Tag: donald trump

Trump shooting suspect offers round of golf to settle case and calls president a ‘baboon’ in deranged filing

The man accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump near one of his golf courses has asked the president to consider settling the matter over an 18-hole match in a bizarre legal filing.

Ryan Wesley Routh filed a deranged motion requesting strippers and a putting green for his imagined extravaganza, just days before his criminal trial was due to begin.

‘A round of golf with the racist pig, he wins he can execute me, I win I get his job,’ Routh wrote in the motion filed on Tuesday. 

The 59-year-old’s motion comes as he faces life in prison on charges of attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer.

Routh was caught hiding in shrubbery at Trump International Golf Course in Palm Beach on September 15 armed with a rifle.

Prosecutors allege he had spent weeks planning his attempt to kill Trump while he was on the campaign trail.

But he was spotted by a Secret Service agent before he could get a clear shot on Trump. He allegedly raised his rifle to shoot, but the agent opened fire first and Routh ultimately fled without firing. 

The alleged assassination attempt came just eight weeks after Trump survived another attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Jury selection for his criminal trial is due to begin on September 8.

Routh is expected to represent himself at trial after his request was tentatively approved by US District Judge Aileen Cannon, who warned he would be kept on a tight leash during proceedings.

Court-appointed lawyers will be available to Routh should he need them.

Elsewhere in his extraordinary motion on Tuesday, Routh slammed prosecution efforts to introduce new evidence this close to trial.

‘If you would like to trade admitting the evidence for my subpoena of that baboon Donald J Trump, bring that idiot on; it is a deal,’ Routh wrote.

‘Give me shackles and cuffs and let the old fat man give it his worst. We must beat down crime in America. Carpet is red, isn’t it, no harm in blood.’ 

Routh also requested new housing arrangements for the trial, specifically a ‘far off, quiet room’ where he can access documents related to his case, as well as a phone, visitation rights, email access, a type writer and female strippers.

Keep reading

“Harsh Measures”? – President Trump Announces Space Command Will Move From Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama

Last month, President Donald Trump took to Truth to announce “harsh measures” in response to the persecution of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who is serving a nine-year sentence in Colorado prison for making a forensic image of voting systems in her custody prior to a “Trusted Build” conducted by the Colorado Secretary of State’s office.

In his post to Truth Social, President Trump called Peters “a brave and innocent Patriot who has been tortured by Crooked Colorado politicians” and claiming that she did nothing wrong “except catching the Democrats cheat in the Election.”

According to Ashe Epp of the Colorado Free Press, Space Command employed 1,700 people in Colorado Springs and contributed around $1 billion annually to the local economy via direct spending, employee salaries, and patronage of local businesses by Space Command employees.

Colorado Springs is home to over 150 space, aerospace, and defense companies and is home to five major military installations with a significant Department of Defense presence, however, Huntsville, too, has a large presence surrounding the Redstone Arsenal, which serves as a major center for missile, rocket, and space systems development and testing, according to Army Technology.

“Rocket City” is home to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, BAE Systems, General Dynamics, and several other military industrial complex companies.

According to the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the aerospace and defense industry accounts for 44% of the total economy with 111,000 employees in the region.

Keep reading

Cartels are bad but they’re not ‘terrorists.’ This is mission creep.

There is a dangerous pattern on display by the Trump administration. The president and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth seem to hold the threat and use of military force as their go-to method of solving America’s problems and asserting state power.

The president’s reported authorization for the Pentagon to use U.S. military warfighting capacity to combat drug cartels — a domain that should remain within the realm of law enforcement — represents a significant escalation. This presents a concerning evolution and has serious implications for civil liberties — especially given the administration’s parallel moves with the deployment of troops to the southern border, the use of federal forces to quell protests in California, and the recent deployment of armed National Guard to the streets of our nation’s capital.

Last week, the Pentagon sent three guided-missile destroyers to interdict drug cartel operations off the coast of South America, giving the U.S. Navy unprecedented counternarcotics authority and foreshadowing a potential military stand-off against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who is wanted by the United States on charges of narco-terrorism. This development is echoed by President Trump reportedly seeking authorization to deploy U.S. military forces on the ground against drug cartels in Mexico.

These efforts are not new. Trump and the GOP have increasingly called for U.S. military interdiction against Mexican drug cartels under the banner of counterterrorism. During his first administration, Trump seriously considered launching strikes at drug labs in Mexico in an effort that was successfully shut down by then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.

But there are no such guardrails in the new Trump administration, and the rhetoric has progressively crept toward the use of U.S. special operations, specifically. During an interview on Fox News in November, incoming Border Czar Tom Homan announced that, “[President Trump] will use the full might of the United States special operations to take [the cartels] out.”

If that is indeed the direction the administration wants to go, it appears to be taking action to set plans into motion, starting with an executive order on day one that designated cartels as foreign terrorist organizations — thus opening a Pandora’s box of potential legal authority to use military force. On signing the order, President Trump acknowledged, “People have been wanting to do this for years.” And when asked if he would be ordering U.S. special forces into Mexico to “take out” the cartels, Trump replied enigmatically, “Could happen … stranger things have happened.”

The executive order upholds that drug cartels “operate both within and outside the United States … [and] present an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.” It declares a national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The specificity of both “within and outside” the U.S. combined with the declaration of a national emergency is perhaps the first step toward the broader use of executive power to deploy military forces in counternarcotics operations not only within Mexico, but potentially the United States too.

To be sure, the Trump administration is already testing the limits of Posse Comitatus — the law that prevents presidents from using the military as a domestic police force — by invoking questionable authorities to use National Guard and active duty troops during the counter-ICE protests in California and, most recently, to declare a “crime emergency” in Washington, D.C. federalizing the police force and deploying troops to patrol the district’s streets. Reports this week suggest the administration is preparing to do the same in Chicago.

Keep reading

First Friends: How the First Couple’s Consigliere Went From Modeling Mogul to Special Envoy

The Trump administration’s dramatic reversal with respect to the Jeffrey Epstein case continues to confuse and enthrall, with President Trump still doubling down that the entire “Epstein thing” is a “Democrat hoax.” While Democrats certainly have sought to take advantage of situation for partisan ends, the reversal in rhetoric –– particularly after transparency in the Epstein case was made an important part of Trump’s 2024 campaign –– has seemingly defied explanation. Indeed, the timing of the reversal, which occurred after a protracted delay and then final reneging on releasing files about the case, has been hard for many to swallow.

Amid the fall-out from the administration’s about-face, the Trump administration has sought to mitigate the failure to “release the files” by publishing interviews with Ghislaine Maxwell (who has been desperately seeking a pardon or commuted sentence) and by issuing subpoenas to Bill and Hillary Clinton, a clear effort to divert “transparency” in the case into something more politically favorable to Republicans. 

However, as posited in Unlimited Hangout’s series “First Friends,” Trump’s effort to alter the narrative around the Epstein case may be aimed at shielding, not only potentially himself, but people in his close social circle, including at least one figure currently serving in his administration. That figure, Paolo Zampolli –– the administration’s current Special Envoy for Global Partnerships –– is the subject of this investigation. 

In Part I of this series, we met one of Trump’s closest friends from Italy: Flavio Briatore, a P2 lodge and Italian mafia-linked businessman with ties to prominent Victoria’s Secret Angels, at least one of whom he introduced to Epstein. In this second installment, the connections of Zampolli, another Italian close to both Trump and Briatore, are the focus. Zampolli has been in the news recently, not for the backdoor wheeling-and-dealing of his new, official U.S. government post, but because Trump and his wife Melania claim to have been first introduced by Zampolli amid assertions to the contrary that claim it had been Epstein.

As this investigation will show, Zampolli is deeply corrupt. From his beginnings as a protégé for the controversial modeling mogul John Casablancas, a man known for his appetite for what he called “child women,” Zampolli grew his modeling empire with money from Silvio Berlusconi, the corrupt Italian Prime Minister (and close friend of Flavio Briatore) who was forced to resign for his sexual escapades with minors while in office. Zampolli would later follow Casablanca’s example and marry his wife when she was 19, having met her not long after she had flown as an under-age teen on Epstein’s “Lolita Express.” 

After leaving the world of modeling to work for Donald Trump in the early 2000s, Zampolli would become closely affiliated with the Clintons as well as the United Nations, where he worked on their climate change initiatives and on the development of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. In particular, Zampolli was part of the team that developed SDG 14 “Life Under Water” alongside Stuart Beck, a figure closely tied to CIA regime change operations in Palau, as well as none other than Ghislaine Maxwell and her TerraMar project. 

Yet, that is not all Zampolli would accomplish at the UN, as he would figure prominently in a major UN financing scandal and also boasted close ties to suspect citizenship-by-investment schemes that would later see one of his close colleagues arrested and another dead under exceedingly bizarre circumstances. Those colleagues had been taking bribes from an organized crime and CCP-linked Chinese billionaire who was once at the center of the scandal that directly intersects with most of Jeffrey Epstein’s seventeen visits to the Clinton White House.

Keep reading

“I Want The Answer”: Trump Demands Pfizer Prove mRNA Jabs Work

Late last month a CDC advisory committee launched a review into the “safety, effectiveness, and immunogenicity” of COVID-19 vaccines, as well as whether mRNA remains in the body longer than advertised. 

As part of the review, they will look at gaps in existing knowledge “relating to bio distribution, pharmacokinetics, and persistence of the spike protein, mRNA, and lipid nanoparticles to inform immunization recommendations,” the document states. In other words – they’ll be looking at whether the vaccine has ever worked, as well as harms it may cause. As ZeroHedge readers know, studies have found that the spike protein and mRNA in the vaccines persist for some time. 

Days after the committee was announced, the Department of Health & Human Services announced that Susan Monarez, who championed mRNA shots for COVID-19, is “no longer director of the CDC” – after she “clashed with the secretary (Kennedy) over vaccine policy,” which ultimately led to her firing.

Meanwhile at least four other CDC officials resigned on Wednesday in a massive leadership shakeup at the agency: Dr. Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer; Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; Dr. Daniel Jernigan, the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; and Dr. Jennifer Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology.

As the leadership crisis at the CDC unfolds, President Trump issued a somewhat cryptic ‘truth’ – challenging Pfizer and other vaccine makers to make public the same ‘GREAT’ claims his administration was shown in order to justify operation Warp Speed. 

“It is very important that the Drug Companies justify the success of their various Covid Drugs. Many people think they are a miracle that saved Millions of lives. Others disagree!” Trump wrote. 

“I have been shown information from Pfizer, and others, that is extraordinary, but they never seem to show those results to the public. Why not???” the ‘truth’ continues. “With CDC being ripped apart over this question, I want the answer, and I want it NOW.” 

Keep reading

Latin American Leftists Call For U.S. To Stop Drug-Fighting Efforts In The Caribbean

A small group of foreign ministers of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) regional bloc met on Monday morning for a “profound reflection” on the United States’ ongoing efforts to combat drug cartels in Caribbean international waters.

CELAC is a 33-country regional bloc founded in Caracas in 2011 and largely promoted by late socialist dictator Hugo Chávez as a U.S.-free affiliation at the time of its creation. Presently, far-left Colombian President Gustavo Petro occupies CELAC’s rotating chairmanship. CELAC, which does not include the United States and Canada, has no executive or resolution capacity and the results of its meetings are simply “declarations.”

On Sunday, Colombian Foreign Ministry Yolanda Villavicencio called for an urgent Monday morning online meeting to “exchange views and reflections on the regional situation” after the United States deployed three Aegis guided-missile destroyers and other resources as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to combat drug cartels in Caribbean international waters.

“Member States hope that this space will allow for an open and constructive discussion of concerns surrounding recent military movements in the Caribbean and their possible implications for regional peace, security, and stability,” the Colombian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday. “The intention is to strengthen channels of dialogue and cooperation, recognizing that transnational challenges require joint and coordinated responses.”

Over the past days, Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro and members of his authoritarian regime have repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that the United States seeks to “invade” Venezuela and oust dictator Nicolás Maduro from power.

Maduro, who has clung to power by holding several sham elections over the past decade, stands accused by U.S. authorities of multiple narco-terrorism charges. He is long suspected of being a leading figure of the Cartel of the Suns, an international cocaine trafficking operation run by leading figures of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and by some top Venezuelan military officials.

In July, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent announced that the United States included the Cartel of the Suns in its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entities. Days later, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the United States doubled its bounty on information that can lead to Maduro’s arrest from $25 million to $50 million.

Foreign Minister Villavicencio, who hosted the virtual encounter, called upon CELAC to reject the U.S. military deployment, as well as “any possible military intervention in a CELAC member country.”

Keep reading

Trump Trolls Leftists Questioning Whereabouts, Spreading Rumors of His Death: ‘Never Felt Better’

President Donald Trump trolled leftists who questioned where he was and spread baseless rumors on social media of his death over the weekend, informing them that he has “never felt better.”

“NEVER FELT BETTER IN MY LIFE,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Also, DC IS A CRIME FREE ZONE!”

In a post on X, Democrat Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker responded to a post of Trump’s on Truth Social in which he threatened to send in federal support if the crime in Chicago was not addressed. In his post, Pritzker asked Trump for “proof of life.”

“Why don’t you send everyone proof of life first?” Pritzker wrote, adding that Chicago does not want him there.

Keep reading

President Trump Calls on Judge Jia Cobb to Recuse Herself From Lawsuit by Fired Federal Reserve Board Member Lisa Cook After Sorority They Are Both Members of Releases Statement in Support of Cook

President Donald Trump posted a statement Sunday night calling on U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb to recuse herself from presiding over the lawsuit by Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lisa Cook challenging Trump’s firing of her from the Fed last Monday over allegations of mortgage fraud.

Cook filed suit on Thursday. Cobb held a hearing Friday in D.C., but made no immediate ruling reported CNN (excerpt):

Cobb has asked for more written arguments to be submitted to her by next Tuesday. It’s possible she rules after then, or takes additional time to sift through how to best proceed with the case. Her options include setting it on an expedited track for a prompt resolution of Cook’s underlying claims.

Though Cobb, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, held off for now on making an initial ruling in the case, she also made clear that she wasn’t prepared to fully buy into arguments pushed by either Cook or Trump.

The judge pushed back on a suggestion by Justice Department attorney Yaakov Roth that federal courts have no authority to second-guess a decision by a president to fire a member of the Federal Reserve “for cause.” But even with that judicial power, Cobb said, there still may be some level of deference by a court to the president’s decision-making.

Trump posted a copy of a statement issued Thursday by the Delta Sigma Theta sorority–that both Cobb and Cook belong to–that expresses support for Cook, “This is a total Conflict of Interest. The Judge must RECUSE IMMEDIATELY!!! President DJT.”

Keep reading

Report: Trump Punishes Newsom by Canceling $427M Wind Project

President Donald Trump may have chosen to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to a California wind project to punish Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) for signing a separate climate change deal with Denmark.

Last week, as Breitbart News reported, the Trump administration had canceled $679 million that was to have been spent on supposedly “doomed” offshore wind projects — $427 million of which was to have gone to a single wind project in Humboldt County, California.

The New York Times reported Friday:

The Transportation Department on Friday said it was terminating or withdrawing $679 million in federal funding for 12 projects around the country intended to support the development of offshore wind power, the latest of the Trump administration’s escalating attacks against the wind industry.

The funds, approved by the Biden administration, include $427 million awarded last year to upgrade a marine terminal in Humboldt County, Calif. The new terminal would be used to assemble and launch wind turbines capable of floating in the ocean, which the state of California had been planning to deploy to meet its renewable energy goals.

The list of targeted projects also includes $48 million for an offshore wind port on Staten Island, $39 million to upgrade a port near Norfolk, Va. and $20 million for a marine terminal in Paulsboro, N.J. Most of the projects were intended to be staging areas for the construction of giant wind turbines that would eventually be placed at sea.

“Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg bent over backwards to use transportation dollars for their Green New Scam agenda while ignoring the dire needs of our shipbuilding industry,” Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said at the time. “Thanks to President Trump, we are prioritizing real infrastructure improvements over fantasy wind projects that cost much and offer little.”

One project, however, off the coast of Connecticut and Rhode Island, was reportedly 80% complete and due to begin operations next year.

It is being developed by Danish wind farm developer Orsted.

Keep reading

‘We Have Many Options’: US Warships Pass Through Panama Canal Toward Southern Caribbean

U.S. warships were seen entering the Panama Canal while navigating east toward the Atlantic, according to photos taken on Aug. 30.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Aug. 19 that President Donald Trump was “prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into [the United States] and to bring those responsible to justice.”

“Many Caribbean nations and many nations in the region have applauded the administration’s counterdrug operations and efforts,” Leavitt added.

As Jacob Burg reports below, the previous day, a White House official told The Epoch Times that U.S. naval and air assets would deploy to the southern Caribbean Sea amid a heightened counternarcotics effort.

That deployment puts U.S. warships a short distance off Venezuela’s northern coastline, following years of strained relations between the United States and Venezuela.

In 2017, Trump told reporters, “We have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option, if necessary.”

Trump rejected the 2018 snap presidential election, in which Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner. He also backed then-Venezuelan National Assembly President Juan Guaidó’s efforts to declare himself the rightful head of state of Venezuela until new elections commenced.

In 2019, Guaidó led a short-lived attempted uprising against Maduro. A year later, the U.S. Department of Justice declared that Maduro was linked to both drug and weapons trafficking and offered $15 million for information leading to the regime leader’s arrest.

When Maduro claimed he had won Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election, the Biden administration rejected the results, and accusations mounted that the outcome was rigged for Maduro.

Now, the Justice Department is offering $50 million for information leading to Maduro’s arrest.

Maduro denounced the news that U.S. warships were traveling to the Southern Caribbean this week.

On Aug. 28, Venezuela criticized the U.S. naval buildup to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and accused Washington of breaking the founding U.N. Charter.

“It’s a massive propaganda operation to justify what the experts call kinetic action—meaning military intervention in a country which is a sovereign and independent country and is no threat to anyone,” Venezuelan U.N. Ambassador Samuel Moncada told reporters after meeting with Guterres.

In February, the Trump administration designated several transnational gangs, including Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, as global terrorist organizations.

In response to the U.S. actions, Maduro said, “Our diplomacy isn’t the diplomacy of cannons, of threats, because the world cannot be the world of 100 years ago.”

Keep reading