Mike

“The [Trump] endorsement just isn’t moving voters. It just isn’t,” said a GOP operative working on the Alabama Senate race who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “When you’ve endorsed more than 800 people in 10 years, the potency of an individual endorsement wanes.” https://lizadonnelly.substack.com/p/trump-epstein-and-my-met-gala-rant?publication_id=595083&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-share&triggerShare=true&r=49qi9

Tennessee state representative Justin Jones burned a Confederate battle flag in the rotunda of the Tennessee State Capitol in protest of the legislature’s redrawing of the state’s congressional district maps to erase the majority-Black 9th Congressional District.
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/may-7-2026?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Democrats could well seize upon the Holy War inside the White House instigated by Trump, particularly where their values align with the Vatican: opposition to the war in Iran and to Trump’s draconian immigration policies, as well as on how society should treat the least fortunate among us.
https://open.substack.com/pub/thinkbigpicture/p/trump-pope-leo-catholics-blasphemy?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

This is not complicated. The President wants money and he is using the powers of his office to get it from a government he controls. And American taxpayers are stuck with the bill. This is banana republic stuff, folks.
https://open.substack.com/pub/adamkinzinger/p/breaking-gop-redistricting-falling?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

The CEOs of Chinese companies are in business not only to make money but also to strengthen China’s geopolitical power in the world. The CEOs of American companies want to make gobs of money, of course, but they couldn’t give a rat’s ass about strengthening America’s geopolitical power in the world.
https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/the-most-important-thing-you-should?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

We are watching, in real time, the creation of a one-party state in the American South. We have been here before. https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/may-13-2026?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Last week’s winner: “The only strait Trump should be in is a straitjacket.” (Congratulations, Steven Horowitz.) https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/sunday-caption-contest-advice?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Federal law since 1865 bans armed federal agents from places where elections are held, and any kind of voter intimidation is illegal under both federal and state law. The answer is supposed to be an easy “no.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/adamkinzinger/p/breaking-gop-redistricting-falling?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Worse, as Trump lost leverage over China, US farmers lost $34 billion in foreign trade (much of it with China) in 2025 due to tariffs that were later ruled unconstitutional. See The Hill, (2/6/26) Farming experts warn Trump tariffs endanger US agriculture.
https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/trump-plays-a-weak-hand-in-china?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

“...The biggest bloc of middle & working class voters are Black people. When Republicans strip Black people’s political power...it doesn’t just strip 1 community of power. It strips political power from every single middle & working class person & hands it over to billionaires & corporations...” https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/may-13-2026?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Trump posts image of himself as Jesus. What Americans ought to be outraged about was the gaslighting response Trump gave to a reporter when asked about the image. Either he was lying through his teeth or his dementia is further along than I thought. https://open.substack.com/pub/anntelnaes/p/trump-posts-image-of-himself-as-jesus?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

The legal machinations matter less than this astounding fact: Trump is trying to shake down the American taxpayers for $10 billion. While he should be (and probably will be) stopped, what matters is the attempt to loot $10 billion from the US Treasury, not whether he succeeds.
https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/trump-plays-a-weak-hand-in-china?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Two months ago, the President started a war with Iran and told the country it would be quick. But today, after already spending more than $29 billion on the war, no end seems to be in sight and our destroyed enemy appears to not be destroyed.
https://open.substack.com/pub/adamkinzinger/p/breaking-gop-redistricting-falling?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Everything Trump touches dies. Including hard-fought, long-nurtured US foreign policy power. I wrote on Monday that Trump would “slouch toward China” for the summit. On Friday, it is clear that he will “slink back home” as a defeated man.
https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/trump-plays-a-weak-hand-in-china?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

We are winning despite the chaos and corruption that serve as oxygen for the Trump administration. Almost every story in today’s newsletter will translate into decreasing favorability ratings for Trump. By the time the midterms arrive, he should be at unfavorability levels never before experienced by any U.S. president.
https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/trump-plays-a-weak-hand-in-china?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Trump is looting the Treasury and groveling before China for a lifeline in Iran as wholesale inflation rose to 6% per year. See CNBC, Wholesale inflation jumps 6% in April on annual basis, biggest increase since 2022. https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/trump-plays-a-weak-hand-in-china?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Instead of returning with a significant foreign-policy victory, Trump is hoping 16 chief executives will engage in normal-course business negotiations, which Trump will repackage as the fruit of his brilliant negotiating skills. See Politico, How the Trump-Xi meeting became ‘the shrinking summit’.
https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/trump-plays-a-weak-hand-in-china?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

At a time when Americans are making a choice between buying gas to drive to work and purchasing groceries, Trump’s grotesque demand for $10 billion for a disclosure that has not resulted in actual damage to Trump is obscene.
https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/trump-plays-a-weak-hand-in-china?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Notably, Trump won Catholic voters by a massive 20 percent in 2024. And as Harry Enten observed on CNN this week, even before Trump went on the attack against Pope Leo, Catholics already had soured on him with a net -4 approval rating.
https://open.substack.com/pub/thinkbigpicture/p/trump-pope-leo-catholics-blasphemy?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina responded to a 10-year-old constituent’s fourth-grade school assignment by accusing his teachers of “indoctrinating” him with “propaganda,” in a letter that prompted his mother to publicly call the response “horrific.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/adamkinzinger/p/breaking-gop-redistricting-falling?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

In three separate Southern states this week, Republican redistricting efforts pushed by President Trump have stalled. South Carolina killed its redistricting push outright last night. Louisiana refused to deliver the map the White House wanted. And Mississippi punting the whole thing to 2027.
https://open.substack.com/pub/adamkinzinger/p/breaking-gop-redistricting-falling?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Cindy Burbank won the Nebraska Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday night and plans to drop out before November, clearing the way for independent Dan Osborn to face Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts head-to-head.
https://open.substack.com/pub/adamkinzinger/p/breaking-gop-redistricting-falling?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

The Gun Control Act of 1968 was passed because Lee Harvey Oswald bought the rifle that killed President Kennedy through a mail-order ad, using a fake name and an out-of-state address. The whole point of in-person firearm transfers was to make sure that could never happen again.
https://open.substack.com/pub/adamkinzinger/p/breaking-gop-redistricting-falling?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Georgia Senate minority leader Harold Jones II reacted to the news of Georgia’s special session for redistricting by saying: “If Republicans ever used their power to help Georgians, they wouldn’t have to waste time and money redrawing the maps every few years to keep their majorities.
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/may-13-2026?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Trump lost US leverage over China when he attempted to impose illegal tariffs on goods manufactured in China. China threatened retaliation, including by withholding rare-earth metals, and Trump backed down, forever altering the balance of power between the US and China.
https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/trump-plays-a-weak-hand-in-china?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

After seven attempts by Democrats to pass a war powers act resolution limiting Trump’s ability to continue his war on Iran, the resolution fell one vote short, 49 to 50. Democratic Senator John Fetterman crossed over to support Republicans in opposition to the resolution.
https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/trump-plays-a-weak-hand-in-china?r=49qi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email