Trump’s company could save millions if interest rates fall as he demands

Washington Post logoPresident Trump stands to save millions of dollars annually in interest on outstanding loans on his hotels and resorts if the Federal Reserve lowers rates as he has been demanding, according to public filings and financial experts.

In the five years before he became president, Trump borrowed more than $360 million via four loans from Deutsche Bank for his hotels in Washington, D.C., and Chicago, as well his 643-room Doral golf resort in South Florida.

The payments on all four properties vary with interest rate changes, according to Trump’s official financial disclosures. That means he has already benefited from falling interest rates that were spurred in part by a cut the Federal Reserve announced in July, the first in more than a decade — and his payments could drop by millions of dollars more annually if the central bank grants Trump’s wish and further lowers short-term rates, experts said.

View the complete August 24 article by Jonathan O’Connell, David A. Fahrenthold and Heather Long on The Washington Post website here.

Manhattan DA Subpoenas Trump Org Over Hush Money Payments to Stormy Daniels

NEW YORK — Just weeks after federal prosecutors revealed they were through investigating hush money paid to protect President Donald Trump from allegations of adultery, the probe has been picked back up by state prosecutors in New York City.

The president’s family business, the Trump Organization, received a subpoena Thursday from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., according to an attorney for the company.

“This is a political hit job,” said the lawyer, Marc L. Mukasey, in an email. “It’s just harassment of the President, his family, and his business, using subpoenas and leaks as weapons. We will respond as appropriate.”

View the complete August 1 article from the Associated Press on The Time Magazine website here.

Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein partied together. Then an oceanfront Palm Beach mansion came between them.

Washington Post logoFor the better part of two decades starting in the late 1980s, Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump swam in the same social pool. They were neighbors in Florida. They jetted from LaGuardia to Palm Beach together. They partied at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club and dined at Epstein’s Manhattan mansion.

And then, in 2004, they were suddenly rivals, each angling to snag a choice Palm Beach property, an oceanfront manse called Maison de l’Amitie — the House of Friendship — that was being sold out of bankruptcy.

Before the auction, Epstein and Trump each tried to work the ref; the trustee in the case, Joseph Luzinski, recalls being lobbied by both camps.

View the complete July 31 article by Beth Reinhard, Rosalind S. Helderman and Marc Fisher on The Washington Post website here.

Mueller Hits Trump Hard For Encouraging Wikileaks’ ‘Illegal Activities’

Special counsel Robert Mueller had harsh words about Trump’s exuberant praise of WikiLeaks, the organization that illegally released emails from the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign. During a Wednesday hearing with the House Intelligence Committee, Mueller called Trump’s actions “problematic.”

Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) noted during the hearing that Mike Pompeo, when he was director of the CIA, had assessed WikiLeaks as “a hostile intelligence service.” Mueller agreed with that view.

Quigley then read numerous statements by Trump, who frequently praised the outlet during the 2016 campaign.

View the complete July 24 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.

Ex-Trump Voter Fraud Commissioner Settles Lawsuit Over ‘Alien Invasion’ Reports

A former Trump voter fraud commissioner will apologize to citizens he wrongly described as noncitizens in reports claiming mass voter fraud in Virginia, according to a tentative settlement agreement reached this week in a lawsuit brought against the commissioner.

J. Christian Adams and his group the Public Interest Legal Foundation were sued last year over the “Aliens Invasion” reports they released in 2016 and 2017. The reports — which included names, phone numbers, addresses and social security numbers of individuals removed from voter rolls allegedly because they were noncitizens — amounted to defamation and voter intimidation, the lawsuit alleged.

Under the terms of the freshly announced agreement, PILF will have to remove from its website the report exhibits containing the individuals’ personal information, according to a press release Wednesday from the groups that brought the suit.

View the complete July 17 article by Tierney Sneed on the Talking Points Memo website here.

Newly revealed video shows Trump and Jeffrey Epstein ogling cheerleaders at Mar-a-Lago party

AlterNet logoNewly revealed video recorded in 1992 shows Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein ogling NFL cheerleaders at a party held at the future president’s Mar-a-Lago club.

The video recorded by NBC and broadcast Wednesday by MSNBC shows Trump, then a celebrity businessman, dancing with dozens of cheerleaders for the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins, and then greeting Epstein and two other men.

Trump and the accused pedophile Epstein are then seen pointing toward various women and commenting on their looks, although it’s not always clear what they’re saying.

Trump and the accused pedophile Epstein are then seen pointing toward various women and commenting on their looks, although it’s not always clear what they’re saying.

View the complete July 17 article by travis Gettys from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

The Memo: Toxic 2020 is unavoidable conclusion from Trump tweets

The Hill logoThe 2020 election will likely be the most toxic in living memory.

That’s the unavoidable conclusion after President Trump on Monday defended his tweets the previous day in which he urged four nonwhite congresswomen to “go back” to where they came from.

All four are American citizens, and all bar one was born in the United States.

Some Republicans backed away from Trump in the resulting firestorm, but most stood by him.

View the complete July 16 article by Niall Stanage on The Hill website here.

Donald Trump Continues To Show He’s Racist

The president’s tweet targeting congresswomen of color is just the latest in a long list of examples.

Donald Trump has added to his long list of racist rhetoric and actions.

On July 14, the U.S. president tweeted a racist rant, clearly aimed at four Democratic lawmakers, all women of color ― Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) ― saying they should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

All four are American, and only Omar was born outside the U.S.

Trump then doubled down on his remarks the next day, telling reporters at an event at the White House that he believes the congresswomen “hate our country.”

View the complete July 15 article by Lydia O’Connor and Daniel Marans on the Huffington Post website here.

Alex Acosta resigns as labor secretary, the latest Trump official to leave amid scandal

Washington Post logoLabor Secretary Alex Acosta’s resignation Friday amid the mushrooming Jeffrey Epstein investigation made him the latest in a growing list of President Trump’s Cabinet members to depart under a cloud of scandal, plunging an administration that has struggled with record turnover into further upheaval.

Trump announced the departure in a morning appearance with Acosta on the South Lawn of the White House, telling reporters that his labor secretary had chosen to step down a day after defending himself in a contentious news conference over his role as a U.S. attorney a decade ago in a deal with Epstein that allowed the financier to plead guilty to lesser offenses in a sex-crimes case involving underage girls.

The president expressed regret over Acosta’s decision, calling him a “great labor secretary” and saying he had reassured the secretary that “you don’t have to do this.”

View the complete July 12 article by David Nakamura, John Wagner, Ashley Parker and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

Trump kisses a campaign aide on video. His lawyers say it clears him; hers say it’s proof.

Washington Post logoAttorneys for Donald Trump say the video of the president embracing then-campaign staffer Alva Johnson in 2016 refutes her allegations that Trump forcibly kissed her without consent. Johnson’s attorneys say that, if nothing else, the footage proves her claims were truthful.

Far from providing clarity, the 15-second video released Wednesday by Charles Harder, an attorney for Trump, only led to conflicting interpretations.

In a February lawsuit and interview with The Washington Post, Johnson alleged the president grabbed her hand and leaned in for a kiss before a Florida rally on Aug. 24, 2016. She turned her head, which caused Trump to kiss the side of her mouth, she said, claiming she was humiliated.

View the complete July 11 article by Michael Brice-Saddler on The Washington Post website here.