Today in Politics, Bulletin 358. 4/27/26
… Nobody in the history of American politics has weaponized incidents of violent crime to turn them into political capital like Donald Trump. His campaign’s use of the incident in Butler, PA as well as the Laken Riley murder in sick and perverse ways were instrumental in returning him to the presidency. Now he’s is using the incident at the WHCA dinner to justify his deeply unpopular ballroom monstrosity.
… Trump, members of his admin, Republican members of Congress, as well as right-wing TV hosts, podcasters and influencers went on a full-court propaganda blitz today to use the latest incident to justify not only construction of the ballroom, but even a demand to have taxpayers now foot the bill.
… Trump went on 60 Minutes to make has case for the ballroom while blaming Democrats:
Q - “Is there something you as president can do about political violence? Trump: I do think the hate speech of the Democrats is very dangerous.”
He was asked about falling down: “I started walking with them and they said ‘please go down on the floor’. So I went down. We were asked to go down by the agents.”
… They reached down when he fell, grabbed him, and pulled him back up.
Q - “In his manifesto, he wrote that ‘I’m no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.’ What’s your reaction? Trump: I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you’re horrible people. I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody. Host: Oh, you think he was referring to you? Trump: I’m not a pedophile. Excuse me. You read that crap from a sick person. I was totally exonerated. You should be ashamed of yourself, reading that. You’re a disgrace.”
… The media propaganda tour continued for members of the admin and congress:
Speaker Mike Johnson on Fox: “You have some of the most prominent figures in the House and Senate on the Democrat side effectively calling for war. It incites violence. The ballroom will be a solution for this. It will be on the most secure compound in the world.”
… Johnson is claiming that Hakeem Jeffries’ quote about the midterms was an alleged call for violence. This is what Jeffries said when asked why he went all-in to back VA redistricting: “Maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time.”
Johnson: “The ballroom will be a solution for this. It’ll have 7-inch thick glass, so it’ll be a very safe environment to do events like that. We need a place like that and the president keeps pointing it out.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) on Fox: “Democrats want Trump and Republicans murdered all across this country. Capitalists murdered.”
Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) on Newsmax: “Let’s be clear about this. This is all borne out of rhetoric from the left, the Democrat Party in particular, that calls Trump a threat to democracy, they call him and the people around him things like Nazis. People react to those kind of things. You see one side in a hot war.”
Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) on Fox: Q - “Do you have a top level recommendation you would suggest to improve security for events like this? Fallon: Certainly, the White House ballroom.”
Rep. Michael Rulli (R-OH) on Fox: “We gotta build that ballroom as soon as possible.”
Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT): “This week I will introduce and seek unanimous consent for legislation providing express approval for construction of a Presidential ballroom. It is an embarrassment to the strongest nation on earth that we cannot host gatherings in our nation’s capital, including ones attended by our President, without the threat of violence and attempted assassinations.”
Sheehy: “Unfortunately, it seems, too many people believe trying to kill our President and members of our government is acceptable. A President of any party should be able to host events in a secure area without attendees worrying about their safety. This is common sense. Let’s get it done.”
Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL): “I don’t want to hear another word from the FAKE NEWS claiming that Trump doesn’t need a WH Ballroom AGAIN. My ‘Build the Ballroom Act’ will put these activist judges in their place and ensure this project gets done in a timely manner. Build Away.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY): “I'm dropping a bill tomorrow. Let's build the Ballroom.”
Karoline Leavitt: “It’s why the ballroom project is not just a fun project for President Trump, like you will read in the media, it is actually critical for our national security. Nobody in recent years has faced more violence than Trump.”
Leavitt: “When you have mentally disturbed individuals across the country who are listening to this crazed rhetoric it inspires them to do crazy things, and it’s not just the media, the entire Democrat Party has made their pitch to voters across the country that Trump poses an existential threat to democracy.”
Leavitt: “The left-wing cult of hatred against the president and all of those who support him and work for him has gotten multiple people hurt and killed, and it almost did so again this weekend.”
… Sen. Lindsey Graham said they are going introduce legislation that’s going to authorize $400 million to be spent on building the ballroom: “We pay for it by offsetting it with customs fees. The sooner we get the ballroom built, the better it is for the country.”
… Meidas reporter Pablo Manriquez asked Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) if he would support Rep. Chip Roy’s push to have taxpayers funds pay for the ballroom: “There will be a mixture of private and public funds from what I’m hearing. Q - Would you vote for public funds to be used? Johnson: Sure.”
… Democratic strategist Mike Nellis: “Remember kids, you can’t criticize the president for covering up the Epstein files or taking corrupt foreign deals while the economy implodes, but it’s okay to call Democrats cultists and domestic terrorists. That’s the official position of this WH.”
… Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) had a different bizarre take on CNN: “We had essentially the whole chain of command in one place. People say, ‘That’s a lot of vulnerability,’ but it’s also a flex, saying, ‘Iran, there’s really nothing you can do about it. Shed tears, whatever, but you can’t influence things in the US.’”
… Meanwhile, it appears initial reports from the Trump admin and media that the gunman fired the shot that hit the bulletproof vest of a Secret Service agent may not have been accurate. Todd Blanche today: Q - “Have you been able to determine whether the gunman fired shots? If so, how many shots he fired and who exactly? Whose bullet hit the agent? Blanche: We’re still looking at that.”
… Two days before the event, Jimmy Kimmel held a parody of the dinner an annual event honoring journalism and funding scholarships. He made this joke, which led to Melania Trump making a rare social media post today. Kimmel: “Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
… Melania: “Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America. People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”
… “A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him. Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community?”
… There has also been a renewed push to have either Kash Patel or Secret Service Director Sean Curran fired, with this being the final straw for both of them. Real Clear Politics: “Calls for heads to roll at the Secret Service after another assassination attempt on Trump’s life. There were serious errors when it came to establishing an appropriate perimeter around an event with so many cabinet members and dignitaries.”
… Chief of Staff Susie Wiles oversees the Secret Service and has let Curran remain in his job despite numerous failures on his watch. Source: “They’re about to fire Kash, and he had nothing to do with this when Susie oversees the Secret Service, and it’s failure after failure after failure, and she gets no blame. This should’ve been the most secure perimeter in the world. And the fact that the guy made it through the mags underscores the epic failure of the Secret Service in protecting the president.”
… “Other sources say that Wiles never wanted Curran as USSS director, but Don Jr. and Eric Trump pulled for him. If anything goes wrong, ‘It’s on the boys’ for choosing him, Wiles has remarked to other top admin officials after Trump decided to appoint him.”
… Fox host Lawrence Jones was openly hostile to Patel on his show: “They did a great job on the ground, but they remain reactive. The proactive approach is still under great scrutiny. The president is averaging an assassination attempt once a year! Who’s gonna do the investigating of the procedures? Secret Service can’t investigate themselves because there’s still people in leadership at there that were responsible for Butler. How does that happen? It was a failure!”
… Patel then tried to shift the blame to new DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin: “Right, I can’t speak to Butler and I agree it was a total failure, absolutely. But I have full confidence in Markwayne Mullin. He oversees the Secret Service. I’ve talked to him repeatedly over the weekend and I’ve asked, I’ve spoken with him and said whatever you need from the FBI, whatever we can assist him. This FBI stands ready to improve that process under Markwayne’s leadership.”
… Q - “What have you learned about the shooter that you want our audience to understand? Patel: “First and foremost, I want to remind your audience of President Trump’s leadership, literally courage under fire. He’s assembled the greatest law enforcement team I’ve ever seen.”
… Spoken like a man who is worried he’s about to be fired.
… Axios: “A senior Ukrainian diplomatic source said that if the vessel PANORAMITIS, which is allegedly carrying wheat stolen from occupied Ukrainian territories, enters the Israeli port of Haifa and unloads its cargo, it will lead to a crisis in relations between Ukraine and Israel.
… Ukrainian source: “We are tracking this new vessel and won’t let this slide. If it’s permitted to dock and unload, there will be fallout, specifically for our bilateral ties. If this ship and its cargo isn’t rejected, we reserve the right to deploy a full suite of diplomatic and legal responses. Frankly, this feels like a slap in the face given the strategic goodwill Ukraine has extended - from designating the IRGC as terrorists to criminalizing antisemitism. Profiting from stolen cargo should be beneath Israel’s dignity.”
… WSJ’s Yaroslav Trofimov: “Israel has enough problems and the last thing it needs is to create a new enemy just because someone wants to make a quick buck from Russian war crimes. If enabling the looting of Ukraine becomes Netanyahu’s official policy, it will have consequences beyond Ukraine.”
… Adam Kinzinger: “If Israel is buying stolen Ukrainian grain, we have to wonder whose side Israel and Netanyahu are on? They can’t be the ally of democracy and freedom while empowering Russia. Period.”
… Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ): “Israel should not be in the business of cashing in on Russian war crimes. If Netanyahu’s govt chooses to legitimize this kind of behavior, the repercussions will extend far beyond Ukraine. An ally should act like an ally.”
We saw again this week how the coordinated right-wing propaganda machine operates in the wake of a big event to flood the zone. Hopefully we are much more equipped than we were in the past to deal with and combat the narrative. It is still not easy to deal with it when they are all on the same page.
I just don’t think the American people are going to buy the bs this time on this ballroom justification. The Iran War is being felt on prices with no end in sight. Trump’s obsession with his ballroom only turns non-MAGA people off. The corruption and greed is off the charts. The next batch of approval polls will give us the first read on that.
If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin recapping the weekend, you can find that here.
… German Chancellor Merz on the Iran War: “It is quite obvious that the Americans have absolutely no coherent strategy whatsoever. And the fundamental problem with these kinds of conflicts is always the same: it is not enough to simply get yourself in—you must also figure out how to get yourself out. We witnessed that reality quite painfully in Afghanistan over the course of 20 long years. We saw the exact same thing happen in Iraq.”
… “So this entire situation, as I have mentioned previously, is at the very least ill-considered. I do not see, at this present moment, what strategic exit the Americans are choosing—especially since the Iranians are either negotiating very skillfully, or just as effectively, refusing to negotiate at all. Making the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave empty-handed—there is a sense that a whole nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership.”
