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q9 casino Donald Trump completed his slate of cabinet secretaries last week in rolling announcements — and hidden in his big reveals could be a message of who he appreciates most. The president-elect relied on six compliments when broadcasting picks for his next administration. Sometimes he was “proud,” other times he was “thrilled,” and, most of the time, he was “pleased.” Perhaps these different phrases provide some insight into Trump’s thinking. Penta Group partnered with to track how many times Trump used certain terms to introduce his Cabinet and staff picks. “There is one final decider and as his statements come out, you can see slight nuances in the language,” Penta CEO Matt McDonald told . “It kind of reminds meof the old Kremlinology of the Cold War, where people were parsing whatever public indicators there were to tell who was up or who was out.” “Pleased” seemed to be his go-to term, with the president-elect saying it 18 times, more than any other term analyzed. This included when he introduced , Mike Huckabee as the US ambassador to Israel, and Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head DOGE. By contrast, he was “very pleased” four times, including when picking to lead Medicare and Medicaid and Dr. Marty Makar to lead the FDA. According to , this superlative praise was reserved for just one administration pick: Scott Bessent. The billionaire, who served as an economic advisor to Trump’s 2024 campaign, was tapped to serve as treasury secretary. Trump said he was “thrilled” to announce two of his nominees: Chris Wright as Secretary of Energy and as Secretary of Health and Human Services. The president-elect was “proud” to announce four nominees, including Dr Janette Nesheiwat as surgeon general and former Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer as secretary of labor. This term was reserved for just three individuals. Trump was “honored” to tap Congressman Mike Waltz as his national security adviser, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik as UN ambassador, and as secretary of defense. Trump said it was his “great honor” — in lowercase letters — to only one person nominated to serve in his next administration: . She was tapped to serve as his education secretary. Three others, though, received the same introduction but with a capital G and a capital H, perhaps emphasizing just how great his honor actually was. This list includes Matt Gaetz, the first failed nominee. He withdrew his bid to be the attorney general after a barrage of backlash over his . Marco Rubio, who Trump once referred to as was also given the compliment when Trump introduced him as his nominee for secretary of state. Brooke Rollins, Trump’s pick for secretary of agriculture, also received the double-capped praise.

As US president-elect Donald Trump continues to nominate personalities to his cabinet, we take a look behind the scenes at how the US Secret Service is using the most up-to-date technology to protect the president-elect and ease the burden on agents. This report from France 24's Jack Colmer Gale and our colleagues at France 2.ATLANTA (AP) — Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has died. He was 100 years old and had spent more than a year in hospice care. The Georgia peanut farmer served one turbulent term in the White House before building a reputation as a global humanitarian and champion of democracy. He defeated President Gerald Ford in 1976 promising to restore trust in government but lost to Ronald Reagan four years later amid soaring inflation, gas station lines and the Iran hostage crisis. He and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, then formed The Carter Center, and he earned a Nobel Peace Prize while making himself the most active and internationally engaged of former presidents. The Carter Center said the former president died Sunday afternoon in Plains, Georgia. ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who won the presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, endured humbling defeat after one tumultuous term and then redefined life after the White House as a global humanitarian, has died. He was 100 years old. The longest-lived American president died on Sunday, more than a year after entering hospice care, at his home in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died at 96 in November 2023, spent most of their lives, The Carter Center said. "Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia," the center said in posting about his death on the social media platform X. It added in a statement that he died peacefully, surrounded by his family. Businessman, Navy officer, evangelist, politician, negotiator, author, woodworker, citizen of the world — Carter forged a path that still challenges political assumptions and stands out among the 45 men who reached the nation's highest office. The 39th president leveraged his ambition with a keen intellect, deep religious faith and prodigious work ethic, conducting diplomatic missions into his 80s and building houses for the poor well into his 90s. "My faith demands — this is not optional — my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to try to make a difference," Carter once said. A president from Plains A moderate Democrat, Carter entered the 1976 presidential race as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad smile, outspoken Baptist mores and technocratic plans reflecting his education as an engineer. His no-frills campaign depended on public financing, and his promise not to deceive the American people resonated after Richard Nixon's disgrace and U.S. defeat in southeast Asia. "If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don't vote for me. I would not deserve to be your president," Carter repeated before narrowly beating Republican incumbent Gerald Ford, who had lost popularity pardoning Nixon. Carter governed amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets and social upheaval over racism, women's rights and America's global role. His most acclaimed achievement in office was a Mideast peace deal that he brokered by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the bargaining table for 13 days in 1978. That Camp David experience inspired the post-presidential center where Carter would establish so much of his legacy. Yet Carter's electoral coalition splintered under double-digit inflation, gasoline lines and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His bleakest hour came when eight Americans died in a failed hostage rescue in April 1980, helping to ensure his landslide defeat to Republican Ronald Reagan. Carter acknowledged in his 2020 "White House Diary" that he could be "micromanaging" and "excessively autocratic," complicating dealings with Congress and the federal bureaucracy. He also turned a cold shoulder to Washington's news media and lobbyists, not fully appreciating their influence on his political fortunes. "It didn't take us long to realize that the underestimation existed, but by that time we were not able to repair the mistake," Carter told historians in 1982, suggesting that he had "an inherent incompatibility" with Washington insiders. Carter insisted his overall approach was sound and that he achieved his primary objectives — to "protect our nation's security and interests peacefully" and "enhance human rights here and abroad" — even if he fell spectacularly short of a second term. And then, the world Ignominious defeat, though, allowed for renewal. The Carters founded The Carter Center in 1982 as a first-of-its-kind base of operations, asserting themselves as international peacemakers and champions of democracy, public health and human rights. "I was not interested in just building a museum or storing my White House records and memorabilia," Carter wrote in a memoir published after his 90th birthday. "I wanted a place where we could work." That work included easing nuclear tensions in North and South Korea, helping to avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti and negotiating cease-fires in Bosnia and Sudan. By 2022, The Carter Center had declared at least 113 elections in Latin America, Asia and Africa to be free or fraudulent. Recently, the center began monitoring U.S. elections as well. Carter's stubborn self-assuredness and even self-righteousness proved effective once he was unencumbered by the Washington order, sometimes to the point of frustrating his successors. He went "where others are not treading," he said, to places like Ethiopia, Liberia and North Korea, where he secured the release of an American who had wandered across the border in 2010. "I can say what I like. I can meet whom I want. I can take on projects that please me and reject the ones that don't," Carter said. He announced an arms-reduction-for-aid deal with North Korea without clearing the details with Bill Clinton's White House. He openly criticized President George W. Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He also criticized America's approach to Israel with his 2006 book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." And he repeatedly countered U.S. administrations by insisting North Korea should be included in international affairs, a position that most aligned Carter with Republican President Donald Trump. Among the center's many public health initiatives, Carter vowed to eradicate the guinea worm parasite during his lifetime, and nearly achieved it: Cases dropped from millions in the 1980s to nearly a handful. With hardhats and hammers, the Carters also built homes with Habitat for Humanity. The Nobel committee's 2002 Peace Prize cites his "untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development." Carter should have won it alongside Sadat and Begin in 1978, the chairman added. Carter accepted the recognition saying there was more work to be done. "The world is now, in many ways, a more dangerous place," he said. "The greater ease of travel and communication has not been matched by equal understanding and mutual respect." 'An epic American life' Carter's globetrotting took him to remote villages where he met little "Jimmy Carters," so named by admiring parents. But he spent most of his days in the same one-story Plains house — expanded and guarded by Secret Service agents — where they lived before he became governor. He regularly taught Sunday School lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church until his mobility declined and the coronavirus pandemic raged. Those sessions drew visitors from around the world to the small sanctuary where Carter will receive his final send-off after a state funeral at Washington's National Cathedral. The common assessment that he was a better ex-president than president rankled Carter and his allies. His prolific post-presidency gave him a brand above politics, particularly for Americans too young to witness him in office. But Carter also lived long enough to see biographers and historians reassess his White House years more generously. His record includes the deregulation of key industries, reduction of U.S. dependence on foreign oil, cautious management of the national debt and notable legislation on the environment, education and mental health. He focused on human rights in foreign policy, pressuring dictators to release thousands of political prisoners. He acknowledged America's historical imperialism, pardoned Vietnam War draft evaders and relinquished control of the Panama Canal. He normalized relations with China. "I am not nominating Jimmy Carter for a place on Mount Rushmore," Stuart Eizenstat, Carter's domestic policy director, wrote in a 2018 book. "He was not a great president" but also not the "hapless and weak" caricature voters rejected in 1980, Eizenstat said. Rather, Carter was "good and productive" and "delivered results, many of which were realized only after he left office." Madeleine Albright, a national security staffer for Carter and Clinton's secretary of state, wrote in Eizenstat's forward that Carter was "consequential and successful" and expressed hope that "perceptions will continue to evolve" about his presidency. "Our country was lucky to have him as our leader," said Albright, who died in 2022. Jonathan Alter, who penned a comprehensive Carter biography published in 2020, said in an interview that Carter should be remembered for "an epic American life" spanning from a humble start in a home with no electricity or indoor plumbing through decades on the world stage across two centuries. "He will likely go down as one of the most misunderstood and underestimated figures in American history," Alter told The Associated Press. A small-town start James Earl Carter Jr. was born Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains and spent his early years in nearby Archery. His family was a minority in the mostly Black community, decades before the civil rights movement played out at the dawn of Carter's political career. Carter, who campaigned as a moderate on race relations but governed more progressively, talked often of the influence of his Black caregivers and playmates but also noted his advantages: His land-owning father sat atop Archery's tenant-farming system and owned a main street grocery. His mother, Lillian, would become a staple of his political campaigns. Seeking to broaden his world beyond Plains and its population of fewer than 1,000 — then and now — Carter won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1946. That same year he married Rosalynn Smith, another Plains native, a decision he considered more important than any he made as head of state. She shared his desire to see the world, sacrificing college to support his Navy career. Carter climbed in rank to lieutenant, but then his father was diagnosed with cancer, so the submarine officer set aside his ambitions of admiralty and moved the family back to Plains. His decision angered Rosalynn, even as she dived into the peanut business alongside her husband. Carter again failed to talk with his wife before his first run for office — he later called it "inconceivable" not to have consulted her on such major life decisions — but this time, she was on board. "My wife is much more political," Carter told the AP in 2021. He won a state Senate seat in 1962 but wasn't long for the General Assembly and its back-slapping, deal-cutting ways. He ran for governor in 1966 — losing to arch-segregationist Lester Maddox — and then immediately focused on the next campaign. Carter had spoken out against church segregation as a Baptist deacon and opposed racist "Dixiecrats" as a state senator. Yet as a local school board leader in the 1950s he had not pushed to end school segregation even after the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, despite his private support for integration. And in 1970, Carter ran for governor again as the more conservative Democrat against Carl Sanders, a wealthy businessman Carter mocked as "Cufflinks Carl." Sanders never forgave him for anonymous, race-baiting flyers, which Carter disavowed. Ultimately, Carter won his races by attracting both Black voters and culturally conservative whites. Once in office, he was more direct. "I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over," he declared in his 1971 inaugural address, setting a new standard for Southern governors that landed him on the cover of Time magazine. 'Jimmy Who?' His statehouse initiatives included environmental protection, boosting rural education and overhauling antiquated executive branch structures. He proclaimed Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the slain civil rights leader's home state. And he decided, as he received presidential candidates in 1972, that they were no more talented than he was. In 1974, he ran Democrats' national campaign arm. Then he declared his own candidacy for 1976. An Atlanta newspaper responded with the headline: "Jimmy Who?" The Carters and a "Peanut Brigade" of family members and Georgia supporters camped out in Iowa and New Hampshire, establishing both states as presidential proving grounds. His first Senate endorsement: a young first-termer from Delaware named Joe Biden. Yet it was Carter's ability to navigate America's complex racial and rural politics that cemented the nomination. He swept the Deep South that November, the last Democrat to do so, as many white Southerners shifted to Republicans in response to civil rights initiatives. A self-declared "born-again Christian," Carter drew snickers by referring to Scripture in a Playboy magazine interview, saying he "had looked on many women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times." The remarks gave Ford a new foothold and television comedians pounced — including NBC's new "Saturday Night Live" show. But voters weary of cynicism in politics found it endearing. Carter chose Minnesota Sen. Walter "Fritz" Mondale as his running mate on a "Grits and Fritz" ticket. In office, he elevated the vice presidency and the first lady's office. Mondale's governing partnership was a model for influential successors Al Gore, Dick Cheney and Biden. Rosalynn Carter was one of the most involved presidential spouses in history, welcomed into Cabinet meetings and huddles with lawmakers and top aides. The Carters presided with uncommon informality: He used his nickname "Jimmy" even when taking the oath of office, carried his own luggage and tried to silence the Marine Band's "Hail to the Chief." They bought their clothes off the rack. Carter wore a cardigan for a White House address, urging Americans to conserve energy by turning down their thermostats. Amy, the youngest of four children, attended District of Columbia public school. Washington's social and media elite scorned their style. But the larger concern was that "he hated politics," according to Eizenstat, leaving him nowhere to turn politically once economic turmoil and foreign policy challenges took their toll. Accomplishments, and 'malaise' Carter partially deregulated the airline, railroad and trucking industries and established the departments of Education and Energy, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He designated millions of acres of Alaska as national parks or wildlife refuges. He appointed a then-record number of women and nonwhite people to federal posts. He never had a Supreme Court nomination, but he elevated civil rights attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the nation's second highest court, positioning her for a promotion in 1993. He appointed Paul Volker, the Federal Reserve chairman whose policies would help the economy boom in the 1980s — after Carter left office. He built on Nixon's opening with China, and though he tolerated autocrats in Asia, pushed Latin America from dictatorships to democracy. But he couldn't immediately tame inflation or the related energy crisis. And then came Iran. After he admitted the exiled Shah of Iran to the U.S. for medical treatment, the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun in 1979 by followers of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Negotiations to free the hostages broke down repeatedly ahead of the failed rescue attempt. The same year, Carter signed SALT II, the new strategic arms treaty with Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union, only to pull it back, impose trade sanctions and order a U.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. Hoping to instill optimism, he delivered what the media dubbed his "malaise" speech, although he didn't use that word. He declared the nation was suffering "a crisis of confidence." By then, many Americans had lost confidence in the president, not themselves. Carter campaigned sparingly for reelection because of the hostage crisis, instead sending Rosalynn as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy challenged him for the Democratic nomination. Carter famously said he'd "kick his ass," but was hobbled by Kennedy as Reagan rallied a broad coalition with "make America great again" appeals and asking voters whether they were "better off than you were four years ago." Reagan further capitalized on Carter's lecturing tone, eviscerating him in their lone fall debate with the quip: "There you go again." Carter lost all but six states and Republicans rolled to a new Senate majority. Carter successfully negotiated the hostages' freedom after the election, but in one final, bitter turn of events, Tehran waited until hours after Carter left office to let them walk free. 'A wonderful life' At 56, Carter returned to Georgia with "no idea what I would do with the rest of my life." Four decades after launching The Carter Center, he still talked of unfinished business. "I thought when we got into politics we would have resolved everything," Carter told the AP in 2021. "But it's turned out to be much more long-lasting and insidious than I had thought it was. I think in general, the world itself is much more divided than in previous years." Still, he affirmed what he said when he underwent treatment for a cancer diagnosis in his 10th decade of life. "I'm perfectly at ease with whatever comes," he said in 2015. "I've had a wonderful life. I've had thousands of friends, I've had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence." ___ Former Associated Press journalist Alex Sanz contributed to this report.Sloppy New Zealand give Sam Cane and TJ Perenara winning send-off against Italy

The launch of the new spot Bitcoin ( BTC 0.08% ) ETFs in January was easily one of the biggest events of the year for the crypto market. As soon as these ETFs started trading, money began flooding into them as a way to get exposure to Bitcoin . Thus far, the biggest standout among the nearly dozen new spot Bitcoin ETFs is the iShares Bitcoin Trust ( IBIT 1.05% ) from BlackRock . With more than $40 billion in assets under management, it is now considered the benchmark spot Bitcoin ETF. It is also the easiest way for the everyday investor to get exposure to Bitcoin. But is it a millionaire maker? An ETF that tracks Bitcoin's price performance The iShares Bitcoin Trust holds only a single asset: Bitcoin. Unlike traditional ETFs , which typically hold a diversified basket of stocks, this ETF makes no attempt to diversify away from Bitcoin. This might not be good news if you're looking for diversified exposure to the broader crypto market, but it's fantastic news if all you want is exposure to Bitcoin. Holding only a single asset makes it possible for the iShares Bitcoin Trust to track the daily price of Bitcoin on a nearly 1:1 basis. And, indeed, if you look at a chart comparing the performance of the iShares Bitcoin Trust to the performance of Bitcoin, you'll see that it does an excellent job of tracking Bitcoin. Bitcoin / U.S. dollar chart by TradingView Of course, it's impossible to get perfect 1:1 tracking. Bitcoin trades globally, on a 24/7 basis, while Wall Street is only open for business during certain hours of the day and week. But the iShares Bitcoin Trust is arguably as close as you're going to get to 1:1 tracking of Bitcoin without buying it directly in the spot cryptocurrency market yourself. This 1:1 tracking makes the iShares Bitcoin Trust a huge improvement over the previous iteration of Bitcoin ETFs, which relied on financial derivatives (such as forwards and futures) to track the price of Bitcoin. While these earlier Bitcoin ETFs came close to tracking Bitcoin's price over short intervals, they were prone to significant tracking error over the long-term. Where does Bitcoin's price go from here? Given that the iShares Bitcoin Trust does an excellent job of tracking the price of Bitcoin, the obvious question becomes: How much higher can Bitcoin go from here? After all, if you're really intent on becoming a crypto millionaire, then you need the price of Bitcoin to soar as high as possible, right? The good news is that, according to a growing number of analysts and investors, Bitcoin's future price could reach stratospheric heights. For example, Cathie Wood of Ark Invest thinks that the price of Bitcoin could climb as high as $1 million by 2030. And, in a bullish case, Bitcoin might even reach $3.8 million. She's basing her price forecasts on assumptions about Bitcoin's growing adoption as a key part of the modern financial system. And, if you're feeling particularly bullish, consider the price prediction of Michael Saylor, founder and executive chairman of MicroStrategy . He's now predicting that Bitcoin could soar as high as $49 million per coin by the year 2045. In a base case, he says, Bitcoin could hit $13 million per coin. Moreover, as we know from Bitcoin's historical track record, it has proven to have had plenty of upside potential in the past. Just over a decade ago, Bitcoin was trading for $100. Today, it trades for close to $100,000. For much of the past decade, Bitcoin has been one of the top-performing assets in the world, far ahead of many other asset classes. Of course, past performance is no guarantee of future performance, but it gives you a good idea of why future Bitcoin price forecasts are so bullish. Can you turn $1,000 into $1 million? For the sake of argument, let's say that you have $1,000 that you're willing to invest into the iShares Bitcoin Trust. In order to become a crypto millionaire, you'd need to see a 1,000x return on your investment. To make the math easier, let's also assume that Bitcoin hits a price of $100,000 by the end of 2024. In order to attain that 1,000x return on your money, you'd need to see the price of Bitcoin hit... (drumroll, please)... $100 million. That's highly improbable, given that even Michael Saylor of MicroStrategy is only predicting a price of $49 million in the most bullish of all possible future scenarios. So you have two options if you're really focused on becoming a crypto millionaire. The first option is to increase your opening investment to, say, $100,000. That means Bitcoin would "only" need to hit a price of $1 million. The second option is to find another cryptocurrency with even more upside potential than Bitcoin over the next decade. Bitcoin has enormous upside potential, but if you're counting on it to turn you into a millionaire, maybe you should keep your expectations in check.

In what is possibly the most high profile loss of this general election, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly lost his seat in the early hours of Monday morning. After two days and 13 counts, the Fianna Fáil minister lost out to Taoiseach Simon Harris's running mate Edward Timmins. The pair had been battling it out for the final seat but, having gotten just 6% of first preferences and with transfers strongly favouring Mr Timmins, Mr Donnelly just could not close the gap. In the hours before he lost the Wicklow seat, Mr Donnelly said that his chances of re-election were hampered by a strong "government vote" for Mr Harris and the loss of a seat in the constituency changes. In the months before the election, there were signs that Mr Donnelly was somewhat nervous about his chances. The decision to run him as the sole Fianna Fáil candidate in the constituency appeared to indicate that the party shared his concern. LIVE: GE24 updates Scroll for live results in your area Cork East Cork North Central Cork North West Cork South Central Cork South West Kerry Clare Limerick City Limerick County Tipperary North Tipperary South Waterford Dublin Bay North Dublin Bay South Dublin Central Dublin Fingal East Dublin Fingal West Dublin Mid West Dublin North West Dublin Rathdown Dublin South Central Dublin South West Dublin West Dun Laoghaire Carlow/Kilkenny Kildare North Kildare South Laois Longford/Westmeath Louth Meath East Meath West Offaly Wexford Wicklow Wicklow/Wexford Cavan/Monaghan Donegal Galway East Galway West Mayo Roscommon/Galway Sligo/Leitrim This weekend was not the first time Mr Donnelly faced a long and anxious wait to find out his fate. In 2020, he was not elected until the 15th count — failing to meet the quota. It was a tough election but, on that occasion, he scraped through. When the Government was eventually formed over four months later, Mr Donnelly took on the role of minister of health. The position has long been considered to be something of a poison chalice as, due to decades of mismanagement of the HSE, it means anyone who takes the position inherits a wealth of complex problems. However, it should be noted that the last three taoisigh — Simon Harris, Leo Varadkar, and Micheál Martin — all held the position prior to leading their respective parties and the country. When you add the fact that a large part of Mr Donnelly's four years in health was spent trying to contend with a global pandemic and its ripple effect across the entire health sector, it is difficult to come out unscathed. Mr Donnelly was also dogged by the enormous money pit that the new children's hospital has become, along with the number of children suffering while waiting for years to undergo spinal surgery. While the hospital was signed off by the outgoing taoiseach, the cost of the project continued to spiral, the completion date was pushed back multiple times, and relations between the Government and BAM deteriorated under Mr Donnelly's watch. Mr Donnelly said BAM had committed to a June 2025 completion deadline, but this has been met with great scepticism by the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) and members of the opposition. The resignation of the interim chief executive of Children's Health Ireland days before the country went to the polls cast further doubt on the minister's promises. In October, Mr Donnelly told Cabinet that the number of children waiting more than four months for surgery is expected to fall from 129 to 87 by the end of this year. It was too little, too late for the parents and the electorate. No doubt, over the coming weeks Mr Donnelly will be trying to figure out where it all started to go wrong. Going by election results, his decline began when he joined Fianna Fáil. In 2011, a relatively unknown 35-year-old Stephen Donnelly was elected as a Wicklow TD taking 9% of first-preference votes. At this time he worked closely with now-Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore, whom he had encouraged to enter politics. The two shared a busy office in Greystones and were well received by their constituents. Ahead of the 2016 election, the Wicklow duo were the founding members of the Social Democrats —with Mr Donnelly serving as co-leader alongside Catherine Murphy and Róisín Shortall. It was at this time that Mr Donnelly hit his popular peak. Running as a Social Democrats TD on the promise of ensuring transparent governance and providing a strong economy that can underpin our society and communities, Mr Donnelly took 20% of the first-preference vote in Wicklow and was elected on the first count. Just seven months later, Mr Donnelly made the shock announcement that he was leaving the party he had helped to establish — but had not decided whether he would continue as an independent TD or join a party. "Ultimately, I couldn't ask people to believe in something I no longer believed in myself. Having tried, and failed, to get it working, the only honest option left was to step down," he said of the Social Democrats. The following year, he made his choice and announced he was joining Fianna Fáil — a party he had been vocally critical of in the past. This did not sit well with some of those who had elected him as a Social Democrats TD, which had been positioned as an alternative to the centrist parties of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. One of the reasons Mr Donnelly gave for leaving the Social Democrats was that he had "hoped to create something fresh, outward-looking, and brave". People then watched him join a party that has been in and out of power since the founding of the State, a party they did not view as fresh and brave. As a result, Mr Donnelly saw his first preferences share plummet from 20% to 7%. In four elections, Mr Donnelly has campaigned as an Independent, a Social Democrat, and a Fianna Fáiler. His inconsistency in his position may make voters wary of where he will stand in five years' time. Perhaps now, it is the electorate that feels he is asking people to believe in something that he is no longer sure of himself.'Not ideal': Ricky Ponting kicked out of commentary box by 'rude' India move - Yahoo Sport Australia