<....Trump also intends to issue an executive order withholding passports, Social Security numbers and other benefits from children of undocumented immigrants who were born in the United States — a blatant violation of birthright citizenship, which is guaranteed in the Constitution.

Since ICE employs only 6,000 deportation agents, active-duty service personnel and men and women in the National Guard would be deployed to round up the suspects, subdue anyone who resists arrest and run detention camps. It is not at all clear where the deportees and their children would be sent or whether their countries of origin would accept them.

The initiative would do massive damage to the economy. The labor force includes 9 million undocumented immigrants, who account for 10 percent of the total output in the agriculture, leisure and hospitality, and construction sectors, and who would be difficult, if not impossible, to replace.

According to an estimate made 10 years ago, deportation of all undocumented workers would shrink the labor force by 6.4 percent. When the costs of removal are included, GDP would decrease by trillions of dollars.

And deportation is virtually certain to tear the country apart, with millions of Americans resisting, perhaps violently.

Ahead of the 2024 Iowa Caucuses, Trump posted a video on Truth Social in which a narrator reveals that God had searched for someone “who can shape an axe but wield a sword … make money from the tar of the sand, turn liquid to gold, who understands the difference between tariffs and inflation.” God then anoints Trump as his shepherd, to drill for fossil fuels, create jobs, secure the southern border, strengthen the military and fight the system all day, but still find time to attend church on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Trump is laying plans to do what he is saying he’ll do.>

Do tell, <fredthebore>: you an anti-vaxxer? You want millions of Americans to die?

<Earlier this week, CNN reported that the Judicial Conference of the United States announced a new rule that would that would shut down "judge shopping" — a tactic conservative attorneys general and conservative litigants have used to file challenges against liberal policies and laws.

The new policy requires federal district courts to "randomly assign a judge to a lawsuit if the suit aims to block any federal or state law, executive order or regulation," the Hill reports.

"I’m really proud that we did this," 6th Circuit Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton said in response to the announcement.

However, according to the Associated Press, two days later, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) condemned the move "on the Senate floor and joined with two other GOP senators to send letters to a dozen chief judges around the country suggesting they" ignore it.

In a Sunday, March 17 op-ed published by MSNBC, University of Texas School of Law professor Steve Vladeck points out the hypocrisy in not only McConnell's — but US Senator John Cornyn's (R-TX) and Thom Tillis' (R-NC) — opposition to the rule, too.

"So why are these three Republican senators so upset by the proposed reform?" Vladeck asks. "The answer is obvious: because it will make it harder to guarantee that specific judges will hear specific lawsuits — whether individual Republican appointees hearing challenges to Democratic policies, or vice versa."

Vladeck writes:

Plaintiffs have increasingly taken advantage of these 'single-judge' divisions to steer nationwide federal policy challenges to specific, ideologically sympathetic judges. For example, the nationwide challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone (one of two drugs used in the most common and safest abortion procedure) was filed in Amarillo, Texas — not a courthouse with any specific connection to mifepristone, but one in which it had a 100% chance of being assigned to a certain Trump-appointed district judge, former anti-abortion advocate Matthew Kacsmaryk. Kacsmaryk remarkably, if predictably, ruled against the FDA’s approval of the drug — an approval that occurred 23 years ago.

Another example the Just Security blog co-founder notes:

A nationwide challenge to Biden administration efforts to combat social media disinformation was filed in Monroe, Louisiana — where it had a 100% chance of being assigned to Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty. And the state of Texas, which has filed 37 different lawsuits in Texas district courts challenging Biden administration policies, has filed a majority of them in single-judge divisions — and none in Austin (where the Texas government is actually located) or Houston or Dallas or … you get the point.

Vladeck emphasizes, "The charge from McConnell, Cornyn and Tillis that the Judicial Conference is engaged in 'partisan' behavior rings more than a little hypocritical. The whole point of the proposal is to reduce the appearance of partisanship on the part of the federal courts.">

<More House Republicans may quit before the end of their terms, which could potentially allow Democrats to regain control of the chamber before the elections.

The early departures of Reps. Ken Buck, R-Colo., and Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., dropped the Republican majority’s margin to just one vote. Gallagher’s planned departure on April 19 is immediately after a date that would trigger a special election to fill his seat, meaning it is expected to stay empty until in the election.

But “other Republicans are angling to get out as soon as they can,” Fox News’ Chad Pergram reported. “A big payday in the private sector could lure some members to cash in their voting card early.”

Pergram reported that some House Republicans are “fed up” and “just exasperated.”

“Control of the House has never changed in the middle of a Congress. But if it’s going to happen, the 118th Congress is as ripe for that possibility,” Pergram added.

Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., expressed concerns about such a possibility on Fox Business Monday, urging Gallagher to “stay.”

“We can get a special election. It’s a very safe Republican seat. We’ll add to our majority. We don’t have the other special [election] to fill Kevin McCarthy’s seat until April 30th. And we’re perilous. We could end up being– having a Speaker Hakeem Jeffries in the interim here while we’re waiting for special elections,” Tenney said.

“Personally, if you’re going to make a commitment to the people that elect you, that you’re going to serve for two years unless you have a really good reason not to serve, then why would you do that? And aren’t we team Republican?” she asked.>

How do ya like them apples? These clueless GOP types want their sane, sensible Republican colleagues to work with them, now that their majority is in peril. Having Jeffries in for even a couple weeks might be the greatest disaster of 'em all, demonstrating that Democrats can actually get things done.

<A New York judge Tuesday issued a gag order barring Donald Trump from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial, citing the former president's history of “threatening, inflammatory, denigrating" remarks about people involved in his legal cases.

Judge Juan M. Merchan's decision, echoing a gag order in Trump’s Washington, D.C., election interference criminal case, came a day after he rejected the defense's push to delay the Manhattan trial until summer and ordered it to begin April 15. If the date holds, it will be the first criminal trial of a former president.

“Given that the eve of trial is upon us, it is without question that the imminency of the risk of harm is now paramount,” Merchan wrote in a four-page decision granting the prosecution's request for what it deemed a “narrowly tailored” gag order.

The judge said the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's statements have induced fear and necessitated added security measures to protect his targets and investigate threats.

Trump's lawyers fought a gag order, warning it would amount to unconstitutional and unlawful prior restraint on his free speech rights. Merchan, who had long resisted imposing a gag order, said his obligation to ensuring the integrity of the trial outweighed First Amendment concerns.

“President Trump’s political opponents have, and will continue to, attack him based on this case,” Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles said in a recent court filing. “The voters have the right to listen to President Trump’s unfettered responses to those attacks — not just one side of that debate.”

The gag order bars Trump from either making or directing other people to make public statements on his behalf about potential witnesses and jurors in the hush-money trial. It also prohibits any statements meant to interfere with or harass the court’s staff, prosecution team or their families.

It does not bar comments about Merchan, whom Trump has referred to after his arraignment last year as “a Trump-hating judge” with a family full of “Trump haters," or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat. But it puts Trump on notice that attacks on key figures in the case, like his former lawyer-turned-nemesis Michael Cohen or porn star Stormy Daniels, won't be tolerated.

A violation could result in Trump being held in contempt of court, fined or even jailed.

“I want to thank Judge Merchan for imposing the gag order as I have been under relentless assault from Donald’s MAGA supporters," said Cohen, a key prosecution witness against Trump. "Nevertheless, knowing Donald as well as I do, he will seek to defy the gag order by employing others within his circle to do his bidding, regardless of consequence.”

Blanche declined to comment. Bragg's office also declined to comment. A message seeking comment was left for Trump's presidential campaign....>

<....The gag order adds to existing restrictions that prohibit Trump from using evidence in the case to attack witnesses.

Trump's hush-money case centers on allegations that he falsely logged payments to Cohen, then his personal lawyer, as legal fees in his company’s books when they were for his work during the 2016 campaign covering up negative stories about Trump. That included $130,000 he had paid Daniels on Trump's behalf so she wouldn’t publicize her claim of a sexual encounter with him years earlier.

Trump pleaded not guilty last April to 34 counts of falsifying business records, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison, though there is no guarantee that a conviction would result in jail time. He denies having sex with Daniels and his lawyers have said that the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses, not part of any coverup.

At his arraignment, Merchan admonished Trump not to make statements that could incite violence or jeopardize safety, but stopped short of muzzling him. At a subsequent hearing, Merchan noted Trump’s “special” status as a former president and current candidate and said, “I’m bending over backwards and straining to make sure that he is given every opportunity possible to advance his candidacy and to be able to speak in furtherance of his candidacy.”

As jury selection nears, Merchan has been increasingly wary of Trump's rhetoric disrupting the historic trial. Earlier this month, Merchan ruled to keep the names of jurors from the public. Trump will have access to them, but he risks forfeiting access if he discloses the names publicly or engages in harassing or disruptive conduct that threatens the safety or integrity of jurors, the judge said.

Now, with the gag order, Merchan is declaring scores of people involved in the case off-limits for Trump's social media venom, courthouse diatribes and campaign rallies. Trump's grousing to TV cameras as he entered and exited the courtroom became ritual during his New York civil fraud trial last year.

After leaving Monday's hearing where Merchan set the trial date, Trump tore into prosecutor Matthew Colangelo at a press conference, referring to the ex-Justice Department official as a “radical left from DOJ” sent to run the Trump case "by Biden and his thugs.” The judge cited those remarks in his ruling.

Trump has repeatedly lashed out about the hush-money case. He warned on social media of “potential death & destruction” before his indictment last year and posting a photo on social media of himself holding a baseball bat next to a picture of Bragg. He has referred to Cohen as a “convicted felon, disbarred lawyer, with zero credibility” and has used a mocking nickname to describe Daniels.

Merchan is just the latest judge to put guardrails around Trump.

A federal appeals court panel in December largely upheld Trump's gag order in his Washington, D.C., election interference case but narrowed it by freeing him to criticize special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the case. The New York gag order echoed that ruling by excluding Bragg.

At the fraud trial, Trump was fined $15,000 for twice violating a gag order imposed after he made a disparaging social media post about the judge’s chief law clerk.

In January, a federal judge threatened Trump with expulsion from court in a civil trial on writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation claims against him after he was heard saying “it is a witch hunt” and “it really is a con job.">

<Donald Trump, the former President, has compared himself to Jesus Christ in a strange social media post. An expert suggests that this is an attempt by Trump to justify his violent promises with biblical references.

The ex-President shared a message on social media where a supporter compared him to Christ during his trial before resurrection. The supporter suggested that Trump is being treated similarly by the US judicial system.

Yesterday, a New York appeals court decided to delay the collection of Trump's $454 million civil fraud judgment. However, he must provide $175 million within 10 days.

This decision saves him from a significant financial setback. Meanwhile, his hush money case will start on April 15, denying any further delays.

Reacting to his legal troubles, Trump made a bold social media post comparing himself to Jesus Christ. He shared a supposed message from a supporter who was "praying" for him and quoted a Bible verse, reports the Mirror US.

Political experts who spoke to TheMirror.com analyzed Trump's constant victimization rhetoric. They see this recent odd "Messiah" claim as just the beginning.

Adam Quinn, Associate Professor of American and International Politics at the University of Birmingham, shared: "Trump's strategy in the court of public opinion is to portray himself as a victim, persecuted by partisan authorities as part of a political vendetta." Dr Quinn also mentioned that Trump's supporters really believe this message.

Trump shared a bold message on Truth Social that said: "Received this morning-Beautiful, thank you! " He then showed a note from someone who supports him. The note said, "It's ironic that Christ walked through His greatest persecution the very week they are trying to steal your property from you. But have you seen this verse...? ".

Next, there was a quote Bible about asking for justice against false accusers. It said: "They have also surrounded me with words of hatred,/ And fought against me without a cause./4 In return for my love they are my accusers,/ But I give myself to prayer./ 5 Thus they have rewarded me evil for good, /And hatred for my love.

"6 Set a wicked man over him,/ And let an [a]accuser stand at his right hand./ 7 When he is judged, let him be found guilty,/ And let his prayer become sin./ 8 Let his days be few,/ And let another take his office."

The post ended with more words from the supporter: "I'm praying this over you daily. So many praying for you. Thank you again for taking the arrows intended for us. We love you".

Professor Inderjeet Parmar, Professor of International Politics at City University of London, spoke to TheMirror.com about Trump and his followers. He said they've hit a "new low" by comparing Trump to Jesus Christ.

"The Trumpist cult has now descended to a new low in a direct comparison of his position and role as Jesus Christ."

He also talked about the scary parts of the Bible verse Trump mentioned. It talks about asking God to punish people who say bad things about you.

Professor Parmar is worried because he feels it sounds like Trump wants to use this idea against his adversaries. "Particularly worrying are the references in the psalm Trump cites about death and vengeance against his accusers and so-called persecutors."

The professor explained that the Bible verse goes on to ask for punishment for his critics' families. "Let his children be fatherless,/ And his wife a widow./ 10 Let his children [b]continually be vagabonds, and beg;/ Let them [c]seek their bread also from their desolate places./".

"11 Let the creditor seize all that he has,/ And let strangers plunder his labor./ 12 Let there be none to extend mercy to him,/ Nor let there be any to favor his fatherless children./ 13 Let his [d]posterity be cut off,/ And in the generation following let their name be blotted out.">

<....Lastly, Professor Parmar warned that Trump might try to use the government as a mechanism to get back at his enemies. "This is a biblical legitimization of something Trump has promised to wreak on his opponents - to weaponize the federal government against his political enemies as well as those in the FBI and courts and other offices related to trying cases against him," he said.

"The potential next president is promising an even more violent administration against an array of people - including anti-racist and anti-fascists, illegal immigrants and minorities in general. His supporters will lap up his messaging as usual - and probably galvanize his opponents.

"But to hear such talk from the president of any state let alone one that claims to be the world leader of a rules-based democratic order - shows a country and its elites in its deepest crisis since the 1860s."

Dr Quinn said: "Today's New York appeals court judgement gives Donald Trump some desperately needed breathing room with regard to the civil judgement against him,".

He also mentioned: "Without it, he would have been obliged to produce an impossible sum immediately or else face potential seizure of assets by the authorities. With the reduction in the amount he must pay in order to pursue an appeal against the original judgement against him, and an extension of the period available to do so, it is now much more plausible he can secure a bond to cover the required amount. This will allow him to stave off imminent ruin while he appeals.

"The judgement in his New York criminal case, meanwhile, will be less welcome, and suggests that his legal efforts to delay that trial may be running out of road, and it will come to court soon. This is not the strongest or most serious of the criminal cases he is currently facing, but nevertheless, he won't be eager for it to come to trial."

As Trump's election strategy becomes clear, all that remains is to see if it is successful in his election rematch with Joe Biden. "How Trump's legal woes affect other voters' views of him, is one of the big questions hovering over this election campaign," Dr. Quinn told The Mirror.

"Democrats will be hoping that over time, the cumulative weight of the multiple cases against Trump, and the evidence of serial misconduct that trials bring to light, will erode his standing with 'independent' voters sufficiently to tip the general election in President Biden's favor.">

<fredthejackal>, this is <your> president!!

<The Biden-Harris 2024 campaign reacted yesterday to a press conference held by the presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump after the New York Appellate Court reduced the amount Trump is required to post while he appeals a case in which he was found liable for fraud. A five-judge panel said Trump would not have to post the full amount of the judgement, $454 million with interest accruing, but instead could post less than half the amount — $175 million.

In a statement, Biden-Harris HQ referred to Trump as “weak and desperate — both as a man and a candidate for President.”

The statement also attacked Trump — who frequently claims that the multiple lawsuits against him prevent him from campaigning — for having spent the weekend golfing, announcing himself the winner of two championships at his golf resort, “comparing himself to Jesus,” and “lying about having money he definitely doesn’t have.”

[NOTE: Trump claimed on social media that he had “almost $500 million in cash” days after his lawyers told the New York Appellate Court that he could not secure a $464 million bond, calling the pursuit of the bond a “practical impossibility.” The two claims — no bond, but plenty of cash — are not necessarily in conflict, as failure to secure a large surety bond (backed by cash or stock) from an insurer does not mean Trump doesn’t have access to liquidity through other means.]

Republican political pundit Frank Luntz criticized the Democratic Party for the statement and being “No longer the party of ‘when they go low, we go high.'”

Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY), and former chair of the House Select Committee of the January 6 attacks on the Capitol, replied to Luntz’s complaint: “Well, when the party of Trump abandoned Lincoln, Reagan, and the Constitution, circumstances changed.”

Former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh of Illinois also responded, saying “After eight years of Trump, this is what you call ‘going low?’ This is an embarrassing tweet.” Walsh’s fellow former Illinois Republican Representative, Adam Kinzinger, wrote “Come on Frank.”

Luntz is referring to a famous Democratic moment, when First Lady Michelle Obama, speaking at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, said she told her young daughters “that the hateful language they hear from public figures on TV does not represent the true spirit of this country” and “that when someone is cruel or acts like a bully, we don’t stoop to their level. No, our motto is when they go low, we go high.”>

<Attorneys for Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake moved to forfeit a defamation case against her on Tuesday, choosing not to contest the allegations that she defamed a state election worker after the 2022 election.

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (R) sued Lake last year in his personal capacity, claiming Lake defamed him after she refused to concede her 2022 Arizona gubernatorial defeat and alleged election fraud.

The lawsuit claims that Lake consistently and systemically lied about Richer’s actions as recorder, causing him to receive harassment and numerous threats to his life. Richer added that Lake claimed without evidence that he stuffed ballot boxes with 300,000 invalid votes and used his role as recorder to make the ballot unclear for voters.

“For the last seven months, I have been subjected to constant harassment, intimidation, and threats to my and my family’s lives because the defendants in this case were spreading falsehoods about me, my work, and our elections,” Richer said in a statement when the lawsuit was filed last year.

The court filing Tuesday does not contest Richer’s claims, and requests an accelerated hearing to determine damages.

Richer held up the filing as an admission of guilt.

“Won’t defend / can’t defend,” he wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “I’ll get my due. But not the millions of people she lied to.”

“Not the thousands of people who donated ‘to continue the fight.’ Not the people who have gone to jail because they so strongly believed Kari’s lies,” he continued. “Those people won’t get their due.”

However, Lake brushed off the filing as a rejection to participate in what she described as a “political witch hunt” and a “frivolous” lawsuit, refusing to admit culpability.

“Washington, D.C. operates on blackmail and bribes. Since they can’t blackmail or bribe me, they’ve resorted to filing a punishing lawsuit to try to stop me and bleed me dry,” she said in a video message. “They’re threatening to take everything I own. What they don’t realize is even if they leave me, my husband and children homeless and penniless, that won’t stop us.”

“By participating in this lawsuit, it would only serve to legitimize this perversion of our legal system and allow bad actors to interfere in our upcoming election,” she continued. “So I won’t be taking part.”

Lake is challenging Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) for the seat of the retiring Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.). Gallego slightly leads Lake in early polls, though the race is a seen as a key battleground for both parties in the fight to control the Senate.>

Evidence for <the Budapest tosspot> of how much inutile, schizophrenic rants can cost.

Hope the judgment breaks Loser's worthless arse.

<In his bid to retake the White House, few states hold as much promise for Donald Trump as Michigan.

The former president has already won the state once and President Joe Biden, who reclaimed it for Democrats in 2020, is confronting vulnerabilities there as he seeks reelection. Trump's campaign promises an aggressive play for Michigan as part of a robust swing-state strategy.

But, at least for now, those promises appear to be mostly talk. The Trump campaign and its partners at the Republican National Committee haven't yet made significant general election investments in the state, according to Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra. The national committee, he said, hasn't transferred any money to the state party to help bolster its operations heading into the general election. There are no specific programs in place to court voters of color. And there's no general election field staff in place.

“We’ve got the skeleton right now," Hoekstra said. “We’re going to have to put more meat on it.”

It’s much the same in presidential battleground states across the country, according to Republican operatives and party officials involved in campaign planning elsewhere.

Widely praised for its professionalism and effectiveness throughout the primary phase of the 2024 election, Trump’s political operation has been slow to pivot toward the general election in the weeks after executing a hostile takeover of the Republican Party's national political machinery. In fact, the former president's team has rolled back plans under previous leaders to add hundreds of staff and dozens of new minority-outreach centers in key states without offering a clear alternative.

Indeed, just six months before the first early votes are cast in the general election between Trump and Biden, Trump’s Republican Party has little general election infrastructure to speak of.

Officials on the ground in top swing states are not panicking, but the disparity with the Biden campaign is stark.

This month alone, Biden opened 100 new offices and added more than 350 new staffers in swing states from Arizona to Georgia to Pennsylvania, according to campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa. That's in addition to the Democratic president's existing battleground-state staff of 100 that was already in place.

Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita, who is now also running operations at the RNC, declined to detail any of the Republican campaign's plans.

“By combining forces, the Trump campaign and the RNC are deploying operations fueled by passionate volunteers who care about saving America and firing Joe Biden,” he said. “We do not feel obligated, however, to discuss the specifics of our strategy, timing, or tactics with members of the news media.”

Trump may be discussing strategy with some state Republican officials behind closed doors.

Hoekstra was among a handful of Michigan Republican leaders who trekked to Florida last week to meet privately with Trump and members of his senior campaign team about plans for the general election. The conversation, Hoekstra said, left him optimistic about the former president's commitment to his state.

“I feel good about where we are," he said. "The Trump team is engaged."

Earlier this month, Trump replaced Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel with his new hand-picked leadership team, including daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who is now RNC co-chair. LaCivita, who took over as the committee's chief of staff, promised sweeping changes in the GOP's political infrastructure across the country.

In the days since, more than 60 Republican staffers across the country were issued layoff notices. They included virtually all the people who staffed the RNC's minority outreach community centers and others inside the committee's department of State Parties Strategies.

“There was never a fully cohesive bond between the Trump campaign and the RNC in the past, and we are now operating as one entity,” Lara Trump said Tuesday on David Webb’s SiriusXM Patriot channel program. “We have cut a lot of fat."....>

<.... Facing internal pushback on some of the cuts, Lara Trump has vowed that the committee's half-dozen existing community centers would remain open. But it's unclear whether Trump's team will follow through on McDaniel's plans to open an additional 40 community centers in the coming months.

The centers were seen as a critical resource in boosting the Republican Party's relationships with minority groups who have traditionally voted Democratic, but may be open to the GOP's populist message. Advocates suggest that such investments have made a significant impact in recent years, especially in competitive House districts where several thousand votes can make a difference.

“It seems that there's a consensus that community centers are vital for the Republican Party in general,” said Shawn Steel, a RNC member from California who credits a community center in Orange County's Little Saigon with helping his wife, Rep. Michelle Steele, R-Calif., win her seat.

Democrats, Steel said, have been effectively engaging in minority communities since New York City's Tammany Hall more than two centuries ago. “We're trying to catch up,” Steel said. “I'm optimistic.”

Amid such optimism, however, there is also a deep sense of uncertainty as Trump's team rewrites the party's 2024 battleground-state strategy after burning the previous playbook.

Trump’s lieutenants have already postponed plans in place before McDaniel's ouster that would have begun adding hundreds of Republican staffers in presidential battleground states beginning this month, according to people with direct knowledge of the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private conversations.

It's unclear if or when the field staff will eventually be in place. Recently laid-off staffers have recently begun interviewing for new positions, although some have been told they must relocate to Florida or new states.

Georgia GOP Chair Joshua McKoon said he has had several meetings with RNC leadership about “the deployment of additional resources” to his state, although there is no set timeline.

“What wins elections is having the staff necessary to carry out your get-out-the-vote plan, so that’s what I’m most interested in,” McKoon said. “I certainly expect to have further discussions in the very near future about the timeline and having some more specifics.”

He added, “I feel like we’re going to have what we need.”

Aware of a building sense of urgency, newly elected RNC Chair Michael Whatley issued a memo to party officials over the weekend promising that the committee is “building on our existing programs and expanding our outreach at the RNC.”

He vowed to “re-engage America's working voters," continue to engage rural voters, and grow Trump's support “with demographics who have not traditionally voted for our candidates..."

Whatley did not offer any specifics, however, aside from mentioning a new battleground-state program that would direct officials within the committee's State Parties Strategies department to work with “auxiliary Republican groups and other grassroots organizations" in addition to state parties.

Trump's team did not clarify, when asked, which grassroots organizations Whatley meant, although the chairman before his recent election had aggressively courted leaders at Turning Point USA, a leading group in Trump's “Make America Great Again” movement that had been a driving force in McDaniel's ouster.

On Tuesday, Lara Trump wrote “Awesome!” in sharing a social media post from Turning Point founder and CEO Charlie Kirk that highlighted the group's efforts to organize “full-time ballot chasers” in Arizona and other states.

Meanwhile, Biden's campaign earlier in the month launched a $30 million six-week advertising blitz targeting swing-state voters with a particular focus on Black and Hispanic-owned outlets and “culture and sports programming such as Comedy Central and ESPN.”

Biden is also hitting the campaign trail with more intensity.

He has campaigned in Pennsylvania, Georgia, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Michigan in recent days. He was in North Carolina on Tuesday, signaling the president's ambition in a state that Trump narrowly won in 2020.

Trump, by contrast, has been hardly seen in public this month aside from his court appearances.

Moussa, Biden's spokesman, slapped Trump for embracing a general election strategy focused on “apparently hiding at his country club.”

<Donald Trump has been able to get more than one of his criminal trials delayed, but a columnist warned Tuesday that the former president's "knee-jerk reaction to argue against any procedural task or appeal any ruling that appears unfavorable to him in the hopes of delay" will backfire.

In an op-ed published Wednesday, author and researcher Jeremy Novak points out that when it comes to Trump's classified documents case, he recently argued that he should know the identities of witnesses before the trial begins — likely because he wants to intimidate them, Novak contends.

"Known as 'Trump Employee 5,' Brian Butler spoke out in the national media clearly and concisely about the damaging and inculpatory behavior he witnessed from the former president and some of his close employees regarding their handling of classified documents from the White House," Novak writes.

According to Novak, Butler's choice to come forward himself rather than be exposed by Trump "took away the power of Trump to control the narrative and induce his own style of 'discouragement.'" Now, that witness has gone on national TV and explained everything "in a matter-of-fact manner," putting out "damaging information that the public otherwise wouldn’t have known before the election," Novak writes.

"... With Judge Cannon helping to gum up the works and delay it, it seems likely that more witnesses will feel compelled to come forward to give the public the information they need on their terms, not Trump’s or his minions’ terms, which will apprise the country of even more examples of such behavior."

When it comes to Trump's New York fraud judgment and bond, he's once again utilizing the strategy of "appealing everything in sight." On Monday, his bond was reduced to $175 million and he was given 10 extra days to turn it over.

But thanks to Trump's bluster and portraying himself as being persecuted, Novak wrote the former president has "backed himself into a corner."

"He just won in court, after portraying the whole affair as excessive punishment and election interference, and promised that he has the money, no problem, but just doesn’t believe in paying into such an unjust system," Novak writes.

"So, what’s he going to do now, if he doesn’t just post the bond? Say that he should have won by more, and the corrupt NY judicial system is stacked against him, even though they just gave him a huge break?">

<Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was hit with a community note on X, formerly Twitter, after suggesting that the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge should be investigated as a potential terrorist attack.

At approximately 1:30 a.m. ET Tuesday, a Singaporean freighter ship called Dali lost power while departing from Baltimore, Maryland's, Inner Harbor and collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge, a 1.6-mile structure spanning the Patapsco River. The collision caused a complete structural failure, which saw the bridge collapse into the river, a dramatic and tragic scene captured in numerous videos and photos shared across social media.

Patrick Penfield, professor of supply-chain practice at Syracuse University, has told Newsweek that the disruption to Baltimore's port due to the collapse could cost roughly $9 million per day. President Joe Biden said in a statement that he intends to have the U.S. government provide the funds necessary to rebuild the bridge.

While the sequence of events that led to the Key Bridge collapse have been well-documented and confirmed by officials, some conspiracy theories have begun to form online. Greene, a Georgia Republican, has been known to express conspiratorial speculation and leanings. In a post to X, she called for an investigation into the collapse to determine if it was an intentional act.

"There should be a serious investigation into the horrifying tragedy of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland," Greene wrote. "Is this an intentional attack or an accident?"

Greene's post was later hit with a community note, a feature that allows X users to provide corrections or missing context to the posts of others. In this case, the note cited a statement from Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley in which he said there is "absolutely no indication" that the collapse was the result of an intentional act. It also cited Maryland Governor Wes Moore, who confirmed that the Dali's crew had sent a mayday alert prior to the crash after the vessel lost power.

"There is absolutely no indication that there's any terrorism, that this was done on purpose," Worley said.

In Moore's statement, he credited the Dali crew's alert for helping officials halt the flow of traffic over Key Bridge before the collision.

"These people are heroes," Moore said. "They saved lives last night.">

<Donald Trump is making a "meritless" claim that he didn't get a fair trial in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case, Carroll's lawyer has told a court.

"Carroll presented overwhelming evidence in support of her case. Trump took the stand for less than three minutes. And the jury returned a verdict entirely in favor of Carroll, awarding her $83.3 million in damages," Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, stated in court filing on Tuesday.

In May 2023, Carroll was awarded $5 million for sexual assault and defamation. The jury accepted Carroll's testimony that Trump sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and then defamed her in comments when she filed a case against him.

In January, a jury awarded her $83.3 million in damages for other comments he made about her.

Trump's lawyers are asking the trial judge to set aside the January verdict or else greatly reduce the amount the jury awarded.

"Trump seeks to set that verdict aside, or, at a minimum, reduce the amount of money he now owes Carroll. His arguments are meritless," Roberta Kaplan states in her filing.

Kaplan added that the punitive damages awarded were not excessive. "Quite the opposite. During the trial itself, the jury heard with their own ears and saw with their own eyes exactly how Trump has continued to defame Carroll," Kaplan wrote, noting that, mid-trial, Trump promised to defame her 'a thousand times.'

"And the jury watched Trump carry out this promise in real-time, treating the courtroom like a campaign event," Kaplan wrote.

She cited a Newsweek article "Donald Trump Goes on E. Jean Carroll Posting Binge", among other articles, to show that Trump continued to write about Carroll on social media during and after the trial.

Newsweek sought email comment from Kaplan and from Trump's attorney on Wednesday.

Kaplan also notes that one of Carroll's attorneys objected to Trump's loud comments from the public seats during Carroll's testimony.

She quoted directly from the attorney's objections during the trial: "Mr. Trump has been sitting at the back table and has been loudly saying things throughout Ms. Carroll's testimony, including things that Ms. Carroll is saying are false and noting that she seems to have now gotten her memory back. It's loud enough for us sitting up here to hear it. I assume it's loud enough for the jury to hear it."

Kaplan also noted that, after a short recess, the Court asked Trump to take "special care to keep his voice down when he's conferring with counsel so that the jury does not overhear it.">

<The greatest weapon of our enemies is that people will tire of fighting them.>

Remember this page, <fredthejackal>? You used a post by Calvo's son as a pretext to attack me before it was mercifully removed.

It closed with:

<[Event "Boylston CC Championship"] [Site "Boston, Mass"]
[Date "1995.??.??"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Rasin, Jacob"]
[Black "Cherniack, Alex"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "A06"]
[WhiteElo "2465"]
[BlackElo "2350"]

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Ng8 5.Bd3 Ne7 6.Ne2 b6 7.c3 a5 8.Bb5+ c6 9.Ba4 Ba6 10.Nf3 Nd7 11.O-O Qc7 12.Re1 h6 13.Bc2 g6 14.Nf4 Bg7 15.h4 O-O-O 16.b4 axb4 17.cxb4 Bc4 18.a4 b5 19.Nd3 Kb7 20.Nd2 Nf5 21.Bb2 Ra8 22.Nb3 Bf8 23.Qd2 Be7 24.Na5+ Kb8 25.Ra3 Rxa5 26.bxa5 b4 27.Nxb4 c5 28.dxc5 Nxc5 29.h5 Ka8 30.Rf3 Rd8 31.Qc3 gxh5 32.Rf4 Rg8 33.a6 Rg4 34.Rxg4 hxg4 35.g3 Qb6 36.Ba3 h5 37.Rb1 Qc7 38.Bxf5 exf5 39.Qe3 h4 40.Qh6 hxg3 41.Qc6+ Qxc6 42.Nxc6 gxf2+ 43.Kxf2 Bh4+ 44.Kg2 Nxa6 45.Rh1 d4 46.Rxh4 Bd5+ 47.Kg3 Bxc6 48.a5 Nc7 49.Rh6 Ne6 50.Rf6 d3 51.Bb4 Nd4 52.Kf2 f4 53.Rxf4 g3+ 54.Kxg3 1/2-1/2>

<The Supreme Court rejected a case that seems to establish a double standard for Donald Trump and other private citizens. On Monday, the conservative-majority high court upheld a ban preventing former New Mexico official Couy Griffin from running for office in the state again due to his criminal history: In 2022, Griffin was convicted of misdemeanor offenses for his involvement in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, leading to his removal as county commissioner.

This marks the Supreme Court’s first ruling on the Fourteenth Amendment since rejecting a Colorado decision earlier this month to exclude Trump from the state’s GOP presidential primary ballot. It is also the first instance of the “insurrectionist clause” being used to disqualify someone from office since its inception after the Civil War to prevent ex-Confederates from regaining high positions. By applying the Fourteenth Amendment against Griffin, the Supreme Court indirectly implies that the January 6 incident was an insurrection.

“I just found out (through the media) that my appeal to the SCOTUS has been denied,” Griffin wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Very disappointed. I don’t even know what to say. But I thank you for your prayers and for standing with me through this.”

The court’s decision follows the conviction of Griffin on misdemeanor charges related to his involvement in the attack on the U.S. Capitol, which resulted in his removal from his position as a county commissioner in New Mexico. The Supreme Court declined to review Griffin’s case, effectively upholding the lower court’s ruling without further commentary.

Griffin’s banishment from New Mexico politics did not deter him from eyeing more national roles within the GOP. He took to social media, expressing a desire to be considered for the role of Vice President under a future Trump presidency. His aspirations, however, have been quashed at the state level due to his prior misdemeanor convictions stemming from January 6.>

Guess Couy Grifin wasn't quite special enough, unlike someone else.

<Going after the "Biden Crime Family" is costing House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) and his family dearly — so he's passing around a figurative collection plate in the form of an email to raise support.

“I ask you to take the time to read this email in its entirety,” writes Comer, who along with Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH), have been spearheading an impeachment inquiry hinged on the theory that Biden laundered international bribes through his son Hunter's foreign business dealings.

“I spent a lot of time writing it and did my best to make every word count. ... If you don’t read it, nobody will.”

The Washington Post's columnist Philip Bump did read it, then knocked Comer for its "broad strokes" to claim "he’s fighting the good fight against nefarious foes and suffering damage that can only be treated with the soothing balm of cash."

Bump's focuses on Comer's platitudes to win over readers, with the congressman going so far as to say that he and his family are "being put through this," without explaining "what the 'this' is.”

Moreover, despite Comer's findings being sparse so far, he claims in the letter that he's nailed the Bidens.

“I’ve presented mountains of evidence confirming Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s influence-peddling scheme," his email reads. "And I just had a group of the Biden family’s business confidants publicly testify about the first family’s criminal activity.”

But Bump fact-checked Comer.

"None of that is true, including the part about the 'group' of 'confidants'," he wrote.

Bump states Comer merely "chaired a hearing involving two people who had worked briefly with members of Biden’s family."

And yet, Comer's taking victory laps.

“At any other time in history,” his email adds, “that would have been the final nail in the coffin of the Biden Crime Family’s reign of corruption.”

Again, Bump injects sobriety: "If what he wrote had been true, perhaps," he writes. "But it wasn’t."

Comer shames Democrats for supposedly choosing "their party over their country and the truth at every turn."

“That’s why I am preparing criminal referrals as the culmination of my investigation,” he adds.

To do so, Comer is already hedging the next White House occupier.

“When President Trump returns to the White House it’s critical the new leadership at the DOJ have everything they need to prosecute the Biden Crime Family and deliver swift justice.”

Bump needles Comer's suggestion that he's banking on the next administration since Biden's DOJ hasn't proven supportive, writing, "It’s a clever pivot, from throwing up his hands at the inevitable inaction of the Biden Justice Department to making his efforts part of Donald Trump’s broader pledge of retribution.">