moment, a group that recruits and trains staff for all governmental levels, says it has 700 “fully vetted” individuals who could fill roles right off the bat.

“Everyone in the federal government wants to act like they’re working in policy,” Saurabh Sharma, president of American Moment, said. “But if you’re doing policy you’re immediately hirable and fireable at will.”

“It’s going to take principled and effective leadership at the top of the presidential personnel office to import Schedule F and make sure that the next conservative President can fill the administration with people they need,” he noted.