MAGA Declares War on Good
Trump’s toadies smear a dead mother as their murder coverup collapses, federal agents shoot two more Americans in Oregon, and is Elon Musk cashing in on AI child porn?
On this day in 1913, Richard Nixon was born. Ol’ “Tricky Dick” sought to hide his administration’s direct involvement in the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate hotel. In retrospect, concealing a mere burglary is bush league corruption; Donald Trump’s administration seems to be actively covering up a murder right now!
Top of the morning! Peter here, utterly exhausted after this abject week from Hell. As my dear pal and Zeteo colleague Prem told me yesterday: “Why is everything in the past 24 hours an amalgamation of the worst aspects of modern American politics, an endless snake of political horror continually eating itself?” You said it, brother! I can’t sum it up better than that!
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ the MAGA movement makes clear we are no longer entitled to dignity in death, House Republicans rebel against the Trump administration’s wishes for Affordable Care Act tax credits, Elon Musk seems to have no problem profiting off AI-generated child porn, and, of course, some recommended weekend reads!
First Murder, Then Character Assassination
“If you could have dinner with one person, living or dead, who would it be and why?”
My go-to answer to this ever-so-trite icebreaker has derailed many a cocktail hour.
Now and again, I’m tempted to say Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, Joan Didion, or Christopher Hitchens – four of my favorite writers whose politics I hold in varying degrees of esteem. Less pretentious rejoinders have at times teased at my tongue as well: Danny Devito, Richard Pryor, or Bea Arthur.
Inevitably, however, I always utter the same name that unleashes a wave of shock horror upon the room: one mister Roy Cohn.
Cohn, a Joseph McCarthy hatchet man, moral sewer rat, and notoriously homophobic closeted homosexual, has always fascinated me. He alone, I believe, is more responsible than anyone for the state of America today. Why? Well, he was this president’s first political mentor!
Cohn was hardly a philosopher king, but he did have a host of mantras that he reportedly impressed upon a spry Donald J. Trump. Among them?
“Admit nothing. Deny everything”
“Attack, attack, attack. Never defend.”
“Don’t worry about being liked. Fear is better.”
“Claim victory and never admit defeat.”
Yes, do you now see the very stark, very scary, very real through line that connects the Red Scare to Jan. 6?
Do you now understand why Donald Trump, JD Vance, Kristi Noem, Fox News, and the entire gilded, glorified cult of personality that is the “MAGA movement” have spent the last 36 hours smearing the name of a devout Christian mother of three who was shot in the head at point-blank range?