Report: Trump invites Hoosier Republicans to White House
Why it matters: Gov. Mike Braun has said it's up to lawmakers whether he calls them back for a special redistricting session.
Driving the news: Reps. Becky Cash, Danny Lopez, Jim Lucas, Craig Haggard, J.D. Prescott and Spencer Deery have all publicly said they don't want to redraw Indiana's maps.
Lucas and Lopez have said they are "a hard no."
What they're saying:"We are being asked to create a new culture in which it would be normal for a political party to select new voters, not once a decade — but any time it fears the consequences of an approaching election," Deery said in a statement.
The latest: Punchbowl News is reporting that Trump has invited all Indiana Republican legislators to the White House later this month.
The big picture: Democrats have been outspoken about their outrage at what they've called an effort to steal the upcoming election but, being in the superminority, there is little they can do to stop it.
Reality check: With 70 members, the House GOP caucus could lose 19 members and still pass legislation.
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Yahoo
37 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Love in a cold climate: Putin romances Trump in Alaska with talk of rigged elections and a trip to Moscow
That was the moment he knew it was true love. Donald Trump turned to gaze at Vladimir Putin as the Russian president publicly endorsed his view that, had Trump been president instead of Joe Biden, the war in Ukraine would never have happened. 'Today President Trump was saying that if he was president back then, there would be no war, and I'm quite sure that it would indeed be so,' Putin said. 'I can confirm that.' Vladimir, you complete me, Trump might have replied. To hell with all those Democrats, democrats, wokesters, fake news reporters and factcheckers. Here is a man who speaks my authoritarian alternative facts language. The damned doubters had been worried about Friday's big summit at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, a cold war-era airbase under a big sky and picturesque mountains on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska. Related: No Ukraine ceasefire but a PR victory for Putin: key takeaways from Trump's Alaska summit with Russian president They feared that it might resemble Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Adolf Hitler in Munich 1938, or Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin carving up the world for the great powers at the Yalta Conference in 1945. It was worse than that. Trump, 79, purportedly the most powerful man in the world, literally rolled out the red carpet for a Russian dictator indicted for alleged war crimes over the abduction and transfer of thousands of Ukrainian children. Putin's troops have also been accused of indiscriminate murder, rape and torture on an appalling scale. In more than 100 countries, the 72-year-old would have been arrested the moment he set foot on the tarmac. In America, he was treated to a spontaneous burst of applause from the waiting Trump, who gave him a long, lingering handshake and a ride in 'the Beast', the presidential limousine. Putin could be seen cackling on the back seat, looking like the cat who got the cream. As a former KGB man, did he leave behind a bug or two? Three hours later, the men walked on stage for an anticlimactic 12-minute press conference against a blue backdrop printed with the words 'Pursuing peace'. Putin is reportedly 170cm (5.7ft) tall, while Trump is 190cm (6.3ft), yet the Russian seemed be the dominant figure. Curiously, given that the US was hosting, Putin was allowed to speak first, which gave him the opportunity to frame the narrative. More curiously still, the deferential Trump spoke for less time than his counterpart, though he did slip in a compliment: 'I've always had a fantastic relationship with President Putin – with Vladimir.' The low-energy Trump declined to take any questions from reporters – a rare thing indeed for the attention monster and wizard of 'the weave' – and shed little light on the prospect of a ceasefire in Ukraine. Perhaps he wanted to give his old pals at Fox News the exclusive. Having snubbed the world's media, Trump promptly sat down and spilled the beans – well, a few of them – to host Sean Hannity, a cheerleader who has even spoken at a Trump rally. The president revealed: 'Vladimir Putin said something – one of the most interesting things. He said: 'Your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting … No country has mail-in voting. It's impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections.' 'And he said that to me because we talked about 2020. He said: 'You won that election by so much and that's how we got here.' He said: 'And if you would have won, we wouldn't have had a war. You'd have all these millions of people alive now instead of dead. And he said: 'You lost it because of mail-in voting. It was a rigged election.'' In other words, the leader of one of the world's oldest democracies was taking advice from a man who won last year's Russian election with more than 87% of the vote and changed the constitution so he can stay in power until 2036. In this warped retelling of history, the insurrectionists of January 6 were actually trying to stop a war. Evidently Putin knows that whispering Trump's favourite lies into his ear is the way to his heart. It worked. The Russian leader, visiting the United States for the first time in a decade, got his wish of being welcomed back on the world stage and made to look the equal of the US president. He could also go home reassured that, despite a recent rough patch, and despite Trump's brief bromance with Elon Musk, he loves you yeah, yeah, yeah. 'Next time in Moscow,' he told Trump in English. 'Oh, that's an interesting one,' the US president responded. 'I'll get a little heat on that one, but I could see it possibly happening.' Trump's humiliation was complete. But all was not lost. At least no one was talking about Jeffrey Epstein or the price of vegetables.
an hour ago
Takeaways from the Trump-Putin meeting: No agreement, no questions but lots of pomp
WASHINGTON -- The much-anticipated summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin began with a warm welcome and a flyover by screaming jets at a U.S. military base in Alaska but ended with a thud Friday after they conceded that they had failed to reach any agreements on how to end the Russia-Ukraine war. After about 2 1/2 hours of talks at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, the two men appeared before reporters for what had been billed as a joint news conference — but they took no questions. 'We had an extremely productive meeting and many points were agreed to, there are just a very few that are left,' Trump said. 'We didn't get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there.' Putin, welcomed into the U.S. after being shunned by Western allies since early 2022 for ordering the invasion of Ukraine, thanked Trump for hosting the meeting and suggested with a chuckle that the next time the two sit down it could be in Moscow. Here are key takeaways from the summit: Putin got a red carpet welcome and even rode in Trump's presidential limousine from the tarmac to the summit venue. There, the pair were joined by two of their top aides: Secretary of State and national security adviser Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff for Trump and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and national security adviser Yuri Ushakov for Putin. Putin, who spoke first after the meeting concluded, lauded the historical relationship between the United States, Russia and the former Soviet Union, recalling joint missions conducted by the two countries during World War II. He said the U.S. and Russia share values, a standard talking point for Russian officials when trying to woo Trump and his aides. Putin also noted that Trump has frequently said the Ukraine war wouldn't have happened had he won the 2020 election. "I think that would have been the case," the Russian leader said, a comment sure to please Trump. However, there is no indication and no way to prove that Moscow would have acted differently toward Ukraine had Democrat Joe Biden not been elected. Trump had gone into the meeting hoping to get Putin to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine — or at least a commitment from Russia to enter into negotiations to reach one. Instead, Trump conceded that 'we haven't quite got there' and said he would be conferring with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO leaders about next steps. Trump said he and Putin had made some significant progress toward the goal of ending the conflict but gave no details on what that entailed and had to acknowledge that they had been unable to bridge substantial gaps. 'I believe we had a very productive meeting,' Trump said. 'We haven't quite got there, but we've made some headway. So, there's no deal until there's a deal.' In a subsequent conversation with Sean Hannity of Fox News Channel, Trump again offered no details on his discussions with Putin. Amid drawn-out diplomatic moves to end the war, time is appears to be on Putin's side. That gives a leg up to Russian forces, who have used their larger numbers to slowly grind down defenses in eastern Ukraine 3 1/2 years into the conflict. Putin got a pleasant reception from the leader of the free world on U.S. soil and walked away hours later without either providing details on what they discussed, whether a ceasefire was any closer to reality or what the next steps would be. Putin praised Trump for the 'friendly' tone of the talks — Trump said nothing publicly about the killing of Ukrainian civilians in Moscow's attacks — and for 'understanding that Russia has its own national interests.' Putin said Moscow and Washington should 'turn the page,' with relations having sunk to the lowest point since the Cold War. Putin appearing in the U.S. for the first time in 10 years was celebrated as a sign that Moscow was no longer a pariah on the global stage. In a social media post, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told followers that the Western press would be on the verge of 'losing their minds.' 'For three years, they talked about Russia's isolation, and today they saw the red carpet being rolled out to greet the Russian president in the United States,' she said. Both men said the talks were 'productive' but the lack of any announcement of solid achievements was revealing. The news conference ended up being less than 15 minutes of rather standard diplomatic comments — and gave no indication that any concrete results were achieved — and offered little departure from their previous comments on the war in Ukraine. Trump has made it a feature of his second term to parry questions from reporters in front of world leaders, but in the clearest sign of his disappointment, the president abruptly cut short his plans to take questions. Trump had gone into the summit saying here was a 25% chance that the summit would fail and that it was meant to be a 'feel-out meeting,' but he had also floated the idea of bringing Zelenskyy to Alaska for a subsequent, three-way meeting if things went well. It's unclear what comes next.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Now we know just how useless Trump's Alaska summit really was ... to everyone but Vladimir Putin
Before President Trump's tête-à-tête with Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, press secretary Karoline Leavitt was already downplaying the stakes. Wednesday morning, she described the summit as a 'listening exercise' — which is, frankly, a relief. After all, when you're a time-poor autocrat juggling a Monday invasion, a midweek labor camp opening, and a weekend of jailing political opponents, it's easy to feel unheard. Sure, Putin invaded Ukraine. And yes, countless people have suffered ... on both sides. But perhaps — and I think we can all agree this is the real tragedy here — no one has taken the time to validate his feelings. So it was heartening, then, to see Vlad and Donald touch down on Alaskan soil midday Friday and greet each other with warmth: a smattering of applause from Trump, a weirdly prolonged handshake, and then the two friends sliding into the same back seat — a notable break in protocol — for the drive to their meeting. Waiting for them on the tarmac was a stage emblazoned 'ALASKA 2025,' festival-style, primed for the photo-op. Meanwhile, at least seven civilians had just been killed in Ukraine by Russian missiles. When they emerged again for a post-meeting press conference, earlier than expected, it was clear a good time had been had by all. They had agreed on 'most points,' said Trump. He was going to 'call up NATO,' he added, saying, 'I will, of course, call up President Zelensky and tell him about today's meeting." Very good of him. They should meet, Putin added, but 'next time in Moscow.' Trump laughed at that point, calling his suggestion 'an interesting one.' 'I'll get a little heat on that one,' the American president added, 'but I could see it possibly happening.' The two men leaned in toward each other and smiled, like they were sharing an inside joke. The bottom line: a nebulous amount of 'progress' made, some 'headway,' stuff to talk about, but 'there's no deal until there's a deal.' Ah well. Maybe Vlad just needs more time. I'm pretty sure, however, that he already got what he came for — and that the joke is on America. Contrast the kid-gloves treatment of everybody's favorite dictator with the treatment of Volodymyr Zelensky a few months ago, when he visited the White House. Indeed, it is hard to recall another Oval Office meeting where an allied head of state was treated quite like the Ukrainian president was in February. Lest we forget, Zelensky had arrived to discuss a minerals deal that might have bolstered his country's three-year fight for survival. He left having been publicly chided, mid-meeting, for 'disrespect' and insufficient gratitude. Trump accused him of 'gambling with World War III', while JD Vance, in full Wormtail mode, jumped in to ask: 'Have you even said thank-you once?' It was both difficult and embarrassing to watch. This is the asymmetry at the heart of Trump-era foreign policy: allies get the tongue-lashing, rivals get the literal red carpet. Zelensky's reward for resisting an existential threat was a televised scolding. Putin's reward for creating it has been years of deference and flattery. Recall the Helsinki summit, where Trump sided with the Russian leader over his own intelligence agencies, or the warm praise for Putin's 'genius'. Too self-satisfied to realize he's been manipulated, The Donald simply keeps walking into the same trap, over and over again. Trump himself seems to have realized how poor his own negotiating skills are in the past few weeks. Putin's not a blowhard like his American counterpart; he just does what he feels like, and everyone else be damned. Indeed, it was Donald himself who put it best in a press conference earlier in July where he described his ongoing efforts to help broker an end to the war in Ukraine thus: 'I get home, I say to the First Lady, 'I had the most wonderful talk with Vladimir. I think we are finished,'' to which Melania will apparently respond in kind: 'That's funny, because they just bombed a nursing home.' Therein lies the entire issue. Trump is brittle and easily manipulated; Putin talks him round again and again. Trump leaves those conversations utterly convinced of both Putin's integrity and his own genius. Then Putin goes on dropping bombs and killing people. It's a familiar story that's played out not just in Russia, and that we can expect to play out anywhere where there's a strongman leader with a penchant for basic flattery. And really, where better to stage this utterly redundant spectacle than Alaska — the state Trump accidentally referred to as Russia earlier this week, and which, of course, once belonged to the Russian Empire. After all, isn't the whole point to start returning old territories to their former owners? Alaska, a place that is currently arranging citizen evacuations because of an uncontrolled glacier flood due to the effects of climate change, where water is thundering toward a dam called Suicide Basin. (Anchorage is on the other end of the state to where all that is happening in Juneau, meaning that Trump was able to fly right over Suicide Basin and shutter his Qatari-gifted Air Force One windows to the sight of climate catastrophe before he landed at a military base to meet with the man who started a war to talk about ending it.) Alaska, the perfect place to propose — as leaks have suggested — that Russia has a 'West Bank-style occupation of Ukraine,' since all available geopolitical sources suggest that solution has already played out so well for everyone involved. And so the dance goes on, and tangible progress is not made but cameras and microphones and spotlights are perpetually trained on two geriatric egomaniacs. This kind of time-wasting theater always works in Russia's favor. The war will rumble on in Ukraine. The deal will never be made. Trump will get a few nice words, Putin will get his headlines. And the rest of us are left with just the images of Donald and his little band of spray-tanned comrades marching about in the Alaskan summer, isolated together in a cold state in the middle of nowhere, with only a friendly dictator to keep them warm.
