MAGA Republicans stooped to new lows this week with their extremism, hypocrisy, chaos, and — as President Biden would call it — malarkey. In case you missed it: More polling showed that the Trump-Vance ticket’s extreme Project 2025 agenda continues to be unpopular; some Republicans are feeling buyer’s remorse over Donald Trump’s pick of JD Vance to be his running mate; ultra-wealthy oil barons are sticking by Trump as he promises them special favors; new reporting reiterated Vance’s close ties with Project 2025; a Trump-Vance surrogate threatened “a civil war to save the country” if they lose this November; and Vance has made history as the most disliked VP nominee our country has seen in decades.

Even more polling came out showing that more Americans are learning about the Trump-Vance ticket’s extreme Project 2025 agenda, and they are ready to reject it at the ballot box in November.

Navigator Research: “Project 2025 Has Become Significantly More Unfavorable Since Trump Attempted to Distance Himself From the Plan”

“Project 2025 has seen a significant increase in both awareness and unfavorability since our last survey in June. 54 percent of Americans report being familiar with Project 2025. … Among those familiar with Project 2025, just 11 percent view it favorably, while 43 percent view it unfavorably.

“When people are asked what negative news they have heard recently concerning Donald Trump, mentions of Project 2025 have dramatically increased. … A plurality of Americans believe Project 2025 accurately represents what Trump stands for.”

Navigator Research: “Americans oppose all the key elements in Project 2025, with the greatest concerns around health care, worker’s rights, and dismantling federal programs. Over four in five Americans oppose an array of policies proposed in Project 2025 such as ‘allowing employers to stop paying hourly workers overtime’ … Additionally, four in five oppose ‘allowing the government to monitor people’s pregnancies to potentially prosecute them if they miscarry.’

“Americans’ overall opposition to Project 2025 increases after reading about its specific policy goals.

“Three in five Americans say Project 2025 would benefit the wealthiest Americans, CEOs, and corporations.”

Miami Herald: “As Americans learn more about Project 2025, they become more opposed, poll finds”

We hope Donald Trump kept the receipt: some Republicans are feeling buyer’s remorse over Trump’s pick of JD Vance to be his running mate.

Axios: “Some Republicans express buyer’s remorse over Vance VP pick”

“Vice President Kamala Harris’ sudden elevation as Donald Trump’s opponent has some Republicans second-guessing the former president’s selection of Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate.

“Behind the scenes: ‘The road got a lot harder. He was the only pick that wasn’t the safe pick. And I think everyone has now realized that,’ one House Republican told Axios, speaking on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss his party’s VP nominee.”

New Republic: “Why Trump Suddenly Thinks Picking J.D. Vance Was a Mistake”

“Republicans may be starting to second-guess their party’s pick for vice president.

“Trump campaign officials acknowledged that Trump selected the inexperienced Vance, charged with all his techno-authoritarian ideas, to boost support among their own base, not extend a hand to swing voters, according to The Atlantic. Vance was a symbol of the Trump team’s assuredness that they would win in 2024. Come Sunday, that assuredness appears to be shrinking.

“‘Most striking thing I heard from Trump allies yesterday was the second-guessing of JD Vance—a selection, they acknowledged, that was [born] of cockiness, meant to run up margins with the base in a blowout rather than persuade swing voters in a nail-biter,’ Atlantic staff writer Tim Alberta, who had written the piece about the panicking Trump campaign, posted on X (formerly Twitter).”

The Atlantic: “I Hope Trump Kept the Receipt”

“J. D. Vance brought nothing to the ticket—the GOP already had the internet-edgelord vote sewn up.”

Washington Post: “Could Republicans get buyer’s remorse with J.D. Vance?”

Newsweek: “Is Donald Trump Getting Cold Feet Over JD Vance? What We Know”

Business Insider: “Trump may regret choosing JD Vance as his running mate, political scientists say”

Trump has told oil barons that he’ll give them special treatment at the expense of hardworking Americans – and they believe him.

Wall Street Journal: “Oil Billionaires Bet on Trump’s Energy Agenda”

“As Donald Trump accepted the GOP presidential nomination last Thursday, he reminded the megawealthy coterie of oil tycoons backing him why he is their man.

“The speech was music to the ears of oil billionaires Harold Hamm of Continental Resources, Kelcy Warren of Energy Transfer, Jeffery Hildebrand of Hilcorp, and George Bishop of GeoSouthern Energy. Since March, they, together with their spouses and companies, have contributed at least $9.9 million to Trump-aligned committees and the Republican National Committee, according to Federal Election Commission data. 

“The oil executives are banking on promises from the former president and his allies for an energy agenda that is more stridently pro-fossil fuel than Trump’s first administration. Many of Trump’s top oil backers are openly skeptical about the effects of climate change, in contrast with the industry’s biggest companies, and want to slash regulations and subsidies for green energy.”

New reporting on Vance’s book foreword for a Project 2025 author is making it impossible for Trump to run away from Project 2025.

Vox: “Kevin Roberts, the self-proclaimed ‘head’ of Project 2025, has a book coming out in September — and the book’s foreword is written by Trump’s vice presidential candidate, J.D. Vance, who lavishly praises its ideas.

“‘Never before has a figure with Roberts’s depth and stature within the American Right tried to articulate a genuinely new future for conservatism,’ Vance writes, according to the book’s Amazon page. ‘We are now all realizing that it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon.’

“Project 2025 lays out a sweeping agenda by which the next president could use federal power to prevent abortions, including using an old law called the Comstock Act to prosecute people who mail abortion pills, and working to prevent women from abortion-banning states from traveling out of state to get abortions.

“Vance is on record supporting these ideas. Last year, he signed a letter demanding that the Justice Department prosecute physicians and pharmacists ‘who break the Federal mail-order abortion laws.’ In 2022, he said he was ‘sympathetic’ to the idea that the federal government should stop efforts to help women traveling out of their states to get abortions. That year, he also said: ‘I certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally.’”

At Vance’s first solo rally as Trump’s VP nominee, a campaign surrogate threatened “a civil war to save the country” if the Trump-Vance ticket loses this November.

Trump-Vance surrogate Ohio State Senator George Lang: “I believe wholeheartedly Donald Trump and Butler County’s JD Vance are the last chance to save our country. Politically, I’m afraid if we lose this one, it’s going to take a civil war to save the country – and it will be saved.”

Vance is making history as the most disliked VP nominee our country has seen in decades – and Americans don’t think he’s ready to lead.

Newsweek: “JD Vance Is the Least Liked VP Nominee in Decades, According to Polls”

“JD Vance is the first non-incumbent vice presidential nominee to have a net-negative favorable rating after a convention since 1980, according to poll numbers.”

Salon: “‘Making history in the completely wrong way’: JD Vance is really unpopular and ‘dragging Trump down’”

“Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, is making history as Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate, but not in the way that the Trump campaign had hoped. According to a CNN survey taken after the Republican National Convention, Vance has an approval rating of -6 points, making him the first vice presidential nominee to enter the general election with a negative rating since 1980.

“‘Frankly, I don’t really understand the pick, and apparently neither do the American voters,’ CNN data analyst Harry Enten said on Tuesday’s OutFront with Erin Burnett. Vance, he said, is ‘dragging Trump down.’”

Newsweek: “Nearly four in 10 people do not believe Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, is ready for the presidency if necessary, according to a new survey.

“The poll also found that one-third (33 percent) were not sure if Vance was ready for the presidency or not. This is a possible sign that the Hillbilly Elegy author, who has been a senator for less than two years, still needs to raise his national political profile since being named as the Republican vice presidential nominee.

“It has already been suggested that Trump may have made a mistake in picking Vance as his 2024 running mate.”