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Divided We Stand

Divided We Stand
New book about the 2020 election.

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Trump Lies About Social Security

Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American PoliticsThe second Trump administration is off to an ominous start.

Last night, Trump gave the longest-ever presidential speech to Congress.  It was full of lies. Adam Edelman and Jane C. Timm at NBC:

Trump said: “We’re also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors.”

This is false.

Trump alleged in his speech that millions of senior citizens over age 100 — including some he maintained were older than 160 — were collecting Social Security checks, according to Social Security Administration data.

Trump specifically said that SSA records indicated that 4.7 million people 100 to 109 were getting checks, that 3.6 million 110 to 119 were, that 3.47 million 120 to 129 were, that 3.9 million 130 to 139 were, that 3.5 million 140 to 149 were, that 1.3 million 150 to 159 were — and that even 130,000 people older than 160 years old were still getting checks.

He also alleged that several hundred people older than 220 were still getting checks, according to SSA data — and that “one person is listed at 360 of age.”

The alleged fraud that Trump — and DOGE chief Elon Musk — have pointed to doesn’t exist. Rather, the numbers they refer to are products of a known problem with the government’s data.

There are millions of people over age 100 in the Social Security Administration’s database, but the vast majority aren’t receiving benefits.

Inspectors general at the agency have repeatedly identified the issue, but the Social Security Administration has argued that updating old records is costly and unnecessary.

An SSA IG report from 2023 showed 18.9 million people listed as 100 years or older — but not dead — were in the database. But “almost none” currently receive SSA payments.

The SSA’s inspector general also found in a report released in July that from 2015 to 2022, only 0.84% of benefits payments were improper. That 0.84% of improper benefits payments totaled $71.8 billion over eight years. The report also says most of the improper payments were overpayments — not payments to dead people or people who didn’t qualify.

In addition, according to the agency’s online records , just 89,106 people — not tens of millions — over age 99 received retirement benefits in December, out of the more than 70 million people who receive benefits every year.

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

Russia's Man in Washington


Dave Lawler at Axios:
Breaking it down: Trump has made at least five Moscow-friendly moves just in the last two weeks.

1. The White House asked Treasury and State to identify sanctions on Russia that could be loosened as part of the process of improving relations, Reuters reports.Trump didn't deny that Monday, telling reporters: "We want to make deals with everybody."

2. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly ordered U.S. Cyber Command to suspend offensive cyber and information operations against Russia.The suspension is intended to last as long as negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine war play out, officials told the Washington Post.

3. Trump has called for elections in Ukraine, and he and his allies suggested after the Oval Office spat that Zelensky might need to go.Regime change in Kyiv was one of Putin's original objectives for invading. It remains unlikely he'll be able to install a Kremlin stooge any time soon. Still, Trump's comments denouncing Zelensky — and his moves to freeze him out after the meeting — have weakened the position of a leader the Kremlin has long sought to discredit internationally. Reality check: Ukraine has been under martial law since the invasion began, and its constitution does not allow for elections in such a scenario.

4. The U.S. voted with Russia and 16 other mostly authoritarian countries to oppose a UN resolution last week that condemned Russia's "aggression" in Ukraine.The Biden administration repeatedly used such votes to depict Russia as a pariah state. This time, the U.S. voted with Moscow and against nearly all its Western allies.

5. Suspending weapons shipments — which the Trump administration had already dramatically slowed — is the latest dramatic step.Billions of dollars of equipment committed under Biden were in different stages along the delivery pipeline, Axios' Sareen Habeshian reports.

Fakery

Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration is off to an ominous start.

David A. Fahrenthold, Emily Badger and Jeremy Singer-Vine at NYT:
The reporters compared an archived version of the “wall of receipts” with the version posted late Sunday to identify which contracts had been deleted or changed.March 3, 2025

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has deleted hundreds more claims from its mistake-plagued “wall of receipts,” erasing $4 billion in additional savings that the group said it had made for U.S. taxpayers.

Late Sunday night, the group erased or altered more than 1,000 contracts it had claimed to cancel, representing more than 40 percent of all the contracts listed on its site last week. The deleted items included five of the seven largest savings that it had claimed credit for just last week. At the same time, the group added about 1,000 additional canceled contracts, worth smaller total savings.

It was the second time in a week that DOGE had deleted some of its greatest claims of success. Early last week, it erased all five of the largest savings it had claimed when the wall of receipts, which is what the group is calling its list of canceled contracts, was originally posted on Feb. 19.

Since that first posting, the total amount of savings that the initiative has claimed from cutting contracts has steadily declined, from $16 billion at first to less than $9 billion now.

Monday, March 3, 2025

If Trump and Company Were Russian Assets...

 ...would they be doing anything differently?

Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American PoliticsThe second Trump administration is off to an ominous start. Hewgseth weakens our defenses against Russia just as Gabbard repeats Russian talking points.  



Sunday, March 2, 2025

Disgrace

Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American PoliticsThe second Trump administration is off to an ominous start.

 

Saturday, March 1, 2025

Betrayal

Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American PoliticsThe second Trump administration is off to an ominous start.

Anton Troianovski, Nataliya Vasilyeva and Paul Sonne

President Trump says he wants a quick cease-fire in Ukraine. But President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia appears to be in no rush, and the blowup on Friday between Mr. Trump and Ukraine’s president may give Russia’s leader the kind of ammunition he needs to prolong the fight.

With the American alliance with Ukraine suffering a dramatic, public rupture, Mr. Putin now seems even more likely to hold out for a deal on his terms — and he could even be tempted to expand his push on the battlefield.

The extraordinary scene in Washington — in which Mr. Trump lambasted President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine — was broadcast as the top story on state television in Russia on Saturday morning. It played into three years of Kremlin propaganda casting Mr. Zelensky as a foolhardy ruler who would sooner or later exhaust the patience of his Western backers.

For the Kremlin, perhaps the most important message came in later remarks by Mr. Trump, who suggested that if Ukraine did not agree to a “cease-fire now,” the war-torn country would have to “fight it out” without American help.

Tom Nichols:

The sheer rudeness shown to a foreign guest and friend of the United States was (to use a word) deplorable as a matter of manners and grace, but worse, Trump and Vance acted like a couple of online Kremlin sock puppets instead of American leaders. They pushed talking points that they either knew or should have known were wrong. Even if Zelensky were as fluent and capable in English as Winston Churchill, he would never have been able to rebut the flood of falsehoods. No, the U.S. has not given Ukraine $350 billion; yes, Zelensky has repeatedly expressed his thanks to America and to Trump; no, Zelensky was not attacking the administration. The Ukrainian leader did his best to stand up to the bullying, but Trump and Vance were playing to the cameras and the MAGA gallery at home.

David Frum:

We’re witnessing the self-sabotage of the United States. “America First” always meant America alone, a predatory America whose role in the world is no longer based on democratic belief. America voted at the United Nations earlier this week against Ukraine, siding with Russia and China against almost all of its fellow democracies. Is this who Americans want to be? For this is what America is being turned into.

 

 

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Friday, February 28, 2025

Midterms on the Horizon

Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. It includes a chapter on congressional and state elections.

Abby Livingston at Puck:
The midterms are already here: In normal times, the first quarter of the off-year congressional election cycle is sleepy and sluggish. But these, obviously, are not normal times. Hakeem Jeffries and his Democratic caucus are already steeped in the fundraising and recruitment fight, and last month, House Dems raised $9.2 million—their largest haul ever in an off-year January—compared to the N.R.C.C.’s $6 million. This isn’t just because of the committee’s storied digital fundraising: Many members, including Massachusetts’ Richard Neal and New Jersey’s Frank Pallone, have been hosting fundraising dinners. A group of House progressives hosted one last night, and the Congressional Black Caucus’s
political arm will host one in early March. Along with member dues, I’m told by a senior House Democratic campaign aide that this extra push has brought in $2.8 million, or nearly a third of the January haul.

But the more pressing task for both parties is recruitment, which will lay the foundation for the next two years. As Politico’s Elena Schneider reported this week, federal workers who fell victim to DOGE cuts might become a new talent pool of House candidates. Meanwhile, the Dems are also eyeing a huge potential get: Jimmy McCain, the Marine veteran and son of the late Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, to run against David Schweikert in Arizona’s 1st congressional district. Of course, the defection of the so-called McCain Republicans has been partly credited with flipping the state to Joe Biden in 2020, and for some high-profile statewide losses—Blake Masters and Kari Lake—for the party’s right wing.

For the Republicans, the recruitment picture is murkier: A party consultant told me there’s talent in the wings, but potential candidates are waiting on two developments. The first is the fate of the shutdown/debt ceiling/tax-and-spending-cuts negotiations this spring. The second is the price of eggs, which has supplanted the price of gasoline as the leading political economic indicator in my conversations. Republicans might also have to spend some of their recruitment energy on their incumbents. I’m hearing that, for a smattering of pre-Trump Republican members, this congressional term is turning out to be even more miserable than the last one—which, of course, included the defenestration of Kevin McCarthy. My impression is that if it weren’t for their party’s micro-margin in
the House, some Republican reps would be considering resignation.

Max Cohen at Punchbowl News:

House Majority Forward, the HMP-aligned organization, will launch a national cable ad Monday that attacks Republicans for threatening Medicaid. The HMF ad acts as the initial salvo in the Medicaid messaging wars ahead of the 2026 midterms, where House Democrats have forecasted that they will focus on health care access.

The ad centers on the recently adopted House GOP budget resolution, which the narrator says “opens the door to $880 billion in Medicaid cuts.”

The spot also argues that the potential Medicaid changes are “all to fund massive tax cuts for Elon Musk and billionaires.”

Next week, House Majority Forward will run similar ads in 20 battleground districts nationwide.

In other ad news: Liberal outside group Unrig Our Economy is running two new ads targeting vulnerable Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) and Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.) for supporting the House GOP budget resolution.

 

Thursday, February 27, 2025

Dems Favor Moderation

Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. 

Megan Brenan at Gallup:

In the wake of the 2024 election and Donald Trump’s inauguration for a second term as president, a plurality of Democrats would like their party to become more moderate, while a similar plurality of Republicans favor the status quo for their party.

Both party groups’ preferences have shifted significantly since 2021, at the start of Joe Biden’s presidency, the last time Gallup measured opinions on this question. Support for a more moderate Democratic Party among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents has grown by 11 percentage points, to 45%, since 2021. At the same time, Democrats’ and leaners’ desire for a more liberal party has declined five points, to 29%, and preferences for no change in party ideology have fallen nine points, to 22%.

Meanwhile, Republicans’ and Republican-leaning independents’ support for the GOP to stay the same ideologically is up nine points from 2021, to 43%, as the desire for a more conservative party is down 12 points to 28%. The 27% of Republicans and leaners who now prefer moderation for their party is not significantly different from 2021.

These changes have occurred as Gallup data show that partisans have grown more ideologically polarized in the past few years. In 2024, the shares of Democrats identifying as liberal (55%) and Republicans identifying as conservative (77%) both reached record highs.

The latest findings are from a Gallup poll conducted Jan. 21-27, immediately after Trump was inaugurated and several weeks after Republicans took control of both houses of Congress.


Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Trump Really Posted This Bizarre Video

 

Trump Media Control

Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration is off to an ominous start.

Mike Allen at Axios discusses four elements of Trump's strategy to control the media and suppress dissent:

  1. Lawsuits. Before taking office, Trump sued ABC News, CBS News and a former Des Moines Register pollster over coverage. This is a new technique for a president or former president — and one getting results. ABC agreed to pay $15 million to Trump's future presidential library instead of fighting in court. CBS also appears to be heading toward settling. Hard to see how this doesn't encourage more lawsuits and entice future presidents pissed off about coverage to do the same.
  2. Blacklists. Trump barred AP from the Oval Office and Air Force One for refusing to use "Gulf of America" instead of "Gulf of Mexico" after he made the change by decree. AP, a global newswire that writes the stylebook most U.S. media outlets follow, has been a pillar of White House coverage for more than a century. Denying access, and mandating word choices, are new tactics for a president. Imagine a Democratic president renaming it the Gulf of Obama — and targeting Fox News for refusing to call it that. Fox and the conservative Newsmax were among the outlets protesting AP retribution. Jacqui Heinrich — Fox News senior White House correspondent, and a White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) board member — wrote on X: "This is a short-sighted decision, and it will feel a lot different when a future Democratic administration kicks out conservative-leaning outlets and other critical voices."
  3. Stacking the deck. For decades, until yesterday, the White House had little say in the choice of media organizations responsible for covering official actions and trips via what's known as the press pool. In response to AP's suit over access, the White House seized control of this process, formerly run by WHCA. Trump has promised to keep traditional media companies part of the mix. But if the new system holds, he and future presidents could surround themselves with friendly reporters asking friendly questions — and punish those who don't.
  4. Shielding Cabinet officials. At the Pentagon, where reporters both work onsite and serve in a rotating pool that travels with the SecDef, a similar purge has unfolded. First, the Pentagon booted NBC News, the N.Y. Times, Politico and NPR from their physical workspace as part of a new "annual media rotation program" — substituting friendly outlets + HuffPost, which had no Pentagon reporter. A week later, CNN was ousted from its workspace. Good riddance, MAGA supporters say. But will a future Democratic president do unto conservative news sources as the Trump administration has done to the legacy media?

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Infamy: Voting with Russia Against Ukraine

Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration is off to an ominous start.

The United States joined Russia to vote against a UN General Assembly resolution condemning Russia’s war against Ukraine Monday in a stunning shift from years of US policy.

The vote against the Ukrainian and European-backed resolution saw the US at odds with its longtime European allies and instead aligned with the aggressor in the war on the three-year anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The US again voted the same way as Russia later Monday on a US-proposed UN Security Council resolution that did not call the Kremlin the aggressor or acknowledge Ukraine’s territorial integrity. The resolution passed without the support of five European members of the Security Council.

The US’ shocking alignment with Russia at the United Nations came as the Trump administration has pursued discussions with Moscow about ending the war. President Donald Trump has ratcheted up his rhetoric towards Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. European partners have rushed to adjust to the shift in US policy and French President Emmanuel Macron met with Trump at the White House Monday.

WSJ:
The resolution has no practical importance, though it does underscore Mr. Trump’s turn toward Russia in the conflict. Perhaps he thinks that telling the truth about Russia will cause Mr. Putin to walk away from the Ukraine negotiations. Ronald Reagan, who also sought peace and achieved it, never shrank from telling the truth about the Soviet Union. The truth was an essential weapon in defeating what Reagan called an “evil empire.”

Meanwhile, at the White House on Monday, Mr. Trump and Emmanuel Macron discussed the Ukraine talks. The French President went out of his way to praise Mr. Trump’s peace effort and said Europe will be willing to deploy peace-keeping troops to Ukraine after a deal is struck. Mr. Macron also made clear such a deal would have to be backed by U.S. guarantees to be credible. He’s certainly right given that a cease-fire would give Russia a chance to rearm for another invasion if the U.S. abandons Europe.

Mr. Trump didn’t say if the U.S. would provide such guarantees. It’s hard to be optimistic if he won’t tell the truth about which country started the war.

Monday, February 24, 2025

Narrow Majorities, Midterm Losses

Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. It includes a chapter on congressional and state elections.

Bruce Mehlman:

Are the GOP’s House Margins Too Narrow to Pass Trump’s Priorities. A number of Trump 2.0 priorities will require legislative action, especially if Courts reject executive unilateralism. Republicans have the smallest House majority since 1931. They will need Democratic votes to avert a shutdown, increase the debt ceiling and advance multiple other priorities both in the Senate and likely the House. Can Trump 2.0 realistically expect 100% GOP loyalty?

Will the 2026 Midterm Elections End the GOP Trifecta? Four of the last five Presidents saw their parties lose control of the House in their first midterms, significantly slowing Administration progress. The party holding the White House lost seats in 18 of the 20 midterms since World War II, with the average loss 25 seats (chart). Such a big loss is highly unlikely in 2026, with the GOP only defending 3 seats won by Harris in 2024, while Democrats defend 13 Trump-won seats. Further the playing field is smaller than in past years: just 39 of 435 seats are rated toss-up or lean (22 Dem-defended, 17 GOP). But Democrats only need to net +3 to regain the House, and history suggests that’s eminently doable for the party out of power.

Sunday, February 23, 2025

Trump and GOP Wage War on the Media

Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration is off to an ominous start

Sarah Fischer at Axios:

In his first four weeks, Trump's administration has: 
  • Banned the Associated Press: The White House last week said it would bar the AP from future events in the Oval Office and Air Force One over its decision not to directly follow Trump's executive order renaming "Gulf of Mexico" as "Gulf of America" in its style guidance.
  • Ended federal news subscriptions: The State Department on Wednesday ordered the cancellation of news subscriptions around the world. The directive came shortly after the executive branch said it will stop spending money on Politico subscriptions after paying the outlet millions last year.
  • Reshuffled Pentagon press: The Defense Department informed several outlets, including NPR, NBC News, Politico and CNN that they had to move out of their workspaces at the Correspondents' Corridor in the Pentagon, although their press credentials will remain intact. They will be replaced by mostly conservative outlets such as Washington Examiner, Daily Caller, and Newsmax, and others under a new otation system.
Zoom in: These moves, while punitive, are temporary and a new president can easily reverse them. Broader efforts to target media companies by Trump, his administration and a Republican-led Congress recently could be harder to unwind.
  • Congressional PBS, NPR probe: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has called on the CEOs of NPR and PBS to testify at a DOGE subcommittee hearing about what she says is "systemically biased content." It's the first hearing to be announced for the subcommittee. Both broadcasters rely on congressionally appropriated funding to survive.
  • FCC PBS, NPR probe: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is also investigating the two public broadcasters over whether their member stations violated FCC rules around airing commercial ads. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr implied that the investigation could help influence Congress' funding decision.
  • FCC Comcast/NBC investigation: Carr informed Comcast he is opening an investigation into the company's diversity, equity and inclusion practices. It marked the first public effort by the new administration to target a private company for its DEI initiatives.
  • FCC CBS inquiry: Carr opened an inquiry into CBS News to evaluate whether it violated the FCC's news distortion rules when it edited a "60 Minutes" interview with 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris during the campaign. The inquiry adds pressure to CBS, as it considers whether to settle a separate lawsuit filed against it last year by Trump before he took office.

Reality check: A strong U.S. legal and regulatory framework makes it difficult for Trump and his regulators to go after media companies without likely having to defend at least some of their actions in court.



Backlash

Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration is off to an ominous start. People are starting to notice.

Hannah Knowles at WP:

Town halls this week for congressional Republicans from Georgia to Wisconsin to Oregon grew testy as voters showed up to vent, outraged at the firing of workers and the Department of Government Efficiency’s access to sensitive data. Protesters showed up around the country at lawmakers’ offices.

The backlash extends far beyond federal workers in the Beltway, reaching purple districts that will decide control of Congress in 2026 and swing states like Georgia that helped return Trump to the White House. Layoffs just hit the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Funding freezes have halted clean-energy projects championed by President Joe Biden.

Catherine Lucey, Meridith McGraw, Lindsay Wise at WSJ:

At a town-hall meeting in a Republican-friendly, Atlanta-area congressional district, boos rained down on GOP Rep. Rich McCormick as he tried to defend President Trump’s efforts to slash the federal government.

In one tense exchange before the hundreds of people there, a woman challenged McCormick over how he would “rein in the megalomaniac in the White House,” according to a video of the Thursday event posted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Eventually, McCormick—whose district backed him by a nearly two-to-one margin last year—acknowledged the audience’s concerns.

“I don’t want to see any president be too powerful,” McCormick said. His office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The contentious scene was one of a series of clashes in GOP congressional districts across the country in recent days that offered an early warning for the White House. While Trump is broadly giving voters what he promised during his campaign, the scope and unilateral nature of his early executive actions, as well as his upending of longstanding foreign alliances, is throwing some Republican lawmakers on the defensive.

At a recent town-hall meeting in West Bend, Wis., Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R., Wis.) was questioned about spending cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency and Trump’s blaming of Ukraine for Russia’s invasion, according to local news reports. Rep. Kevin Hern (R., Okla.) and Rep. Cliff Bentz (R., Ore.) also found themselves pressed at similar forums about Elon Musk’s involvement in the DOGE downsizing effort, which has included mass firings of federal workers, local reports show.

Protesters gathered outside some GOP offices in Arizona, Iowa, Pennsylvania and New York. Phone calls continue to pour into Republican and Democratic offices following an uptick last month when the Trump administration placed a temporary freeze on federal loans and grants, affecting programs such as Head Start.

Melanie Zanona, Sahil Kapur and Ben Kamisar at NBC:
The House’s sweeping budget plan to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda could result in steep cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, putting a key group of Republicans in a politically difficult position ahead of a potential vote next week in the narrowly divided chamber.

There are a handful of House Republicans who represent parts of the country where sizable shares of the populations receive government assistance from Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to an NBC News analysis of the most recently available Census Bureau data

The lawmakers from the 10 GOP-held districts with the highest percentages of Medicaid or SNAP beneficiaries span the ideological and geographical spectrum. They include members from deep-red districts, such as Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and veteran Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky, as well as those in competitive battlegrounds, such as Reps. David Valadao of California, Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania and Monica De La Cruz of Texas.

Friday, February 21, 2025

Unpopular Trump

Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration is off to an ominous start. People are starting to notice.

Aaron Blake at WP:
Multiple polls this week have shown his approval rating dropping into more normal territory for him, in the mid-40s. And a new Washington Post-Ipsos poll crystallizes a number of warning signs for Trump’s agenda of drastic and legally dubious change

...

Trump’s approval ratings this week in polls — including the Post-Ipsos poll and others from Reuters, Quinnipiac University, CNN and Gallup — have ranged from 44 percent to 47 percent. In all of them, more disapprove than approve of him.

That’s a reversal from the vast majority of previous polls, which showed Trump in net-positive territory.

And in the Post-Ipsos poll, significantly more Americans strongly disapprove of Trump (39 percent) than strongly approve of him (27 percent).


Thursday, February 20, 2025

Appeasers and Flippers

Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration is off to an ominous start

Pjotr Sauer and Luke Harding at The Guardian:
The US and Ukraine appeared to be heading towards an irreconcilable rift after Donald Trump escalated his attacks on Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling the Ukrainian president “a dictator” and warning that he “better move fast” or he “won’t have a country left”.

The US leader’s comments on Wednesday, which were rife with falsehoods, came after Zelenskyy said Trump was “trapped” in a Russian “disinformation bubble,” following Trump’s claims that Ukraine was to blame for Russia’s 2022 invasion, remarks that echoed the Kremlin’s narrative.

In a fiery rant on the Truth Social app marking his most direct threat to end the war on terms aligning with Moscow’s goals, Trump wrote: “A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”

Aishvarya Kavi at NYT:

Republican members of Congress have been some of the strongest critics of Russia and its president, Vladimir V. Putin, keeping in line with their party’s traditional hawkish views about the United States’ role in upholding freedom and democracy around the globe. For years, that also translated into strong support within the G.O.P. for aiding Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression.

But recently, as President Trump has cozied up to Mr. Putin and moved to normalize relations with Russia, Republicans who once vowed to uphold Ukraine’s sovereignty have stayed silent or moderated their tone. Mr. Trump has proposed that Ukraine trade away a 50 percent stake in its mineral resources, an idea its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, rejected last week.

On Wednesday, as representatives of the United States and Russia met for their most extensive conversation in years, to agree to work on a peace settlement without Ukraine’s presence and to discuss the possibility of American oil companies doing hundreds of billions of dollars in business in Russia, several Republican senators dismissed the talks as preliminary.
...

Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas

What he has said: “It’s not just Vladimir Putin and Europe that’s watching; the rest of the world is watching and most particularly Xi Jinping is watching what happens in Ukraine,” Mr. Cotton said in March 2022 on Fox News Radio, referring to China’s leader.

He suggested the United States would look weak to Mr. Xi if it did not stand up to Russia. “If he sees the United States and the West faltering and pressing Ukraine to sue for peace while Russian troops are still on Ukraine soil, he is much more likely to go for the jugular in Taiwan.”

In an interview on CNN during the 2024 presidential campaign, Mr. Cotton shrugged off concerns that Mr. Trump would not stand by Ukraine in the conflict with Russia.

“President Trump has always been strong in defense of Ukraine,” Mr. Cotton said, and he praised Mr. Trump for sending weapons during his first term.

What he is saying now: On Tuesday, while promoting a new book on China during an appearance on “Fox & Friends,” Mr. Cotton called for “getting creative” to try to reach a truce and echoed Mr. Graham’s support for making a deal with Ukraine on its mineral resources.

On CNN later that day, he defended Mr. Trump’s establishing “diplomatic channels” with Russia and accused Mr. Biden of “tempting” Russia to invade.







Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Shame

Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration is off to an ominous start


 Peter Baker at NYT:

For more than a decade, the West has faced off against the East again in what was widely called a new cold war. But with President Trump back in office, America is giving the impression that it could be switching sides.

Even as American and Russian negotiators sat down together on Tuesday for the first time since Moscow’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago, Mr. Trump has signaled that he is willing to abandon America’s allies to make common cause with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

As far as Mr. Trump is concerned, Russia is not responsible for the war that has devastated its neighbor. Instead, he suggests that Ukraine is to blame for Russia’s invasion of it. To listen to Mr. Trump talk with reporters on Tuesday about the conflict was to hear a version of reality that would be unrecognizable on the ground in Ukraine and certainly would never have been heard from any other American president of either party.

In Mr. Trump’s telling, Ukrainian leaders were at fault for the war for not agreeing to surrender territory and therefore, he suggested, they do not deserve a seat at the table for the peace talks that he has just initiated with Mr. Putin. “You should have never started it,” Mr. Trump said, referring to Ukrainian leaders who, in fact, did not start it. “You could have made a deal.”
...

“Some of the most shameful comments uttered by a president in my lifetime,” Ian Bond, deputy director of the Center for European Reform in London, wrote online. “Trump is siding with the aggressor, blaming the victim. In the Kremlin they must be jumping for joy.”

Monday, February 17, 2025

Intimidated Donors

Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration is off to an ominous start

 Lisa Lerer, Reid J. Epstein and Theodore Schleifer at NYT:
The demoralization and fear gripping blue America in the early weeks of President Trump’s administration have left liberal groups and their allies struggling for cash, hurting their ability to effectively combat the right-wing transformation of the federal government.

The small-dollar online spigot that powered opposition to the first Trump administration has slowed to a trickle as shaken liberal voters withhold their donations.

Charitable foundations that have long supported causes like voting rights, L.G.B.T.Q. equality and immigrants’ rights are pulling back, devoting time to prepare for expected investigations from the Republican-led Congress.

And some of the country’s biggest liberal donors have paused giving, frustrated with what they see as Democrats’ lack of vision and worried about retaliation from a vengeful president. Some Democrats say a few of their reliable donors are now openly supporting Mr. Trump, or at least looking to curry favor with him.

Fund-raising slowdowns are common after a presidential defeat and before marquee midterm races fully begin. But interviews with more than 50 donors, strategists and leaders of activist organizations show that many Democrats believe this year is different.

While Mr. Trump has not taken action against any liberal groups or lawmakers, Democrats worry his frequent threats of retribution during the campaign have led to a chilling effect on the charitable foundations and nonprofit advocacy groups that have long been pillars of the country’s civil society.
...

Some donors are hiring additional legal counsel to address worries about tax audits, congressional investigations and lawsuits. Others are moving assets overseas, or at least their foundations to Democratic-controlled states.

Donors increasingly want to stay anonymous, which could slow the flow of cash to Democratic super PACs because they must eventually disclose their donors.

Donors have reason to be afraid.

Alan Rappeport, Andrew Duehren and Maggie Haberman at NYT:

The Internal Revenue Service is preparing to give a team member working with Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency access to sensitive taxpayer data, people familiar with the matter said.

The systems at the I.R.S. contain the private financial data tied to millions of Americans, including their tax returns, Social Security numbers, addresses, banking details and employment information.

“Waste, fraud and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long,” Harrison Fields, a White House spokesman, said. “It takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it.”