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Donald Trumps upcoming Texas two-step will give him the chance to tout his Lone Star endorsements for the May 24 GOP state primary runoffs.

Trumps visit, however, is more personal.

Still the most influential voice in the Republican Party, the former president has an eye toward 2024, when he could make another run for the White House. And like his previous presidential runs, Texas would play a critical role.

This is perceived as a very strong base for him and he needs to keep the wires alive to tap into that Texas energy for him, said Bill Miller, an Austin-based Republican consultant and lobbyist. If the hard core here in some way should say, Yeah, I really like him, but ..., thats not what he wants. Hes got to keep that but right out of the conversation.

On May 9, Trump is scheduled to headline a Dallas dinner to raise money for Republican congressional candidates. The National Republican Congressional Committee began rounding up donors for that about a month ago.

Trump also has announced an all-day rally in Austin for May 14. Its part of his American Freedom Tour, a series of campaign-style events that seem designed to keep his profile high and to generate income.

Tickets to the Dallas dinner are treated as campaign contributions, but tickets for the American Freedom Tour event are not campaign donations, which suggests that proceeds go to the organizers and speakers.

Trump will likely use both events to tout his Texas endorsements. Trump-backed candidates are part of five GOP runoffs, most notably Attorney General Ken Paxton, whos running for a third term against Land Commissioner George P. Bush.

Despite the stakes, Trump has more than Texas runoffs on his mind.

He says he loves Texas. The Lone Star State has helped propel his political career. For his presidential bids, Trump had the help of prolific fundraisers like Dallas businessman Roy Bailey, who served as co-chairman of Trumps national finance committee. Dallas businessman Tommy Hicks Jr., an early Trump supporter, is now co-chairman of the Republican National Committee. Bailey said more money came out of Texas for Trump than any other state.

In 2020, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was Trumps Texas campaign chairman. And Paxton filed the ill-fated and critics say ill-advised lawsuit to overturn election results in key battleground states.

Most of Trumps Texas rallies have been well-attended spectacles and a celebration of his movement. Where else will you find a woman draped in a dress decorated with photos of Trump?

If he runs for president in 2024, Trump needs Texas Republicans to maintain their energetic support for him, as well as the continued doling of campaign cash.

Thats why the May visit wont be his last trip to Texas, particularly if he plans to stay on the national political scene.

Meanwhile, other Republicans, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, will continue to position themselves as potential 2024 presidential hopefuls.

Then theres Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who this year wants to beat Democratic challenger Beto ORourke by 10 or more percentage points to help propel him as a possible 2024 candidate for president or vice president.

DeSantis and Abbott have been dueling each other on the most provocative new law or public policy. The Florida governor recently signed the Parental Rights in Education law, which prohibits instruction related to gender identity or sexual orientation in kindergarten through third grade. The law, which critics have dubbed dont say gay legislation, would possibly restrict such instruction for older kids, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Last week Abbott made a bold move of his own. He announced that Texas officials would begin busing migrants to the steps of the U.S. Capitol and inspecting vehicles driven in from Mexico. He called the move an unprecedented response to illegal immigration.

Abbotts latest move escalates his clash with President Joe Biden over how to handle illegal immigration. The governor has sent thousands of state police and Texas National Guard soldiers to the border to arrest migrants on trespassing charges. In a nod to Trump, Abbott also has committed $1 billion to erecting a barrier along the states border with Mexico. That came after Biden issued an order to discontinue wall construction begun by Trump.

Critics, including ORourke, have called Abbotts latest border tactic a political stunt.

The maneuvers by potential 2024 candidates wont matter, however, if Trump is a candidate in 2024. The way he keeps beating a path to Texas, it appears another Trump presidential bid is on the horizon. And entering 2022 Trumps various campaign accounts had totaled $122 million. While that money technically cant be rolled over into a 2024 presidential campaign, he can spend it now.

Until and unless he says hes not running, Trump is the Republican front-runner for 2024.

Republicans want to win, Miller said. Theyre going to take a long hard look at Trump. It wont be automatic. Hell have to work for it, but hes the front-runner for the nomination.

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Trump visits Texas ahead of primary runoff election - The Dallas Morning News

Ask people what they remember most about the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, and many responses would likely show that people continue to be astonished that such a terrible thing could have happened in our nation.

But one person remains fixated on something else: the size of the crowd that gathered at the Ellipse, the park between the White House and the National Mall. It was the site of a rally by those who believed, despite exactly no evidence supporting such claims, that Democrat Joe Biden had stolen the November 2020 election from then-President Donald J. Trump.

Here was Trump, in a recent interview with The Washington Post: The crowd was far bigger than I even thought. I believe it was the largest crowd Ive ever spoken to. I dont know what that means, but you see very few pictures. They dont want to show pictures, the fake news doesnt want to show pictures. But this was a tremendous crowd.

There he goes again, focusing on something that might boost his always-delicate ego, but completely missing the point.

In that same interview, the former president strongly hinted that hed be likely to run again in 2024, with one important caveat: his health. You always have to talk about health. You look like youre in good health, but tomorrow, you get a letter from a doctor saying, Come see me again. Thats not good when they use the word again, he said.

One could read that statement as a forecast of Trumps anticipated way out. Trump repeatedly talks of running, hints of running, raises money for another campaign, but then, at the very last minute, uses his health as a reason to bail.

The last thing Trump would want is to be seen as a two-time loser. But not only that, its entirely possible that when he launched his bid for the presidency with his famed ride down an escalator at Trump Tower on June 16, 2015, he did so with no thought of actually winning, but instead with an eye on boosting his brand. He went on to win not only the Republican Partys presidential nomination, but ultimately the presidency.

Its easy to imagine that what Trump most wants going forward is what would be best for the bottom line of the Trump organization and his various business ventures.

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For Donald Trump, its all about his businesses success (Editorial) - MassLive.com

Every time a president moves into the White House, the new occupant tweaks the place to their own personal style and preferences. Gerald Ford brought in striped couches. George W. Bush had the walls of the Oval Office painted ecru. Barack Obama replaced much of the 19th-century still lifes, pastorals and portraits that dominate[d] thepublic rooms with bold, abstract art works. The latest transition, however, apparently required more extensive modifications than simply swapping some color schemes here and art choices there. Thats because, according to Joe Bidens sister, they basically needed to rid the place of Donald Trumps demon spirit.

In a new memoir published Tuesday, Valerie Biden Owens, the sister and closest confidante of the 46th president, wrote that as part of the team decorating the Oval Office, she wanted everything Trump had touched out of there. That meant getting rid of the former guys chosen portrait of 19th-century populist president and ethnic cleanser Andrew Jackson and replacing it with one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as adding busts of MLK, Cesar Chavez, RFK, Rosa Parksall of which reflected Joes understanding and reverence for the soul of this nation. Biden Owens said that she wanted to ditch the Resolute desk Trump used and bring in FDRs in its place, but was unable to do so as the latter resides at FDRs family home in Hyde Park. Thus, the desk Trump had sat behind remained. Still, the fact that the desk was used by both JFK and Obama made her feel better about her brother having to sign documents behind a piece of furniture where the worst president in history also conducted business. So that was certainly good enough, and went a long way toward exorcising from my mind the repugnant image of its previous occupant, she wrote.

Speaking of exorcisms and Biden Owenss thoughts on Trump, the presidents sister, like many Americans, appears to view the last inhabitant of the Oval Office as being on par with the devil, a characterization some people might say is unfair to Satan. In her book, Biden Owens said, If ever there was a force of anti-empathy in the world, it is Donald Trump. He is a bully, pure and simplea narcissistic, incompetent, and incomplete man. He is the embodiment of resentment. His power comes from tapping into our baser instincts. She observed that Trump, appealed to our lowest common denominator and didn't just represent policy failure or erratic personal behaviors; he represented something darker, more primal, more insinuating, striking deeper into the heart of what made us who we are. Biden Owens was initially hesitant about her brother running, she said, because she could see the campaign Trump would run. It was as vivid as a movie. Brutal. Crass. Classless. And every time I saw that movie, I would feel sick. (Incidentally, she wasnt wrong. Among other things, Trump suggested his 2020 opponent was taking performance-enhancing drugs, and during the first presidential debatethe one where we later found out Trump showed up after secretly testing positive for COVID-19the then president interrupted Biden talking about his deceased son to call the one whos still alive a deadbeat.) He had the mind not of a President, but of a vengeful dictator, and running against him felt almost degrading, Biden Owens wrote.

Elsewhere, Biden Owens said she wasnt surprised in the slightest that Trump chose not to attend her brothers inauguration because, essentially, hes a little bitch. A small man does not rise to the occasion, she wrote.

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Joe Bidens Sister Had to Exorcise the White House of Trumps Demon Spirit - Vanity Fair

The USFL will launch on Saturday, April 16 in yet another attempt to start a professional football league.

This is the second attempt at spring football for the USFL. The first league enjoyed short-lived success from 1983-86. The new USFL will bank on that nostalgia factor with the same franchises and team names from the 1980s. It's also not a direct challenger for the NFL.

Why did the original USFL catch on and eventually fail? That's a history lesson worth looking at.

New Orleans businessman David Dixon, who helped get the Saints to the NFL, had a vision for a spring and summer football league, and that groundwork was laid in 1980.

MORE USFL: Top players from original league | Ranking uniforms | Rule changes | Schedule

The timing helped. The NFL had a strike-shortened season in 1982, and the USFL's first season was the following spring in 1983. The league had 12 teams, and several of those teams played in NFL stadiums.

The league also secured solid television deals. The 1983 USFL championship game between the Michigan Panthers and Philadelphia Stars was televised on ABC and Keith Jackson and Lynn Swann called the game.

The league lasted three seasons from 1983-85.

The USFL originally planned to bar underclassmen, but that changed when they allowed Georgia star Herschel Walker, arguably the greatest college football player of all time, to sign with the New Jersey Generals after his junior season. Heisman Trophy winners Mike Rozier and Doug Flutie followed Walker to the USFL over the NFL.

The talent level in the USFL was legitimate. Future Pro Football Hall of Famers Jim Kelly, Steve Young, Reggie White and Gary Zimmerman also played in the league. Kelly and Young played in a legendary 34-33 shootout between the Houston Gamblers and Los Angeles Express in 1985; a game in which Kelly passed for 574 yards and five TDs.

On the field, the USFL allowed for two-point conversions, a rule the NFL would not adopt until 1994. That was one of the quirks of a league that enjoyed modest success in its first season.

The USFL didn't have a salary cap, and that made for financial trouble for some franchises. The stability of those franchises from year to year was tough.

The league tried to expand from 12 to 18 teams for its second season, and by the third season it trimmed back down to 14 teams. Only six of those USFL franchises lasted all three seasons.

The new version of the USFL will start with eight teams in 2022.

Donald Trump also was involved in the USFL. He became the owner of the New Jersey Generals in 1984, and he led the push for the league to move to a fall schedule and directly compete with the NFL. The USFL filed an antitrust lawsuit with the NFL and won the case for $1, but the three-year court battle added to the league's financial woes.

The USFL would ultimately fold in 1986.

The original USFL had success and was seen as a fun alternative for the NFL and offered a blueprint for success in some cases.

The nostalgia factor will be high, too. The new USFL kept the teams names and it paid homage to the original league. The glamour franchise (New Jersey Generals), their biggest rival (Tampa Bay Bandits) and the most-successful franchise (Philadelphia Stars) are back.

Marv Levy and Bill Polian took the lessons learned from the Chicago Blitz and built a four-time AFC champion with the Buffalo Bills around Kelly at quarterback.

Ultimately, the financial instability and directly challenging the NFL led to the league's demise. That's a lesson the XFL would learn later, and the new USFL would be better served as a developmental league that experiments with new innovations the NFL can use later.

The USFL is in the right window on the sports calendar, and this time it coincides with the MLB coming off a lockout. Don't be surprised if there is modest success at the start, but can it maintain that viewership?

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What happened to the original USFL? Herschel Walker, Donald Trump and an ill-fated NFL lawsuit - Sporting News

A series of 13 studies with over 10,000 participants tested the change in Americans prejudice following the presidency of Donald Trump. The researchers found that explicit racial and religious prejudice increased amongst Trumps supporters, while prejudice decreased among those who opposed him. This research was published in Nature Human Behavior.

In recent decades, there has been a downward trend in prejudice toward racial and religious minorities. However, some studies suggest that racial and religious prejudice had a critical role in Trumps presidential victory. While some commentators have suggested that numerous trends following the 2016 elections (e.g., increases in reports of hate crimes, minorities reporting more discrimination) point toward a rise in racial and religious prejudice in America, others have argued that these increases may be a consequence of increased national attention to issues of prejudice. Other commentators from both sides of the political spectrum have suggested that even if there has been a rise in discrimination, it only reflects extremist fringe groups, rather than the broader American population.

In this work, Benjamin C. Ruisch and Melissa J. Ferguson examine whether a single counter-normative public figure, and his widespread acceptance by a large portion of the American people, can lead to large-scale changes in social norms and societal prejudices.

The authors tested two key predictions. First, that racial and religious prejudice significantly increased among Trump supporters but not other Americans. Second, that increase in prejudice reflected the increased acceptability of expressing prejudice (i.e., changes in social norms).

Studies 1-9 were multi-year longitudinal studies involving over 1000 participants, examining the the breadth and depth of changes in prejudice across various target groups and measure types. At Time 1, they included at least one measure of prejudice and various questions assessing views on social and political issues. Time 2 measures were nearly identical, and also included a question regarding support for Donald Trump.

The researchers included a wide range of measures on political ideology, political party identification, perceptions of the US economy, perceived threat and political knowledge/sophistication, as well as demographic characteristics such as age, gender, race, education and income. As well, they looked at environmental factors, including income inequality, racial diversity and voter turnout in participants home counties by extracting this information based on participants geographic location.

Study 9 included data from the VOTER survey conducted by the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group and YouGov. Responses on voting history, political attitudes, daily lives, social group memberships, health history and demographics from over 7500 participants who completed this survey in both 2016 and 2019 were included. These studies did not allow for the isolation of Trump support as a causal factor of changes in prejudice. However, they did allow the researchers to track changes before and after his political ascension, while statistically adjusting for over 80 possible predictors.

Using both correlational and experimental methodologies, Studies 10-13 included 1402 participants and were conducted for the purpose of providing support for a causal explanation.

Across Studies 1-9, Ruisch and Ferguson found that support for Donald Trump predicted a significant increase in prejudice towards a range of social, racial and religious minoritized groups. Those who generally opposed Trump, including liberals and conservatives, showed decreases in prejudice in the same time period. Studies 10-13 provided indirect support for the mechanism behind the shift in social norms.

Trump supporters perceived that expressing prejudice had become more acceptable since his election, and this perception predicted greater personal prejudice among them. As well, experimentally leading participants to feel that Trump supporters approved of his controversial rhetoric significantly increased Trump supporters personal expressions of prejudice .

The authors concluded, Together, this research suggests that the presidency of Donald Trump may have substantially reshaped the topography of prejudice in the United States.

The research, Changes in Americans prejudices during the presidency of Donald Trump, was authored by Benjamin C. Ruisch and Melissa J. Ferguson.

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Donald Trump's presidency associated with significant changes in the topography of prejudice in the United States - PsyPost