Trump might have given us an early taste for how he’ll deal with defeat in November’s midterms – and it’s not good. Meanwhile, literally nobody knows how long the ceasefire will last
Donald Trump has had us all dazzled by his flashy foreign adventures – invading Venezuela, bombing Iran, declaring war on God. So it’s easy to lose sight of some of the truly sinister things his administration is doing back home.
There have been two examples of egregiously antidemocratic behaviour in the last 24 hours alone which should have the international community raising serious questions about America – more of which below. And yet many in the Western political class still treat Trump as a sort of mouthier George W Bush, or a crass, distasteful Ronald Reagan. Largely, I suspect, because the alternative – that America is under the control of an autocrat in waiting with no respect for democracy, who will do anything to cling on to power – is such an insane concept it breaks their brains. It can’t possibly be that bad, can it? …can it?
It won’t be until the Midterms that we know for sure how far Trump is willing to go. But we’re seeing the groundwork taken care of today.
Meanwhile in Trump world
- Only Trump knows how long the ceasefire will last…
- He declared an anti-vote rigging referendum ‘rigged’
- It’s totally a preview of what’s going to happen at the midterms
- The DoJ is going after America’s Nazi-busters
- Kash Patel DENIES EVERYTHING
- Trump’s pal wants to rename Mount Kilimanjaro after him. Not a joke.
Here’s what you need to know
1. Only Trump knows how long the Iran ceasefire will last
Yesterday has been branded another edition of TACO Tuesday, after Trump walked everyone up the hill ahead of the deadline for a deal with Iran…only to walk back down the hill. Perhaps forever, we don’t know. He announced the ceasefire would be extended for as long as it takes Iran to get its act together and come forward with a deal, claiming his bombing had been so successful that the government is fractured and unable to come out with a unified position. And asked how long that might take, Karoline Leavitt tonight kind of shrugged. “Ultimately, the timeline would be dictated by the commander in chief,” she said.
2. Trump got left on “read” by Iran.
It comes after CNN claimed Trump was literally left on read by Iran. “In recent days, the United States has sent Iran a list of broad points that they wanted them to agree to in advance of the next round of talks,” CNN’s Kaitlin Collins said last night. “But days went by without getting a response, raising questions and suspicions about whether or not much could be achieved in person.
3. Trump says he got Iran to agree to stop executing women. Iran says “nah.”
Trump bragged on Truth Social tonight that his intervention had prevented eight women being executed by Iran. “Very good news! I have just been informed that the eight women protestors who were going to be executed tonight in Iran will no longer be killed,” he wrote. “I very much appreciate that Iran, and its leaders, respected my request, as President of the United States, and terminated the planned execution.”
In response, the Iranian regime claimed the women were never going to be executed. “Last night, Donald Trump, citing a completely false news story, called on Iran to overturn the death sentences of eight women,” the Iranian judiciary’s news agency, Mizan said. “However, despite the false claim being revealed last night, Trump claimed in another post a few minutes ago that the sentences of eight protesting women who were supposed to be executed in Iran tonight have been overturned and thanked Iran!”
4. Trump declares anti-vote rigging referendum ‘rigged’
We’re all used to Trump declaring elections to have been rigged – usually the 2020 election, which he lost fair and square to Joe Biden. There is absolutely no evidence of any widespread irregularity in that election, or any other election in recent history. Neither is there any evidence that last night’s referendum in Virginia was beset by fraud or malfeasance …though election rigging was the reason it took place. The referendum sought to redraw electoral boundaries in the state, effectively creating a few more winnable seats for Democrats – but only because Trump had set a precedent, doing the same thing in Texas and other states. For once in their lives, the Democratic Party decided not to bring a pushbike to a drag race, in order to level the playing field ahead of November’s midterm elections.
So, of course, when the vote pushed through a delightfully aggressively gerrymandered map last night, it made Trump pretty mad. “A RIGGED ELECTION TOOK PLACE LAST NIGHT IN THE GREAT COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA!” He wrote on Truth Social this afternoon. “All day long Republicans were winning, the Spirit was unbelievable, until the very end when, of course, there was a massive “Mail In Ballot Drop!” Where have I heard that before — And the Democrats eked out another Crooked Victory!” There is, of course, no evidence of any nefarious behaviour with postal ballots. Neither has there ever been any evidence of fraud in mailed ballots on the scale necessary to tip an election. Trump went on to complain that the language in the referendum was confusing. “In addition to everything else, the language on the Referendum was purposefully unintelligible and deceptive,” he continued. “As everyone knows, I am an extraordinarily brilliant person, and even I had no idea what the hell they were talking about in the Referendum, and neither do they!”
5. It’s a preview of what’s going to happen in November
And in this one Truth Social post, Trump gave a preview of what’s likely to happen after the midterms. Trump finds – or invents – some reason, some inconsistency, some false claim of ballot stuffing or foreigners voting. And he pushes it to the courts, asking them to overturn the election. In the meantime, some people fear the House and Senate, which would remain in Republican hands until January, even if they get the drubbing that’s widely expected, will be under pressure from the White House to take unconstitutional measures to prevent the election being certified and block newly elected Democrats from taking their seats. Trump’s Truth Social post this afternoon is laying the groundwork for what is known as an “auto-coup”, where a leader or party puts conditions in place – legally or not – to make it increasingly difficult to remove them from office. And if you think he’s going to stop at the midterms, I’ve got a ballroom to sell you.
6. Meanwhile the Justice department goes after America’s biggest anti-racist organisation
Last night Kash Patel (more of whom later) and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, announced they were pressing charges against the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC). For 50 years, the SPLC’s business has been to root out, expose and neuter racist, white supremacist, nazi and far right groups such as the KKK and Neo-Nazi National Alliance in America. And they’ve been very successful in that regard. So the Trump administration wants to shut them down.
Since the 1980s, part of the SPLC’s operation was allegedly to nurture and fund a network of undercover informants within said extremist groups. This alleged work was, for obvious reasons, kept secret and not disclosed to donors. The project is now defunct, but the Justice Department has decided to go after them on charges of wire fraud, claiming bank accounts set up under fictitious names for the purposes of paying the clandestine operatives amounted to defrauding donors. The SPLC said the program was kept quiet to protect the safety of informants. “When we began working with informants, we were living in the shadow of the height of the Civil Rights Movement, which had seen bombings at churches, state-sponsored violence against demonstrators, and the murders of activists that went unanswered by the justice system,” interim CEO and president Bryan Fair said in a statement. “There is no question that what we learned from informants saved lives.”
Justifying the charges, Blanche claimed that far from trying to dismantle the groups, the SPLC’s cash was “manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose.” So the KKK, neo-Nazis, the Unite the Right march that descended on Charlottesville, Virginia during Trump’s first term – all of that? Manufactured. That is the position of the US Department of Justice.
7. Seriously, so why are they doing this?
Why are they pressing these preposterous charges, which will almost certainly be tossed out of every court they are brought to?
Because the SPLC included Turning Point USA, the group run by Charlie Kirk, in their “Year in Hate and Extremism 2024”, describing the group as “A Case Study of the Hard Right in 2024.” After that, and following pressure from far-right influencers, Kash Patel announced the FBI – which had worked with SPLC throughout its use of the secret informant network – was severing relations with the group.
Some have noted that this all ties up quite neatly with a deeply sinister order Trump gave last September, known as “NSPM-7”, which – citing the assassination of Kirk, declared “Antifa”, which doesn’t exist, a terrorist organisation. It also brands “anti-Christian”, “anti-capitalism” and “anti-American” views, as well as “extremism on gender” and “hostility towards those who hold traditional views on family” as signs of radical leftist violence. It directs the Justice Department, the FBI and national security agencies to focus on “leftist” political violence in America. In effect, it allows – nay demands – the Federal Government to pursue and harass activists, researchers and journalists whenever they do anything Trump doesn’t like.
Tell me… if you thought I was overreacting to Trump’s “stolen election” post at the start of this article, do you still?
8. Kash Patel denies EVERYTHING except loving the sport of hockey
Look, there’s been some reporting in the Atlantic over the weekend that is subject to a $250 million lawsuit, so I’m not going to get into specifics. What I can do is directly quote Kash Patel at a press conference last night. In response to a question about whether he’d ever been intoxicated on the job, Patel said: “I can say unequivocally that I never listen to the fake news mafia.” He added: “I’ve never been intoxicated on the job.”
He was also asked about an alleged incident where he was unable to log into the FBI computer system, and messaged colleagues in a panic, thinking he’d been fired. He became combative in his answer: “Let’s have a survey. How many people believe that’s true? The problem with you and your baseless reporting is that is an absolute lie. It was never said, it never happened and I will serve in this administration as long as the President and the Attorney General want me to do so.”
9. One of Trump’s best buddies is trying to rename a famous mountain after him
Donald Trump’s special envoy for global partnerships is trying to convince the Tanzanian government to rename Mount Kilimanjaro to “Mount Trump”. I wish I was kidding. This is the brainchild of Paolo Zampolli, whose name might be familiar. He’s the one who a few weeks ago it was revealed had “asked ICE to deport his ex-Girlfriend.” He’s alleged to have learned his Brazillian ex-Girlfriend, in whom he was embroiled in a custody battle over his teenage son, was in a Miami jail on fraud charges. He denies the claims.
Zampolli and Trump go back decades – in fact, legend has it that Zampolli introduced Trump to Melania back in the day. His name is scattered among the pages of the Epstein files. In one 2011 email, Mr. Epstein warned an Emirati businessman: “Be careful, zampoli is trouble. Lots.” He added, “He sells stories to the press.” You might also have heard of him because his Brazilian ex-girlfriend – former model Amanda Unguro – has threatened to go public with details of alleged connections between Melania and Epstein, which may have prompted her bizarre public denial the other week.