Donald Trump’s troubling day as he accuses Senate of treason and obsesses over ‘election fraud’
Donald Trump will give a speech on the National Mall tonight to mark America’s 250th birthday – something he’s branded “the rally to end all rallies”, And last night we got a preview of his preoccupations
Trump seemed preoccupied at his rally in Pennsylvania(Image: AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Donald Trump will tonight kick off a fortnight of celebrations in Washington DC to mark America’s 250th Birthday.
He’s set to give a speech on the National Mall – at what he has described as “the Rally to End All Rallies”. Which is weird because he’s also giving one on July 4th at the other end of the mall. But we’ll just put a pin in that for now.
This rally is taking place because he planned to host a concert series on the Mall, featuring such luminaries as Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli. But it was scrapped when the artists learned it was to be a Trump-adjacent event, and almost all of them pulled out. Except for Vanilla Ice, who will literally turn up to anything, it seems.
So instead of being treated to a set by Bret Michaels, former singer of Every Rose Has Its Thorn hair rockers Poison, we’ll be treated to 90 minutes of undiluted Trump. And today at a warm-up rally at a truck factory in Pennsylvania we got a preview of what’s pre-occupying his thoughts. And just like the last time he gave a speech near the mall – he’s mostly preoccupied with making up false claims of electoral fraud.
Meanwhile, the people of DC will probably be elsewhere, celebrating the Washington Wizards selecting AJ Dybantsa with the no.1 pick in the in the NBA Draft and making them a serious championship threat for the first time in a decade.
Meanwhile, in Trumpworld
- Trump accuses the US Senate of treason
- Trump claims he personally intervened in the California election
- He kept ranting and raving about rigged elections
- Trump’s vandalism claims get weirder
- Trump did his impression of a female weightlifter again
- Another General steps down unexpectedly
Here’s what you need to know
Trump accuses the Senate of treason
The Senate last night approved a House motion that (symbolically, at least) orders Trump to withdraw American troops from the Middle East.
Trump responded on Truth Social, saying the motion was “poorly timed and meaningless”, when he has “Iran on the ropes, ready to go down for the fall, willing to give us practically anything.”
Which is certainly one interpretation of the peace deal, though not a popular one.
Trump went on to accuse the senate of “providing aid and comfort to the enemy” – a specific form of words included in the US legal definition of treason.
Trump claims to have personally intervened in the California election
Trump told the crowd at his rally in Pennsylvania that he had personally intervened in the California Governor primary election, claiming baselessly that there was “rigging” going on.
We’ve mentioned this before, but California has a weird primary system, where the top two candidates – of whatever party – go on to the general election in November. And because of universal availability of postal voting, it can take a week or longer to count all the votes. On the night, it seemed like Trump-backed former David Cameron advisor-turned Fox News host and MAGA republican candidate Steve Hilton had come top. But as more votes were counted, he slipped to second, and for a while it seemed possible that no Republican could end up on the ballot.
Trump told the crowd that when he saw the projections changing, as they almost always do, he called the California US attorney and asked them to intervene. “I called up the very powerful, very good US attorney in California. I said, ‘Do me a favor. Take a look,'” he said. “About an hour after the call, ladies and gentleman, Mr. Hilton has won,” Trump said. “Had I not made that call, Steve Hilton would be watching the election from home.”
First of all, Steve Hilton did not win. He came second to Democrat Xavier Becerra. Second, it’s not 100% clear which the US attorney he was referring to, but it’s almost certainly a guy called Bill Essayli – who we’ve covered before.
He’s actually the First Assistant Attorney General for the Central District of California, although he’s not actually assistant to anyone. He was supposed to be the state Attorney General, but they couldn’t get him confirmed within the time limit, partially because he’s spectacularly bad at the job. A judge ruled he was serving in the role unlawfully and that he was now disqualified from serving in the role. He has held the title of First Assistant US States Attorney ever since, and still has yet to be Senate confirmed. There is no indication that the Trump administration intends to appoint an actual US State Attorney in the largest legal district in the United States. Why go into so much detail on this? Because this is how Trump is going to try to overturn elections he doesn’t like – by installing incompetent loyalists. And when the state’s checks and balances get in the way, by simply ignoring them.
He kept ranting and raving about rigged elections
The Steve Hilton thing wasn’t the only election rigging nonsense Trump came out with during his rally. He claimed to have “won three elections”, insisting: “We did great on the second one. It was a rigged deal.”
Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
Trump also opened the show by asking the crowd if he should stand for election for a fourth time, which would be manifestly illegal.
Trump’s vandalism claims get weirder
Trump has continued to complain loudly about vandals having attacked the newly-rubberised Lincoln reflecting pool, where 3 ducks have died in the last week. And listening to him, you might have got the impression that someone had waded into the pool under cover of darkness and slashed the newly sprayed-on surface with a box-cutter, and that was the cause of bits of the surface peeling off.
Indeed, internal records revealed by The New York Times confirm reports of ‘cuts’ being discovered in the pool, which Park Police described as “razor blade slashes”, along with holes, cracks and bits of foam spilling out.
But even if these were inflicted deliberately – and there’s still no evidence that they were – they were not the cause of the disintegrating pool surface. Nor of the green algae taking over the all-American landmark, Hulk-style.
The ‘cuts’ and holes were found on June 9th, a week before bits of the surface started peeling off – and they were in the pool’s expansion joints, a completely separate part of the job to the surfacing.
What we’ve learned today is that whether someone did come at the pool with a knife – which, for the record, is a bad thing – or not…it still would have gone green and started to flake apart either way.
Trump did his impression of a female weightlifter again
In case you haven’t seen this regular bit, in which the leader of the free world does a grunting impression of a female weightlifter struggling to compete with a transgender competitor, behold.
I’ve said it before, but I know at least one female bodybuilder who could not only bench me with one hand, she could lift more than I have ever lifted with the other and most likely juggle the contents of both hands in the air without breaking a sweat. Not to speak for her, but I don’t think she needs your help, Donald.
Another General steps down unexpectedly
The Army’s commander of its forces in Europe and Africa – who was famously the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan in 2021 – is unexpectedly stepping down from his post after just 18 months in the job. Gen. Christopher Donahue, commanding general of US Army Europe and Africa and commander of NATO’s Allied Land Command, will relinquish his command on July 2.
He is the latest in a line of nearly two dozen top military leaders to either retire or depart their jobs early under the leadership of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has undertaken an effort to thin the ranks of the military’s top brass with the mantra “less generals, more GIs.”
Mamdani’s candidates sweep Democratic primaries in New York
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s slate of fiery progressives swept establishment-backed Democrats in the state’s congressional primaries last night, ousting two sitting congressmen in a resounding show of force for the democratic socialist leader of America’s largest city. US Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who leads the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and is serving his fifth term, was defeated by Mamdani’s most polarizing pick, Darializa Avila Chevalier, a democratic socialist who once helped organize pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University.
US Rep Dan Goldman, a two-term incumbent, was beaten by the Mamdani-backed former city Comptroller Brad Lander, a fixture among New York progressives who has often shown sympathy to the democratic socialist movement. And another Mamdani ally, democratic socialist state Assembly Member Claire Valdez, defeated the handpicked successor of retiring U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez.
Tuesday’s primaries represented a major political gamble for the 34-year-old mayor, whose strength is surging, and a potential headache for Democratic leaders, who fear that the Mamdani and his loyalists may push the party too far left ahead of November’s midterm elections — when voters across the nation will decide which party controls Congress for the last two years of Trump’s final term.
