Category Archives: Donald Trump

A cache of 2,319 text messages sent and received by former President Donald Trump's White House chief of staff Mark Meadows between Election Day 2020 and President Biden's inauguration shows a group of Republican lawmakers and operatives working to overturn the election and scrambling to respond to the chaotic events of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

The messages, obtained by CNN and released on Monday, include texts from Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner and son Donald Trump Jr. They also include "White House and campaign officials, Cabinet members, Republican Party leaders, January 6 rally organizers, Rudy Giuliani, My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, Sean Hannity and other Fox hosts," writes CNN. There are also texts with "more than 40 current and former Republican members of Congress," including Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio), Mo Brooks (Ala.), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.).

On Jan. 6, as rioters breached the Capitol, Donald Trump Jr. texted Meadows, warning that "[t]hey will try to f--k [my father's] entire legacy on this if it gets worse." Others who urged Meadows to have Trump call off the rioters included former White House chiefs of staff Mick Mulvaney and Reince Priebus and Reps. William Timmons (R-S.C.) and Greene, who wrote to Meadows that he should "tell the President to calm people" and that "This isn't the way to solve anything."

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Donald Trump Jr. warned on Jan. 6 that riot fallout could 'f--k' his father's 'entire legacy' - The Week

If someone doesn't know what questions to ask, they'll never get answer. If they don't know whom to ask, thechallenge is even greater. But an even worse error is to decide on an answer before even asking the question and then refusing to hear any answers that don't confirm what they've already decided.

America's political class, especially the pundits and commentators, are guilty of all of these errors (and many more) as they continue to willfully not understand the Age of Trump and how America arrived at this democracy crisis. The Republican-fascist movement is winning because so many people who are supposed to know better continue to view simple questions as puzzling and mysterious, and continue to ignore the obvious answers.

Many such voices among the high priesthood of the church of the savvy and the other professional smart people have concluded that the Republican Party is in the midst of a "civil war" or is in "disarray" in the aftermath of Donald Trump's presidency. That's not true: The Republican Party is "evolving" just as other fascist and authoritarian movements have historically done, largely by purging those who disagree with the Great Leader and his vision.

RELATED:Here's why Trump won't run in 2024 and why the Trump cult ultimately can't win

Many of the same voices also announce that Trump's hold on the Republican-fascist Party and movement is weakening because of diminished attendance at his rallies, or because of rumors and "revelations" about internal resistance surrounding Trump's coup plot of Jan. 6, 2021. Those are significant details and facts, but they do not override the basic reality that Trump continues to be the leader of the Republican Party and the larger neofascist movement. He received millions more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016, and until he decides otherwise he is the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee.

Republican voters and right-leaning independents continue to view Trump and what he represents as the identity and brand name of today's Republican Party and "conservative" movement. Moreover, the 2024 election is more than two years away and traditional barometers of Trump's popularity cannot be seen as reliably predictive.

Maybe the media's worst misreading is the claim that Trump led the Republican Party astray. In fact, he set it free to follow its worst impulses.

But those questions pale compared to the grandest misreading of all: the claim that Trump and Trumpism led the Republican Party astray from its core values, and by doing so "sabotaged" it. Reality is quite different: Trump and his neofascist right-wing populist movement set modern-day Republican leaders and voters free to embrace their antisocial, anti-human, anti-democratic, reactionary, racist, sexist, plutocratic, theocratic, conspiracist, anti-intellectual and anti-rational values and beliefs. Trumpism was not suddenly born ex nihilo in 2015; it has been at least 30 years in the making.

Ultimately, what America's political class, the punditry and most of the mainstream news media refuse to understand is that Donald Trump is simultaneously a man, a symbol, and a cult-leader who embodies a form of freedom specifically, the freedom to indulge in the worst aspects of human behavior and then to wallow in the chaos and pain and suffering that result. Like other forms of fascism, Trumpism is exhilarating for followers and believers; it gives their lives purpose, meaning and a sense of community, largely by inflicting pain for those designated as its enemies.

In a recent column at Salon, longtime White House reporterBrian Karem summarizes Trump's hold over his followers and their devotion to him:

Trump has played it close to the vest as he has traveled across the country to a variety of rallies, pitching baubles and trinkets to dazzle and amaze those of simple minds and limited funds. Buy a hat. Buy a shirt. Buy an ornament. Buy an autographed picture. Buy anything Trump is selling probably up to and including autographed underwear.

Millions continue to support him by buying his cheap and tawdry knickknacks. It makes me wonder what these homes look like. "Come in. clean your feet on the Trump doormat, hang up your coat on the Trump coat rack. Have a seat and a complimentary beverage out of our Trump lemonade pitcher, poured lovingly into a Trump autographed mug."

Meanwhile, you can take a look at a phone video shot by Donald Trump Jr. inviting you to visit a "top secret" rally with his father and, gosh, even get a chance to meet Dad! What the hell is a top secret rally? Isn't that what the KKK used to do?

The following observation is no doubt a challenging concept for those still wedded to "normal politics" and other obsolescent ways of thinking: "Donald Trump" is of immense symbolic importance, but Donald Trump the human being barely even matters.As I detailed in an earlieressay for Salon, "Donald Trump is no longer a mere person. Indeed, to some extent the human being behind the Trump persona has become irrelevant." In other words, Trump is integral to the American neofascist project but he is also disposable and can be replaced as the situation demands.

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If the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. For too many people in America's political class and the news media, especially, the only lens available to interpret politics is through horserace-style coverage, centrism bias, outmoded notions of balance and fairness, questions about who has "coattails" and is piling up "endorsements," and of course the results of public opinion polls and focus groups. To acknowledge that these habits and tools no longer have the explanatory power they once did (not very long ago) would be an enormous psychological leap, approaching epistemic collapse.

Here are three examples of how strongly Donald Trump's power endures, whatever the hope-peddlers, professional centrists and others among the commentariat would like us to believe:

1. The Republican Party announced last week that it will no longer participate in the 2024 presidential debates hosted by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates.

Debates serve an important function in a democracy and as such have played a key role in many elections. They are especially important for helping low information, independent and relatively apolitical voters decide whom to support. Beyond that, participation in a debate signals a commitment to democratic norms and institutions. Debates also reaffirm a shared belief in the principle that truth exists outside of partisanship and ideology.

Fascists and other authoritarians reject such consensus values. By rejecting the presidential debates, and replacing them with some type of right-wing propaganda theater, the Republican Party is choosing to protect Donald Trump (or his successors) from public scrutiny.Paul Waldman of the Washington Post offered this context:

The Republican Party has just offered us a glimpse of the hell they're going to put us all through in 2024. What might appear to be a petty argument about the conditions under which general election debates will or won't be held is actually much more. But it's also a sign that the Republican strategy will again feature chaotic, Trumpian whining that is meant to delegitimize the entire presidential campaign process from start to finish, culminating in an attempt to take back the White House by theft if the voters don't vote the "right" way.

Let's remember that while Trump performed well in the 2016 primary debates when he was on stage with a collection of empty suits, he did poorly in every one of his debates with Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. By the fall of 2024, he'll be 78 years old; the idea that he'll be more disciplined and focused than he was in the past is far-fetched. Everything Americans dislike about him would be on vivid display in a debate, before the largest audience the candidates will have.

If Republicans announce now, two-and-a-half years in advance, that they're refusing to participate in the debates, it could save them a last-minute act of cowardice. But the more important reason they're doing this is to reinforce the idea that every institution and practice associated with the presidential campaign must be considered corrupt and biased against Trump and therefore illegitimate, whether it's the news media, the debates, maybe even the weather and especially the vote counting.

2. Republicans are enthusiastically doing the bidding of Donald Trump and his fascist project.

We see this through growing support for the Jan. 6 coup attempt and the Capitol attack, the escalating assault on democracy and voting rights, the moral panic around "critical race theory"; anti-LGBTQ bigotry and related conspiracy theories, the campaign to roll back reproductive rights and freedoms, the assault on free speech and other fundamental civil and human rights, the war on reason and critical thinking, the Big Lie, and the support (covert or otherwise) for right-wing authoritarians such as Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbn.

The embrace of racism and the attack on reproductive rights and LGBTQ equality are not "top-down" politics. Republican voters overwhelmingly embrace those views.

This is not a story of "top-down" politics, or elites otherwise imposing their values on a public. Republican voters overwhelmingly support these policies and the values they embody. Donald Trump is a gifted political entrepreneur; he understood that many tens of millions of Americans yearn for fascism or some other form of authoritarian rule.

3. To this point, Republican leaders and candidates are still in thrall to Trump. They must prostrate themselves before him and seek his blessing as a pathway to power.

In a recent article for theNew York Times, Shane Goldmacher details how Trump continues to rule the Republican Party and the larger neofascist movement from his Mar-a-Lago retreat:

For 15 months, a parade of supplicants senators, governors, congressional leaders and Republican strivers of all stripes have made the trek to pledge their loyalty and pitch their candidacies. Some have hired Mr. Trump's advisers, hoping to gain an edge in seeking his endorsement. Some have bought ads that ran only on Fox News in South Florida. Somebear gifts; othersdish dirt. Almost everyone parrots his lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

Working from a large wooden desk reminiscent of the one he used in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump has transformed Mar-a-Lago's old bridal suite into a shadow G.O.P. headquarters, amassing more than $120 million a war chest more than double that of the Republican National Committee itself. ...

And while other past presidents have ceded the political stage, Mr. Trump has done the opposite, aggressively pursuing an agenda of vengeance against Republicans who have wronged him, endorsing more than 140 candidates nationwide and turning the 2022 primaries intoa stress test of his continued sway. ...

"Party leaders have never played the role that Trump is playing," said Roger Stone, an on-and-off adviser to Mr. Trump since the 1980s who has been spotted at Mar-a-Lago of late. "Because he can and he's not bound by the conventional rules of politics."

Goldmacher raises the question of whether Trump's "big public profile" will be "a potent turnoff for swing voters" in the fall election, which remains to be seen. But in Republican primaries, "few serious candidates are openly breaking" with him. Former Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn says Trump's conquest of the party "has been so complete ... that even the RINOs are attempting to talk MAGA."

"Few see an expiration date" on Trump's dominance of the Republican Party, Goldmacher concludes, "until and unless he declines to run again in 2024 or is defeated." GOP chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has reportedly told Trump, "We need you."

Is that a portrait of a fascist leader whose power is in decline? With a war chest estimated at $120 million and a right-wing disinformation media machine largely at his command, at this momentDonald Trump is the Republican Party. The fact that some members of the political and media classes read Goldmacher's story as announcing the end of the Trump era only reflects the biased and distorted view of reality that led America to this ugly situation in the first place.

According to traditional Christian theology, the devil's greatest trick was to convince the people of the world that he does not exist. Trump is perhaps only a lesser demon. But do not be fooled by the claim that he is no longer a threat. If America's political elites fall for that trick, it will likely mean the end of the country's democracy.

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Is Donald Trump finally getting weaker? Don't believe the hype - Salon

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Mary Trump: Donald Trump is a 'black hole of need' - MSNBC

People around the world have been weighing in on Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussexs relationship since they began dating. Now, former U.S. President Donald Trump is giving his thoughts on the royal couple.

In an interview with Piers Morgan, Trump claimed Harry is being led around by his nose by Meghan. Harry is whipped, Trump said. Harry is whipped like no other person I think Ive seen.

Im not a fan of Meghan, he continued. Im not a fan and I wasnt right from the beginning. I think poor Harry is being led around by his nose. And I think hes an embarrassment. And I think she spoke badly of the royal family but in particular the Queen.

Trump met Queen Elizabeth while he was serving as president and says they got along very well: She liked me and I liked her.

The former president also said he thinks Harry and Meghan should lose their royal titles because of their behavior toward the royal family.

I would [take their titles away], he said. The only thing I disagree with the Queen on probably one of the only things ever is that I think she would have said, If thats your choice, fine. But you now longer have titles. You know?

I think that [Harry] has been so disrespectful to the country, and [the UK is] a great country, Trump continued. I own a lot of things there.

Trump also gave his thoughts on the state of Harry and Meghans marriage, saying he thinks it wont last because of the stress they both have endured due to their exile from Harrys native United Kingdom.

So, I want to know whats going to happen when Harry decides hes had enough of being bossed around, he mused. Or maybe when she decides that she likes some other guy better. I want to know whats going to happen when it ends, OK?

I do [think the relationship will end], Trump concluded. Ive been a very good predictor, as you know. I predicted almost everything. Itll end and itll end bad. And I wonder if Harrys gonna go back on his hands and knees, back into the beautiful city of London and say, Please. You know, I think Harry has been led down a path.

Trumps feelings about Meghan might be because of a more personal reason. When he traveled to England to meet with the royal family in 2019, she was noticeably absent from the events.

Some pointed to the fact that she was technically still on maternity leave after giving birth to her first child, Archie. Others thought it was probably due to the fact that Meghan had previously made it clear she disagreed with Trumps politics. In 2016, she even went so far as to say she might move to Canada after he was elected president.

While there are many rumors about Harry and Meghans marriage, Trumps comments on the pair seem unfounded; they appear to be enjoying their time away from the life of the royal family.

RELATED: Donald Trump Invited Meghan Markle to One of His Golf Courses Before She Joined the Royal Family

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Donald Trump Doesn't Think Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Marriage Will Last: 'It'll End Bad' - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

WADSWORTH, Ohio -- Former President Donald Trumps continued sway over the Republican party in Northeast Ohio looms large over a four-way primary to pick its candidate to run in a reconfigured congressional district that includes western and southern Cuyahoga County, Medina and Wayne counties, and northern Holmes County.

Instead of weathering fire from Trump, the two GOP incumbents who currently represent the 7th congressional districts new turf decided against seeking re-election.

Rep. Anthony Gonzalez of Rocky River announced his retirement in the wake of voting to impeach Trump after last years Capitol Hill riot by Trump supporters who wanted to overturn results of the 2020 presidential election. Blowback against Gonzalez was swift. A former White House aide to Trump -- Max Miller -- launched a campaign against Gonzalez with Trumps endorsement. The Ohio Republican Party called on Gonzalez to resign and Trump held his first rally during the election cycle in Lorain County to back Miller.

The GOP congressman who represents the next highest proportion of its territory -- Rep. Bob Gibbs Holmes County -- decided to retire after a district map was released that lumped him in with Miller and others who got into the race to challenge Gonzalez. Gibbs released a statement that criticized the circus redistricting has become in Ohio. Trumps camp announced his Miller endorsement would carry over to a primary against Gibbs, even though Gibbs was a loyal Trump supporter throughout Trumps lone term.

The reconfigured district is 53.61% Republican, according to Daves Redistricting App, which means the winner of the GOP primary between Miller, non-profit founder Jonah Schulz, small business owner Charlie Gaddis of Medina, and Berea social worker and podcaster Anthony Leon Alexander has a strong chance of winning in the congressional seat in November.

The sole candidate in the Democratic primary is Bay Village podcast producer Matthew Diemer. The two other Democrats who filed paperwork to run for the seat suspended their campaigns.

In addition to having Trumps endorsement, Miller has a huge cash advantage over his competitors.

As of April 13, Miller had raised almost $2 million for his campaign, and spent slightly over $1.5 million, filings submitted to the Federal Election Commission indicate. The campaign had $456,633 in the bank, and owed $550,000 in loans to the candidate, who is a grandson of Forest City Enterprises founder Sam Miller.

Schulz has raised $73,898 during the election cycle and spent $68,811. His campaign had $6,765 in the bank, and showed a $2,500 loan from his father. Gaddis reports show hes raised $23,606 for his campaign -- including a $19,356 loan he made from personal funds -- and spent $14,686. His campaign account balance was most recently listed as -$8,512.19. Alexander has not filed paperwork at the Federal Election Commission to indicate that hes raised money.

Democrat Diemer has raised $109,067 so far, spent $103,507 and had $5,560 left. He has loaned $38,600 to his campaign.

Trump highlighted his support for Miller and other Ohio candidates hes endorsed at a rally last weekend in Delaware County.

Hes a great guy, going to be a tremendous congressman, Trump said of Miller, who was known as the Music Man at the White House because his tasks included playing Trumps favorite show tunes, such as Memory from Cats, to calm him down when he was upset. Im proud of him. Hes like, my boy.

Miller applauded Trump as the greatest president of our lifetimes, and described himself and the other Trump-endorsed candidates as America first fighters that are always going to work for you.

People have it backwards in DC, Miller continued. We know very well that our main job is that we work for you and you dont work for us.

Miller also paid his respects to the Trump family a few days before the rally at a Lincoln Day Dinner in Wadsworth. Donald Trump, Jr., was the headline speaker at the event to benefit Medina Countys Republican Party. A Make America Great Again hat autographed by the former president sold for several thousand dollars at a fundraising auction at the event, as did several guns.

In an interview after he met behind closed doors with the younger Trump, Miller said primary voters should support him because of his experience working for Trump. He said sitting down with Congress members and governors in that capacity convinced him most are there to manipulate the system and line their own coffers. If elected, he said he would not take a federal pension and would give part of his salary to community charities that help homeless veterans and alleviate the opioid epidemic.

If he becomes a member of Congress, he says he would fight inflation by stopping the Federal Reserve from pumping more money into the financial system, would support U.S. energy independence, and would work to establish a merit-based immigration system. He opposes abortion with no exceptions.

Miller describes Trumps endorsement as the greatest political endorsement that politics has ever seen, and says the former president has 92 percent support among Republicans in the district, but insists hes not relying on it to win support. He said he has put in the hard work to campaign in his district, established relationships in the community and knocked on voters doors.

Millers Trump ties come with baggage. The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol says Miller helped plan the Trump rally on the Ellipse that preceded the riot and subpoenaed his testimony. Miller describes the probe as a complete sham and political persecution, but says he answered the committees questions.

He says members of the committee asked him if the Deep State was real, even though its subpoena said theyd ask him about his role planning the rally.

I told them that it was every career federal bureaucrat who was sitting on the call, and Republican elected official who had been in Congress for more than three terms, you are the deep state, he said. And I also told them that theyre on a wild ice fishing expedition up in the Arctic, and they dont know what fishing hole to go to, because they have nothing.

In addition to addressing the January 6th commissions inquiries, Miller is fending off allegations that he physically abused a former girlfriend, ex-White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, who aired her grievances in a book published last year and a Washington Post column she authored when the book was released. Miller filed a defamation suit against Grisham in Cuyahoga County over her abuse allegations, which he says are false. Grisham asked to have the case dismissed on the grounds that none of the alleged abuse happened in Ohio. Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Emily Hagan declined to dismiss the case.

Jonah Schulz of Cleveland is running s a Republican in Ohio's 7th congressional district.

The other three candidates in the race are doing their best to round up support from local Republicans without Millers advantages.

As he worked the crowd at the Lincoln Day Dinner in Wadsworth, Schulz discounted the impact of Trumps endorsement in the race. He said many political endorsements are based on who you know, connections or your financial situation, and dont necessarily boost the best candidate. He said that while Miller attended Trumps rally far from the district in Delaware County, Schulz and his campaign team would be knocking on doors in Wooster.

Everybody that I have talked to is saying Im going to do my own research, Im going to do my own homework and make my own decision, Schulz said. Weve seen the results of blindly following endorsements and blindly following money for a long time and that hasnt done us any favors.

The founder of a charity that transforms neglected baseball fields in underprivileged communities into state-of-the-art ballparks, Schulz describes himself as the only candidate who will challenge the status quo on both sides,. He says he would not be swayed by special interests, big donors, or corporations, because his campaign is 100% funded by individual contributions.

He says hes a grassroots candidate who is in touch with voters because hes been meeting with them for months. Since launching his campaign 15 months ago, Schulz says hes knocked on over 60,000 doors, attended over 300 campaign events, distributed over 1,000 yard signs and has large signs up on heavily trafficked areas throughout the district. The campaign is also doing mailers, texting and radio ads -- everything that we can possibly do short of TV ads, says Schulz.

He says GOP voters were most concerned about election integrity and coronavirus-related mandates and lockdowns when he initially began campaigning, and now care most about inflation and rising gasoline prices that are straining family budgets. If elected, he said he would support an all of the above energy approach and promote oil and gas drilling in the United States.

He argues that both political parties contributed to runaway spending, and said he backs a balanced budget amendment to ensure that we are not spending trillions of dollars over what we are bringing in as tax revenue. He said he supports constructing a border wall to keep immigrants from entering the United States illegally, holding businesses accountable if they hire illegal workers who undercut the wages paid to U.S. citizens, and ending the welfare system that attracts illegal immigrants here in the first place.

Charlie Gaddis is a small business owner in Medina County.

Gaddis, who runs a business that provides project management services to large U.S. companies, says hes the best candidate for the district because of his decades of business experience and creative problem solving abilities. He also discounts Trumps endorsement of Miller, telling conservative radio host Bob Frantz that while many of Trumps policies are fantastic, some of the people hes endorsed were bad choices and Trump would like the policies Gaddis supports

He wants to bring down gasoline prices by going forward with the Keystone pipeline, purchasing more oil from Canada, suspending the federal gas tax, and stopping price gouging investigations of oil companies.

Our energy policy needs to be about stability and independence domestically, as we morph to a greener economy. and internationally about denying bad actors excessive profits to wage war and mayhem, said a statement from Gaddis.

He supports abandoning the income tax, and instead instituting consumption-based taxes on consumers who buy products. He argues that taxing products as theyre built and embedding those taxes in the costs that consumers pay for goods puts U.S. products at a cost disadvantage to foreign goods that dont face such taxes, and has contributed to the decline of the U.S. industrial base.

In addition to completing the physical border wall that Trump sought to keep illegal immigrants out of the United States, Gaddis said hed like to impose a virtual wall that would require proof of citizenship to access banks, hospitals, schools, gain employment or receive government benefit.

He describes himself as a big fan of rugged individualism, and supports smaller government with greater opportunities for businesses and individuals.

The more freedom we have, the better we do, says Gaddis.

Anthony Leon Alexander of Berea is a Republican candidate in Ohio's 7th congressional district.

Alexander, who works as a site supervisor for an organization that helps people with developmental disabilities and also does podcasts, says hes running for office because he thinks the current crop of politicians who represents his area dont listen to voters or have empathy to build the community and to decide whats in the best interests for the people that voted for you.

I want to be one of those people who tries to make a difference, says Alexander, who serves on Bereas planning commission and on its tax incentive review council.

If elected, he said hed support increasing the minimum wage to help people cope with out-of-control costs, as well as providing controlled stimulus checks. He said some people who took stimulus checks could have been working and he takes offense when I hear stories about people who would rather sit back and collect the check when they could go to work.

He says immigrants must enter the country legally and go by our rules to stay.

He says hed support expanding insurance to have mental-health coverage, and taking other steps to help those who are hurting.

Being a single parent, Ive seen the opportunities and hardships that affect everyday families, Alexander says. From housing, to education, from living paycheck to paycheck. Ive lived and am still living like most families.

What voters say

In addition to securing Trumps endorsement, Miller is endorsed by Cuyahoga Countys Republican party. Executive committee chair Lisa Stickan said hes gone to several GOP clubs and community events in the county since last year, and built lots of support in the area.

Strongsville GOP board member Rob Winwood says his club endorsed Miller because its members liked his youth and Washington experience. Volunteers from the group are canvassing on Millers behalf, added board member Beverly Jones.

Lisa Woods, who runs the Medina County friends and Neighbors Republican group said her organization has not issued an endorsement, but around half her members like Miller and the others like Schulz.

People are real passionate about one or the other, Woods reports.

Republican voters interviewed before Donald Trump, Jr.s Wadsworth speech were divided between backing Schulz and Miller. Former U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, who chairs Medina Countys Republican party and held the congressional seat before Gonzalez, declined to say who he thought was ahead.

The districts just got set, said Renacci, whose gubernatorial campaign signs lined the street outside the event. Max is endorsed by Trump. Jonah is a good guy.

Craig Wanko of Seville said he backs Schulz because of his opposition to illegal mandates that were imposed after the coronavirus pandemic. He said Trumps endorsement of Miller doesnt matter to him, even though he enjoys attending Trump rallies and wore a red MAGA cap to the dinner.

I support Trump, but not all his endorsements, said Wanko.

Elaina Zgrabik of Hinckley also said shell vote for Schulz.

He has been hitting the pavement hard and I think he will do a lot of good for the area, she said.

Gary Fox of Wadsworth said hell vote for Miller because of his service in the Trump administration and his background as a U.S. Marine Corps reservist.

I like Jonah a lot, but I think Max is more qualified, Fox added.

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Former President Donald Trump tries to tip the scale in the reconfigured 7th congressional districts Republi - cleveland.com

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty

Between Texas Gov. Greg Abbott letting the state power grid collapse while hes busing migrants to D.C. to get himself on Fox News, Jared Kushner getting $2 billion from the Saudis, and Donald Trump bragging to Sean Hannity about how well he knows Vladimir Putin, theres no end to the fuckery.

But the focus on The New Abnormal this week is on Donald Trump Jr., as CNN reporter Zachary Cohen breaks down his reporting on the namesakes post-election text messages to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows scheming on how to steal the election: We either have a vote WE control and WE win OR it gets kicked to Congress 6 January 2021.

That, Cohen tells co-host Molly Jong-Fast, shows that even in those earliest days, while the election votes were still being counted, there were high-level people, very close to the former president, including his chief of staff and his namesake oldest son, talking through the details about what would happen over the next two months in the lead up to Jan. 6, as far as the strategy to overturn the election. It really puts an important timestamp on when this strategy was being drawn upeven as the votes were still being counted.

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Whats interesting about Donald Trump Juniors text messages, Cohen explains, is that they refer to multiple paths that we control. There was an eye to Jan. 6 as sort of the backup plan where Junior alludes to a scenario where the House of Representatives can essentially vote to install Donald Trump as president, rather than Joe Biden. So Juniors lawyer told us, Look, this was given the date that this was sent. And, uh, he was, looks like he was forwarding along someone elses ideas, but weve also learned about a text that came immediately before that from Donald Trump, Jr. that says, Look, this is what we need to do. Please read it, please get it to everyone. We need to do it because Im not sure we're doing it. So he is clearly putting a stamp of approval on things.

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Plus University of California Law professor Rick Hasen, the co-director of the universitys Fair Elections and Free Speech Center and the author of Cheap Speech: How Disinformation Poisons Our Politicsand How to Cure It, explains how if we had the same polarized politics of today, but the technology of the 1950s, we likely wouldn't have had Jan. 6 and the insurrection and millions of people believing the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

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Donald Trump Jr. Was Up to His Ears in the Plot to Steal ...

Beltway pundits have been predicting former President Trumps political downfall almost from the moment Trump announced his candidacy in 2015. There may be a worse bet in Washington, but youd be hard-pressed to find it.

Trump seems to defy the laws of political gravity. Not only has he survived multiple accusations of sexual misconduct, countless administration scandals and a historic two impeachments, hes done so with his popularity largely intact among Republicans. And while a 44 percent national favorability rating isnt anything to celebrate, Trump has proven it is enough to win the presidency in a country deeply divided by political polarization.

But recent GOP primary polling and public comments by prominent Republicans indicate that the ground may be shifting under Trumps feet. Whats worse for The Donald, much of the harshest criticism comes from former MAGA faithful who are increasingly questioning Trumps fitness to lead the insurgent movement he founded.

Trump drew rare criticism from fellow Republicans for his endorsement of Dr. Mehmet Oz, a snake-oil selling daytime television star and Republican candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania. Former candidate Sean Parnell described himself as disappointed by Trumps decision, calling Oz the antithesis of everything that made Trump the best president of my lifetime.

Breitbarts Joel Pollak went further, warning that Trumps endorsement of Oz could divide MAGA in the only way that matters: He could lose the America First conservatives over it. For a party that loyally stomached Trumps full endorsement of Roy Moores doomed Alabama Senate bid, Dr. Oz is simply a bridge too far.

Trumps base of strength within the GOP has always been his ability to command loyalty from Republican lawmakers, even at the expense of their own political prospects. But pollster Frank Luntz suggests Trumps awe-inspiring effect on his partys players may be fading. In an interview with CNNs Dana Bash, Luntz described a former president widely mocked albeit privately and quietly within his partys elite circles. That might seem minor for Democrats used to mocking their partys agitators, but it represents a huge breach of loyalty in a Trumpified GOP.

The former presidents control over his party is slipping in large part because of a self-inflicted wound. During a radio interview on Feb. 22, Trump praised Russian President Vladimir Putin as a genius and applauded Putins savvy invasion of Ukraine. The issue became an immediate Republican loyalty test, dividing the party based on Republican lawmakers willingness to cheer authoritarianism if that pleases Trump.

Praising Putin earned Trump unexpectedly strong (if sometimes indirect) criticism from prominent Republican lawmakers such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who urged President Biden to take immediate action against Putins aggression. In a rare show of independence, Senate Republicans lined up to distance themselves from Trumps remarks by issuing their own condemnations of Putins lawlessness.

Republicans fleeting moment of Trump criticism on Ukraine has emboldened many within the party to voice their own concerns about the partys increasingly erratic direction. Trumps strident endorsement of Oz in Pennsylvania and the MAGA worlds confident rebuke of Trumps vaunted three-dimensional chess political strategy is the most public test yet of the former presidents ability to shape the GOP in his own image.

All that strife within the MAGA movement is hitting Trump where it hurts: rally attendance. With Trumps messengers internally conflicted, audiences are beginning to zone out. A recent North Carolina Trump rally drew a paltry 1,000 to 2,000 attendees, down almost 90 percent over a rally at the same venue during his 2016 presidential campaign. The MAGA movement drew Republicans with its ceaseless stream of attacks against Hillary Clinton and now Joe Biden. Voters seem less interested when MAGA leaders are unloading their ammunition on each other.

Trumps excesses havent doomed him yet, but his movement now faces its most sustained Republican criticism since Jan. 6, when Trump remained silent while his supporters ransacked the Capitol complex. With Trumps endorsed candidates inspiring as much derision as praise and a growing number of GOP hopefuls looking ahead to 2024, the question Republicans must now answer is whether Trump is still an essential part of the MAGA movement.

Unless Trump and his lieutenants can reinforce the former presidents grip on loose-lipped GOP critics, the MAGA movement could fracture just as Republicans head into a critical midterm election cycle. That would be disastrous for the GOP, but it would be politically fatal for an increasingly vulnerable Trump.

MaxBurnsis a Democratic strategist and founder of Third Degree Strategies, a progressive communications firm. Follow him on Twitter @themaxburns.

Link:

Is Trumpism finally cracking? | The Hill

An Ohio man who claimed he was only following presidential orders from Donald Trump when he stormed the US Capitol has been convicted by a jury that took less than three hours to reject his novel defence for obstructing Congress from certifying Joe Bidens presidential victory.

The federal jury on Thursday also found Dustin Byron Thompson, 38, guilty of all five of the other charges in his indictment, including stealing a coat rack from an office inside the Capitol during the riot on 6 January 2021. The maximum sentence for the obstruction count, the lone felony, would be 20 years imprisonment.

Jurors did not buy Thompsons defence, in which he blamed Trump and members of the presidents inner circle for the insurrection and for his own actions.

One juror who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity said: Donald Trump wasnt on trial in this case.

The juror, a 40-year-old man, said as he left the courthouse: Everyone agrees that Donald Trump is culpable as an overall narrative. Lots of people were there and then went home. Dustin Thompson did not.

Thompson himself, testifying a day earlier, admitted he joined the mobs attack and stole the coat rack and a bottle of bourbon. He said he regretted his disgraceful behaviour.

I cant believe the things that I did, he said. Mob mentality and group think is very real and very dangerous.

Still, he said he believed Trumps false claim that the election was stolen and was trying to stand up for him. If the president is giving you almost an order to do something, I felt obligated to do that, he said.

The US district judge Reggie Walton, who is scheduled to sentence Thompson on 20 July, described the defendants testimony as totally disingenuous and his conduct on 6 January as reprehensible. The judge also cast blame in Trumps direction after the verdict was announced.

I think our democracy is in trouble, he said, adding that charlatans like Trump did not care about democracy, only about power. And as a result of that, its tearing our country apart.

Prosecutors did not ask for Thompson to be detained immediately, but Walton ordered him held and he was led away handcuffed. The judge said he believed Thompson was a flight risk and posed a danger to the public.

Thompsons trial was the third to go before a jury among hundreds of Capitol riot cases prosecuted by the justice department. In the first two cases, jurors also convicted the defendants of all charges.

The assistant US attorney William Dreher said Thompson, a college-educated pest exterminator who lost his job during the Covid-19 pandemic, knew he was breaking the law when he joined the mob that attacked the Capitol and, in his case, looted the Senate parliamentarians office. The prosecutor told jurors that Thompsons lawyer wants you to think you have to choose between President Trump and his client.

You dont have to choose because this is not President Trumps trial. This is the trial for Dustin Thompson because of what he did at the Capitol on the afternoon on Jan 6, Dreher told jurors during his closing arguments.

The defence attorney, Samuel Shamansky, said Thompson had not avoided taking responsibility for his conduct.

This shameful chapter in our history is all on TV, Shamansky told jurors. But he said Thompson, unemployed and consumed by a steady diet of conspiracy theories, was vulnerable to Trumps lies about a stolen election. He described Thompson as a pawn and Trump as a gangster who abused his power to manipulate supporters.

The vulnerable are seduced by the strong, and thats what happened here, Shamansky said.

The judge had barred Thompsons lawyer from calling Trump and ally Rudolph Giuliani as trial witnesses. But he ruled that jurors could hear recordings of speeches that Trump and Giuliani delivered on 6 January, before the riot erupted. A recording of Trumps remarks was played.

Shamansky contended that Giuliani, the Trump adviser and former New York City mayor, incited rioters by encouraging them to engage in trial by combat and that Trump provoked the mob by saying: If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country any more.

But Dreher told jurors that neither Trump nor Giuliani had the authority to make legal what Thompson did at the Capitol.

The juror who spoke on condition of anonymity said he was laughing under my breath when Thompson testified he took the coat rack to prevent other rioters from using it as a weapon against police.

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US Capitol rioter who blames Trump for his actions is found guilty - The Guardian

On Thursday, the Republican National Committee voted to withdraw its partys candidates from participation in the official presidential debates. Their unanimous vote to separate from the Commission on Presidential Debates is historic and comes after months of suggestions by the RNC and its chairperson Ronna McDaniel that the party would do so. While it is unclear whether such a move would bar a Republican standard bearer from participating if he or she chose to do so, such a move is a serious threat to the democratic process. It should also infuriate any potential 2024 Republican nominee who believes they could win a debate against President Joe Biden.

The Commission on Presidential Debates sponsors the general election debates between the partys presidential nominees (typically in three sessions) and the partys vice presidential nominees (in one session). The RNCs decision to withdraw from participation would not impact debates in the party primaries, which are typically formed from agreements among media organizations, a political party, and the potential candidates from a given party.

Republican Party leadership has been voicing anger over the rules that the Commission on Presidential Debates maintains and has suggested bias in the process, specifically around choices over moderator selection. Those concerns also extend to the timing of debates, term limits for members of the board of directors, and codes of conduct for staff and moderators. The party has demanded that the process and the commission be reformed.

The scope of reforms and the ability to influence the debate process is important to dissect. There are certain aspects of presidential debates that are set by the commission such as sites, moderators, etc. Other aspects of the debates are negotiated between campaigns and the commission, including minutiae like the position of podiums and the temperature of the air. The bigger picture issues, that (as noted above) RNC complaints center on, are typically determined by the commissions board of directors. That board is bipartisan in nature and many members have deep experience in politics and presidential debate procedure and history.

For most presidential candidates, debates are valuable. They serve as a large-scale, long-format means of detailing their plans and policies to the American public. Thus, it is surprising that the Republican Party would opt out of these debates during this cycle. First, it is always challenging for a presidential challenger to get as much airtime as a sitting president. Because of the nature of the office and the committed press coverage to a sitting President, the incumbent already has a leg up on the competition when it comes to delivering their message to the public. While there have been rumors that President Biden may not seek a second term, the Republican Party must operate under the assumption that he will seek reelection. As a result, the presidential debates offer a challenger an opportunity to be on the same playing fieldin some sense literallyas the sitting president.

Second, presidential campaigns are always a clash and contrast of ideas, and there is no grander stage for that to be played out than in a debate. There are no other opportunities for presidential (and vice presidential) candidates to face off, directly, across from one another, than in the commission sponsored debates. If a candidate is confident that they are a better candidate, with a more electable set of ideas, and would bring to the office a style and approach far superior to that of their opponent, they should clamor for the opportunity.

Third, Republicans have been quite confident in their debate performances in recent elections. On July 2, 2019, President Donald Trump tweeted his own opinion of the 2016 Commission on Presidential Debate-sponsored events stating, As most people are aware according to the Polls I won EVERY debate including the three with Crooked Hillary Clinton. In the following election cycle, the sitting president claimed to have won both debates once again.[1] After the first debate, he told the press corps, [b]y every measure, we won the debate easily last night. He even went on to suggest that despite his own desire for more debates, then-former Vice President Joe Biden wanted to opt out. Days after the second debate, President Trump tweeted about his winning, Debate Poll Average: 89% Trump. 11% Sleepy Joe Biden! Although, it should be noted it was not clear what poll average or specific polling the president was referencing with that claim.

Even the Republican National Committee chairperson praised Trumps debating in 2020. Ms. McDaniels statement tweeted by the official GOP account insisted that President Trump dominated tonights debate by aggressively highlighting that he accomplished more for the American people and the following day noted, President Trumps stellar performance in the second debate. Given this confidence, former President Trumps flirtation with another run in 2024, and polling suggesting he would be the Republican frontrunner, he should be embracing the opportunity to face off against the man who beat him in the 2020 race.

Fourth, withdrawing candidates from the commission-sponsored debates will not guarantee that those debates will be canceled. If the debate is not canceled and the Republican standard bearer opts not to attend, the event could provide President Biden or whoever is the Democratic nominee in 2024 if he were not to run, unfettered access to the American public. Those types of debates have happened in House and Senate races in which a candidate opts not to participate and either multiple candidates get more time than they would have otherwise, or a single candidate gets the entirety of the airtime.

Presidential debates are an important part of the democratic process in the United States. Failure to appear at one robs the American public from having a better understanding of what a candidate believes on a variety of issues, what that candidates demeanor and temperament as president would be like, and what management style he or she would bring to the Oval Office. In a country the size of the United States, the public does not have frequent access to the president or to presidential candidates, and so making an informed decision at the ballot box should require as much factual information about each candidate as is possible. Commission-sponsored debates allow for that possibility. Additionally, presidential candidates these days are kept in carefully protected bubbles in which surprises and curveballs rarely appear. It is at the commission-sponsored presidential debates when the public has the rare opportunity to see a president and/or a presidential candidate forced from that bubble and required to face the public directly.

Particularly in an era of misinformation, disinformation, questionable attack advertising, a social media environment fostered by woefully inept leadership, and a huge cadre of Americans across the political divide who consume news in echo chambers, the commission-sponsored debates serve a vital democratic value. The Republican National Committee should reconsider its decision to withdraw or at least make public that it would take no punitive action against a candidate who sought to participate in the forums. And finally, the Commission on Presidential Debates is not immune from reform or criticism. Where genuine and reasonable reforms or changes can be enacted, the commission should consider them insofar as the integrity of the process is maintained, the changes do not bias a single candidate or party, and the American public gets to hear from the partys standard bearers.

[1] As a reminder, during the 2020 cycle, there were three presidential debates scheduled. The initially scheduled second debate was canceled because President Trump contracted COVID-19. The final and second debate was held on October 22nd.

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Donald Trump should be furious the RNC nixed presidential debates - Brookings Institution

Donald Trump departed the presidency with the same power he wielded as a billionaire real estate developer: leverage.

Although Trump won more than 74 million votes in 2020, many Republicans wrote Trump off and were ready to move on from him, but Trump still had cards still to play. His leverage over the Republican Party is that he represents the bridge between the party that was and the party it is becoming. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wrote on Twitter, We are a working-class party now. Thats the future.

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), in a memorandum to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in March 2021, wrote: President Trump gave the Republican Party a political gift: We are now the party supported by most working-class voters. The question is whether the Republican Party will reject the gift or unwrap it and permanently become the party of the working class.

Trump can rally the working class vote like few Republicans have been able to do since Ronald Reagan. His Forgotten Man language connects him with those who believe that they are not getting a fair shake from Washington insiders, political elites and global corporations.

One problem with Trumpism is that it is built more on leverage than it is on a governing philosophy. This makes it more transactional than unifying. A Trump endorsement provides a level of built-in political support, especially in a primary election, but it also serves to brand a candidate with many of the pejorative invectives leveled against Trump the man, rather than his policies, and branding that can limit a candidates crossover appeal in the general election.

This is not to say that a Trump endorsement is not powerful and coveted by Republican candidates across America, because his endorsement provides a lift like no other endorsement can. As CBS News recently reported, Trump has endorsed nearly 130 candidates for 2022, testing his influence in the Republican Party. Trumps tried-and-true strategy is one that resurrected the political career of Richard Nixon after he lost the presidency in 1960 and governorship of California in 1962. Nixon would go on to win the Republican nomination for president in 1968, and the presidency.

No would have bet that, eight years after losing to John F. Kennedy and then losing to Democrat Pat Brown in California, Nixon would be back on top in 1968. In 1962, Nixon gave what many felt was his last news conference stating, I leave you gentlemen now, and you will write it. You will interpret. Thats your right. But as I leave you, I want you to know just think how much youre going to be missing. You wont have Nixon to kick around anymore, because gentlemen, this is my last press conference, and it will be the one in which I have welcomed the opportunity to test wits with you.

A lesson from Nixon in 1968 is that candidacies are decided more by events than by party leaders, press or prevailing wisdom. In Nixons case, the Republican Party took a disastrous turn to the right in 1964 by nominating Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona who infamously stated in his convention speech, Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue. Goldwater had branded himself and went on to win only six states. Conservatism was viewed as risky in the aftermath of his defeat.

The 1960s was a time of social upheaval and widespread domestic violence spawned from the civil rights movement and protests against the Vietnam War. It was a time when the American people wanted to return to some semblance of normalcy. Nixon represented normalcy. He was the safe bet, the man who had faithfully served as Dwight Eisenhowers vice president for eight years. Nixon had a lot of what we perhaps hoped we were getting with Joe Biden, until we didnt.

There are other parallels to today as we enter the post-COVID era with new challenges begun by Black Lives Matter and framed by the diversity agenda, and a revolt by parents against curricula about race and gender identity in schools that may change the face of politics in America. At this point, the Biden team seems like a crisis-creating machine and many Americans are starting to look beyond him toward a return to a less chaotic America.

This is why 2024 may be shaping up to be the second political resurrection of Trumps candidacy. Trump is building his political capital with his endorsements. He is raising money. The Biden administration, at least at this point, is handing him an I told you so agenda on which to run. The nation is exhausted in the wake of COVID-19 and scared by runaway inflation. The last normal time many people remember is pre-COVID. Trump would be well served to lay claim to the normalcy he created and to promise he can do it again for America.

Trumps greatest and perhaps insurmountable challenge is to move the focus to the issues and off himself. This will require him to define Trumpism as a governing philosophy and to frame issues that bring people together, rather than drive them apart. Too heavy a lift for Donald Trump? Maybe, but not if he keeps his eyes on the prize.

Dennis M. Powell is founder of Massey Powell, an issues management strategy consultancy based in Plymouth Meeting, Pa. He was retained for six years by Trump Entertainment Resorts to build coalitions.

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Donald Trumps Nixon strategy could pay off in 2024 - The Hill