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The 1st Annual We Can’t Remember It For You Fire Sale

The Speaker of the House should have an elephantine memory. A working knowledge of who scratched whose back, who owes a favor and who can be swayed is just about the only practical requirement of a party leader. But when it comes to the obvious corruption of Donald Trump, Mike Johnson goes full goldfish. 

The Louisiana congressman and top man in the lower chamber has repeatedly blanked when confronted with Trump’s grifts, as if the president’s particular scent of ketchup and baby powder is a bizarro Proustian madeleine. 

Johnson spent the weekend defending his decision to push through a bill that seems eager to grab onto the third rail of American politics with both hands. The thrilling stunt of kicking millions off Medicaid pushed everything from his mind, including the blatant bribery of his party’s de facto leader. 

Speaking to Jake Tapper on Sunday, Johnson said he was too busy to have an opinion on Trump’s dinner with the largest investors in his presidential memecoin. 

“Look, I don't know anything about the dinner. I was a little busy this past week,” he said. “I'm not going to comment on something I haven't even heard about.”

The “I don’t know her” defense is a Xerox of a dodge Johnson used to avoid questions around Trump’s gifted private jet from Qatar. In that case, Johnson admitted he knew of the jet in question, but still pleaded ignorance. 

“I’ve been a little busy on reconciliation, so I’m not following all the twists and turns of the Qatar jet. I certainly heard about it,” he said. “My understanding is it’s not a personal gift to the president, it’s a gift to the United States, and other nations give us gifts all the time.”

What do you think? Is Johnson’s selective memory a put-on to avoid dicey questions, or is he just hyper-focused on ballooning the deficit? Let us know in the comments.

Make me smarter …

Republicans are forcing Trump to touch the third rail

Republican deficit-raising may force mandatory cuts to Medicare, stress-testing the MAGA cult’s allegiance with a move that’s long been considered political suicide. Read more.

They said what?

• “The emperor has no clothes!”

  Rand Paul, describing delusion among the GOP about Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill. The Kentucky senator said the bill’s cost-cutting “math didn’t add up” and worried it would “explode” the national debt.

• "We want to know who those foreign students are”

  Donald Trump, sending an ominous message to Harvard University in an overnight rant shared on Truth Social. The president has been steadily escalating his attacks on the Ivy League school and making little headway.

• “It’s important that we remember the 1930s”

  Kamala Harris, worrying over the rise of fascism at an Australian real estate conference. The former vice president attacked DOGE head Elon Musk’s recent claims that empathy is a weakness among Western nations.

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Before you go …

"White genocide" and white guilt: Donald Trump versus history

Donald Trump is a bumbling oaf spreading unfounded nonsense from inside the Oval Office. The only truth left is that klutzy antics don’t matter. Read more.