“Donald Trump’s allies have quickly found a target in Matthew Colangelo, the Manhattan prosecutor who delivered the opening statement in the historic hush-money case against the former president,” Axios reports. “Trump frequently jabbed at Colangelo before a gag order theoretically muzzled the ex-president — but now a barrage of attacks from Trump supporters in Congress and beyond have filled the void.”
Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker’s testimony could have a political impact for Donald Trump because it is “refreshing memories about the turmoil that dominated the Trump era,” Politico reports.
“Pecker gave the prosecutors what they wanted from a legal point of view. He directly connected the catch-and-kill schemes to Trump’s 2016 campaign and rebutted the notion he was concerned about family, not politics. That’s bad news for Trump. And if he’s convicted, polls naturally show it could have a significant impact on the election. But in the meantime, the legal technicalities may be less important than the larger tabloid narrative that is dominating the media and blotting out any competing message from Trump.”
Although Donald Trump complains that his criminal trial keeps him off the campaign trail, he spent Wednesday — the day when court isn’t scheduled — playing golf and not campaigning, CNN reports.
ABC News: “In interviews with investigators last year, former aides and national security officials who were close to Trump in the White House described a president who could erupt in anger when presented with intelligence he didn’t want to hear, who routinely reviewed and stored classified information in unsecured locations, and who had what some former officials described as ‘a cavalier attitude’ toward the damage that could be done by its disclosure.”
“Donald Trump’s legal payroll is easily the largest and most diverse of any political figure in modern U.S. history,” the Daily Beast reports.
“But while most of the attorneys that Trump’s various fundraising committees have paid over the years are a matter of public record, one of the top recipients still poses a mystery—with more than $8 million in legal costs going to an unknown firm, or firms, through what appears to be a corporate intermediary.”
“Legal experts told The Daily Beast that the arrangement masks the true recipients of a significant amount of Trump’s legal bills, depriving the public of that information while possibly running afoul of federal law.”
Josh Marshall: The Roberts Court is a corrupt institution which operates in concert with and on behalf of the Republican Party and to an ambiguous degree right-wing anti-regulatory ideology. If we believe in a different set of policies or even democratic self-governance we will have to succeed at that with the Supreme Court acting as a consistent adversary.
That’s the challenge in front of us. It sucks. But things become more clear cut once we take the plunge and accept that fact. Swallow it whole.
Dan Balz: “Throughout his life, whether as a flamboyant developer, a reality TV star or a politician who became president, Trump has always found ways to keep the bright lights focused squarely on himself. Good stories or bad stories, it never really mattered. What was always important was to dominate, to be the center of attention, to win the ratings war, to cloud out everyone else.”
“Rarely has there been a day that underscored that aspect of his being as much as Thursday. Both the justices on the Supreme Court and the jurors in the Manhattan courtroom were confronted with the alleged misdeeds of the former president. Nothing about either matter cast Trump positively. And yet it is not knowable today whether these proceedings will help or hurt his chances of being elected president again in November.”
Just Security: “While Trump has claimed he will be a dictator for only the first day of his administration, his promise to do so—even for 24 hours—is antithetical to American democracy and consistent with the history of authoritarianism. Dictatorial powers, once assumed, are rarely relinquished.”
“Moreover, Trump cannot possibly achieve his stated goals for the use of that power (in immigration and energy policy) in one day, meaning that his ‘dictatorship’ would of necessity likely last much longer.”
Reacting for the first time to Donald Trump’s vow to order the Justice Department to investigate his political opponents, FBI Director Christopher Wray said he would not allow his agents to conduct any investigation that doesn’t comply with “our rules, our procedures, our best practices, our core values,” NBC News reports.
Edward Luce: “Watch carefully and you can see the Republican party forming a circular firing squad. The trigger was last weekend’s much delayed vote for $61 billion in Ukraine aid. Republicans were divided almost evenly. The difference between a yes and a no vote on Ukraine was far bigger than Ukraine; it represents irreconcilable world views.”
“Not even Donald Trump, who is sitting distractedly, day after day, in a dingy New York courtroom, can bridge the gulf between globalist and anti-globalist Republicans.”
“Israel seems ready to start moving civilians out of Rafah, a prelude to an assault on the Gazan city that would probably erode much of any remaining international sympathy over its stand-off with Iran,” Bloomberg reports. “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who’s vowed to wipe out the 5,000-8,000 Hamas fighters and some leaders that Israel says are holed up in Rafah, has worked to overcome US objections to the offensive.”
A top Hamas political official told The Associated Press the Islamic militant group is willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders.
“Egypt’s president dispatched his intelligence chief to Israel on Friday in a last-ditch effort to revive talks toward a cease-fire in Gaza that would also free Israeli hostages and hold off a planned Israeli military offensive against Hamas in the city of Rafah,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Army engineers on Thursday began construction of a floating pier and causeway for humanitarian aid off the coast of Gaza, which, when completed, could help relief workers deliver as many as two million meals a day for the enclave’s residents,” the New York Times reports.
“French President Emmanuel Macron said the American security umbrella is a thing of the past and that the continent needs to build its own credible defense strategy if it wants to survive,” Bloomberg reports. “In a speech setting out his vision for Europe, six weeks ahead of European Parliament elections, Macron said the continent may need to produce its own anti-missile shield, long-range surface missiles and other items to sufficiently defend itself in the present geopolitical context.”
“The University of Southern California canceled its main stage graduation ceremony Thursday as college officials across the U.S. worried that ongoing campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war could disrupt May commencement ceremonies,” the AP reports.
New York Times: “It was the continuation of controversy on the Los Angeles campus that began in early April, when the university selected a Muslim valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, a biomedical engineering major from Chino Hills, Calif.”
“Following complaints from several Jewish organizations that Ms. Tabassum, who is of South Asian descent, had posted a social media link to a pro-Palestinian organization, the university informed her that she would not be delivering the valedictorian speech, which is a tradition.”
“The U.S. is putting the finishing touches on one of its largest Ukraine military aid packages to date, preparing to ink contracts for as much as $6 billion worth of weapons and equipment for Kyiv’s forces,” Politico reports.
“The package, which could be finalized and announced as soon as Friday, will dip into the $61 billion in Ukraine funding signed into law by President Joe Biden on Wednesday. It would include Patriot air defense munitions, artillery ammunition, drones, counter-drone weapons, and air-to-air missiles to be fitted on fighter planes.”
William Kristol: “In three months, the Republican party will nominate Trump as its presidential candidate for a third consecutive time. This is unusual in American politics.”
“Yesterday Republicans in the United States Senate voted 31 to 15 for aid to Ukraine. House Republicans had divided 101 to 112 a few days earlier. So a (slight) majority of all Congressional Republicans voted for aid to Ukraine. Most Republican members of Congress took a position on a very important issue against their presidential nominee. That too is unusual in American politics. I can’t offhand think of another recent instance of such a break from a party’s nominee in an election year by that party’s elected officials.”
“So in 2024 the GOP is still Trump’s party. But it’s somewhat less so than it was before this week. Maybe significantly less so.”
“Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have become key players in the early planning for a second Trump administration’s transition team, and would focus on vetting potential officials and staffers for ideology and loyalty,” Axios reports. “Neither brother would officially run Donald Trump’s transition team, but they’d take a lead in making sure government jobs are filled by Republicans aligned with Trump’s vision for the party.”
Politico: “Now, as he makes his third run for president, the media landscape of 2024 is markedly different than it was in 2016, in no small part due to Trump himself. Trump remains no less obsessed, but this has changed some of how Trump engages with the media.”
“Twitter is now X but the real MAGA crowd is on Truth Social. Fox still matters, but OAN and Steve Bannon’s The War Room also thrive online. And this time around, Trump and his team have also been strategic about appearing on podcasts that reach younger or more diverse audiences.”
“But while Trump has dabbled in this new universe, some things haven’t changed: He still prefers reading print papers and will catch recordings from his favorite cable news shows.”
Washington Post: “As Trump has been stuck in a courtroom in recent days, Biden has been polishing a new comedy routine in which his predecessor is repeatedly the butt of the joke.”
“During speeches, off-the-cuff remarks and social media posts, Biden has increasingly laid into Trump by using biting humor that seeks to get under Trump’s skin and expose his vulnerabilities.”
Said Biden: “Remember when he was trying to deal with covid, he said just inject a little bleach in your veins? He missed it. It all went to his hair.”
He added: “I probably shouldn’t have said that.”
Politico: “According to interviews with two dozen people on both sides who were granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive subject, the relationship between Biden and the country’s newspaper of record — for years the epitome of a liberal press in the eyes of conservatives — remains remarkably tense, beset by misunderstandings, grudges and a general lack of trust.”
“Haiti’s new transitional presidential council was sworn in Thursday, opening the way for the creation of a caretaker government that aims to restore order in a Caribbean nation besieged by deadly gang violence,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing on Friday, as the two countries worked to hold together a fractious relationship despite disputes over the economy, national security and geopolitical frictions in East Asia, the Middle East and Ukraine,” the New York Times reports.
“Both China and the United States have said they were hoping for progress on a few smaller, pragmatic fronts, including improving communications between their militaries and easing travel between the countries. But they remain at a standstill on fundamental strategic issues, including trade policies and territorial conflicts in the South China Sea and over Taiwan.”
Wall Street Journal: “The total fertility rate fell to 1.62 births per woman in 2023, a 2% decline from a year earlier, federal data released Thursday showed. It is the lowest rate recorded since the government began tracking it in the 1930s.”
“The decline reflects a continuing trend as American women navigate economic and social challenges that have prompted some to forgo or delay having children. A confluence of factors are at play. American women are having fewer children, later in life. Women are establishing fulfilling careers and have more access to contraception.”
“At the same time, young people are also more uncertain about their futures and spending more of their income on homeownership, student debt and child care. Some women who wait to have children might have fewer than they would have otherwise for reasons including declining fertility.”
“House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer was eager to take the reins of a high-stakes investigation into President Joe Biden and his family, seen as central to the House Republican agenda – a coveted perch that brought the added benefit of elevating his national profile,” CNN reports.
“But after 15 months of coming up short in proving some of his biggest claims against the president, Comer recently approached one of his Republican colleagues and made a blunt admission: He was ready to be ‘done with’ the impeachment inquiry into Biden.”
“The Department of Justice doubled down on its decision to not release the audio files of President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur to House Republicans, stating that Republicans have not established a legitimate legislative purpose for demanding these recordings,” CNN reports.
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