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DONALD TRUMP HAS returned to the campaign trail, his first appearance since being convicted on all 34 charges in a hush money scandal.
Last week, Trump became the first former US president to be convicted of felony crimes after a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
He described the process as “a disgrace” and “a rigged trial”, and sentencing has been set for 11 July.
His first campaign appearance since this conviction came in the battleground state of Arizona, where he spoke to a crowd of thousands inside a mega church.
Joe Biden won Arizona in 2020 by a wafer-thin 10,000 votes, and the state is expected to be crucial to both men’s chances of winning this year’s presidential election.
Trump is expected to appeal his conviction last week and at a Phoenix town hall last night organised by a conservative youth organisation, he called for the “appellate courts have to step up and straighten things out or we’re not going to have a country anymore”.
Trump on his conviction: "Those appellate courts have to step up and straighten things out, or we're not going to have a country any longer." pic.twitter.com/vkdmB4j2HZ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 6, 2024
Trump also focused much of his hour-long speech and subsequent Q&A on the US-Mexico border.
This week, Biden issued an executive order barring migrants who enter the US illegally from claiming asylum when numbers surge past 2,500 in a day.
The order also makes it easier to deport people back to Mexico.
The curbs will remain in place until numbers fall back down below 1,500 illegal crossings a day.
Biden came under fire from all sides for the policy shift, which uses the same law that Trump once employed to ban migrants from Muslim countries when he was president.
However, Republicans see it as being too lenient and Trump last night vowed to reverse the order should he win the election.
“On Day One of my administration, I will be rescinding Crooked Joe’s outrageous executive order,” Trump told a cheering crowd.
“And I will terminate every single open borders policy of the Biden administration,” he added.
Trump also claimed he would use economic measures to prevent migrants from entering the US, though he didn’t give details on what size or kind of tariffs he would impose.
Trump: "On day one, I will seal the border, I will stop the invasion, and we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in the history of our country. We have no choice." pic.twitter.com/IvtVs75V9S
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 6, 2024
“We have tremendous economic power… if China or some other country is behaving badly, we have things called tariffs that are so severe,” said Trump.
“We are going to be so tough and if a country is not going to behave, we’re going to tariff the hell out of that country.”
At one point, Trump also produced two Tic Tac containers – one of which was incredibly small – when claiming that the US would not have experienced inflation had he won the 2020 presidential election.
He also embraced Joe Arpaio, commenting: “I don’t kiss men, but I kiss him… you know he’s 170 years old, but we want him back.”
In 2017, Trump pardoned Arpaio, a former sheriff convicted of violating a court order to halt traffic patrols that targeted suspected unauthorized immigrants.
Arpaio also believes in the “birther” conspiracy, which wrongly claims that Barack Obama’s birth certificate is a forgery.
"I don't kiss men, but I kiss him" -- Trump lauds Joe Arpaio and brings him on stage pic.twitter.com/MIxmbxmDwN
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 6, 2024
Meanwhile, the Phoenix Police Department said 11 people at the event were transported to hospitals, treated and released for heat exhaustion.
Officials said an excessive heat warning was in effect for the area during Trump’s town hall, where many of his supporters were unable to get inside before it reached capacity, and Phoenix set a new record high temperature of around 44C by mid-afternoon.
-With additional reporting from Press Association and - © AFP 2024
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The odious orange offence.
The Journal is such a sad echo chamber for liberals. Comments always on on articles about Conservative figures so the sheep can vent their frustrations about their sad little lives. Whereas they will never allow comments on articles about liberal agendas like climate change, transgenderism, Israel….etc for fear their falsehoods will be exposed. #Trump24
@Johnny Fox: Climate change and ‘Israel’ are not ‘liberal agendas’. Opposing genocide is not an ‘agenda’. Wanting to maintain a liveable planet is not an ‘agenda’. It’s a matter of support for basic human rights and basic common sense. How sad and embittered would you have to be not to support these things, and to choose to support someone of the calibre of Trump instead?
@Johnny Fox: Talking about? We’re always slamming Climate change? Homie got burned paying for porn stars, simple. While no ones really cares it’s entertaining to watch evangelicals roll in behind him in the conga line, enjoy the show Johnny but don’t drink the ‘lemonade’
@Thesaltyurchin: Strictly speaking, Trump was convicted of business fraud, with underlying crimes of electoral and tax fraud.
Paying someone to keep quiet is not a crime (in NY).
But Trumpy put those payments through the accounts of his business as business costs, a fraud.
Trumpy also used them in violation of electoral law.
Although the press labelled that case as ‘hush money’ the actual charges were business fraud.
And although many others have been charged with tax fraud, Trumpy has still not been charged with any tax crimes despite the overwhelming evidence of this in this case, and in others.
What are the IRS doing?
Nothing to discommode Trump, it would seem.
@Thesaltyurchin: It beggars belief that these church goers roll in behind a man who cheats on his pregnant wife with a porn star and then pays her off not to talk about it. How he can brag about inappropriately touching women and trying to incite a coup and he is their poster boy for Conservative values. I guess as long as they make abortion illegal, reverse ssm and fill the supreme court with Conservative justices they will turn a blind eye. Such hypocrisy
@brian madden: For these “christians” it is about having control over what others can do.
They will forgive their own “misdeeds”.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Gotta win the war of the religion’s… ongoing fantasy battles for ultimate human control. ‘Dont tred on me’ but live exactly like this, lol
@Johnny Fox: I think he will win. As crazy as this sounds he is the lesser of 2 evils. Never thought I would say that.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: so true! thats all its ever been about. All religions are about controlling the masses!
How the lying sex offender fraudster orange thing has shown up the the difference between education and ignorance and fear in the USA is fascinating
@Robert Halvey:
I am mindful that the Journal is one of the last few places in Ireland where people can comment on events and the direction the travel society is taking. The youthful nature of the journalists retains student perspectives along with many commenters, and it is naive more than anything else due to the influence of academia and what interests them.
The imbalance in society is not so much extreme left and right as a reaction to academic influences, and even with the strongest effort, the college-educated naivete finds it difficult to escape, and the older and less susceptible find it hard to deal with.
How much more hush money is he paying?
@Daniel Skelton: the shadow government is strong with this one. In the pockets of billionaires he will reduce their corporate tax if elected and send the US economy down the swanny, as any profits always go to shareholders, trickle down my ass
@Mike B: He didn’t even try to hide it.
He basically offered Billionaires the control of Policy to do exactly what they wanted as long as they pay him!!
@Tricia G28: He told the oil companies that if they gave him $1 billion he would let them do as they liked, pretty much.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Yes, that was what I was referring to.
Whether he wins or loses in November, I think many people have no clue about how much chaos this fascist will create. If we think we’ll be shielded here in Ireland and Europe from the consequences, we’ll be in for a shock. It’s truly scary to see these cult-of-personality strong-(wo)men and their ethnonationalism making waves in the West. We’ll be thinking back to now as the age of stability if we don’t wise up to it. Think about it when you’re voting today.
@Name: You’d swear he wasn’t already president for 4 years which coincided with unprecedented world peace and one of the best economies the US has ever had. Never mind all the amazing things he did for the black community like the first step act, school choice, record black unemployment, record funding for black schools and colleges….etc But yeah he’s the reincarnation of Adolph Hitler. Cry harder mate.
@Johnny Fox: Propagandists didn’t have to try very hard with you.
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/01/20/trump-the-anti-war-president-was-always-a-myth/
@Johnny Fox: ‘Despite repeated PR stunts, Trump did not “bring the troops home” or “end endless wars.” In fact, Trump consistently added fuel to the fire, increasing troop levels, deepening reliance on private contractors, and dramatically scaling up aerial warfare. Where an end to endless war requires repealing the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for Use of Military Force, Trump expanded conflicts under both. His term saw four consecutive years of growth of an already out-of-control Pentagon budget. And loosening even the minimal restrictions that were already in place, he expanded the United States’ deadly and unaccountable drone wars.
‘Not only did Trump not end the wars he promised to, he worsened them, dropping more bombs, stoking further conflict, undermining the prospects of peace, and massively increasing the rate of civilian deaths.’
@Brendan O’Brien: How many wars did Trump start?
@Johnny Fox: his drone strikes were more in 8 years than obama did in 4. 432% increase. He bombed syria. He backed saudi attacks in Yemen at significant civilian cost. Unprecedented world peace my hole. Biden is also outperforming him on nearly every economic metric.
@Dave Grant: Read my link. Whether he started new wars is immaterial: he exacerbated existing ones and destabilised the world order, emboldening the likes of Putin.
@Name: One thing is certain from the social experiment were all living through: ‘many people have no clue’
@Brendan O’Brien: Oh look…an anti Trump article from an anti Trump reporter. Ignore the propaganda from both sides and ask yourself the simple question, besides BLM and Antifa thugs, was the world a more peaceful place between 2016-2019 than it is today?
@Johnny Fox: I’m not comparing Trump to Adol->F<- Hitler, the Americans are perfectly capable of creating their own brand of fascism. But fascism it is. His last term was a surprise win, he was unprepared and his cabinet was mired in chaos (just look at the number of cabinet members that came and went). The last four years has seen Trump hone his personality cult status, ramp up the ethnonationalism, focused the targeting of a minority group (migrants), massively increased his anti-democratic rhetoric and increased his demand for loyalty from the Republican party, which has in all but name transformed to the Trump Party. Anyone disloyal has essentially been ejected from the party (e.g. Liz Cheney) or has been muzzled (e.g. Mike Pence, Mitt Romney, etc). These are all hallmarks of fascism.
If he wins, he has the backing of a textbook fascist manifesto (Project 25). If he loses, he already has declared that he won't accept the result and call fraud.
Sorry, but you are at worst part of this cult or at best ignorantly consenting to a Trump victory to 'own the libs'.
@Johnny Fox: trumps tenure began in 2017 and ended in 2021.
@Johnny Fox: Trump has already stated that he won’t accept a defeat in November. If he loses, what do you think will happen next? Do you think this will be peaceful?
@Johnny Fox: Can you point to anything in that article that isn’t true, and support your claims?
The world is probably less peaceful today, in large part due to the succour that Trump gave to tyrants and his destabilisation of the world order (as I have already pointed out). He is a loose cannon and can offer nothing but chaos and the further erosion of democracy (he has already attempted to abolish US democracy).
@Johnny Fox: BLM and antifa are not thugs.
These are movements that stand against thuggery.
These are ordinary people who have taken a stand against racism in US policing (BLM), and fascism across the US (antifa).
The many attacks on the peaceful BLM and antifa protests prove this all the more. The violence brought to those protests were brought by fascists and police forces.
The world was more peaceful between 1933 and 1939 than between 1939 and 1945, as the world ignored the advance of fascism.
WWII need not have happened if fascism has been opposed sooner.
The world would be a far better place without the likes of Putin.
Without Trump.
Without israel.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere:
You guys are so hypocritical… BLM aren’t thugs when they riot, burn and loot but white Dublin lads are ?
You’d say anything for a bit of virtue signalling.
@John John: BLM was and is a response to oppression. Its rioting, such as it was, was analogous to civil rights rioting in Northern Ireland 1n 1969–71. People will riot when they have no alternative outlet. A bunch of racist hooligans rioting in Dublin is a very different matter.
@Regular John: An example of the racism that permeates US society, and its “justice” system
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/16/texas-greg-abbott-pardons-daniel-perry
An example of the fascism always present in the US and which the advent of Trumpism has emboldened
https://www.salon.com/2024/06/03/texas-professors-to-fail-students-seek-abortions/
@John John: You don’t know what the word ‘mostly’ means, I notice.
Riots are differentiated by their context and causes, as I have pointed out.
@Brendan O’Brien: I see your defamation of trump and Kyle was taken down, that pleases me :)
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere:
An armed white man shoots another armed white man… Where does racism come in ?
@Brendan O’Brien:
The BLM rioters were the very same breed as the Dublin ones. Out of control thugs looking to start fires and get a free pair of Nike runners
.
Also, what sparked the BLM riots was a violent criminal, high on drugs getting killed whilst resisting arrest, what sparked the Dublin riots was children getting stabbed in broad daylight.
Please stop with the virtual signalling nonsense.
@Regular John: Smear the victim of a sadistic police murder: real classy.
@Regular John: Black Lives Matter is a legitimate and (unfortunately) necessary civil rights organisation.
@Brendan O’Brien:
He was a known violent criminal and he was high on drugs when he was arrested. Just the truth about who he was. I see you make no mention of the kids and their minder that were stabbed in broad daylight in Dublin.
@Brendan O’Brien:
A rioter is a rioter, their organisation, causes and motives are irrelevant. Your black rioter good, white rioter bad attitude is absolute nonsense.
@Regular John: being high on drugs isn’t adequate justification to put your knee on someone neck until they die of asphyxiation.
@Brendan O’Brien: just like how you are trying to smear the 100% innocent hero Kyle Rittenhouse
@Setanta O’Toole:
Where did I try and justify anything ?
@Regular John: why is his history relevant to his murder?
@Setanta O’Toole:
Well if he wasn’t committing crime he wouldn’t have been in contact with the cops that day and he’d still be alive.
Why is the murder of a black American criminal more relevant than the stabbing of innocent Irish children in Dublin anyway ? It has been suggested in the comments above that the BLM riots in America were somehow ok but the riots in Dublin were not. I’d call them all opportunistic thugs, would you not agree ?
He has visibly aged in the last couple of years. Biden showed the same marked aging around the same age (mid 70′s). Trump is showing clear mental decline, with his performance worse in the evenings. He’s now lost the superficial self-claimed advantage over Biden.
@Numinous20111: he’s following through in the top pic.
@Numinous20111: it’s bonkers that a younger person cant get near this level as they haven’t built up enough billionaire pals yet, takes til one is 70 to have the funds to buy in.
@Numinous20111:
I am mindful that the Journal is one of the last few places in Ireland where people can comment on events and the direction the travel society is taking. The youthful nature of the journalists retains student perspectives, but that is to be expected given their proximity to their education.
@Gerald Kelleher: How’s the Bovril this morning, Ger?
@Thesaltyurchin:It was the endorsement of Southern State Black Community civic leaders that gave Biden the lead in the 2020 US Democratic Party Primaries.
Until then he was behind.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Mostly hedge funds and ‘super-paqs’ carrying the financial load for all of them: https://data.usatoday.com/2024-presidential-candidates-top-contributors-as-of-april-2024/?ref=kennedy
@Thesaltyurchin: Nonetheless, Biden was behind until the endorsement of Black community leaders.
Some serious TDS going on here.
#russiagate
@Dave Grant: not wanting to hear facts about your hero makes you rather deranged, not the rest of us I’m afraid.
@Name: I’m aware of the facts also not my hero.
i really cannot wait for the Don to win back the White House, enough is enough of the absolute cabbage currently there.
I notice it taken the manboy magrats a bit of time to wake up and start whinging and crying this morning ,
@Robert Halvey: Come November the magrats will be singing while you’re crying into your soy based, ethically sourced latte.
@Johnny Fox: You are such a laughable stereotype.
@Johnny Fox:
Get real.
The orange pumpkin will never set foot in the W.H. again.
@Mary.E.:
I wouldn’t be so sure, people are getting sick of liberal nonsense, especially a lot of Americans. Not a fan of him myself but I wouldn’t write him off just yet.
According to Trump the whole of the American people are corrupt criminals except him. If he is returned to power I can see him destroying the US legal system and putting his own buddies in place. He must be jailed. (My personal opinion everyone).
@Richard Starling: Very true, his sycophants have now gone after the Jury, claiming that, because they’re from NY, they couldn’t be fair.
So they have attacked every level of the Justice System, all the way down to the Jury.
Basically, they’re saying that only US Citizens that are Republican, are “real” Americans. That’s actually a terrifying claim……
@Tricia G28: Fascism on the march.
@Brendan O’Brien: It’s still Fascism, but to make it even more frightening it is the brazenly incompetent version into the bargain. I wouldn’t trust Trump and gang to make even the trains run on time. The very opposite. They’d de-regulate to such an extent that there would need to be a weekly schedule printed of derailments and spillage of dangerous substances, etc.
@Tricia G28: I don’t speak either German or Italian, so I have to…….hope (for want of a better word) that 1930′s European fascist leaders could at the very least sound convincing when they made public speeches. I have to hope that Trump really is just as unprecedented in his vacuity and artlessness as he seems. Otherwise we are a civilisation that repeatedly falls for spectacularly unskillful strongmen and worse.
Biden rules, Tiny drools
Both Biden & Trump are from the same side they may throw you different types bread but it still crumbs. They both work for the Globalists whom have been invading our country and others since the 1980s , they have unnecessary destroyed other countries and kept others in poverty. While converting us , so others believe now want to be part of it. All for pure greed and mad notions. All this Trump / Biden news Ukrainian war and having so called evil Russia is just a smoke screen to create the illusion we are the better world & people.
@Be Lucky: Biden is part of the US Democratic Party, a right wing party. Although a lot of Americans seem to believe it to be a left-wing party, the US Democratic Party would fit fairly snugly into mainstream European right-wing parties like the UK Conservative Party.
Trump is a cult leader and has taken over the far-right US Republican Party, moving it to the extreme right. Trumps cult support comes from groups such as White Supremacists and so-called Evangelical Christians, particularly those who believe in Dominionism – that the US should be ruled by authoritarian “Christians”.
Trump has had the backing of billionaires such as the Koch Brothers who set upo a foundation to support far-right agenda, and far-right organisations like the Federalist Society (which has received their quid pro quo of having him stack US courts with their members).
There is a big difference between the two.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Well said.
@Numinous20111: well said? What party of the right opens its borders? What party of the right curtails oil production and use? Raises taxes? What party of the right would have Sheldon Whitehouse as a member? The democrats are not of the right by any measure.
Everyone on here forgetting who’s funding gen0cide, you little hyp0crites, it’s not your kids so who cares right, the orange man is worse lol, listen too yourselfs
@Stephen Flood:
Lay off the sauce man, nobody takes anyone that can’t write basic English seriously.
The once Republican party is now controlled by Mobsters and they are anti American who take their orders and money from Putins Russia
They really should lock up the plastic ‘hairball’
And put Bidet in the next cell
@Michael Flanagan: is the bidet so he can wash his bum bum?
have your say