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| Timothy Cardinal Dolan |
Dissing Dolan... Vice President Kamala Harris plans to skip the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner in New York on Oct. 17 Smith. She needs to go.
Every Democratic and Republican presidential candidate since 1984 has attended the $5K a-plate black-tie fundraiser for New York Catholic Charities.
Harris’ excuse for ditching the dinner is that she plans to campaign in a battleground state on Oct. 17.
She did manage to slip away from the battleground states on Sept. 22 to swing into NYC for a fundraiser at Cipriani Wall Street that netted $27M, which is her biggest haul for the election-run.
The VP's decision to snub the fundraiser named for a four-time Democratic governor of New York and the first Catholic to run for president on a major party ticket presented a golden opportunity to Donald Trump.
Trump, who attended the 2016 dinner and the 2020 virtual affair, posted on Truth Social:
“It’s sad but not surprising that Kamala has decided not to attend. I don’t know what she has against our Catholic friends, but it must be a lot, because she certainly hasn’t been very nice to them, in fact, Catholics are literally being persecuted by this Administration. Any Catholic that votes for Comrade Kamala Harris should have their head examined.”
Trump’s post about persecution from an administration led by the second Catholic president is nonsense. Regardless, it will register with some Catholic voters.
But Harris’ bigger worry is the slap from the PR savvy archbishop of New York.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan said he was looking forward to hosting Harris at the dinner and is disappointed with her cold shoulder.
And then he delivered a zinger at his Sept. 23 press conference: “We’re not used to this. We don’t know how to handle it. This hasn’t happened in 40 years, since Walter Mondale turned down the invitation. And remember, he lost 49 out of 50 states. I don’t want to say there’s a direct connection there.” Ouch!
Dinner organizers could deliver the PR hammer to Harris campaign. How about leaving the podium chair—next to Dolan that was intended for Harris—empty.
That would be a very fitting response to her disrespectful brush off and a PR disaster for the VP as the media would focus their coverage on the empty chair and Trump smiling in his seat on the other side of the Cardinal.
The VP has time to redeem herself from her very bad rookie mistake.
She shouldn’t take the Empire State for granted, and just view it as a campaign piggybank.
Thin-skinned Bernie. Billionaire Bernard Arnault has ordered executives at his LVMH luxury goods company not to talk to reporters from seven media outlets.
“I formally condemn any behavior consistent with maintaining relationships with unscrupulous journalists and giving them information or comments about the life of the group,” wrote the haughty Frenchman.
One of Arnault’s lieutenants, of course, leaked the January memo this month to La Lettre, one of the banned outlets on Arnault’s hit list.
That resulted in an open letter on Sept. 24 in Le Monde, France’s national newsletter, from journalists’ unions reminding Arnault that the media’s role is not to roll over for corporations or billionaires.
The mission of the press is not to “relay the official communications of companies and institutions” but to inform,” they wrote.
Perhaps Bernie is upset with his tumble from the top of the richest people in the world roster. Declining revenues from LVMH units, which include Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Moet & Chandon, and Sephora, hit Arnault’s treasure chest.
He now ranks No. 5 behind Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison and Mark Zuckerberg, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
That fall from grace must infuriate Arnault who famously said: “As long as I’m not the richest man in the world, I won’t be happy.”
Cheer up, you have $177B reasons to be happy.
Spinning a corporate flop… Vertex Energy on Sept. 24 announced that it was initiating “a formal pathway aimed at achieving a sustainable capital structure.”
In other words, Houston-based Vertex is going belly-up by declaring Chapter 11 and exploring a sale of its assets. Or in Vertex’s parlance: the company is pursuing “a more value maximizing sale transaction.”
The Chapter 11 move follows a rugged financial first-half as the refiner of speciality fuels, which says it’s “dedicated to shaping the future of the energy industry,” posted a $72M net loss on $1.2B revenues.
Vertex’s spinmeisters need a new corporate slogan.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt needs a pair of glasses... Messaging about need to restore foreign aid stars on Broadway... Trump resists temptation of comparing himself to Jesus Christ at White House Faith Office lunch.
Bored with being just the president of the US, Trump expands role to Emperor of the Americas... Funded by the One Big Beautiful Bonkers Bill, ICE will become the largest paramilitary in the US. Will it become the Emperor's militia?
WPP pushes panic button after it names new CEO right after cutting profit, revenue guidance. Is the ship sinking?... PR play of the week goes to Benjamin Netanyahu for nominating Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for doing Israel's bidding....WK Kellogg is the latest US corporate icon to be gobbled up by a foreign company. Will Tony the Tiger be recast at Antonio the Tiger?....When will somebody in Trump's Cabinet do the right thing and resign?
Hill & Knowlton wraps up a glorious 43-year run of representing some of the world's most infamous characters as it closes the books on its FARA representation... Americans want no more military adventures in the Middle East, unless the US is directly threatened... There may soon be opportunities in North Korea for adventurous PR firms. 
Look for a bruising election fight between embattled New York mayor Eric Adams and Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, who is exactly what his party needs to regain its mojo... Donald Trump’s brain is more obliterated than the Iranian nuclear site in Fordo that was struck by a series of big, beautiful, bunker-buster bombs... Speaker Mike Johnson becomes Trump's lapdog more and more each day.
