In this episode of the Rational Response Podcast, we break down Trump’s unhinged Air Force One press gaggle, the branding of public institutions with his name, and a campaign collapse in Maine that should be a wake-up call for Democrats on candidate vetting.
Trump’s Air Force One Gaggle Goes Off the Rails. On the flight home from the NATO summit, Trump gave a 14-minute press gaggle that was supposed to be a routine trip wrap-up. Instead, it was a whirlwind of lies and invented history. He denied there was a security reason for switching planes, then immediately described the flight as dangerous because of Iran. He talked about retaliating against Iran at a ratio of 20 to 1, said he threatened to stop trading with Spain, a NATO ally, and linked U.S. troop levels in Europe to whether he can make a deal on Greenland. Then came the truly bizarre: a claim that “probably billions” of votes disappeared in a Los Angeles race (California has about 23 million registered voters), a claim that prescription drug prices came down 400 to 600 percent (a price cannot drop more than 100 percent), and a claim that he settled a Congo-Rwanda conflict in which “15 million people” were supposedly beheaded, a number roughly equal to the entire population of Rwanda. This is not just Trump being Trump. This is the president making military threats while detached from basic reality, and no one around him is stopping him.
Trump Airport, Trump Library, Trump Branding Everything. Palm Beach International Airport officially became President Donald J. Trump International Airport, with its FAA identifier changed from PBI to DJT. A sitting president now has a major public airport carrying his name and initials, thanks to legislation signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Meanwhile, Trump’s presidential library project in Miami is mired in controversy. Miami Dade College transferred a 2.63-acre downtown parcel of public educational land, assessed around $67 million and potentially worth hundreds of millions more, for the project. And Trump himself says it might not really be a library at all. He said he does not believe in building libraries or museums and suggested the project could be a hotel, possibly with a 747 Air Force One parked in the lobby. The airport becomes DJT, the library becomes a hotel-monument, and public land becomes a Trump benefit. Other presidents build libraries. Trump builds something to profit from.
Graham Platner Drops Out, and Democrats Get a Candidate-Vetting Warning. Graham Platner, the Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, is suspending his campaign and plans to withdraw from the race against Susan Collins. That’s a huge deal, because Maine is one of the Democrats’ best chances to flip a Republican Senate seat. His campaign collapsed after a sexual assault allegation from a former girlfriend, which he strongly denies, but the allegation came after months of warning signs: offensive old online posts, a tattoo resembling Nazi imagery, and reports of troubling behavior in past relationships. Maine Democrats now have a short window to name a replacement and keep the race alive. Candidate quality matters, character matters, and a good message is not enough. If your candidate’s past can blow up the whole race in July, the vetting process failed months earlier. We need to put forward quality people as our candidates.
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*This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.
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