WEST PALM BEACH (Gateway Pundit) — President Trump is preparing to restart MAGA rallies as early as next month.
Trump will also announce if he is running for president again after the 2022 midterm elections.
“Recently, Trump has initiated discussions about resuming the signature MAGA rallies that fortified his nascent political movement in 2016 and continued throughout his presidency. While he has vowed to travel to Alaska to campaign against Murkowski and is said to be interested in hosting campaign events for some of the candidates he’s already endorsed, aides said the logistics are still being worked out but that he could resume rallies as early as May.” – CNN reported.
“It will definitely be different in terms of the setup, but we got really good at planning these events in 2020, so we will probably use a lot of those same vendors again,” said the person close to Trump’s post-White House operation.
Donald Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity last Monday evening that he is very seriously considering a 2024 presidential bid.
“Are you running again in 2024? Hannity asked Trump during an exclusive, sit-down interview.
“I am looking at it very seriously, beyond seriously,” Trump said as he bashed Joe Biden and the Democrat party.
WASHINGTON (The Hill) — The top Republican candidates hoping to win back control of the Senate have embraced former President Trump as a kind of running mate in the first weeks of their campaigns, a recognition that the ousted president is still the party’s best fundraiser and most recognizable figure even from exile in Florida.
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), who has Trump’s endorsement in the race to replace retiring Sen. Richard Shelby (R), mentioned the former president seven times in a press release announcing his candidacy. His leading rival, former Ambassador Lynda Blanchard (R), recently held a fundraiser at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
In Missouri, former Gov. Eric Greitens (R) promised to defend Trump’s “America first policies” less than a minute into an interview on Fox News in which he announced he would run to replace retiring Sen. Roy Blunt (R). Attorney General Eric Schmitt (R) mentioned Trump twice in his own announcement video.
“We need to promote President Trump’s America first policies. That’s what’s going to help to bring that kind of broad-based prosperity back,” Greitens told Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo last month.
“President Trump built the strongest economy our country has ever seen, and I am going to fight to bring it back,” Schmitt said in his announcement video.
In Ohio, a state Trump carried by 8 points, the former president is the star of the show. Former Treasurer Josh Mandel (R) mentioned Trump a dozen times in a press release announcing his campaign to replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R). Businessman Bernie Moreno (R) cited Trump four times in his own announcement, and businessman Mike Gibbons (R) praised Trump twice.
“Josh Mandel was proud to be the first statewide elected official in Ohio to support President Trump in 2016 when others were supporting John Kasich. After seeing the second sham impeachment take place this February, Josh was motivated to run for the U.S. Senate to continue to fight for President Trump’s America First agenda,” said Scott Guthrie, Mandel’s campaign manager. “Ohioans overwhelmingly elected President Trump because his policies created unprecedented economic success, kept our borders secure and America safe. When Josh gets to the U.S. Senate, he will fight tooth and nail to keep advancing President Trump’s agenda.”
Former Ohio Republican Party Chair Jane Timken (R) reversed herself last month and called on Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R), one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in January, to resign.
“President Trump is the most popular Republican in America and his agenda worked for Ohioans,” Timken said in a statement. “I’ve championed those America First policies over for the past four years as his hand-picked Party Chair, and it’s what I will stand up for in the U.S. Senate because it’s what is best for Ohio.”
Trump is so ever-present in Republican campaigns that his absence is notable in itself.
Pennsylvania real estate developer Jeff Bartos (R), who has not aligned himself closely with Trump, has mentioned the former president only once on Twitter, praising his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, and only once on his website, citing Trump as the candidate who fought for overlooked voters.
The only time former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) mentions Trump’s name on his website is in support of a border wall Trump pledged to build while in office.
Republican strategists working for some of the leading candidates say their clients have two goals in leaning so heavily on an ousted incumbent. First, Trump remains the singular focus of the Republican primary electorate that will decide which contenders make it through crowded primary elections.
“The fever will break eventually, but right now we are in a time when the key qualification to win a primary is whether the candidate supported President Trump,” said one Republican strategist involved in several key races, who asked for anonymity to be candid about his client’s strategy.
Second, Trump remains the best fundraiser within the Republican Party. Several strategists said the average email solicitation with Trump’s signature raises much more than an email without his name.
“Low-dollar fundraising is driven by the organic DNA of the recipient’s original donation. Donors are much more likely to give to an appeal that mirrors the original appeal that they answered. The thing that made them get off their couch and off the sidelines and into the game as a donor is what’s most likely to motivate them subsequently,” said another party strategist involved in other key campaigns.
The original motivator for Republican low-dollar donors remains Trump himself, the Republican candidate who raised more money through small-dollar solicitations than any other candidate in party history.
Trump has sought to maintain his leverage over the GOP, dropping in on fundraisers for candidates who spend money to hobnob with donors at his Florida resort and endorsing those he deems as sufficiently supportive. Trump has so far endorsed eight U.S. Senators facing reelection next year, along with Brooks in Alabama and two candidates running for Congress.
The fealty to Trump, observers say, is a sign of his hold on core Republican voters — even if some of his support may be slipping. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday found 44 percent of GOP voters said they considered themselves more a supporter of Trump than of the Republican Party, a tremendous amount of loyalty to one man but one that has slipped significantly, by 10 points, since just before the 2020 election.
“That’s what counts, especially when party base voters are likely base voters,” said Michael Bitzer, a political scientist at Catawba College in North Carolina. “Will a full-throated support for the former president be the determining factor over the next year’s primary battle? Yet to be seen.”
WASHINGTON– President Donald Trump is set to resume rallies for his 2020 presidential campaign, campaign manager Brad Parscale announced Tuesday.
“Americans are ready to get back to action and so is President Trump,” Parscale said in a statement. “The great American comeback is real and the rallies will be tremendous. You’ll again see the kind of crowds and enthusiasm that sleepy Joe Biden can only dream of.”
For weeks the president has hinted that he was itching to get back on the campaign trail. “We got to get back to the rallies,” Mr. Trump told reporters in May. “I think it’s going to be sooner rather than later.”
With the election less than five months away, there’s a growing sense of urgency within the Trump campaign to again connect with American crowds, particularly since he has not been able to do so since March when all rallies were called to a halt due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
While locations have yet to be announced, the president has stated he would prefer rallies in reopened arenas and “big, outdoor” venues, suggesting Georgia or Florida as potential locales. “I don’t wanna have a stadium where you’re supposed to have a person, then seven empty seats,” he remarked.
While Trump is likely to face backlash for resuming in-person events while the coronavirus pandemic is still active, his advisers counter that recent massive protests in metropolitan areas have made him more eager than ever to reconnect with the American people.
CHICAGO — Prosecutors in Chicago announced Tuesday that all charges against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett would be dropped, sparking outrage from city officials and social media alike.
Smollett, 36, who had told police on January 29 that he was assaulted by two masked men as they shouted racial slurs and praised president Donald Trump was later charged with falsely reporting a hate crime and staging the attack himself.
“After reviewing all of the facts and circumstances of the case, including Mr. Smollett’s volunteer service in the community and agreement to forfeit his bond to the city of Chicago, we believe this outcome is a just disposition and appropriate resolution to this case,” the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
City Mayor Rahm Emanuel at a press conference shortly after the decision was announced could hardly contain his rage.
“From top to bottom this is not on the level,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in response to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s decision to drop the charges against Smollett. “At the end of the day, it’s Mr. Smollett that committed this false claim.”
“This is a whitewash of justice,” said Emanuel. “Is there no decency in this man?”
Meanwhile, Breitbart reported Tuesday that left-wing billionaire mega-donor George Soros had donated $408,000 in 2016 to a super PAC that supported Foxx, whose office prosecuted — and dropped — the Jussie Smollett case.
“You have a person using hate crime laws that are on the books to protect people who are minorities from violence, to then turn around and use those laws to advance your career and your financial reward?” Emanuel ranted. “Where is the accountability in the system? You cannot have, because of a person’s position, one set of rules apply to them and another set of rules applying to everybody else.”
Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson too spoke out against the decision, saying the department was “blindsided” by the DA’s decision to drop all charges.
“I think this city is still owed an apology,” said Johnson. “At the end of the day it’s Mr. Smollett who committed this hoax.”
CHICAGO (AP) — A grand jury in Chicago indicted “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett on 16 felony counts related to making a false report that he was attacked by two men who shouted racial and homophobic slurs.
The Cook County grand jury indictment filed Thursday says he made a false report about an offense.
Smollett was charged on Feb. 20 with one count of disorderly conduct for filing a false police report.
Smollett told police in late January that he was physically attacked by two men in downtown Chicago while out getting food from a Subway restaurant at 2 a.m. The actor said the men shouted at him, wrapped a rope around his neck and poured an “unknown substance” on him. Police said Smollett, who is black and gay, told detectives the attackers also yelled he was in “MAGA country,” an apparent reference to President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan that some Trump critics have decried as racist and discriminatory.
After an investigation, Chicago police said Smollett recruited two men to stage the attack because he was upset with his pay on the Fox show. Smollett has denied playing a role in the attack.
Miami, Fla. (The Daily Wire) — On Mother’s Day, employees at a Cheesecake Factory in Miami, Florida, verbally attacked and made threatening gestures toward a black man who dined with his girlfriend’s family simply because he was wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat, according to multiple witnesses interviewed by The Daily Wire.
The Sunday incident allegedly began at the Cheesecake Factory located inside Dadeland Mall when 22-year-old Eugenior Joseph was seated while wearing his MAGA hat.
According to multiple witnesses and Joseph’s own account, a woman who worked at the restaurant walked up to him and started pointing at his hat, signaling for the other employees to come over.
“Her finger was literally on top of his head, we were all looking at her like ‘what is happening?'” one witness told The Daily Wire. “She was pointing at him, calling her other coworkers, telling them to look at this guy wearing a Make America Great Again hat.”
At that point, approximately a dozen or so employees approached the table and began making comments about the hat, with some saying they wanted to punch Joseph in the face. Witnesses also allege that some of the employees also referred to him as a “n**ger” in their conversations among each other.
“So then all the employees started standing there, saying things out loud, like, ‘I’m going to knock his head in so hard his hat’s going to come off,” the witness continued.
One of the employees gave Joseph intimidating looks, clenching his fists and making hand gestures that appeared to indicate that he was ready to engage in a fistfight.
“He got behind me and another coworker came by and they were staring at each other and he fist bumped him and then he started looking at me, balling his fists, smacking his fists, trying to scare me,” Joseph told The Daily Wire.
Another witness told The Daily Wire that the group of employees looked like a lynch mob and they couldn’t stand to see a black man wearing a hat that showed support for the president.
Employees at the restaurant continued to mock and intimidate Joseph after he got up to use the restroom.
“I got up and went to the restroom, my girlfriend followed me, and as we were walking back, a group of [the employees] came out from the back and they just started clapping and yelling, and just screaming things at me,” Joseph says.
Another witness verified the claims, saying that the employees in the kitchen were booing Joseph loudly as he walked by.
One of the witnesses said that the event was so traumatic and threatening that an elderly woman who was present had to take medication to calm herself down.
Multiple witnesses said that as the family exited the restaurant the manager followed them out and told them that some of the employees admitted to their actions and that one of the employees had been sent home.
As the family left the restaurant they ran into police that had been called to the scene who documented the incident in the police report but supposedly did not file any charges, according to multiple witnesses.
The Daily Wire contacted the Cheesecake Factory where the alleged incident took place and spoke to a manager who refused to answer any questions and instead recorded this reporter’s contact information and had a public relations firm representing the Cheesecake Factory reach out to this reporter. When this reporter brought up the incident and asked whether or not he could confirm that it took place in the restaurant, the manager’s tone became slightly hostile as he reiterated: “I’m going to have someone get in touch with you.”
The Daily Wire viewed multiple video clips and photos that validate the claims made by the witnesses about the number of employees appearing to stand around the table. One of the photos showed one of the men described by the witnesses as being the one who made the threatening hand gestures, making the fist bump with another employee, which was described by at least three witnesses.
Another video reviewed by The Daily Wire showed a young girl crying at the table, afraid of the hostile environment created by The Cheesecake Factory employees.
Another video showed the family leaving the restaurant and speaking to multiple law enforcement officials who arrived on scene. The video shows Joseph in a state of disbelief over what had just unfolded as other witnesses were visibly angry over the way he had been treated.
Joseph says that he has not heard from anyone at The Cheesecake Factory about what he experienced inside their restaurant.
Despite being new to politics, Joseph says that he wears the hat because he thinks Trump “is a really good president,” adding that he is disappointed that a black man can’t wear a hat to support the president without being attacked.
UPDATE: The Cheesecake Factory has responded to the allegations in this report in a statement that can be viewed here.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. jobless claims have fallen to the lowest level since 1969, according to a report published Thursday by Marketwatch (https://tinyurl.com/yd9gfxt5).
The new numbers bypassed the expectations of economists surveyed by Marketwatch and Reuters who had expected the claims to total 226,000. The actual four-week average fell by 5,000 to 220,000, states the report.
“The latest decline in weekly claims shows a tight labor market is increasingly pushing employers to hold on to existing staff amid a persistent shortage of qualified workers,” reports Bloomberg (https://tinyurl.com/y97ra5o5). “Applications for jobless benefits are well below the 300,000 tally that’s typically considered consistent with a healthy labor market.”
The Labor Department also revised the number of unemployment claims reported for the previous week, saying that it was 2,000 lower than had been erroneously reported.
The numbers prompted President Donald Trump to take to Twitter, where he praised the economy.
“Unemployment filings are at their lowest level in over 48 years. Great news for workers and JOBS, JOBS, JOBS! #MAGA,” the president tweeted (https://tinyurl.com/y8qlshns).
When running for president, Trump vowed to be the “best job creating president of all time”. Many economists say the president has not only met, but exceeded that goal.
“Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal say President Donald Trump has had generally positive effects on U.S. economic growth, hiring and the performance of the stock market during his first year in office,” Town Hall reported in January (https://tinyurl.com/yd73d5vv).”The professional forecasters also predicted 2018 would see solid growth and a continued decline in the jobless rate. One factor: the tax cuts signed into law by Mr. Trump in December, which most economists say will boost the economy for several years at least.”
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