…and Barron We used to call Don Jr and Eric Uday and Qusay and it fell out of fashion probably because nobody remembers Saddam Hussein anymore. But Trump’s dictatorial practice of installing family members in political roles certainly should seem familiar to those of us who have been around a while: After years in which his privacy has been fiercely guarded and he has been kept out of the political arena, former President Donald J. Trump’s youngest son, Barron, was chosen to be one of Florida’s delegates to the Republican National Convention. Barron, who turned 18 earlier this year and will graduate high school this month, will be one of 41 at-large delegates at the party’s national meeting in July, when the G.O.P. is expected to officially nominate his father as the Republican presidential candidate. His selection was reported earlier by NBC News. The youngest Trump will be joined in the delegation by his two more politically active brothers, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., both of whom have appeared on the campaign trail or done interviews to support their father’s candidacy. Mr.
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Mike Johnson: Integrity Patriot It’s election year again, so voter fraud fraudsters are again flinging smoke bombs into newsrooms and shouting, “Fire!” By the time the smoke clears and no fire is found, they’ve gotten their headlines and reinforced the notion among viewers that all-but-nonexistent voter fraud is a huge problem. Speaker Mike Johnson (R), flanked by other Republican election integrity patriots outside the Capitol Wednesday, announced a bill to make voting by noncitizens illegaler than it is already. In apparent exchange for Donald Trump’s blessing, the Louisiana congressman committed to addressing the non-problem in a manner, writes Philip Bump, that “blends two of Trump’s favorite strawmen: illegal voters and immigrants.” He offered several “incorrect or misleading” reasons for the proposed legislation.
Cowardly, yes Donald Trump is not invincible in spite of MAGA mythology, explains Jamelle Bouie: In the folk wisdom of recent American politics, Donald Trump is a figure of herculean invulnerability to traditional scandal. What lands as a crippling blow to most politicians leaves nary a scratch on Trump, who effortlessly deflected the slings and arrows of the 2016 presidential campaign and paid no discernible price for the “Access Hollywood” tape, his racism or his general incoherence. There has long been a “please don’t hit me” reflex among established Democrats, a conditioned, abused-spouse behavior. Don’t make Daddy mad. Don’t impeach him. Don’t hold him accountable. You’ll just make him stronger. And madder. Bouie offers some examples. Now on trial in Manhattan, Trump is grinding his teeth to nubs over humiliating descriptions of his sexual encounter with Stormy Daniels, about the age of his daughter Ivanka. Yet the myth of his invulnerability is rising again, like the South. Even so: Let’s look at the situation as it stands.
Where are all of his ecstatic supporters? There have been a lot of raised eyebrows over the fact that with the exception of one appearance by his son Eric, Donald Trump’s family is not present to support him at his criminal trial in Manhattan. Normally you would see the wife and the adult kids lined up behind the defendant to show a united front, even if the subject at hand was uncomfortable. After all, there really isn’t such a thing as a pleasant criminal trial but it’s just something that is commonly done and I would certainly have thought that it would be wise in this case, since he’s running for president and all. It would have been especially useful to at least see Melania and Ivanka playing the trad-wife and loyal daughter suggesting by their presence that their man can do no wrong in their eyes. They’re supposed to be Republicans, after all. But how could they? Everyone knows that his cultivated image of a wealthy playboy who wined and dined beautiful women like he was some kind of matinee idol is another one of his lies.
This is how half the country becomes inured to blatant corruption: That is Fox News blithely normalizing Trump’s flagrant corruption. No biggie. Just Trump trying to bribe the oil industry into giving him a billion dollars. What’s the problem? It’s not that this sort of quid pro quo wasn’t implicit in the past. But they used to couch it in the idea that they were ideologically aligned and never made such a blatant pitch for specific “deliverables” in exchange for cash. You have to love the fact that the “oil man” told this reporter that a billion dollars in exchange for destroying regulations isn’t really a good deal. I guess they’re negotiating. But hey, why not? There’s no further need to pretend that the Republican party has any integrity. It’s all for sale and they’re fine with it.
“For those of you that want to vote because you think he’s an anti-vaxxer, he’s not really an anti-vaxxer. That’s only his political moment. So, RFK, his views on vaccines are fake, as is everything else about his candidacy.” MSNBC: In a striking video on Truth Social, Donald Trump criticizes Robert F. Kennedy Jr., dismissing him as a ‘radical left Democrat’ amid polls indicating Kennedy is siphoning votes from Trump’s campaign. Emphasizing the urgency, Trump states he would prefer Joe Biden over ‘Junior,’ arguing that the country would fare better under Biden’s administration than the ‘immediate collapse’ he predicts with Kennedy. Trump could theoretically put him away quickly if he wanted to: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has challenged Donald Trump to a head-to-head debate for when both address a Libertarian convention later this month, a move that comes as the presumptive GOP nominee has ramped up both criticism of Kennedy’s independent bid and demands that President Joe Biden meet him on a debate stage.
You may recall that the House Republicans held up aid to Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel (and blew off a very expansive border bill on Trump’s orders) for months. These Republicans attempting to impeach Biden over this issue is mind-boggling. I’ve heard several wingnut commentators compare Biden’s actions to Trump’s when he told Zelensky that he would withhold weapons unless he came up with dirt on Joe Biden. I don’t think I need to point out how ridiculous that comparison is. If they disagree with Biden’s decision that’s completely legitimate. They can try to write some legislation to stop him or someone on their team could file a lawsuit. But there are decades of precedents that say presidents have the authority to make a decision like this on the basis of the national interest (often at the behest of Republican hawks who argue for unlimited presidential power.) Trump, on the other hand, used his authority to advance his personal political interest.
Republicans are running a skeleton campaign I’m sure many in the media will say this must mean that Joe Biden is in trouble. Isn’t everything? But it just ain’t so. This is not good news for Trump I don’t care what anyone says: Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign called itself a “juggernaut” in May of that year, on par with a planet-destroying Death Star that was “firing on all cylinders.” Trump’s 2024 campaign has traded Star Wars metaphors for talk of a “leaner” and “more efficient” operation, with less real estate, fewer employees and greater dependence on outside groups. “We’re focused on quality over quantity. I mean, how novel a concept,” top strategist Chris LaCivita told the crowd of top donors May 4 at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., according to attendees. The shift comes as President Biden’s campaign and its allies, buoyed by incumbency, have been moving in the opposite direction, building a more expansive operation sooner than in 2020.
He was whining. Of course. Here’s the whole comment: Q: You were with World War II vets in their 90s today. Did you consider wearing a mask when you were with them? Trump: The wind was blowing so hard in such a direction that if the plague ever reached them, I’d be very surprised. It could’ve reached me too. You didn’t worry about me, you’re only worried about them He is a monster.
It was good enough for British loyalists “By what right does a judge put a former president in prison?” asks former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Why … why, that judge was appointed! Donald Trump appointed nearly twice as many judges in four years as Barack Obama did in eight, but who’s counting? Newt’s on a roll. Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan, was born in Columbia. And we know what Team Trump thinks of immigrants and immigrant judges, even if they’re not immigrants. Now this Columbian-born, immigrant judge appointed by that notorious yankee state of New York may send Trump to jail for contempt of court. The effrontery! “By what right?” asks Gingrich of Georgia does a judge dare apply the same law made for commoners to the MAGA king? Jon Stewart recently suggested that if Republicans are going to insist on such “monarchy shit” they should at least signify by wearing red coats. Gingrich is hardly alone in assailing the heirs of Blackstone and equal justice.