Donald Trump and MAGA are still “weird"

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The news, in brief …

• “We are Minnesota strong”: Rep. Ilhan Omar attacked at town hall

  The Democratic representative was unharmed. Read more.

• Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Minneapolis” revives the sound of protest

  Written amid unrest in Minnesota, "Streets of Minneapolis" fills a notable absence of musical dissent. Read more.

• Ecuador files formal complaint after ICE agent attempts “incursion” at Minneapolis embassy

  Video shows Minneapolis embassy staff refusing entry to an ICE agent. Read more.

• “She should go”: Two GOP senators call on Noem to resign for “amateurish” leadership at DHS

  President Donald Trump countered naysaying from "losers" and called Noem's tenure a "tremendous success." Read more.

Make me smarter …

Philadelphia’s ambitious plan to scare off ICE

City leaders know how to shield the community — if the mayor has the guts. Read more.

Freaks and geeks …

The grievance machine humming under the hood of conservative politics is always running but extremely economical.

GOP politicians are still fueled by decades-old tropes about a welfare state that no longer exists. They’re still fuming about COVID lockdowns, the length of which could be counted in days. If you get a real dinosaur talking, you might hear a rant about “Obama phones” or the ACA’s “death panels.”

Their figurehead, Donald Trump, is a paragon of eternal grudge-holding. He rode his resentment at being iced out of Manhattan parties to the White House and his beefs have steered American politics through a red-assed decade. In his second-term, he’s put the full power of the state behind repeatedly debunked conspiracies about criminal immigrants and the 2020 election. Conservatives have followed his lead, dropping supposedly bedrock beliefs in the Second Amendment and opposition to government overreach in the process.

MAGA is able to sustain an impressive degree of rage over a vanishingly small number of petty squabbles. When something gets stuck in the right’s craw, it stays stuck.

It makes it all the more infuriating that the messaging gurus of Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign abandoned the “weird” tag so quickly. The insult, first launched at Trump and Vice President JD Vance by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, clearly rattled a party that conceives of itself as the voice of the average American. Like nearly all initiatives that achieve their goal too directly, it was quickly scrapped by the Democratic Party.

But these guys really are weird. The average American doesn’t know who Graydon Carter is, let alone why they should hate him on Trump’s behalf. Trump’s decision to skip the Super Bowl puts him in the extreme minority among Americans. His dislike of superstar and halftime performer Bad Bunny makes him an outcast twice-over.

As Trump’s FBI launches raids on Georgia polling facilities, most Americans (including a majority of Republicans) believe the 2020 presidential election was legitimate. While the Department of Homeland Security cooks up strongman memes to sell its ongoing raids in Minnesota, a majority of Americans support the complete abolition of ICE.

Pointing out that the GOP’s beliefs are abnormal won’t make the violence and lawlessness stop, of course. It certainly won’t shut Trump up. But the Democrats should still point it out while taking up the cause of normal Americans. The throughline of the midterms should be simple: These creeps don’t speak for us.

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Before you go …

Pam Bondi’s shakedown exposes “Big Lie” in Minneapolis

The attorney general’s voter-roll demand shows how Trump’s 2020 election denial fuels federal coercion and violence. Read more.

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