Trump Judge Delivers Massive Blow to RNC Protesters—Just in Time

With less than a week before the Republican National Convention is scheduled to begin, a Trump-appointed judge on Monday ruled that protesters cannot march through areas visible to the RNC.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Coalition to March on the RNC 2024, an umbrella coalition of several activist groups that led protests against the RNC in 2008, 2012, and 2016. The lawsuit was filed in June after the city of Milwaukee released plans for a “hard perimeter” around the RNC, with limitations on what items protesters can bring into a “security footprint” designated protest area. The plan was approved by the city and mayor in March. Coalition co-chair Omar Flores argued in June when the ACLU’s lawsuit was filed that the designated protest areas and “parade” route were overly restrictive, impeding their First Amendment rights by keeping protest spaces too far from the venue for the gathering to actually be a protest against the RNC.

“This march route is within sight and sound of the RNC,” Flores said in June of the route the coalition crafted for their march in contrast to the city’s offerings. “We’re not going to be led back to their protest pens where, essentially, we’re just going to be chanting and screaming to no one. I mean, that’s really not a protest,” Flores added.

The ruling, delivered by Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig, stated the city of Milwaukee and the Secret Service satisfied security needs and people’s desire to protest, finding much of their plan a “valid restriction on free speech,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

“The Coalition members have the right to march in protest of the RNC. Their right to do so lies at the heart of the First Amendment. But the First Amendment does not allow them to protest or parade in any way they choose,” Ludwig wrote in his decision. Ludwig did rule in favor of the ACLU in part, determining that the city of Milwaukee can’t approve sound and protest permits based on an applicant’s criminal history.

Democrats appear to be at a complete loss over what to do with President Joe Biden’s 2024 candidacy.

A private House Democratic Caucus meeting Tuesday morning had members in a whirlwind, seemingly unable to decide whether to hand the November run to another Democratic candidate or stick by Biden’s side, despite the American public’s floundering confidence in him.

Tennessee Representative Steve Cohen appeared frustrated as he exited the private meeting, telling a crowd of reporters that the party was far from on the same page about what to do with Biden. “We’re not even in the same book,” Cohen said.

One unidentified member backing Biden told Punchbowl News that the scene “felt like a funeral.” Another lawmaker told Semafor that the “morale of the caucus is at historic lows” and that comparing the political impasse to a funeral would be “an insult to funerals.”

Several lawmakers reportedly left the building already on their phones, while Pennsylvania Representative Summer Lee had her headphones in. Democrats in attendance were reportedly unified on supporting the caucus’s eventual nominee, but whether that would remain Biden was remarkably unclear.

“The fighting spirit and pride and courage that served the country so well four years ago, that helped Joe Biden win, will bring the ticket down this time,” Illinois Representative Mike Quigley told the Associated Press.

But just a month out from the Democratic National Convention—where either Biden or an alternative will have to be nominated—the other options to the incumbent president aren’t exactly rallying the party behind them. Despite Kamala Harris’s growing popularity as Biden’s replacement, Connecticut Representative Jahana Hayes argued that putting the vice president at the top of the ticket would be “setting her up for failure,” wrote Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman.

At the fourth National Conservatism Conference, known as NatCon 4, Senator Josh Hawley saw fit to tell the audience exactly what he stands for—and it’s Christian nationalism.

“Some will say I’m calling America a Christian nation. And so I am. Some will say I’m advocating Christian nationalism. And so I do. My question is: Is there any other kind worth having?” Hawley said at the conference’s gala dinner Monday night.

The Missouri Republican defended his statement by claiming that American democracy was founded by Christian nationalism, which is also America’s political tradition. He also spoke of replacing the Pride flag on federal buildings with the words “In God We Trust.”

To his credit, Hawley did offer some unexpected suggestions in his speech, such as rejecting “blood and soil” authoritarianism and calling on Republicans to support unions (though not public-sector unions). But Hawley has given unions some token support and praise before, and it has never been backed up with any resolute or specific action.

In reality, his railing against elites and professed support for the working class belies his own private school, Ivy League background. Hawley has mistaken a white nationalist magazine’s words for a Patrick Henry quote, scuttled bills simply to hurt President Biden, and written a bizarre book titled Manhood extolling the virtues of masculinity.

While all of this shows a politician seeking to say certain things for attention without much action, his words on Christian nationalism should be taken seriously because he’s a true believer. For one, his wife is also part of the Christian nationalism movement, working for the extremist legal group Alliance Defending Freedom. Hawley happens to be up for reelection in November, and he faces a strong challenge from populist Democrat and military veteran Lucas Kunce. Will voters swallow his Christian nationalism and give him a second term in the Senate, or give a more genuine politician a chance?

As if the warped political landscape, ever-shrinking number of rights, and normalization of violent, racist rhetoric and policy weren’t enough, Fox Business is now advertising a new way to remember the worst president in history: a commemorative $2 bill, complete with Donald Trump’s mugshot!

Fox Business is apparently running ads for a product called the Trump “Never Surrender” Mugshot $2 Bill. The ad itself is so ridiculous, it needs to be seen to be believed.

The product itself is exactly what its name would suggest: an “enhanced” uncirculated $2 bill, plastered with Trump’s tough-guy glare, his signature, his inmate number, and the words “Never Surrender” and “Most Famous Mugshot in History.”

“Donald J. Trump makes history once again by becoming the first former president of the United States to ever be criminally indicted,” explains the chipper voiceover. “The powers that be made good on their threats to get him by indicting him four times.”

The eerie advertisement lists his indictments like badges of honor, and not genuine allegations of criminal wrongdoing, over infomercial-type animated graphics. If it didn’t feel dated already, the advertisement makes no mention of Trump’s recent convictions.

“In the photo, President Trump displays a furrowed brow and a determined gaze, showing he’s ready to fight,” the voiceover continues. “He says he will never surrender.”

“Whether or not you are a supporter of the forty-fifth president, there is no doubting the historic importance of this photo,” says the voiceover, a strange appeal to any non-MAGA viewers, as if they could be convinced to buy Trump merch anyway. While the bill seems to have been on the market for at least six months, Fox Business appears to be in on the move to make money off of Trump’s loyal followers.

The tchotchke is produced by the National Collector’s Mint, a private company that is not associated with the U.S. government and doesn’t appear to be directly associated with Trump, either.

The company is co-directed by former U.S. Representative Barry Goldwater Jr., son of the failed Republican presidential candidate, and conservative political commentator Angela Marie Buchanan.

While Goldwater and Buchanan’s positions on Trump are unclear, they appear to be leaning in to make a buck off his MAGA fans. Goldwater, who also serves as director of the archconservative think tank the Goldwater Institute, dismissed Trump as “an authoritarian” and “a cowboy” ahead of the 2016 elections.

Goldwater has made a few appearances on Fox Business in recent months, and in May appeared on Cavuto: Coast to Coast. Americans are “looking for someone who is going to stand up and take charge. We don’t have that with Biden,” Goldwater said at the time, insisting that Trump’s convictions would not prevent him from winning the presidency.

Buchanan served as treasury secretary under President Ronald Reagan. Her brother, paleoconservative Pat Buchanan, also worked for Reagan, as well as Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

The commemorative bill can be purchased for only $19.95, so about $17.95 more than it’s probably worth. Only five can be bought at a time, so make sure to plan your spending, and remember, in the United States it’s illegal to burn money.

The White House has shut down the burgeoning conspiracy that President Joe Biden has Parkinson’s disease, releasing the job specifics for Dr. Kevin Cannard, a neurology consultant that Fox News and Republican lawmakers irresponsibly and incorrectly pinned as a Parkinson’s expert.

In a news release Monday night, White House medical experts outlined that Cannard, who has reportedly visited the White House eight times since last summer, has been a member of the White House medical unit since 2012 and is the “longest serving Neurologist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and in the Military Healthcare System.”

His routine visits in the last year were a part of neurology clinics for active-duty members working in the White House, wrote Dr. Kevin O’Connor, physician to the president.

“Many military personnel experience neurological issues related to their service, and Dr. Cannard regularly visits the WHMU as part of this General Neurology practice,” the letter read.

Aside from that, Cannard’s other duties in the White House—which include examining Biden’s neurological condition during his annual physical—have been nothing out of the ordinary, per the letter.

“As I have written in each of the President’s medical reports, as part of the President’s annual physical, he sees a team of specialists that have included Optometry, Dentistry, Orthopedics (Foot and Ankle), Orthopedics (Spine), Physical Therapy, Neurology, Sleep Medicine, Cardiology, Radiology, and Dermatology,” O’Connor wrote in the release. “Dr. Cannard was the neurological specialist that examined President Biden for each of his annual physicals. His findings have been made public each time I have released the results of the President’s annual physical. President Biden has not seen a neurologist outside of his annual physical.”

O’Connor further cited his February examination of the president, which made mention of Cannard’s “extremely detailed neurological exam.”

“This exam did again support a finding of peripheral neuropathy in both feet,” O’Connor wrote at the time, referring to the results of the neurological exam that found no signs of neurological disorder. “No motor weakness was detected. He exhibits no tremor, either at rest or with activity. He demonstrates excellent fine motor dexterity.”

Cannard’s visits were reported breathlessly by multiple outlets over the weekend and into Monday, amid concerns that the White House press team isn’t being transparent about Biden’s health condition. But his visits have also been seized just as breathlessly by the far right to push factless conspiracies about Biden’s fitness for office.