Trump backs off Netanyahu criticism amid fury at Israel remarks: live

Eric Trump, the middle son of ex-President Donald Trump, told Senate hopeful Kari Lake that he had worked on construction sites as a child “making minimum wage” at the direction of his father.

“What kind of a dad was he?” the failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate asked on “The Kari Lake Show”. “I can’t imagine you guys got away with a lot. Or, was he constantly telling you guys how to behave or was it pretty hands off?”

The former president’s son said his father was “strict,” had “high expectations of us,” and “made us work very very hard.”

“I was on construction sites when I was 11, 12 years old,” the younger Mr Trump continued, adding that he recalled “breaking down walls, sheetrock, plumbing.”

A Trump-owned hotel in Florida is set to host an evangelical Christian event featuring a Holocaust denier, amid outrage over the former president’s reaction to the conflict in Israel.

The ReAwaken America event will take place at the Trump Miami Doral on Friday and Saturday and feature speakers including fitness guru Ian Smith – who has previously made antisemitic and Holocaust denial comments online.

Mr Smith was listed among the speakers on Friday, announced during a short video. The line-up of the event over the two days also includes General Mike Flynn, Eric Trump, Lara Trump, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.

Mr Smith has written multiple posts on X in which he has taken a critical stance against Israel since the outbreak of the conflict on Saturday.

The publication was referred to several times during Weisselberg’s testimony as part of the $250m civil fraud lawsuit brought against Donald Trump, his sons, his associates — including Weisselberg — and his company by the state of New York.

Donald Trump released a statement on Truth Social attacking the leadership of the United Autoworkers, the largest union representing auto manufacturing workers across the US. He also criticised electric cars, calling them a “disaster,” insisting all cars under Democratic leadership would be “made in China,” and said he would “double or triple” car manufacturing in the US.

“The United Autoworkers are being sold down the tubes by their so-called ‘leadership.’ They always support Democrats, yet they have lost 60% of car manufacturing over the years to foreign countries and that’s all been through Democrats for the most part,” Mr Trump said.

Mr Trump famously told supporters in Youngstown, Ohio — the metro area where many autoworkers at the Lordstown GM plant lived — “not to sell their houses” in 2017 because he would bring back manufacutirng.

Two years later — still during his administration — the Lordstown GM plant shut down.

GM was increasing its manufacuting facilities in other parts of the world at the time of the shut down.

Mr Trump also called electric cars a “disaster” for auto workers and for the US, and claimed they would “all be made in China.” There is no evidence that plans are in place to move electric vehicle manufacturing fully out of the US. Many manufacturers, including companies with robust American workforces like Honda, annocuned this year that they will add to their EV lineups.

Mr Trump further promised to “double or triple” car manufacturing in the US if he is elected.

He said that Shawn Fain, the president of the UAW, should endorse him rather than Joe Biden, and claimed that most of the autoworkers would vote for him anyway.

Mr Fain handed Mr Biden a major optics win when he invited the president to join the UAW’s picket lines. Mr Biden took the offer and became the first sitting president to join a picket line in US history.

On the witness stand, Patrick Birney was questioned about an email exchange with the real estate firm Cushman Wakefield asking about information on valuation metrics such as cap rates (see this explanation by Dan Alexander of Forbes for their importance).

An employee at the firm suggested that the cap rate for midtown Manhattan properties should be in the mid-4 per cent range. The Trump Organization instead ended up using a cap rate of 2.67 per cent in its calculations.

Apparent small changes in cap rate result in huge changes in valuation. The property in question was 1290 Avenue of the Americas which had an operating income of $110m.

However, if the cap rate the Trump Organization used is applied it results in this valuation: $110m / 0.0267 = $4.12bn — a difference of $1.676bn.

In reality, the company used a slightly higher operating income in the calculation resulting in a valuation of $4.192bn, then subtracted $950m of debt and attributed a 30 per cent ownership stake to Trump, resulting in a final figure of $973m.

Had they used the cap rate suggested by Cushman Wakefield, Trump’s stake would have been worth $461m, some $512m less…

It may be more complicated and less obvious than lying about the size of a penthouse, but it has much larger implications for inflating someone’s net worth.

The next year, the same low cap rate was used by the company and Birney was asked who directed him to use it.

“Allen Weisselberg,” he replied.

Court has now adjourned for the weekend. Direct examination of Birney will continue on Monday.

Day nine of Donald Trump’s $250m civil fraud trial brought by the New York attorney general got underway in Lower Manhattan on Friday with Trump Organization Vice President Patrick Birney back on the stand for direct examination by NY AG counsel Eric Haren.

The questioning began where the court left off on Thursday — with the problems of assessing the value of the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

The former president purchased the property in 1985 and when he ran into financial difficulties in the early 1990s he was able to convert it into a private members’ club. Similar to his golf course, this makes assigning a value to it difficult as there is a limited pool of buyers (versus an open market) and there are many restrictive covenants on the property imposed by local authorities in Palm Beach — for example, it cannot be used as a private home (despite Mr Trump currently living there for half the year).

Birney was asked about various real estate news articles from 2019 regarding other Palm Beach properties and their asking prices versus what they sold for.

“Did Allen Weisselberg direct you to use comparable properties to Mar-a-Lago [for valuation purposes] for Trump’s 2019 statement of financial condition?” Haren asked.

“Yes,” Birney replied.

After appearing to back off from his attacks on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump has found another way to insert himself into the conflict in Israel — by claiming he will defeat Hamas as he did Isis if re-elected in 2024.

The former president posted on Truth Social:

Many are using an example of “just the way ISIS was defeated in Iraq and Syria, HAMAS will likewise be defeated.” Please remember that it was the Trump Administration that defeated ISIS, and quickly, after years of futile attempts by previous administrations! Someday we will be given proper credit for all of the many successes we had. In the meantime, we will do it again in 2024! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN

A follow-up post seemed to imply he would help out now… if only he hadn’t been indicted four times by “politically hungry prosecutors”.

Can anyone imagine that with all of the self inflicted and imposed problems that the United States is experiencing, both at home and abroad, that I am being forced to fight off politically hungry Prosecutors, Radical Left Democrats all, on the greatest political Witch Hunt of all time – All started by Crooked Joe Biden as an unprecedented attack against his Political Opponent, ME, for purposes of Election Interference, and more. What a Shame, what a Shame!!!