You’ve likely seen a lot of write-ups about Elon Musk having a temper tantrum last night and banning a group of journalists. It’s gotten a lot of attention in part because he banned ones that were in some sense covering him and his acquisition of Twitter, and because he banned reporters from some of the most prominent news organizations in the country, including CNN, the Times and the Post. In most cases (it’s hard to know because there’s been no clear explanation of why any of this happened) the bans were based on tortured readings of a new rule Twitter put in place the night before based on a different temper tantrum on Wednesday. Perhaps fittingly enough for a neo-Gilded Age tale, the episode starts with Musk’s private jet, a 2015 Gulfstream G650.
On the issue of whether Trump is “done,” as I put it below, the primary itself really isn’t the question. There seems little doubt that another Republican could defeat Donald Trump for the nomination, though I’m skeptical of whether that person is Ron DeSantis. The more operative question is what you do with Trump after you beat him. Normally you have a primary battle and one candidate comes out on top. It may be a cakewalk or a brutal slog. But one candidate gets the most delegates and the others fall in behind that candidate.
It’s very difficult, though, to imagine Donald Trump losing a hard fought primary struggle and then just gracefully falling in line as a surrogate for the guy who beat him. In fact, it’s basically impossible to imagine that happening.
I’ve treated it as a given that Trump is the nominee in 2024 if he wants to be. But today’s “Major Announcement” from Trump, which ended up being a new set of NFT playing cards with Trump in a bulging Superman suit, crystalizes my growing doubts about whether he still has the juice to go another round. We’ve also seen a couple polls this week which show a clear majority of self-described Republican primary voters prefer Ron DeSantis over Trump, albeit with DeSantis continuing Trump’s policies. But polls can change. Nor does a poll more than a year out from the first primary capture all the kinetic dimensions of an actual primary battle. What is less changeable are the growing signs that Trump is just a loser.
A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate discuss TPM’s series on The Meadows’ Texts, which went to 34 members of Congress and numerous figures, and that show the plot to overturn the election in real time.
You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.
Appreciate everyone who has written in. Here’s a few more:
TPM Reader GS:
Seconding everything in David’s post this morning. It really sunk in for me how explosive this story was this week when Kimmel brought it up in his monologue. So proud to be a TPM reader and subscriber–and thanks for helping to keep us sane!
Lots of TPM love like this over the past few days:
TPM Reader SC:
Congrats and you all make me so proud! I just wanted to let you all know, great job on this series of journalism! I realized that as I’m scanning the headlines and reading the articles, that I kept thinking, “My subscription paid for this!”
Failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake makes only one appearance in the 2,319 text messages former President Trump’s last chief of staff Mark Meadows provided to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. However, Lake’s cameo provides an especially vivid example of how the challenge to Trump’s 2020 loss helped spur the creation of a new political movement that remains a force in American politics.
