Sharks Are Literally Swarming Around Donald Trump's Hotel
There have been multiple sightings of sharks close to the shore near Donald Trump's hotel on a Hawaiian island, according to local reports.
Sharks were seen swimming off Waikiki Beach, and one was spotted eating a turtle off nearby Ala Moana Beach Park on Tuesday, news station KHON reported, citing Honolulu city officials. Trump International is located "steps away" from Waikiki Beach.
The sightings could be read as an ominous metaphor for the former president, who is facing a mountain of legal woes in the criminal and civil courts as he seeks to return to the White House.
On Thursday, the Minnesota Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case seeking to remove him from the state's ballot in 2024 by invoking a clause of the U.S. Constitution that bars those who have incited insurrection from holding elected office—one of two such challenges currently being litigated.
Experts said one of Tuesday's shark sightings was likely a tiger shark eating a Hawaiian green sea turtle. KHON reported that warning signs about sharks in the shallow waters near the beach have been erected.
The most recent sightings haven't officially been confirmed. The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) recorded the last encounter that wounded a person was on October 25, around 185 yards from the shore near Puaʻena Beach Park.
Newsweek approached DLNR and Honolulu Ocean Safety via email for comment on Thursday.
October has been dubbed locally as "shark-tober" due to the increased number of sightings and encounters in the month. Official statistics show an annual spike during the month, with an elevated number of incidents also in November.
According to local reports, there have been more than a dozen recorded shark sightings this October near Honolulu. DLNR said there have been two shark encounters with humans off the coast of the Hawaiian islands.
"October is when the pregnant female tiger sharks, the big ones, migrate down from the northwestern Hawaiian Islands to pup and to mate around the main Hawaiian Islands," Andrew Rossiter, a biologist at the University of Hawaii and director of the Waikiki Aquarium, told Hawaii News Now.
As well as battling several criminal cases, Trump is facing the threat of being removed from the ballot in two states over his alleged involvement in the January 6 uprising—the other state being Colorado. His lawyers have denied the uprising was an insurrection in the constitutional sense in court filings.
Regardless of the outcome, at least one of the cases is expected to go to the U.S. Supreme Court for a final ruling. It would be the first time the court has considered invoking the 14th Amendment in this way.
At the same time, a growing number of co-defendants have opted to plead guilty in the Georgia election fraud case Trump is embroiled in, which alleges that he and his allies conspired to unlawfully overturn the state's 2020 election results.
In all of the cases against him, Trump has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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