- The Trump campaign ran 88 individual ads on Facebook about dangerous mobs of leftists in the streets. Trump has tried to blame rioting on Antifa despite the FBI being able to uncover any evidence of that. The first sentence of the ads has 14 words and they inexplicably ran with an inverted red triangle. 14/88 is a white supremacist signal referencing a quote from a neo-Nazi and Hitler himself. The inverted red triangle is a symbol the Nazis used to designate political prisoners in their concentration camps. The Trump campaign argued this was a commonly used Antifa logo. It isn’t. They then argued it was merely an emoji which does not make any sense. Obviously, the Trump camp will maintain the left is overreacting and their symbolism has nothing to do with Nazim or anti-semitism. They’ve used the same argument several times now. In 2015, Trump tweeted out an infographic with fabricated statistics to illustrate how violent black people are. The original source was a neo-Nazi. In 2016, Trump tweeted out a picture of Hillary Clinton superimposed over a pile of cash with a Star of David shape. The original source was a white supremacist. While accusing others of it, Trump has long used anti-semitic tropes, often referring to Benjamin Netanyahu as the leader of Jewish-Americans and similar such comments. The fact that his organization keeps “accidentally” using Nazi and white supremacist imagery is an established pattern.
- In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump referred to a meeting to discuss shutting down incoming flights from China at the beginning of the pandemic and how John Bolton objected to the idea. He lied. Bolton left the administration in September, months before anyone was even aware the virus existed. He also said the country was near the end of the pandemic. We are not. He implied China purposefully unleashed the coronavirus on the world and said that no one had heard of Juneteenth before he scheduled his rally on the day. (now rescheduled)
- The NSC senior director who handles Russian affairs, Tom Williams, is leaving his position. This will mean Trump will soon have his FIFTH adviser in the position. Earlier today, the highest ranking African American in the Trump administration aside from Ben Carson announced her resignation. Assistant Secretary of State Mary Elizabeth Taylor explicitly cited Trump’s abysmal response to racial issues in the US as her reason for leaving. A third Trump official, this time from the Pentagon, resigned tonight. No, this is not typical.
- The Trump administration contracted with a company to provide test tubes for Covid-19 testing. The company had never produced medical supplies before. And they did not produce medical supplies now. Instead, the company provided the government with pre-formed 2-liter soda bottles. These are not usable as test tubes. The Trump administration bought a large number of plastic Coke bottles and sent them out to labs to use as test tubes. There have been dozens of similar stories like this since the beginning of the pandemic with the federal government hiring absolutely unqualified companies to provide supplies while ignoring legitimate manufacturers of PPE.
- The USAGM has issued a press release regarding new leader Michael Pack immediately firing four directors. The press release says the response was overwhelmingly positive with one employee saying, “I am sure that with your arrival we will be able to rejuvenate our agency, to get rid of any bias and partisanship, and will be able to adequately transmit America’s image and ideas to the outer world.” If that sounds made up, it is. One real employee referred to the release as “North Korean propaganda.” Employees have expressed concerns that the agency which historically has provided apolitical news to foreign countries will become a propaganda wing of the Trump administration.
- The president posted a meme video from Twitter user Carpedonktum. Carpedonktum last year made a video of Trump violently murdering dozens of Democrats and journalists. That video ran during a Trump event at one of his golf courses. Tonight’s video took an innocent viral video of two toddlers greeting each other and faked CNN coverage of the event. Twitter added a warning that the video was manipulated. Moments after the warning was placed, Trump posted a second video, again faking news coverage of a fictitious event. The president has twice tonight attacked the media for being fake by sending out fabricated videos of their coverage.
- In an interview with his son, the president said that since Osama bin Laden once considered killing Barack Obama, that meant bin Laden wanted Biden as president. His campaign then ran an ad calling Biden “Osama’s candidate.” This echoes his 2016 campaign where he said ISIS wanted Clinton to win and that Obama was their “MVP.”
- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has accused John Bolton of treason. The legal hurdle for treason is incredibly high and nothing Bolton has said approach it whatsoever. This echoes Trump calling numerous Democrats and investigators traitors without any factual basis.
