Report: Good News for Donald Trump’s Waistline Is Bad News for America

Is Donald Trump going to run again in 2024? It’s a question that the United States—nay, the world—will likely be nervously asking itself for the next three and a half years, thanks to (1) his long history of teasing presidential runs until the last second and (2) the fact that Senate Republicans declined to ban him from ever holding office again when they had the chance. While Trump clearly hated the actual job of running the country, he obviously loved the power that came with it, as all despots do. Still, we probably won’t know what he’s going to do for some time, though according to a new report, we should be watching his waistline for hints.

Here’s Business Insider on the worrisome news:

The spray tan is gone, and the suntan is on. The bleached highlights are out, and the gray is growing in. Some of former President Donald Trump’s extra weight is off too, thanks to better eating habits and a near-religious regimen of daily golf in the Florida sunshine. “He has lost 15 pounds since he left the White House,” said one Trump advisor who spoke with the former president about his health recently…. The weight loss is no small feat for a 74-year-old man whose June physical-exam report pegged his poundage at 244—over the clinical threshold for obesity. Other advisers who have met recently with Trump told Insider the former president looks happier, healthier, and even svelte—relatively speaking—since leaving Washington in January under the cloud of a second impeachment trial. “He was eating all those M&M’s on [Air Force One] all the time,” said one adviser who’s watched Trump trim down since leaving Washington.

A slimmer Trump has Republicans wondering if the former president is already plotting a serious run for the White House again in 2024—something he and his advisers continue to mull, with little impetus to make a firm decision before the 2022 elections. “I think there’s an extra 10% to 15% chance he runs if he lost 20 pounds,” one veteran Republican strategist told Insider.

Up until recently, Trump had a famously terrible diet, with his preferred foods groups being Big Macs, meatloaf, and KFC; ex-White House doctor Ronny Jackson once said they had to hide vegetables in Trump’s food. The 45th president has also expressed some unorthodox views on exercising, like that the human body has a finite amount of energy, which physical exertion can only deplete. (“You are going to die young because of this,” he reportedly told an employee training for an Ironman race.) Previously, his former physician wrote a doctor’s note released to reporters that claimed he was in “extraordinary” physical shape, which turned out to have been written by Trump himself.

Anyway, losing weight is probably good news for his health, which is nice for the people who care about him (there are probably four of them? Maybe five?), though if it means a higher risk of him running again, terrible for society at large. Someone pass this man the M&M’s!

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Joe Biden thinks better of it, decides not to embrace Trump’s policy on refugees

Doing the opposite of what Donald Trump did, on anything, is probably a good idea in general. Per CNN:

The White House said Friday President Joe Biden will set a new, increased refugee cap next month after facing a barrage of criticism when officials confirmed to CNN and other outlets that it would remain at the historically low level set by former President Donald Trump. Only hours earlier, the administration announced Biden would sign an emergency determination that keeps this fiscal year’s refugee cap of 15,000, but not raise the refugee cap as he had committed to doing, marking a significant reversal from his administration’s proposal earlier this year to lift the cap to 62,500. The move faced immediate blowback from refugee groups and lawmakers frustrated by the sudden shift.

Instead, the emergency declaration returned to regional allocations, in effect casting a wider net of who can arrive to the U.S. under the refugee ceiling currently in place. The administration left the door open for raising the ceiling some if the 15,000 is met before the end of September.

After the news broke that Biden was not going to increase the cap, David Miliband, president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, said, “It is deeply disappointing that President Biden has chosen to maintain for the moment the record-low refugee admissions cap of 15,000 set by his predecessor.” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had tweeted, “Biden promised to welcome immigrants, and people voted for him based on that promise. Upholding the xenophobic and racist policies of the Trump admin, incl the historically low + plummeted refugee cap, is flat out wrong. Keep your promise.”

Report: Mitch McConnell remains the worst

Ruth Bader Ginsburg edition! Per The Independent:

A new book on the life of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claims that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell apparently refused to allow Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to lie in state in the Capitol rotunda following her death last year. USA Today journalist Susan Page detailed the incident in her forthcoming book, Madam Speaker.… Punchbowl News reported excerpts from the book in which Ms. Pelosi claims she suggested Ms. Bader Ginsburg be allowed to lie in state, but said Mr. McConnell rejected the suggestion.

“McConnell rejected the idea on the grounds that there was no precedent for such treatment of a justice. When William Howard Taft had lain in state in 1930, he had been not only the chief justice but also president, McConnell noted,” Ms. Page wrote. “He wasn’t swayed by the argument that Ginsburg had achieved an iconic status in American culture, especially for women and girls.” Instead, Ms. Pelosi arranged for Ms. Bader Ginsburg to lie in the Statuary Hall, which is on the House side of the Capitol and outside of the reach of the Senate. In doing so, Ms. Bader Ginsburg became the first woman to lie in state in the Capitol.

McConnell also didn’t even wait until Ginsburg’s body was cold to announce that he would be shoving through the confirmation of her Supreme Court replacement in an election year despite previously claiming that was the very reason Merrick Garland’s nomination could not proceed. So yeah, he‘s terrible, but we suspect you already knew that.

Elsewhere!

Mother of Gunman Had Warned Police Last Year, FBI Says (NYT)

U.S. police and public officials donated to Kyle Rittenhouse, data breach reveals (Guardian)

U.S. Vaccinations Reach 200 Million as Campaign Picks Up Speed (Bloomberg)

Matt Gaetz Using Donors’ Dollars on Legal Bills as Feds Investigate Possible Sex Trafficking (LX)

How Amazon fought the union drive in Alabama (CNBC)

Liberty University sues ex-president Jerry Falwell Jr., alleging breach of contract and cover-up of scandal (Washington Post)

Heavy metal guitarist with ties to Oath Keepers is first U.S. Capitol rioter to plead guilty (CNN)

Company that owns a single N.J. deli soars to $100 million value on stock market (NYP)

The Next Level in Office Amenities: Wild Horses (NYT)

British garden stores facing gnome shortage (UPI)

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