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      Calls mount for more Trump security after apparent assassination attempt at golf club

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      Demands were mounting on Sunday for Donald Trump to receive protections on a level with a sitting president after a would-be assassin was narrowly foiled from carrying out what the FBI is investigating as an attempt on the life of the Republican nominee, the second against him in as many months.Joe Biden on Monday said he believed the Secret Service – which has been plagued by staff shortages – needed more resources.The president said “thank God” Trump was OK, before adding: “One thing I want to make clear [is] the Secret Service needs more help. I think Congress should respond to their needs.“I think they need some more personnel.”Biden’s comments came as an internal report into the operational failures that preceded the earlier assassination attempt against Trump – in July – is expected to detail lapses in communication between the former president’s protective detail and local law enforcement charged with securing the perimeter around political rallies.A suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, a pro-Ukraine activist from Hawaii who is registered to vote in North Carolina, was detained after a Secret Service agent spotted the barrel of an AK-47-style rifle poking through a chain link fence on the outskirts of Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach.The former president is estimated to have been 300 to 500 yards away when a Secret Service agent saw the suspect and fired at him.The suspect fled and was later arrested speeding north from Palm Beach in his car.Republicans were the first to call for additional security, which has already been improved since Trump was targeted at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, by Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed by a Secret Service sniper. The 20-year-old gunman in the earlier case, whose motives appeared to be opportunistic, shot the president in the ear while killing one bystander and wounding two others.The former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said the Secret Service should change its policy and treat Trump like he is an incumbent with a larger protective perimeter around him.“Stop being bureaucratic,” he said on X. “Do what’s necessary.”In a statement on Sunday, Joe Biden said he had ordered the federal government to continue ensuring the “Secret Service has every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure the former president’s continued safety”. But the president’s statement did little to quell demands for more protections for Trump as he runs against Kamala Harris in the 5 November election.The New York Republican congresswoman Claudia Tenney said it was inexplicable that there had apparently been a second attempted assassination, remarking: “President Trump needs the same, if not more, Secret Service protection than a sitting president.”The US House majority leader, Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, said that the Secret Service must up their level of protection of him to their full capabilities – including “expanding the perimeter”.The congressman Nick Langworthy, another New York Republican, said that recurring political violence targeting Trump “is unacceptable and deeply un-American”.“This is not who we are as a nation, and it cannot be tolerated under any circumstances,” Langworthy said.Such reactions largely came after the West Palm Beach sheriff, Ric Bradshaw – whose jurisdiction includes Trump’s golf course – said security would have been tighter if the former president was in office.But the debate over what level of security Trump should receive has clashed with protocol and demands on the Secret Service’s $3bn budget. About $1.2bn is allocated to protective services for the sitting president and his family.But where the sitting president’s detail is supported by the military, Trump is assigned a far lighter detail tasked to work with local law enforcement.Before the Butler shooting, the Secret Service repeatedly denied requests for additional resources and personnel sought by Trump’s security detail. Denials of those requests often cited staff shortages, leading to tensions between Trump advisers and the agency.Failures of communication between the Secret Service and local law enforcement about closing off lines of sight contributed to Trump’s vulnerability in Butler, an internal Secret Service investigation reportedly showed.After that assassination attempt, security around Trump was said to have increased. The homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, in July said that his agency, which includes the Secret Service, was beefing up protection for Trump.“The Secret Service enhanced former president Trump’s protection based on the evolving nature of threats to the former president,” Mayorkas said at a White House briefing.But Trump’s frequent golf games have long been viewed as challenging because golf courses are open areas and often close to roads. He owns courses in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Scotland, as well as numerous other locations.Early on Monday, Trump thanked his security detail for protecting him.“It was certainly an interesting day!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. He thanked the Secret Service and local law enforcement “for the incredible job done today at Trump International in keeping me, as the 45th President of the United States, and the Republican Nominee in the upcoming Presidential Election, SAFE”.Harris commended the Secret Service on Sunday, too, and described herself as “thankful” that her opponent in the presidential race was safe. The vice-president also condemned political violence while reiterating Biden’s pledge to “ensure the Secret Service has every resource” necessary to protect Trump. More

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      Should we take Elon Musk’s and Taylor Swift’s political endorsements seriously? | Siva Vaidhyanathan

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      What should we make of the fact that the richest person in the world has joined forces with Donald Trump and promises now to serve the United States as some sort of czar of government “efficiency”? And what should we make of the world’s biggest pop star endorsing Kamala Harris for president?Why should it matter that these mega-celebrities tell us what they want from politics and government?The morning after Taylor Swift endorsed Harris for president, Elon Musk defended his new buddy, Trump, in the most disturbing and bizarre fashion, referring to the Republican obsession with women who have chosen not to have children and have cats. “Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life,” Musk, who has impregnated at least one of his employees and has reportedly propositioned others, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.Swift, in contrast, has declared over the past four years that she cares deeply about women’s issues and has motivated her followers around the world to register to vote and get active in politics. Her engagement has been serious and sincere. Swift, more than any other celebrity, has the opportunity to assume the role of the champion of democracy in America. She writes and sings about the personal yet connects the personal to the political through the descriptions of power and mistreatment in relationships. To many, the connections between power imbalances and mistreatment in personal relationships and those in society at large are strong yet implicit. Swift has moved in recent years to make them explicit.So Swift’s endorsement is not so much about swaying undecided voters through her charisma. That’s a myth. Rather her endorsement is about harnessing all the activist energy she has been building over the years and focusing it on getting young people registered to vote and willing to volunteer for a cause. She is expanding the electorate and infusing it with optimism and purpose. That’s a blessing to anyone who cares about the fate of democracy in the United States.In stark contrast, the other billionaire in this spat has done everything he can to undermine belief in government by the people and for the people. His long hostility to safety and securities regulation makes sense, given his role as a corporate leader. His deep-seated racism and sexism have become even more vocal since he found common cause with Trump and other Republicans. Musk wants a smaller set of political actors in the world. They should be his buddies, all men, and all who assume they know what’s best for the world. It does not help that he is neither smart nor serious about policy nor politics.Yet the nominee of one of the two major American political parties has declared he wants Musk to assume a powerful role in the next government. We could approach this question by examining Musk’s record as a corporate leader, which is spotty at best. We could address Musk’s habits of exaggeration and prevarication, which are significant. We could wonder how a person who is supposed to be running five companies already might have the time to also head up a major government initiative.Or we could just conclude that neither Musk nor Trump are serious people with any idea how to execute policy, let alone devote time, energy and thought to the process. That’s not a reason to suspend concern about this partnership. Musk’s threats to the United States go far beyond any potential office he might hold in the future.Policy is not for amateurs. We learned this the hard way during the first Trump administration, when the few veteran policymakers who were willing to keep the government operating were one by one pushed out of power by Trump or his cronies.To change the way any federal government office operates, one must generate a feasible proposal and seek affirmation and criticism from stakeholders. Those stakeholders might include corporations and their lobbyists, unions and their lobbyists, and public interest groups that range from the National Rifle Association to the Sierra Club. They also include elements of the executive branch who might have to implement that policy. And, of course, plenty of lawyers and economists must weigh in. Often, if generated by an office of the executive branch, the public must be invited to submit comments on a draft of a policy statement.And, once all of that happens, policy changes are subject to court scrutiny if an interested party decides to sue over it. In other words, it takes a long time and a lot of effort to change even small things that the government does. It takes skill, knowledge, diligence and a whole lot of patience to enact policy.It’s not work appropriate for the flippant, unserious or easily distracted.Now, that’s how it’s done in normal times. We can assume that normal times would come to a permanent end in the United States if 78-year-old Donald Trump takes the oath of office again on 20 January 2025. He has promised radical change in the basic workings of government, down to promising to ignore or “terminate” the constitution if he does not get his way.How he would do this is unclear. We can assume that he would have some elements willing to use force to wrest control of the government away from processes and the limits of law. And we know that Trump has managed to turn the federal courts into instruments of his own interests. All of that would take work, of course. The only thing that saved the government from complete breakdown during Trump’s term in office was his inability to focus and follow through on his indignation and ambition. The friction of bureaucracy turned out to be one of the last bastions holding up the fragile republic.The best Trump can hope to accomplish is chaos and breakdown along with massive corruption that would flow as the failsafes of oversight and accountability collapse.That’s what makes the whole Musk partnership so absurd. Assume for a moment that Musk were a serious, committed, competent leader and manager. Under the Trump style of administration, what possibility would there be for him to discipline a sprawling federal agency such as the Department of Health and Human Services or the Department of Defense?It would not matter. Again, it’s folly to take this effort seriously as an effort to do what Trump or Musk say it would do. Musk, like Trump, is only interested in how any effort could smooth the way for his own benefit. Over the past decade or more, Musk has found his various companies, especially Tesla, entangled with regulators over issues ranging from safety to securities violations.His leadership of SpaceX and its subsidiary Starlink, which provides satellite internet access to many millions of people around the world including essential elements of the military and government of Ukraine, has come under scrutiny as Musk has grown closer to the Russian view of the invasion of Ukraine. SpaceX is a major defense contractor. The United States government already depends on SpaceX way too much, and SpaceX depends on the United States government for much of its revenue.Having Musk involved at the highest levels of a government that is supposed to be curbing his excesses and protecting the public interest from the worst externalities of his companies is beyond a conflict of interest. It’s naked corruption. And that is the point. It’s positively Putinesque.Musk is, of course, unlikely to even assume such an office or hold a meeting if he did. He does not have the ability to focus these days. His incessant tweeting at all hours is increasingly unhinged from reality. His drug use, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal, has reached a concerning level at which investors in Tesla are worried about his ability to protect their interests. He seems not to be putting in the time to do his current jobs well, even the one at Tesla that supplies him with most of his wealth.Musk’s closeness to Trump is itself a cause for concern. Even without Musk in office, Trump would probably order his cronies to suspend regulatory scrutiny of SpaceX and Tesla. Musk depends on the goodwill of the Xi regime in China to keep parts flowing for Tesla and to keep China open as a market for the cars. Musk needs the new extremely rightwing government of Argentina to remain friendly to the United States to maintain access to new lithium mines for Tesla batteries. And Musk infamously owes the Saudi royal family for funding his disastrous purchase of Twitter.This level of entanglement with troublesome and oppressive foreign governments makes Musk a security risk to the United States whether inside or outside government, whether Trump or Harris runs the government.The choice for America’s future could not be starker, especially when we contrast the roles, goals and personalities of the two highest-profile celebrities active this fall. Swift offers a serious and sincere opportunity for engagement. Musk offers snark and selfishness. Yet for some reason, too many people consider Musk, with his wealth, worthy of pontification on matters of public policy. Maybe it’s time we took Swift and her followers more seriously. The future is theirs.

      Siva Vaidhyanathan is a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and the author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy More

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      Violence and instability have become a feature, not a bug, of US political life

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      It has happened again. Another serene and sunny weekend. Another lone suspect wielding a rifle. Another apparent bid to assassinate Donald Trump. And a nation hurtling into uncharted territory 50 days from a presidential election.On Sunday, Secret Service agents opened fire after seeing a man with a rifle near Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club in Florida while the Republican candidate was playing. The suspect fled in an SUV and was later apprehended by local law enforcement.The FBI discovered in the bushes two backpacks, an AK-47-style firearm with a scope and a GoPro camera – suggesting a plan to kill Trump on his own golf course and film it for all the world to witness.The incident was the latest shocking moment in a campaign year marked by unprecedented upheaval and fears of violence and civil unrest. It came nine weeks after Trump was shot during an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a bullet grazed his ear and a supporter was killed. The former president’s bloodied, defiant response, urging supporters to “Fight!”, prompted headline writers to ask: Did Donald Trump just win the election?But a week later, Joe Biden withdrew from the race and was quickly replaced by Kamala Harris. The assassination attempt faded from a hectic news cycle and earned only a passing mention at Tuesday’s debate. Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump aide, complained at the recent Moms for Liberty conference: “We’re seven weeks away and it’s as if it never happened. It’s been memory-holed, more effectively than George Orwell could ever have imagined.”It is true that what happened that day in Pennsylvania should be remembered, not for partisan reasons, nor as evidence that Trump is protected by God, but because of what it resurfaced: a nation with a long history of political violence bracing for what has been dubbed “a tinderbox election”.Danger and instability have become a feature not a bug of US political life. A white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, that led to the death of a civil rights activist. A mob of angry Trump supporters storming the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. A hammer attack on House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul in their home. Countless threats of violence to members of Congress and judges.A new documentary film, The Last Republican, features sinister voicemails left for congressman Adam Kinzinger, a Trump critic who sat on the House January 6 committee. One says: “You little cocksucker. Are you Liz Cheney’s fag-hag? You two cock-sucking little bitches. We’re gonna get ya. Coming to your house, son. Ha ha ha ha!”As the election draws near, the temperature only rises. False accusations that Haitian immigrants are eating their neighbour’s cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio, have led to bomb threats and school closures. Just as at Trump’s rally nine weeks ago, innocent people are the collateral damage of reckless propaganda.The normalisation of violence crosses partisan boundaries. In 2017 a man with anti-Republican views opened fire during a practice session for the annual congressional baseball game, injuring five people including House majority whip Steve Scalise. There is more support for violence against Trump (10% of American adults) than for violence in favour of Trump (6.9%), according to a survey conducted in late June by the University of Chicago.But only one of the two major parties is actively fanning the flames. Trump encouraged strongarm tactics against protesters at his rallies. He mocked Pelosi over the hammer attack. He called for shoplifters to be shot and disloyal generals to be executed for treason. He warned of a “bloodbath” if he is not elected and claimed that undocumented people in the US are “poisoning the blood of our country”.It is enough to fill any concerned citizen with foreboding about the coming election – and what comes next in a nation that has more guns than people. Trump, a convicted criminal with more cases looming over him, is in a desperate fight to stay out of prison. Having never acknowledged his 2020 loss, he has refused to commit to accepting the outcome in 2024, promising “long-term prison sentences” for anyone involved in “unscrupulous behavior”.With Republicans focused on “election integrity” efforts, poll workers could face intolerable levels of violence and intimidation. Opinion polls suggest that the election will be perilously close, giving plenty of scope to sow doubt, likely to be turbocharged by Elon Musk’s X social media platform.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAs the Axios website recently noted: “A perfect storm has been brewing for years now – fueled by extreme polarization, election denial, political violence, historic prosecutions and rampant disinformation. Mayhem is bound to rain down in November.”A Reuters/Ipsos poll in May found that more than two in three Americans say they are concerned about extremist violence after the election. Last month Patrick Gaspard, a former White House official, told reporters at a Bloomberg in Chicago that the US faces “multiple January 6th-like incidents” at state capitols if Harris ekes out a narrow electoral college victory.Biden and Harris rightly condemned both attempted assassinations and said they were glad Trump is safe. Even his harshest critics should not condone such actions. But it is inescapably also true that, like a one-man Chornobyl, Trump has polluted the political atmosphere and created a permission structure for violence.His response to Sunday’s close call? Emails and text messages declaring: “I will not stop fighting for you. I will Never Surrender!” – and asking his supporters for money. More

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      Son of suspect speaks after apparent Trump assassination attempt in Florida

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      The son of the man accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump at his Florida golf course Sunday said his father had traveled to Ukraine and volunteered to provide what the son described as “humanitarian” aid to troops defending the country from Russian forces that invaded in 2022.A source with direct knowledge of the investigation confirmed to the Guardian that the suspect in Sunday’s case is 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh – though law enforcement has not officially named him and there was no immediate indication of a motive.His son, Oran Routh, repeatedly said he had not been able to immediately speak to his father or get information about the accusations against him, so he did not want to talk on his behalf.But he also described his father as passionate about the Ukraine cause.View image in fullscreen“My dad went over there and saw people fucking fighting and dying,” the younger Routh said during a brief telephone call when asked about his father. “He … tried to make sure shit was cool, and shit was not cool.”Referring to the former president, who days earlier at the presidential debate would not answer whether he wanted Ukraine to win its war against Russia, Oran Routh said: “Meanwhile, this guy’s sitting behind his fucking desk, not doing a goddamn thing.”A review of posts on Twitter/X associated with an account under Ryan Routh’s name also show Ukraine was an important cause to him. Two posts on that account from August 2023 addressed Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. One said Routh was in Kyiv and wanted to create a tent city for foreigners in a local park in hopes that would prompt more people from abroad to “raise great support and equipment”.The other suggested that Zelenskiy asked Congress to put all members of the American military on paid leave “so they can fight as civilians in Ukraine”.A third post from December also expressed concern for Haiti, which has been dealing with violent civil unrest.Trump invoked both Ukraine and Haiti in his recent debate with Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for the 5 November White House race.With respect to the latter country, the Republican nominee would only say he wanted Ukraine’s war with Russia “to stop”. But he made it a point to avoid saying he wanted Ukraine to triumph, fueling concerns that a second Trump presidency could suspend US military support to those defending the country.Asked what he would tell his father if he could speak to him, Oran Routh said: “I know the discourse isn’t working, but we still need to stick to the discourse.”He then politely excused himself from the conversation to try to find out more information about his father’s arrest on Sunday.In a separate interview with CNN on Sunday, Oran Routh also called Ryan “a loving and caring father” and an “honest hardworking man”.“I don’t know what has happened in Florida, and I hope things have just been blown out of proportion, because from the little I’ve heard it doesn’t sound like the man I know to do anything crazy, much less violent,” he said.Online records show a man with the same name and age as Ryan Routh is registered to vote in North Carolina and lists his party affiliation as Democrat. Those records show he last voted in North Carolina’s presidential primaries in March.However, many on X noted how the political views espoused by the account under Routh’s name were not exclusively pro-Democrat. The account described voting for Trump in 2016 and expressed support for a White House ticket combining the unsuccessful Republican presidential primary contenders Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley.The account’s most recent post was addressed to Harris, timed in between Trump’s failed 13 July assassination at a political rally in Pennsylvania and when she replaced Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket after the president opted to halt his re-election campaign. The post said the vice-president and Biden should visit two spectators wounded and attend the funeral of a rally-goer slain at the shooting before the attacker was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper.“Show the world what compassion and humanity is all about,” the post said.Sunday’s suspect was reported to have put the muzzle of a rifle through a fence in a wooded area at Trump International golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday afternoon.Trump was golfing there at the time. An agent spotted the rifle and fired, prompting the suspect to flee before he was arrested in a neighboring county.

      Hugo Lowell contributed reporting More

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      Trump golf club shooting: what we know so far about apparent assassination attempt

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      The Republican presidential candidate and former US president Donald Trump is “safe and unharmed” after US Secret Service agents opened fire when they spotted a person with a firearm at the Trump international golf course west of Palm Beach, where the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort home is located. Law enforcement officials said the gunman was in some bushes near the property line of the golf course when Secret Service agents, who were clearing holes ahead of where Trump was playing, spotted a rifle barrel in the bushes.

      Agents engaged the gunman and fired at least four rounds of ammunition about 1.30pm local time. The gunman then dropped his rifle, two backpacks and other items and fled in a black Nissan car. A witness, the sheriff said, saw the gunman and managed to take photos of his car and license plate. In a press conference, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said a male suspect had been detained by authorities. According to Bradshaw, the suspect was relatively calm.

      Officials acknowledged that because Trump is not in office, the full golf course was not cordoned off.“If he was, we would have had the entire golf course surrounded,” Bradshaw said during Sunday’s briefing. “Because he’s not, security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible.”

      The gunman was spotted between 300 and 500 yards from where Trump was playing, Secret Service officials said.

      The FBI called the incident “what appears to be an attempted assassination of the former president”. The FBI and other law enforcement officials said the suspect had a scope on an AK47 rifle, and a GoPro camera with which he apparently intended to record footage and two backpacks with ceramic tiles in it.

      The suspect has been identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, a source with direct knowledge of the investigation has told the Guardian. The same name was reported by other US media outlets including the Associated Press, Fox news and CNN. Law enforcement officials have not officially named a suspect or given any immediate indication of a motive. Secret service and homeland security agents searched a former home of the suspect.

      In an email to supporters, Trump said: “There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumors start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL!”. He added, “Nothing will slow me down. I will NEVER SURRENDER!”. Trump was injured in an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on 13 July.

      In a late night post on his Truth Social account, Donald Trump has thanked the secret service and other law enforcement for their “incredible job” of keeping him safe. After stating that it had been an “interesting day”, Trump went on to further commend law enforcement officials: “THE JOB DONE WAS ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING. I AM VERY PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!”

      The White House said in a statement that President Joe Biden and vice-president Kamala Harris had been briefed about the incidentand were relieved to know that Trump is safe. “Violence has no place in America,” Harris said in a social media post. Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz issued a statement, posting on X: “Gwen and I are glad to hear that Donald Trump is safe. Violence has no place in our country. It’s not who we are as a nation.”

      Later, Biden and Harris released separate statements. Biden said, “I am relieved that the former President is unharmed.” Biden also said he has, “directed my team to continue to ensure that Secret Service has every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure the former President’s continued safety.” Harris reiterated Biden’s call for protective measures and said she was “deeply disturbed” by the apparent assassination attempt.

      Trump’s running mate in the presidential election, US senator JD Vance, said he spoke to Trump after the shooting and that the former president was in good spirits. The South Carolina Republican senator Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s top congressional allies, said he had spoken with the former president after the incident and that Trump was in “good spirits” and was “one of the strongest people I’ve ever known”.

      Trump will be briefed in person on the investigation by acting secret service director Ronald Rowe, the Associated Press reports. Earlier, CNN reported that Rowe was on his way to Florida. Rowe has held the Service’s most senior position since Kimberly Cheatle resigned in July after the assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

      Florida governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has said on X that, “the State of Florida will be conducting its own investigation regarding the attempted assassination at Trump International Golf Club.” He added, “The people deserve the truth about the would be assassin and how he was able to get within 500 yards of the former president and current GOP nominee”.

      Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries has released a statement on the apparent assassination attempt, saying, “Political violence has no place in a civilised society. I am thankful that former President Trump is safe and that the alleged perpetrator is in custody. He should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.” More

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      Trump says he hates Taylor Swift after she endorses Kamala Harris

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      Donald Trump has addressed Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris in November’s presidential race by announcing his hatred of the pop star.The former president and Republican nominee wrote on Sunday on his Truth Social platform: “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”Swift five days earlier announced her endorsement of Harris and running mate Tim Walz shortly after the vice-president debated Trump.In an Instagram post, the 34-year-old singer wrote, “I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 presidential election,” adding, “I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”Ex-congresswoman and frequent Trump political opponent Liz Cheney summed up the typical reaction to Sunday’s post, invoking the title of a Swift song and writing on X: “Says the smallest man who ever lived.”Meanwhile, Swift on Wednesday evening urged her fans to vote during her acceptance of the Video of the Year award at MTV’s Video Music Awards ceremony in Elmont, New York.“If you are over 18, please register to vote for something else that’s very important … [the] presidential election,” she said.Though Trump now says he hates Swift, it wasn’t that long ago that he apparently coveted her endorsement. He posted images generated by artificial intelligence that suggested Swift had endorsed Trump for president in August.One image showed Swift dressed as Uncle Sam, accompanied with the words, “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.”The former president also posted deepfakes of young women wearing “Swifties for Trump” shirts on his Truth Social Account, writing, “I accept!”Swift said Trump’s posts influenced her decision to announce her endorsement.“It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” she wrote on her Instagram. “It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter.” More

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      Former Ronald Reagan staffers endorse Kamala Harris for president

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      More than a dozen former Ronald Reagan staff members have joined dozens of other Republican figures endorsing the Democratic nominee and vice-president, Kamala Harris, saying their support was “less about supporting the Democratic party and more about our resounding support for democracy”.In a letter obtained by CBS News, former Reagan aides and appointees – including Ken Adelman, a US ambassador to the United Nations and arms control negotiator, as well as a deputy press secretary, B Jay Cooper – said they believed that, if alive today, Reagan would have supported Harris.“President Ronald Reagan famously spoke about a ‘Time for Choosing.’ While he is not here to experience the current moment, we who worked for him in the White House, in the administration, in campaigns and on his personal staff, know he would join us in supporting the Harris-Walz ticket,” the group wrote.“The time for choosing we face today is a choice between integrity and demagoguery, and the choice must be Harris-Walz,” the group added. “Our votes in this election are less about supporting the Democratic party and more about our resounding support for democracy.”The letter comes as more than 230 former Republican administration officials have also backed Harris. Karl Rove, George W Bush campaign strategist and senior adviser, wrote “there’s no putting lipstick on this pig” after Donald Trump’s debate performance. Bush has said he has no plans to endorse any 2024 candidate.While there are more Republican-for-Harris defectors than vice-versa – Trump has gained the support of the Democrat outcasts Robert F Kennedy Jr. and former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard – natural alignment resets are increasing.The conservative columnist George Will floated in the Washington Post last week that “a Harris presidency, tempered by a Republican-led Senate, might finally revive a more normal politics.”Will wrote that the outcome required the removal of Donald Trump – “that Krakatau of volcanic, incoherent, fact-free bombast” – from public life and the rekindling of genuine liberal-conservative debate.The Reagan staffers said they were looking to convince former colleagues to back their stand for Harris and the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, as “the only path forward toward an America that is strong and viable for our children and grandchildren for years to come”.Other Republicans backing Harris include former vice-president Dick Cheney and daughter Liz Cheney, a former congresswoman, Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham, former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger and former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan. The latter three accepted speaking slots at the Democrats’ convention in August.But few Republicans endorsing Harris over Trump are in the political game.Trump’s nomination rival Nikki Haley has not backed Harris and said she agrees with Trump’s policies. But challenged last week to go further, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, failed to say she thought Trump was a good candidate.“I think he is the Republican nominee,” Haley replied. “Do I agree with his style, do I agree with his approach, do I agree with his communications? No.”Olivia Troye, a former adviser to Trump’s vice-president, Mike Pence, said before the Harris-Trump debate in Philadelphia last week that “many people who have worked for Donald Trump have said that they do not support Donald Trump coming back to the presidency. And I think that speaks volumes, because we know him.” More