Xi Jinping’s Recipe for Total Control
New York Times: “This is the kind of local governance that China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, wants: more visible, more invasive, always on the lookout for real or perceived threats. Officers patrol apartment buildings listening for feuding neighbors. Officials recruit retirees playing chess outdoors as extra eyes and ears. In the workplace, employers are required to appoint ‘safety consultants’ who report regularly to the police.”
“The Chinese Communist Party has long wielded perhaps the world’s most sweeping surveillance apparatus against activists and others who might possibly voice discontent. Then, during the coronavirus pandemic, the surveillance reached an unprecedented scale, tracking virtually every urban resident in the name of preventing infections.”
“Now, it is clear that Mr. Xi wants to make that expanded control permanent, and to push it even further.”
How Donald Trump Still Lives in the 1980s
New York Times: “It is the silver lining for Mr. Trump, as he spends his first sustained period of time in Manhattan since he moved to Washington in 2017. He passes the days in a dingy courtroom downtown, where he faces 34 felonies, listening to people from his old life describe him as a depraved liar who sullied the White House. At the end of it all, he could be sent to prison.”
“But in the evenings, people who have spoken to him say, he has been enjoying being back in the penthouse apartment that he moved into four decades ago. He still considers it home — and a permanent reminder of the easiest period of his life.”
“That period was the greed-is-good era in which Mr. Trump sold himself nationally as a titan of industry, despite a relatively small, and local, real estate portfolio.”
Republicans and Democrats View Economy Differently
“Republicans right now think inflation is a much bigger problem than Democrats do, and a lot of that is just politics. But here’s another possibility: Many of the places Republicans live indeed have had significantly higher inflation than Democratic enclaves,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“In new research, economists Carola Binder, Rupal Kamdar and Jane Ryngaert examined Labor Department inflation figures for U.S. metropolitan areas, and compared them with voting data. Their finding: Metro areas with more Republicans and independent voters tended to have higher inflation in 2022 than places where Democrats live.”
Menendez to Mount Independent Senate Bid
“Sen. Bob Menendez, who is currently standing trial on federal corruption charges, is personally collecting signatures on a nominating petition to get on the ballot as an independent,” the New Jersey Globe reports.
“Menendez needs 800 registered voters to sign his petition before the June 4 filing deadline.”
Trump Seeks to Block Film’s Release
“Attorneys for Donald Trump have sent a cease and desist letter to the filmmakers behind ‘The Apprentice’ in an effort to block its U.S. sale and release,” Variety reports.
“It warns the team behind the film not to pursue a distribution deal, according to two people who have read the letter.”
Washington Post: “The docudrama… tracks Trump’s rise to power and malevolence as a New York real estate mogul in the ‘70s and ‘80s. It depicts Trump as a rapist, and has been broadly attacked by the former president’s lawyers as a politically-motivated fabrication.”
Special Counsel Seeks Gag Order on Trump
“Special counsel’s office prosecutors have asked a federal judge in Florida to place a gag order on Donald Trump that would limit his ability to comment about law enforcement that searched his Mar-a-Lago resort,” CNN reports.
“The request – a first in the classified documents mishandling case – comes after the former president has been repeatedly and falsely criticizing the FBI for having a policy in place around the use of deadly force during the search and seizure of government records at his resort in August 2022.”
Never Trump Republicans Feel Ignored by Biden
New York Times: “Back in 2020, a steady stream of Republicans stepped forward and endorsed Biden, representing a narrow but important slice of the electorate: anti-Trump Republicans. That group took a hit this week when Nikki Haley, Trump’s last rival standing in the Republican primary, said she planned to vote for him — a man she frequently described as dangerous.”
“Now, even as Trump lays out a vision for a presidency that could be even more radical than his first, the Republican opposition is in an uneasy place. Some Republicans blame the Biden campaign, saying they’ve heard practically nothing from an operation they think could use their help. And they worry that the omission represents a broader failure to bring moderate Republicans into the fold.”
Libertarian Convention Devolves Into Fighting
“Donald Trump won’t be speaking to his usual self-selected crowd of adoring red-hatted MAGA fans when he addresses the Libertarian National Convention on Saturday,” Politico reports.
“As delegates gathered at the Washington Hilton on the eve of his speech, the party’s decision to host the former president, which had split the organization, erupted Friday into open revolt. Fuming delegates at the convention said they plan to protest Trump’s speech, and one group sought unsuccessfully to remove the former president along with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., from the agenda — a move that resulted in thrown punches and obscenities between supporters and opponents of the move.”
New York Times: “The attention to an often-overlooked minor party underscored the tug of war over right-leaning, independent-minded voters. In a race likely to be decided by narrow margins, Mr. Trump cannot afford to lose any votes. And Mr. Kennedy, with his anti-establishment message and zigzagging ideology, has been veering into Mr. Trump’s lane.”
Menendez Prosecutors Can’t Show ‘Critical’ Evidence
“Jurors in Sen. Bob Menendez’s corruption case cannot see evidence prosecutors have called ‘critical’ to part of their case, a federal judge ruled Friday,” Politico reports.
“The decision puts a hole in prosecutors’ ability to prove their central claim: that the New Jersey Democrat took bribes to help send billions of dollars of American military aid to Egypt.”
Trump Accepts Endorsement of Two Indicted Rappers
“Donald Trump on Thursday during his campaign rally in the Bronx invited up on stage two rappers who have been indicted over an alleged conspiracy to commit murder,” CNN reports.
“During his campaign speech, Trump introduced rappers Sheff G and Sleepy Hallow, whose legal names are Michael Williams and Tegan Chambers, and invited them up on stage with him to say a few words.”
Steve Schwarzman Backs Trump Again
Stephen Schwarzman — chairman, CEO and co-founder of Blackstone, the private equity and real estate giant — will support Donald Trump as a “vote for change,” Axios reports.
New York Times: “Mr. Schwarzman, a lifelong Republican and megadonor to the party, had stuck by Mr. Trump after his defeat in 2020 and the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, but turned away from him after many of the candidates Mr. Trump had handpicked lost their midterm races in 2022.”
“Days after the party’s disappointing performance then, Mr. Schwarzman vowed to support a new candidate in the Republican presidential primaries.”
Ex-GOP Candidate Charged with Stalking
Olympic gold medalist and former congressional candidate Marty Nothstein (R) faces charges of stalking and criminal mischief in connection with an incident involving his ex-girlfriend, the Allentown Morning Call reports.
Nothstein had similar charges filed against him in the past.
Democratic Senators Seek Meeting with John Roberts
Two senior Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL), are requesting a meeting with Chief Justice John Roberts “as soon as possible” amid reports that properties owned by Justice Samuel Alito displayed two flags with links to the Jan. 6 insurrection, Politico reports.
Robert DeNiro Takes on Trump
Robert De Niro helped cut an ad for Joe Biden’s campaign.
John Cornyn Will Seek Re-Election in 2026
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said Friday he will certainly run for reelection, a decision that could put him on a collision course with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) in 2026,” the Dallas Morning News reports.
Exchange of the Day
Former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, talked with Samuel Benson of the Deseret News:
BENSON: If you could tell Americans to pay attention to one thing in the world right now, what would it be?
FLAKE: I think there’s a strain of politics — I think a malignant strain — right now that says, we can shut the world out, and that we can be more peaceful, more secure, more prosperous, by shutting the world out. And I think that is wrong. We need alliances. We need friendships. And that’s one thing that I’ve always known. It’s certainly been reinforced, particularly after Ukraine. You need friends, you need allies. And you can’t say, “Well, we disagree on this issue, and so we won’t do anything together.”
Elon Musk Ramps Up Anti-Biden Posts
New York Times: “Mr. Musk has steadily ramped up his criticism of Mr. Biden as the campaign season heats up before the November presidential election. Mr. Musk has posted about Mr. Biden on X at least seven times a month since January, attacking the president for everything from his age to his policies on immigration and health. Before that, he posted about Mr. Biden twice in December and not at all in November… In all, Mr. Musk had posted nearly 40 times about Mr. Biden this year, compared with about 30 times for all of last year.”
“In contrast, Mr. Musk had posted more than 20 times on X this year about former President Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee. In those posts, Mr. Musk defended Mr. Trump, arguing that he is a victim of media and prosecutorial bias in the criminal cases that the former president faces.”
“Mr. Musk’s posts about this year’s presidential race stand out because he is signaling a willingness to tip the political scales as the owner of an influential social media platform, something that no other leader of a social media firm has done.”
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