It's nice to hear someone in the media tell the truth about Donald Trump

In response to accusations that she wasn't doing enough press, Kamala Harris has sat down for interviews with a bunch of "nontraditional" media outlets (as well as her 60 Minutes interview last Monday). On The View, she announced her long-term-care plan to help Americans offset the high costs of taking care of older family members. She appeared on Call Her Daddy, the second-most popular podcast in the country, and sat down for an hour-long live interview with Howard Stern. (She is also supposedly in talks to go on Joe Rogan's podcast, the first-most popular.) And last night in Detroit, she did an interview with radio host Charlamagne tha God followed by a town hall Q&A. In the interview, Harris reiterated her pledge to decriminalize cannabis—which I think would be cool because I've always wanted to try pot—and there was also this exchange:

Listen to that, if you weren't going to; it's only 22 seconds. Harris sounds genuinely surprised—relieved, even?—to hear him say it: Donald Trump's vision for America is about fascism.

You can get bogged down quarreling about whether Trump and the MAGA movement are "officially" fascist or merely authoritarian with some specifically fascist tendencies, but that's an academic debate. For us laypeople, all we need to know is that both are unacceptable. And although plenty of folks online on the left have been describing Trump as fascist for years now, mainstream media outlets have danced around applying that word to him and his supporters. It feels a bit cringe to call Trump a fascist in the world outside the internet or academia—like you're exaggerating for the purposes of stoking fear (and electing Democrats). And it is true that he doesn't seem to have put a lot of work into organizing his own paramilitary forces. But it's also true that U.S. presidential candidates shouldn't tell their supporters they won't ever need to vote again because "We'll have it fixed so good." If you say that kind of thing and also publicly praise strongmen like Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, and Kim Jong Un, you can't really get upset when people start throwing words like fascist around. And yet, there is a widespread reluctance to use that word, or even slightly less loaded terms like dictator.

"It is incredibly jarring how little attention [Trump's] more violent and disturbing comments have been getting in mainstream press coverage," legal writer Quinta Jurecic posted on Bluesky the other day. "The amazing thing is that if you write about this in an honest and level-headed way, you will still get people telling you that you're overreacting."

Writer Julian Sanchez responded:

There’s an old story I’ve thought about often in the Trump Era. Two farmers are observing that after days of torrential rain, the river is close to overflowing its banks. “Do you think it will keep on like this much longer?” one asks nervously. “No, it’s sure to stop tomorrow,” the other replies.

“How can you be so certain?” the first farmer asks. “It certainly doesn’t look like it’s letting up.”

“It HAS to stop,” replies his friend reasonably, “because if it didn’t the river would overflow.”

That rings true to me. I think many Americans, in the media and otherwise, just don't believe any fascist or authoritarian sentiments voiced by our politicians can actually develop into something truly dangerous, because it's so far outside our experience. It's simply inconceivable. But that's what people have thought before the onset of authoritarian regimes forever. Charlamagne tha God doesn't have the reach of CNN or the New York Times, but it is a relief regardless to hear someone with a large mainstream audience not hesitating to use language that makes clear what kind of threat a second Trump presidency poses, even this late in the game.

Good to Know

On that note: Neo-Nazis came out for a Trump boat parade in Florida on Sunday. To be fair, the guy who organized the parade did say they were not welcome. At the same time, the neo-Nazis waved a poster of well-known Trump supporter Mike Lindell, the MyPillow guy, who has been running an ad featuring the very specific price of $14.88. Often seen together, the numbers 14 and 88 are neo-Nazi shibboleths. Again, when you and your pals are perpetually doing things that delight Nazis, you can't be all: "Why do all these Nazis keep supporting my campaign?"

This coming Sunday, Trump will work the fry cooker at a McDonald's in Philadelphia. Why? He's still mad that Kamala Harris claims to have worked at the fast-food restaurant for one summer as a teen, but didn't include it on her résumé. The man’s laser focus on what voters care about is truly remarkable.

Who is the CEO of Boar's Head, the deli meat company? No one can say for sure. This story isn't exceedingly interesting, but it is a good reminder that there are so many outrageously wealthy people who fly completely under the radar, and most of them are weirdos involved in long-standing feuds with relatives.

Threads—the Twitter-esque social media platform that Meta launched last year—is going to start showing people when you're online by default. If any of you use Threads, you probably want to know that, in case you owe somebody else on Threads money and you don't want them to know you're ignoring them.

The Fun Part

"I’m torn. Both Galadriel and Sauron say the other is a threat to Middle-earth. One has to be wrong, so whom am I to trust? Should I trust the Dark Lord who attempted to topple the White City of Gondor, dominate all life, and attempt to stay in power for eternity? Or do I trust the Elf Queen representing the coalition of Men and Elves who defeated Sauron when he tried to enslave the Free Peoples…but could maybe do more meet-and-greets?"

That's by Sam Woods for McSweeney's: "I'm an Undecided Hobbit, Torn Between a Dark Lord Who Promises an Age of Chaos and an Elf Queen Whom I Just Wish I Knew More About"

On Monday night, before Trump's town hall in Pennsylvania turned into him standing and listening to music for 39 minutes, a woman asked the Republican nominee one of the prescreened questions for the event: "What steps will your administration take to help American families suffering from this inflation?" The Washington Post's Philip Bump helpfully transcribed the former president's entire response.

Oh, and early Sunday morning, an intoxicated man drove his car into the river a block from our house:

Given that the footbridge appears to be unharmed (which, thank goodness—that is hands down our favorite footbridge), Julia and I are trying to figure out exactly which direction this dude was coming from to end up with this result. I'll let you know if we learn more.

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Hit me up at joshwimmer@gmail.com with questions, suggestions, thoughts and feelings, tips, and politely worded corrections and criticism. If you think someone would be interested in this newsletter, forward it to them. Even if you think someone might be interested in it, forward it to them. Or if you know someone absolutely would not be interested—well, what about forwarding it to them just in case? Maybe they're not interested, but they've married someone very different from themselves. The thing about people is, they surprise you all the time.