I've had people say it's a hardening, actually ~ US presidential election 2016 part 9/11 never forget

FWIW, the other two debates does about 60 million on average. None of those viewing numbers included people viewing online or outside the home or country.

Perhaps Clinton should make an attempt at a little originality, put the plane in front.

If Trump really wants attention, he and his plane should disappear over the Pacific.

more fun reporting about the Trump foundation:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-used-258000-from-his-charity-to-settle-legal-problems/2016/09/20/adc88f9c-7d11-11e6-ac8e-cf8e0dd91dc7_story.html

Lol Trump "standing by Christie" as he goes down in flames, smooth operator there. Thats bound to bump up his poll numbers!

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yikes

sometimes i feel like i am too familiar w/ josh marshall, like i know him personally or something

Isn't he interested in real estate opportunities? Maybe he can run for the President of Mars instead. He can open up the first hotel and casino for white people there. It will be just amazing.

In 2013, for instance, the foundation gave $25,000 to a political group supporting Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R). That gift was made around the same time that Bondi’s office was considering whether to investigate fraud allegations against Trump University. It didn’t.

Tax laws say nonprofits such as the Trump Foundation may not make political gifts. Trump staffers blamed the gift on a clerical error. After The Post reported on the gift to Bondi’s group this spring, Trump paid a $2,500 penalty tax and reimbursed the Trump Foundation for the $25,000 donation.

Jesus

Money is such an awesome cheat code.

up up down down check for $25k select start

> I guess that Washington Hatcats football rule failed last year for the first time since 1932

Let's just hope we don't eventually have to reinvoke the curse of Tenskwatawa.

One was of Marilyn Monroe. The other was a four foot-tall portrait of Trump: a younger-looking, mid-’90s Trump, painted in acrylic on top of an old architectural drawing.

Trump bought it for $10,000.

Afterward, Schanz recalled in an email, “he asked me about the painting. I said, ‘I paint souls, and when I had to paint you, I asked your soul to allow me.’ He was touched and smiled.”

I wonder if in the end Trump's biggest strategic mistake will be picking a fight with the WaPo, since their guy seems to be the only one actively and enthusiastically (and entertainingly) investigating all his shady charities. Well, him and Rob Tannenbaum.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-used-258000-from-his-charity-to-settle-legal-problems/2016/09/20/adc88f9c-7d11-11e6-ac8e-cf8e0dd91dc7_story.html

Oh, there it is , upthread, sorry.

yeah Fahrenthold has been incredible these last couple of weeks. a true American hero. even better since everything he's using is publicly available information. nice to see someone actually doing their jobs for a change.

not that it fucking matters though

I know it's old news, but this Florida AG thing is incredible.

Giving back the contribution also was never seriously considered, she said.

"If I had returned it, you would have reported, 'Bondi accepted bribe, got caught, and returned it,'" she said. "There was nothing improper about it, so there was no reason to return it."

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/pam-bondi-breaks-silence-says-she-has-no-regrets-about-taking-donald/2294336

Even supposing that it wasn't a bribe, it was an illegal donation, so there was something improper about it. Basically she's saying that she for the sake of her own image she didn't care about correcting a misappropriation of charitable funds.

I think Trump is ultimately going to find that running for president was his biggest strategic mistake. He could have continued being a venal choad relatively under the radar for the rest of his life, but now he has all eyes on him and people publicly picking apart his entire life, business and otherwise. Sure, he now has a slew of similar human shitbags hanging on his every word, but what does that ultimately gain him when he loses the presidency? A lot of them are going to lose interest once he's been undeniably branded a loser. The Trump brand is garbage with a sizable percentage of people now. As seems to be perpetually the case, he's his own worst enemy, and I hope he reaps every last bit of the shit he's been sowing.

No way. He's going to make millions out of this.

he's not going to live to be 90, and there seems to be little evidence that he gaf when anyone thinks poorly of him

how so? I would think this damages his brand pretty badly. plus lawsuits.

xp

howbout that Trump News Network rumor? or was it started here, bcz i suspect many of you wd watch whenever possible.

yeah he's probably learned that right-wing figureheads/pundits can actually make money from the followers --- there's a whole cottage industry devoted to whipping up the base that doesn't exist on the left

sometimes i like to tell myself that trump's whole campaign is just his own 'springtime for hitler'

It changes his brand. He can make millions in the event driven economy. True though the fallout for his current businesses could be expensive and hard to unwind.

im hesitant to do the armchair diagnosing that we all like to do but i think a true narcissistic dude like trump will never view anything he does as a mistake... any struggle, challenge or failure is someone else's fault or malice against him hence "the system is rigged" "the failing nytimes is so unfair" etc

This is the reason why gop primary season is such a shitshow. It's so profitable to run for their nomination.

I think Trump is ultimately going to find that running for president was his biggest strategic mistake.

i disagree, he's become a hero to 40% of the population and im sure he finds that very gratifying

was it profitable for Jeb! ?

No but he wasn't part of the shitshow in that sense. I'm talking about trump and the kids table debaters. Fox et al have created financial incentives for weak/insane candidates to run.

xxpost Like I say, let's see how many hangers-on he has when he's no longer running for president.

There have been real-world (read: non-ILX) rumors about a Trump news network floating for a while, but I can't see it happening. Dude's an idiot who thinks he's a smart, and his approach to everything he wants to do is "I'm gonna do that." You ask him how he's going to make this new network a reality and he'll say something like, "Hard work. I'm gonna build the most beautiful news network, the best." He doesn't have a fucking plan or any idea of what's actually entailed in reifying something like that.

has anyone had a glass of Trump wine?

He didn't have a plan for running for president either. His target market doesn't require one.

If Trump paying off his legal bills with Charity money doesn't pop off as a story we are truly fucked

it hasn't and it won't

seemed like it had momentum this morning

People don't care about those things, nor the 40-year, $3 billion Clinton hustle.

the new york times seems to have studiously avoiding covering anything that seems like a washington post scoop, so they're not running with it

yeah I noticed that too, some weird territorialism going on - WaPo's aggressive stance against Trump has been fairly admirable, I must admit.

Fifty mor p eople Trump will ignore: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/20/us/politics/donald-trump-business-reaction.html

*more people

lol @ Wolfowitz being concerned about conflicts of interest in the White House

There have been real-world (read: non-ILX) rumors about a Trump news network floating for a while, but I can't see it happening. Dude's an idiot who thinks he's a smart, and his approach to everything he wants to do is "I'm gonna do that." You ask him how he's going to make this new network a reality and he'll say something like, "Hard work. I'm gonna build the most beautiful news network, the best." He doesn't have a fucking plan or any idea of what's actually entailed in reifying something like that.

trump will have almost nothing to do with building it. someone w/ an actual plan will license his name, just like everything else 'trump' in the universe.

I'm not sure how Trump is "relatively under the radar" - relative to who? This only worked because of his fame compared with everyone else on stage.

I hear roger ailes is available to run this piece of shit network.

is launching a TV network in this day and age actually a money-making proposition? seems like a loss leader to me

glenn beck has his own 'over-the-top' channel; i'd think a trump + breitbart thing would work easily

I think I saw Venal Choad open for Dinosaur Jr at the 9:30 back in '85.

if it kept production costs low (mostly talking heads sitting behind desks or in armchairs) then a trump cable channel could probably make a profit just fine