We Created a Monster: Trump Was a TV Fantasy Invented for 'The Apprentice'

Friends:

Not sure if this is the "October surprise" in politics folks are looking for but I certainly hope that it changes some votes. Trump is not just pure fiction, but a monster created by NBC chief marketer John D. Miller who expresses deep regret for making Trump a household name that ultimately plummeted him into the White House. 

Trump has mostly been great at serial bankruptcies, as opposed to being the great businessman that people believe him to be. 

If you've not seen the Trump Town Hall on Univision, I encourage you to do so. Trump's audience was comprised of undecided Latino voters, including immigrants, from many different backgrounds, ranging from agricultural workers, construction workers, college students, and business professionals, all very clear and well-spoken in their questions of Donald Trump. 

To say the least, he answered unclearly, dodged or failed to answer questions, gaslighted and insulted his audience, said January 6 was a "day of love," didn't walk back his statement in the debate with Kamala Harris about immigrants in Springfield eating cats and dogs. What planet is this guy on?

There are good follow-up posts on this including this one by Nikki McCann Ramirez in the Rolling Stone Magazine titled, Univision Town Hall Participants Unimpressed With ‘Arrogant’ Trump: Participants in the event expressed frustration with the former president in interviews.

A more critical angle appears on MSNBC's Morning Joe with former Univision president Joaquin Blaya referring to it as an "infomercial" that brought in the audience as "props," who further criticizes the network for not doing any fact-checking. Blaya is concerned that the network was irresponsible in giving Trump a platform. A serious Town Hall, he says, would have featured journalist Jorge Ramos who is arguably the most respected Latino journalist in the nation. Why they didn't do this, I agree, is troubling. 

To this, I would add that a serious Univision Town Hall on Latino undecided voters should conduct a poll of audience members following the debate if it is to make a real contribution to the process.

My sincere wish is that Kamala Harris also gets invited to an Univision Town hall to address either this same, or another similar audience and that Jorge Ramos moderate it.

Criticisms aside, the faces of the audience were priceless and telling, so opposite from other audiences he's been in front of where genuinely serious people are treating an "unserious" man seriously. To me, this means that even if they were intended to be "props," the audience clearly showed little love toward him, suggesting that they decided, as a whole, to effectively reject his role or presence in the performance. This could indicate that the audience found him unconvincing or simply unlikable, and as a result, distanced themselves from his part in the show.

Yes, Univision needs to stop aiding and abetting a fraudster, convicted felon, and media-created monster by giving him a platform, but I'm still glad that all of this came out. I hope this isn't too little too late.

-Angela Valenzuela

NBC Marketing Chief Admits The Apprentice Made Trump a “Monster”

NBC’s former chief marketer regrets selling an illusion that has had dire consequences for the world.

By John D. Miller | ContributorOct. 16, 2024, at 5:35 p.m.

I want to apologize to America. I helped create a monster.

For nearly 25 years, I led marketing at NBC and NBCUniversal. I led the team that marketed “The Apprentice,” the reality show that made Donald Trump a household name outside of New York City, where he was better known for overextending his empire and appearing in celebrity gossip columns.

To sell the show, we created the narrative that Trump was a super-successful businessman who lived like royalty. That was the conceit of the show. At the very least, it was a substantial exaggeration; at worst, it created a false narrative by making him seem more successful than he was.

In fact, Trump declared business bankruptcy four times before the show went into production, and at least twice more during his 14 seasons hosting. The imposing board room where he famously fired contestants was a set, because his real boardroom was too old and shabby for TV.

Trump may have been the perfect choice to be the boss of this show, because more successful CEOs were too busy to get involved in reality TV and didn’t want to hire random game show winners onto their executive teams. Trump had no such concerns. He had plenty of time for filming, he loved the attention and it painted a positive picture of him that wasn’t true.

At NBC, we promoted the show relentlessly. Thousands of 30-second promo spots that spread the fantasy of Trump’s supposed business acumen were beamed over the airwaves to nearly every household in the country. The image of Trump that we promoted was highly exaggerated. In its own way, it was “fake news” that we spread over America like a heavy snowstorm. I never imagined that the picture we painted of Trump as a successful businessman would help catapult him to the White House.

I discovered in my interactions with him over the years that he is manipulative, yet extraordinarily easy to manipulate. He has an unfillable compliment hole. No amount is too much. Flatter him and he is compliant. World leaders, including apparently Russian strongman Vladimir Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, have discovered that too.

I also found Trump remarkably thin-skinned. He aggressively goes after those who critique him and seeks retribution. That’s not very businesslike – and it’s certainly not presidential. This week, he threatened to use the National Guard against Americans who oppose him, calling them the “enemy from within.”

I learned early on in my dealings with Trump that he thought he could simply say something over and over, and eventually people would believe it. He would say to me, “‘The Apprentice’ – America’s No. 1 TV show.” But it wasn’t. Not that week. Not that season. I had the ratings in front of me. He had seen and heard the ratings, but that didn’t matter. He just kept saying it was the “No. 1 show on television,” even after we corrected him. He repeated it on press tours too, knowing full well it was wrong. He didn’t like being fact-checked back then either.

Exaggerating ratings is one thing, but spreading falsehoods about relief work of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, about immigrants eating cats and dogs, about the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, about him winning the 2020 election or countless other lies is far more dangerous.

At NBC, we promoted the show relentlessly. Thousands of 30-second promo spots that spread the fantasy of Trump’s supposed business acumen were beamed over the airwaves to nearly every household in the country. The image of Trump that we promoted was highly exaggerated. In its own way, it was “fake news” that we spread over America like a heavy snowstorm. I never imagined that the picture we painted of Trump as a successful businessman would help catapult him to the White House.

I discovered in my interactions with him over the years that he is manipulative, yet extraordinarily easy to manipulate. He has an unfillable compliment hole. No amount is too much. Flatter him and he is compliant. World leaders, including apparently Russian strongman Vladimir Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, have discovered that too.

I also found Trump remarkably thin-skinned. He aggressively goes after those who critique him and seeks retribution. That’s not very businesslike – and it’s certainly not presidential. This week, he threatened to use the National Guard against Americans who oppose him, calling them the “enemy from within.”

I learned early on in my dealings with Trump that he thought he could simply say something over and over, and eventually people would believe it. He would say to me, “‘The Apprentice’ – America’s No. 1 TV show.” But it wasn’t. Not that week. Not that season. I had the ratings in front of me. He had seen and heard the ratings, but that didn’t matter. He just kept saying it was the “No. 1 show on television,” even after we corrected him. He repeated it on press tours too, knowing full well it was wrong. He didn’t like being fact-checked back then either.

Exaggerating ratings is one thing, but spreading falsehoods about relief work of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, about immigrants eating cats and dogs, about the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, about him winning the 2020 election or countless other lies is far more dangerous.

Now America is facing a critical choice. Should this elderly, would-be emperor with no clothes, who is well known for stretching and abandoning the truth, be president again?

I spent 50 years successfully promoting television magic, making mountains out of molehills every day. But I say now to my fellow Americans, without any promotional exaggeration: If you believe that Trump will be better for you or better for the country, that is an illusion, much like “The Apprentice” was. Even if you are a born-and-bred Republican, as I was, I strongly urge you to vote for Kamala Harris. The country will be better off and so will you.

John D. Miller was the chief marketing officer for NBC and NBCUniversal, and retired as chair of the NBCUniversal Marketing Council.

Tags: Donald Trump

Cook Political Report shifts Texas Senate race toward Democrats by Julia Manchester - 10/01/24

Good signs here in Texas that things are a-changing, but too early to suggest an outright shift when what's suggested in this Cook political report is a poll where voters are "leaning" Republican. I'll take it regardless and take this as a sign of hope that people want better leadership. It was shameful to see Cruz bank to Cancún while so many millions of others were left freezing in their homes in the memorable freeze in February 2021. Let alone his consistently ultra-conservative politics that don't represent how most Texans feel or what they think. In fact, he's part of the problem in turning Texas more extremist that it is.

His father, Rafael Cruz, further has an undue influence on Ted Cruz and by extension, Texas politics. No exaggeration. You can read all about it in this Aug. 27, 2022 post to my blog titled, "NBC NEWS: HOW A FAR-RIGHT, CHRISTIAN CELLPHONE COMPANY ‘TOOK OVER’ FOUR TEXAS SCHOOL BOARDS. Rafael Cruz is a leading proponent of a religious view called the "Seven Mountains" mandate that you can learn about here. You can't make this stuff up. 

We must get people who really want to serve the public into office rather than those who want to use elective office for their own pernicious and narrow ends. Me thinks that if we can vote Cruz out of office, that the entire edifice of extremist politics in our state will begin to crumble. Not immediately, but decisively nevertheless. In other words, being extremist will make it harder to win elections. 

However, we're a very big state—almost a "country" unto ourselves—so we must take nothing for granted and work hard like Kamala Harris is urging us to do. Most importantly, we must all vote.

This is exciting!

-Angela Valenzuela

Cook Political Report shifts Texas Senate race toward Democrats

by Julia Manchester - 10/01/24 5:24 PM ET

The Cook Political Report on Tuesday shifted Texas’s Senate race from “likely Republican” to “lean Republican,” signaling momentum for Rep. Colin Allred’s (D) challenge against incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz (R) in the red state. 

Jessica Taylor, the forecaster’s Senate and gubernatorial editor, said Allred’s fundraising and ad spending, coupled with Cruz being on defense on abortion and a trip the senator took to Cancun during a severe winter storm in 2021, have helped Democrats in the state.

But Taylor also said the state will still be tough for Democrats to flip in November. 

Democrats have increasingly set their sights on Texas, as well as Florida, this cycle. Last week the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) announced a multimillion dollar investment in television advertising in the two red-leaning states.

“Senate Democrats are expanding the map and going on offense,” DSCC Chair Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said. “All cycle long the DSCC has been preparing to take advantage of Sens. Cruz and Scott’s damaged standings in their states — and now our efforts in Texas and Florida are accelerating. Democrats have strong candidates running effective campaigns in both states, and as we escalate our communications against Sens. Cruz and Scott we will crystallize the case against them.”

Overall, the Senate map is tilted in Republicans’ favor, with the GOP likely only needing to take down incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester in deep-red Montana to capture the chamber. The Hill/Decision Desk HQ forecaster predicts Republicans have a 70 percent chance of winning the Senate. 

While Tuesday’s ratings change is certainly welcome news for the Allred campaign, he will still face an uphill challenge against Cruz. The latest The Hill/Decision Desk HQ average shows Cruz leading Allred by just less than 3 points. Cruz won his last reelection bid against former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) by 2.6 points. 

A Chilling Call to Morality and Reason. A Steely Liz Cheney, at Harris’s Side, Calls It ‘Our Duty’ to Reject Trump.

Friends:

I would say that we've received a number of chilling calls to morality and reason and why Trump should absolutely not be our next president. Accordingly, I offer here yesterday's speech by Liz Cheney who spoke alongside Kamala Harris. Cheney is stepping up to the plate again to explain why Donald Trump is disqualified from being president and how it's we the people who decide. Without equivocation, she further endorses Kamala Harris for president and urges members of her party to do so, as well. I also offer you a great New York Times piece on this. You can also view the entire live presentation from Wisconsin here.

Together with this call to conscience, I ask you to consider this call to reason as put forward by experts at this National Press Club conference that took place recently on September 30. 

Watch Part 2. titled, "Psychiatrists expose Trump's mental deterioration at major conference."
It's all quite chilling to me both in a good way and a profoundly concerning way. Folks have to be sure to get out and vote so that we are not harmed and the vitality of our democracy is preserved. Just because it's not where we want it to be, doesn't mean that we do not fervently act to defend it. Democracy is always unfinished business. It is the task of every generation to both preserve and improve it.

Vote like your life depends on it because it does.
-Angela Valenzuela

A Steely Liz Cheney, at Harris’s Side, Calls It ‘Our Duty’ to Reject Trump

The former congresswoman and Republican exile stumped for Kamala Harris in Ripon, Wis., the birthplace of the G.O.P., calling on conservatives to shun Donald Trump’s “depraved cruelty.”

The former congresswoman and Republican exile campaigned with the vice president in the battleground state of Wisconsin.CreditCredit...Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times Published Oct. 3, 2024

Updated Oct. 4, 2024, 9:35 a.m. ET

By Erica L. Green and Katie Rogers

Erica L. Green reported from Ripon, Wis., and Katie Rogers from Washington. They are White House reporters covering Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign.

It was an exercise in unsubtle and unlikely campaign optics: a Democratic vice president who is running for the presidency. A Republican former congresswoman who is the daughter of a staunchly conservative vice president. A small city known as the birthplace of the Republican Party in the middle of a battleground state.

On Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris and former Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the most prominent Republican to endorse her campaign, traveled to Ripon in central Wisconsin where meetings in 1854 helped form the Republican Party. Just a mile away from a one-room schoolhouse where those gatherings were held, the pair tore into former President Donald J. Trump for his role in igniting a riot at the Capitol, and they warned of the threat he poses to democracy should he return to power.

Ms. Cheney said that, in November, putting patriotism ahead of partisanship should not merely be an aspiration — “it is our duty.”

Her remarks, delivered with an air of somber restraint, were as much a public indictment of Mr. Trump as they were an endorsement of Ms. Harris. Calling his candidacy “a threat unlike any we have faced before,” she called on conservatives to join her in an “urgent cause” to elect Ms. Harris and to reject what she called the former president’s “depraved cruelty.”

“I know that she will be a president who will defend the rule of law,” Ms. Cheney said of Ms. Harris, “and I know that she will be a president who can inspire all of our children and, if I might say so, especially our little girls.”

The joint appearance was one of the starkest examples to date of how Ms. Harris has endeavored to pitch herself as a unifying president who values pragmatism over partisanship. Her overarching goal is to win over moderate and independent voters who will be crucial to delivering her a decisive victory.

The event took place at Ripon College, where hundreds of people gathered on a lawn near the campus’s main building, which was adorned with American flags and posters that read: “Country over party.” At several points in the program, the crowd cheered, “Thank you, Liz” and “Ka-ma-la.”

Both women spoke about the significance of the site where the Republican Party’s founding leaders first met, bonding over their opposition to slavery. “Liz Cheney stands in the finest traditions of its leaders,” Ms. Harris said.

The vice president said that Ms. Cheney’s endorsement held “special significance,” and that while the two politicians might not agree on much, they shared a love of country and democratic ideals. Repeating her promise to be a president for all Americans regardless of party, Ms. Harris said she had sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution six times in her career.

“The president of the United States must not look at our country through the narrow lens of ideology or petty partisanship or self-interest,” Ms. Harris said. “The president of the United States must not look at our country as an instrument for their own ambitions. Our nation is not some spoil to be won. The United States of America is the greatest idea humanity ever devised.”

She added, “And so, in the face of those who would endanger our magnificent experiment, people of every party must stand together.”

Ms. Harris’s campaign has used Ms. Cheney’s endorsement, and those of a stream of other Republicans, in assailing Mr. Trump as a threat to the republic, and in blunting accusations by his campaign that the vice president is a “radical liberal.”

Mr. Trump responded in the early hours of Friday, writing on his social media site that Ms. Cheney was a “low IQ War Hawk” and that she and Ms. Harris were “a pathetic couple” who were “suffering gravely from Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, blasted the records of both women afterward. “The both of them are made for each other — proponents of endless wars, killers of Social Security, and enemies of American workers,” he said in a statement.

Ms. Harris’s campaign has sought to recast her political image as a left-leaning Californian by downplaying or abandoning some of the progressive positions she held when she first ran for president in the 2020 race. During this campaign, she has branded herself a “pragmatist” and a “capitalist,” and has spoken more openly about issues that appeal to the conservative base, like gun ownership. She has also suggested that she would appoint a Republican to her cabinet, if elected.

In a presidential race that may be won by razor-thin margins in November, Wisconsin appears to be a near tossup between Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump. President Biden won the state by only 20,600 votes in 2020, and a recent poll by The New York Times and Siena College showed Ms. Harris with 49 percent support among likely voters, versus Mr. Trump at 47 percent.

Ms. Harris’s decision to appear alongside Ms. Cheney, a Wisconsin native, signals that her campaign is hoping to appeal to Republican voters who have been repelled by Mr. Trump’s style of politics. The two women agree on little politically beyond their distaste for Mr. Trump. They had next to no relationship when they overlapped in Congress, though they did speak on the phone about Ms. Cheney’s decision to endorse the vice president.

Ms. Cheney was a onetime critic of Ms. Harris. In an August 2020 interview on Fox News, shortly after Mr. Biden chose her as his running mate, Ms. Cheney called Ms. Harris ’s voting record in the Senate “to the left of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.” She added, “It’s very clear, she is a radical liberal.”

Ms. Cheney’s appearance for Ms. Harris on Thursday was also striking because of the timing: On Wednesday, a 165-page brief from the special counsel, Jack Smith, laid out new evidence of how Mr. Trump tried to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election.

During her speech, Ms. Cheney brought up the fresh details, including Mr. Trump’s apparent nonchalance when he was implored to ensure the safety of his vice president, Mike Pence, whom rioters had threatened to hang on Jan. 6, 2021.

“So what?” the former president said, according to the brief.

Ms. Cheney told the crowd, “We have a responsibility, all of us, to remind people that our institutions don’t defend themselves.” She added, “We the people defend our institutions.”

But after the Capitol attack, Ms. Cheney set partisan labels aside. She became the top Republican on the House committee that investigated Mr. Trump’s role in the riot. Suddenly an outcast in her party, she later lost her seat to a Trump-backed challenger.

Calling Mr. Trump “vindictive,” Ms. Cheney said “any person who would do these things can never be trusted with power.”

Ms. Cheney first said she planned to vote for Ms. Harris at a conference last month in North Carolina. It was a major step in a long turnabout for a staunchly conservative former lawmaker, who is pro-gun, anti-abortion and hawkish on national security issues.

Days later, her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, said that he would also vote for Ms. Harris.

On Thursday, Ms. Cheney made clear that she had not strayed from her traditional, Republican bona fides. Her campaign work started at age 10, she said, when she helped seal envelopes for President Gerald Ford’s re-election campaign. She cast her first vote for a presidential race in 1984, she went on, and referred to herself as a Reagan Republican.

“I was a Republican even before Donald Trump started spray-tanning,” she jabbed.

Mr. Trump, for his part, held a rally on Thursday in Michigan, where Ms. Harris will campaign on Friday. During his speech, he continued to claim that he won the 2020 election.

Nicholas Nehamas and Reid J. Epstein contributed reporting from Washington.


Erica L. Green is a White House correspondent, covering President Biden and his administration. More about Erica L. Green


Katie Rogers is a White House correspondent. For much of the past decade, she has focused on features about the presidency, the first family, and life in Washington, in addition to covering a range of domestic and foreign policy issues. She is the author of a book on first ladies. More about Katie Rogers

Historian Heather Cox Richardson issues STUNNING WARNING about Trump

Friends:

Take a little time to listen to Historian Dr. Heather Cox Richardson speaking with Brian Tyler Cohen on what a Trump presidency would mean in light of Project 2025 and all the kinds of extreme proposals that seem so wild that they're hard to take seriously. She elaborates further that this was how Nazis were so ingenious in their approach primarily by being outrageous, exploiting the lack of an "emotional groundwork" that allows people to process this.

With a Trump presidency which means that we'll never have to vote again because, by implication, we'll have power concentrated at the top combined with a one-party state, she clearly suggests that we need to take this as their exact plan and not let him get close to our nation's highest office.

It is dangerous to have a one-party system because it literally means an overturning of democracy. It would not be helpful to the economy, politics, or society, ushering in an extended period of domestic unrest and violence with the polity having to claw back from this. 

More than Trump, Dr. Cox Richardson expresses greater concern about J.D. Vance and his billionaire "Tech Bros" that want to control the world's mining, cotton, copper, oil and by extension, the world's money supply that would have disastrous consequences for people globally, as well as the planet. 

My thoughts take me to this disheartening piece I just read in the Wall Street Journal titled, "The Texas Billionaire Who Has Greenpeace USA on the Verge of Bankruptcy Energy Transfer’s Kelcy Warren, a hypercompetitive mogul, is behind a lawsuit that could deal environmentalists a grievous blow." Geez, a country without Greenpeace is unnerving. I hope they prevail although the WSJ piece was not encouraging. 

Do learn about the promised horrors of Project 2025. I have some helpful resources on this page from an earlier blog.

Consider yourselves duly warned. The short of it is that every vote counts. 

-Angela Valenzuela

Star Historian issues STUNNING WARNING about Trump

LULAC condemns Paxton’s election fraud raids as “intimidation." This is unacceptable in a democracy

Glad to see these horrific developments getting the attention it deserves. According to this related article in today's Austin American-Statesman article titled, "'We didn't break any laws': LULAC seeks federal probe into Ken Paxton's voter fraud chase" we learn that Governor Greg Abbott acknowledged the removal of over a staggering 1 million names from Texas voter rolls since 2021, with more than 6,500 deemed as "potential noncitizens," about 1,930 of whom had a voting history.

 Lidia Martinez, an 87-year-old retired teacher from San Antonio, said nine officers from the attorney general's office showed up at her door at 6 a.m. on August 20, seeking information about her voter registration activities. During the raid, Martinez was forced to surrender her laptop, appointment book, cellphone, and voter registration materials. She expressed uncertainty about when or if her belongings would be returned. 

I agree with LULAC State Director Gabriel Rosales who names this as outright voter oppression. I'm glad that LULAC is speaking out and seeking redress from the U.S. Department of Justice. In a democracy, we should strive not only to encourage voting but also to support those who volunteer to get others to vote. Intimidation tactics against them are unacceptable.

This goes to the point that if your vote didn't matter, folks like Paxton wouldn't care so much about it. 

Su voto es su voz! Your voice is your vote!

-Angela Valenzuela



LULAC condemns Paxton’s election fraud raids as “intimidation”

The group said that searches the attorney general’s office carried out this week targeted at least six Latinos, including a Democrat running for the Texas House.

By Kayla Guo
Aug. 23, 20247 PM Central | Texas Tribune



Volunteers helped register voters in 2020. Allegations related to different voting actions in 2022 led to an investigation, according to the Texas Attorney General. Credit: Amna Ijaz/The Texas Tribune

The League of United Latin American Citizens plans to request a federal investigation into raids Attorney General Ken Paxton conducted this week as part of what he called an “ongoing election integrity investigation.”

Gabriel Rosales, Texas LULAC’s state director, said in a statement that Paxton carried out the raids 11 weeks before the 2024 elections “to suppress the Latino vote through intimidation and any means necessary to tilt the electoral process in favor of his political allies.”

Agents raided the home of Cecilia Castellano — the Democrat running to succeed state Rep. Tracy King, D-Uvalde — and confiscated her phone as part of the search, according to Rosales. Republicans see that seat, which Gov. Greg Abbott carried by nearly 6 percentage points, as their best potential state House flip in November.

Law enforcement also searched the homes of at least five other Latino individuals, all of whom were working on Castellano’s campaign and three of whom are members of Texas LULAC, Rosales added. LULAC is a non-partisan, volunteer-based Hispanic civil rights organization headquartered in Washington.

The group is in the dark about the details of any accusations, Rosales said, “but there's none that we’ve been privy to that merits an investigation like this that wastes taxpayers’ money.”

“It is disgraceful and outrageous that the state of Texas, and its highest-ranking law enforcement officer is once again using the power of his office to instill fear in the hearts of community members who volunteer their time to promote civic engagement,” Rosales said in a statement.

Paxton announced on Wednesday that his office executed “multiple” search warrants in Frio, Atascosa and Bexar counties the day prior as part of an investigation into allegations of “election fraud and vote harvesting that occurred during the 2022 elections.” A two-year investigation, Paxton said, provided “sufficient evidence” to obtain the search warrants.

“Secure elections are the cornerstone of our republic,” Paxton said in a statement. “We are completely committed to protecting the security of the ballot box and the integrity of every legal vote. This means ensuring accountability for anyone committing election crimes.”

Paxton’s office did not reply to a request for additional information. His announcement did not detail the targets of the raids, the number of raids, or the reason specific homes were searched.

“It’s still very vague,” Rosales said in an interview. “That’s what’s really unnerving about the whole situation.”

According to one person whose home was raided, Rosales said, law enforcement suggested that he was accused of possessing “illegal voter information” — a claim that he denied and called politically motivated, saying voter information is publicly available.

“There’s no there, there,” Rosales said. “They’re using every tool in the toolbox to intimidate our people from coming out to the polls.”

Rosales said he was working with the group’s national leaders and attorneys to draft a formal complaint with the U.S. Justice Department requesting a federal investigation into Paxton’s raids.

The attorney general’s office was asked to investigate the allegations of election fraud and vote harvesting during the 2022 elections by 81st Judicial District Attorney Audrey Louis, a Republican whose district includes Frio and Atascosa counties.

Trump Tells Christians ‘You Won’t Have to Vote Anymore’ If He’s Elected: He and the Republican Party Have not Chosen the Constitution

I shared this story over dinner yesterday evening and it raised eyebrows. Incredulous or not so incredulous, see the video for yourselves from a July 26 presentation Donald Trump gave at a Turning Point Action gathering of Christians where he is urging them to vote in greater numbers. 

Trump's comments are so inflammatory and grotesque that they merit re-posting alongside this New York Times piece on the matter today. I wonder how this would appeal to Christians he's trying to reach anyway? After all, Christians aren't a monolith. They're also the denizens of a democracy from which all have benefitted and cherished.

That said, his targeted audience is white Christian evangelicals that according to Roll Call (2023) are not actually reducing, but increasing their rates of voter participation, despite their shrinking numbers.

Despite Trump's attempts to distance himself from the extremist de-democratizing Project 2025 agenda crafted by his friends at the Heritage Foundation, this is no longer possible as Trump himself has brought attention to this and JD Vance wrote its foreword. 

We should pay close attention to Liz Cheney's warning that a Republican House majority in 2025 could pose a "threat" to the country. The reason? The current Republican Party "has not chosen the Constitution." Why would we elect a president who belongs to a party that has made this choice?

I'm looking forward to Joy Reid's televised "ReidOut" next week on Project 2025. Starting Monday on MSNBC, she will begin dissecting the 900-page document, examining how it could empower Donald Trump to establish an authoritarian form of government that would strip away many of our rights.  

We all need to get out and vote this November, my friends. In fact, plan your vote. If you're in Texas, go to VoteTexas.gov to ensure your vote and that it gets counted. 

-Angela Valenzuela

#2024election #reiders #Project2025

Trump Tells Christians ‘You Won’t Have to Vote Anymore’ If He’s Elected

Donald Trump, after lamenting that conservative Christians are not “big voters,” urged the religious right to turn out for him “just this time.”

Former President Donald J. Trump at the Turning Point USA Believers Summit in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Friday.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

by Michael Gold, July 27, 2024 | New York Times

In the closing minutes of his speech to a gathering of religious conservatives on Friday night, former President Donald J. Trump told Christians that if they voted him into office in November, they would never need to vote again.

“Christians, get out and vote. Just this time,” he said at The Believers’ Summit, an event hosted by the conservative advocacy group Turning Point Action, in West Palm Beach, Fla. “You won’t have to do it anymore, you know what? Four more years, it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”

Mr. Trump, who never made a particular display of religious observance before entering politics, continued: “I love you, Christians. I’m a Christian. I love you, you got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.”

Mr. Trump’s comments came at the end of a nearly hourlong speech in which he appealed to religious conservatives by promising to defend them from perceived threats from the left. Earlier in his remarks, he lamented that conservative Christians do not vote in large numbers, a complaint he had made repeatedly on the trail.

“They don’t vote like they should,” Mr. Trump said of Christians. “They’re not big voters.”

Mr. Trump’s suggestion that Christians would not have to vote again if he is elected quickly spread across social media. Some argued that it was a threat that the 2024 election could be the nation’s last if he were to win and claimed it was further evidence of an authoritarian, anti-democratic bent he has displayed throughout his political candidacy.

Asked to clarify Mr. Trump’s intent, Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Mr. Trump’s campaign, said in a statement: “President Trump was talking about uniting this country and bringing prosperity to every American, as opposed to the divisive political environment that has sowed so much division and even resulted in an assassination attempt.”

The former president — who continues to falsely insist the 2020 election was rigged, a claim that inspired some of his supporters to storm the Capitol in a bid to keep him in power in 2021 — has raised alarm from Democrats and some Republicans. He has compared his political opponents to “vermin,” said he would have a prosecutor investigate President Biden and his family and framed his campaign as one of retribution.

James Singer, a Harris campaign spokesman, criticized Mr. Trump in a statement, pointing to the Capitol attack and accusing him of an “assault” on democracy.

“After the last election Trump lost, he sent a mob to overturn the results,” Mr. Singer said. “This campaign, he has promised violence if he loses, the end of our elections if he wins, and the termination of the Constitution to empower him to be a dictator to enact his dangerous Project 2025 agenda on America.”

Since his 2020 loss, Mr. Trump, who often praises strongmen leaders on the trail, has further embraced a brand of conservatism that experts on autocracy have said veers toward totalitarian.

Mr. Trump provoked further outcry when, in an interview with Sean Hannity, he said he would not categorically dismiss concerns that he might abuse presidential power but instead said he would not be a dictator “other than Day 1.”

Mr. Trump added: “We’re closing the border. And we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.”

Mr. Trump and his allies have long dismissed the criticism as alarmist political attacks from liberals. They argue that Democrats have been anti-democratic, labeling the criminal cases brought against Mr. Trump as an effort to weaponize the justice system.

The Harris campaign — and the Biden campaign before that — have consistently attacked Mr. Trump as a threat to democracy. More recently, Democrats and their allies have highlighted Project 2025, a set of conservative policy proposals developed by a group that includes former Trump advisers and that would bring about a radical shift to the federal government.

Mr. Trump himself was not behind Project 2025, and he has repeatedly tried to distance himself from it. But The New York Times has reported on his plans for a second term, which would include casting aside the norm that gives the Justice Department independence from the White House, appointing ideologically aligned lawyers who would be less resistant to Mr. Trump’s policies and a vastly expanded crackdown on immigration that would involve scouring the country for undocumented immigrants and deporting millions of people annually.

Michael Gold is a political correspondent for The Times covering the campaigns of Donald J. Trump and other candidates in the 2024 presidential elections. More about Michael Gold
A version of this article appears in print on July 28, 2024, Section A, Page 15 of the New York edition with the headline: Trump Tells Christians, Vote ‘Just This Time’. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe