Will the GOP change its abortion platform?

Donald Trump’s 2024 strategy has been one of measured policy moderation: deprioritizing divisive issues and elevating those where he clearly has the lead. Now, in bringing that strategy to the GOP’s official platform, which is set to be unveiled later this month, the former president’s team is seeking to produce a succinct, less-heavy-handed document. This, in turn, has angered many in the conservative activist class, especially already-disgruntled pro-lifers.

In a memo that circulated this Thursday, signed by Trump’s leading advisors Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, the case is made for why to shorten the platform — “our policy commitments to the American people [should be] clear, concise and easily digestible.”

“Publishing an unnecessarily verbose treatise will provide more fuel for our opponent’s fire of misinformation and misrepresentation to voters. It is with that recognition that we will present a streamlined platform in line with President Trump’s principled and popular vision for America’s future.”

Politically, Wiles and LaCivita have a point — and moves like publicly distancing themselves from Project 2025 and avoiding taking strong stances on IVF evidence that they are running a prudent campaign, that could lead to a clear majority.

Following the memo, according to Politico, two pro-life delegates — longtime party activist LaDonna Ryggs and South Carolina’s former state party chair Chad Connelly — have been shown the door. While the electorate may not be hyper-aware of these developments, some involved, religious social conservatives worry that Trump is not simply being Machiavellian. Instead they fear that once elected, without sufficient intra-GOP pushback, Trump will jettison causes that deeply matter to his most ardent supporters.

-Juan P. Villasmil

On our radar

‘SHAMEFUL ACT’ Democratic representative Brad Schneider claims his office was vandalized by anti-Israel protesters yesterday. The vandals tore down and shredded posters of the remaining hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza. 

JOBS, JOBS, JOBS The US economy added 206,000 jobs in June, according to a new report from the Labor Department. However, the unemployment creeped up to 4.1 percent, the first time it has been over four percent since November 2021. 

BURGUMENTUM? A new Politico profile of potential Trump VP pick Doug Burgum says the North Dakota governor’s embrace of the former president has “all come as a shock” to people who know him and that North Dakotans feel he has effectively abandoned them to campaign with Trump. 

Trump ready to rumble

Donald Trump is taking off the debate gloves and throwing down the gauntlet (again). He’s challenged President Joe Biden to a “no-holds barred” debate, something that would certainly serve the American people.

Trump posted on Truth Social:

I have the answer to the Crooked Joe Biden Incompetence Puzzle — Let’s do another Debate, but this time, no holds barred. An all-on discussion, with just the two of us on stage, talking about the future of our Country.

Let Joe explain why he wants Open Borders, with millions of people, and many violent criminals from parts unknown, pouring into our once great Nation, or why he wants Men Playing in Women’s Sports.

Or demand ALL ELECTRIC VEHICLES within five years, or why he allowed INFLATION TO RUN RAMPANT, destroying the people of our Country, and so much more.

It would also, under great pressure, prove his ‘competence,’ or lack thereof.

Trump’s challenge comes as Politicoreports, “We now know how bad the debate was for Biden.” According to polls, Biden is “in a hole larger than all but two incumbents — who were both defeated for reelection — going back more than four decades.” Trump, meanwhile, has widened his lead, according to the New York Times, which reports 74 percent of voters think Biden is too old for the job of president.

Unless Biden takes Trump up on his offer for a “great evening,” of “a good, old-fashioned Debate, the way they used to be. ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE!!!” the next time the two candidates will meet to debate will be September 10.

–Teresa Mull

Are you ready for ‘Stop the Steal’ 2.0? 

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled on Friday in a 4-3 vote to reinstate absentee ballot drop boxes, overturning its own decision made two years ago banning their use. All registered voters in Wisconsin are eligible to vote by absentee ballots. Voters can either send their ballot in by mail, or drop it off at one of the drop boxes.  

In July 2022, the conservative-controlled court ruled that the drop boxes could only be placed in local election clerks’ offices and that no one other than the voter could hand in the ballot. 

In August 2023, liberals gained the majority when liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz replaced retiring conservative Justice Patience Roggensack. The justices decided to revisit the ban on drop boxes in March after Democratic group Priorities USA filed a suit seeking to overturn the ban, claiming that Wisconsin law is silent on the issue of drop boxes. 

“Our decision today does not force or require that any municipal clerks use drop boxes,” Justice Ann Walsh Bradley wrote in Friday’s majority opinion. “It merely acknowledges what [Wisconsin state law] has always meant: that clerks may lawfully utilize secure drop boxes in an exercise of their statutorily-conferred discretion.”

Absentee voting exploded in 2020 during the pandemic, with a record high of over 40 percent of all voters casting mail-in ballots. By 2021, there were 570 drop boxes in place in 66 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. At least twenty-nine other states allow for these absentee ballot drop boxes, according to the U.S. Vote Foundation.

Conservatives dissented: “This latest attempt by leftist justices to placate their far-left backers will not go unanswered by voters,” said state GOP chair Brian Schimming. Mail-in voting is seen as facilitating voter fraud and cheating, and was heavily pushed by Democrats in swing states back in the 2020 election. 

The boxes can now be used in any location, which will have huge implications in the 2024 election. In 2020, President Biden won Wisconsin by just 20,000 votes, and in 2016 Trump narrowly won the state against Hillary Clinton. 

–Elisenne Stoller