The above is true, only because, of course, she can be useful to his campaign, and he is much in need of what Haley can provide.

<Nikki Haley is under active consideration by Donald Trump's campaign to be his running mate, two people familiar with the dynamic told Axios.

The GOP rivals' relationship remains chilly, but Trump could pick Haley if he were convinced she'd help him win the presidency, avoid a potential prison sentence and cover tens of millions in legal bills if he loses.

Republicans close to both campaigns believe it's in Haley and Trump's mutual interests to reconcile, despite their bitter fight in the GOP primary and their divergent views on some big issues.

Trump is scrambling to make up a fundraising disadvantage against President Biden and pay legal fees. Haley, meanwhile, has deep ties to donors who are wary of the former president.

A reconciliation with Haley, his former UN ambassador, also could help Trump cut attract some of the college-educated Republicans who continue to resist Trump in primaries two months after she dropped out of the GOP race. In Indiana's primary this week, Haley got more than 20% of the vote in a contest that also allowed Democrats and independents to cast ballots in the GOP race.

There could be advantages for Haley as well.

She hasn't endorsed Trump, and if she continues to withhold her support and Trump loses in November, significant parts of the GOP's conservative base could blame her. That likely would threaten any future presidential campaign or future in GOP politics for her.

Earlier this year, Trump said Haley didn't have "presidential timber" and Haley said Trump was "not qualified" to be president.

They also have different views on issues such as the war and changing programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

Haley has pushed to send more resources to Ukraine and allow it to become part of NATO; Trump has not.

Trump attacked Haley for her proposed reforms such as raising the retirement age for future generations.

Spokespeople for Trump and Haley declined to comment.

Haley is gathering about 100 of her biggest donors in Charleston, S.C., Monday and Tuesday to thank them for supporting her presidential campaign, The Wall Street Journal first reported.

She has said the burden is on Trump to reach out to her and her supporters if he wants to unite the GOP.

Trump's campaign has dismissed such rhetoric and argued the party already has rallied behind him.

After near-daily attacks on Haley during the primary, Trump has been largely quiet about his former U.N. ambassador for several weeks. There is pressure building among some Republican donors for Haley to make the first move toward unity.

But Haley also struggled to reconcile with her other former rivals in the GOP primary and none endorsed her — including former Vice President Mike Pence, who pointedly did not endorse Trump either.

Biden's campaign has run ads trying to appeal to Haley voters who are wary of Trump.

"If you voted for Nikki Haley, Donald Trump doesn't want your vote," the ad reads between clips of Trump attacking Haley.

Some people close to Trump are strongly opposed to Haley, given her hawkish record on foreign policy.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson told a conservative commentator in December that if Trump selects Haley he "would not only not vote for that ticket, I would advocate against it as strongly as I could."

Trump's son Don Jr. said in December that he would "go to great lengths to make sure" Haley was not in the ticket.

Trump has said he will likely pick his running mate close to the Republican National Convention in July.

Republicans such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has [sic] ruled out being Trump's running mate, but Haley danced around the question until just before the New Hampshire primary, when she said it was "off the table."

That same week, Trump indicated he wouldn't pick Haley but did leave a little wiggle room: "She is OK, but she is not presidential timber. And when I say that, that probably means she is not going to be chosen as the vice president.">

Chuckles.>

Wrong post. Thoroughgoing liar.

<Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, has threatened former President Donald Trump with a new investigation into his reported promises to Big Oil.

The Washington Post reported this week of a deal that Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, reportedly offered to top oil executives at a Mar-a-Lago dinner last month—raise $1 billion for his campaign and he will reverse dozens of President Joe Biden's environmental regulations and prevent new rules, according to people with knowledge of the dinner.

According to the Post's sources, Trump said gifting him $1 billion would be a "deal," because of the taxation and regulations they wouldn't have to worry about if he was in office.

Whitehouse, who has already been looking into Big Oil as chair of the Senate Budget Committee, told The New Republic in an article published on Saturday, that it's "highly likely" that his committee will look into the reported revelations from Trump's Mar-a-Lago dinner with oil executives.

"This is practically an invitation to ask more questions," he said, calling it a "natural extension of the investigation already underway."

Newsweek reached out to Whitehouse via phone and Trump's spokesman via email for comment.

The Senate Budget Committee and House Oversight and Accountability Committee have been investing the oil industry for years and last week revealed their findings.

They found that the oil industry would publicly support climate regulations and goals, but behind closed doors, they would express skepticism. Big Oil has denied misleading the public about its part in the climate crisis, an allegation waged by Democrats. Spokespeople for top companies like Exxon, BP, and Shell have maintained that they are working toward a greener future.

Whitehouse said that when reading the Post's story on Trump's reported proposed deal with Big Oil, he instantly thought "quid pro quo."

The senator mentioned a Politico article published this week that reported that Big Oil is creating executive orders for Trump to sign if he wins this year's presidential election. The orders focus on promoting natural gas exports, lowering drilling costs and increasing offshore oil leases.

"Put those things together and it starts to look mighty damn corrupt," Whitehouse said.

Trump has promised to do a lot of things on his first day in office if he were to win the presidency, saying on the campaign trail that he would be a "dictator" that day.

During a town hall event hosted by Fox News host Sean Hannity in December, Hannity pressed Trump to pledge that he would never "abuse power as retribution against anybody," as had been suggested previously, if he's reelected. In response, Trump suggested that he would only behave in such a way on the first day of his hypothetical second term.

"Except for day one," the former president said. "No, no, no, other than day one. We're closing the border and we're drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I'm not a dictator." His drilling comment was a reference to his vow to expand oil drilling in the United States. He later said that the comments were in a "joking manner." Trump also said that "I'm not going to have time for retribution."

According to the Post, Trump reportedly promised oil executives to end Biden's halt on permits for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, three people present when the comment was made, said. "You'll get it on the first day," Trump reportedly said, according to one dinner attendee.

On Biden's first day in office in 2021, he reinstated or strengthened over 100 environmental regulations that Trump weakened or removed during his tenure. With only six months left until the election, which will likely be a rematch between Trump and Biden, the Biden administration has been working to roll out 10 new environmental rules including increasing the cost for Big Oil to drill on public lands.>

Don't like the content, <little wuckfad>? Quit stalking here!

<Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is "counting on" Michael Cohen lying during former President Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial, according to attorney and Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett on Saturday.

Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and fixer, is set to testify in the high-profile trial on Monday, which will determine whether the former president falsified business records over payments, allegedly facilitated by Cohen, to former adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair that happened in 2006 secret before the 2016 presidential election, as alleged in a criminal indictment.

Prosecutors led by Bragg allege the $130,000 payment was part of a scheme to stop potentially damaging stories about Trump from becoming public. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee for the 2024 election, has denied any wrongdoing and that the affair ever happened. The former president has pleaded not guilty to all 34 charges against him in the case.

In a Fox News opinion column published Saturday titled, "The prosecution's star witness against Trump, Michael Cohen, is a chronic and habitual liar" Jarrett, a former defense attorney and author who is also known for his pro-Trump stances, discussed Cohen's expected testimony as he claimed the district attorney is "counting on" Cohen to lie.

"As we enter the fourth week of testimony, none of the witnesses called thus far have connected Trump to any criminal wrongdoing. Apparently, Cohen is the prosecution's only witness who can attempt to do that. He'll lie, of course. It's a given. And that's what Bragg is counting on," he wrote.

Jarrett also wrote the reasons prosecutors would not call on Cohen as a witness by pointing out Cohen's previous jail sentence for tax and banking fraud, political campaign violations, and other offenses.

"It is indisputable that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's star witness, Michael Cohen, is an incurable and prodigious liar. It may take a full day in the courtroom just to read aloud his endless falsehoods and fabrications...No ethical prosecutor would ever dare to call such a ticking time bomb as his leading witness," he added.

Newsweek has reached out to Bragg's office and Cohen via email for comment....>

<....Cohen, a close ally turned critic of Trump, served prison time after pleading guilty to eight criminal counts, including campaign finance violations related to the alleged hush money scheme. In addition, Cohen plead guilty in federal court in November 2018 to lying to Congress in relation to false statements he made to lawmakers about Trump's reported business dealings with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Meanwhile, Trump and Cohen have continued to criticize each other publicly since the trial began last month.

Trump has often taken to Truth Social, his social media platform, to criticize Cohen, recently calling him a "disgraced attorney and felon."

Cohen has also taken to social media to criticize Trump and wrote on X, formerly Twitter, during the trial, "Hey Von S***zInPantz...your attacks of me stink of desperation. We are all hoping that you take the stand in your defense."

In March, Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the case, imposed a gag order on Trump, barring him from making public statements about witnesses, including Cohen and Daniels, as well as lawyers and staff in the case and their families. The order excluded Merchan and Bragg, but it was later expanded to include Merchan's and Bragg's families after the former president made attacks toward the judge's daughter, Loren Merchan.

The former president has already been fined $9,000 for breaking the gag order nine separate times last week and was fined another $1,000 on Monday as the judge warned Trump that future gag order violations could send him to jail.

However, while Trump is barred from criticizing Cohen because of the gag order, Cohen is allowed to scrutinize his former boss, which has been a point of contention.

Last Thursday during a hearing that considered four more potential gag order violations by Trump, Newsweek's Katherine Fung who was also inside the courtroom, posted on X that Trump's attorney Todd Blanche argued Cohen did not need protection from the gag order due to Cohen's comments.

"After showing various posts that Cohen made on X, comments Cohen made on TikTok and interviews Cohen has given about Trump, Blanche argues, 'This is not a man that needs protection from the gag order,'" Fung wrote on X.

Meanwhile, John J. Perlstein, a Los Angeles-based litigator, previously told Newsweek that the Trump team's attacks during Daniels' testimony earlier in the week did not work and they might also fail against Cohen.

"I don't know whether or not Cohen being liked will really matter when it comes to this witness. I think the issue will come down to whether or not he is believed," he said. "The defense attorneys attempting to portray him as despicable could certainly backfire if he is credible with respect to the pertinent facts. I tend to think he will be credible when it comes to the information relative to the charges against Trump, who is also disliked in my humble opinion.">

<[Event "Harry Lyman Open"] [Site "Woburn Mass"]
[Date "1998.01.30"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Ivanov, Alexander"]
[Black "Cherniack, Alex"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C08"]
[WhiteElo "2595"]
[BlackElo "2263"]