“Florida Republicans may set aside millions in taxpayer money to help pay for former President Donald Trump’s multiple legal battles,” Politico reports. “A Miami Republican who endorsed Trump’s reelection has filed a bill for this year’s legislative session that could allow the state to hand out up to $5 million to the embattled Republican frontrunner for president.”
“The very people that have advocated for this type of treatment are finding that those individuals cannot have sexual satisfaction. And I’m not going to use the word that starts with the letter ‘O,’ because you all understand and know what that is. But they can’t achieve that. Now think about that just for a minute. Because it’s terrible.”
— Florida state Rep. Ralph Massullo, making an odd argument in support of gender-affirming care restrictions.
“When you separate a person from their creator and reduce their identity to a group, sexual preference, or skin color, you often create a victim in search of a villain, which becomes a community organizer euphemistically, an agitator historically, and a Marxist ultimately.”
— — Eddie Speir, one of six conservatives Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed to the board of Sarasota’s New College of Florida, in an email to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Speir has used Twitter to promote conspiracy theories about climate change and COVID, according to Axios Tampa Bay.
“Is it your Russian immigrant status that makes you treat people like this?”
— Martin Hyde (R), who is running in Florida’s 16th congressional district, was caught on police body camera threatening to end an officer’s career because she pulled him over for a traffic stop.
To hear Trump talk, he’s the only one
Who’s ever stood trial for crimes he’s done.
But instead of courtroom drama,
We get Trump in his pajamas,
That’s how he earned his new nickname: Don Snoreleone.
“I am not resigning. And it is, in my view, an absurd notion that someone would bring a vacate motion when we are simply here trying to do our jobs. It is not helpful to the cause, it is not helpful to the country, it does not help the House Republicans advance our agenda, which is in the best interest of the American people here — a secure border, sound governance – and it’s not helpful to the unity that we have in the body.”
— Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) on the “resign or be fired” ultimatum from the GOP’s Freedom Caucus just 174 days into his tenure as sp[eaker, reported by Punchbowl News.
“Trump’s head slowly dropped, his eyes closed. It jerked back upward. He adjusts himself. Then, his head droops again. He straightens up, leaning back. His head droops for a third time, he shakes his shoulders. Eyes closed still. His head drops. Finally, he pops his eyes open.”
— Law360 reports from the second day of Donald Trump’s “hush money” criminal trial.
“Functionally, Chris Sununu is as active a part of Trump’s campaign as Matt Gaetz or MTG, or any of the other MAGA freaks. And it seems not to bother him that these people would poleaxe him if given a second’s chance. It seems not to bother him that his political career is over. He’s not just willing to exit public life on his knees—he’s eager to do it. … In the end, it doesn’t matter if Sununu is a mountebank, a coward, or a fool. Those three characters are equally pernicious. … What matters is that the rest of us understand that it is the Chris Sununus of the world who make this ongoing authoritarian attempt possible.”
“He’s f**king crazy! The press often will ask me if I think Donald Trump is crazy. And I’ll say it this way: I don’t think he’s so crazy that you could put him in a mental institution. But I think if he were in one, he ain’t getting out!”
— New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R), quoted by the Associated Press two years ago. Sununu is now backing Trump for president.
“We have perverted the word love. We don’t understand the word love. We don’t understand what love really is. We think love is sunshine and rainbows, and put your arms around somebody saying ‘I love you, brother’ — certainly that’s a form of love. … But how many of y’all know when you hold your young’un by one arm and beat them in a circle, because they were bad — how many of you know that’s love too?”
— North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R) described his loving approach to disciplining misbehaving children, WUNC reports.
New York Times: “Of the 96 possible jurors brought into the room, more than 50 raised their hands to say they couldn’t be fair. They were immediately excused.”
“Nationwide, homicides dropped around 20% in 133 cities from the beginning of the year through the end of March compared with the same period in 2023. … Homicides in American cities are falling at the fastest pace in decades, bringing them close to levels they were at before a pandemic-era jump,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
The Washington Post notes that supporters of Donald Trump “investing in Truth Social is less a business calculation than a statement of faith in the former president and the business traded under his initials, DJT. … Even the company’s plunging stock price — and the chance their investments could get mostly wiped out — doesn’t seem to have shaken that faith. The company has lost $3.5 billion in value since its public debut last month.”
“In the latest quarterly survey by The Wall Street Journal, business and academic economists lowered the chances of a recession within the next year to 29% from 39% in the January survey. That was the lowest probability since April 2022, when the chances of a recession were set at 28%.”… “Economists, in fact, don’t think the economy will get even close to a recession.”
Punchbowl News: “Congress approved more than $71 million in earmarks for lawmakers who voted against the most recent minibus spending bill, according to a Punchbowl News analysis. This is a prime example of what former Speaker Nancy Pelosi says: They voted no but took the dough. We have a simple spreadsheet of the lawmakers who landed projects and then voted against the $1.2 trillion spending package.”