WELLPRESSBLOG

- Iran offers $80million bounty for Donald Trump's head after death of general

- Soleimani was killed in airstrike by the American soldiers

- Trump warned on Sunday, January 5, that the US would strike back harder against Iran if it retaliated A report by

Daily Mail indicated that an $80million bounty has been placed on the US president, Donald Trump's head in Iran over the assassination of its general, Qasem Soleimani.

Legit.ng gathered that Iran also threatened that it would attack the White House in response to the president's warning that any strike on American interests in the region ouldl bring massive retaliation.
According to the report, an organiser for a funeral procession for General Qassem Soleimani called on all Iranians to donate $1 each 'in order to gather an $80million bounty on President Trump's head.'

The organizer made the remarks during the procession in Mashad.

Iran had also announced that it would no longer abide by any of the limits of its 2015 nuclear deal.

The late Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani

The late Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani Source: UGC A statement issued by Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani's administration, said the country would not observe limitations on its enrichment, the amount of stockpiled enriched uranium as well as research and development in its nuclear activities.
It, however, did not elaborate on what levels it would immediately reach in its programme. It would be recalled that earlier on Sunday, January 5, the Iraqi parliament voted for US troops to be expelled from the country.
The vote would 'obligate the government to work towards ending the presence of all foreign troops on Iraqi soil,' the country's media office stated. Iranian MP Abolfazl Abutorabi also threatened to launch an attack on American soil in retaliation.

"We can attack the White House itself, we can respond to them on the American soil.
We have the power, and God willing we will respond in an appropriate time,' Abutorabi said, according to the Iranian Labour News Agency.

Abutorabi went on to say that, "this is a declaration of war, which means if you hesitate you lose. When someone declares war do you want to respond to the bullets with flowers? They will shoot you in the head." Abutorabi's threat was made during an open session of parliament in Tehran just days after Iranian military Soleimani was killed in a drone strike on Friday at Baghdad airport.

Soleimani was the architect of Tehran's overseas clandestine and military operations as head of the revolutionary guards' Quds Force. Donald Trump had earlier warned that the US would 'strike back' harder at Iran if it retaliates against over the killing of military leader Qasem Soleimani.

He said in a tweet that: "These media posts will serve as notification to the United States Congress that should Iran strike any U.S. person or target, the United States will quickly & fully strike back, and perhaps in a disproportionate manner."

- Iran offers $80million bounty for Donald Trump's head after death of general

- Soleimani was killed in airstrike by the American soldiers

- Trump warned on Sunday, January 5, that the US would strike back harder against Iran if it retaliated A report by

Daily Mail indicated that an $80million bounty has been placed on the US president, Donald Trump's head in Iran over the assassination of its general, Qasem Soleimani.

Legit.ng gathered that Iran also threatened that it would attack the White House in response to the president's warning that any strike on American interests in the region ouldl bring massive retaliation.
According to the report, an organiser for a funeral procession for General Qassem Soleimani called on all Iranians to donate $1 each 'in order to gather an $80million bounty on President Trump's head.'

The organizer made the remarks during the procession in Mashad.

Iran had also announced that it would no longer abide by any of the limits of its 2015 nuclear deal.

The late Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani

The late Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani Source: UGC A statement issued by Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani's administration, said the country would not observe limitations on its enrichment, the amount of stockpiled enriched uranium as well as research and development in its nuclear activities.
It, however, did not elaborate on what levels it would immediately reach in its programme. It would be recalled that earlier on Sunday, January 5, the Iraqi parliament voted for US troops to be expelled from the country.
The vote would 'obligate the government to work towards ending the presence of all foreign troops on Iraqi soil,' the country's media office stated. Iranian MP Abolfazl Abutorabi also threatened to launch an attack on American soil in retaliation.

"We can attack the White House itself, we can respond to them on the American soil.
We have the power, and God willing we will respond in an appropriate time,' Abutorabi said, according to the Iranian Labour News Agency.

Abutorabi went on to say that, "this is a declaration of war, which means if you hesitate you lose. When someone declares war do you want to respond to the bullets with flowers? They will shoot you in the head." Abutorabi's threat was made during an open session of parliament in Tehran just days after Iranian military Soleimani was killed in a drone strike on Friday at Baghdad airport.

Soleimani was the architect of Tehran's overseas clandestine and military operations as head of the revolutionary guards' Quds Force. Donald Trump had earlier warned that the US would 'strike back' harder at Iran if it retaliates against over the killing of military leader Qasem Soleimani.

He said in a tweet that: "These media posts will serve as notification to the United States Congress that should Iran strike any U.S. person or target, the United States will quickly & fully strike back, and perhaps in a disproportionate manner."

 (LMAO, y'all), The US. Government now officially classifies all people who had American citizenship through Naturalization as second class citizens! Yes, Second class citizens and in addition to that, they are all subject of a federal investigation to check whether any of them lied on their application to gain citizenship, the new law is to effectively deport anyone that was thought to have lied during the applications! how brutal! Welcome to the new world order!

 (LMAO, y'all), The US. Government now officially classifies all people who had American citizenship through Naturalization as second class citizens! Yes, Second class citizens and in addition to that, they are all subject of a federal investigation to check whether any of them lied on their application to gain citizenship, the new law is to effectively deport anyone that was thought to have lied during the applications! how brutal! Welcome to the new world order!

China-s-Commerce-Minister-Gao-Hucheng

CHINA has launched legal action against the EU and the US for failing to recognise it has a market economy.

The move is likely to fuel worsening relations, particularly with the US after President-elect Donald Trump has been engaging in a war of words with Beijing, criticising its military build-up in the South China Sea as well as pointing the finger over the country’s alleged failure to rein in North Korea.


China’s leaders have been seeking official market economy status with the World Trade Organisation.

Not only is it seen as a symbolic milestone in the transformation of the country’s economy, but it would also mean it was harder for other countries to hit the communist state with anti-dumping tariffs on it over cheap Chinese imports.


“We will now study the request and accept, as usual, China’s request to enter into consultations.”

Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said: “China’s lawful rights and interests must be maintained and the country reserves the right to take further action. Several WTO members have failed to fulfil their obligations.”



A dispute at the WTO initially has to pass through a consultation phase where representatives of China, the EU and the US meet to discuss the case behind closed doors.

Following the consultations, China can request a panel to be set up.

The EU and the US have the right to refuse the request for such panel once, causing a delay.

They are then obliged to accept a second request.

Van Bael & Bellis, a Brussels-based law firm dealing with trade disputes, puts 2020 or 2021 as likely dates for the end of the cases.

China-s-Commerce-Minister-Gao-Hucheng

CHINA has launched legal action against the EU and the US for failing to recognise it has a market economy.

The move is likely to fuel worsening relations, particularly with the US after President-elect Donald Trump has been engaging in a war of words with Beijing, criticising its military build-up in the South China Sea as well as pointing the finger over the country’s alleged failure to rein in North Korea.


China’s leaders have been seeking official market economy status with the World Trade Organisation.

Not only is it seen as a symbolic milestone in the transformation of the country’s economy, but it would also mean it was harder for other countries to hit the communist state with anti-dumping tariffs on it over cheap Chinese imports.


“We will now study the request and accept, as usual, China’s request to enter into consultations.”

Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said: “China’s lawful rights and interests must be maintained and the country reserves the right to take further action. Several WTO members have failed to fulfil their obligations.”



A dispute at the WTO initially has to pass through a consultation phase where representatives of China, the EU and the US meet to discuss the case behind closed doors.

Following the consultations, China can request a panel to be set up.

The EU and the US have the right to refuse the request for such panel once, causing a delay.

They are then obliged to accept a second request.

Van Bael & Bellis, a Brussels-based law firm dealing with trade disputes, puts 2020 or 2021 as likely dates for the end of the cases.

More U.S. recognition could bring benefits to Taiwan, but the island will also suffer the brunt of Beijing's wrath.

U.S President-elect Donald Trump’s remarks on Sunday that the U.S. under his administration may not necessarily recognize Beijing’s “One China” principle when it comes to cross-strait relations has been welcomed in the Taiwanese capital, Taipei. But it has also raised fears that the small, self-governing island could bear the brunt of Beijing’s ire on the issue.

The principle holds that both the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province, are part of the same nation. Washington has diplomatically acknowledged Beijing’s position on the issue since Washington severed ties with Taipei in 1979.


“I fully understand the ‘one China’ policy, but I don’t know why we have to be bound by a ‘one China’ policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade,” Trump told Fox.

Trump’s comments on “Fox News Sunday” follow a controversial phone call with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Dec. 2 that went against decades of U.S. protocol barring direct contact between American and Taiwanese leaders

Reaction in Taipei on Monday was muted, as analysts took stock of the consequences of any potential change of U.S. policy under a Trump administration.

Political analyst, Antonio Chiang, said that while Trump’s comments prompted a much-needed debate on the position of Taiwan in the world, the Taiwanese were becoming increasingly nervous.

“People are worried about this. Maybe this is his intention now but we can see that Beijing will become more hawkish and angry at Taiwan. So I think people here are very cautious because this kind of remark will translate into what kind of situation? We don’t know,” he said.

Sources close to the Tsai administration have indicated that the decision of the traditionally cautious Taiwanese president to make a congratulatory call to the U.S. president-elect was not taken lightly, with the government fully aware of a potential backlash from China.

Tsai’s party, the Democratic Progressive Party, is officially in favor of Taiwan’s independence but Tsai has been circumspect about the issue since she was elected in May 2016.

China has already frozen ties with Tsai’s administration over her refusal to subscribe to the so-called 1992 Consensus, drawn up between Beijing and the Kuomintang (KMT) administration then governing Taiwan. The consensus states that both China and Taiwan were part of the same country, while diplomatically skirting around the issue of who or what would constitute the legitimate government of that country.

While Trump has raised the stakes, Taiwan has the most to lose militarily and economically in any future diplomatic U.S.-China stand-off about its status.

“The bit that worries me is when he [Trump] says we are not bound by a One China policy unless we make a deal with China to do with other things, including trade,” said J. Michael Cole, a research associate at the Taipei-based French Centre for Research on Contemporary China.

“This evidently gives some of us pause because it smacks of Trump saying that Taiwan could be a bargaining chip on different issues.”

Cole predicted that the Tsai administration would be reaching out to Trump’s advisers to urge caution.

“Whenever there are signals that the security guarantor is looking at you as a means to an end — as a bargaining chip — of course it makes people very nervous,” he said. “That’s been a long-standing issue for Taiwan. There is always fear of abandonment.”

The KMT — Taiwan’s main opposition party, which favors closer ties with Beijing — initially welcomed Trump’s call with Tsai, but made a point of reaching out to Beijing in a press statement following his comments on Fox.



“Peace in the Taiwan Strait should not be sacrificed under any circumstance. The KMT will continue to maintain a high-level relationship with both mainland China and the United States to safeguard regional stability,” said international spokesman, Eric Huang.

However, Trump’s recent statements have given hope to others like Michael Tsai, a former defense minister under the last Democratic Progressive Party government in 2008, who now leads the Taiwan United Nations Alliance, a group lobbying to end Taiwan’s exclusion from international bodies.

“We hope that Trump will say that Taiwan is Taiwan and China is China and that Taiwan is not part of China,” he said. “If that kind can be confirmed by the Trump future government then that would help Taiwan to participate in the international community, including in the United

More U.S. recognition could bring benefits to Taiwan, but the island will also suffer the brunt of Beijing's wrath.

U.S President-elect Donald Trump’s remarks on Sunday that the U.S. under his administration may not necessarily recognize Beijing’s “One China” principle when it comes to cross-strait relations has been welcomed in the Taiwanese capital, Taipei. But it has also raised fears that the small, self-governing island could bear the brunt of Beijing’s ire on the issue.

The principle holds that both the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province, are part of the same nation. Washington has diplomatically acknowledged Beijing’s position on the issue since Washington severed ties with Taipei in 1979.


“I fully understand the ‘one China’ policy, but I don’t know why we have to be bound by a ‘one China’ policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade,” Trump told Fox.

Trump’s comments on “Fox News Sunday” follow a controversial phone call with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Dec. 2 that went against decades of U.S. protocol barring direct contact between American and Taiwanese leaders

Reaction in Taipei on Monday was muted, as analysts took stock of the consequences of any potential change of U.S. policy under a Trump administration.

Political analyst, Antonio Chiang, said that while Trump’s comments prompted a much-needed debate on the position of Taiwan in the world, the Taiwanese were becoming increasingly nervous.

“People are worried about this. Maybe this is his intention now but we can see that Beijing will become more hawkish and angry at Taiwan. So I think people here are very cautious because this kind of remark will translate into what kind of situation? We don’t know,” he said.

Sources close to the Tsai administration have indicated that the decision of the traditionally cautious Taiwanese president to make a congratulatory call to the U.S. president-elect was not taken lightly, with the government fully aware of a potential backlash from China.

Tsai’s party, the Democratic Progressive Party, is officially in favor of Taiwan’s independence but Tsai has been circumspect about the issue since she was elected in May 2016.

China has already frozen ties with Tsai’s administration over her refusal to subscribe to the so-called 1992 Consensus, drawn up between Beijing and the Kuomintang (KMT) administration then governing Taiwan. The consensus states that both China and Taiwan were part of the same country, while diplomatically skirting around the issue of who or what would constitute the legitimate government of that country.

While Trump has raised the stakes, Taiwan has the most to lose militarily and economically in any future diplomatic U.S.-China stand-off about its status.

“The bit that worries me is when he [Trump] says we are not bound by a One China policy unless we make a deal with China to do with other things, including trade,” said J. Michael Cole, a research associate at the Taipei-based French Centre for Research on Contemporary China.

“This evidently gives some of us pause because it smacks of Trump saying that Taiwan could be a bargaining chip on different issues.”

Cole predicted that the Tsai administration would be reaching out to Trump’s advisers to urge caution.

“Whenever there are signals that the security guarantor is looking at you as a means to an end — as a bargaining chip — of course it makes people very nervous,” he said. “That’s been a long-standing issue for Taiwan. There is always fear of abandonment.”

The KMT — Taiwan’s main opposition party, which favors closer ties with Beijing — initially welcomed Trump’s call with Tsai, but made a point of reaching out to Beijing in a press statement following his comments on Fox.



“Peace in the Taiwan Strait should not be sacrificed under any circumstance. The KMT will continue to maintain a high-level relationship with both mainland China and the United States to safeguard regional stability,” said international spokesman, Eric Huang.

However, Trump’s recent statements have given hope to others like Michael Tsai, a former defense minister under the last Democratic Progressive Party government in 2008, who now leads the Taiwan United Nations Alliance, a group lobbying to end Taiwan’s exclusion from international bodies.

“We hope that Trump will say that Taiwan is Taiwan and China is China and that Taiwan is not part of China,” he said. “If that kind can be confirmed by the Trump future government then that would help Taiwan to participate in the international community, including in the United

 This was billed as the first stop on President-elect's Donald Trump's "thank you" tour of states he flipped from Democrat to Republican in the 2016 election.

It ended up being more like an extended end-zone dance, an "in your face" primal scream at all his critics and naysayers.

He boasted about how he shattered Hillary Clinton's perceived strangle-hold on the Electoral College.

"That blue wall is busted up," he said. "I'll never forget it because it felt so good."





When he remarked about how much fun he had "fighting" his Democratic opponent, the crowd responded with "lock her up!" chants, just like old times.

He bemoaned the reluctance of some in his own party to support his anti-establishment candidacy - including Ohio's own governor, John Kasich, the mere mention of whose name elicited a chorus of boos.

"We didn't have much help at the top levels, you know that," Mr Trump said. "And it turned out it didn't matter."

It certainly didn't. And Mr Trump isn't going to let anyone forget it.

He even found time to belittle Evan McMullin, referring to the independent candidate who was advanced as a conservative alternative to the Republican nominee only as "that guy".

"We trounced him," he said. "What the hell was he trying to prove?"

Mr Trump's greatest scorn, however, was once again reserved for the media.

He said the press was "dishonest" and its coverage "brutal". He mocked a network news reporter - Martha Raddatz, although not by name - for what he alleged was an emotional response to his victory.

"How about when a major anchor who hosted a debate started crying when she realised that we won?" he asked.

"No, tell me this isn't true," he said, in a mocking voice.

An ABC News spokesperson told the BBC: "This is ridiculous and untrue. Martha is tough and fair and not intimidated by anyone."

Mr Trump won in spite of them all. And while he said he had come to Ohio to talk about an "action plan" for his presidency, it was clear that he enjoyed careening off-script.

"We're going to reduce the regulations," he said at one point, when he was still more or less on message.

"But if a company wants to still leave a state like Ohio or Pennsylvania or... how about North Carolina? How well did we do in North Carolina?"

Then it was off to the races, reliving his election night triumph, where he proved all the haters and losers wrong.

It was Candidate Trump again, in all his glory. A bird's got to fly, a fish has to swim, and Donald J Trump has to open his mouth and let the words stream out as the cheers grow louder.

Throughout the course of his year-and-a-half campaign, huge arena rallies served as Mr Trump's lifeblood. The adulation of the masses nourished and sustained him through his stumbles and gaffes.

There were moments, when Mr Trump was closing in on the Republican presidential nomination, when advisers both inside and outside the campaign urged him to abandon the free-wheeling, carnival-style events, hew more closely to teleprompter-driven speeches and focus his effort on key constituencies in battleground states.

He gave a scripted foreign policy speech in April. Another before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in May. An economic speech in Detroit in August.

Mr Trump balked.

"I miss flying around and giving rallies when it was just a couple of us on the plane," the candidate told campaign manager Kellyanne Conway in August, according to New York magazine.

So the rallies resumed full-throttle, and Mr Trump endured - through debate stumbles, "live mic" recorded boasts of sexual aggression and predictions of his impending political demise.

Now, after nearly a month of post-election sequestration in his eponymous tower, having phone conversations with foreign leaders, meeting with those vying for plum positions in his administration and receiving vanquished foes on bent knee, he was back in his element.

The music was the same - Elton John, Pavarotti arias and the Rolling Stones.

The souvenir vendors still plied their "Hillary for Prison" T-shirts, Trump buttons and "Make America Great Again" hats, with a few new presidential knick-knacks thrown in.


The enthusiastic, overwhelmingly white crowd was the same, chanting "USA", "build the wall" and "drain the swamp".

Talk to them, and you hear the same unadulterated admiration for his unconventional ways.

"He's spontaneous," said Christopher Kidney, a high school student from Fort Thomas, Kentucky. "He says what's on his mind, and that's what we need in a president."

And then there's the same anger that fuelled Mr Trump's successful campaign.

"You live in small town America, you see all these foreign folks that are buying people's little family country stores. You get tired of that stuff," said Brian Busam, a heavy machinery worker from Marathon, Ohio. "Trump is rocking. It's nice to hear a different voice."

He sported a T-shirt emblazoned with "Guns don't kill people, Clintons do."

It's as if the campaign had never ended.

Indeed, that may be the goal. After his win in 2008, Barack Obama tried to keep the energy and enthusiasm of his own massive crowds alive, to harness and focus it into a governing force. His team founded Organising for America, a political action committee to support the newly elected president's legislative agenda.

It turned out, however, that running the country isn't nearly as glamorous as campaigning and the Obama magic of 2008 was impossible to recreate.

Now, Mr Trump and company could be hoping to turn his mega-rallies into a permanent fixture of his presidency - a way to reach directly to his supporters, like a modern-day testosterone-fuelled version of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's fireside radio chats.

At the very least, the goal for this multi-state "thank you" tour over the next few weeks seems to be to give Mr Trump a platform to outline his presidential goals and, perhaps, smooth over some ruffled feathers from a contentious campaign.



"We're a very divided country," Mr Trump said early in his speech. "We are going to bring our country together."

Only a few minutes later, however, Mr Trump was winging it, with little regard for goodwill-building.

"We had people running our country that truly didn't know what the hell they were doing."
 At that point any Democrats listening probably weren't in the mood for a group hug.

Meet the new Donald Trump. Same as the old Donald Trump.

 This was billed as the first stop on President-elect's Donald Trump's "thank you" tour of states he flipped from Democrat to Republican in the 2016 election.

It ended up being more like an extended end-zone dance, an "in your face" primal scream at all his critics and naysayers.

He boasted about how he shattered Hillary Clinton's perceived strangle-hold on the Electoral College.

"That blue wall is busted up," he said. "I'll never forget it because it felt so good."





When he remarked about how much fun he had "fighting" his Democratic opponent, the crowd responded with "lock her up!" chants, just like old times.

He bemoaned the reluctance of some in his own party to support his anti-establishment candidacy - including Ohio's own governor, John Kasich, the mere mention of whose name elicited a chorus of boos.

"We didn't have much help at the top levels, you know that," Mr Trump said. "And it turned out it didn't matter."

It certainly didn't. And Mr Trump isn't going to let anyone forget it.

He even found time to belittle Evan McMullin, referring to the independent candidate who was advanced as a conservative alternative to the Republican nominee only as "that guy".

"We trounced him," he said. "What the hell was he trying to prove?"

Mr Trump's greatest scorn, however, was once again reserved for the media.

He said the press was "dishonest" and its coverage "brutal". He mocked a network news reporter - Martha Raddatz, although not by name - for what he alleged was an emotional response to his victory.

"How about when a major anchor who hosted a debate started crying when she realised that we won?" he asked.

"No, tell me this isn't true," he said, in a mocking voice.

An ABC News spokesperson told the BBC: "This is ridiculous and untrue. Martha is tough and fair and not intimidated by anyone."

Mr Trump won in spite of them all. And while he said he had come to Ohio to talk about an "action plan" for his presidency, it was clear that he enjoyed careening off-script.

"We're going to reduce the regulations," he said at one point, when he was still more or less on message.

"But if a company wants to still leave a state like Ohio or Pennsylvania or... how about North Carolina? How well did we do in North Carolina?"

Then it was off to the races, reliving his election night triumph, where he proved all the haters and losers wrong.

It was Candidate Trump again, in all his glory. A bird's got to fly, a fish has to swim, and Donald J Trump has to open his mouth and let the words stream out as the cheers grow louder.

Throughout the course of his year-and-a-half campaign, huge arena rallies served as Mr Trump's lifeblood. The adulation of the masses nourished and sustained him through his stumbles and gaffes.

There were moments, when Mr Trump was closing in on the Republican presidential nomination, when advisers both inside and outside the campaign urged him to abandon the free-wheeling, carnival-style events, hew more closely to teleprompter-driven speeches and focus his effort on key constituencies in battleground states.

He gave a scripted foreign policy speech in April. Another before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in May. An economic speech in Detroit in August.

Mr Trump balked.

"I miss flying around and giving rallies when it was just a couple of us on the plane," the candidate told campaign manager Kellyanne Conway in August, according to New York magazine.

So the rallies resumed full-throttle, and Mr Trump endured - through debate stumbles, "live mic" recorded boasts of sexual aggression and predictions of his impending political demise.

Now, after nearly a month of post-election sequestration in his eponymous tower, having phone conversations with foreign leaders, meeting with those vying for plum positions in his administration and receiving vanquished foes on bent knee, he was back in his element.

The music was the same - Elton John, Pavarotti arias and the Rolling Stones.

The souvenir vendors still plied their "Hillary for Prison" T-shirts, Trump buttons and "Make America Great Again" hats, with a few new presidential knick-knacks thrown in.


The enthusiastic, overwhelmingly white crowd was the same, chanting "USA", "build the wall" and "drain the swamp".

Talk to them, and you hear the same unadulterated admiration for his unconventional ways.

"He's spontaneous," said Christopher Kidney, a high school student from Fort Thomas, Kentucky. "He says what's on his mind, and that's what we need in a president."

And then there's the same anger that fuelled Mr Trump's successful campaign.

"You live in small town America, you see all these foreign folks that are buying people's little family country stores. You get tired of that stuff," said Brian Busam, a heavy machinery worker from Marathon, Ohio. "Trump is rocking. It's nice to hear a different voice."

He sported a T-shirt emblazoned with "Guns don't kill people, Clintons do."

It's as if the campaign had never ended.

Indeed, that may be the goal. After his win in 2008, Barack Obama tried to keep the energy and enthusiasm of his own massive crowds alive, to harness and focus it into a governing force. His team founded Organising for America, a political action committee to support the newly elected president's legislative agenda.

It turned out, however, that running the country isn't nearly as glamorous as campaigning and the Obama magic of 2008 was impossible to recreate.

Now, Mr Trump and company could be hoping to turn his mega-rallies into a permanent fixture of his presidency - a way to reach directly to his supporters, like a modern-day testosterone-fuelled version of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's fireside radio chats.

At the very least, the goal for this multi-state "thank you" tour over the next few weeks seems to be to give Mr Trump a platform to outline his presidential goals and, perhaps, smooth over some ruffled feathers from a contentious campaign.



"We're a very divided country," Mr Trump said early in his speech. "We are going to bring our country together."

Only a few minutes later, however, Mr Trump was winging it, with little regard for goodwill-building.

"We had people running our country that truly didn't know what the hell they were doing."
 At that point any Democrats listening probably weren't in the mood for a group hug.

Meet the new Donald Trump. Same as the old Donald Trump.