… Trump fell asleep again in the middle of the day, this time at the 9/11 service held at the Pentagon. He did not attend the service in NYC since they do not allow politicians to speak and he didn’t want to attend if he couldn’t give a political speech. So he gave one at the Pentagon before flying to Ireland to watch a golf tournament on one of his courses.
… Terry Strada, one of the speakers at the NYC event, surprised everyone when she unloaded on Trump’s and Jared Kushner’s biggest foreign business partner - the Saudis:
“My husband, Tom Strada. You are missed more with each year that passes. But, how can it be 25 years and still we have no justice for the role that Saudi Arabia played in your murder. Yes, we finally made it into a court and have proved that the kingdom of Saudi Arabia fomented a rancid culture of anti-American terrorism around the globe and then sent its agents to support the radical Islamists hijackers so they could attack you and all of our loved ones.
But, for 25 years admin after admin, including leaders in front of us here today, chose to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families. They withheld evidence, they broke promises, both public and private, it’s been on betrayal after another. Trump can still change that. Tell the Saudis to stop lying.”
… Trump took questions from reporters outside Day 2 of the RNC convention in Dallas:
Q: “How will you pay for the $5000 checks? Trump: Out of growth. We have tremendous growth. Q: Are you worried about it impacting the deficit? Trump: No.”
… GDP growth is putrid.
Q: “Oil prices have shot back up-- Trump: Prices will drop very rapidly as soon as we win the military conflict or war. You can call it whatever you want. There’s no cost-cutter like me. I think it’ll end shortly after the election. Q: How can you be sure? Trump: I’m pretty sure.”
… He’s been saying that for 7 months. They keep going up.
Q: “On the checks, we have $40 trillion in debt. If your economic policies are working, why do you need an incentive for people to turn out to vote? Trump: I’m doing it as a reward for people having to put up for 4 years of a horrible situation caused by Biden.”
Q: “You also offered tariff refund checks-- TRUMP: Not you. (to ABC reporter Rachel Scott) Not you. Q: And that didn’t happen. Q - Those checks didn’t happen— Trump: Not you! You’re the worst!”
… Newsweek: “Trump snapped at ABC‘s Rachel Scott as she attempted to ask questions about his proposed stimulus payments and tariff refund checks. Video of the exchange, filmed on the tarmac before Trump‘s departure from Dallas, quickly spread across social media, putting a spotlight once again on Trump’s often-combative relationship with female members of the press.”
… “While the president has a long history of clashing with journalists of all backgrounds, several of his most high-profile confrontations during his second term have involved female reporters. The latest exchange with Scott comes after CNN’s Kristen Holmes was targeted by the WH’s Rapid Response 47 account following a question about Trump aide Natalie Harp.”
… Amy Tatum, a lecturer in communications and media at Bournemouth Media School: “This is not the first time that Trump has spoken in an aggressive way to a woman in her role as a journalist, and it is certainly not the first time we have seen him dismiss women.”
… Tatum: “He physically dismisses her with his hand gestures but then proceeds to take a step towards her and leans closer in order to get her to stop talking. This fits the pattern of his behavior, but it also represents a new, even more aggressive level of behavior.”
… Politico: “Gov. Ron DeSantis denounced Trump’s proposal to deliver $5,000 checks to Americans if Republicans hold their ground in the midterm elections, fearing the infusion of cash will only stir more inflation.”
… Desantis: “I don’t think you want to borrow another $1.5 trillion, and then just try to flood that into the economy, because that will lead to more inflation. That will lead to more debt and more inflation.”
… From Trump’s speech on the final night of the convention:
He continued to call his TX senate nominee Ken Paxton ugly: “And then I said. ‘I don’t really like the way Ken talks.’ And then I said something that they really hated. I don’t really like the way he looks. I don’t know if he’s going to ever speak to me again—but you know, I don’t care as long as he wins.”
“I don’t have to speak to him. He’s gonna vote the way we would vote. So I don’t have to speak to him.”
“You know what happens if you don’t vote? You go to hell”
He concluded by addressing the crowd with this: “Raise your right hand: I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the US that loves us so much he can’t even breathe, that I will go out with my family, my friends, I’ll do it any way - I don’t care if I’m registered or not, I’m going to try to cheat like hell just like they do.”
… Gavin Newsom: “Trump just replaced the Pledge of Allegiance with a pledge of allegiance to himself. This November, the choice is yours on the ballot: America or Trump.”
… RFK Jr. also spoke at the event, where he said this about Trump: “I discovered a self-effacing man of superior intelligence, of empathy and compassion, with an encyclopedic grasp of the issues and in molecular detail. And most of all, a near reckless courage to challenge vested interests and official orthodoxies who cared about transparency in govt and free speech.”
… Good Lord. Junior’s speech was just filled with lies. So much so that CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale made this post on X:
“RFK Jr. falsely claimed Democrats canceled their 2024 convention and didn’t let delegates vote on the nominee. There was a convention. Delegates voted for Harris.
RFK Jr. falsely claimed Democrats closed every single church in the US for a year during the pandemic. Some Dem-run states did not forbid religious gatherings, while some GOP-run states did at least briefly.
RFK Jr. falsely claimed Trump ended 9 wars. It’s not even true that Trump ended the 8 he cites himself.
RFK Jr. baselessly claimed Democrats lost 360,000 migrant kids. Not what happened.
RFK Jr. claimed the Trump admin has reversed a 30-year decline in longevity. Not clear what stat he’s citing, but US life expectancy rose for years, dropped briefly during the pandemic, then started to rebound in 2022 under Biden before hitting a new record high in 2024 under Biden.
… And that’s just a smattering of the checkable claims, many of which I don’t have time to check.”
… Trump was interviewed backstage by Fox:
Q - “Have you talked to Thune or Johnson about this $5,000 dividend? Trump: There are a lot of people who think I don’t even need congressional approval because we’ve made so much money.”
On James Talarico: “He’s a freaky guy. He has no respect for Jesus, no respect for religion. But all the sudden he’s a religious fanatic.”
Q - “In one sentence, why do Republicans need to show up in the midterms? Trump: Communism.”
Q: “The worst case is that AI will turn against humanity. Do we have guardrails? Trump: It’s going to be fine. We’ll always have something to stop them. We’ll have a little gear - boom. ‘I really don’t like that robot.’“
… Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI): “I am not sure he actually understands the extent of the risk or how quickly it is upon us or how uniquely responsible the American President is in a time like this.”
… Jimmy Kimmel interviewed Talarico:
Kimmel: “Jesus has been co-opted by this MAGA enterprise that makes no sense. You bring it right back to the real teachings of Jesus and I think that is so powerful. Talarico: Jesus Christ is the most famous victim of identity theft. The kind of religion that says you can treat others any way you want if you have a personal relationship with Jesus is an abomination.”
Reminder there is no Bulletin tomorrow because I’m off Saturdays, but will be back with the next one on Sunday night to recap the entire weekend. Nothing too exciting for us tomorrow - heading down to the big city (Portland) to the docks to buy some lobster and seafood and then a few specialty shops for things we can’t get out here in small town Maine.
We are also going to see the new movie about Anthony Bourdain. I saw that the whole thing was filmed in Provincetown and I grew up on Cape Cod, and I loved Anthony, so should be cool.
If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.
… Meanwhile, more bad economic news for Republicans heading into the midterms.
… CNBC: “Prices for a wide swath of goods and services continued to climb in August, according to a report Friday that raises the specter of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike next week. The consumer price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% for the month, putting the 12-month increase at 3.4%.”
… “The report is the final major inflation indicator the Fed will see before it holds its policy meeting next week, concluding Wed with a vote on its key interest rate.”
… “Traders responded to the numbers by ramping up bets that the Fed will increase its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point. Energy propelled the headline number higher, as gas prices jumped 3.9%. The energy index broadly rose
