It’s Always Darkest Before It Goes Pitch Black
Farsighted protest leaders should do everything in their power to keep those demonstrations law-abiding. Under the Trump administration, the rule of law is among the most precious safeguards Americans possess. Appealing to it, Trump critics have repeatedly prevailed in courtrooms, where Trump is least likely to succeed with his most dangerous gambits. In contrast, street violence gives Trump the ability to fight his enemies with the law on his side and with trained, armed personnel to enforce it.
Some out on the anarchic wing of the anti-Trump coalition roll their eyes at these sorts of better-angel appeals. This is insane on the merits, but we needn’t argue that point here. It should be sufficient to say: Maybe don’t protest the guy in exactly the way he’s hoping you will?
‘VERY SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES’: Perhaps we have bigger fish to fry, with troops rolling out to quell unrest on American soil. But it’s worth briefly dwelling on a quieter but still disquieting threat Trump issued over the weekend as well. In the wake of the collapse of his relationship with Elon Musk, NBC News asked the president what would happen if Musk opted to fund Democratic challengers for Republicans who support his massive budget bill. “He’ll have to pay the consequences for that,” Trump replied. “He’ll have to pay very serious consequences.”
What might these consequences be? Trump didn’t specify; he likely doesn’t even have specifics in mind. There’s plenty of time to think about how to crush Elon should he become a true adversary. In the meantime, it’s sufficient simply to make known that vague—but no doubt terrible—miseries will befall him if he pushes it. It’s the sort of thing that, if Joe Biden had said it, you’d hear conservative media repeating endlessly for a decade or more.
Musk seems to be getting the message. The world’s richest man clamped his mouth shut on any further anti-Trump rhetoric over the weekend, and—as rioting broke out in Los Angeles—even saw fit to share a pair of Trump’s Truth Social posts on X, blessing them with American-flag emojis.
DRONE SWARM: The fighting in Ukraine is escalating quickly, per Politico:
Kyiv said Russia unleashed its largest drone attack since 2022 in the early hours of Monday morning as President Vladimir Putin shows no sign of scaling back his all-out war on Ukraine.
Kremlin forces fired almost 500 drones at Ukraine and more than a dozen missiles, in a major attack targeting cities across the country, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Ukraine said its air defenses had shot down hundreds of drones and many missiles, and claimed that injuries were minimal.
“Russia is escalating the war and has no intention of stopping it,” said Andriy Yermak, top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump has not posted about Russia or Ukraine since last Wednesday, shortly after he spoke by phone with Putin. In that post, he acknowledged that Putin would “have to respond” to Ukraine’s “recent attack on the airfields.” Some peace process this is shaping up to be.
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