Trump Jr. praises his ‘artist’ father’s properties at civil fraud trial: Live updates

The infamous Capitol rioter known as the “QAnon Shaman,” whose real name is Jacob Chansley, intends to run for Congress in Arizona in 2024 after pleading guilty to a felony charge.

Years after the fur headdress, horns, and face paint from January 6 have been taken off, the Arizona resident filed a statement of interest last Thursday, according to the Associated Press.

He indicated he wants to run as a Libertarian in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District election.

The latest from the former president on Truth Social:

Nobody can believe this Political Witch Hunt Trial is still going on. No Victims, No Witnesses (their witness recanted his FAKE story, and said he Lied!), No Defaults, No Jury, No Nothing, only happy Banks etc. There was FRAUD, however, but by the Judge and the A.G., in saying that Mar-a-Lago was worth only $18,000,000, when they knew it was worth many times that amount. They just wanted to make me look bad – All a big SCAM by the New York A.G. in order to get elected, and then to run for Governor, unsuccessfully. The Trump Hating Judge MUST WITHDRAW his “bull….” early ruling (before the trial even started. HE KNEW NONE OF THE FACTS!). He is devastated by the TRUTH, but just can’t let it go. He is OBSESSED! Any other Judge but this one would have dismissed this ridiculous lawsuit years ago. He asked me to settle for a MUCH LOWER AMOUNT, at a settlement conference, but I said NO, I DID NOTHING WRONG! Businesses will NEVER come back to New York if this HOAX is not dismissed & forgotten!

Don Jr has been testifying about the Trump International Hotel in Waikiki, where there was “never anything built” to his father’s “standard”.

The hotel recently announced it’s ditching the Trump name. It’s joining Hilton and will be called Wakea Waikiki Beach.

As his son testifies in the New York State Supreme Court, Donald Trump is lashing out on Truth Social at some of his opponents in his many legal dramas.

The former president wrote:

Deranged Jack Smith, Andrew Weissmann, Lisa Monaco, the “team of losers and misfits” from CREW, and all the rest of the Radical Left Zealots and Thugs who have been working illegally for years to “take me down,” will end up, because of their suffering from a horrible disease, TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME (TDS!), in a Mental Institution by the time my next term as President is successfully completed. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

After a short break, Donald Trump Jr recommences his history of the Trump Organization and its various projects. We’re up to 1999 and he talks about Trump International Golf in West Palm Beach.

He took what was a “flat swamp” – “everyone looked at him perhaps like he was crazy” – and “now it’s one of the finest golf courses in the world,” he says.

“Again, that’s where the artistry comes in,” he adds.

Judge Engoron reminds him against using the forbidden word “again.”

Don Jr: “The artistry comes to fruition over and over.”

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott dramatically announced his exit from the Republican presidential primary last night. Scott made the announcement on former congressman Trey Gowdy’s show, apparently without even telling his campaign staff.

Gowdy, a longtime Scott friend and ally, was visibly surprised, and even argued with Scott, saying that he should stay in the race. “You have plenty of money,” he protested. “You have the highest approval numbers of any candidate.”

Scott’s high favorability ratings have fallen recently, which might explain why he exited. He’s also failed to gain ground in head-to-head polls, where he’s been at two percent or so, well behind Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. And of course he’s far behind former President Donald Trump, who leads the field by 56 points.

Still, Gowdy’s distress is understandable. Scott had real strengths, and when he entered the race in May, he could reasonably argue he had as path to the presidency. His failure is less a referendum on his failures than it is a referendum on the failures of the Republican party in general—a party that, despite the former president’s obvious unsuitability for office and his escalating disqualifying legal troubles, appears to want to bathe in essence of Trump and in nothing but essence of Trump for all eternity.

Scott’s positive features are, as you’d expect, largely invisible to progressives and Democrats. The general consensus among is that Scott never had a chance and ran an embarrassing campaign.

Maryanne Trump Barry, a former judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit who was also the older sister of former president Donald Trump, has died.

Barry’s death at the age of 86 was reported by multiple outlets, indicating that she was found at her Manhattan home on Monday.

The former judge, who was first named to the US District Court for the District of New Jersey by then-president Ronald Reagan in 1983, was a graduate of Hofstra University Law School and a former federal prosecutor who rose to several senior roles in the US Attorney’s office for New Jersey when Reagan tapped her for a judgeship, reportedly at the behest of Roy Cohn, the late GOP fixer (and attorney to Donald Trump).

After 16 years on the bench as a trial court judge, Trump was elevated to the Third Circuit by then-president Bill Clinton in 1999.