"After winning a surprising share of price-sensitive working-class white and Latino voters in 2024, and persuading at least some pundits he had wrought a miraculous realignment, Trump has now lost them." He doesn't seem to care about winning them back. www.thebulwark.com/p/gop-grows-...

Trump will have failed to achieve his primary war aims. This fact alone demonstrates that he does not have “the cards.” The only real question is how much damage Trump inflicts on America. Today's Triad from @jvl.bsky.social: lnk.thebulwark.com/4bJwOHB

"How are we to square the image of Mueller as a deranged Javert hounding a beleaguered Trump and trampling all over innocent people’s lives with the claim that the Mueller report completely exonerated Trump?" By ignoring the facts.

"Yes, they say, Democrats need to shed litmus tests, put aside purity politics, and drop the academic-sounding language. But they also would benefit from simply having more thirst-traps on the ticket." Now that's a new one. Or is it?

"We know who they value, and it's not us, so those votes are up for grabs. What we have seen in recent elections in Texas really endorses that view." @repfletcher.bsky.social talks GOP redistricting and Dem prospects in the Lone Star State with @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social:

Trump is imposing moral injury on our whole country by committing violence in our name that we did not ask for and were not consulted over

This is the simplest Chuck Norris fact of all: He made movies that were entertaining and exhilarating, and he did so without pretension or an embarrassed metatextual wink.

Here's a new question the Dems are talking about: What if the key to winning was to run more “hot” people?

There’s no single, simple explanation for the retrenchment. But a big part of the story is Donald Trump. And electric cars are disappearing just in time for a spike in oil prices. The latest edition of The Breakdown from @citizencohn.bsky.social: lnk.thebulwark.com/4bFUFaR

Best they can do is make it harder to vote. New from @jilldlawrence.bsky.social: lnk.thebulwark.com/4bGKJ14

MAGA may want Mueller to be the villain of the Russiagate story. But in reality, the Trump/Russia investigation was a fitting conclusion to his long career of service. @cathyyoung63.bsky.social on MAGA's Mueller myths: lnk.thebulwark.com/4bG6Cxd

Trump’s central war aim is now just to fix the situation that his “excursion” caused. Better that than escalation, but talk about lesser of two evils. Today's Morning Shots from @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social and @eggerdc.bsky.social: lnk.thebulwark.com/3PnAUh2

"The idea that the Democratic party has a hotness deficit it needs to address has come up repeatedly in conversations I’ve had over the past few months." Is *that* the ticket to victory? The latest edition of The Opposition from @lauren-egan.bsky.social: lnk.thebulwark.com/4m54Sml

The easiest way to decode Trump's words is to simply flip their meaning

"Nearly everyone I spoke to for this newsletter asked that I not print their names out of fear that they’d become a target." That's where people like Rep. Andy Ogles have gotten us. ICYMI @lauren-egan.bsky.social: lnk.thebulwark.com/3PbfCmC

Carlos Eduardo Espina may not be a household name in establishment circles in D.C. But if you’re in the business of winning elections, or planning a 2028 presidential run, there are few people more notable or desirable. ICYMI @adriancarrasquillo.bsky.social: lnk.thebulwark.com/4djjnAD

The president and his senior advisers didn’t consider that the Iranians would get a say in what happens in this war. As a result, they failed to plan for the potential and foreseeable consequences. ICYMI @markhertling.bsky.social: lnk.thebulwark.com/3N75JG3

Yes, the Iranian regime is one of the worst on the planet. But this war is being conducted to heal psychic wounds and to boost the ego of our dangerous commander in chief. ICYMI Mona Charen: lnk.thebulwark.com/4rF3fMZ

Judge Brian Murphy's ruling is important not just for slowing down RFK Jr., but for reminding us that governmental powers exist for certain reasons, not as disembodied value-neutral tools for wannabe-authoritarians to manipulate as they desire.

"Right intention" in just war theory requires, at minimum, some intention beyond an arbitrary, unpredictable whim. And we simply have no idea what the intention is.

"I want a system that incentivizes, bargaining and compromise, and I want a system that incentivizes the citizenry to get organized. You want people to be in parties. Politics is a team sport. It's not an individual sport." @danielcantor.bsky.social makes the case for fusion voting.

FBI Director Kash Patel reportedly fired many of the special agents responsible for Iranian threats. The TSA isn't getting paid. The director of the National Counterterrorism Center resigned. Other than that, Mr. Trump, how was the war?

Welker: “You don't think there's anything wrong with a post saying, 'Good. Robert Mueller's dead’?” Bessent: “We should all have a little empathy for what's been done to [the president] and his family.”

Welker: “Is the president in the process of winding down this war or escalating the conflict?” Bessent: “Sometimes you have to escalate to deescalate.”

Welker: “Would the administration ever raise taxes in order to fund this war?” Bessent: “It’s a ridiculous question. Why would we do that? We have plenty. We have a trillion dollars.”

Bash on plan to put ICE agents in airports: “If you’re doing this in 24 hours, how well thought out could it possibly be?” Homan: “How much of a plan does it mean to guard an exit to make sure no one comes through that exit?…These officers are well trained in security.”

Pastor-theologian Douglas Wilson advocates theocracy, the restriction of the franchise from women and nonbelievers, and much else—and he is closer than ever to real power. ICYMI @julieingersoll.bsky.social:

"In America, 20%, a minority faction of the country, is in total charge, waging war on its own people. That is only possible because of the way the two party system distorts... It's a bad way to run a country." @danielcantor.bsky.social explains how the two party system distorts democracy.

Well, good, because we're so sick of winning

"The NRSC basically connected a Gen Z fail sound to a teenage boy’s memory of marching for women’s rights, hoping to turn conviction into cringe." This is how you can turn it around on them. ICYMI @maxflugrath.bsky.social: lnk.thebulwark.com/4rR90aQ

"I have been devoted ever since to the project of trying to revive fusion voting—once legal everywhere... and there are efforts underway in probably seven states to try to revive it." @danielcantor.bsky.social explains to @johnavlon.bsky.social why fusion voting may help save our country.

"'It will be a mortal mistake for Democrats if they leave the 2024 cycle with this idea that we just got to go into a hole and not talk about the hard stuff. That’s the wrong lesson.'" @lauren-egan.bsky.social on Dems and the culture war: lnk.thebulwark.com/4d2BF97

Election fraud is when you lie about very clean and secure elections being riddled with fraud

Laura Loomer saying “I love India!" is like Trump saying "I love Hispanics!" And it went over about as well. ICYMI @willsommer.bsky.social: lnk.thebulwark.com/3PGhhk9

"Trump is spending his time this week fighting tooth and nail just to get back to the previous status quo."

"Shane is too intelligent, resourceful, and energetic just to earn his degree and rest on his laurels. Acutely grateful for the miracles—and the people and money and hard work—that have made his life possible, he’s paying it forward."

These days, even far-right discourse on issues that have nothing to do with feminism or sex roles is often inflected, if not saturated, with hostility and contempt toward women. Cathy Young on the right-wing women who've had enough:

"The Trump administration is gloating about the destruction of the Iranian military. I worry that Nemesis is waiting."

This resignation is important not just because it’s forcing conservative publications to weigh in on the merits. It’s important because Kent isn’t a faceless bureaucrat. ICYMI @willsommer.bsky.social on the Joe Kent and the MAGA schism: lnk.thebulwark.com/4cXPVQu

"I could give you 17 different messages that I feel like would work in every part of North Carolina, and the country for that matter. The message could be simple. It's just the reach we have is not what Republicans do." @abreezeclayton.bsky.social joins @racheljanfaza.bsky.social on The Focus Group

GOP lawmakers were defending and praising the former DHS secretary until very recently. Do you think they got religion, or got a weathervane? ICYMI @adriancarrasquillo.bsky.social: lnk.thebulwark.com/4uzpLJX

"Perhaps most importantly, Helen Zoe Veit urges parents to reframe healthy eating not as discipline or deprivation but as a smart investment and a genuine pleasure." Children didn't always need to learn how to eat well:

From Dallas to Austin, everything about our Texas live show ruled —but the best part was seeing you! Thanks to every member of the Bulwark community for showing up and proving we’re not done fighting. Let’s go!

"We learn that he had deserted, only to be captured, sent back to the frontlines, and killed. The younger children, meanwhile, are being groomed to succeed them as cannon fodder." Cathy Young on Putin's youth propagandizing:

These moderate Gen Z men may not know it yet...but they're probably Democrats. @abreezeclayton.bsky.social joins @racheljanfaza.bsky.social on this week's episode of The Focus Group:

"Broad-based fiscal remedies—such as sending out stimulus checks or cutting taxes—also risk stoking even more inflation, particularly if people start to anticipate higher prices." No easy fixes, except not to have done it all in the first place.

Funny how fast it went from "Biden made gas too expensive" to "eat high gas prices for the sake of the fatherland"

"It just sounds like the decline and fall of the American empire symbolized right there." David Frum and Tim Miller skewer the Trump administration's plans to hold an MMA fight on the White House lawn to commemorate Trump's birthday — and the 250th anniversary of America.

"This is where I start to feel like, again, a peacenik or an America First person. What does that have to do with us?" David Frum spars with Tim Miller over the war with Iran and argues the case for why more extensive military intervention is necessary.

Election fraud is when you lie about very clean and secure elections being riddled with fraud