Sleepy, Dishonest Don May Be Losing Steam While Melania Sells Jewelry
Trump looks beaten and is falling asleep, Stormy is getting ready to sing and Melania can’t attend hubby’s trial because she is too busy hawking her new, shiny, gaudy, gold-plated, $245 Mother’s Day necklaces.
Adding to the good news is a new 60-second anti-trump ad that shows an undercover job applicant who wears a hidden camera as he applies for work at several stores where he is turned away after admitting to stealing classified documents, paying hush money to porn stars, and attempting to overturn an election. The ad concludes, “If Trump is too big of a liability to get a job at your local mall, he is too big of a liability to be president of the United States.”
The ad is sponsored by “Republican Voters Against Trump” as part of a $50 million campaign that highlights trump’s 88 felony charges. It is funded by billionaire, never trump, Republicans, Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn; John Pritzker, heir to the Hyatt hotel chain; and Seth Klarman, owner of the giant Boston-based Baupost hedge fund.
The first ad in the campaign is running on Fox and MSNBC in critical Blue Wall states, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
“The MAGA base might rally to Trump’s defense in his criminal cases, but swing voters don’t want a potential felon in the White House,” said Gunner Ramer, political director of Republican Voters Against Trump and Republicans for Ukraine.
“Republican Voters Against Trump,” which is funded by the Republican Accountability PAC, aims to raise $30 million, in addition to the $20 million it’s already collected, for the advertising campaign which features videos of former trump voters explaining why they won’t cast their ballots for him again.
Hoffman is one of the Republican Accountability PAC’s biggest backers, donating $2 million in January and June last year. Klarman, a vocal trump critic who has donated to both parties, gave $1 million to the group in May 2023. Pritzker gave a total of $1 million to the group through two $500,000 donations in June and November last year.
“Republican Voters Against Trump” was formed to defeat trump in the 2020 election and it has been reenergized for the 2024 election.
Original organizers included Republican stars, such as political strategist Sarah Longwell, conservative writer Bill Kristol, GOP strategist Mike Murphy, and former Jeb Bush aide Tim Miller. The organization was initially created to produce a $10 million ad campaign focused on 100 testimonials by Republicans, conservatives, moderates, right-leaning independent voters, and former trump voters explaining why trump should be defeated in 2020.
The 2020 campaign targeted white, college-educated, suburban voters in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, North Carolina and Arizona. The effort was similar to a 1964 campaign for President Lyndon Johnson’s re-election, known as “Confessions of a Republican.” The campaign showed Republicans who planned to vote for Johnson with the message that Republicans should vote for Johnson and not for Republican Barry Goldwater.
After the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol by trump supporters, the organization transitioned to the “Republican Accountability Project” (RAP), to defend “Republican principles” and attack Republicans who were responsible for the capital insurrection. The group later focused on legislators who supported trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
In April 2021, the organization released a “GOP democracy report card” which gave an “A” grade to just 14 members of congress while more than 100 members failed. They credited 6 percent of Republicans as consistently supporting democracy, with many of those retiring or losing their seats.
In January 2021, the group launched a $1 million billboard campaign, calling on then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and others to resign for continuing to support trump in the lead-up to the January 6 riot.
Longwell, a Republican, is publisher of The Bulwark, a conservative website that opposes trump’s agenda. The New Yorker wrote that Longwell has “dedicated her career to fighting Trump’s takeover of her party.” Longwell, Krystal and conservative radio host Charlie Sykes launched The Bulwark in 2018. By 2019, The Bulwark had raised about $1 million to establish a “rational, non-Trumpist forum.”
Longwell embodies the adage the enemy of my enemy is my friend. She worked for many years with Richard Berman, an anti-union, Republican lobbyist who has represented restaurant, tobacco and alcoholic beverage industries and other groups. The Huffington Post included Berman on its list of “America’s Ruling Class Hall of Shame,” describing him as a “sleazy corporate front man.” Berman’s right wing organization, the Enterprise Freedom Action Committee, spent $315,000 on a campaign against trump during the 2016 Republican primaries.
Longwell was managing director of the American Beverage Institute, a trade association set up by Berman that lobbies on behalf of the alcohol industry, to oppose drunk driving laws.
Longwell also was the first woman national board chair of the Log Cabin Republicans, an organization affiliated with the GOP that advocates for LGBTQ issues. She was instrumental in persuading the Log Cabin Republicans not to endorse trump in 2016. In 2019, the Log Cabin Republicans endorsed trump for re-election and Longwell resigned as board chair.
Kristol is a neoconservative commentator and member of various right-wing organizations. He had a leading role in the defeat of the Clinton health care plan of 1993, and he supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Kristol is a founder and director of “Defending Democracy Together,” an advocacy organization responsible for such projects as “Republicans for the Rule of Law,” which advocated for trump’s impeachment. In March 2020, Kristol endorsed Biden for President.
Murphy is a Republican political consultant who advised numerous Republicans including John McCain, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mitt Romney. Murphy endorsed Biden in the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
Miller, a political consultant and writer was included by The Washington Post on a list of Republicans “who hate Donald Trump the most.” In November 2020, Miller announced he had left the Republican Party.
One of the never trump billionaires is John A. Pritzker, whose father, Jay Pritzker, diversified the Chicago-based family business, the Marmon Group, building it into a portfolio of more than 60 diversified industrial corporations. The elder Pritzker created the Hyatt Hotel chain in 1957 and owned Braniff Airlines from 1983 to 1988. In 1988, John Pritzker left Hyatt to form Ticketmaster and the Mandara Spa chain of resort spas.
John Pritzker’s brother, J.B. Pritzker, is the Democratic governor of Illinois and a longtime trump opponent. Despite calling trump a “putz” and an “ass,” J.B. Pritzker has supported trump on the 2024 ballot believing he would be easily defeated in Illinois and across the country.
Hoffman is an internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster and author. He is co-founder of LinkedIn, chairman of venture capital firm Village Global and a co-founder of Inflection AI.
Hoffman helped fund E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit for defamation and battery against trump. On May 9, 2023 a jury found trump liable and awarded Carroll $5 million in damages.
Since at least 2011, Hoffman has been a member and regular attendee of the Bilderberg Group, which gathers 120 to 150 North American and European “political leaders and experts from industry, finance, academia and the media” for an annual invitation-only closed-door conference. Some on the political left have accused the Bilderberg group of covertly imposing capitalist domination and corporate power. Some on the right claimed the group is helping to prepare for a world government.
Hoffman also was elected in 2015 to the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. The council has been described as “the nearest thing we have to a ruling establishment in the United States.”
Klarman is an investor, hedge fund manager, and author and is the chief executive and portfolio manager of the Baupost Group, a Boston-based private investment partnership he founded in 1982. Baupost Group’s assets were $30 million in 1982, and $29.9 billion as of December 31, 2013.
A registered independent, Klarman has donated to Democratic and Republican groups and candidates. Since trump’s election in 2016, Klarman has donated almost exclusively to Democrats. He has also given extensively to philanthropic causes through the Klarman Family Foundation, which focuses on pro-democracy initiatives, including supporting groups that protect journalists, fight against bigotry, and advocate for LGBT rights.
In one of Klarman’s investment letters, he described trump’s “ill temper, chronic impulsivity, limited attention span, ignorance of history and flawed judgment.” Klarman wrote that he dismisses the notion that trump has instituted some good policies.
“I don’t care what good things are happening because I am drawn to focus on the democratic norms that are being eroded,” Klarman said. “It doesn’t matter what the ends are. The means disqualify the ends. Any good decisions Mr. Trump makes should be seen as ‘random or lucky.’”
The Republicans for trump hope to capitalize on the serious dysfunction among House Republicans.
Rep. Jake LaTurner, R-Kan., is the latest Republican to jump off a sinking ship and won’t run for re-election. The 36-year-old lawmaker was first elected in 2020 and has served in Congress for three years.
“It is time to pursue other opportunities and have the benefit of spending more time with my family,” he said. LaTurner acknowledged that “the current dysfunction on Capitol Hill is distressing,” but added “it almost always has been; we just didn’t see most of it.”
Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc., is planning to resign to take a job in the private sector. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, is retiring as is Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo. That makes nearly 20 House Republican who have left or are planning to leave Congress without immediate plans to run for another office.
Republicans continue to feed on themselves. Here are some of the recent highlights.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., introduced an amendment to require that any House member who votes for Ukraine aid would be conscripted in the Ukrainian military. Rep. Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y., said Greene’s political “theater” must “come to an end” and that “I’m going to have no part in it.”
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., accused some of his Republican colleagues of spreading Russian propaganda and wanting to see Russia “win” in the invasion of Ukraine.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, said Greene and several other far right lawmakers are so against funding Ukraine and are trying to oust Speaker Mike Johnson , R-La., because “they want Russia to win so badly that they want to oust the speaker over it. I’m still trying to process all the bulls**t.”
Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake, who falsely claimed she lost her 2020 run for Senate because of voter fraud, said that lawmakers who waved Ukraine flags on the House floor at the time of the recent vote to provide billions to Ukraine leads her to believe, “I don’t know what country I’m in anymore!”
“We’ve got to have a huge come to Jesus moment with these people,” Lake said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a strong supporter of Ukraine, said Sen. J.D. Vance’s R-Ohio, rationale for not funding Ukraine’s war with Russia is “garbage” and that Vance should “quit talking about things you don’t know anything about until you go.”
Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, said colleagues who have threatened to oust Johnson as speaker are “real scumbags.”
Gonzalez also torched other far right lawmakers, including Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who “paid minors to have sex with him at drug parties,” and Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., who “endorsed my opponent, a known neo-Nazi. These people used to walk around in white hoods at night. Now they’re walking around with white hoods in the daytime.”
It was first reported in February 2023 that federal investigators decided not to pursue charges against Gaetz after he faced allegations of sex-trafficking. The House Ethics Committee has opened a separate investigation into the allegations which remains open.
And not to be ignored, the former First Lady is selling her necklaces because “Being a mother is one of the most important roles in life. For this Mother’s Day, I have designed the ‘Her Love & Gratitude’ necklace to express immense gratitude and honor all mothers.”
It may seem like trump has a stranglehold on the Republicans but here is a breathtaking list of notable Republicans and conservatives who have openly opposed trump’s nomination for President.
George W. Bush, Mike Pence, Dick Cheney, Nikki Haley, Mark Esper, John F. Kelly, Mick Mulvaney, Dan Coats, John Bolton, H.R. McMaster, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Cassidy Hutchinson, Ty Cobb, Ashley Davis, Ronald Gidwitz, Stephanie Grisham, Bobbie Kilberg, Mary Kramer, Frank Lavin, Sarah Matthews, Harriet Miers, Karen Pence, Jeanne Phillips, Anthony Scaramucci, Marc Short, Miles Taylor, Jay Town, Olivia Troye, Mitt Romney. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Bill Cassidy, Todd Young, Mike Rounds, Rob Portman, Jeff Flake, Pat Toomey, Bob Corker, Jeffrey Chiesa, Cory Gardner, George LeMieux, Chip Roy, Thomas Massie, Greg Pence, Larry Bucshon, Mike Gallagher, David Joyce, Mike Lawler, David Valadao, Paul Ryan, John Boehner, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Fred Upton, Barbara Comstock, Mo Brooks, Will Hurd, Joe Walsh, Gresham Barrett, John Boehner, Susan Brooks, Anthony Gonzalez, John Katko, Mia Love, Peter Meijer, Connie Morella, Tom Rice, Paul Ryan, Joe Scarborough, Fred Upton, Joe Walsh, Spencer Cox, Phil Scott, Spencer Cox, Eric Holcomb, Phil Scott, Chris Christie, Larry Hogan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Asa Hutchinson, John Kasich, Jeb Bush, Charlie Baker, Bill Weld, George Pataki, Charlie Baker, Bill Haslam, Larry Hogan, Asa Hutchinson, John Kasich, George Pataki, Marc Racicot, Bruce Rauner, Mark Sanford, Bill Weld, Christine Todd Whitman, Jeanette Nunez, Winsome Sears, Michael Steele, John Dougall, Roby Smith, Geoff Duncan, Adam Laxalt, Corey Stapleton, Cate Zeuske, Manny Díaz Jr., Stephanie Kopelousos, Joseph Ladapo, Daniel Rickenmann, Mary Pat Christie, Casey DeSantis, Michael Haley, Steve Laffey, J. Michael Luttig, Bill Palatucci, Katon Dawson, Jennifer Nassour, Chip Saltsman, Amy Tarkanian, Carly Fiorina, Ann Coulter, Rupert Murdoch, Kathy Barnette, John Anthony Castro, S. E. Cupp, Carly Fiorina, David Frum, Robert Kagan, Tomi Lahren, Meghan McCain, Rupert Murdoch, Ramesh Ponnuru, and Michael Reagan.