Trumpdate (3.26.24):
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Trump's bond in the NY civil fraud case was reduced to $175M. His newly merged social media company Truth Social begins trading under DJT ticker, despite puzzling $5.4B valuation. Trump won’t say “no” to potential foreign money for bond. House GOP reps threatened AG Garland with contempt over Biden probe transcripts. RFK Jr's Nevada ballot petitions may be invalid without VP pick. As Biden tours, Trump fundraises and plays golf. Judge temporarily blocked $649M clean energy line over environmental concerns. Video shows Bolsonaro hid at Hungarian embassy amid probes. Trump's NY hush-money trial starts April 15th. Baltimore Bridge collapses after being struck by cargo ship.
1.) N.Y. appeals court reduces Trump's bond in his civil fraud case to $175 million (from 454M), a victory for the former president and gave Trump an additional 10 days to post the bond (which the former president said Monday he would pay.)
The Appeals court also halted other aspects of Justice Engoron’s judgement in Trump’s civil case, including the ones that barred Trump and his sons from running companies in New York.
2.) Former President Donald Trump’s newly merged social media company will begin trading under the stock ticker symbol DJT today.
[TS] I’ve covered this in a previous Trumpdate, but I do not understand the valuation here. Let’s go through a few more data points on Truth Social:
Per Reuters: since its launch to mid 2023, Truth Social has lost $31.6M
Only has 5 million active members as of Feb ‘24
CBS: With about 136 million shares outstanding after the merger, the new business could have a valuation of $5.4 billion, based on DWAC's current price. Trump, who will serve as chairman of Trump Media & Technology Group, will own about 58% of the company, which would value his stake at about $3.5 billion.
$1,000 per active member?
3.) Yesterday, Trump was asked (17m10s) “[inaudible] you ever accept money from a foreign government to pay the bond or a fine or….”
He notably does not say “no.”
“I think you’d be allowed to, possibly.”
[TS] This does feel like it could become a national security concern.
Unrelated but during the same conference he said: “You can’t have an election in the middle of a political season.”
[UPDATE] Earlier (prior to the above clip), Trump was asked at a different event if he would accept foreign money to pay your bond. He did not answer the question and walked away from the podium.
4.) Reps Jim Jordan (R-OH 4th) and James Comer (R-KY 1st) draft a letter to AG Merrick Garland - threatening to hold him contempt for turning over Special Counsel Robert Hur’s Biden interview transcripts (but not the audio).
5.) CBS: RFK Jr.'s ballot signatures could be invalid in Nevada without VP
With Robert F. Kennedy Jr. set to unveil his running mate on Tuesday, an unforeseen hiccup has emerged in Nevada, complicating the long-shot independent's path to gaining ballot access in the Silver State.
Kennedy's vice presidential pick comes as he needs a running mate to qualify for the ballot in multiple states. And despite the campaign's announcement earlier this month celebrating amassing 15,000 signatures in Nevada, which exceeds what's needed to get on the ballot in November, the campaign could be forced to start its signature collection from scratch in the state because it failed to name a running mate when it filed Kennedy's petition, according to documents filed by Kennedy.
Nevada's presidential candidate's guide states that independent candidate petitions must include both the presidential and vice presidential candidates' names on the petition in order to be valid, the Nevada secretary of state's office confirmed.
Documents requested from the Nevada office revealed that Kennedy only names himself on the petition, in violation of the rules and rendering the signatures collected in the state by his campaign void.
[UPDATE] RFK Jr. Responds to CBS reporting that the campaign’s NV signatures will be invalidated:
“This corrupt attempt by the Nevada Secretary of State must be enjoined by a federal judge.”
“The Kennedy campaign intends to depose the Secretary of State to find out exactly which White House or DNC official concocted this scheme,” the Campaign added in the press release.
[UPDATE 2] Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to name Nicole Shanahan, a Silicon Valley lawyer, as his running mate.
6.) AP: As Biden tours the country and visits swing states, Trump is fundraising and playing golf.
As President Joe Biden visited five cities in a multiday trip last week, former President Donald Trump was hardly seen in public, spending most of his time in South Florida.
Trump has held just a single public campaign event since he locked up the Republican presidential nomination on March 12: a rally in Ohio funded not by his campaign but by backers of a Senate candidate whom he had endorsed. The events page on his campaign website has had nothing listed.
Biden, meanwhile, has been barnstorming the country. After a trip to North Carolina on Tuesday, the Democratic president will have touched down in all of the 2024 swing states in the less than three weeks since his State of the Union address.
The differing approaches reflect the deficits each side is facing.
7.) REUTERS: US judge temporarily blocks $649 million clean-energy transmission line
A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked a land swap needed before developers can build a major clean-energy transmission line through a Mississippi River wildlife refuge, according to attorneys involved in the case.
U.S. District Judge William Conley issued a preliminary injunction suspending U.S. government approvals for the land swap during a hearing in Madison, Wisconsin, in a challenge to the nearly complete $649 million Cardinal-Hickory Creek high-voltage line brought by three environmental groups, attorneys for the groups and representatives for the project developers said.
The decision effectively blocks developers ITC Midwest and Dairyland Power Cooperative from clear-cutting a path for the line through the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge until Conley can consider the environmental groups' challenge on its merits.
[TS] This is a mistake. High level points on the $650M project:
subtract 20 acres from wildlife refuge
add 35 acres to same refuge
connect 160 renewable energy projects to grid
Jesse Jenkins (assistant professor and macro-scale energy systems engineer at Princeton University) weighs in:
The more I learn about this project, the more absurd the "environmental" opposition is! The new 345 kV line will be located alongside an EXISTING road already bisecting the Upper Mississippi Wildlife Refuge and it will ELIMINATE an pair of existing transmission corridors!
You can see in map above, there's already a road AND a pair of transmission lines cutting through the Refuge in this area. An existing 161 kV line will be moved to colocate w/the new line adjacent to the road and an old 69 kV line will be completely removed.
The existing transmission RoW seen above will be revegetated and restored. The project will reduce habitate fragmentation by cutting the number of linear routes bisecting the Refuge from 2 to 1, AND it will cut the number of transmission pylons in the Refuge in half!
Opposing this transmission line on environmental grounds appears outright villainous! Remember this line helps complete a set of key upgrades to the MISO transmission system that interconnects 162 renewable energy projects totalling 24.7 GIGAWATTS of clean capacity to the grid!
[TS] Related-ish, but a future presidential candidate should seize on an energy future/vision of “abundant, clean energy!” That vision should also include nuclear. What kind of projects / businesses could flourish in the US with an abundance of energy? Think about within your own personal life. Would you keep your dwelling at a more comfortable temperature year round? Heated floors? Cheaper transport?
8.) NYT: Video: Bolsonaro, Facing Investigations, Hid at Hungarian Embassy
Security-camera footage obtained by The Times shows that Brazil’s former president spent two nights at the Hungarian Embassy in an apparent bid for asylum.
On Feb. 8, Brazil’s federal police confiscated former President Jair Bolsonaro’s passport and arrested a pair of his former aides on accusations that they had plotted a coup after Mr. Bolsonaro lost the 2022 presidential election.
Four days later, Mr. Bolsonaro was at the entrance to the Hungarian Embassy in Brazil, waiting to be let in, according to the embassy’s security-camera footage, which was obtained by The New York Times.
The former president appeared to stay at the embassy for the next two days, the footage showed, accompanied by two security guards and waited on by the Hungarian ambassador and staff members. Mr. Bolsonaro, a target of various criminal investigations, cannot be arrested at a foreign embassy that welcomes him, because they are legally off-limits to domestic authorities.
9.) Judge Juan Merchan rejected Trump's bid to further delay the trial. Trial will start April 15th.
Merchan rules from the bench: DA is not at fault for the late production of materials, Trump suffered no prejudice, DA made good faith efforts in discovery process, and that jury selection will commence on April 15. He concludes, “See you all on the 15th.” per Lawfare’s Tyler McBrien.
10.) DAILYBEAST: Wife of Judge on Mifepristone Case Was Paid by Anti-Abortion Group.
The wife of James Ho, one of the circuit judges who banned mifepristone last year, took multiple payments from the group that brought it to court.
The fate of the abortion pill mifepristone is now before the Supreme Court, after a fifth-circuit appeals panel of three judges ruled against its distribution last summer. According to a new report, the wife of one of those judges—James Ho, a Trump appointee who previously served as the solicitor general of Texas—took at least six payments between 2018 and 2022 from the conservative legal group that brought the case to court. The Guardian reports that the payments to Allyson Ho don’t technically violate the court’s code of conduct, but experts warned they do not help with public trust in the legal system.
11.) CNN: A major bridge in Baltimore collapsed after it was hit by a cargo ship
The Francis Scott Key Bridge carries Interstate 695. There are reports of cars in the water (up to 20 individuals right now is the latest estimate).
The Coast Guard is searching for survivors. The water in Baltimore Harbor is currently about 48 degrees Fahren
heit.
Video of the collapse per CNN:
12.) The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. The U.S. abstained, allowing the measure to pass.
After the vote, Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a plan to send delegates to Washington to discuss an invasion of Rafah. Israel’s defense minister is scheduled to continue meetings with Biden administration officialstoday.