The Demented Emperor ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

And Then There Were Two:  On Friday night during a New Hampshire rally speech Trump repeatedly confused Nikki Haley with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, claiming that Haley was responsible for failing to protect the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and destroying 10,000 implicating documents.  He also asserted that Joe Biden was leading the country into World War II, a historically bizarre comment that he’s made before. The audience ignored his dementia level gaffes because when a naked orange emperor asks you to admire his new clothes, you do?  On Sunday, the press which stepped away from their Biden is the demented one narrative to focus on Trump’s troubling gaffes, quickly pivoted back to their Trump’s The Man reporting after Florida’s Ron DeSantis pulled out of the presidential race.  Keeping with the emperor theme DeSantis fully endorsed the demented, mentally challenged guy for president.  DeSantis’ withdrawal isn’t a surprise nor is his endorsement, he was running as a Trump mini me. He focused a lot of his resources on Iowa and despite his second-place finish had failed to win a single district. Moreover, he was only polling in the single digits in New Hampshire.  Most pundits had expected him to pull out but thought that he’d wait until after Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary to do so, but Trump’s team, which scarily is far more professional and experienced than the crew that ran his 2016 and 2020 campaigns had been pressuring DeSantis to move aside ASAP and their efforts paid off.  Those same efforts have also resulted in endorsements from the other former presidential contenders, those not named Chris Christie or Asa Hutchinson. South Carolina Senator Tim Scott who Nikki Haley appointed to the Senate when she was governor, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, and Vivek Ramaswamy have all endorsed Trump.  Nikki Haley, received the endorsement of New Hampshire’s conservative Union Leader paper over the weekend and still has NH Governor Chris Sununu’s support as well as one from the all-important Judge Judy who has been out campaigning with her but who are we kidding, Haley will be gone too, it’s just a matter of whether she sticks around to lose her home state of South Carolina where all pundits and pollsters expect her to go down in humiliating flames.  She’s expected to do better in New Hampshire, but better is a relative term.  Even before DeSantis’ weekend pullout, Trump’s lead over her had widened likely because Ramaswamy’s supporters had migrated into his camp.

Veep Without Selina: With the Republican candidates exiting the presidential race the focus is now on Trump’s Veepstakes.  Trump has teased that he already knows who he’s going to pick.  Whether that’s true or not is anyone’s guess because in classic Apprentice mode he’s got all the possible candidates visiting his lair, professing their loyalty, and kissing his butt.  Tim Scott has even announced his engagement to his once secret girlfriend/beard because nothing says Veep material better than marriage. According to Politico the long list of candidates includes NY Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, Ohio Senator JD Vance, Arizona wannabee Kari Lake, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, South Dakota Kristi Noem, former HUD Secretary Ben Carson, Doug Burgum, Vivek Ramaswamy and Tim Scott.  Notably absent from that list is Nikki Haley but who knows, if she pulls out of the race, endorses him quickly, and tosses in her first born as collateral, in exchange for forever fealty, maybe she could jump to the head of the line.  Though Stefanik, who asserts there’s no way that Trump sexually assaulted E Jean Caroll despite the jury’s conclusion that he most certainly did, seemed on top of the Veep list last week, my guess is he’ll stick with one of the more physically attractive options because Trump is who he is.  As to the E Jean Caroll case, with the issue of Trump’s culpability established, the jury is deciding how much 💰 💰 he owes her.  Trump says he’ll be there to testify on his own behalf today or then again maybe not because the last time he promised to do so, he bailed at the last minute.

Line Crossing:  If you are wondering why there’s been little mention of New Hampshire’s Democratic primary, it’s because much to the dismay of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, the Democratic National Committee decided that small, mostly white states shouldn’t go first making next month’s South Carolina primary rather than New Hampshire’s the first official Democratic primary of this presidential cycle. As a result, President Biden is not on the NH primary ballot.  That said, the primary is still taking place tomorrow with twenty-one other candidates including Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips on the Democratic ballot. Biden is expected to garner enough write-in votes to win, but his margin over Phillips will likely be slimmer than elsewhere given the awkward mechanics. Elsewhere in Biden land, son Hunter has finally agreed to testify behind closed House doors.  No doubt the “leaked” snippets of his testimony will be far more implicating than the entirety of his testimony leaving it to Democratic committee members like Maryland’s Raskin and NY’s Goldman to tell us what really takes place.  Lastly, keep an eye on the courts.  We should be hearing news about Trump’s civil penalty in the NY case as well as his immunity appeal shortly.  No one expects the Appeals Court to agree with Trump’s assertion that presidents should have total immunity, always so that “even events that ‘cross the line’ must fall under total immunity, or it will be years of trauma trying to determine good from bad.”  Is it me, or is Trump telling us that he’ll be crossing all the lines should he make it back to the Oval office? Trauma ahead.

#BringThemAllHomeNow