The former U.S. president, sources say, was fixed about what his French counterpart’s private life. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JOE RODRIGUEZ. IMAGES USED IN ILLUSTRATION: DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES, 2; LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES; DAZELEY/GETTY IMAGES; GETTY IMAGES
ON THE FBI’S list of documents seized from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, item 1a is listed solely as “info re: President of France.” For Trump, that has been a subject of intense — and tawdry — interest for years.
Specifically, Trump has bragged to some of his closest associates — both during and after his time in the White House — that he knew illicit details about the love life of French President Emmanuel Macron, two people with knowledge of the matter tell Rolling Stone. And the former president even claimed that he learned about some of this dirt through “intelligence” he had seen or been briefed on, these sources say.
It’s not clear whether the Macron-related document the FBI seized during the raid had anything at all to do with the French president’s personal life. Nor is it clear whether the information on Macron seized from Mar-a-Lago is derived from U.S. intelligence collection or even classified.
But the mere revelation of its existence triggered a trans-Atlantic freakout, according to two other sources familiar with the situation. And Trump’s prior talk about Macron’s allegedly “naughty” ways that “[not] very many people know” only intensified those concerns. Both French and U.S. officials worked to figure out precisely what Trump had on Macron and France’s government, and if any of it was sensitive in nature, the sources said. The officials in both nations wanted to know if this discovery signified some kind of national-security breach — or if it amounted to a frivolous, but stolen, keepsake.
A spokesperson for the French embassy told Rolling Stone that their inquiry had not included asking the Biden administration for information on the documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago.
In his musing on Macron’s alleged indiscretions, Trump was light on details and specifics, according to the sources. And as a notorious gossip peddler for decades, it’s difficult to know if any of what he says is grounded in reality. “It is often,” one of the sources says, “hard to tell if he’s bullshitting or not.”
A Trump spokesperson did not respond to questions from Rolling Stone.
Trump’s relationship with Macron has often been volatile, with the U.S. president once labeling his French counterpart “my guy” before the two fell out during Trump’s time in the White House.
Trump initially signaled his support for Macron’s 2017 presidential rival, inviting far-right nationalist Marine LePan to Trump Tower and praising her in interviews. But Macron shrugged off the flirtation with his rival and invited Trump as the guest of honor to a Bastille Day parade in 2017. Trump was so taken with the elaborate military pageantry on display that it inspired him to ask for a military parade of his own.
By 2019, tensions between the two men and their worldviews burst into the open. After disputes between the two leaders over Iran, Syria, and NATO, Trump could be heard blasting Macron as a “pain in the ass” to a White House gathering of international ambassadors to the United Nations. Trump’s former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham also wrote in a memoir that Trump had privately called Macron a “a wuss guy” and “a hundred twenty pounds of fury.”
And the latest incident isn’t the first time Trump has fixated on salacious gossip about the private lives of foreign leaders, associates, and hangers-on.
As Republican rivals J.D. Vance and Josh Mandel vied for his endorsement in the Ohio GOP Senate primary, Trump personally spread rumors he’d heard about Mandel’s sex life and described the candidate as “fucking weird.” And Trump’s decision to endorse Vance was nudged along by a rumor Trump heard from Fox News star Tucker Carlson about a prominent Mandel supporter’s allegedly “chronic” sexual habit.
During the 2016 presidential contest, Trump briefly ducked into his campaign “war room” and teased mid-level staffers with some alleged intel — on a pair of MSNBC hosts who weren’t yet public about their romance. “You know, nobody else knows about it, but I know about Joe and Mika’s little apartment in the Upper East Side,” he gossiped, referencing Morning Joe hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, whose long-running relationship would soon become public. “One day, I’ll tell you all about it.” Trump didn’t even know these campaign staffers’ names, but felt comfortable dishing this to them.
Trump’s fixations extended to foreign leader’s families, as well. Grisham wrote in her memoir that, after seeing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on TV aboard Air Force One, Trump once pulled her aside and made a crass assertion about the sex life of the Canadian prime minister’s mother — an assertion that left Grishham baffled.
In his conversations with his associates, Trump didn’t offer an explanation of how American spies acquired the supposed Macron dirt he claims to have seen. But the U.S. intelligence community has become much more cautious about spying on close allies over the past decade.
Revelations about American eavesdropping on former German Chancellor Angela Merkel prompted the Obama administration to severely restrict intelligence collection on allied heads of state. Under a 2014 directive known as PPD-28, the Obama administration forbade eavesdropping on the leadership of “close friends and allies” absent “a compelling national security purpose.” After reviewing the order in 2017, the Trump administration announced that it would continue to abide by the Obama-era orders.
Nonetheless, intelligence about foreign allies can still be swept up in the intelligence community’s broad collection of secrets through more incidental routes.
“While PPD-28 certainly constrained the degree to which the US would intentionally and directly collect on certain allied heads of state, there are plausible scenarios by which insights about them might be indirectly gleaned via collection against adversaries and their networks, human or technical,” one former Trump White House official tells Rolling Stone.
Yesterday I was not functioning well and couldn’t think clear enough to post. I think everyone knows why. I am doing better today and hope to get stronger in the next few days. Here are the blurbs from Joe My God that had some very interesting stories. I was barely able to process them, much less post them, but they are important information to know. Hugs
He commits a crime. Even his people admit he had the documents, that he was asked for over a year to return them, that he refused claiming they were his, but they clearly are not by law. So now if he is held to the same laws everyone else are held to his supporters will riot? What happened to the party of law and order? What happened to the right saying “just comply with the police … Hugs
Masters has scrubbed his web sites of the 2020 election stolen from trump, his undying support for anti-abortion, and anything else that might look like the hard right rabid republican that he is. They cannot win the primary without trump and cannot win the general with him. Hugs
This is scary. Hope the viewers in Oregon are safe. I did post this one yesterday as I was concerned. But it is getting to the point that the that people hate to go out in public. One woman in the story said that, she asks why it is OK that she has to worry about being shot going to get her groceries. All because some people are so insecure that they need to have multiple guns for everything they do every day. Hugs
As some of the police are white supremacist thugs belong to or agreeing with the groups like the Proud Boys it is not surprising the police joined with the haters and attacked the LGBTQ+ group. The reason for pride is the discrimination and hate the LGBTQ+ are subjected to. When white people face that same level of discrimination, abuse, attacks , and have states pass don’t say white bills against mentioning white people exist in schools then I will support white pride. Note that the Proud Boys, the favorite of tRump, has become the brownshirts of the maga crowd. The enforcers tasked with assaulting people at LGBTQ+ events and and making people too scared to attend them. Hugs
Police officers nationwide have been linked to the far-right violent militia group.
Officers move in on LGBTQ protesters in Modesto, CaliforniaPhoto: Screenshot
The annual “straight pride” gathering in Modesto, California turned violent for the second year in a row, and instead of arresting the Proud Boys who started the fray, police shot into the crowd of protestors with pepper balls and beanbags.
The event was held outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic and the group of far-right militia members and hate preachers was vastly outnumbered by counter protestors. This is the fourth time the group has held the event; the group uses the opportunity to hurl racist and anti-LGBTQ slurs at passersby and protestors while soaking up the local media and police attention.
Two counter protestors were arrested by the end of the scuffle. One Proud Boy was arrested. All three were charged with “failure to disperse.”
After one of the militia members tried to push through the police line, a tussle ensued and LGBTQ defenders started throwing water bottles. Someone tossed a firework into the fray; it was unclear what group the culprit was associated with.
Two LGBTQ protesters were injured in the assault. As the police moved on the crowd with support from SWAT tactical units, the straight pride supporters hid behind the police line.
“They came at us with batons, they jabbed us, they hit the crap out of out us,” one of the injured told a reporter. He was hit with a pepper spray bullet.
“We have two armies to go up against when we stand for our rights,” Odette Zapata, who wore a bulletproof vest to the protest, told the Modesto Bee. “We have to deal with the cops attacking us and we’re about to get a second wave of right-wing extremists. We’re fearful of them attacking us as well.”
Last year’s “straight pride” provocation ended in fistfights and bear spray. Reports say the militia group provoked the protestors, kicking off the brawl that closed down the street and ended in two arrests.
The group has become the far-right’s “enforcers,” starting fights and attacking progressive activists across the nation. They stage fake Pride events across the country.
Boston organizers Mark Sahady and Suzanne Ianni were arrested by the FBI earlier this year in connection to the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol after they were outed by the group behind Straight Pride.
The FBI found out about the pair through social media posts from the organization “Super Happy Fun America,” which organized Straight Pride in Boston in 2019 and whose motto is “It’s Great to be Straight.” Sahady is the group’s vice president.
At least three people are dead following a shooting inside a Safeway supermarket in Oregon on Sunday evening, police said.
The incident was reported just after 7 p.m. local time at The Forum Shopping Center in Bend, a small city on the Deschutes River, some 130 miles southeast of Oregon’s capital, Salem. The suspected shooter is among the dead, the Bend Police Department told ABC News.
Police believe the armed suspect entered from the back of the shopping center and initially fired into a Costco parking lot and a Big Lots store. There were no injuries reported at either of those locations, according to police.
MORE: Suspect in custody after deadly string of random shootings in Detroit, police say
Police respond to the scene of a shooting incident in a Safeway supermarket in Bend, Ore., Aug. 28, 2022.
Central Oregon Daily News
Police believe the suspect then entered the Safeway and shot at least one person near the west entrance. That individual was transported to a local hospital and confirmed dead, police said.
The suspect continued inside the supermarket, shooting and killing at least one additional person, according to police.
Officers responding to the shooting entered the Safeway and found another individual, believed to be the shooter, dead inside the store. The officers fired no shots, police said.
MORE: Gunman kills 3 after setting fire to lure out victims from Houston rental property, police say
Glass doors stand shattered at the entrance at the scene of a shooting incident in a Safeway supermarket in Bend, Ore., Aug. 28, 2022.
Central Oregon Daily News
At a press conference late Sunday, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz told reporters that the suspect was carrying an AR-15 style rifle and a shotgun. The identities of the suspect and the victims were not released.
Krantz noted the size of the crime scene, saying it will take time to collect and process all the evidence.
Today we’re looking into a story from Irish news on a drag story telling event that took place during Belfast Pride. Armed with holy water, “Parents Against Grooming” showed up to protest. Like and subscribe if you enjoyed!
A Christian conservative cellphone company is breaching into school boards to spread their ideas and policies onto school districts. Jayar Jackson and Yasmin Khan break it down on The Watchlist. Watch LIVE weekdays at noon ET.
“A little more than a year after former Trump adviser Steve Bannon declared that conservatives needed to win seats on local school boards to “save the nation,” he used his conspiracy theory-fueled TV program to spotlight Patriot Mobile, a Texas-based cellphone company that had answered his call to action.
“The school boards are the key that picks the lock,” Bannon said during an interview with Patriot Mobile’s president, Glenn Story, from the floor of the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Dallas on Aug. 6. “Tell us about what you did.”
In a recent interview, California Governor Gavin Newsom slammed Ron Desantis for his ongoing attack son Reproductive Rights and Access in the state of Florida as well as his ongoing attacks on the LGBTQ+ community in Florida. Meidas Contributor Francis Maxwell reacts to the epic takedown.
Officers move in on LGBTQ protesters in Modesto, CaliforniaPhoto: Screenshot
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