Joe Biden will pull no punches as he comes out of an energetic and impassioned State of the Union address. A day after the annual speech, Biden dropped an attack ad against Donald Trump. The air is set to Biden’s speech and weaves images of both Donald Trump and the KKK into segments about those trying to “divide the nation” and “drag America back into the past”. The images of Trump and the KKK are contrasted by images of Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders.
Furthermore, Biden-Trump II is the expected matchup for this year’s Presidential election. Trump’s final rival for the GOP nomination, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, withdrew after being shellacked on Super Tuesday. However, the only thing that could stand between Trump and a place on the national ballot is a conviction in any of the numerous trials he is currently facing.
Trump is yet to respond to the new ad. However, he had plenty to say about the address itself. ”That may be the Angriest, Least Compassionate, and Worst State of the Union Speech ever made. It was an Embarrassment to our Country! He wants our Country to be flooded with Migrants,” Trump ranted. Biden had taken shots at Trump over the January 6 insurrection. However, he also announced plans to bring aid to Gaza and promised to restore Roe v. Wade.
Furthermore, Trump took aim at Mark Zuckerberg. ”If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!” Trump claimed. The former President, who is currently the presumptive Republican nominee for November’s election, certainly made a choice by invoking electoral fraud. Trump is currently facing multiple legal cases surrounding his attempts to interfere with the 2020 election.
Less than a week after endorsing Nikki Haley for President, Charles Barkley has now endorsed Stephen A. Smith. “Let me tell you why [I’d vote for you]. Because I know you don’t have an evil bone in your body and I don’t think you have an agenda. That’s all I want. Even if you vote for somebody, you’re not gonna agree on every subject,” Barkley told Smith during an appearance on The Stephen A. Smith Show. Furthermore, Barkley also said he’d prefer to see the Democrats nominate California Governor Gavin Newsom instead of President Biden.
As mentioned, the moment comes after Barkley openly endorsed GOP long-shot Nikki Haley on his show with Gayle King last week. Barkley said he was putting his “whole heart” behind Haley before giving her an open platform to address her previous comments in which she stated that America was “never a racist country.” The latter decision led to a lot of backlash against both Barkley and Haley.
Barkley said he would vote for Smith as long as the ESPN personality didn’t have a “hidden agenda”. However, Smith has been getting a lot of hate for his anti-Zion Williamson agenda. The New Orleans Pelicans took shots at Stephen A. Smith after the ESPN personality went on yet another rant about team star Zion Williamson. The team’s official X account posted a graphic showing Smith’s dismal college stats of 1.5 points and 1 assist a game.
Appearing on Get Up! last week, Smith had once again gone after Williamson’s weight. “Zion Williamson, it’s not about his game. It’s about how many burgers he’s eating. Whether or not he is going to be in shape or keep eating McDonald’s and have chefs clamoring for him to come to their restaurants. That’s what he has to prove, that the chefs don’t love him any longer. That he’s committed to playing basketball and being in shape,” Smith said as the Pelicans prepared to face the Heat. Williamson, who was listed as a game-time decision due to a foot injury but did play. Before the game, he was averaging 22.5/5.4/4.9 this season. He is shooting a league 12th-best 58.5% from the field.
Maine’s Secretary of State has announced that Donald Trump has been removed from next year’s Presidential primary ballot. Shenna Bellows cited a Civil War-era clause of the 14th Amendment that bars “insurrectionists” from running for President. If the ruling stands, Maine will become the second state to remove Trump from the ballot. Earlier in December, the Colorado Supreme Court excluded Trump from the state’s ballot using the same precedent. However, Bellows became the first elected official to disbar Trump from the ballot.
However, whether these rulings will stand will likely depend on the Supreme Court. SCOTUS has never had to rule on Amendment 14, Section 3 before. But with states seemingly exercising their constitutional right, the court will likely intervene to have the final say. It will set up a fascinating battle between the court’s conservative leaning and many of the justices’ public stance as “constitutional absolutists”. No date has been set for SCOTUS to rule on the rights of states to disbar Trump on state ballots.
“This is something that I did not choose to do, but was obligated to do under Maine law and the Constitution.”
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows explains why she blocked former President Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot. pic.twitter.com/oNcFRVn6w7
Meanwhile, Trump has been fighting claims that he “bullied” his way into a cameo in Home Alone 2. “I was very busy, and didn’t want to do it. They were very nice, but above all, persistent. I agreed, and the rest is history!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The brief moment, in which Kevin McCallister runs into Trump and asks for directions, was filmed in the lobby of the then-Trump-owned Plaza Hotel. Trump then went on to claim that his brief cameo was the driving force of the film’s massive success.
The claims that Trump forced his way into a cameo stem from a 2020 interview with the film’s director, Chris Columbus. While speaking with Business Insider, Columbus claimed that Trump offered the lobby of the Plaza for free as long as he got a part in the film. Columbus said he had gone to Trump after finding it impractical to recreate the iconic lobby on a soundstage.
Denzel Curry put President Joe Biden on blast this week. “F-ck Joe Biden. Zel for President 2024,” the Florida rapper wrote in a pair of tweets on December 28. However, Curry did not elaborate on what had turned him against Biden. Furthermore, it’s unclear who “Zel” is in regards to the candidate that Curry is seemingly backing.
At the very least, Curry did not declare for Biden’s likely opponent, Donald Trump. “I felt like I was part of the problem honestly. Being disillusioned and thinking, ‘Nah, that’s not gonna happen, this n-gga ain’t gonna be president.’ Then this n-gga became president. So what the f-ck just happened? I don’t get all the choices I want, but I definitely didn’t want this n-gga to be my president. Now I’m forced to write this. That’s how I felt like at the time. I’m not a super-political n-gga, but at the same time, I’m going to voice my opinion to people in my age group,” Curry said of Trump in 2017.
However, Curry isn’t the only person to have criticized Biden in recent months. While hosting The Daily Show, Charlamagne Tha God said that Joe Biden could deliver “the perfect Christmas gift” by dropping out of the 2024 election. “The point is, we don’t need Biden to beat Donald Trump — just like we didn’t need RBG to stay on the court. Maybe if RBG had retired during the Obama years, we’d still have Roe v. Wade. Maybe. People said, ‘No, she needs to be there to protect Roe,’ and now look, both of them are gone. It’s true, they’re both gone,” he added. “See, the facts are: Biden’s not getting any younger, he’s not going to get any more popular, and he’s not getting a new running mate. So please Mr. President, give America the ultimate Christmas gift and step aside,” Charlamagne said.
Concerns about Biden’s age, as well as his plummeting popularity with younger voters, have Democrats worried about Biden continuing to run as the incumbent. Biden’s support of Israel, as well as general economic stagnation in the country, has seen young voters turn towards independent candidates. While it doesn’t endanger a major vote split, it could be enough of a vote siphon to cost Biden key states.
While hosting The Daily Show, Charlamagne Tha God said that Joe Biden could deliver “the perfect Christmas gift” by dropping out of the 2024 election. “The point is, we don’t need Biden to beat Donald Trump — just like we didn’t need RBG to stay on the court. Maybe if RBG had retired during the Obama years, we’d still have Roe v. Wade. Maybe. People said, ‘No, she needs to be there to protect Roe,’ and now look, both of them are gone. It’s true, they’re both gone,” he added. “See, the facts are: Biden’s not getting any younger, he’s not going to get any more popular, and he’s not getting a new running mate. So please Mr. President, give America the ultimate Christmas gift and step aside,” Charlamagne said.
Concerns about Biden’s age, as well as his plummeting popularity with younger voters, have Democrats worried about Biden continuing to run as the incumbent. Biden’s support of Israel, as well as general economic stagnation in the country, has seen young voters turn towards independent candidates. While it doesn’t endanger a major vote split, it could be enough of a vote siphon to cost Biden key states.
Meanwhile, one of Biden’s potential opponents is making a desperate plea as he continues to fall behind in the polls. Ron DeSantis threatened to sue the NCAA for excluding Florida State from the College Football Playoffs. DeSantis’ refocusing on Florida comes as his presidential hopes look more and more futile. According to polling data from FiveThirtyEight, DeSantis remains a distant second in Republican primaries. However, he is still nearly 50 points behind Donald Trump. Furthermore, Nikki Haley has been steadily gaining on DeSantis. If current trends continue, DeSantis may fall into third place in the run-up to the Iowa Caucus.
Furthermore, DeSantis cannot run for governor again in 2026 due to term limits. However, it’s clear that the firebrand politician is eager to see out his term overseeing the GOP EPCOT that he has turned the state into. Much like how Walt Disney, the founder of DeSantis’ biggest foe, created EPCOT as a vision of a “model future”, DeSantis has attempted to turn Florida into a vision of a GOP future on the state level. Sweeping control over education an healthcare access has DeSantis showcasing what a GOP supermajority can achieve. However, it is becoming more and more unlikely that he will be able to project that vision onto the national stage.
Donald Trump is reportedly “unfazed” by his mounting legal woes. Despite facing nearly 100 federal charges across four separate indictments, the former President is “acting like nothing’s wrong” according to insiders. “Trump’s in Trump Tower, unfazed and happy. He’s acting like nothing’s wrong. He’s projecting strength and seems on top of the world, not nervous or anxious,” a source who spoke to Page Six claimed.
However, it’s a little hard to believe given where Trump’s legal issues stand. He is reporting spending millions from his campaign war chest on lawyers. Furthermore, a judge in New York recently dissolved his businesses in the state and barred him or his family from doing business in the state of New York. Trump also stormed out of a court hearing earlier this week after being called as a surprise witness. A full ruling on the $250 million fraud case currently playing out in New York is expected in the coming weeks. However, that will only open Trump up to the various election interference cases he is also currently facing.
Elsewhere, former Vice President Mike Pence announced he was suspending his campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Pence, a former governor of Indiana, was nowhere close to being a front-runner for the nomination. However, despite polling at just 3.3%, Pence tried to position himself as a moderate version of Trumpian politics. His campaign saw itself as a more grounded version of someone like Ron DeSantis, with the benefit of executive branch experience. However, Trump’s rabid popularity aside, Pence never resonated with Republican voters.
Trump maintains a huge lead in Republican polling, sitting at 59.1%. That’s nearly 50 points higher than his closest contender, the aforementioned DeSantis (12.6%). However, incumbent President Joe Biden has regained a slight lead over Trump in hypothetical matchups for the general election. As the calendar ticks over into 2024, it remains to be seen how growing legal responsibilities and a dwindling campaign fund will affect Trump’s campaign.
During the previous election cycles, Donald Trump famously touted the support of Lil Pump. During an appearance they made on stage together Trump famously misidentified him as “Lil Pimp,” but the mix-up clearly didn’t dissuade Pump from supporting him. In 2020 he dropped the song “LIL PIMP BIG MAGA STEPPIN,” where he further expressed support for the controversial candidate. Now three years later as Trump is attempting to make a return to politics amid mounting legal trouble Pump is still considering himself an ally.
In a new series of videos posted to his Instagram story Pump doubled down on his support for Donald Trump. He called out the many fans who had issues with his original take in 2023, hoping that they would have changed their minds by now. Unfortunately from a look into the comments that doesn’t seem to be the case. “Lmaoo remember when trump couldn’t even say lil pumps name correctly,” the top comment jokes at Pump’s expense. “Thought we left this n*gga in 2018,” another points out aiming at Pump’s lack of relevance. Check out the full series of videos below.
Lil Pump released his album Harverd Dropout in 2019 which contains a lot of his most recent hits. Most commonly it features the Kanye West collaboration and largely disliked joke song “I Love It.” It took him 4 years to release a follow-up studio album with Lil Pump 2 arriving earlier this year.
Unfortunately for Pump, his new album was a critical punching bag receiving harsh reviews from nearly every publication that discussed it. The album was also a bit of a commercial dud, with less than half of its songs reaching even 1 million streams in the 8 months since it was released. What do you think of Lil Pump doubling down on his support for Donald Trump in the upcoming election? Let us know in the comment section below.
Donald Trump is the first former president in U.S. history to be charged with a crime. He arrived in New York on Monday (April 3) to appear in court on Tuesday, following his indictment by a Manhattan grand jury last week. A former president’s expected voluntary surrender will be a unique event in multiple ways. Earlier this week, one of Trump’s advisers described the MAGA leader’s mood as “defiant and focused” as he watched the coverage on a flight from Florida to New York. However, CNN reported that the former president has stayed “surprisingly calm.”
Additionally, Trump reportedly spent the weekend in Florida playing golf and thinking about using the indictment to help his campaign. The indictment was said to have caught him and his advisers “off guard.” Further, CNN reported that Trump faces more than 30 counts linked to corporate fraud, but the charges remain sealed. Since the 2016 presidential election, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has investigated the former president for his alleged role in a hush-money scheme. Here is what we know about the indictment.
Why Is Donald Trump Facing Charges?
TOPSHOT – Former US President Donald Trump makes his way inside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in New York on April 4, 2023. – Donald Trump will make an unprecedented appearance before a New York judge on April 4, 2023 to answer criminal charges that threaten to throw the 2024 White House race into turmoil. (Photo by Ed JONES / AFP) (Photo by ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)
Donald Trump’s indictment reportedly included 34 first-degree felony counts of falsifying company records. Technically, the allegations derive from a payment made to Stormy Daniels during the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign. This incident occurred when she attempted to sell her story regarding an affair with Trump. Daniels’s representatives initially approached The National Enquirer to offer exclusive rights to her story. However, David Pecker, the tabloid publisher and a longtime ally of Trump, agreed to watch for potentially damaging stories about him. At one point, he even agreed to purchase the story of another woman’s affair with Trump but never planned to publish it.
However, Pecker didn’t purchase Daniels’s story. Instead, he and the senior editor of the tabloid facilitated a separate transaction between Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, and Daniels’s counsel. Cohen reportedly paid $130,000, eventually reimbursed by Trump from the White House. In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including federal campaign finance violations involving hush money. Federal prosecutors determined that the payment constituted an unlawful contribution to Trump’s campaign. Nevertheless, in the days after Mr. Cohen’s guilty plea, the D.A.’s office initiated its own criminal investigation. As federal prosecutors were investigating Cohen, the district attorney would investigate Trump.
Trump pled not guilty to 34 felony charges. The allegations result from an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who believes that Trump altered corporate documents to conceal harmful information from 2016 election voters. Judge Juan Merchan is presiding over the case, and set the next court date for December 4.
The prosecution wants the opening arguments to begin in January 2024. However, Trump’s defense has requested a few additional months, perhaps until Spring 2024. This occurs in the middle of the primary season, which could hamper the former president’s attempt for reelection. Nonetheless, the defense may make motions to delay the trial, including a request to move the venue out of Manhattan, where Trump lost the 2020 presidential election by an overwhelming margin.
The Former President’s Reactions
Former President Donald Trump defended himself before a crowd of supporters at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night after he was arraigned in New York City https://t.co/zg2iTKj5NKpic.twitter.com/5xRCnHeh6z
Trump and his supporters blasted Democrat District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the grand jury’s decision as “the greatest level of Political Persecution and Election Interference.” The former president left the courthouse in a motorcade monitored by major cable news networks using aerial footage. Donald Trump’s 2024 election campaign began selling T-shirts featuring a fake mugshot for $47.
To conclude a full day of media coverage, Trump attacked the charges as political persecution at Mar-a-Lago. Trump stated, “I never imagined something like this would happen in America.” He added, “The only crime I’ve committed is boldly defending our country against those who wish to destroy it.” He downplayed the numerous investigations he is facing, stating that D.A. Bragg had “no case.” He also attacked the judge and his family as “Trump-hating” individuals.
— Yusef Abdus Salaam (@dr_yusefsalaam) April 5, 2023
A New York court confirmed that Trump’s arraignment would not be televised live. Judge Merchan denied requests from multiple media groups to broadcast Trump’s court sessions this week. However, the judge determined that five photographers may still capture Trump and the courtroom before the start of the hearing. Judge Merchan also acknowledged the historical significance of the hearing while rejecting the request to broadcast the arraignment.
“It cannot be argued that this indictment covers a topic of enormous importance,” he said. “A serving or former President of the United States has never been indicted on criminal charges. Mr. Trump’s arraignment has created unprecedented media and public interest. The populous craves the most accurate and up-to-date information available. To imply otherwise would be dishonest.”
Can Trump Still Run For President In 2024?
Certainly, the United States Constitution does not prohibit Trump from continuing his election campaign, notwithstanding his indictment. Theoretically, he could still run for president and win an election while incarcerated. Nevertheless, there are pragmatic concerns. A protracted court battle and trial will significantly disrupt a presidential campaign in terms of time, energy, and the scheduling of election rallies.
