DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Trump rallies supporters in campaign-style speech after first-ever arraignment of an ex-president: 'The only crime that I've committed is to fiercely defend our nation'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

"The only crime that I've committed is to fiercely defend our nation," he added. "The only crime that I've committed is to fiercely defend our nation," Trump said, addressing each of the pending investigations against him, in addition to the charges brought in New York. The rambling, 27-minute speech, Trump called the charges against him "a persecution, not an investigation" and evidence the country "is going to hell," adding that the charges should be dropped immediately. The arraignment on Tuesday "solidified" a Trump win in 2024, MyPillow CEO and Trump ally Mike Lindell told Insider ahead of the Mar-a-Lago speech. He accused the Manhattan DA of having political motivations because Trump didn't "go away" after the 2020 election.

☆ Lawyer says Trump didn't intend to threaten prosecutor with social media post: 'That is a picture of him showing off an American-made bat'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Charles R. Davis | Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Former President Donald Trump will not be prevented from discussing the New York case against him. Speaking to reporters, Joe Tacopina, an attorney for Trump, acknowledged that Judge Juan M. Merchan had discussed the former president's use of social media. On his own social network, Truth Social, Trump had posted a news story, for example, that showed him wielding a baseball bat next to a photo of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. "That is a picture of him showing off an American-made bat," he said. Todd Blanche, another Trump attorney, told reporters that Merchan had asked all parties to be respectful and not use language "that is inappropriate."

☆ Texas will play an outsized role in selecting the next GOP presidential nominee. So Trump isn't leaving anything to chance.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Trump has previously indicated that he wouldn't leave the 2024 presidential race if he was indicted. Among the bold-named Texas figures who have signed on to Trump's 2024 campaign are Lt. Gov. Greg Abbott, who has been floated as a potential 2024 presidential candidate, was also not on the list. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas won his home state in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. Cruz took home the lion's share of Texas' GOP delegates in what is a winner-takes-most system.

☆ DeSantis says Florida won't help extradite Trump even though it's required by US Constitution
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

DeSantis pledged Florida wouldn't be involved in an extradition to New York, given that Trump lives in Palm Beach. Ron DeSantis of Florida pledged Thursday that state officials would not help extradite former President Donald Trump from Florida to New York in a charged political attack on the prosecutor, following the first-ever indictment of a former president. The Florida extradition statute describes two ways of extraditing people from Florida to another state where they face criminal charges. The governor's only role is making sure the demand meets all the legal requirements before ordering the extradition, legal experts told Insider. He could also delegate and let another member of the Florida executive branch sign off on Hochul's extradition demand.

☆ Trump concedes DeSantis is his biggest rival and says he regrets endorsing him for governor: 'I don't think it's nice'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Trump told reporters that it would be disloyal for DeSantis to run for president in 2024. Trump said he regretted endorsing DeSantis in 2018, noting his backing helped him win. Speaking to a group of reporters aboard his plane Monday, Trump conceded that DeSantis was "probably" his biggest rival, and said he regretted endorsing him for governor in 2018. "And in the process, we beat the left day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year." Trump and DeSantis have roughly the same favorability among Iowans, according to a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll released Friday.

☆ Big tech was a major target at CPAC, but conservatives building alternatives are facing challenges
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Ben Goggin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., targeted big tech and the legal immunity companies enjoy under Section 230, which is currently being considered by the Supreme Court. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Co., said in her speech Saturday: "I have called for 230 protections to be removed from these big tech companies who are hiding behind section 230, and they are acting like editors rather than publishers." "The key was, could we build something that big tech couldn't tear down and couldn't stop?" But not all Big Tech was a target. LibsofTikTok creator Chaya Raichik criticized how big tech has treated her accounts while also boasting about her follower count on those platforms and promoting her book sold on Amazon.

☆ Trump condemns DeSantis' potential 2024 White House bid as 'disloyalty'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Trump told radio host Jenna Ellis that he never asked DeSantis to stay out of the 2024 nomination. Speaking to radio host Jenna Ellis on American Family Radio, Trump called himself "a very big believer in loyalty." Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley made her run official on Tuesday, but Ellis asked Trump about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as well, who hasn't made his intentions clear but often polls second to Trump in a hypothetical primary matchup. DeSantis, who was a US congressman at the time, had sagging poll numbers during the primary until Trump endorsed him.

☆ Worried about World War III, Trump says he wants an 'impenetrable' shield like Iron Dome to protect the US from hypersonic weapons. A missile defense expert says it's a long shot.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Trump recently said the US should build a nationwide missile defense shield like Israel's Iron Dome. It is unclear if Trump wants the Iron Dome system defending American cities or if he wants a new shield specifically designed for hypersonic threats. Either way, his plan for an "impenetrable" defense is unrealistic, a missile defense expert told Insider. 'There's always some way to get through'Right now, the US has a homeland missile defense system called the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD). While Trump appears to be questionably framing the missile defense situation, there are still certain things that the US can do to strengthen its homeland missile defense, Williams noted.

☆ Trump's political ascent was fueled by Southern Republicans. Now they're his main 2024 opponents
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

REUTERS/Randall HillIn the pivotal 2016 South Carolina primary, Trump won the contest — beating Bush, Rubio, and Cruz in their own Southern backyard. AP Photo/Richard Drew, FileTrump is no longer a Washington outsiderIn 2016, Trump was a novelty to many Republican voters. And in recent months, DeSantis has increasingly eclipsed Trump as the top presidential choice among GOP primary voters. Haley and Scott could potentially be competitors to win the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. By the time the Florida GOP primary was held, Jeb Bush had already suspended his campaign, humbled by his fourth-place showing in South Carolina.

☆ Ivana Trump's will directs Eric Trump to sell all of her furs and donate the rest of her clothes to charity
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Grace Eliza Goodwin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ivana Trump's will directed Eric Trump to sell all her furs and divy the proceeds among his siblings. Ivana Trump — a Czech-American former model, businesswoman, and ex-wife of Donald Trump — died in July 2022 at 73. Her longtime friend and furrier Dennis Basso spoke to the New York Times shortly after her death in July about Ivana's affection for furs. Basso told the New York Times he met Ivana at his debut fashion show in New York City in 1983. The execution of Ivana Trump's final wishes was finalized at the end of last year, according to probate records in Miami-Dade County, Florida, where she held her permanent residence.

☆ Steve Bannon has ghosted his 'We Build The Wall' defense lawyers for months in what prosecutors calls a delay tactic
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Steve Bannon was in Manhattan court Thursday for a hearing in his border wall charity scam case. His lawyers told the judge that Bannon has refused to talk to them for months. David Schoen, one of Bannon's current lawyers, asked the judge to let him and another lawyer, John Mitchell, stop representing Bannon immediately. At the court conference, Schoen told Judge Juan Merchan that Bannon was no longer speaking with him or Mitchell. Merchan said the Manhattan District Attorney's office should "set aside" discovery evidence for whichever lawyers Bannon hired.

Allen Weisselberg, former chief financial officer for the Trump Organization, is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday for his role in the company's sweeping 15-year tax fraud scheme. As part of his deal with prosecutors, Weisselberg could have faced added time behind bars if he did not testify truthfully at trial, which ended with the Trump Organization being convicted of all counts. Lawyers for the two Trump Organization subsidiaries charged in the case maintained during the trial that Weisselberg was the lone bad actor and the companies shouldn't be held responsible. Had Weisselberg been convicted at trial, he could have faced up to 15 years in prison. At Tuesday's sentencing hearing, the judge will decide whether Weisselberg must go to jail that day or at a later date.

Share this -Link copiedMcCarthy elected speaker in 15th round McCarthy was elected House speaker Saturday shortly after midnight on the 15th ballot. Share this -Link copiedHouse reconvenes to hold 14th round of speaker votes The House has reconvened to begin the 14th round of speaker votes. Read the rest of the story, The House speaker election, in three charts. Share this -Link copiedHouse begins 13th round The House is beginning the 13th round of speaker votes. At least 14 House GOP flip to support McCarthy in twelfth speaker vote Jan. 6, 2023 01:52 Share this -Link copied

☆ Trump tax returns show former president was subject to $10,000 SALT cap — but experts say he may have sidestepped the limit
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

A 2017 tax law capped SALT deductions at $10,000The House Ways and Means Committee's release of six years of Trump's tax returns follows a lengthy fight over making them public. New state rules provide a SALT workaroundHowever, the income tax returns don't provide the full picture, experts said. Here's why: Many states issued rules after 2017 that offer a workaround to certain business owners impacted by the $10,000 SALT cap. The workarounds would apply to business income Trump derived from partnerships, S corporations and some LLCs after 2017. While it's likely Trump leveraged these tax rules, it's impossible to know without additional information like business tax returns if he did and the extent to which he may have benefited, experts said.

He promises not to let that happen again, insisting he will “actively look for quality candidates” to promote in the 2024 primaries. “In the other states, Trump’s support was so significant — we could have spent a lot of money, maybe trying to come up with a different candidate and maybe not succeeding,” he said. And yet, it's Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. — not McConnell — who's radiating confidence about winning the majority in 2024. He also spent large parts of 2022 feuding over strategy with Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the GOP Senate campaign chief. Then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and then President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol, on Oct. 24, 2017.

☆ House Democrats vote to make material related to Trump's personal tax returns public
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Warren Rojas | Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The Democratic-majority House Ways and Means Committee voted to make materials related to Trump's tax returns public. Some of this was already revealed in 2020 when The New York Times obtained decades of Trump's tax information. "If this injustice can happen to President Trump, it can happen to all Americans without cause," Cheung wrote. US Treasury officials gave Neal Trump's tax filings for 2015-2020 in late November. Neal and other Democratic tax writers have been deliberating about how to handle Trump's tax documents for weeks.

☆ Trump did not plead the Fifth when deposed in 'Electric Avenue' copyright suit, Eddy Grant's lawyers say
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Donald Trump didn't plead the Fifth when deposed for an "Electric Avenue" copyright lawsuit. Trump's ex-social media director Dan Scavino is meanwhile fighting being deposed, Grant's side says. The former president gave a court-ordered deposition earlier this year in Grant's $300,000 copyright infringement lawsuit, which is filed in federal court in Manhattan, a court filing revealed Monday. Some 40 seconds of "Electric Avenue" plays in the background of the animation, which depicts then-candidate Joe Biden puttering along on a slow-moving hand-car as the Trump campaign barrels past in a high-speed train. Online court records do not say what day Trump was deposed, or where.

☆ Expert on White House chiefs of staff says Mark Meadows 'absolutely owns' the title of 'worst' chief in history after ex-aide's damning testimony
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

The historian Chris Whipple said Mark Meadows was the worst White House chief of staff in history. The author Chris Whipple, who has interviewed dozens of White House chiefs of staff, said that Cassidy Hutchinson's shocking testimony before the House January 6 committee has made it abundantly clear that Mark Meadows is by far the "worst" White House chief of staff in history. On December 19, the panel released an executive summary of its findings that was harshly critical of Meadows' book "The Chief's Chief." Whipple wrote the literal book on White House chiefs of staffABC's George Stephanopoulos interviews the author Chris Whipple in 2017. "I've said oftentimes that being White House chief of staff is perhaps the second most powerful job in Washington, D.C.

☆ Allen Weisselberg could get more time since the Trump Org guilty verdict required jurors to find he lied
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

A judge could rule Weisselberg violated the deal because jurors, by their verdict, found he lied. He has been promised a five-month jail sentence as part of his August plea deal. But that deal required Weisselberg, 75, to testify truthfully against former President Donald Trump's real-estate company, where he's worked since the 1970s. "Weisselberg says over and over, 'I, together with the Trump Organization,'" Florence, now in private practice, noted of his guilty plea. Trump Organization lawyers have already promised to appeal the verdict itself.

☆ DeSantis' latest anti-COVID-19 vaccine push puts him on a collision course with Trump over the pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Ron DeSantis intensified his attacks on the COVID-19 vaccines on Tuesday, in a move that positions the Republican governor to contrast his pandemic record with that of former President Donald Trump. It's not clear whether Trump will lean into his success on the COVID-19 vaccine through his Operation Warp Speed program. Then-President Donald Trump with then-Florida governor candidate Ron DeSantis at a July 2018 “Make America Great Again” rally in Tampa, Florida. For instance, the FDA and CDC have cleared the bivalent booster for those as young as 6 months of age depending on what COVID-19 vaccine a person has previously had. The committee will issue guidance about COVID vaccines and other healthcare matters.

☆ Astronauts explain why nobody has visited the moon in 50 years — and the reasons are depressing
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Dave Mosher | Hilary Brueck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

The last time a person visited the moon was in December 1972, during NASA's Apollo 17 mission. But those stays during the Apollo program didn't establish a lasting human presence on the moon. Researchers and entrepreneurs have long pushed for the creation of a crewed base on the moon — a lunar space station. But many astronauts and other experts suggest the biggest impediments to making new crewed moon missions a reality are banal and somewhat depressing. During NASA's Apollo program, 12 people landed on the moon.

☆ India is trying to become the new factory of the world, but it could take more than a global pandemic to unseat China from its 40-year reign
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

But it isn't easy to fully replace China's supply chain ecosystem in any country — even one as vast as India. "India has a large labor pool, a long history of manufacturing, and government support for boosting industry and exports. Data irregularities improved China's position in 2018, according to a World Bank audit published in December 2020. India also has a history of protectionism, which makes it less competitive in terms of attracting large investments. That's precisely because they want to diversify, from having dependency on one country, like China, to a couple of locations."

☆ 'Donald Trump knew exactly what was going on' in Trump Org. tax fraud, Manhattan prosecutor says in summations
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Late Thursday, a prosecutor told jurors Trump "knew exactly" how his top executives dodged taxes. The "Trump was in on it" pronouncement, made in summations by prosecutor Joshua Steinglass, prompted strong opposition from defense lawyers after jurors left the courtroom for the day. One defense lawyer, Alan Futerfas, objected that Steinglass violated an agreement not to speculate to jurors about what Trump knew or didn't know. "The first problem of the 'prodigal son' narrative," Steinglass told jurors Thursday, "is he didn't steal from the company. The two Trump Organization subsidiaries face a maximum $1.6 million in penalties if convicted of conspiracy, scheme to defraud, and tax fraud.

☆ Trump Org hopes to win its Manhattan tax-fraud trial with an 'ignorance' defense — a Trump hallmark
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Summations are Thursday and Friday in the Manhattan tax-fraud trial of the Trump Organization. Star prosecution witnesses with arguably mixed loyalties, the two told jurors they never let anyone named Trump in on the scheme. Jurors may well wonder how Donald Trump, or Eric Trump, or Donald Trump, Jr., could truly have been ignorant of the scheme when the three of them personally signed off on so many of the perks. "Donald Trump didn't know that Allen Weisselberg was cheating on Allen Weisselberg's taxes," as defense lawyer Susan Necheles told jurors in openings. In this trial, though, the ignorance defense goes into overdrive, and doesn't stop with a supposedly clueless Trump.

☆ Donald Trump says Kanye West asked him for advice about his 'difficulties' over dinner at Mar-a-Lago
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-26 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Donald Trump says Kayne West sought advice on business issues on a visit to Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday. Trump said he also told West not to run for president in 2024. In another post on Friday, Trump said that West asked him "for advice concerning some of his difficulties, in particular having to do with his business." West said Trump reacted negatively when he announced his plan to make a White House run. Representatives for West and Trump didn't immediately respond to a request for comment by Insider.

Search resuls for: "Trump didn't"

25 mentions found