Trump Conviction Math & Johnson’s Rodeo Clown

Welcome back to The Best & The Brightest. I’m Tara Palmeri. Could the Trump-TikTok effect be the sleeper story of the election? As I predicted last month, Trump has joined the Gen Z video platform, which has become a surprising hotbed of MAGA activity. Since Saturday, he’s picked up 5.7 million followers, dwarfing the 363,000 followers that Biden has accrued during the past six months. The Biden team emphasizes that, unlike Trump’s personal account, Biden’s is a campaign account. Okay!
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Welcome back to The Best & The Brightest. I’m Tara Palmeri.

Could the Trump-TikTok effect be the sleeper story of the election? As I predicted last month, Trump has joined the Gen Z video platform, which has become a surprising hotbed of MAGA activity. Since Saturday, he’s picked up 5.7 million followers, dwarfing the 363,000 followers that Biden has accrued during the past six months. The Biden team emphasizes that, unlike Trump’s personal account, Biden’s is a campaign account. Okay!

🎧 Programming note: Andrew Yang made some news on the latest episode of my podcast, Somebody’s Gotta Win, when he talked about getting the call from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his running mate. Yang explained why he turned Kennedy down. Despite starting his own third party, he also discussed why he’s warning voters against going rogue this time. Listen here or here.

In tonight’s edition, I work through the political fallout from Trump’s conviction as Washington braces for his sentencing next month. For now, Republicans are more unified than ever, and Democrats are still trying to figure out how to leverage Trump’s new “convicted felon” status into votes. Will they look back on November 6 and realize they should have handled it differently?

But first, here’s Abby Livingston on the latest Capitol Hill drama…

Johnson’s Goat Rodeo

On Wednesday, Speaker Mike Johnson named two right-wing members of the House G.O.P.—Ronny Jackson of Texas and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania—to the House Intelligence Committee, a highly unorthodox move that caused many longtime Capitol Hill observers to pause. After all...

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Trump Conviction Math & Aftermath

Without any precedent to guide them, and no insight from polls, the typically omniscient Democratic political class is debating whether to take the high road or risk transforming Trump into a martyr.

TARA PALMERI

As a former White House correspondent covering the Trump administration, I distinctly recall the predictable cycle of Republicans protesting or ducking from reporters, and then sheepishly defending each successive scandal: Charlottesville, the Comey defenestration and Mueller investigation, two impeachments, etcetera. Each time, the party split between...

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FOUR STORIES WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

WaPo’s Shake-Up

The backstory to the convulsions at the Post.

DYLAN BYERS

Estée’s $3.6B Gambit

Detailing Estée Lauder’s billion-dollar “accessibility” play.

RACHEL STRUGATZ

Shari’s Nuclear Option

Uncovering Shari's last-minute Paramount deal twist.

WILLIAM D. COHAN

$125M Basquiat Fever

How Basquiat became the art market’s new Picasso.

MARION MANEKER

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