We tend to forget but prior to candidate Donald J. Trump, in 2015, it was very rare to see presidential rallies with more than a few thousand attendees.

Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders each had sporadic big venue rallies at mostly schools and universities where attendance would top 10,000; however, no one consistently has rallies anywhere near the scale of Trump rallies.

According to the Greenville News, citing the police chief in South Carolina today, over 50,000 people showed up to support President Donald Trump in Pickens.  That is a massive crowd of people traveling to one town venue.

[Greenville News] – […] Pickens Police Chief Randall Beach estimated a crowd of 50,000 showed up on a day when afternoon temperatures soared into the mid-90s, causing dozens of people suffer from heat-related illness. … “No way it was less than 50,000,” Beach said. (link)

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New analysis of the long-term impact from Section 301 tariffs triggered by President Trump against China, shows just how consequential economic nationalism can become.

Our own analysis of U.S. consumer prices in 2019 showed that prices of imported goods actually declined despite the tariffs. A recent report from CPA takes a look at the impact to Chinese exports to the U.S.  [SEE DATA HERE] Bottom line, the tariffs worked to reduce Chinese imports.

CPA – […] Since the Section 301 tariffs were imposed, the share of imports from China has steadily declined from 21.6% in 2017 the year prior to the tariffs to 16.5%, a decline of 5.1%. No other country has lost as much share of total U.S. import penetration over the past five years.

In terms of total import value, Mexico gained the most from the tariffs, adding $110.8 billion. Vietnam gained the second most in import value by $78.4 billion and by far gained the most of total share of U.S. imports. In 2017, Vietnam accounted for about 2% of U.S. imports at $46.5 billion. In 2022, the U.S. imported $127.5 billion in goods from Vietnam, and the share of the total nearly doubled to 3.9%. Other countries in Southeast Asia such as Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia all saw significant increases in their value of imports by the U.S. (read more)

With the leading opponent to President Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, not supporting tariffs on behalf of the multinationals and Club for Growth donors who stand behind him, it’s worth revisiting the actual outcome to American consumers to dispel the popular myths about tariffs raising prices here at home.

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Today President Donald J. Trump heads to Pickens, South Carolina for a MAGA/Save America Rally.  Anticipated start time 1:00pm ET. Livestream links ongoing.

RSBN Livestream Link – Donald Trump Campaign Livestream – Alternate Livestream

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The details are starting to surface, but something is still sketchy.  According to required state financial disclosure filings, Ron DeSantis is reporting an additional $1.25 million in income from Rupert Murdoch’s publishing house Harper Collins.

However, given the fact that Megyn Kelly was paid $10 million by Rupert Murdoch for her 2016 effort to remove Donald Trump, the $1.25 million being reported by Ron DeSantis doesn’t fit. [Unless there are going to be a series of payments.] Additionally, according to the Florida financial disclosure rules, this income report is for last year, 2022. “the financial disclosure is due July 1 of each year for the preceding calendar year.” (link)

(Via Politico) – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took home $1.25 million from his publisher for writing a book he released in February, according to a state financial disclosure filed Friday.

The book money is the first additional stream of income beyond his government salary that DeSantis has reported since he won election to lead Florida in 2018. (read more)

By now everyone is well aware how books are used as laundering and payment mechanisms for politicians, media influencers and people in positions of power. The entire book deal dynamic in politics is just another way to skirt campaign finance and laws on limits for contributions.

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After a legal debate about standing in the case of Biden v Nebraska, the Supreme Court took up the issue of whether the President could unilaterally forgive student debt without an act of Congress.  In a 6-3 ruling {pdf here}, the court determined the executive authority of the Dept of Education did not permit such action.

Joe Biden campaigned in 2020 on a promise to eliminate student debt unilaterally, without congressional approval.  The court opinion released today affirms that Congress must be involved in their role as decision-makers of federal spending.  Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion.

[SCOTUS BLOG] – […] When the Biden administration announced the program in August 2022, student-loan repayments had already been on hold for over two years. Betsy DeVos, who served as the secretary of education during the Trump administration, suspended both repayments and the accrual of interest on federal student loans at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. She relied on the HEROES Act, a law passed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks that gives the secretary of education the power to respond to a national emergency by “waiv[ing] or modify[ing] any statutory or regulatory provision” governing the student-loan programs so that borrowers are not worse off financially because of the emergency.

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Today at 4:15pm ET President Donald Trump will be delivering the keynote address at the Mom’s For Liberty event. {Direct Rumble Link}  Livestream Below

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As if on cue, here comes another billionaire group by well-established political control agents in yet another multimillion effort to block President Trump.   This time it’s Koch and his Americans for Prosperity network.

The Koch groups are planning to spend $70 million in their effort to eliminate the support of Donald Trump in 2024.

However, what will be interesting will be to watch how the downstream media networks attack Trump in order to get a piece of the spending allotment.  That’s where knowing where the Koch money flows comes in handy.

First the article:

(New York Times) – The political network established by the conservative industrialists Charles and David Koch has raised more than $70 million for political races as it looks to help Republicans move past Donald J. Trump, according to an official with the group.

With some of this large sum to start, the network, Americans for Prosperity Action, plans to throw its weight into the G.O.P. presidential nominating contest for the first time in its nearly 20-year history. The network spent nearly $500 million supporting Republican candidates and conservative policies in the 2020 election cycle alone.

Two groups closely affiliated with Charles Koch contributed $50 million of the more than $70 million that has been raised. Mr. Koch is a major shareholder in Koch Industries, which contributed $25 million to Americans for Prosperity Action, according to a preliminary draft of Federal Election Commission filings. Another $25 million was donated by Stand Together, a nonprofit he founded.

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I’m not going to say I toldyaso; I’m just smiling.

After a full media cycle of apoplexy and pearl-clutching, which included Andrew Weissmann appearing on MSNBC to declare “It’s the end of Trump,” CBS is now reporting there is no Defense Department memo about attacking Iran – the foundation of the media claims surrounding the leaked audio tapes from Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Worse still, and exactly as CTH previously outlined, despite the claims by CNN about how this audio would be used as the “central element” by the prosecution of Trump, the audio and mysterious memo are not part of the Special Counsel case.

So, why was the transcript of the audio recording used by Jack Smith in the indictment if the audio and nonexistent memo were never going to be used?  Because it’s Lawfare, that’s why.  Everything, yes including the specific language being deployed (ie “documents containing classification markings“), is hype for public consumption.

(Via CBS) – The Defense Department memo on Iran — at the heart of the now-public audio recording that captured a July 2021 meeting with former President Donald Trump — is not part of the 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information charged in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of the former president, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News. 

[…] The document and recording are described in the indictment Smith’s team secured against Trump earlier this month, recounted as an alleged meeting with “a writer, a publisher, and two members of” Trump’s staff, “none of whom possessed a security clearance.”  But according to a source familiar with the matter, Trump was not charged with unlawfully holding onto the Iran-related document discussed in the recording.

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This stuff is really so silly, and lawfare is so entirely predictable, it is difficult for me to remain serious when discussing it.  This is also why serious litigation expert Eric Dublier was so funny in his Concord case briefings against the DOJ and their insufferable Lawfare efforts.

CNN gets a leak of audio from Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, presumably presenting audio of President Trump talking in Bedminster, New Jersey, about the background of Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley lying about Trump wanting to invade Iran. [VIDEO HERE] Essentially, Trump refutes Milley and has papers to back up his side of the story.

CNN claims this audio will be the “Central Focus” of the case against President Trump that eventually “all jurors in the case will hear.” At this point, my laughter is almost unbearable for a multitude of reasons.  Remember, this is a Lawfare operation, which is constructed for one primary purpose, influencing the public.

Putting aside the fact that CNN, and the entire media apparatus already reporting on this nonsense before and putting aside the ridiculous nature of the top-line claims, the audio proves nothing.  It is the sound of President Trump talking about presidential papers that are claimed by the DOJ to be “classified” or “secret.”  Except, beyond the absurdity, there’s a problem that explains why Jack Smith gave CNN the audio.

Despite the grand pontifications and breathless pearl-clutching by the CNN narrative engineers, the audio will NEVER be used at trial – if there is even a trial – which is highly unlikely, because it cannot be admitted into evidence. That’s why Jack Smith gave it to them.  The audio is useless, except for the value in promoting the lawfare narrative engineering effort.

Why?  Because the documents that are claimed to be heard in the audio are nowhere to be found.  That’s right, the DOJ and FBI never found any “classified” or “super-secret” documents as described in the audio.  As a result, the audio represents nothing, a literal nothingburger, because without the documents the audio is inadmissible.

You cannot submit evidence in court of a person talking about documents without the documents the audio is supposedly talking about.  Can you see the issue now?  As a result, the audio is nothing more than President Trump talking about something the prosecution cannot identify or prove.  It’s inadmissible, hence no value, hence the leak.

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I will say it until people understand.  Lawfare is a specially constructed approach to weaponize the judiciary to create narratives for public consumption; it is the abnormal and twisted application of granular legal language, and as a result it requires oddball motions to support it.

The DOJ previously filed a motion for “Special Conditions of Release” to restrict President Trump’s defense from knowing or discussing the super-secret evidence and witnesses the special prosecutor plans to use against him.  The motion was essentially that if President Trump refused the super special terms and conditions of the motion, then Judge Cannon should put him in leg irons in federal prison until he can be tried and convicted.

The special counsel wants everything kept under seal, quiet and invisible to the public so the omnipotent arbiters of justice can appropriately shape the narrative they prefer.

The Jack Smith team cannot have President Trump being all uncontrolled, willy-nilly and making fun of their case, while talking about his targeting in such a manner as their super-secret witnesses would be exposed to such duplicitous snark and horrible influence.

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