An interesting open letter in Axios this morning:
Then again, if you’re Trump, what do you care what a bunch of econ eggheads think anyway? Bunch of deep-state gobbledegook, probably. Happy Tuesday. IT’S HAPPENING TONIGHT! Bulwark+ founding members can ask Tim and former Rep. Adam Kinzinger anything on their mind on tonight’s stream, starting at 9 p.m. Eastern.
‘In a Way Only Donald Trump Can. . .’Last week, Donald Trump found himself on a podcast hosted by some friendly, not to say sycophantic, venture capitalists. They told him that we need more high-skilled workers in this country. A demagogue aims to please, and so Trump told his hosts—and their audience of wealthy donors and potential donors—that he couldn’t agree more. “What I want to do and what I will do is you graduate from a college, I think you should get automatically as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country. And that includes junior colleges, too.” Anti-immigration Trump supporters reacted negatively. The Trump campaign walked Trump’s promise back the next day. And the day after that, when Trump gave two speeches, the green card promise was nowhere to be found. Surely, you’re thinking, some of Trump’s respectable, business-oriented supporters expressed disappointment when Trump abandoned his pledge to increase high-skilled immigration? Nope. Indeed, what was to be found in the two speeches Trump gave the next day, Saturday, was a different kind of immigration idea: fight clubs for migrants. Trump told a conference of conservative Christians in Washington, and then a rally of supporters in Philadelphia, that he’d suggested the idea to Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White. “I said, ‘Dana, I have an idea. Why don’t you set up a migrant league of fighters and have your regular league of fighters. And then you have the champion of your league—these are the greatest fighters in the world—fight the champion of the migrants. I think the migrants’ guy might win, that’s how tough they are.’” Trump reported that White didn’t agree with the proposal. But Trump said it was “not the worst idea I’ve ever had,” calling migrants to the United States “nasty”and “mean.” Surely, you’re thinking, some of Trump’s respectable, faith-and-family-oriented supporters expressed disapproval of Trump’s migrants-fight-for-our-entertainment proposal? Nope. The Respectable Republicans™ are all on board. And when Trump toys with them as cats do with mice, they don’t even squeak up. Last night, Scott Jennings, a former George W. Bush and Mitch McConnell aide turned professional “respectable” Trump apologist, wouldn’t say a word on CNN critical of Trump’s cavalier dehumanizing of immigrants. Instead, he praised the leader of his party: “In a way only Donald Trump can, he is drawing attention to the violent activity that we have seen in places all over this country.” When an establishment type says, “In a way only Donald Trump can,” he’s about to endorse some reprehensible Trump statement. He’s about to praise Trump, while of course implicitly signaling: It’s not the way we would say it in our C-suite or country club. We wouldn’t want to be seen at those fight clubs. But no, no, no: We’re certainly not criticizing him. One can say this: In a way only Donald Trump can, he has exposed the moral cowardice of today’s conservative elites and the political cravenness of today’s Republican establishment. —William Kristol Party FightsA few interesting House narratives to keep an eye on this week: New York’s 16th District: A bitter fight over the ideological direction of the Democratic party; the most expensive House primary battle in history. It all wraps up today, as Rep. Jamaal Bowman—one of Congress’s most progressive members—fights desperately to stave off a formidable challenge from Westchester County Executive George Latimer. Back in 2020, Bowman was the one making an incumbent sweat: He successfully toppled 16-term Rep. Eliot Engel amid a wider progressive effort to unseat longserving party moderates. He’s had some odd moments in Congress—most notably when he pulled a fire alarm in an apparent attempt to delay a House vote, a move that led to his pleading guilty to a misdemeanor and being censured by the House last year. But it’s his ferocious opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza that has emperiled his seat. Bowman was among the first members of Congress to call for a ceasefire just days after Hamas’s October 7 massacre last year, a stance he’s doubled down on at every opportunity since. That drew both Latimer and shock-and-awe levels of spending from pro-Israel groups into the race. Of the $24 million spent in the contest, more than $14 million has come from a group affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Heavily outspent and trailing in the polls, Bowman, who is black, has supplemented his attacks on his white opponent’s big-money donors with more vitriolic personal rhetoric: “He also is not just anti-black racist, he’s anti-Muslim racist,” he told Politico earlier this month. Colorado’s 4th District: Here, by contrast, is a total snoozer of a Republican primary, where Rep. Lauren Boebert is expected to cruise to another nomination tonight. What’s interesting is how she’s getting there. Boebert is a rare breed this cycle: a carpetbagging incumbent. Her current district is the mountainous 3rd, where a comfortable R+7 partisan advantage was just barely enough last cycle: Democrat Adam Frisch, who essentially campaigned as a personal referendum on Boebert’s ridiculous antics, fell just 546 votes short of unseating her. This time around, things looked even less promising. Boebert was going through a messy divorce and careening from scandal to scandal: Last September, she was kicked out of a performance of the musical Beetlejuice for causing a disturbance that involved vaping in the theater, singing loudly, and groping her date. Meanwhile, Frisch was running for a rematch and raking in huge sums. So Boebert simply opted out—announcing she was moving and running in the R+13 district left open by retired Rep. Ken Buck instead. This was far from a foolproof plan. Just ask Madison Cawthorn, another scandal-plagued melted-brain MAGA Republican, who lost his primary last cycle after trying to hop to a redder North Carolina congressional district. But Boebert was lucky: She had strong name ID, lots of cash to spend courtesy of Donald Trump and House leadership, and a brace of no-name goofball challengers who failed to consolidate around a Boebert alternative. Seriously, here’s Slate:
A plot twist here: It’s not impossible that the next Congress could see Frisch and Boebert serving together. Arizona’s 8th District: The primary in this Republican district isn’t until next month, but it’s already gotten horribly ugly. The matchup between former allies Abe Hamadeh—who lost his race for attorney general in 2022—and failed Senate candidate Blake Masters pits Trump against the ugliest forms of Trumpism. Hamadeh is an interesting figure—a lawyer, veteran, and onetime centrist-ish Republican who realized his ticket to GOP success was to reinvent himself as a hardcore election denier. Masters is a much weirder dude: a Peter Thiel acolyte who spent last cycle trying to channel Terrence Malick in his campaign ads and waxing eloquent about his admiration for the Unabomber. On policy, they’re very similar: They back Trump on everything. This cycle, though, it’s Hamadeh who got the blessing of the Orange King. Trump’s endorsement is the alpha and omega of his pitch. So what’s a guy like Masters to do? Lean hard into the policy of Trumpism, for one thing: While Hamadeh’s yard signs simply say “Trump Endorsed,” Masters’s say “DEPORT ILLEGALS NOW! NOW! NOW!” Masters is channeling Trump’s ugliest insults, too. “What we don’t need is someone with no wife and kids, right?” he said in a campaign video last month. “No skin in the game.” Another Masters ad said Hamadeh, who grew up Muslim, “supported Chuck Schumer’s amnesty bill—maybe because Abe’s parents were illegal immigrants.” The same ad spotlights a comment Hamadeh made as a teen on an online forum for Ron Paul fans that “America was founded on Islamic principles,” laid over a picture of Hamadeh on a pilgrimage to Mecca, which he made while deployed overseas. An ad from an outside group supporting Masters goes farther, calling Hamadeh a “terrorist sympathizer.” —Andrew Egger Catching up . . .
Quick Hits1. More on the ‘Migrant Fight League’Jill Lawrence is must-read today:
2. Bashful BergumIf you caught our show last week in Denver, you heard JVL’s argument for why North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is Trump’s likeliest pick for running mate. One big reason why: He’s a bland guy who won’t take the spotlight off the boss and runs no risk of being seen by anyone as the heir apparent. Those qualities were on full display during Burgum’s latest CNN appearance the other day, where he seemed to be actively striving to avoid saying anything that could pass for an actual thought:
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‘In a Way Only Donald Trump Can. . .’
June 25, 2024
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