Mediaboss Marketing

I just think its been going on for so long that people are kind of tired of it, said Tony Kurtz, a GOP assemblyman from rural Juneau County, which went for Trump last year by nearly 30 percentage points.

For more than seven months since he lost the election, Trump has engaged in a crusade against Republicans who crossed him, an effort he invigorated with a rally in Ohio on Saturday, where he traveled to campaign against Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, who voted to impeach him earlier this year. In most cases, the Republican base has responded zealously. But here, at a convention center attached to a water park, the lack of interest from the rank-and-file suggested some of the first, tentative signs of weariness of Trumps smash-mouth political act.

Even Sen. Ron Johnson, an unfailing Trump ally, broke with the former presidents criticism of Johnsons home-state lawmakers, dismissing Trumps suggestion that they could be primaried.

I dont think that represents much of a threat, quite honestly, Johnson said, describing Vos and his colleagues as doing a pretty good job.

Trump remains wildly popular among Wisconsin Republicans no less than in other states and the belief in his false claim that the election was rigged is widespread, underpinning a raft of elections-related legislation passed by Republican lawmakers in the state this month. At the state convention, activists cheered for Trump when organizers played a recorded message in which Trump repeated his falsehood that he carried the state in November. The convention included a panel on election law changes, the state party homepage prominently features an election integrity dashboard and delegates carried tote bags that read Defend secure elections.

Brian Jennings, chair of the GOP in Florence County, a sparsely populated Trump stronghold in northern Wisconsin, said Trump is the Republican Party right now, and on the sidelines of the convention, several delegates said Trump was right that Vos hadnt done enough to overturn the results of the election.

But unlike in states like Georgia and Arizona, there wasnt widespread interest in purging the states Assembly speaker for it a departure from Trumps dominion over the Republican Partys apparatus in the states.

Thats Wisconsin for you, said Helmut Fritz, a delegate from Milwaukee who sits on the state partys credentials committee. Trump isnt the dictator.

In part, Voss avoidance of punishment is the result of shrewd politics. Though he has frustrated Republicans who want Wisconsin to pursue an Arizona-style review of the election, Vos is neither a Trump critic nor a defender of the November elections integrity in the mold of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp or Utah Sen. Mitt Romney. He has infuriated Democrats by hiring three retired police officers to investigate potential irregularities and/or illegalities in the November election. And at the convention, he announced that a conservative former state Supreme Court justice, Michael Gableman, will oversee the effort.

Following that news which an operative familiar with the arrangement said was in the works for weeks Trump said at his rally in Ohio that I hear now that Wisconsin is looking very, very seriously into the election and I respect Wisconsin so much.

But for the purposes of the Wisconsin state convention, he had all but invited attendees to engage in a pile-on. In his statement issued the night before Vos spoke, Trump, seeking to stoke grassroots outrage, accused Vos, LeMahieu and state Sen. Chris Kapenga of working hard to cover up election corruption actively trying to prevent a Forensic Audit.

Dont fall for their lies! Trump wrote. These REPUBLICAN leaders need to step up and support the people who elected them by providing them a full forensic investigation. If they dont, I have little doubt that they will be primaried and quickly run out of office.

On Sunday, a Trump adviser said the former president remains adamant about doing audits and is going to keep up pressure on Republicans to have the courage to do it.

President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd as he arrives to speak at a campaign rally. | Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo

So far this year and in other states, Trumps broadsides against Republicans deemed insufficiently loyal to him have been met with enthusiasm from activists. Utah Republicans heckled Romney, an outspoken Trump critic, at their state convention in May. Republicans in Georgia booed Kemp. The GOP governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey, was censured by his party for his lack of fealty to Trump.

At the convention in Wisconsin, it was a different story. One delegate deleted Trumps statement from his phone, saying he wished Trump would shut up, and Im a big Trump supporter. Another delegate said he hadnt even bothered to read it.

David Blaska, a former Dane County supervisor who worked as a speechwriter for former GOP Gov. Tommy Thompson, said a lot of people still believe the election was stolen. But the fact they werent jeering Vos, he said, was a good sign.

Standing at the back of the convention hall, Blaska said the party is hopefully moving on.

Vos said he wasnt surprised by the reception, citing his relationship with activists dating back to before Act 10, the explosive legislation advanced by then-Gov. Scott Walker in 2011 that limited public employee collective bargaining rights. Trump, he said, was misinformed.

But in a sign that Trumps supremacy isnt absolute, Vos went further than many other Republican have been willing to, aligning himself with former House Speaker Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who in a speech last month clashed with Trump when he said, If the conservative cause depends on the populist appeal of one personality, or of second-rate imitations, then were not going anywhere.

The things that President Trump stands for a strong America, lower taxes, more freedom everybody agrees with that, Vos said in a brief interview off the convention floor. But I will say I agree with Paul Ryan saying that our movement should never be about one person.

Trump, Vos said, did a lot of good things. But so could [Florida Gov.] Ron DeSantis or [Florida Sen.] Marco Rubio or you name the candidate. They all could do good things, too.

One important distinction in Wisconsin is the state partys history it is more firmly rooted than most. Ten years ago, Wisconsin was the Republican Partys leading light. Ryan was ascendant, soon to become the GOPs vice presidential nominee in 2012, then House speaker. Walker was beginning his first term as governor, waging a war on unions that would serve as a model for conservatives across the country. The states former GOP chair, Reince Priebus, ran the national party.

Today, the state party has been set back. After cresting in 2016, with Trumps upset of Hillary Clinton, Republicans here lost the governorship in 2018, then saw the state flip to Joe Biden two years later. Johnson, the states top elected Republican, has not yet said if hell run for reelection (On Saturday, he told reporters he wont announce a decision for quite some time.)

Its still a place [people] look to, Walker said. But its usually for things that have happened in the past.

Yet a comeback for the GOP in Wisconsin could be just a year away. Trump lost the state by fewer than 21,000 votes in 2020. Republicans still control the state legislature, and the party has a credible chance of unseating Tony Evers, the Democratic governor, next year.

I think Wisconsin will be back in terms of being a focal point nationally, because you'll have one of the most competitive gubernatorial elections, and probably at least nationally more importantly, you're going to have a Senate race that could very well determine who holds the Senate for the next several years, Walker said.

He said the party has a tremendous opportunity not to be wed to any one individual, and I say that fully acknowledging that on policy what President Trump did was phenomenal.

On politics, however, his record was mixed. In November, Wisconsin served as a blaring example of Trumps difficulties in the suburbs, with the former president juicing turnout in rural areas but underperforming in metro areas. Convention-goers repeatedly mentioned how Republicans running in the states five Republican-held House seats outperformed Trump in their districts.

In a swing state with a recent history of highly competitive elections, convention delegates and strategists repeatedly cited an imperative to rally together, and also to avoid needlessly alienating large swathes of otherwise attainable voters. Other states, said a Republican strategist at the Wisconsin convention, arent used to a decade of battles where every yard matters and where f---ing with each other internally can cost the party an election.

The stuff thats going on nationally, weve experienced it longer, said Jennie Frederick, president of the Wisconsin Federation of Republican Women. I feel like we know who the enemy is, and its not us.

More here:
Trump isnt the dictator: Wisconsin GOP inches away from Trump - POLITICO

Working on the second floor of the West Wing allowed aides to avoid dealing with President Donald Trump because he never walked up the stairs to get to the upper floor, a forthcoming book by author Michael Wolff said.

Wolff wrote that working out of the second-floor office, as Trump advisors Kellyanne Conway and Stephen Miller opted to do, "meant a degree of exclusion but also protection" because "Trump would never climb the stairs (and, by the end of his term, he never had)."

An excerpt of Wolff's book "Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency" published in New York Magazine on Monday shed more light on the confusion among Trump and his hollowed-out circle of aides as the January 6 insurrection unfolded.

Read more: How Trump could use his relationship with Putin and Russia to skirt prosecution back in the USA

The unlikelihood of Trump climbing those stairs was first reported by The Washington Post in January 2017, during the early days of the Trump administration.

"Though Conway took over the workspace previously occupied by Valerie Jarrett, who had been Obama's closest adviser, the confidant dismissively predicted that Trump would rarely climb a flight of stairs," The Post said at the time.

In April, Trump lodged a rare defense of President Joe Biden after he took a tumble on the stairs of Air Force One while leaving Joint Base Andrews in March. Trump defended Biden against criticisms that he is too old, and compared Biden's plane stumble to when he struggled to walk down a ramp at West Point in June 2020.

"I know that if it were me, they would be up and down, going crazy," Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity. "I had an instance where on a slippery, slippery ramp, a piece of steel, very steep and very long railings ... and it was pouring at West Point." He added, "The last thing I want to do is go down because when Gerald Ford went down and it was not good."

"Landslide" is scheduled to be published by Henry Holt & Co. on July 27.

Read this article:
Trump never climbed the stairs to the 2nd floor of the White House's office, new book says - Business Insider

It makes it difficult to openly start campaigning as [Trump] at least contemplates running again, said Saul Anuzis, former chair of the Republican Party of Michigan, cautioning its still early in the election cycle. It keeps activists on the sidelines.

DeSantis, who has the benefit of claiming hes just running for reelection, continues to gain accolades for opening up Florida during the coronavirus pandemic sooner than most large states. His frequent appearances on Fox News put him in the national spotlight almost nightly. Last weekend, DeSantis beat Trump 74-71 in the annual Western Conservative Summits straw poll in Denver results that surprised even organizers of the summit. Last year, Trump won the same straw poll with nearly 95 percent support.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis arrives to speak at a press conference. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The governors backers say he is aware of the dangers of appearing to rise too quickly. One Republican consultant close to the governor, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak freely about DeSantis and Trump, said the governor is very wary of eliciting the former presidents rage.

He will take measures so that Trump wont get mad at him, but believe me, the more successful you are, with Trump, sometimes makes it worse, the consultant said. Its a weird spot to be in for sure.

Trump is scheduled to hold a campaign-style rally on July 3 in Sarasota, Fla., one of a series of public events aimed at boosting the former presidents standing ahead of a possible 2024 presidential run. A Trump official planning the Florida rally told POLITICO that DeSantis team was contacted about the rally, but the governors office did not return a request seeking comment about whether or not he will be attending.

Trump remains the leader of the Republican Party, commanding loyalty from members and remaining active in congressional and statewide races as he weighs a 2024 comeback. But at 42, DeSantis represents a young, fresh face who presses similar conservative policies but with arguably more discipline than the former president. DeSantis has even started getting help from well-known Trumpworld figures, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who joined the governor on a west coast fundraising swing that included stops in Las Vegas and Southern California.

But the biggest question remains whether DeSantis will outshine the former president, and if that will in turn provoke Trump. The former president in April both took credit for DeSantis political ascension and seemed to tamp down the governors 2024 dreams when he told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo that hes considering DeSantis as his 2024 running mate.

Hes a friend of mine. I endorsed Ron, and after I endorsed him, he took off like a rocket ship, Trump said. A lot of people like that you know, Im just saying what I read and what you read they love that ticket certainly, Ron would be considered. Hes a great guy.

Meadows told the Washington Examiner in an interview published earlier this week that he doesnt expect DeSantis to challenge Trump if the former president officially entered the race.

That being said, Gov. DeSantis wont even hes asked over and over and over again every time Im in his presence hes been asked, Are you running in 2024? said Meadows, who now works for the Washington-based Conservative Partnership Institute, a group DeSantis met with on Wednesday afternoon, according to a schedule released by his office.

Others within Trumps orbit also downplay DeSantis national ambitions, saying that he is focused on his 2022 reelection as governor.

Ron DeSantis is not focusing on the ups and downs of 2024, he is focused on making the state of Florida successful, said David Bossie, head of Citizens United and a former Trump deputy campaign manager. That means solely focusing on his re-election in 2022. He is not getting sidetracked by the chattering class.

Florida state Rep. Anthony Sabatini, one of the GOP-led Legislature's biggest Trump backers, said the former presidents influence over the early 2024 jockeying has set up a clandestine presidential campaign process.

The reality is, right now, everyone has to run these kinds of secret, or indirect, presidential campaigns, Sabatini said. Of those trying it, I do think DeSantis has done the best job.

Photo by Pool/Getty Images

Many in Florida politics point to the irony of the situation. Trump is largely responsible for lifting DeSantis profile and helping him secure the governorship three years ago. Trumps 2018 primary endorsement helped DeSantis beat former Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, himself a former congressman who was supported by Floridas entire Republican political establishment and a heavy favorite at the outset of the race. As governor, DeSantis has consistently pushed legislation that appeals to the conservative base and Trump, including a measure aimed at reigning in Big Tech and a bill that restricts some voting access in the state.

The two men, however, couldnt be more different. Trump, a billionaire, has been a staple of reality television and tabloids for years and promotes himself has one of the worlds most successful businessmen while DeSantis is a civil servant whose only source of income is his $134,000 annual taxpayer funded salary.

Others, however, see Trumps position possibly weakening as much of the nation moves beyond his presidency.

Donald Trump was not as strong in his position as he was last year, which is getting a lot of attention and a lot of news organizations covering us, said Jeff Hunt, vice president of Public Policy at Colorado Christian University who also helped organize last weeks Western Conservative Summit in Denver which featured the straw poll DeSantis won. Its very clear Trump has strong control among grassroots conservatives, but what people are looking for is Trump presidency policies but with a fresh face, and Ron has done a good job doing things like going toe-to-toe with the media, and grassroots conservative appreciate that.

I think they are looking for that next step and that next generation, he added.

Meridith McGraw contributed to this story.

Follow this link:
DeSantis very wary of upsetting Trump - POLITICO

A number of supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory are claiming that Donald Trump can be seen in the reflection of a window in a photo posted on the POTUS Instagram page showing President Joe Biden inside the Oval Office.

Influential advocates of the radical movement with large followings on messaging service Telegram shared the Instagram picture showing Biden on the phone to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer while urging people to look at the figure whose back can be seen in the window reflection.

"Did you see who's in the reflection?," QAnon Telegram account We The Pepe, which has more than 75,000 followers, wrote. "Go see for yourself."

MelQ, another major QAnon figure on Telegram with 140,000 followers, told people to look at the reflection after sharing a similar post from another account with more than 88,000 subscribers on the app.

The posts were met with hundreds of replies agreeing that the person seen is somehow Trump, a savior-like figure for QAnon supporters who they believe will be reinstated as president. Others said the photo is probably an edited image from Trump's time in the White House.

"Proof that patriots are running the show. Doctored up an old photo of Trump, inserted Biden, left the reflection of Trump in the window to tie to Q post," Telegram user MySearchfor Truth wrote.

Another user said: "Did they just photoshop mumbles Biden into a picture that was taken while DJT was in office. Asking for my fren [friend] that questions everything."

Telegram user Barbara Limandri added: "That ain't Biden's head/shoulders. That's DJT...rightful POTUS!!"

As is usually the case with many of their claims, the popular QAnon advocates pointed to old posts from their mysterious leader known as "Q" to justify their latest conspiracy.

The QAnon conspiracy emerged as people began decoding cryptic messages that emerged on controversial messageboard site 4chan in October 2017. The posts claimed to be from a government official with access to top security clearance. The first post suggested that Hillary Clinton would soon be arrested, a prediction that never came to fruition.

Over the next few years, thousands of the cryptic messages were posted on 4chan, before moving to similar messageboard sites 8chan and 8kun, which were deciphered by QAnon supporters to form the basis of movement's beliefs, including that there exists a secret cabal of satanic pedophiles that leading Democrat figures are part of.

However, the frequency of these messages drastically slowed down after Trump lost the election in November, with there being no new post from "Q" since December 8. The final message on 8kun is merely a YouTube link to a pro-Trump video containing Twisted Sister's song "We're Not Gonna Take It."

It is also alleged that the mysterious figure who has been writing the posts on 8kun was not a high-ranking government official, but Ron Watkins, the site's former administrator, which he has frequently denied.

The lack of new posts hasn't deterred QAnon, whose followers now merely decipher the catalogue of thousands of existing messages as a form of confirmation bias to justify their beliefs and suggest any world event was actually long predicted by Q.

In this case, Trump appearing in a reflection of an Oval Office was foretold by Q posts from March 2019 which state: "Find the Reflection inside the castle" and "reflections are important."

Read more from the original source:
QAnon Followers Think They See Donald Trump in White House Window Reflection - Newsweek

Don Peay is no stranger to controversy and negotiating his way around differences of opinion.

As founder of the powerful Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife lobbying organization, hes gone the rounds with bureaucrats and politicians for most of the past 30 years, fighting for wildlife habitat, conservation and the rights of hunters and fishermen.

Other groups hes started or been affiliated with, such as the nonprofit Big Game Forever and Hunt Expo, have definitely called for sharp elbows.

And then theres his more recent affiliation with a certain politician.

Peay was Donald Trumps Utah campaign manager when he was elected in 2016, and an avowed supporter throughout the Trump presidency. He became an adjunct part of the administration when he was named to the national Hunting and Shooting Sports Conservation Council by Trumps Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke.

But of course all that came to a crashing halt once the Bidens were in and the Trumps were out.

So whats he doing to decompress from Trump life?

Taking care of veterans, as it turns out.

Peay and his wife, Susan, were the main organizers of an event called Bonfire that took place earlier this week at a venue in Hobble Creek Canyon. Hundreds of people turned out to support a charity called Best Defense and honor dozens of veterans, including a number of Navy SEALs and Army Rangers, who were special guests at the affair.

The Best Defense Foundation was started in 2018 by retired NFL linebacker Donnie Edwards, who spent 13 seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs and San Diego Chargers. Edwards and Peay brought in other former NFL players, including the legendary Bo Jackson and Utahns Jim McMahon and Haloti Ngata, all of whom spoke at the event. Country music singer Craig Morgan, himself an Army vet, performed for the crowd and 97-year-old World War II veteran Jack Foy, who fought alongside Patton, rounded out the speakers.

Because the only compensation any of the headliners required or received was airfare, an estimated $150,000 was raised in the one-night event. Plans are already underway for a similar fundraiser in 2022.

Peays affection for the military traces back to his father, Edward, who was a colonel in the Utah National Guard.

If I have one regret its that I didnt pursue going to one of the military academies, said Peay, 61, who grew up during Vietnam and did not serve in the military. This is our familys way of giving back to veterans who actually did.

I take great strength from being around these warriors, he continued. This is some payback to people who at a moments notice will jump into a firefight that they know can cost them their life. This puts our lives into perspective. If we think weve had a hard day, these guys have had hard days, day after day after day. Whatever we have to deal with is nothing compared to what theyve been through.

Which brings us back to Peays experience being on the front lines with Donald Trump, through good times and bad.

Actively supporting such a polarizing politician took a toll and left a mark, he freely confesses.

It got very personal at times. Our children were attacked, a family member was fired supposedly because of my affiliation. But thats a small price to pay for standing for what you believe.

If he had it to do it all over again, Id fight even harder.

I loved Trumps policies, including dollar-seventy-five gas, he said. But we know his tone and his getting down in the weeds and fighting over stupid stuff in the internet hurt him.

But that was then and this is now, and hes taking a hiatus from even thinking about all of that. This fall he has plans to take some of the veterans who were honored this week on hunting trips, and really get away from it all.

I find real peace dealing with veterans, he said. I feel like Im on vacation. Its a nice break from the trench warfare of politics.

Does that mean hes retiring?

Ill always be involved in issues related to wildlife, he said. But the rest of it? Yeah, you could say Im officially retired for a while.

Link:
From Trump to vets: Its a nice break from trench warfare of politics - Deseret News