Donald Trump

New Republic - Cereal, coffee, milk, and breakfast sausages sat displayed on a table in the 87-degree heat of Bedminster, New Jersey, mere feet away from Donald Trump as he held a press conference at his golf club Thursday, his second in as many weeks. More than a prop, the food might have served as a signal to the meandering Republican nominee to stay on the topic du jour: inflation. Instead, the groceries served as a cringeworthy visual cue for those watching, and became increasingly absurd as Trump continually refused to acknowledge them. Try as he might, Trump just couldn’t stay on topic, and took off on a winding rant that repelled structure and meaning.

Despite the fact he began by reading from notes, which sat in a binder in front of him, Trump repeatedly, and for long stretches of time, went off-script into an array of insane claims and random stories. 

Trump made the severely inaccurate claim that Harris was responsible for a California law that allowed for people to rob stores of goods with a total value under $950—of course, the state penal code actually says that a shoplifter will be charged with petty theft for stealing goods worth $950 or less, and grand theft if it’s more. 

He detoured into his typical racist fearmongering about undocumented immigrants, telling a strange story about watching ICE agents beating up “packs” of MS13 “killers.” Trump warned Americans that under Harris, they might get a system where “everybody gets health care,” ranted about windmills ruining “gorgeous fields” and killing birds, and bragged that he was buddies with the head of the Taliban because he’d once allegedly called Trump “your excellency.” 

After nearly an hour of non-stop talking (not to mention, taking no questions from the press) Trump finally gave a nod to the assortment of food behind him, scoffing at the price tags. But he predictably changed the subject back to call Harris “Margaret Thatcher, the liberal version.”

Newsweek - Donald Trump owes more than $100 million in liabilities linked to his legal troubles in New York, as shown by his latest financial disclosure report released on Thursday. 

Axios - Former President Trump is flirting with a familiar pattern of self-sabotage, betting he can reverse his polling slide with one simple trick: Give the public more Trump... It's a high-risk head-scratcher for one of the most polarizing candidates in U.S. history, four years after his 2020 re-election bid was derailed in large part by voter exhaustion.

Anxious to halt Vice President Harris' momentum, Trump is flooding the zone with spontaneous press conferences, meandering rally speeches and angry social media outbursts...But while they exhilarate the GOP base, there's no indication that these events are expanding Trump's appeal with the swing voters he needs most. Democrats, on the other hand, see Trump's free-wheeling speeches as a gold mine for viral clips and ad material painting the GOP nominee as incoherent and "unhinged." The Harris campaign issued a mock media advisory yesterday advertising the date and time of Trump's press conference at his Bedminster golf club, where it predicted a "self-obsessed rant." MORE

CNN - Bulletproof glass will surround former President Donald Trump at his campaign rallies moving forward as the Secret Service aims to increase security on the campaign trail. The heightened safety measures are being implemented in the wake of the assassination attempt against Trump at his rally last month in Butler, Pennsylvania. Additional precautions also include increasing the number of agents and certain technological changes, a senior official told CNN. Ballistic glass is commonly used to protect sitting presidents and is moved into place by the Department of Defense. For Trump, the Secret Service will strategically place the glass across the country where the former president is expected to visit in the lead-up to the November election.

Hidden camera video of one of the Project 2025 creators revealing their plans and Trump’s plans

Political Wire - Convicted felon Donald Trump apparently did not have the necessary grant of clemency to vote in Florida’s Republican primary, public records indicate – but he voted anyway,” the Florida Bulldog reports. “In Florida convicted felons may not vote until their sentences have been served and they have paid all outstanding fines and restitution.”