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      Donald Trump Isn’t Funny Anymore

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      In 1986, when I was a college student, I bristled every time I saw yet another fawning profile of a certain arrogant young real estate developer. The person of whom I speak is, of course, Donald Trump. As polarizing as he is now, Mr. Trump was then enjoying a press honeymoon — even Mike Wallace, the resident bulldog at CBS’s “60 Minutes,” went easy on him, breathlessly declaring in a 1985 profile, “He talks of millions the way most of us talk of nickels and dimes.” This repellent man needed to be knocked down a peg and I thought I knew of one effective way to do it: with jokes.So when I came across a fledgling satirical magazine, Spy, that articulated precisely what I was thinking, I was smitten. In its inaugural issue, Spy named Mr. Trump one of the “10 Most Embarrassing New Yorkers,” noting his tackiness, his shady tactics as a landlord and his “hustler-on-his-best-behavior manner.” Yes! My people!I was so smitten, in fact, that I cold-called the magazine’s office, offering myself up for a summer internship. I joined the staff full-time in 1989 and we continued to chronicle Mr. Trump’s offenses against taste and decency. We came up with a slew of epithets for him, including the one that stuck, “short-fingered vulgarian.” Then, as now, Mr. Trump was thin-skinned, and obsessed with his press coverage. He sent angry, threatening letters to Spy, which only heightened our joy.So you might think I’d revel in our current golden age of Trump mockery. When “Saturday Night Live” returns this week, we’re likely to see him incarnated by the comedian James Austin Johnson, who uncannily recreates Mr. Trump’s fragmentary locutions and deteriorating speaking voice as it whipsaws from a bellow to a gargle to a whisper.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More

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      Trump Confuses Haley and Pelosi, Accusing Rival of Jan. 6 Lapse

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      Former President Donald J. Trump on Friday appeared to confuse Nikki Haley for Nancy Pelosi during a speech in New Hampshire, accusing Ms. Haley of failing to provide adequate security during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol and connecting her to the House committee that investigated it.Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and a former ambassador to the United Nations, has never served in Congress and was working in the private sector during the Capitol riot.On Friday night, Mr. Trump was in the middle of mocking Ms. Haley for the size of the crowds at her events, and criticizing the news media, when he pivoted to how he gave a speech in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, that preceded the Capitol attack.“You know, when she comes here she gets like nine people, and the press never reports the crowds,” Mr. Trump said of Ms. Haley, whose crowds have lately been, at the very least, in double digits.Then, he changed subjects. “You know, by the way, they never report the crowd on Jan. 6,” he said. “You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley.”Mr. Trump then repeated his frequent claim that the bipartisan House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack — including Mr. Trump’s actions that day — “destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence.”Then, he claimed that Ms. Haley was in charge of security that day, and that she and others had turned down his offer to send troops to the Capitol.“Nikki Haley was in charge of security,” he said. (She was not.) “We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guards, whatever they want. They turned it down. They don’t want to talk about that.”Mr. Trump, 77, often attacks President Biden, 81, over his age and suggests that Mr. Biden is mentally unfit for office. “He can’t put two sentences together,” Mr. Trump said on Friday. “Can’t put two sentences together. He needs a teleprompter.”A spokesman for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Mr. Trump has frequently tried to lay blame for the Jan. 6 riot with Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats. There is no evidence, however, that Mr. Trump ever offered to have troops deployed to the Capitol, or that Ms. Pelosi, then the speaker of the House, rejected him.At 3:52 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, Ms. Haley reposted photos of besieged officials inside the Capitol, writing on Twitter, “An embarrassment in the eyes of the world and total sadness for our country. Wake up America.” More

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      Maine Secretary of State to Appeal Ruling on Her Decision to Exclude Trump From Ballot

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      Shenna Bellows said she intended to appeal the ruling by a state Superior Court judge that placed on hold her decision to exclude Donald Trump from the Republican primary ballot.Maine’s top election official said on Friday she intended to appeal the ruling by a state Superior Court judge this week that placed on hold her decision to exclude former President Donald J. Trump from the state’s Republican primary ballot.In a statement, the official, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, said she welcomed the guidance of the U.S. Supreme Court, which is expected to hear arguments on a similar case on Feb. 8. But in the meantime, she said, she will seek the input of Maine’s highest court.“I know both the constitutional and state authority questions are of grave concern to many,” Ms. Bellows wrote in a short statement on Friday. “This appeal ensures that Maine’s highest court has the opportunity to weigh in now, before ballots are counted, promoting trust in our free, safe and secure elections.”In a ruling late Friday, the chief justice of Maine’s highest court, Valerie Stanfill, described the lower court’s order as “generally not appealable.” She ordered Ms. Bellows to provide an explanation by Tuesday on why an appeal should be not dismissed.Ms. Bellows, a Democrat elected by the State Legislature, ruled on Dec. 28 that Mr. Trump did not qualify for the state ballot in Maine because he engaged in insurrection by encouraging the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The 14th Amendment disqualifies government officials who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding office.Her decision made Maine the second state to bar him from the ballot, after a Colorado court reached the same conclusion. Similar ballot challenges have been filed in at least 35 states; many remain unresolved though the primary season is already underway.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More

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      Disdaining Haley, Trump Says She ‘Probably’ Won’t Be His Running Mate

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      Former President Donald J. Trump intensified his attacks against Nikki Haley on Friday, saying that she was not of presidential caliber and that, as a result, he was unlikely to choose her as his running mate.“She is not presidential timber,” Mr. Trump said at a campaign event in Concord, N.H. “Now, when I say that, that probably means that she’s not going to be chosen as the vice president.”Mr. Trump, known for off-the-cuff pronouncements that veer from his prepared remarks, continued by making it clear that his dismissal of Ms. Haley was not a fluke: “When you say certain things, it sort of takes them out of play, right?”Mr. Trump is well known for excoriating someone in one breath, and then reversing himself when it becomes politically or otherwise advantageous to do so. But his stance toward Ms. Haley, whom he appointed as his ambassador to the United Nations, has hardened as the New Hampshire primary approaches.Though Mr. Trump holds a wide lead over Ms. Haley in polls, she has narrowed the gap here in recent months. The Trump campaign is eyeing a decisive win in New Hampshire that could severely curtail her chances at winning the Republican nomination.On Friday, he again accused her of being supported primarily by Democrats, saying that “leftists” were spending millions on advertisements so they could “flood your airwaves with Nikki propaganda.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More

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      Trump Falsely Claims Democrats Can Vote in New Hampshire’s GOP Primary

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      WHAT WAS SAID“Nikki Haley is counting on Democrats and liberals to infiltrate your Republican primary.”— Former President Donald J. Trump during a New Hampshire rally WednesdayThis is false.Mr. Trump has falsely and repeatedly suggested in recent days that one of his Republican rivals, Nikki Haley, is counting on Democrats to win the Republican presidential primary in New Hampshire next week. In fact, registered Democrats cannot vote in the state’s Republican primary — though voters who are not affiliated with a party can.During a rally on Wednesday in Portsmouth, N.H., Mr. Trump asked of the state’s Republican governor, Chris Sununu, who has endorsed Ms. Haley: “But why does he allow Democrats to vote in the Republican primary?”A day earlier, in Atkinson, N.H., Mr. Trump made similar claims. “As you know, Nikki Haley in particular is counting on the Democrats and liberals to infiltrate your Republican primary. You know that, that’s what’s happening. You have a group of people coming in that are not Republicans.”In New Hampshire, undeclared voters — often called simply independents — can choose to vote in either the Democratic or the Republican presidential primary, though not in both, as the New Hampshire secretary of state’s website explains. The voters become registered members of the party they select, though they can return to being an undeclared voter after the primary, if they want.But in order for registered Democrats to vote in the state’s Republican primary, they needed to have changed their party affiliation months ago: The deadline was Oct. 6.It is worth noting that these rules were in place in 2016, when Mr. Trump won New Hampshire’s primary during his first bid for president.Ms. Haley, who served as Mr. Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, has been courting the state’s independent voters. On Friday, she pushed back on Mr. Trump’s claims and other attacks, accusing her former boss of pushing “too many lies.” More

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      Inside CNN’s Debate Over Airing Trump’s Iowa Caucus Victory Speech

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      Tensions within CNN over coverage of former President Donald J. Trump burst into the open on Thursday during an internal call with the network’s journalists, as an executive candidly questioned the approach of the channel’s new chief executive, Mark Thompson.CNN aired roughly 10 minutes of Mr. Trump’s victory speech after he won the Iowa caucuses on Monday before cutting away. The decision to cut him off prompted derision from the former president and his allies, although critics on the left questioned why CNN had taken Mr. Trump live in the first place, given his tendency to spread falsehoods and conspiracies. MSNBC chose not to take any of his remarks live.Mr. Thompson opened his morning conference call on Thursday by acknowledging a debate within his newsroom, saying he believed the network had a journalistic obligation to broadcast the remarks of the leading Republican candidate for president.After a period of silence, a senior vice president of programming, Jim Murphy, jumped in, telling Mr. Thompson that the network had given Mr. Trump too much airtime when the network aired Mr. Trump’s live news conference last week after his civil fraud trial. Mr. Murphy said that CNN should cover Mr. Trump’s comments when he makes news, not when he is repeating political talking points.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More

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      Republicans Predict Turnout in New Hampshire’s Primary Could Set a Record

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      Republicans are predicting that Tuesday’s vote in New Hampshire could break primary turnout records in the state, as former President Donald J. Trump seeks another strong showing against his rivals, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis.The current Republican primary record of about 285,000 votes was set in 2016, when Mr. Trump defeated a crowded G.O.P. field and set the tone for his eventual clinching of the party’s nomination. It would also eclipse the total from the Democratic primary in 2020, when about 297,000 votes were cast.The potential surge would represent a stark contrast from the meager turnout last week in Iowa’s Republican caucuses, which was the lowest in more than a decade as people contended with subzero temperatures.“We’re expecting a record or a near record,” Chris Ager, the chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, said in an interview on Friday.Mr. Ager suggested that as many as 300,000 people could participate in the primary, the nation’s first, which is also open to independent voters. That key voter bloc accounts for about 39 percent of New Hampshire’s roughly 900,000 voters, according the Secretary of State — the remaining electorate is split between Republicans and Democrats.Some Republicans set even higher expectations for turnout on Tuesday, including Americans for Prosperity Action, a political network founded by the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch. The group, which is supporting Ms. Haley, said that its data partner was predicting that turnout could approach 330,000 voters.“The one thing that distinguishes New Hampshire from other states: It’s just the breadth of participation in the primary,” Greg Moore, a regional director for Americans for Prosperity Action, said at a news conference on Friday.David M. Scanlan, New Hampshire’s secretary of state and a Republican who oversees elections, on Friday predicted that 322,000 people would turn out for the G.O.P. primary.Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, a Republican who has also endorsed Ms. Haley, took a swipe at Iowa’s low turnout during an event for Ms. Haley on Tuesday night in Bretton Woods, N.H., where more than 100 people showed up in a snowstorm.“Iowa didn’t do a very good job with it,” he said. “Voter turnout was very, very low in Iowa. But here in New Hampshire we understand what this is all about, and we understand the rest of the country is watching and praying that we get this one right.” More

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      Tim Scott Plans to Endorse Donald Trump

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      Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina will endorse Donald J. Trump on Friday evening at a rally in New Hampshire, according to two people briefed on the matter.Mr. Scott was traveling to Florida on Friday so that he could fly with Mr. Trump to New Hampshire for the rally, the two people said. His endorsement of Mr. Trump is likely to spur additional discussion of Mr. Scott as a potential running mate for the former president. He is the highest-ranking elected Black Republican in the nation. Mr. Scott arrived at his decision only recently. After ending his own campaign for president on Nov. 12, he had said he would not endorse “anytime soon.” But he came to the conclusion that Mr. Trump was the best candidate to defeat President Biden, according to one person familiar with his thinking.A spokesman for Mr. Scott declined to comment. A spokesman for the former president did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Ms. Haley, in a statement, said: “Interesting that Trump’s lining up with all the Washington insiders when he claimed he wanted to drain the swamp. But the fellas are gonna do what the fellas are gonna do.”During the race, Mr. Trump avoided criticizing Mr. Scott, a sign that he held warmer feelings for the senator, whom he worked alongside while president. In 2020, Mr. Trump had given Mr. Scott one of the most coveted speaking roles in politics, making him a keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention. Mr. Scott also was fairly gentle about Mr. Trump, mildly criticizing him for saying he wanted to forge a compromise with Democrats on abortion but generally steering clear of sharp attacks. Mr. Trump has pursued Mr. Scott’s endorsement since the senator exited the race last year. His endorsement not only lifts Mr. Trump in New Hampshire, which hosts its primary on Tuesday, but also in South Carolina, the home state of one of Mr. Trump’s top remaining Republican rivals, Nikki Haley. The Trump team is hoping to force from the race both Ms. Haley and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida with a decisive win in South Carolina’s primary on Feb. 24, avoiding an expensive fight for delegates that would otherwise extend through March after Super Tuesday. Mr. Trump has made collecting prominent endorsements a key part of his attempts to project inevitability now that the nomination fight has begun, and for months he has worked behind the scenes to lobby for formal backing. Mr. Scott’s support comes on the heels of two endorsements from Mr. Trump’s former rivals from 2016: Senator Ted Cruz of Texas backed Mr. Trump after he won the Iowa caucuses on Monday and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida said he supported Mr. Trump the day before Iowa voted.The decision to back Mr. Trump could especially sting for Ms. Haley. As governor of South Carolina, she had appointed Mr. Scott to the Senate, announcing him as her choice more than a decade ago, in 2012.Mr. Scott has fielded calls from all three of the remaining candidates in the race — Mr. Trump, Ms. Haley and Mr. DeSantis. Ms. Haley had called him this week and some mutual friends in South Carolina had also reached out to lobby on her behalf for his endorsement. Mr. Trump and South Carolina’s other senator, Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Mr. Trump, had lobbied him steadily. Mr. DeSantis also called Mr. Scott last year after Mr. Scott exited the race, according to the two people briefed on Mr. Scott’s endorsement decision.The lobbying was a sign of how coveted Mr. Scott’s backing would be. While Mr. Scott struggled to gain traction in the primary, he remains overwhelmingly popular with Republican voters.Surveys last fall from Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican firm that has worked with the DeSantis operation, showed Mr. Scott with a 78 percent favorability rating in South Carolina and a 67 percent favorability rating in New Hampshire. More