Lara Trump

"Sorry, super busy,” replies someone from Lara Trump’s media team, after I texted to ask for an interview. "I’m working on her music stuff.” The Trumps love to multitask and, in the President’s first 100 days, King Donald’s favorite (that is, only) daughter-in-law has been showing off how hard she can work. Since the inauguration, and now free from the burdens of campaign politics, Lara has released a song called “No Days Off” with the rapper French Montana; a Saturday night show on Fox News; and an activewear collection in the color “MAGA red,” alongside her already established podcast, The Right View. Unfortunately, she has a different press person to dodge questions over each venture.

Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted of Ohio will replace Vice President-elect J.D. Vance in the Senate, with Florida attorney general Ashley Moody set to take Marco Rubio's place. The imminent departures of Vance and Rubio from the Senate had led to a lot of speculation about their potential replacements. Theories included that Florida governor Ron DeSantis would appoint himself — or his wife — for Rubio’s role, with some suggesting that he was negotiating with President-elect Donald Trump to leave the governorship open for one of Trump’s family members in exchange for a cabinet role. While the theories were imaginative, reality proved duller.

Welcome to Thunderdome. The Republican Party has new leadership, with North Carolina GOP chairman Michael Whatley and daughter-in-law of the former president Lara Trump taking over an organization that will, in reality, be run by Chris LaCivita. They’ve already made one controversial but wise decision in demurring on the hiring of Scott Presler, a ballot harvester popular with the MAGA crowd. But they now confront the harsh reality of the RNC’s fundraising woes: they’re well behind the Joe Biden campaign and the DNC. The Democratic president’s campaign account officially reported taking in $21 million in February, according to its report filed with the Federal Election Commission late Wednesday, ending the month with $71 million cash on hand.

Evangelical voters flocked to Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. Now the former president is getting support from a slightly different religious group — or rather, cult. Millionaire Scientologists Grant and Elena Cardone launched a GoFundMe page on Friday to raise the $355 million that Trump has been ordered to pay following his New York civil fraud trial. At the time of writing, the campaign has raised $63,517 from over 1,500 donors. Cockburn wonders whether Tom Cruise or John Travolta are among them.  “This is more than a legal fund; it's a call to all patriots to rally in defense of a man who has never hesitated to stand in defense of us,” Elena wrote on the GoFundMe page. “It's about making a stand.

House Republicans successfully impeached Department of Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas by a 214-213 vote on Tuesday after an initial failed attempt last week. Mayorkas is the first cabinet official to be impeached since 1876. Speaker Mike Johnson said Mayorkas “deserves to be impeached,” arguing that Mayorkas lied to Congress, refused to comply with federal immigration law and violated his oath of office. Impeachment articles accused Mayorkas of a “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law.”To say it is extremely unlikely that Mayorkas would be convicted by the Democrat-controlled Senate is an understatement. This serves as more of a symbolic measure for Republicans.

Don't call it a comeback! Whether it’s by popular acclamation or by a coup, as former national security adviser Michael Flynn suggested at a recent QAnon meeting, Donald Trump is apparently reckoning that he’ll be back in the White House by August. At least that’s the theory percolating among the Trump diehards ensconced at Mar-a-Lago. But then, nolens volens, came a contrary verdict from Lara Trump on Fox and Friends this morning: 'There are no plans for Donald Trump to be in the White House in August.' What a pity. It would be splendid to have Trump back in Washington even if only for the month of August. But keen-eyed observers will note that Lara confined her restriction to August. July remains open. So does September.