Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

When we show up, we win.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You canā€™t explain that.

Republicans donā€™t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Come on, man.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Itā€™s the corruption, stupid.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Republicans do not trust women.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Itā€™s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Late Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: Running Short on His ‘Mother’s Milk’

Late Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: Running Short on His ‘Mother’s Milk’

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Last night, at Cardinal Dolan’s big ‘charity’ dinner:

I don’t think it’s been emphasized enough how much the GOP’s underfunding hurts TFG at a very viceral level. He’s always, by upbringing and inclination, measured his worth in dollars. The reality that he doesn’t have enough dollars to buy another term, that ‘his’ party and ‘his’ people aren’t joyfully contributing to him, and that everyone is laughing at him concerning his (financial) deficiencies is eating into his very being.

Per the NYTimes, another joint effort from Maggie Haberman, Teddy Schleifer, Jonathan Swan & Shane Goldmacher —“A Frustrated Trump Lashes Out Behind Closed Doors Over Money” [gift link]:

Donald J. Trump took his seat at the dining table in his triplex penthouse apartment atop Trump Tower on the last Sunday in September, alongside some of the most sought-after and wealthiest figures in the Republican Party.

There was Paul Singer, the billionaire hedge fund manager who finances Republican campaigns and pro-Israel causes, and Warren Stephens, the billionaire investment banker. Joining them were Betsy DeVos, the billionaire former education secretary under Mr. Trump, and her husband, Dick, as well as the billionaire Joe Ricketts and his son Todd.

Some politicians might have taken the moment to be charming and ingratiating with the donors.

Not Mr. Trump. Over steak and baked potatoes, the former president tore through a bitter list of grievances.

He made it clear that people, including donors, needed to do more, appreciate him more and help him more…

The rant, described by seven people with knowledge of the meal who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, underscored a reality three weeks before Election Day: Mr. Trumpā€™s often cantankerous mood in the final stretch. And one of the reasons for his frustration is money. Heā€™s trailing his Democratic rival in the race for cash and has had to hustle to keep raising it.

Not only does Ms. Harris have far more money to buy ads and pay for staff after raising $1 billion in less than three months as a candidate ā€” a sum greater than the total Mr. Trump raised all year ā€” but she has also been freed from having to plead directly to donors anymore. She raised more than twice as much as Mr. Trump in July, August and September…

Mr. Trump did not make a direct financial request at the Trump Tower dinner, which included members of the American Opportunity Alliance, a network of G.O.P. financiers. Some of the dinner attendees left shaking their heads at the former presidentā€™s behavior, but thereā€™s no indication that the interaction will have any effect on their giving…

This month, Mr. Trump has been forced to hold hat-in-hand events in noncompetitive states. Three days after that Trump Tower dinner, he traveled to Texas for fund-raisers in Houston and Midland. Ms. Harris traveled the same day to the battleground state of Georgia to speak about the recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene…

Mr. Trump had been anxious about how much money Democrats would have even before Ms. Harris replaced President Biden atop the ticket and unleashed a flood of donations.

In July, Mr. Trump sent a nasty series of text messages to Miriam Adelson, the widow of the casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and a donor whoā€™s already giving tens of millions of dollars to support him. They have since repaired the relationship, but earlier this year, Mr. Trump told associates he expected $250 million from her, an eye-popping amount from any single donor, according to one person with knowledge of the figure he used.

Such absurdly large demands have become standard practice for Mr. Trump. In a meeting in April at Mar-a-Lago with representatives from major oil and gas companies, Mr. Trump told the executives his policies were so good for them that they should raise him $1 billion.

Mr. Trump, whose assets make him a billionaire, has not funded his own campaign since 2016, nor has he reported giving any money to a political action committee affiliated with him, Save America, which has paid legal fees related to his indictments and one criminal trial that resulted in felony convictions…

And while Mr. Trump has been lifted by some donations from billionaires, such as Timothy Mellon, the reclusive banking heir who has given $125 million to supportive super PACs, Democratic super PACs are flush with cash, too. All told, pro-Harris groups are set to outspend pro-Trump forces in October and November by 30 percent on television, according to AdImpact.

Still, the dinner with the billionaires last month pointed to Mr. Trumpā€™s durability in reshaping a party whose donors are now mostly accepting of the former presidentā€™s outbursts as they view defeating Ms. Harris as a crucial imperative.

After the Sept. 29 meal, Mr. Singer, who has already given $5 million to a Trump super PAC, left the event and took a clear message back to his network of donors, according to a person with knowledge of the conversations. He implored them to donate extensively to Republicans ā€” and to Mr. Trump.

‘Mr. Singer himself, on the other hand, has decided that Mr. Trump is a sunk cost, and will not be throwing good money after bad.’

Can’t say TFG didn’t ask to be cheated, because grifters attract grifters…

Reader Interactions

66Comments

  1. 1.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    This month, Mr. Trump has been forced to hold hat-in-hand events in noncompetitive states.

    So like that rally in California was really cover for Trump doing fund raising in Riverside County, so that’s why the rubes were left stranded in the desert,Ā  and not some brilliant, thirty two dimensional chess move like the press claims.

  2. 2.

    Aussie Sheila

    His lack of ground game will kill his campaign. Good.

    I knew it as soon as I read his campaign had outsourced it to such as Charlie Kirk and melon.

    He and his campaign are fucked, to use a technical term.

    You never, ever, outsource your voter outreach on the ground. Itā€™s ineffable. Even here where voting is compulsory, voter face to face contact must always be done by volunteer partisans. Always.
    People expect the contact. They know real people from salespeople.

    Trumpā€™s campaign is fucked.

    Iā€™m confident the Dems will win the Presidential. I just hope to god they win both houses so that real voting reform can happen. Among other things of course. But voting rights from where I live seems to be the most urgent immediate reform. That, and sacking Garland and getting that demented crim in front of a judge and jury.

  4. 4.

    Chet Murthy

    @Aussie Sheila: Trumpā€™s campaign is fucked.

    He could be fucked.Ā  But IIRC the Rs ground game has pretty much always relied on churches.Ā  I guess we’ll see.Ā  I do feel a little more optimistic than a few weeks ago.

  5. 5.

    Aussie Sheila

    @Chet Murthy:

    I understand the bit re Churches. But take it from me. In a place where the Catholic Church used to hold a lot of political sway 50 years ago, determined partisan efforts by a multi religion partisan army will overcome formal churchgoers every time. And before people chime in about US Evangelicals, I invite you to read about the influence the Catholic Church wielded over our politics from the early 1950s until 1972. They even had their own political party, called the Democratic Labor Party.
    Of course it wasnā€™t either democratic or a Labor party, being more a Francoist outfit, but it managed to wreak havoc in our Labor movement for a generation.

    Thankfully its like Ā wonā€™t be seen here ever again.

  9. 9.

    Aussie Sheila

    @VeniceRiley:

    An excellent Ā account of the fare that awaits these arseholes that suck up to fascism. But unfortunately the silent majority of the capitalists that are cheering trump and his enablers on will never be known.

    Best to ensure they can never wield political power ever again.

  11. 11.

    Aussie Sheila

    @Chet Murthy:

    Well call me old fashioned.

    I donā€™t care if people donā€™t ā€˜loveā€™ other people. I care that people treat other people the way they would like to be treated themselves. That way Ā saves a lot of moralising and extolling virtues that few possess, and thus leads to far more peaceable and enduring results.

  13. 13.

    Chet Murthy

    @Aussie Sheila: I don’t interpret that bumper sticker in the way you’re thinking.Ā  I think it’s an indictment of a certain kind of religion (in the US, usually evangelical Christianity, but also sometimes catholicism) that is heavy on the judgement and nonexistent on the actual teachings of the supposed Christ.Ā  That is to say, these Christianists are hypocrites.

  15. 15.

    Aussie Sheila

    @Chet Murthy:

    Well yes they are. But I donā€™t think they give a fuck. Hypocrisy has never been a game changer. Power changes the game.

    Religion mixed with politics has always been a road to civic ruin.

  17. 17.

    Rusty

    A bunch of people so wealthy that their great-great-great-great grandchildren couldn’t even begin to spend it all, are focused on increasing their wealth and fucking over as many people as possible by advocating against Healthcare, education and more for even average folks, let alone the poor.Ā  What a group of truly horrible people,Ā  and we are supposed to feel even a smidgen of sympathy because equally awful Trump was rude to them?Ā  They all deserve each other.

  19. 19.

    p.a.

    @Rusty: A bunch of people so wealthy that their great-great-great-great grandchildren couldnā€™t even begin to spend it all, are focused on increasing their wealth and fucking over as many people as possible by advocating against Healthcare, education and more for even average folks, let alone the poor.Ā  What a group of truly horrible people,Ā  and we are supposed to feel even a smidgen of sympathy because equally awful Trump was rude to them?Ā  They all deserve each other.

     

     

     

    Silly liberals with our weather-control technology. Ā We should have developed meteor-targeting technology for these billionaire confabs.

  20. 20.

    lowtechcyclist

    @p.a.:Ā ā€‹
     

    Silly liberals with our weather-control technology. We should have developed meteor-targeting technology for these billionaire confabs.

    Meteors? Nah. “Russia, if you’re listening…” ;-)

  23. 23.

    Central Planning

    The rant, described by seven people with knowledge of the meal who spoke on the condition of anonymityā€¦

    Seven?? Thatā€™s a crazy amount of people that spoke to the NYT. I would think itā€™s the waitstaff, but perhaps the donors decided to have a chst too.

  25. 25.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Trump is still on the hook for half a billion in fines. Ā It just hasnā€™t come due yet.

  26. 26.

    Math Guy

    @lowtechcyclist: I suspect that the Russians hacked both DNC and RNC servers back in 2015. They found more stuff on the RNC server that they could use to blackmail people with than they did with the Democrats, so naturally they kept that out of the public domain so that they could use it to keep the party in line.

  27. 27.

    Aussie Sheila

    @Geminid:

    Letā€™s hope so, but Iā€™m sure youā€™re right. Itā€™s unbelievable that someone so dumb could be given the keys to one of only two viable political parties in the most powerful polity in the world.

    I just feel that 50 years political experience and activity has left me completely unprepared for the absolute insanity of it all, and Iā€™m cross!

  29. 29.

    Central Planning

    @Baud: Good point. They were probably invited knowing they would write a piece that would make the rubes donate more.

    Who am I kidding? I donā€™t think TFG can think that far ahead.

  30. 30.

    ssdd

    Such absurdly large demands have become standard practice for Mr. Trump. In a meeting in April at Mar-a-Lago with representatives from major oil and gas companies, Mr. Trump told the executives his policies were so good for them that they should raise him $1 billion.

    Speak of the devilā€¦

    An influential oil and gas industry group whose members were aggressively pursued for campaign cash by Donald Trump has drafted detailed plans for dismantling landmark Biden administration climate rules after the presidential election, according to internal documents obtained by The Washington Post.

    The plans were drawn up by the American Exploration and Production Council, or AXPC, a group of 30 mostly independent oil and gas producers, including several major oil companies. They reveal a comprehensive industry effort to reverse climate initiatives advanced during nearly four years of Democratic leadership. At the same time, the documents contain confidential data showing that industryā€™s voluntaryinitiatives to cut emissions have fallen short.

    The lobbying blueprint takes particular aim at a new tax on emissions of methane, a gas that the International Energy Agency (IEA) says is responsible for nearly a third of human-caused global warming. The documents show the methane emissions of nine of 19 AXPC member companies that responded to an internal survey are increasing ā€” in many cases sharply.

    More: https://wapo.st/40f2RLr

  34. 34.

    catclub

    His lack of ground game will kill his campaign. Good.

    This was also the case in 2016. We shall see. I think I have a more realistic view than in 2016. Also, there has been no ignoring of swing states by the Democratic candidate.

  36. 36.

    TBone

    Kathy Griffith, Fani Willis, Stormy Daniels, E. Jean Carroll, Hillary Clinton, all of the Jane Does, the list is so very long.Ā  We are ALL here for The Denouement.Ā  Yesterday, VP Harris used the word ‘gaslighting.’ I couldn’t be more proud of her, she speaks for all of us!

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8-1oTvBPVL8

    šŸ”„āš”

  38. 38.

    MagdaInBlack

    @TBone:Ā  “Done” is the word I use just before I burn the bridge. Good for her for calling it what it is: gaslighting.

  41. 41.

    TBone

    @MagdaInBlack: šŸ’™ it is an expert expression.Ā  “Flip me, I’m done on this side” can stop hubby from digging deeper any hole he’s trying to argue his way out of.

  44. 44.

    Harrison Wesley

    @TBone: I’d rather not be adjacent to any of Trump’s gas, lit or otherwise.Ā  If the man will not re-diaper himself periodically, he would appear to be completely insensitive to the …..aura…..he creates around himself.

  45. 45.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    I don’t know how the election will turn out but if Harris loses it’s because of some external factor that the dynamics of a Presidential campaign can’t do anything about. She’s run pretty much a flawless campaign and TCFG has been repeatedly faceplanting throughout. It’s not the campaign that’s the problem, it’s something else. Basically if she loses it was a no win situation to start with. It’ll be a tragedy for the country and the world if she loses though.

    As a federal worker I figure I’ll lose my job to some partisan hack. I work at DOT so that’s not ideal but my real concern is partisan hacks in charge of food and drug safety and Medicare – anything that has a more direct impact on people’s health and safety. Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if Social Security checks stop going out at some point because they fired everyone there that knows what they’re doing. It’ll be a real clusterfuck but he’ll just keep lying and telling everyone everything is fine and nothing is his fault. His willingness to lie and people’s gullibility are his one superpower but it’s an effective one.

    Anyway hopefully Harris can close the deal. I still think she has better than even odds. I’m hoping that a lot of Donald Trump’s support is weak and unmotivated. Like the super fans of a band that’s long past it’s prime – e.g. someone who still has that U2 poster on the wall even though they haven’t bought any of the albums since Achtung Baby. Yes I still love the old hits and we’ll always have those but I’m not shelling out for the new album kind of thing. We’ll see. We have by far the better GOTV operation and that counts. Maybe the polls are tighter than we’d like but the fundraising points to an enthusiasm for the campaign that’s off the charts. Every metric other than the polls seems to be heavily in our favor. Hopefully that means something.

  48. 48.

    zhena gogolia

    Some of the dinner attendees left shaking their heads at the former presidentā€™s behavior, but thereā€™s no indication that the interaction will have any effect on their givingā€¦

    And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where we are as a country.

  49. 49.

    lowtechcyclist

    @TBone:

    She calls a spade a spade, no question!

    The top comment at the link got under my skin, I’ll admit: the guy said, “I’m tired of hearing about Donald Trump I want to know what you going to do for the country?”

    So I responded:

    Oh for pity’s sake. IF we get her a Dem Congress, she will reinstate Roe, pass voting rights legislation, add long term home care to Medicare, protect LGBTQ rights, pass climate change legislation and gun control legislation, increase taxes on the rich, etc., etc. That’s off the top of my head.

    This isn’t hard to find out, and aside from long term home care, it’s what pretty much any Dem nominee would do. The differences among Dems are small compared to the chasm between the parties.

    But Job #1 is still preserving our democracy, so it’s imperative that people understand that electing Trump would likely be the end of it.

  50. 50.

    Baud

    @lowtechcyclist:

     

    ETA: It’s weird how people expect a message personalized to them during the five minutes they are paying attention (assuming this is a personĀ  and not a bot).

  51. 51.

    waspuppet

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    if Harris loses itā€™s because of some external factor that the dynamics of a Presidential campaign canā€™t do anything about. ā€¦ Basically if she loses it was a no win situation to start with.

    Thatā€™s it exactly. For example:

    Mr. Trump, whose assets make him a billionaire

    Strictly in terms of assets? Yeah. But heā€™s flat broke. Negative net worth. Anyone who doesnā€™t realize that by nowā€”well, theyā€™re probably well-paid political reporters for the New York Times.

  52. 52.

    Tony Jay

    @Rusty:

    Ā  What a group of truly horrible people,Ā  and we are supposed to feel even a smidgen of sympathy because equally awful Trump was rude to them?

    No, not at all. Youā€™re supposed to feel schadenfreudistic pleasure and the thought of their discomfort and disgust while being lectured at by the smelly old conman, then move on to hoping that their grotesque egos prevent them signing too many cheques over to him.

    Theyā€™ll give – some – money, theyā€™ve got so much that what Stench is demanding is basically bedside cash, but it would be lovely if they kept their big donations for other, unco-ordinated efforts that achieved very little in the way of electing MAGAts.

    Only time will tell.

  54. 54.

    Soprano2

    @Frankensteinbeck: I heard that mentioned on a news story yesterday, and thought “Yeah, that’s why he’s doing so much fundraising”. He knows eventually he’ll have to pay those judgements, and he’s determined to do it with other people’s money.

  55. 55.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Math Guy:Ā  Remember Trump was buddies with the CEO of the National Inquirer and Epstien.Ā  Trump’s had plenty of sources besides the Russians for black mail material.

  56. 56.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: I think the “Hillary lost because she ignored Wisconsin” stuff is a myth. She spent a huge amount of time in Pennsylvania, and she lost it too. There are many reasons for her loss, but poor campaigning isn’t one of them.

  59. 59.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @waspuppet: The media environment is certainly part of the problem. I keep hearing that swing voters don’t know enough about Harris, especially her economic policies. Which, that just means you’re too lazy to search for the info at all so it’s more an excuse than a reason.

    But the media is spending so little time covering policy it’s redonk, and that’s part of why people don’t know. They’d rather cover vibes even as they say the opposite. I finally yesterday morning on MSNBC saw their economic analyst talking about Trump’s tariff policies and how much they would cost American families in different income quintiles. But it’s 10 in the morning on a cable news network so like 3 people are watching. Why can’t something like that be on the major news outlets with an actual large audience? They USED TO cover that stuff a lot during campaign season. Now? It’s just lazy interviews with this or that voter telling the reporter how they feel. No policy substance whatsoever.

  60. 60.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: IDK who will ultimately be in charge of that (it’s said that Musk will be the guy but I doubt he wants that job) but Project 2025 calls for firing us all, or at least those of us who can’t pass a loyalty test to Hair FĆ¼hrer, and I figure that means my days would be numbered.

    I’ll have a decision to make at that point – resign pre-emptively or wait for the axe to fall. My concern with waiting for the axe is my pension – I know whatever is built up will come with me if I resign but if I’m fired I’m not so sure.

    Also we could sell our house and grab the equity while the market is still good. My wife is a health care provider so her career is very portable. Then move somewhere cheaper and further from the center of the Authoritarian.

  61. 61.

    Ironcity

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Interviews with Joe or Jane voter are easy to do, edit, and throw in the pile of clips to run as needed for “news” or opinion programming.Ā  Ā Actually doing the policy and analysis is hard, especially the MAGA / GQP “policy” that cannons around like a rat on crack in a maze.

    It doesn’t have to be even OMB or CBO quality analysis, just so it is coherent, has defined boundaries, some quantitative info. please and at least a nodding acquaintance with reality.

    Down in the bowels of the big major MSM organizations there is this capability but it doesn’t see the light of day.

  62. 62.

    Bupalos

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: I donā€™t know how the election will turn out but if Harris loses itā€™s because of some external factor that the dynamics of a Presidential campaign canā€™t do anything about.

    I get in trouble here for being critical of our efforts or strategies a lot, so maybe Iā€™m too far on the other side of this lake, butā€¦ this kind of points up a hidden danger I see on the opposite shore. Thereā€™s a kind of false powerlessness here that can be a real problem. If we lose this election, itā€™s not because it was impossible to win. We will have failed to find the right recipe. And it wonā€™t mean all the negative effects talked about here are then inevitable. We can keep swinging, and as Carlos Baerga will tell you, sometimes despite having made mistakes and missed opportunities before, you find Christmas in October.

  63. 63.

    fancycwabs

    …but she has also been freed from having to plead directly to donors anymore…

    Wait… then who has been blowing up my phone asking for twenty-five bucks every single day?

  66. 66.

    Ruckus

    @Aussie Sheila:

    Stated this here prior but once again I, not a catholic, attended for freshman year HS, an all boys catholic trade school, which is next door to a seminary and that really sealed my brain from anything religious. The vice principal – Father Schaffer, an utter and complete asshole should have been gaged and bound in a storage closet for a year or two. Most of the other brothers and fathers were at least OK, a couple seemed actually human. There were a few assistants, some of the six shops actually needed trained people to teach some of the bits and pieces, especially in the upper grades. This was back in the mid 60s and I seriously doubt much has changed, other than the staff. The actual education/book learning was good, after that it was crapola. I hated that place and refused to return after one school year. Took some convincing the family higher up but I never went back. It wasn’t education, it was indoctrination. The overreaction cooling off period on the way home 30-40 minutes long Ā bus ride was an education in humanity and lack thereof. USN boot camp had nothing on this entire experience.

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