Two days after a demonstrator was critically wounded by a federal law enforcement official who fired an impact munition at the mans head, President Donald Trump praised federal authorities here for doing a great job.

Portland was totally out of control, and they went in, and I guess we have many people right now in jail and we very much quelled it, and if it starts again, well quell it again very easily, said Trump during a public appearance Monday at the White House. Its not hard to do, if you know what youre doing.

The incident Saturday left Donavan La Bella, 26, with skull and facial fractures, his mother said. She said her son underwent facial reconstructive surgery early Sunday.

Though the president said many people have been jailed here as a result of protests, U.S. Attorney for Oregon Billy J. Williams on Monday estimated that a dozen people have been arrested on federal charges, including arson and assaulting a federal officer.

Trump did not address how federal authorities plan to approach Portland protests as they continue.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler on Monday said he remains deeply concerned about the actions of federal law enforcement officials and said La Bellas injuries at the hands of a federal officer were unacceptable.

Wheeler said that while he doesnt want federal law enforcement officials to complicate already tense nightly protests, he lacks the authority to tell them to stay away.

They report to the federal government and they have jurisdiction throughout the United States, he said.

The incident places new scrutiny on federal involvement in policing protests in downtown Portland, where courts have restricted local police but not federal agents from using crowd control munitions against nonviolent protesters.

The U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General will investigate what led Marshals Service deputies to shoot impact munitions at La Bella, said Williams.

That investigation needs to be thorough, and it will be, said Williams, Oregons top federal law enforcement official.

Like Williams office, the U.S. Marshal Service in Oregon is part of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The agency, which serves as the enforcement arm of the federal courts, provides protection for judges and other court officials, arrests federal fugitives and operates the federal witness protection program.

The Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in downtown Portland sits next to the Multnomah County Justice Center, the heart of nightly protests since late May. The courthouse was fenced off from protesters for weeks. Protesters tore down the chain link fence several times in June. Federal officers did not pour out of the courthouse and use force during those incidents.

In recent days, federal officers have staged inside the courthouse and emerged from it to deploy stun grenades or shoot impact munitions.

Videos posted to social media over the weekend appear to show a federal officer shooting a protester in the head with an impact munition outside of the courthouse.

One video shows La Bella holding a speaker while standing across the street from the courthouse between two parked cars. Federal officers throw a canister that lands at his feet, which he lightly tosses away from him back in the direction it came. It lands partway across the street.

A few seconds later, a firing sound can be heard, and La Bella collapses to the ground, dropping the speaker. The video shows no sign of aggressive provocation on the part of the protester, who appeared to be standing alone.

Another video shows La Bella bleeding on the sidewalk and apparently unconscious after being struck in the face. Several protesters rush to check on him and carry him away, revealing the splatters of blood on the sidewalk. The officers are shown standing across the street and are not reacting.

The top U.S. Marshals official in Oregon is Russell Burger. Burger was appointed in 2011 and was retained in 2017 for another four years by President Donald Trump. He previously served as Lane County sheriff.

Burger answers to the director of the U.S. Marshals Service, Donald W. Washington, a former U.S. attorney in Louisiana who was appointed by Trump to lead the service three years ago.

The U.S. Marshals Service in Washington, D.C., on Monday referred questions about the incident to the agencys Portland office. Burger on Monday did not respond to an email from The Oregonian/OregonLive. The news organization sent questions to a spokeswoman for the agency but did not get an immediate response.

In addition to the U.S. Marshals Service, law enforcement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have also been present at the protests.

The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to multiple requests about the role of its officers at the protests.

Wheeler on Monday said he doesnt have a problem with federal law enforcement policing federal buildings from inside.

What I have a problem with them is leaving the facilities, going onto the streets of this community and then escalating an already tense situation like they did the other night, Wheeler said.

Impact munitions, like the foam-tipped and plastic projectiles used by Portland police, are generally intended to be fired at arms and legs to prevent serious injury. Portland police directives restrict officers from using impact munitions to target a persons head, neck or throat unless deadly force is authorized. Additionally, police cant use impact munitions to control crowds without supervisor permission or the threat of death or serious injury.

And under a temporary court order, Portland police may not use less-lethal impact weapons unless officers believe lives or safety are at risk. Theyre specifically barred from using the munitions against people engaged in passive resistance.

Those restrictions do not, however, apply to federal law enforcement.

During an appearance in Portland on Monday, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, accused Trump of dispatching federal authorities into cities as if they are enemy stronghold requiring an occupying army to suppress.

Wyden said he plans to press Trump and federal authorities to answer the question about why he sent federal law enforcement in the first place to our community and we are going to insist on answers as to what their orders were and who they answer to.

On Monday, Williams in general defended the federal response to the protests, calling it a very conservative approach. He said that response had been largely limited to keeping tabs on federal buildings to ensure no one tried to enter them. He said the approach, however, shifted more than a week ago when someone broke the courthouse doors.

We cant have people entering the federal courthouse hellbent on destruction, he said. That is not going to happen.

Williams said a teen who aimed a laser at a federal law enforcement official was apprehended and was turned over to the Multnomah County juvenile court for prosecution.

Early Saturday morning, a 23-year-old man allegedly assaulted a U.S. Marshals Service deputy with a hammer. According to court records, Jacob M. Gaines used the tool to damage the entrance of the courthouse and struck U.S. Marshals Service deputy when confronted. Gaines, who told authorities he is homeless, is accused of assaulting a federal officer.

Williams on Monday said he told Wheeler that city and civic leaders need to make a concerted effort to end violent aspects to nightly protests in Portland. He characterized the actions of some demonstrators as mindless lawlessness.

They are agitators, he said. They are anarchists, they are people engaged in unlawful behavior and violent, unlawful behavior toward Portland police officers, toward federal agents, towards buildings of all kinds public and privately owned.

Oregonian reporter K. Rambo contributed to this report.

-- Noelle Crombie; ncrombie@oregonian.com; 503-276-7184; @noellecrombie

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.

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Trump says feds in Portland have done a great job on protests - OregonLive

It's made planning more difficult, but the campaign found a location that met all those metrics in New Hampshire, where President Donald Trump will appear on Saturday.

"You have to go to a place where the state guidelines allow you to put on the rally that works," Trump communications director Tim Murtaugh said. "New Hampshire and Gov. (Chris) Sununu have done a great job dealing with the coronavirus and that is part of what allows the President to be there this weekend."

According to Johns Hopkins University, New Hampshire's seven-day moving average of new cases has dropped consistently since early May. In general, the state's numbers have been low. It has just under 6,000 reported cases total, and fewer than 400 people have died of the virus there.

"I'm probably not going to go to the rally itself because frankly that's just a lot of people," Sununu told a group Tuesday night. "I don't go in big crowds anymore for the Covid thing. I just have to be very careful of that."

Still, Sununu defended the idea of Trump holding the rally, pointing to the campaign's plans to ask rally goers to wear masks, dole out hand sanitizer and encourage social distancing. New Hampshire Republicans are embracing the President's visit. Matt Mowers, a former Trump administration official who is a candidate for the GOP nomination in the state's 1st Congressional District, argued the Granite State is prepared to handle an event like this.

"People understand the threat and there are going to be precautions," Mowers said.

He argued that safely reopening the economy is a big part of the GOP message to voters: "New Hampshire wants to get back to work. The largest percentage of workers come from small businesses and you can't keep them closed forever."

New Hampshire could serve as the perfect backdrop to make that argument. While many key swing states, like Florida and Arizona, are seeing an uptick in cases, New Hampshire seemingly has things under control -- and also happens to be a state the Trump team feels they can put back into their win column after losing there narrowly in 2016. Hillary Clinton carried the state and its four electoral votes by less than 3,000 votes, a winning margin of less than a half of a percentage point.

"From the beginning, our plan has been to retain the states that President Trump won in 2016 and then pick off a few states where he was close," Murtaugh said. "We've been high on our chances in New Hampshire from the very beginning."

But Democrats argue that choosing New Hampshire is much more about convenience than strategy. A state with a friendly Republican governor and dropping cases provides the Trump campaign with the chance to put on a much more successful show than they were able to pull off in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last month. The Tulsa rally fell far short of expectations, as the campaign failed to fill the 20,000 seat area where Trump spoke and were forced to cancel a planned outdoor event when the predicted large, overflow crowd failed to materialize.

"It's about him doing whatever he can to turn the page. He's not very good at much, but he does understand the power of the shiny symbol and how some folks' attention can be distracted immediately," said Ray Buckley, chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party. "He needed to find the area that he could put together a show which is what his entire presidency is about and that's why he picked New Hampshire."

This rally will also show the adjustments the campaign plans to make in the wake of the problems they dealt with in Tulsa. The venue will be predominately outside on the tarmac of an airport with an airplane hangar nearby. The event in Tulsa was completely indoors, with seats in very close proximity together and very little opportunity for rally goers to practice social distancing. The set-up also made it impossible to mask the thousands of seats that went empty as the crowd count fell well below expectations.

"We've identified a very vast space that we believe we can adequately accommodate a high amount of people and they will be urging people to social distance at the event and also wear face masks," said Paul Brean, the executive director of Pease Development Authority, which owns and operates the Portsmouth International Airport.

It will also be a much smaller space than the arena the President hoped to pack in Tulsa. Brean said the space the campaign is using can accommodate well over 10,000 people, which is roughly half the size of the arena in Oklahoma.

New Hampshire could be the test case for the campaign's new approach to rallies. If it works, it could be a sign of what is to come for the Trump team as they push to take advantage of what they view as one of the President's strongest assets. His team has, for much of 2020, been denied this weapon in their arsenal. But they firmly believe they have the time to get the practice right.

"We have four months to go before Election Day and plenty of time for plenty of rallies," Murtaugh said. "Hillary Clinton made the mistake of spiking the ball on the two yard line four years ago. Now Joe Biden and Democrats are getting ready to spike the ball on the 40 yard line. Declaring victory now is a big mistake."

CNN's Donald Judd contributed to this story.

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New Hampshire rally shows how the Trump campaign is adjusting to 2020 realities - CNN

Fate has been unkind to the United States. The nation is grappling simultaneously with a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 130,000; the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression; and mind-numbing police brutality, which has generated the largest outpouring of grief and anger against systemic racism in memory.

Perhaps Americas greatest misfortune is that these crises have emerged at a time when its leadership is too incompetent to respond to them, if not maliciously dedicated to worsening them.

Donald Trump has not only refused to contain Covid-19 but is actively pushing Americans into harms way, demanding the nation reopen while cases and deaths continue to rise. Meanwhile, hes siphoning federal money intended to dampen the economic crisis into the pockets of his cronies and family. And he is deliberately stoking racial tensions to energize his base for the upcoming election.

As if this werent enough, Trump continues to attack the rule of law, on which a democracy depends in order to deal with these and all other challenges.

But he could not accomplish these abhorrent feats alone. Senate Republicans are either cheering him on or maintaining a shameful silence. Trumps biggest enabler is the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell.

Senate Republicans either cheer Trump on or maintain a shameful silence

McConnells response to Trumps overt appeals to racism? He is not a racist, says McConnell. His reaction to Trumps failure to contain Covid-19? President Obama should have kept his mouth shut rather than criticize Trump. McConnells take on Trumps multiple attacks on the rule of law, including Fridays commutation of former Trump campaign aide Roger Stones prison sentence? Utter silence.

But McConnell has been a vocal opponent of the Heroes Act passed by the House in early May to help Americans survive the pandemic and fortify the upcoming election calling it a liberal wishlist. In fact, its a necessary list.

McConnell and his fellow Senate Republicans dont want to extend the bills extra-$600-a-week unemployment benefits, enacted in March but due to expire on 31 July. They argue the benefits are higher than what low-income workers are likely to earn on the job, so the money is a disincentive to work.

Baloney. Few jobs are available to low-income workers, and most are in so-called essential work rife with Covid-19. Besides, the US economy cant be revived unless people have extra money in their pockets to buy goods and services. Even before the pandemic, nearly 80% of Americans lived paycheck to paycheck. Now many are desperate, as revealed by lengthening food lines and growing delinquencies in rent payments.

Yet McConnell and his ilk are happy to give away trillions of dollars in bailouts to Wall Street bankers and corporate executives, on the dubious premise that the rich will work harder if they receive more money while people of modest means work harder if they receive less. In reality, the rich contribute more to Republican campaigns when they get bailed out.

McConnell and Senate Republicans quietly inserted into the last Covid relief bill a $170bn windfall to Jared Kushner and other real estate moguls. Another $454bn went to backing up a Federal Reserve program that benefits big business by buying up debt.

And although that bill was also intended to help small businesses, lobbyists connected to Trump including current donors and fundraisers for his re-election helped their clients rake in more than $10bn, while an estimated 90% of small businesses owned by people of color and women got nothing.

McConnells response? Hes willing to consider more aid to small business.

But McConnell urges lawmakers to be cautious, warning that the amount of debt that were adding up is a matter of genuine concern. He seems to forget the $1.9tn tax cut he engineered in December 2017 for big corporations and the super rich. Is he willing to roll it back to provide more funding for Americans in need?

The inept and overwhelmingly corrupt reign of Trump and McConnell will come to an end next January if enough Americans vote this November. Trumps polls are plummeting and Senate Republicans seem likely to lose at least four seats, thereby flipping the Senate to Democrats and consigning McConnell to the dustbin of Capitol Hill.

But will enough people vote during a pandemic? The Heroes Act provides $3.6bn for states to expand mail-in and early voting but McConnell isnt interested. Hes well aware that more voters increase the likelihood Republicans will be booted out. (Which is also why Trump is claiming, with no evidence, that voting by mail will cause widespread voter fraud.)

If there is another coronavirus bill, differences between McConnell and the House will have to be resolved within two weeks after Congress returns from recess on 20 July. McConnell says his priority will be to shield businesses from Covid-related lawsuits by customers and employees who have contracted the virus.

If he had an ounce of concern for the nation, his priority would be to shield Americans from the ravages of Covid and American democracy from the ravages of Trump.

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Trump and McConnell are the twin tribunes of America's ruin vote them out - The Guardian

WASHINGTON Jeff Sessions wants you to know that President Donald Trump might hate him, but he doesn't hate Donald Trump.

"When I left President Trump's Cabinet, did I write a tell-all book? No. Did I go on CNN and attack the president? Nope. Have I said a cross word about our president? Not one time," Sessions said in a video announcing his candidacy for the Senate.

Since Sessions announced he was running for his old Senate seat, he has spent much of his time trying to convince his former constituents that despite Trump's repeated attacks against him from calling him "slime" to "not mentally qualified" to "the biggest mistake" of his presidency his feelings aren't hurt. He's still on Trump's side.`

Alabamians might not be convinced.

Sessions was forced out as attorney general after months of public anger from Trump over his decision to recuse himself from the investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 campaign. This year, Sessions has found himself the underdog in the Republican nomination battle for the Senate seat he previously held for over 20 years, now occupied by Democrat Doug Jones.

Polls have consistently shown Sessions trailing former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville, a political newcomer, in the GOP runoff Tuesday.

Sessions and Tuberville were forced into the runoff after neither won a majority in the March 3 primary, with Tuberville leading with 33.4 percent of the vote and Sessions coming in second at 31.6 percent. The runoff, initially scheduled for March 31, was pushed back more than three months because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump stayed on the sidelines during the crowded primary, in which many candidates vied to demonstrate who was most loyal to him. (Trump was also encouraged to stay out of the race early on after an embarrassing blow in 2017 when he endorsed a losing candidate in the Republican primary.)

Let our news meet your inbox. The news and stories that matters, delivered weekday mornings.

But once Sessions and Tuberville were locked into the runoff, things changed. Trump offered his full support to Tuberville, ramped up his Twitter attacks against Sessions, invited Tuberville on Air Force One and even discussed holding a campaign rally in Alabama for Tuberville ahead of the runoff, although those plans were scrapped because of the coronavirus.

Alabama political strategists say it has been "bizarre" to see Sessions, who has a long history in Alabama politics (he was state attorney general before winning four Senate elections) struggle so much to clinch the nomination.

"There's a large chunk of this voting public that voted for Sessions at least three or four times, and now they're just throwing that all away, dumping him over the side, for the guy with no record that left the state," said David Mowery, a political strategist based in Montgomery who has worked for both Republicans and Democrats. Tuberville moved on to coach college teams in Texas and Ohio after he resigned from Auburn after the 2008 season.

But as Tuberville adviser Perry Hooper Jr., Trump's 2016 Alabama campaign co-chairman, put it: "The two most popular things in our state are Donald J. Trump and football and not necessarily in that order."

"The fact that the president has endorsed him [Tuberville] really makes him strong," Hooper said. "People just did not appreciate that Jeff Sessions stepped aside and recused himself. There's a lot of people here that just did not like that, and they're upset about that, and they've dug in, and they're for Tommy for that reason."

David Hughes, a political science professor at Auburn University at Montgomery who is director of the UAM Poll initiative, said his research suggests that Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, a move Trump never forgave him for, "left a sour taste with Republican voters that they aren't quite ready to get over."

"Sessions knows that that's his biggest vulnerability, and he's tried consistently in his advertisements and out on the campaign trail to redefine the narrative that he was just doing his duty," Hughes said, adding that that is hard to do when the president is constantly "fanning the flames."

But Trump's endorsement of Tuberville and his constant ridiculing of Sessions aren't the whole picture. Alabamians have a history of bucking party leaders, most recently in 2017, when Republicans chose Roy Moore over Luther Strange, whom Trump had endorsed, to replace Sessions in the Senate. Moore ultimately lost to Jones in an upset win for Democrats.

Political strategists and party leaders say the power of Southeastern Conference football and the appeal of a political outsider can't be overstated in Alabama.

Tuberville, 65, an Arkansas native who has never held elected office, was head coach at Auburn for more than 10 seasons, leading it to six straight victories over the University of Alabama's Crimson Tide (the fiercest rivalry in the SEC, if not all of college football) and overseeing an undefeated season in 2004.

"He has got great name recognition across the state," Hughes said. "People remember him fondly from a time when Auburn football was successful, and people in the South really do take SEC football seriously."

Sessions has tried to criticize Tuberville as being ill-prepared for Washington, saying at a recent campaign event that Tuberville "is not ready to take on the powerful forces in Washington that I have had to battle for many, many years."

But many say Sessions' criticism has fallen flat.

"The outsider is now who has the upper hand in every race these days," Mowery said. "It's hard to turn that into a negative in 2020 Republican primaries."

Tuberville himself doesn't come without baggage.

He has been criticized for his involvement in a fraud scandal a little more than a decade ago. His business partner was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while Tuberville entered a private settlement.

Some have also raised issues with reports that Tuberville suspended an Auburn football player initially charged with statutory rape for only one game, drawing unflattering parallels to Moore, who became the first Alabama Republican to lose to a Democrat in decades following reports that he had a long history of sexual misconduct toward teenage girls.

Either Republican candidate, however, will be a significant favorite in November. "Either way you slice it," Hughes said, "it's looking like it's going to be an uphill slog for Jones."

Excerpt from:

Jeff Sessions says he's fine with Donald Trump. Is that enough for Alabamians? - NBC News

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany was asked Monday to explain why President Donald Trump retweeted former game show host Chuck Woolerys claim that everyone is lying about the coronavirus, including the Centers for Disease Control, as a way to keep the economy coming back before the election.

A reporter asked McEnany, The president retweeted something this morning saying that the CDC is lying about the coronavirus in order to hurt his chances of getting re-elected. Does the president believe that the CDC is lying about COVID-19?

McEnany tried to explain what the intent of Trumps retweet was blaming his displeasure on CDC leaks and some rogue individuals.

The president, with his intent in that retweet, expresses displeasure with the CDC, some rogue individuals leaking guidelines prematurely, she said. You had a 63-page plan that was leaked prematurely. He believes that that misleads the American public when there are planning materials released that are not in their fullest form and their best form. So thats what he was getting at.

Related StoryMary Trump Book Review: In The Chaos Of Donald Trump's Presidency, Will His Niece's Tell-All Matter?

Woolerys tweet, though, was a sweeping statement that doesnt mention anything about leaks. It suggested that the CDC, media, Democrats and our doctors are lying about the coronavirus.

In his tweet, Woolery wrote: The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19. Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust. I think its all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. Im sick of it.

The tweet didnt specify what the lies are, but in a later tweet, Woolery wrote: There is so much evidence, yes scientific evidence, that schools should open this fall. Its worldwide and its overwhelming. BUT NO.

L.A. Schools Rule Out In-Person Instruction To Begin 2020-21 Academic Year

Woolery, the original host of Wheel of Fortune who went on to host the dating show Love Connection and other game shows, is one of Trumps ardent celebrity defenders on Twitter.

The presidents retweet came after reports that the White House was sending out a memo to reporters pointing out times when they claim that Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the coronavirus task force and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been wrong about COVID-19.

News outlets described the memo as something akin to political opposition research, and led to speculation that Fauci could be on the outs. He has been largely absent from TV appearances but has given print and other interviews, including one last week in which he disputed the notion that the U.S. is doing great in fighting the coronavirus.

But McEnany said that the memo was sent out because we were asked a very specific question by the Washington Post, and that question was President Trump noted that Dr. Fauci had made some mistakes, and we provided a direct answer to what was a direct question.

Later, Trump said he has a very good relationship with Fauci, adding: I find him to be a very nice person. I dont always agree with him.

Andrew Bates, director of rapid response for Joe Bidens presidential campaign said, Infections in the United States have skyrocketed, surpassing every other country in the world by far, specifically because of Trumps refusal to listen to science. The presidents disgusting attempt to pass the buck by blaming the top infectious disease expert in the country whose advice he repeatedly ignored and Joe Biden consistently implored him to take is yet another horrible and revealing failure of leadership as the tragic death toll continues to needlessly grow.

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Thats What He Was Getting At: White House Tries To Explain Why Donald Trump Retweeted Chuck Woolerys Claim That Everyone Is Lying About Coronavirus -...

Melinda Henneberger, Opinion columnist Published 3:15 a.m. ET July 14, 2020 | Updated 6:51 a.m. ET July 14, 2020

President Trump's niece, Mary Trump, will release her tell-all-book on July 14. Here are some of the most notable excerpts. Wochit

Mary L. Trump's new book gives the history of the Trump family and insight into why her uncle, Donald Trump, is the way he is.

Mary L. Trump, the presidents only niece, has almost pulled off the impossible in her new tell-all bookabout her terrible family: She has almost turned Donald J. Trump into a sympathetic figure.

In Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the Worlds Most Dangerous Man, he is among the many victims of his abusive father, Fred Trump, who ran the family like it was a reality TV show on which only the most gratuitously cruel contestant gets to eat.

As for maternal affection, that didnt happen, either; at one point, Donalds mother Mary admits to the author that she was relieved when she could finally ship his bratty self off to military school.

Since nearly every character in this extensive catalog of bad behavior is a miserable and hobbled human, daddys thoroughly dishonest favorite, whose only real skill was getting his made up self-praise printed as fact in the New York tabloids, does not even rate as the worst of his clan.

There are a few exceptions: The authors sad, gentle, alcoholic father, who is treated like Harry Potter in his own home, the authors brother and mother, who are likewise routinely victimized, and Marla Maples, Trumps second wife, who only has a cameo in the book, but stands out as the only person outside the authors immediate family who is not completely bloodless: She was just two years older than I was and about as different from Ivana as a human being could be. Marla was down to earth and soft spoken where Ivana was all flash, arrogance and spite.

New book by Mary Trump.(Photo: Simon & Schuster, left, and Peter Serling/Simon & Schuster via AP)

Essentially, the Trumps were the Borgia familywithout the art, constantly plotting, cheating and, in Donalds case, getting bailed out and bankrolled by Fred, who wasdelighted byhis second sons flashy, phony narrative that he was willing to prop him up indefinitely.

Trump: I'm the president, I can't be subpoenaed or investigated. Supreme Court: Uh, no.

If youve ever wondered, as most of us have, how our 45th president became someone who seems to enjoy caging children and mocking disabilities, who doesnt understand sacrifice or any noble impulse, who doesnt know what you say to someone whos grieving and who envies dictators their reeducation camps, its all here, as told by a witness with an eye for detail and a PhD in psychology.

But the result isnt, as the author imagines, to take down Dangerous Donald. Instead, her account humanizes him: He doesnt know what love is because his parents didnt, either. He has to hear constant praise because he knows hes spent his whole life faking it.

There are no true surprises in this depressing book.

(What, Donald Trump really paid someone to take his SAT test? No way.He and his dad really enjoyed a running commentary on ugly women? Youre kidding.Ivana was so cheap that she re-gifted goody baskets on Christmas, but even then plucked out the good stuff first? Shocker)

Maybe the best single paragraph about what being Trump has meant to the author is this one, about the night she spent in Donald Trump's D.C. hotel before an awkward family dinner at the White House in 2017: My room was also tasteful. But my name was plastered everywhere, on everything: TRUMP shampoo, TRUMP conditioner, TRUMP slippers, TRUMP shower cap, TRUMP shoe polish, TRUMP sewing kit, and TRUMP bathrobe. I opened the refrigerator, grabbed a split of TRUMP white wine, andpoured it down my Trump throat so it could course through my Trump bloodstreamand hit the pleasure center of my Trump brain."

Resolve after appalling Roger Stone commutation: Don't let Donald Trump break us, America.

In the end, her narrative is almost unbelievably all-one-way; even Donald's mother, her Gam, is fine with seeing the author, her namesake, cheated of her inheritance, though Mary was the only one who'd bothered to sit with her after her husband Fred died. So you do have to wonder how much of this tidiness has been colored by her justifiable bitterness.

But if you somehow still think of Donald J. Trump as a whiz in business, or even a decent deal-maker, this book could be instructive.

And if you think your relatives are toxic, well, step aside for the Trumps.

Melinda Henneberger is an editorial writer and columnist for The Kansas City Star and a member of the USA TODAY Board of Contributors. Follow her onTwitter:@MelindaKCMO

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Mary L. Trump's new book almost turns The Donald into a sympathetic figure - USA TODAY

President Donald Trump retweeted a post on Monday from former game show host Chuck Woolery claiming everyone is lying about COVID-19 including the administrations own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19. Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most that we are told to trust. I think its all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. Im sick of it, tweeted the one-time host of Love Connection and Wheel of Fortune. It was then retweeted by Trump.

The president also retweeted another Woolery claim: There is so much evidence, yes scientific evidence, that schools should open this fall. Its worldwide and its overwhelming. BUT NO.

So far, there have been more than 3.3 million cases of coronavirus in the U.S., resulting in more than 135,000 deaths.

New York reported no new deaths from the disease Monday, the first time since the pandemic hit that state.

On the flip side, Florida reported more than 12,343 new cases Monday, one day after its 15,283 new cases broke the daily record for any state since the pandemic began. Florida has tallied 282,435 cases.

Related content:

See original here:

President Donald Trump shares former game show host Chuck Woolery tweet that CDC is lying about Coronavirus - MassLive.com

The race for Texas' 23rd Congressional District, a perennial November battleground, is never without drama. But the Republican nominating battle is especially delivering this time thanks lately to dueling endorsements by two of the biggest GOP names that could possibly get involved.

As early voting got underway two weeks ago, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz shook up the runoff by endorsing conservative underdog Raul Reyes and then three days later, President Donald Trump backed national GOP favorite Tony Gonzales. The whirlwind week set off a wave of speculation about behind-the-scenes machinations and recriminations, while Democrats watched the GOP fracture with glee.

Cruz's endorsement in particular complicated Gonzales' closing pitch that the former Navy cryptologist is the best choice to unify the party and keep the seat red in November. But in an interview after Trump's endorsement, Gonzales maintained he is still the strongest candidate to do that, and the president's backing only reinforces it.

"We have a lot of momentum," Gonzales said, "and its going to take everybody if we're gonna hold this seat, and Tony Gonzales is the only one who can hold this seat."

In the runoff's final hours, Trump's campaign is making sure voters know who his choice is. On Monday, the campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter to Reyes, citing a "misleading" mailer from Reyes featuring the president's image.

"So there is no doubt, let us be absolutely clear about this: President Trump and the Trump Campaign unambiguously endorse Tony Gonzales," top Trump staffer Michael Glassner wrote in the letter.

Later Monday, Gonzales' campaign released a robocall from Trump telling voters, "Tony will work for you in Congress, and by working for you, he's working for me."

Reyes, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, said Friday he "still very much love[s]" Trump despite the snub.

"We think hes made this endorsement in error, but its happened and its out there," Reyes said during an online interview with the GOP activist Duke Machado. "People are just going to have to decide: Do you want an establishment guy whos gonna pay lip service to keeping Texas red, or the guy from Del Rio who understands what youre saying about the problems we have here?"

Gonzales and Reyes are vying for the Republican nomination to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes, who has endorsed Gonzales along with the top Republican leaders in the House. The seat is national Democrats' best pickup opportunity this fall in Texas, and they are bullish about their already selected nominee: Gina Ortiz Jones, who lost to Hurd two years ago by a razor-thin margin.

On the Republican side, the high-level endorsement drama added to a runoff that had already been bitter for weeks, with Reyes attacking Gonzales as a GOP establishment tool and Gonzales hitting Reyes as a risky bet in the general election. The better-funded Gonzales has been blasting away at Reyes on TV and in mailboxes, though he avoided direct criticism during the interview, saying the contrast between the two is one of coalition-building.

"I've been able to bring people together that otherwise would not be together," Gonzales said.

Gonzales has had Hurd's endorsement since early in the primary, and Reyes has hammered at it while arguing that Gonzales would continue the legacy of the moderate lawmaker who occasionally splits with his party and Trump. Reyes was already challenging Hurd in the primary before the incumbent announced last summer he would not seek reelection.

"You want Will Hurd 2.0? My opponent is your guy," Reyes told Machado.

Gonzales finished first in the nine-way March primary 5 percentage points ahead of Reyes and has had a decisive financial advantage since the start of the race, raising well over $1 million. On their pre-runoff campaign finance filings covering April 1 through June 24 Gonzales reported raising nearly three times as much as Reyes did and spending more than twice as much. He ended the period with just under $400,000 cash on hand to Reyes' $59,000.

They are both far behind Jones, who easily won her March primary and entered July with $3 million in the bank, according to campaign figures.

National Republican leaders had signaled some support for Gonzales in the primary but made it official weeks into the two-man race, with Gonzales announcing endorsements from the top two Republicans in the House, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Minority Whip Steve Scalise. But in an effort to show he was bringing the party together, Gonzales also secured and emphasized the support of people like Alma Arredondo-Lynch, the third-place primary finisher and a feisty Hurd critic. Like Reyes, she had also been running against Hurd prior to his retirement announcement.

Those had been some of the most notable endorsements in the runoff until the first week of early voting came around.

A few days before Cruz endorsed Reyes on June 30, the senator brought up the runoff at the end of an unrelated phone call with Trump, according to a person close to the senator who was granted anonymity to describe the private conversation. Cruz let Trump know he would be backing Reyes and told the president about comments that Gonzales made in late September saying he had not "fully developed a position" on the House's Trump impeachment inquiry, which was in its early stages then.

Gonzales' interest in a Trump endorsement was not a secret he had said during the primary that he hoped to eventually earn the president's support. And it looked like the stars were aligning on the first day of early voting, when Gonzales wrote on Facebook that he would have "HUGE news to share later this week."

A day later, Cruz made the Reyes endorsement official, saying the district "deserves strong conservative representation." He also tapped funds in his leadership political action committee to launch a six-figure TV ad buy for Reyes that vowed he would be a strong Trump ally if elected. A Hurd-led super PAC that had boosted Gonzales in the primary, the Future Leaders Fund, had already announced plans to spend six figures on TV in the runoff.

The all-in endorsement was a somewhat curious play by Cruz, who has built a reputation for going against party leaders' preferences but has largely stayed out of intraparty contests down-ballot this cycle in Texas. The only other competitive House nominating contest that Cruz waded into this year in Texas was the primary for the district where he lives in Houston and that was to back favorite Wesley Hunt, the top national GOP recruit challenging Rep. Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, D-Houston.

Cruz's Reyes endorsement was not entirely a mystery, though. If Reyes prevails Tuesday, it would set up a high-stakes test study of Cruz's longtime political theory that Republicans win when they run unapologetic conservatives who energize the base versus more moderate candidates who, in Cruz's view, fruitlessly chase independent voters.

Gonzales' campaign had a simpler explanation for Cruz's intervention, pointing out that Reyes also employs the main political consulting firm that works with Cruz, Axiom Strategies. Gonzales spokesperson Matt Mackowiak called Cruz's move a "catastrophic endorsement of a candidate who cannot win" in November and "strategically indefensible."

Two days after Cruz waded in, word of his conversation with Trump got out in a New York Times story, which noted it was "now unclear what the president will do."

Within 24 hours, Trump answered the question, tweeting his endorsement of Gonzales.

Gonzales and his team celebrated and moved quickly to get the endorsement in front of voters, cutting a new ad highlighting it.

On Friday, Reyes offered a theory for why Trump got involved.

"My best guess is Kevin McCarthy pulled in there and said, 'We've got to get this guy out of the fire,'" Reyes said, suggesting the House minority leader is less interested in helping the 23rd District than lining up candidates who would support him for speaker if they win in November.

McCarthy has not shied away from the runoff in the homestretch, starring in a robocall Wednesday that promoted Gonzales as "the only candidate who can win Texas 23." The call did not mention Reyes, but McCarthy said that if Gonzales loses Tuesday, "we'll be handing Nancy Pelosi a seat that Republicans once held."

As for Cruz, he reiterated his support for Reyes earlier Wednesday, including him in a new effort to raise over $100,000 each for 25 conservative candidates this cycle. The fundraising pledge is only for the general election. And on the eve of the runoff, Cruz is holding a tele-town hall with Reyes.

Things were already bitter and personal between the runoff candidates before Cruz and Trump got involved.

Gonzales has singled out the Reyes Cartel for attacking him, his campaign workers and even my own mother. Those tensions appear to go back to the primary, when Gonzales mom filed a police report accusing a Reyes supporter of surveilling her son.

One of Reyes top hits on Gonzales is that he is too cozy with the League of United Latin American Citizens, which Reyes has called an anti-Trump open borders group. Gonzales has said Reyes is making hay out of a "one-time donation that went to help underprivileged children."

Gonzales has seized on the circumstances of Reyes leaving an administrative job with Southwest Texas Junior College in 2017. A Gonzales TV ad claims Reyes was fired from the job, though Reyes says he resigned, and a spokesperson for the school confirmed that to The Texas Tribune last week.

Amid the back-and-forth Tuesday, Reyes issued a news release denouncing Gonzales losing, lying, liberal LULAC-loving campaign. And Reyes said Friday that a post-runoff reconciliation would be difficult.

"We intend to win, Duke, but if he does win, he's gonna wanna try and heal some things you cant come back from that," Reyes told the online interviewer, adding that there were "integrity issues" at play.

Even before Trump endorsed Gonzales, there was tension around the president's specter in the runoff. After Reyes sent out a mailer featuring images of Trump superimposed alongside him, a Trump campaign adviser, Katrina Pierson, took to Twitter to call the piece "misleading, and possibly unethical" and remind voters that the president had not endorsed in the runoff at that point.

The jockeying for Trump's support has been a boon to Democrats, who see the president as a general-election liability in the district, which he lost by 4 percentage points in 2016. Republicans figure Democrats will link whomever they nominate to Trump regardless of his endorsement and Jones has done little to disprove their suspicions.

"No matter who wins the Republican runoff for TX-23, the general election will be the same," she wrote in a fundraising email Thursday. "I'll face off against a Trump puppet who will support the Trump administration's extreme agenda regardless of how much it harms Texas families."

Read more from the original source:

Donald Trump, Ted Cruz back opposing candidates in TX-23 runoff - The Texas Tribune

WASHINGTON - After months of insisting that the Republican National Convention go off as scheduled despite the pandemic, President Donald Trump is slowly coming to accept that the late August event will not be the four-night infomercial for his reelection that he had anticipated.

After a venue change, spiking coronavirus cases and a sharp recession, Trump aides and allies are increasingly questioning whether it's worth the trouble, and some are advocating that the convention be scrapped altogether. Conventions are meant to lay out a candidate's vision for the coming four years, not spark months of intrigue over the health and safety of attendees, they have argued.

Ultimately, the decision on whether to move forward will be Trump's alone.

Already the 2020 event has seen a venue change to more Trump-friendly territory in Jacksonville, Florida, from Charlotte, North Carolina and it has been drastically reduced in scope.

For technical reasons, the convention will be unable to formally adopt a new party platform. And what is normally a highlight of the convention the roll call of the states to renominate the president is set to be conducted through proxy votes in the original host city.

Still, Trump and his aides had pinned their hopes on creating the pageantry of a formal acceptance speech in Jacksonville, envisioning an arena of packed with supporters, without face masks. Outwardly, the White House and the RNC have said they're full-steam ahead with the revised plan.

"We're still moving forward with Jacksonville," White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said last week. "It'll be a safe event. It will be a good event."

But privately, concerns are mounting, and plans are being drawn up to further scale back the event or even shift it to entirely virtual. Officials who weeks ago had looked for the convention to be a celebration of the nation's vanquishing of the virus now see it as a potent symbol of the pandemic's persistence.

"There's a lot of people that want to do it. They want to be enthusiastic. But we can do that and we can do it safely," Donald Trump Jr. said. He told Fox News Channel's "Sunday Morning Futures" that "it's going to be an awesome event."

Jacksonville, whose mayor is a former Florida Republican Party chairman, issued a public mask order two weeks ago as virus cases in the area surged. That mandate is unlikely to be lifted before the convention. Also, Florida has limited facilities statewide to operating at 50% of capacity.

Organizers now plan to provide COVID-19 testing to all attendees daily, conduct frequent temperature checks and offer face coverings. Even so, Trump aides and allies fear that the entire spectacle will be overshadowed by attendee concerns and already heightened media scrutiny on the potential for the convention to be a "super-spreading" event.

Key decisions about the event, including precisely where or if Trump will appear, need to be made in the coming days to allow sufficient time for the build-out of the space.

Increasingly, aides are pushing Trump to move his acceptance speech outdoors to minimize the risk of virus transmission. But Trump has expressed reservations about an outdoor venue, believing it would lack the same atmosphere as a charged arena.

Despite the economic downturn, GOP officials insist they will have the financial resources needed to hold the convention. Vice President Mike Pence flew to Florida on Saturday to hold a fundraiser for the event.

"The convention is still a month and a half away, so there is time to adjust and make the most appropriate decisions regarding venue options and an array of health precautions that will allow us to have a safe and exciting event for all," RNC spokesman Mike Reed said. "We will continue to coordinate with local leadership in Jacksonville and in Florida in the weeks ahead."

The Trump team's worries were compounded after the president's embarrassing return to campaign rallies after a three-month hiatus caused by the virus.

The empty seats at his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, brought about a shakeup to Trump's campaign and renewed fears that the president would not be able to return to his signature campaign events in their traditional form before Election Day in November.

A Saturday rally in New Hampshire that was meant to be the president's second attempt at a return to campaign travel was called off on Friday, ostensibly because of weather concerns from then-Tropical Storm Fay. But aides acknowledged they also were worried about attracting enough of a crowd to fill the Portsmouth aircraft hangar.

The challenge in Jacksonville may be more daunting. The administration's top health officials have demurred when pressed on whether the convention could be held safely. Many among the party's leadership and the donors who attend conventions are older, putting them in a higher-risk category for the coronavirus.

Already a half-dozen Republican senators have indicated they won't attend the convention. Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has expressed reservations.

"I'm not going to go, and I'm not going to go because of the virus situation," 86-year-old Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said on a conference call with Iowa reporters last week.

Asked whether he'd want to limit the gathering if the state's coronavirus cases continue to rise, Trump replied that the decision "really depends on the timing."

"We're always looking at different things," Trump said during an interview on Gray Television's "Full Court Press with Greta Van Susteren."

"When we signed a few weeks ago, it looked good," the president continued. "And now, all of a sudden, it's spiking up a little bit. And that's going to go down. It really depends on the timing. Look, we're very flexible."

Read the original post:

It's Trump's Call on What the GOP Convention Will Look Like - Voice of America

WASHINGTON (AP) After months of insisting that the Republican National Convention go off as scheduled despite the pandemic, President Donald Trump is slowly coming to accept that the late August event will not be the four-night infomercial for his reelection that he had anticipated.

After a venue change, spiking coronavirus cases and a sharp recession, Trump aides and allies are increasingly questioning whether its worth the trouble, and some are advocating that the convention be scrapped altogether. Conventions are meant to lay out a candidates vision for the coming four years, not spark months of intrigue over the health and safety of attendees, they have argued.

Ultimately, the decision on whether to move forward will be Trumps alone.

Already the 2020 event has seen a venue change - to more Trump-friendly territory in Jacksonville, Florida, from Charlotte, North Carolina -- and it has been drastically reduced in scope. For technical reasons, the convention will be unable to formally adopt a new party platform. And what is normally a highlight of the convention the roll call of the states to renominate the president is set to be conducted through proxy votes in the original host city.

Still, Trump and his aides had pinned their hopes on creating the pageantry of a formal acceptance speech in Jacksonville, envisioning an arena of packed with supporters, without face masks. Outwardly, the White House and the RNC have said theyre full-steam ahead with the revised plan.

Were still moving forward with Jacksonville, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said last week. Itll be a safe event. It will be a good event.

But privately, concerns are mounting, and plans are being drawn up to further scale back the event or even shift it to entirely virtual. Officials who weeks ago had looked for the convention to be a celebration of the nations vanquishing of the virus now see it as a potent symbol of the pandemics persistence.

Theres a lot of people that want to do it. They want to be enthusiastic. But we can do that and we can do it safely, Donald Trump Jr. said. He told Fox News Channels Sunday Morning Futures that its going to be an awesome event.

Jacksonville, whose mayor is a former Florida Republican Party chairman, issued a public mask order two weeks ago as virus cases in the area surged. That mandate is unlikely to be lifted before the convention. Also, Florida has limited facilities statewide to operating at 50% of capacity.

Organizers now plan to provide COVID-19 testing to all attendees daily, conduct frequent temperature checks and offer face coverings. Even so, Trump aides and allies fear that the entire spectacle will be overshadowed by attendee concerns and already heightened media scrutiny on the potential for the convention to be a super-spreading event.

Key decisions about the event, including precisely where or if Trump will appear, need to be made in the coming days to allow sufficient time for the build-out of the space.

Increasingly, aides are pushing Trump to move his acceptance speech outdoors to minimize the risk of virus transmission. But Trump has expressed reservations about an outdoor venue, believing it would lack the same atmosphere as a charged arena.

Despite the economic downturn, GOP officials insist they will have the financial resources needed to hold the convention. Vice President Mike Pence flew to Florida on Saturday to hold a fundraiser for the event.

The convention is still a month and a half away, so there is time to adjust and make the most appropriate decisions regarding venue options and an array of health precautions that will allow us to have a safe and exciting event for all, RNC spokesman Mike Reed said. We will continue to coordinate with local leadership in Jacksonville and in Florida in the weeks ahead.

The Trump teams worries were compounded after the presidents embarrassing return to campaign rallies after a three-month hiatus caused by the virus. The empty seats at his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, brought about a shakeup to Trumps campaign and renewed fears that the president would not be able to return to his signature campaign events in their traditional form before Election Day in November.

A Saturday rally in New Hampshire that was meant to be the presidents second attempt at a return to campaign travel was called off on Friday, ostensibly because of weather concerns from then-Tropical Storm Fay. But aides acknowledged they also were worried about attracting enough of a crowd to fill the Portsmouth aircraft hangar.

The challenge in Jacksonville may be more daunting. The administrations top health officials have demurred when pressed on whether the convention could be held safely. Many among the partys leadership and the donors who attend conventions are older, putting them in a higher-risk category for the coronavirus.

Already a half-dozen Republican senators have indicated they wont attend the convention. Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has expressed reservations.

Im not going to go, and Im not going to go because of the virus situation, 86-year-old Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said on a conference call with Iowa reporters last week.

Asked whether hed want to limit the gathering if the states coronavirus cases continue to rise, Trump replied that the decision really depends on the timing.

Were always looking at different things, Trump said during an interview on Gray Televisions Full Court Press with Greta Van Susteren.

When we signed a few weeks ago, it looked good, the president continued. And now, all of a sudden, its spiking up a little bit. And thats going to go down. It really depends on the timing. Look, were very flexible.

___

Associated Press writer Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.

Go here to see the original:

It's Trump's call on what the GOP convention will look like - The Associated Press

From Chinas standpoint, Trump is not so much tougher as he is different. Previous presidents tried to pressure China within the rules of the current global order; Trump prefers to act outside of that system. For instance, his predecessors turned to the World Trade Organization to challenge Chinas unfair trade practices, filing 21 complaints between 2004 and early 2017 (with a strong record of success). The Trump administration, openly disparaging of the WTO, has submitted only two complaints, one of which was a response to Chinas retaliation against Trumps own tariffs. Whereas previous presidents have sought to win over other powers, notably in Europe and East Asia, with similar interests in forcing China to play by the rules, this White House has alienated much of the European Union by threatening hefty tariffs, criticized NATO, and launched personal attacks on some of the Wests most influential leaders. In Asia, meanwhile, he withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a pact aimed at solidifying American ties to its allies.

In that sense, a president with a more normal American foreign policyin which Washington works closely with its friends and stands behind international norms and institutionsisnt good for China. The Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, has already vowed to forge a coalition of countries to isolate and confront China. When we join together with fellow democracies, our strength more than doubles, Biden argued. China cant afford to ignore more than half the global economy. That, and not Trump, is the stuff of Chinese nightmares.

Whoever wins in November, policy toward China isnt likely to soften. A near consensus has formed in Washington, across the political aisle, that China is a strategic threat to the U.S., and there may be no way to turn back the clock to the more halcyon days of patient American engagement. There are far fewer doves left, even on the left, Poling, of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, said. A Democrat who comes in now is not going to be an Obama Democrat when it comes to China. That is no longer politically possible.

Claremont McKennas Pei speculated that some in Beijing may still prefer a Biden victory, if only hoping for a pause in tensions as the Democrats, at least at first, focus on their domestic priorities. But the Chinese, he said, might also come to regret it. The Trump people believe that the U.S. alone can deal China a fatal blow, Pei said. Democrats would likely reach out to allies to form a much more united front against China. If the Democrats succeed, China would be in a much more difficult situation in the long run.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

Excerpt from:

Why China Wants Donald Trump to Win - The Atlantic

WASHINGTON After months of insisting that the Republican National Convention go off as scheduled despite the pandemic, President Donald Trump is slowly coming to accept that the late August event will not be the four-night infomercial for his reelection that he had anticipated.

After a venue change, spiking coronavirus cases and a sharp recession, Trump aides and allies are increasingly questioning whether it's worth the trouble, and some are advocating that the convention be scrapped altogether. Conventions are meant to lay out a candidate's vision for the coming four years, not spark months of intrigue over the health and safety of attendees, they have argued.

Ultimately, the decision on whether to move forward will be Trump's alone.

Already the 2020 event has seen a venue change to more Trump-friendly territory in Jacksonville, Florida, from Charlotte, North Carolina and it has been drastically reduced in scope. For technical reasons, the convention will be unable to formally adopt a new party platform. And what is normally a highlight of the convention the roll call of the states to renominate the president is set to be conducted through proxy votes in the original host city.

Still, Trump and his aides had pinned their hopes on creating the pageantry of a formal acceptance speech in Jacksonville, envisioning an arena of packed with supporters, without face masks. Outwardly, the White House and the RNC have said they're full-steam ahead with the revised plan.

"We're still moving forward with Jacksonville," White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said last week. "It'll be a safe event. It will be a good event."

But privately, concerns are mounting, and plans are being drawn up to further scale back the event or even shift it to entirely virtual. Officials who weeks ago had looked for the convention to be a celebration of the nation's vanquishing of the virus now see it as a potent symbol of the pandemic's persistence.

"I think it's going to be, obviously, a little different than what would be typical of other conventions, given the circumstance," Donald Trump Jr. told reporters last week. "And I think that's totally reasonable and understandable."

Jacksonville, whose mayor is a former Florida Republican Party chairman, issued a public mask order two weeks ago as virus cases in the area surged. That mandate is unlikely to be lifted before the convention. Also, Florida has limited facilities statewide to operating at 50% of capacity.

Organizers now plan to provide COVID-19 testing to all attendees daily, conduct frequent temperature checks and offer face coverings. Even so, Trump aides and allies fear that the entire spectacle will be overshadowed by attendee concerns and already heightened media scrutiny on the potential for the convention to be a "super-spreading" event.

Key decisions about the event, including precisely where or if Trump will appear, need to be made in the coming days to allow sufficient time for the build-out of the space.

Increasingly, aides are pushing Trump to move his acceptance speech outdoors to minimize the risk of virus transmission. But Trump has expressed reservations about an outdoor venue, believing it would lack the same atmosphere as a charged arena.

Despite the economic downturn, GOP officials insist they will have the financial resources needed to hold the convention. Vice President Mike Pence flew to Florida on Saturday to hold a fundraiser for the event.

"The convention is still a month and a half away, so there is time to adjust and make the most appropriate decisions regarding venue options and an array of health precautions that will allow us to have a safe and exciting event for all," RNC spokesman Mike Reed said. "We will continue to coordinate with local leadership in Jacksonville and in Florida in the weeks ahead."

The Trump team's worries were compounded after the president's embarrassing return to campaign rallies after a three-month hiatus caused by the virus. The empty seats at his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, brought about a shakeup to Trump's campaign and renewed fears that the president would not be able to return to his signature campaign events in their traditional form before Election Day in November.

A Saturday rally in New Hampshire that was meant to be the president's second attempt at a return to campaign travel was called off on Friday, ostensibly because of weather concerns from then-Tropical Storm Fay. But aides acknowledged they also were worried about attracting enough of a crowd to fill the Portsmouth aircraft hangar.

The challenge in Jacksonville may be more daunting. The administration's top health officials have demurred when pressed on whether the convention could be held safely. Many among the party's leadership and the donors who attend conventions are older, putting them in a higher-risk category for the coronavirus.

Already a half-dozen Republican senators have indicated they won't attend the convention. Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has expressed reservations.

"I'm not going to go, and I'm not going to go because of the virus situation," 86-year-old Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said on a conference call with Iowa reporters last week.

Asked whether he'd want to limit the gathering if the state's coronavirus cases continue to rise, Trump replied that the decision "really depends on the timing."

"We're always looking at different things," Trump said during an interview on Gray Television's "Full Court Press with Greta Van Susteren."

"When we signed a few weeks ago, it looked good," the president continued. "And now, all of a sudden, it's spiking up a little bit. And that's going to go down. It really depends on the timing. Look, we're very flexible."

- Zeke Miller and Scott Bauer

See the rest here:

Trump slowly accepting that convention wont be four-night infomercial he wants - Tampa Bay Times

Nearly a week has passed since President Donald Trump demanded an apology from NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace following last month's FBI investigation into a possible hate crime inside a garage at Talladega Superspeedway. Trump called the situation a "hoax" after the FBI concluded a rope-pull that was tied like a noose inside Wallace's garage was coincidental and had been there since last year.

"Has Bubba Wallace apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX? That & Flag decision has caused lowest ratings EVER," Trump tweeted.

Wallace appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" this week and told guest-host Anthony Anderson he was initially shocked that the Commander in Chief would be worrying about auto-racing matters. Wallace previously posted a note on his social media pages saying some people "are taught to hate" in response to Trump.

When I first read it, I was like, Man, theres so much more things that are going on in the world that I feel like he should be worried about. But its hard to get people to understand, especially when the facts are delivered on the table and theyve been there for two weeks now," Wallace said. "So to be late to the party is one thing and to be wrong on the factual information is another. But all in all, he did get one thing right in his tweet, though.

"The great officials that continue to stand behind me, NASCAR drivers and officials have continued to stand behind me through it all. He got that part right. Its a great sport that Im proud to be a part of.

Wallace said last month he's thankful the FBI determined he wasn't the target of a hate crime prior to a Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, but wants answers as to why a garage pull was tied like a noose at the racetrack. Wallace said he doesn't understand the reasoning behind the styled-pull, which had been at the garage stall for at least a year, as determined by the FBI's investigation.

It was a noose, Wallace said. Whoever had the time to create that and tie it up like that ... the (FBI) was skeptical about it. When the FBI says those types of things and I told them that I told my team members, Are we sure this isnt something were taking out of context?

And the FBI backed my team up and reiterated that if you were to see this at this time, youd stand with your team on why they were so alert. It is what it is.

Read the original:

Bubba Wallace on Donald Trump: 'He did get one thing right' - 247Sports

Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children, Donald Trump said in his pre-Independence Day rally in front of Mount Rushmore. He reprised the same themes on the White House lawn the following day. In the midst of a national catharsis on race and social justice, in front of a monument to great American leaders, and then on the lawn of the iconic symbol of American leadership, Trump chose a dog whistle message to stoke the us vs. them that has become his stock in trade.

It wasnt a new message, just new venues. At his last rally in Tulsa, Trump used similar rhetoricThey want to demolish our heritageto describe the ongoing debate over removing statues to Confederate figures. This time he doubled down. In the first quote above, he made four specific assertions that he attributed to a left-wing cultural revolution. Lets look at each of those claims, especially as they relate to the matter that continues to haunt the nation: the symbolism of Confederate statues and the naming of military bases for Confederate figures.

Wipe out our history. The statues of Confederate soldiers may be part of our history, but not in the way Donald Trump sees that history. These men were traitors, and their celebration is a reminder to Black Americans that the oppression for which they fought is still alive.

A few years ago, I was making a presentation in a former slaveholding state based on my book Leadership Lessons of the Civil War. When I referred to those who fought for the Confederacy as traitors, you could feel the air being sucked from the room. Afterward, some who had been in the audience confronted me over the statement.

But the judgment is unassailable. To take up arms against your country is a traitorous act. Erecting statues is just a way to obfuscate that reality while celebrating what caused it. In a similar manner, naming American military bases for generals who fought against America helps keep that traitorous tradition alive.

Defame our heroes. Donald Trumps least favorite word, it would seem, is loser. He frequently weaponizes it against those with whom he disagrees. It is particularly strange, therefore, that the heroes he seeks to aggrandize are the losers of the Civil War.

The veneration of those who led the insurrection we call the Civil War is the exception to the old rule that history is written by the winners. And that was exactly why the statues were erected: to rewrite that history and send a message that the cause that drove the treason continued.

You do not find statues of Erwin Rommel in Germany. On the battlefield, he was a strategic genius on par with Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas Stonewall Jackson (whom he studied). Recognizing the rotten core of Nazism, Rommel participated in the attempted assassination of Hitler (which cost him his life). But statues are not erected to celebrate national shames. Even if the individual may have been a genius, using that genius for the wrong purpose is nothing to memorialize.

Erase our values. The values celebrated by the memorials whose loss Trump mourns are not those of bravery or strategic brilliance, but of continuing oppression. According to the American Historical Association, the Confederate monuments erected in the Jim Crow era of the late 19th and early 20th century were part and parcel of the initiation of legally mandated segregation and widespread disenfranchisement across the South. The monuments were symbols of white supremacy whose purpose was intimidation, a reminder that the so-called Lost Cause was not over and a reiteration of the racial oppression that it was all about.

The Civil War wasnt about slavery, the refrain of Lost Cause supporters goes, it was about states rights. That state right was the perpetuation of human bondage.

Indoctrinate our children. I have written two books about the Civil War. One was about the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, the other about the battlefield leaders on both sides. Without a doubt, until President Lincoln finally found the general he deserved in Ulysses S. Grant, the South had the best battlefield leaders. Their battlefield behavior was often brilliant. The cause for which they fought, however, was despicable.

So, how do we rationalize that contradiction? It is the nuance of this conversation that our children need to understand. The purpose of history is to tell the story of previous decisionsincluding their imperfectionsin order to inform our lives today. The tactical skills of the generals on the battlefield is worthy of study. The decision that put them on that battlefield, however, forever stains their memory.

It is historys relevance to today that must be understood. History is the story of how humans, when confronted with challenge, acted imperfectly. It is precisely this multifaceted and imperfect history that our children should learn. We owe the next generation an appreciation of what it means for ordinary citizens to rise to hero statusas well as how to define hero status.

It was particularly telling that on his way to Mount Rushmore, Donald Trump helicoptered over Native American demonstrators. The Original Americans were protesting what was happening on their sacred land.

Had Trump truly cared about history as something more than a campaign stunt, there was another message he could have delivered. It could have been an inclusive message. It could have been a message to challenge us, rather than divide us. It could have been the story of Robert E. Lees surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865.

Accompanying General Grant was his aide, Lt. Col. Ely S. Parker, who was a Seneca Indian. When Lee entered the McLean house for the surrender, he saw Parker and commented, I am glad to see one real American here. Lt. Col. Parker responded, We are all Americans. It is a message that is as valid today as it was then, but it is lost on a man who wants to use history to divide us.

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Donald Trump fakes history in order to divide us - Brookings Institution

On Friday, Donald Trump signed an executive order, On Building and Rebuilding Monuments to American Heroes. It is a snapshot of his view of the world and his place in it, but unlike some of his other executive orders, it isnt explicitly cruel and vengeful, or empty and threatening; it is, rather, the creation of a theme park. At the moment, he feels that he is losing his grasp on Trumps America, so he wants to build it in stone and fence it off, perhaps so that he can live there when all is lost.

Americans, in the largest protest movement in this countrys history, have been toppling monuments. When nations topple monuments, they often place them in parksor, more often, in unmarked and unlandscaped spaces that are gradually reconfigured as parks after they are suddenly decorated with statuary. New Delhi didnt start toppling its colonial monuments until a decade after independence; in the nineteen-sixties, a number of British nobles likenesses were transported to a vast, empty space that became known as the graveyard of statues. There they lay for another thirty years, decaying, as birds defecated on them and visitors marked them up. In the nineteen-nineties, local authorities decided to transform the space into a park designed to celebrate Indias triumph over its fallen rulers. The plan never came to fruition, though, and the park is now unfinished and overgrown, a ruin.

In Moscow, when a hard-line coup failed in August, 1991, bringing down the Soviet state, monuments to a variety of Soviet leaders, from the founder of the secret police to the first education minister to Stalin himself, were toppledor, in the case of Stalin, dug up, for this particular monument had been buried in a sculptors yard for three decadesand hauled to what was then an empty lot opposite Gorky Park. Bolsheviks in bronze, granite, and plaster lay on the grass for a number of years. People jumped and climbed and drew all over them. As Russia began to grow nostalgic for its Soviet past, the lot transformed: the formerly fallen leaders were set upright, then cleaned of graffiti, then restored to their pedestals, and finally fenced off, viewable only from a distance, which made them seem grand again. By the time Vladimir Putin officially assumed the office of the Presidency for the third time, in 2012, the formerly empty space, which by then was called the Sculpture Park and charged admission, had become a theme park of Soviet glory.

Trump seems to want to leap over a process that took Russia twenty years and proceed directly to creating a theme park of American grandeur. On June 26th, he signed an executive order that painted demonstrators protesting Confederate and other monuments as a violent mob of Marxists intent on destroying American history itself. It directed the federal government to step in and prosecute people who damage monuments and to withhold federal funds from jurisdictions that permit the desecration of monuments, memorials, or statues. A week later came the executive order on building and rebuilding, which puts the story told in the first order in loftier words: My Administration will not abide an assault on our collective national memory. To preserve this memory, the order creates a task force charged with establishing a statuary park named the National Garden of American Heroes (National Garden).

The garden, which has a planned opening for before July 4, 2026, is intended to house statues of American heroes, some of whom are listed in the order: John Adams, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Daniel Boone, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Henry Clay, Davy Crockett, Frederick Douglass, Amelia Earhart, Benjamin Franklin, Billy Graham, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Douglas MacArthur, Dolley Madison, James Madison, Christa McAuliffe, Audie Murphy, George S. Patton, Jr., Ronald Reagan, Jackie Robinson, Betsy Ross, Antonin Scalia, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, George Washington, and Orville and Wilbur Wright. The list suggests a Trumpian view of what constitutes American greatness. The Presidency is represented by Washington, Adams, Madison, Jefferson, Lincolnand Reagan. The First Lady singled out for inclusion in the park is Dolley Madison. No F.D.R., no J.F.K., no Eleanor Roosevelt. The twentieth century is represented by two generals, a soldier, a pilot, an astronaut, the inventors of the airplane, a baseball player, a conservative Supreme Court Justice, two members of the clergy (Graham and King), and Reagan. There are no artists or scientists on this list. The only writer is Stowe, the author of Uncle Toms Cabin. This is America as Trump sees it: a skeletal, heroic history, with a lot of shooting, a lot of flying, and very little government. Excluded from this history entirely are Native Americans; this is made explicit in Section 7, which defines the term historically significant American as an American citizen or someone who lived prior to or during the American Revolution and were not American citizens, but who made substantive historical contributions to the discovery, development, or independence of the future United States. The proposed park, in other words, is one of settler-colonialist history.

The executive order also dictates aesthetics: All statues in the National Garden should be lifelike or realistic representations of the persons they depict, not abstract or modernist representations. This passage appears twice. It is as though Trump is stomping his foot in the order, to make it clear, once and for all, that he wants his past comfortable and easy to read. The author of the document really seems to hate the few existing American monuments that are modernist or abstract, such as the Wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. In the history that the National Garden will tell, there is no modern or contemporary art, and there are no social movements that such art may represent.

Earlier this year, the White House considered issuing an executive order that would have instituted a unified style for federal architecture, dictating that the classical architectural style shall be the preferred and default style. The American Institute of Architects, among others, objected, and the order appears to have been shelved. But, as Trump often does, he has returned with the same desire expressed in a different package. The aesthetic represents Trump well: classical architecture in the twenty-first century is always an imitation, an act of plagiarism performed artlessly, as when Melania Trump borrowed the words of a Michelle Obama speech, or when Inauguration bakers copied the design of Obamas cakeas though the Trumps just thought that this was what power looks like. Even the name of the executive order betrays this aspiration-free view of human achievement: building and rebuilding stand in parallel, as though they are in effect the same thing. The original and its hollow, mass-produced copy do look the same from a distance. The gold curtains that Trump hung in the Oval Office and the gilded cherubs that litter his apartment belong in the same category; we might call it kitsch, if we thought Trump capable of play or irony.

For all its hand-wringing and foot stomping, the executive order is also a gesture of retreat, or at least retrenchment. In the face of a changing history and a country in uprising, Trump wants to create a landa gardenin which he can walk among the statues of men whom he imagines to have been great. There would probably be a fence. This is a territorial cordoning off of history, which is what the entire Trumpian project has been.

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A Theme Park of Donald Trumps Dreams - The New Yorker

Washington While presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden vows to restore the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah and curtail oil and gas leasing on public lands, President Donald Trumps son says his dads efforts to open up access to federal tracts and fix up national parks is a better selling point for reelection.

The Democrats have been able to spin the Bears Ears notion as, Oh, my God, theyre getting rid of a national monument, Donald Trump Jr. said on a conference call Friday with regional news outlets.

It just couldnt be further from the truth, he continued. The Trump administration is getting rid of belt-and-suspenders-type regulations to allow people access to be able to enjoy these monuments and to be able to do it for everyone to enjoy their public lands.

So this administration has gone above and beyond opening up more access to public lands, I believe [more than] anyone since [President Teddy] Roosevelt, you know, when they started the whole public parks program.

The president's eldest son was answering a question by The Salt Lake Tribune about Biden's stance on Bears Ears but didn't mention Biden in doing so.

The presumptive Democratic nominee has previously announced that if elected his administration would protect Americas natural treasures by permanently protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other areas impacted by President Trumps attack on federal lands and waters, and establishing national parks and monuments that reflect Americas natural heritage, including reversing President Trumps proclamation on Bears Ears.

Biden said he'll reverse the changes to Bears Ears and also ban new oil and gas drilling on public lands and waters and increase royalties for existing mineral development.

The president's son said tossing out the Obama monument declaration allowed more access by the public to public lands.

This is a big issue for people in Utah as well as all of those out in the West, he said. The Trump administration has opened, as of Sept. 1, its going to be like 4.8 million new acres of public access that was previously inaccessible for sportsmen/women, for those who are, you know, recreational outdoorsman and women. So this administration has created access for Americans to their public lands.

Separately, Trump Jr. declined to weigh in on whether Utah Gov. Gary Herbert should mandate mask wearing amid a spike of coronavirus cases in the state.

Despite the cries of, you know, Donald Trump is a dictator, hes a dictator,' you know, hes let the states make these sort of decisions, the presidents son said. And so he trusts that those governors will make the right decision with the information on the ground. So if there is a spike in Utah, then maybe you know thats up to the governor to decide.

Excerpt from:

Donald Trump Jr. touts the shrinking of Utah's Bears Ears as opening land to public - Salt Lake Tribune

Jennifer Horn, former chair of the New Hampshire Republican party, helped co-found The Lincoln ... [+] Project.

In an op-ed published in the New Hampshire Union Leader, Republican mainstay Jennifer Horn painted a damning picture of Donald Trump.

She repeatedly slammed him as unpresidential, warning he was unable to stop himself from spouting outrageous comments and concluding that, as a country, We are looking for a commander in chief, someone who can be the leader of the free world, not a reality show character with an attitude.

Her words might seem especially damaging coming from someone inside the Republican Party, but perhaps more surprising than who wrote it, is when: 2011, almost a decade ago and more than 5 years before President Trump was elected.

I go back and re-read that op-ed sometimes and every single line, every single concern, has come to fruition, Horn said.

I essentially said, If the Republican Party takes this guy seriously, they deserve what they get.

Today, Horns words seem almost prescient. They certainly echo those of countless Democrats and some moderate members of the GOP, as President Trump gears up for an uphill reelection effort that shows him trailing presumptive Democratic nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden by double digits in multiple polls.

Now Horn, a former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party and Republican Congressional candidate, has cofounded The Lincoln Project, a PAC deadset on publicly condemning Trump's actions. Created in December 2019, the group consists of current and former Republicans working to prevent Trump from being re-elected - something Horn never thought she'd have to do when she entered politics 12 years ago.

It became clear there was no effort, or candidate campaign out there, that was getting any traction or would be at all effective in protecting America from a second term of Donald Trump, Horn said.

The day after the election, Republicans and Democrats will have plenty of philosophical and policy issues to continue to debate. But until that time comes, we have to put it aside. We have to come together. Its imperative. We must do this for the preservation of the republic.

Jennifer Horn and her family.

At 44, Horn, who was a stay-at-home mom, had a laundry list of accomplishments. She had a thriving newspaper column, a radio talk show, and she was involved in several nonprofit efforts.

But there was one thing the wife, mother of five and grandmother wasn't involved in: politics.

Then came 2008. Horn decided to run for congress in New Hampshire's 2nd Congressional District, becoming the first woman nominated by the Republican Party in the states 232-year history.

"I won the nomination. Barack Obama won the White House, and I won nothing," Horn said, laughing.

But running for office in New Hampshire, where Horn spent 18 years of her life and raised her family, opened the door to politics. She never looked back.

"Everything I have ever done in politics has been motivated, I would say, by the same thing that has motivated me in almost everything I have done, and that's being a mom," Horn said. "I know for some people that sounds hoaky, but that's it."

In 2013, Horn was elected as the chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, where she served for two terms, until January 2017. She also served as co-chair of the New Hampshire Log Cabin Republicans for two years and on the Log Cabin Republican National Board of Directors. She advocated for removing anti-LGBTQ language from the New Hampshire and National GOP platforms. Her goal was always to bring leadership and a clear, principled voice to the party and to preserve and protect American ideals for her children and grandchildren's future. She says, working in politics to her, is an "extension of parenting."

But in the year leading up to the election of Donald Trump, everything changed.

At the time, Horn was still chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, a position that requires neutrality through by-laws, during a primary election.

Jennifer Horn and Senator Marco Rubio.

"Repeatedly throughout that cycle, I was forced into this position of having to choose between defending Donald Trump or defending what I thought were the Republican principles of our party," Horn explained.

"Every time I defended the principles of our party. I defended John McCain; I defended the women. That didn't get me a lot of friends."

Horn recounted a moment during the 2016 election when one of "the top guys" in Trump's New Hampshire campaign approached her. He also happened to be a long-time friend of Horn's, someone she admired and who helped her during her campaigns. She said he wanted to talk about the incident involving Billy Bush, who was heard on an "Access Hollywood" tape laughing with the future President, as he bragged about groping women. He called her to ensure she wouldnt say anything publicly about the situation.

"I said, 'Of course I am going to say something. I've already said something.' He said, 'Why? Why do you have to do that? Our teams are working together so well now, and the election is almost over. Can't you just let it go?'

I think my exact words to him were, 'I promised myself a long time ago that I would never say or do anything I can't defend to my children. I can't be silent now.'"

Jennifer Horn and fellow Lincoln Project co-founders.

In 2019, as politicians and political leaders began planning for the 2020 U.S. presidential election, a group of current and former Republican leaders were making plans, too.

But they weren't focusing on how to help re-elect President Trump - they were working to create an initiative to take him down from the right side of the aisle.

Reed Galen, John Weaver, Rick Wilson, Steve Schmidt, all lifelong republicans and political strategists, began talking about what they could do to ensure Trump's defeat in 2020. Their experience within the party varied - some had worked for President George W. Bush, Senator John McCain, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. They were all on similar paths since the 2016 presidential election, committed to speaking out against Trump.

They decided to team up and recruit other Republican leaders to assist. Horn was one of the first people they reached out to, because of her party politics and understanding of what moves Republican voters from a state that consistently has a rough and tumble primary at the presidential level.

"Jennifer has a depth and breadth of experience, and she has taken on the president publicly as a party chair in a very important state like New Hampshire," Galen said.

"From our perspective, she is someone who has the courage to take on the president directly, when so many in the party, at this moment, have refused to do so."

When approached, Horn immediately jumped on board and became a cofounder of The Lincoln Project; she is also the only woman in the pack.

In only a few months, The Lincoln Project has gone from new-to-the-game PAC to social media juggernaut. Since it publicly launched and joined Twitter in December, it has garnered more than 1.2 million followers, an average of 170,000 a month. The founders cite President Trump as a clear and present danger to the American Constitution and Republic, describing him as a racist and narcissist who is destructive and dangerous to the country and world. They also denounce him as a Republican and say he doesn't understand or respect actual GOP ideals and principles.

The groups mission statement, plastered front and center on its website, is just as unambiguous and unapologetic.

Our many policy differences with national Democrats remain, it reads in part. However, the priority for all patriotic Americans must be a shared fidelity to the Constitution and a commitment to defeat those candidates who have abandoned their constitutional oaths, regardless of party.

It concludes, Electing Democrats who support the Constitution over Republicans who do not is a worthy effort.

On the night of June 20, President Trump boarded Air Force One and left Tulsa, Oklahoma, after fronting a rally largely considered to be a disappointment. Prior to the event, Trump boasted on social media that close to a million people registered to attend. The Tulsa Fire Department later put official attendance at around 6,200, less than a third of the arenas capacity of 19,000.

An ad from The Lincoln Project circulated less than 24 hours later mocking the president for the rallys turnout and equating it to his dwindling popularity. Entitled Shrinking, the 45-second video opens with a shot of a lone Trump supporter sitting in a sea of more than 120 empty seats in the BOK Center in Tulsa. As it ends, the ads female narrator addresses Trump directly while intercutting shots of yawning rallygoers and Trump appearing dejected as he steps off Air Force One. You talk a big game...and cant deliver, she says. Sad, weak, low energy. Just like your presidency. Just like you.

Two weeks later, the ad has close to 6 million views on Twitter alone.

The Lincoln Project is blanketing broadcast stations and social media with critical, oftentimes devastating ads like these, and doing so with remarkable turnaround speeds. Their digital efforts increased after COVID-19 derailed many of their plans to travel and be on the ground in states leading up to Election Day.

The close to 50 videos they've released undermine Trump and describe what they call his presidential failures. Horn says its all in an effort to convince Republicans and Independents who lean Republican to vote against President Trump in November. They measure their effectiveness in a variety of ways.

"We know we're effective when they [the President and his team] respond to us, she said.

The President is tweeting at us at one in the morning."

One such tweet from President Trump falsely accuses Horn of being thrown out of the New Hampshire Republican Party.

Horn says they know they've struck a chord when Trump is talking about the Lincoln Project's videos instead of campaigning.

One example she cites was an advertisement they did showing Trump making his commencement speech at West Point and accusing him of being unwell. The footage showed the President appearing to have trouble walking down a ramp and picking up a glass.

"What does the President do the next week when he is in Tulsa? He spends 25 minutes explaining his walk down the ramp," Horn said. And proving to the crowd he could lift a glass and drink out of it."

"So the President spent 25 minutes at his first campaign rally since the coronavirus restrictions were implemented, not talking about anything that would move voters to vote for him. I think we were effective, and I checked it off as a success."

The Trump Campaign did not respond to multiple requests for a comment.

The Lincoln Project also measures success by merely looking at Trump's approval numbers and loss of support from some of his base, from white working-class women to Evangelicals. The latest Pew Research Center national poll shows a disheartened American public and Trump trailing Biden on "most personal traits and major issues."

The poll also shows those who are satisfied with how things are going in America has plummeted from 31% in April to just 12% at the end of June.

It also states if the election were held today, 54% of registered voters say they would support Biden vs. 44% for Trump.

The Lincoln Project isnt just targeting President Trump.

Several ads have gone after GOP senators seen as too close to Trump, in battleground states like Arizona, Colorado and North Carolina - efforts that could prove fruitful for Democrats trying to take back senate control for the first time in years. Democratic candidates are either tied or leading in polls for several competitive senate races against Republican incumbents. (If Biden wins in November, Democrats need to flip three seats; if Trump wins, theyll need to flip four.)

"If you don't defeat the people who empowered him the last four years, then Trumpism continues," Horn said.

One such ad, bluntly called Martha McSally is a Trump Hack, accuses the Arizona senator of going full Trump and concludes by proclaiming, Youll be remembered as just another Trump hack, if youre remembered at all.

The group is also using their platform to show support for Democratic candidate Joe Biden, even going so far as to create a sub-project called "Republicans and Independents for Biden." Horn says she and her team are going to be hyper-focused in coordinating efforts to organize and persuade Republicans and right-leaning independents to vote on Election Day for the former vice president. She acknowledges it won't be easy for some to do.

"Part of what we do at The Lincoln Project is make it OK. We want to make sure the message is clear: you are not alone. There are millions of other Republicans and Independents just like you who are not going to vote for this guy in November," Horn said.

While Horn and her Lincoln Project counterparts encourage Biden voters, they want to make sure the public knows that clear policy and philosophical differences with Democrats remain.

"You want to make sure that there is a clear path in 2024 for a Republican presidential candidate who can run against Trump," Horn said.

"Because you know there will be plenty coming forward saying, 'I'm the continuation of Trump in America' and we want to make sure there is a voice there that says, We defeated him in 2020, let's make sure Trumpism is buried and gone."

Since The Lincoln Project began, the founders have heard from both Democratic and GOP politicians.

At first, Horn says, many Democrats didnt understand or trust The Lincoln Projects intentions, but that has quickly changed. She says she hears often how unhappy some Republican politicians are with their decision to seemingly turn against the party. Horn says they often tell her its her responsibility to protect the party. Horn disagrees.

"I need to protect the country. I need to protect the constitution. I need to make sure that when I am dead and gone and when my children are talking about me to my grandchildren, that they stand up and say mom did the right thing."

Some are going so far as to call Horn and The Lincoln Project Trump's toughest opponents, because of the influence they have as Republicans going against a Republican incumbent.

"I am a woman trying to take down Donald Trump. Yes!" said Horn.

"I never imagined I'd ever be a part of such an effort," Horn said. "But I never, for a moment imagined, that all of these people in my party who I had so much respect and affection for, would elect Donald Trump to the White House."

Horn is just as much of a Republican as she was when she first ran for office 12 years ago. After Barack Obama was elected in 2008, Horn spent eight years campaigning against him. She disagreed with his policies, and regardless of his intentions, she says, he missed the boat repeatedly.

But there is one moment from his presidency that stands out to her: when he spontaneously sang Amazing Grace at the eulogy for Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of nine African Americans killed in the Charleston Church shooting of 2015.

"That was an extraordinary moment where the President of the United States felt the pain of the American people and reacted in a decent, compassionate, comforting way that touched me as a leader of the opposition party."

"We must have presidents who can do that, whether they are from your party or not. If my party doesn't understand that anymore and can't produce that, this moment in time, then I have to support the other guy."

That's why she's voting for Biden this November, and even went so far as to resign from her GOP group, the Log Cabin Republicans, who endorsed Trump last summer.

"I'm voting for decency and constitutional leadership and for a return to checks and balances and separate but co-equal branches of government. I'm voting for a return to the constitutional institutions that have made America unique amongst all the countries in the world," Horn said.

"If you vote for Donald Trump, regardless of your reasons why, you are also voting for a man who is a racist, a narcissist who is destructive and dangerous to the country, and to the world, that future generations will live in. That's yours to make peace with."

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She Sounded The Alarm On Donald Trump A Decade Ago. Now, Shes A Cofounder Of The Lincoln Project. - Forbes

Media playback is unsupported on your device

US President Donald Trump has worn a mask in public for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

The president was visiting the Walter Reed military hospital outside Washington, where he met wounded soldiers and health care workers.

"I've never been against masks but I do believe they have a time and a place," he said as he left the White House.

He has previously said that he would not wear a mask and mocked Democratic rival Joe Biden for doing so.

But on Saturday he said: "I think when you're in a hospital, especially in that particular setting, where you're talking to a lot of soldiers and people that, in some cases, just got off the operating tables, I think it's a great thing to wear a mask."

The change of tone came as the US recorded 66,528 coronavirus cases on Saturday, a new daily record.

Speaking to Fox Business Network last week, Mr Trump said: "I'm all for masks."

He added that he "sort of liked" how he looked with one on, likening himself to the Lone Ranger, a fictional masked hero who with his Native American friend, Tonto, fought outlaws in the American Old West.

But when the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in April began recommending people wear masks or cloth coverings in public to help stop the spread of the virus, Mr Trump told reporters he would not follow the practice.

"I don't think I'm going to be doing it," he said back then. "Wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens - I just don't see it."

Some media reports have suggested aides have repeatedly asked the president to wear one in public.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal last month, Mr Trump suggested some people might wear masks to signal disapproval of him.

He also said he took issue with people touching their faces after taking their mask off.

"They put their finger on the mask, and they take them off, and then they start touching their eyes and touching their nose and their mouth. And then they don't know how they caught it?" he said.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

The US has seen another 66,528 infections in the past 24 hours, a record for one day, and a total of almost 135,000 deaths since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Louisiana has become the latest state to order that masks be worn in public.

Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards also ordered the closure of bars across Louisiana, and tightened restrictions on restaurants, which will no longer be able to serve customers inside. The measures come into effect on Monday.

State Republican lawmakers are expected to oppose the move.

"If you don't like the mask mandate, then don't like it while you wear your mask," Governor Edwards said. "If you want to be mad at me about it, then be mad at me about it."

Neighbouring Texas has recorded another rise of coronavirus infections, with a record 10,500 new cases recorded on Saturday.

The governor of South Carolina has issued an order banning sales of alcohol after 23:00 in bars and restaurants to try to stop the spread of the virus.

A court in Indiana has halted the execution of a convicted killer as the victim's relatives said they were worried about travelling during the pandemic to watch him die. Daniel Lee was set to be executed on Monday in what would have been the first federal execution in 17 years.

Read more:

Coronavirus: Donald Trump finally wears mask in public - BBC News

Mary Trumps tell-all will not make her uncles re-election bid any easier. The presidents late-night walk of shame is already a classic campaign moment. His nieces allegation that he paid someone else to take his college entrance exams resonates as true, because of his reported disdain for reading and capacity to inadvertently invent new words like swiffian.

Adding insult to injury, Maryanne Trump Barry, Trumps sister, appears to be the key source for this smorgasbord of dysfunction. She is a retired federal judge who left the bench with an ethics cloud over her head. Fittingly, as Mary Trump lacerates multiple sets of vital organs, her pen a stiletto, she thanks her aunt for all of the enlightening information.

It is score-settling time, Trump-style. Go big or go home. Few are spared.

Too Much and Never Enough doubles as mesmerizing beach reading and a memorable opposition research dump, in time for the party conventions. Think John Bolton-quality revelations, but about Trumps family. It is the book Michael Wolff, the author of Fire and Fury, likely wishes he had written but isnt kin so he couldnt. It is salacious, venomous and well-sourced.

Sadly, it is also a book born of tragedy and pain. The authors father, Fred Trump Jr, died in his early 40s. He drank hard, was jettisoned by his father and siblings, and treated as a cautionary tale. Mary Trump is angry, not self-pitying. Although she casts her book as a warning to the American public, it is 200-plus pages of revenge served with the benefit of time and distance. Yet the narrative remains compelling.

Fred Jr found joy in flying and serving his country. He was a member of the national guard and a TWA pilot. In most homes, that would be deemed an achievement. But the Trumps were not most folks. Fred Sr saw his oldest son as weak. His brother Donald humiliated him, his mother Mary stood by and watched. As for Fred Jrs military service, Trump pre found little value there. As for Donald, bone spurs were his path to avoid Vietnam.

When Fred Jr was dying, in 1981, the future president thought it an opportune time to go to the movies. Past became prelude. When Roy Cohn, Trumps friend and consigliere, was dying of Aids a decade later, Trump walked away again. A stunned Cohn reportedly remarked: Donald pisses ice water.

But it was the aftermath of Fred Srs death that put Mary Trump and the older generation on a collision course. Fred Jrs two children were cut out of Fred Srs will. Maryanne and her brothers did their best to thwart their claims to an inheritance.

Tensions spiraled, then subsided. The matter was settled, and the parties filed a stipulation in surrogates court. Ostensibly, the agreement barred disclosure regarding Fred Sr and his legacy. Maryanne was an executor of the estate. Ironically, she has emerged as her nieces muse. The judge leaked like a sieve.

According to Too Much and Never Enough, Trump and Cohn played a pivotal role in Maryannes elevation to the federal bench. At the time, she was only an assistant federal prosecutor, an usual launchpad to a federal judgeship. Strings were pulled. When Maryanne had the temerity to tell Trump his presidency was failing, her niece now writes, he reminded her that he made her. Like Fred Sr, Trump brooks no hint of disloyalty.

A New York Times investigation in the origins of Trumps wealth brought the past roaring back. Questions surrounding the family fortune abounded. Tax evasion appears as one possibility. After resisting overtures for assistance from Susanne Craig of the Times, Mary Trump began to cooperate. In the process, she came to doubt the rationale for her own settlement.

As for Aunt Maryannes role in the mess, Mary Trump lumps her in with the rest of them: They all knew where the bodies were buried because they buried them together.

This may be the first time a family member of a sitting president has publicly accused him of paying a surrogate to take the SATs a claim the alleged surrogates widow denies. Looking back, Trumps obsession with Barack Obamas college transcripts appears to have been a fusion of envy, projection and racism. As an institution of learning, Trump University was truly created in its namesakes image.

Amid all this, mockery is unavoidable. And as Mary Trump observes, the president hates to be mocked. Think of Stormy Daniels dishing about Toad and Mario-Kart an image best forgotten.

The author also stresses that Trumps prejudices mirrored his parents. Both Trump and his father were sued by Richard Nixons justice department, for housing discrimination. Mary Trump also contends that Fred Sr regarded Jew as a verb and was scandalized when the first Italian American family moved into the neighborhood. Trumps mother, she writes, derided Elton John as a little faggot. The author was in a same-sex relationship at the time.

Trumps nostalgia for all things Confederate approaches the organic. In his view, hoisting the Confederate battle flag is free speech but Colin Kaepernick taking a knee is blasphemy. As an election strategy, it doesnt seem to be working. Below the Mason-Dixon line, Trump trails Joe Biden in Florida and North Carolina and is in a tight fight in Georgia.

In this cycle, race-based appeals energize communities of color and repel suburbia. Trump generally turns off college-educated women.

Theres more, of course. Mary Trump writes that if the president can in any way profit from your death, hell facilitate it, and then ignore the fact that you died. As her book appears, Covid-19 cases are exploding, the pandemic moving to the countrys interior. More than 200,000 Covid-related deaths are projected by election day. The Grim Reapers scythe is unsheathed.

Trump is undeterred. He falsely claims the situation is improving and demands schools re-open while his White House looks to numb us into submission. A modern-day Moloch, the president expects the nation to sacrifice itself. Not everyone appears willing, least of all his niece.

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Too Much and Never Enough review: Mary Trump thumps Donald - The Guardian

Donald Trump taints everything he touches. If he supports a cause, he damages it. If he takes a stance, the instinct of most self-respecting liberals is to rush to the opposing side. So when Trump rails against China, a favourite bete noire, it can make a progressive pause.

Thats especially true when the US president lurches so easily into casual bigotry referring to the coronavirus as kung flu and when his hypocrisy is so rank. Thanks to his former national security adviser, John Bolton, we know that, for all his talk, Trump begged Beijing to meddle in this years election in his favour, breezily granting US blessing to what Amnesty International calls the gulag of camps in Xinjiang, in which China holds a million Uighur Muslims against their will.

And yet, just because Trump exploits Chinas human rights abuses when it suits him doesnt mean those abuses dont exist or that we shouldnt be paying attention. Most western interest has been aroused by the plight of Hong Kong, on which Beijing last week imposed a new and crushing national security law, a move the Economist rightly described as one of the biggest assaults on a liberal society since the second world war.

The new law criminalises dissent. Lest there be any doubt, within hours of the laws passage a man was arrested for no greater offence than carrying a banner calling for independence for Hong Kong. Now national security cases can be tried before government-appointed judges, in secret and without a jury or on the Chinese mainland, where justice is what the ruling party says it is, and where prosecutors have a near-100% conviction rate.

Whats more, the new law applies globally: in theory, anyone anywhere deemed to have subverted the Chinese state could have their collar felt by the long arm of Beijing. That may sound fanciful, but in a speech on Tuesday the director of the FBI, Christopher Wray, described Operation Fox Hunt, Chinas continuing global campaign against Chinese nationals abroad. Beijing insists its an anti-corruption drive, but Wray said it had coerced expat political rivals, dissidents and critics some of them US citizens to return home, often by threatening their families. One target was passed a message that said: Return to China promptly or commit suicide.

The last six months have revealed more about China under President Xi Jinping than the previous six years, wrote John Sawers, the former head of MI6, this week. To which a fair reply is: only because we didnt want to look. Of course, its understandable that the west notices when things happen in Hong Kong: it was a British colony until 1997, and to this day it remains where China meets the world, as one longtime observer puts it. But the evidence of the Chinese Communist partys willingness to crush not just opposition but difference goes far beyond Hong Kong, and that evidence has been there from the start.

The repression of minorities in Tibet and especially Xinjiang has escalated sharply. The horrific plight of the Uighurs has been hard for reporters to document, but the publication last November of the China Cables, a cache of secret documents, confirmed the existence of a vast prison network in Xinjiang where a million people, mainly Muslim, have been held captive; former inmates speak of torture and rape. These are brainwashing detention centres, designed to strip Uighurs of their cultural memory and identity. The existence of this gulag, the largest mass incarceration of an ethnic-religious minority since 1945, is a grievous crime, a stain on humanity. And yet it is barely mentioned.

Less than a fortnight ago, an investigation by the Associated Press revealed that the Chinese government is forcing intra-uterine devices, sterilisation and even abortion on hundreds of thousands of women, in a bid to slash birth rates among Uighurs and other minorities as part of a sweeping campaign to curb its Muslim population. All this as it encourages some of the countrys Han majority to have more children. The AP quoted experts who called it a form of demographic genocide.

Those who have long watched Chinas rulers can see the pattern. This has been the project of the Chinese Communist party: to tame and domesticate Tibet, then to do the same to Xinjiang and now to Hong Kong, says Nicholas Bequelin, who monitors the region for Amnesty International. He fears this record suggests an obvious next target: Taiwan, as China pursues what it sees as its manifest destiny, complete reunification. Such a move raises the prospect of war.

This is where those unmoved by arguments rooted in human rights might prick up their ears. Chinas conduct cannot be walled off as somehow unconnected to the rest of the world.

You dont have to engage in Trump-style name-calling to know that the authorities in China sat on the news that there was human transmission of coronavirus for nearly a week a move that surely had lethal consequences. You can listen to specialists such as Bequelin who have concluded that Beijings ambition is to dismantle systems that protect democracy and human rights.

How, then, should the rest of the world react? One option would be to brand China a rogue superpower, to shun it as a pariah. But thats hard to do when the US is itself in the hands of a rogue president. How to condemn Chinas suppression of peaceful protest when Trumps response to the Black Lives Matter demonstrations was to tweet, When the looting starts, the shooting starts? It did not escape Beijings notice that Republican senator Tom Cotton published his notorious op-ed call to send in the troops on the eve of the anniversary of the crushing of the protests in Tiananmen Square.

Nor does trolling and insulting Beijing get results, even if it gives Trump and his lieutenants a Twitter sugar-rush. No one should want to trigger a new cold war; we know from bloody experience what happens when cold wars turn hot. Besides, in the hands of Trump, its all too easy to see how a conflict with China would spill over into suspicion and hostility directed at the Chinese diaspora. Sanctions such as those Trump is expected to sign into law next week may fail if Beijing has decided it can take the economic hit.

In the age of coronavirus, with future global pandemics likely, there has to be some engagement with a country of the heft and importance of China, the worlds second largest economy. So perhaps the answer begins in finding allies and taking on the undramatic, often unglamorous work of diplomacy, anchored in basic notions of reciprocity. At its simplest, it would mean saying to China: If you want to keep selling us your tinned tomatoes produced in Xinjiang, then you have to ensure they are verifiably forced-labour-free.

Practical, hard-headed, advancing bit by bit towards something better: none of that is Trumps strong suit. But faced with a mighty power behaving so cruelly towards those it rules, it is essential.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

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Trump is a bigot and a hypocrite, but hes right to condemn China - The Guardian