donald trrump Archives

Tuesday

July 23, 2024

Search for answers on Trump assassination attempt ramps up

In a rare moment of unity, both Democrats and Republicans are coming together to uncover the security failures which led to the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump. On Monday, while Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle appeared in front of another House committee, a group of congressmen from the House Homeland Security Committee visited the site in Butler, Pennsylvania, to get a firsthand hold of what really happened that day. The trip was led by Chairman Mark Green on Monday as part of the bipartisan effort to investigate how the gunman, Thomas Crooks, gained access to the roof from which he shot Trump. The visit only yielded more questions — why were warnings about the suspicious sightings ignored? Why were the perimeters not secured?

Cockburn

After ditching their senior, Democrats now think Trump is too old

After being gaslit into believing President Joe Biden’s cognitive abilities were up to par, some are licking their wounds by questioning the mental fitness and age of former president Donald Trump. Now that Biden is out of the race, Donald Trump is the oldest presidential nominee in US history. “Trump, a seventy-eight-year-old with a history of heart disease and obesity, according to experts, has not shared any updated bloodwork results or other specific information during this campaign to help experts assess his ongoing medical risks,” Cockburn read Monday in the Washington Post. Think of it — an obese president! Cue the fat shamers.

Teresa Mull

Secret Service director resigns after admitting agency ‘fell short’ during Trump assassination attempt

US Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle, the person charged with ensuring Donald Trump’s safety and that of everyone at the president’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, has resigned after admitting in a letter the agency “fell short” on the day fireman Corey Comperatore lost his life and Trump was centimeters away from losing his at the hands of shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks. Cheatle, whom the New York Post reports “landed her role thanks largely to a close relationship with First Lady Jill Biden,” was eviscerated Monday by the House Oversight Committee.

Ben Domenech

Mark Kelly is Kamala’s best choice — and it’s not close

Kamala Harris’s ascension to the Democratic nomination has been rapid and energizing for a demoralized party that had, in some corners, given up hope of beating Donald Trump and J.D. Vance in November. Her path was cleared by the Democratic elite, the same party figures who put her in the vice presidency in the first place despite the Biden family’s reported opposition at the time. Now she faces her first major decision: who to choose as her running mate, a choice that those same elites will almost certainly help dictate behind the scenes.

Monday

July 22, 2024

The Spectator

Kamala’s coronation doesn’t help the Democrats

Does anyone else feel like an entire year has happened in the last week? Last Monday, former president Donald Trump arrived at the Republican National Convention after being a quarter-of-an-inch away from assassination (and losing part of his ear in the process), Jack Smith’s classified documents case against Trump was thrown out by a federal judge, President Joe Biden caught Covid and, finally, yesterday Biden announced that he is not running for re-election and endorsed his vice president Kamala Harris to be the new nominee. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Today’s edition of the DC Diary includes multiple items that will hopefully help you feel more prepared for what may come next.

Christopher Sandford

Biden and Nixon: presidential history is repeating itself

One of the advantages of not having been born yesterday is the ability to recognize certain trends of the news cycle when they come around again. Am I alone in thinking that every major American political manifesto since about 1848 has made a promise of reducing the taxation burden on its hardworking citizens, for example? Or that for Brits, like me, of a certain age (sixty-eight), our whole lives have been spent in the shadow of a stale and still unresolved debate about the nation’s place in Europe? More recently, I was struck by a sense of déjà vu all over again when comparing the final meltdown in Joe Biden’s White House to the events preceding Richard Nixon’s departure from office fifty years ago. The case for presidential history repeating itself isn’t hard to make.

Sunday

July 21, 2024

Roger Kimball

Biden ushers in more uncertainty by stepping aside

It’s odd how things that have been widely predicted and even widely anticipated can nevertheless occur with an emotional thunderclap. I suppose death would qualify as an example. Joe Biden’s announcement on X earlier today that he would not be seeking reelection certainly does. The announcement had its curious aspects. For one thing, it came from his personal account, not the account of POTUS. Indeed, for a moment that made me wonder whether it was for real. A glance at the internet assured me that it was. Most of the letter is political thru-text.

Ben Domenech

Biden’s media sycophants are the biggest losers of him stepping aside

The speed at which politics moves in 2024 is enough to give the American citizenry a massive case of whiplash. It was just over three weeks ago that Joe Biden took the stage in a CNN debate that left the nation and the world shocked at his incapacity — leading to a massive freakout in the media, the donors and the Democratic base. But in the time since, it appeared the president, his inner circle and his family had dug in, insisting against all efforts to dislodge him that the president intended to continue to run and win in November. The mood among Democratic circles was dejected, the attitude among the Donald Trump campaign ebullient — and that was before a failed assassination attempt just a week ago, a successful convention and the naming of J.D.

Juan P. Villasmil

Time for Republicans to run as if they could lose

It’s Joever. The president of the United States has announced that he is out of the race and thrown his support behind “Coconut Tree” Kamala Harris. On its face, this may sound like good news for overly confident Republican strategists. Harris may not be fossilized, but she still shares responsibility for her administration’s failures. Polls show that she is roughly as popular as Biden. Still, in electoral politics, overconfidence is a vice: Republicans should start talking and acting as if they can lose. One of Trump’s greatest strengths is his ability to depict wins. “We’re gonna win so much that you are gonna get tired of winning,” he loves to tell his audience.

Friday

July 19, 2024

The Spectator

RNC ends on a high note

The Republican National Committee’s memorable four-day convention came to an end in Milwaukee last night. With an unusual performance from Kid Rock, a shirt-ripping Hulk Hogan and dozens of Trump-humanizing speeches, the RNC managed to throw a party that drew some attention, some laughs and certainly some tears — from worried Democratic strategists and enamored Trump-fans alike.It was, as The Spectator’s James Heale put it, “the first convention in twenty years where polls suggest the Republicans are on course to win the White House, producing an air of expectation and excitement.

Ben Domenech

Trump unites his party as Biden falls apart

Welcome to Thunderdome. It is an incredible circumstance that we face today. Just a week ago, it seemed that Donald Trump was headed into the GOP convention with a degree of momentum, but also uncertainty as to his choice for the vice presidential slot and still some wavering Republicans who needed to be brought into his coalition. It seemed that Joe Biden, for as much as he had struggled through a series of meandering interviews and uneven public appearances, was going to survive the attempts to move on from his presidency on the Democratic ticket. And for all the unsteadiness of the race, most polling showed that Trump was only slightly ahead in swing states across the country, with a long ways to go until November.The past week has changed everything.

Matt McDonald

A new subdued Trump at the RNC

Milwaukee, Wisconsin “The challenge for Trump,” says The Spectator editorial from this month’s magazine “is to show Americans a steady hand and a normal face.” The normal face the Republican National Convention opted for was that of wrestling legend Hulk Hogan, who took to the stage waving a huge American flag, began his remarks by yelling, "Well let me tell you something brother" and later removed his jacket so he could tear his vest in half to reveal a red "Trump-Vance" tank top underneath. "Let Trumpomania run wild!" he screamed. The Fiserv Forum was exuberant. High up in the stands, Russell Brand was sat a few rows behind me, for some reason. Is this America's new normal? https://twitter.com/jordanuhl/status/1814111040076153156?

Roger Kimball

A more reflective Trump will win in November

Dr. Johnson once remarked that the prospect of hanging in a fortnight concentrates the mind. So, apparently, does being shot. At least, that’s part of what I took away from Donald Trump’s long and sober acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last night. Many commentators have observed that there was a kinder, gentler Trump on view at the convention last night. Perhaps. Certainly, the detailed account he gave of his experience being shot last week at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was edged with a solemness and humility that have not been prominent parts of Trump’s rhetorical armory. I hope readers will appreciate that little exercise in litotes.

Amber Duke

Trump calls for unity in somber RNC speech

Milwaukee, Wisconsin President Donald Trump arrived at Thursday night’s convention to accept the Republican Party’s nomination for president but, more importantly, to inspire a nation with hope. The president started his much anticipated speech by retelling the events of the attempt on his life at Saturday’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. “I’ll tell you what happened, and you’ll never hear it from me a second time, because it’s too painful to tell,” Trump told the crowd. As he walked through the events that day, attendees cried and laughed with the president — who retained his sense of humor after the senseless attack. He praised the crowd in Pennsylvania for their courage and calm amid the bullets, saying their refusal to stampede “saved many lives.

Thursday

July 18, 2024

Elisenne Stoller

Elon Musk boards the Trump train out of California

Elon Musk is parting from his home state, publicly endorsing Trump minutes after the former president was almost assassinated at his rally in Pennsylvania. Musk also announced he will be donating $45 million to a pro-Trump political action committee and that he will be moving the headquarters of SpaceX and X from California to Austin, Texas. He is among many other Silicon Valley billionaires who are announcing their support for Trump following the attack, including Bill Ackman, the Pershing Square Capital Management CEO. Musk cited California governor Gavin Newsom’s new law that bars school districts from requiring staff to notify parents of their child’s gender identification change as the “final straw,” as the law was “attacking both families and companies.

Cockburn

MSNBC’s hell week: Lord of the Rings racism, Covid and no Joe

It’s been a rough few days over at MSNBC. Since the attempted assassination on Donald Trump over the weekend, the network seems to be the one unable to regain its footing. From J-13 truthers to The Lord of the Rings conspiracies, here’s Cockburn’s rundown of everything that's gone wrong so far. Much like Joe Biden’s weekly routine, MSNBC got off to a shaky start on Monday after it pulled Morning Joe from air following the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania. Executives were worried Mika Brzezinski planned to pull out her hand-stitched Trump voodoo doll. Whatever the couple had cooked up, Joe Scarborough was not happy that they weren’t able to pull it off.

Spectator Editorial

Safetyism and the 2024 election

"My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.” So spoke the nation’s first vice president. Of all the indignities that come with the office, the most insulting is being forced to stump for a beleaguered party mate in what was once safe territory. No one plays “Hail to the (Almost) Chief” as the 4,092nd most powerful leader in the free world — sandwiched between the prime minister of Nauru and the 2006 American League batting champion — enters the local rec center or middle school gymnasium.

Amber Duke

Inside the parlous state of state Republican parties

"The whole thing is fucked.” That’s how one former blue-state GOP official describes the current turmoil facing state Republican parties. Numerous reports have laid bare the financial struggles, leadership turnover and abject chaos that have ensnared the GOP’s state parties. State parties in Arizona and Pennsylvania, unable to make rent, have sold off their headquarters. There are active battles for control of the party in Michigan and Colorado. Arizona also recently pushed out its chairman and in Georgia the party chair stepped down. Meanwhile, multiple former state-party officials are under indictment in cases related to January 6.

Ben Domenech

Trump has reshaped the GOP. What comes next?

From the outset, it was inconceivable. The idea that Donald J. Trump, limousine liberal, famed for bankruptcies both financial and moral, would triumph within a Republican Party less than four years removed from nominating Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan struck nearly every analyst as absurd on its face. Sure, there was a faction of support. Sure, he appealed to the populist wing. Sure, his message on immigration was more in line with the party’s base than the Wall Street Journal editorial page. But to win, in this crowded field, over so many leading lights of conservatism with the carefully constructed résumés designed to equip them for the nomination, if not the presidency? Inconceivable. Of course, in 2016, he did it — and by now we all know how.

Spencer A. Klavan

The Biden-Trump rematch is a nationwide exercise in denial

Neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden is the other guy. This, we are frequently reminded, is their principal advantage in the eyes of many. It may be the only advantage Biden has left after decomposing in real time on the debate stage. Ironically, though, not being each other is one of the few important things these two men have in common. In 2024, a sizable portion of the electorate — maybe the majority — will vote not for a presidential candidate but against his opponent. It’s enough to make you wonder whether the whole affair is an apotropaic exercise, a mass effort to stave off something worse. Maybe we are scared — not just of Biden, or of Trump, but of what the alternatives might be. We have chosen to stick with the devils we know.