Donald Trump May 2024-

Republicans are lining up to oppose Trump. Will it make a difference?
Former Trump aides and others say the ex-president is unfit for office and urge fellow Republicans to vote for Harris
(The Guardian) Donald Trump has a knack for rallying a remarkable range of political opinion around a common goal: preventing his return to the White House.
That now includes prominent names from his own Republican party and top aides who worked under him as president. From former White House officials and national security staff to a once-worshipful press secretary, a host of one-time Trump fans are now lining up to join Democrats in declaring him unfit for another term in office.
The anti-Trump messages are principally aimed at persuading Republicans who may formerly have voted for him that they should put country before party to keep a dangerous populist from a second term in the White House. Opinion polls say that 9% of likely voters who support Trump are prepared to at least consider switching to the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris.
In early August, her campaign launched “Republicans for Harris” to target voters thought most likely to switch, particularly those who backed Trump’s rival in the primaries, Nikki Haley.

Heather Cox Richardson August 27, 2024
The elephant in the room these days is that most Republicans, along with many pundits, are pretending that Trump is a normal presidential candidate. They are ignoring his mental lapses, calls for authoritarianism, grifting, lack of grasp on any sort of policy, and criminality, even as he has hollowed out the once grand Republican Party and threatens American democracy itself.
It’s hard to look away from the reality that the Republican senators could have stopped this catastrophe at many points in Trump’s term, at the very least by voting to convict Trump at his first impeachment trial. …
Jack Smith’s superseding indictment of Trump in the election subversion case
The new indictment removes some specific allegations against Trump but contains the same four criminal charges as the first.
(Politico) A federal grand jury in Washington has reindicted Donald Trump on four felony charges related to his effort to subvert the 2020 presidential election.
Trump Plans to Put Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard on Transition Team
Mr. Kennedy, a former rival who backed Donald J. Trump when he dropped out, and Ms. Gabbard will be made honorary co-chairs of a presidential transition team that will help him select the policies and personnel of any second Trump administration, according to a campaign senior adviser.

24-26 August
Heather Cox Richardson August 26, 2024
Over the past few years, observers who have been paying attention to Trump have noted that he appeared to be sliding mentally and warned that when voters saw him again outside his Mar-a-Lago cocoon and his rallies they would be shocked. That prediction appears to have come true. Trump seems to have little interest in doing the actual work of campaigning, instead swinging between grievance-filled rants and flat recitations of his apocalyptic worldview, trying to stay in the center of public consciousness with outrageous lies and, as he did in his suggestion that he would not debate Harris, telling people to “stay tuned!”
Is Trump OK? Unhinged reaction to rise of Harris worries supporters
Rambling speeches peppered with insults, narcissism and an obsession with crowd size have raised questions about the former president’s fitness for office
(The Guardian) Even some of Donald Trump’s supporters are now asking the question that was the undoing of Joe Biden: is the former president fit for office?

23 August
RFK Jr.’s out. Does it change the race?
(Politico) Some third-party presidential campaigns are noble endeavors driven by the loftiest of principles. Others are vanity projects, exercises in cynicism that leave our politics slightly more soiled for the experience.
Today, we learned which camp Robert F. Kennedy Jr. belongs in.
In an expansive Phoenix press conference marked by its delusion about his strength as a political candidate, its conspiracy mongering and its lacerating criticism of the Democratic Party, RFK Jr. suspended his campaign and endorsed Donald Trump.
The endorsement was expected, the result of discussions between the two sides that have been ongoing for months. Democrats have long accused Kennedy of being a stalking horse for Trump, and little in Kennedy’s remarks today suggested otherwise. He reiterated Trump campaign talking points about a rigged Democratic primary, a palace coup against Joe Biden and claimed the media “engineered” a surge of popularity for Kamala Harris.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Endorses Trump and Suspends His Independent Bid for President
Mr. Kennedy said he will remove his name from the ballot in battleground states, so as not to be a spoiler.
21 August
Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump Jr. lobbied RFK Jr. to drop out and endorse Trump
(NBC) A group of Trump allies has been working behind the scenes since before the Republican convention to broker a deal between the independent and the GOP nominee.

22-23 August
Kamala Harris has put Trump in a box, and he’s struggling to break out
As Democrats emerge from their electrifying convention in Chicago, Trump finds himself on the defense, and it’s not clear he knows what to do.
In his history as a candidate for president, Donald Trump has never experienced anything like the past month. Vice President Kamala Harris, a Black and Indian American woman, has pushed the White alpha male to the sidelines of the national conversation, denying him the spotlight he craves and constantly demands.
Trump deflects, misleads in real-time reaction to Harris speech
Trump posted a series of comments as the Democratic nominee spoke, creating the unusual spectacle of simultaneous commentary by a nominee’s rival.
Former president Donald Trump did not hold back as Democratic nominee Kamala Harris delivered her acceptance speech Thursday night, firing off a series of scathing, insulting and sometimes unrelated comments while Harris was speaking.
Donald Trump’s Stock Is Sinking
As the former president posts and posts, his social-media site is losing value.
By Lora Kelley
About a year after being kicked off of every major social-media platform following the January 6 insurrection, Trump launched Truth Social, and for a while, he focused his posting energy exclusively on the platform. The company’s financials have been turbulent since it went public, in March.

21 August
Trump Isn’t Finished
Powerful arguments about how a second Trump term would be far, far worse than the first
Thomas B. Edsall
(NYT) The damage inflicted on the nation during Donald Trump’s first term in office pales in comparison with what he will do if he is elected to a second term. How can we know this? The best evidence is Trump himself. He has repeatedly demonstrated his willingness to tear the country apart.
“Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters,” Sean Wilentz, a historian at Princeton, writes in a forthcoming article, have made it clear that they will not accept defeat in November any more than they did when Trump lost four years ago. They believe that Trump is the one true legitimate president, that those who refuse to accept this fundamental fact are the true deniers, and that any result other than Trump’s restoration would be a thwarting of history’s purpose and a diabolical act of treason.
The authoritarian imperative has moved beyond Trumpian narcissism and the cultish MAGA fringe to become an article of faith from top to bottom inside the utterly transformed Republican Party, which Trump totally commands.
Like Wilentz, Laurence Tribe, a law professor at Harvard, does not mince words, writing by email:
All the dangers foreign and domestic posed by Trump’s cruelly vindictive, self-aggrandizing, morally unconstrained, reality-defying character — as evidenced in his first presidential term and in his unprecedented refusal to accept his 2020 electoral loss — would be magnified many times over in any subsequent term by three factors.
First, he has systematically eroded the norms and the institutional guardrails that initially set boundaries on the damage he and his now more carefully chosen loyalist enablers are poised to do in carrying out the dangerous project to which they are jointly committed.

12-15 August
Trump’s Strike-Busting Comments Could Come Back to Haunt Him
In angering unions, Trump is in danger of turning a powerful force for voter mobilization against himself.
By Lora Kelley
(The Atlantic) In a freewheeling and chaotic livestreamed conversation with Elon Musk on X this past Monday night, Donald Trump complimented Musk on his “fertile mind,” …. But the moment when Trump praised the idea of firing workers on strike could be the one he comes to regret this election season.
… The United Auto Workers (UAW) union promptly filed federal labor charges against Trump and Musk. As my colleague Charlie Warzel wrote this week, the comments made Trump sound like “a caricature of a heartless industrialist.” And in angering unions, Trump is in danger of turning a powerful force for voter mobilization against himself.
Although Trump tries to present himself as a champion of the working class, his populist rhetoric doesn’t always align with his policy positions.
Elon Musk Throws a Trump Rally – X is a safe space for the far right.
By Charlie Warzel
… The Musk-Trump prime-time conversation marked a return for Trump to the platform that played an enormous role in his political rise. From 2015 to 2021, his Twitter account was the most influential and scrutinized social-media account in the free world; it was temporarily banned after the violence of January 6. Musk restored Trump’s account in 2022 after he acquired Twitter—though Trump, or his minions, have rarely posted since then.
Trump rambles, slurs his way through Elon Musk interview. It was an unmitigated disaster.
For a fascism-curious billionaire who loves cuddling up to right-wing loons, Elon Musk sure is good at making right-wing politicians look stupid.
Rex Huppke
(USA TODAY) Former President Donald Trump had loudly trumpeted a planned Monday night interview with Musk that would stream on X. But much like the disastrous X-platformed launch of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign, the Musk/Trump interview failed to launch, leaving social media users laughing at the collective incompetence.
…the online interview went off (the rails) with a multitude of hitches. X users erupted with either frustration or laughter as the planned start time passed, and nothing could be accessed. It took more than 40 minutes before the interview could start and be heard by anyone. It was amateur hour, the last thing a campaign struggling to project competence needed.
Forget the glitches, Trump’s X interview got worse when he started talking
He was rambling, babbling on about crowd sizes and immigration and President Joe Biden and whatever else seemed to pass through his mind. He was also badly slurring his words, raising questions about his health, and doing nothing to knock down rising concerns about his age and well-being.
Why Trump keeps talking about fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter
Trump is the “crypt keeper for the 1980s,” a Trump biographer said. Trump has mentioned Lecter while making baseless claims about immigrants.

8 August
Robert Reich: Why isn’t the media reporting on Trump’s increasing dementia?
Today’s news conference should at least spur a serious inquiry
Today, Trump held an hour-long news conference in the main room at Mar-a-Lago. He insulted Kamala Harris’s intelligence, lied about the state of the U.S. economy, and claimed the country would be in mortal danger if he didn’t win the election.
But what got my attention was his description of his departure from the White House as a “peaceful” transfer of power, his insistence that the group that mounted the assault on the Capitol was relatively small, and his boast that attendance at his January 6 rally preceding the assault was larger than the crowd Martin Luther King Jr. drew on the National Mall for his “I Have a Dream” speech.
“If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours — same real estate, same everything, same number of people, if not — we had more.”
Friends, these are not the statements of a sane person.
Trump is showing growing signs of dementia.

31 July-1 August
Former President Trump fiery discussion at NABJ Forum in Chicago (LiveNOW FOX video)
The former president attended a live Q&A panel at the convention where he was interviewed by ABC News reporter Rachel Scott, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner, and Semafor reporter Kadia Goba about his policies, in particular those that directly affect the African American community.
Trump’s appearance was marked by moments of tension and controversy, in particular his verbal sparring with Scott, who opened the discussion by accusing the president of attacking Black journalists, Black politicians and Black voters.
The former president responded by blasting Scott for asking the question in a “horrible manner,” and saying she had a “nasty” tone. Elsewhere, he harangued her for being late, accusing her of delaying their interview.

Black journalists were right about Trump. NABJ ignored them
Shamira Ibrahim
An occasion of fellowship devolved into a spectacle at the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention
(The Guardian) The most unfortunate result of this fiasco is that Trump’s antics brought intense scrutiny on to the NABJ convention – a professional conference that provides information and resources to a marginalized group. CNN, CSPAN and PBS livestreamed the panel, and after 10 days of the Harris campaign successfully dominating the news, the conversation has now shamefully pivoted into rightwing talking points about Harris’s racial background. Instead of talking about her platform and policies, we are now in a media circus litigating racial purity. The talk was a victory for a Trump campaign that seeks to conquer via constant confusion and deflection.
‘Is she Indian or Black?’ Trump questions Harris’ identity at Black journalists’ convention
By Bianca Flowers, Trevor Hunnicutt, Nathan Layne and Nandita Bose
(Reuters) – U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump falsely suggested to the country’s largest annual gathering of Black journalists on Wednesday that his Democratic rival Kamala Harris had previously downplayed her Black heritage.
“She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black, until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black,” Trump said, drawing a smattering of jeers from an audience of about 1,000 people.

30 July
“He says this all the time now”: Maddow sounds the alarm on Trump’s “strange” voting remarks
“He doesn’t think he needs to win the election in order to take power,” the MSNBC host argued
(Salon) “Get out and vote just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore,” Trump told a crowd of far-right Christian allies on Friday. “Four more years it will be fixed. It’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”
“There’s one last thing, in terms of the weirdness of this campaign, that I think is actually quite serious,” Maddow said on Monday regarding the remark, while also gesturing toward the general peculiarities of the MAGA presidential campaign. Though many Republican figureheads have dismissed Trump’s voting comments as hyperbole, Maddow, like many other progressives, was left deeply disturbed by his rhetoric.
… Maddow continued by pointing out something that she alleged was “even more strange” than Trump’s voting claims, though it hasn’t gained as much attention. “The day before Trump made those remarks on Friday … he didn’t say that people wouldn’t have to vote anymore once he was elected this November. No — the day before that, on Thursday, he told his supporters, not that they’re not going to have to vote again, but that they don’t have to vote this time. That they don’t need to vote for him this November.”
22 July
“He is a real weirdo”: Rachel Maddow says Trump will “regret” picking JD Vance after Biden drops out
Trump thought he didn’t have to try hard, so he picked “someone who isn’t going to help him at all,” Maddow says

More about the assassination attempt
20-28 July
FBI says Trump was indeed struck by bullet during assassination attempt
The agency’s one-sentence statement was the most definitive law enforcement account of the injuries and followed earlier, ambiguous comments from Director Christopher Wray.
(Politico) “What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle,” the agency said in a statement.
26 July
FBI director stirs controversy with Trump bullet skepticism
(The Hill) FBI Director Christopher Wray kicked a hornet’s nest with remarks this week casting doubt on former President Trump’s claims that he was hit by a bullet in his July 13 assassination attempt.
Speaking before the House Judiciary Committee, Wray said that “with respect to former President Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that, you know, that hit his ear.”
… Trump has not released medical records, and Wray’s comments have increased calls for him to prove what caused his injury.

Ronny Jackson: Trump hit by bullet, FBI director ‘wrong’

[FBI Director Christopher] Wray shares new details about Trump shooter
(Politico) Wray’s testimony comes two days after the disastrous appearance of Secret Service Director KIMBERLY CHEATLE before the House Oversight Committee. Her frequent evasions when pressed for details on the incident added to the pressure for her resignation, which came yesterday.
Notably, Wray was much more forthcoming. During his opening statement, the director noted the shooting was an “attack on our democracy” and promised to disclose “as much information” as he could
(Secret Service chief Kimberly Cheatle resigns over Trump shooting)
(Al Jazeera) Kimberly Cheatle stepping down amid pressure after assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
The head of the United States Secret Service is stepping down over the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, after days of mounting pressure and criticism for failing to prevent the shooting.
US President Joe Biden thanked the Secret Service director for her decades of public service and said he planned to appoint her replacement soon.
US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also said later in the day that he had appointed Ronald L Rowe, the Secret Service’s deputy director, to serve as acting director following’s Cheatle’s resignation.
Secret Service Chief Pummeled by Lawmakers Who Want Her to Resign
In testimony to Congress, Kimberly A. Cheatle called the assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump a “failure” of her agency. But she angered members of both parties by refusing to answer specific questions. …she cited the continuing investigation when declining to answer queries about the would-be assassin’s access to the warehouse roof from which he fired, how he had managed to bring a firearm to the event, why Mr. Trump was allowed to come onstage despite warnings about a suspicious person and many other details.

The Secret Service acknowledges denying some past requests by Trump’s campaign for tighter security
In a reversal, a spokesman said the service had turned down requests from former President Donald J. Trump’s team over the past two years, though he said the requests did not include the recent rally in Pennsylvania.
The Secret Service acknowledged on Saturday that it had turned down requests for additional federal resources sought by former President Donald J. Trump’s security detail in the two years leading up to his attempted assassination last week, a reversal from earlier statements by the agency denying that such requests had been rebuffed.
Almost immediately after a gunman shot at Mr. Trump from a nearby warehouse roof while he spoke at a rally in Butler, Pa., last weekend, the Secret Service faced accusations from Republicans and anonymous law enforcement officials that it had turned down requests for additional agents to secure Mr. Trump’s rallies.
Secret Service officials have for years complained that the agency is stretched thin, particularly during election season, when it must protect the sitting president, multiple candidates and political conventions.
The admission will only fuel the intense criticism that Secret Service Director Kimberly A. Cheatle is expected to face on Monday when she appears at a hearing with the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

Trump campaign releases letter on his injury, treatment after last week’s assassination attempt
(ABC) The memo, from Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson*, a staunch supporter who served as Trump’s White House physician, offers new details on the nature of the GOP nominee’s injuries and the treatment he received in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
According to Jackson, Trump sustained a gunshot wound to the right ear that came “less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head, and struck the top of his right ear.”
The bullet track, he said, “produced a 2 cm wide wound that extended down to the cartilaginous surface of the ear. There was initially significant bleeding, followed by marked swelling of the entire upper ear.” While the swelling has resolved and the wound “is beginning to granulate and heal properly,” he said Trump is still experiencing intermittent bleeding, requiring the dressing that was on display at last week’s Republican National Convention.
*Ronny Jackson under Obama and Trump
Jackson’s evolution over time from a seemingly apolitical doctor to a deeply conservative politician to – now – a scandal-plagued congressman has proven surprising to some who knew him during his years at the White House.

From Honor Student to the Gunman Who Tried to Kill Donald Trump
Thomas Crooks was a brainy and quiet young man who built computers and won honors at school, impressing his teachers. Then he became a would-be assassin.

Did Donald Trump blow his RNC acceptance speech?
The former president had an amazing opportunity. He failed to grasp it.

Jeff Greenfield: Trump Derailed His Own Convention Speech
The former president’s address was riveting at first — and then turned into something disappointingly familiar.
(Politico) It began with as intensely personal an account as any presidential nominee has ever delivered — a step-by-step retelling of his near-death experience. And as soon as that narrative ended, it became… a Trump rally speech, with the prepared text delivered in a monotone worthy of a bus driver’s announcement, interrupted by lengthy ad lib riffs, jokes, shout-outs and a litany of “never seen anything like it” and “like never before.”
Even after what for anyone would be a life-changing experience, Trump remained Trump.
Donald Trump was never going to change
You would think we might stop believing he could.
Alexandra Petri
We were told to expect a unifying, chastened Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention. It seemed just barely possible, especially if you had just emerged from a coconut tree, unburdened by what has been. And for about 20 minutes Thursday night, accepting the Republican nomination (Is “Republican” the correct name still, after the total transformation the party has undergone in his image?), he delivered a very different speech than he ever does, recounting his assassination attempt in Butler, Pa.
Trump recounts assassination attempt to galvanize the GOP he transformed
The speech wrapped a fresh gesture toward unity around his usual dark view of American decline and loathing for political opponents and immigrants.
RNC wrap-up: Trump’s speech and the GOP’s evolving identity
Riley Callanan
(GZERO media) On the fourth and final night of the RNC, Donald Trump took to the stage for the first time since he was nearly assassinated at a campaign rally. He began his speech with a detailed, dramatic retelling of the shooting, in which he was saved by God, in the style of a grandfather telling their grandchild a war story at bedtime. Members of the audience cried, he kissed the firefighter uniform of Corey Comperatore, who was killed by the assassin. He called for unity.
“The discord and division in our society must be healed. As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together. Or we fall apart,” said Trump, who went on to say that he was running to be president for “all of America, not half of America.”
But Trump’s sedate and sentimental calls for harmony quickly evaporated, giving way to his more standard attacks on Democrats. “They’re destroying our country,” he said. Trump also repeatedly claimed that the Democrats stole the 2020 election, saying “they used COVID to cheat.” (For a deep dive into the stolen election conspiracy theory, check this out.)
And he went on. And on. And on. For more than an hour and a half – the longest nomination acceptance speech on record – he described meanderingly, an economy in shambles, a murderous job-stealing invasion of illegal immigrants, and a world on fire: all courtesy of Joe Biden, all fixable only by Donald Trump. When he concluded – nearly half an hour after first saying “in conclusion” – many of even the most faithful Trumpers in the room were reportedly fidgety.

Ian Bremmer: How did JD Vance, who once called Trump “America’s Hitler,” become his VP pick?
Well, of course, that isn’t exactly what he said. He said that he goes back and forth between thinking that Trump is either a cynical asshole like Richard Nixon, who could actually be good for the country, or he could be America’s Hitler. How come no one’s actually reporting the actual quote? And it’s because the media’s freaking horrible is why. And because the algorithms promote stupidity and fake news, and disinformation. But the answer to the question is because Vance is really smart, very aligned with Trump. He’s very, let’s say, situationally ideological and wants to win

18 July
More Business Leaders Are Warming to Trump’s Pitch
But adding Vance to the ticket could complicate things.
By Lora Kelley
(The Atlantic) In recent months, wealthy businesspeople have pledged their support to Trump. Several top Silicon Valley venture capitalists are planning to donate to a Trump-aligned super PAC. The Winklevoss twins, of The Social Network fame, donated $1 million worth of bitcoin apiece, though some was refunded. And at Davos earlier this year, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon complimented several aspects of Trump’s first term (Trump said last month that he would consider Dimon as a future Treasury secretary).
Not every prominent executive is praising Trump, of course: For every CEO shouting about politics, many are saying nothing at all. As Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at Yale’s business school, reminded me, Elon Musk is the only CEO in the top 100 of the Fortune 500 companies pledging support for Trump so far (and how much Musk will actually give is not yet clear). Others in the business world are not explicitly endorsing Trump but are simply contending with the current likelihood of his win: The so-called “Trump trade,” the frenzy of market betting in anticipation of a GOP victory in November, has reemerged over the past few weeks, as Biden’s debate flop and the assassination attempt boosted investors’ expectations that Trump will take back the presidency.

16 July
A bandaged Trump shows a glimpse of vulnerability.
Donald J. Trump and his newly minted running mate, J.D. Vance, were officially nominated, but Mr. Trump’s triumphal prime-time emergence in the arena might prove the indelible moment of the whole event.
(NYT) It was the first time he appeared in public since being rushed off a stage in Western Pennsylvania by Secret Service agents 48 hours earlier, bleeding from the ear after being shot at by a would-be assassin. A gauzy bandage covered his ear, and his slow and purposeful walk across the convention hall was filmed in the style of a boxer entering an arena.
Melania Trump absent on first night of the Republican convention
(WaPo) Former president Donald Trump emerged in public on Monday evening some 48 hours out from an assassination attempt, greeted by an arena of passionate, loud cheers from his supporters as he walked over to take his seat with his family and closest allies.
But in what could be characterized as the most triumphant moment so far for Trump’s 2024 campaign, there was a glaring absence among the VIPs — his wife and the former first lady, Melania Trump.
The Trump family members sitting with the former president on the first night of the convention are all slated to deliver remarks in the coming days: Trump’s sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump; his daughter-in-law and Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump; and Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancée. They were seated Monday night with Trump’s daughter Tiffany Trump and her husband, Michael Boulos, neither of whom are scheduled to deliver remarks at the convention.
Notably, Trump’s other daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner — who both served as Trump’s White House advisers — were not seated with the former president.
The inside story of how Trump chose JD Vance as his running mate
Once a critic, Vance repositioned himself as a faithful ally eager to defend Trump on TV, carry a torch for a younger generation of MAGA figures and fight for voters in the Midwest.
(NBC) With the clock ticking to the Republican National Convention last week, Donald Trump met privately to discuss his running mate search with two of his closest advisers: his sons.
“They were basically all like ‘JD, JD, JD,’” the operative said.
Trump ratified his sons’ recommendation here Monday, selecting Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as his vice presidential candidate.
In choosing Vance, Trump made a different calculation than he did in 2016 and leaned fully into his MAGA base. Back then, he looked to his daughter and her husband — the more establishment-friendly Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner — for strategic advice. This time, his red meat-throwing sons have a more central role. And instead of going with a longtime traditional Republican like Mike Pence, Trump chose the MAGA warrior Vance.

‘They’ didn’t shoot Donald Trump
Despite the lack of any clear motive, the actions of Thomas Crooks have been attributed to the Democratic Party at large.
(WaPo) … There is no evidence that Crooks shot at Trump because he had been influenced by anti-Trump political rhetoric, and there is no evidence that Crooks was literally or figuratively part of a collective effort to sideline or kill the former president.
It’s important to point this out explicitly because, in the days since the attack, allies of Trump have repeatedly suggested both that Democratic rhetoric is to blame or that the shooting was done by some nebulously defined “they” — a group that is generally meant to include Trump’s political opponents.

16 July
Trump’s Environmental Impact Endures, at Home and Around the World
His break from the Paris accord inspires other populist leaders, while his reshaping of the federal courts and environmental rollbacks affect the air, water, wetlands and public lands, disrupting efforts to counter climate change.

13-14 July
Trump survives assassination attempt at campaign rally after major security lapse
Shooting under investigation as assassination attempt
Slain suspect identified as 20-year-old Pennsylvania man who was registered as Republican
Trump leaves area of shooting, ‘doing well’
House panel summons Secret Service director to hearing
(Reuters) – Donald Trump was shot in the ear during a campaign rally on Saturday after a major security lapse, an attack that will likely reshape this year’s presidential race and fuel long-standing fears that the campaign could descend into political violence.
In the moments after the shooting, Trump was swarmed and covered up by his security agents. He quickly emerged, his face streaked with blood, and pumped his fist in the air, mouthing the words “Fight! Fight! Fight!” The Trump campaign later said he was “doing well.”
The FBI identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the “subject involved” in what it termed an attempted assassination in a statement early on Sunday. He was a registered Republican, according to state voter records.

Tragedy at Trump rally upends election campaign – for now
The 2024 election campaign has a new iconic image: Donald Trump, moments after narrowly avoiding serious injury or death from an assassin’s bullets, standing with his fist raised, lines of blood streaked across his face, an American flag billowing in the breeze behind him.

How the deadly Trump rally shooting unfolded in Pennsylvania
A timeline of how the suspected assassination attempt on the former president unfolded.
(WaPo) The rally Saturday in Butler, Pa., was supposed to be Donald Trump’s last campaign stop before the Republican National Convention — a speech to a packed crowd in a critical swing state, then a trip to Milwaukee to officially receive the GOP nomination.
Doors to the rally site, the Butler Farm Show, had opened earlier at 1 p.m. with thousands of attendees trickling in throughout the afternoon, many clad in red and white Trump regalia. Located in the heart of Butler County — which Trump carried by more than 30 percent in 2020 — the rural fairgrounds has served as a community gathering place and hub for local agriculture since the 1940s.
Trump was scheduled to begin speaking at 5 p.m. but there was no sign of him. Supporters mingled on the treeless grounds in 90 degree heat.
… One attendee is killed and two others are critically injured in the gunfire.
The shooter is killed.
The Butler County district attorney told The Washington Post that the shooter fired from the roof of an office building next to the grounds.

10 July
Trump 2025 Is Coming Into View
By Thomas B. Edsall
The combination of recent Supreme Court rulings on presidential power and the Democratic Party’s nomination crisis in the wake of Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance has significantly improved Donald Trump’s prospects — not only his odds of once again becoming president, but also of enacting a sweeping authoritarian agenda.
Trump’s debt to the six-member conservative majority on the Supreme Court is twofold.
First, their delay. By waiting until the last day of the court’s term to issue their decision on Trump’s immunity claims, the justices effectively prevented prosecution of federal criminal charges against him before the election.
“By shielding Donald Trump from standing trial before a jury in two of his felony cases,” Michael Podhorzer, a former political director of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., writes in a post on his Substack, Tipping the Scales, “Trump’s three appointments to the Supreme Court, along with the even more MAGA Justices Alito and Thomas and Judge Aileen Cannon, have already irreparably interfered in the 2024 election.”
Second, the substance of the July 1 ruling in Trump v. United States has convinced Trump and his allies that they will face few legal obstacles if they pursue a radical reconstruction of government — a “second American Revolution,” in the words of one loyalist — if Trump regains the White House on Nov. 5.

How come the media isn’t asking ‘What about Trump?’
Why aren’t there more calls for Trump to drop out like there are for Biden? There’s a simple answer.
(Poynter) Trump’s record and the ramifications for his return to the White House are the bigger story. It should be discussed and analyzed in detail.
However, to get to the question of why aren’t more media outlets asking that Trump leave the race, there’s a simple answer.
It isn’t going to happen. It’s an unrealistic proposal.

9 July
The media has been breathlessly attacking Biden. What about Trump?
Margaret Sullivan
The bigger story is Donald Trump’s appalling unfitness for office. He tried to overturn a legitimate election and is a felon
(The Guardian) ‘What of Trump’s obvious cognitive decline, his endless lies, his shocking plans to imprison his political enemies and to deport millions of people he calls “animals”?’
… First truth: the president’s stumble and the political fallout that followed is a huge, consequential news story that deserves a lot of coverage.
Second truth: the media coverage is overkill – not only too much in quantity and too breathless in tone, but also taking up so much oxygen that a story even more important is shoved to the back burner.
That bigger story, of course, is the former president’s appalling unfitness for office, not only because he tried to overturn a legitimate election and is a felon, out on bail and awaiting sentencing, but because of things he has said and done in very recent weeks. As just one example, he claimed that he doesn’t know anything about Project 2025, the radical right-wing plan hatched by some of his closest allies to begin dismantling our democracy if he wins another term.

6 July
Robert Reich: If Donald Trump takes power this November (perish the thought), he’ll owe his victory in no small part to one of the richest Americans alive in 1920: Pittsburgh banker and industrialist Andrew Mellon, who was treasury secretary for Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover.
I’ve noted this before, but it bears revisiting now because Timothy Mellon — Andrew’s grandson — has just donated $50 million to a super PAC supporting Trump, according to new federal filings. It’s among the largest single disclosed contributions — ever.
As secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon, Timothy’s grandfather, cut the estate tax by half, arguing that “the social necessity for breaking up large fortunes in this country does not exist.” He also whittled down the top income tax rate from 73 percent to 25 percent and eliminated the gift tax.
The $100 million Timothy has shelled out to Trump and RFK Junior comes courtesy of a tax system pioneered by his grandfather that allows the perpetuation of dynastic wealth and the maintenance of its political power.
The Mellon money trail exemplifies the perils of dynastic wealth — and why we need a wealth tax in America. Alternatively, the capital gains tax must be applied to the appreciated value of assets held during someone’s life, before they die and hand them off to their heirs at current market values.

23 June
I Know What America’s Leading C.E.O.s Really Think of Donald Trump
By Dr. Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, president of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute.
(NYT opinion) If you want the most telling data point on corporate America’s lack of enthusiasm for Mr. Trump, look where they are investing their money. Not a single Fortune 100 chief executive has donated to the candidate so far this year, which indicates a major break from overwhelming business and executive support for Republican presidential candidates dating back over a century, to the days of Taft and stretching through Coolidge and the Bushes, all of whom had dozens of major company heads donating to their campaigns.

Heather Cox Richardson June 20, 2024
Trump himself is a more and more problematic candidate. This week, author Ramin Setoodeh, who has a new book coming out soon about Trump’s transformation from failed businessman to reality TV star on the way to the presidency, has told reporters that Trump has “severe memory issues” adding that “he couldn’t remember things, he couldn’t even remember me.”
Trump is supposed to participate in a debate with President Biden on June 27, and while Biden is preparing as candidates traditionally do, with policy reviews and practice, Trump’s team has been downplaying Trump’s need for preparation, saying that his rallies and interviews with friendly media are enough.

If Donald Trump Wins, Paul Manafort Will Be Waiting in the Wings
By Brody Mullins, investigative reporter who covers business, lobbying and campaign finance; and Luke Mullins, journalist who focuses on politics and power in Washington, D.C.
(NYT) A few years ago, Paul Manafort was a disgraced political operative living in a windowless cell. If Donald Trump wins in November, Mr. Manafort is likely to re-emerge as one of the most powerful people in Washington.
Because of Mr. Trump’s transactional nature and singular method of wielding power, as president, he would probably empower a small group of lobbyists who could profit from their access. Though no one elected them, these gatekeepers could exercise sweeping influence over U.S. policy on behalf of corporations and foreign governments, at the expense of regular Americans who can’t afford their services.

14 June
Heather Cox Richardson June 14, 2024
Today, former president Trump turned 78. For his birthday, Representative Greg Steube (R-FL) introduced a bill to name 4,383,000 square miles of the coastal waters off the United States over which the U.S. has sole authority, a region called the exclusive economic zone, the “Donald John Trump Exclusive Economic Zone of the United States.”
A less welcome present was that the chief executive officers who attended a meeting with Trump in Washington yesterday told reporters they found him uninformed and unfocused. Christina Wilkie and Brian Schwartz of CNBC noted that the attendees dislike the Biden administration’s enforcement of antitrust laws, its price caps on drugs and medical products, and its promise of progressive tax policy and like Trump’s promise to slash regulations and cut taxes, so they went into the meeting hoping to support him.
One CEO left the meeting with the takeaway that “Trump doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” and several, Andrew Ross Sorkin of CNBC reported, said that he “was remarkably meandering, could not keep a straight thought [and] was all over the map.” He could not explain how he planned to accomplish any of the policies he was proposing. When asked why he had chosen a policy of bringing the corporate tax rate down to 20%, he allegedly answered: “Well, it’s a round number.”

12 June
Let’s Talk About Trump’s Gibberish
What the former president’s shark tirade says about American politics and media
By Tom Nichols
(The Atlantic) Perhaps the greatest trick Donald Trump ever pulled was convincing millions of people—and the American media—to treat his lapses into fantasies and gibberish as a normal, meaningful form of oratory. But Trump is not a normal person, and his speeches are not normal political events.
… Trump for years has fallen off one verbal cliff after another, with barely a ripple in the national consciousness. I am not a psychiatrist, and I am not diagnosing Trump with anything. I am, however, a man who has lived on this Earth for more than 60 years, and I know someone who has serious emotional problems when I see them played out in front of me, over and over. The 45th president is a disturbed person. He cannot be trusted with any position of responsibility—and especially not with a nuclear arsenal of more than 1,500 weapons. One wrong move could lead to global incineration.
Why hasn’t there been more sustained and serious attention paid to Trump’s emotional state?

Heather Cox Richardson June 10, 2024
Former president Trump met with a New York City probation officer today for a pre-sentencing interview. They met over video for a first step in the sentencing process, in which an officer assesses the convicted criminal’s living situation, finances, mental health, addiction, and criminal record. Trump was expected to have his lawyer, Todd Blanche, with him when he linked in from Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. Judge Juan Merchan will take the information from the interview into account when he sentences Trump. He will also consider that Trump was held in contempt 10 times during the trial for violating the gag order designed to stop him from attacking witnesses and court personnel and their families.

30 May
The (very) long version
Trump Convicted on All Counts to Become America’s First Felon President
A Manhattan jury found that he had falsified business records to conceal a sex scandal that could have hindered his 2016 campaign for the White House.
(The Hill) … The jurors reached a verdict in the late afternoon, after less than 12 hours of deliberation in the hush money criminal case. The 12 New Yorkers on Trump’s jury reached a unanimous decision on his fate, eliminating the possibility of a hung jury.
Jury finds Donald Trump guilty on all 34 counts at hush money trial
Donald Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime on Thursday
(Reuters) – After deliberations over two days, the 12-member jury announced it had found Trump guilty on all 34 counts he faced. Unanimity was required for any verdict.
Justice Juan Merchan set sentencing for July 11, days before the July 15 start of the Republican National Convention expected to formally nominate Trump for president.
The verdict plunges the United States into unexplored territory ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election, when Trump, the Republican candidate, will try to win the White House back from Democratic President Joe Biden.

Trump Guilty on All Counts in Hush-Money Case

Donald J. Trump, the former president and presumptive 2024 Republican nominee, was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a case stemming from a payment that silenced a porn star.
(NYT) The former president’s sentencing is scheduled for July. Here’s the latest.
Donald J. Trump was convicted on Thursday of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal that threatened to derail his 2016 presidential campaign, capping an extraordinary trial that tested the resilience of the American justice system and will reverberate into November’s election.
Mr. Trump was convicted on all 34 counts of falsifying business records by a jury of 12 New Yorkers, who deliberated over two days to reach a decision in a case rife with descriptions of secret deals, tabloid scandal and an Oval Office pact with echoes of Watergate. The former president sat largely expressionless, a glum look on his face, after the jury issued its verdict. His sentencing was scheduled for July 11.
Just minutes after the verdict was announced, the Trump campaign sent out a fund-raising email in which Trump said, in all capital letters, “I am a political prisoner!”
Maggie Haberman, senior political correspondent — One thing important to keep in mind: the Trump team often has a playbook for spinning news and what will happen, an approach that starts with the candidate himself. They’d predicted a hung jury as a strong possibility, their allies put out word that one juror was making affirming eye contact with a Trump supporter who attended the trial, and so forth.
In the end, it took this jury less than two full days to convict on all counts. By following this playbook, Trump’s team can usually create enough confusion to leave people questioning outcomes. Not so with a jury verdict.

29 May
Jury Begins Deciding Trump’s Fate in Hush-Money Case
(NYT) Twelve New Yorkers have begun deliberations on the 34 felony counts against Donald Trump in the first criminal trial of an American president.