MAGA RORSCACH TEST

Donald Trump’s authoritarian rhetoric is growing increasingly unhinged as Election Day nears. His MAGA fanbase is leaning into a novel coping mechanism: They don’t believe him.

• Former President Donald Trump has a long track record of using inflammatory rhetoric to rile up his far-right base and stoke outrage from Democrats. But things are taking a darker turn with just three weeks left (!!!) before Americans decide who should run this country.  In recent days, Trump has vowed to deport thousands of Haitian migrants who are legally in the United States, mulled unleashing the military on “radical left lunatics” after the election, and suggested that he wants to outlaw political speech that threatens his grasp on power.
• Trump’s mind works in mysterious and demented ways — and it’s often futile to search for logic among his half-baked bloviations . But with the election just a few short weeks away, he seems to be using this ramped-up extremist rhetoric and election denialism  to solidify his far-right base, one Democratic strategist explained to What A Day. The plan: Boost the likelihood that MAGA voters will head to the polls in droves, rather than expand Trump’s broad appeal among voters.

The reaction from Trump’s supporters may be even more unsettling than the rhetoric itself. Many who don’t necessarily agree prefer to believe he doesn’t really mean it.

• “I don’t think he’ll actually do those things,” my own Uber driver told me in a conversation that turned political during a ride around Washington D.C. last week. He expressed his undying love for Trump, citing the economy and immigration as his top issues. I asked about Trump promising the “largest deportation ” in U.S. history and his plan to bomb cartels in Mexico, the United States’ top trading partner . He shrugged. “It’s just politics,” he said.
• Lots of MAGA fans have adopted this mode of thinking — treating Trump like a Rorschach inkblot test, and seeing what they want to see. Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) as just the latest Republican ostrich to publicly bury his head as deep into the sand as it will fit. Last night, CNN’s Jake Tapper asked the governor  about Trump’s comments about using the military on Americans who lean left. Youngkin said that Trump was referring to undocumented immigrants. “I’m literally reading his quotes,” Tapper fired back, noting that Trump specifically mentioned Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA). It was futile. “I don’t believe that’s what he’s saying,” Youngkin replied.
• Warnings about a second Trump administration from people who were once in his own camp are ramping up. Former Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley — who infamously walked beside Trump in his military fatigues  after peaceful protestors were forcefully dispersed following George Floyd’s death — called Trump “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.” Gen. Michael Hayden, who led the CIA during the Bush administration, wrote on X that “you have to be f***** in the head to think this maniac is fit to be president.”

Imagine ending democracy with a 39-minute onstage dance by a 78-year-old former game show host and would-be American autocrat. To misquote poet TS Elliot: This is how the world ends; not with a bang, nor with a whimper, but with an LOL.

‘A SPECIAL PLACE IN HELL’

NEWS NEWS NEWS 

The Biden administration warned Israel today that it must ramp up aid deliveries into the Gaza Strip or risk losing U.S. funding for weapons. The U.S. gave Israel 30 days to do so, marking the first time Biden has threatened to withhold weapons from the country. But Israel’s leadership has routinely rebuffed the White House’s requests over the past year, so its TBD on how far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will respond to this stiff-arming.

Israel’s offensive in Lebanon has displaced more than 400,000 children in the past three weeks, according to the United Nations, as a top U.N. official warned of a “lost generation.” In Gaza today, Israel killed at least 50 Palestinians in airstrikes, according to local health officials.

A judge in Georgia ruled today that the state must certify election results no matter what. It’s the latest in an ongoing legal battle  in Georgia about the election, where the Trump-allied State Election Board ruled that counties must hand-count votes — a mammoth undertaking that could delay the results for weeks or months. TBH I would love it if Georgia would get OFF my mind for once this election cycle.

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R-NC) is suing CNN over its bombshell report that he posted explicitly racist and sexual posts on a porn messaging board before entering politics. Robinson, who’s running for governor, has denied making the comments — which were posted by accounts reportedly tied to him — and called the article reckless and defamatory. And, he might have added, when this guy says you’re the one being reckless on the internet, you should listen!