Third Time's a Charm?  ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Trump Trial:  After a Friday hiatus for son Barron’s graduation ceremony, which Trump did attend, the New York hush money case is back in session this morning.  Today’s festivities are expected to include some more cross examination of former fixer Michael Cohen by Trump lawyer Todd Blanche followed by some clean up “redirect” questioning by prosecutors.  Prosecutors are expected to try to clarify Cohen’s recollection of one telephone call, suggesting that his “faulty” testimony about the call was due to a memory lapse rather than what the defense has characterized as another lie from a habitual liar. The issue is whether that call only involved Cohen seeking Trump aide Keith Schiller’s help in fending off some threats against him or whether, as Cohen asserts, it also included him updating Trump on the status of the Stormy hush money deal.  Following that, the defense will present their witnesses to the extent they plan to call any. Though they’re still hinting at calling Trump, no one expects that they will.  Assuming the defense wraps up today, tomorrow will be all about closing statements. 

Road Tripping: After Barron’s graduation Trump was off to Minnesota for a campaign event. He lost Minnesota by more than 230,000 phones in 2020 but since facts don’t matter, he told his audience that he won it by 200,000 and is confident that he’ll win it “again” in 2024. It’s unlikely that blue Minnesota will go for Trump in November, but Trump hopes says he’s going to flip it and to put it mildly if he succeeds, Biden will be in deep trouble.  Trump also spoke at Dallas’ NRA convention this weekend where he promised to rollback all of Biden’s gun control efforts because everyone should be able to easily buy weapons of war.  He’ll toss them to the wayside along with Biden’s environment accomplishments, he bragged about being responsible for overturning Roe, and more than hinted he’d run for a third term after he “wins” in November. Trump who had problems with what he called a “faulty” podium in Minnesota, had a McConnell like glitch in Dallas, falling silent for a very long 30 seconds. His silence was likely due to a teleprompter misfunction but things like that happen, and politicians usually can handle it when they do.  What was odd here was Trump’s inability to banter with the crowd while the teleprompter was fixed. Once he and his teleprompter were rebooted, Trump had a few choice words for RFK Jr who he painted as part of the radical left, an indication that he’s as concerned as Biden’s camp is about RFK’s spoiler potential. There’s huge irony in Trump whose “warp speed” COVID vaccine effort saved lives battling RFK Jr over who is more genuinely opposed to vaccines. RFK’s very rich running partner Nicole Shanahan has thrown another $8 million into their coffers to help him get on the ballot in more states because to screw up an election you need to be on the ballot in most states but if today’s NY Post story is accurate, nepo RJK may find himself with a problem in the states where he’s already qualified.  The NY Post reports that he’s listed a Katonah, NY house that he doesn’t live in as his legal address for state filing purposes.  Talking problems, shortly after taunting Arizona’s Attorney General for failing to track him down, Rudy Giuliani was finally served with Arizona indictment papers while celebrating his 80^th birthday.  Rudy was indicted for his part in the conspiracy to overturn the Arizona election results.  Biden was busy too, not teasing a third term or bragging about faux golf tournament victories but instead working on bolstering Black support by speaking at Morehouse College’s graduation ceremony and at an NAACP dinner. 

Fog:  Yesterday Iran’s 63-year-old president Ebrahim Raisi and eight others including the republic’s foreign minister were killed in what looks to be a weather-related helicopter crash in a remote mountainous region of Iran.  Raisi was the second-most powerful person in Iran’s government after 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni. Iran’s 68-year-old First Vice President Mohammed Mokhber is now acting president. Iran’s constitution requires that new elections be held within 50 days. Nothing like some more uncertainty in a fraught region to spice up the weekend.  Meantime, Israel announced that they’ve recovered the remains of four more Israelis hostages, including 23-year-old Shani Louk the German Israeli concert attendee whose half-naked body was paraded through Gaza by Hamas on October 7. Though he’s alive and kicking, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s coalition may be on life support. On Saturday night war time government coalition member Bennie Gantz presented him with an ultimatum saying he would leave the government on June 8 if Bibi did not develop a plan that would aim to secure the release of the remaining hostages, address the future governance of Gaza, return displaced Israelis to their homes and advance normalization with Saudi Arabia. Easy, right?  

 #BringThemAllHomeNow