Trump celebrates birthday with contrasting best wishes from Ivanka and Biden

Over twenty years ago, Holly Valance was starring on an Australian soap opera and topping charts with bubbly pop singles.

Imagine going back and explaining this to someone 20 years ago…

President Donald Trump unleashed an expletive-filled rant about the stock market not increasing enough when the first Covid-19 vaccine trials were successful, Dr Anthony Fauci has recounted.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted 216 to 207 to hold Garland in contempt, with only one Republican joining Democratic members in opposition, marking the House GOP’s latest move in a flailing investigation into the president and his administration.

Donald Trump spoke at a meeting of major CEOs as part of his return to Washington, DC on Thursday as the assumed Republican candidate for president.

Several CEOs “said that [Trump] was remarkably meandering, could not keep a straight thought [and] was all over the map,” Sorkin said on Friday morning edition of Squawk Box.

He added that the same CEOs struck by Trump’s lack of focus “walked into the meeting being Trump supporter-ish or thinking that they might be leaning that direction”.

“These were people who I think might have been actually predisposed to [Trump, but] actually walked out of the room less predisposed” to him, Sorkin said.

One CEO who spoke to CNBC said “Trump doesn’t know what he’s talking about” and that he did not explain any of his policy proposals.

Sorkin told MSNBC’s Morning Joe later on Friday morningthat at one point Trump discussed his plan to bring the corporate tax rate down from 21 per cent to 20 per cent … and was asked about why he had chosen that number.

“And he said, ‘Well, it’s a round number,” Sorkin reported. “That unto itself had a number of CEOs shaking their heads.”

Trump was reportedly subdued in the meeting and there was no noticeable applause from attendees according to two people. One speculated that a low-key approach may have been an attempt to make the event feel “more like a business meeting than a speech”.

CNBC reached out to the Trump campaign but did not receive any comment.

Biden offered the birthday wish in a post on X, offering Trump the platitude that “age is just a number,” likely a not-so-subtle reference to the numerous concerns raised over both men’s ages as one of them will take the White House in November.

The post wasn’t all chummy birthday wishes though…

Having met with House Republicans in the morning, and then their counterparts in the Senate around lunchtime, the former president held meetings at the Republican National Committee headquarters near Capitol Hill in the afternoon.

While traditionally debate prep often involves an adviser playing the role of the opposition candidate, there are no plans for that according to his aides.

Trump’s preparation so far is in the format of policy sessions. On Thursday he met with senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Eric Schmitt of Missouri, the Times reports, citing five sources familiar with the meeting. Members of Trump’s staff were also present.

The session on Thursday concerned how to push back on questions concerning Trump’s efforts to cling to power after the 2020 election, culminating in the attack on the US Capitol by the pro-Trump on January 6, 2021. The campaign understands that this could be a big issue for swing voters, and the Biden team is making that a central part of its messaging. For example, what could Trump say if he is asked about pardoning those who attacked Congress that day?

The Times reports that one idea discussed was to frame President Joe Biden as a different kind of threat (something the former president has said before), with a focus on the migration crisis at the border, censorship of free speech, and the prosecutions of Trump, now a convicted felon after being found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in a Manhattan court.

Trump aides involved in the debate prep included Jason Miller, top advisers, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita; communications director Steven Cheung; and policy advisers Ross Worthington and Vince Haley.

While Trump can be equally vicious to rivals and Republicans who cross him, he is frequently complimentary of his children — sometimes too complimentary — and lauded Barron’s athleticism in the interview.

“I couldn’t get him to play basketball. He plays soccer,” Trump told Paul. “He’s a good athlete too. Good student, good athlete.”

Graig Graziosi has the story: