Late Capitalism Landmark

Hello it’s the weekend. This is The Weekender ☕

Former President Trump has tried to turn indictment lemons into campaign cash lemonade.

On Thursday evening, news broke that a grand jury voted to indict him on charges brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Since then, Trump has sent at least five emails to supporters using the indictment to solicit donations to his re-election campaign.

“Please make a contribution of just $1 TONIGHT to cement your place in history and accept YOUR membership as a FOUNDING DEFENDER OF PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP AGAINST THIS WITCH HUNT,” the campaign said in an email that went out Friday afternoon.

Trump’s indictment is unprecedented. He is the first president in American history to be charged with a crime. And one of his messages, which was attributed to him personally, featured a subject line for the ages: “Yes, I’ve been indicted, BUT”

“Now is our chance to PROVE that despite the Left’s latest phony witch hunt out of Manhattan, our movement will not bend, we will not break, and today, we are STRONGER AND MORE UNITED THAN EVER BEFORE!” Trump wrote.

The highlight of Trump’s efforts to monetize his legal woes was a $47 t-shirt emblazoned with the date of the indictment and the phrase, “I STAND WITH TRUMP.” The email advertising this piece of indictment swag promised Trump supporters the campaign was “Holding a shirt just for YOU.”  

Trump actually gave the world a heads up on his impending indictment on March 18 when he announced that he expected to be arrested in conjunction with Bragg’s investigation, which has focused on payments made during the 2016 election to women Trump allegedly had affairs with. The former president used his self-inflicted impending indictment drama to send multiple fundraising appeals.

These messages have attacked Bragg and attempted to paint him as a “puppet” of billionaire financier George Soros, who has been the focal point of far right conspiracy theories that can function as an anti-Semitic dog whistle. Trump’s attacks are a wild exaggeration of the fact Soros has donated money to organizations that backed the campaigns of progressive prosecutors, including Bragg. Soros weighed in to the online publication Semafor.

“As for Alvin Bragg, as a matter of fact I did not contribute to his campaign and I don’t know him,” Soros said.

Trump isn’t the only one involved in the historic indictment drama who is also selling merch. Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who is one of the women who allegedly was paid to keep quiet about a dalliance with Trump, tweeted on Thursday night that the items she sells on her website, which include t-shirts and autographed topless photos, were flying off the shelves.

“I have so many messages coming in that I can’t respond,” Daniels wrote. “ #Teamstormy merch/autograph orders are pouring in, too! Thank you for that as well but allow a few extra days for shipment.”

Corruption merch from presidents and their (alleged) paramours is truly a Late Capitalism landmark. 
 

More on other news below. Let’s dig in. 

— Hunter Walker

Pushing The Envelope

A historic barrier fell this week as Trump became the first President ever to face criminal charges, after Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg secured an indictment from a grand jury of The Donald.

It’s the first time in U.S. history that this has happened, but its significance is starker after a decade of politics defined at least in part by unsettling and often enraging examples of inequality in the application of justice. Under the Obama administration, the DOJ failed to bring any serious criminal cases against bank executives responsible for the financial crisis; racial justice protests have rippled across the country in response to police brutality; Trump himself served in office amid near-constant examples of his own criminality.

Now, there’s at least one attempt at accountability. It’s little and late. Will it work?

— Josh Kovensky

In The Thick Of It

I left the Capitol Thursday evening, buoyed by a waft of jet fumes as lawmakers dashed for the exits. I was one of many reporters who’d spent the day scrambling around, asking questions before all of Congress departed for a two-week recess.

About two hours later, the news of the indictment broke. It’s one of those nights that makes you feel alive, part of something big and electric. It was history, and we scrambled to cover it.

Josh Marshall and I, as we do in times of crisis or question (in addition to every mundane Wednesday) took to the microphones. We discussed how this might pave the way for future indictments, assessed the risk that Donald Trump’s supporters might present in their response, analyzed the White House’s strategy, gamed out what comes next.

It was a heady moment — we were wired, a little punch drunk. Relive it with us in the most recent, special episode of the Josh Marshall Podcast: A Good Night For Indictment-ing. 

— Kate Riga

“President Trump embodies the American people—our psyche from id to super-ego—as does no other figure; his soul is totally bonded with our core values and emotions, and he is our total and indisputable champion. This tremendous connection threatens the established order.” 

That’s part of the statement the New York Young Republican Club put out after the Manhattan grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump’s role in the $130,000 hush money payment made to porn actress Stormy Daniels voted to indict him.

Let’s just say, therapy is always an option, too, guys. 

— Emine Yücel 

• Republicans in the Texas state legislature abruptly introduced over a dozen bills, designed to subvert election processes throughout the state, for debate. One of them, Senate Bill 1993, would allow the Texas Secretary of State to overturn election results in Harris County, Texas’s more populous and newly-blue county.
• On Tuesday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) sent President Joe Biden a letter accusing him of holding an “extreme position” on the debt limit because Biden refused to negotiate spending priorities so long as Republicans used the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip. McCarthy provided some vague spending policies at the bottom, but his party has yet to identify budget priorities the whole caucus will support, and he still hasn’t produced a budget.
• Abby Grossberg, a former Tucker Carlson producer who accused the network of pressuring her into giving misleading testimony in the Dominion case, filed new allegations on Monday of coercion by Fox lawyers, unprofessional behavior by staff, and retaliation by the network. She also asked to correct a deposition she gave in September because, she claims, it was tainted by pressure by the network’s lawyers.

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