Politics
Trump sets stage for 2024
He may have lost the White House and his social media megaphone but Donald Trump is reminding Americans of his ability to dominate the political conversation as he courts controversy on the comeback trail.
Surrounded by “Trump Won” flags at a rally Saturday in Texas, the loser of the 2020 election teased another run for president and dangled impunity for those who waged last year’s attack on the Capitol in a failed bid to halt the transfer of power to Joe Biden.
Trump claimed that those charged in the assault — characterized by the FBI as an act of domestic terror — were being “treated so unfairly” and vowed that “if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons.”
Perhaps attempting to reach beyond the few obscure TV channels carrying the rally live, Trump upped the ante by accusing a trio of Black prosecutors pursuing him over a panoply of alleged crimes as “racist.”
The 75-year-old property magnate urged his followers to launch “the biggest protests we have ever had” if the prosecutors “do anything wrong or illegal.”
The rally made headlines for its lawless, authoritarian tone but Trump set off bigger alarm bells the following day, repeating his false assertion that his vice president Mike Pence could have rejected Biden’s victories in a handful of crucial battleground states.
“Unfortunately, he didn’t exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!” Trump railed, in perhaps the most explicit and self-incriminating statement yet of his intent.
Stubbornly pushing false allegations of widespread voter fraud that got him banned from Twitter and Facebook, Trump has argued all along that he was the rightful winner of the 2020 election.
But the former reality TV star’s Sunday statement rather gave the game away — making clear that his only aim was to wrestle victory back from Biden, not to resolve disputes over electoral votes.
‘Un-American’
In this file photo taken on December 7, 2020 -ex-US President Donald Trump looks on during a ceremony presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom to wrestler Dan Gable in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC. AFP
It confirmed suspicions of bad faith raised when Trump was caught on tape trying to order a Georgia elections administrator to change its tally enough for him to win the state by a single vote.
“This is an admission, and a massively un-American statement,” outspoken Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger said of Trump’s latest outburst.
Kinzinger’s House colleague Liz Cheney, a party grandee turned pariah over her opposition to Trump, said the rally showed that Trump “clearly would do this all again if he were given the chance.”
Despite the mounting controversies, Trump remains by far the favorite for the Republican nomination in 2024 and is the party’s most successful fundraiser, with $122 million on hand.
As the Republican National Committee holds its winter meeting in the coming days in Salt Lake City, there are signs however that his iron grip is loosening.
A recent NBC poll found that 56 percent of Republicans now define themselves more as supporters of the party than of Trump.
Since he left office, several investigations — both criminal and civil, federal and state-level — have been launched into Trump’s suspected tax evasion, financial fraud, election interference, and other allegations, all of which the ex-president denies.
On Capitol Hill, the cross-party House committee investigating his role in the insurrection recently began receiving more than 700 documents from the National Archives from Trump’s time in the Oval Office.
‘Insane, Unconscionable, Unprecedented’
Trump sued to keep the trove secret, but the Biden administration chose not to support his privilege claims, and the courts sided with the committee.
In a bizarre signal of Trump’s disregard for convention, the Archives said some documents handed over from the White House had to be taped back together because they had been “torn up by former President Trump.”
Politico reported in 2018 that the White House employed staff whose jobs were partly to repair paper communications that Trump would routinely destroy, which is against the law.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party’s small core of lawmakers willing to call out Trump — including Kinzinger and Cheney, who are both on the Capitol assault committee — appears to be growing.
Saturday’s rally was a bridge too far even for Trump loyalist Lindsey Graham, who told CBS that talk of pardoning insurrectionists was “inappropriate” and would make a repeat of the storming of the Capitol “more likely.”
Tim Miller, the communications director for Jeb Bush’s 2016 presidential campaign, praised Kinzinger and Cheney for “saying what all of us see to be true… that this is absolutely insane, unconscionable, unprecedented.”
“The former president of the United States admitted in a statement that he wanted to overturn a free and fair democratic election to keep himself in power,” Miller told MSNBC on Monday, “that he tried to do it, that there was a plot to do it and that his only disappointment was that it didn’t work.”
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State has criticized the alleged forceful conversion of public reading and learning facilities in Dugbe, Ibadan, into shopping malls and lock-up shops by the state government, describing the development as shameful, ill-conceived, and unacceptable.
In a statement released over the weekend by its Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, and made available to journalists in Ibadan, the APC also raised concerns about the alleged sale of the modern motor park facility at Wema Area on New Ife Road, Ibadan, built during the administration of the late Senator Abiola Ajimobi.
According to the party, the motor park has been sold to a pastor who presides over a popular church near the facility.
Residents of Ibadan, the state capital, were reportedly stunned when they noticed the sudden erection of massive private business complexes within the premises of the Oyo State Library Board.
The facilities, built by the defunct Western Region government, had served as public libraries and archives for decades, benefitting students, researchers, and tourists until recently.
“It is a sad reality that the buildings which used to serve as public libraries and archives in Dugbe axis of Ibadan have now paved the way for the development of commercial and business structures,” Sadare said.
“The implication is that education and research development have been relegated to the background in the state by an administration that has done little to address the poor reading culture among young students.”
The APC expressed alarm over what it termed the erosion of public heritage under Governor Seyi Makinde’s administration, alleging that public properties are being sold or leased to private individuals and groups under questionable circumstances.
“How can a government wake up one day and convert public reading facilities and archives into lock-up shops in the name of making money, thereby subjecting society to the dangers of illiteracy and ignorance?” the statement queried.
The party also cited other instances of alleged mismanagement of public assets, including the concession of OYSADEP Guest House in Saki and Agbowo Shopping Complex in Ibadan, warning that the trend poses a serious threat to the state’s socio-economic development.
“Sad enough, the ignoble activities of the governor and a few other characters around him as they involve mismanagement of land and other resources belonging to the state have paved the way for a surge in land grabbing cases in most parts of the state capital. There are many cases involving appointees of the governor, PDP lawmakers, local government officials, and party chieftains,” the statement added.
The APC called on well-meaning individuals and stakeholders in the state to demand accountability from the Makinde administration and halt what it described as the systematic erosion of public resources and heritage.
Over 300 constituents of Akinyele/Lagelu Federal Constituency in Oyo State benefitted from a skill acquisition and empowerment programme organized by their representative in the National Assembly, Hon. Akinmoyede Olafisoye.
The event, held at Faith Joe Event Centre, Alegongo, Akobo, Ibadan, aimed to address the challenges of unemployment and economic hardship by equipping participants with practical skills and financial support.
The programme focused on empowering youths, students, and unemployed graduates to become self-reliant. Each participant was provided with a certificate, a Point of Sale (POS) terminal, an umbrella, and ₦100,000 as a startup grant to kickstart their businesses.
The tools and financial aid were designed to enable beneficiaries to establish sustainable sources of income.
Participants received comprehensive training, gaining hands-on experience to ensure they could effectively utilize the tools provided. The POS machines were configured with the personal details of the recipients, ensuring proper use and discouraging unauthorized transfers.
Addressing the participants, Akinmoyede who is the Chairman House Committee on Nigeria/ Mexico Parliamentary Friendship enjoined the beneficiaries to explore the opportunity for their benefit by ensuring that they use the machines for the purpose it was meant for.
He added that all the machines have been configured with the documents of individual beneficiaries which will make it very difficult to transfer to another person.
In his goodwill message, the Oyo Central Senatorial chairman of APC, Hon. Joshua Oyebamiji said comparing what the lawmaker has been doing in the area of dishing out empowerment and palliatives to his constituents, it is difficult to tag him a first-timer at the national assembly.
While appreciating Akinmoyede for his gesture at the event, former APC Deputy State Chairman, Alhaji Isiaka Alimi, Hon. Fatai Awoyoola, and Hon. Akinbode Emmanuel said they were yet to discover the magic wand being used by the lawmaker for his constant and habitual empowerment programmes.
Some of the beneficiaries who spoke at the end of the training, Afolabi Kuburat, Akinropo Akindotun, Ajala Abisade Iyabo, and Grace Anuoluwapo Ayinde lauded the lawmaker for giving them the opportunity to be self-reliant at this time when Nigerians are facing economic hardship.
The House of Representatives member representing Akinyele/Lagelu federal constituency Oyo State, Hon. Prince Akinmoyede Olafisoye Wasiu has initiated another skill acquisition and capacity-building training for no fewer than 300 members of his constituency.
The initiative which is being organized in partnership with Federal Cooperative College, Ibadan is part of a strategic effort by the lawmaker to foster rural development of cooperative for their economic emancipation and break the shackles of poverty so as to alleviate the impact of the high cost of living among the people in Akinyele/Lagelu federal constituency he represents.
The training programme is coming up on Monday 18th November, 2024 at Faith Joe Event Centre hall. Alegongo, Ibadan by 8.00am.
A statement issued by the Special Assistant on Media to the lawmaker, Alimi Abdullahi stated that the capacity-building is designed to equip participants with essential entrepreneurial skills with a view to building sustainable livelihoods and improve the quality of lives of the people of Akinyele/Lagelu federal constituency.
All the participants for the training are expected to be at the venue by 8am so as not to miss any part of the training.
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