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Imagine being handed over a $100,000 Rolex as a thank you gift for collaborating on a single podcast episode. Sounds crazy, right? Obviously, youll have to be someone like Donald Trump to get such an insane token of thanks. Well, the former President of the United States was given a Rolex Platinum Day-Date 40mm with an ice blue dial by popular Youtuber SteveWillDoIt, aka Stephen Deleonardis. The internet celeb is believed to have an estimated net worth of $3.5 million and is well known for doling out cash and gifts to people in need. However, Deleonardis also believes in spending his money buying special gifts for his friends and important celebrities. The Youtuber is a self-proclaimed fan of the former POTUS and claims he wanted to do something nice for him.

The Rolex Platinum Ice Blue Day Date is not an easy watch to procure as you cant just walk into a dealership and get your hands on one. Deleonardis collaborated with Timepiece Trading to get the perfect watch for Trump which had to be Presidential. The Youtuber was quoted a price of $109,500 for the ultra-rare watch, but he managed to get it for $105,000. Thats a steal, right!

Youtube capture / SteveWillDoltDonald Trump was invited as a guest on the Full Send Podcast, hosted by the Nelk Boys Steve, Kyle Forgeard, Bob Menery, and Salim The Dream. In a video posted on Steves official YouTube channel, the influencer can be seen gifting the watch to the ex-president at the end of filming the episode. Steve tells Trump that he made half a million dollars by selling t-shirts with a picture of them both and the Rolex was a way of thanking him. Whats interesting is that Trump was regularly seen wearing a gold Day-Date during his days as the leader of the free world.

Youtube capture / SteveWillDoltAlthough the gold version is more expensive than Joe Bidens entire watch collection, the ice blue version is rarer and costlier than the Rolex in gold. The episode got more than 5 million views in 24 hours on YouTube before being taken down by the platform for flouting its rules. But its still available on their official website and most other podcasting platforms.

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Donald Trump is overwhelmed with joy as millionaire Youtuber gifts him a rare $105,000 Rolex. It was the influencer's token of appreciation for the...

MINOT, N.D. Something fishy is afoot in North Dakota's U.S. Senate race, and you voters ought to be aware of it.

State Rep. Rick Becker, who is pursuing a vigorous challenge in North Dakota's Republican U.S. Senate primary to incumbent John Hoeven, has been touting, ad nauseum, a strong rating his legislative record has received from a group called the American Conservative Union.

They're the ones behind the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, which at one time was an important gathering of conservative activists from around the country but, in recent years, has devolved into an exercise in Trumpian idolatry.

I mean, that golden Trump statue they had at the 2021 event might as well have been a golden calf .

Conservatism used to be organized around ideas. Now it's organized around the adulation of a man, which is pathetic, but let's get back to the topic at hand.

Becker's campaign has been publishing this graphic comparing his ACU rating as a state lawmaker to Hoeven's ACU rating as a U.S. senator. Not surprisingly, since Becker's campaign really, really wants you to see this, the comparison doesn't look good for Hoeven.

A graphic created by state Rep. Rick Becker's U.S. Senate campaign contrasting his rating from the American Conservative Union with that of his opponent, incumbent Senator John Hoeven.

But does this mean what Becker wants you to think it means?

We could quibble, and point out that the rating is based on two different things. Hoeven takes his votes in the U.S. Senate. Becker takes his in the North Dakota Legislature. They weren't voting on the same things, or in the same political environments, and so comparing the ratings seems a bit like asking whether Babe Ruth or Michael Jordan is the better ping pong player.

But let's set that aside for a moment and focus on a larger problem that makes me think there's some funny business going on with the ACU's ratings.

Someone, somewhere, is maybe cooking the books for Becker.

We know that the ACU is a very pro-Trump organization, what with CPAC attendees genuflecting in front of the golden statue and all.

We also know that Becker is working very hard to earn the support of the Trump faction of the Republican party. That's why he's been screeching about mass arrests in Washington and playing footsie with 2020 election conspiracy theories .

And yet Hoeven, whose rating with the ACU is abysmal, as Becker delights in telling voters, supported Trump more than 92% of the time while the former president was in office from 2017 to 2020, which puts him in the top 10 for U.S. senators with pro-Trump voting records.

This graphic from FiveThirtyEight.com shows how often U.S. Senator John Hoeven voted with former President Donald Trump's positions.

That's per the information gathered by FiveThirtyEight.com which has also published a complete listing of the votes they scored to arrive at this rating .

How does that happen?

Again, the ACU is a very Trumpy organization. At the most recent CPAC event, held just last month, a straw poll of attendees showed that 85% supported Trump running for re-election, including 72% who strongly support it.

The same poll showed Trump dominating all other potential 2024 candidates.

The former president got 59% of the vote, more than double Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who came in second place at 28%.

Yet the ACU gives a senator who voted with Trump more than 92% of the time an abysmal vote rating?

The ACU wants you to simultaneously believe that Donald Trump is the leader of the modern conservative movement and a U.S. senator who voted with him just about all of the time is not conservative.

That doesn't add up.

But maybe it's not supposed to add up. Grandstanding politicians like Becker don't want you to think things. They want you to feel things.

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Port: Is Rick Becker saying that Donald Trump is a liberal? - INFORUM

Former President Donald Trump rallied supporters on March 12, 2022 in Florence, S.C. Sean Rayford/Getty Images hide caption

Former President Donald Trump rallied supporters on March 12, 2022 in Florence, S.C.

Donald Trump hasn't said for sure if he will run in 2024. But he's having a hell of a lot of fun teasing it.

"We are going to take back that beautiful, beautiful White House. I wonder who will do that. I wonder, I wonder," he said to roaring applause at a Saturday rally in Florence, S.C.

More than a year after he left the White House, Trump is still the center of the Republican universe. And that's truest of all for his most committed fans. Thousands of rallygoers waited for hours on Saturday in frigid, gusty weather for Trump to speak.

"It shows the love people have to be out in this," said Rhonda Moore, from Columbia, in the rain as the temperature plummeted. It would still be more than 5 hours until Trump took the stage. She turned around to show off the flag she had wrapped herself in.

"It's President Trump dressed like a gladiator. So I thought I'd let him keep me warm," she said with a laugh.

A Trump rally is the easiest place to see just how much of a cult of personality has built up around Trump in the party. But as he works to sway Republican primaries and oust incumbents in the process it also is an opportunity to see not only how much he has changed the party, but how much he is shaping the future of the party.

RINOs draw lots of attention

Moore, holding her flag tightly around her head, said she doesn't consider herself a Republican, despite her support of Trump.

Donna Eiden sold merchandise dedicated to former President Donald Trump before his rally on Saturday. Sean Rayford/Getty Images hide caption

Donna Eiden sold merchandise dedicated to former President Donald Trump before his rally on Saturday.

"I classify as an American conservative. Republicans have been disappointing in some things that they've done. They're part of the swamp. Some of them, I think, they're RINOs," she said.

RINO meaning "Republican In Name Only" is a decades-old Republican epithet that has gained new currency in the Trump era. He uses it not so much to indicate a lack of ideological purity as to slam Republicans who've been critical of him. And it was used liberally at this rally.

"Unfortunately for the patriots of South Carolina, you currently have two atrocious RINOs they're bad people in the House, who went to Washington, sold you out and partnered with the Democrats to stab the Republican Party and frankly, to stab our country in the back," Trump said in his speech.

He was referring to Republican Representatives Nancy Mace and Tom Rice. Mace criticized Trump sharply after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and Rice subsequently voted to impeach trump.

In response, Trump is supporting their Republican primary challengers, and the rally was an opportunity to give them high-profile guest-speaking gigs. State Rep. Russell Fry is challenging rice. Former State Rep. Katie Arrington is challenging Mace.

"Let's not forget those RINOS. Let's not forget those turncoats," she yelled in her speech. "And you know who I'm talking about the Liz Cheney of the South, none other than Nancy Mace. Nancy Mace is who I'm here to take out. She turned her back on President Trump, she turned her back on me, and she turned her back on you."

When loyalty matters more than a voting record

Some voters in the district have taken this to heart, according to Jerry Rovner, the chair of the 7th-district Republican Party Congressman Rice's district.

"I'll never forget I was in a Lutheran church, and this little lady took her mask down," he said. "And I said, 'Yes?' And she goes, 'What are you gonna do about that Tom Rice - he voted against Donald Trump, you know.'"

Talking to Rovner, you understand just how much loyalty to Trump can outweigh ideology in the GOP these days.

"When I talked to Tom, he said, 'But I had 50,000 votes, I only did one thing,' and I said, 'Well, look: I'm 70 years old, I've never killed anybody, but if I did, I'd be a murderer,'" Rovner recounted.

Trump's meddling in primary elections has added a dose of chaos to how the party runs, according to Brendan Buck, a Republican strategist who worked as an aide to House Speakers Paul Ryan and John Boehner.

"Oh, this is entirely unprecedented," he said.

"It makes a lot of people really uncomfortable, that incumbents are seen as expendable," he added. "And of course, Donald Trump only thinks in terms of what's good for him or who's slighted him."

Indeed, Trump's endorsees were not the real focus of the rally; Trump was, with an hourlong speech that hit on all the usual points the lie that he won in 2020, for example, and insulting his perceived enemies.

And while he's not on a ballot, he had the potential to win still more support at this rally for a potential 2024 run. Robin Herbert, a dental assistant from Florence, came with a coworker and said she considers herself "liberal" ... but she added that her feelings about trump have been shifting recently.

"They were negative to start with," she said. "I thought he was just kind of harsh, but then the more I've heard him talk, I'm trying to feel a little different about it."

She elaborated why she's "trying" to come around to Trump in particular.

"I have not been happy with Biden at all," she said. "I just don't think he has been together at all. I think he's just I don't think he knows what he's doing."

Biden's approval rating has been underwater since fall. The upshot for the Republican party is that people like Herbert, who are disappointed with Biden, will either have to come around to Trump or get hooked by someone else.

For many rallygoers, the No. 1 alternative is clear: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. And it quickly became clear why: they see him and Trump as similar. Anthony Barber, a petroleum inspector from Somerville, talked about what he likes about the two men.

"They like to punch back. They don't sit there and take it, take it, take it show weakness," he said. "You know, to run a country, you've got to show strength."

Others echoed the comparison.

"He's just like Trump, he says it like it is," said Shannon Reynolds, an Air Force veteran from Sumter. "He puts people in their place when they're wrong. He calls them out, but he's there for the people."

Trump and DeSantis have traded swipes at each other in recent months. But DeSantis' popularity in this crowd, and the fact that it's because many Republicans see him as distinctly Trumpy, is also proof of Trump's power.

While Trump keeps wondering aloud whether he will be on the 2024 ballot, it's clear that he has created conditions for people like him to hold sway in the GOP for years to come.

In other words, the conditions are ripe for Trumpism to outlast Trump himself.

Barbara Sprunt contributed to this report.

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Braving rain and cold, Trump's supporters soak up hints of another run - NPR

Just a week after telling a couple hundred Republican donors, We have to do it, former President Donald Trump hinted again at a White House challenge in 2024 during in a campaign-style rally in South Carolina on Saturday.

We may have to run, Trump told told the cheering crowd. As he did last week in New Orleans and in previous appearances, the former president said Republicans in 2024 are going to take back that beautiful, beautiful White House. I wonder who will do that. I wonder. I wonder.

Trumps comments came a day after The Wall Street Journal released a poll, of 1,500 registered voters, which showed him deadlocked with President Joe Biden in a hypothetical rematch of 2020s contest.

Even though Bidens approval overall rating may have seen a bounce since his State of the Union address earlier this month withpollsters citing broad support for his tough sanctions on Russia over President Vladimir Putins unprovoked attack on Ukraine the Democrat remains tied with Trump, 45% to 45%, when voters were asked who theyd vote for in the next presidential election.

About 57% of respondents said they were unhappy with Bidens overall performance, compared to 42% approving figures similar to the Journals last poll in November.

The Journal noted, however, that Trump remains unpopular: a majority, 55% of respondents, held unfavorable views of him. About 15% of voters view both men unfavorably, but those voters back Biden 36% to 24% in a potential 2024 race, the Journal reported.

In addition to signaling hed throw his hat in the ring in 2024, Trump suggested Saturday that Republicans would triumph in midterm elections, projecting a slate of wins for so-called America-first GOP governors and lawmakers.

The Journal poll showed 42% of respondents said they were likely to vote for Republican candidates this November, compared to 29% for Democrats.

Biden has faceddeclining approval ratingssince notching several strong polls shortly after taking office in 2021.

His handling of the COVID-19 pandemic initially seen as a strong point as vaccinations ramped up Afghanistan withdrawal and rising inflation are often cited by pollsters as leading concerns among voters.

The White House counters by pointing to millions of jobs gained over the last year and Bidens signature of a bipartisan infrastructure package, a bill that should see at least$9 billion go toward Massachusetts projects.

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Donald Trump again hints at White House run in 2024, after poll shows him tied with President Joe Biden in re - MassLive.com

In Georgia, his preferred candidate, David Perdue, is struggling mightily to overtake Brian Kemp in the states gubernatorial race. This is the race that Trump takes especially personallyhe has long been angry about Kemps failure to step in and hand the states electoral votes over to him in 2020. In Alabama and Alaska, meanwhile, his hand-picked candidates are struggling financially against incumbents.

Pennsylvania, meanwhile, has been nothing short of a disaster for Trump. His original candidate for the Republican Senate primary, Sean Parnell, suspended his campaign in November amid domestic violence allegations. Trump stuck with him for weeks after the scandal surfaced, even pledging to host a fundraiser for Parnell at Mar-a-Lago that only was called off after Parnell dropped out of the race. But Parnells fortunes never recovered; Trump was reportedly furious after he backed out of the race. Trump has not yet picked a new candidate, which is currently a toss-up between teevee snake-oil salesman Dr. Oz and former hedge fund CEO David McCormick.

In Missouri, he is in similar straits, as he weighs whether to endorse Eric Greitens, the former governor who resigned amid multiple scandals, including one involving revenge porn. (Greitens is perhaps the one candidate in America to whom Parnell compares favorably. Should Trump back him, he will truly be going where angels fear to tread.)

Part of the problem is that Trump is, in many cases, directly challenging incumbents who he believes have crossed him. As Politico observed last year, this can create resentment within the party, as Trump has focused on divisive, costly primary races at the expense of more certain successes in the midterm elections. To some Republicans, Politico reported, Trumps efforts to take down GOP incumbents in federal and state races are at odds with the partys interests in a midterm election where Republicans are within striking distance of recapturing control of Congress. While the party is focused on the November 2022 general election, Trumps gaze is fixed on the primary election season that begins next spring.

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Donald Trumps Crown Is Starting to Slip - The New Republic