If it’s TUESDAY… Donald Trump appears in court in Miami at 3:00 pm ET after federal indictment in classified documents case… Trump then travels back to his Bedminster, N.J., golf club to deliver remarks at 8:15 pm ET… Chris Christie criticizes Trump’s conduct in case, per NBC’s Jake Traylor: “It is a very tight, very detailed, evidence-laden indictment. And the conduct in there is awful”… New Reuters/Ipsos poll finds 81% of Republicans believing charges against Trump are politically motivated… And watch dog says White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre violated Hatch Act during midterms.
But FIRST... It’s surreal when you think about it.
The man who is leading the Republican race for president right now is a twice-indicted, twice-impeached former president whom a jury just last month found liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.
What’s more, that same GOP frontrunner lost the last race in which he competed (still refusing to admit he lost), as did many of the candidates who ran in his image in the 2022 midterms.
And to top it off, he continues to praise those found guilty in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and he’s promised pardons for many of them if he wins another term.
That’s the 30,000-foot backdrop for when Donald J. Trump — the first ex-American president to be indicted on federal charges (and two months removed from being indicted on state charges) — appears in federal court in Miami.
It also shines the spotlight on a political party that has many voters not only defending and excusing his alleged behavior, but also saying they’ll nominate him for president again in 2024, according the polls months before the first contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.
(What if the FBI had brought charges against Hillary Clinton back in July 2016? Doesn’t it seem likely that the Democratic Party would have found another presidential nominee?)
Is all of this the triumph of a conservative media ecosystem created after Richard Nixon’s resignation from office?
Or the logical culmination of negative partisanship? (If my opponents are against someone, then we’re for him.)
Whatever it is, it’s arguably the most important force driving — at least for now — the Republican race for president.
As the charges pile up on Donald Trump.
Headline of the day
Data Download: The number of the day is … 2,000
That’s how many times the Biden administration says the Trump administration used the campaign slogan “Make America Great Again,” for official purposes during former President Trump’s term.
The statement from a Biden administration official came as one of their own, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, was found to have violated the Hatch Act ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, NBC News’ Katherine Doyle reported on Monday.
The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from using their offices to influence elections and the federal Office of Special Counsel said in a letter that Jean-Pierre’s use of the term “mega MAGA Republicans” violated the law. The office, however, decided to “close the matter without further action” outside of issuing a warning letter.
Other numbers to know:
22: The number of U.S. servicemembers injured in what the military is calling a “helicopter mishap” in Syria.
14: The number of years that federal prosecutors are asking for one Jan. 6 rioter who called Trump “dad” and tased a police officer to be sentenced to in federal prison.
$7 million: The amount that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro made available in an emergency declaration to repair the I-95 overpass that collapsed near Philadelphia over the weekend.
$280 billion: The amount that fraudsters may have stolen from pandemic relief funding, according to an analysis by the Associated Press.
$600 million: How much the U.S. plans to pay in back dues to UNESCO as the nation rejoins the United Nations cultural and scientific agency.
$290 million: The value of a settlement reached between JPMorgan Chase and victims of Jeffrey Epstein, who claimed the bank facilitated Epstein’s sex trafficking enterprise.
$632 million: The amount that General Motors plans to invest to produce its next generation pickup trucks in Indiana.
7: The number of years since the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Florida, an anniversary that was marked with the unveiling of a new mural on Monday.
1: How many NBA championships the Denver Nuggets have won in team history, after defeating the Miami Heat Monday evening.
Eyes on 2024: Trump and allies launch ads to counter indictment
Trump’s campaign and his allies have taken his fight against his indictment to the airwaves, launching two TV ads in recent days attacking the prosecution as politically motivated and drawing comparisons to President Joe Biden’s own classified documents probe..
One ad that launched late last week decries the “radical left” for trying to take Trump down, with a narrator saying, “Like a pack of rabid wolves, they attack.” The ad so far has aired on a handful of stations, including Newsmax and MSNBC in the Washington, DC market, per AdImpact.
The pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc also launched a new ad related to Trump’s indictment, which hit the airwaves on Monday and appears to have more money behind it. The ad has mainly aired on Fox News, according to AdImpact tracking.
The ad notes the investigation into Biden’s own handling of classified documents (which is still ongoing) and a narrator says, the Justice Department “didn’t indict Biden. Instead, Biden’s DOJ went after Trump — anything to block him from becoming president again. Stand with President Trump against Biden’s corruption.”
MAGA Inc. has been dominating ad spending in the GOP primary in recent weeks, but the group is about to get some more competition. Never Back Down, the super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has spent more than $2.5 million on a new ad buy, starting Thursday and running through Tuesday, in Iowa and South Carolina and on Fox News nationally.
In other campaign news…
Haley changes her tune: Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley changed her tune on Trump’s indictment, more sharply criticizing Trump during a Monday Fox News appearance, per NBC News’ Ed Demaria and Emily Gold. Haley said, saying that if the indictment is true, Trump “was incredibly reckless with our national security” adding that his actions “puts all our military men and women in danger.” The morning after the news of Trump’s indictment broke, Haley lamented “prosecutorial overreach, double standards, and vendetta politics.”
Christie on CNN: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie participated in a town hall on CNN Monday, and Christie town hall and accused other presidential contenders of “playing games” by holding back criticism of Trump.
Campaign cash: DeSantis is participating a private fundraiser in New York later this month, per CNBC’s Brian Schwartz, who writes that the fundraiser is “set to be hosted by at least four Wall Street executives, including one with past ties to a firm backed by liberal billionaire George Soros, a frequent target of DeSantis and other Republicans.”
Judging Trump’s judges: During a conservative radio interview Monday, DeSantis downplayed the three Supreme Court justices Trump nominated during his presidency by saying: “I respect the three appointees he did, but none of those three are at the same level of Justices Thomas and Justice Alito.
No Labels may hinge on Trump: Politico reports that No Labels is unlikely to move forward on their possible third-party presidential bid if the GOP nominates anyone other than Trump.
Eyes on the general: NBC News’ Peter Nicholas and Alex Seitz-Wald report that while South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott may be a longshot in the GOP presidential race, Democrats fear he would pose a formidable challenge to Biden’s re-election if he becomes the GOP nominee. Meanwhile, Scott’s campaign announced endorsements on Monday from more than 140 state GOP officials, including a slew of state legislators, mayors and local city councilmembers, per a press release from his campaign.
Burgum on the air: North Dakota GOP Gov. Doug Burgum released the first TV ads of his presidential campaign, as he appears to be leveraging his own personal wealth to hit the airwaves.
Frank with Francis: Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who is in the spotlight this week due to Trump’s arraignment in his city, is also weighing a run for president himself. Asked by NBC News’ Tom Llamas in an interview if DeSantis would make a good president, Suarez said, “Well, listen, if I were, if I thought someone else would be a good president, I wouldn’t be running. Or I wouldn’t be talking about the possibility of running for president.”
“Trump can’t win”: Two new groups largely financed by conservative billionaire Charles Koch are running new digital ads criticizing Trump, per CNBC, saying that the former president can’t win and that he’s “Biden’s secret weapon.”
ICYMI: What ELSE is happening in the world:
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is requesting more information from golf officials about the PGA tour’s recent merger with Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and a group of conservative lawmakers agreed to a temporary deal to pave the way for new votes in the House.
