Donald Trump expends substantial levels of energy trying to push back on various investigative efforts targeting him, but those investigations are — generally speaking — continuing.
Earlier this week, the FBI launched a surprise raid on the southern Florida Trump property known as Mar-a-Lago, where the former president’s largely resided since leaving office. The agency’s search of the property was connected to a Justice Department investigation into the handling of various government records, including classified materials, from the Trump administration. Previously, the National Archives referred the matter for further examination by the Justice Department after finding what the agency said was classified material among over a dozen boxes of federal records recovered from Mar-a-Lago. Evidently, concerns remained about government materials — including classified files — potentially remaining at Mar-a-Lago. Classified documents were specifically named in an attachment to the warrant as among items agents were after.
As Trump’s supporters and opponents take stock of the aftermath of the raid, a southern Florida man — Thomas Kennedy, of Miami — opted for a particularly attention-grabbing approach. He and a group of friends pooled $1,800 to pay for a banner reading “Ha Ha Ha” to fly over Mar-a-Lago. The banner was evidently in the air for some three hours on Wednesday. Around the same time, Trump supporters were in the area demonstrating in the former president’s favor. “Honestly, go do something better with your time,” Kennedy said to the Trump supporters through an interview with a local news outlet. As for the banner, he didn’t indicate any regrets. “It brought me a lot of joy to do so,” Kennedy said of launching the display. “I would do it again.” There’s a profound turn of events inherent in the fact Trump was raided by the FBI on apparent suspicion of somebody potentially committing a crime after he spent years as president pushing, often with little effect, for law enforcement action against political enemies.
“Meanwhile, the former president’s supporters who continue to show up day after day say they will keep doing so,” the local news outlet, an NBC affiliate, reported. Trump, as could be expected, promptly began launching furious tirades after the FBI showed up at his property and reportedly searched locations there including his office and residence area. He and others in his corner are seeking to characterize what the FBI did as some kind of egregious breach of the public’s trust and a startling display of political targeting. There’s no real-world evidence Trump was targeted on the basis of his politics. The classified documents originally recovered by the National Archives were really, tangibly there, and the process for getting the warrant approved featured multiple steps where it could’ve derailed. FBI Director Christopher Wray — a Trump appointee — even reportedly signed off on the search. Check out the banner below:
Today, this banner flew near Trump’s Mar-A-Lago estate in Palm Beach.
A Miami man, critical of the former President, tells us he paid $1,800 to have the banner fly around South Florida. @nbc6 @NBCNewsNow pic.twitter.com/pLzlC5jn3P
— Cristian Benavides (@cbenavidesTV) August 10, 2022
