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: New reporting revealed Donald Trump said “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,” and repeatedly denigrated military service during his time in office; JD Vance said to “shut the hell up” about Trump’s chief of staff calling him a “fascist”; Trump shamelessly tried to distance himself from disgraced gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson… before Vance praised Robinson as a “great Lieutenant Governor”; Trump doubled down on his threats to attack Americans as “the enemy from within,” which Vance defended as “totally reasonable”; the New York Times documented the many, many links between Project 2025 and the Trump-Vance campaign; new reporting revealed Trump’s campaign manager shared posts calling January 6 an “insurrection” based on “a lie that Trump told”; Vance refused to commit to accepting Arizona’s election results; and the Washington Post reported that Trump’s proposals could drain Social Security in six years.

New reporting revealed Donald Trump said “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,” and repeatedly denigrated military service during his time in office.

The Atlantic: “Trump has frequently voiced his disdain for those who serve in the military and for their devotion to duty, honor, and sacrifice. Former generals who have worked for Trump say that the sole military virtue he prizes is obedience.

“As his presidency drew to a close, and in the years since, he has become more and more interested in the advantages of dictatorship, and the absolute control over the military that he believes it would deliver. ‘I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,’ Trump said in a private conversation in the White House, according to two people who heard him say this. ‘People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders.’

“In recent days, [Trump] has signaled that, should he win reelection in November, he would like to govern in the manner of these dictators—he has said explicitly that he would like to be a dictator for a day on his first day back in the White House—and he has threatened to, among other things, unleash the military on ‘radical-left lunatics.’”

JD Vance’s response to a question about John Kelly calling Trump a “fascist” and revealing his praise for Hitler’s generals was “shut the hell up about what happened four years ago.”

Question: “My question is I wanted to get your reaction to President Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, who told the New York Times that Trump could rule like a dictator and meets the definition of a fascist. Just want to get your reaction, sir.”

JD Vance: “Yeah. Look, you could just, look you could just record the boos of the crowd and that’s my response to that question. […] Talk about the future, Kamala Harris, talk about what you want to do, and shut the hell up about what happened four years ago.”

Despite having enthusiastically endorsed and campaigned for him, Trump shamelessly tried to distance himself from self-described “Nazi” Mark Robinson, whom he previously described as “MLK on steroids” …

Politico: “Asked by POLITICO at a campaign stop on Monday whether he would urge voters here to still support Mark Robinson, Trump declined to say either way.

“‘I’m not familiar with the state of the race right now,’ Trump told POLITICO as he prepared to step into the black SUV that would whisk him back to his private plane. ‘I haven’t seen it.’”

NBC News: “‘This is Martin Luther King on steroids,’ Trump said of Robinson at a pre-Super Tuesday rally in North Carolina.”

Newsweek: “‘We have to cherish Mark … he’s like a fine wine,’ Trump said in the video. ‘He’s an outstanding person.’”

… before Vance praised Robinson as a “great Lieutenant Governor.”

Vance: “I want to give a shout out to — you guys have a great Lieutenant Governor … sorry Mark isn’t here.”

Trump doubled down on his threats to attack Americans as “the enemy from within” …

The New Republic: “Trump Doubles Down on “Enemy Within” Rhetoric in Alarming Threat”

“‘Who did that? Can you imagine somebody doing that? That’s the enemy, I guess that maybe is the enemy from within, as I talk about. We have an enemy from within, they hate to talk about it. Could you imagine, could you imagine,’ Trump said.

“Over the past week, the former president has repeatedly used the phrase ‘enemy within’ to describe his political opponents, specifically mentioning leading Democrats like Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff. And his latest statement shows he has no intention of backing away from the violent rhetoric.

“Trump’s former staff, including former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, say that his words are alarming and should not be dismissed.”

… which Vance defended as “totally reasonable.”

Bill Hemmer, Fox News: “I’ve read all of it, I’ve listened to all of it, it’s hard for me to know what he really means about it. But, that’s not my question. My question is, why is it necessary?”

Vance: “Well, Bill, first of all, Donald Trump is unfiltered […] When people ask him questions, he speaks from the heart.” […]

Hemmer: “In this case– he mentioned Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi by name, in this case over the weekend.” […]

Vance: “I think it’s totally reasonable for the president to point out that yes, we’ve got the strongest country in the world, but we do have some broken leaders in Washington.”

Trump: “I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within… totally destroying our country… [I]n terms of Election Day, I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the big – and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by [the] National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.” 

The New York Times documented the many, many links between Project 2025 and the Trump-Vance campaign.

New York Times: “The Many Links Between Project 2025 and Trump’s World”

“Project 2025 has numerous ties to Mr. Trump and his campaign, a New York Times analysis has found.

“The people behind Project 2025 are no strangers to the former president. The Heritage Foundation’s president, Kevin D. Roberts, and a co-founder, Edwin J. Feulner, have each personally met with Mr. Trump. And the analysis of the Project 2025 playbook and its 307 authors and contributors revealed that well over half of them had been in Mr. Trump’s administration or on his campaign or transition teams.

“Large portions of the ‘Mandate for Leadership,’ the driving document behind Project 2025, were written by longtime Trump loyalists who were advisers to Mr. Trump during his first term.

“Eighteen of the 40 authors and editors who worked on the document served in the first Trump administration.

“The president of the Heritage Foundation told The New York Times in an interview in January that he views the foundation’s role as ‘institutionalizing Trumpism.’”

New reporting revealed Trump’s campaign manager shared posts calling January 6 an “insurrection” based on “a lie that Trump told.” 

CNN: “In a series of reposts on X – formerly Twitter – LaCivita shared comments calling January 6 an ‘insurrection’ that was fueled by Trump’s baseless election lies. Some of those posts have since been deleted from LaCivita’s feed, but CNN was able to review them on the Internet Archive WayBack Machine, which archives internet webpages.

“On January 6, 2021, LaCivita reposted several posts that harshly condemned Trump, suggesting that even some of his closest allies once viewed the deadly outcome as a direct result of Trump’s lies. […]

“LaCivita’s shared posts included a statement on January 6 from former President George W. Bush, who expressed ‘disbelief and dismay’ at the violent assault on the Capitol, calling it ‘a sickening and heartbreaking sight.’”

Vance refused to commit to accepting the 2024 election results.

Question: “The election is two weeks from today. I’m not going to be asking you about four years ago, but from what you’ve seen, from what you’ve learned, are you confident in the Arizona election system, and are you going to accept the results moving forward?”

Vance: “Well, look, I think that we’re in a better- I think that we’re in a better place than we were in 2020 and I think that what we’re going to keep on working on over the next couple of weeks. I mean, you saw this even in 2022 where some of the voting machines in Maricopa went down on Election Day. Now, whether, now again, whether you think that was just incompetence or something else, it’s not okay. We want every legal ballot to be cast and to be counted in the United States of America. So we’re going to keep on fighting for election integrity.”

The Washington Post reported that Trump’s proposals could drain Social Security in six years.

Washington Post: “A new report projects that the Social Security Trust Fund might run out of money within six years under a Donald Trump presidency.

“Many of Trump’s campaign proposals would accelerate [Social Security’s insolvency] timeline, potentially by years, said the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group that opposes large federal deficits.

“In a report released Monday, the organization concluded that many of Trump’s proposed second-term agenda items all work in the same direction when it comes to the Social Security Trust Fund.”