What did Trump actually do when he was president? This grotesque hagiography of Trump’s allegedly historically successful presidency is beyond parody. Even beyond the horror of his pandemic response was the endless chaos, the terrorist attacks, the massive foreign policy embarrassments, the rampant corruption. It was a shitshow from start to finish. But apparently people have forgotten what it was like and see him as some sort of benign caretaker at worst which is stunning. He did things. And they weren’t good. In the wake of his startling announcement that he planned to cut SS and medicare Jonathan Cohn took a look at his actual record: Instead of imagining how he might govern, you can look at what he actually did — especially on three issues that matter a lot to most Americans. Trump’s History On Abortion And Obamacare One of those issues is reproductive rights, which my colleague Alanna Vagianos has covered in depth. The issue has proved politically toxic for Republicans ever since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, ending the federal guarantee of abortion rights.
Uncategorized
The WSJ: Influential economic advisers to Donald Trump presented the former president with a shortlist of potential candidates to lead the Federal Reserve during a meeting at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida last week, according to people familiar with the matter. In the Thursday meeting, Steve Moore and Arthur Laffer, who have long advised Trump on economic issues, recommended three candidates: Kevin Warsh, an economic-policy adviser to President George W. Bush who later served on the Fed’s board of governors; Kevin Hassett, a former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Trump administration, and Laffer himself. Laffer, an economic adviser to former President Ronald Reagan, is one of the founding theorists of supply-side economics and a champion of the 2017 tax cuts Trump signed into law. I’m not familiar with Warsh but he sounds like the most normal of the three. Hasset is a Trump loyalist and Laffer is a full-blown crank. I wrote about his so-called economic success for Salon a bit ago. Laffer and Moore are heavily involved in the conomic side of Project 2025.
Even if they aren’t wearing a red hat or waving a giant Trump flag A good rule of thumb from Never Trumper Mike Madrid: Let me offer some advice when you’re talking to Republican friends, family & neighbors about not voting for Trump. This is how you can tell who is and isn’t voting for Trump. If someone says “I really don’t like the way he handles himself and his offensive tweets but I like his policies” that person is a Trump voter. This person knows what they’re doing is wrong but they’re rationalizing the behavior they know is wrong. If someone says “I don’t like Trump or his policies but no way I’d ever vote for Biden” this person is a Trump voter. This person doesn’t care, even enjoys doing the wrong thing and won’t be bothered by being forced to answer for it or think about it. If someone says “January 6th was the breaking point for me” or “Trump is mentally unfit” or “He’s dangerous” This voter has broken the fever swamp. Expect 1 in 10 Republicans to respond this way. They’re there but don’t be fooled by the first two.
This is serious. From last month in the NY Times: Former President Donald J. Trump has told advisers and allies that he likes the idea of a 16-week national abortion ban with three exceptions, in cases of rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother, according to two people with direct knowledge of Mr. Trump’s deliberations. Mr. Trump has studiously avoided taking a clear position on restrictions to abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned in the middle of 2022, galvanizing Democrats ahead of the midterm elections that year. He has said in private that he wants to wait until the Republican presidential primary contest is over to publicly discuss his views, because he doesn’t want to risk alienating social conservatives before he has secured the nomination, the two people said. Mr. Trump has approached abortion transactionally since becoming a candidate in 2015, and his current private discussions reflect that same approach. One thing Mr. Trump likes about a 16-week federal ban on abortions is that it’s a round number. “Know what I like about 16?” Mr. Trump told one of these people, who was given anonymity to describe a private conversation.
In the last months of his presidency he pardoned a bunch of them. Following up on the post below, here’s an example of how Trump dealt with the “waste, fraud and abuse” which he now says is his actual plan to cut Social Security and Medicare: In an attempt to clean up comments he made this week about “cutting” entitlement programs, former president Donald Trump has vowed in recent days that he would reduce spending on Social Security and Medicare by targeting waste and fraud in those programs. However, a review of Trump’s record shows that, in the closing months of his presidency, he used his clemency powers to help several people convicted in major Medicare fraud cases, including commuting the sentence of a man the Justice Department had described as having “orchestrated one of the largest health care fraud schemes in U.S. history.” In his last year in office, Trump commuted the sentences of at least five people who collectively filednearly $1.6 billion in fraudulent claims through Medicare or Medicaid.
The GOPers want to cancel Joe Biden’s Stare of the Union speeches because he’s so divisive. You really can’t make this stuff up: House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) said GOP leadership should reconsider how they invite presidents to give the State of the Union address, citing President Biden‘s “divisive” speech. Emmer argued Biden’s remarks were a “hyper-partisan” campaign speech, telling Axios the president should not be invited to address Congress next year if he’s elected to a second term. The Minnesota Republican said he’s bullish on former President Trump‘s odds of defeating Biden in November, but felt Biden’s speech should have had a more unifying tone. “That was about the most divisive State of the Union — I wouldn’t extend him an invitation next year, if that’s what we’re going to get,” Emmer said during an interview at the House GOP retreat. “He’s not going to be there next year — it’ll be a different president.
“I really feel like 2016 was the year that the mask came off” One can only hope. North Carolina’s MAGAfied GOP is turning off once-faithful Republicans and turning them into once-Republicans (USAToday): Ex-Republican Phebe Roberson, 75, said she “can’t stand” former President Donald Trump and voted against him in North Carolina’s GOP primary earlier this month. She also cast a ballot against Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the incendiary Republican gubernatorial candidate who received Trump’s endorsement ahead of the primary. The right fringe, she says, has “stolen my Republican party.” She cast her primary ballot for Nikki Haley. Justin Bradford, 47, of Pinehurst, once voted a straight Republican ticket, but began moving away from the GOP a dozen years ago when he switched his registration to unaffiliated and voted for Barack Obama.
He just can’t quit January 6th The loss of the 2020 election was such a blow to Trump’s fragile psyche that he perpetuated the Big Lie and tried to overturn the election culminating in his incitement to insurrection on January 6th. He can’t let it go even though it constantly reminds the nation of the worst day of his presidency: The rallies start with a recording of January 6 prisoners singing the national anthem. Campaign staff hand out pre-made “Too Big to Rig” signs to supporters. When the candidate takes the stage, he calls the rioters “people who love our country” and “hostages unfairly imprisoned for long periods of time.” There is nothing subtle about how central Donald Trump has made January 6, 2021, to his campaign. More than just continuing to feed denialism and conspiracies about the 2020 election, he is constantly distorting the reality of what happened that day, preaching vindication to his base of voters. In ways big and small – but often overlooked because they have become so commonplace at his events – the former president glosses over the violence.
Trump wanted to “shoot Americans in the street” Mike Pence has got righteous down. Just needs the anger. How many GOP allies are waiting for the signal to jump Trump’s ship? And Pence is just slipping out the door? Pence: Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda…. I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump. <YAWN> This from the guy targeted for hanging by Trump’s Jan. 6 mob, egged on by Trump himself. How fitting that Pence picked Friday, Marcy Wheeler tweets: If Mike from Pennsylvania is auditioning for Pence’s anger translator, he’s got the idea. He needs to work on his delivery. But it’s a start. Mike from Pennsylvania: Donald Trump cares the hell out of me…. He really scares me to death…. Donald Trump is mentally unfit for the office. For your MAGA relatives: Now with video! In you missed it, Mike, the boss you gave puppy-eyed looks to wanted to deploy troops to “shoot Americans in the street.” Mike? Nothing? ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● For The Win, 5th Edition is ready for download.
Blue grass and blood stains The Nation: In March 14, the Kentucky Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve HB 5, the “Safer Kentucky Act.” The legislation will now head to the Senate floor for a vote, and it will almost certainly pass. The 78-page bill criminalizes homelessness—and decriminalizes the use of deadly force against individuals engaging in “unlawful camping.” Under this law, if a property owner believes an unhoused trespasser is attempting to commit a felony or attempting to “dispossess” them, they can shoot the homeless person. Notably, The Bluegrass State found it necessary to make the language of existing related statutes more inclusive by changing his to his or her, and he to he or she. But shoot to kill. It’s fine. The dispossess language is subsection a. “[W]e are entering a time of vast restratification,” Chip Elliot wrote in Esquire in September 1981. “The United States is becoming more European…but it is a Europe of a different century.