Judd Legum Profile picture
Apr 17 8 tweets 3 min read Read on X
1. Who chooses to spend $800,000+ to help Trump become the next president?

We got a peak this week when a new joint fundraising committee, Trump 47, filed its first FEC report

The filing revealed 20 people have donated $800,000 or more

Follow along for the gory details

🧵
2. Jose "Pepe" Fanjul ($814,600)

✅ Controls sugar empire, an industry that receives billions in annual subsidies from the US gov't

✅ In 2022, Dominican Republic subsidiary banned from importing goods to the US after CBP found evidence of "the use of forced labor"

✅ Employed white nationalist as an "executive assistant"Image
3. Steve Wynn ($806,300)

✅ Billionaire casino mogul

✅ Forced to resign following @WSJ report that, for decades, he pressured employees into performing sex acts

✅ Sued by Justice Dept in 2022 for lobbying Trump on behalf of the Chinese gov't without registering as a foreign agentImage
4. Geoffrey Palmer ($814,600)

✅ Real estate tycoon

✅ Calls efforts to increase affordable housing "immoral" and "not American.”

✅ Sued LA to stop eviction moratorium at height of pandemic

✅ Accused in class-action lawsuit of illegally withholding security deposits (settled for 12.5 million)Image
@WSJ 5. More profiles to come in this thread.

But if you appreciate this info, please subscribe to my newsletter Popular Information.

Engaging on Twitter helps Elon Musk. But the newsletter enables me to do this work.

And it's free to sign up.

popular.info/subscribe
6. Woody and Suzanne Johnson: $1,612,600

✅Heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune

✅ Engaged in $300 million tax avoidance scheme

✅ As Trump's ambassador to the UK, pressured the gov't to move the British Open to a Trump golf course

✅ According to Inspector General made "inappropriate comments on race, religion or gender" to embassy staffImage
7. Robert Bigelow ($824,600)

✅ Owner of Budget Suites of America

✅ Believes that there are aliens on earth right now

✅ During the pandemic, filed 144 evictions, ignoring the eviction moratorium

✅ In April 2023 called the prospect of Trump winning the nomination a "travesty"Image
8. More profiles of Trump's biggest donors in today's newsletter:

popular.info/p/meet-the-peo…

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More from @JuddLegum

Apr 18
1. @berniemoreno, the GOP Senate nominee in Ohio, is being bankrolled by @charliekirk11, a far-right activist who argues that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a mistake and MLK Jr "was awful"

🧵 Image
2. Moreno benefited from an early endorsement from Kirk's org, @TPAction_.

Moreno wrote that he was "honored to be endorsed by Charlie Kirk and Turning Point Action" and endorsed the work of the org.

"Few have done more to fight back against the radical left than they have. and I look forward to working with them to defend for our America First conservative values in the US Senate"Image
@TPAction_ 3. @charliekirk11 hired Blake Neff, the producer who was forced to resign from Tucker Carlson's show for posting racist screeds on message boards.

In recent months Kirk has collaborated with Neff to trash the work of MLK Jr and anti-segregation laws

popular.info/p/senate-nomin…
Read 9 tweets
Apr 15
1. One of the most important Senate campaigns this year is in Ohio.

The GOP nominee, @berniemoreno, has made being "tough on China" a centerpiece of his campaign

And, on the trail, he tells a couple of stories to bolster this claim

Just one problem: the stories are lies

🧵
2. In 2011, Moreno was appointed to the board of Cleveland State University, eventually becoming chair in 2016.

Moreno claims that, as chair, he got rid of the school's Confucius Institute, an institution partially funded by the Chinese government that offered language and cultural programmingImage
3. There was bipartisan concern that Confucius Institutes were being used to promote Chinese government propaganda

Burt Moreno had nothing to do with Cleveland State axing its Confucius Institute.

He left the board in 2018, and the Institute wasn't closed until 2021.
Read 7 tweets
Apr 11
1. The Arizona Supreme Court reinstated an 1864 law banning nearly all abortions & the response by many AZ Republicans has been shameless

They are now saying a near-total abortion ban is unacceptable

The same Republicans have pushed for a complete abortion ban for years

🧵
2. The most notorious example is US Senate candidate @KariLake.

Lake said she "opposed" the ruling reinstating the 1864 law.

But in 2022, Lake called it a "great law" and said her position was that "life begins at conception"

popular.info/p/arizona-repu…
@KariLake 3. @RepDavid Schweikert (R-AZ) wrote that he does “not support today’s ruling from the AZ Supreme Court.”

Schweikert has “co-sponsored the Life at Conception Act six times"

That bill would extend 14th Amendment protections from conception, effectively outlawing abortion
Read 8 tweets
Apr 10
1. In 5 days, Donald Trump will report to the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse to stand trial

For more than a year, the media has told us the hush money case is flimsy and would likely benefit Trump politically

You know who doesn't believe that?

Donald Trump and his lawyers

Image
Image
Image
2. If media commentary is correct, Trump should be eager for the trial to begin. The sooner the case starts, the sooner Trump wins. A victory against Bragg would give him political momentum and a powerful argument that the other pending criminal cases are also meritless.
3. But Trump and his lawyers are not eager for this case to begin. Over the last few days, Trump's attorneys have engaged in a series of increasingly desperate tactics to delay the trial.

They've been unsuccessful, but their efforts are revealing

popular.info/p/people-v-tru…
Read 8 tweets
Apr 9
1. More important than what Trump said yesterday about abortion is what he did not say and the questions he is refusing to answer

🧵
2. Of course, Trump did not say whether he would sign a national abortion ban if it reaches his desk, something that could happen if the GOP controls Congress

But that's not even the biggest threat to abortion rights if Trump wins in 2024

popular.info/p/what-trump-r…
3. Project 2025, a blueprint for Trump's second term written by key allies, advocates using the Comstock Act, an anti-obscenity law from the 1800s, to argue that mailing abortion pills is illegal.

But that's just the beginning
Read 7 tweets
Apr 8
1. After Citizens United, there are few restrictions on spending money in federal elections

But @tedcruz may have violated one of the last legal guardrails to secure hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of his reelection campaign

Follow along if interested 🧵 Image
2. Citizens United created Super PACs, which can raise and spend unlimited money for federal candidates — including corporate cash

There is one big caveat: federal candidates cannot "solicit, receive, direct, transfer, or spend funds" for Super PACs

popular.info/p/cruzs-corrup…
3. In 2020, Cruz started a podcast, Verdict, to defend Trump during his impeachment trial

In 2022, Cruz struck a deal with @iHeartRadio to syndicate the podcast on its 850 radio stations

Cruz produces the podcast 3x per week, & iHeart pays for production and marketing
Read 11 tweets

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