Trump Fills His Transition Team With Moronic Conspiracy Theorists

Donald Trump has added two ex-presidential candidates to his transition team: former Representative Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The move comes after the two endorsed the former president and convicted felon’s 2024 campaign for president. Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, initially endorsed Trump in July and joined him on Monday at a National Guard Association event in Detroit. Kennedy suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed Trump last week.

As members of Trump’s team, the two will help the Republican nominee craft policy and choose staff members for his administration should he win in November. Both Gabbard and Kennedy have reputations as conspiracy theorists.

Gabbard has expressed skepticism about the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons during its civil war, putting her at odds with the U.S. government view, and even had two secret meetings with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. She has also defended Russia in its war against Ukraine, and tried to claim that press freedom in Russia is similar to the United States. Since leaving Congress, Gabbard has shifted heavily to the right, promoting transphobia, spreading Russian propaganda, and unsuccessfully endorsing Republicans. Trump even brought her aboard to help with debate preparations.

Kennedy meanwhile, is best known for anti-vaccine and public health skepticism. His quixotic presidential campaign revealed more bizarre stances, such as a pledge to not “take sides” on the 9/11 attacks. In the weeks leading up to his withdrawal from the presidential race, Kennedy was revealed to have once had a worm in his brain, and to have dumped a bear cub carcass in New York’s Central Park. In another resurfaced interview from 2012, his daughter Kick recounted an instance when Kennedy cut off a beached whale’s head with a chainsaw in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, tied it to the roof of his car, and proceeded to drive it and his family five hours home to New York.

Having Kennedy and Gabbard on his transition team doesn’t bode well for what a future Trump administration would look like. Right-wing foot soldiers are already devising plans of what they want to do, and these two ex–presidential candidates will likely revive the old Trump days of amplifying crackpot theories.

Donald Trump is leaning into his grifty crypto guy image with his latest announcement.

On Tuesday, Trump posted a video on Truth Social announcing he would be releasing another round of his “baseball card” NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. “By popular demand, I’m doing a new series of Trump digital trading cards,” Trump said. “You all know what they are, we’ve had a lot of fun with them.”

The trading cards include photos of a much younger and leaner Trump raising his hands in victory or dressed as a superhero. Written in small font below the link to purchase reads an explanation of the product: “Trump Digital Trading Cards (NFTs) are intended as collectible items for individual enjoyment only, not for investment vehicles.”

“These cards show me dancing and even holding some Bitcoins,” Trump explains in the video, while making it clear he might not know what exactly he’s selling. This will be the former president’s fourth NFT collection drop since December 2022, and a previous collection included his “Mugshot Edition NFTs.”

Like a late-night commercial, Trump also shills deals for the buyers which include a promise of a physical card if you purchase 15 NFTs, autographed cards, and a chance to win dinner with the former president in Jupiter, Florida (if you purchase 75 NFTs). Each card costs $99 apiece.

“You know they call me the crypto president,” Trump explained. “I don’t know if that’s true or not but a lot of people are saying that.”

Earlier this week Trump, who once called crypto a scam, teased a cryptocurrency platform. Recent election disclosures show that he previously made over $7 million through the NFT licensing deal.

Donald Trump seemed immensely pleased Tuesday after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote to Congress claiming that the Biden administration had pressured him to censor disinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Zuckerberg wrote that the Biden administration had “repeatedly pressured” Meta to remove “certain Covid-19 content, including humor and satire.”

“I believe that the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it,” Zuckerberg wrote. While Meta’s platform Facebook has been all but taken over by outlandish A.I. content and fake news, Zuckerberg lamented that he had not allowed misinformation endangering public health to run rampant, as well.

“I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction,” he said. “And we are ready to push back if something like this happens again.”

Zuckerberg also wrote that he regretted temporarily “demoting” the 2020 New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop while waiting for fact-checkers to assess the validity of the story. He said the FBI had previously warned Meta about a potential Russian disinformation campaign against the Biden family involving Burisma, a Ukrainian oil company for which Hunter Biden worked.

“It’s since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation and we should not have demoted the story,” Zuckerberg wrote. He noted that Meta had changed its protocols and would no longer demote content in the U.S. while waiting for it to be fact-checked—touting how easy he had made it for disinformation to propagate on his sites.

Zuckerberg also tried to distance himself from the $350 million in grants he and his wife had provided for election administrators struggling to adapt to pandemic-era election restrictions in 2020.

“I know that some believe this work benefited one party over the other,” Zuckerberg wrote, even though the FEC had ruled that it did not. “My goal is to be neutral and not play a role one way or another—or even appear to be playing a role. So I don’t plan on making a similar contribution this cycle.”

For someone whose stated goal is to be neutral, Zuckerberg’s letter sure made Trump happy.

“This is what everyone’s been waiting for—THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION WAS RIGGED!” Trump wrote in a jubilant post on Truth Social. Beneath his post, he reshared a post from his lawyer, Alina Habba, who claimed the Biden administration was “gagging our media and censoring America.”

In another post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “Zuckerberg admits that the White House pushed to SUPPRESS HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY (& much more!). IN OTHER WORDS, THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION WAS RIGGED.”

Crucially, Zuckerberg did not claim that the Biden administration had forced him to remove, or even demote the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Donald Trump’s fans are trying to push the lamest conspiracy yet on Minnesota Governor Tim Walz: They’re now accusing him of faking his dog Scout’s identity.

Right-wing columnist Dustin Grage fueled the controversy with a post on X Monday morning screenshotting two 2022 posts from Walz where he mentions Scout, claiming that Walz referred to two different dogs as Scout.

Several MAGA figures immediately jumped on the manufactured controversy. Podcast Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is engaged to Donald Trump Jr., accused Walz of lying.

Senator Eric Schmitt tried to turn Democrats’ “weird” attack line on Republicans against Walz.

But, Grage was soon corrected by X’s Community Notes, which pointed out that the other dog was playing with Scout, and cited the obvious conclusion that “it’s normal to encounter and interact with dogs besides your own at the dog park.” Others on X were quick to mock the lame right-wing attack.

Ever since Walz was named as Kamala Harris’s running mate, the right has struggled to come up with any effective attacks against the Minnesota governor, whether melting down over his son at the Democratic National Convention, calling him “Tampon Tim,” or even attacking his military record. In many cases, right-wing figures have come after Walz only to have their own embarrassments thrown back at them, as was the case with Kristi Noem and the pet dog she shot and killed. As the election nears, they’re simply getting more and more desperate.

J.D. Vance may have gotten himself and some local allies in hot water over a so-called press conference he held outside of the police station in Shelby Township, Michigan.

Earlier this month, Vance looked out over the station’s mostly empty parking lot as he hostilely answered—or refused to answer—questions from the press. The event was billed as remarks, rather than a rally, and he used his time on the podium to push his ironic “stolen valor” attacks against Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz. During the speech, Vance was flanked by police officers and officials showing their support for the candidate.

Last week, the Detroit Metro Times questioned the legality of such an event, alleging that the police department may have broken the Michigan Campaign Finance Act, which forbids the use of public resources to support a political candidate. Any violators could be jailed for 93 days.

Within two days, Shelby Township resident Melissa Arab filed a formal complaint.

“I feel like we can get the attention on it, and if they can spank these police departments right now or put someone in jail for 93 days, it will stop in the rest of the state and country,” Arab told the Metro Times. “You can’t have him doing this across the country.”

Arab explained that she was unnerved by the display at her local police department, and the possible misuse of taxpayer dollars.

“It’s very intimidating to see the police officers lined up behind Trump and Vance,” Arab said. “It’s very scary.”

The Michigan Bureau of Elections has agreed to investigate Arab’s complaint.

Meanwhile, a Donald Trump event held about 45 miles west of Shelby Township, in Howell, Michigan, has run into similar trouble. Trump delivered a low-energy speech from the Livingston County Sheriff’s office’s shiny white garage, standing in front of officers and police SUVs, flanked by large signs that said “Michigan is Trump Country.” The Michigan Bureau of Elections is now reviewing two complaints against the sheriff’s office for allegedly violating state campaign finance law.