Politics
Trump is having a bad week. Will it matter in the election?
Former President Trump’s tough week showed as well as any to date why he is facing a new and unprecedented reality as a presidential candidate — as he ping-ponged among a dizzying array of court appearances, judicial rulings, competing allegations and subsequent grievances.
By Thursday, he was complaining about the overlap in his busy legal schedule, railing that Judge Juan M. Merchan, who is presiding over his hush-money case in New York, wouldn’t let him leave that trial to attend a Supreme Court hearing in Washington, D.C., over whether he can face criminal prosecution for trying to overturn the 2020 election. That decision also could affect Trump’s classified-documents case in Florida.
“I should be there!” Trump fumed about the Supreme Court. “He wouldn’t allow it to happen. He puts himself above the Supreme Court.”
Most of the week, Trump sat in Merchan’s Manhattan courtroom as former National Enquirer Publisher David Pecker testified. Pecker, a key witness in the 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, helped prosecutors outline the alleged conspiracy that involved using the tabloid to kill negative stories about Trump and covering up payments during the 2016 campaign.
A trial break Wednesday might have offered a reprieve for Trump. Instead, it was full of more action against the former president. Trump was identified as a co-conspirator in two states: Michigan, during a pretrial hearing involving a group of “fake electors” who were charged as part of an election subversion scheme; and Arizona, where some of Trump’s closest allies were charged in yet another plot to overturn the election using fake electors.
That indictment hit close to Trump because it included Mark Meadows, his former chief of staff, and Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who became Trump’s political fixer and confidant.
It didn’t end there. By the time Trump got back to court on Thursday, prosecutors alleged that his attempts to spin perceptions about his Manhattan case — including calling Pecker “a nice guy” — violated the gag order because he was trying to sway a potentially harmful witness.
To cap it off, a federal judge in New York rejected Trump’s attempt to throw out an $83.3-million civil defamation judgment for E. Jean Carroll, a former magazine columnist who accused Trump of raping her in a department store in the 1990s. A jury ruled Trump defamed Carroll by denying her sexual-abuse allegations.
Will it matter in the election? Trump appeared unharmed during the presidential primary, with many Republican voters either dismissing the charges as a distraction or agreeing with Trump that he was being persecuted for upending the establishment.
In interviews last week with voters in Arizona, a key swing state, one supporter dismissed the fury around Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, as overblown. Other supporters and potential supporters said their concerns about the economy and immigration and frustration with President Biden were more important than anything else.
But a poll released Wednesday had some data that might concern Trump’s campaign. Six in 10 voters said the charges in the Manhattan case — considered the weakest of the four indictments against the former president — were either very serious or somewhat serious, according to a Quinnipiac University poll of registered voters.
Just under half of those polled said Trump did something illegal, while more than a quarter said it was unethical but not illegal.
Most voters said a conviction would not influence their vote. But a sizable minority — including 5% of Trump voters — said they would be less likely to vote for Trump if he is found guilty.
That may not seem like much, and some of those voters could change their minds. But in an election that both sides expect to be close, even a relatively small number of lost votes could matter.
“Any slice of 2% to 3% of people who will be persuaded matters,” said David Paleologos, a pollster and director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston.
There’s also an opportunity cost, as Trump is losing time to get out in front of swing-state voters.
“The only way a week like this is reversed is if he has a positive outcome in one of his trials,” Paleologos said.
For Trump, a positive result could include not only an outright win but also a ruling by the Supreme Court that delays one or more of his trials until after the election, allowing him to further scuttle or quash the proceedings if he becomes president again.
“It’s one thing to be tied up in court a week and then win,” Paleologos said. “And it’s another to have lost all of that time and lose.”
U.S. Border Patrol agents came under fire while working on the southern border from gunmen operating inside Mexico, according to various officials.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed to Fox News that shots were fired from the Mexican side of the El Paso, Texas sector on Wednesday afternoon. The CBP said that agents were involved in a “use of force incident while responding to reports of shots fired near the border in the Ysleta Station area of responsibility in Texas.” Sources confirmed that CBP agents returned fire.
The FBI later confirmed the shooting in a statement to Fox News, saying it happened “by the Ysleta USBP Station – Lopez Gate” and that their agents are investigating it as an “assault on federal agents.”
“FBI El Paso was notified of the May 8th shooting that occurred by the Ysleta USBP Station – Lopez Gate. The FBI El Paso Violent Crime Task Force and the FBI Evidence Recovery Team were deployed to collect evidence at the crime scene.,” the FBI said. “The FBI El Paso’s Violent Crime Task Force is working closely with the U.S. Custom and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility on this assault on a federal officer investigation. As this is an ongoing investigation, no further details may be given at this time.”
MASSIVE NUMBER OF MIGRANTS FROM THIS FOREIGN ADVERSARY ARE ILLEGALLY ENTERING US
Border Patrol agents have been fired upon in a series of targeted attacks this month, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said. (Getty Images)
CBP said that no agents were injured during the incident and that an investigation is underway.
“There are no reported injuries at this time,” the CBP said in a statement. “The incident is under review by Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility.”
The FBI later confirmed the shooting, saying it happened “by the Ysleta USBP Station – Lopez Gate.” ((Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images))
The shocking incident is not the first time agents have come under fire during a patrol.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS
The CBP said that this was the second incident in recent weeks.
CBP said that no agents were injured during the incident and that an investigation is underway (James Breeden for New York Post / Mega)
The incident comes as tens of thousands of illegal immigrants have evaded Border Patrol so far this fiscal year.
According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources, there have been 175,000 “known getaways,” meaning illegal immigrants who have evaded Border Patrol agents but have been picked up by other forms of surveillance but not apprehended, since the fiscal year began in October.
That means there have been an average of nearly 800 gotaways each day at the border.
Get the latest updates on the ongoing border crisis from the Fox News Digital immigration hub.
Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said he and his staff have been reviewing former President Trump’s second-term agenda in detail to prepare a potential onslaught of environmental, immigration and civil rights lawsuits in the event Trump defeats President Biden.
“We can’t be caught flat-footed,” Bonta said in in interview Thursday in Washington. “Fortunately and unfortunately, we have four years of Trump 1.0. We know some of the moves and priorities; we expect them to be different.”
Bonta, a Democrat who is mulling a run for governor, said he has been reviewing the work of his predecessor, Xavier Becerra, who filed more than 100 suits against Trump policies before leaving the office to become Biden’s secretary of Health and Human Services. Bonta and his deputies are also looking closely at a document drafted by the Heritage Foundation, a Trump-aligned think tank, known as “Project 2025,” that offers a blueprint for Trump’s second-term policy goals.
California’s slate of Democratic politicians have long seen themselves as a bulwark against conservative policies, never more so than during Trump’s presidency, when the state became the de facto headquarters of the so-called resistance. The challenges to Trump, while popular with many supporters, at times put Democrats in the awkward position of asserting states’ rights after long advocating for standards that would apply across the country. Critics said the constant lawsuits were politically motivated and distracted from the attorney general’s other duties, including protecting consumers.
The challenges also helped Trump politically at times, as it allowed him to use the state as a foil when he failed to carry out some of his agenda.
With states growing increasingly polarized, attorneys general from both red and blue states now play high-profile roles in feuding with the federal government when it’s run by the opposite political party. The Obama administration was sued 58 times by Republican attorneys general, according to a tally maintained by Paul Nolette, a political science professor at Marquette University. Since Biden has been in office, GOP attorneys general have filed 55 lawsuits against his administration’s policies.
The figures represent a substantial increase from prior administrations. And the lawyers have generally won. Republican attorneys general beat Obama in court 64% of the time, and they are defeating Biden at a 76% rate, according to Nolette. Democratic attorneys general, who sued Trump 155 times, won 83% of the time.
Bonta singled out several efforts to thwart Trump, including former Gov. Jerry Brown’s decision to sign the Paris climate accord after Trump dropped out “to maintain that leadership role in the world that we’re gonna continue with climate action.”
Becerra challenged Trump’s power on a number of fronts, including climate, healthcare, immigration, gun control and civil rights. He won many of those battles, including Trump’s plan to repeal an Obama administration order to protect so-called Dreamers from deportation. Trump abandoned plans to add a citizenship question to the census after a multistate lawsuit that included California.
A second Trump term would likely also invite new challenges on abortion laws, LGBTQ+ rights and the rights of parents and children to seek transgender treatment, Bonta said.
“So there’s a whole lot of contingencies and then, you know, looking at the different constitutional clauses and component parts of the Constitution that would be the groundwork and the basis for our potential challenges,” he said.
There are limits to the legal strategy that even Bonta acknowledged. The federal government has control over immigration enforcement, Trump’s top priority. While states can decline some assistance to the federal government, they cannot protect immigrants who are in the country illegally from deportation.
“If it’s the federal government’s job, they can do it,” he said.
The state can provide legal assistance and ensure that people get due process, but “immigration has long been an area of federal law.”
Asked for comment on Bonta’s plans, Anna Kelly, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, said, “California liberals will try anything to spread their failed, fringe-left agenda far and wide, but they won’t stop President Trump from making America great again.”
Bonta was in Washington for an event with Vice President Kamala Harris, another one of his predecessors, to celebrate Asian & Pacific American Heritage Month. He acknowledged that he is considering a run for governor in 2026 and said he would decide after the November election. He could also run for another term as attorney general.
U.S. Border Patrol agents came under fire while working on the southern border from gunmen operating inside Mexico.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed to Fox News that shots were fired from the Mexican side of the El Paso, Texas sector on Wednesday afternoon.
The CBP said that agents were involved in a “use of force incident while responding to reports of shots fired near the border in the Ysleta Station area of responsibility in Texas.”
Sources confirmed that CBP agents returned fire.
MASSIVE NUMBER OF MIGRANTS FROM THIS FOREIGN ADVERSARY ARE ILLEGALLY ENTERING US
Border Patrol agents have been fired upon in a series of targeted attacks this month, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said. (Getty Images)
The agency said that no agents were injured during the incident and that an investigation is underway.
“There are no reported injuries at this time,” the CBP said in a statement. “The incident is under review by Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility.”
New sections of the steel bollard-style border wall, comprising primary and secondary barriers, stands along the US-Mexico border between San Diego and Tijuana (L) during a tour with US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on May 10, 2021 in the Otay Mesa area of San Diego County, California. ((Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images))
The shocking incident is not the first time agents have come under fire during a patrol.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS
The CBP said that this was the second incident in recent weeks.
A group of over 100 migrants attempting to enter the US illegally rush a border wall Thursday, March 21, 2024. (James Breeden for New York Post / Mega)
The incident comes as tens of thousands of illegal immigrants have evaded Border Patrol so far this fiscal year.
According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources, there have been 175,000 “known getaways,” meaning illegal immigrants who have evaded Border Patrol agents but have been picked up by other forms of surveillance but not apprehended, since the fiscal year began in October.
That means there have been an average of nearly 800 gotaways each day at the border.
Get the latest updates on the ongoing border crisis from the Fox News Digital immigration hub.
Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
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