US Politics

Hello there, and welcome to the Guardian’s brand new US election newsletter. I hope you’re having a nice week.It’s less than six months until election day, and Donald Trump, when he’s not in court or looking at racing cars, is spending time weighing his vice-presidential pick. It’s becoming quite the spectacle.But first, some of the happenings in US politics.Here’s what you need to know …1. I don’t feel so goodDonald Trump’s trial over hush-money payments to an adult film star saw Stormy Daniels recall her sexual encounter with the president in front of a presumably nauseous Manhattan courtroom. Will this trial – and the three others he faces – torpedo Trump’s election chances? One poll this week found that it will depend on whether he is convicted. About 80% of Trump’s supporters would definitely stick with him if he becomes a felon, while 16% would “reconsider” their support. Just 4% say they would definitely ditch him.2. Biden gives antisemitism speechIn a speech on Tuesday at a Holocaust remembrance event, Joe Biden condemned what he called the “ferocious surge of antisemitism in America and around the world”, amid widespread student protests over American support for Israel’s war on Gaza. Thousands of students have been arrested around the US, during a frequently militaristic police response. Republicans have tried to use the unrest to paint Biden as weak and sow division among Democratic voters.3. TikTok hits back after US government crackdownTikTok and its parent company are suing the US government after Biden signed bipartisan legislation which could potentially ban the app from the US if it is not sold to another owner. It comes as Russian state-affiliated accounts have used TikTok to draw attention to Biden’s age and immigration policies. Critics have said ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based parent company, could also collect sensitive information about Americans. But others – including TikTok – say the US is unfairly singling out the social media platform, potentially hurting free speech and independent content makers. The debacle is fraught in an election year when many young people get news from TikTok, and Biden himself has a campaign account.Eeny, meeny, miny, moeView image in fullscreenThe election is in November, and Donald Trump has yet to decide on his vice-presidential candidate. That’s not unusual – assuming he’s not in prison by then, he’s got plenty of time – but what is kind of new is the very public auditioning for the role.Trump summoned several of the candidates to Mar-a-Lago over the weekend, where he forced them to parade around on stage, in what sounds like a version of the Miss Universe competition he used to haunt.But the contenders, who range from long-time sycophants to more recent converts, have been doing some parading of their own.Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who ran for president against Trump in 2016 (Trump dubbed him “Little Marco”, Rubio suggested Trump had a small penis, but the two have since made up) has been near-ever present on TV in recent weeks, as has Elise Stefanik, a New York congresswoman who was once seen as a sober legislator, but has since evolved into a Trump disciple.Doug Burgum – recently dubbed “less interesting than a wooden post” – and Tim Scott, who both ran against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination this year, have also been showing up on TV shows to defend Trump’s legal entanglements and threats to undermine the election.There’s also JD Vance, a big-faced beardy man who once believed Trump to be an “idiot” but has since changed his mind, and Byron Donalds, who with Scott is one of the five Black Republicans in Congress.One thing appears to be certain: it will not be Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor who has dominated headlines after admitting that she shot and killed her dog in a gravel pit.Will the identity of Trump’s running mate really make a difference?In 2016, Trump was viewed with suspicion by some evangelical voters – voters he needed to come out in droves for him to defeat Hillary Clinton. That’s why he chose Mike Pence, a devout Christian who just released a book that is literally called So Help Me God.But religious Republicans have pretty much made their peace with Trump since then – largely because the supreme court he appointed overturned the federal right to abortion.Reports indicate that what Trump is really looking for is an uber-loyal attack dog, someone who can tear into Trump’s critics on air, before coming back to the White House to quietly snuggle at his feet.It would be easy to see a vice-president as inconsequential. But since the US became a thing, nine vice-presidents have stepped into the top job: eight times because the sitting president died, and once because the president – Richard Nixon – resigned. Without wanting to be too macabre, Donald Trump is quite old, and is not known as a healthy eater. (In the name of Journalism I once lived like Trump for a week. I genuinely think it took years off my life.)Anyway: some of these people might fancy their chances of ascending to the throne.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionOn the roadView image in fullscreenA dispatch from our Washington bureau chief, David Smith:Is it a bird? Is it a plane? OK, it’s a plane, with “TRUMP” written in giant gold letters on the side. I watched the Boeing 757 dubbed “Trump Force One” fly into Freeland, Michigan, last week, accompanied by the booming soundtrack of Tom Cruise’s Top Gun.It reminded me that the Trump Show has always been about reality versus fantasy. Reality for Trump right now is hour after hour sitting in a cold, dingy New York courtroom. Fantasy is stepping out of his private jet into afternoon sunshine and the warm glow of a campaign rally where the crowd chants his name.The demographics were telling: overwhelmingly white and dominated by retirees. Every Trump supporter I interviewed is convinced that the trial in New York is a witch-hunt designed to hobble his election chances. When I asked about his dictatorial ambitions, they brushed the question aside and preferred the word “leader”.Who had the worst week?View image in fullscreenOn Monday Judge Juan Merchan, handling Trump’s hush-money payments trial, said he “will have to consider a jail sanction” if Trump doesn’t stop publicly criticizing witnesses and the jury. But if Monday was bad for Trump, Tuesday was worse.“I had my clothes and my shoes off, I believe my bra, however, was still on. We were in the missionary position …” so went the testimony of Stormy Daniels, who was allegedly paid $130,000 to remain quiet about the claimed encounter, which she says took place in 2006, a year after Trump married his wife Melania. (Trump denies having sex with Daniels.)Daniels said that Trump told her she reminded him of Ivanka Trump, his daughter, before the two became intimate. Asked by the prosecution whether the encounter with Trump was “brief”, Daniels said: “Yes.”‘It’s my favorite book’View image in fullscreenI spent no short amount of time last week reading the God Bless the USA Bible, a special version of the holy text Trump is hawking online. If you enjoy the Bible, but feel like it is missing images of American flags and bald eagles, then this is the book for you.If, however, you want a Bible without sticky pages, which hasn’t been dubbed “blasphemous”, and which doesn’t cost $60, then maybe give it a pass.Read the full story here.Elsewhere in US politicsView image in fullscreen Milwaukee is replacing its top election official, Sam Levine and Alice Herman write, which means “there will be a new head of elections in one of the most critical cities in a key battleground state”. Biden won Wisconsin by just 20,000 votes in 2020. Bernie Sanders won more than 13m votes in the 2016 presidential primary, as his brand of democratic socialism inspired young people across the country. He didn’t win, of course, but Martin Pengelly reports that Sanders plans to run for re-election to the Senate. More

The Georgia state court of appeals on Wednesday said it would consider an appeal from Donald Trump of an order allowing Fani Willis, the district attorney, to continue prosecuting his election interference case in Fulton county.In a one-page order, the appeals court said it would allow Trump to challenge the decision not to disqualify Willis over her relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor she hired to lead the Trump case. Scott McAfee, the trial judge overseeing the case, ruled in March that Willis could stay on the case as long as Wade resigned. Wade subsequently resigned the same day McAfee issued his decision.Trump now has 10 days to file a notice of appeal, the court said. His legal team had asked the court of appeals to consider the case in March and clarify the standard for when a prosecutor should be disqualified.“President Trump looks forward to presenting interlocutory arguments to the Georgia court of appeals as to why the case should be dismissed and Fulton county DA Willis should be disqualified for her misconduct in this unjustified, unwarranted political persecution,” Steve Sadow, Trump’s attorney, said in a statement.The decision to hear the appeal is a significant win for Trump. It decreases the chances that the case will go to trial before the November election and allows Trump and his lawyers to continue to undermine Willis’s credibility and keep questions about her judgment in the public eye. McAfee has already excoriated Willis for her conduct, saying she had a “tremendous lapse in judgment”.Trump’s attorneys may petition the court to stay the trial pending the outcome of their appeal. Otherwise, the appeal will not immediately impede the prosecution as McAfee takes up pending motions. But if the appeals court decides that Willis must be removed, it would reset the years-long case back to square one while a new prosecutor can be appointed to oversee the case.Last month, prosecutors urged the appeals court not to hear the appeal. “The present application merely reflects the applicants’ dissatisfaction with the trial court’s proper application of well-established law to the facts,” prosecutors wrote in a 19-page filing.Trump and more than a dozen of his allies were charged last year with racketeering over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump and his co-defendants tried to dismiss the case by alleging that Willis’s relationship, and statements she made at a Black church in Atlanta suggesting criticism of her was racist, meant she should be recused from the case.Wade defended his relationship with Willis in an interview with ABC News last weekend. “Workplace romances are as American as apple pie,” Wade said. “It happens to everyone. But it happened to the two of us.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“I regret that that private matter became the focal point of this very important prosecution,” Wade added. “This is a very important case.”The order comes one day after Judge Aileen Cannon indefinitely delayed Trump’s trial in Florida for charges that he retained classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club. More

Princeton University students have been protesting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza since 25 April, their goal being to get the US university to divest from Israel. The Guardian spoke to some of the students and faculty at the encampment to hear their reasons for being there, and how they feel they have been portrayed by the media More

By the end of winter 2024, the return of Donald Trump to the top of the GOP presidential ticket has revealed a surprising trend in the former president’s base of support: his increasing popularity among Black and Latino voters.

Several polls suggest as many as 23% of Black voters and 46% of Latino voters could cast their ballot for Trump.

If the polls are right, these numbers represent a far cry from the 6% of Black and 28% of Latino voters who supported Trump in 2016 and the 8% of Black voters and 32% of Latino voters who voted for Trump in 2020.

Given Trump’s long record of racist and xenophobic comments, the question, then, is why Trump’s support among voters of color has increased over the years.

A ‘racial realignment’?

Two explanations have emerged to explain Trump’s growth in support among voters of color.

The first is based on the faulty assumption, made by some Democratic strategists that the increasing racial and ethnic diversity of the U.S. electorate would automatically benefit Democratic candidates. This assumption rests on the idea that voters of color are inherently progressive on issues such as education, social services, health care and criminal justice reform.

According to this line of thinking, Trump’s polling numbers are mostly the result of poor messaging by the Democrats – a failure to remind voters of color that their interests align with Joe Biden, not Trump.

The second explanation is that voters of color are inherently conservative, particularly working-class Black and Latino men, who identify more closely with the political right on issues such as immigration, law and order and cultural conservativism.

“Many of America’s nonwhite voters have long held much more conservative views than their voting patterns would suggest,” data analyst John Burton-Murdoch argued in the Financial Times in March 2024. “The migration we’re seeing today is not so much natural Democrats becoming disillusioned but natural Republicans realizing they’ve been voting for the wrong party.”

Though few other analysts go as far, Burton-Murdoch concluded that the numbers represent “racial realignment.”

GOP appeals to cultural identities

Both interpretations suffer from the same faulty assumption that politics can be reduced to a simple exercise in consumer branding and retailing.

Polls provide snapshots of how individual voters feel about certain topics at particular points in time. But they cannot capture the complex forces shaping the varied political realities of the estimated 35 million voters of color.

More important in understanding the apparent racial political shifts are the efforts that are made on the ground in local communities, especially by right-wing activists, that are appealing to a sense of isolation, economic precariousness and widespread mistrust in government.

To see those efforts in action, we attended the December 2023 America Fest, an annual conference in Phoenix sponsored by Turning Point USA, a right-wing organization focused on students and young adults. Perhaps half of the 13,000 attendees were under 35, including small but noticeable numbers of people of color.

At the conference, the emphasis of the group’s messaging was on connecting people who say they feel frustrated about contemporary political and cultural life.

These appeals, which attempted to exploit widespread cynicism among young voters, were used in every part of the group’s social media and outreach efforts. Paraphernalia for such efforts are part of the group’s online activism kits that provide posters and buttons emblazoned with slogans such as “Deep in the heart of freedom,” “Womanhood is not a costume,” “Take pride in my country” and “I 2nd that.”

Cultural refrains that mock gay and transgender people and support the Second Amendment right to bear arms are becoming more popular across the right.

During the 2020 campaign, then-U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Latino supporters in Phoenix.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

On another front, the Libre Initiative, a libertarian organization funded by the conservative billionaire Koch brothers, launched in August 2023 a multistate advertising campaign aimed at Latino voters that blames Biden for the economic precariousness many of them are facing.

With six months remaining in the presidential campaign, these and other GOP efforts appealing to voters of color appear to be working, based on polling thus far.

But the outcome of the election is far from certain.

In our view, what the polls are revealing is the GOP’s attempt to win support of an increasingly diverse electorate – not through appeals to policy or ideological interests but through forging connections often rooted in identity, community and a sense of belonging.

While polls may provide some useful information and cues, it’s important for American voters to remain cautious about using them as the catchall explanations for these complex and ongoing racial dynamics. More

Kristen Welker, the moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press, did her best to pin down Tim Scott last Sunday.Would the junior senator from South Carolina state that he will accept the results of the 2024 presidential election no matter who wins? Pretty basic stuff, you’d think, but apparently not.Scott dodged, he weaved, he did that politician thing of saying the same non-responsive thing over and over.But he would not answer her question – which was repeated several times, in several different ways, including Welker’s insistence on a simple yes or no. All Scott would say was that Donald Trump would be the 47th president.Appalling as it was, the reason was obvious.“He’s auditioning,” said Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, who worked in the Trump administration. In a CNN interview, Taylor called Scott’s refusal to commit to the very foundation of democracy “a very chilling signal”.Chilling, it is. But Tim Scott is hardly alone in playing to that audience of one.Even as Trump sits in a Manhattan courtroom this week, listening to a porn star describe their long-ago sexual encounter, he is deciding who will be his running mate in November.The job, of course, has a few downsides. As Mike Pence found out on 6 January 2021, being Trump’s vice-president could result in masses of violent rioters calling for you to be hanged.And it could result, as Pence also found out, in Trump himself throwing you under the bus, as he tends to do with even those who were his closest allies. (“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done …” Trump said publicly, about his vice-president’s decision to accept electoral votes that indicated his rival, Joe Biden, had won the presidential election. Privately, according to Politico, Trump went even further, expressing support for hanging Pence.)The position is coveted, nonetheless. Power is every bit that seductive.And so, the veepstakes are playing out before our eyes. And, far beyond Tim Scott’s craven avoidance, the competition is not a pretty sight.Elise Stefanik, the New York congresswoman who wants the nod, has gone full Trump in recent years, turning from something of a moderate Republican to a raging rightwinger. Recall how she led the bullying of university presidents testifying before Congress, and then gloated in a social media post after the Harvard and University of Pennsylvania presidents resigned: “Two down.”Soon after, she had her turn on Meet the Press and – echoing Trump’s stalwart defense of the Capitol-storming mob – furrowed her brow at the “treatment of the January 6 hostages”.Outrageous? Certainly. But not to be outdone in trolling the libs, the South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem, has bragged about killing her dog and even advocated for killing Biden’s dog. It’s unclear whether this was an effort to appeal to a certain dog-hater-in-chief – or merely to indicate that nothing is beyond the pale.“It once seemed like a dark joke to say that Trump would eventually resort to kicking puppies to get a rise out of people,” Amanda Marcotte wrote in Salon. “Noem skipped that step entirely and went straight to shooting them.”That Noem’s casual cruelty isn’t playing well with the public doesn’t matter when the audience of one indulges in that kind of thing himself – from mocking disabled people to dissing Gold Star parents to dreaming up innovative ways to insult women’s looks.Just days ago, another hopeful – Doug Burgum, the Republican governor of North Dakota – took his audition to Fox News, heaping accolades on Trump’s “clarity and focus and strength”.Burgum, thought to be on Trump’s shortlist, got some invaluable help from Fox & Friends, noted Matt Gertz of Media Matters. Host Brian Kilmeade avoided questions on abortion – Burgum has signed extremely restrictive legislation – or about Trump’s scary declarations of going full autocrat if he’s re-elected.Instead, Burgum was given plenty of time to extol Trump’s “positive energy”, a description that runs counter to reports that the former president falls asleep in the courtroom.The boss does love flattery.A few months ago, Trump bestowed a high compliment on Tim Scott, calling him “a great advocate”, and adding, “He doesn’t like talking about himself, but boy, does he talk about Trump.”All in all, an embarrassing display of sycophancy. That would be bad enough. But far worse is the abandonment of principle, as Tim Scott made all too clear.The real litmus test, after all, is the would-be running mate’s willingness to deny the 2020 election results and to pledge unquestioning fealty in the future – fealty not to the constitution or the American voters but to the audience of one.
Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist More

Tennessee’s legislative session concluded in late April with some laws that alarm liberals, such as a bill to arm teachers and school staff. But the relatively progressive city of Nashville emerged largely unscathed by the GOP-dominated legislature.In fact, Nashville’s legislative fortunes improved markedly this term, with approval for a massive redevelopment project, created at the behest of the mayor, Freddie O’Connell, to accompany the construction of a new stadium for the Tennessee Titans across the river from the city’s tourist-friendly downtown.Nashville is “the San Francisco of Tennessee” in some quarters of the state’s conservative commentariat. The red-state, blue-city dynamic has grown toxic at times. State legislators have sought to chastise Nashville’s leaders – consider the temporary expulsion of state representative Justin Jones after gun protests last year – and curtail the city’s authority. Legislators have sought to wrest control from Nashville’s convention center, its sports authority and its airport authority. They redrew congressional maps to take away its Democratic congressperson.But this year, Nashville’s new mayor has been managing this relationship with better results.Born and raised in Nashville, O’Connell is a software developer and former member of the Nashville metropolitan council who was elected the city’s mayor in 2022.The Guardian spoke with O’Connell during the legislative session, discussing Nashville’s occasionally fraught relationship with conservative state leaders. That conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.Do you sense hostility toward Nashville from the state government?No! So that’s what’s interesting. This year, after sensing it strongly last year, I would say our administration and I personally have a sense of relief that the hostility toward the city has maybe subsided somewhat.To what do you attribute this state of detente that you’re describing?We’ve been working on it. I don’t want the city to be at war, right? We know there will be values and policy disagreements, not just between urban and rural parts of the state, but certainly among policymakers at various levels. There’s just no reason to then add to that a permanent posture of war and hostility. If we have a better relationship, these are the places where you can succeed. A lot of times that’s the fundamentals of governance: things like infrastructure and economic development. That’s where city and state succeed together most effectively. So we want to keep the door open to that.Atlanta has had a string of mayors with widely varied relationships with the state of Georgia. The dynamic may be similar to Nashville and Tennessee: a state with a love-hate relationship with its largest city. Does that rhyme with what you’ve got going on?I think it does, to some extent. I’ve said from the get-go that we’re going to defend the city from constitutional overreach in the places where it’s obvious. Our legal department has had a very good track record in defending us in those moments. But this goes to exactly what I’m talking about: we did not stun the state with a lawsuit over the sports authority after I took office. We picked up the phone and said, “We believe we see constitutional issues with this, and our legal department is going to file a suit.” And in that moment, we did two things at the same time: we followed our principles of no surprises and open communication, and we also followed our principles of existential right to exist.The red state-blue city dynamic exists in a lot of southern states. New Orleans and Louisiana. Montgomery and Alabama. Look at Nashville, which was split up into three congressional districts.That’s a big challenge for us when we don’t have a single member of Congress who lives in the city of Nashville right now.So what does that do to Nashville?Well, it’s a little soon to say. I guess the silver lining here is the community-level staff we’ve seen in the congressional offices has actually been fairly present and responsive. So that’s good.But instead of having one easy place to send people for passport services or to talk about federal policy issues, you have to be a lot more mindful of … “wait a second, which district is this again?” I think we’re still waiting to see what it means in terms of the federal appropriations process. Are we going to be seeing partnerships and federal project dollars that come into the city of Nashville, versus trying to redirect those to only rural and exurban areas? We don’t know that part yet. But I think that’s a big concern.View image in fullscreenGiven that Nashville no longer has a Democratic congressperson representing its Democratic political majority, to what degree do you view yourself as a progressive leader in a state that is not politically progressive overall? Do you believe that you have a particular role to play in that regard?I will say, I will spend my time in office trying to make progress for the people in Nashville in places we need progress most desperately. That really is in areas addressing cost of living and quality of life. We’ve seen the city grow tremendously, which on the one hand is exciting, but on the other hand is disruptive and expensive.I would argue that it is very progressive to pursue ambitious transportation and transit. I guess it’s funny, I just learned a new phrase from a friend, who’s a former colleague on the metro council: “blue meat”. I think, maybe, there are people in our progressive ecosystem here in Nashville who would prefer that I throw out more pieces of blue meat.But I feel like, especially in an executive role where our local government is, in fact, nonpartisan, my sense has been that we want to deliver high-quality city services. We want to make sure people have trust and confidence in local government. And that specifically lets us make the kinds of progress people need to drive down their cost of living to improve the quality of city services, to do the things that government is supposed to do.You’re talking about the basics of governance, and not the big political conflicts like the abortion argument or gun rights or whatnot.And here’s the thing: we need people in the partisan fray, and some people enjoy being in the partisan fray. We need to win elections to let us have an easier time defending Nashville’s interests and values. And that’s great, because the nice part is these things aren’t mutually exclusive. I’m here to be very serious about governing, and to try to create outcomes and make it easier to live in the city of Nashville, because we know a lot of people want to accomplish that goal. It’s Music City. It’s a great city. We want to keep it that way.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionI love Nashville. This conversation is a privilege for me, in part because I get to tell the mayor of Nashville that I associate Nashville with the sound of wooooh! all the time. Because the last time I visited, I became keenly aware that this was the bachelorette capital of the universe, and every five minutes, I would hear 10 women off in the distance going wooooh! In my household, we can’t refer to Nashville without one or the other of us saying wooooh! [Mildly rankled] Well, I will say it’s not the Nashville of my youth. In some ways, I hope that that limited view is not the Nashville of our future.I think that’s actually where we’re trying to steer the conversation of the east bank. We’d like to develop something that is not a junior version of an entertainment district, but rather something that reflects the best practices of contemporary cities. Something that if you basically get to start from scratch, does it have the principles that will attract locals?So less wooooh! and more, you know, workspace and coffee shops and neighborhood restaurants.Right. Places for people to stroll along the Cumberland River, and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Fingers crossed, it will have a beautiful new home over there. And so, yes, the Titans will be playing football over there. But also, there will be all-ages experiences and people living there, which is critically important. Deeply affordable. Long-term affordable.There is a contingent of conservative politicians who get elected by running against big cities, saying: “I am going to keep that liberal city in check.” Does that interfere with the kind of nuts-and-bolts economic development you’re talking about?It could. And we’ll see. I think the state through the years used to respond pretty favorably toward the principles of economic development, but I do think it has come into vogue to run against Nashville, almost as if we were Tennessee’s San Francisco. Maybe that gets you points in a rural Republican primary?It’s a different political environment nationally. And some of that, I think, does trickle downhill to the point where the attention economy says we have to make sure there’s an other out there somewhere. Sometimes I’ve got to be available to do myth-busting and dispel things you might see on Facebook or here at a county commission meeting that just have no reference in actual reality.Do you have a good example of that?I’ve been called comrade by people in Williamson county and Sumner county. It’s like, hey guys: you know we actually have a socialist on the metro council and it isn’t me.There’s a Tucker Carlson-ization of conversation around urban politics and big cities: a general attack on urban America as unsafe and corrupt. It seems off to apply that to Nashville. Do you find yourself fending off attacks like this?I don’t know that it’s an obligation, but it’s truly out there. I mean, you can look at Sumner county commission meetings.If you watch those meetings, they’re absolutely decrying Nashville as just this absolutely absurd … it’s like a fantasia of the most ridiculous types of political rhetoric that are out there right now. And so, I find that being personally involved, being present … There’s value in seeing each other as people.It’s really hard to get all worked up about somebody who’s standing in front of you and is not glowing with demonic energy.The best example is I know is the governor. We are going to disagree on many things about our ideology and political outlook. But I’ve also known him long enough to know I absolutely have a respect for him, because just as I don’t spend my idle time throwing out a tremendous amount of blue meat, he doesn’t spend a lot of his time throwing red meat in that way. He doesn’t spend a lot of time jumping up and down on Nashville. I think that’s a meaningful distinction between some of the other governors we’ve seen around the country who have made that their thing. It’s like the hobby industry of politics is just to see how mean you can be to other people.Do you see any additional pre-emptive threats coming your way?There were bills that entered the discourse this year. I guess the sense of relief I have as the session comes to a close is that nothing materialized there that was specifically anti-Nashville. More

It was the moment Donald Trump was dreading. The former president could only sit and watch as the adult film actor Stormy Daniels told her version of events from an alleged sexual encounter they had in 2006. Prosecutors say that Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen shuttled a $130,000 hush-money payment to Daniels less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential election, to keep her from talking to anyone about her alleged encounter with Trump.
So how bad was Daniels’ testimony for the presumptive GOP candidate? Jonathan Freedland and the political commentator Molly Jong-Fast discuss an extraordinary day in a Manhattan courtroom

How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know More

Republican John Hostettler has lost his House primary in Indiana, delivering a victory to pro-Israel groups who sought to block the former congressman from returning to Washington. The groups attacked Hostettler as insufficiently supportive of Israel at a time when criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has hit new highs because of the war in Gaza.When the Associated Press called the eighth district primary race at 7.49pm ET, less than an hour after the last polls closed in Indiana, Mark Messmer led his opponents with 40% of the vote. Messmer, the Indiana state senate majority leader, will advance to the general election in November, which he is heavily favored to win because of the district’s Republican leanings. The victor will replace Republican congressman Larry Bucshon, who announced his retirement earlier this year.The primary concludes a contentious race in which pro-Israel groups poured millions of dollars into the district to attack Hostettler, who served in the House from 1995 to 2007. The groups specifically criticized Hostettler’s past voting record on Israel and some comments he made that were deemed antisemitic.In a book that he self-published in 2008 after leaving Congress, Hostettler blamed some of George W Bush’s advisers “with Jewish backgrounds” for pushing the country into the war in Iraq, arguing they were distracted by their interest in protecting Israel.Those comments, combined with Hostettler’s vote opposing a resolution expressing solidarity with Israel in 2000, after the start of the second intifada, outraged groups like the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) and United Democracy Project (UDP), a Super Pac affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.According to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission, UDP spent $1.2m opposing Hostettler while the RJC Victory Fund invested $950,000 in supporting Messmer.One UDP ad attacked Hostettler as “one of the most anti-Israel politicians in America”, citing his vote against the resolution in 2000. The CEO of RJC, Matt Brooks, previously lambasted Hostettler for having “consistently opposed vital aid to Israel [and] trafficked antisemitic conspiracy theories”.But the groups’ interest in a Republican primary is a notable departure from their other recent forays into congressional races. So far this election cycle, UDP has largely used its massive war chest to target progressive candidates in Democratic primaries. UDP spent $4.6m opposing the Democratic candidate Dave Min, who ultimately advanced to the general election, and the group has also dedicated $2.4m to supporting Democrat Sarah Elfreth in Maryland, which will hold its primaries next week.Aipac and its affiliates reportedly plan to spend $100m across this election cycle, so UDP may still get involved in other Republican congressional primaries. However, the groups will likely remain largely focused on Democrats, as Republican lawmakers and voters have generally indicated higher levels of support for Israel since the start of the war in Gaza.A Guardian review of the statements of members of Congress after the start of the war found that every Republican in Congress was supportive of Israel. Even as criticism of Israel’s airstrike campaign in Gaza has mounted, one Gallup poll conducted in March found that 64% of Republicans approve of Israel’s military actions, compared with 18% of Democrats and 29% of independents who said the same.Other polls have shown that most Americans support calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, and hopes for a pause in the war did briefly rise this week. Hamas leaders on Monday announced they would accept a ceasefire deal, but Israel soon dashed hopes of peace by launching an operation to take control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt. More