Napoleon in a Golf Cart. Plus. . .

On today’s Front Page from The Free Press: Is Trump Napoleon in a golf cart? Where are the Biden audiotapes? Silicon Valley’s rightward turn. And much more.

But first, our lead story. 

Martin Gurri, a columnist for Discourse and author of The Revolt of the Public, is one of the most incisive explainers of our age. The former CIA analyst predicted the rise of Trump, Brexit, and BLM. And now, in his latest column for The Free Press, he predicts that Biden’s fate is sealed. “Failure, this time, will be fixed and final, like destiny itself.” 

Here’s Martin:

In 2020, Joe Biden ran for the presidency of the United States from the basement of his home in Delaware. Why not? It was a time of pandemic. Biden’s appearances were carefully staged in the true sense of the word: they avoided reality and promoted a fictional character that replaced the increasingly feeble, always spiteful, intellectually muddled real man. The establishment was in control and it knew what it was doing. Trump went down in defeat. The curtain rose on that extraordinary era of magical realism in American life, known prosaically as the Biden administration.

But last month’s presidential debate unmasked the fraud. While Biden gargled and mumbled, a ripping noise could be heard by those who listened closely, a sound like the rending of a veil, the replica vanished like a ghost and 100 million Americans could suddenly behold the cruel struggles of a man tormented by a dying body and a dying mind. The shock of what we saw still lingers, not because it was surprising but rather because it was so predictable and consistent with what we already knew: it was truth, and we have grown used to lies. We had witnessed, in real time, the unraveling of a colossal fraud and the end of Biden’s political life. 

The attempt on Donald Trump’s life, and the former president’s courageous reaction in the moments following the incident, cast Biden’s shortcomings and infirmities in an even more glaring contrast. Biden is now increasingly alone, abandoned by the very establishment that created him. For both the king and what was once his court, a terrible reckoning has arrived. Read on for more from Martin Gurri on why Biden’s fate is sealed.

Sixty-five percent of registered Republicans said Donald Trump’s survival showed he was “favored by divine providence or God’s will,” a survey published Tuesday found. You don’t need to agree with that to admit: there’s something about this guy. Shortly after the shooting, the Substacker N.S. Lyons joked, “one does not simply shoot Napoleon.” 

What he meant, he wrote in a subsequent essay, which we’re republishing at The Free Press, was this: “Napoleon famously led from the front, charging time and again into a hail of bullets and cannon shot, and yet not once was he ever seriously injured. In fact his luck seemed so impervious that he quickly acquired a legendary aura of invincibility.” 

Napoleon became more than a mere mortal. Lyons wonders if something similar is happening to Trump. Like Napoleon, the 45th president is “a living myth” who “Providence had apparently handed some great role to play in history.” 

That role is not necessarily a good one. As Lyons writes: “I suspect we’re in a period of change the equivalent of which the world hasn’t seen for five centuries; that the upheaval we’re seeing is not just the tumult of politics and geopolitics as usual but the wider breakdown of Enlightenment liberal modernity. And it seems that Trump, like Hegel’s Napoleon, has somehow become a concentrated symbol of these times—of a world-spirit of a global rebellion; of the end of one epoch and the birth of another; and that he is a figure with a historic role that must be fulfilled, for better or worse, come hell or high water.”

Read N.S. Lyons’ brilliant essay on why Trump is the world-spirit in a golf cart. 

1. When pressed to explain why agents weren’t on the roof of the building from which Donald Trump’s would-be assassin opened fire, Secret Service chief Kimberly Cheatle noted the building had a “sloped roof” and “there’s a safety factor that would be considered,” when it came to placing someone on the roof. Cheatle, who said “the buck stops with me,” has not resigned. I just miss these guys. (Fox News)  

2. Eighty percent of voters agree that “the country is spiraling out of control.” The same survey also shows a big drop in the number of Americans who said political violence was acceptable, from 12 percent last summer to 5 percent now. Is it a sign that the near assassination of Donald Trump has had a chastening effect on the country, or am I just looking for positives? (Reuters) 

3. Conventional wisdom understands the significance of Saturday’s shooting through the lens of what nearly happened. That’s exactly wrong, writes David Samuels. “The meaningful, history-changing event is the one that happened.” (Tablet)   

4. Think Biden is in the clear? Think again. The effort to oust the presumptive Democratic nominee got fresh momentum on the Hill yesterday. One way Biden can avoid a challenge to his candidacy on the convention floor is through a virtual roll call ahead of the DNC, but lawmakers are now putting their names on a letter to prevent that from happening. “The ‘replace Biden’ movement is back,” said one House Democrat. (Axios) 

5. Donald Trump’s rise was supposed to signal the death of the “religious right” and the rise of an irreligious grievance-based politics. But that isn’t what happened. Instead, religious conservatism has been replaced by religious populism—and no one represents that shift better than J.D. Vance, argues Matthew Schmitz. (First Things) 

6. What does the Vance pick do to boost Trump’s chances in November? Nothing, says Sean Trende, who thinks Vance could be a net liability on election day. Does that mean the pick is a mistake, or just that Trump feels he is far enough ahead that he can afford to take a chance on Vance? (Real Clear Politics)

7. A safer pick would have been North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, and apparently Trump was leaning toward Burgum until his sons intervened. According to a Republican operative, “Don Jr. and Eric went batshit crazy: ‘Why would you do something so stupid? He offers us nothing.’ ” The operative added: “They were basically all like, ‘J.D., J.D., J.D.’” (NBC)

8. Amid all the news, I know what you’re really thinking: what is the Taliban doing to combat climate change? Fear not: The Washington Post brings you answers. Sounding a lot like Greta Thunberg, one imam in Kabul says carbon footprints will weigh heavily on judgment day: “God will ask: How did you make your money? And then he will ask: How much suffering did you cause in the process?” (Washington Post)

9. Biden is reportedly seriously considering a major overhaul of how the Supreme Court works, including term limits and an ethics code. Any changes would require the approval of Congress—and so would stand little chance of passing. But this is all about the election, and the Supreme Court justices are some of the biggest villains in the story the Biden campaign wants to tell America. (The Hill) 

10. Monday night, at Major League Baseball’s annual Home Run Derby in Arlington, Texas, 32-year-old country singer Ingrid Andress butchered the National Anthem because she was drunk. According to Vulture, Andress was singing in “cursive”—but if you ask me, she was just doing it Texas style: go big or go home. (Vulture)

A longtime criminal defense attorney, Greta Van Susteren is a journalist and news anchor who is the host of The Record on Newsmax TV. Writing for The Free Press, she argues we are facing a constitutional crisis over access to the tapes of Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur.

Here, Greta explains why:

The transcript of Robert Hur’s interview with Joe Biden has now become legendary. Hur concluded that a prosecution against Biden for retaining classified material as vice president would be unsuccessful, partly because he would present himself to a jury “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” 

America has seen the transcript of this conversation. But we’ve never heard the audiotapes. Why? Attorney General Merrick Garland has blocked them.

Garland made the bizarre argument that if members of the executive branch knew their recordings might be released, this would “chill” voluntary cooperation by such employees in future investigations.

As a former criminal defense attorney, I am chilled reading this argument.

In this matter, the attorney general is risking crossing the line into acting as the president’s personal attorney and advocate, rather than executing his proper role as the legal representative of the American people.

Why would the attorney general want to deny the American people the opportunity to hear the most accurate evidence? Why would anyone being interviewed as part of a Justice Department investigation not want the protection of having his words recorded and available as he uttered them?

There are many reasons. One is that before the transcript of the Hur interview of Biden was released, the White House acknowledged editing out “filler” words like um and some repeated words, but assured that nothing material was changed. Yet, when transcripts are created and edited by humans (and even by AI), words must be properly heard and reported. The public can’t be certain the transcript is accurate without having the audio to compare it to.

I have read the full transcript. The printed exchanges show many instances where there is reason to believe that the president may have wandered significantly off topic—these digressions could be innocent or could be concerning. Finally, long pauses—which may indicate processing or other issues—usually aren’t reflected in a transcript.

For all these reasons, many Americans—including myself—want to hear and compare the audio exchanges against the written transcript. Greta says: release the Biden Tapes! Read on for the full argument. 

Before we continue, a brief message from Suzy Weiss. 

We’re putting together an advice show for Honestly, and we’ve assembled an all-star panel—it’s Caitlin Flanagan and me!—to help you get your life straight. Leave us a voicemail at 805-387-2530 or email us at tips@thefp.com, and lay it on us: What’s been eating at you? We’re here to dispense advice on parenthood, sisterhood, death, romance, work, love, war, and party hosting. Be sure to leave your name and the best way to contact you in case our producers need a little more dirt!

→ Trump targeted by Tehran: The Pennsylvania shooter is not the only assassin with eyes on the president. Yesterday news broke of a plot by the Iranian regime to assassinate Donald Trump.

There is no evidence the Iranian plot is connected to the president’s near assassination on Saturday. But if what we witnessed over the weekend was an example of the enhanced security Trump was reportedly provided in light of the Iranian threat, I dread to think what normal protection looks like. 

The assassination plot is an old story of sorts. Iranians have also plotted murders of former Trump administration officials like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo as retaliation for the drone strike that killed Iranian master terrorist Qasem Soleimani on January 2, 2020. 

What’s astonishing is that none of this has altered the Biden administration’s fundamental posture toward Tehran.

Yes, the Biden administration has dispatched extra security for the former officials on the Iranian hit list. It also indicted Iranian agents involved in the assassination plots. But the Biden administration has also relaxed enforcement of crippling sanctions against Iran’s oil exports as a possible inducement for Tehran to rejoin the 2015 agreement that Trump exited in 2018.

“We’ve never changed the Iran strategy,” Richard Goldberg, a former Trump administration national security council official and senior adviser to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told The Free Press. “October 7 didn’t change it. Assassination plots against Americans didn’t change it. Iran’s provision of arms to Russia. The crackdown on the Iranian people. Nothing has changed it.” 

The Biden administration has not acknowledged any negotiations with Iran’s regime since October to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal. But Iran’s acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, said last week there have been indirect talks in Oman between Iranian and U.S. delegations. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said in response that there were no “active” talks with Iran. 

That said, Kani himself obtained a visa to travel to New York this week to address the U.N. Security Council. It makes for a stark geopolitical contrast. As American spies learn more about Iran’s plans to murder American political figures, Iran’s diplomats pretend to seek an end to the conflict its spies are escalating. —Eli Lake

→ MAGA has momentum in Silicon Valley: Our debate on criminal justice reform in San Francisco last month was the most interesting thing going on in the city that night, of course. But a close second place goes to a Trump fundraiser a few miles away. Hosted by billionaire tech entrepreneur David Sacks at his Pacific Heights mansion, along with his All-In podcast co-host and venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, the dinner cost attendees $300,000 per plate. What made it so notable was that, until recently, a Trump fundraiser hosted by Silicon Valley grandees would have been unimaginable. But times are changing in the Bay Area. 

If the fundraiser was a watershed moment, the attempt on Trump’s life last Saturday broke the dam. Consider the following:

• Elon Musk has endorsed Trump and pledged $45 million per month to the former president’s election effort. 

• Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, founders of the venture capital firm a16z, have come out for Trump. In a podcast explaining the move, they say that a Trump presidency will be good for “Little Tech” startups, as opposed to Big Tech incumbents. Horowitz declared “the future of technology is at stake” in this election. 

• Tech leaders including venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, early PayPal exec Ken Howery, Sequoia co-founder Doug Leone, Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire, and SpaceX board member Antonio Gracias have founded the America PAC, which will funnel valuable tech money to Trump’s campaign. The Winkelvoss twins have each donated $250,000 to the fund. 

• Trump chose J.D. Vance, a former venture capitalist who worked for Peter Thiel—and whose own venture capital firm received investments from Thiel and Andreessen—as his vice presidential pick. Axios reported this Tuesday that Musk and Sacks personally lobbied for Vance with Trump.

The vibe-shift is real and it isn’t just about Trump. Yesterday, Elon Musk and Jason Calacanis (another All-In host) announced they are leaving California. Musk cited a new law signed by Gavin Newsom this week that will ban schools from requiring parental notification if their child identifies as transgender. SpaceX and X will move their headquarters to Texas. Musk wrote on X that “this is the final straw.” —Julia Steinberg 

Oliver Wiseman is a writer and editor for The Free Press. Follow him on X @ollywiseman. 

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