More Trump, Please

President Donald Trump waves as he walks to board Air Force One on Thursday at Joint Base Andrews. Alex Brandon/AP

There’s been much outrage over the White House using millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to place political ads featuring President Donald Trump on football game broadcasts, news shows, Saturday Night Live, and other television programs. One ad features black-and-white footage of a stern-looking Trump striding down a hallway, as he proclaims in a voiceover that he will crush “the warmongers,” “globalists,” and “deep state” actors. “We will cast out the communists, Marxists, and fascists,” Trump declares. “We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake news media, and we will liberate America from these villains once and for all.” At the end, the spot says, “Paid for by the US Government.”

Trump detractors and Democratic officials rushed to express indignation, and many experts pronounced these ads illegal. Taxpayer funds are not supposed to be used for partisan endeavors. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) tweeted: “This may be felony criminal theft and conversion of government property for political campaign purposes…It is a Hatch Act violation for any government employees who worked on it or used government resources to make it. It is blatantly unethical under numerous federal ethics provisions proscribing the use of government resources for political campaigns.”

The latest revelation about this ad campaign sparked even more ire: The White House paid for these ads with funding for the Department of Homeland Security that was supposed to be used for border security, operations to counter drug trafficking, and memorials for slain officers.

This is indeed an affront to decency and a likely violation of the law. That aside, it is a godsend for Democrats.

At this point, Trump is the worst brand in American politics. The more he’s on the mind of American voters, the better it is for the Democrats. In an Associated Press-NORC poll released Thursday, Trump hit a career-low approval rating of 31 percent. Across all issues—the economy (26 percent), the Iran war (28 percent), immigration (39 percent)—his numbers are terrible. Americans are no longer buying the swill he’s slinging. This is not a Golden Age. The Iran war is neither over nor a triumph. The mass deportation crusade is not rounding up only malfeasants. Only those Americans who are in the Trump cult accept his lies.

Multiple polls indicate that independent voters have abandoned Trump. He has become an albatross for GOP candidates in competitive races. Their only chance is to distance themselves from the highly unpopular Trump. Yet he’s making this tougher for them by insisting this election is about him. (Isn’t everything about him?) “I’m asking you to pretend that I’m on the ballot,” Trump bellowed at the Republicans’ midterm convention in Dallas last month. Not all Republicans—not even MAGA Republicans—welcome that. Last week, Ken Paxton, the scandal-tarred Texas attorney general running for Senate against Democrat James Talarico, told a group of lobbyists and donors that this Trump celebration in Dallas had been bad for his campaign. If Republicans could exile Trump to Mar-a-Lago, they would.

Let’s imagine an R-leaning independent voter in Bangor, Maine, who has soured on Trump. He’s voted for GOP Sen. Susan Collins in the past and favorably views her as a moderate Republican who once in a while breaks with Trump. On Sunday, he’s watching the game. At the third-quarter break, after he grabs a beer, he returns to the television and on comes an ad touting Trump. He’s irked that Trump is injecting himself into the broadcast. Moreover, he’s reminded that prices are up because of Trump’s tariffs and the war in Iran and that Trump has not delivered on any of his promises to make his life better. Maybe he’s even pissed off. Maybe he thinks Trump’s railing about “communists” is just bullshit to distract from his poor performance as president.

In any event, whatever his reaction to the ad—which won’t be positive—it’s not going to make this Mainer inclined to vote for Collins.

The more voters see of Trump in these final weeks of the campaign, the better it will be for Democrats. Let him rant about the Kennedy Center and drone on about his dumb ballroom and his absurd arch. Let him declare the Iran war is done and he has triumphed. Let him claim again and again that he’s the best president ever and Americans are fortunate to have him. None of this is working.

In fact, it didn’t work last time. In 2020, The Washington Post reported on research later published in Legislative Studies Quarterly showing that Trump’s support of Republicans during the 2018 midterms cost his party 11 House seats and four Senate seats. The researchers noted, “While President Trump’s public endorsements provided a financial boost to endorsed candidates, they also increased donor support of opposing candidates and were ultimately detrimental to candidates’ vote shares and likelihood of winning.”

It’s déjà vu all over again. Moreover, Trump has taken no steps to improve the political environment for Republican candidates—except for trying to bribe voters by saying a GOP-controlled Congress will send every American a $5,000 check. That was a bonkers proposal, and Republican candidates are not talking about it. Trump has done little else in terms of presidential action to boost GOP prospects, while Vice President JD Vance has been left to beg voters to “give us another chance.”

It’s most likely criminal for the Trump administration to use taxpayer dollars for those propaganda ads. But Trump’s Justice Department sure ain’t going to investigate. And the Federal Election Commission, due to Trump’s dismissal of commissioners, has no quorum and cannot authorize any investigations. Still, the irony is that these spots could well end up harming Republicans in tough contests and contribute to a GOP loss in the midterms.

The Trump White House seems to believe it is being clever by diverting public funds to hagiographic ads you’d expect to see in a Stalinist state. Perhaps officials believe this can juice up their base and bring Trump cultists to the polls. But GOP contenders do not want independent and swing voters thinking about Trump when they enter the voting booth or fill out their mail-in ballots.

Trump, though, cannot stay out of the limelight. That’s death for him. Attention is his oxygen. But he and his lieutenants apparently cannot see that these ads are own goals.

So just like the classic SNL skit that calls for “more cowbell,” Democrats ought to be saying, “More Trump.” Most voters have rejected the rerun of his reality show. Shoving ads for this program down their throats will likely not prevent them from changing the channel.

Got anything to say about this item—or anything else? Email me at ourland.corn@gmail.com.

Yesterday, Mother Jones launched a new video podcast co-hosted by Garrison Hayes, an award-winning video journalist, and yours truly. We will be digging deep into the key issues and controversies of the midterms and prepping for whatever shenanigans or crises that may come our way in this election. The 2020 election showed how fragile our democracy can be. With Trump already falsely claiming these contests will be rigged and signaling he won’t accept the results should the Republicans lose, the current elections are a stress test for our republic. Please check out our first episode and subscribe at youtube.com/motherjones. 

In 2012, when I broke the news that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney at a private fundraiser had denigrated “47 percent” of Americans as freeloaders who expected the government to take care of them, Stuart Stevens, Romney’s chief strategist, was probably not a fan of my work. But things change. Stevens, who broke with the GOP over Trump, and I now share many views. And during a podcast about my new book, he called How Russia Won: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Fight for America “extraordinary” and “incredible.” You can watch that here:

Of the many stupid things Trump said and did this week—including declaring that the big AI companies can regulate themselves—he sputtered this nonsense about Canada: “They have been one of the worst countries in the entire world.”

As he honors Chinese dictator Xi Jinping and invites Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to the G20 meeting later this year (at his own resort in Florida), he derides the United States’ closest ally in this fashion. It’s quite the contrast.

House Speaker Mike Johnson just cannot quit his robotic devotion to Dear Leader. On the topic of the Iran war, he said, “Operation Epic Fury was an epic success.”

Ignoring that the Strait of Hormuz is not open, the war continues, and this conflict has triggered violence elsewhere in the region, Johnson claimed that Trump had triumphed because Tehran’s nuclear program has been halted. That’s not certain. As many foreign policy analysts have noted, this war has led to the rise within the Iranian government of hardliners who are more committed to a nuclear program than perhaps the previous regime was. If this is Johnson’s definition of “success,” I’d hate to see what failure would be for him.

Sticking with the war, the judges got a laugh out of this. As The Wall Street Journal reported, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a “State of the Force” speech Wednesday to hundreds of officers and enlisted service members at a Marine Corps base, and he handed out a book compiling his past speeches. It included a foreword by Trump in which the president declares, “As your commander in chief, I will not ask you to fight dumb wars.” How long ago was this written?

The judges tend to avoid awarding the top prize to comments that have received a great amount of attention. But on some occasions, the obvious cannot be ignored. Thus, this week’s crown goes to Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.). He mounted one of the dumbest Senate hearing performances in modern history.

Schmitt was trying to prove a deranged right-wing conspiracy theory that former special counsel Jack Smith, who investigated Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election, was somehow in cahoots with Fani Willis, the district attorney in Atlanta who indicted Trump and 18 others for scheming to subvert those election results. With Smith as a witness before him, he stated he had evidence showing that Smith had been in Atlanta at a pivotal moment in Willis’ investigation—presumably for some nefarious purpose. That proof was texts supposedly showing Smith had attended an Atlanta Hawks basketball game.

When Smith said he had not been in Atlanta at that time, Schmitt declared, “I think you’ve already perjured yourself.”

But…oops. On the date in question, Smith had attended a basketball game. But it was a college women’s basketball game in the Washington, DC, area between the University of Maryland and the University of Iowa—that is, between the Terrapins and the Hawkeyes. Here’s the full exchange:

Even if Smith had been in Atlanta on that particular day, that would not mean he had conspired with Willis.

There was justifiably much guffawing about Schmitt’s blunder. But it showed how cavalier the konspiracy klowns of the right are when it comes to ascertaining and confirming facts. For the judges, declaring Schmitt the winner was a slam dunk.

Many folks wrote in to say they were reading How Russia Won: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Fight for America; others noted they were concerned about Russian efforts to incorporate me into the disinformation campaign Putin’s operatives have launched to meddle in the midterm elections.

Bettina Norton emailed:

How can Russian disinformation be countered?? Won’t Trump fans believe it unless there’s a viable counterattack? Is there one?

How to counter disinformation is a vexing and complicated problem. If you address it, you also amplify it. And it’s hard to convince hardcore Trumpers of anything they don’t already believe. What’s often best is to try to smother it. In our case, we got X to take down the bogus posts that falsely cited me and Mother Jones before they went viral. That might be the best we can do, while highlighting the fact that Russia is indeed promulgating disinformation of this sort.

Martha Ture reported:

I’m about halfway through your book. Here is what I see. Donald Trump is the most significant traitor in world history. Vladimir Putin now owns the president of the United States. And his family. Umar Kremlev is an inner circle Putin “employee” whose purchase of and presence at Don Jr.’s wedding has significance in Asia that US media has not mentioned. Kremlev’s presence tells Russia and China that Putin approved of the wedding and that Putin expects backchannels and leverage within this and potentially future US administrations. We the people are betrayed. 

It is interesting to ponder how the story of Kremlev attending and financing Junior’s lavish wedding celebration might be viewed in Russia and elsewhere. It certainly can signal to Russians and people in other nations that Putin has fully infiltrated the Trump family and has forged a close bond with this corrupt clan. In the United States, it seems already to be a fading story.

Referring to how Russian disinformation has been embraced and disseminated by conservatives and right-wing media, Marcia Peters asked:

Probably a stupid question, but what happens if you call out Fox for disseminating such garbage? It can’t be “just our opinion.” 

Fox doesn’t care about being called out. Its basic business model is to toss red meat to its conservative audience. That means it often broadcasts propaganda, lies, and disinformation. Being proven wrong won’t change its fundamental strategy for making gobs of money. 

Susan Meyerson posed this question about the threat Trump made at the United Nations to “annihilate” Iran:

Doesn’t just saying you are going to annihilate another country constitute a war crime? 

I’m not sure that suggesting you might commit a war crime is itself a war crime. But it is obviously outrageous and ought to be a disqualifier for any president. Had any previous American president suggested this, it would have been a scandal for weeks, and impeachment would be on the table. But not now—which shows how far into an abyss the nation has descended.

“Why are you pointing the camera away from me?”
“I’m trying something artistic, Moxie.”
“But don’t your readers count on seeing me each week? Isn’t that what the premium subscribers pay for?”
“I think they’ll forgive me this one time.”
“I hope you’re right.”