Donald Trump: Classic or Dud?

Weird aside about that Jon Lovitz sketch. I had a family friend at the time who used to go around saying "yeah, that's the ticket." He was in his teens and I was about 6 years old, so I didn't have the frame of reference for SNL. But I looked up to this kid and started saying it on my own. Trump's screed led me to look up the Lovitz bit on YouTube, and as soon as he started talking, I realized that this was the origin of that phrase.

....I thought it was a three stooges thing...

Good point. Lovitz didn't create the phrase, but I'm pretty sure that's where my friend got it. I remember it coming into my lexicon in 1985 or 86.

...I think a similar thing happened with "you dirty rat"... originally a 30s gangster line (cagney? robinson?), but had a later revival in the 80s, maybe also from snl?

I think maybe “you dirty rat” was reintroduced into the popular lexicon by the fast-talking Michael Keaton character in “Johnny Dangerously”?

and bugs bunny probably.

i feel like rich little kept things alive for decades. definitely bogey.

Also "You dirty rat" was famously not actually said on screen.

you dirty rat = cagney impersonators

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVFRI0h5NFw

The line from Blonde Crazy (1931) is "Oh, that dirty, double-crossin' rat! I'd like to get my hooks on him. I'd tear him to pieces!" Hack impressions reduced it to "You dirty rat!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXxZCrM04uI

Also, from Taxi! (1932): "Come out and take it, ya dirty, yellow-bellied rat, or I'll give it to ya through the door!"

love how this thread is devolving

trump: a dirty rat

buncha headlines today about how Trump just made billions from some merger, I'm sure that's legit

https://images-cdn.bridgemanimages.com/api/1.0/image/600wm.REU.48410580.7055475/8498305.jpg

Theoretically he has, but not exactly. Two good threads by Mitchell Epner with the details:

https://bsky.app/profile/mitchellepner.bsky.social/post/3koc6yudg7c2l

https://bsky.app/profile/mitchellepner.bsky.social/post/3kocdvboqms23

TL; DR: lots of restrictions and even his own hand-picked board would basically be risking their own money in general if they gave him everything, and even then the value itself is not exactly clear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNwPWQcnypo

That said, Epner notes the board can potentially do something but there are still weird pitfalls (more in his replies, which may not be open to all — a key point, believe it or not, is that Don Jr can’t be involved). Backtrack from here:

https://bsky.app/profile/mitchellepner.bsky.social/post/3kocknljjkv2b

So DWAC (the company Trump is sweatily hoping to merge Truth Social with) lost 13% of its already imaginary share price today. As someone said on Bluesky, "remind me, is it a good idea to announce that a pump and dump is a pump and dump before the dump phase?"

"You've got to prime the pump before the dump...Prime The Pump...what a phrase...I invented it... nobody said it before me...Prime The Pump before the dump...such massive dumping...many people are saying they've never seen a Pump and Dump so large..."

Proverbs 16:18 KJV - Pump goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a dump.

“TRUMP PUMP DUMP! TRUMP PUMP DUMP!” to reifenstahl-ish footage of gop convention

The thread is taking a turn that reminds me of dialogue in a George Saunders story, but I’m not looking it up

I don’t know his work yet, but being from Texas, going to Mines, then doing straight documentation, and then being a creative writer is a story itself

When you've got even Charles Gasparino going 'uh' you know it's all bad over there in Trump finance world. A lot of usual whining but this bit is interesting:

As I first reported, Trump advisers are weighing whether to turn over all the properties to James and let her figure out the complexities of ownership, including his limited partners, until she gets to Trump’s share. By the time that happens, the case may have been successfully overturned on appeal.

boldstrategycotton.gif etc.

"You've got to prime the pump before the dump...Prime The Pump...what a phrase...I invented it... nobody said it before me...Prime The Pump before the dump...such massive dumping...many people are saying they've never seen a Pump and Dump so large..."

I mean, it could be, right?

He did claim to invent the phrase "prime the pump." Gah, kill me now, this timeline....

I made up the quote using parts taken from real quotes and known tropes.

Credit where due: this is funny, and imagining the all-night stream of Truth Social posts it will inspire is even funnier.

Congratulations, Donald. Quite the accomplishment. pic.twitter.com/nyDivqPwoI

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 25, 2024

the fix is in

Breaking: New York appeals court judge grants stay of judgment in Trump's fraud case, gives him 10 days to post reduced bond of $175 million. pic.twitter.com/yyq3gPO5DW

— Graham Kates (@GrahamKates) March 25, 2024

*wriggle*

Eh, not completely. He wanted to only pay $100 million for the bond, and $175 million has gotta hurt on top of the near $100 million he kicked down already for Carroll. Being down $300 million when his actual estimated worth is around $350 million is, how you say, amusing.

Per NYT reporting out of the NY court case hearing, Trump's lead lawyer just got rubbished big time. Probably not a good idea when the judge is saying things like this!

Merchan is now asking Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche about his background as an assistant United States attorney, and telling him that he should have known that he could immediately seek the documents he wanted from federal prosecutors. “For whatever reason, you waited until two months before trial,” the judge says.

--

Justice Merchan is taking it a step further: suggesting that the Trump team was aware it wanted documents and didn’t ask for them for a long time.

$175m will not hurt. he can put up someone else's money at that amount. this eliminates the PR problem of losing real estate, but also eliminates the actual problem in an election year of losing all his cash.

he can put up someone else's money at that amount.

Well, someone actually has to give it to him first. The Carroll bond was secured by collateral in some big Schwab account, per that paperwork.

Also in reading the order, the independent monitor plus the new director of compliance roles stay in place, which delights me because they clearly hate that.

little thread on how worthless Truth Social actually is

1. Can we talk for a minute about how poorly Truth Social is performing?

In its November 2021 pitch to investors, Truth Social estimated it would have 41 million users in 2023 and 56 million in 2024

It actually had 8.9 million "sign-ups" through 2/14/24 pic.twitter.com/itRPHP5HOs

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 25, 2024

Anyway, Merchan rules from the bench, dismisses all the defense attempts, and the hush-money trial is now set for April 15th. It's pretty clear in his words to Trump's lawyer Todd Blanche earlier that any further attempt on their part to delay things will get shot down.

(The 15th is three weeks from today, etc. etc.)

donnie rambling outside court at the moment.

He'll be doing a lot of that over the next couple of months!

donnie rambling outside court at the moment.

My freedom I hold dear
How years ago in days of old
When greatness filled the air
'T was in the darkest depths of 'Merica
I won a election so fair
But Biden, and the evil ones
Crept up and slipped away with it

Ramble, Donnie, ramble

speaking of truth social, i keep reading that trump is about to make 3.5 billion off it? i'm a financial dummy (on purpose - i believe the love of money actually is the root of all evil), but even if truth social is worthless and he only gets 1.5 billion of it (or whatever), why can't he use that money to pay off the hundreds of millions he owes? is it because it's due this month? i feel like ol donny would be able to convince someone who has too much money to cover him for now and then pay them back with the truth social windfall, but that must be wrong because no one's talking about it and it seems obvious

(jeez, "good ol donny" - this guy's existence led to several hundreds of thousands of people dying that didn't have to die, and yet that's what i call him. god what a horrible fucker he is)

I think because he won’t be able to cash that stock in for months and it likely won’t be worth as much as people are speculating right now.

oh didn't he ramble
oh didn't he raaaamble
he rambled 'till the butchers cut him down

(we hope)

ramble tamble dissemble

z_tbd, his stock becomes worth $3.5bn only as part of a deal that forbids him from selling the stock for 6 months.

I don't understand how Truth Social is worth anything, it loses money hand over fist, has very few actual users, and will be completely dead whenever Trump kicks the bucket

it's a convenient vehicle to transfer bribes to someone with a 50% chance of being the next president