Happy Monday!
What a weekend! On Saturday night President Donald John Trump, wife and cabinet members, including Vice President JD Vance, attended the White House Correspondents Dinner for the first time ever, at the Washington, DC Hilton hotel. Then, a man later identified as Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old teacher, engineer and alleged Christian-themed-manifesto writer from Torrance, California, allegedly tried to bum-rush the event doors from a level above. Allen shot at a Secret Service agent, hitting his bulletproof vest; Cole was captured and is scheduled to be arraigned today. (Al Jazeera / WSJ gift link / NPR)
Trump immediately called a press conference at the White House and took to his web site to blame the shooting on mean judges not letting his donors buy him a $400 million ballroom / bunker, and the knuckle-dragging masses of X embraced their assignment. (Fox News / New York Times)
Meanwhile, much of BlueSky was convinced it was staged:
And the alleged shooter’s manifesto targeted someone Trump thought sounded familiar.
But King Charles III’s scheduled visit today is still on! (Politico EU)
Trump wants Putin to come to the G-20 at his Doral Club. Oh. (Washington Post)
Peace talks with Iran are stalled: “Tehran and Washington are sinking into an awkward limbo of neither peace, nor war, each hoping to outlast the other in a standoff.” It also doesn’t help efforts how Israel keeps on refusing to ceasefire and keeps attacking its neighbor Lebanon. (New York Times / Al Jazeera)
Yikes, dozens of human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have issued their own travel warnings ahead of the World Cup matches that’ll be taking place in multiple cities this June and July, “in light of the deteriorating human rights situation in the United States and in the absence of meaningful action and concrete guarantees from FIFA, host cities, or the U.S. government.” Meanwhile, in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott is threatening to pull $200 million in funding from Houston, Dallas, and Austin unless they agree to make their local police forces help ICE round up soccer fans. (ESPN / Latin Times)
Sen. Thom Tillis’s backbone, returned gently used: now he says he’ll support Kevin Warsh’s nomination for next Federal Reserve Board chair, following assurances that the DOJ will only reopen an investigation into current chair Jerome Powell’s allegedly criminal building budget if the Fed’s inspector general recommends criminal charges. And when has Donald Trump ever lied to anybody? (CNBC)
“‘Absurd Corruption’: Disgust as Eric Trump Brags About Scoring $24 Million Pentagon Deal. ‘The US government is now one of, if not the most, corrupt governments on earth,’ said one critic.” As well as millions of other critics who are blessed with eyeballs, earholes and the gift of reason! (Common Dreams)
Rep. Tom Kean Jr. — a Republican representing New Jersey who is also up for-re-election — last cast a vote on March 5 but has not been seen since, how bizarre! Kean’s spokesman has now issued a statement that he is “handling a personal health matter. He will be 100% healthy and back to a full schedule soon.” Paging Velma and Daphne, sounds like a ghost is trying to cover up a mystery! (Guardian)
At least New Jersey Connecticut, (Wonkette regrets error) still has Sen. Chris Murphy alert and vigorous enough to note all the lawbreaking going on with taxpayers’ money.
Enjoy Rep. Jamie Raskin versus CNN’s Dana Bash and her bad-faith line of questioning:
New York Magazine’s got a tasty profile of US DA for DC Jeanine Pirro that traces her friendship with Trump, her husband Al’s legal troubles and ensuing MAGA-fication, and she herself even throws in quality dirt on her predecessor Ed Martin, like that he gutted the office of 150 lawyers and installed a crucifix in the DA’s office’s shower. (“I never shower in it. He had some holy stuff in there.”) What a normal guy! (New York Magazine)
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The weekend’s episode is a sad reminder that the JFK assassination could have been prevented if only there had a big and militarily secure ballroom to drive him through the streets of Dallas.