Business

Home Business

Trump Returns To Twitter – Now X

0
Photo via Pixabay images

Former President Donald Trump’s official X account is back…for now.

The first ad, posted at 2:54 am, included a voiceover from Ronald Reagan and was captioned, “Are you better off now than you were when I was president? Our economy is shattered. Our border has been erased. We’re a nation in decline. Make the American Dream AFFORDABLE again. Make America SAFE again. Make America GREAT Again!”

Another ad was published at 3:00 am and read, “They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you. They’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you. I just happen to be standing in their way and I’m never moving. We will Make America Great Again!”

Musk and Trump will talk live on X at 8 pm ET and Musk has already addressed the technical issues that have plagued past events – including the glitchy of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) presidential campaign last spring.

“Am going to do some system scaling tests tonight & tomorrow in advance of the conversation,” Musk wrote on X ahead of the event.

Trump had been banned from Twitter, which Musk bought for a staggering $44 billion and renamed X, after the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump has only posted once since Musk restored his Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, as the former president reserves his social media usage for Truth Social, which he owns. In August of 2023, Trump post his Fulton Country jail mugshot with a link soliciting donations.

Trump Media Investor Convicted Of Insider Trading

3
Arrest image via Pixabay

On Thursday, a Manhattan grand jury found financier Bruce Garelick guilty of insider trading charges in a scheme that involved the merger of former President Donald J. Trump’s social media company with a publicly traded shell company.

Federal prosecutors had charged Garelick with five counts of securities fraud and conspiracy. 

Authorities claimed Garelick shared confidential information with his boss and at least one other person that Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, was close to announcing a merger with Digital World Acquisition Group, the shell company.

Mr. Garelick, 54, a former hedge fund manager, had been a board member of Digital World. 

The New York Times has more:

The information helped two brothers — Michael Shvartsman and Gerald Shvartsman — make nearly $23 million in illegal trading profits by buying Digital World securities in advance of the announcement, which sent the stock soaring. Mr. Garelick, who worked for Michael Shvartsman at a small Miami-based venture capital firm called Rocket One, made about $50,000 by trading off what authorities said was nonpublic information.

Last month, the Shvartsman brothers decided to forgo a trial and pleaded guilty to securities fraud charges. In their plea agreements, prosecutors have recommended a sentence of roughly four to five years for Michael Shvartsman; and three to four years for his younger brother.

Digital World raised about $300 million from investors in its initial public offering in September 2021. A little over a month later, the SPAC announced a deal to merge with Trump Media. After a long delay, the merger was completed in March and Trump Media became a publicly traded company. Mr. Trump’s nearly 70 percent stake in the firm is worth about $6 billion.

In a closing argument, Daniel Nessim, a federal prosecutor, described Mr. Garelick as a “sophisticated professional” who “cheated” and used inside information to benefit himself and his boss, Michael Shvartsman.

Garelick could face at least 25 years in prison.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

Elon Musk Vows To Keep His PAC ‘Grinding’ And To Help Future Republican Primaries

1

Billionaire Elon Musk has no plan to back away from politics anytime soon.

SpaceX owner Elon Musk vowed to keep up his political activities in a social media post on Tuesday, saying he would take an active role in the GOP primaries ahead of the 2026 midterms.

“Normally, PACs go somewhat dormant after a big election,” Musk wrote on X, adding:

@America PAC is going to do the opposite and keep grinding, increasing Republican registrations in key districts around the country, in preparation for special elections and the midterms.

“And, of course, play a significant role in primaries,” Musk added.

Musk’s PAC reportedly spent some $200 million to help get Trump reelected in recent months. Musk himself, the world’s richest man, donated some $120 million to aid in Trump’s reelection bid – making him Trump’s second biggest backer after billionaire Timothy Mellon.

Musk’s pledge to stay active in GOP politics is the first sign his interest in the party extends far beyond Trump as activism.

MyPillow Evicted From Warehouse

2
Mike Lindell via Gage Skidmore Flickr

A Minnesota court has ordered MyPillow to be evicted from the warehouse it formerly used.

The Hill has more:

The Minneapolis warehouse is approximately 125,000 square feet and has been leased to Lindell since December 2015. The lease agreement between Lindell and the landlord, First Industrial LP, has been amended twice. It lasts 10 years, seven months and 20 days, and the monthly rent was $57,794.12, according to the eviction complaint.

According to the complaint, dated March 7, Lindell did not make rent payments for February and March 2024. Since it is not the first time MyPillow failed to pay its rent on more than two occasions in the previous 12-month period, per the lease agreement, the landlord is entitled to retake possession of the premises.

As of Wednesday, Lindell did not answer the eviction complaint or appear at the scheduled hearing, forcing the judge to order the eviction. He confirmed to the AP that MyPillow owes around $217,000 to the Delaware-based company for the rent.

Lindell said the company no longer needed the space and removed its property from the warehouse last June before subleasing it to another company through December. The company backed out in January and “left us all stranded.” MyPillow offered to find another tenant, but the landlord wanted to take the warehouse back, he told the newswire.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell faces multiple defamation lawsuits from two voting machine companies, after he spread lies that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent and stolen from former President Trump. In February, a federal judge ruled he must pay $5 million in an election data dispute case.

Elon Musk Accuses Trump Ally Of ‘Leaking’ Info To The Media

1
UK Government, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Tensions are running high within Trump’s inner circle…

Billionaire Elon Musk clashed publicly with Boris Epshteyn, one of Trump’s closest allies in what sources called a “massive blowout” over key Cabinet appointments.

According to three sources cited by Axios, the dispute reached a boiling point during a dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club last week during which Musk accused Epshteyn of leaking sensitive details about the transition process, including potential personnel picks.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Epshteyn reportedly fired back during the heated exchange.

The altercation highlights a power struggle as Musk, a newcomer to Trump’s inner circle, increasingly advocates for his preferred candidates. Musk has reportedly criticized Epshteyn’s influence in selecting Justice Department nominees, including Matt Gaetz for attorney general.

Musk is lobbying for Howard Lutnick, co-chair of Trump’s transition team, as Treasury secretary, over Wall Street veteran Scott Bessent.

Despite the friction, Musk maintains considerable support among Trump’s family and allies. 

However, the tech billionaire’s growing role in the transition has rankled longtime Trump loyalists, who view him as overstepping boundaries. 

Musk has been among the president-elect’s most vocal and influential supporters since he endorsed Trump immediately after a July assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally but some in Trump’s inner circle say the Tesla CEO is being to overstay his welcome.

“Elon won’t go home. I can’t get rid of him. Until I don’t like him,” Trump quipped, according to a source in the room when Trump met with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill last Wednesday.

some Republicans have questioned how long Trump and Musk can happily co-exist, particularly given Trump’s past frustration with those who take up too much of the spotlight.

“Trump is not going to have another alpha. I think Trump is going to tire of him,” one source close to the transition told The Hill.

One Republican lobbyist with ties to Trump said there are some in the president-elect’s orbit who think Musk is “a little big for his britches.”

Trump transition team spokesperson Karoline Leavitt did not respond to requests for comment from The Hill, but in a statement on Wednesday to NBC News described Musk and Trump as “great friends and brilliant leaders working together to Make America Great Again.”

“Elon Musk is a once in a generation business leader and our federal bureaucracy will certainly benefit from his ideas and efficiency,” Leavitt said.

Andrew Cuomo to Launch New Podcast with First Guest Anthony Scaramucci

2
Photos from the opening of the new Delta Air Lines terminal in LaGuardia Airport in Queens, NY, on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2019. (Chris Rank for Rank Studios) (Photos from the opening of the new Delta Air Lines terminal in LaGuardia Airport in Queens, NY, o

Look at how far Andrew Cuomo has sunk.

After resigning as New York Governor due to allegations of sexual misconduct Cuomo announced he plans to start a new business venture. Cuomo’s newest foray into the public sphere comes in the shape of a podcast and one of his first guests is scheduled to be President Donald Trump’s former communications director Anthony Scaramucci.

Scaramucci, who briefly served the Trump administration in 2017, has emerged as a critic of Trump and expressed his support for Biden in the 2020 election.

According to The Hill:

Cuomo will this week debut a new hourlong show he is calling “As a Matter of Fact” on podcast streaming service Quake, he told Axios, and the show will aim to “hear from people — their questions, their issues — and have that dialogue.”

The former governor told Axios this week he has “learned from the entire situation.”

“There’s a fundamental problem with the entire system here,” Cuomo told the outlet of the media ecosystem writ large. “We have such division of people and we have such dysfunction of government, and part of it is this hyper-partisan, extreme dialogue that goes on.”

“There is a new sensitivity that I didn’t fully appreciate that some people have, and some people have a new sense of cultural boundaries that I didn’t appreciate enough,” Cuomo said.

It seems the disgraced governor is following in his brother’s footsteps. Chris Cuomo, who was a leading anchor at CNN during the Cuomo sex scandal, also started a new podcast after being fired from the network.

Facebook Admits ‘Mistake’ In Censoring Iconic Trump Assassination Attempt Photo

2
Photo via Pixabay images

On Monday, a Facebook spokesperson admitted the platform wrongly called the popular image of Donald Trump pumping his fist in the air after an assassination attempt against him an “altered photo.”

Meta Public Affairs Director Dani Lever later explained on X it was done in error as the systems were meant to detect a separate version of the image.

“This was an error. This fact check was initially applied to a doctored photo showing the secret service agents smiling, and in some cases our systems incorrectly applied that fact check to the real photo. This has been fixed, and we apologize for the mistake,” Lever wrote.

Lever confirmed the mistake when Fox News Digital reached out for a comment.

The altered image Lever referenced featured the Secret Service members surrounding Trump smiling. USA Today and AFP United States previously fact-checked the images as “altered,” though it confirmed the accuracy of the original image.

“None of the agents in the original image are smiling as they surround Trump, who has blood on his face and his right arm in the air. The image – which was captured by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci and distributed by the AP – appeared with coverage of the shooting by CNN, The Atlantic, Business Insider and many other legitimate news outlets,” USA Today explained.

USA Today’s fact-check on the altered photo was used as a “third-party fact-checker” when Facebook corrected the photo.

Google has recently come under criticism for omitting search results for Trump’s recent assassination attempt.

Former PayPal President Ditches Democrat Party, Endorses Trump

1

Trump just scored another major donor…

Former president of PayPal David Marcus announced he has switched political parties and endorsed Donald Trump via X.

“I am crossing the Rubicon and backing the Republican Party and President Trump. Many — including a former version of myself — get trapped in a mental framework that becomes their identity and prevents them from radically evolving their thinking with new facts and information. I finally broke free from it.”

“My journey has been a gradual political 180 from where I stood in every previous election. It has been an eye-opening process of disenchantment, zero-basing lifelong beliefs, and rebuilding from there,” wrote Marcus.

Marcus cited an anecdote where, in 2017, he was enlisted to raise $100M from Silicon Valley for the Democratic National Convention in order to “prevent a repeat of Hillary Clinton’s inadequate, outdated 2016 campaign.”

David Marcus is aligned with Trump on technology innovations like crypto and AI as well as foreign policy–especially the Middle East. Marcus opined, “on Iran, this administration is continuing a misguided Obama-era plan to bring Iran closer to the West by unfreezing Trump-era sanctions, thus giving the Mollahs’ regime the ability to fund terrorism and pursue its anti-America, anti-Israel, and anti-Jewish agenda.”

“I believe we need a President who is unequivocally pro: America, the Constitution, business, Bitcoin/crypto, innovation, Israel, small government, legal immigration, free speech, meritocracy, and common sense — and anti: regulatory proliferation, illegal immigration, unjust wars, Iran’s current regime, and domestic groups that oppose American values.”

Marcus completed his post by referencing the attempt on former President Trump’s life at a rally in Butler, PA on July 13.

“It’s impossible to close this post without mentioning President Trump’s recent assassination attempt. The courage and resolve he displayed seconds after being hit by a bullet was awe-inspiring for his followers and detractors alike. This was a man, however imperfect, who, at that moment, incarnated the American spirit in the most vivid way, starting to bring a split nation together,” wrote Marcus.

“In this pivotal moment, confronted with the choices we have, I am endorsing and supporting a return to a Republican administration in 2025,” the post concluded.

Trump has seen a number of prominent pro-business donors flock to his campaign this season as Republicans seek to a return to the White House.

Obama Claims New Yorkers ‘Don’t Take Trump Seriously’

6
The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

During a podcast interview, former President Barack Obama swiped at Donald Trump claiming the former President is not taken “seriously” in the city he called home for years, New York City.

Obama appeared alongside Bill Clinton and President Biden in the newest episode of the “SmartLess” podcast. 

Obama was asked on the “SmartLess” podcast by co-host Jason Bateman whether he was surprised how quickly the “protection and passion for democracy was diluted” in recent years. Obama responded by noting the trend began during former President Clinton’s time in the White House before accelerating during his presidency.

“I have been surprised that there haven’t been guardrails inside the Republican Party. Trump didn’t surprise me,” he said, before taking aim at Trump.

“I mean, he comes from New York. There’s nobody in New York who does business with him or lend him money. He’s not considered a serious guy here,” Obama added.

Obama went on to explain how he thought more Republicans would say some of Trump’s behavior went too far.

“But, so I was surprised he was elected, but I wasn’t surprised in terms of his behavior. I did expect, and I suspect Bill and Joe, you’d agree with this, that there would be some folks in the Republican Party who would say, no, you can’t go that far. You can’t start praising Putin and saying that his intelligence is better than the US intelligence agencies,” he said.

Trump is currently on trial in New York for falsifying business records to make alleged hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels.

Billionaire Makes Massive Political Contribution To Trump

1
Image via Pixabay free images

One of the largest single disclosed gifts ever…

A reclusive billionaire from a storied American family with a legacy dating back to the Gilded Age has made one of the largest political contributions in the history of American politics.

Timothy Mellon, heir to the Mellon banking fortune, made a $50 million contribution to the pro-Trump super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc.

At the end of April, the organization had only $34.5 million.

In a memo following Mellon’s donation, the PAC announced it had reserved $100 million in advertising through Labor Day.

The New York Times continues:

Mr. Mellon is now the first donor to give $100 million in disclosed federal contributions in this year’s election. He was already the single largest contributor to super PACs supporting both Mr. Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running as an independent. Mr. Mellon has previously given $25 million to both.

Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Democrats have sought to portray Mr. Kennedy as a spoiler supported by Republicans, in part by emphasizing Mr. Mellon’s dual contributions and seemingly split loyalties. The pro-Kennedy super PAC has distributed quotations from the hard-to-reach Mr. Mellon, and for a blurb that appears on the cover of Mr. Mellon’s upcoming book, Mr. Kennedy called the billionaire a “maverick entrepreneur.”

It is not clear what Mr. Mellon’s mega-donation means for his support of Mr. Kennedy going forward. He has so far toggled between giving to support both candidates. His most recent donation to Mr. Kennedy’s super PAC was a $5 million contribution in April.

But Mr. Mellon’s $50 million gift will significantly help pro-Trump forces narrow the financial advantage that President Biden and his allies have enjoyed so far. Miriam Adelson, the casino billionaire and widow of Sheldon G. Adelson, who died in 2021, has also made plans to fund a pro-Trump super PAC with at least as much money as the $90 million that her family gave in the 2020 campaign, although much of the cash has yet to arrive.

Mellon’s contributions follow Donald Trump‘s conviction in a hush money trial.

Critics argue that the case is politically motivated and based on an overly broad interpretation of campaign finance laws. They add that such payments are common among public figures seeking to avoid public scrutiny.

The Mellon family‘s wealth started when an Irish immigrant named Thomas Mellon founded T. Mellon & Sons’ Bank in Pittsburgh in 1869. His sons, Andrew W. Mellon and Richard B. Mellon, later grew the bank into a strong financial institution. This bank eventually became Mellon Financial Corporation, one of the largest banking institutions in the United States.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Andrew Mellon played a crucial role in financing and supporting key industries such as aluminum, oil, and steel, contributing to the growth of major corporations, such as Gulf Oil, and Union Steel. As secretary of the Treasury from 1921 to 1932, his influence shaped the economic policies of the 1920s, known as the Mellon Plan, which contributed to the economic boom of the decade.

National Photo Company Collection, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 2007, Mellon Financial Corporation merged with The Bank of New York to form BNY Mellon, one of the world’s largest asset management and securities services companies, preserving their 150-year legacy in banking and finance.

Article Published With The Permission of American Liberty News