Category Archives: Donald Trump

Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a key member of the January 6 committee investigating the Capitol attack, givesInside the Hivean exclusive preview of next weeks prime-time hearing.

After nearly a year of investigating the insurrection, Raskin says the most surprising discovery has been the role that money played, and the role of a financial motivebehind all these events to keep the money pouring in. The committee, he promises, will also draw direct and indirect lines between the top of the Republican hierarchy and the violent hooligans and street fascists who overran the Capitol.

But will Donald Trump himself be implicated? Raskin has said the former president will get his comeuppance, but whether hell face direct criminal justice for his premeditated role in an attempted coup remains an open question. Tantalizingly, Raskin deflects on the question of whether former vice president Mike Pence has spoken to the committee or might testify against Trump. I cant get into it, he says.

Plus: Raskin offers a powerful message and emotional plea to Democrats demoralized by the political landscape facing the party going into the midterms.

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Rep. Jamie Raskin Talks Donald Trump and Previews the Jan. 6 Hearings - Vanity Fair

In August 2020, then-White House counselor Kellyanne Conway was concerned about the guidance that then-President Donald Trump was receiving from some in his inner circle, notably Mark Meadows the conservative ex-North Carolina congressman who had been chief of staff since March of that year.

Conway would soon be leaving her role in the White House, but she ruminated on the continued challenges stemming from the coronavirus pandemic and Trump's reelection matchup against then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

The veteran pollster didn't think Trump was being well-served by Meadows and didn't bite her tongue in laying out her frustrations him and several other top aides in the White House, which she detailed in her memoir, "Here's the Deal."

"Some of the staff egos were bigger than the enormous tasks confronting us. Others acted like adolescents in cliques or hungry sharks with agendas separate from that of the nation. People could not even agree on a mask policy. Most of them were insisting he would win reelection in a landslide before 'Sleepy Joe' ever awoke," she wrote.

She added: "Meadows, the self-described 'chief 's chief,' was the fourth person to serve in that role, and the only one during the most fraught time for the president and for the nation. The man did not match the moment. I could have been angry, but mostly I felt worried."

Conway went on to state that during such a tumultuous time with thousands of Americans dying from the coronavirus and millions of people contracting the virus before vaccines were authorized for emergency use Trump needed top-tier advisors who would steer him in a good direction.

"Trump can be as good a listener as he is a talker, so quality of counsel and pureness of advice are imperative," she wrote. "Personnel could be a blind spot for him. Facing the twin challenges of COVID and a reelection campaign, he deserved the best and the brightest."

In the book, she opined that Trump was "poorly advised" on many issues including gay rights pointing out that "senior staff" put a stop to a plan by the then-president and first lady Melania Trump to commemorate Pride Month in 2020.

"My eyes were already wide open. The president was being underserved, poorly advised, and, ironically, ignored by 'senior staff,'" she wrote.

She continued: "Like in June of that year, when the First Lady was finalizing a plan to light up the White House in the pride colors and send out a tweet that the president planned to retweet. All of a sudden when the day came, nothing happened the whole plan had been blocked."

Conway took another dig at Meadows in the book, remarking that "he wanted to be the president's BFF," which "meant more important than the duly-elected vice president."

Insider reached out to Meadows for comment.

Last December, Meadows released his memoir, "The Chief's Chief," where he detailed his response to Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis and subsequent hospitalization, while also describing his loyalty to the then-president, writing that he would have "dressed in a giant penguin suit" to have him back in the Oval Office after the health-related ordeal.

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Conway: Meadows 'did not match the moment' as Trump WH chief of staff - Business Insider

Donald Trump Jr., left, and Johnny Depp, right, in a composite image.Getty Images

Donald Trump Jr. has once again weighed into the defamation trial between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp.

Following the jury's verdict, he shared a pro-Depp meme on his Instagram account.

Depp will be remembered as "the first man to win an argument with a woman," the post said.

Donald Trump Jr has once again weighed into the high-profile defamation trial between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp following the jury's verdict on Wednesday.

On Friday, the eldest son of former President Donald Trump shared an Instagram post that said that "Depp will always be remembered as the first man to win an argument with a woman."

He accompanied the post with a caption: " precedent breaker!!!"

In Wednesday's verdict, jurors found both Depp and Heard liable for defaming each other, marking the end of six dramatic weeks of testimony in Fairfax County, Virginia.

The jury awarded Depp $15 million in damages on Wednesday, finding that Heard defamed him when she described herself as a victim of domestic violence in a 2018 The Washington Post op-ed.

The jury also awarded Heard a smaller sum of $2 million in compensatory damages, finding Depp liable for defamation when one of his attorneys described her allegations of sexual abuse as a "hoax."

Trump Jr. has previously offered commentary on Wednesday's verdict, celebrating it as a supposed end of the MeToo era.

"Believe all women... except Amber Heard," he wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the Republicans' House Judiciary Committee celebrated the verdict by posting a GIF of Captain Jack Sparrow Depp's character from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies.

Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany, who served as White House press secretary for Trump Jr.'s father, criticized Republicans for showing their support to Depp.

"I see some Republicans celebrating him. I don't think that this is your guy,' she said, per DailyMail.com. McEnany noted that, in 2017, Depp joked about assassinating Trump.

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Donald Trump Jr. posts meme calling Johnny Depp the 'first man to win an argument with a woman' following Amber Heard trial verdict - Yahoo News

Among the many lingering images from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was seeing then-Vice President Mike Pence flee with his security detail as a group of rabid Donald Trump supporters appeared to hunt him. The Hang Mike Pence chants during the insurrectionist riot cant be unheard.

What we didnt know, however, was that members of the Indiana Republicans team feared that Trump had put his own vice president in so much jeopardy that a scenario like this could unfold. The New York Times Maggie Haberman, sharing an anecdote from her upcoming book, published a report today that read in part:

The day before a mob of President Donald J. Trumps supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pences chief of staff called Mr. Pences lead Secret Service agent to his West Wing office. The chief of staff, Marc Short, had a message for the agent, Tim Giebels: The president was going to turn publicly against the vice president, and there could be a security risk to Mr. Pence because of it.

This was not a situation in which Pences chief of staff routinely flagged security concerns for the then-vice presidents detail. In fact, the Times report, which hasnt been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, added that it happened exactly once: Jan. 5, 2021. The article added:

Mr. Short did not know what form such a security risk might take, according to people familiar with the events. But after days of intensifying pressure from Mr. Trump on Mr. Pence to take the extraordinary step of intervening in the certification of the Electoral College count to forestall Mr. Trumps defeat, Mr. Short seemed to have good reason for concern. The vice presidents refusal to go along was exploding into an open and bitter breach between the two men at a time when the president was stoking the fury of his supporters who were streaming into Washington.

We all know, of course, what happened, but reading a report like this brings the details into focus: The sitting vice presidents right-hand man had a private conversation with the Secret Service about a possible security threat created by the sitting president.

Or put another way, Short feared that Trump had personally put Pence in danger, which proved prophetic a day later.

History offers examples of presidents and vice presidents who didnt necessarily get along, but theres no parallel for anything like this in the American tradition.

All of this, of course, came against a backdrop in which Trump and many of his allies desperately tried to persuade Pence to participate in a coup scheme. The then-vice president, we later learned, was prepared to ignore his legal obligations, and he actively explored ways to corrupt the process, but Pence couldnt figure out how to make the scheme work.

Todays reporting also dovetails with related revelations that have come to the fore recently. Indeed, it was just last week when multiple news outlets reported that, as Hang Mike Pence chants echoed on Capitol Hill, then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told aides that Trump complained about Pence being whisked to safety. A New York Times report added, Mr. Meadows, according to an account provided to the House committee investigating Jan. 6, then told the colleagues that Mr. Trump had said something to the effect of, maybe Mr. Pence should be hanged.

As we discussed soon after, all of this was stunning, but not altogether surprising. Trump, during the riot, published an anti-Pence tweet, effectively accusing him of treachery, and by all accounts, Trump made no effort to reach out to his then-vice president after the riot to check on his wellbeing.

Months later, the former president sat down with ABC News Jonathan Karl, who initially asked whether he was concerned at all about Pences safety during the assault on the Capitol. No, I thought he was well-protected, and I had heard that he was in good shape, Trump replied. No. Because I had heard he was in very good shape. But, but, no, I think

The reporter intervened, reminding the Republican, Because you heard those chants that was terrible. Trump was unmoved, saying, He could have well, the people were very angry.

Karl added, They were saying, Hang Mike Pence. Trump responded, Because its common sense, Jon.

All of these revelations remain important for reasons that go beyond completing the historical record. Violent insurrectionists attacked our seat of government. Some hunted the sitting vice president, who had to flee for his own safety. Trump apparently didnt much care because Pence grudgingly concluded he couldnt help the sitting president steal an election.

This is the stuff of nightmares in a free and stable democracy.

We know quite a bit about what transpired during this attack, but no one should assume all the important revelations have been exposed.

Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics."

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Pences team reportedly feared Trump put VP at risk on Jan. 6 - MSNBC

Donald Trump can fairly be described as a political crime boss. His contempt for democracy and the rule of law is reminiscent of the legendary organized-crime chieftains found in both fiction and reality. He used his presidency (and its aftermath) to enrich himself, along with his family and other members of his inner circle. Trump is deeply attracted to violence, although like the head of a crime family does not personally engage in it. He may be a sociopath or a psychopath, but regardless of clinical definitions is certainly antisocial and destructive.

Despite his uneven recent record of political endorsements, Trump remains the obvious leader of the Republican Party and the larger fascist movement in and around it. For millions of Americans, his orders and wishes are not to be disobeyed, and at least some of his loyal foot soldiers are willing to commit acts of violence at his command and perhaps to kill or die for him.

Trump runs his crime family from Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, which in a fictional narrative or a journalistic report from another nation would be described as a "compound." Republican candidates, party leaders and other members of his MAGA movement arrive there to make offerings of cash and undying loyalty, and to receive his praise (or admonition) and receive their further orders.

RELATED:Merrick Garland "fears no person," says legal scholar Norm Eisen and he's coming for Trump

Crime as politics, or "criminogenic" politics, to use the academic term, is a distinguishing feature of autocratic and authoritarian regimes. Real or aspiring strongman-type leaders, Donald Trump very much included, have no conception of public service that extends beyond accumulating money, power and personal glory. Politics and governance are but means to that end, and the law is not understood as a neutral leveling force that applies equally to all. Instead, it is an instrument of power, tailored to serve the personal needs of the autocratic-dictatorial leader and the most loyal and servile members of his regime.

There exists a literal mountain of scholarship, research, reporting, commentary and analysis by people from a wide range of disciplines journalists, mental health professionals, philosophers, lawyers, historians and political scientists, to name a few on the subject of Donald Trump and what his rise to power has meant for American democracy and society. But to this point, very few experts in crime and criminal behavior have specifically addressed the Trump phenomenon and its larger consequences.

Gregg Barak has tried to fill that void with his new book "Criminology on Trump," published in May by Routledge. Barak is an emeritus professor of criminology and criminal justice at Eastern Michigan University and was formerly a visiting distinguished professor in the College of Justice & Safety at Eastern Kentucky University. He is also the author of "Violence and Nonviolence: Pathways to Understanding" and "Violence, Conflict, and World Order," among other works, and is co-founder and North American editor of the Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime.

In this conversation, Barak explains his view that Donald Trump is not a hapless fool or idiot, as some have depicted him. For Barak, Trump is a consummate con artist and perhaps a criminal mastermind who has spent decades mastering the law and learning how to escape accountability for his criminal actions and other transgressive behavior. Barak says that Trump had a mentor in this regard, the legendary fixer and right-wing political operative Roy Cohn, who taught Trump that even legal defeats or setbacks can be spun as symbolic victories.

Barak also argues that Trump was in all probability central to the planning and execution of the Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt and took great joy in watching the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol. Barak also warns that Donald Trump is such a skilled performer that he is likely to evade responsibility for his criminal misconduct no matter what evidence is presented later this month by the House select committee investigating Jan. 6. Donald Trump's followers have not been duped into supporting him, Barak concludes, but greatly enjoy his antisocial behavior and live vicariously through it.

How are you feeling given all the crises we have faced in America during the Age of Trump and beyond?

I'm emotionally stressed. I'm anxious. I'm seeing the end of democracy. I'm just totally absorbed in writing about and thinking about Donald Trump. I began thinking about writing a book about Donald Trump in 2017. I got sucked in. Everyone else had been talking about Donald Trump from the perspective of journalists, lawyers, therapists and other points of view. But where were the criminologists? Donald Trump is a matter of crime and justice.

You say that you "got sucked in," that Trump pulled you into his orbit, in effect. I have heard many people say that about him. How did this happen? What is so compelling and intriguing about him? That's a big part of his power.

I'm sucked in because I study deception. I study mistrust. I study the con. Donald Trump is the archetype of all those things. He's a grifter, he's a racketeer. He's all of those things in one persona and one individual.

I have also described Donald Trump as a con artist, as well as a professional wrestling "heel," a carnie and a street hustler. What's the con that Donald Trump is running and why are so many people suckered by it?

Donald Trump is all of those things. But how does he get away with all the lawlessness. be it as a candidate or as occupant of the White House? He's a media-savvy showman. He offers himself up as a subject of both enjoyment and pain, and that helps him to elicit effective identification among the public. Ironically, Trump's positive attraction is fundamentally derived from his negativity, cruelty and deviance.

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Trump's political attraction has to do with his chauvinistic attitudes of white supremacy, cultural racism, and misogyny. In other words, Trump has become a superb agent of obscene, transgressive enjoyment. This is true whether he's vilifying immigrants, denigrating women or trying to humiliate a former ally.

His fake populism is all about style and attitude. It has absolutely nothing to do with any belief system, set of values or ideologies. Trump has no principles or ethics that he truly subscribes to. The only thing that matters to Trump is the accumulation of power and glorification.

People are not really being conned by Trump: They know it's a con. But they admire the fact that he's basically saying "f**k you" to everyone and getting away with it.

Trump's basic con is that he's going to bring something to people who feel aggrieved or that they need something. That he is fighting on their behalf. But again, it's not even that Trump doesn't deliver what he promises. Those people are not even really being conned: They know that Trump is a con artist. But they admire the fact that Trump can push back, that he can thumb his nose at the law and rules and norms, that he can abuse the law and everyone else, for that matter and get away with it. A big part of why Trump's followers are captivated by him is because he's basically saying "fuck you" to everyone and getting away with it. Donald Trump is a type of outlaw.

As a criminologist, what do you see when you look at Donald Trump?

I am looking at how Trump, throughout his lifetime, has been involved with fraud and deception. I see Trump as one of America's most successful outlaws. Why? Because he's been violating the law virtually every day of his life. He has not been charged once with a criminal offense. That's genius. That is just phenomenal.

This man's been accused of sexual assault, tax evasion, money laundering, nonpayment of employees and defrauding of tenants, customers, contractors, investors, bankers and charities. Yet has never been charged with any crime.

Donald Trump knows the law inside and out. When you've been a litigant who has been involved with 4,000 lawsuits, and have been the plaintiff in most of those cases, you get to know the law. Donald Trump knows how to play the law. In part, that is why he has been successful in weaponizing it.

What is the secret of Trump's success, in terms of never being held truly accountable for his crimes and all his fraudulent or unethical business activities?

Trump hooked up with Roy Cohn back in the 1970s, during the first lawsuit involving Trump and his father, Fred Trump Sr. It was for housing discrimination. Fred Sr. gave Donald the job of going out and finding an attorney, and Donald connected with Cohn, who he had admired from a distance.

Cohn became a surrogate father and a mentor, in a sense. Trump learned how to deny things, how to sensationalize things, how to weaponize the law and how, even when you lose, you can still win by spinning events in the public eye. More than anything else, Donald Trump learned that, if possible, you never settle. Well, Trump settles sometimes, but he has only lost a small percentage of his cases. He has won the overwhelming majority of them because he wears people down. He goes on for so long that most people don't have the deep pockets to go the distance.

Trump enjoys litigation. He doesn't even care if he wins or loses a case, because whichever it is, he spins it as though he won. Why do Trump's lies work? Because he says them so many times, that after a while, people quit trying to repudiate the lie. They give up.

Some of the psychologists and other mental health experts I've spoken to have said that in other circumstances Trump would have been a petty criminal and gone to jail. What are your thoughts?

Perhaps Donald Trump would have gotten into trouble and gotten caught. But given how introverted he really is, with all his insecurities, I don't know that he would have even aspired, or had the nerve, to be a hood or a criminal. I'm not sure Donald would have been doing street crime. I just don't see it. I don't think he has the nerve.

What do you make of Trump's likely defense that he didn't really know what was happening on Jan. 6, 2021? That other people were acting without his knowledge, and that he is innocent or ignorant about such things?

On Jan. 6, Trump knew precisely the whole time what was going on. He was loving every minute of it. Everything he has done in his whole life has been with malice aforethought.

He knew everything. Donald Trump knew precisely the whole time what was going on. He was aware. Donald Trump is such a great performer that if he wanted to plead that he was crazy or that he was insane and I am saying that tongue in cheek I believe that he could pull it off. And we know how hard it is to pull off an insanity defense. He would be successful, and he'd tell you, "This is the greatest insanity defense you've ever heard."Yes, I am saying this as a joke, but Trump does not lack the knowledge to do this. And he doesn't lack the intent. Everything Trump has done in his whole life has been with regularity and malice aforethought.

One of the issues that comes up about Donald Trump and his apparent crimes is the question of whether he is actually capable of knowing right from wrong.

Donald Trump certainly knows the difference between right and wrong. On Jan. 6, Trump was sitting there when everybody was telling him, "Donald, you've got to stop this." He was loving every minute of it. He knew what was going on. The fact that he didn't stop what was happening at the Capitol is evidence of consciousness of guilt or intent. He knew what was transpiring. It's what he wanted to happen!

So many people are going to testify before they even get to Donald Trump. They won't even need him at that point. Donald Trump will not be able to successfully defend himself by saying he was an idiot.

You said you were joking about this, but could Trump mount a successful insanity defense?

Here is an important distinction. "The Donald," the persona and the character, could pull it off. But Donald Trump the real person can't. Donald Trump the real person cannot reveal that side of his vulnerability. He couldn't conceive that he wasn't a genius. He couldn't acknowledge that he was crazy. The Donald Trump character could do all of those things.

So at the end of this long story, does Donald Trump go to jail? There are folks who have convinced themselves that such an outcome is inevitable, that he will finally be punished for his crimes. I am of the mind that there is no way that happens. Rich white men like Donald Trump are largely above the law in America.

If Trump is acquitted, then he doesn't go to jail. If there's one juror who says no, then Trump is a free man. If there's a unanimous verdict, I believe that he'll be punished. If Trump is not actually incarcerated, he'll be on a short leash. He'll be under supervision. Perhaps he will be allowed to stay at Mar-a-Lago. Donald Trump is a stain on the presidency. He deserves to be locked up.

How dangerous is Trump? I have consistently tried to warn people that he is very dangerous, quite likely the most dangerous person in America. But you are a criminologist: Am I exaggerating?

He's as dangerous as anyone could be.

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Donald Trump, criminal mastermind: Scholar Gregg Barak on the supreme con artist of our time - Salon

Former President Donald Trump still wants the Pulitzer Prize board to rescind awards it gave to newspapers for their reporting on Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Mr. Trump even threatened to sue if the board cannot be persuaded to do the right thing on its own.

There is no dispute that the Pulitzer Boards award to those media outlets was based on false and fabricated information that they published, Mr. Trump wrote to Marjorie Miller, administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes.

The letter is dated Friday but was circulated by Mr. Trumps associates on Tuesday.

It is the third letter Mr. Trump has sent to the Pulitzer board demanding revocation of the prizes awarded in 2018 to The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Mr. Trump has cited a report by special counsel Robert Mueller that found no evidence of a criminal conspiracy between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian actors, even if their interests aligned at times. The former president has pointed to the report as vindication after claims of Russian collusion dogged the early years of his presidency.

The former president also highlighted the indictment of an attorney in Hillary Clintons orbit on charges of lying to the FBI, saying it debunked a false theory the Trump campaign had secret communications with Russia-based Alfa Bank.

A jury acquitted the lawyer, Michael Sussmann, on Tuesday, a major blow to special counsel John Durhams efforts in pursuing possible misconduct by U.S. intelligence agencies probing theories about Trump-Russia collusion.

But Mr. Trumps letter, drafted before the verdict, put an emphasis on the Sussmann trial.

Please continue to pay close attention to the testimony at Mr. Sussmans [sic] trial as well as all other pertinent information, Mr. Trump wrote. I again call on you to rescind the Prize you awarded based on blatantly fake, derogatory and defamatory news. If you choose to not do so, we will see you in court.

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Donald Trump threatens to sue if Pulitzer Prize board does not rescind 2018 awards - Washington Times

Donald Trump (Getty Images)

Donald Trump treats politics like a WWE eventall boasts, bombast, and threats of violence. Its tempting for his political opponents to respond in kind, matching bluster with bluster and chest-thumping with chest-thumping. Unfortunately, the nonsense testosterone posturing is part of a toxic masculine spectacle of violence and hate that ultimately benefits Trump himself. You cant beat Trump at being Trump. If everybody tries, everybody loses.

Rep Eric Swalwell, Democrat of California, was the latest to fall into the ugly mire of anti-Trump Trumping. This weekend, Trump irresponsibly shared a call for Civil War on the social media network Truth Social. Swalwell, who often (and rightfully) denounces Republicans on Twitter, was quick to respond. Donald Trump is calling for Civil War. Of course, like Vietnam and the walk to the Insurrection, he wont be man enough to fight it, he declared.

Trump has been credibly accused of making up health problems to avoid the Vietnam draft. Swalwell is trying to highlight the contrast between Trumps militant rhetoric and the former presidents determination to avoid military service.

But would Trumps call for Civil War be somehow acceptable, reasonable, or admirable if he had fought in Vietnam or in some other war? If Trump had marched on the Capitol with the insurrectionists himself, that wouldnt validate the insurrection.

Republicans in general, and Trump in particular, revel in hollow displays of toughness and crass masculinity. Trump loves to present himself as a mean-spirited patriarch, violently suppressing lesser, weaker opponents.

In a rally in 2016 he complained that people like himself were no longer allowed to punch protesters in the face and suggested that those disrupting his speech should be carried off in a stretcher. In 2017, as president, he boasted about dropping the Mother of All Bombs on Afghanistan. He reportedly wanted missile strikes against drug cartels in Mexico. During the George Floyd protests in 2020, Trump suggested that police should shoot protesters in the leg en masse to subdue them.

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Threats of hyperbolic and irresponsible violence are central to Trumps political persona, and to his appeal. Whether Trump would actually pick up a gun and go off to war is irrelevant to his followers; its like telling a Marvel fan that Kevin Feige doesnt really have super powers. The audience isnt asking for that kind of authenticy. They want someone who can give them a fantasy of violence. Trump delivers.

The MCU is clearly labeled as fantasy, of course. Trumps vindictive dreams are headier, in that they are meant to affect and be instrumentalized through politics. Trump is the great man, the Chosen One, who will direct the forces of purity and hate and exterminate the protestors and vermin who resist.

Swalwell is trying to undercut this by pointing out that Trumpdraft-dodging real estate heirisnt actually the manly man he claims to be. And its true that Trumps image as a mighty warrior and Trumps reality as a whiny toddler are wildly out of sync.

But Trumps fans, who mostly arent courageous warriors either, like the fact that Trump gives them leave to pretend to great virtue while sitting behind their keyboards and shaking their fists at clouds. Moreover, once youve agreed that our leaders should be violent manly men who smite their enemies, youve mostly lost the argument.

If the ideal leader is a violent man, the party of violent masculinityand the party which tends to be dominatedby men in leadership rolesis going to come out ahead. Swalwells tweet suggests you need to be man enough to be a good leader. But where does that leave women, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people, all of whom should be welcomes as leaders by the Democratic party? Mocking someone for not being as tough as their rhetoric is not helpful if you want a public discourse that doesnt reward aggression, hollow or otherwise.

Yes, Trump is not, personally, going to take up arms. But thats not the main problem with his call for Civil War. The main problem is that he has followers who may, like the case of the Buffalo shooter, decide to kill those they perceive as political enemies. When Trump frames opponents as traitors worthy of brutality and extermination, hes encouraging political divison and political violence. He does that in part by equating leadership and manly brutality. Democrats like Swalwell shouldnt help him do that.

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Voices: Donald Trumps Civil War bombast is bad enough. Democrats ...

Its not clear what happened tonight to former President Donald Trump in the Georgia Republican primaries. Trump either got his butt kicked, his hat handed to him, or multiple eggs on his face. Or maybe he had to eat a flock of crows.

Either way, Georgia Republicans overwhelmingly rejected Trumps attempt to punish Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for refusing to help him steal Georgias electoral votes in 2020. After losing the state by just under 12,000 votes, Trump tried to ruin the careers of these two men, whose only sin was to follow the law dutifully despite his pressure to do the opposite. Instead of losing, both easily won renomination for their current offices against Trump-backed challengers David Perdue and Jody Hice, respectively. The Trump challengers' performance was, frankly, subpar.

Trump had not just given some sort of pro forma endorsements to Perdue and Hice. He went so far as to recruit Perdue, the former senator, to run against Kemp. Twice in the past three days, Trump repeated his endorsement of Perdue, again this morning in a rant against Kemp in which he asserted that David Perdue is a conservative fighter who has my Complete and Total Endorsement. (That's Trumps own capitalization.)

As I write this, with 95% of the expected vote counted, Kemp is shellacking Perdue 73% to 22%.

And Trump had been even more savage in his attacks on Raffensperger, who as the states chief election officer had told Trump in person that the former president's data was "wrong. At one point, Raffensperger had been given up as political dead meat.

The secretary of state's opponent, Jody Hice, is one of the Trumpiest of Republican congressmen. In a four-way race, all Hice had to do to force a runoff was to hold Raffensperger below 50%, but he couldnt even do that. While the results arent quite mathematically official as I write this, Raffensperger has declared victory. He appears to have won the nomination outright, with some room to spare.

Trump tried to make both Georgia races all about him and his grievances. Republican voters were having none of it. Trump is tonight's biggest loser Georgia voters just told him hes fired.

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Trump gets trounced in Georgia again | Washington Examiner

Donald Trumps big lie lost bigly in Georgia on Tuesday night. Some might take this as proof that his spell over the Republican party has finally been broken, but that is what the Republican party wants people to believe.

The former president had been waging a personal vendetta against Georgias governor Brian Kemp and secretary of state Brad Raffensperger for failing to overturn the 2020 presidential election in his favor.

Trump handpicked former senator David Perdue and congressman Jody Hice to challenge Kemp and Raffensperger in the Republican primaries. Both parroted the big lie and both were soundly beaten. It was a tangible sign that even many Trump voters are now weary of stop the steal and eager to look forward. It was also a blow to Trump in a primary season where his scattergun endorsements have come up with a decidedly mixed win-loss record.

But studying Trumps recent record as kingmaker misses the point. In fact, it actively helps Republicans create the illusion that they have moved on from Make America great again (Maga) even as they continue to push its radical rightwing agenda.

It all began with Glenn Youngkin, who last year won election as governor of Virginia as a Trump-lite Republican. He never campaigned alongside the ex-president but also took pains to avoid criticizing him and alienating his base. Dont insult Donald Trump but do everything to keep him away, was how columnist Peggy Noonan put it in the Wall Street Journal.

Youngkin projected the image of a safe, sane, old school Republican who could win back suburban and independent voters. But he went Maga by pushing hot button issues such as coronavirus mask mandates, transgender bathrooms and critical race theory and portraying his opponent as a woke liberal. He flirted with, but did not embrace, Trumps false claims of a stolen election.

The formula has been emulated in various ways by candidates facing extreme Trump-backed challengers. It worked for Brad Little, the governor of Idaho, and now for Kemp in Georgia. Neither should be mistaken for NeverTrumpers in the mould of Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger or Larry Hogan.

Kemp has recently nodded to the Trump base by signing bills that would ban abortions six weeks after conception and allow Georgians to carry guns in public without a license or background check. While he, unlike Perdue, has steered clear of the big lie, he was content to sign a voter suppression law in the name of election integrity.

And on Monday he campaigned alongside Mike Pence, who as vice-president was one of Trumps principal enablers for four years. Neither man uttered a word of criticism of the Maga patriarch. Kemp told reporters: I had a great relationship with President Trump. Ive never said anything bad about him. I dont plan on doing that. Im not mad at him. I think hes just mad at me and thats something that I cant control.

Even Raffensperger, while more outspoken in denouncing Trumps election lies, has campaigned on preventing non-citizen voting, which is virtually non-existent in Georgia or anywhere in the US, as well as putting an end to no-excuse mail-in voting,

The Trump-without-the-tweets approach is a good fit for governors, who can build rightwing legislative achievements in their own states. In the 2024 presidential election, it might prove a useful blueprint for Pence, offering a promise of Maga past, or Florida governor Ron DeSantis, offering a promise of Maga future.

Democrats are alive to the threat of the Republican party selling itself as post-Trump to swing state voters. On Tuesday the Democratic National Committee said in a statement: From Mike Pence refusing to criticize Trump, to Republican candidates across the country running on his ultra-Maga agenda, the Republican party is Trumps party, and theres no turning back now.

To underline the point, although Perdues defeat showed the electoral limitations of the big lie, Trump-endorsed candidates showed that Frankenstein still exercises at least some control over the Maga monster.

In Georgia, Herschel Walker, the former American football star, won a Senate primary and will now face Democrat Raphael Warnock in November. Congresswoman and conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene easily defeated a cluster of primary challengers to become the 14th districts nominee.

In Texas, attorney general Ken Paxton defeated George P Bush, nephew of George W Bush, a former president and stalwart of the anti-Trump Republican establishment. Sarah Sanders, Trumps former White House press secretary, is now the Republican nominee for governor of Arkansas.

In some cases, Trump jumps in late to back a candidate already assured of victory; in others, his endorsement lifts candidates, sometimes to victory. It is not always clear whether the chicken or egg came first. But it is evident that Maga can be a bottom-up phenomenon: last August there were boos when Trump urged supporters to get vaccinated.

Similarly, some voters have been comfortable with a paradox of pledging loyalty to Trump while rejecting some of his endorsements. Thousands, for example, voted for both Raffensperger and Taylor Greene on Tuesday. They sense, presumably, that even those whose faith wavers in Trump, the man remain apostles of Trumpism the movement.

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Trump-backed nominees lost in Georgia, but can Republicans escape the specter of Maga? - The Guardian US

The fate of state Sen. Burt Jones, whom Trump endorsed in the open race for lieutenant governor, remains unclear. While he was leading his nearest challenger by 20 percentage points, with 94 percent of the expected vote in, it wasnt clear if Jones would avoid a runoff: He was at 50.2 percent, a hair above the runoff threshold.

Trumps House picks in Georgia werent much more successful. While all 5 of the Republican incumbents he endorsed won, none of them really faced a competitive race three of them ran unopposed. Trump also backed two candidates in open seat House primaries: Jake Evans in the 6th District and Vernon Jones in the 10th. Both finished in second place and moved on to runoffs.

The lone bright spot in Trumps Georgia record? His recruited candidate for Senate, Herschel Walker. The former football star maintained a steady lead in the polls since the early days of his campaign and easily sailed to his GOP nomination.

In Alabama, Trump ditched his original pick for the Senate, Rep. Mo Brooks, after the congressmans campaign appeared to be flailing. But Brooks one of Trumps strongest supporters in Congress launched a late comeback and made it to the June 21 runoff, where hell face first-place finisher, Katie Britt.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 electoral votes.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 electoral votes.

Won with 82 percent of the vote.

He voted to overturn 2020 electoral votes.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 electoral votes.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 electoral votes.

Donald Trump endorsed his former White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, for Arkansas governor.|Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Won with 83 percent of the vote.

Sanders, Trumps former White House press secretary, said she ran for governor to be part of the last line of defense against a Democratic-helmed federal government. In his endorsement, Trump said Sanders would always fight for the people of Arkansas and do what is right, not what is politically correct as governor.

Sanders, whos favored to win in November, would be the second in her family to serve as governor her father, Mike Huckabee, served two terms starting in the 1990s and later ran for president twice.

Won with 58 percent of the vote.

Boozman voted to acquit the former president in Trumps second impeachment trial, though the senator said Trump did bear some responsibility for the events of Jan. 6. Trump endorsed Boozman anyway, providing key cover in a tough primary against former Arkansas Razorbacks star and Army ranger Jake Bequette.

Won with 76 percent of the vote.

He voted to overturn 2020 election results.

Unopposed.

With 94 percent of the expected vote in, Jones was in first place with 50.2 percent of the vote.

In this Sept. 25, 2021, photo Senate candidate Herschel Walker speaks during former President Donald Trump's Save America rally in Perry, Ga.|Ben Gray, File/AP Photo

Won with 68 percent of the vote.

Walker, who will face Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in November, has had a relationship with Trump for decades, dating back to when Trump owned the short-lived New Jersey Generals football team in the USFL. He was a great football player and will be an even better U.S. Senator if that is even possible, Trump said in September.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 election results.

Won with 76 percent of the vote.

Clyde, who voted to overturn 2020 election results, drew national attention for his cavalier downplaying of the events of Jan. 6 during a House Oversight Committee hearing. Not only was there not an insurrection, Clyde said, but if you didnt know that TV footage was a video from January 6, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 election results.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 election results.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks during a court hearing on April 22 in Atlanta.|John Bazemore-Pool/Getty Images

Won with 70 percent of the vote.

Greene, who voted to overturn the 2020 election results, is one of Trumps most vocal supporters. In his endorsement, Trump said the lightning-rod freshman lawmaker has always been on his side, and is someone who loves our country and MAGA, its greatest ever political movement.

Ken Paxton waves after speaking during the Conservative Political Action Conference CPAC held at the Hilton Anatole in July 2021 in Dallas, Texas.|Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Won with 68 percent of the vote.

Paxton, who has been mired in scandal and faced abuse of office allegations for much of the past seven years, is a staunch Trump ally. As Texas AG, he challenged the results of the 2020 election in four battleground states but the case was thrown out by the Supreme Court.

He won his Trump endorsement at the expense of George P. Bush, the Bush family scion Paxton defeated in Tuesdays runoff.

Won with 69 percent of the vote.

With 55 percent of the vote in, Flores was winning with 59 percent.

Won with 64 percent of the vote.

Won with 59 percent of the vote.

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Trump made 27 endorsements in Tuesday's primaries. Here are the winners. - POLITICO