Arc de Triomphe Trump

Memorial Day heralds the unofficial start of summer, and this summer will also be the zenith of the Trump administration’s Christian nationalist Freedom 250 events celebrating the country’s semiquincentennial. So it seems like a good moment to check in on Trump’s plans to build a giant triumphal arch near the National Mall.

The Federal Commission of Fine Arts, which is stocked with Trump allies, has officially approved plans for the 250-foot structure, with the chairman calling it a “very elegant building.” The design is as Trumpy as one might expect, with four golden lions at the base, an enormous winged Lady Liberty astride it, and a golden inscription that reads “One Nation Under God.” Architecture historian and Columbia professor Reinhold Martin described it to TPM as “Napoleonic” and part of an “imperial tradition” in a piece Layla A. Jones did on Trump’s obsession with restoring Classical architecture in D.C. “The classical architecture stuff is a dog whistle for white nationalists,” Martin pointed out.

Trump has said he wants the arch built in time to ring in America’s 250th, but a few months is not exactly the window in which 250-foot monuments are typically built. “The president wants it now” is also not the typical process for new construction on the National Mall. Under the 1986 Commemorative Works Act, Congress is supposed to sign off on any major new structure built on federally administered land in D.C., conducting reviews to make sure that the monument doesn’t disturb existing structures and is of “pre-eminent historical and lasting significance to the United States.” (When asked by CBS who the proposed arch would commemorate, Trump said, simply, “Me.”). But the Trump administration reportedly has no intention of seeking approval from Congress, “arguing that they do not need it because lawmakers a century ago authorized a somewhat similar project that was never built,” according to the Washington Post.

As of now, the project has not yet broken ground. Two lawsuits — one filed by a group of Vietnam War veterans who say the arch will block views of Arlington National Cemetery and disrespect the dead, and another by an architectural historian — are still winding their way through the courts. Warning that she doesn’t “want to wake up in the morning” to find “bulldozers” at work, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has ordered the government to provide her with at least 14 days’ notice before construction or demolition begins for the project, per MS Now.

Funding is another unanswered question. While the White House originally said the arch would be paid for with private donations, Politico reported that the National Endowment for the Humanities is setting aside $15 million for it. Other, sneakier pathways exist to fund it too: For example, TPM’s Emine Yücel reported this week that Trump could use the same kind of corrupt settlement that created the DOJ’s so-called anti-weaponization slush fund to obtain taxpayer dollars to build it. 

If the Price is Right

There’s a new push to create a national Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. First announced via executive order last year, the idea got a twofold boost this week. Patrick Witt, the head of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, teased a “breakthrough” on the idea, adding that he had been working with Stephen Miller to bring the plan into reality.

At the same time, members of Congress this week introduced a bill that would codify the idea of creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. In simple terms, the proposal is that the federal government buys a lot of bitcoin. Under the bill – introduced by Rep. Nick Begich (R-AK) along with Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) – the government would buy a whopping amount of crypto: 1 million Bitcoin over the next five years, accounting for around 5% of the total supply of Bitcoin in existence. The government would have to hold the Bitcoin for at least 20 years, per the bill.

It’s not clear if the “breakthrough” that Witt mentioned has been announced. This week, the White House said it was asking the federal reserve to allow “uninsured depositories and non-bank fintech” firms to access payment accounts in the central bank. That would further entangle crypto into the traditional financial system and entrench the means by which the industry would be backed up by the federal government.

There’s a brazenness to all of this that kind of wallops you. The Trump family is personally invested in the price of Bitcoin. His sons run a Bitcoin company; as the price has tanked in recent months, it’s faced steep losses.  World Liberty, the crypto firm founded by members of the Trump family and the family of his adviser Steve Witkoff, issues its own crypto token. The Trump family receives 75% of proceeds upon the sale of its tokens. In the months before this latest crypto push began, the President’s family trust bought shares in several companies linked to Bitcoin and its production.

All of the policy changes and proposals are already having an effect. The price of Bitcoin was back to over $80k last week.

The Right is Eroding Its Own Voter Turnout by Attacking Early Voting

You might be shocked to learn that the all-out assault on early voting by Trump and his GOP allies has officially backfired.

In the Georgia primary election —  which saw Republican voters move to send ultra-MAGA election deniers to posts that will oversee state elections — Democrats outnumbered Republican voters by nearly 151,000 votes, according to unofficial turnout data from the Georgia Secretary of State. That lead started after 580,000 Democrats voted early compared to 430,000 Republicans, a 150,000 person or 15 percentage point difference. GOP voters never closed that early gap, which came even as mail-in voting rates plummeted for both parties.

Georgia’s WABE reported Gov. Brian Kemp said he’s “definitely concerned” about the state’s energetic Democratic base.

It’s not crazy to say the depressed GOP turnout was a predictable, natural outgrowth of the far-right promotion of false election security conspiracies. To promote his categorically untrue claims that U.S. elections are marred by fraud and that non-citizens are voting and illegally affecting election outcomes, Trump has repeatedly targeted mail-in voting. He waited, of course, to launch this full-scale attack until after he finished promoting early and mail-in voting ahead of his own 2024 election.

In March, Trump went so far as to sign an executive order outlawing mail-in ballots for all but a limited group of people. Election officials from Trump’s own party turned on the president and expect the order to be struck down by the courts. Nevermind that Trump himself votes by mail. He is president and has declared that no rules apply to him except those inside his own heart and mind.

Georgia’s turnout results are even more striking because it’s a total reversal of the 2022 primaries, where Republicans cast more mail-in and total ballots than Democrats. Then, former President Joe Biden was in office and post-pandemic inflation galvanized Americans to show their dissatisfaction with the administration at the polls. The opposite is expected to happen this year. Still, the scale of the flip-flop is striking.

At a topline level, Georgia voters broke the state’s early voting record. But Democrats logged a 53% increase in early voting while Republican early voting turnout dropped by 13% compared to 2022, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Hispanic voters made a major coalition shift. This year, 72% of Hispanic primary voters chose to vote in the Democratic primary, compared to 47% in 2022. More white and Asian voters shifted their allegiances to the left, too, the AJC reported.

The 15 percentage point partisan difference in early ballots cast this year is the exact same gap Republicans led Democrats by in 2022, when the GOP swept statewide offices, suggesting Democratic enthusiasm could signal danger for the right.

The right’s demonization of mail-in and early voting is not the only counter-productive anti-voting measure the party is pushing. The GOP’s SAVE America Act would require Americans to present a birth certificate or passport before registering to vote. As a result, the right risks alienating its own base: working class, white voters from middle America who don’t have passports and may have limited access to birth certificates, as well as conservative women who’ve married and failed to change their last names on official documents. As we’ve reported before, states who turned out for Trump in 2024 have the largest percentage of residents without passports.

Correction: This article initially incorrectly described how party registration in primary elections works in Georgia. TPM regrets the error.

The Errors are Why I Wrote the Book

In his new book, “The Future of Truth,” Steven Rosenbaum cites the following quote: “Emotions aren’t just reactions to truth — they’re how we construct truth.” This is, of course, nonsense. It’s also a good indication of Rosenbaum’s grasp of his subject matter.

The quote is attributed to a professor of psychology at Northeastern University. In fact, it’s an AI fabrication the author claims to have included by mistake. It’s one of at least a half-dozen fake AI quotes Rosenbaum includes, according to an analysis by the NY Times. After being contacted by the Times about the made-up quotes, he reassured them that he would be doing his own investigation into how this happened. Better yet, he told the Times if this “serves as a warning about the risks of A.I.-assisted research and verification, that is why I wrote the book.”

The GOP is Fine

What Do You Remember From This Week’s News?

1) How much money is in the absurd slush fund Trump created to pay his allies back for their legal costs?

2) What beverage did Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) drink from the podium after losing his reelection bid on Tuesday?

3) Which former Iranian leader did the U.S. and Israel reportedly aim to restore to power as part of their early strategy in invading Iran?

Answers below

Trumpuffalo

Trivia answers: 1) $1.776 billion 2) Raw milk 3) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad