Is Trump bleeding support yet? Tuesday was another bad one for Donald Trump, Boy King of the Red Hats. It ended in Indiana with Trump’s victory in the Republican primary. The former insurrectionist-in-chief won handily against South Carolina’s Nikki Haley who, Politico reports, “cleaned up in the suburbs.” A zombie Haley candidacy continued to punch above its weight in the Trumpiest of states: The former South Carolina governor is on track to break 20 percent for the first time since she dropped out of the race two months ago. Trump may have won Indiana’s 58 delegates, but Haley “posted above-30-point performances in places like Marion County, home to Indianapolis, and affluent Hamilton County, its suburb to the north.” Indiana is sure to go into the Trump column in November. But in a tight presidential contest, Trump cannot afford to lose even a fraction of Republican base voters who turn out for primaries. As one Twitter user observed, if President Joe Biden had lost 22 percent to a candidate no longer in the race in a deep blue state, it would be front page news.
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This makes my head hurt. Today Biden will be in Wisconsin announcing a major new Microsoft data center on the spot where Trump promised to bring a new Foxconn plant that never opened. Trump will probably take credit for the Microsoft plant and people will probably believe him even though he’s been out of office for 3 and a half years. Why?
They only have themselves to blame Ding-dong the tea party is dead: FreedomWorks, the once-swaggering conservative organization that helped turn tea party protesters into a national political force, is shutting down, according to its president, a casualty of the ideological split in a Republican Party dominated by former President Donald Trump. “We’re dissolved,” said the group’s president, Adam Brandon. “It’s effective immediately.” FreedomWorks’ board of directors voted unanimously on Tuesday to dissolve the organization, Brandon said. Wednesday will be the last workday for the group’s roughly 25 employees, though staffers will continue to receive paychecks and health care benefits for the next few months. The development brings to a close a period of turmoil for the organization. FreedomWorks laid off 40 percent of its staff in March of 2023, and as a result of a drop in fundraising, its total revenue has declined by roughly half, to about $8 million, since 2022, Brandon said.
Kristi Noem really loved that puppy murdering story Politico reports: Kristi Noem’s story about killing her dog made headlines across America. But it wasn’t news to people who worked on her first book, where the tale made it into a draft of the memoir before the publishing team nixed it. Then, as now, Noem wanted the story in because it showed a decisive person who was unwilling to be bound by namby-pamby niceties, while others on the team — which included agents, editors and publicists at Hachette Book Group’s prestige Twelve imprint, and a ghostwriter — saw it as a bad-taste anecdote that would hurt her brand. The tale was ultimately cut, according to two people involved with the project… It’s been a busy week for that communications team, and not just for Cricket-related reasons. The book’s fact-checking has also been called into question: Last week, the Dakota Scout reported on a passage of the book in which Noem claims to have met the dictator of North Korea while she was serving as a backbencher in Congress. The improbable meeting never happened. That first book did very well, setting her up as a national figure.
Here we go As Donald Trump’s criminal trial continues in Manhattan, it appears we will hear today from the adult-film actress at the heart of the hush-money payments allegedly covered up by Trump and his convicted “fixer’ Michael Cohen: Stormy Daniels (Stephanie Clifford) . What made the payments criminal, prosecutors allege, was disguising repayments to Cohen as legal fees. The scheme was intended to influence the 2016 presidential election. Forget the sex. Check out those titillating invoices at the Trump hush money trial, Politico reported. The Associated Press noted on Monday that the prosecution presented the jury with documents from the Trump Organization and testimony from former controller, Jeffrey McConney, who heard about payments to Cohen from Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg. But he was unaware of what they were for: A bank statement displayed in court showed Cohen paying $130,000 to Davidson, Daniels’ lawyer, on Oct. 27, 2016, out of an account for an entity Cohen created for the purpose. Weisselberg’s handwritten notes about reimbursing Cohen were stapled to the bank statement in the company’s files, McConney said.
As you hear all about Trump’s encounter with Stormy Daniels, get a load of this: Former Trump aide John McEntee promised a ban on pornography was coming in the United States in a recent interview with Daily Wire host Michael Knowles. McEntee had a senior position in the Trump White House and is a key contributor to the infamous Project 2025, a collection of policy proposals to transition the United States to Christian nationalist authoritarianism in the first 180 days of Trump’s second term. “You bring up the elephant in the room,” McEntee told Knowles, “which is a stain on not only society but the entire dating culture as well, which is pornography. Whenever America bans that, which will be happening at some point, everyone will be much better off.” The Project 2025 plan specifically lists a ban on pornography stating, “[Pornography] is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime. Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned.” “The minute that goes away, this country will flourish,” McEntee told Knowles.
Former Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Geoffrey Duncan endorsed Joe Biden in an op-ed yesterday. An excerpt follows: It’s disappointing to watch an increasing number of Republicans fall in line behind former president Donald Trump. This includes some of his fiercest detractors, such as U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, who raised eyebrows during a recent interview by vowing to support the “Republican ticket.” This mentality is dead wrong. Yes, elections are a binary choice. Yes, serious questions linger about President Biden’s ability to serve until the age of 86. His progressive policies aren’t to conservatives’ liking. But the GOP will never rebuild until we move on from the Trump era, leaving conservative (but not angry) Republicans like me no choice but to pull the lever for Biden.
Trump cares nothing for the party, only himself: You may have heard about this: Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) and his wife were indicted last week on conspiracy and bribery charges. The Justice Department alleged that Cuellar took nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani government-controlled oil company and a Mexican bank. In return, prosecutors allege that Cuellar agreed to “influence U.S. foreign policy in favor of Azerbaijan” and advance the bank’s interests in the U.S., per the indictment. You would think that would make Trump very happy and he’d be calling for Cuellar to resign immediately in order to help the GOP congress maintain their at least a two vote margin. (They only have one at the moment.) But no. Axios reports: Trump’s rare defense of a vulnerable Democratic lawmaker runs counter to Republicans’ desire to pressure Democrats to call for Cuellar’s removal. The National Republican Congressional Committee plans to accuse Democrats of a double standard if they stay mum on Cuellar following their pressure on ex-Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) to resign, Politico reports.
The degenerating saga of the GOP’s mind virus The best minds of the MAGA generation were not destroyed by madness. They’re empowered by it, revel in it, slather themselves in it. The T-partiers were pikers by comparison. They pretended that their beef with Barack Obama was taxation and his birth certificate. Alt-right street fighters tacked “based” to the front of their monikers to signify their antipathy towards their fellow Americans. The Party of Trump is an orgy of debasement. The talent competition at Donald Trump’s VP pageant over the weekend involved limbo. How low could they go? Lick his shoes? Lick the bottom of his shoes? Digby profiled some of the contestants on Monday. Then we come to the dog-executing, based governor of South Dakota, Krispi Gnome, and her latest memoir. And its anecdotes and edits. And her “Face The Nation” interview.