The White House promised that Donald Trump’s Thursday night primetime address would be a bombshell. Instead, we got a damp squib.

We are all profoundly dumber for it. But it was still dangerous.

Happy Friday.

I have a household of family this weekend — a rare gathering of the tribes — so I’m going to keep this somewhat brief. Plus, the sky is darkened by the smoke from the Canadian wildfires and I’m feeling the pre-Apocalyptic vibes. So, I’m going to try to waste as few brain cells as I can on the president’s buncombe and bluster. But a few points cry out to be made.

First, and perhaps most important:

• Trump was (once again) boring and the speech felt anti-climactic. It was as if even he is bored by his bullshit.

• As Republicans feared, the address is (1) likely to backfire, and (2) unlikely to get him the SAVE Act he so desperately wants.

• No surprise: Trump did not present any new information, and the documents he released did not prove what he claimed. In fact, many of the revelations have been a matter of public record since 2021, when the Intelligence Community issued its report on possible election interference which did not change the outcome in any way).1

• The fact-checking was (deservedly) brutal. (The NYT’s Maggie Haberman noted that Trump “made at times outlandish claims about the safety of American voting systems in a White House address on Thursday night, drawing selectively from documents his aides published online to insinuate that U.S. elections have been compromised for years and that government officials had suppressed the evidence.”

• Indeed, some of the documents made it clear that Russia was once again interfering on his behalf.

  

• Bizarrely predictably, Trump used the speech to threaten the licenses of ABC and NBC for the lèse-majesté of failing to broadcast his blather. CBS caved to pressure and ran the speech live, but anchor Tony Dokoupil opened the network’s coverage with a disclaimer: “Honestly, much of what the president had said on this topic has been false. Most notably, of course, the claim that he won the 2020 election, when of course he did not.” (My take: Given Trump’s serial deceptions, it was an act of grotesque media malpractice to carry him live.)

• Trump also indulged in Mike “My Pillow Guy” Lindell-level lunacy by ranting about Obama-era “burn bags”.2

But, but, but… A reminder about clowns with flamethrowers….

As rambling, bonkers, and low energy as Trump’s speech was, attention must stillbe paid. As Michael Sellers notes, “Thursday night’s address was clearly designed to begin preparing the American public for the possibility of substantially greater federal involvement in the midterm elections if circumstances evolve in a way Trump finds unacceptable.

That is not what Trump announced Thursday night.

But it is what he was preparing the country to contemplate.

Some other takes:

Peter Baker, NYT: “Trump’s Obsession With Relitigating the 2020 Election Carries a Cost for Democracy “

President Trump used a lot of alarming words on Thursday night as he addressed the American people about threats to the integrity of elections in the United States: “Deep state.” “Rigged and stolen.” “Conspiring.” “Manipulation.” “Corrupt.” “Fraud.” “Cover up.”

But the bottom-line message he clearly wanted to leave with the public was this: He is not a loser, regardless of the result of the 2020 election. There were dark forces at work to thwart him. And if his party loses this fall’s midterm election, he intimated, that may not be an honest outcome either.

Mr. Trump’s prime-time speech from the East Room of the White House was an astonishing spectacle featuring a president intent on persuading the country that its elections cannot be trusted, at least not the ones where he or his allies fall short. He cited selectively declassified documents to make sensational claims about vulnerabilities of the election system, although nothing he revealed proved any outcomes were actually changed.

NOTUS:

The message Trump delivered was old, and that may have been the problem. Two GOP strategists close with the White House, supportive of Trump and the SAVE America Act both told Jasmine they were unsure why the president chose five months before the 2026 midterm elections to rehash 2020.

“Sounds like this is a speech of someone who thinks they’re going to lose in November,” one of the strategists said.

Former Congressman Reid Ribble (R-WI), former member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

“It is unconscionable that a president would use his platform to sow distrust in our nation’s election process. Foreign adversaries benefit whenever Americans lose confidence in our democracy. No elected official should aid our enemies by pushing unsupported, debunked claims about elections that undermine public trust.”

Jim Acosta:

It was another one of those deranged dictator speeches for Donald Trump over at the White House.

He brought out all of these crazy conspiracy theories about China and Venezuela, but one thing you did not hear from Donald Trump, throughout that speech, he did not present any evidence that votes were switched from Donald to Joe Biden.

You know why? Because that evidence does not exist. It has never existed.

Semafor:

The documents President Donald Trump teased last night in a speech warning of massive risks to election security shed little light on any meaningful new threats. But if his speech was meant to squeeze Republicans to back his voter ID bill, there’s no sign that ploy will work, Shelby Talcott, Burgess Everett, and Nicholas Wu write. In his nearly half-hour-long remarks, Trump argued that the only rationale for lawmakers resisting passing the SAVE Act would be if “your candidates are so pathetic that you can’t get … elected any other way.” Most House Republicans have embraced Trump’s call, and GOP leaders have moved to attach a form of the legislation to other bills moving through the chamber. But the SAVE Act has no path to passage in the Senate, and with the midterms looming, many Republicans would prefer Trump talk about cost-of-living issues instead of relitigating 2020.

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Is Thom Tillis the Greater Fool?

On Thursday, Senator Thom Tillis said that his vote to confirm Todd Blanche as AG was contingent on his meeting with Epstein victims. Blanche, who has refused to meet with or apologize to the victims, finally agreed. It did not go well. Epstein survivor Annie Farmer issued a scathing statement after the meeting:

"After meeting with Todd Blanche, I feel even more confident in urging senators to vote against his confirmation as the United States' Attorney General.

"I found him abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal to survivors."

Via CNN:

The family of Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent victims of Epstein’s sex trafficking ring who died by suicide in 2025, said on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” that the meeting with Blanche featured a lot of diversions.

“There were no real admissions. There were no real commitments being made,” said Giuffre’s sister-in-law, Amanda Roberts. “There was just a lot of circles, and it felt very deflating.”

In response to Blanche’s characterization of the Thursday meeting, Roberts said they walked in very dissatisfied with him and made clear their opposition to his nomination.

“We’ve been asking for this meeting, and it felt like he only had it because his hand was forced,” Roberts added.

“The meeting was disappointing, clearly to check a box and Mr. Blanche would not commit to anything to help the survivors,” Jennifer Plotkin, a lawyer who represents Epstein survivors and attended the meeting virtually, told CNN.

Blanche said after the meeting that he encouraged the survivors to give the FBI any information that could help investigators and said he’d meet will the survivors again.

But Epstein survivor Dani Bensky, who had testified earlier Thursday on Capitol Hill, said that message wasn’t enough.

Survivors felt frustrated, according to Bensky, in no small part because they felt they were being told by Blanche repeatedly that they would need to report their crimes all over again to the FBI and provide corroboration.

See also: Tara Palmeri: “EXCLUSIVE: 90-Minutes Inside the Todd Blanche-Epstein Survivor Showdown”

They left DOJ headquarters with little new information and what they viewed as the burden of making their case all over again—this time to the FBI, the very agency they say failed them in the first place.

“It was patronizing,” survivor Jess Michaels, who was in the room, told me. “He would dispute everything. He would say ‘that’s not true or I never said that.’”

Exit question: Will this be enough for Tillis? Will he accept this bogus, last minute meeting with the survivors as sufficient to win his vote to confirm the chief architect of the Epstein Files coverup? Is he that gullible?

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Friday dogs

The boys remain shocked by the stupidity of it all.

• I think it’s safe to say that Todd Blanche did not ace his job interview yesterday (but Republicans may still confirm him):

  Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican known for his folksy asides, asked Mr. Blanche what seemed to be a softball question: Did he consider the president to be his friend?

  “I’m his lawyer,” Mr. Blanche replied, instantly correcting himself to add “was his lawyer.”

• Happily humiliating himself: Trump’s new pick to be Director of National Intelligence won’t say who won the 2020 election.

  When his time came to ask questions, [Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) doubled down.

  “Who won the 2020 election?” Ossoff asked.

  “I’m not going to do this with you,” said Clayton.

  It went on for a few rounds. Ossoff pressed Clayton to answer the question, urging him to “be honest and forthright” with the committee. Clayton said he was “not going to engage in the theater.”

  “You refuse to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election, but you ask to lead America’s intelligence community,” Ossoff said. “Isn’t it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the president’s delusions?”

• Reader asks: Is this a joke? Well, yes…. and no. "High-T Department": Hegseth approves testosterone screening in military.”

  In a video posted on X, captioned “High-T Department”, Hegseth said he was authorising the screening programme for troops to ensure “you have the right testosterone levels to operate at your absolute best”.

  Troops with low testosterone levels will be offered voluntary hormone replacement therapy.

• It’s the corruption, stupid. “South Korean company paid Trump $2 million amid trade investigation.”

• It’s the corruption, stupid Part 2: “FCC Officials Took Gifts From Paramount While It Had Business Before Them” — ProPublica

• It’s the corruption, stupid, Part 3: “Elon Musk most likely broke the law by promising voters $1 million payouts, Wisconsin board says.”

• It’s the corruption, stupid, Part 4: Voters are staring to notice. Via Puck:

  Corruption has been creeping up as a concern for voters in the second Trump administration. In December of 2024, just before Trump’s inauguration, only 8 percent of Americans named “political corruption” as the biggest issue facing the country, according to our polling partners at Echelon Insights. At the time, voters were more anxious about the cost of living, jobs, the state of democracy, and immigration. One year later, however, the corruption number had crept up to 14 percent. Today? Echelon’s most recent survey, out this week, finds that 17 percent of voters name political corruption as the biggest issue facing the country, putting it behind only the cost of living.

• J.D. Vance, man of the people, amirite? Via MS NOW: “Vance’s security detail ‘fed up’ with hastily arranged personal and family travel requests”

  On Thursday last week, Secret Service agents groused among themselves as they prepared to deliver another perk to Vice President JD Vance’s family: join a military helicopter crew to fly his young son to his golf lesson….

  But the Secret Service staff’s complaints about a planned chopper ride for an elementary school student reflects a building morale problem inside the team of agents assigned to shield Vance and his young family….

• And, finally, Apocalypse Now in the Midwest (and Northeast): “Wildfire smoke engulfs swaths of the US Midwest and Northeast” | AP News.

  We’re probably going to be staying indoors for a day or two.

Happy Thursday.

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Is Trump laying the groundwork for another coup?

In today’s episode, Adam Kinzinger joins me to discuss the passing of Lindsey Graham, and his mixed legacy.

We also preview tonight’s broadcast amplifying the Big Lie. Trump reportedly will be joined by some of his misfit toys — Bill Pulte, John Ratcliffe, Kash Patel, and Markwayne Mullin. The president is expected to relitigate the 2020 election. But the real point, and the real danger, will be his use of cherry-picked intelligence to undermine public confidence in the 2026 and 2028 elections. Adam and I have some thoughts.

Subscribers can listen to an ad-free version right here… or you can watch on YouTube / Listen (and subscribe) on Apple/ Spotify / iHeart / RSS Feed

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Note: If you enjoy conversations like this one, or just want to hang around smart, sane people, please consider joining us.

Some highlights of my conversation with Adam Kinzinger

The transformation of Lindsey Graham

Will Republicans eat the shit sandwich of Todd Blanche?

Could the GOP Congress refuse to seat Democrats who are elected in November?

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Meanwhile, an update on the GOP Ratf***king in Wisconsin…

Via the NYT: “G.O.P. Appears to Boost Socialist’s Primary Campaign for Wisconsin Governor”

“Republicans seem to view Francesca Hong as their weakest opponent in a general election. They are spending $2.2 million in an apparent attempt to aid her primary campaign.”

A super PAC tied to Republicans is spending $2.2 million on television advertisements that appear to be aimed at boosting the chances of Francesca Hong, a Democratic candidate for governor in Wisconsin.

Some Democrats in the state have fretted over the prospect that Ms. Hong, a democratic socialist with unabashedly left-wing views in a distinctly purple state, might advance out of a crowded August primary — and then deliver the governor’s mansion to Representative Tom Tiffany, the likely Republican nominee, in November.

Republicans appear to agree.

The PAC running a new ad about Ms. Hong, Right Direction Wisconsin, is tied to the Republican Governors Association. The 30-second ad, which will begin airing on Thursday in liberal parts of the state, including Madison and Milwaukee, criticizes Ms. Hong for being too liberal, in what appears to be a counterintuitive strategy to grow her appeal among Democratic primary voters.

Exit take: As sleazy as this is, the GOP is not wrong about Hong. If she wins the Dem primary in August, MAGA will be poised to win the governorship in a key swing state.

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Thursday dogs

The three amigos, five years ago today. On a morning burger run.

Trump TACOs on Hormuz Strait tolls, but doubles-down on ICE traffic stops after yet another killing. Because the brutality is the point.

“The men and women of ICE are doing a GREAT job, one that has to be done,” Trump said of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in a social media post on Wednesday morning. “We CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!”

On Tuesday, Trump also had to pay E. Jean Carroll $5.6 million he owed her after a jury found him liable for sexually abusing her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s and then defaming her. We also learned that the US Mint is striking a new $1 gold Trump Coin “to honor the enduring legacy of liberty and a lasting symbol of patriotism. Featuring President Trump, it celebrates the strength of American values…”

Happy Wednesday.

The Appalling Mr. Blanche

Amidst the usual flood of news and outrage, the main event today will be Todd Blanche, who goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee trailing clouds of corruption, weaponized political prosecutions, fawning loyalty to the president, $1.8 billion slush funds, conflicts of interest, corrupt bargains, the Epstein cover-up, election denialism, violations of constitutional rights and court orders, a steaming pile of ethical violations, and a Department of Justice in ruins.

My apologies for the length of today’s newsletter, but the case against the deeply deplorable Blanche is vast and worth laying out in some detail.

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Just last week, a federal judge excoriated Blanche’s DOJ for its corrupt bargain creating a massive Goon Squad Slush Fund and immunizing Trump from IRS enforcement actions… forever. The judge’s decision came after more than 100 former judges filed a disciplinary complaint against Blanche, alleging he committed fraud on the court regarding the IRS settlement and abused his power.

[Judge Kathleen Williams] also barred the Justice Department, IRS and Mr. Trump from citing or using provisions of a deal the two sides reached in judicial, administrative, regulatory or other proceedings as evidence of a settlement in the case.

The case, Williams wrote, “was brought for an improper purpose — to gain the imprimatur of judicial legitimacy for a ‘settlement’ that had no viable basis in law or fact.” Additionally, the president and his two older sons, who were plaintiffs alongside Mr. Trump, “acted in bad faith,” she concluded.

Williams also directed a copy of her order to be mailed to the State Bar of New York and to the District of Columbia Bar, of which acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward are members, respectively. Blanche and Woodward signed documents relating to the settlement with Mr. Trump.

The Attorney General is supposed to be the nation’s top legal official, but he has been rebuked by federal courts for “willful and bad faith” conduct, specifically in the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported and then vindictively prosecuted.

Blanche also violated Department of Justice ethics standards by failing to recuse himself from matters involving Trump, despite a signed pledge to do so. And he may have benefited financially by ending investigations into the crypto industry while holding substantial personal investments in that sector.

And then there is the Epstein cover-up, including his sweet deal with Epstein confederate Ghislaine Maxwell. You’ll recall that his former boss, Pam Bondi, told lawmakers behind closed-doors after her ouster that Blanche was the department’s point person on the release of the Epstein documents.

But those issues are merely subsets of Blanche’s deeper corruption and his slavish loyalty to his client-in chief. The NYT tallies up Blanche’s dangerous record:

He pursued nakedly political indictments, including against James Comey, the former F.B.I. director. Mr. Blanche helped design a proposed $1.8 billion fund to benefit the rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and other Trump loyalists. He has spread falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election.

He signed an agreement that gives the Trump family and its businesses immunity from tax audits, which could save Mr. Trump $100 million or more. Mr. Blanche has pushed out dozens of F.B.I. agents and federal prosecutors for doing their duty by investigating the riot and other potential crimes. He has violated his promise to recuse himself from matters in which he has a conflict of interest.

How bad is Blanche? More than 1200 former DOJ employees signed a letter opposing his nomination.

“In the coming weeks, many will rightly underscore the corruption and abuses that have defined the Justice Department under Todd Blanche’s leadership: the vindictive prosecutions and investigations of the President’s foes; the deals designed to reward lawbreakers with taxpayer dollars; the erasure of accountability for January 6; the mishandling of the Epstein files; and the denigration of judges and repeated violations of their orders,” the former employees wrote in a letter organized by Justice Connection, a DOJ alumni group.

“But we want to focus on an area that deserves just as much attention: Todd Blanche’s degradation of DOJ’s apolitical career workforce.”

…

Under Blanche’s leadership, approximately 16,000 employees have left, and departures aren’t slowing down. They include FBI agents and analysts in field offices across the country, and more than a quarter of the department’s attorneys.

Blanche has fired or overseen the firings of hundreds of these employees – usually without notice, and for improper, unlawful reasons. Some were terminated for having worked on cases the President didn’t like; for being relatives of the President’s foes; for adjudicating immigration cases in accordance with due process; for declining to initiate vindictive prosecutions; or for refusing to lie in court. These terminations violate the very civil service statutes designed to prevent corruption and political purges.

The New York City Bar also sounded warnings that Blanche’s record “conclusively demonstrates his lack of commitment to the integrity, professionalism and independence that the Senate should require and the American people should expect of the highest law enforcement official in the land.”

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington also denounced the appointment:

As acting attorney general and deputy attorney general, Blanche has repeatedly elevated the president’s interests over the DOJ’s and the American people’s. His record includes defending the settlement of Trump’s IRS lawsuit against his own administration, celebrating the firings of career DOJ employees assigned to cases against Trump, misusing DOJ power to investigate and indict Trump’s political enemies and working to purge the convictions of January 6 insurrectionists.

Writing in Executive Functions, Bob Bauer highlighted Blanche’s role in propping up Trump’s Big Lie:

Blanche has endorsed the president’s claim of a fraud-ridden electoral process. In a Fox News interview two months ago, he echoed Trump’s long-running insistence that the 2020 election was “rigged.” He cited without more detail “a ton of evidence” that somehow eluded the many courts that rejected Trump’s legal challenges and the election law experts who have independently evaluated these allegations. Blanche suggested that this “ton” of evidence has been accessible for “many, many years” but also stated that it has been hard to get at because the perpetrators of this fraud “[are] very good at hiding misconduct.”

Senate Democrats have demanded answers to a host of questions that Blanche has, so far, failed to answer. They are legion. (See footnote)1

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Exit take: Senators may have buyer’s remorse over their votes to confirm chode like Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel, RFK, Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard. But this vote will be the ultimate test of whether the Senate still takes seriously its power of advice and consent. It will also be a decisive test of the character of the handful of senators who claim to have rediscovered their consciences and their independence.

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Wednesday dogs

Eli could spend all day in the lake, especially when the temps are in the 90s.

• Did Graham actually protect Ukraine and NATO—or just rationalize Trump’s Putin appeasement?

• The brutal reality of Graham’s “relevance” strategy and what it cost American conservatism

• All the conspiracy theories swirling around Graham and Sen. Mitch McConnell

• Todd Blanche’s Attorney General confirmation hearings are coming up at a time when there’s already a slim GOP majority.

• The latest ICE shooting in Maine

• A preview of Donald Trump’s upcoming 2020 “stolen election” speech

• Crazy Victor Marx wins Colorado’s GOP primary

• White House Correspondents Dinner hypocrisy

• And MUCH more!

ICYMI:

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The president declares himself the GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT, and says he’s going to charge tolls and reinstate the blockade; ICE kills again in Maine; a judge eviscerates Trump’s corrupt bargain with the IRS; and the conspiracist-in-chief prepares to inflict yet another bat-shit crazy conspiracy theory on the nation.

Happy Tuesday.

A note to readers:

A quick reminder, you are not the crazy ones. But this is the fight of our lifetimes, and the challenge of our generation.

Right now, fewer than 10 percent of our readers are paid subscribers. That’s okay, because this newsletter — and the podcasts — are free. But if you find what I do is worth something to you, I hope you will consider a subscription.

That comes to about 27 cents a day, less if you subscribe annually, for a daily dose of sanity. And both the dogs and I are immensely grateful for your generous support.

An improper exercise in self-dealing

We’ll get to Trump’s Thursday night lunacy in a moment, but let’s start with his latest slap-down in a court of law. The 56-page decision from Judge Kathleen Williams is banger.

Via the NYT:

A federal judge ruled on Monday that President Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service was an improper exercise in self-dealing and barred him from claiming that the extraordinary tax protections he received were part of a legitimate settlement agreement.

In the 56-page order, the judge, Kathleen M. Williams, also referred the lawyer who brought Mr. Trump’s case against the I.R.S. to the Florida bar for potential disciplinary proceedings. She added that she would forward her decision to the New York bar for its continuing investigation of the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, who faces a Senate confirmation hearing this week.

The decision by Judge Williams, who sits in Federal District Court in Miami, did not explicitly kill the deal that Mr. Trump had worked out with his own government to receive what amounted to amnesty from I.R.S. investigations. But the scathing ruling exposed the negotiations between Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers and senior officials at the Justice Department for what she says they were: backroom dealings that did not arise from a legitimate legal process.

“The nature of the suit itself and the conduct of the parties and counsel from its filing make plain that this was an attempt to use the court to provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the president,” the judge wrote.

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ICE kills again

We have to wait for all the facts to come out, but the shooting of yet another unarmed man in Maine has many of the familiar horrific hallmarks of ICE brutality. ICE admits they targeted the wrong man and initially did not seem to be claiming that he was driving his vehicle toward the agents who shot him in head. His 3-year-old daughter was in the car when her father was shot. Videos show agents pulling the wounded man out of the car, laying him on the ground, and handcuffing him as he lay dying. Via CNN:

• Fatal ICE shooting: The Biddeford community is mourning a young father, husband and neighbor after Guerrero was shot by an ICE agent this morning. Local officials have demanded a full and impartial investigation, while protesters took to Biddeford’s streets….

• Conflicting accounts: The shooting victim was “NOT the target of the warrant,” Sen. Angus King’s office said after the lawmaker again spoke with DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

Who was Joan Sebastian Guerrero?

The victim was a 26-year-old Colombian man living in Maine who, according to immigrant advocacy groups and neighbors, had come to the state to live and work.

The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! Maine said Guerrero was authorized to work in the United States and had been issued a Social Security number. Neighbor Nelson Elias told CNN he was a delivery driver who lived with his partner and young daughter in Biddeford.

This comes just days after another killing in Houston. Via Juliette Kayyem:

An ICE agent killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston last week. A father, grandfather and small business owner, Araujo spent decades building a life here. His family said he worked in construction, put three American-born sons through college and was in the process of securing legal status in the United States. He was not a burden on his community. He was a part of it.

ICE agents, masked and driving an unmarked vehicle while searching for someone else, mistakenly identified Araujo as their target and ultimately shot and killed him….

ICE initially claimed that Araujo rammed a law enforcement vehicle. Physical evidence and witness accounts have raised serious questions about that version of events. The agency’s initial response was familiar: justify the shooting by blaming the victim. ICE is part of an immigration enforcement system so unaccountable that federal immigration agents killed two Americans in Minnesota, and no one has been charged in either death.

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The biggest lie is yet to come — Thursday night

We don’t know for sure what Trump will say when he addresses the nation, but no one should be surprised if it is certifiable. One report suggests that Trump will announce that Georgia’s two senators — Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock — are “illegitimate” because of election fraud.

WTAF?

That report is unconfirmed, but what we do know is crazy enough: “Trump to claim declassified intel reveals 2020 election interference.”

President Donald Trump plans to claim in a Thursday night speech that newly declassified intelligence reports reveal a foreign nation’s plans to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, two White House officials told MS NOW on Monday.

Trump will be joined by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte, FBI Director Kash Patel, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and others, according to one of the officials, who were granted anonymity to discuss the internal plans, MS NOW reported.

Italian space satellites? Venezuelan moles? Chinese hackers? We’ll find out Thursday night, apparently.

So, once again, conspiracy theories once confined to the far reaches of the fever swamp will be shoved into the spotlight, as Trump weaponizes his Big Lie. We linked to this story yesterday: “Trump election task force to begin releasing classified intel documents.”

The release of the documents appears to be part of a series of accelerating efforts by Trump and his aides to again question the results of the 2020 election, claim that widespread voter fraud occurs in the country and decrease public trust in the results of pivotal elections this fall that will decide control of Congress.

“I don’t think we’ve ever seen an administration that is this hostile to voting rights and free and fair elections,” said Jonathan Diaz, the director of voting advocacy at the Campaign Legal Center, an ethics watchdog group. “This is a new frontier.”

BONUS: Via Miles Taylor: “I helped oversee election security for Trump. He’s about to swap the ‘Big Lie’ for a Bigger Lie.”

I know what’s in that well of information he’s drawing from, because I helped dig it. During Donald Trump’s first term, I worked on election protection at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), helping to stand up the administration’s response to historic Russian interference in 2016. We built an entire, government-wide response system — intelligence analysts, cyber defenders, and law enforcement agents — who were full-time focused on stopping any such attack from happening again. And I can tell you now, before Trump says a single word, he’s full of shit.

Pardon my language. But I’m virtually certain that whatever he presents on Thursday, it will be twice-warmed leftovers of information, cherry-picked and recast to tell a story our intelligence agencies never told because it was never true. Indeed, the president appears poised to make it sound like a foreign adversary, specifically China, took away the White House from him by helping Joe Biden win. If the Big Lie was bad, this will be even Bigger because now he’s might name the actual boogeyman that has eluded him, over years of delusional claims about an unfair loss.

Exit take: This probably does not need saying, we're going to say it anyway. The point of all of this is not merely to relitigate Donald Trump's obsession with his 2020 defeat. It is to lay the groundwork for undermining confidence in the 2026 and 2028 elections, perhaps providing a pretext for Trump to declare an “emergency” to justify federal interference, and maybe even a takeover, of the electoral process. We have been warned.

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Today’s Podcast

Our friend, Justin Wolfers, is a professor of economics at the University of Michigan and author of the Platypus Economics Substack. In this episode, he joins me for a very wide-ranging conversation: We touch on everything from the economic impact of Trump’s renewed war with Iran to Trump’s crypto scam to the impact of AI, and the importance of the humanities in our Age of Tech.

Subscribers can listen to an ad-free version right here… or you can watch on YouTube / Listen (and subscribe) on Apple/ Spotify / iHeart / RSS Feed

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Nota Bene

Pushing back on the Lindsey Graham Revisionism. Phillips O’Brien brings the receipts. “Lindsey Graham On Ukraine and Trump”

President Trump ended all US military aid (as opposed to sales) to Ukraine once he became president in 2025. I can find no criticism of Trump by Graham for doing this—but please correct me on this if you can.

Graham, Trump and the Oval Office Attacks On Zelensky

On February 28, 2025, Trump and Vice President JD Vance attacked Ukraine’s President Zelensky in the Oval Office, for not doing what the US wanted. It was at this meeting that it was said Ukraine had “no cards” in its war with Russia. Graham spoke a number of times afterwards and all to support Trump and Vance and attack Zelensky.

February 28, 2025 — RealClearPolitics

Speaking to reporters outside the West Wing immediately after the meeting, and asked his opinion of Trump’s conduct, Graham said: “I have never been more proud of the president.”

February 28, 2025 — Matzav

Extending the praise to the vice president, whose intervention had escalated the confrontation, Graham said: “I was very proud of JD Vance standing up for our country.”

February 28, 2025 — PBS

Placing the blame for the meeting’s collapse on Zelensky rather than on Trump or Vance, Graham said: “What I saw in the Oval Office was disrespectful” — adding that he didn’t know if the US could ever do business with Zelensky again.

February 28, 2025 — Fox News

Asked whether Zelensky should step aside after the Oval Office meeting, Graham supported the idea, saying: “He either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with”.

February 28, 2025 — ABC News

Criticizing Zelensky’s manner in the meeting itself, Graham said: “the way he confronted the president was just over the top.”

Note. Graham repeated these attacks for weeks afterwards. On March 9, speaking on Fox News, Graham said:

“You know Zelensky blew it in the White House.

You can read the whole thing here.

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Tuesday dogs

Our French dog, Zok, waits for his people to return. Here he is in Angouleme.

Wolfers was one of nearly 200 economists who signed an open letter about AI:

Artificial intelligence could transform the economy faster than any previous technology, and policymakers must move equally quickly to figure out how to respond, a group of economists and researchers are warning.

“A.I. may become radically more powerful over the next 10 years,” the researchers wrote in a statement released on Monday, adding that the technology “could bring risks, including large-scale job displacement, as well as opportunities such as major gains in living standards.”

The statement, titled “We Must Act Now,” was signed by nearly 200 people, including 15 Nobel laureates and the chief economists of two of the leading A.I. labs, Open AI and Anthropic. Other notable signatories include Jack Clark, a co-founder of Anthropic; Eric Schmidt, the former chief executive of Google; and Vinod Khosla, a prominent venture capitalist.

You can read the whole thing here.

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Some highlights on my conversation with Justin Wolfers

Buying the presidency has become profitable

Trump fleeces his fans with crypto.

If political leaders ignore AI, we lose.

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The incompetence of Trump’s Iran fiasco

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Don’t let this get lost in the flooded zone of the news cycle: “Trump is telling us what he is going to do in the midterms and beyond,” Andrew Weissman wrote the other day. “Why else dismantle election commissions that are there to assure free and fair elections, dismantle DHS and DOJ teams that do the same — and root out foreign election interference? It’s certainly not cause you want to have less risk of election fraud.”

None of this is being done by stealth:

Trump’s weaponization of the DOJ and FBI to pursue the Big Lie in Georgia and elsewhere; his obsession with the vote suppressing SAVE Act; his attacks on mail-in voting; the repeated threats to deploy ICE agents at polling locations, and firing members of a bipartisan election commission ahead of November midterms. A couple of weeks ago, the NYT compiled a list of “The Many Ways Trump Is Trying to Tip the Scales for the Midterms”:

Many of these efforts have been blocked by courts, stymied by the Constitution or stopped in Congress. But the relentless assault by the president on the electoral process — both administratively and rhetorically — is likely to sow doubt and lay groundwork for extensive challenges to election results.

Agencies and officials across the federal government have, at the direction of Mr. Trump, undertaken dozens of actions grounded in novel strategies and aimed at insulating Republicans from potential losses in November. Those actions fall into six major categories (and some fall into more than one).

• Taking steps to nationalize elections

• Trying to tighten voting restrictions

• Pushing for mid-decade redistricting

• Cutting election security

• Undermining faith in the electoral system by questioning previous results

• Punishing those who have worked against election denialism

Last week, we learned Trump is using a White House task force to gather declassified intelligence documents to bolster his election conspiracy theories.

And on Friday, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security announced that it was holding anti-terrorism funding hostage unless states adopt what it calls “common-sense election security measures" which amount to a quasi-federal takeover of many election rules. “To qualify for three grant programs related to preparing for terrorist attacks and other threats, states must use a federal system for verifying voters' citizenship and accept hand-marked paper ballots in elections, the DHS said. FEMA will withhold 20% of a grant recipient's total award until the state shows it has complied, the department said.”

You can read the full election extortion memo here in the footnote.1

Exit take: At this point it seems like cosmic naivete to think that (1) Trump will not try to interfere in both the election and its aftermath, (2) Will ever go quietly.

BONUS: It’s the corruption, stupid. “Trump’s sons invest heavily in defense tech as father’s administration pours money in” - Washington Post

Happy Monday.

Remembering (and Mis-Remembering) Lindsey

Over at Bari Weiss’s Free Press, Eli Lake is writing about the “Secret of Lindsey Graham’s Success,” describing Graham as a “giant” who had learned he could “catch more flies with honey than vinegar.” But there are more sober takes that do not celebrate Graham’s collection of flies:

Anne Applebaum: “The Quintessential Politician of This Era” - The Atlantic (Gift link)

In his way, the late Lindsey Graham, who unexpectedly died Saturday evening, was the consummate politician of our time. The Republican senator from South Carolina was the epitome, the poster child, the quintessence of our era….

Graham’s motivations remain a mystery. Perhaps he craved proximity to power. Perhaps he feared losing his Senate seat, and with it any claim to relevance. Deep down, though, he must have known he was betraying the ideals of his younger self.

Adam Kinzinger: “Some Brief Thoughts On The Passing Of Lindsey Graham”:

I’ve been torn about my memories of Lindsey Graham, and I’ll be honest about that instead of pretending otherwise. His turn toward Trump was among the most disappointing, and honestly angering, things I witnessed from anyone I knew in that world. I watched someone I respected reshape himself, piece by piece, into something I didn’t recognize. I won’t pretend that didn’t happen. I won’t rewrite it now just because he’s gone.

But death has a way of putting things in perspective, and I think it’s worth telling the fuller story.

Lindsey and I had a complicated relationship. Before Trump, we were friends. Real friends, not the kind politicians perform for cameras. We traveled together on congressional trips around the world — the kind of trips most people never see, where you’re not doing it for votes back home because nobody’s watching. One of those trips took us to Syrian refugee camps, where we sat with children whose entire lives had been shattered by a war they had no part in starting. I remember watching Lindsey with those kids. He wasn’t performing. He was affected by it, the same way I was. Those are the moments that remind you why you got into public service in the first place — not the floor speeches, not the fundraisers, but sitting with people who have lost everything and letting it change you a little.

That was the Lindsey Graham I knew….then. A guy who believed, genuinely, that America had a role to play in the world beyond our own borders, and who was willing to go look at suffering up close instead of just reading briefings about it. We didn’t always agree, even then. But I never doubted that part of him.

But, he was a political survivor. Sadly. That would ruin his legacy.

Mark Leibovich: What Lindsey Graham Wanted - The Atlantic (Gift link):

Graham was always a first-class political shape-shifter, easily darting between the smarty-pants of Official Washington and the bare-knuckled MAGA Populists of South Carolina. This dynamic extended to the on- and off-camera Lindseys: One minute, he would be chumming it up with a Democratic colleague before their “hit,” and then, when the lights came on, he would be breathing partisan fire on behalf of the White House or Trump’s supporters back home.

**

ICYMI, I had some brief thoughts yesterday morning:

Lindsey Graham continued to fawn for relevance long after it became obvious that Trump’s worst instincts were not, in fact, tempered. And so, Graham was doomed to watch as our allies were alienated and abandoned, and his vision of America squandered. Even so, he kept coming back for more, again and again.

Graham’s life was not a tragedy. It was a choice. And for what? The approval of Donald Trump? The praise of a man whose measure he had taken a decade ago?

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Proof of life?

And then there’s Mitch. “McConnell says after weeks of speculation that hospitalization was due to a fall” | CNN Politics

“My doctors have confirmed that I didn’t break any bones or suffer a concussion. I didn’t have a heart attack or a stroke. I don’t have any tumors or hemorrhages. But I was briefly unconscious and was taken to the hospital. While receiving excellent care over the past several weeks, I’ve also had to deal with a mild case of pneumonia,” he said in a statement.

McConnell also provided a photo showing him smiling next to his wife, Elaine Chao. He appears to have a copy of Sunday’s Washington Post sports section on his lap.

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“Are Wisconsin Republicans Ratf—king the Democrats?”

From my fellow cheesehead, James Wigderson, on the GOP’s efforts to boost a DSA candidate in Wisconsin.

Earlier in the campaign season, the [campaign of GOP candidate Tom Tiffany] just happened to “leak” a memo claiming [DSA candidate Francesca ] Hong is a formidable candidate. Now a mysterious poll with no known sponsor shows Hong leading the Democratic field with 30%, Barnes in second with 28%, and Rodriguez in third with 19%.

The poll, conducted by Wedgewood Polls, was supposedly sponsored by the Isthmus Political Report. As Bruce Murphy in Urban Milwaukee reported Tuesday, the Madison publication Isthmus does not conduct political polling. According to Murphy:

The poll was published by the conservative Republican website the MacIver Institute, which reported it was sponsored by the Isthmus Political Report and later shortened that to Isthmus in the story.

But Isthmus President and Editor Judith Davidoff says the Madison-based publication had nothing to do with the poll. “I’ve been with Isthmus for 20 years and we’ve never sponsored a political poll,” she told Urban Milwaukee.

Murphy added:

To date, no Wisconsin news publication has reported on the poll, but Newsweek has, and the MacIver Institute published its article yesterday. Davidoff said she contacted the institute, asking it to remove the trimmed reference to Isthmus, and it did, but it still lists the sponsor as Isthmus Political Report.

According to Murphy, both Wedgewood and Isthmus Political Report have been posting on X (Twitter) comments promoting Hong. Isthmus Political Report also posted, “Really seems like the Rodriguez momentum was fake.”

Is there a Donald Segretti-like GOP operation working in Wisconsin?

Exit take: Democrats who fear a GOP wipe-out if Hong wins the nomination have been coalescing around Lt. Governor Sara Rodriguez, but it’s not yet clear whether that will be enough to block the socialist momentum.

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Monday dogs

Auggie was taking a break after a very busy weekend.

Lindsey Graham may have been a good man; perhaps he could have been a great one; but he chose to be Trump’s man.

This morning I’m wondering what John McCain has to say to his old friend, assuming, of course, they are in the same place.

The news of Graham’s death comes as a shock, because at 71 he was a spring chicken compared to the elders of the senate. But this reminder of the fragility of life is yet another cautionary tale, especially when so much rides on the few, the ancient, and the mercurial. Things can change in the blink of eye; and we are not just talking about Graham’s pliable and fluctuating principles.

But Graham’s elasticity is an unavoidable part of his legacy, along with his extraordinary capacity for self-abasement and humiliation.

This may sound harsh, but the long and winding road of Graham’s career is a moment to reflect on how we got here; and how men and women in power will be remembered for their choices.

Graham could have been something else. He was bright, funny, and back in 2015 and 2016, he was prophetic. Donald Trump, he said back then, was “a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. He doesn’t represent my party. He doesn’t represent the values that the men and women who wear the uniform are fighting for”

Back then, Graham explained:

He's putting our soldiers and diplomats at risk, he's empowering the enemy and this ban, if it's actually enacted, would take people who have been interpreters, who came to our side in Iraq and Afghanistan and who are under siege in their own countries, it basically becomes a death sentence for them."…

“[Trump’s] never served. Going to a military high school, Donald, is really not military Service.” “You’ve never worn the uniform, you’ve never been on a forward operating base, you’ve never been at a PRT as a member of the Department of Justice or the Department of State, you’ve never been a USAID worker going into some poor devastated area in Iraq and Afghanistan trying to help our country by helping others. So knock it off, you’re putting people at risk.”…

“You’re undercutting their efforts, you’re slandering their sacrifice, you’re marginalizing what they’re trying to make the world a better place.”

And, of course, this:

**

But we know the rest of the story, as Graham morphed from statesman to Trump fluffer in-chief. (See: “What Happened to Lindsey Graham?”)

Back in 2020, Graham was one of the main subjects of Anne Applebaum’s cover story in The Atlantic on the collaborations of the GOP. “Why Do Republican Leaders Continue to Enable Trump?”

A friend who regularly runs into Lindsey Graham in Washington told me that each time they meet, “he brags about having just met with Trump” while exhibiting “high school” levels of excitement, as if “a popular quarterback has just bestowed some attention on a nerdy debate-club leader—the powerful big kid likes me! ” That kind of intense pleasure is hard to relinquish and even harder to live without.

But Graham’s support was also substantive.

It was Graham who made excuses for Trump’s abuse of power. It was Graham—a JAG Corps lawyer—who downplayed the evidence that the president had attempted to manipulate foreign courts and blackmail a foreign leader into launching a phony investigation into a political rival. It was Graham who abandoned his own stated support for bipartisanship and instead pushed for a hyperpartisan Senate Judiciary Committee investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son. It was Graham who played golf with Trump, who made excuses for him on television, who supported the president even as he slowly destroyed the American alliances—with Europeans, with the Kurds—that Graham had defended all his life.

Like so many of Trump’s other enablers, Graham told himself that his cringey sycophancy was worth it because it enabled him to remain “relevant.”

This is what I wrote back in 2019:

“Graham told himself: by staying close to Trump, he could influence him and prevent horribly bad decisions. Others made the same calculation, but Graham made the uber-tradeoff, because the stakes were so high. What did it matter if he had to endure temporary embarrassments, abase himself on cable television, or even become a political punchline, if he could stop Trump from impulsive decisions regarding Russia or North Korea? Or Syria?”

“The world saw Graham as a craven, cringing Uriah Heep. Graham saw himself as someone who could save the world…

“Graham calculated: If he didn’t play golf with Trump and indulge his penchant for pillow talk, Trump would be putting and chatting with Rand Paul, listening to the counsels of isolationism, appeasement and international amorality. He was not simply the adult in the room; he was the adult BFF in the room, who would temper Trump’s worst instincts.”

Lindsey Graham continued to fawn for relevance long after it became obvious that Trump’s worst instincts were not, in fact, tempered. And so, Graham was doomed to watch as our allies were alienated and abandoned, and his vision of America squandered. Even so, he kept coming back for more, again and again.

Graham’s life was not a tragedy. It was a choice. And for what? The approval of Donald Trump? The praise of a man whose measure he had taken a decade ago?

Exit take: What profits it a man to gain the world if he loses his soul? But for Donald J. Trump, Lindsey?

Meanwhile, the Iran ceasefire goes up in flames as the President of Peace once again threatens war crimes on a massive scale.

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A week of commentary

Congratulations on making it through another week. ICYMI:

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

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Sunday dogs

Flying dog.

You can read Tom’s latest here: “Iran, Not Trump, Is in Control of This War” - The Atlantic (Gift link):

If Donald Trump ever had any control over the war he started with Iran, he’s lost it. The Iranians are now setting the terms of this conflict and are routinely humiliating the American president. The “cease-fire” Trump declared last month—a move probably meant to both soothe international markets and avert legislative action from the United States Congress—never really existed, because neither side ever ceased firing.

Subscribers can listen to an ad-free version right here… or you can watch on YouTube / Listen (and subscribe) on Apple/ Spotify / iHeart / RSS Feed

Note: If you enjoy conversations like this one, or just want to hang around smart, sane people, please consider joining us.

Some highlights of my conversation with Tom Nichols

There is something seriously wrong with Trump.

Trump keeps undercutting US leverage.

The bill for Trump’s vanity presidency. We run the numbers.

Lessons from the Platner fiasco: Don’t fall for bright shiny candidates.

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Nota Bene

Kash turn in the barrel? “Kash Patel called to White House on heels of continued questions over his behavior”

FBI Director Kash Patel abruptly cancelled a planned flight Friday to see his girlfriend in Chicago this weekend, after top administration officials frustrated with Patel summoned him to the White House, according to two people with knowledge of the change.

The precise reasons that Patel’s political bosses demanded he cancel his trip and report to the West Wing are unclear, but several people said top Trump deputies were disturbed by a range of actions by Patel. Some found it confounding that the FBI director was leaving town amid the recent revival of the war with Iran and alleged threats against the president’s life, according to a person familiar with efforts to help Patel rebuild trust with the White House. For this article, people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive internal matter.

Corey’s turn too? “Investigators Find Corey Lewandowski May Have Been Involved in Improper DHS Contracts”- WSJ

Investigators have found evidence that Corey Lewandowski may have been involved in improperly awarding government contracts during his time as a senior aide at the Department of Homeland Security, according to people familiar with the matter.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and White House officials have been briefed on the inquiry, as investigators weigh a potential criminal referral to the Justice Department, the people said.

Memo to the WHCA:1 “Times Journalists Subpoenaed as Trump Escalates Pressure on Media” - The New York Times

The Trump administration issued subpoenas on Friday to several journalists for The New York Times, after the news outlet reported this week on security concerns involving President Trump’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One.

The subpoenas — which seek to force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan on Wednesday — were an extraordinary escalation in President Trump’s efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations.

In some cases, the subpoenas were delivered by federal agents who showed up at reporters’ homes.

The Times denounced the administration’s actions.

“The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects,” said David McCraw, The Times’s top newsroom lawyer, in a statement on Friday evening.

The chaos is the point. “Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’”

The Election Assistance Commission serves as a “national clearinghouse of information on election ‌administration”, accredits testing laboratories and certifies voting systems, and maintains the national mail-voter registration form developed by the National ​Voter Registration Act of 1993, according to the commission’s website. The terminations follow Trump and top administration officials’ advocacy to change vote-by-mail requirements and investigations into the 2020 election outcome, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

“It is ⁠irresponsible and dangerous that this Administration remains dead set on ​causing chaos for ​our election officials across this ​country,” Arizona’s secretary of state, Adrian Fontes, said in a ​Thursday statement. “This ‌move undermines the integrity ​of nonpartisan ​election administration.”

**

**

Phillips O’Brien: “The Worst NATO Summit In History”

You want proof that this summit was the worst in history? Let us go back to the summit declaration and read the last paragraph.

Our “next meeting”…interesting phrase that. Before Ankara, the next leadership summit was scheduled to be held in 2027, in Tirana, Albania. Yet, there is no mention of that meeting happening in this year’s statement. All we hear is some vague, “next” meeting happening sometime in the future at an indeterminate location.

And this is right—stories have started circulating that there will not be a leaders’ summit in 2027, because European leaders see no reason to engage in these pointless/counterproductive meetings with Trump.

This meeting was so bad there might not be another while Trump is President.

So, yes, this was the worst summit in NATO history, there were lies, deliberate papering over of cracks, strategic dreams, and benefits for Vladimir Putin.

But, hey, Trump felt the love, so that becomes the story.

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Saturday dogs

The boys are checking on their people.

We do not yet have the video, but we’ve seen this pattern before, haven’t we?

It has been three days since ICE officers shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston. Some details remain fuzzy, but questions keep multiplying. This morning’s Washington Post quotes some of the surviving migrants who say “a federal officer fired at them almost immediately after exiting his vehicle and that at no point did the driver veer in his direction.” This, of course contradicts the Department of Homeland Security (usual) claim that the officer acted in self-defense.

“From information we are receiving, he rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands, and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense,” the agency said in a statement.

According to the witnesses, none of that is true.1

But we’ve heard this before. After the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Trump officials rushed out with claims that later proved false.

We don’t know all the facts yet because, unlike the ICE murders in Minneapolis, we haven’t seen any videos of the shooting. But we do know enough to recognize a few patterns. (See today’s NYT: “What We Know About the ICE Shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.”)

Before we dive in, let’s make a few points:

• On Thursday, DHA admitted that Araujo was not the intended target of the operation.

• “Araujo, 52, was a husband, father of three children and a business owner who had been in the country for more than three decades and was trying to obtain legal residency. His sons said their father, a Mexico native, was most likely months away from obtaining a work permit after submitting fingerprints to immigration officials.”

• At least 21 people have been fired on by federal agents since last year. Via the NYT: “In many of these shootings, immigration agents have accused drivers of trying to assault a federal officer with their vehicles. Many people fighting those allegations in court have prevailed.”

• Federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in January. In February, we learned that ICE agents had killed a third U.S. citizen, Ruben Ray Martinez, back in March 2025 during a traffic stop in Texas. In October, Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, a Mexican immigrant, was killed in Chicago by officers who fired at his vehicle as he drove away.

• In each case the killings were followed by DHS cover stories and cover-ups.

• In each case, the killings were followed by federal obstructions of local investigations.

• Given its history, ICE no longer deserves the presumption that it is telling the truth.

BONUS: A reminder that the cruelty is the point: “Claims of Poor Conditions in ICE Facility Are Bolstered by Health Inspectors” - The New York Times (Gift link)

Happy Friday

Note to readers:

Why are we doing this? Because the moment demands it. And the writers on Substack simply can’t stay silent. But only you can decide whether you think it is worth supporting them.

I’m frequently asked: What can we do? How can we fight back? How can we get through this? How can we stay sane?

One answer: Subscribe to the independent voices out there. (BTW: You may have noticed that I have begun cross posting some of them here.)

I know that there are a lot of claims on your time and your wallet, but this should be on your list: Support the voices that are supporting democracy, the rule of law, free speech, and fundamental decency.

The Price Tag for Trump’s Ego Projects?

It’s time to tally the butcher’s bill of Trump’s hubris.

The Financial Times estimates that the total cost of Trump’s vanity projects is likely to exceed $1 billion. Earlier this week, we learned that the president is speeding up his White House heli-pad project — adding $875,000 to the tab. But that’s just one of his pricey baubles.

Let’s break it down:

• East Wing Ballroom, $400 million

• Ballroom bunker/security center, $400 million

• Kennedy Center, $250,000,000

• City Fountains, $58 million

• National Garden of American Heroes, $40 million

• Lafayette Park, $17 million

• Reflecting Pool /Green Swamp, $16 million

• Gilding statues, $5.1 million

• Rose Garden, $2 million

BONUS: Renaming Florida airport after Donald Trump is expected to cost more than $5M | The Independent

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More Platner Fall-Out

Former MS NOW anchor Alex Wagner: “F**k Graham Platner.”

Platner, as a candidate, is over. What incenses me today, this humid Thursday, is his behavior in, shall we call it, his post-candidacy—both self-serving and defeatist.

Because Platner quite obviously has a staggering amount of self-regard, he chose to post a 12-minute (!) bitchfest of a video announcing the suspension of his campaign (nobody needed any more minutes of Graham Platner, and certainly not a video stretching into the double digits)….

Platner, accused by multiple women of violent and aggressive behavior so extreme that one of his exes characterized it as rape, never mentioned any of them, never addressed their myriad allegations, but instead bundled their accounts into a fantastical deep state plot on the part of the political establishment to keep Platner from claiming his rightful seat in the Senate. You know, the ole Rape Victim Deep State card:

“A corporate media system and the political establishment got to act as judge, jury, and executioner…. There is a reason that this is happening now. I only have until July 13th until I am officially the nominee. This was the last week to try to get me off of the ballot. That’s why this is occurring.”

It’s hard for me to believe that this is the posture of anyone other than a sociopath. Call me naive, but if most dudes were accused of rape, they would spend at least one minute out of twelve addressing those concerns—or at least the women who had expressed them.

**

Rachel Bade: “😡Dems are furious with Bernie”:

For years, establishment Democrats have quietly grumbled about BERNIE SANDERS trying to play kingmaker in primaries he has zero personal accountability for — parachuting in, cutting a video, headlining a rally, then moving on to the next fight while some hapless nominee is left holding the bag in November or the party is forced to pick up the pieces.

This week, the grumbling is reaching a fever pitch behind the scenes in Washington’s Democratic circles.

The trigger, obviously, is GRAHAM PLATNER — the Mainer whom Sanders transformed into a rising star, headlining his Labor Day rally in Portland and standing by him through a Nazi tattoo, ugly Reddit posts and multiple women’s accounts of his misbehavior — only to watch it all collapse this month over a rape allegation. Sanders turned the oyster farmer with zero political experience into the presumptive Democratic nominee in a state Democrats NEED to flip the Senate — a candidate some even whispered for a hot second could be a future presidential nominee. Now that bet is in ashes, and Maine Democrats are in chaos trying to replace him.

But Democrats are grumbling that Platner isn’t a one-off. Many who’ve spent the cycle biting their tongues are now running the tape on every other Sanders pick — and they don’t love what they’re finding.

**

Matt Yglesias on the Democrats who actually do well with working class voters:

There’s a big faction of Democrats who are absolutely convinced that if you pound the table hard enough with Bernie/Warren economics that you’ll win non-college voters. Then there’s an identity-obsessed sub-faction that acknowledges this doesn’t really work but thinks that if you cast the perfect gruff white man you can make it work and Platner was supposed to be their perfect gruff white man.

And the thing is, he really might have beaten Collins absent the scandal — not because of any special working-class appeal, but because Maine is a state Kamala Harris won pretty handily in a bad national year for Democrats.

The truth is we know the names of the Democrats who do well with working-class voters. They’re Jared Golden and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in the rural north. They’re Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez in South Texas. They’re Josh Shapiro and Gretchen Whitmer and Elissa Slotkin in the Rust Belt. They’re Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly and Katie Hobbs in Arizona.

People knock these candidates as too boring, but the truth is that a network of political operatives and sympathetic media figures were incredibly successful at generating enthusiasm for Platner because they felt enthusiastic about the idea of Graham Platner. Which is fine. But if they chose to get excited by — and spread excitement about — people who are actually good at beating Republicans, then Democrats would have a lot less trouble making those candidates seem exciting.

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Friday dogs

On watch.

Happy Thursday.

Rick Wilson sums up Trump's NATO Disaster thusly:

[Once] you strip away the defense-spending-target ranting, Greenland bluster, the Patriot licensing announcements, and the carefully usual tiresomely lawyered communiqué language. The leaders of the Western alliance have stopped treating Donald Trump like a problematic ally.

They’ve started treating him like the drunk Facebook uncle at Thanksgiving.

Trump’s arrival — angry, ranting, gaffe-tastic and trailing clouds of incoherence — generated a cottage-industry of blooper-reels. Via Tommy Christopher:

At a press op with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, Trump made up a new president of Ukraine (or was it just Freudian), mixing Zelenskyy up with Putin. He tried to make a recovery by pretending he meant to do that, but he was pointing right at Zelenskyy.

He also overthrew Japan and installed a theocratic government, and called President Obama’s Iran deal the “JCPOC” — sounds very DEI.

As Wilson writes, our former allies are no longer scared of him. Instead, he has become a punch line.

The man is 80 years old, and it is showing, publicly, on the world stage, in front of the leaders of thirty-one allied nations and every camera in Europe. He’s become a clownish figure of eye-rolling and quiet insult.

I think we should consider this progress.

**

But let’s dwell for a moment on his mode of departure. On Wednesday, Trump flew out of Turkey on the old Air Force One instead of his new billion-dollar Qatari-gifted plane, because it turns out that the wingéd bribe is a ginormously lame sitting duck.

The Metaphor Gods never sleep, do they?

Via MS NOW: “Officials say Trump switched out new Air Force One over security concerns”

President Donald Trump swapped out his new Qatari-gifted Air Force One for his flight from the NATO summit to the United Kingdom over concerns that the gifted aircraft lacks the secure communications systems and military defenses needed to safely manage a rapidly escalating conflict with Iran, according to two former national security officials familiar with the matter.

So, let’s review here….

The Qataris gave Trump the fanciest lagniappe of all — a jumbo bribe on wings that touched every one of Trump’s erogenous zones of avarice and excess. Trump’s new “Palace in the Sky” was accessorized and gold-gilted to Trump’s specifications, complete with faux-books and all the luxuries befitting a Middle Eastern potentate.1

But they left out all the stuff that you actually need on a real Air Force One.

Even as the taxpayers were shelling out hundreds of billions of dollars on the new jet critics noted that “the gifted plane lacks key military defenses of the original Air Force One, including the ability to refuel mid-air and missile-defense systems, according to a law enforcement official briefed on its capabilities.”

The Qatari Boeing VC-25B — originally manufactured as a passenger jet in 2012 — does not have some of the original Air Force One’s equipment, and some of the jet’s capabilities have not been fully tested, the sources added.

“This plane was built for aesthetics, not mission,” one former national security official said. “We know about its paint, its leather seats. But we don’t know its capabilities.”

Perhaps you are detecting a pattern here.

Exit take: It will not surprise you to learn that Trump is lying about the AF1 FUBAR.

BONUS: “Reflecting Pool being drained – again – as Trump administration tries once more to fix landmark”

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Exit Platner

Facing allegations of rape, and abandoned by many of his most loyal supporters, Graham Platner dropped his senate bid last night. But his withdrawal did not win points for graciousness. Here is MS NOW host Cathrine Rampell:

Well, that was Graham Platner officially announcing that he is dropping off of the ballot for {Senate}, but taking zero responsibility for any of the scandals and more troubling things in his past that have destroyed that campaign, instead blaming, let’s see, corporate media, the political establishment, lots of hate for the political establishment, saying that we banded together, we did it the way we were told we were supposed to make change, and we won. And now they are not going to let us have it.

So, lots of finger pointing and blame and not taking any responsibility. Note that whoever he conceives of as the political establishment, you do have many of his once allies, including Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna, also calling for him to drop out….

He also said during that 10 minute video that all we were asking for was health care, was to end the genocide, to use our taxpayer dollars at home to uplift our communities instead of waging war overseas. We were asking for a fair system. We are asking for an end to the corruption.

So, lots of allegations that he was being taken out by nefarious forces that are forcing him to suspend his campaign, rather than the drip, drip, drip of scandal after scandal that has dogged his campaign and that have littered the last few months with red flags.

**

Maine’s Democrats announced they will now hold a convention to pick his replacement.

The convention would include roughly 600 people who would be selected by county-level Democratic committees, according to two people familiar with the specific plans and granted anonymity to share them. Every county committee would have to meet prior to the state nominating convention to elect 500 of those delegates, and the 100 current state committee members will also serve as delegates. State committee members voted to approve the plan Wednesday evening at the end of a lengthy emergency meeting.

**

“Collins’ allies think Platner's exit makes her reelection bid tougher.”

According to a person familiar with the campaign’s thinking, granted anonymity to discuss it, Collins’ team had long viewed Platner as a uniquely vulnerable opponent whose personal controversies could help offset one of the biggest challenges she faces in 2026: running as a blue-state Republican in the Trump era.

“She can certainly win, but they didn’t want to change candidates,” the person familiar with the campaign’s thinking said. “The stuff we already knew about Platner was going to propel Collins to overcome the Trump anchor. Now it’s going to be a Democrat with a cleaner record, presumably.”

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And, speaking of sexual assault…

This is actually a pretty remarkable split screen.

While Democrats declare that a credible allegation for sexual assault is disqualifying, the GOP continues to shrug at the actual adjudication of sexual assault charges against Donald Trump.

ICYMI: “Judge Orders $5 Million Trump Judgment Be Released to E. Jean Carroll” - The New York Times

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered that the writer E. Jean Carroll should promptly receive a $5 million jury award, days after the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by President Trump and despite his last-minute attempt to get the justices to reconsider.

In a two-page ruling, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of Manhattan federal court cited the Supreme Court’s June 29 order denying Mr. Trump’s request that the justices review the matter. That cleared the way for the funds, which Mr. Trump had deposited with the court, to be released to Ms. Carroll.

A Manhattan jury awarded the multimillion-dollar judgment to Ms. Carroll in May 2023 after finding him liable for sexually assaulting her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. The jury also found that Mr. Trump defamed Ms. Carroll by calling her allegations against him “a Hoax and a lie” on social media. He has continued to deny assaulting Ms. Carroll.

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Nota bene

Tom Nichols, in the Atlantic: “Iran, Not Trump, Is in Control of This War” (Gift link)

If Donald Trump ever had any control over the war he started with Iran, he’s lost it. The Iranians are now setting the terms of this conflict and are routinely humiliating the American president. The “cease-fire” Trump declared last month—a move probably meant to both soothe international markets and avert legislative action from the United States Congress—never really existed, because neither side ever ceased firing. The situation is now back to a kind of slow-motion punch-up: In the past few days, the Iranians struck three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, the Americans attacked some 80 targets in Iran, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps now claims it hit some 85 U.S.-affiliated targets in Bahrain and Kuwait.

**

ICYMI: My podcast w/ General Mark Hertling: “Are We at Wat With Iran Again? (And Why the World Doesn’t Trust the US Anymore)

Subscribers can listen to an ad-free version right here… or you can watch on YouTube / Listen (and subscribe) on Apple/ Spotify / iHeart / RSS Feed

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Thursday dogs

While my daughter and grandsons visit the U.S., our French dog, Zok, is relaxing in Bordeaux and showing off his new boots.

Back home, Eli is wearing the wrap that dries him off after a romp in the lake. (So is Auggie, seen here in the background.)

1

Flashback to May 2025, when the winged bribe was first announced:

Let’s not make this complicated.

Of course it’s a bribe.

Everyone knows it’s a bribe. The Qataris know it’s a bribe. Trump knows it’s a bribe. Even MAGA simps know it’s a bribe.

And you’re not crazy to think that it’s brazenly corrupt and illegal with hair on it. It’s exactly this sort of thing that the Founders had in mind when they wrote the Emoluments Clause.

The Qataris have been buying influence, access and clout for years, so they are veterans of payola. They could have given Trump piles of gold bars like the ones used to bribe Senator Bob Menendez; or envelopes of cash like Spiro Agnew pocketed. They could simply have purchased billions of dollars of $TRUMP meme coins. Or they could have given him secret accounts like the ones they used to finance Hamas and other terror groups.

But, writes Kevin Manahan:

What do you give to a president who already has enriched himself and his family by an average of $1 billion per month since taking office?

What could a guy — the most powerful man on the planet, who is planning 20 branded real estate projects around the globe — possibly want?

The “Palace in the Sky” comes with a twist designed to skirt the plain meaning of the law: It goes to the US Government to be used as Trump’s bespoke Air Force One, and then will be transferred to his presidential library in January 2029, where it will be available for Trump’s perpetual personal use.

This is all kosher, and not-at-all unconstitutional, says Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi — who until recently was paid $115,000 a month as a registered foreign lobbyist for the Qatari government.

Subscribers can listen to an ad-free version right here… or you can watch on YouTube / Listen (and subscribe) on Apple/ Spotify / iHeart / RSS Feed

Note: If you enjoy conversations like this one, or just want to hang around smart, sane people, please consider joining us.

Some highlights of my conversation with General Hertling

No one trusts us.

The global messaging wars

Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon purges

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the war in Iran seems to be back on, at least for the moment. Taking a break from berating and alienating our NATO allies, and fantasizing about Greenland, Donald Trump suggested that the peace “deal” is “over” as the two countries unleashed a new wave of strikes on Tuesday. "They're scum. They're ​sick people. They're led by sick people," Trump said of the mullahs he was praising just days ago. "As far as I'm concerned, it's just a waste of time dealing with them." Oil prices surged and we’re just learning that the Pentagon is running out of money.

Programming note: I’ll be discussing all this with General Mark Hertling on our podcast, which will be out later today.

Happy Wednesday.

Lessons from the Platner Fiasco

As we wait for Graham Platner to drop out of the Maine Senate race (TBD whether it be timely, gracious, or bitter)1 it seems worthwhile to take a moment to sift through the wreckage. You undoubtedly know the arc of the narrative so far: Frustrated with the sclerotic “establishment” and their desire for a beer-track, working class “fighter,” Democrats embraced Platner’s image before they got to know the man himself.

That deafening roar you hear now is the collective mea culpas of the punditocracy and political class fiercely back-pedaling from their rationalizations and defenses of the candidate who now faces credible allegations of sexual abuse and rape.

So, an autopsy of this clusterfuq seems in order, don’t you think?

How did Democrats find themselves embracing such a flawed candidate? Why were so many red flags missed or ignored? And how did a party that often declared we should “believe the women,” decide to ignore so many of them?

How did this go so terribly wrong? Let us count the ways.

• The “consultants” who recruited Platner without vetting him. (See: “The ‘Mad Scientist’ Behind Graham Platner’s Scandal-Plagued Rise” - WSJ / And for your daily dose of cringe: “The Strategist Behind Platner’s Rise Explains His Vetting Process.”

  “The firm, which was paid $6,250, according to federal disclosures, followed up days later with additional limited vetting. They didn’t do a candidate interview or questionnaire.

• The pols and voters who chased bright shiny objects and candidates from “central casting.” It’s probably not a coincidence that some of the folks who got a tingle up their legs over John Fetterman were also jiggy about Platner.

• The progressive activists who were more focused on beating fellow Democrats than they were in defeating Republicans in the general election.

• A fetish for faux-authenticity over character and the rationalizations for supporting the “lesser evil.”

• Tone deafness about the “working class.” As Jonathan Chait writes in The Atlantic: “In reality, Platner was the Democratic-candidate equivalent of the grinning empty suit who gets the job after a handshake because the boss likes the cut of his jib. He looked like the authentic working-class hero so many progressives wanted, so he had to be one…. But maybe looking and sounding like a working-class dude who hates big corporations is not adequate qualification for high office—or even proof that you can be taken at your word.”

But, in the end, all of this pales next to ignoring the women.

In the era of “Me Too,” the Epstein Files, and a president who was found liable for sexual abuse, the warnings and testimonies of one woman after another were brushed aside — until they simply could not be ignored any longer. I’m not suggesting that every allegation should automatically be believed, but in Platner’s case, the alarms were flashing bright red long before the implosion.

**

There was the tattoo, but also the social media posts (including Platner’s downplaying of rape), and the sexting with women other than his wife. In early June, the NYT published a lengthy account of women who had dated Platner and described “Unsettling’ Behavior”. But the paper may have pulled its punches. One of the women quoted, Lyndsey Fifield, is accusing the Gray Lady of failing to verify her accounts of Platner’s physical violence:

Platner could be rough with her, Ms. Fifield said, particularly when they were drinking, leaving her shaken and sometimes afraid. In the interviews, Ms. Fifield grappled with how to process her experiences. She was quick to note that he “never hit me, he never punched me.”

But she said he regularly grabbed her by the shoulders — sometimes hard enough to leave marks — and, on one occasion, yanked her out of a cab by her wrist after an argument when she wanted to stay in the car.

During one argument, she recalled, he twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn’t get out, telling her to remain there until she was “calm.” Eventually, Ms. Fifield said, she fell asleep and left the next morning.

“It hurt,” she said. But she added: “It didn’t cause an injury, it didn’t break my arm.”

Some Democrats were quick to dismiss Fifield because of her involvement in conservative politics. And Fifield herself now says she understands why many of them did not take her allegations seriously because The Times said it could not corroborate her charges — even though she had given them multiple contacts. “They called the two who I clarified would not know about the abuse but would be able to affirm our relationship timeline, events, etc.,” she wrote yesterday. “They simply did not call the other three.”

Fifield was not the only woman to come forward. Jenny Racicot, who was quoted in the Times’ article, now says that Platner raped her. (Former Sente aide Adam Jentleson comments: “Raciot was named in the NYT story on June 4, which means people around Platner knew about her accusations but initially suppressed them. We probably deserve to know who in Platner’s circle, including endorsers, knew he was credibly accused of rape but stood by him for a month.)

Others also tried to sound the alarm. Platner’s Democratic opponent, Governor Janet Mills ran television ads raising flags.

The ad features comments Mr. Platner made over a decade ago on Reddit about rape and depicts several women appearing to react to those posts on an iPad as a gravelly voice that bears some resemblance to Mr. Platner’s reads fragments of them aloud.

In one post from 2013, Mr. Platner wrote that people worried about rape should not get so drunk — he used a phrase with an expletive to describe the level of intoxication — that “they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to.” In another, Mr. Platner wrote that to avoid what he characterized as a compromising situation, they should “act like an adult.”

In the ad, four women respond to the comments, calling them “disqualifying” and “disgusting.” “This guy gives off a vibe,” one woman says.

Reacting to Platner’s dismissive posts on rape, Jessica Mackler, the head of Emily’s List, which supports women running for office, said on X that “blaming victims of sexual assault remains disgusting, unacceptable, and disqualifying” and that the Platner “candidacy is the fastest way to hand Susan Collins another Senate term.”

Journalist Magdi Jacobs also repeatedly called out Platner’s shaky relationship with the truth.

And then there was Platner’s former campaign manager, Genevieve McDonald, who wrote a scathing op-ed in the Wapo: “I know firsthand why Graham Platner shouldn’t be a U.S. senator; I quit the campaign last fall, disturbed by what I’d learned about the Maine Democratic Senate primary candidate.”

He exhibits a pattern of dishonest behavior that is impossible to ignore. Despite being exposed by a series of scandals beginning last October, he kept assuring voters and the Democratic Party that there were no more skeletons in his closet. Then more emerged — the latest, in recent days, have involved former girlfriends’ serious accusations of physical mistreatment.

I was one of the Platner campaign’s first gaslighting casualties. In September, he told me that he had a tattoo that could be problematic but assured me that it was just a military thing. I believed him. Then, I began receiving calls from Washington warning me he was not who he seemed: “Have you read his oppo file?” I had not. I trusted that his out-of-state consulting team had thoroughly vetted him.

On June 10, Platner won the Maine Democratic primary with more than 70 percent of the vote. Ed Kilgore asks, why did Platner get away with so much for so long?

As Racicot’s own reluctance to tell her full story showed, victims of sexual assault justifiably fear what will happen to their lives if they hold powerful men accountable for their misconduct and crimes. Look what happened to Lyndsey Fifield, whose account of Platner’s violence toward her as reported by the Times made her a target of widespread smears claiming partisan motivation.

You can blame the vetters and the true believers, the cynical partisans and the credulous ideologues, for letting Graham Platner get so far down the road to Washington. But ultimately he knew his demons better than anyone else, and a man with his evident commitment to country and civic engagement should have given this race a hard pass.

Exit take from the NYT’s Michelle Goldberg who has some regrets:

If there’s a lesson here, it might be about the importance of listening hard to the people telling you what you don’t want to hear. Many Democrats, disgusted by their party’s failure to contain Donald Trump, want representatives as furious as they are, and they no longer trust their leaders to tell them who is electable. That opens space up for outsider candidates who wouldn’t have had a chance a few years ago. It also makes it easier for unfit characters to escape proper vetting.

BONUS: Democratic Representative Richie Torres:

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Speaking of character

Texas GOP Senate nominee Ken Paxton is back in the news.

[The] Texas attorney general is on vacation with his mistress, gallivanting around Europe without fear of being seen... and risking the wrath of President Donald Trump.

The Daily Mail has obtained footage of Paxton, 63, and his paramour, Christian influencer Tracy Duhon, 58, sightseeing in London this week.

As we previously reported, the pair jetted off to Iceland for a romantic getaway last weekend.

London, it seems, was their next stop. As Americans celebrated the country’s 250th birthday, MAGA firebrand Paxton was in England walking side-by-side with Duhon near the London Eye.

The Daily Mail first exposed the affair between Paxton and Duhon in September, revealing that Paxton and the mom of seven became romantically involved in May 2024 after meeting at the Kentucky Derby when they were both still married.

BONUS: “Ken Paxton vowed to crack down on “illegal voting.” He may have violated Texas election law.”

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Wednesday dogs

Eli contemplates the sunset.

• Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner faces credible rape allegation just weeks after winning the nomination — top Democrats, including Ro Khanna and Elizabeth Warren, are calling on him to drop out.

• How this spectacular and predictable collapse could change the battle for Senate control

• Democrats’ dilemma: Can they replace Platner without looking like they’re anointing another candidate? Lessons from 2024.

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• Trump’s “curse” strikes again: US Soccer star reinstated after Trump personally lobbies FIFA — America’s World Cup goodwill ruined

• Sen. Mitch McConnell hospitalized with cardiac arrest — what his prolonged absence means for the narrow GOP Senate majority

• Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen reconciles with Trump after years as a Never Trumper — Charlie and I react!

• Plus: Ted Cruz Supreme Court joke, why character & corruption are back on the table, and more!

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The flame-out of Graham Platner’s candidacy was as sudden as it was predictable. But Democrats now have an opportunity to restore some of the bright lines they were poised to ignore.

In the wake of new sexual assault allegations, Platner says he is “taking time to reflect on the best path forward,” but his Senate bid is effectively over. Democratic support, which had white-knuckled through previous allegations, evaporated overnight.

It’s all over except the withdrawal and recriminations. And Maine’s senate seat and the issue of character are back in play.

Note: I never promised you a safe space. Just straight, sober, snarky commentary. And an oasis of sanity.

The Platner Challenge

A flashback to the moral and political dilemma posed by Platner’s candidacy. This is what I wrote last month:

Loaded with scandal and baggage, Graham Platner is the nominee in Maine — and Democrats are rallying around him because they need him to beat Susan Collin and win control of the Senate. As flawed as he is, supporters argue, the stakes this year are so existential that they are willing to overlook pretty much everything. In other words, he is the “lesser of two evils.”

This is hardly surprising, since this is the calculation that Republicans made a decade ago with Donald Trump; and are making this year with Ken Paxton.

So, Democrats doubled-down despite the warning signs — the Totenkopf tattoo, his history of offensive social media posts (including about rape), and troubling stories about his treatment of women. And they prayed that there were no more shoes to drop.

Until yesterday.

**

The Accusations

The word “bombshell” is grossly overused, but applies in this case because it blew up the Maine senate race — and the larger battle for control of the Senate. On Monday, Politico reported: “Woman who dated Graham Platner says he sexually assaulted her.” The woman — Jenny Racicot — also spoke about the rape on CNN: “Woman alleges Graham Platner raped her in 2021 while they were dating.”

Via Politico:

A woman who dated Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.

The woman, a 41-year-old Maine resident named Jenny Racicot, detailed the alleged incident to POLITICO in three interviews over the past two weeks. POLITICO also spoke with a man Racicot dated and confided in the years after the alleged incident, and reviewed documents, including emails between Racicot and her therapist and messages between Racicot and an acquaintance whom she warned against getting involved with Platner years before he ran for office.

The story has graphic details of the alleged assault.

Racicot said… he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.

“I remember him grabbing my pelvis and being really forceful of me,” she said. “I remember the specific moment where I thought to myself, like, ‘This is no longer my choice.’”

Racicot says she was reluctant to come forward earlier because she did not want to be known as a rape victim and because she shared Platner’s progressive politics.

“One of the reasons I didn’t come forward sooner was, the huge moral conflict that I had between supporting his politics, but not supporting him as a person,” she said. “I just want the truth out there. I just want people to have a whole scope of who he is as a person.”

Platner is denying the allegations and lashed out at critics. But by day’s end, Platner seemed to realize that he was cooked. "Regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful of the political reality it will inflict,” he said in a statement, “we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward.”

And then the bottom fell out because, unlike the Trump/Paxton GOP, the Democrats are not a cult.

**

The Collapse

It came so fast, it almost felt like it was pre-loaded. A lot of Democrats seem to have known… or suspected that it might end this way.

Even pro-Platner progressives who had dismissed previous questions/scandals quickly pulled their support and called for him to drop out of the race before the statutory deadline of July 13. Democrats would have until July 27 to replace him on the ballot against Susan Collins.

Via the NYT: Platner’s Democratic Support Evaporates After Sexual Assault Allegation”

The leadership of the state party urged him to withdraw….

The Senate Democratic campaign arm, which had opposed Mr. Platner in the primary, called for him to quit the race. “Graham Platner needs to immediately withdraw as the Democratic nominee for Senate and allow Maine Democrats the opportunity to choose a new candidate who can defeat Susan Collins,” a statement from Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said. “The D.S.C.C. will not invest in the Maine Senate race if Platner remains on the ballot.”

Some of his key supporters called for him to drop out as well, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, who had championed his bid. “There can be no tolerance for sexual assault,” she said in a statement. “With so much at stake, the best path forward is for Graham Platner to step aside as the Democratic nominee and address these serious allegations outside this Senate race.”

Via AP: Democrats begin pulling Platner endorsements after sexual assault allegation

The Democratic National Committee sent out an email soliciting money for Senate races hours after the Politico report posted, but Maine was not one of them. Ken Martin, the party chair, said, “Maine Democrats should select a new nominee.”

Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who stood by Platner even as the candidate faced previous controversies, said Monday’s allegation was enough. “I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line,” Khanna said. “These allegations are very serious and credible. Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement.”

Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced they were pulling their endorsements and called on Platner to drop out. The Democratic leaders of Maine’s legislature and top officials at the state Democratic Party did the same.

**

The Alternatives?

Maine Democrats face the tricky decision of how to replace Platner. The alternative candidate will be an anointed pick rather than someone who has won a primary, and that poses its own challenges. But the National Journal has a quick rundown of some of the possible candidates in the wings:

Platner’s replacement could be one of the Democrats that lost in the gubernatorial primary, including state Senate President Troy Jackson (D), former state CDC Director Nirav Shah (D), and Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D)—who lost to Sen. Susan Collins (R) in 2014. Other potential replacements include former congressional staffer Jordan Wood (D), who previously ran for the Senate before losing in the ME-02 primary, and brewer Dan Kleban (D), a previous Senate candidate. Gov. Janet Mills (D), Rep. Jared Golden (D-02), and state Rep. Joe Baldacci (D), who also lost in the ME-02 primary, aren’t expected to pursue the seat or be selected by the state party. (Cook Political Report with Amy Walter)

**

There are reports that Platner may place conditions on his withdrawal. “If he was to step down it would only be with a guarantee of being replaced by a candidate who he believes is true to the values and vision and policy agenda of the campaign that Maine voted for,” once source told the NYT.

But it seems unlikely that Maine Democrats will let an accused rapist hand-pick their candidate. The Platner brand has reached its sell-by date; and Democrats no longer need to rationalize their support for the “lesser evil.”

Meanwhile, Republicans will roll into the midterms with Donald Trump and Ken Paxton.

Exit take: David French: "How about we stop looking for "authenticity" in politicians and instead look for virtue?"

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The “Trump Curse” is a Thing

But you knew that, didn’t you? Via Mediaite:

The phrase “Trump curse” flooded social media Tuesday after the USMNT was booted from the tournament by Belgium in a humiliating 4-1 loss in Seattle.

The loss came after Trump openly bragged about calling FIFA President Gianni Infantino in an ultimately successful bid to overturn a red card that would have kept USMNT striker Folarin Balogun out of the Round of 16.

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Today’s Podcast

Legal analyst and Talking Feds host Harry Litman joins me to talk about the state of American democracy 250 years after independence, recent Supreme Court decisions and their implications, and Trump’s unparalleled corruption.

Harry has faith in the American capacity for renewal; I worry about the ratchet effect of our declining culture.

Subscribers can listen to an ad-free version right here… or you can watch on YouTube / Listen (and subscribe) on Apple/ Spotify / iHeart / RSS Feed

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Tuesday dogs

Eli’s waiting for the burgers.

Harry has faith in the American capacity for renewal; I worry about the ratchet effect of our declining culture and confidence in ourselves.

Subscribers can listen to an ad-free version right here… or you can watch on YouTube / Listen (and subscribe) on Apple/ Spotify / iHeart / RSS Feed

Note: If you enjoy conversations like this one, or just want to hang around smart, sane people, please consider joining us.

Some highlights of my conversation with Harry Litman

The $2.4 billion downpayment on Trump’s corruption

The Supreme Court Juggernaut

The “Ratchet” that breaks democracy

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“FIFA Sparks World Cup Furor After Trump Intervenes Over U.S. Striker’s Red Card” - WSJ

Yes, there were legitimate gripes about Folarin Balogun’s red card, but the focus now will be on FIFA’s fawning cave to Trump.

The most stunning controversy of the 2026 World Cup erupted on Sunday after it emerged that President Trump personally intervened to have U.S. striker Folarin Balogun reinstated for the team’s round-of-16 game against Belgium following his red card in the previous round.

Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino last week, urging him to review Balogun’s automatic one-game suspension…

Daniel Drezner calls it, “The Perfect Sports Scandal.” and the outrage is international.

Needless to say, the Bosnians are pissed, the Belgians are pissed, the rest of Europe is pissed. Pretty much everyone outside of the U.S. now views the USMNT as the bad guys.

(Read his whole piece for a balanced and thorough discussion of the whole imbroglio.)

UEFA, the governing body for European soccer, issued a blistering condemnation, saying that FIFA had "crossed a red line" by flip-flopping on the red card.

“We express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision,” UEFA said in a statement on Monday….

“When the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, the integrity of the game is at stake and the credibility of a competition is undermined.”

But the move seems very much on-brand for both Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino. The NYT reminds us that, “Mr. Infantino has spent years trying to curry favor with Mr. Trump. Last year, FIFA created and gave Mr. Trump the FIFA Peace Prize amid the president’s public, but failed, campaign to win the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Hard-core USA fans will undoubtedly be delighted by Balogun’s return (especially if the Team beats Belgium tonight), but Trump has (once again) enshittified what should have been a shining moment.

Perhaps you are detecting a pattern here.

(And an irony: the US player at the center of all of this, Folarin Balogun, is a birthright citizen.)1

Happy Monday.

Coming up later today:

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It May All Come Down to Michigan

ICYMI “McMorrow suspends Michigan Senate bid in shock move.”

Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow announced Sunday that she is suspending her campaign for U.S. Senate, narrowing a marquee Democratic primary to a two-way race a month before Election Day.

• McMorrow’s withdrawal leaves moderate Rep. Haley Stevens and progressive Dr. Abdul El-Sayed as the two Democratic hopefuls vying to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.

You’ll recall that El-Sayed, the DSA-aligned candidate in the race, campaigned with far-left influencer Hasan Piker, and has refused to disavow Piker’s past comments. (“Hasan Piker Defends Hamas Support As Pod Save America Host Tries to Get Him to Disavow It.”)

His nomination would dramatically boost the chances the GOP will pick up the seat, which would doom any realistic chance that Democrats have to win control of the senate. But Politico reports that the DSA is all-in on the swing state,

DSA officials and allies told POLITICO they’ve already shifted organizers, volunteers and resources toward battleground Michigan and Wisconsin, where progressive Abdul El-Sayed is locked in a hotly contested Democratic primary for Michigan Senate and DSA-backed Francesca Hong is gaining steam in her primary for Wisconsin governor.

Both El-Sayed and Hong are planning a series of major rallies ahead of their primaries, and their campaigns and DSA organizers are currently discussing bringing many of the movement’s biggest stars — including recent winners from New York and Colorado — to generate attention and shore up the broader national effort. That will likely include a trip to Michigan for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who just made a major endorsement for El-Sayed.

**

Nota Bene: the DSA on Ukraine

While much of the DSA campaign has centered on opposition to Israel and support for Palestinian rights, it’s worth noting the party’s opposition to aid for Ukraine — which, in some ways, echoes the isolationism of the far-right.

This is consistent with the DSA position not only opposing aid to Ukraine, but our involvement in NATO as well. The party’s website calls for Russian withdrawal, but mirrors Kremlin talking points claiming, “the expansion of NATO and the aggressive approach of Western nations have helped cause the crisis and we demand an end to NATO expansion.”

We also oppose US and NATO military interventionism and the tens of billions in military aid and weapons shipments which only further exacerbates the war and undermine a negotiated settlement, as well as sanctions that will harm ordinary Russians.

The DSA also “reaffirms our call for the US to withdraw from NATO.”

In the past, El-Sayed has opposed U.S. military aid to Ukraine and Taiwan, and to other foreign militaries in general. In August 2025, he told Current Affairs that “our tax dollars should not be used to fund foreign militaries,” including Ukraine. He has since “clarified” his position, saying that he was not opposed to all military aid: “I’m talking about unconditional, blank check military aid,” El-Sayed said. “That’s what I oppose. When it comes to Ukraine, it’s a very different ball game. In Ukraine, we’re talking about enforcing the rules of the rules-based international order in accordance with our allies.”

**

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Meanwhile…

• Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine continues. Phillips O’Brien writes: “Last night Ukraine could not intercept a single Russian ballistic missile. The USA deliberately starving Ukraine of Patriot missiles is now clearly understood by the Russians as American support for their terror bombing. The USA is helping Putin kill Ukrainians.”

• Elon Musk celebrates America’s 250th by declaring:

  Anyone who doesn’t love America is a traitor and beneath contempt.
  Those who don’t love America, those who are disloyal should be exiled immediately.

• David Frum writes in the Atlantic: (Gift link) “What Trump’s July 4 Speech Revealed”

  To the extent the decision is up to Trump, the United States that his speech celebrated on July 4 will exist no more.

  Trump’s grotesque botch of the 250th anniversary of “We hold these truths” aptly demonstrates how far his leadership has already pushed the United States away from its noblest past.

  Americans may not wish to acknowledge what Trump has done to their standing in the world. Such denial does not change reality. Norma Desmond’s last lover—and doomed narrator—delivers a verdict on the fading star’s descent from delusion into madness: “The dream she had clung to so desperately had enfolded her.”

  Americans have not clung to their dream nearly desperately enough, but they too are now enfolded in something dark and diminished.

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Monday dogs and other creatures

Our annual French Invasion — my daughter and grandsons — begins today.

It is worth remembering that the vast, vast majority of Americans were far away from the FUBARS and fustian of Trump’s event. They went about their celebrations untroubled by the heat, lightning, and hubris of Trump’s MAGA rally.

Nor did most Americans subject themselves to the president’s late-night speech — or the clammy propagandists at Fox News. They missed the Olympic-level suckage of Rachel Campos-Duffy comparing Trump’s meandering speech in severe weather to the troops storming the beaches of Normandy.

No, really.

But in the real world, Trump’s 11 p.m. ramble was exactly what you would have expected. Except more tedious.

“Donald Trump took the stage on Saturday night imagining himself the master of the universe, not the temporary custodian of a country born around the same time as the hot-air balloon.” writes the Guardian’s David Smith, “The last decade was proof that ‘divine providence’ had made Trump president for America’s 250th anniversary of independence, his aide Stephen Miller posted on social media.”

But, alas, Smith writes, the speech he delivered was not one that will ever have a place in the pantheon of Great Presidential Rhetoric, although it may be studied by psychologists of our decline.

In blowing out the candles on the nation’s birthday cake, Trump committed the one sin that even his base cannot forgive, especially after 12 hours of waiting in sun, wind and rain. He was actually quite boring. Which proves that, like New Year’s Eve, big birthdays often tend to be anticlimactic.

This sad spectacle on the National Mall featured Teleprompter Trump, the one who has been warned by his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, to stay on script and at least pretend to sound presidential. But every now and then, like a glitch in the matrix, he reverted to his petty grievances and obsessions.

And, of course, he lied about the crowd sizes. Because, of course.”

I missed it all because I was in Ephraim, Wisconsin, watching one of Door County’s gorgeous sunsets and listening to the sound of Americans celebrating the country that they know is not his.

Happy Sunday night.

A week of pre-holiday commentary

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday night dogs

Auggie and Eli get dressed up for national holidays.

Beckeman argues that dissidence is a universal human capacity—an inner refusal to betray one’s conscience. Beckerman explains that dissidents are not extraordinary superheroes, but ordinary people who choose to align their actions with their inner moral truth, even when doing so is risky or costly. This alignment—asking “Can I live with myself?”—is what defines a dissident.

Dissidence isn’t merely political rebellion, he writes, but a moral practice that begins with a solitary recognition of truth, moves through the courage to speak it, and ends with the possibility of leaving a legacy that outlasts one’s life.

You can order it here:

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Note: If you enjoy conversations like this one, or just want to hang around smart, sane people, please consider joining us.

Some highlights of my conversation with Gal Beckerman

Laughter dismantles tyranny

The key question; Can I live with myself?

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Happy Birthday, America!

Last night’s fireworks in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin.

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Saturday dogs

Eli is waiting for us to come home.

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

**

Judge J. Michael Luttig: Remembering America’s Core Values

**

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

• He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

• He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

• He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

• He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

• He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

• He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

• He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

• He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

• He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

• He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

• He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

• He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

• He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

• For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

• For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

• For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

• For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

• For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

• For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

• For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

• For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

• For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

• He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

• He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

• He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

• He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

• He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us….

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

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No kings. No billionaires. No oligarchs. Just our band of brothers and sisters standing athwart the madness, saying “You Can’t be Serious.” To the Contrary is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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July 4 dogs

Moses always celebrated July 4 by singing along with the fire engines in the Cedarburg parade.