All posts tagged: first time

Donald Trump’s ‘Fraudulent Ways’ Cost Him 5 Million

Donald Trump’s ‘Fraudulent Ways’ Cost Him $355 Million

Justice Arthur Engoron’s ruling is not fatal for Trump’s business empire, but it might be a near-death experience. Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post / Bloomberg / Getty February 16, 2024, 5:21 PM ET A New York judge fined Donald Trump $355 million today, finding “overwhelming evidence” that he and his lieutenants at the Trump Organization made false statements “with the intent to defraud.” Justice Arthur Engoron’s ruling in the civil fraud case is not fatal for Trump’s business empire, but it might be a near-death experience. The fine fell just short of the $370 million that New York Attorney General Letitia James sought. Engoron also declined to cancel the Trump Organization’s licenses to practice, as he had suggested he might last year. But he barred Trump from serving as an officer of any New York company for three years, and his sons for two. Engoron also ruled that a court-appointed monitor would continue to oversee the company for at least three years. David A. Graham: It’s just fraud all the way down “This Court …

Trump Has Always Been Like This

Trump Has Always Been Like This

Ten years ago, I stood in the back of a large room at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, watching Donald Trump ramble. The celebrity billionaire had been loitering on the fringes of American politics for a few years, but this was my first time seeing him give a proper speech. At least, that’s what I thought he was supposed to be doing. Speaking at the Politics & Eggs forum is a rite of passage for presidential aspirants, and Trump at the time was going through his quadrennial ritual of noisily considering a bid for office. Typically, prospective candidates give variations on their stump speech in this setting. Trump was doing something else—he meandered and riffed and told disjointed stories with no evident connection to one another. The incoherence might have been startling if I had taken him seriously. But the year was 2014, and this was Donald Trump—the man who presided over a reality show in which Gary Busey competed in a pizza-selling contest with Meat Loaf. Nobody took Trump seriously. That was my …

The Other Time America Panicked Over a President’s Age

The Other Time America Panicked Over a President’s Age

How old is too old? This isn’t the first time the question has dominated a presidential race. For a brief moment, 40 years ago, the country could talk of nothing else. I should know: I was one of the reasons. One spring day in 1984, I was chatting with Burns “Bud” Roper, the veteran pollster. At the time, I was The Wall Street Journal’s White House correspondent, covering Ronald Reagan’s reelection campaign. Thanks to a surging economy, Reagan seemed poised for an easy victory in November. The campaign was shaping up to be a bore. “Bud,” I asked, “is there any chance he could lose?” When it came to polling, Bud had seen it all, going back to Harry Truman versus Thomas Dewey. He told me he hadn’t found anything that could stop Reagan. Then he paused. “Actually, there is one thing,” he added. “People won’t say it if you ask them directly, but when you look deeply at the numbers, a lot of them are concerned about his age.” Reagan was 73 at the …

When Valentine’s Day Meets Ash Wednesday

When Valentine’s Day Meets Ash Wednesday

This year, Ash Wednesday, a Christian day of mourning, falls on February 14, Valentine’s Day. At first glance, these two days could not be more different: One is a lighthearted celebration of love and affection, the other a somber reminder of human mortality. But love and death are not strangers; they chase each other like childhood friends playing tag in the schoolyard. The coincidence of these two holidays occurring on the same day feels providential, reminding us that death lingers at the edge of the sweetest romances, waiting for its moment to spoil the fun. As an Anglican priest and a husband, I have kept both days with my wife. Ash Wednesday begins the 40-day penitential season of Lent in the lead-up to Easter, and it includes a service where a priest marks each congregant’s forehead with ashes in the shape of a cross. I have led those services, standing before my wife and the assembled congregation, entreating them to gather at the altar. They stumble out of the pews, mothers and fathers wrestling unruly …

An Airtight Ruling Against Trump

An Airtight Ruling Against Trump

Sign up for The Trump Trials by George T. Conway III, a newsletter that chronicles the former president’s legal troubles. On July 24, 1974, when the Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, ordering President Richard Nixon to produce the Watergate tapes, the president turned to his chief of staff, Alexander Haig, to understand what had just happened. He later recounted the exchange in his memoirs: “Unanimous?” I guessed. “Unanimous. There’s no air in it at all,” he said. “None at all?” I asked. “It’s tight as a drum.” These words echoed through my mind today, nearly 50 years later, as I read the historic opinion of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in United States v. Trump, holding that former President Donald Trump does not enjoy immunity from prosecution for any crimes he committed in attempting to end constitutional democracy in the United States. The result was no surprise. As I said last month, no one who attended the oral argument could have believed Trump …

The Perils of Turning ‘SNL’ Into a Campaign Stop

The Perils of Turning ‘SNL’ Into a Campaign Stop

Watching the real Nikki Haley spar with a fake Donald Trump was awkward—and not very funny. Will Heath / NBC February 4, 2024, 1:50 PM ET Last night, audiences who tuned into Saturday Night Live to see The Bear star and Emmy winner Ayo Edebiri host for the first time were greeted with an awkward surprise: The sight of the Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, trying her best to seem at ease opposite a fake Donald Trump. Haley popped up in the cold open, playing herself as a “concerned South Carolina voter” attending a CNN town hall with James Austin Johnson’s Trump. “Why won’t you debate Nikki Haley?” she asked. In response, Johnson started rambling about Nancy Pelosi—mistaking the former South Carolina governor for the Democratic congresswoman—which Haley followed up by asking “Donald” to take a mental-competency test. While Johnson went on an absurdist Trumpian rant about how he was deemed “mental,” Haley tried to make herself seem like a reasonable alternative, maintaining a stiff posture and a persistent smile. It was framed as a …

An  Million Victory for E. Jean Carroll—And America

An $83 Million Victory for E. Jean Carroll—And America

Sign up for The Trump Trials by George T. Conway III, a newsletter that chronicles the former president’s legal troubles. Eighty-three million, three hundred thousand dollars. When a New York jury awarded that amount to E. Jean Carroll on Friday in her defamation action against former President Donald Trump, I was awestruck. Now, as a lawyer, I had thought a fair verdict could range anywhere from $75 to $100 million—or even more. Carroll had already obtained a $5 million verdict in a trial just last year, an amount comprising roughly $2 million for his having sexually abused Carroll in 1996, and roughly $3 million for his having defamed her in 2022, after he (unwillingly) left office. This trial, the second trial, was held to determine what damages she had suffered when he defamed her in 2019, when Carroll first told the world how Trump had assaulted her. It stood to reason that the damages for that slander would be much greater—after all, that had been the first time he’d lied about her, and, importantly, his …

The perfect antidote to endless reboots

The perfect antidote to endless reboots

Reissued art is worth turning to in a moment of relentless spin-offs and sequels. United Archives GmbH / Alamy January 19, 2024, 5:54 PM ET This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. In a world of reheated versions of popular IP, I love turning to new releases of older gems. First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic: Resurrected Treasures To my embarrassment, I did not really know what the deal was with the Talking Heads until a few months ago. I walked into a showing of Stop Making Sense at a local movie theater one Friday night with only the loosest concept of what I was in for. Now I can’t stop discussing the movie (and delighting in this David Byrne chihuahua costume), and I stream the Talking Heads’ music almost daily. The movie, a filmed version of a series of 1983 concerts, was …

The Airline Antitrust Paradox – The Atlantic

The Airline Antitrust Paradox – The Atlantic

Read one way, the decision this week by a federal judge to block JetBlue’s acquisition of Spirit Airlines is a milestone in the effort to revive American antitrust law. President Joe Biden has made competition enforcement a central part of his economic policy, and the JetBlue ruling marks the first time that federal regulators have ever won a lawsuit to stop a major U.S. airline merger. In his opinion, William G. Young—who was appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1985—explains in admirably plain language that absorbing Spirit would allow JetBlue to raise prices and reduce service on the routes where the two airlines currently compete. This would violate the federal Clayton Act—“a statute,” Young wrote, “that continues to deliver for the American people.” Yet Young’s decision also inadvertently struck an odd note—one that hints at the limits of what antitrust enforcement alone can do to improve air travel. “Spirit is a small airline,” he wrote. “But there are those who love it. To those dedicated customers of Spirit, this one’s for you.” Really? No doubt Spirit …

Military Emissions Are Too Big to Keep Ignoring

Military Emissions Are Too Big to Keep Ignoring

For as long as the world’s diplomats have gathered to talk about slowing the march of climate change, the one institution pointedly missing from the agenda has been the military. This has been by design: At the behest of the U.S., reporting military emissions was largely exempted from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the document that set binding emissions targets for nations that signed. The 2015 Paris Agreement overturned the old exemption but still did not require reporting of military emissions. Data remain stupendously spotty. Only late last year, in the lead-up to the COP28 United Nations climate meeting in Dubai, was the connection between the military and climate change brought up in brief mentions in a key report. Perhaps this was because, in some cases, militaries themselves have begun announcing programs to “green” their operations. Or because the nations at COP28 gathered against the backdrop of two active wars. Or because the climate situation has become dire enough that the world can no longer afford to ignore any major source of emissions. Maintaining a military …