WHY TRUMP HAS MOMENTUM
Elections in this country are very much covered like sporting events. There’s narratives, predictions and ultimately, winners and losers.
Throughout all of it are momentum-swinging plays.
Two events happened this past week that reveal why Donald Trump has seized momentum in this never-ending presidential election cycle.
Trump flew to Chicago to speak at an event hosted by the Economic Club. He spoke on tariffs, corporate tax rates and other economic policies he’d promote if elected to a second term. It being Trump and him being interviewed by a heritage media member, of Bloomberg, there were hostile exchanges.
When the interviewer, John Micklethwait, pushed back on Trump’s tariff plan, the former president said, “It must be hard for you to spend 25 years talking about tariffs as being negative and then have somebody explain to you that you’re totally wrong.”
Vintage Trump. Raw, real, authentic. Agree or not, he answers questions and calls out bullshit if he smells it.
Thursday night, Trump spoke at a fundraising event in New York for Catholic Charities. With Democratic foil Chuck Schumer sitting right next to him (Schumer looked like a wax figure from “A Night Of The Living Dead” museum). Trump seized the opportunity to go after the Senate Majority Leader he often calls “lyin’ Chuck.”
From the podium, Trump said: “Chuck Schumer is here looking very glum — but look on the bright side, Chuck, considering how woke your party has become, if Kamala loses, you still have a chance to become the first woman president.”
Not exactly Sam Kinison-level humor but not unfunny, either. Who cares? It’s Trump being Trump.
Right now, just over two weeks before the election, Trump is culturally boundless. He’s talking to everyone, everywhere, all at once (with the exception being legacy media sit-downs. He’s smart to avoid those).
Enough Americans are seeing through the headlines, that continue to paint Trump as a tyrannical warlord. They sense the disingenuousness of the coverage.
When compared with opponent Kamala Harris, who has not communicated any core values and retreats from live public events her handlers can’t control, the contrast is stark. Where is Harris anyway? Somewhere performing memorized lines for her party, spouting off the same tired platitudes, desperate to be liked rather than determined to be our next president.
Trump is gaining momentum because of all the undeniable things he is in public — candid, frank, vulgar, unapologetic and unrelenting in his attacks on institutions Americans no longer trust; corporate media being one.
I don’t know if he’s going to win. But there’s more voters responding to his blunt honesty now more than ever in the campaign.
THE SIX
*The polls list the usual gang of suspects when releasing topics that matter this election: the economy, immigration, protectionism. But a deeper dive into the data reveals a gender divide. The Free Press with a story on the wide disparity between men and women this election season and whether the gap is a Trump thing or function of a larger trend.
*Severe natural disasters and housing increasingly being built in its path have meant highly profitable times for the many different elements of the U.S. disaster restoration industry. Stuff like fire damage repair and particularly mold remediation are huge money-makers after flooding. Most of these businesses have historically been local mom-and-pop companies, but after a number of high-profile natural disasters, especially Katrina, private equity has been quietly rolling them up into larger nationwide companies. As this piece from Sherwood News explains, the industry is notoriously recession-proof, and globally is projected to grow from $70 billion this year to $92 billion by 2029.
*For loan-takers, the lender is interested in previous earnings and income. In the high-flying world of athlete finance, not so fast! Lots of players on the 22 MLB teams that didn’t make the playoffs are done for the season, which means they don’t get paychecks for six months and will need to find a way to keep food on the table through April. That’s where a lender like Sure Sports comes in, featured in this article from Sportico which in the last year has provided around $125 million to athletes in offseason loans against not their previous earnings but their future contracts. Lenders charge between 6-7% and when issuing six or seven figure loans, we’re talking real money here.
*I’ve been chipping away at the Menendez brothers true crime program on Netflix. Being a docuseries (and not straight documentary), it’s established the producers took some liberty with the truth. I dug up some old articles on the case and this one is just fabulous: an old school, 10,000-word Dominick Dunne Vanity Fair piece that lays out the ins and outs of the trial, the second of which led to a conviction of the brothers for murdering their parents.
*An entertaining read from The Cut on what it’s like to work on a superyacht. Written from a crew member's perspective, the narrator reveals how the view from the office is great, but the work can be very hard. This former stewardess writes how she cleaned up after her fair share of raging yacht parties and dealt with sexual harassment. The money seems good — she finished her crew career with $450,000 in savings — but not if you work out the hourly rate.
*Finally, we like our lists on the Six and here’s a doozy: the 100 best horror movies of all time, via Variety. My top 3 are: Halloween (original 1978 version), The Exorcist and Psycho. The famous shower scene is terrifying but the Truth About Mother reveal remains an iconic scene in horror cinema history. Mrs. Bates?
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