Those are just some of the products Donald Trump is hawking while he runs to unseat President Joe Biden.
They join a sprawling catalog of Trump-branded merchandise, ranging from steaks to scented candles, that the businessman-turned-president has licensed over the years.
But as his campaign coffers dwindle and his fortune comes under threat, Trump — who has never completely severed his political career from his financial one — is now actively intertwining his business ventures with his White House bid.
“There is no precedent for this level” of business activity during a presidential campaign, Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig told CNBC, though “the trend has been building for many years.”
Brendan Fischer, deputy executive director of money-in-politics watchdog Documented, agreed.
Donald Trump introduced his new line of signature shoes on Feb. 17, 2024 in Philadelphia.Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images file
“I can’t think of any other modern example of a presidential candidate hawking an array of goods for their private benefit,” Fischer said.
For an average candidate, that activity might trigger a campaign finance investigation — but it likely won’t for Trump, who has been selling branded goods long before he entered politics, according to Fischer.
“Trump is a unique case,” he said.
That uniqueness was on full display Tuesday, as Trump unveiled his latest promotion: a $60 Bible that includes copies of the nation’s founding documents, along with lyrics from country star Lee Greenwood’s hit song, “God Bless the U.S.A.”
The song by Greenwood, who is partnering with Trump to endorse the high-priced holy book, is a regular needle drop at the presumptive Republican nominee’s campaign rallies.
Trump made the campaign connection even more explicit in a video announcing the promotion, warning that Americans’ rights are under threat and declaring, “we’re gonna get it turned around.” He also invoked his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” multiple times.
It is unclear how much money Trump is making off the Bible — he is receiving royalties from its sales, a person familiar with the arrangement told The New York Times — but whatever he gets will be effectively going into his pocket.
The website for the Bibles says it has no link to Trump’s campaign. It instead uses Trump’s name, likeness and image under paid license from a company called CIC Ventures LLC.
Trump’s 2023 financial disclosure calls him the “Manager, President, Secretary, & Treasurer” of CIC Ventures, and lists his revocable trust as the sole owner of the company. Trump has made more than $5 million in speaking engagements through the company, the disclosure shows. Florida business records show CIC’s address is the same as Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Lessig noted that Trump’s business moves do not appear to be violating campaign ethics or financial rules.
“I don’t think there’s any ethical problem with it at all — so long as the proper reporting requirements are complied with,” the professor said.
“There may well be a strategic or brand problem with it, but that’s the same as with any political speech,” he added.
A Trump campaign spokesman did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Trump’s Biblical endorsement came during Holy Week, the run-up to Easter and a sacred time for Christians. It also came less than six weeks after Trump traveled to a sneaker convention in Philadelphia to launch his own line of tennis shoes.
What to expect in Wisconsin’s upcoming presidential primaries – CBS News
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Wisconsin, a key battleground state, will hold its presidential primaries on Tuesday. This year, trends show enthusiasm is lacking for a rematch between President Biden and former President Donald Trump in November. CBS News campaign reporter Taurean Small speaks to voters in The Badger State and breaks down what to expect.
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Funeral for former Sen. Joe Lieberman to be held in Stamford, Conn.
Funeral for former Sen. Joe Lieberman to be held in Stamford, Conn.
00:22
STAMFORD, Conn. — A funeral is being held Friday for former U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, who represented Connecticut for decades and was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2000.
Lieberman died Wednesday in New York City after complications from a fall, his family said. He was 82.
The longtime senator served in the upper chamber from 1989 to 2013 and became the first Jewish candidate on a major party ticket as Al Gore’s running mate in 2000. They lost to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney after the Supreme Court halted a ballot recount in Florida.
Former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman waves to members of the media as he leaves the West Wing of the White House in Washington, May 17, 2017. A funeral for Lieberman will be held Friday, March 29, 2024, in his hometown of Stamford, Conn. Lieberman died in New York City on Wednesday, March 27, at age 82.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
Over the years, Lieberman parted with his fellow Democrats and would win his final term in the Senate as an independent in 2006. He also founded a centrist political group called No Labels that is trying to lay the groundwork for a third-party presidential ticket in 2024.
In a statement, the group said Lieberman was the “moral center” of the movement and called his death unexpected.
Lieberman’s funeral is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Friday at the Congregation Agudath Sholom in Stamford. The shiva mourning period will then begin at his Bronx home. He is survived by his wife, Hadassah, four children and 13 grandchildren.
“His beloved wife, Hadassah, and members of his family were with him as he passed,” his family said in a statement earlier this week. “Senator Lieberman’s love of God, his family, and America endured throughout his life of service in the public interest.”
CBS New York’s Tony Aiello will be in Stamford for the services, and the funeral will be livestreamed at 10:30 a.m.
CBS New York Team
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Joe Lieberman, former senator and vice presidential candidate, dies at 82 – CBS News
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Joe Lieberman, a former senator from Connecticut and the Democratic vice presidential candidate in the 2000 election, has died at age 82. Major Garrett looks back on his legacy.
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Former Senator Joe Lieberman on “The Takeout” — 1/29/2021
46:35
Washington — Joe Lieberman, a longtime senator from Connecticut who was the Democratic Party’s nominee for vice president in 2000, died Wednesday in New York City. He was 82.
Lieberman, who served in the upper chamber from 1989 to 2013, died from complications from a fall, according to a statement from his family.
“His beloved wife, Hadassah, and members of his family were with him as he passed,” the statement said. “Senator Lieberman’s love of God, his family, and America endured throughout his life of service in the public interest.”
No Labels Founding Chairman and former Sen. Joe Lieberman speaks about the 2024 election at National Press Club, in Washington, on Jan. 18, 2024.
Jose Luis Magana / AP
Lieberman was Al Gore’s running mate in 2000, when he became the first Jewish candidate on a major political party ticket. The pair lost against George W. Bush and Dick Cheney when the Supreme Court controversially halted a ballot recount in Florida.
Over the next several years he broke from his fellow Democrats on a number of issues, most notably his support for the Iraq War. In 2004, he mounted an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for president. He won his final term in the Senate as an independent in 2006.
Lieberman was also a founding chairman of No Labels, a centrist political group that is trying to lay the groundwork for a third-party presidential “unity ticket” in 2024.
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut called Lieberman “one of one.”
“Connecticut is shocked by Senator Lieberman’s sudden passing. In an era of political carbon copies, Joe Lieberman was a singularity,” Murphy wrote on social media. “He fought and won for what he believed was right and for the state he adored.”
His funeral will be held Friday at Congregation Agudath Sholom in his hometown of Stamford. A memorial service is expected at a later date.
Caitlin Yilek
Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at cbsnews.com and is based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has found an unlikely — but like-minded — running mate for his independent presidential ticket.
Tech lawyer Nicole Shanahan hasno government experience and no national profile, and she is one of the most unusual selections for a high-profile running mate in recent memory. She is far less known than some of the other names Kennedy considered, including NFL star Aaron Rodgers and actor and former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura.
But what she does offer is a similar worldview to Kennedy’s, presumed loyalty to the person who plucked her from relative obscurity and — perhaps most important — enormous wealth that the Kennedy-Shanahan campaign could tap far in excess of contribution limits that would apply to donors who are not themselves candidates.
Shanahan, 38, also offers a youth and vitality that Kennedy often says is necessary in politics. And she has already demonstrated her commitment to Kennedy’s cause, revealing in February thatshe donated $4 million to a pro-Kennedy super PAC to help pay for a Super Bowl ad.
Despite mostly supporting progressive and center-left Democrats in the past, Shanahan has said that she was motivated to support Kennedy in part because of concerns about children’s health and the environment, including vaccines, and she has also expressed opposition to the research money that has poured into the in-vitro fertilization industry.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at Boston Park Plaza on April 19, 2023. David L. Ryan / Boston Globe via Getty Images file
She defended Kennedy’s advocacy against vaccines to Newsweek this year, saying that “being called an anti-vaxxer is so unfair” and that “we need to have a safe space” to discuss the issue.
A life in the world’s tech capital
Shanahan, a tech lawyer and entrepreneur turned philanthropist from Oakland, California, has lived a life that has intersected with some of the most important technologies and business titans in Silicon Valley.
Shanahan, born to parents who struggled financially, said that her family was on food stamps and that she started working at age 12 to help make ends meet.
“My dad was diagnosed with bipolar schizophrenia when I was 9, and my Chinese-born mom had only been in the United States for two years when I was born,” she told San Francisco magazine for a profile in 2021. “So not only was there no money, there was almost no parental guidance, and as you can imagine with a mentally ill father, there was lots of chaos and fear.”
She credits the internet with helping her escape, and technology would come to dominate her lifeafter she graduated from the University of Puget Sound and returned to the Bay Area, attending Santa Clara University School of Law and then diving into the intersection of the legal and tech worlds.
In a landscape where innovation often outpaces regulation, she founded ClearAccessIP, a company that uses artificial intelligence technology to help patent holders manage their intellectual property, according to its website. The company was acquired by IPwe in 2020.
Shanahan married Google co-founder Sergey Brin in 2018 and divorced him in 2022. That year, The Wall Street Journal reported that she had an affair with billionaire Elon Musk, but both Shanahan and Musk have denied the accusation. The Journal has stood by its reporting.
“The WSJ’s narrative that an affair with Elon Musk led to the end of my marriage was about as accurate as claiming that the body heat of polar bears is responsible for the melting of the Arctic ice caps,” she wrote last year in a first-person essay for People. “It felt senseless and cruel.”
After the divorce from Brin, who is worth an estimated $121 billion, according to Forbes, she transitioned to full-time philanthropy work.
Shanahan’s charity, the Bia-Echo Foundation, says its mission is to “create a multiplying effect” on issues Shanahan cares about, including “reproductive longevity & equality, criminal justice reform and a healthy & livable planet.”
She started that work through her ex-husband’s foundation, announcing a $100 million commitment in 2019 to programs aimed at helping women become pregnant later in life, in addition to exploring solutions to criminal justice reform and climate change.
Fertility issues have been a focus of her foundation and her investment firm, Planeta Ventures, and a later gift of $6 million helped create the Center for Female Reproductive Longevity and Equality; she said her goal is to help women be able to have children into their mid-50s.
However, Shanahan has advocated against supporting IVF research, because, in her view, it detracts from understanding the root causes of infertility. And she has argued the procedure is “sold irresponsibly” and has become more of a “commercial endeavor” than a scientific one, calling its promise “one of the biggest lies that’s being told about women’s health today.”
“Many of the IVF clinics are financially incentivized to offer you egg freezing and IVF and not incentivized to offer you other fertility services,” Shanahan told The New Yorker last year.
“I’m so often told that IVF is this great technology, and I always get questioned why I’m not more supportive of IVF,” she said in an online video series. “I’ve tried to imagine where we would be as a field if all of the money that has been invested in IVF and all of the money that’s been invested into marketing IVF and all of the government money that has been invested in subsidizing IVF, if just 10% of that went into reproductive longevity, research and fundamental research.”
That view could be especially relevant this year as both parties debate abortion rights after the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade. An Alabama Supreme Court ruling this year that frozen embryos created for IVF were people briefly halted procedures in the state — and made the issue a national political hot button.
Politicians from both parties rushed to voice their support for IVF, and Democrats argued that longtime GOP positioning on abortion legislation and “personhood” laws would have the effect of restricting IVF.
Her position on vaccines and other past advocacy
Shanahan’s 2023 essay also reveals how her experience with the reporting around her marriage led her to adopt a more jaundiced view of the news media, which is a frequent target of Kennedy’s.
“They displayed a reckless thirst for a popular hit piece, no matter the cost it would have on my life,” she wrote.
She and Brin had a daughter, Echo, who was diagnosed with autism at a young age. Shanahan has said she is committed to investing her wealth in understanding the causes and treatments of the disorder.
Many vaccine skeptics, including Kennedy, have said vaccines cause autism — even though experts say there is no evidence supporting the claim and the key research papers that made the link were later retracted, with their lead author widely discredited after he was found to have manipulated his data.
Kennedy took a leave from his post as the leader of the country’s best-funded anti-vaccine organization, Children’s Health Defense, to run for president, and he has since included a number of anti-vaccine activists in his campaign.
Last summer, Shanahan “committed” to her partner, Jacob Strumwasser, an executive of a company working on “next-generation of bitcoin financial software,” whom she met at Burning Man.
“We were living parallel surfing lives,” she told People last year, “and then we met at Burning Man, which is the driest place on the planet.”
Kennedy kicked off his campaign with a speech at a Bitcoin convention in Miami, which was his first public appearance as a candidate. And he has spoken often about the promise of cryptocurrency.
Politically, Shanahan has donated heavily to Democrats and progressive causes, such as criminal justice reform ballot measures, according to campaign finance records.
In 2020, she gave $2,800 to Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and co-hosted a fundraiser for Buttigieg, who is the transportation secretary. She also gave $2,800 to Democratic contender Marianne Williamson during the last election cycle, before she donated $25,000 to the fundraising efforts backing Joe Biden. She also gave the maximum $6,600 to Kennedy’s campaign last year, before she announced the larger gift to the super PAC for the Super Bowl ads.
Shanahan also gave to several Democratic congressional candidates in battleground districts in 2018. And she gave the maximum $5,400 contribution to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016.
Asked in 2022 about her politics, she told Puck: “I don’t think about it in terms of party. I think about it in terms of people, places and ideas.” That attitude reflects Kennedy’s own rhetoric, especially since he left the Democratic presidential primary campaign to run as an independent.
While there is no obvious precedent for vice presidential candidates bankrolling their campaigns, Federal Election Commission rules exempt candidates funding their own campaigns from contribution limits, so it appears she would be able to contribute or lend as much money as she wants to the Kennedy campaign.
The campaign needs money to fund its ballot access work, including the painstaking and expensive work of gathering hundreds of thousands of signatures from dozens of states.
While major-party candidates typically wait until the summer to announce their running mates, one reason Kennedy did so now is because deadlines are coming up in some states that require submission of both names on tickets to get on ballots.
Oakland, California — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to announce his running mate Tuesday, in Oakland, California, as his campaign faces questions about ballot access in several states that require a named vice presidential candidate during the petition process.
A few names have already been circulating, including NFL player Aaron Rodgers, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, and wealthy Democratic donor Nicole Shanahan. The Kennedy campaign has so far kept the name secret and denied it wanted to turn the process into “a guessing game.”
“We know it sucks waiting till the 26th,” senior Kennedy campaign adviser Link Lauren posted on X earlier this month “We’ve all discussed, including Bobby, how our campaign is run on transparency and honesty, and the media hysteria isn’t fun for our loyal supporters. We’ve had to lean into the media’s ‘Veepstakes’ cause what else is there to do?”
Here are some of the names Kennedy is said to be considering:
Nicole Shanahan
Shanahan, an affluent California-based attorney and entrepreneur, also known for her high-profile divorce from Google co-founder Sergey Brin, is thought to be a leading contender, particularly since the campaign will require substantial funding in the months ahead.
The 38-year-old contributed $4 million to the super PAC supporting Kennedy, American Values 2024, and was involved in coordinating the production of a Super Bowl ad highlighting Kennedy’s campaign.
Shanahan told The New York Times that she paid for the ad production and its airing because she believed Kennedy would provide more screening risks for vaccines and “it seems like a great opportunity to highlight that he’s running for president,” though she added that she is “not an anti-vaxxer.”
Shanahan’s substantial financial resources would undoubtedly be helpful to Kennedy, who faces the formidable and expensive challenge of obtaining ballot access, which is likely to cost millions and requires hundreds of thousands of signatures.
Aaron Rodgers
The 40-year-old Green Bay Packers quarterback, now with the New York Jets, shares Kennedy’s skepticism of COVID-19 vaccines.
In 2021, Rodgers confirmed his own unvaccinated status just days after testing positive for COVID-19, forcing him to sit out a Sunday football game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
“I believe strongly in bodily autonomy, and the ability to make choices for your body, not to have to acquiesce to some woke culture where a crazed group of individuals who say you have to do something. Health is not a one-size-fits-all,” Rodgers said in an interview with “The Pat McAfee Show.”
Kennedy first told The New York Times that NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers was a leading candidate on his list, and campaign spokesperson Stefanie Spear confirmed he was on the shortlist.
Jesse Ventura
Kennedy also told the Times he has talked with former Minnesota Gov. and professional wrestler Jesse Ventura about serving as his running mate.
Ventura, 72, a one-term governor who ran on the Reform Party ticket, said he’d consider the job, though he disagrees with Kennedy’s opposition to vaccines.
Tyrel Ventura, Mr. Ventura’s son, told the Times, “No one has officially asked Gov. Ventura to be a vice-presidential candidate, so the governor does not comment on speculation.”
Tulsi Gabbard
Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, 42, hasn’t denied she was approached by Kennedy, but when asked about it on the Jackman Radio show last week, only said, “I’m gonna let Bobby Kennedy speak for himself. He’s a good friend and I really love and respect him and his heart and why he’s doing what he’s doing.”
At CPAC in February, however, Gabbard showered praise on former President Donald Trump in her address.
Mike Rowe
Mike Rowe, the 62-year-old former host of “Dirty Jobs” TV series, told CNN that he received a call from Kennedy about being his vice president.
The 62-year-old said they discussed vocational training and his foundation, mikeroweWORKS. Kennedy asked if he’d consider running for public office, prompting Rowe’s surprise.
“Yeah, he called. Actually, I ran into him about six months ago in Dallas, totally serendipitously, and we exchanged information and he reached out about a month ago,” Rowe said. “At some point, he asked me if I would ever consider running for public office, and I spit my coffee back into my cup and I said, ‘Seriously?'”
Allison Novelo
Allison Novelo is a 2024 campaign reporter for CBS News.
Former President Donald Trump said Monday that he “might” spend his own money on his 2024 presidential campaign, which he hasn’t done on his campaigns since 2016.
“I might do that,” Trump said in remarks at his 40 Wall Street building in Lower Manhattan, adding to reporters, “It’s none of your business.”
“I have a lot of cash and a great company,” Trump said. “I might spend a lot of money on my campaign.”
The former president said New York Judge Arthur Engoron, who ruled that Trump would owe a $464 million judgment in the state’s civil fraud case against him, doesn’t want Trump to use his cash to get elected.
“They don’t want me taking cash out,” said Trump, who seemed to be referring to both Engoron and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Trump made the remarks after he left a Manhattan courtroom for a hearing for his New York criminal case. Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the hush money case, ruled that the trial would begin April 15.
While he was in court, a state appeals court ruled that Trump and his co-defendants in the New York civil fraud case have 10 days to post a $175 million bond, down from the $464 million judgment that was originally due Monday.
In a post on his Truth Social website, Trump on Friday claimed that he had nearly $500 million in cash that he had planned to use toward his 2024 presidential campaign. The former president, however, hasn’t puthis own money intohis presidential campaigns since 2016, including a $10 million donation he made in the days before his election. Instead, he has relied more heavily on small-dollar online donations to power his political efforts.
Biden’s campaign has significantly outraised Trump so far during this presidential cycle, with Biden’s campaign closing February with $71 million in the bank compared to Trump’s $33.5 million. The gap is even wider when Democratic and Republican party committees are also taken into account.
Rebecca Shabad
Rebecca Shabad is a politics reporter for NBC News based in Washington.
Tim Scott’s presidential campaign is burning through cash – CBS News
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Few 2024 GOP presidential hopefuls are bringing in the kind of cash that Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina is, but no other candidate is spending it as quickly as he is either. According to the latest Federal Election Commission filings, Scott’s campaign is the only one spending money faster than it is coming in. Former Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, currently the co-chair of a super PAC supporting Scott’s bid, joined “America Decides” to discuss the campaign.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is replacing his campaign manager as the Florida governor continues to reset his stagnant presidential campaign.
The Florida governor is bringing on James Uthmeier, his chief of staff from his state office, to serve as his campaign manager, replacing Generra Peck, who led DeSantis’ reelection campaign last year before jumping into the same role on his presidential bid.
Peck will stay on as a strategist.
The changes come after DeSantis made two big staff cuts in the past few weeks, laying off about a third of his staff in late July as the campaign faced financial trouble.
“James Uthmeier has been one of Governor DeSantis’ top advisers for years, and he is needed where it matters most: working hand in hand with Generra Peck and the rest of the team to put the governor in the best possible position to win this primary and defeat Joe Biden,” campaign spokesman Andrew Romeo said in a statement.
Politico in October obtained text messages that showed Uthmeier was involved in Florida’s program to fly migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard last year.
NBC News reported in June that while Uthmeier remained in DeSantis’ government office, he was also working as a political fundraiser for the governor’s presidential campaign. The arrangement was unusual and government watchdog groups said it raised ethical questions.
Before he worked for DeSantis, Uthmeier worked in the Trump administration for U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, where his work on the efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census later became part of a congressional committee investigation.
DeSantis is also hiring an operative who was working on a super PAC that had been supporting his campaign. David Polyansky, who had been advising Never Back Down, will join the campaign as a deputy campaign manager.
Romeo said Polyansky will be a critical addition to the team given his previous experience working in early voting Iowa, which has become a proving ground for the DeSantis campaign.
Polyansky worked on the presidential campaigns of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in 2016. In Iowa, he helped Joni Ernst first win election to the U.S. Senate in 2014 and helped Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee win in the Iowa Republican presidential caucuses in 2008.
Polyansky was traveling with DeSantis in Iowa to events sponsored by Never Back Down on Saturday. He also attended an event DeSantis spoke to on behalf of Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird Saturday, as part of Never Back Down’s organizing presence apart from DeSantis’ official campaign.
The staff shakeup was first reported by The Messenger on Tuesday.
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Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines contributed to this report.
