Hi everyone!
I think I speak for all of us when I say I hope this new cycle switches over to something else pretty soon. Between Trump attacking MAGA and MAGA feeling belittled, demeaned, and ignored, it's just been a bit too much. Yesterday was a weird one. First thing in the morning Trump posted a diatribe on Truth Social repeating his new talking point that the whole Epstein thing is a Democrat hoax, and he called out his "PAST supporters" for buying into it.
Then reporter John Solomon came out with a big story and went on Steve Bannon's War Room to talk about it, saying that he did an interview with Trump where Trump said that he'd be down with appointing a special prosecutor in the Epstein situation. After that, Trump was hosting foreign leaders from Bahrain and again, when asked about Epstein in the Oval Office, he repeated his whole hoax thing.
When the interview with Solomon finally dropped about 6 pm on Real America's Voice, it turned out that Trump barely said anything about a special prosecutor and that instead Solomon asked "whether you think a special prosecutor might be warranted." Trump said, "I don't know much about it but it deserves to be done," and then went off on a tangent about 2016 and 2020 and voting. That was it, that was the whole big reveal. Meanwhile, over at the White House, a reporter asked Trump if he'd consider appointing a special counsel, and the president said, "I have nothing to do with it."
Dem Rep. Ro Khanna said per Punchbowl “It’s a terrible issue for Republicans, and they see that. People voted for Trump in part because they were so disgusted with the system — they thought that Washington protected the elite, protects the powerful, and protects the wealthy. Epstein is a symbol of that.” Don't think the Democrats aren't going to fight to keep this whole thing front and center, the GOP is mad about it, and Dems will def fan those flames.
The thing that the whole Trump team doesn't get is that MAGA is made up of people who love Trump and people who hate the government. Trump's been trashing the former and making the latter re-up their government hatred, only now with Trump as part of the government machine. Nice going, Mr. President, if you keep on "winning" like this we could very well lose the House in 2026. The Democrats are just salivating over these own goals. As I said on Timcast the other night, "This is a base that is not going to trust you just because they voted for you."
Pam Bondi fired Epstein prosecutor Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey. Trump said Coca-Cola would bring back real cane sugar to their soft drinks in the US. Trump backed Andrew Cuomo staying in the New York City mayoral race, where he'll run against current Mayor Eric Adams, absurd socialist Zohran Mamdani, and Curtis Sliwa. I still think Mamdani's probably going to win.
Mamdani, meanwhile, met with some of those big NYC billionaires he wants to tax and answered some of their questions about his intentions for the Big Apple. One big shot, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, son of Holocaust survivors, asked Mamdani about his refusal to condemn the use of the phrase "globalize the intifada." Mamdani heard Bourla out and then told him that he would "discourage" use of the phrase but not "the idea behind it." The idea behind it, of course, is the eradication of Israel and Jews worldwide. Fella seems like a real winner here, gang.
At Turning Point's Student Action Summit in Tampa, I got a chance to sit down and talk to Rep. Anna Paulina Luna about two things near and dear to my heart: motherhood and the repeal of the Patriot Act. Luna said she's working on getting that repealed and that there's actually bipartisan consensus on getting the thing gone, but that it's been hard for people to make that a priority. I'd say making warrantless surveillance of Americans illegal should be a priority for all of us, but hey, what do I know.
Before I let you go, there's just one more thing, if I can quote Columbo. Dan Rivera, a paranormal investigator and a US Army veteran aged 54, died suddenly in Gettysburg, PA while on tour with the haunted Annabelle doll. He was found in his hotel room and the cause of death has not yet been revealed. I dug into this a bit for the write-up at The Post Millennial, and because of my interest in ghost stories, I was familiar with the legend of the doll. Rivera's life isn't the first one allegedly claimed by the doll.
The doll was part of an exhibit at an occult museum, which is now permanently closed but which I would never even consider going to even if it were open, and was encased in glass that people weren't supposed to touch. It was a gift to a nursing student in 1970 and apparently left notes on parchment reading "help me" before strangling a guy and leaking blood while moving around the apartment on its own.
Probably I don't believe all this nonsense about a doll being possessed by an angry, long-deceased 7-year-old, but also if you tell me not to touch the glass case that holds the haunted doll, I'm not gonna touch the glass. The former owner of the doll, Lorraine Warren, who ran the occult museum with her husband, told an audience in 2014, "that doll is what I'd be most frightened of." Eek.