Subject: Slate's The Surge
It's usually good for a chuckle or two.

A couple of entries this week:


3
Donald Trump
Everyone was so nice to me, I was treated very fairly, many presents.

The former president returned to Capitol Hill on Thursday for the first time since trying to coup it a few years back. Everyone was so nice to him, so respectful. At a “pep rally” with House Republicans, his subjects sang “Happy Birthday” to him in anticipation of the big day, a kind gesture that Mr. Trump very much appreciated. They gave him a baseball—oh boy! He joked with Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was honored. “He was funny; he was joking around constantly with everyone; he was really sweet to me,” Greene told CNN afterward. “He saw me in there and he was like, ‘Hello, Marjorie.’ He's always so sweet.” And oh, how the senators adored him too. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso brought him a delicious treat: a birthday cake, with candles in the numbers 45 and 47. The senators, too, sang “Happy Birthday,” and Mr. Trump was pleased. Even Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell was very nice—not rude, very respectful. It was a day to remember. The lucky boy was so exhausted he fell asleep in the back of the car on the way home, hugging his presents.


4
Donald Trump, Pt. 2
Milwaukee? No thanks, folks.

Trump’s Hill visit really did make it feel like any given Thursday in 2017—and again, probably (lol), in 2025—for the Surge. A visit to the Hill is billed as a visit to discuss policy and other serious matters of governance, and Trump just runs his mouth about whatever: Taylor Swift, how in another life he might’ve been “together” with Nancy Pelosi, and the “dirty bastards” at the DOJ. The item that got the most attention, though, as originally reported by Punchbowl News, was that he called Milwaukee—host to July’s Republican National Convention—a “horrible city.” Wisconsin Republicans in the room had different recollections of the context. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, an exceptionally angry man, said Trump had been referring to “the CRIME RATE” in Milwaukee. Rep. Glenn Grothman said Trump had been talking about “the election in Milwaukee” and “felt we need to do better in urban centers around the country.” Rep. Bryan Steil said Trump flatly hadn’t said it and that “there is no better place than Wisconsin in July.” What we want to know is: Why is Trump’s comment even a problem worth cleaning up? You know who else likes to trash Milwaukee? Republican voters in Wisconsin. It just happens to be where the sports arena with a big-enough capacity for a convention is located, within the swing state.

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