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There are several easily recognisable ways of knowing when Donald Trump feels threatened by a political opponent.

And, without having even entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination, it's clear Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has got inside the former president's head.

First came the nicknames "Ron DeSanctimonious", among others followed by Trump's claim the governor would be working in a pizza parlour without his earlier endorsement.

A fundraising body backing Trump has alreadyreleased TV ads arguing DeSantis is "just not ready to be president" and even mocking him for how he reportedly ate a messy dessert with his fingers.

Trump remains for now, at least in a strong position heading into the race to be the Republican nominee.

While criminal charges over payments to a porn star would derail most political careers, he's using his unprecedented indictment in New York to rally Republican support.

He has extended his sizeable lead over DeSantis in recent polls and picked up a string of endorsements from members of Congress.

However, as Trump has been engulfed by legal dramas, his potential rival has been crisscrossing the United States,selling his new book and his vision for the country.

One of its chapters is titled Make America Florida, a slogan that appears on "DeSantis 2024" merchandise worn by his supporters.

It's a reference to the winning political playbook DeSantis has honed in his home state, including his so-called "war on woke".

It's also aclue to his larger ambitions.

With a potential showdown for the Republican nomination looming, the question now is whether DeSantis's "war on woke" will resonate beyond Florida's borders and help him succeed on the national stage.

DeSantis has built a national profile, partly by making Florida the epicentre of America's culture wars.

The 44-year-old secured a landslide victory in last year's governor's race and argues the result gave him a mandate to reshape Florida as he sees fit.

He now proudly proclaims his state as the place where"woke goes to die".

"A lot of people have no clue what 'woke' means," said Susan MacManus, a political analyst who has spent decades observing Florida politics.

"But they often assume, if they're conservative, if it's coming out of the governor's mouth, woke must be really liberal. And they don't like it."

In Florida, DeSantis has made education his battleground, pursuing changes over issues like race and gender which have divided parents, teachers and students.

They include legislation, signed by the governor last year, banning classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identitybetween kindergarten andyear three.

Officially called the Parental Rights in Education Act, it was quickly dubbed "Don't say gay" by critics.

The state's education department has now expandedthe ban to all year levels, except where it's "expressly required" by state standards, orduring reproductive health classes, from which parents can withdraw their children.

"In the state of Florida we're proud to stand for education, not indoctrination, in our schools," DeSantis said in a speech earlier this year.

The state legislature is also considering a bill that would restrict the use of preferred pronouns in schools.

DeSantis's position on these issues has only made him more popular with conservative parents group Moms for Liberty, an organisation founded in Florida as part of the pushback against classroom COVID-19 measures, such as mask mandates.

"He defends freedom, he defends education and the innocence of our children," the group's director of Hispanic outreach, Catalina Stubbe, told Foreign Correspondent.

"Parental rights are the rights that God givesyou when your child is born.

"That means you are the only one taking all the decisionsover your children, being medical, education, morality, religion, everything."

She claims students are being subjected to a "radical left agenda", echoing the governor's message of "education, not indoctrination".

"When an adult talks to children about sexuality and genitalia and how they feel today about coming out of the closet, and whatever, this is child abuse," she said.

"They're using the taxpayer to push a radical agenda."

Florida schoolteacher Anita Hatcher finds the accusation outrageous.

She argues LGBT staff and students are being further marginalised for political purposes.

"I believe that it comes from a place of fear," she said. "Fear breeds prejudice and prejudice breeds hate.

"And he's tapping into this fear that other people have and he's making a political career out of it."

Anita's 17-year-old son is transgender and moved to live with family interstate after he was allegedly told that his identity would not be respected at his Florida school.

She feels like the concept of parental rights does not apply to everyone in what DeSantis describes as the "free state" of Florida.

"If you line up with Ron DeSantis, you'll have his type of freedom," she said.

"He's disregarding and through legislation, trying to cancel anyone who doesn't see 'free' the way he sees it."

The governor's intervention in the public school system has sparked major controversy in Florida, but it's also prompted similar legislation in a number of other Republican-held states.

His ability to energise voters on the issue of education has already ensured it's becoming a major focus of the 2024 presidential race, including with his chiefRepublican rival.

"I said the other day I will bring back parental rights into our school system, right, and the place went crazy," Donald Trump recently told a crowd in Iowa.

"The place goes crazy because our country has gone crazy."

Trump did weigh into education while he was still in office, but now he's pledging to abolish the federal Department of Education and has also proposed that school principals should be elected by parents.

While Trump has moved to neutralise the issue, some voters still see DeSantis as the stronger candidate to take on Joe Biden in 2024.

The governor'sthumping election victory last year stood in starkcontrast to the underwhelming performances of many Trump-backed candidates at the midterm elections.

Some supporters argue he not only brings a recent track record of electoral victories, but also is a far less polarising figure than the former president, making him more appealingin a general election.

"If it came down to choosing between Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump, I would choose Ron DeSantis any day of the week," said Marius Mocan, a realtor who moved to Florida during the pandemic.

"No matter where you stand politically, I think people would be more content with him and feel more at ease."

Critics say the governor has adapted and even sharpened the former president's own playbook of divisive politics.

"I call DeSantis 'Baby Trump'," said Marvin Dunn, an academic who is challenging changes to the way racial history can be taught in Florida.

"DeSantis may be more effective because he's not as foolish and as narcissistic as Trump is."

Dr Dunn has criticised legislation known as the Stop WOKE Act, which would mean the state's history cannot be taught in a way that "indoctrinates" students or instructs them to feel guilty because of their race.

"We are not going to tell some kindergartener that theyre an oppressor, based on their race, based on what happened 100 or 200 years ago," DeSantis said.

Dr Dunndenies that's happening in Florida schools and, instead, sees the law, and the broader anti-woke argument, as a strategic ploy.

"Intentionally pitting people, one against the other, intentionally creating a monster, just so [DeSantis] can be the one that slays it," he said.

While Trump fights various legal battles, DeSantis is trying to lean into his moniker of "Trump without the chaos".

Theformer presidentis at the centre of several investigations, including federal probes into the January 6 Capitol riots and allegations of election interference in Georgia.

He's dismissed all of them as being politically motivated, butany additional charges would further complicate his campaign and could steer some voters towards an alternative candidate with less baggage.

"I voted for [Trump], twice, but I don't know if I can again," said Michael Carr, a 26-year-old who was waiting in line to see the governor at one of his book-signing events.

"[Trump's] gotten too much with the conspiracies and DeSantis has actually won with results that can get things done."

DeSantis has made the most of Republican super-majorities in Florida's legislature, racking up a list of achievements he could point to in a primary fight with Trump, including loosening gun laws and tightening abortion restrictions.

"One of my first orders of business after getting elected was to have my transition team amass an exhaustive list of all the constitutional, statutoryand customary powers of the governor," DeSantis wrote in his autobiography.

"I wanted to be sure that I was using every lever available to advance our priorities."

That has included using his authority to open up another front in his "anti-woke" battle: Florida's higher education system.

The governor appointed six conservative allies to the board of New College, a small liberal arts school that he hasaccused of being captured by leftist ideology.

Thatnew board swiftly replaced the college president and scrapped the campus's office for diversity, equity and inclusion, known as DEI.

It's part of a broader pushback against DEIwhich, DeSantis argues, creates division.

He has also extended his influence at the most-local level, becoming the first governor in Florida to endorse candidates for school board races.

Many of his candidates won, ensuring more support for his agenda on the boards thatgovern how schools in their districts operate.

"Now's not the time to be a shrinking violet," he told a Moms for Liberty event last year. "You've got to stand up and you've got to fight."

DeSantis has historic levels of support as Florida's governor, but among his biggest backers in that role are those who don't want him to run for president just yet.

"The Trump-era movement is strong and it got people very passionate," MsStubbe said. "So, I think [DeSantis] can wait until Trump is done with that."

Some of the former president's most loyal fans have also warned DeSantis would be punished by voters if he cut his term as governor short.

Paula Magnuson is part of a small group of Trump supporters who regularly wave signs and flags near the former president's Mar-a-lago property in Florida.

"I feel [DeSantis] made a promise and he's going to destroy his own career if he runs against Trump," she said. "He's young, he has time."

The governor is reportedly waiting until the state legislative session ends in May before announcing whether he's entering the race.

In the meantime, he's continuing to point towards a presidential bid by touring states that will be critical to building early momentum in the primary.

Regardless of whether DeSantis secures the Republican nomination or not, his "war on woke" has already redrawn the battle lines in the coming fight for the White House.

The first votes won't be cast for another 10 months, but the divisions inside the party are stark.

If Trump does go down to DeSantis, it won't be without an almighty fight.

Watch The War on Woketonight on Foreign Correspondent, 8pm on ABC TV, ABC iview and YouTube.

Read more from the original source:
He's rattled Donald Trump. Could Ron DeSantis's 'war on woke' take him to the White House? - ABC News

For the first time in its history, The New Yorker featured a courtroom sketch on its cover.

The image, which appears on its April 17, 2023, issue, gives viewers a glimpse of a historic court proceeding that could not be captured by cameras: the arraignment hearing of Donald Trump two weeks earlier.

Because Trump is the first former U.S. president to be criminally indicted, there is immense public interest in this case. However, when Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, his reactions and expressions could be visually recorded only by three approved courtroom artists.

In a way, it was a throwback to an era when only artists could provide the public with visual records of court proceedings. Yet with more and more jurisdictions allowing cameras into courtrooms, courtroom artists now find themselves working in a dying field.

Having studied both courtroom sketches and tabloid crime photography, I sometimes wonder what might be lost if courtroom art were to become extinct.

Despite their dwindling numbers, courtroom artists are still able to pursue their craft because many judges continue to forbid photography in their courtrooms.

Yet a national standard for banning cameras in U.S. courtrooms is less than 100 years old.

When news photography flourished after World War I, courtroom photographs became a staple of tabloids such as the New York Daily News. These newspapers regularly sent their reporters to cover high-profile trials, taking advantage of the uneven patchwork of judicial positions on whether cameras should be allowed in courtrooms.

The trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann spurred a wave of regulations against cameras in courtrooms.

In 1935, Hauptmann was tried for kidnapping and murdering the child of Charles Lindbergh. To cover the so-called Trial of the Century, an estimated 700 reporters and more than 130 cameramen rushed to Flemington, New Jersey, leading to reports of photographers climbing on the counsels table, shoving their flashbulbs in witnesses faces and jockeying with one another to take pictures of Hauptmann.

After investigating the sensational publicity surrounding the Hauptmann trial, the American Bar Association went on to ban courtroom photography in Canon 35 of its 1937 Canons of Judicial Ethics. Following the American Bar Associations lead, Congress enacted Rule 53 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure in 1944, which prohibited photography in federal courtrooms during judicial proceedings.

This statutory ban remains in place today in American federal criminal courts and in the U.S. Supreme Court.

The bulky cameras of the past, along with their cables, microphones and wires, required judges, witnesses, lawyers and jurors to navigate around them. Todays cameras, however whether in their compact, portable form or as remotely controlled, permanently mounted features in courtrooms operate as less physically disruptive recorders of court proceedings.

Although cameras can give the general public direct access to what happens during a trial, they can also threaten what the American Bar Association has termed the fitting dignity and decorum of court proceedings. When cameras are permitted, as they were in the O.J. Simpson trial, judges and lawyers sometimes worry that the proceedings will turn into a circuslike spectacle.

Because the history of courtroom sketches cannot be separated from the history of prohibiting photography in the courtroom, cameras and human artists are often positioned as competitors in the production of courtroom images.

Working with a print or television news agency, freelance courtroom artists need to draw quickly to meet news deadlines. Notably, courtroom artist Mary Chaney was able to depict, through more than 260 sketches, the criminal and civil trials of the four Los Angeles police officers charged with beating Rodney King.

When courtroom illustrators, such as David Rose, assert that the camera sees everything, but captures nothing, they are arguing that the cameras mechanical eye is a poor substitute for as Chicago courtroom artist Andy Austin puts it the human eye, the human hand, dealing with a human subject for viewing by humans.

While the camera can immediately generate highly detailed images of a trial, it cannot capture the emotional resonance of a courtroom moment. By funneling the emotional highs and lows of a trial through their body, courtroom artists can bring to their work irreplaceable sensory and dramatic insights.

Part of the drama stems from a courtroom artists ability to compress hours of court action into a single drawing. Artists can also manipulate the composition and perspective of their drawings to create artistic pull. Even though judges, lawyers, witnesses and the defendant may be physically spread out in the actual courtroom, the artist can bring them into close proximity with one another and the viewer.

It is in this way that courtroom sketches can make viewers feel the emotional pull of the trials main characters.

This is what happened in Jane Rosenbergs viral courtroom sketch of Trump.

Compared with the drawings made by Christine Cornell and Elizabeth Williams, Rosenbergs image is the only one that depicts Trump looking glum, with his arms crossed as he eyes Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Because Bragg is not visible in the image, it appears as though Trump is fully facing the viewer with an expression that has been simultaneously described as despondent, disdainful and pissed off.

To allow viewers to focus even further on Trumps facial expression and body language, the New Yorker cover crops Rosenbergs illustration, so that it becomes a portrait of a former president in criminal court. Made up of energetic pastel-chalk lines that are suggestive but ultimately unfinished, the rough sketch aesthetically aligns with the moral sketchiness that has long dogged Trump.

When Reuters tweeted Rosenbergs courtroom sketch of Trump, it jump-started the images afterlife.

Even though the practice of courtroom illustration has been described as a dying art form, courtroom sketches, like other cultural artifacts, are not only preserved in special collections and exhibits; they can also evolve through successive framings and interpretations.

In our current digital world, courtroom sketches can go viral on social media, especially if the artist fails to accurately capture the likeness of a high-profile, celebrity defendant.

Rosenberg herself is no stranger to creating viral courtroom sketches. When covering Deflategate the deflated ball controversy involving NFL star Tom Brady she drew a portrait of the then-New England Patriots quarterback that elicited comparisons to Quasimodo, Lurch and Thriller-era Michael Jackson.

Courtroom sketches can also be creatively transformed into online memes. Rosenbergs Trump sketch has been photo-edited to evoke Edvard Munchs The Scream, to include a bucket of KFC fried chicken and to appear as if hed been caught by the Scooby Doo gang.

Trumps fans and foes may not have gotten their mugshot. But they have a viral courtroom sketch, and what started as an image drawn under a courtrooms tightly regulated conditions has since taken on a life of its own.

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Donald Trump and the dying art of the courtroom sketch - The Conversation

What's different about Dominion's lawsuit against Fox News

Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox News for $1.6 billion. Media expert explains why this defamation suit could have a different outcome.

Claire Hardwick, USA TODAY

Former President Donald Trump on Mondaycalled on Rupert Murdoch to backfalse information about the 2020 presidential election ahead ofthe $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit Dominion Voting Systems has pursued against Fox News and its parent company.

Trump on Truth Social alleged that Fox Newsis in big trouble if they do not expose the truth on cheating in the 2020 election. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would have impacted the outcome of the 2020 race for the White House.

The former president suggested that the media tycoon and chair of the Fox Corporationshould say that he just didnt know, but that is hard to believe.

Rupert, just tell the truth and good things will happen, Trump added.

Delaware: Dominion defamation trial in lawsuit against Fox delayed to Tuesday

OnPolitics: Behind the contentious House GOP hearing in New York: Crime? Or Trump?

Top executives and hosts at Fox News have privately shared that they didnt believe Trumps allegations of election fraud in the 2020 race, according to a court filing in Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against the network.

Murdoch called false voter fraud claims damaging in a text following a press conference from Trump allies Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, according tofilings. He also told Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott "It's been suggested our prime time three should independently or together say something like 'the election is over and Joe Biden won,'" saying the comments "would go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election stolen, the filing says.

Trumps comments come the day before the defamation lawsuit that Dominion Voting Systems is waging against Fox News and its parent company is set to start. Dominion filed a lawsuit against Fox in 2021 after the network reported on unproven claims that the voting machine company played a role in rigging the 2020 race.

Fox News has denied wrongdoing and called the lawsuit a political crusade in search of a financial windfall.

Contributing: Ella Lee, USA TODAY;Meredith Newman, Delaware News Journal

Visit link:
Trump calls on Rupert Murdoch to back false 2020 election fraud ... - USA TODAY

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Donald Trump.Patrick Semansky, File via AP, Evan Vucci/AP

Donald Trump isn't a New Yorker anymore, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said of the former president.

That's why he got "Florida man" treatment from New Yorkers when he was arraigned in Manhattan.

"He's a citizen of Mar-a-Lago at this point," she said on the Daily Show.

Former President Donald Trump may have made his name in New York City, but Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says he's a "Florida man" now.

The New York Democrat said her fellow New Yorkers treated Trump "like a Florida man" when he returned to Manhattan this month to face felony charges of falsifying business records.

"He don't belong to us no more, OK?" she said laughing, during a Daily Show interview. "He's not from Queens anymore. He's a citizen of Mar-a-Lago at this point."

Trump's arraignment at a Manhattan courthouse drew pro-Trump rallygoers, like far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, but also protestors, too. Ocasio-Cortez celebrated a report at the time that Greene was heckled, tweeting, "Welcome to NYC!"

During her Daily Show interview, Ocasio-Cortez also wasn't buying Trump's claims that Manhattan courthouse workers cried while booking him, saying, "2024, sir, 2024."

"Maybe George Santos and Marjorie Taylor Greene were, but not me," she said of the MAGA members of Congress. "Ticket back to LaGuardia, baby."

LaGuardia Airport is in her district, she said, and so is Rikers Island prison, where people are treated "far worse for doing far less, and then, you know, it's like this red carpet that gets rolled out."

Trump's indictment follows a probe into 2016 "hush-money" payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his presidential campaign.

"I mean, if you hurt one person, you get ten years in prison, but if you hurt millions of people, you get your name on a building," she said.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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Donald Trump is no longer a New Yorker and got 'Florida man' treatment in the city, AOC says - Yahoo! Voices

Former President Donald Trump, who was indicted earlier this month in New York on charges related to hush money to an adult film star, and is campaigning to return to the White House in 2024, spoke for an hour before a crowd at the 2023 NRA Convention in Indianapolis Friday.

Trump was the final speaker at the NRAs Institute for Legislative Action that also featured Mike Pence, the former vice president and Indiana governor.

Here are takeaways from Trumps speech.

More: Takeaways from former Vice President Mike Pence's speech at the NRA convention

More: Indiana Republican politicians react, cry foul after Donald Trump indictment

During his remarks, Trump gave shoutouts to Indiana elected officials: U.S. Rep. Jim Banks, who is running for Senate, Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, who is running for governor, and Attorney General Todd Rokita, who is running for reelection.

He especially highlighted Banks.

Hes so popular now, Trump said. Hes unopposed. We like it that way.

Trump did not mention Gov. Eric Holcomb or U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, who also both gave speeches at the event. Braun also is running for governor in 2024 and praised Trump during his remarks.

Trump mentioned several times the weaponization of government agencies to attack him.

He said if he were elected he would direct the DOJ to investigate every radical DA and Attorney General.

A day after he was deposed in Manhattan as part of a lawsuit by New York Attorney General and Democrat Letitia James regarding allegations of fraud by Trump, the former president called James a radical left lunatic attorney general.

Trump was indicted in New York earlier this month with 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal information from voters ahead of the 2016 election, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs office.

Trump referred to the Manhattan DA and the indictment as witch hunts.

Trump acknowledged that the crowd booed Pence, Trumps former vice president, earlier in the program, which made news.

I hope you gave Pence a good, warm approval, Trump said. He is a nice man if you really want to know the truth.

Trump several times criticized RINOs, referring to Republicans in name only. Trump said these types of Republicans are worse than Democrats.

The RINOs are worse because you dont know where theyre coming from. The Democrats, you know where theyre coming from and its not a good place, Trump said.

He specifically called out his former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, who he called a RINO.

He was a disaster, Trump said.

Trump addressed the Nashville, Tenn. mass shooting at a private school at the end of March saying it is essential to harden our assets to protect our children.

Trump said he would create a new tax credit to reimburse teachers for the full cost of a concealed carry firearm and training from highly-qualified experts.

On March 27, an armed person killed six people on the campus of a private school in a neighborhood of Nashville.

Trump said the country needs to change its approach to mental health and offered ideas for solutions.

The former president said he would convene an FDA panel to investigate whether transgender hormone treatments and ideology increase the risk of extreme depression, aggression and even violence.

I think most of us already know the answer, definitely, Trump said.

He also said there should be an investigation into common psychiatric drugs and genetically engineered cannabis and other narcotics that may be causing psychotic breaks.

Contact IndyStar's Carmel and Westfield reporter Brittany Carloni at brittany.carloni@indystar.com or 317-779-4468. Follow her on Twitter@CarloniBrittany.

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Takeaways from Donald Trump's remarks at the 2023 NRA ... - IndyStar