Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Some things never change

Robert Reich reminds us that the “populist” MAGA movement is backed by some very rich fellows:

Donald Trump is going full fascist these days and gaining the backing of prominent billionaires.

Earlier this month, on Veterans Day, Trump pledged to “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country”, whom he accused of doing anything “to destroy America and to destroy the American dream”. (Notably, he read these words from a teleprompter, meaning that they were intentional rather than part of another impromptu Trump rant.)

Days before, Trump claimed that undocumented immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country”. The New York Times reported that he’s planning to round up millions of undocumented immigrants and detain them in sprawling camps while they wait to be expelled.

Trump has publicly vowed to appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” Joe Biden and his family, and has told advisers and friends that he wants the justice department to investigate officials who have criticized his time in office.

This is, quite simply, full-throated neofascism.

Who’s bankrolling all this? While Trump’s base is making small contributions, the big money is coming from some of the richest people in the US.

During the first half of the year, multiple billionaires donated to the Trump-aligned Make America Great Again, Inc Super Pac.

Phil Ruffin (net worth of $3.4bn), the 88-year-old casino and hotel mogul, has given multiple $1m donations.

Charles Kushner (family net worth of $1.8bn), the real estate mogul and father of Jared, who received a late-term pardon from Trump in December 2020, contributed $1m in June.

Robert “Woody” Johnson (net worth of $3.7bn), Trump’s former ambassador to the United Kingdom and co-owner of the New York Jets, donated $1m to the MAGA PAC in April.

And so on.

But Trump is not the only extremist pulling in big dollars.

Nikki Haley – who appears moderate only relative to Trump’s blatant neofascism – claimed in her campaign launch that Biden is promoting a “socialist” agenda.

During her two years as UN ambassador under Trump, Haley was a strong proponent of his so-called “zero tolerance” policy under which thousands of migrant children were separated from their parents and guardians.

She supported Trump’s decision to pull out of the UN Human Rights Council and to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.

Though she briefly criticized Trump for inciting the mob that attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, Haley soon defended Trump and called on Democratic lawmakers to “give the man a break” when they impeached him for a second time.

Haley recently told Kristen Welker of NBC’s Meet the Press that while Trump’s floating the idea of executing retired Gen Mark Milley might be “irresponsible”, it is not enough to disqualify Trump from running for the White House again.

Haley’s billionaire supporters include Stanley Druckenmiller and Eric LeVine. Republican megadonor Ken Griffin has said he is “actively contemplating” supporting Haley.

Notably, Haley has also gained the support of JPMorgan Chase’s chief executive Jamie Dimon, who’s about as close as anyone in the US comes to being a spokesperson for the business establishment. Dimon admires Haley’s recognition of the role that “business and government can play in driving growth by working together”.

The moneyed interests have been placing big bets on other Trumpist Republicans.

Peter Thiel, the multibillionaire tech financier who once wrote that “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible,” contributed more than $35m to 16 federal-level Republican candidates in the 2022 campaign cycle, making him the 10th largest individual donor to either party.

Twelve of Thiel’s candidates won, including Ohio’s now-senator JD Vance, who alleged that the 2020 election was stolen and that Biden’s immigration policy has meant “more Democrat voters pouring into this country”.

Republican House majority leader Steve Scalise is creating a new fundraising committee which will be soliciting contributions of up to $586,200 a pop.

Elon Musk is not a major financial contributor to Trump nor other anti-democracy candidates, but his power over one of the most influential megaphones in the US gives him inordinate clout – which he is using to further the neofascist cause.

Witness Musk’s solicitude of Trump, his seeming endorsement of antisemitic posts, his embrace of Tucker Carlson and “great replacement” theory, and his avowed skepticism towards democracy.

Democracy is compatible with capitalism only if democracy is in the driver’s seat, so it can rein in capitalism’s excesses.

But if capitalism and its moneyed interests are in charge, those excesses inevitably grow to the point where they are able to extinguish democracy and ride roughshod over the common good.

That’s why Trump’s neofascism – and the complicity of today’s Republican party with it – are attracting the backing of some of the richest people in the US.

This is correct. The history of fascism is very clear on this point. It is a movement that exploits the working class by focusing its discontents on the other while reaping the advantages of government largesse and support. Anyone who buys into Trump’s alleged “populism” is a chump.

Biden has an opening to change the script on immigration

The Trump immigration plan is so extreme that if normal people actually see what it is, their hair will stand on end. But they have to be told and they have to be convinced that they are dead serious about implementing it. Which they are:

As [Steven] Miller put it: “Trump will unleash the vast arsenal of federal powers to implement the most spectacular migration crackdown…The immigration legal activists won’t know what’s happening.” “What former President Trump and Stephen Miller are laying out has crossed a line that should set off alerts for every American.”

“What former President Trump and Stephen Miller are laying out has crossed a line that should set off alerts for every American,” Vanessa Cardenas, executive director of America’s Voice, said during a recent press call with reporters. “Calling his political opponents ‘vermin,’ saying that the blood of America is being poisoned, and the continuous calls to violence, election denialism, and white nationalism cannot be normalized or go unchallenged. What Trump is describing is not just about immigration policies…He’s openly talking about changing who we are as a nation, who is considered American, who belongs to this country.”

Latino voters appear to be evenly divided between Trump and Biden, including in battleground states. And with the economy and the war in Israel, immigration policy might not rank as the top-of-mind issue for most voters. But it has the potential to draw a striking contrast between the two candidates. Biden came into power vowing to roll back many of Trump’s worst policies and restore humanity to a broken immigration system. While he has delivered on some campaign promises—rescinding the Remain in Mexico program, launching efforts to reunite families separated under Trump, and expanding the use of temporary humanitarian protections for migrants from several nationalities—his administration has also come under fire from advocates for turning to restrictive asylum measures and even Trump-like policies to appease criticism from Republicans of “open borders.” 

Immigration has long been a hot-button, base-rallying issue for Trump and the GOP. But it is one that has come to be perceived as a political liability for Biden, who is unable to please either immigration advocates or those in favor of a tougher approach. “No matter how cruel or restrictive Mr. Biden’s policies are, they will never be enough to appease his critics,” David J. Bier of the Cato Institute wrote in the New York Times this month. “They also aren’t working. He can continue to do everything Mr. Trump did and more and still be the ‘open-borders president.’”

Instead of brushing immigration to the wayside as a campaign issue, there’s a growing chorus for Biden to embrace it. Indeed, some political strategists believe the current moment presents an opportunity for the president to come out on top and win over a critical segment of the electorate. “Biden’s poor numbers on immigration and with Latino voters aren’t a coincidence,” Sawyer Hackett, a Democratic strategist and consultant, said on X. “Yes, like all voters, Latinos don’t vote on immigration alone. But in cycles when the immigration contrast has been front-and-center, Democrats have done extremely well. Ceding political ground on this issue is terrible politics and terrible for the human lives involved.”

Especially as Trump becomes increasingly strident. As if separating families at the border, undercutting the refugee program, and forcing asylum seekers to wait in squalid migrant camps in dangerous Mexican border towns wasn’t bad enough the first time around, Trump and Miller have dialed up the cruelty. Their plan, first reported by the New York Times, includes bringing back Trump-era policies such as the travel ban on travelers from Muslin-majority countries and Title 42, a border measure premised on a health statute used to summarily expel migrants, which Trump invoked during the Covid-19 pandemic, but will expand to other infectious diseases.  

Trump’s plans also include fast-tracked mass deportations and detention camps, and the deployment of state law enforcement to conduct raids. In a second term, Trump would likely try to end birthright citizenship for US-born children of undocumented immigrants—an extreme stance that appears to have become a mainstream GOP policy. Plus, the visas issued to foreign students who took part in pro-Palestine protests would be revoked, as would the temporary legal status of thousands of Afghans who have resettled in the United States since 2021.

Trump recently went on Univision, the most popular Spanish-speaking network in the United States, to tout his record on immigration. On an exclusive, extremely friendly interview reportedly set up with the help of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, the former president went unchallenged as he falsely claimed the Obama administration also separated families as a matter of policy and bragged without providing any evidence that “we had the most secure border in history” during his presidency. The interview sparked backlash from dozens of Latino organizations, who, in a letter to Univision executives, criticized the dissemination of “unfiltered, unaddressed, and unrestricted disinformation.” 

It doesn’t take a degree in immigration law to realize how legally dubious and chilling these proposals are. Many of these so-called policies would inevitably be subject to challenges in court, but one of Miller’s projects since the end of the Trump administration has been as president of America First Legal, a conservative legal organization that engages in “relentless litigation” and purports to be a “long-awaited answer to the ACLU.” In the past few years, America First Legal has sued the Biden administration over a broad collection of policies, from a debt relief program for Black farmers to anti-discrimination protections for transgender patients. 

This is not just campaign bombast:

Presumably, Miller has learned a trick or two about legal warfare and raised millions of dollars in the process. America First Legal’s financial documents show revenue growth of 600 percent—from about $6.3 million to almost $44.4 million between fiscal years 2021 and 2022, boosting Miller’s $110,062 original salary by $77,000. The organization also added Blake Masters, the defeated Arizona senate candidate who spawned conspiracy theories linking migration to a supposed plot by Democrats to win elections by changing the demographics of the country, to its board of directors packed with former Trump officials. 

Will Trump and Miller’s anti-immigration agenda also create an opening for the Biden campaign to take the offensive on this issue? CBS News recently reported that the campaign has plans to “bring attention” to Trump’s extreme proposals in hopes of turning potential Latino voters away from the GOP candidate, who is polling well with that demographic. “Donald Trump is offering us a vision of what America would be under his second term in the White House in 2025,” María Carolina Casado, the campaign’s Hispanic media director, told CBS News. “This is not about restoring our immigration system—that he basically destroyed—or border security. This is about hurting our Latino community, hurting our families and family separation.” In a statement, Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign, said, “These extreme, racist, cruel policies dreamed up by him and his henchman Stephen Miller are meant to stoke fear and divide us, betting a scared and divided nation is how he wins this election.”

Immigration advocates are ramping up their calls on the Biden administration to embrace an unapologetically pro-immigrant stance, both in rhetoric and policymaking. “This isn’t merely a call to ring the alarms on a Trump second term,” Praeli said. “It is also a call to action to Democrats and to President Biden, to not just be in a dueling vision match, but to advance a proactive, pro-immigrant narrative, to claim it and to embrace it and also to deliver for people right now. He has the power of the presidency right now to show a much stronger vision and to draw that contrast in real-time.” As the New Yorker‘s Jonathan Blitzer posted on X, the Biden administration might prefer to avoid talking about immigration, but Trump’s “extremism gives Biden the space to pitch himself as a true foil/alternative.” 

There is no advantage in hiding from the issue. It won’t work. The only answer is to expose the extremism on the right and embrace humanitarian policies. It may not help, but trying to avoid the issue can only hurt — everyone.

It takes long term repetition to penetrate the minds of the voters

If Trump taught them nothing else, he should have taught them that:

Got a little hot about the notion expressed by John Kelly that speaking out against Trump might not have an impact.

These guys need to actually engage in a campaign not just do interviews with the Atlantic (no offense Atlantic friends) https://t.co/BswJJIHscW

— Tim Miller (@Timodc) November 21, 2023

Here’s Mark Esper from yesterday:

Mark Esper, who served as the United States secretary of defense under Donald Trump, warned the former president “is a threat to democracy” — telling CNN Trump is “not right” and can’t beat President Joe Biden in the general election.

Esper on Tuesday was asked about a Washington Post article that revealed many of Trump’s former Cabinet members — including former chief of staff John Kelly — believe he’s unfit to hold office.

“You have previously said that Trump ‘unprincipled’ and should not be in the position of public service,” CNN’s Poppy Harlow began. “Will you work to publicly fight the lead that he has now or are you going to stay on the sidelines?”

“I have been very clear about this matter for three years since my book came out,” Esper said. “I have been on the record multiple times and I don’t think he should be president. I don’t think he is qualified. I think he is a threat to democracy. I will do whatever i can to try to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Esper argued there are “good Republicans in the Republican primary that could deliver on conservative principles and goals and objectives, but also unify the party, and when put [them] in the White House … I think can unify the country.”

Asked to “elaborate” on what he’ll personally do to keep Trump out of office, Esper noted, “Here I am talking to you this morning trying to convince my fellow Republicans that Donald Trump is not right. I don’t think Donald Trump can beat Joe Biden either. Other Republicans have said that. I want to do whatever I can to make sure that Donald Trump is not the nominee and we get a Republican in the Oval Office in 2025. “

Let’s hope he means it and he has many others on his side. There is a chance that swing voters who voted Republican in the past and may have voted Biden but are souring on politics today can be reminded that people they used to respect are sounding a shrill alarm. It’s probably going to be necessary because we have craven gadflies all over the place trying to convince young voters who don’t know any better that it’s very important that they protest vote to “send a message.” (That’s a message that Trump will never hear.) The Dems have to get every swing voter they can and those are people who may listen to guys like Esper and John Kelly and others like them. It must be a sustained campaign.

“We” are losing the country to “them.”

Very recent comments by now-Speaker Mike Johnson brought to mind Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s “God damn America” sermon for the Bulwark’s Tim Miller. Asked if America faces a time of judgment, Johnson replied:

You all know the terrible state that we’re in. . . . The faith in our institutions is the lowest it’s ever been in the history of our nation. The culture is so dark and depraved that it almost seems irredeemable at this point. The church attendance in America dropped below 50 percent for the first time in our history since they began to measure the data sixty years ago. And the number of people who do not believe in absolute truth is now above the majority for the first time. One in three teen girls contemplated suicide last year. One in four high school students identify as something other than straight. We’re losing the country.

The divergent right-wing outrage over Wright’s sermon and non-response to Johnson’s criticism of America reflects more than a double standard for black preachers and white politicians, Miller finds. Even though in a sense their critiques of America’s failings contain similarities. The differences are more significant.

Johnson is saying that the American people are sick, present tense. That our culture is dark and irredeemable. That non-binary youth and people not attending church are causing us to fall from grace.

Wright argued that our government is sick. That those in power have marginalized certain groups and failed them.

Johnson is damning the American people, while Wright is damning the American government. So if you were inclined to be offended by one of these statements on behalf of our nation’s honor and dignity, on its face it seems Johnson’s critique was more sweeping and censorious.

Johnson wouldn’t be a white Christian nationalist if his comments weren’t steeped in othering, Miller notes:

In the dominant American culture, black men aren’t given the same leeway to criticize America that whites are. A white Christian patriot can talk about how things in America have gone to shit because of our sinfulness and his fellow white Christian patriots understand that they are not the ones being criticized. The connotation in his remarks does not point the finger at themselves or at the foundational core of the nation. Johnson is saying that Those People Over There Are Taking America Away From God. “We” are losing the country to “them.”

The “them” might be gays or critical race theorists or people with nose rings or liberals or Jews or Bud Light PR reps or woke teachers or atheists or someone else entirely depending on the day. But the not-quite-explicitly-spoken-but-completely-understood argument is: They are bad. We have done nothing. We are being punished for their sins.

So for Johnson’s allies there is nothing to be upset about in this condemnation of America, obviously. And Johnson’s foes don’t really care much about the moral judgment of someone they find morally repulsive.

But when a black pastor damns America that’s a different ball of wax.

The difference is over whose ox is being gored. (Does anyone use that anymore?) Miller observes, “For Wright to say that these actions of the American government are fundamentally sinful hits at the heart of the national story, ego, and identity.” Guess whose?

“Wright was not merely saying that America did bad things via its government but that we ourselves in some sense are bad.”

THAT, suh, is an insult to mah honor.

Ask a white person to feel shame over America’s past? Why … why … that’s almost worse than a Black man looking sideways at the flower of Southern womanhood. Which is why over a decade later Republicans assuage their hurt egos by dragging out the Wright sermon to drag black politicians. Johnson’s remarks barely raised a ripple.

That’s gotta be some kind of crime

How will the U.S. Supreme Court take to having a lower court essentially invalidate its recent Voting Rights Act decision in Allen v. Milligan?

New York Times:

A federal appeals court moved on Monday to drastically weaken the Voting Rights Act, issuing a ruling that would effectively bar private citizens and civil rights groups from filing lawsuits under a central provision of the landmark civil rights law.

The ruling, made by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, found that only the federal government could bring a legal challenge under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a crucial part of the law that prohibits election or voting practices that discriminate against Americans based on race.

The opinion is almost certain to be appealed to the Supreme Court. The court’s current conservative majority has issued several key decisions in recent years that have weakened the Voting Rights Act. But the justices have upheld the law in other instances, including in a June ruling that found Alabama had drawn a racially discriminatory congressional map.

Yeah, that’s bullshit. For background on the Private Right of Action, see here. Democracy Docket weighs in on the Eight Circuit’s attempted erasure of the PROA under the VRA:

Now, under today’s ruling only the U.S. attorney general, who brings relatively few election-related cases each year, would be able to bring Section 2 claims in the seven states in the 8th Circuit: Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.

This decision hurts voters and organizations who seek to ensure voters are fairly represented across the 8th Circuit and who will no longer be able to file Section 2 cases if and when Republicans abuse the redistricting process to draw racially discriminatory districts. As the dissent cites from experts,

Over the past forty years, there have been at least 182 successful Section 2 cases; of those 182 cases, only 15 were brought solely by the Attorney General.

It is clear that the ability of private parties to bring these lawsuits has made an insurmountable impact on the fight for fair maps. 

They’re really reaching now. Or should we say yanking the Overton Window? Who are they? Charlie Pierce checked:

It probably goes without saying but the Eighth Circuit is loaded with Republican appointees, including four lovely parting gifts from the previous administration*. Here is the roster of amici who weighed in on the side of Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the state of Arkansas.

Honest Elections Project; Senator Tom Cotton; State of Texas; State of Alabama; State of Florida; State of Georgia; State of Indiana; State of Kentucky; State of Louisiana; State of Mississippi; State of Missouri; State of Montana; State of Nebraska; State of Oklahoma; State of South Carolina; State of Utah.

Let’s see — Conservative dark money group, bobble-throated slapdick, Confederate state, Confederate state, Confederate state, Red state, Red state, Confederate State, Uber-Confederate state, Red state, Red state, Red state. Home office of American sedition, Mormonland. The opinion was written by Judge David Stras, one of the lovely parting gifts from Camp Runamuck. His confirmation was, as they say, rocky. In the first place, then-Judiciary chairman Senator Chuck Grassley ignored a blue slip on the nomination from then-Senator Al Franken of Minnesota and brought Stras forward anyway. This was a cynical maneuver by Grassley, who had treated the blue slip like Holy Writ during the Obama administration. Grassley’s gross hypocrisy was part of the reason why the Leadership Conference of Civil and Human Rights sent a letter to all the senators opposing Stras’ elevation to the bench. You will note from the letter that, during his time on the Minnesota Supreme Court, Stras was very fond of measures that would restrict the franchise. He was not a big fan of historic civil rights legislation in any context. From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Stras, in his words and writings, has suggested he’d prefer that judges worry less about their “moral and ethical obligations” to the country. Stras once lamented that the Supreme Court’s “ventures into the contentious areas of social policy — such as school integration, abortion and homosexual rights” have politicized judicial nominations.

Voting and election rights attorney Marc Elias responds, “I expect virtually every other Circuit would say there is a PROA. And, I expect the Supreme Court will too.”

Doesn’t mean the fringiest of the Federalist Society won’t stop trying.

🚨BREAKING:

Javier Milei, a far-right libertarian candidate, also known as the Donald Trump of Argentina, has been elected Argentina’s next president.

God help us all. pic.twitter.com/iSREyePrdZ

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) November 19, 2023

The President-elect of Argentina seems a bit excitable. pic.twitter.com/nxnzVkcVce

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) November 20, 2023

The next president of Argentina pic.twitter.com/pPfzA31ql7

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) November 20, 2023

It’s a political pandemic ….

There was a piece in the Washington Post this weekend about a group of swing voters in Wisconsin who are sick of our politics and are tuning out because they just can’t stand it. Ok, I can understand that. They are horrible and it’s because the right has turned our politics into a disgusting blood sport and it’s very hard to stay engaged without getting cynical and depressed,

But that’s not how these swing voters interpret their ennui. In fact, they don’t seem to see the effect that Trump and his cult are having at all and blame it all on “politics.”

David Roberts had a short tweet thread on this that I thought hit the nail on the head:

This article is worth examining closely. It’s a classic “visit a swing county to hear about politics” piece, so it forces itself to be even-handed & “pox on both houses,” but if you read closely you can glimpse something else. 

Why are they upset? “the broader political backdrop— the impeachments, Trump’s torrent of falsehoods about the 2020 election, the Capitol insurrection, the band of hard-right Republicans ousting their speaker —has blocked out notice of what both sides cast as accomplishments…” 

Hm… what do all those things have in common? Oh, they’re all about Republican extremism! It’s relentless GOP agitprop & anger & corruption & hysteria that is making politics so draining. Because making people sick of politics *serves the right’s interests*. 

Here you see what might have been an alternate framing of the article: “the right’s quest to make politics toxic & to destroy citizens’ trust in basic political & media institutions is working.” The lead anecdote is about a woman seeing a *psychic* for answers. 

Then there’s this: “They long for compromise. They want to feel heard and understood. Most Americans, for instance, desire access to abortion, tighter restrictions on guns and affordable health care. Many wonder why our laws don’t reflect that.” 

There’s a party that talks constantly about compromise & making sure everyone’s heard. It supports access to abortion, tighter restrictions on guns, & more affordable health care. It’s the Democratic Party. It borders on performance art to refrain from saying so in that graf! 

An then this, from a swing voter:

“I can’t really speak to anything [Biden] has done,” he said, “because I’ve tuned it out, like a lot of people have. We’re so tired of the us-against-them politics.”

[sound of Dave becoming the Joker] 

So what we really have here is an article about swing voters pining for calmer, more sensible politics & a range of moderate policies–EXACTLY THE SHIT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY STANDS FOR. But when they tune in, all they see is madness & ugliness & fighting & claim & counter-claim so they “tune out” & thus do not hear about Biden saying/doing exactly the f’ing things they want someone to say/do. That is the right’s mission, accomplished. That is the core US political dynamic. That’s what these articles should be about. 

Everywhere, reactionaries in politics are the same: they try to blur truth, increase bile & anger, exhaust everyone, and convince the public that no one can be trusted (ie, only a Strong Man can fix it). Those are the circumstances in which reactionaries flourish. 

That’s what the right is doing in the US & the media is helping them by rewarding them with endless attention when they act out. The public is telling the WaPo here, as clearly as it can: we care about calm, deliberation, substance, policy, but all we get is spectacle. 

This is been a head-f’ing aspect of US politics as long as I’ve paid attention: centrists & swing voters pining for someone to do/say exactly what Democrats are doing/saying. They just don’t know Democrats are doing/saying it, because they don’t hear about it.

Democrats and other Trump critics need to be relentless in sending the message that the chaos we are all experiencing is the direct result of right wing anarchy. Sure, it should be obvious but to many people it isn’t. There is no choice but to turn into robots and say it over and over and over again.

Please. I’m begging you.

I’m hearing a LOT of talk on social media saying that people cannot possibly ever vote for Biden because of his position on Gaza and his alleged failure to erase all the student loans. When questioned they say it won’t be their fault if Trump is elected because Biden refused to do what they want him to do.

Yes, we’ve been here before. I’ve had these arguments before, particularly in 2000 and 2016 when we all saw what was coming, But the consequences were never as clear or as horrifying as they are now. He’s a fascist and he’s learned that he can get other fascists to help him.

Here’s just one example that should make everyone’s hair stand on end:

Nothing to see here, just the former Gorsuch law clerk touted as Trump’s next attorney-general, threatening to indict, detain, & deport me (for what?) & put Tim Miller, who is gay, in a women’s prison.

Nothing at all unconstitutional, fascistic, or bigoted about any of this. 🤷🏽‍♂️ https://t.co/yNuLo2ZMgD

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) November 20, 2023

Sure, you can write this off as a wingnut hyperbole. But they are drawing up plans. And the entire GOP establishment is complicit in the planning.

This is why I’m voting for President Trump. #CPAC #Cpac2023 pic.twitter.com/6V51CqRfCt

— Terrence K. Williams (@w_terrence) March 4, 2023

You don’t even want to know what he plans to do with climate change and guns.

Biden: This is the 76th anniversary of this event. I want you to know I wasn't there for the first one. pic.twitter.com/nUNNNOPtNP

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 20, 2023

He has to joke about it. And he should do it a lot.

Amazing what happens when you help turn a monster into a star

The Washington Post reports on the befuddlement of the former Trump administration figures who have revealed his ignorance and corruption who can’t figure out why he’s still so popular with the base:

John F. Kelly, the longest-serving chief of staff in President Donald Trump’s White House, watches Trump dominate the GOP primary with increasing despair.

“What’s going on in the country that a single person thinks this guy would still be a good president when he’s said the things he’s said and done the things he’s done?” Kelly said in a recent interview. “It’s beyond my comprehension he has the support he has.”

Kelly, a retired four-star general, said he didn’t know what to do — or what he could do — to help people see it his way.

“I came out and told people the awful things he said about wounded soldiers, and it didn’t have half a day’s bounce. You had his attorney general Bill Barr come out, and not a half a day’s bounce. If anything, his numbers go up. It might even move the needle in the wrong direction. I think we’re in a dangerous zone in our country,” he said.

No president has ever attracted more public detractors who were formerly in his inner circle. They are closely watching his rise — cruising in the GOP nomination contest and, in most polls, tying or even leading President Biden in a general election matchup — with alarm. Among them are his former vice president, top military advisers, lawyers, some members of his Cabinet, economic advisers, press officials and campaign aides, some of whom are working for other candidates.

Among their reasons for opposing a second Trump term, they cite the 91 criminal charges against him, his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, his false claims of election fraud, his incendiary rhetoric in office, his desire to weaponize the Justice Department, hischaotic management style, his likely personnel choices in a second term, and his affinity for dictators.

Interviews with 16 former Trump advisers —some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss their former boss —show they are grappling with how they can puncture Trump’s candidacy in 2024, whether they can or should coordinate with one another and whether their voices will even matter.

Additionally, more than a dozen people once in his employ could end up taking the stand and providing testimony as part of multiple criminal trials, according to people with knowledge of the cases and court documents.

Inexplicable isn’t it? Imagine what some of us felt when we realized he’d actually won the election in 2016. Why didn’t these people feel that way then?

This is even more inexplicable to me:

At the same time, even some who have publicly declared Trump unfit for office have said they would still support him over Biden in 2024.

Sure, Trump is a criminal but they just can’t make themselves vote for the other guy — who isn’t a criminal.

Here’s the classy Trump campaign response:

“These media whores are always looking for their next grift — whether its book deals or cable news contracts — because they know their entire worth as human beings revolve around talking about President Trump,” said Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesman. “They clearly don’t own any mirrors because if they did, they would not be able to look at themselves every day knowing what they’re doing is hurting the country. These charlatans are disgusting and should be wholly ignored.”

It’s only a time before they just start saying, “they can go fuck themselves!”

Some of the donors are sort of, kind of worried just a teensy bit:

In recent fundraisers, Trump has been questioned by donors on multiple occasions about his personnel choices and has attacked former officials who have spoken out against him, according to people familiar with the questioning. Trump has argued that while in the White House, he listened to people he should not have — and made bad hires, particularly at the Pentagon and Justice. Donors have expressed concern that Trump hired so many people who have attacked him, people familiar with the conversations said.

This time, Trump said, he would look out for people who are loyal and “smart.” A second term in office, people close to him say, would have people who “actually support President Trump,” in the words of one adviser.

“I learned how deep the deep state is,” he recently told donors at an event.

He ran saying that he knew more than anyone on government or anywhere else about how to get things done. Nobody ever holds him to anything he says.

Ahead of the 2020 election, Democrats learned through focus groups that attacks on Trump’s character did not work as well with independent voters as attacks on his record, according to a prominent Democrat briefed on the work conducted by the Democratic National Committee. Repeatedly, voters said they knew who Trump was and his personal shortcomings did not dissuade them.

Still, what also makes Trump different is the way in which some former advisers speak about him — not griping over a policy disagreement or a personnel choice — but over his fitness to be president and what he might do in a second term.

Former White House counsel Ty Cobb, who defended Trump during the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and once was seen as a loyal soldier, said it was imperative for people to vote against Trump.

“He has never cared about America, its citizens, its future or anything but himself. In fact, as history well shows from his divisive lies, as well as from his unrestrained contempt for the rule of law and his related crimes, his conduct and mere existence have hastened the demise of democracy and of the nation,” Cobb wrote in an email. “Our adversaries and our allies both recognize that even his potential reelection diminishes America on the world stage and ensures continued acceleration of the domestic decline we are currently enduring. If that reelection actually happens, the consequences will extinguish what, if anything, remains of the American Dream.”

The article goes on to note that no revelation ever seems to move his voters and so many people feel it’s not worth it. And then there are the cravenly self-interested:

Another prominent former official said he was debating whether speaking out would lead to clients dropping him. “If I thought it would make a difference, I’d be more willing to do it. But you’re taking a lot of financial risks, and I haven’t seen any evidence it really matters,”this person said.

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And there are those who think, for some inexplicable reason, that it would be best to wait until it’s too late:

A third former official said that many were considering speaking out if Trump became the nominee and was in a position to win. “You want to remind people at the last minute what kind of crazy they might be getting again. I don’t think it works until it’s September or October.”

Finally there are the team players who may know exactly what Trump is but they just can’t lower themselves to do anything that will help the other side:

Some aides say they don’t want Trump to be president again but are loath to be viewed as helping a Democrat. Members of that group, including Barr, have argued Trump is both unfit to serve and has probably committed crimes — but that they still may vote for him over a Democrat.

Marc Short, Pence’s longtime chief of staff and a former Trump adviser, has been sharply critical of the former president.

“If it’s Biden versus Trump, the implicit assumption is, efforts to hurt Trump are going to benefit Biden,” Short said. “If you’re putting yourself against the Constitution, I think it’s disqualifying, but I wouldn’t want to be helping Biden.”

So he’d rather put in an unqualified monster who incited rioters to call for Mike Pence to be hanged than “help” Joe Biden. He’s a real patriot.

I do not agree that Trump’s unfitness is baked in. People just put it out of their minds because he seems so inevitable. They need to be reminded over and over and over again. If Trump can convince virtually all GOP voters that the election was stolen despite zero evidence through repetition then surely Democrats can remind swing voters who voted against him last time that he’s only gotten worse. They have to.