MIKEY SMITH: 10 dictator-esque Donald Trump moments as his plot to rig next election gets ugly
Specifically, he's looking at how he can avoid losing his wafer thin majorities in the House and Senate, despite being the second most unpopular President in history - after himself last time around.
He's planning to do that, partially, by redrawing constituency boundaries in some states - chiefly Texas - to create more easily winnable seats in next year's mid-term elections.
But it's worth bearing in mind the raft of other ways Trump is trying to rig the mid-term election - not to mention the 2028 presidential election, which he so obviously wants to run in. Or at least cancel.
We also reported recently that he wants to do a new census. A new one isn't due for several years - but he wants to do a new one now, and demand that only people in the country legally are counted.
The census is used to decide how election districts are drawn, and removing non-citizens is likely to benefit Republicans hugely.
Oh, and acting on advice of that expert on running free and fair elections, Vladimir Putin, he wants to ban postal voting.
And let's not forget that on Monday, when he sat down with Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, he openly mused about using a war as an excuse to cancel elections - something many have feared Trump was planning to do all along.
Here's more on what's going to happen today, as well as some other dictator-adjacent things that happened in Trump World in the last 24 hours. Everything is fine.
1. Trump's plan to rig the midterm elections gets ugly
In all likelihood, Republicans in Texas will today pass a law redrawing constituency boundaries to be more favourable to them - almost certainly handing them five extra seats in the House of Representatives.
The last time they tried this a couple of weeks ago, Democrats got around it by leaving the state, so there wouldn't be enough people in the chamber to satisfy the rules allowing them to press for a vote.
How did they get round that this time? By literally imprisoning Democrats in the state House chamber.
Seriously, Democratic representatives were ordered to sign a document agreeing to round-the-clock police escorts - not for their own protection, but to keep tabs on them in case they try to leave Texas again.
Those who refused were locked in the chamber.
How this could possibly legal is a matter of some confusion. It's certainly not democratic.
Meanwhile, Democrat governor Gavin Newsom of California - the guy whose amusing faux-Trump tweets you keep seeing on your timeline - has vowed to redistrict California to cancel out the Texas gerrymandering.
2. Trump spotted testing out his new patio
Donald Trump was spotted hanging out on the edge of the new, Mar-a-lago-ified Rose Garden yesterday, testing a new sound system.
And what song was he blasting out across the concreted over garden, now covered with the exact same chairs, tables and umbrellas seen at his Florida club?
Of course, it was God Bless the USA, by Lee Greenwood. Of COURSE it was.
According to Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Trump was testing the speakers for "what will be the greatest event in the history of the White House."
3. Trump moans that the Smithsonian doesn't talk up the benefits of slavery
Trump posted some more about his Pyongyang-esque plan to rewrite history by putting pressure on the Smithsonian museums to reflect his views.
And this time he was a bit more specific, in a particularly troubling way.
"The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of "WOKE,"" he wrote.
"The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been."
The burgeoning dictator went on to say he has instructed lawyers to comb through museum exhibits and "start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made."
By which he presumably means extorting them into doing manifestly objectionable and antidemocratic things for fear of losing all their funding.
4. The White House comes to a decision on TikTok
The thrice-delayed deadline for TikTok to sell to non-Chinese buyers or be banned from the US is due to expire in early September.
So the White House has come to a decision. It's decided to ...join TikTok.
The new account posted its first video yesterday - a 27 second clip with a voice over of Trump saying: "Every day I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the People all across this nation. I am your voice."
TikTok remains owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company which is part-owned by the Chinese government.
5. You can almost smell the burning plastic
In case you thought the White House wasn't quite gaudy enough, Trump's team unveiled a new portrait in the West Wing.
In it, Trump, looking particularly svelte, walks grimacing between rows of American flags, apparently away from a blazing bin fire.
6. Is everything alright mate?
Donald Trump has started telling people he wants to get to heaven, and he's not sure he will.
In a display of introspection that's quite out of character for Trump, he said during a phone interview with (who else?) Fox and Friends, yesterday: "I want to try and get to heaven if possible. I hear I'm not doing well. I hear I'm really at the bottom of the totem pole."
I mean, it could be introspection. Alternatively, it could be just that he needs to start telling people his motivation for making "peace deals" is something other than a Nobel Prize.
Asked later at the Press Briefing whether the President was joking, or whether there was a "spiritual motivation" behind his push for "peace deals", Karoline Leavitt said no: "The President wants to get to heaven."
7. European leaders scrambled to Washington because of all the "progress"
Karoline Leavitt had a delightful bit of spin for why European leaders scrambled to Washington for Ukraine talks on Monday.
It wasn't because they were afraid that Trump was about to sell Europe's future security out to Putin, like you thought. Nor was it a show of solidarity with Volodymyr Zelensky after the shellacking he got last time he visited DC.
Nope, it was because Trump made so much "progress."
"There was so much progress in the readout that was given to these European leaders immediately following his meeting with President Putin that every single one of them got on a plane 48 hours later and flew to the United States of America."
As I believe they say in America, 'Sure, Jan.'
8. They gave the Pizzagate guy a seat in the press room
I've written before about the special "new media seat" in the press room. To recap, the seating in the press room is arranged by the White House Correspondents Association - a body independent of the administration.
So realising they couldn't have total control over what they were asked and who could ask it, the Trump administration sneakily added a new chair to the Press Room - the "new media seat". The occupant of the seat is invited by the White House, and always gets called on for a question first.
I, for one, can't imagine any actual reporter feeling comfortable supplicating themselves to the extent where they'd sit in Karoline's special chair.
But it's OK, because for the vast majority of the time, actual reporters are nowhere near it. Instead, it's a steady stream of right-wing grifters, MAGA influencers and people from the MyPillow guy's website.
So it was that yesterday Leavitt introduced Jack Posobiec, an "alt-right" personality and conspiracy theorist, whose work has touched on white supremacist talking points and attempting to overturn the result of the 2020 election. His tweets have frequently included white supremacist codes and dogwhistles.
And he was one of the most prominent promoters of the false conspiracy theory "Pizzagate", which claimed a child-sex ring was being run from the basement of a Washington DC pizzeria.
(This could be put down to a bit of fun until 2016, when a guy turned up to the restaurant with a gun and demanded to see the basement, only to be told by bewildered staff that there was no basement.)
Yay new media.
9. Dan Bongino's position at the FBI seems uncertain
Former fitness podcast host-turned (sigh) Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino has been on departure watch for months - ever since he had a big row with Attorney General Pam Bondi, which was followed by a curiously unscheduled day off.
Now it's emerged that while he's still Deputy Director of the FBI...he's sharing the role with someone else.
Missouri's attorney general, Andrew Bailey, has been tapped up to be a co-Deputy, a move which has surprised quite a lot of people.
Bongino responded to the announcement with a one-word tweet, saying: "Welcome", followed by three American flags.
10. Fox News host caught up in Trump's crime crackdown
And finally...Brett Baier, the Fox News personality who interviewed Donald Trump immediately after his meeting with Vladimir Putin on Friday, appears to have got caught up in Trump's DC "crime" crackdown.
Footage shows him being pulled over by police in a white 4x4, and providing documents to an officer through his open window.
Baier later explained the stop on Twitter: "I picked up my ringing phone as I drove past an officer while driving my wife's car in Georgetown. He pointed to have me pull over - I did.
"He was very professional. I had to dig for the registration card. Got a ticket and left. I didn't know there was paparazzi."
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The Guardian
17 minutes ago
- The Guardian
European leaders scramble to shield Ukraine in high-stakes Trump talks – but did they?
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The National
23 minutes ago
- The National
Ukraine shows Scotland why independence cannot wait
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Sky News
26 minutes ago
- Sky News
How Trump's Republicans are literally redrawing maps to help stay in power
Legislators in Texas have approved new congressional maps designed to boost Donald Trump's Republicans at next year's midterm elections. Known as redistricting, the state's re-drawn map would shift conservative voters into districts currently held by Democrats, and combine other districts with a Democratic majority into one. The process is not new, and is completely legal - unless it is ruled to be racially motivated - but typically occurs every 10 years after the US Census to account for population changes. The push to redistrict early came from Mr Trump himself, who wants to bolster his chances of preserving the slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives at next year's crucial midterms. But by trying to re-draw the maps in the red state of Texas, Democrats have lined up their own counter redistricting effort in the blue state of California. 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Nicole Collier, who refused the police escort, stayed in the House for two nights, and was pictured with an eye mask and blanket trying to sleep at her desk. Once the debate started, the doors to the chamber were locked and all members wanting to leave had to get a permission slip to do so. After nearly eight hours, the legislation to formally change the map was passed 88-52 on Wednesday. It now needs to be approved by the Texas Senate, where Republicans hold a majority, and then signed off by Mr Abbott, who has already committed to doing just that. Why re-draw maps? Republicans in Texas have openly said the rally to re-draw congressional maps is in the party's interest. Todd Hunter, the Republican who wrote the legislation formally creating the new map, told the House: "The underlying goal of this plan is straight forward: improve Republican political performance." He said the dispute is nothing more than a partisan fight, and made reference to the US Supreme Court having previously allowed politicians to redraw districts for partisan purposes. Democrats hit back, arguing the disagreement was about more than partisanship. "In a democracy, people choose their representatives," representative Chris Turner said. "This bill flips that on its head and lets politicians in Washington, DC, choose their voters." Another Democrat, John H Bucy, blamed the president, saying: "This is Donald Trump's map. "It clearly and deliberately manufactures five more Republican seats in Congress because Trump himself knows that the voters are rejecting his agenda." How have Democrats responded? The move by Republicans has triggered a tit-for-tat move by the Democrats, who are due to meet in California on Thursday to revise the state's maps in order to gain five more seats. To enact the same powers in California will prove harder, as state laws require an independent commission to take responsibility for redistricting - meaning it would need to be approved by voters in a special election. In other blue states, rules are even tighter. For example, in New York, they cannot draw new maps until 2028, and even then, only with voter approval. Despite the obstacles, California governor Gavin Newsom confirmed a redistricting election will take place in the state on 4 November, in order to "fight fire with fire". His plan has gained support from former president Barack Obama, who said it was necessary to "stave off" the Republicans' move in Texas. Could this affect the midterms? The midterms in November next year will likely be on a knife edge. Whatever the outcome, it could shape the remainder of Mr Trump's second term in office. A Democrat majority would make it tougher for him to pass laws. Currently, Republicans control the House of Representatives in Washington, 219-212 (excluding four open vacancies). A party needs 218 seats for a majority. In the Senate, the Republicans hold a similarly slim majority of 53 to 45. However, the incumbent president's party typically loses seats in the midterms. In the 2018 midterms, during Mr Trump's first tenure as president, the Democrats took control of the House. Likewise, in 2022, when Joe Biden was president, the House swung back to the Republicans. It's important to note that 27 House seats will remain in states that are unlikely to redraw their maps, according to The New York Times. In a bid to avoid a repeat of history, Mr Trump is pushing for redistricting in states beyond Texas. Top Republicans in states like Indiana, Missouri, and Florida continue to talk about tweaking their maps to create more Republican-controlled congressional seats. While Ohio has to legally redraw, the timing of which could benefit the Republicans, and, by extension, Mr Trump.
