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Post by Admin on Apr 7, 2021 3:30:11 GMT
The ranks of the super wealthy swelled as the coronavirus pandemic threatened the lives and livelihoods of millions across the planet but stock markets continued to hit new highs.
Bezos was one of the biggest winners, topping the poll for the fourth consecutive year with a fortune of $177bn, while the Tesla boss, Elon Musk, zoomed into second place with a $151bn fortune, up $126.4bn from a year ago, when he ranked No 31 and was worth “just” $24.6bn.
Together the plutocrats added $5tn to their wealth for a combined fortune of $13.1tn, up from $8tn on the 2020 list. A record 493 people joined the list this year – one new billionaire every 17 hours. The majority, 205, were in China. But the gains were widespread with gains across the world.
Not everyone was a winner. According to the latest list, Donald Trump’s standing among other billionaires has plummeted almost 300 places since 2020, down to No 1,299. The humiliating fall sits on Forbes’ list next to a quote from the former president reading: “I took a lot of finance courses at Wharton. First they taught you all the rules and regulations. Then they taught you that those rules and regulations are really meant to be broken.”
Trump has lost millions on his retail locations, hotels and golf resorts in the last few years. But it does seem that businesses who were distancing themselves from Trump after the Capitol attack, continue to lease his properties, helping him to rake in millions on some properties in the last year.
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Post by Admin on Apr 9, 2021 5:54:05 GMT
Americans got a glimpse of Donald Trump’s post-presidential office for the first time on Monday, when former White House aide Stephen Miller tweeted out a picture of himself with Trump. The photo comes out as Trump tries to remain the kingmaker of the Republican party and has been meeting politicians down at Mar-a-Lago seeking his endorsement or hosting fundraisers at the resort. The office is above the ballroom at the exclusive Palm Beach club, according to someone who’s been in it. The image, showing a smiling Trump and Miller with palm beach trees in the background outside, rocketed around social media, with amateur online sleuths analyzing everything from the collection of tsotchkes populating the room to the bottle hiding behind Trump’s phone. POLITICO decided to do its own deep dive into Trump’s office, with the help of four former White House officials. Here’s our best reported effort to figure out which mementos the 45th president chose to keep around him in his new Florida life — and what it says about how he views his legacy.
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Post by Admin on Apr 10, 2021 19:27:50 GMT
This weekend, former President Donald Trump and other top Republicans are gathering in Florida for a GOP fundraiser as the party continues to craft a strategy to return to political power. NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell reports for Weekend TODAY.
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Post by Admin on Apr 12, 2021 0:59:46 GMT
Several Republican leaders on Sunday expressed concern at incendiary comments made by former President Donald Trump during a speech Saturday night at a Republican National Committee donor retreat.
“Anything that's divisive is a concern and is not helpful for us fighting the battles in Washington and at the state level,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “In some ways, it's not a big deal, what he said, but, at the same time, whenever it draws attention, we don't need that. We need unity.”
The former president went off-script in a roughly 50-minute keynote speech at his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida, ripping into Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, even calling him a “dumb son of a bitch.” Trump also took aim at former Vice President Mike Pence — saying he was “disappointed” in him for not fighting the certification of the election results in January — as well as Anthony Fauci, who Trump said was “full of crap.”
Trump’s verbal attacks come as the former president has reemerged into the world of GOP politics in recent days — ramping up fundraising efforts and shelling out endorsements for the 2022 midterm elections.
Several GOP leaders pushed back on Trump's fiery rhetoric, deeming it “not helpful” in uniting the Republican Party before the 2022 elections.
When asked by NBC’s Chuck Todd whether Trump’s voice is “helpful” to the Republican Party, Hutchinson, the Arkansas governor, responded: “Well, I don't think his most recent comments about Sen. McConnell were helpful if they were reported accurately.”
“So to me, you've got to engage in the fight that we have in 2022,” Hutchinson continued. “Right now, we've got some important fights in Washington about a big government solution to every problem that we have. And the Republican voice is important.”
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), an outspoken critic of the former president, told “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan on CBS that Trump in his Mar-a-Lago speech used “the same language that he knows provoked violence on Jan. 6.”
“As a party, we need to be focused on the future. We need to be focused on embracing the Constitution, not embracing insurrection. I think it's very important for people to realize that a fundamental part of the Constitution, and of who we are as Americans, is the rule of law, it's the judicial process,” Cheney said.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said on "Fox News Sunday" that amid Trump’s rhetoric and “some of the things flying back and forth,” Republicans — including Trump and McConnell — should be united in “working to defeat Democrats.”
Thune, like McConnell, has been the target of Trump's ire in recent months for refusing to support Trump's challenge to the 2020 presidential election results.
“Well, look, it's just — like I said, I think a lot of that rhetoric is — you know, it's part of the style and tone that comes with the former president, but I think he and Mitch McConnell have a common goal, and that is getting the majority back in 2022, and in the end hopefully that will be the thing that unites us,” Thune said.
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Post by Admin on Apr 12, 2021 5:02:01 GMT
It was supposed to be a unifying weekend for a Republican Party at war with itself over former President Donald Trump’s divisive leadership. But Trump himself shattered two days of relative peace in his closing remarks to the GOP’s top donors when he insulted the party’s Senate leader and his wife.
Ahead of the invitation-only speech at Trump’s new home inside his Mar-a-Lago resort, the former president’s advisers said he would emphasize his commitment to his party and Republican unity.
Trump veered sharply from prepared remarks Saturday night and instead slammed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as a “stone-cold loser” and mocked McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who was Trump’s transportation secretary.
Trump also said he was “disappointed” in his vice president, Mike Pence, and used a profanity in assessing McConnell, according to multiple people in attendance who were not authorized to publicly discuss what was said in a private session. He said McConnell had not thanked him properly for putting Chao, who was labor secretary under President George W. Bush, in his Cabinet.
McConnell's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.
Trump's words left some attendees feeling uncomfortable.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich did not defend Trump as he left Palm Beach on Sunday.
“We are much better off if we keep focusing on the Democrats. Period,” Gingrich said.
Saturday’s speech was the final address of the Republican National Committee’s weekend donor summit in Palm Beach. Most of the RNC’s closed-door gathering was held at a luxury hotel a few miles away from Mar-a-Lago; attendees were bused to Trump’s club for his remarks.
While a significant faction of the Republican Party hopes to move past Trump’s divisive leadership, the location of the event — and the former president’s prominent speaking slot — suggests that the GOP, at least for now, is not ready to replace Trump as its undisputed leader and chief fundraiser.
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