Trump's reliance on patronage, and the conditioning of government funds on political benefit, is actually one of the clearest through-lines of his presidency.
Today, it's $13 mil for Puerto Rico, which he'd long denied more aid, to try and win Florida in 46 days:
But this is how he ran Trump Corp. and how he's approached the presidency, even from the transition period when he got IN to cough up $7m in tax breaks to save 1,000 jobs at Carrier.
The pattern was clear in 2017, when the FoxConn plant went to WI..
And it explains so much of what's happened since: the quid pro quo with Ukraine that sparked impeachment, the pandemic response, the indifference to the fires out west.
We've long known this, but just it's still striking just how much of this is all innate of one thing.
I guess I did go over this last week w/ @NicolleDWallace, but it's really quite simple and consistent:
And the hits keep coming. The latest entry is this @maggieNYT@jmartNYT report that Trump’s need to take personal credit for a prescription drug relief package derailed it altogether:
Biden leads his democracy speech by recapping the Paul Pelosi attack and how “the assailant entered the home asking ‘where’s Nancy.’”
“The same words used by the mob when they stormed the United States Capitol on Jan. 6.”
Trump’s lie about the 2020 election sparked the 1/6 insurrection and, Biden says, has “fueled the dangerous rise in political violence and intimidation.”
“I know there’s a lot at stake in these elections,” Biden continues, ticking off other issues on voters’ minds. “But there’s something else at stake: democracy itself.”
“We must vote knowing what’s at stake and not just the policy of the moment.”
So far, Putin’s war, borne of his own insecurity and nihilism, has:
• unified the West
• unified Ukraine
• drawn condemnation of even Orban (!)
• exposed the weakness of his own army
• cratered Russia’s crap economy
• made Zelensky into a legend
& it occurs to me that social media, which Putin and his trolls have long leveraged to sow discord, is a big reason much of this has turned against him and so quickly. Even Russians, at great risk, have taken to the streets in protest. Pretty incredible.
Maybe Kyiv eventually falls. But occupation will be even more fraught than the assault. Putin’s dreams of empire likely will leave Russia more stretched & more isolated, as long as the West’s resolve holds. Seems those lauding his savvy in recent days might wanna rethink.
This package DOES NOT INCLUDE barring Russia from SWIFT financial system, a move many European nations aren’t ready to support (and US does not control), per source familiar.
Biden, after noting progress of his first seven months, offers some realism: “We’re in the tough stretch. And it could last for a while.”
And he frames vaccines as a matter of not just health but civic responsibility:
“The vast majority of Americans have done the right thing.”
Biden, expressing the frustration of the vaccinated: “A distinct minority…are preventing us from turning the corner.”
To the 80 million who’ve “failed” to get vaccinated, Biden says “the time for waiting is over” as he announces new vax mandates for large businesses and federal workers.
“This is not about freedom and personal choice. It’s about protecting yourself and the people around you.”
MCCONNELL says “January 6 was a disgrace” and that Trump’s rhetoric was “a disgraceful dereliction of duty.”
“There’s no question he is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.”
McConnell says Trump tried to use his 74 million votes as “a shield” from criticism.
“That’s an absurd deflection. 74 million Americans did not invade the Capitol.”
Now here’s the “but...” — the constitutionality question (that the Senate settled).
McConnell, who as then-Majority Leader singlehandedly ensured the trial was delayed until Trump was out of office, says he voted to acquit BECAUSE Trump was out of office and thus “constitutionally ineligible.”
"It is existential," John Kerry says about the climate crisis. Biden, he says, is 'totally seized" by the urgency and knows "Paris alone isn't enough."
Kerry says Biden's EO will bring 17 U.S. intelligence agencies together to assess the national security implications of climate change.
"This is an issue where failure, literally, is not an option," Kerry says.