Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) will deliver the keynote speech at the RNC on Wednesday night, marking his first full-length public appearance after Donald Trump selected him as a vice presidential candidate.
Continue reading “JD Vance To Elegize Own Dignity On Night Three of RNC”Please Take a Moment to Read This Very Important Post
Thank you for taking the time to read this note.
Today we are kicking off our fifth annual TPM Journalism Fund drive.
We plan these drives months in advance. So let me start by saying we had no way of knowing that we’d be launching in the midst of what has been perhaps the most chaotic, bewildering, and often agonizing three-week stretch in our political life in recent memory. After we’d processed launching during the post-debate frenzy, then came last weekend’s Trump rally shooting. I say this simply to note that we’re fully cognizant of the fact that it may seem jarring to be holding a drive in this current news moment. But in an odd way, it all fits with our drive’s focus this year, which is on “preparing TPM for what’s next.”
The success of our drive last year made possible all sorts of big, exclusive stories — like our expose of SACR, the Trumpist secret society of white Christian men prepping for a “national divorce,” the Ken Chesebro document trove that shed new light on the fake electors scheme, our profile of a tough-talking sheriff taking on the neo-nazis who surged into central Florida, or our look, before anyone else was looking, at the surreal, extreme post-2020 world of the man who became the GOP nominee for governor of North Carolina. It’s also made possible what I believe has been unparalleled, deeply knowledgeable coverage of the Trump trials from Josh Kovensky and of the right-wing judiciary from Kate Riga.
I’m sure we’ll have more big exclusives like these over the next year. But when we say “preparing for what’s next,” we mean something slightly different, more expansive. At this moment, we very much don’t know what’s next. I don’t mean the lead-up to the November election. No one knows what the next three and a half months hold, but our team has been preparing for a campaign in which literally almost anything is possible for months. We’re ready for all of that. I’m talking about what comes after that, which is very much up in the air at this moment.
So what we mean is fortifying and strengthening TPM for the long haul, to be able to react, grapple with, make sense of any number of future possibilities. In the last three weeks, especially, I’ve had so many TPM readers reach out to me and say they’ve found the site as valuable and as necessary as it’s ever been precisely now — not just for our efforts to explain, as best as we’re able, the unprecedented, but to do so with a unique steadiness and transparency about our reasoning. While I’m admittedly biased, I believe TPM is a unique beacon in the journalistic firmament, an oasis for our community and a source of news and insights that spread far beyond our virtual pages. We want to make TPM strong enough — financially, editorially, legally — for whatever comes next.
That’s what this year’s drive is about. So I hope you will be able to contribute in whatever amount you feel able to. Let me add that in addition to keeping TPM robust and vital, the Journalism Fund is what provides the resources that allow us to provide free memberships to TPM Readers who cannot afford a subscription as well as to any registered student. Last week we held our first of what we hope will be many TPM community happy hours in New York and in other cities. And a reader came up to me and told me she had one of these free memberships and thanked me personally. I told her that was very nice of her to say but that it was our pleasure and, really, the thanks goes to our larger community, which makes them possible. But it was gratifying to hear because this part of our financial model is part of what makes me proud of what we do and of our community.
Publications around the country are shuttering, retrenching, laying off employees, getting sold to private equity funds. We’re not. This year, like last year, our goal is to raise $500,000 for the drive. Last year I made clear that it was critical that we reach that number. And we did. For reasons tied specifically to 2023, the wolf was truly at the door. And that is not the case this year. But let’s be honest: the wolf lives in a co-op down the street from TPM. He’s never far away. So this year’s drive remains very important. We aim to and believe we can strengthen the financial footing of the organization, get ready for what comes next and even modestly expand. And that’s the spirit in which we’re coming to you today
If you’re ready to join us in this year’s drive just click right here.
Thank you so much in advance.
Schiff Makes It Public
Over the weekend, shortly before a gunman fired on former President Trump, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) told a crowd gathered at a New York fundraiser that if President Biden remained at the top of Democrats’ 2024 ticket, the party would suffer significant losses down-ballot.
Continue reading “Schiff Makes It Public”Timing
I don’t know what will happen. But if party leaders are going to move to have Biden step aside, I think it’s going to happen right now. It is really the last time it can happen. And the key is that whatever happens has to happen and be done and then all Democrats get behind the candidate, whoever it is, and move forward.
My two cents is that it can only be Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.
Update: To clarify the meaning here, I don’t mean we’re going to see some announcement today. I’m not saying there’s going to be one ever. What I’m saying is that the optimal and really the last time to make a real attempt to persuade Joe Biden to leave in the race is in the days just after the RNC. And if that’s going to happen the key events leading to that have to happen now.
Trump Media Made a Deal That Could Secure a Major Financial Windfall for the GOP Candidate
This article first appeared at ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
After markets closed the day before the Fourth of July holiday, former President Donald Trump’s social media company made a disclosure that got little notice.
“The Company entered into the Standby Equity Purchase Agreement,” Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind Trump’s Truth Social platform, said in a filing.
The jargon represented a major development that allows Trump Media to create and sell up to $2.5 billion worth of new shares. The plan, securities experts said, is a way for the company to convert its astronomical value on paper into actual cash. That could secure a windfall for Trump, who owns a majority of the company. Even if excitement for the stock deflates, his company might still retain billions in cash value.
Trump Media has seen its value on paper skyrocket into the billions despite losing money and having almost no revenue, thanks to enthusiasm from Trump supporters who are betting the former president will return to the White House.
Trump’s nearly 60% stake in the company represents the majority of his personal fortune, according to Forbes’ estimate.
Any sale of shares by the company could help the former president solve two problems that stand in the way of transforming what is now a $4 billion stake on paper in the company into something more tangible, experts said. A so-called “lockup” agreement prevents Trump from personally selling his shares in the company until late September. Even after that point, many observers believe a move by Trump to sell shares could be interpreted as a vote of no confidence in the company by its owner and namesake, spooking other investors and sparking a sell-off that would crash the company’s share price.
Trump Media declined to answer detailed questions from ProPublica, including whether the company intended to limit public attention by announcing the agreement after hours before the holiday.
“These outlandish and nonsensical conspiracy theories about TMTG’s routine, transparent business practices constitute legally actionable defamation, and we will take legal action in response,” a Trump Media spokesperson said in a statement.
The spokesperson did not immediately respond to a follow-up question about the statement.
Shares of a company are essentially slices of a pie. If a company wants to raise cash, it can re-slice the pie, creating more slices but making existing slices smaller. The percentage stake of the company represented by each share shrinks.
There are a number of ways a company can raise money by selling shares. A traditional version involves the company hiring an investment bank such as J.P. Morgan to play middleman. The bank finds big investors like pension funds to buy the new shares of the company.
Trump Media has chosen a different route, one more common with small, high-risk “penny stock” companies as well as “meme stock” companies, whose shares are the subject of Reddit-fueled hype and speculation by retail traders, experts said.
This alternative route is attractive to companies that might be seen as too risky by top investment banks or that believe that the demand for their stock will be driven by a fan base of retail traders.
Instead of hiring J.P. Morgan or another bank, Trump Media has entered into a deal to sell stock with a small New Jersey financial firm called Yorkville Advisors.
The firm has done similar deals with a number of small biotech companies, such as a firm trying to develop “cannabinoid pharmaceuticals” to treat autism and Alzheimer’s. In 2021 it inked a high-profile deal with a meme stock electric vehicle startup called Lordstown Motors, whose stock has crashed from a peak of more than $400 to under $2 today.
Companies like Yorkville that offer such deals are not typically intending to hold on to the stock, experts said. They are playing a version of the middleman role, allowing Trump Media to easily sell shares when it wants to. The basic arrangement works like this: Trump Media has the option to sell Yorkville shares of itself up to $2.5 billion, a significant chunk of its current market value. Yorkville was paid a fee up front, and if Trump Media decides to sell shares, Yorkville will also get a discount — 2.75% — off the market price. Yorkville typically would turn around and immediately sell those shares to other buyers, pocketing the difference.
In the July 3 press release announcing the deal, Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes, the Republican former congressman, suggested any share sale would be used to buy assets to build the company’s business. “We’ve secured a great deal to guarantee access to additional capital, if necessary, to pursue big strategic opportunities as we look to build out our portfolio by acquiring assets and technologies in the Patriot economy,” he said.
Xavier Kowalski, a securities lawyer who teaches at the University of Florida, said even if Trump Media didn’t spend the cash it raised building its social media business, “you could think of it as a diversification strategy: diversifying away from Truth Social and into just being a pot of cash.”
The company would have no obligation to spend the money purchasing an asset. It could distribute cash to shareholders — including Trump — in the form of a dividend, for example.
Kowalski and other experts said Trump Media would be following other meme stocks if it moves forward with a share sale. “Is this what I would expect for a company that is losing money and a stock that most people think is overvalued? Yes,” he said.
Yorkville did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The deal’s ultimate impact on existing shareholders is unclear. The creation of new shares means their shares represent a smaller percentage stake of the company. But if Trump Media uses the money to, for example, buy a company that brings in significant profits, that could create stability for the value of Trump Media long term.
Other meme stocks have taken similar approaches, with mixed results. The CEO of AMC, the theater chain whose shares soared during the pandemic because of a Reddit-fueled buying spree, defended issuing new shares: “Now, if you thought — well, dilution is bad. Then, you were wrong, because foolish dilution is bad. Smart dilution is smart. And our share price went up.”
But frequently deals that dilute shares hurt existing shareholders. In its filing announcing the deal, Trump Media acknowledged as much: “There are substantial risks to stockholders as a result of the sale and issuance of shares to Yorkville. … These risks include the potential for substantial dilution and significant declines in the share price of the Company’s securities.”
At least in the short term, the deal seems to have had that effect. The company made another filing about the deal Monday, and this one seems to have caught investors’ attention, with shares falling about 10% in after-hours trading immediately after Monday’s announcement.
Alex Mierjeski contributed research.
Do you have any information about Trump Media that we should know? Justin Elliott can be reached by email at justin@propublica.org or by Signal or WhatsApp at 774-826-6240. Robert Faturechi can be reached by email at robert.faturechi@propublica.org and by Signal or WhatsApp at 213-271-7217.
Biden Relents And Elevates Supreme Court Reform To His Re-Election Agenda
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
The Supreme Court Is Now On The Ballot
It’s hard to know the precise combination of developments that changed President Biden’s mind about Supreme Court reforms and prompted him to place them more centrally in the framework of the 2024 election.
Was it the ethics scandals of Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and the Supreme Court’s own ineptitude in dealing with them? Was it the series of controversial decisions across a whole host of issues and areas of civic life in which the court wrested power away from the executive and legislative branches and placed it firmly in the judicial branch? Was it the six-justice conservative majority aggressively uprooting the court’s own precedents in pursuit of its own preferred legal and policy outcomes? Was it the fact that he’s trailing in the polls with his own re-election more at risk that at any previous point in his presidency?
All of the above are in play, of course. A tipping point was reached, and it’s unlikely any one development was the difference-maker.
The shift, first reported by the Washington Post, was revealed over the weekend in a call Biden had with the Congressional Progressive Caucus:
“I’m going to need your help on the Supreme Court, because I’m about to come out — I don’t want to prematurely announce it — but I’m about to come out with a major initiative on limiting the court. … I’ve been working with constitutional scholars for the last three months, and I need some help,” Biden said, according to a transcript of the call obtained by The Washington Post.
The NYT separately confirmed that Biden’s “proposals to overhaul the court … could be unveiled in the coming weeks.”
Among the menu of choices Biden is reported to be considering:
- term limits for the justices;
- imposing an enforceable ethics code; and
- Relatedly, backing a constitutional amendment to reverse the effect of the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity.
Late addition: I meant to note that enlarging the court beyond its current nine-justice setup does not appear to be among Biden’s proposals.
None of these measures will pass the GOP-controlled House, though they could serve as messaging vehicles on the Hill between now and the election. More importantly, they elevate Supreme Court reforms to his second term agenda, creating the opportunity for the November election to be a referendum on the high court and create legislative momentum if Biden wins. Even then, it’ll be a very heavy lift.
This is a long-game move, that also offers a few short-term political advantages.
What SCOTUS Hath Wrought
Federal prosecutors are beginning to drop obstruction charges against some Jan. defendants, including Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Fischer limiting the scope of the obstruction statute, the Washington Post reports.
The ‘Not Biden’ Contingent Is Running Out Of Time
An effort originally intended to insure that Republicans couldn’t keep President Biden off the November ballot in some states has now become a potential focal point for the nebulous effort to replace Biden as the Democratic nominee:
- David Weigel: Democratic rush to confirm Biden in ‘virtual vote’ sets up early test for opposition
- David Dayen: Biden Opponents Have Six Days to Get Him Out of the Race
The intra-party Biden opposition remains fragmented and disorganized, so it remains unclear whether this approaching “deadline” will have any kind of catalyzing effect.
A Recurring Critique
It’s long been a knock on President Biden that he is over-reliant on a tight circle of longtime loyal advisers who exert too much control over access to him and over his access to outside information. Not surprising that in the current environment that particular criticism is coming up again:
- WaPo: Biden allies worry he is not getting complete information about race
- NYT: Biden Circle Shrinks as Democrats Fear Election Wipeout
Ouch
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the leading Democratic in the U.S. Senate race, privately told donors Saturday (before the assassination attempt on Trump) that Republicans could sweep if Biden remains as nominee, the NYT reported:
“I think if he is our nominee, I think we lose,” Mr. Schiff said during the meeting, according to a person with access to a transcription of a recording of the event. “And we may very, very well lose the Senate and lose our chance to take back the House.”
Piecing Together The Secret Service Failure
WaPo:
Local police who were assigned by the Secret Service to help spot threats in the crowd at Donald Trump’s rally Saturday were inside the building where a gunman had positioned himself on the roof to shoot at the former president, according to a Secret Service official briefed on the incident.
From inside the Agr International building, they spotted a man acting furtively, walking back and forth around the building with some gear, and radioed a Secret Service command post to alert them, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.
The Threat Matrix
- Federal authorities are warning of the possibility of additional violence in the aftermath of the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
- The Secret Service had already stepped up security measures for Trump before Saturday’s shooting in response to intel reports warning of a potential Iranian assassination plot against him. There is zero indication that the incident in Pennsylvania was connected to the suspected Iranian plot.
Sen. Menendez Convicted On All Counts
Following Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez’s conviction yesterday in Manhattan in his public corruption case, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on him to resign. Censure or expulsion remain options if Menendez refuses to step down.
This About Sums It Up
Cognitive Dissonance Alert
With Republicans gather to make a convicted felon still facing three other criminal cases their nominee, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) baldy declared: “We in the Republican Party are the law and order team.”
Just You Wait
John Ganz on JD Vance:
I’ve described the current condition of the United States as a “politics of national despair.” We can see the two sides of that—rage and resignation—so clearly in recent days: the Democratic party seems to have given up and the Republican party has embraced the demonic phantasmagoria of embittered pseudo-intellectuals. Vance’s form of despair is that, for all his worldly success, he can’t transcend a fundamental grievance, a sense of always being lesser. He didn’t escape the despair of poverty through gumption and intelligence: he carries it with him always. It fuels his ambition. To people like Vance, the system of domination that governs our society made itself painfully apparent. But he despairs of overcoming it: instead, the brutality must be embraced. He can win the game. Come out on top. Show them all. Just you wait.
What JD Vance As Veep Would Mean For Ukraine
“Ukraine is in trouble,” a senior European official told the WSJ in response to Donald Trump tapping Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) as his running mate.
Tim Mak has more on Vance’s strong anti-Ukraine position:
Putting aside his views on other topics, the senator from Ohio has essentially made his entire foreign policy reputation on the basis of bashing the country resisting Russian invasion.
He opposes military and financial aid to Ukraine; opposes Ukraine’s NATO membership; believes the United States should negotiate with Putin; and argues that Ukraine should cede its territory to Russia.
More on Europe’s reaction to Vance as veep.
Party Of Lincoln
Do you like Morning Memo? Let us know!
JD Vance, Menstrual Surveillance Hawk
This spring, HHS finalized new regulations under HIPAA to limit law enforcement access to medical records tied to reproductive health. The rule was first proposed in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision as a way to limit the ability of state and local law enforcement agencies to access medical records to stymie or criminalize access to legal reproductive health services, most specifically abortions, but not only abortions. It also applies to contraception and the full range of other endangered reproductive care.
So for instance, consider the ability of a woman from an abortion-ban state to travel to another state to get a legal abortion, or her ability to receive legal abortion drugs through the mail. The news has been filled with proposed or actual laws which would attempt to restrict travel to receive abortions in other states, charge those who travel or criminalize those who might facilitate such travel or facilitate the legal shipment of prescribed abortion drugs through the mail. Of course, local police agencies might simply take it upon themselves to pull records to see who had unexplained disruptions to their menstrual cycles.
Your local sheriff might just want to know.
And so does JD Vance, it turns out.
Continue reading “JD Vance, Menstrual Surveillance Hawk”Top Republican On Platform Writing Committee Gives The Game Away On Abortion
Now that pillars of the Republican Party platform have been officially adopted, one of the leaders of the committee that wrote it has let it spill that the party’s supposed softening on abortion that many reported on last week is (as we and a handful of other outlets suggested at the time) not exactly accurate.
Continue reading “Top Republican On Platform Writing Committee Gives The Game Away On Abortion”FBI, DHS Warns Of ‘Retaliatory’ Attacks In The Wake Of Trump Rally Shooting
Authorities are reportedly warning of possible retaliatory attacks in response to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump during a Saturday afternoon campaign rally in western Pennsylvania.
Continue reading “FBI, DHS Warns Of ‘Retaliatory’ Attacks In The Wake Of Trump Rally Shooting”Taking Stock of JD Vance
I’ve heard various takes and reactions to Trump’s JD Vance decision. I’ve thought of it as a choice that shows Trump thinks he’s in the driver’s seat and doesn’t have to appeal to any groups for support. I’ve heard others say that this is to nail down Blue Wall states in the Midwest, in part on the basis of people who remember the Vance of Hillbilly Elegy. It’s quite possible that the biggest thing is the more mundane and human fact that Vance did the best at cozying up with Don Jr. over the last year. But the most substantive and real thing is that this creates a deeply and coherently authoritarian ticket: big into Trumpian executive power, very anti-abortion right down to unleashing red states to surveil women’s travel and reproductive health services, deeply anti-U.S. alliances, the whole package.
Continue reading “Taking Stock of JD Vance”