Trump rakes in $10 million at first re-election fundraiser - CNBC News

Trump rakes in $10 million at first re-election fundraiser

President Donald Trump amasses $10 million at first fundraiser ahead of 2020 election campaign.

Protesters gather outside Trump International Hotel in New York.

Up to 300 guests attended, paying $35,000 per head.

President Donald Trump was whisked a few blocks from the White House to the Trump hotel on Wednesday night for his first re-election fundraiser, where he raised an estimated $10 million behind closed doors.

Some 40 months ahead of the 2020 election, the president held court for about two hours at a $35,000-per-plate donor event at the Trump International Hotel. About 300 people were expected to attend the event, which was expected to raise about $10 million, said Lindsay Jancek, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee.

Security was tight at the hotel, where guests in long gowns and crisp suits began arriving around 5 p.m. But the event also drew critics. The president's motorcade was greeted by dozens of protesters, who hoisted signs with slogans like "Health care not tax cuts" and chanted "Shame! Shame!"

Among the fundraiser's attendees: Longtime GOP fundraiser-turned television commentator Mica Mosbacher and Florida lobbyist and party financier Brian Ballard were among the fundraiser's attendees.

Breaking the tradition of his predecessor, Trump didn't allow reporters into the event — despite an announcement earlier in the day that a pool of reporters would be allowed in to hear the president's remarks.

"It's a political event and they've chosen to keep that separate," White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said when asked why the event is closed to the media.

After reporters complained, Sanders announced that the president's remarks would be opened to the press — only to reverse herself hours later.

Sanders said there was nothing unusual about raising political cash so early.

"He's raising money for the party," she said. "I don't think that's abnormal for any president."

Sanders' statement that Trump is raising cash for the GOP told only part of the story, though.

The first cut of the money raised goes to Trump's 2020 re-election campaign. The rest gets spread among the RNC and other various Republican entities. Having multiple beneficiaries is what allowed Trump to ask for well above the usual $5,400 per-donor maximum for each election cycle.

Those contribution limits are likely to change because this fundraiser is so early that new donation limits for 2020 have not been set by the Federal Election Commission.

rump's hotel has become a place to see and be seen by current and former Trump staffers, as well as lobbyists, journalist and tourists. Several Washington influencers popped into the hotel's lobby even though they didn't plan to attend the event.

Several bar patrons also expressed enthusiasm about the unusually lucrative fundraiser so soon after the last election.

Trump's decision to hold a fundraiser at his own hotel again raised issues about his continued financial interest in the companies he owns. Unlike previous presidents who have entirely divested from their business holdings before taking office, Trump moved his global business empire assets into a trust that he can take control of at any time. That means that when his properties — including his Washington hotel — do well, he stands to make money.

Trump technically leases the hotel from the General Services Administration, and profits are supposed to go to an account of the corporate entity that holds the lease, Trump Old Post Office LLC. It remains unclear what might happen to any profits from the hotel after Trump leaves office, or whether they will be transferred to Trump at that time.

Under campaign finance rules, neither the hotel nor the Trump Organization that operates it can donate the space. It must be rented at fair-market value and paid for by either the Trump campaign, the RNC or both.

First-time candidate Trump got a late start on fundraising in 2016, holding his first big-ticket donor event only five months before Election Day. This time, he's started unusually early.

Trump's historically early campaigning comes with benefits and challenges.

In the first three months of this year, the Trump campaign raised more than $7 million, through small donations and the sale of Trump-themed merchandise such as the ubiquitous, red "Make America Great Again" ball caps.

The RNC also is benefiting from the new president's active campaigning, having raised about $62 million through the end of last month. The party has raised more online this year than it did in all of 2016 — a testament to Trump's success in reaching small donors.

Trump's re-election money helps pay for his political rallies. He's held five so far, and campaign director Michael Glassner says those events help keep him connected to his base of voters.

The constant politicking, however, means it is challenging for government employees to avoid inappropriately crossing ethical lines. Some watchdog groups have flagged White House employee tweets that veer into campaign territory. White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters says the employees work closely with lawyers to avoid pitfalls.

Walters also says the White House takes care to make sure that Trump's political events and travel — including the Wednesday fundraiser — are paid for by the campaign and other political entities.

Indonesia imposes travel ban on Trump's business partner - Reuters

Indonesia imposes travel ban on Trump's business partner

Indonesian authorities have imposed a travel ban on tycoon and politician Hary Tanoesoedibjo, who is building resorts to be managed by Trump hotels, over an investigation into allegations he threatened a prosecutor via a text message.

Tanoesoedibjo has been given a 20-day overseas travel ban starting on June 22 based on a request by Indonesian police's criminal investigation unit Agung Sampurno, a spokesman at the immigration directorate said on Wednesday.

The Indonesian billionaire "is under investigation related to a violation of the information and electronic transactions law," Sampurno said.

Tanoesoedibjo, whose MNC Group controls businesses ranging from media to property, has been named a suspect for allegedly sending a threatening message to a prosecutor investigating a case involving Mobile 8, a telecommunications company previously owned by MNC Group.

Tanoesoedibjo's lawyer could not be reached on Wednesday but in an earlier statement dismissed the allegations. "The content of Hary Tanoesoedibjo's SMS is general and idealistic and does not threaten anyone," his lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea said.

Part of Tanoesoedibjo's text message read: "If I am the leader of this country, then that's where Indonesia will be changed and cleared of things that are not as they should be," according to the statement from the lawyer.

Tanoesoedijo has also denied the allegations in media reports. Breaching the law can carry a maximum jail term of four years and a maximum fine of 750 million rupiah ($56,000)

The tycoon, who in the 2014 election ran as a candidate for vice president, founded his own a political party in 2015 and said in January he would decide before the end of next year whether to run in the 2019 presidential election.

He described U.S. President Donald Trump's victory as inspiring for candidates with little political experience and attended Trump's innauguration in Washington in January.

His company is currently building two luxury resorts in the island of Bali and in West Java, which would be managed by Trump Hotel Collection.

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In an interview with Reuters ahead of Trump's inauguration, Tanoesoedibjo dismissed concerns by ethics officials that Trump's overseas business deals might be vulnerable to conflicts of interest.

Tanoesoedibjo also said in February that while his relationship with the U.S. president has been focused on business he could help ties between the nations "if needed".

Several leaders in Muslim-majority Indonesia have expressed concerns over Trump's tough immigration stance.

($1 = 13,325 rupiah)

(Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy and Cindy Silviana; Editing by Ed Davies and Michael Perry)

EU slaps Google with record $2.7 billion fine - CNN Money

EU slaps Google with record $2.7 billion fine

by Ivana Kottasová

June 27, 2017: 9:24 AM ET

European Union regulators slapped Google with a record €2.4 billion ($2.7 billion) antitrust fine on Tuesday, the latest broadside fired at big American tech companies doing business in the region.

The European Commission found that the U.S. tech giant denied "consumers a genuine choice" by using its search engine to unfairly steer them to its own shopping platform.

Regulators said that Google must change its behavior within 90 days or face additional penalties.

"What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules," said Margrethe Vestager, the bloc's top antitrust official. "It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate. And most importantly, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation."

Google (GOOGL, Tech30) said in a statement that it tries to show ads in ways that are helpful for buyers and sellers.

"We respectfully disagree with the conclusions announced today," a Google spokesperson said. "We will review the Commission's decision in detail as we consider an appeal, and we look forward to continuing to make our case."

The Commission said that Google acted illegally by giving priority placement in search results to its own shopping service, while relegating results from rivals to areas where potential buyers were much less likely to click.

It could have fined Google as much as 10% of its annual sales, or roughly $9 billion.

The $2.7 billion fine represents just over 2.5% of Google's revenue last year and Alphabet, Google's owner, had $92.4 billion in cash as of end of March.

Vestager said Google's competitors could claim compensation in national courts within the EU. She said hundreds of companies, including some based in the U.S., complained about the way Google displayed its shopping service.

Shares in Alphabet dropped by 1.2% in premarket trading.

Tuesday's fine dwarfs the previous EU record antitrust penalty of €1.06 billion ($1.2 billion) imposed on Intel (INTC, Tech30) in 2009. Intel has been fighting to overturn that decision ever since.

Google's regulatory headache in Europe doesn't end with the online shopping case, which dates back to 2010.

The EU has also accused the Silicon Valley titan of abusing its market position by imposing restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile network operators.

It is also investigating the company's ad placing service, AdSense.

Related: Nike is the next U.S. company in Europe's crosshairs

American firms have come under increased scrutiny in Europe on issues related to tax and competition.

Apple (AAPL, Tech30) is fighting a European demand that it repay €13 billion ($14.7 billion) in back taxes to the Irish government.

Facebook (FB, Tech30) was fined by antitrust regulators in May for misleading officials over its takeover of messaging service WhatsApp. The same month, Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) agreed to change its distribution agreements with e-book publishers to address antitrust concerns raised by the Commission.

And in early June, antitrust officials launched investigations into claims that Nike (NKE) may have broken EU laws by restricting how traders can sell licensed merchandise. Comcast's (CCV) Universal Studios is being investigated on the same grounds.

Vestager rejected any suggestion of anti-American bias, telling reporters on Tuesday that an analysis of investigations her department has launched found that U.S. companies were not being disproportionately targeted.

-- Paul R. La Monica contributed reporting.

CNN Money

How Apple’s iPhone Changed These 5 Major Industries - TIME Business

How Apple’s iPhone Changed These 5 Major Industries

Posted: 26 Jun 2017 09:56 AM PDT

On June 29, Apple celebrates the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, a device all but culturally synonymous with the word smartphone. I was lucky enough to preview one the day before Steve Jobs introduced it at MacWorld in January 2007. Apple senior vice-president of marketing Phil Schiller laid a silver-framed black rectangle on a coffee table, then asked me what I saw.
I told him I saw a piece of glass in a metal case. He told me that’s what Apple wants you to see — in “off” mode, that’s exactly what it is. But turn it on and the magic happens. Apple sees itself as a software company first, and devices like its MacBooks, iPods, iPhones, the Apple TV and Apple Watch as vehicles for those core operating concepts.

Before its release, the hype for an Apple-devised phone was off the scale. It even garnered the nickname the “Jesus phone” — or better still, “jPhone” — as some felt it would be miraculous. At the time, none of us believed it could live up to the hype. To our surprise, the iPhone turned out to be a game-changer, a powerful new technology that went on to impact the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world, changing the way they communicated, worked, learned and played.
But the most surprising thing about the iPhone is the impact it’s had on five major industries.
The first industry it upended was the PC market, where Apple’s stroke of genius was to put one in your pocket. Until the iPhone shipped, PC sales were around 400 million a year. But as the iPhone and smartphones in general have become critical tools for information, used for productivity, communications and pleasure, the PC has become less important to many people. Until the mobile revolution that came with the iPhone, the only way people could access the Internet was from a PC or laptop.
Today, thanks to the iPhone, iPad and all the Android equivalents inspired by Apple’s ideas, people have many more options to make the connections they need regardless of location. Consequently, the PC industry is now shipping only about 275 to 290 million PCs a year, and this has caused a level of industry consolidation that is now concentrated around Lenovo, HP, Dell, Acer and Apple.
The second industry the iPhone impacted was Telecom companies like AT&T and Verizon. Before the iPhone, most of the original telco business models were around voice. Yes, Voice over IP became popular by 2000 and had already started pushing the telecom companies to move to digital voice instead of traditional landline voice delivery methods. But with the advent of the iPhone, they were effectively forced out of the traditional voice business altogether. Try and find a payphone today, in contrast with the millions of payphones that were in place a decade ago.
Today’s telecom providers are data communications companies whose business models have been completely transformed. All have added things like information and entertainment services, and all have become conduits for multiple types of data services to their customers.
The third industry the iPhone turned on its head was the movie and TV business. For most of my life in order to watch a movie I had to go to a movie theater, and to watch a TV show I had to sit in front of my television at home. The iPhone created a mobile platform for video delivery, and since 2007 every major movie and TV studio has been forced to expand their distribution methods to include downloaded and streaming services to mobile devices. We can thank the millions of iPhones in the field, capable of letting people watch video anytime and anywhere, for prodding these studios to make this so. We can also thank the iPhone for fueling new types of video services like Youtube, Netflix and Hulu — video powerhouses, at least 50% of whose content is viewed on some type of mobile device.
The fourth industry the iPhone impacted has been the gaming industry. Before 2007, most games were either delivered by way of game consoles, a PC or a dedicated handheld device like the Nintendo DS or Sony PlayStation Portable. The iPhone expanded the market for mobile games as well as created an entirely new category of touch-based gameplay, persuading even holdouts like Nintendo to come aboard with games based on its iconic franchises. And though the mobile dominant free-to-play model fractionalizes revenue, the potential for brand exposure is unprecedented: Niantic’s augmented reality-angled Pokémon Go alone has been downloaded over 750 million times. Contrast with Nintendo’s entire Mario franchise’s lifetime sales of just over 500 million.
The iPhone has also impacted the health industry. Today, one can use an iPhone to monitor various health metrics as well as access detailed health information, connecting with health professionals and even receiving health advice virtually anytime and anywhere. And we’ve only begun to see how smartphones can impact the health industry, an impact that will doubtless expand as this industry embraces the smartphone for outpatient care.
But the iPhone’s most transformative influence has been on Apple itself. Before the iPhone, Apple was known as Apple Computer. Today it is Apple Inc., a company that makes much more than computers. And the iPhone today accounts for over 60% of Apple’s total revenue, bringing in record profits each year. It’s one of the bestselling products in history, with about 1.3 billion units in global sales, generating more than $800 billion in revenue. Apple is already the most valuable company on the planet by market capitalization, and on track to become the world’s first trillion dollar one.
Looking back over the last 10 years, the hype before the launch of the iPhone if anything underestimated its impact on global industries and individuals. And with Apple on track to define and grow emerging technologies like augmented reality in mobile, Cupertino seems poised to make the iPhone even more important to our digital lifestyles, transforming industries in ways we have yet to imagine.
Tim Bajarin is recognized as one of the leading industry consultants, analysts and futurists, covering the field of personal computers and consumer technology. Mr. Bajarin is the President of Creative Strategies, Inc and has been with the company since 1981 where he has served as a consultant providing analysis to most of the leading hardware and software vendors in the industry.

Image of the United States has plunged under Trump, survey shows - Reuters

Image of the United States has plunged under Trump, survey shows - June 26, 2017

By Noah Barkin | BERLIN

The image of the United States has deteriorated sharply across the globe under President Donald Trump and an overwhelming majority of people in other countries have no confidence in his ability to lead, a survey from the Pew Research Center showed.

Five months into Trump's presidency, the survey spanning 37 nations showed U.S. favorability ratings in the rest of the world slumping to 49 percent from 64 percent at the end of Barack Obama's eight years in the White House.

But the falls were far steeper in some of America's closest allies, including U.S. neighbors Mexico and Canada, and European partners like Germany and Spain.

Trump took office in January pledging to put "America First". Since then he has pressed ahead with plans to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, announced he will pull out of the Paris climate accord, and accused countries including Canada, Germany and China of unfair trade practices.

On his first foreign trip as president in early June, Trump received warm welcomes in Saudi Arabia and Israel, but a cool reception from European partners, with whom he clashed over NATO spending, climate and trade.

Just 30 percent of Mexicans now say they have a favorable view of the United States, down from 66 percent at the end of the Obama era. In Canada and Germany, favorability ratings slid by 22 points, to 43 percent and 35 percent, respectively.

In many European countries, the ratings were comparable to those seen at the end of the presidency of George W. Bush, whose 2003 invasion of Iraq was deeply unpopular.

"The drop in favorability ratings for the United States is widespread," the Pew report said. "The share of the public with a positive view of the U.S. has plummeted in a diverse set of countries from Latin America, North America, Europe, Asia and Africa".

The survey, based on the responses of 40,447 people and conducted between Feb. 16 and May 8 this year, showed even deeper mistrust of Trump himself, with only 22 percent of those surveyed saying they had confidence he would do the right thing in world affairs, compared to 64 percent who trusted Obama.

Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, with confidence ratings of 27 percent and 28 percent respectively, scored higher than Trump. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with a confidence rating of 42 percent, scored highest among the four leaders in the survey.

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The countries with the lowest confidence in Trump were Mexico, at 5 percent and Spain at 7 percent. The only two countries where ratings improved compared to Obama were Russia, where confidence in the U.S. president surged to 53 percent from 11 percent, and Israel, where it rose 7 points to 56 percent.

Globally, 75 percent of respondents described Trump as "arrogant", 65 percent as "intolerant" and 62 percent as "dangerous". A majority of 55 percent also described him as a "strong leader".

The survey showed widespread disapproval of Trump's signature policy proposals, with 76 percent unhappy with his plan to build the wall on the border with Mexico, 72 percent against his withdrawal from major trade agreements and 62 percent opposed to his plans to restrict travel to the U.S. from some majority-Muslim countries.

On the positive side, the survey showed that 58 percent of respondents had a positive view of Americans in general. And in many regions of the world, a majority or plurality of respondents said they expected relations with the United States to stay roughly the same in spite of Trump.

(Reporting by Noah Barkin; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Uber’s Next CEO Has to Face This Huge Challenge - TIME

Uber’s Next CEO Has to Face This Huge Challenge

Posted: 21 Jun 2017 02:41 PM PDT

Bradley Tusk, founder of Tusk Ventures who was an advisor to Uber, remembers the first time he met Travis Kalanick more than six years ago. “I’ll never forget this, because it was so crazy it turned out to be true,” he says. Kalanick told him that he envisioned a future in which no one would own cars — vehicles would drive themselves and passengers would summon them by pushing a button. “There’s no one in the world who’s done more to make that a reality than him,” says Tusk.
News broke on Tuesday that Kalanick would step down as CEO of the company he founded roughly eight years ago. Since Uber’s inception in 2009, venture capitalists have poured money to stake a claim in Kalanick’s vision of the future, making it the most valuable startup in the world worth nearly $70 billion.

But after a tumultuous start to 2017, Uber’s fate only worsened. It’s entered into a rocky lawsuit with Google, endured the ramifications of a scathing exposé and internal investigation that revealed a culture plagued by sexism, and saw the departure of key executives like president Jeff Jones, vice president of engineering Amit Singhal, and now Kalanick, its chief executive and founder.
Uber’s next CEO must be equal parts innovator and mediator, a leader that can address the company’s cultural troubles while also maintaining the focus and vision that lead Kalanick’s company to upend the taxi industry. Walking that line will undoubtedly be the largest challenge facing Kalanick’s successor. “There are tens of thousands of people that can [fix Uber’s day-to-day problems],” says Tusk. “[But] the person who can actually think about how to make flying cars happen, there aren’t a lot of those.”
Uber’s new CEO will surely address the immediately pressing issues of filling out the company’s dwindling leadership team and revamping its toxic culture. But it’s the long-term solutions that could shape how Uber continues to scale its business, such as deciding which technologies the company should invest its resources in and how to bring them to market in a competitive way.
Read more: Uber Fail: Upheaval at the World’s Most Valuable Startup is a Wake-Up Call for Silicon Valley
Kalanick’s company is dipping its toes in ambitious projects ranging from self-driving taxis to flying cars and initiatives aimed at fixing urban infrastructure. The new CEO will have to maintain a clear focus when deciding how to execute on those endeavors. “Uber has a decision to make,” says Michael Ramsey, a research director at Gartner covering the automotive industry. “Is it worth it to continue pursuing that? When you’re a company that eventually would like to IPO, you have to decide if this is core to your business.”
This especially holds true when it comes to Uber’s self-driving car efforts, which landed the company in a brutal lawsuit with Google. The search giant alleged that Anthony Levandowski, Uber’s former vice president of engineering who previously led Google’s autonomous vehicle division, had stolen intellectual property from the company. The self-driving car industry is expected to be worth $42 billion by 2025, according to research from The Boston Consulting Group. If Uber wants to establish its dominance in that field, it will have to hold a competitive edge over firms like Google and Lyft. “You only win the war by having someone in charge that’s capable of competing with everyone else,” says Tusk.
Kalanick is far from being the first or even most high-profile CEO to be ousted from his own company. Steve Jobs left Apple in 1985 after a power struggle ensued between Jobs and then-Apple CEO John Sculley, but Jobs returned after the iconic computer maker acquired his new company, NeXT, in 1996. But there are important differences in Uber’s circumstance that could make a comeback for Kalanick unlikely, says Robert E. Siegel of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. “This is more than just a conflict on product direction,” he says. “This is more fundamental.”
Uber has not yet spoken about its plans to fill Kalanick’s role. But industry observers have speculated that YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, former Disney chief operating officer Thomas Staggs, and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg are among the candidates being considered. Bradley suspects the board will choose a seasoned, highly-respected industry veteran that can keep Uber running smoothly over the next few years. “It’s a lot easier to go along to get along,” he says, “than it is to upend the status quo.”