Abbreviated Pundit Roundupis a long-running series published every morning that collects essential political discussion and analysis around the internet
Trump May Owe $100 Million From Double-Dip Tax Breaks, Audit Shows
A previously unknown focus of an I.R.S. audit is a dubious accounting maneuver that effectively meant taking the same write-offs twice on a Chicago skyscraper.
The issues around Mr. Trump’s case were novel enough that, during his presidency, the I.R.S. undertook a high-level legal review before pursuing it. The Times and ProPublica, in consultation with tax experts, calculated that the revision sought by the I.R.S. would create a new tax bill of more than $100 million, plus interest and potential penalties.
Trump team throws out GOP plan and builds a ‘leaner’ 2024 operation
The new plan calls for fewer offices, less staff and a focus on new partnerships with outside groups — raising concerns among some Republicans.
The situation has alarmed GOP officials in key states like Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, who have yet to receive promised funding, staff or even briefings on the new plans since theTrump team took control of the Republican National Committeein March. An earlier party blueprint for a general election build-out has been discarded, party officials say. Plans to open new offices have been scuttled. Hiring has been slowed.
Student protest movements have historically functioned as an indispensable corrective for America and the West. That is the legacy of 1968 we should be talking about
That’s what is so utterly disproportionate and untethered (dare I say: hysterical) about the elite mainstream response:David Frumsays it’s just like Weimar – but Germany in the early 1930s, right before Hitler’s ascension to power, saw constant mass violence in the streets, which is simply not happening.Caitlin Flanagancalled the occupation of a university building “Kristallnacht on the Hudson,” using a term that (euphemistically) refers to the November pogrom of 1938 in which the Nazis killed hundreds of German Jews, threw tens of thousands in concentration camps, destroyed hundreds of synagogues and thousands of Jewish businesses – yet the students haven’t seriously hurt, let alone killed anyone, as the violence has emanated almost exclusively from the armed agents of the state.Thomas Chatterton Williamscompared the students to the January 6 insurrectionists – only they are not actually taking any initiative to overthrow the government or threatening to kill elected officials.
The suggestion that a significant portion of these students are radical militants is simply not plausible, therefore. That leaves the “cosplaying” interpretation [Max] Boot offers (without ever really reconciling it with the assertion that we are looking at extreme ideologues). But if this is all just kids *pretending* to do revolution for the thrill of it, how does that possibly justify this kind of response from authorities and centrist opinionists alike?
How Much Will Gaza Affect Joe Biden’s Re-election Chances?
Dire warnings as the Democrats divide—but the polls tell a different story.
“Unless there is a pretty dramatic course correction at home and abroad soon,”David Austin Walsh, a progressive academic, wrote on May 3, “Joe Biden will lose the election.” Change tack in Gaza, goes the logic, and re-election may be within reach.
These arguments all assume that Biden’s electoral weakness is related to his Middle East policy. But that doesn’t fit the evidence. The Israel-Hamas war doesn’t appear to be driving voters away from Biden in significant numbers, and most of the people criticizing Biden from the left for his support of Israel don’t appear to be his voters anyway.
There are two questions mixed up in here. First: What is the right thing to do? Second: What impact will Gaza have on Biden’s chances of winning in November?
The first question isthe most important, but also themost complicated. Plenty of informed, well-meaning, reasonable people disagree about the answer. The second question attracts much less rigorous discussion, and informs answers to the first—so let’s dig into it, looking at the polling data.
More Evidence of Biden’s Strength In The Likely Voter Universe
As we get closer to Election Day pollsters start focusing less on adults and registered voters and a bit more on likely voters. About 80% of registered voters vote in our elections, so they are not the same universes. AsI wrote last Sunday, we are starting to see a clear pattern as pollsters start testing our their 2024 likely voter models – Biden is doing much better in likely voter universes.
Let’s review what the recent ABC News and NPR/Marist polls found (Biden-Trump):
Trump might not go to jail, but this trial is a close second
{Trump lawyer Susan] Necheles, who asserted that Daniels has “a lot of experience making phony stories about sex appear to be real,” asked her: “And now you have a story you have been telling about having sex with President Trump; right?”
Replied Daniels: “And if that story was untrue, I would have written it to be a lot better.”
Necheles was skeptical that Daniels, after acting in “over 200 porn movies,” would really become lightheaded, as Daniels claimed, after seeing Trump on a bed in a T-shirt and boxer shorts.
“Yes,” Daniels rejoined. “When you are not expecting a man twice your age to be in their underwear.”
The Trump lawyer asked Daniels if she knew what was in the indictment against Trump.
“There was a lot of indictments,” Daniels responded, to laughter.
Necheles mentioned a Daniels tweet saying she was “the best person to flush the orange turd down,” then asked: “You said you were going to ‘flush’ President Trump?”
“I didn’t say ‘President Trump,’” Daniels shot back. “It says ‘orange turd.’ So, if that’s what’s interpreted by you …”
It’s an election interference trial. And Stormy did fine on Stormy Thursday. And now comes Michael Monday.
By the way, they keep saying Trump only needs one juror. It’s true, but it seems like they say it because he’s lost the other eleven.
