California Gov. Gavin Newsom discusses President Donald Trump's tariffs, as California Attorney General Rob Bonta, left, listens, during a press conference on Wednesday, April 16, 2025, at an almond farm in Ceres, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
PRIMARY COLORS
Which Democrat will lead the charge to win back the presidency in 2028 from the forces of MAGA? Yes, it’s early to ask that question, but the jostling has already begun.
- I know, there are *checks notes* 1,358 days left in President Donald Trump’s chaotic term. But some Democrats are already angling to undo his legacy — and the competitive field is coming into view. I asked about a dozen people from the Biden administration, the Harris campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and Capitol Hill the same question: Which Democrats will run for president to clean up Trump’s hot mess?
Here are the names they mentioned:
- Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD): Moore is getting hype for being a charismatic 46-year-old dude who communicates well, governs effectively, and likes sports. Moore says he won’t run. But not everyone believes him… partially because he otherwise appears to be laying the groundwork for a presidential bid. “If I had a million dollars to throw at any of them, it’d be Wes Moore,” a former Harris campaign aide told me.
- Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL): Pritzker, an affable billionaire, raised eyebrows last weekend when he called members of his own party the “do-nothing Democrats” — while speaking to a crowd in New Hampshire. He’s 60, which feels downright youthful and sprightly compared to, ahem, certain former and current presidents I won’t name. That’s not to mention his business acumen (an appealing characteristic for many voters) and his close ties to the Democratic Party (his sister, Penny, was a high-ranking Biden official).
- Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI): Whitmer has been in the spotlight lately for working with Trump to make deals for her state, arguably positioning herself as someone who can bridge even the deepest political divides. For now, she’s dodging speculation about her ambitions: “I want to be a part” of the effort to “put this country back on the right course,” she recently said. “I don’t know that I need to be the main character in that story.”
- Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA): It feels like Newsom has been running for president as long as I’ve been alive. He can’t run for California governor again, so it makes sense he’d run for president, partly with a pitch on his track record running the world’s fourth-largest economy. But his recent shift toward playing nice with Trumpworld is viewed negatively by many insiders: “Voters respond to authenticity — he went from liberal darling who could embarrass Ron DeSantis on Fox to a podcast host platforming the worst of MAGA,” a former top DNC official tells me. “None of it feels real.”
- But wait, there’s more! Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) said today he may consider running. Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), another swing-state star, hasn’t taken himself out of the mix. There’s speculation that Rahm Emmanuel — the knife-wielding, foul-mouthed political operative — will enter the race. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is looking like a likely contender: He’s heading to Iowa to hold a town hall soon, and he knows how to navigate the man-o-sphere.
- And who can count out Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) after his record-breaking monologue? Former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo announced she’s considering a run, but she’ll have an uphill battle against candidates with more name recognition. (In fact, no one I spoke with brought up her name.) Another person who barely came up: Former VP Kamala Harris.
“This game makes me sick!” a former Biden official texted me, with a laughing emoji. Sure, I get that. But imagining an end to the MAGA chaos is kinda fun, too.
Call out: Who do you want to run for the president in 2028? Send me a message at whataday@crooked.com!
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"I didn’t think anyone would notice.”
— Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old DOGE bro now famous as "Big Balls," on his earlier decision to set that username on LinkedIn.
NEWS NEWS NEWS
Donald Trump said that he’s “taking away” Harvard University’s tax-exempt status, adding: “It’s what they deserve!” That would be highly damaging for the school… if he can actually do it. The IRS can’t simply make such a change without sufficient cause, which, so far, it doesn’t seem to have. So yes, for the moment, Trump appears to just be shitposting, per usual.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to allow Elon Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” to access Social Security systems. No thanks, I’d rather Edward “Big Balls” Coristine go nowhere near the personal records of nearly everyone in the country.
Vice President JD Vance admitted that the Russia-Ukraine war is “not going to end anytime soon,” in an interview with Fox News. His comment came shortly after after the U.S. signed a deal with Ukraine to gain access to its natural resources… and over three months after the first day of Trump’s second term, when he’d repeatedly promised the fighting would stop.
Trump’s military birthday parade in Washington, D.C. this summer may call for more than 6,600 Army soldiers and some 150 vehicles, 50 helicopters and seven bands, according to a plan obtained by the Associated Press. Given the way this White House works, I’m assuming those bands will all be playing different songs, at full volume, right next to each other. Charles Ives style.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to strip Venezuelan migrants of legal protections, potentially making it easier to deport them. It’s the latest development in Trump’s attempt to rollback Temporary Protected Status for migrants legally in the United States, including 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians.
Thousands of high school students in Oklahoma will be required to study Trump’s debunked claims about 2020 election fraud, as part of a new curriculum implemented by the Republican superintendent. Welp, welcome to “1984,” I guess!
Trump signed an executive order to cut public funding to news outlets PBS and NPR, which have become two of MAGA’s favorite punching bags since Trump took office. The order will surely be challenged in court.
Trump said he intends to rename Veterans Day, “Victory Day for World War I.”He also wants to recognize May 8 as “Victory Day for World War II.” Does he really WANT to exclude veterans from, say the Gulf War or Vietnam War? Is that… uh, some kind of nine-dimensional political chess? Not to mention: Only Congress has the power to create and change public holidays. This one’s a head-scratcher.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is the talk of This Town today following a New York Magazine profile that details the high staff turnover in his office due to his shockingly erratic behavior and health struggles. One damning anecdote: A staffer overheard Gisele, Fetterman’s wife, express her frustration with his steadfast support of Israel’s war in Gaza: “Who did I marry? Where is the man I married?” Fetterman downplayed or denied many of the claims in the article.
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