‘I’m being sued for you,’ Trump tells his MAGA faithful at Republican Christian conference — calling the criminal charges a ‘great show of courage’

• Former President Donald Trump headlined the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Saturday night gala in Washington, DC
• He told a crowd of MAGA believers, ‘I’m being sued for you’
• Trump called the state and federal charges against him ‘a great show of courage’

By Nikki Schwab, senior US political reporter for Dailymail.com

published: 8:25 PM EDT, June 24, 2023 | Updated: 8:46 PM EDT, June 24, 2023

President Joe Biden mocked his predecessor at a union convention in Chicago Wednesday, blasting Republicans as ‘ultra MAGA’ while denouncing Donald Trump’s continuing grip on the Republican Party.

He even rolled out a new insult, ripping Trump as the ‘Great MAGA king’ while contrasting deficit reductions during his term to the deficits that piled up under his predecessor.

‘Look at my predecessor, the great MAGA king, the deficit increased every single year he was president,’ Biden said, with dripping sarcasm.

‘First year of my presidency – first year – I reduced the deficit literally by $350 billion.

It was one of several swipes at ‘ultra-MAGA Republicans’ Biden took during his speech – just days after making similar statements at the White House.

‘I’ve gotten along with a lot of them – used to any way,’ he said of Republicans.

He once again tore into Sen. Rick Scott’s proposal to ‘sunset’ legislation, and said it threatened Social Security.

‘The ultra MAGA Republican proposal – it’s the only one out there – it puts Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid on the chopping block every five years. 

And he saluted union labor by pointing to the lethal effectiveness of U.S. weapons the Ukrainians are using against Russian invaders.

‘Our stuff isn’t falling apart,’ Biden boasted with chuckle. ‘Theirs is. No I’m serious,’ he said.

His comment comes after months’ worth of reports about Russian tanks getting stuck in the mud, tread wearing out, and tanks being vulnerable to the latest U.S. manufactured weapons.

Biden pointed to economic troubles at the start of the pandemic, when laid off workers relied on food pantries.

‘This is the United States of America. The idea that people would have to wait in line an hour an hour and a half to get a box of food in their trunk. It’s just unbelievable,’ Biden said, shouting into a microphone at a labor gathering in Chicago.

‘And what did the MAGA crowd want to do? Forget it.’

Biden addressed the 40th International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) International Convention in Chicago – making him the first president to address a gathering that drew 3,500.

He thanked the group for providing key early support during the Democratic primary process.

‘You go home with who brung you to the dance. You all brung me to the dance,’ Biden said, quoting one of his favorite phrases.

‘When the middle class does well, the poor are on the way up and the wealthy does just fine,’ he said.

Biden toued the new infrastructure law, and its provisions to install 5,000 charging stations around the country – a line that drew a standing ovation from electrical workers.

The law includes $20 billion in programs to shore up the nation’s electric grid.

At one point he took a stab and mimicking ‘card-carrying’ union member and labor secretary Marty Walsh’s voice, although when he tried to say ‘car paark’ like a Bostonian the closed captioning said ‘car bomb.’

Before he spoke, union president Lonnie Stephenson recounted the group’s decision to endorse Biden early in the 2020 primary process.

‘It was clear to us that he was the only one in the field of Democratic candidates who would be able to take on President Trump and beat him,’ he said, lauding Biden as ‘The most pro-union president in American history.’

Earlier, Biden toured an Illinois farm Wednesday to call for new investments and agricultural policies that he said would help blunt the impact of inflation amid Russia’s war on Ukraine. 

‘You’re like the backbone of freedom,’ Biden told a crowd of about 100 farmers and other supporters in Kankakee as he touted his plans to boost domestic food production.

Speaking just hours after new data showed the price of groceries in the US jumped 10.8 percent in the past year, the most since 1980, Biden repeatedly tied soaring inflation to the war in Ukraine.

‘Right now America’s fighting on two fronts: At home it’s inflation and rising prices. Abroad it’s helping Ukrainians defend their democracy and feeding those who are left hungry around the world,’ said Biden.

Biden spoke soon after the latest inflation report showed that consumer prices jumped 8.3 percent in April from a year ago — down slightly from the prior month’s rate but still near a four-decade high. 

The report showed that US food prices are rising at a dizzying pace, with the index for all food up 9.4 percent from last year, the largest 12-month increase since 1981.

‘Putin’s war has cut off crucial sources of food,’ Biden said. He pointed to 20 million tons of grain stuck in Ukrainian silos.

Ukraine and Russia are both top grain exporters.

‘Guess what? Those tons don’t get to market an awful lot of people in Africa are going to starve to death,’ said Biden.

He also brought up a global shortage in fertilizer also tied to the war.

He met with farmers Jeff O’Connor, who pushed for programs that would expand federal loan programs for farmers who ‘double plant’ as among other holes in the system.

‘Pretty damn big holes,’ Biden said. 

He touted the infrastructure law, which Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who traveled with him from Washington, said would trim export costs for farmers.

‘We have no farmers in our family,’ Biden told O’Connor, who showed the president his young wheat fields.

O’Connor asked the president how he thought the wheat was doing. It looks ‘pretty healthy to me. How do you feel about it?’ Biden asked.

It turns out it was a bit ‘behind’ for maturity.

Biden wore shirtsleeves as he toured the farm and spoke to supporters about agriculture.

He noted that two Illinois senators, Democrats Richard Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, weren’t in attendance because ‘there’s a vote today in the United States Senate and they’re unable to be here.’ 

But he didn’t mention the topic of the Senate vote, which regards codifying protections for abortion in federal law, as the Supreme Court prepares to strike down Roe v Wade. 

Biden told farmers ‘you feed the world, and we’re seeing with Putin’s war in Ukraine, you’re like the backbone of freedom.’

He called American farmers the ‘breadbasket of democracy’ and included a few digs the cosmopolitan set. 

’Every investment banker can leave their job and [if] every farmer left we’d all starve to death,’ said Biden, who was also scheduled to appear at a fundraiser in Chicago later on Wednesday.

He also talked up his own career tending to rural interests in his home state of Delaware.

‘We have more chickens than there are Americans. More boilers,’ Biden said, speaking of the output of the Delmarva Peninsula that includes Maryland and Virginia.

‘Let me put it this way. If I didn’t know something about farms, I’d have been a United States senator for six years, not 36 years,’ he said.

Biden touts slight dip in inflation rate to 8.3% as ‘heartening’ – but groceries jump 10.8% in their fastest increase since 1980 

By Keith Griffith for DailyMail.com 

Inflation in the US hit 8.3 percent in April, falling slightly from the four-decade high it reached in March and breaking a streak of seven consecutive monthly increases in the annual rate of price increases.

The latest inflation report marks a mixed bag of news for consumers, showing that grocery prices are rising at their fastest annual rate in 42 years and flashing other signals that inflation is becoming more entrenched. 

Still, President Joe Biden in a statement touted the dip in the annual ‘headline’ inflation number — which seems to be dropping mostly because prices began soaring a year ago, making the basis for comparison higher. 

‘While it is heartening to see that annual inflation moderated in April, the fact remains that inflation is unacceptably high,’ said Biden. ‘As I said yesterday, inflation is a challenge for families across the country and bringing it down is my top economic priority.’

The Labor Department’s report on Wednesday said that the consumer price index increased 0.3 percent in April from the month before, for a 8.3 percent gain from a year ago, compared to March’s 8.5 percent increase.

The food index increased 9.4 percent from last year, the largest 12-month increase since 1981, and the energy index soared 30.3 percent from a year ago.

Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called ‘core’ inflation hit 6.3 percent in the 12 months ending in April, down slightly from March’s annual rate of 6.5 percent. 

However, in a troubling sign inflation is becoming more entrenched, core prices jumped 0.6 percent from March to April – twice the 0.3 percent rise from February to March. Those increases were fueled by spiking prices for airline tickets, hotel rooms and new cars. Rental costs also rose sharply.

Over the past year, grocery prices have shot up 10.8 percent, the largest such year-over-year increase since 1980. Food away from home was up 7.2 percent from a year ago.

The cost of a gallon of gas fell 6.1 percent in April but is still up nearly 44 percent from a year ago.

And so far in May, prices at the gas pump have shot back up. Nationally, the average for a gallon of gas was at a record high of $4.40 on Wednesday, according to AAA.  

The high price of oil is the main factor. A barrel of U.S. benchmark crude sold for around $100 a barrel Tuesday. Gas had fallen to about $4.10 a gallon in April, after reaching its prior record high of $4.32 in March.

Though it remains well elevated over the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target rate, April’s annual inflation reading marks a sign of relief from the prior month, and will likely be touted as progress by Biden.

Experts say that annual inflation eased as energy prices grew at a more modest pace in April — though that effect could prove short-lived, after US gasoline prices hit a new high this week.

‘April also marks a full year since prices started to dramatically increase, meaning that it’s going to become more and more difficult for 12-month inflation to remain as elevated as it was in March,’ noted John Leer, Morning Consult Chief Economist. 

Inflation has become a top political threat to Biden and congressional Democrats as the crucial November midterm elections draw closer. Small business owners now say in surveys that it’s their primary economic concern, too. 

In a statement responding to the April inflation report, Biden said he had confidence in the Federal Reserve to fight inflation, and touted his policies.

‘Beyond the Fed, my inflation plan is focused on lowering the costs that families face and lowering the federal deficit,’ he said, citing a program to reduce the cost of high speed internet.

‘Congressional Republicans talk about inflation, but their only plan is to raise taxes on working families, taking even more money out of their pockets,’ he added.

Biden sought to take the initiative Tuesday and declared inflation ‘the No. 1 problem facing families today’ and ‘my top domestic priority.’

‘I know you gotta be frustrated. I can taste it,’ Biden said, speaking to the country from the White House. ‘I think our policies have helped, not hurt.’

Biden blamed chronic supply chain snarls related to the swift economic rebound from the pandemic, as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for igniting inflation. 

He said his administration will help ease price increases by shrinking the government’s budget deficit and by fostering competition in industries, like meatpacking, that are dominated by a few industry giants.

Republicans argue that Biden’s $1.9 trillion spending package last March overheated the economy by flooding it with stimulus checks, enhanced unemployment aid and child tax credit payments. 

‘Inflation is out of control with another gas price record hit today, yet Biden continues to lie to Americans and refuses to take responsibility for his failed agenda,’ said Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel in a statement responding to the latest report.

‘Biden and Democrats’ reckless spending created the highest inflation in 40 years, and Americans are paying the price,’ she added. ‘Skyrocketing prices, Biden’s gas hike, and the deteriorating economy are on the ballot in November, and voters know Biden and Democrats are to blame.’ 

A deep-pocketed Trump donor whose family was killed in a plane crash over the weekend endured a similar tragedy several years ago, it has been revealed – when his then-19-year-old daughter died in a fatal scuba-diving accident.

At the time, the teen’s death spurred Florida businessman John Rumpel, 75, to invest in a piece of real estate that would eventually become a multimillion-dollar institution – that also doubled as his daughter’s namesake.

Set in scenic Melbourne, the 11-story building today is a sanctuary for senior living, and is still operated by both Rumpel and his wife of several years, Barbara, 74. Its name, Victoria Landing, comes from Victoria Rumpel – the teen who died in 1994. 

On Sunday, the well-connected couples’ suffering was compounded when a private Cessna jet carrying the Rumpels’ other daughter, 49-year-old Adina Azarian, and two-year-old grandaughter crashed while flying from Tennessee to their house in East Hampton.

In a statement to The New York Times hours later, Rumpel revealed the pair had been returning home from a four-day visit to his own estate in North Carolina when the plane tumbled out of the sky at what he said was a rate of ‘20,000 feet-a-minute.’

‘I don’t think they’ve found the wreckage yet,’ Rumpel told the paper in a tearful phone interview. ‘It descended at 20,000 feet a minute, and nobody could survive a crash from that speed.’

A trained pilot himself, Rumpel theorized that if the plane lost pressurization while in the air, his family likely lost consciousness and never woke up.

‘They all just would have gone to sleep and never woke up,’ he reportedly said while choking back tears.

As for the crash, it took place at around 3.30pm near the US Capitol, and is still shrouded in mystery.

It saw several US military jets scramble into formation moments before – after receiving reports that the single-engine planes’ pilot had become unresponsive in midair.

Shortly thereafter, as the Federal Aviation Administration announced they were investigating the crash, Rumpel – a prominent figure who has rubbed shoulders with a medley of GOP candidates over the years – revealed the plane to be his.

‘My family is gone, my daughter and granddaughter,’ Rumpel wrote of the casualties wrought by Sunday’s disaster, in a comment to a social post that marked his wife’s recent attendance at a conference held by the National Rifle Association (NRA), where she is a high ranking member.

‘We know nothing about the crash,’ he elaborated to The Washington Post.

‘We are talking to the FAA now. I’ve got to keep the line clear,’ he said at the time.

Within hours, it was revealed both the family’s nanny had also been onboard the one-manned craft at the time of the crash – and officials would later say that neither the  survived the crash.

In a post to social media, both Rumpel and his wife told friends and relatives that the crash Sunday had claimed their ‘entire family’ – with Virginia State Police later telling  DailyMail.com there were no survivors among the four confirmed to be onboard.

Virginia residents were rocked by a supersonic boom that could be heard for several miles – at the time, no one knew what it was but it later emerged it was the sound of the plane crashing. 

As the FAA continues to vet what caused the unexplained incident new details about the family affected by the tragedy continue to come to light.

Boasting deep ties to the Florida area, the Rumpels are large-scale donors to several conservative political candidates, including former President Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, having given a combined $250,000 to a PAC supporting Trump’s 2020 bid, and several thousand toward DeSantis’ successful Gubernatorial run as well.

They’ve also donated thousands more to figures such as Senate candidate Herschel Walker and Congressional candidate Laura Loomer, and federal hopefuls such as Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, and Trump back in 2016.

In the decades before, the pair gained notoriety as a power couple after meeting in John’s native New York in the 1960s, at an office building that Barbara worked in and John, already a real estate mogul owned.

Within a few years, the pair would wed, before welcoming two children in 1973 and 1975.

The eldest, Adina, tragically died Sunday in the Cesna crash – while two-years younger Victoria died less than 20 years after he birth in the aforementioned diving accident. 

The event, aside from forcing the couple to prematurely bury their oldest daughter, eventually incensed Rumpel to purchase the then unused property in Brevard County, and erect a luxurious retirement home in her name.

With waterside rooms starting at $4,100, the luxury apartments offer seniors amenities such as private, screened-in patios, walk-in closets, individual temperature control, included cable and WiFi, and weekly housekeeping and laundry services. 

Barbara Rumpel, meanwhile, was also a co-chair of ‘Second Amendment Coalition for Trump-Pence’ in 2016. She has been on the NRA’s Women’s Leadership Council since 2002 and spent more than six years on the organization’s executive committee.

The Rumpels have even committed their entire real estate portfolio to the pro-second amendment group.

‘We want to leave a legacy that will help preserve this country as we know it and as it is meant to be,’ Barbara wrote in a statement on an NRA website. 

The aircraft was on its way to Long Island, New York, but once it reached its destination, it turned around and headed back to Washington DC, flight paths show. A source familiar with the situation told Reuters it appeared to be on autopilot at the time.

US military officials scrambled fighter jets from Andrews Air Force Base, where President Joe Biden was playing golf at the time, to pursue the Cessna Citation, which can only carry about 12 passengers.

Flight tracking sites showed the jet suffered a rapid spiraling descent, dropping at one point at a rate of more than 30,000 feet per minute before crashing in the St. Mary´s Wilderness.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command later said in a statement that the F-16 was authorized to travel at supersonic speeds, which caused a sonic boom.

The aircraft eventually crashed in the mountainous regions of Virginia, though military officials deny that the pursuit caused the crash.

State police confirmed the wreckage of the plane was found in the Staunton/Blue Ridge Parkway area, in a rural part of the Shenandoah Valley and that no survivors were found.

‘At 3:50 p.m. Sunday (June 4, 2023), the Virginia State Police was notified of a possible aircraft crash in the Staunton/Blue Ridge Parkway region,’ a spokesperson for Virginia State Police said.

‘Search efforts by the Virginia State Police, Augusta County Sheriff’s Office and Augusta County Fire-Rescue immediately got underway by ground and air across the region.

‘Shortly before 8 p.m. Sunday (June 4, 2023), first responders were able to reach the crash site by foot.

‘State police has suspended its search efforts. No survivors were located.’

The Department of Homeland Security said there is no threat at this time. 

‘During this event, the NORAD aircraft also used flares – which may have been visible to the public – in an attempt to draw attention from the pilot,’ the statement said.

‘Flares are employed with highest regard for safety of the intercepted aircraft and people on the ground. Flares burn out quickly and completely and there is no danger to the people on the ground when dispensed.’ 

Virginia State Police said officers were notified of the potential crash shortly before 4 p.m.

The announcement, however, only came after multiple agencies received an onslaught of calls about the noise, which was heard as far as away as Annapolis, Maryland. 

The loud sound frightened some social media users who said it shook their homes.

Now, some residents of DC, Maryland and Virginia are upset there was no warning about the sonic boom.

‘If that was really a sonic boom that was just felt across Maryland and Virginia the government has some serious explaining to do and a pilot needs dishonorably discharged immediately,’ Matt Cox wrote.

‘It was loud enough to shake my f****** coffee table. Thank God there isn’t an infant in the house.’

Some online said they were afraid to go outside in the aftermath, while others said whatever the source of the noise was it can’t be good. 

It rattled many people in the Washington area who took to Twitter to report hearing a loud noise that shook the ground and walls. Several residents said they heard the noise as far away as northern Virginia and Maryland. 

‘There was an explosion in Washington DC a couple of minutes ago. It seems to have been heard in a large area of the city,’ Hussein Ibish tweeted. ‘I have no idea what happened, but it’s not good.’

Erica Petacchi added that she had just gotten out of her car when she heard the noise and ‘felt something.

‘It’s like nothing I’ve experienced before,’ she tweeted. ‘I thought it was a large gas explosion nearby.’ 

Eventually, though, the City of Annapolis Office of Emergency Management announced that the noise was simply the result of a sonic boom.

‘The loud boom that was heard across the DMV area was caused by an authorized DOD flight,’ it said. ‘This flight caused a sonic boom.’ 

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are now investigating the plane crash. 

A White House official said: ‘The President was briefed on the incident. The sound resulting from the authorized DOD aircraft was faint at JBA.’

The Pentagon and the D.C. Air National Guard did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday.