The Conversation -- April 3, 2024
Ben Protess of the New York Times: "The judge overseeing Donald J. Trump's criminal case in Manhattan rejected his last-ditch bid to delay a trial beyond April 15, removing one of the final obstacles to the first prosecution of a former American president. Mr. Trump had asked the judge to delay the trial until after the Supreme Court rules on whether he is immune from prosecution on charges involving official acts he took while president, an issue that arose in another of his criminal cases.... The judge..., Juan M. Merchan, ruled that the trial did not need to wait for the Supreme Court. He denied Mr. Trump's effort as 'untimely,' ruling that he failed to request the delay by a legal deadline." The NBC News story is here.
Marie: I did not plan to link the following story because I'm so sick of Donald Trump's shenanigans, but because it got a mention in today's Comments, here ya go: ~~~
~~~ Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "... Donald Trump has sued the co-founders of Truth Social, alleging they mismanaged the social media platform early on and should therefore lose their stock in the company, which recently went public. In papers filed last week in Florida state court, Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. argued that executives Wes Moss and Andy Litinsky made a series of costly mistakes that resulted in a long delay in the company's going public and urged a judge to strip them of their shares in the company. The pair, who were contestants on Trump's NBC show 'The Apprentice,' had pitched him on the idea of Truth Social after he was banned from what was then known as Twitter following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol."
** The Russia Connection. Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's social media company Trump Media managed to go public last week only after it had been kept afloat in 2022 by emergency loans provided in part by a Russian-American businessman under scrutiny in a federal insider-trading and money-laundering investigation.... After regulators opened a securities investigation into [a merger agreement with Digital World Acquisition Corporation] in 2021..., Trump Media [took out] emergency loans, including from an entity called ES Family Trust, which opened an account with Paxum Bank, a small bank registered on the Caribbean island of Dominica that is best known for providing financial services to the porn industry.... ES Family Trust operated like a shell company for a Russian-American businessman named Anton Postolnikov, who co-owns Paxum Bank and has been a subject of a years-long joint federal criminal investigation by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) into the Trump Media merger.... Postolnikov appears to have used the trust to loan money to help save Trump Media -- and the Truth Social platform -- because his bank itself could not furnish the loan. Postolnikov [is] the nephew of Aleksandr Smirnov, an ally of ... Vladimir Putin...." (MB: This does not appear to be the same Alexander Smirnov, the suspected Russian asset whom the FBI charged in February for lying to the agency about Joe & Hunter Biden. But you gotta love the insider-trading, money-laundering the porn business connections. So Trumpy!) Thanks to RAS for the link.
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post reflects on Jack Smith's answer to Judge Aileen Cannon's odd order of a couple of weeks ago. Related story linked below.
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Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Biden on Tuesday called a decision by the Florida Supreme Court to uphold a restrictive abortion law 'outrageous' and 'extreme,' saying that it had effectively eliminated access to the procedure across the American South. The president said in a statement that the restrictions in Florida and others enacted by Republicans across the country 'are putting the health and lives of millions of women at risk.' But Mr. Biden said voters would 'have the opportunity to make their voices heard,' after the court ruled separately that Floridians would be able to decide on expanding abortion access in November. Mr. Biden's statement on the decision, which clears the way for a six-week abortion ban, came as his campaign and a host of Democratic officials began an all-out effort to pin responsibility for dwindling access to abortion care squarely on ... Donald J. Trump." ~~~
Tara Suter of the Hill: "A group of House Republicans want[s] to rename Washington Dulles International Airport after former President Trump.... Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), whose district partially includes Dulles, criticized the bill in a Tuesday post on X...[:] 'Donald Trump is facing 91 felony charges.... If Republicans want to name something after him, I'd suggest they find a federal prison." The Washington Post's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: If my local recycling center weren't so nice, I would be okay with naming it the Trump Dump. Maybe an EPA toxic waste site??
Senator Potato Head Is Not Normal. Steve Benen of MSNBC: "Sen. Tommy Tuberville recently campaigned for an ally in Utah, where the Alabama Republican made the case that supernatural forces were undermining the United States. 'I've traveled all over the country -- all 50 states -- I've been in good places and bad places,' the coach-turned-politician said. 'The one thing I saw, we are losing our kids to a Satanic cult.' The GOP lawmaker was apparently quite serious about this, adding, 'There's not one Democrat that can tell you they stand up for God.'... [In response to the fake news that President Biden had banned religious-themed egg decorations from a White House Easter egg roll competition, Tuberville wrote that] 'The Democrats are a Satanic cult.'... [Then, in response to a fake news story that President Biden had replaced Easter with Trans Day, Tuberville again wrote that] Democrats 'are a Satanic cult.'"
Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "Prosecutors and attorneys for Donald Trump submitted their hypothetical jury instructions in the classified-document case late Tuesday.... [Judge Aileen Cannon] last month ordered the defense lawyers and the prosecutors to file submissions outlining hypothetical jury instructions based on competing interpretations of two laws related to the case. Special counsel Jack Smith pushed back hard against the judge, saying that the jury instructions were based on a 'fundamentally flawed legal premise' and warned that he may appeal if the judge rules against him. Legal experts ... say the premise of Cannon's orders indulged some mangled interpretations of laws that have been pushed by Trump's lawyers and supporters.... Prosecutors suggested in their filings that they would appeal if Cannon decides to intertwine the [Presidential Records Act] with the Espionage Act in jury instructions. Trump is not charged with violating the PRA and prosecutors said throughout their filing that the PRA should not be in those instructions." ~~~
~~~ Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The unusual and risky move by the prosecutors, contained in a 24-page filing, signaled their mounting impatience with the judge, Aileen M. Cannon, who has allowed the case to become bogged down in a logjam of unresolved issues and curious procedural requests.... The prosecutors derided ... [Trump's brazen assertion] that he cannot be prosecuted for having taken home a trove of national security documents after leaving office because he transformed them into his own personal property under a law known as the Presidential Records Act.... [They said it was] one 'not based on any facts,' adding that it was a 'justification that was concocted more than a year after' Mr. Trump left the White House.... By appearing to adopt Mr. Trump's position on the Presidential Records Act, the judge seemed to be nudging any eventual jurors toward acquitting Mr. Trump or even leaving open the possibility that she herself could acquit the former president.... Almost from the moment she was assigned the case in June, Judge Cannon, who was appointed by Mr. Trump in his waning days in office, has handled the proceeding in an unorthodox manner." CNN's report is here. ~~~
~~~ The prosecutors' filing is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Sounds as if Cannon's proposed jury instructions go something like this: "You will be advised that I am dumber than a rock but totally in the bag for Trump. If you follow my instructions, as you are required to do, you must acquit Trump before the case-in-chief begins and you can go straight home. Thanking you in advance for your service. Adios."
Hankey-Panky. Michael Kranish & Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post: Don "Hankey, a [California billionaire and] Trump supporter who made a fortune providing high-interest auto loans to customers with poor credit..., reached out to Trump's team to negotiate a deal that would allow Trump to stay the [$450MM] penalty while he appealed a massive New York civil fraud judgment. But when a court reduced the bond to $175 million last week and Trump said he had the cash to post it himself, the matter seemed moot, Hankey told The Washington Post. Then, to his surprise, the Trump team last week revived the talks and asked Hankey if he would back the new amount. Hankey promptly agreed. He said that his company is charging Trump a 'modest fee,' which he declined to disclose, and that the arrangement allowed Trump to hold onto his money.... If Trump is elected, their relationship could come under new scrutiny if the government is involved in matters affecting Hankey's business." ~~~
~~~ Marie: What a surprise! Trump's billionaire angel is a creep who made his fortune taking advantage of poor people.
Presidential Race
Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump used his campaign event in Michigan on Tuesday to denounce what he called 'Biden's border bloodbath,' zeroing in on the case of a young woman killed by someone immigration officials say had entered the country illegally. 'She lit up that room, and I've heard that from so many people,' Trump said at a news conference in the hometown of the 25-year-old victim, Ruby Garcia. 'I spoke to some of her family.' But Garcia's sister, acting as a family spokeswoman, said Tuesday that Trump and his campaign have not contacted her or other immediate relatives -- and rebuked the GOP presidential nominee's effort to make the case part of his calls for a border crackdown....[Laken ]Riley, [-- a Georgia student allegedly murdered by an undocumented immigrant --] was 'barbarically murdered by an illegal alien animal,' Trump said Tuesday." Riley's family has embraced Trump. Politico's story is here.
"Start the Steal." A.B. Stoddard in the Bulwark: "There is a plan afoot to overturn the results of the November election, and for both parties it is fast becoming a major concern. The scheme is being hatched by Republicans on behalf of Donald Trump, who seeks to steal the election if Joe Biden defeats him again. The Biden campaign and an army of lawyers are working to thwart it.... Trump will declare victory on election night before all the votes are counted, as he did in 2020 -- and as we know he had planned before election night.... Should Biden prevail, Trump will claim the results were tainted -- by mail-in voting, machine voting, machine counting, ballot harvesting corrupt election officials, liberal cities, and illegal immigrants.... Republican-controlled legislatures in several key swing states -- Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin -- could throw the election."
Tuesday Primary Elections
Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "President Biden and ... Donald J. Trump won overwhelming victories in state primaries on Tuesday, while a small but significant protest vote in both parties continued to assert itself against each candidate. Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, who have already clinched their nominations, scored yawning leads in primaries in Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin, with the races called shortly after polls closed in each state. Mr. Trump held at least 75 percent of the vote in every state as of 11 p.m. But Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the race early last month, still took at least 10 percent of the vote in all four states.... Mr. Biden held at least 80 percent of the vote in every primary as of 11 p.m."
The turning point in American politics came when Republicans realized they didn’t need to be skillful liars — they just needed to be constant liars. The key was quantity, not quality.— Mark Jacob (@MarkJacob16) April 2, 2024
~~~ Thanks to RAS for the link.
Rebecca Solnit of the Guardian: "The US supreme court justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas cited the Comstock Act, named after the 19th-century anti-vice campaigner Anthony Comstock, in last week's case about access to the abortion pill mifepristone.... The Comstock Law has come up a lot lately, and it's part of the Republican war on sex ... -- against sex education, against access to birth control, against the healthcare provider Planned Parenthood and of course against abortion -- ... along with a war against the rights of women and on the rights and very existence of queer and trans people.... It's not a coincidence that the authoritarian right is obsessed with both the border and women's bodies; they'd like to increase the patrolling of both, and essentially shut them both down. It's an obsession with purity and control to be achieved by punitive and sometimes homicidally violent means."
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California Jesus Jiménez of the New York Times: "Newly released footage and audio recordings from a vehicle pursuit in September 2022 show that a 15-year-old girl who had been kidnapped by her father was fatally shot by gunfire from deputies as she followed their instructions to exit her father's truck. The girl, Savannah Graziano, was fatally shot on Sept. 27, 2022, off Interstate 15 in San Bernardino County, one day after the California Highway Patrol issued an Amber Alert that said her father, Anthony Graziano, 45, was believed to have abducted her, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department."
Georgia. Marie: You be the judge, but I don't think Kelby Vera of the Huffington Post gets it. She writes, "Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger [R]was so bothered by the depiction of the state's voting laws in 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' that he fired off a personal letter to star and creator, Larry David. During the 12th and final season, David ends up getting arrested after he passes off a bottle of water to his friend Leon's aunt while she waits in line to vote at her Atlanta precinct.... It seems Raffenspeger didn’t take kindly to the Georgia-inspired storyline...." But Raffensperger's letter to David is actually pretty funny, IMO, even as he tries to make the point that Georgia's most recent voter suppression law isn't as bad as David depicts it. Raffensperger writes, in part: "As the chief elections officer for the State of Georgia, we would like to congratulate you on becoming the first, and to our knowledge, only person arrested for distributing water bottles to voters within 150 feet of a polling station.... We apologize if you didn't receive celebrity treatment at the local jail. 'I'm afraid they've gotten used to bigger stars. It's the TMZ of mugshots."
Oklahoma. AP: "Voters in the northwest Oklahoma city of Enid ousted a city council member [Judd Blevins] with ties to white nationalism, according to unofficial results posted Tuesday on the Oklahoma Election Board website.... They instead selected Cheryl Patterson, a grandmother and longtime youth leader at an area church, to fill the seat. Blevins, an Iraq War veteran, was narrowly elected to the seat last year despite his ties to white nationalist groups. Blevins acknowledged at a community forum last week that he marched in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. He also admitted being connected to the now-defunct white supremacist group Identity Evropa. When asked at the forum to explain his involvement in the rally and his ties to Identity Evropa, he responded: 'Bringing attention to the same issues that got Donald Trump elected in 2016: securing America's borders, reforming our legal immigration system and, quite frankly, pushing back on this anti-white hatred that is so common in media entertainment.'" Thanks to Ken W. for the lead. MB: Judd, what works for the Orange Racist may not work for all racists.
Wisconsin. Patrick Marley of the Washington Post: "Wisconsin voters opted Tuesday to ban private funding for election administration, joining more than two dozen states that have ended or limited the practice after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife spent $350 million to help local governments run elections during the coronavirus pandemic. Voters approved an amendment to the state constitution to ban the donations, according to a tally of unofficial results by the Associated Press. They also approved a second proposal that limits who can perform election-related duties. Both measures were initiated by Republican state legislators."
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Israel/Palestine, et al.
The Washington Post's live updates of developments Wednesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel 'deeply regrets' the ... Israel Defense Forces strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza..., while the IDF said that the strike was a 'grave mistake' and the result of a 'misidentification.'... An Israeli delegation returned from cease-fire talks in Cairo after working with mediators on an updated proposal for Hamas, according to the prime minister's office. Hamas officials have not yet responded to the latest round of talks." MB: Seems to me Bibi has had more than 32,000 SNAFUs too many; it's time for him to get out and face his criminal trials. ~~~
~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Wednesday are here. CNN's live updates are here.
Matt Berg, et al., of Politico: "Israel's strike against aid workers trying to get food to residents in Gaza reverberated across Washington on Tuesday, particularly resonating because of the American death and the connections the group's founder -- José Andrés -- has to the capital. Administration officials lashed out at new levels, and Israel was left struggling for damage control.... The White House was 'outraged' to learn of the strike, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday. Still, Kirby said Washington would continue to support Israel's defense of itself, even while 'there are issues of deconfliction that clearly need to be fleshed out and improved.'" ~~~
~~~ President Biden's statement, via the White House, is here. ~~~
~~~ Nick Waters of bellingcat: "Seven aid workers were killed when their convoy was hit by an Israeli airstrike overnight, as it was leaving their Deir al-Balah warehouse, amid ongoing operations delivering aid supplies inside Gaza. The food charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) said they had coordinated the convoy's movements with the Israel Defense Forces.... The destroyed vehicles bear the hallmarks of a precision strike, which only the IDF has the capability to conduct in the region. Images from the aftermath of the strike show that the WCK vehicles were white and at least one had the WCK logo and name clearly marked on the roof.... Bellingcat geolocated two of the vehicles on a road identified by the UN's OCHA as being an 'Accessible Road for Humanitarian Aid,' while the third was in a field immediately next to this road.Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday the aid workers were killed in an 'unintended strike.'"
Cleve Wootson & Yasmeen Abutaleb of the Washington Post: "A group of six Muslim leaders will meet with President Biden and Vice President Harris on Tuesday evening to discuss U.S. policy in the Gaza Strip, after they were invited for a small Ramadan dinner but rejected such a gathering as inappropriate given the administration's continued support of Israel amid devastation in the territory. Biden initially invited the leaders for iftar, the meal in which Muslims break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday that the leaders 'expressed the preference' of a policy meeting, and the White House adjusted its plans to accommodate their request." ~~~
~~~ Update. Nandita Bose & Kanishka Singh of Reuters: "The White House held a scaled-down iftar dinner on Tuesday to celebrate Islam's holy month of Ramadan, after some invitees turned the president down over frustrations in the Muslim community over his policy toward the Israel-Gaza war. President Joe Biden met with Muslim leaders before having a small dinner with senior Muslim officials in his administration, first lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband [Doug Emhoff]."
Russia. Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "More than two weeks before terrorists staged a bloody attack [on Crocus City Hall] in the suburbs of Moscow, the U.S. government told Russian officials that [the] popular concert venue was a potential target, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The high degree of specificity conveyed in the warning underscores Washington's confidence that the Islamic State was preparing an attack that threatened large numbers of civilians, and it directly contradicts Moscow's claims that the U.S. warnings were too general to help preempt the assault. The U.S. identification of the Crocus concert hall as a potential target -- a fact that has not been previously reported -- raises new questions about why Russian authorities failed to take stronger measures to protect the venue, where gunmen killed more than 140 people and set fire to the building." MB: Listen, the GRU has other things to do: like undermining Ukraine & getting Donald Trump elected.
News Ledes
The Washington Post is live-updating developments following a 7.4 magnitude earthquake that hit Taiwan.
Washington Post: "The largest egg producer in the United States said Tuesday that it temporarily ceased operations at one of its Texas facilities after detecting bird flu in chickens -- the latest in a steady uptick of cases among U.S. farm animals in recent weeks. Cal-Maine Foods said it culled about 1.6 million hens and 337,000 pullets (young hens) after some of its chickens at a Parmer County, Texas, facility tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), caused by influenza A viruses that spread widely among wild and domestic birds. A dairy worker in Texas was being treated for the virus that causes avian influenza, becoming only the second known human case in the United States, state and federal officials said Monday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the person tested positive for H5N1 bird flu."
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Enid, Oklahoma, wakes up.
https://kfor.com/news/your-local-election-hq/oklahomans-go-to-the-polls-to-decide-city-races-school-board-posts-and-a-recall-vote/
Per the WAPO. "Hankey said the bond, which was provided by one of his companies, a subsidiary of Knight Insurance, was a good business deal, not a political statement."
Business again playing Pontius Pilate.
Business decisions ARE political statements, Mr. Hankey. That's one of the main reasons the country is on such shaky ground.
Of course there is another Russia connection.
"Trump Media saved in 2022 by Russian-American under criminal investigation
Trump’s social media company went public relying partly on loans from trust managed by person of interest to prosecutors
Trump Media almost did not make it to the merger after regulators opened a securities investigation into the merger in 2021 and caused the company to burn through cash at an extraordinary rate as it waited to get the green light for its stock market debut.
The situation led Trump Media to take emergency loans, including from an entity called ES Family Trust
the Guardian has learned that ES Family Trust operated like a shell company for a Russian-American businessman named Anton Postolnikov, who co-owns Paxum Bank and has been a subject of a years-long joint federal criminal investigation by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) into the Trump Media merger.
The concern surrounding the loans to Trump Media is that ES Family Trust may have been used to complete a transaction that Paxum itself could not.
Paxum Bank does not offer loans in the US as it lacks a US banking license and is not regulated by the FDIC. Postolnikov appears to have used the trust to loan money to help save Trump Media – and the Truth Social platform – because his bank itself could not furnish the loan.
Postolnikov, the nephew of Aleksandr Smirnov, an ally of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin"
More Trump Media Mishegas
Business according to the Trump playbook:
Think up a scam, bring in people to set it up for you, then screw them over.
So here’s Mr. Stable Genius Billionaire Businessman with this newly minted stock in a media company that loses a million dollars a week. For a very short amount of time—easily measured in hours—he was worth (on paper) billions. But in a matter of a few days, he lost a billion dollars. What to do? Trump playbook sez “Blame someone else and fire or sue them, then refuse to pay them for their work”.
Yes! That’s the answer. I can’t be made to look like a ridiculous incompetent loser! I have to pin the blame on someone else.
So now he’s suing his Trump Media partners to grab back their share of ownership.
But I’m thinking there’s more to this than just pointing a tiny finger at someone else. With the stock price tanking, Fatty needs to quickly steal back as much of that stock as he can before his latest loser venture is delisted (like the last time a DJT stock hit the market. And when I say “hit”, I mean hit like a body hitting the sidewalk after a fall from the Empire State Building 86th floor observation deck).
So here’s the thing. According to the rules, the Tangerine Con Man can’t sell his rapidly degrading stock for six months, by which time each share will probably be worth less than a stick of gum. Unless!!…
Unless his board of directors sez so. (Seriously kids, why have rules if they can be kicked to the curb without a second thought? This is why Wall Street is littered with fucking crooks like Trump.)
And who is on the board of Trump Media? Glad you asked.
Trump cronies! Yeah! You got Don (eightball) Jr., Kash Patel, who has been running scams of his own, Linda McMahon, wife of sex trafficker and Trump contributor, wrestling douchebag Vince McMahon, and other former Trump administration scumbags. So…as long as “The Board” (*cough-cough*) sez it’s okay to sell those stocks right now, Fatty can cash out. Of course, because the only reason dimwits and sycophants bought stock in this loser company was because of Trump, the second he cashes out (he owning the single biggest share in the company), that stock will crash. He’ll leave all those people holding the bag while he skates away with their money. They get nothing. He gets it all.
The whole reason behind the Trump playbook.
Oh, that and blaming others for his failures.
The Word of God, according to Donald Trump.
Funny, right? Not really. Pushing his latest scam, the Trump Bible (the only Bible endorsed by Trump—isn’t this a little like the only Torah endorsed by Heinrich Himmler?), Trump, a walking repository of deadly sins, writes, on his broke-ass social media site "Happy Holy Week! Let's Make America Pray Again. As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless the USA Bible,"
“Let’s MAKE America pray again.” Hmmm…how does he intend to force Americans to pray? And to whom?
But this ominous statement isn’t enough for Mr. Christian Nationalist:
"All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many. It's my favorite book,"
All Americans? What about Muslims? Buddhists? Atheists?
Oh, but see…in Christian Nationalist ideology, they’re not Americans. Not real Americans, anyway. We’ll leave aside that knee slapper about how Fatty owns a load of Bibles and how it’s his favorite book. I know two Corinthians who might suggest otherwise, not to mention ghostwriter Tony Schwartz who wrote the Orange Monster’s “Art of the Deal”. He noted that in all the time he spent with Trump, in his numerous abodes, he never saw a single book. Not a one.
No amount of complaining about the rank hypocrisy of a fat crook hawking Bibles matters to the holy rollers who see him as their way to crush democracy and institute a Sam Alito style theocracy.
A review of a new film “Bad Faith”, in Variety, points to one possible reason:
“The documentary fills in their longstanding justification: that Trump is seen as a modern-day version of King Cyrus, a pagan who God used as a tool to help the people. According to this mode of opportunistic logic, Trump doesn’t need to be a pious Christian; his very recklessness makes him part of a grander design. The Christian Nationalists view Trump much as his disgruntled base of working-class nihilist supporters have always viewed him — as a kind of holy wrecking ball.”
It’s classic transactional Trump thinking. You help me steal back the presidency, and I’ll give you power over the heathens. All sticky wickets on the path to theocracy cleared by the Trump wrecking ball.
And speaking of, um, sticky things…it’s been noted that the Trump Bible has sticky pages. Someone has been reading the naughty parts again and maybe enjoying them too much?
I am not even kidding. The Trump Bible website has a FAQ that addresses the, um, sticky page issue.
Ewww.
All the best pages, I guess. Still, while a sticky page Bible might be kinda funny, the rest is pretty goddam scary.