Trump wants to execute, Dems want an apology
It's time for a lesson in pattern recognition
If you told me on Monday that I wouldn’t be dedicating the bulk of this newsletter to:
the MTG-Trump breakup
Trump reversing course on Epstein release
the backroom deal both parties made in the House
the absurd censure-fest that surrounded it
because Trump endorsed killing some congressional Democrats over a video … I absolutely would have believed you. Why? Because one of the best features my brain’s operating system has developed and rolled out as a result of doing this job is sort of like Apple’s predictive text. Observing impulses, noting quirks, and tracking patterns among our leaders totally shatters the fantasy that they’re these unpredictable, manic agents of chaos.
I’d bet all my money Sen. Elissa Slotkin knew exactly what she was doing and what effect it would have on an audience of exactly one person. Like, she was a CIA analyst for fuck’s sake. The video, which also features Sen. Mark Kelly, Rep. Chris Deluzio, Rep. Maggie Goodlander, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, and Rep. Jason Crow, has racked up over 20M views across platforms since Tuesday.
To say Trump freaked out could be an understatement … but we can’t know for certain, considering hour-long social media blitzes are a part of his regular routine, especially on Truth Social where he can speak into the MAGA-lined void. But consideration aside, reposting “HANG THEM” and adding “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” is certainly out of the ordinary and cause for alarm.
And right there is where the social campaign really kicked off. Slotkin lobbed another video at us two days later that’s outpacing the first one on all platforms other than X. She also made time for interviews with Aaron Parnas (1M views) and TMZ (sure, why the hell not). The other members of this unit have less name ID and even less social following. In their position, it can be hard to make waves big enough to keep flooding social media.
Until the negative effects of online exposure pull up to the function.
Rep. Crow released audio of threats he’s received — all of them wishing for his death, one in particular praying it happens before church on Sunday, so he’ll know God is real. Rep. Deluzio’s team posted that two of the congressman’s district offices received bomb threats today. Slotkin even got tagged with a security detail.
These patterns of provocation followed by rage-posting followed by danger are predictable — and so is the wider Democratic Party’s response. Let me show you.
THE WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY
See it, take it: Democratic governors
With a wide open presidential primary on the horizon — distant but visible — you should learn one thing for certain: the campaign-curious candidates are going to jump into every burning building they see as long as it’s garnering a ton of attention. As they should!
Such is the reason why it’s no surprise to me to see every governor I’ve marked “interested” in 2028 weigh in on social, either in criticism of Trump or support of the Seditious Six:
CA Gov. Newsom (from his many accounts), CO Gov. Polis, KY Gov. Beshear (in video form), IL Gov. Pritzker, MD Gov. Moore, MN Gov. Walz, PA Gov. Shapiro
Note 1: MI Gov. Whitmer posted something about violent rhetoric in general
Note 2: Some might say NY Gov. Hochul (who commented) should be in the category above but she’s just has such a private sector future to me
See it, stake it: Democratic senators
For the life of me, I can’t understand why more than half of the group (24 out of 47)1 deployed a messaging strategy that I hoped had been relegated to a life of collecting dust in the National Archives. We’ll use Minority Leader Schumer as our example:
