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Skip NavigationThe New RepublicThe New RepublicLATESTBREAKING NEWSPOLITICSCLIMATECULTUREMAGAZINENEWSLETTERSPODCASTSGAMESThe New Republic The New RepublicThe New RepublicThe New RepublicThe New RepublicLATESTBREAKING NEWSPOLITICSCLIMATECULTUREMAGAZINENEWSLETTERSPODCASTSGAMESThe New Republic The New Republic The New RepublicBreaking News Breaking Newsfrom Washington and beyondMost Recent PostEdith Olmsted/October 24, 2024/10:17 a.m. ETShare This StoryOld Man Trump Is So Desperate for a War, He’s Inventing Them NowDonald Trump made up a war with America’s oldest ally, France.Alex Wong/Getty ImagesDonald Trump made up a fictional war with France Wednesday, and then claimed to have stopped it.During a speech in Duluth, Georgia, Trump—who previously touted himself a “wartime president” but now lies about how peaceful and safe his time in office was—was bragging about his record when he falsely claimed he really had prevented an international conflict. “You have no idea what I did in the White House. I stopped wars … with France!” Trump said. “France, you know the France story? They were gonna charge us, think of this, 25 percent to all Ameri—I have to protect American companies, whether we like ’em or not. Some of ’em I didn’t even like. You know Google is treating us much better, did you notice that? What happened to Google? They’re treating us much better.“They say McDonald’s was one of the most viewed things that they’ve ever had,” Trump cheered. Trump: "You have no idea what I did in the White House. I stopped wars with France."His brain then flits to Google and McDonald's. All of this in about 30 seconds. pic.twitter.com/yxgYlycUCM— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 24, 2024 While there was obviously no threat of war with France, it’s possible that Trump was referring to a trade skirmish with France from his time in office. Paris passed a digital services tax on large tech companies, including Google, Facebook, and Amazon, in 2019. In response, Trump threatened to place tariffs of up to 100 percent on French goods, such as champagne and luxury bags. Undeterred, France ordered the tech companies to pay up in 2020. After Joe Biden entered the White House in 2021, he suspended Trump’s plan for retaliatory tariffs against France. So the “war” Trump stopped wasn’t a war, it was a trade fight. And he didn’t even stop it. If anything, he escalated it. But this might explain his incoherent weave from France to Google and back to his favorite subject: himself. Share This StoryRead more about Trump:Trump Is Obsessed With Having a Dictator-Level MilitaryMost Recent PostHafiz Rashid/October 24, 2024/9:09 a.m. ETShare This StoryFormer Model Shares Bombshell on Trump’s “Twisted Game” With EpsteinStacey Williams has shared a troubling story about Donald Trump just days before the election.Win McNamee/Getty ImagesA former model is alleging that Donald Trump groped her in 1993 in a “twisted game” between him and Jeffrey Epstein, The Guardian reports. Stacey Williams first met Trump in 1992 after being introduced to him by Epstein at a Christmas party. The model dated Epstein for a few months after that. The groping incident occurred in the winter or spring of 1993, when Williams and Epstein were on a walk and he suggested they stop by Trump Tower to visit the real estate mogul. Shortly after they arrived, Williams said that Trump pulled her toward him and started groping her, putting his hands “all over my breasts,” her waist, and her buttocks. She said that she froze, feeling “deeply confused,” and believed she saw Epstein and Trump smiling at each other. After the incident, she left Trump Tower with Epstein, and she felt that he was angry at her. “Jeffrey and I left, and he didn’t look at me or speak to me, and I felt this seething rage around me, and when we got down to the sidewalk, he looked at me and just berated me, and said: ‘Why did you let him do that?’” Williams said on a “Survivors for Kamala” Zoom call Monday, which included actress Ashley Judd and law professor Anita Hill, among others. While Williams has shared the story in parts on social media before, she gave specific details on the call. “He made me feel so disgusting, and I remember being so utterly confused,” Williams added, saying the incident appeared to be part of some “twisted game.”“I felt shame and disgust and as we went our separate ways, I felt this sensation of revisiting it, while the hands were all over me. And I had this horrible pit in my stomach that it was somehow orchestrated. I felt like a piece of meat,” Williams told The Guardian in an interview. The two broke up shortly after that. Williams said she had no idea about Epstein’s pattern of sexual abuse and pedophilia. Williams said that she later received, through her agent, a special postcard from Trump in 1993 showing an aerial view of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, including a handwritten note in his trademark black marker. It read “Stacey—Your home away from home. Love Donald.”Trump’s campaign denied the allegations in a statement, with his press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying, “These accusations, made by a former activist for Barack Obama and announced on a Harris campaign call two weeks before the election, are unequivocally false. It’s obvious this fake story was contrived by the Harris campaign.”But it fits a pattern of behavior for Trump, an associate of Epstein for many years. At least 26 other women have accused the former president and convicted felon of sexual assault or misconduct. Plus, he was found to have sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s in a civil trial last year. With the election in just a few weeks, Trump’s predatory behavior will matter to many of the voters he needs to return to the White House.Share This StoryMore on Politics:Transcript: Harris’s Harsh Takedown of Trump’s Hitler Stunner Nails ItMost Recent PostEdith Olmsted/October 23, 2024/5:14 p.m. ETShare This StoryMAGA Republican Takes Shocking Stand on U.S. Arms Sales to IsraelRepresentative Thomas Massie made his opinion clear.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty ImagesKentucky Representative Thomas Massie has called for the United States to stop funding Israel, as it targets civilian infrastructure in Lebanon. Massie posted a video on X Wednesday that showed an Israeli missile strike leveling an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon. “If Israel insists on destroying civilian targets in Lebanon, let them buy and build their own weapons. American taxpayers should not be funding this,” the Republican lawmaker wrote. ScreenshotThe U.S. has spent at least $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since it began its catastrophic military campaign in Gaza after the massacre on October 7.Massie, a far-right Republican, has been outspoken against America’s unwavering support of Israel’s unchecked military activity in the Middle East, challenging the notion that opposing to pro-Israel policies is a position held solely by those on the far left. Massie boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress in July, calling it a “war rally.” He openly criticized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on attack ads trying to unseat him. He also voted against censuring Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib over her comments criticizing Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians.Israel carried out a series of air strikes Sunday that targeted branches of the Al Qard Al Hassan association, a financial association that Israel claims is helping Hezbollah fund its activities, according to the BBC. The strikes against nonmilitary targets hit civilian areas in Beirut, as well as south and east Lebanon. Israel has killed at least 1,800 people in Lebanon in the past five weeks, since expanding military operations there. In the year since launching its military campaign in Gaza, Israel has killed more than 41,000 people and injured more than 96,700, according to ABC News. This week, the Israeli government began a campaign to empty out (ethnically cleanse) northern Gaza, reportedly cutting off supplies and targeting homes, shelters, schools, and hospitals with airstrikes, displacing thousands of civilians. Share This StoryRead more about Israel:It’s Not Just Israel: Biden’s Foreign Policy Is a MessMost Recent PostEllie Quinlan Houghtaling/October 23, 2024/5:02 p.m. ETShare This StoryMAGA’s Latest Defense of Trump’s Hitler Comments Is the Wildest YetRepresentative Mike Waltz has essentially covered his ears and gone, “La la la!”Scott Olson/Getty ImagesIn just a handful of hours, Donald Trump’s MAGA allies have gone from arguing that his recent comments about Hitler were misconstrued to just outright claiming that the whole story was completely made up.During an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Florida Representative Mike Waltz completely rejected the evidence of his eyes and ears, claiming that the Republican presidential nominee’s comments praising Hitler and expecting undying loyalty from his top commanders were phony.“It doesn’t make sense to me. I find the timing suspicious,” Waltz said. “And it just completely is divorced from the man that I’ve come to know in Donald Trump, and how he’s dealt with Gold Star families, how he has been caring, how he’s been compassionate,” Waltz continued, referring to the military status given to families who have lost a loved one during their military service.Rep. Mike Waltz on CNN suggests John Kelly is lying about Trump praising Hitler pic.twitter.com/jotsK0PhCC— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 23, 2024 The far-right revision comes after Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, retired military General John Kelly, told The Atlantic that his ex-boss fit the description of a fascist. Kelly recalled a disturbing exchange he had with the former president while he was still in office, in which Trump expressed frustration over a perceived lack of loyalty from the military.“I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,” Trump said in a private conversation in the White House, according to two sources that spoke anonymously with The Atlantic. “People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders.”Another time, while in a frustrated discussion with Kelly, Trump reportedly asked, “Why can’t you be like the German generals?” forgetting that Hitler’s top generals had themselves defied him and made several attempts toward the end of World War II to kill him. Kelly, trying to correct the president, informed him that German generals “tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off.” Kelly recounted that when Trump had raised the matter of “German generals,” he responded by asking, “Do you mean Bismarck’s generals?” “I mean, I knew he didn’t know who Bismarck was, or about the Franco-Prussian War. I said, ‘Do you mean the kaiser’s generals? Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals?’” Kelly told The Atlantic. “And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.’ I explained to him that Rommel had to commit suicide after taking part in a plot against Hitler.” But Trump did not know who Rommel was, either.It’s at least the second time this month that Waltz has rejected the reality of Trump’s rhetoric. Last week, Waltz refused to acknowledge that direct quotes from Trump’s “enemy from within” comments were actually what he said.“I don’t think that’s what he said, John,” Waltz told CNN host John Berman, before pointing to civil unrest and mass protests during 2020. “I think that’s completely appropriate, the National Guard was rolled out then.… We cannot have, nor should we have, riots in the streets, business owners threatened, and Americans feeling unsafe.”Share This StoryRead more about Trump’s comments:Elon Musk Hit With Brutal Fact-Check After Trump Hitler ReportMost Recent PostHafiz Rashid/October 23, 2024/4:58 p.m. ETShare This StoryRFK Jr.’s Ex-Running Mate Exposed for Devious Plot to Kill News StoryNicole Shanahan tried to pay six figures to get rid of a news story.Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesRobert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, tried to pay a Washington Post reporter a hefty $500,000 to kill a profile she was writing on the Silicon Valley billionaire. The reporter didn’t respond to the offer, and the Post published its profile of Shanahan Wednesday morning, where the attempted bribe was revealed. Shanahan made the offer in June, texting one of her associates who was contacted by the Post that she would “pay your friend,” referring to the reporter, “half a million dollars to be a whistleblower” and name the sources for the story. In making the offer, Shanahan claimed that the sources were spreading false information about her. Shanahan would not respond to multiple requests from the Post beginning in April to sit for an interview, and ultimately the newspaper sent her a list of questions. Shanahan answered that she didn’t agree with some of the Post’s reporting but didn’t provide answers to any of the questions. The Post’s story details Shanahan’s evolution from a Democrat to a MAGA star praised by the likes of Tucker Carlson.“I’m so sorry you feel it is appropriate to do this for political motivations,” Shanahan told the Post. “It’s a very sad state our country is in.”Kennedy drew headlines when he announced Shanahan as his running mate in March. Many suspected that he chose her due to her wealth and the fact that she was Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s ex-wife. Later revelations showed that she has extreme views on in vitro fertilization and that she shares Kennedy’s opposition to vaccines, using the example of her autistic daughter as proof of their danger. In August, she and Kennedy dropped their independent presidential campaign and endorsed Donald Trump, spearheading a “Make America Healthy Again” initiative to back the former president. Such a wealthy benefactor supporting Trump signals that she might be involved in his administration if he wins the election, and doesn’t bode well for public health in America, either. The fact that she tried to bribe a reporter means she shares the former president’s lack of ethics. Share This StoryMore on Politics:Trump Saved Eric Adams’s Bacon—and Put the Country Up for SaleMost Recent PostHafiz Rashid/October 23, 2024/3:55 p.m. ETShare This StoryElon Musk Hit With Brutal Fact-Check After Trump Hitler ReportThe real news is bad enough, but leave it to Donald Trump’s biggest fan to invent a fake news story to cope.Nathan Howard/Getty ImagesDonald Trump’s supporters are angry over an article that isn’t even real—and they keep spreading it online. At issue is an image circulating online appearing to be a screenshot of an article from The Atlantic with the headline “Trump Is Literally Hitler,” distorting an article published Tuesday with the headline “Trump: ‘I Need the Kind of Generals That Hitler Had.’” The Atlantic published a press release Wednesday refuting the existence of an article with the headline reading “Trump Is Literally Hitler,” after MAGA fans wouldn’t stop sharing it on social media, including Trump’s wealthiest fan, X CEO Elon Musk, who got hit with the Community Notes feature on the platform he owns. Utah Senator Mike Lee also shared the screenshot before deleting it later. Several other right-wing influencers jumped on too. The screenshot appears to have been a creation of X user Indian_Bronson, who admitted it was a fake in a follow-up post. As the election draws closer, it’s not surprising that fake news is being shared and picking up steam on social media. It’s not the first time that Musk has shared false information that supports his political views either, and it’s probably not the last. In this case, X’s Community Notes feature and The Atlantic caught the screenshot, but not before it got millions of views. In the next two weeks, how bad will the misinformation be, and will it be corrected quickly enough?Share This StoryMost Recent PostEllie Quinlan Houghtaling/October 23, 2024/3:45 p.m. ETShare This StoryTrump’s Latest Financial Backers Come With a Seriously Sketchy Catch There’s a sinister detail abut Donald Trump’s latest financial backers.Cornell Watson/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesA new Trumpian super PAC has hit the market—just in time for its donor details to remain secret until after the November election.The America First Action Fund was organized on October 18, just late enough in the game to skirt donor disclosures until after Election Day, independent journalist Roger Sollenberger reported Wednesday. The move will prevent any transparency around exactly which individuals are fueling Trump’s campaign this late in election season.The freshly minted super PAC is tied to two separate dark money groups by way of its treasurer, Ashley Hayek, a 2020 Trump campaign staffer who also serves as the executive director of America First Works and the chief engagement officer of the America First Policy Institute.That latter group, like the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, is one of several in the running to offer staff picks and transition roadmaps for a potential second term under Donald Trump.But as a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit, America First Policy Institute can’t formally support a candidate for office. Instead, it’s been quietly focused on driving some of Trump’s chief policy goals, including deregulating the federal government. America First Policy Institute received Trump’s blessing even before it was founded in 2021, reported Politico. “For three and a half years, AFPI has focused on personnel and policy. It was formed by and is teeming with senior staffers from the first Trump Administration whose goal is to be ready on day one,” Kellyanne Conway, the former Trump adviser who chairs AFPI’s Center for the American Child, told Politico in August. “Linda McMahon, Brooke Rollins and the team have planned with precision and executed with put-your-head-down type humility.”Share This StoryRead more about Trump‘s fundraising:If Trump’s Fundraising Numbers Are Any Clue, He’s in Serious TroubleMost Recent PostPaige Oamek/October 23, 2024/3:45 p.m. ETShare This StoryMTG Makes Up Wild Harris Smear After Disturbing Trump Hitler ReportRepresentative Marjorie Taylor Greene is pissed Kamala Harris called Donald Trump an “unhinged” Hitler-loving fascist.Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesHit dogs holler. Marjorie Taylor Greene is spinning out about Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledging comments from John Kelly that Donald Trump is a Hitler-loving fascist. Harris responded Wednesday to two damning reports from The New York Times and The Atlantic, in which Trump’s former chief of staff recalled Trump’s  praise of Hitler and his desire to have generals like the Nazi leader did. After Harris dared bring up Kelly’s remarks, Greene accused Harris of trying to get Trump killed.“Vice President Kamala Harris is desperate, dangerous, and lying about President Trump,” the Georgia representative wrote on X. Vice President Kamala Harris is desperate, dangerous, and lying about President Trump.Kamala Harris just compared him to Hitler.She is going to get him killed. pic.twitter.com/Y25V2Ul5AK— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) October 23, 2024 You would think that Harris had just told Democrats to “stand back and stand by,” based on Greene’s description of the vice president’s spontaneous address. But Harris’s comments were simple and without dramatization. “It is deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous that Donald Trump would invoke Adolf Hitler, the man who is responsible for the deaths of six million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Americans,” said Harris in her address, responding to Kelly’s allegations. “Donald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable, and in a second term, people like John Kelly would not be there to be the guardrails against his propensities and his actions.” In the Times interview Tuesday, Kelly called Trump a “fascist” who would regularly praise Hitler and other dictators. Also on Tuesday, The Atlantic reported that two sources confirmed the Republican candidate declared, near the end of his term, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.”Greene will speak with Trump at a rally in Duluth, Georgia, Wednesday night alongside Charlie Kirk, Tucker Carlson, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and more in the nightmare lineup. At the campaign event, expect more whining about the attacks on her favorite president. Share This StoryMore on the initial report:Trump Is Fascist Who Loves Hitler, John Kelly Warns in Explosive AudioMost Recent PostEdith Olmsted/October 23, 2024/3:41 p.m. ETShare This StoryRepublican Offers Mindblowing Defense of Trump’s Hitler CommentsRepublican Governor Chris Sununu is standing by Donald Trump.Jemal Countess/Getty Images for TIMERepublicans are struggling to defend the report of Donald Trump’s wild comment pining for “the kind of generals that Hitler had”—and in some cases, they’re not defending it at all. New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu said Wednesday that a casual appreciation for Hitler’s Nazi regime was “par for the course” for the Republican presidential nominee.During an interview with CNN, Sununu was asked whether Trump’s alleged statement was a deal-breaker for the Republican governor. “No,” Sununu said, explaining that in the end, “it’s all about results.” Independent voters, he said, don’t care for “ultraliberal extremism” and just “need a cultural change coming out of Washington.”“Look, we’ve heard a lot of extreme things about Donald Trump from Donald Trump. It’s kind of par for the course. It’s really, unfortunately, uh with a guy like that, it’s kind of baked into the vote at this point,” Sununu said. Sununu showed just how quick he, and likely other Republicans too, have been to accept Trump’s extremist tendencies. But, as Sununu explained moments later, he was only doing it because it’s what everyone else was doing.CNN’s Kate Bolduan then asked Sununu whether he was OK with supporting a candidate who former chief John Kelly said fit “into the general definition of fascist” and “certainly prefers the dictator approach” to governing. “That is something you are supporting, is that something you are OK with?” Bolduan asked. “No, look I don’t think anyone should be OK with statements like that, of course,” Sununu said. “And if there’s ever anyone you don’t want any sort of comparison to, it’s Hitler and all of that sort of thing. “As we’ve discussed before, it’s not just what Chris Sununu is going for. I think most of America is gonna go this way,” he continued.  So, while Sununu can acknowledge that Hitler is bad, it’s only from an optics standpoint. If everyone else is OK with it, it’s better to just get on board! Share This StoryRead more about Republicans defending Trump:Not Even Fox News Can Defend Trump’s Latest Hitler CommentsMost Recent PostPaige Oamek/October 23, 2024/2:04 p.m. ETShare This StoryJD Vance Takes Trump’s Deportation Threats to Terrifying New LevelJD Vance has a new target in mind for the Republicans’ mass deportation plans.Andrew Harnik/Getty ImagesJD Vance has taken Donald Trump’s mass deportation threats to a terrifying new level, implying legal immigrants will also be rounded up. At campaign events in Arizona on Tuesday, Vance suggested he’d deport immigrants under legal programs like temporary protected status, or TPS, and refused to rule out deporting immigrants with deferred action for childhood arrivals, or DACA, status. “The problem is that Kamala Harris has granted mass asylum and mass parole,” he said, invoking a made-up right-wing buzzword. When a reporter at The Tucson Sentinel asked Vance whether he and Trump would plan on deporting DACA recipients, the vice presidential candidate dodged the question. “When you’ve got 25 million illegal aliens in this country, you’ve got to deport a lot of people or you don’t have a border anymore,” said Vance, who tried to turn attention to “violent criminal illegal aliens.”“We also have to deport people, not just the bad people who came into our country, but people who violated the law coming into this country. We’ve got to be willing to deport them.”Dreamers, or children who arrived through the DACA program, are a group of fewer than 600,000 people who were brought to the U.S. as children. The program offers no pathway to citizenship, and to maintain their status, DACA recipients cannot have a felony conviction and must renew their work permit every two years. Painting DACA recipients as criminal masterminds is not only disingenuous but also dangerous.This is a dramatic escalation of Trump’s deportation plans. Trump and Vance have previously targeted the TPS program, which helps migrants from countries experiencing armed conflict and natural disasters remain in the United States. Currently, immigrants from 16 countries, including Venezuela and Haiti, have increased TPS protections, and fewer than 1 million immigrants have legal residency through the TPS program.But facts don’t matter to Trump or Vance when it comes to immigration, and now with the latest DACA threat, it frighteningly appears that nothing is off the table. Share This StoryMore on Immigration:The Immigration
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Made-up wars are the only ones he’ll fight in anyway.