Mediaboss Marketing

Editor's note: If you'd like an email notice whenever we publish Ross Ramsey's column, click here.

If you would like to listen to the column, click on the play button below.

Donald Trump could decide who gets the GOP nomination for attorney general of Texas and, in the process, could be a factor in runoffs farther down that partys ballot in May.

The former presidents endorsement of Ken Paxton, the besieged incumbent AG, was central to Paxtons first-place finish in the first round of the primaries. It wasnt enough Paxton is on his way to a runoff with Land Commissioner George P. Bush but it kept him alive.

If that race draws a crowd it will be at the top of the GOPs runoff ticket the voters Paxton and Bush lure to the polls will be voting in down-ballot races. And because runoffs typically have even lower turnout than primaries, small changes in who votes could have an outsize effect. A wave of Trump Republicans could be a boon to conservatives in other runoff races, and a bad omen for candidates who arent in the former presidents fold.

Paxtons TV commercials on the way to this weeks primary featured Trump as prominently as the candidates own name. Paxton had the blessing of the popular former president in a race where Republican voters were trying to pick and choose from four well-known candidates. That signal muted attacks from whistleblowers who said Paxton was misusing his public office to help a political donor and from a lingering 2015 felony securities fraud indictment against him that has never gone to trial.

Even with all of that, Paxton got 42.7% of the vote in Tuesdays primary. On the upside for Paxton, that was nearly twice the support Bush mustered, enough to finish first among the four candidates. On the downside, it means the incumbent failed to command even half of the support of the voters in his own party a sign that theyre willing to make a switch if the right candidate comes along.

Its going to be hard for those voters to ignore Trumps embrace. The former president remains popular with Texas Republicans, and he rebuffed Bushs courting in favor of Paxton.

Paxton has been up against establishment names before, running for speaker in 2011 against Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, who he tried to paint as insufficiently conservative. That fell far short of success, despite the loud conservative activists who backed him. He topped a couple of mainstream Republicans in his first race for attorney general, but the electorate was different. He wasnt vying for votes from legislators in both political parties or even for the votes of Republican legislators. Instead, he was able to rely on conservative activists strength in a low-turnout GOP primary the same sort of primary he was in on Tuesday. He was in a runoff that year, too, which he won by almost 27 percentage points.

In 2018, no Republicans challenged him, but Democrat Justin Nelson came close in the general election, losing to the incumbent by 3.6 percentage points.

Paxton is wounded this time. Voters brushed off his indictment when they reelected him in 2018. The abuse of office allegations are new and were the focus of his three challengers, each of whom mostly agreed with him on policy while arguing that a nominee with ethical clouds over him would be an easier target for Democrats in November.

But Trump has a favorite in the race, and hes a favorite of the states Republican voters. In a February 2022 University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll, 80% of self-identified Republican voters had either a very or somewhat favorable opinion of the former president. More than half of those 52% were very favorable.

Bush has consistently positioned himself to the right of his father, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and his uncle, former president George W. Bush. Hes tried to win Trumps favor, even opening his campaign by handing out drink Koozies with a drawing of Trump shaking his hand over the words, This is the only Bush that likes me. This is the Bush that got it right. I like him.

He likes Paxton more, however, and that makes a difference in a runoff. Most of the states Republican primary voters, even with their strong affection for the former president, voted against Trumps pick for attorney general. On the other hand, Trumps support might be the biggest reason the incumbent made it to the runoff.

Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Read more:
Analysis: Texas' GOP runoffs hinge on a name that's not on the ballot - The Texas Tribune

Former President Donald Trump announced he was creating his own social-media app in October 2021 after he was banned from several social-media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTubeBrandon Bell/Getty Images

Trump's Truth Social app launched in February after he was barred from Twitter and other platforms.

The former president hasn't yet posted on Truth Social, Axios reported.

In interviews he's spoken about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but hasn't posted about it on the app.

Former President Donald Trump hasn't yet posted on Truth Social, the social-media app he launched late February after being barred by Twitter and other platforms, Axios reported.

The social-media app came out on February 20 but is currently only available for US iPhone users. Its launch was plagued with technical hiccups: Many people who downloaded the app say they were unable to create accounts or were placed on waitlists.

As of Wednesday, Trump hadn't posted at all since the platform launched, according to Axios. Popular Information's Judd Legum also said late Thursday that Trump had not added any posts.

Insider was unable to verify these claims because Truth Social is still restricting access to the app.

Axios pointed out that Trump discussed Russia's invasion with Ukraine with multiple news outlets, but has yet to post his thoughts on Truth Social, where they would have garnered more interest in the app.

The only post on Trump's account is from its beta trial in mid-February, when he told users: "Get Ready! Your favorite President will see you soon!"

Trump's account on the app had fewer than 80,000 followers as of Wednesday, Axios reported. Trump had close to 90 million Twitter followers before his account was suspended.

Trump announced he was creating his own social-media app in October 2021 after he was banned from several social-media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube in the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol siege. Trump has repeatedly criticized the platforms for removing his accounts, accusing them of censoring free speech.

Insider's Rosie Bradbury downloaded Truth Social the day after its launch, but was only able to create an account on her fifth attempt and has been on a wait list ever since. Truth Social said that "overwhelming demand" meant that that it had to limit how many people could create accounts.

Story continues

"We have resolved the performance bottlenecks with new user registration and validation, and are working through the new user waitlist at an accelerated rate," Truth Social said in a status update Wednesday.

The app's user interface looks a lot like Twitter, with the ability to "follow" other users, three tabs on each user's page to view their posts, posts and replies, and shared media, and a cover photo and circular profile picture for each account.

Truth Social's logo is also remarkably similar to that of British company Trailar, which fixes solar panels on trucks. An executive at the company told Insider in late February that it was considering legal action against Truth Social because of the similarity of the two logos.

As of Friday morning, Truth Social sits at the No. 11 spot on the Apple App Store's social-media rankings. It has a 4.2-star rating based on 36,300 reviews.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Read more:
Donald Trump reportedly has yet to post on Truth Social since he launched the social-media app 2 weeks ago - Yahoo News

Former President Donald Trump, who was impeached for threatening to withhold military aid to Ukraine among other issues, is now taking credit for weapons the country's military is using to stave off an invasion from Russia.

Trump on Wednesday told Maria Bartiromo, of Fox Business, that "Russia has gotten in deeper than they ever thought possible" because of "the weapons that I gave and that the Ukrainians used so well." The former Republican president's remarks are the latest in a series of conservative political and media figures swiveling from praising Russian President Vladimir Putin to backing Ukraine.

"This is a holocaust," said Trump. "This is a horrible thing that's happening. You're witnessing it, and you see it on television every night."

Trump, who has long been friendly with Putin, a week earlier praised the autocratic Russian leader during a political fundraiser, calling him "very smart" for steps he took leading up to the invasion of Ukraine.

"He's taking over a country, really a vast, vast location, a great piece of land with a lot of people and just walking right in," Trump said during the event at Mar-a-Lago. In January, Trump called possible military conflict between Russia and Ukraine a "European problem" in an interview with conservative radio host Glenn Beck.

While in office, Trump was a frequent critic of NATO, a Cold War defense pact formed to prevent the expansion of Russian influence. At one point, Trump was reported to have considered pulling the U.S. out of NATO.

Notably, Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives in 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The charges centered on allegations that Trump withheld $391 million worth of military aid to Ukraine to pressure its government into announcing a politically damaging investigation into Joe Biden, then a Democratic candidate for president.

At the time, Ukraine was fighting Russian-backed separatists. The U.S. military aid was given to Ukraine. Last week, Trump issued a statement taking credit for strengthening NATO and getting military aid to Ukraine.

Speaking during his appearance on Fox Business on Wednesday, Trump called for a stronger response to stop Russia, which he said is "not looking so good."

"You have to work out a deal," said Trump. "They have to stop killing these people. They're killing all these people. And they have to stop it, and they have to stop it now. But they don't respect the United States, and the United States is, likeI don't know, they don't do anything about it."

Trump said the U.S. should produce its own oil instead of buying it from Russia, adding, "These countries are not our friends."

"The biggest problem we have is that our president and our country is no longer respected," said Trump.

John Bolton, who served as Trump's national security adviser, speaking on Newsmax's television network on Wednesday criticized his former boss. He said Trump regularly complained about sanctions imposed by his administration on Russian oligarchs, and he "barely knew where Ukraine was."

"It just not accurate to say that Trump's behavior somehow deterred the Russians," he said.

During his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, President Joe Biden got his biggest applause from lines praising Ukraine's resistance. He also outlined a range of sanctions his administration had taken against Russia for its invasion.

Biden said the Russian ruble had tumbled by 30 percent, and the country's stock market had tumbled by 40 percent of its value.

Newsweek has reached out to Trump for comment.

See the article here:
Donald Trump Says Ukrainians 'Use So Well' the Weapons He 'Gave' Them - Newsweek

Former President Donald Trump hasn't yet posted on Truth Social, the social-media app he launched late February after being barred by Twitter and other platforms, Axios reported.

The social-media app came out on February 20 but is currently only available for US iPhone users. Its launch was plagued with technical hiccups: Many people who downloaded the app say they were unable to create accounts or were placed on waitlists.

As of Wednesday, Trump hadn't posted at all since the platform launched, according to Axios. Popular Information's Judd Legum also said late Thursday that Trump had not added any posts.

Insider was unable to verify these claims because Truth Social is still restricting access to the app.

The only post on Trump's account is from its beta trial in mid-February, when he told users: Get Ready! Your favorite President will see you soon!

Insider's Rosie Bradbury downloaded Truth Social the day after its launch, but was only able to create an account on her fifth attempt and has been on a wait list ever since. Truth Social said that "overwhelming demand" meant that that it had to limit how many people could create accounts.

"We have resolved the performance bottlenecks with new user registration and validation, and are working through the new user waitlist at an accelerated rate," Truth Social said in a status update Wednesday.

The app's user interface looks a lot like Twitter, with the ability to "follow" other users, three tabs on each user's page to view their posts, posts and replies, and shared media, and a cover photo and circular profile picture for each account.

Truth Social's logo is also remarkably similar to that of British company Trailar, which fixes solar panels on trucks. An executive at the company told Insider in late February that it was considering legal action against Truth Social because of the similarity of the two logos.

See more here:
Donald Trump reportedly has yet to post on Truth Social, the social-media app he launched nearly 2 weeks ago - Business Insider Africa

In thirty-three years of diplomatic service, Marie Yovanovitch was never one of those Washington creatures aglow in self-regard. The big public profile wasnt her thing. Indeed, if you told her that she would end her diplomatic career by being fired by Donald Trump and testifying in his first impeachment proceedings, she would have been mortified.

Masha, as almost everyone calls her, was in my college Russian class years ago, though her skills were, as the pitiless transcripts reveal, infinitely better than mine. She served in Embassies in Somalia and Russia; in various roles at the State Department; and then as the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, to Kyrgyzstan, and, from 2016 to 2019, as an Obama appointee, to Ukraine.

In Kyiv, Yovanovitch spent much of her time trying to cajole Ukrainian officials and businesspeople to move beyond a culture of corruption, an impulse that earned her some influential enemies. In 2019, she fell victim to a smear campaign organized by, among others, corrupt officials in Kyiv, Trumps lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, and the right-wing media. Deemed disloyal to Trumpa stooge, according to Giulianishe was summoned back to Washington and summarily fired. Meanwhile, Giuliani and others were trying to get the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who had business dealings in Ukraine. Trump, in his fateful telephone call to Zelenskya crucial milestone in the chain of misdeeds that led to impeachmentsaid that Yovanovitch was bad news. Yovanovitch, in her testimony to Congress, four months later, said, Our Ukraine policy has been thrown into disarray, and shady interests the world over have learned how little it takes to remove an American Ambassador who does not give them what they want.

[Get the in-depth analysis and on-the-ground reporting you need to understand the war in Ukraine. Subscribe today ]

Yovanovitchs parents emigrated from Europe to Canada after the Second World War and then came to the U.S. She grew up in Kent, Connecticut. After her appearance before Congress, she became a kind of Trump-era folk herothe modest professional diplomat turned whistle-blower. Her memoir, Lessons from the Edge, will be published in mid-March. We recently spoke about events in Ukraine and Russia, as well as her experiences with the Trump Administration. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Masha, it must be painful to watch as Putins Army invades a place you lived in and cared about so much.

This is now an overused word, but its devastating. Its devastating for me on a personal level. More importantly, its devastating to so many of the people whom I know in Ukraine and who are bravely fighting the Russian military.

Are you hearing from those friends?

I am. Im also hearing from friends who were lucky enough to be able to leave Ukraine. And Im hearing from people who are now in Poland, who are trying to help refugees or trying to provide supplies to Ukraine. Its a desperate time.

Did this take you by surprise?

On the one hand, Putin has been signalling this for a long time, both in his rhetoric and in his actions. There was that speech in 2005, when he said that the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the twentieth century was the breaking apart of the Soviet Union. There was his calling out of NATO, in 2007, at the Munich Security Conference. And there was his invasion of Georgia, in 2008, which was a seminal momentand where we reacted, perhaps, not strongly enough. Putin is a bully. If he isnt met with strength, hes gonna keep going.

Was there intelligence that Putin could invade Ukraine?

Well, I retired from the State Department back in 2020, so I dont have access to the intelligence anymore. But, yes, Im sure that there were all sorts of privileged communications. One of the things that the Biden Administration has done, which I cant remember seeing before, is quickly declassifying intelligence and sharing it with the world. Im sure not everything was declassified, but an awful lot of it was, and it took away some of the element of surprise.

Putin has a litany of resentments and reasons for his actions. They include the eastward expansion of NATO, and whatever the U.S. intelligence agencies may or may not have done to help foment the collapse of the Soviet Union. He also points to our actions in Kosovo and Iraq, the sense that the U.S. acts with impunity. A lot of people who are horrified by the invasion point to these factors, too. How would you respond?

Well, thats certainly the Russian narrative, Putins narrative. But what should we have done differently? What should we have said to the countries of Central Europe, who had fears of their own, and fears that they would be left in a no mans land? Should we have said, Yeah, were just not interested? I think that wouldve been a mistake. You know, the thing about the United States and NATO and the European Union is that we have ideas. We are about democracy and freedom and capitalism and security, as well as individual liberties. Its a fact that people are better off under democracies.

And, since World War Two, that has been the single most important driver of American influence and power. Yes, we have a big military. Yes, we have a strong economy. But its our ideas that attract others. Russia under Putin doesnt really have that power of attraction. He only has the power of coercion, and we are seeing that now in Ukraine in a brutal way.

Im not saying that the U.S. has always acted perfectly. Weve certainly made our share of mistakes. But NATO is a defensive alliance. It does not pose a threat to Putin or Russia. In fact, the leaders of Europe and President Biden were trying to ratchet down tensions before all this.

How far will Putin take this? The invasion hasnt gone the way he wouldve liked, but maybe time is on his side. The sheer volume of arms is on his side. What does he want here?

I think he wants to control Ukraine. When I was in the country, from 2016 to 2019, I always felt that he didnt really want to own Ukraine, because then theres at least a modicum of responsibility. He would have to provide services. But he wanted to make sure that Ukraine didnt have the power of self-determination. He wanted to keep it in his sphere of influence. What he discovereddue, ironically, to his own actions, particularly the annexation of Crimea and the invasion of the Donbasswas that he is the single biggest driver since independence, in 1991, of bringing the Ukrainian people together.

See the article here:
Marie Yovanovitch, the Former Ambassador to Ukraine, on Putins Intentions and Trumps Pressures - The New Yorker