Tag Archive for: Trump

No ceasefire deal comes out of Trump-Putin talks, but here’s what they did agree on

The positions of Moscow and Washington may gradually converge to the point where World War III can be avoided, but the danger is that time is not on our side. 

President Trump’s nearly three-hour phone conversation with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Tuesday failed to produce a ceasefire in the Ukraine war, but it did produce some other areas of common ground.

Key areas of agreement to come out of Tuesday’s talks included a ceasefire on attacks aimed at the energy infrastructure of both Russia and Ukraine.

The White House announced in a read-out of the conversation:

“The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace. These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East.”

Here’s a list of points the two leaders discussed and saw eye-to-eye on:

  • They agreed to continue working toward a ceasefire in Ukraine.
  • The leaders agreed the movement toward peace will begin with a cessation of attacks on energy infrastructure.
  • The presidents agreed to start maritime ceasefire talks on the Black Sea, which will begin immediately in the Middle East.
  • Putin and Trump agreed that the future of improved relations between the US and Russia has huge upside.
  • The future of relations between the two countries includes “enormous economic deals” and geopolitical stability.
  • The leaders also discussed the need to stop proliferation of strategic weapons.
  • And, the two leaders shared the view that Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel.

The neocon warmongers in Washington, London and Paris will be not be happy with the news coming out of this highly anticipated phone conversation between Trump and Putin. They wanted to hear that Trump sold out Putin and slapped him with new sanctions while issuing an angry statement afterwards that threatened perpetual U.S.-funded war in Ukraine, including the insertion of Western troops.

But nor will the antiwar factions be totally happy, either, because apparenty the fighting will continue and the U.S., at least for now, will continue to send weapons and munitions to its Ukrainian proxy.

Trump seems to be taking a middle ground that neither ends the war quickly (something that could happen in a matter of weeks if the U.S. stopped the flow of armaments to Ukriane), while avoiding any new antagonistic moves against Russia and doing his best to forge some kind of normal relations with the world’s biggest owner of nuclear weapons. This ultimately plays in Russia’s favor, because it has the superior fighting force in Ukraine, with or without U.S. weapons in the hands of its opponent. It will just take longer and cost more lives to defeat Ukraine under the current status quo.

The deputy leader of Russia’s State Duma, Alexei Zhuravlyov, told RT that the positions of Moscow and Washington may gradually converge to the point where there is “no space” for Ukraine between them.

“We will negotiate only and exclusively with the US,” he said, referring to the ongoing talks between Putin and Trump.

In other words, the whole Ukrainian military infrastructure was created by Western globalists specifically for the purpose of destroying U.S.-Russian relations, and out of the international fallout from those disintegrating relations will come World War III, depopulation and a complete global reset. The big winner if this were to play out in accordance with Western globalists’ strategic plan, would be China. If the U.S. can pry Russia away from China, something that will take patient persistence and cannot be done overnight, the globalists will lose and the world will be a safer place. The question is, can Trump pull this off before it is too late?

Time appears to be on the globalists’ side. China and Russia are not natural allies. They were driven together by years of glolbalist policies coming out of Washington, London, Paris and Berlin. Trump will not be able to drive them apart in a few weeks. So I would say the risk of World War III breaking out on Trump’s watch is still over 50 percent. But if Kamala Harris had won, the chances would have been near 100 percent.

©2025 . All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Putin Agrees To Incremental, Temporary Ceasefire While Trump Seeks More Ties With Russia In Phone Call

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RELATED VIDEO: An update on Russia-Ukraine ceasefire prospects


Please visit Leo’s Newsletter substack.

Trump Assassin Thomas Crooks had Encrypted Messaging Accounts in Belgium, Germany, New Zealand

Trump’s shooter Pennsylvania trained at the same gun range used by DHS agents and had an encrypted messaging account in Belgium, where NATO is headquartered. Sounds completely normal.

But no media investigation or coverage. No media on the Trump assassination attempt at all. The Trump assassination story disappeared faster than Jimmy Hoffa.

Trump shooter Thomas Crooks had encrypted messaging accounts in Belgium, Germany, New Zealand

Josh Christenson, Aug. 21, 2024:

CHICAGO — Trump rally gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks used encrypted messaging accounts on various platforms located in Belgium, New Zealand and Germany, according to a member of a congressional task force investigating his assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.

Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), one of 13 lawmakers tapped to serve on the House bipartisan task force, told reporters at a Wednesday press conference at the Trump Hotel Chicago that the “overseas accounts” piqued his suspicion immediately regarding the shooter’s motives.”

“Why does a 19-year-old kid who is a health care aid need encrypted platforms not even based in the United States, but based abroad – where most terrorist organizations know it is harder for our law enforcement to get into?” asked Waltz.

“That’s a question I’ve had since day one,” the Republican panel member said, before pivoting to bash the US Secret Service and FBI for declining to release the full findings of their investigation into the July 13 shooting at a Trump rally.

Both agencies are conducting their own probes of the assassination attempt, along with the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General.

Crooks, 20, opened fire onto the main stage minutes after Trump, 78, mounted it to warm up the crowd, striking the former president in the right ear, killing rallygoer Corey Comperatore, 50, and seriously wounding two others, David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 54.

New photos from local law enforcement — who confronted but did not stop the shooter in time — show Crooks sitting on a wall and looking and at his phone moments before he climbed onto the roof of the AGR International building and took aim.

Butler officers on the ground at the rally had labeled him “suspicious” well before that.

Read more.

AUTHOR

RELATED ARTICLES:

Congressional Task Force Investigating the Trump Assassination Attempt Concludes the Killer, Thomas Crooks, Did Not Alone

Who was Trump gunman talking to online that he took extreme measures to hide?

Texts Show Trump Assassin Was on Authorities’ Radar More than 90 Minutes Before Shooting: Report

Secret Service DENIED Requests From Local Law Enforcement To Use Drones To Secure Rally

Who is The Man in The Gray Suit?

Trump Assassin FLEW DRONE Over Rally Site Hours Before Attempted Assassination

Whistleblowers: MOST of Trump’s Security Detail Working Assassination Attempt were NOT EVEN SECRET SERVICE

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Left’s Apparent Coup d’état against Trump, Version 2.0

Assassination attempt against DJT, the GOP candidate and likely next president of the United States.


Much to the Left’s chagrin, Donald Trump appears to be unstoppable.

The Dems and their allies have tried everything—impeachments, a stolen election, the Mar-a-lago raid, multiple bogus “lawfare” cases—to keep him out of the White House. Why wouldn’t they go for broke and try to kill him, as he’s clearly poised to become the 47th President of the United States?

Apparently, they did.

If so, this was their second coup d’état against him—this one coming in anticipation of his winning the 2024 election. The first was the stolen election as a result of the Color Revolution in 2020, leading up to the faux “insurrection” on January 6th that provided cover for the real insurrection: the overthrow of our government and our legitimately elected President.

As new facts emerge about the assassination attempt on Trump, the picture appears to go far beyond “mere incompetence.”

For example, we learned this from Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, a very caring person adamant about protecting…her staff:

That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof.

Placing Madame DEI Cheatle as Director of the Secret Service was tantamount to putting Inspector Clouseau—one of actor Peter Sellers great comedic triumphs—in charge of the operation. After all, Clouseau could be counted on to put the Marx brothers in key positions as counter-snipers, so instead of Cheatle’s agents guarding the rooftop from would-be assassins, they sat inside the adjacent building like fireman drinking coffee and playing cards in the fire station, while the assassin clambered up to the roof, his backpack full of ammo and a rangefinder, and his AK-15 in tow, in full view of many bystanders who kept unsuccessfully trying to alert law enforcement.

Then for the local police, we have the Keystone Cops or Three Stooges, one of whom hoists his buddy up to the roof to check things out. He takes a peek, and upon seeing the assassin—who of course points his rifle at him—he panics and promptly falls to the ground. Does he, or do Moe or Curly immediately contact Clouseau and tell him to get Trump off the stage and to safety? Not a chance. That is, either the Stooges hopelessly bungled their chance to save the day, or they did contact the Secret Service D-Team, who then fumbled the ball themselves.

This grossly unfunny comedy of errors nearly resulted in the death of former President Donald Trump.

ENTER THE PATSY

Many believe God Himself protected Trump, causing him to move his head a few millimeters out of harm’s way. Dan Bongino says Trump saved his own life. Either way, the D-team put Trump in the crosshairs and kept him there for the potential kill shot.

But even with Clouseau at the helm and the total absence of real security in the environs, nothing would have happened without one more essential ingredient: a shooter.

It’s not as if dozens of would-be assassins were waiting in the wings for such a golden opportunity. In fact, no one could have known in advance that Trump would be a sitting target from a nearby unsecured rooftop. No one, that is, who hadn’t participated in the planning and orchestration of  the assassination plot.

So how did Thomas Crooks, an unprepossessing skinny kid barely out of his teens, know that he’d have an easy time getting past all the layers of security at this particular Trump rally with its crowd of some 50,000 people?

How did he know that particular rooftop would be unsecured? How did he know he could cart a rifle across an open field—while riding his bicycle no less, that he’d conveniently stashed in his van—and lurk suspiciously by the side of the AGR building before eventually climbing onto the roof, and that no law enforcement officer would holler, “Hey son, what are doing there? Trying to climb onto that roof? Hand over that gun!” and detain or arrest him on the spot?

How did he know he could carry his AK-15 in broad daylight and position himself on the roof to take a kill shot aimed at Trump’s head with no interference?

He couldn’t know. And it’s likely he wouldn’t have dared to try unless…someone had recruited him. Someone who may have told him this would be a perfect opportunity for him to make his mark on the world, or to save “our democracy,” or some equally duplicitous lure.

Someone likely set him up. Could that someone hail from deep in the bowels of the Biden administration? As Chuck Schumer once famously said regarding Trump: “Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.”

Saturday, July 13th was arguably “way number six.”

We’ve also learned that a counter-sniper actually spotted Crooks and labeled him “suspicious” twice — the second time, he was on the rooftop!

That counter-sniper took a photo and sent it to the command center at 5:45pm, 26 minutes before Crooks fired on Trump! So now we have the smoking conspiratorial gun before the smoking AK-15.

Only this FUBAR mess-up was far from Clouseau-style good-natured bumbling—it was apparently a treasonous plot for a coup-d’état in advance of the upcoming election Donald Trump is on track to win.

As FDR once said: “In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.”

And to add insult to injury, shameful DEI Kim Cheatle predictably stonewalled Congress when called to account, reminiscent of Harvard’s DEI former president. These “equity” mediocrities apparently lack the brains to understand they’ve brought disgrace upon the institutions that hired them, as well as the integrity to step down before they’re asked to do so.

Kimberly did finally did resign—only when pushed hard— after what The Hill called her “disastrous appearance before Congress,” only to leave us with another stonewaller, Acting Director Ronald Rowe.  At least we did get the satisfaction of watching several Senators rake him over the coals. Now we need to see all those responsible fired and/or prosecuted for malfeasance, or worse.

O’BIDEN INVOLVEMENT?

As for possible advance planning, consider this:

President Biden siphoned off A-team Secret Service members to provide protection for his wife Jill, who just happened to be “campaigning” for him in Pittsburgh that very day, which led to the brilliant decision to leave Trump with the D-team (as in DEI) leftovers.

According to whistleblowers who later contacted Senator Josh Hawley, many were not even Secret Service but rather DHS agents who “were unfamiliar with the standard protocols typically used at these types of events…”.  Anyone smell a rat?

And what stunningly bad optics for Jill’s meaningless mini-event for her rapidly deteriorating husband to compete with Trump’s rally–unless the optics were about “plausible deniability” rather than campaigning. After all, Biden had to have a reason for robbing Trump of the best Secret Service detail.

Mission accomplished.

But since we know Ol’ Joe—who finally dropped out of the presidential race, no doubt over Lady MacBiden’s screaming objection—is non compos mentis, we can assume that as much as he hates Trump and the MAGA millions, he wouldn’t have been the mastermind who may have concocted such a bold and nefarious plan. That would more likely be the puppeteer manipulating the vacant Biden: Obama himself. Could he have been the key architect of the assassination attempt—the Dems’ dream come true—or at least the one to greenlight it, along with the treasonous IC’s (US Intelligence Community’s) collaboration? Cui bono? Food for thought…

FOLLOW THE MONEY, FOLLOW CNN

In terms of evidence of premeditation and planning, consider this: the day before the rally, July 12th, Austin Private Wealth company allegedly shorted some 15 million shares of Trump’s media stock. If true, some insiders would have made a double killing on July 13th—billions in profits had Trump died, as well as ridding themselves of the leader who stands in the way as they attempt to take down America. Now the company claims it was a mere bookkeeping error, off by a multiplier of 10,000. Nothing to see here—mistakes do happen.

And if Ryan Cole is correct, mainstream TV stations livestreamed the rally—which he calls an out-of-the-ordinary, very surprising choice—precisely to capture the assassination in real-time to shock and demoralize the MAGA millions. As Roger Stone also asked, rhetorically, when does CNN cover Trump rallies live? Never. How is it they were on hand for this one—dumb luck?

The coincidences and anomalies are rife, but history tells us the investigation is bound to be pro forma. The FBI, essentially investigating itself, will find what they’ve already told us: “The FBI is treating the incident as a lone-wolf attack and is investigating it as a possible case of domestic terrorism.” We’ve heard that song before.

Afterwards, we can expect the files to be classified for the next 50 years as per the JFK playbook—unless we successfully elect Donald Trump, who had damn well better clean out the three letter agencies this time ‘round—as if his life, and our nation’s sovereignty, depends on it!

©2024. Cherie Zaslawsky. All rights reserved.


Please visit Cherie Z’s Truth Be Told Substack.

‘An Absolute Miracle’: Trump’s White House Doctor Releases Medical Update After Shooting

Republican Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, Donald Trump’s White House doctor, released a medical update on the former president Saturday, one week after the former president was nearly assassinated during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Trump was grazed in the ear by a bullet just minutes into his remarks, having turned his head at a critical moment to look at a chart detailing rates of illegal immigration.

Dr. Jackson wrote that Trump is “doing well” since the shooting in a letter addressed to “concerned citizens of the United States” on X (formerly Twitter).

“I have been with President Trump since that time, and I have evaluated and treated his wound daily. He is doing well,” Jackson wrote. “As reported and witnessed by the entire world, he sustained a gunshot wound to right ear from a high-powered rifle used by the would be assassin.”

Trump still suffers “intermittent bleeding” which requires “dressing to be in place,” according to Jackson. The GOP nominee was seen wearing a white bandage over his ear since his first public appearance Monday at the Republican National Convention (RNC). Supporters of the former president have since been observed wearing similar bandages as accessories in a show of solidarity.

Jackson revealed the bullet “came less than a quarter of an inch” from entering Trump’s head, producing a “2 cm wide wound that extended down the cartilaginous surface of the ear.”

Jackson said there was “initially significant bleeding” which resulted in “marked swelling” of Trump’s “entire upper ear.”

Trump was initially treated at Butler Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania, according to the letter. Jackson said the local hospital “provided a thorough evaluation for additional injuries,” including a CT scan of the former president’s head.

Trump will undergo further medical evaluation, including “a comprehensive hearing exam, as needed.” He will also have a follow-up visit “with his primary care physician as directed by the doctors” who initially evaluated his gunshot wound, Jackson disclosed.

“In summary, former President Trump is doing well, and he is recovering as expected from the gunshot wound sustained last Saturday afternoon,” Jackson wrote. “I am extremely thankful his life was spared. It is an absolute miracle he wasn’t killed.”

Jackson revealed he is traveling with Trump for a Saturday rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The doctor said he will remain with Trump to “provide any medical assistance he needs” until returning Monday to Washington, D.C. and ultimately to his home in Amarillo, Texas.

AUTHOR

JULIANNA FRIEMAN

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: ‘I’m Supposed To Be Dead’: Donald Trump Reflects After ‘Very Surreal’ Brush With Death

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

‘You Owe President Trump Answers!’: Video Shows GOP Senators Confront Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle

Video shows Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and John Barrasso of Wyoming confront U.S. Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle Wednesday at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer subpoenaed Cheatle on Wednesday to appear in a hearing on July 22 to answer questions regarding the attempted assassination of 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on July 13 during a Pennsylvania rally.

Fox News’ Aishah Hasnie reported that the U.S. Secret Service director was in a “luxury suite” before she was spotted and confronted by Republican senators, including the 72-year-old Blackburn and Barrasso, who demanded answers before following her around the event.

Secret Service snipers spotted failed assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks on the roof 20 minutes before Trump took the stage, according to ABC News. Video shows Cheatle, who refused to resign, providing no explanation when an outraged Barrasso asked her why the former president was put in harm’s way.

Blackburn chided Cheatle for doing nothing despite knowing “an hour out” that a “potential threat” was at the rally. The Tennessee senator asked Cheatle why she allowed Trump to take the stage in the presence of a potential threat.

“I don’t think that this is the forum to have this discussion,” Cheatle said.

The senators erupted at Cheatle’s response, with one heard saying the Secret Service director “hung up” on them earlier. Cheatle said she did “not want to take away from” the RNC, to which Barrasso replied, “We can find a place to go right now.”

“Thank you very much,” Cheatle said as she began to make her exit.

“No, no, no. We’re going with you,” Barrasso shot back as he and Blackburn followed her out.

“This is exactly what you were doing today on the call — stonewalling!” Barrasso said.

“This was an assassination attempt! You owe the people answers! You owe President Trump answers!” Blackburn shouted.

On Tuesday, Cheatle told CNN in an interview that the Secret Service was “solely responsible” for security at Trump’s Pennsylvania rally.

“The buck stops with me. I am the director of the Secret Service, and I need to make sure that we are performing a review and that we are giving resources to our personnel as necessary,” Cheatle said. “It was unacceptable and it’s something that shouldn’t happen again.”

Trump was shot in the ear during his rally in Butler County. One attendee was killed and two others were injured, including one man who was put in a medically induced coma due to the severity of his wounds.

AUTHOR

JULIANNA FRIEMAN

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved

Secret Service’s Explanations For Security Failures Ahead Of Trump Assassination Attempt Aren’t Adding Up

Secret Service’s explanations for the security failures surrounding the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at a rally on Saturday aren’t adding up, according to security experts and former Secret Service agents.

Emerging details highlight what seems to be a disconnect between local officials and Secret Service, while making it more apparent that there were major oversights. Many key questions hinge on the responsibilities delegated to local police, who U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle confirmed during a Monday interview with ABC News were inside the building the shooter fired from, though nobody was stationed on the rooftop.

Cheatle explained a decision was made not to put anybody on top of the building because the “sloped” roof made it unsafe, but security experts and former Secret Service agents who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation emphasized not having someone on the roof was a “big failure” and didn’t believe Cheatle’s explanation was sufficient.

“Let’s just say the local law enforcement officers [and] the Secret Service agree that it’s just not safe to keep someone up there for a couple of hours,” former Secret Service agent Anthony Cangelosi told the DCNF. “Then the question is, well, how do we maintain its integrity otherwise? It’s not like you just throw your hands up and say ‘can’t do that.’”

Cangelosi said there is no “justifiable reason” for failing to cover the roof, suggesting they should have found solutions like putting another platform up or getting an officer on a lift.

Peter Yachmetz, retired FBI agent and principal security consultant at Yachmetz Consulting Group, pointed out that the shooter was moving around on the “unsafe” roof prior to the incident.

“The slope didn’t affect him,” Yachmetz told the DCNF.

Law enforcement reportedly spotted the shooter on the roof 30 minutes before shots were fired, WPXI reported Monday. After the incident, a witness described watching a man climbing onto the roof and trying to warn a police officer, claiming officials responded with confusion. (RELATED: Authorities Reportedly Spotted Trump’s Would-Be Assassin Nearly 30 Minutes Before He Opened Fire)

“The reality is, regardless of the spin, that particular roof should have been under constant surveillance and or posted,” former secret service agent Tim Miller told the DCNF.

“In this particular instance, we did share support for that particular site and that the Secret Service was responsible for the inner perimeter,” Cheatle told ABC News Monday during an interview. “And then we sought assistance from our local counterparts for the outer perimeter. There was local police in that building — there was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building.”

However, a local law enforcement official told The New York Times Tuesday that the local forces were in an adjacent building, not the one the shooter was firing from.

The discrepancies in their accounts only add to the uncertainties surrounding who was responsible.

CBS News reported Monday that there were three snipers stationed inside the building shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks fired from, citing a local law enforcement officer. One of the snipers saw Crooks looking through a rangefinder in the minutes before he fired and radioed command post, according to CBS News.

The Butler Township Police Department declined to confirm the report to the DCNF, stating that there is an ongoing investigation by the FBI.

Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe declined to offer additional comments Tuesday, telling the DCNF he is “backing away from media requests for comment and opinions.”

“There are too many questions being posed that I do not have first hand knowledge of and too many fingers being pointed,” he said. “I am in charge of the Deputy Sheriffs and no other law enforcement agency. My Deputies performed their duties at their assigned areas and went above and beyond after the shooting started and ended in the their actions to help people and assist police in clearing the nearby buildings.”

Slupe previously confirmed to CNN that an armed Butler Township officer encountered Crooks before he shot at Trump, but retreated down the ladder after Crooks pointed his gun at him. He told KDKA-TV there was a security failure, but noted “there is not just one entity responsible.”

“The Secret Service plays a key role in protecting, in this case, former President Trump, but they don’t act alone,” he told the outlet. “The Secret Service receives support from local police departments.”

Pennsylvania State Police, however, did confirm they had no members “inside the building or staging in it.”

“The Pennsylvania State Police provided all resources that the United States Secret Service (USSS) requested for former President Trump’s rally in Butler on Saturday, July 13th, including approximately 30 to 40 troopers to assist with securing the inside perimeter,” Pennsylvania State Police Lieutenant Adam Reed told the DCNF. “Among PSP’s duties at the rally, the Department was not responsible for securing the building or property at AGR International.”

Reed said he could not say when an officer witnessed the shooter, as it was not a state trooper who saw him.

Former secret service agent Jeffrey James explained to the DCNF that protection “works in a series of concentric circles.” Typically, there is an inner circle of secret service agents, a second circle that mixes both agents and local law enforcement, and an outer ring that is largely state and local partners.

If the agent in charge of the site told a local law enforcement officer on the outer perimeter that the building is his responsibility, then anything that happens is on the officer.

“But if that agent didn’t find one of the local law enforcement partners and give very clear, direct directions…then it’s going to be the responsibility or the fault of that agent for not delegating that,” he told the DCNF.

It’s unclear what instructions the Secret Service gave to local law enforcement.

Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger told The Washington Post Tuesday that “Secret Service was in charge” and that “it was their responsibility to make sure that the venue and the surrounding area was secure.”

“For them to blame local law enforcement is them passing the blame when they hold the blame, in my opinion,” Goldinger told The Washington Post.

However, the Secret Service released a statement on Tuesday pushing back against assertions that they were blaming local law enforcement for the tragedy that unfolded on Saturday. “Any news suggesting the Secret Service is blaming local law enforcement for Saturday’s incident is simply not true,” the statement posted to the Secret Service’s X page said.

“I am having difficulty reconciling the answer the Director gave in her ABC interview with the official statement made on social media,” Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said in a press release on Tuesday. “Our goal is to provide whatever assistance the Secret Service needs to perform their mission and to do so with mutual respect, trust, and accuracy.”

A RealClearPolitics report suggested Sunday that resources were diverted away from Trump’s rally to an event where First Lady Jill Biden was speaking. Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the United States Secret Service, denied this was the case.

Questions also remain about why Crooks was not taken out sooner. Cangelosi explained to the DCNF that counter-snipers can face challenges due to their distance from the target.

“With counter snipers, you’re usually so far away, it’s not usually clear whether an individual is an imminent threat, ” Cangelosi said. “It’s harder to discern. Once they discern whether that person is a threat to life or serious bodily injury, they can take the shot.”

Yachmetz questioned why drone coverage was not utilized.

“A drone strategically placed a few thousand feet above could have oversaw the entire venue,” he said.

“In my opinion, a detailed, in-depth very specific investigation must be conducted of all procedures [and] this entire matter by a non-biased outside investigative group (possibly of retired agents),” Yachmetz told the DCNF, emphasizing the investigation must not be “politically motivated.”

House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer announced Monday that Cheatle would testify at a committee hearing on July 22. President Joe Biden said Sunday that he directed an “independent review” of the events.

The FBI told the DCNF it has “nothing additional to provide at this time beyond previously-issued statements.” The Bureau said Monday that it gained access to Crooks’ phone and “has conducted nearly 100 interviews of law enforcement personnel, event attendees, and other witnesses.”

Trump suffered a wound to his ear, and two were killed, including Crooks and 50-year-old ex-volunteer fire chief, Corey Comperatore. Two other attendees were also wounded in the attack.

The Secret Service did not respond to a request for comment.

AUTHOR

KATELYNN RICHARDSON

Contributor. Wallace White and Owen Klinsky contributed to this report.

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


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‘We’re Gonna Win’: RNC Kicks Off With Defiance, Unity After Trump Assassination Attempt

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin – Minutes into the first delegates session of the Republican National Convention, the Fiserv Forum erupted into chants of “fight,” a nod to the message Donald Trump gave to rally-goers after dodging a bullet meant to kill him.

It was a nod that made clear that the near miss on Trump’s life just days prior was on the mind of everyone. Leaving one dead and two critically injured, the assassination attempt could have held the RNC convention back. Trump himself admitted that he considered skipping the first two days of the convention to compose himself. But instead, attendees told the Caller, the tragedy did just the opposite.

“[The mood is] energy, excitement, pissed off or fired up. And if the election were today, or next week, Trump’s gonna win and Donald J. Trump and whoever the nominee VP nominee is, we’re gonna win a landslide,” Mike McMullen, a Pennsylvania delegate who witnessed the shooting on Saturday, told the Caller.  “He’s going to win states that Republicans don’t win.”

And energetic and excited it was – multiple RNC guests approached this reporter unprovoked to quickly share their enthusiasm and love for Trump before catching someone else and spreading the word more.

Before the “fight” chants broke out, and before he officially began the first session, Republican National Committee Co-Chairman Michael Whatley asked attendees to join him in a moment of silence for the tragedy that unfolded Saturday. The Secret Service rushed a bloody Trump off the stage during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Though the bullet grazed Trump’s ear, 50-year-old Corey Comperatore was killed.

The shooting left the country reeling, but the convention is rolling on.

“Rewind a week ago, this was not the convention environment that we envisioned. But I do hope that if there is one silver lining that comes out of what happened on Saturday night, let it be that first of all, Americans got to see an American president who was brave in his most vulnerable moment… he took the hit, he took the bullet, he took the fire, felt the blood, stood up and said he was still willing to be ready and would not stop fighting for the people who actually put him there,” former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy told reporters at the Heritage Foundation’s Policy Fest. The event also began with a moment of silence for the tragedy.

A promotional video showed at the Policy Fest featured images of Trump surviving the assassination attempt, emerging from a swarm of Secret Service agents with blood on his face and raising a fist into the air. Marie Georgievski, an Ohio alternate delegate, told the Caller that among guests and delegates at the convention, attendees have been inspired and moved with a desire to support Trump.

“I thought that was an inspiring moment, regardless of what you believe. I talked to President Trump actually, that night was about 12:30am. I think he was on his way out of the hospital at the time, and his level of calm, and his level of strength in that moment, frankly, was a phone conversation that inspired me. I can only imagine, hopefully, the inspiration that offers to all Americans,” Ramaswamy continued.

The excitement, in part, could be attributed to the anticipation of Trump’s pick for vice president. Attendees speculated who Trump would choose as reports trickled in on those being ruled out.

“If it’s not Rubio or Burgum, who do you think it will be?” one attendee exclaimed.

The vice presidential pick, amid the response to the attempt to take Trump’s life, brought a sense of unity to the convention. Later, in a Truth Social post, Trump announced that he was choosing Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate.

“The party has never been so united. With a united party, President Trump will unite the nation,” New York GOP press secretary David Laska told the Caller.

“Right now everyone is buzzing about the VP. More broadly, there is palpable excitement in the air. We know we are witnessing history and we can’t wait for President Trump to take the stage,” he added.

Following the attack on Trump, President Joe Biden spoke three times, even giving an Oval Office address in an attempt to urge Americans to tone down divisive political rhetoric. The 81-year-old was briefed several times on the shooting and later moved to boost Secret Service protection for Trump, himself and Vice President Kamala Harris.

The seriousness of the attack has not been lost on convention attendees, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told the Caller.

“I think the mood is more serious. There’s a seriousness of what this election means, but also how fragile life is and the damage could be done if somebody just raises the rhetoric,” McCarthy said.

“Think about how close, but just in a slight finger nail, President Trump wouldn’t be alive today, and what would that do to the entire nation? I think it’s the responsibility of all Americans to take a deep breath, lower the rhetoric, there’s enough contrast in policies between these two men running for president. Let’s debate that,” he continued.

“I think there’s a sense of relief, but also determination,” Wisconsin GOP communications director Matt Fisher told the Caller.

McMullen, just feet from the stage where Trump got shot on Saturday, could’ve stayed home after what he witnessed. He could’ve understandably decided to skip the convention, out of fear that something like what happened on Saturday could happen again.

But he was far from deterred.

“As crazy as it sounds I mean, I’m not saying he’s crazy, but he gets up and does a fist pump and gives a thumbs up. Who the hell does that?” he told the Caller.

“That just shows the plight and the resolve of Donald J. Trump. Donald J. Trump is going to win Pennsylvania,” McMullen continued. “And as you know, Pennsylvania is the Keystone State. We win Pennsylvania, we win it all.”

AUTHOR

REAGAN REESE

White House correspondent. Follow Reagan on Twitter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

‘I’m Supposed To Be Dead’: Donald Trump Reflects After ‘Very Surreal’ Brush With Death

Presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump reflected Sunday on his “very surreal experience” being shot during a Saturday campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Trump was the target of an assassination attempt, during which he was grazed in the ear. Trump, reportedly wearing a large white bandage over his right ear remarked to the New York Post he was “supposed to be dead” in one of the first interviews since the near-death experience.

“The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle,” Trump said, the New York Post reported.

“I’m not supposed to be here. I’m supposed to be dead,” the former president continued. “I’m supposed to be dead.”

Trump explained to the outlet his life was spared because he turned his head just in time to read a chart about illegal immigrants. Instead, a small part of his ear was reportedly blown off, leaving blood on his forehead and cheek.

Seconds after being shot, Trump asked United States Secret Service agents protecting his body to let him get his shoes. Trump told the New York Post that Secret Service “hit” him “so hard” that his “tight” shoes fell off. The Republican candidate praised the agents for neutralizing the attempted assassin, who shot at Trump from atop a nearby building.

“They took him out with one shot right between the eyes,” Trump told the outlet, pointing to bridge of his nose.

“They did a fantastic job,” he added. “It’s surreal for all of us.”

The gunman was identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, according to the FBI. The 20-year-old would-be assassin was a resident of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania — located roughly 35 miles south of the rally.

An AR-15 semiautomatic rifle was recovered from the scene beside the suspects body, two law enforcement officials told The New York Times. The gun was reportedly purchased by Crooks’s father and explosive devices were found in a vehicle driven by the suspect, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Trump also claimed his doctor at Butler Memorial Hospital never saw someone survive getting struck by an AR-15, the outlet reported.

“By luck or by God — many people are saying it’s by God I’m still here,” Trump said to the outlet.

Trump claimed he wanted to continue speaking despite being shot.

The former president also addressed the photo of himself raising his fist and shouting “Fight!” in front of an American flag, saying “usually you have to die to have an iconic picture.”

As Trump sat for the interview, he reportedly watched footage of the assassination attempt for the first time.

Former Buffalo volunteer firefighter Corey Comperatore died as he used his body to shield his family from gunfire at the rally, according to a Facebook post by his family. Trump has thought about attending Comperatore’s funeral, the New York Post reported.

Trump thanked his crowd of 55,000 supporters for remaining calm, noting that shootings at large events often cause chaos and stampedes.

“A lot of places, especially soccer games, you hear a single shot, everybody runs. Here there were many shots and they stayed,” Trump told the outlet.

Trump said he “threw away” his prepared policy-based speech for the Republican National Convention after being shot, the Washington Examiner first reported. The presumptive GOP nominee explained he changed his planned remarks because he wants to “unite our country.”

President Joe Biden called Trump on Saturday evening after the assassination attempt, which the Republican candidate said was “fine” and “very nice.” Trump also claimed that “we hear” Biden will order the Department of Justice to drop its two prosecutions against him; however, there are not yet any public signs of that, the New York Post reported.

First lady Jill Biden also called Melania Trump, NBC News reported Sunday, citing White House officials.

The Republican National Convention begins Monday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. President Trump departed his Bedminster, New Jersey club for Milwaukee as scheduled Sunday afternoon.

AUTHOR

JULIANNA FRIEMAN

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

EXCLUSIVE: ‘You Can’t Stop Him’: Trump World Reacts To Assassination Attempt On Former President

Trump world immediately reacted in statements to The Daily Caller to the apparent assassination attempt on the former president during a Saturday rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

With blood on his face, Donald Trump was rushed off the rally stage by United States Secret Service after what appeared to be multiple rounds of gunfire heard among the noise of the crowd. Trump allies told The Daily Caller the attack on the former president was “practically inevitable,” condemning the attack as “sickening” and “disgusting.”

“Obviously, we don’t know anything about the shooter yet, but they’ve tried everything at this point to get rid of [Trump]. I don’t think anyone is surprised by this at all, and to watch Donald Trump get shot at, stand up, fist pump in the air, shows you this guy is an effing gangster,” former Trump administration deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told The Daily Caller.

“He’s not going to quit. You can’t stop him. He loves this country and he wants to help every American. This is one of the most egregious, disgusting, dangerous moments in our nation’s history,” Gidley told the Caller.

As the Secret Service surrounded the bloodied president, grabbing his neck as sounds of gunfire rang out, Trump raised a fist into the air to signal to his supporters he was okay.

In the aftermath, the suspected gunman was dead and at least one rally attendee was killed, Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger told The Associated Press (AP).

“This assassination attempt follows years of escalating end-of-the-world, cataclysmic rhetoric by nearly every Democrat in this country,” Tim Murtaugh, 2020 communications director for the Trump campaign, told the Caller. “It was practically inevitable that someone would take a shot at Trump because the left has dedicated significant amounts of energy to winding up the radical fringe to viscerally hate him. There is no doubt in my mind that they contributed heavily to what happened today.”

The Trump campaign responded to the attack saying the former president is “fine” and thanking first responders for their action. Trump was reportedly taken to a local medical facility for evaluation.

“Just yesterday, Joe Biden put a post on X with just four words: ‘We must stop him.’ One day later, someone apparently has tried to follow that directive,” Murtaugh told the Caller.

President Joe Biden reportedly indicated he had not heard of the incident as he was leaving church Saturday in Delaware. The White House released a statement nearly two hours after the attack on the former president. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were briefed on the shooting attempt.

“I’m grateful to hear that he’s safe and doing well. I’m praying for him and his family and for all those who were at the rally, as we await further information. Jill and I are grateful to the Secret Service for getting him to safety. There’s no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it,” the president said in a statement.

Biden is now planning on delivering unscheduled remarks on the apparent assassination attempt.

“There are no words to describe the feelings that millions of Americans and I are feeling. To think President Donald J. Trump was inches away from being assassinated by a deranged Leftist is sickening and speaks to the threat Trump poses to his opponents. We must practically inevitable thank God for His grace over Trump’s life and the law enforcement heroes who acted as a human shield,” Harrison Fields, a surrogate with Black Americans for Trump and former White House communications staffer, told the Caller.

“President Trump, with blood dripping down his face, told us all to ‘fight, fight, fight’ and we will do that,” Fields told the Caller.

AUTHOR

REAGAN REESE

White House correspondent.

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RELATED VIDEO: TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Sorry RINOs: GOP’s new platform is pure Trump!

In the midst of our almost daily dose of bad news, it’s heartening when some sunshine breaks through the dark clouds. Leave it to Wayne Allyn Root to broadcast the good news!

In his recent commentary, Wayne points out that Trump just trumped both the Country Club Republicans, (a.k.a. Republicans in Name Only/RINOs) and the Dems, by coming up with such a solid, common sense platform that rivals or surpasses Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America.”

The platform includes a combination of goals that Trump accomplished during his term in office, such as making the U.S. energy independent again (Drill baby, drill!), and cutting inflation (arguably more difficult to achieve this time ‘round due to O’Biden’s profligate spending), cutting taxes, securing the border, and more.

Some important new planks:

  • Deport tens of millions of these foreign invaders, rapists, murderers, terrorists and welfare addicts out of America.
  • Kill regulations strangling our economy— like electric car mandates.
  • Cut federal funding for any school, college or institution that brainwashes students with CRT, DEI, and transgender ideology.
  • Secure our elections with Voter ID and proof of citizenship.
  • Deport pro-Hamas protestors on college campuses who preach violence, hate Jews, and chant “death to America.”

Wayne dares the Dems to argue against the 20 Planks in this Platform:

“Please say loudly and proudly that you support open borders, keeping illegal invader criminals in the country, more massive spending and debt, higher inflation, raising energy prices, letting violent criminals out of prison, protecting pro-Hamas protestors, and starting WW3.” Etc.

More good news: Trump is opposed to Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)! See Forbes article on this here.

And read more of Wayne’s optimistic and inspiring take on Trump and the RNC playing to win! Here’s the link.

©2024. Cherie Zaslawsky. All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: GOP Rep Introduces Legislation To Eliminate Income Taxes On Overtime Pay


Please visit Cherie Z’s Truth Be Told Substack.

What Top Education Issues Should The Presidential Candidates Address Heading Into November? Experts Weigh In

While critical topics like inflation, immigration and the economy have been a consistent flashpoint ahead of November’s presidential election, one equally important issue has been left largely untouched by candidates seeking the highest office in the land — education.

The two presidential candidates, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, were not asked a single question during a recent debate on the plethora of issues facing America’s education system, including yawning gaps in student performance on standardized tests and LGBT ideology in the classroom. Pessimism over the current state of the U.S. education system has grown in recent years, with 42% of Americans saying they’re “very dissatisfied” in 2024, up from 30% in 2015, according to a Gallup poll.

Crippling student debt and the federal government’s role in addressing it, the current administration’s bid to overhaul Title IX, the Biden Department of Justice’s (DOJ) targeting of parents who protested at school board meetings and LGBT ideology in schools are all essential issues that the presidential candidates should address, education experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“We have a real crisis in public education and education in general in America,” Tina Descovich, co-founder of Moms For Liberty, told the DCNF.

School boards have emerged as key battlegrounds in the ongoing culture war, with parents raising concerns over transgender policies, masking, Critical Race Theory and other hot-button issues.

In 2021, amid the fervor over these issues, the National School Boards Association sent a letter to the Biden administration comparing concerned parents to domestic terrorists and called for the usage of various statues, including the PATRIOT ACT, to shield school boards from supposed threats of violence.

Five days after the letter was sent, Attorney General Merrick Garland directed the FBI to “use its authority” against parents who either threaten or act violently towards public officials in a memorandum. The attorney general’s letter cited a “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.”

“The teachers unions do not care to have parents involved, even though their leaders have admitted that some of the greatest indicators of student success is having parental involvement, and so it’s important to have parents in the driver’s seat, and we wish to hear presidential candidates speak about that,” Descovich said.

America’s massive student loan crisis also wasn’t mentioned during the debate. Nearly 19 million Americans haven’t forked over a single cent to toward their student loan debt.

“I think that they should discuss the federal role in higher education, and in particular, student aid and student debt, because that is a problem that needs to be dealt with,” Neal McCloskey, director of the CATO Institute’s Center for educational freedom told the DCNF. “The reason I was surprised it didn’t come up, though, is because obviously, the Biden administration has been working very hard to cancel huge amounts of student debt.”

The Biden administration has devised multiple schemes to wipe away student loan debt, which have been struck down by the Supreme Court as well as lower courts. In 2022, the administration proposed a plan to cancel student debt for nearly 40 million Americans, canceling up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients and $10,000 for non-Pell Grant Recipients, but the Supreme Court shot down the program in a 6-3 ruling.

Shortly following the Supreme Court’s decision, the administration proposed the SAVE plan in April, which would limit student loan repayments to 5% of a borrower’s monthly income from the limit of 10%. Federal judges in Missouri and Kansas blocked parts of the administration’s plan from taking effect.

“Title IX certainly also should be discussed, because you have the federal government making a lot of rules for basically schools of different of all different levels across the board, about how they treat people and categorize people based on especially gender or sex, and how are those defined,” McCloskey told the DCNF.

The Biden administration has also sought to redefine the protections laid forth in Title IX, altering the rule to include “gender identity” and “sexual orientation.” The rule change has spurred numerous lawsuits across the land, with many plaintiffs securing significant victories in federal courts.

Several states have been victorious in their bids to block the rule change. Federal judges in Kansas, Texas, Louisiana and Kentucky all blocked the rule with supporting states on the lawsuits.

Trump-appointed U.S. District Court Judge Terry A. Doughty referred to the rewrite as an “abuse of power” and a “threat to democracy.”

“There are serious issues that the next administration will need to address — namely, the Biden administration’s attempt to rewrite Title IX to include gender identity,” Alex Nester, investigative fellow for Parents Defending Education told the DCNF in an email.

Schools’ transgender policies have also been a flashpoint in the wider education debate, with one case making its way to the Supreme Court, which it refused to hear. The case involved a challenge to a Maryland school district policy that kept information from parents about their child’s “gender identity.”

In April, Parents Defending Education filed a lawsuit against the Summit school district for allegedly using “affinity groups,” racially discriminating against parents. It was argued that the school district attempted to deter parents who were not members of certain ethnicities from participating in the affinity groups.

“The ongoing destruction of meritocracy in our education system is another issue that parents are rightly concerned about. It is vital for the next administration to refocus the Education Department’s attention to teaching kids rather than pushing political ideologies on them,” Nester told the DCNF.

The Biden and Trump campaigns did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

JENNIFER NUELLE

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Powerful Union Suddenly Courting Republicans Spent Millions On Liberal Advocacy, New Report Reveals

A massive union that’s suddenly rubbing shoulders with Republicans — including former President Donald Trump — ahead of November’s election has spent millions on left-wing advocacy, a new report shows.

Of the more than $9 million the International Brotherhood of Teamsters spent on political advocacy between 2019 and 2022, 99% went to groups linked to the Democratic Party, liberal economic think tanks and anti-Trump media operations, according to a new report from the Center for Union Facts given exclusively to the Daily Caller News Foundation. Despite the union’s strong leftward lean, the Teamsters have donated to the Republican National Committee (RNC), petitioned to speak at the party’s convention in July and even met with Trump as part of a broader effort to ingratiate themselves with conservatives.

The Teamsters, boasting 1.3 million members, represent truck drivers, government employees, pilots, construction workers, warehouse employees and those working in the public sector, as well as workers in several other sectors.

One of the biggest chunks of the Teamster’s advocacy spending, worth roughly $2.5 million, went toward “registered Democrats, Democrat Party-funded initiatives, Democratic campaigns and organizations that focus on advancing the interest of the Democratic Party,” according to the report. Recipients of union funds included The National Democratic Club, a social organization in D.C. where liberal elites meet to hobnob, failed Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams’ voting rights group, Fair Fight Action and the inaugural committee of Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

The over $2.6 million in political donations made by the Teamsters’ PAC this election cycle have also skewed heavily to the left, with the vast majority of their funds going to Democrats and Democratic-aligned PACs like the Senate Majority PAC, the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee and the Democratic Governors Association, according to Federal Election Commission records.

The Teamsters, however, made waves when they donated $45,000 to the RNC in January, marking the union’s first contribution to the committee since 2004.

Teamsters President Shaun O’Brien defended the donation, arguing that it would get his union “a seat at the table,” Reuters reported.

O’Brien has since asked for speaking slots at both the Democratic and Republican national conventions, according to the New York Times. He has also met privately with Trump and Mar-a-Lago, with people close to the former president suggesting that there may be a budding relationship between the two.

“Conservatives should be extremely skeptical of outreach from organized labor,” Capital Research Center research director Michael Watson told the DCNF. “Big philanthropy and the progressive movement sees an opportunity to try to break the conservative consensus [that is] skeptical of organized labor, certainly hostile to compulsory unionization, to strengthen progressivism’s allies in organized labor.”

While other major umbrella unions like AFL-CIO and the United Automobile Workers have backed President Joe Biden for reelection, the Teamsters have so far declined to endorse either major candidate, planning instead to make a decision sometime during the summer, Reuters reported.

The Center for Union Facts report shows that the Teamsters, however, have made contributions to nonprofits that are ardently opposed to Trump like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

The ACLU, for its part, has prepared strategies to resist Trump’s agenda on immigration and LGBT issues if he is elected president in November, building on its legacy of hostile litigation during Trump’s first term, according to its website. The NAACP, meanwhile, has called for the former president to be removed from the ballot following his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records in New York, calling his nomination “a gross advancement of white supremacist policy.”

Anti-Trump media operations, like The Rick Smith Show and The American Prospect, have also raked in cash from the Teamsters, according to the report. Left-of-center economic think tanks, like the Roosevelt Institute and the Economic Policy Institute, were also beneficiaries of the Teamster’s advocacy spending.

To compile its report, The Center for Union Facts examined reports filed by all national and local Teamster chapters with the Department of Labor and documented the various political advocacy groups the union disclosed donating to.

The Teamsters did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SCHMAD

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: Government Unions Funneled Almost $300 Million In Taxpayer-Funded Dues Into Politics Last Cycle, Report Finds

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

ACLU Unveils Plans To Obstruct Trump’s Immigration Agenda

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Thursday announced an outline of its plans to oppose former President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda if he’s elected in November.

The ACLU plans to use a combination of legal challenges, lobbying and coordination with liberal officials to obstruct Trump’s plans to reduce illegal immigration, which they characterize as both unethical and illegal, according to a memo released by the organization. During Trump’s first term, the ACLU helped to block several of the former president’s moves regarding immigration, such as his attempt to weaken the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.

“If given a second term, Donald Trump promises to decimate American communities by targeting immigrants who are already contributing members of society and blocking new immigrants from coming lawfully to the United States,” the memo states. The ACLU goes on to claim that Trump will seek mass deportations, attack birthright citizenship, try to restrict illegal immigrants from accessing public services, separate children from their families and “attack human rights at the border.”

“Litigation will be a critical component” of the ACLU’s planned response to a potential second Trump administration, according to the memo.

If Trump attempted to arrest large numbers of illegal aliens in service of mass deportations, for instance, the ACLU would take the administration to court for violating the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures due to racial profiling. Programs like those proposed by Trump “result in racial profiling, suspicionless interrogations and arrests, unjustified and pretextual traffic stops, and warrantless searches of workplaces and homes—all of which violate the Constitution,” according to the ACLU.

T

The ACLU plans to “work with coalition partners” in Congress to leverage the budget process to impede Trump’s deportation plans. Congress acting to limit Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s removal operations budget is one example the ACLU offers for using appropriations to make deporting illegal immigrants more difficult.

The ACLU will also deploy lobbyists to Congress to advocate for limiting where Customs and Border Protection agents can operate.

At the state levelthe ACLU will urge states to deny federal authorities access to law enforcement resources, encourage governors to pardon criminal illegal aliens to prevent them from being deported, lobby state legislatures to allow illegal aliens to obtain driver’s licenses and ask states to pay the legal fees of illegal immigrants facing deportation.

The ACLU joins a list of groups, including Protect Democracy, the Institution for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University and Democracy Forward in preparing strategies to obstruct a potential second Trump administration. The Biden administration appears concerned about the possibility of a second Trump term, taking measures to protect the jobs of bureaucrats amid the former president’s plans to restructure the administrative state.

Trump’s proposed border actions are relatively popular, with 51% of Americans, including 45% of Latinos, supporting the mass deportation of illegal immigrants, according to an Axios poll released in April. A May poll from Decision Desk HQ/News Nation found that 46% of voters prefer Trump to handle the border, compared to just 26% who think Biden would do a better job.

The presidential race is close, with Trump just half a point ahead of Biden as of Thursday in RealClearPolitics’ polling average. Trump has, in recent months, been leading in polls of battleground states, though some recent polls show Biden beginning to close the gap with Trump in some key states.

The ACLU is also suing Biden over his recent executive order restricting asylum claims at the border, Axios reported.

The ACLU did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SCHMAD

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Trump Campaign Rakes In $34 Million After Guilty Verdict

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign said Friday that it raised $34.8 million after he received a guilty verdict in a Manhattan court case.

After about two days of deliberation, a 12 person jury in Manhattan convicted Trump in the case brought by Democratic District Attorney Alvin Bragg on all 34 counts of falsifying business records. Following the verdict, the former president’s campaign donation page displayed a 500 error stating “something went wrong.” After the news of the site crashing and the verdict, the Trump campaign announced that it had raised $34.8 million.

“From just minutes after the sham trial verdict was announced, our digital fundraising system was overwhelmed with support, and despite temporary delays online because of the amount of traffic, President Trump raised $34.8 million dollars from small dollar donors. Not only was the amount historic, but 29.7% of yesterday’s donor’s were brand new donors to the WinRed platform,” Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, Trump campaign senior advisors, said in a statement.

Following the former president’s guilty verdict, the campaign site received major influxes in donations. Among those was Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire who donated $300,000. Former Republican New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin said that he “secured a $800k donation from someone for President Trump’s Joint Fundraising Committee.”

AUTHOR

REAGAN REESE

White House correspondent. Follow Reagan on Twitter.

RELATED ARTICLE: Daily Caller’s ‘Rigged’ Reveals Radical Steps Democrats Have Taken To Undermine Elections

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Forget ‘Never Trumpers’ — More Voters Now Say They’ll Never Vote For Biden

President Joe Biden has a new problem cropping up in polling data: more Americans now dismiss even the possibility of voting for him.

Among likely voters living in six key swing states, 51% say there’s “not really any chance” they’d vote for Biden, compared to just 46% saying the same thing about former President Donald Trump, according to a May poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena College. The trend of more voters vowing never to vote for Biden than Trump extends beyond just one poll, with three polls stretching between November 2023 and April all finding more never-Biden voters than never-Trump voters, The Washington Post reported.

The American voter’s refusal to even consider voting for Biden is a reversal of the situation during the 2020 election. when voters consistently reported that they would never vote for Trump at higher rates than they did for Biden, according to the Post.

Both candidates have seen considerable protest votes despite running in virtually uncontested primaries.

Options other than Biden have gotten significant support in a number of Democratic primaries, including in the swing states of Nevada, Michigan and North Carolina. Similarly, Nikki Haley continues to attract double-digit support in Republican presidential primaries despite having dropped out of the race months ago, CNN reported.

With the election only four months out, polling paints a dire picture for the president’s reelection prospects.

Biden had an approval rating of just 38.7% as of May 17, making him less popular at this point in his presidency than every president since Harry Truman, according to FiveThirtyEight’s running average of polls. Trump has also repeatedly polled ahead of Biden in the key battleground states that are likely to decide the election.

The New York Times poll surveyed 4,097 registered voters across Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points for likely voters.

The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SCHMAD

Contributor.

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