It’s Wednesday. The cast of the upcoming “Survivor 50” has been unveiled. “The White Lotus” creator Mike White is returning! Oh, and starting today, you can tap your credit card to get onto the D.C. metro. SmartTrip cards are no longer necessary!
In today’s issue:
- Trump pardons reality TV stars
- The Russia-Ukraine problem for Trump
- HBO casts for new “Harry Potter” series
- National Hamburger Day deals
🌡️️ IN THE WHITE HOUSE
I beg your *pardon*:
President Trump has been using his pardon power to settle political scores, granting clemency to controversial people whom he believes have been politically targeted.
♦️ The first: Trump is expected to pardon reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were convicted in 2022 for evading taxes and conspiracy to defraud banks of more than $30 million (!) to support their lifestyle.
Their daughter, Savannah Chrisley, told NewsNation’s “On Balance” that Trump told her during their phone conversation that “you guys don’t look like terrorists.” Keep in mind that Savannah Chrisley also spoke at the Republican National Convention (RNC) last July, arguing Trump and her parents have been targeted for their conservative beliefs.
By the way: “Tiger King’s” Joe ‘Exotic’ Maldonado, who is serving a 21-year sentence, is not happy about this pardon.
📹 Video of Trump talking to the Chrisley’s children
♦️ The second: The New York Times’s Kenneth P. Vogel reported on Wednesday that President Trump signed a full pardon of a tax cheat whose pardon application focused on his mother’s “MAGA” support. Paul Walczak’s pardon was granted shortly after his mom attended a $1 million per person Mar-a-Lago fundraiser last month.
Prosecutors say Walczak withheld millions of dollars in paychecks for nurses and doctors at a nursing home. He pleaded guilty on multiple tax-related crimes and was ordered to pay nearly $4.4 million in restitution and 18 months in prison. Vogel reports that he won’t have to serve any prison time or pay any of the restitution.
♦️ The third: Trump announced a pardon on Monday for Scott Jenkins, a former Virginia sheriff who was convicted of accepting more than $70,000 in bribes. The bribes were in the form of cash or campaign contributions and were accepted from more than half a dozen people, including two undercover FBI agents. Trump claims that Jenkins, a supporter of his, was “dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ.” What to know about Scott Jenkins
💡 Why it matters: It’s not unusual for presidents to grant pardons, but they usually come at the end of a president’s term. Trump has drawn flak, even from some conservatives, over his use of the power. For example, Marc Short, who served as former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, told CNN that he thinks Trump’s pardon policy has been “pretty gross”: “[I]t’s almost like [Trump] saw what Biden [did] and said, ‘Hold my beer, I’m going to show you and even go farther.'”
Remember: During Trump’s first term, he granted clemency to several political advisers and allies including Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon. Trump opened his second term by controversially pardoning those convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. He has continued to flex his pardon powers in recent months, including pardoning a startup founder and donor as well as the former business partner to Hunter Biden who was central to a House GOP probe.
📝 Full list of Trump’s FIRST-term pardons
📝 Full list of Trump’s SECOND-term pardons
Trump has found himself in a bit of a pickle:
“President Trump has boxed himself into a corner with Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine — and it’s not entirely clear how he gets out,” reports The Hill’s Niall Stanage.
Remember Trump’s promise to end the Russia-Ukraine war within “24 hours” of returning to the White House? 😅 This has proven to be much more complicated.
Where Trump stands: “The president is now stuck between a Ukrainian president whom he regards with great skepticism and a Russian president who won’t do what he wants.”
On one side: “Putin has launched intensifying barrages of drone and missile attacks against Ukrainian cities in recent days. In doing so, he is issuing the most obvious statement of defiance against Trump’s desire for a ceasefire.”
On the other side: “Yet, at the same time, Trump has for a long time set his face against maintaining the scale and cadence of U.S. aid to Ukraine that was delivered under former President Biden after the Russian invasion of February 2022.”
What happens now? It’s unclear, but the pressure is intensifying. Some Republican colleagues are demanding that Trump acts.
Read Stanage’s column: ‘Trump paints himself into a corner on Putin and Ukraine’
Related read: The Hill’s Emily Brooks wrote in her newsletter The Movement today that “Trump’s souring on Putin raises questions about MAGA base.” Click here to sign up & get it in your inbox.
⏱️ON CAPITOL HILL
Get ready for a showdown:
Senate Republicans are hoping to pass President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” by the end of June, but the deep divide among GOP senators — and a tiny margin of error in the House — is setting up a battle that pits moderates and conservatives against each other.
What happens now?: The House-passed bill is now in the Senate’s hands. GOP senators are expected to rewrite the bill to appease at least 51 Republican senators. The problem is that the more changes they make, the harder it will be to pass through the House. (Remember, any changes one chamber makes, the other must agree to).
A looming fight: “Centrist GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) are facing off against conservatives such as Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) over potential cuts to Medicaid benefits, the phaseout of renewable energy incentives and other deficit-reduction measures that conservatives say don’t go far enough. The Medicaid cuts also divide conservatives, with Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) warning they could be bad policy and politically suicidal.”
The goal is to pass this bill through the Senate before July 4, but that is a hefty lift. It could very easily drag further into July.
Read The Hill’s Alexander Bolton’s reporting: ‘Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ pits Senate GOP moderates against conservatives’
➤ TIDBIT:
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is writing a book to expand on his recent marathon, 25-hour floor speech, per AP. It will be published Nov. 11.
🐝 INTERNET BUZZ
🍔 Celebrate: Today is National Hamburger Day! Here’s a list of burger deals today to celebrate. I’m looking at you, Shake Shack.
🪄 Meet your new Hogwarts cast: Harry, Hermione and Ron have been cast for HBO’s “Harry Potter” series. 📸 Photo of the cast
🦞 Holy moly: The Wall Street Journal reports on “The Jaw-Dropping Cost of a Hamptons Girls’ Weekend.” The gist: “Between $97 lobster salads, $950 bottle service and $4,000 rental homes, an Instagram-worthy weekend out east has become a four-figure-per-person affair.” It can easily hit $5,000 per person, and that’s without luxury add-ons.
🚀 That was an expensive 30 minutes: SpaceX’s Starship made it to space Tuesday for an unmanned test flight, but it exploded about 30 minutes into its trip.
👋 AND FINALLY…
To keep you away from your work for just a few seconds longer, watch these goats learn to play on the trampoline.
This video has more than 1.2 million likes.
