This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here.
Welcome to The Logoff: Hi, readers. Over the weekend, President Donald Trump was the target of a third high-profile assassination attempt at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner. He was unharmed, as were the other attendees. One Secret Service agent was shot but not badly injured, thanks to a bulletproof vest.
We’re likely to learn more about the shooter, who was arraigned in DC today, in the coming days. But the White House is coming out swinging on two other priorities post-shooting: Jimmy Kimmel and Trump’s ballroom.
What’s going on? Let’s start with Kimmel, who made a joke earlier in the week describing First Lady Melania Trump as having “a glow like an expectant widow.” On Monday, both Trumps called for Kimmel to lose his job over the joke, which Melania described as “hateful and violent.”
This is something the Trump administration has tried before. Last year, Kimmel was briefly off the air after Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chair threatened his employer, ABC; his reinstatement was a black eye for the administration.
There’s nothing to connect Kimmel’s joke with Saturday night’s attack, but the administration, undeterred, appears to be trying again.
And the ballroom? Said ballroom — a massive entertaining space for which the East Wing was demolished — doesn’t exist yet, but Trump badly wants it done before the end of his term. Right now, however, the White House is enjoined from proceeding with above-ground construction on the building.
And so, following the attack, the administration is leaning hard into a supposed national security justification for the ballroom. On Sunday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said that the lawsuit against the administration was “delaying the construction of a secure facility for the President to do his job.”
(The Correspondents’ Dinner is not a government event and would not be hosted at the White House even were the ballroom completed.)
What’s the big picture? Faced with a potential tragedy narrowly avoided, the Trump administration is going all-in on petty political opportunism — and trying to ride roughshod over its opponents.
And with that, it’s time to log off…
I learned a new and delightful word from this Wall Street Journal story: thigmotactic, which the Journal’s Robert McMillan reports is “a scientific term for very social creatures who like to cuddle.”
The creatures in question are sea lions, and specifically, a stellar Steller sea lion named “Chonkers,” who has made himself at home at San Francisco’s Pier 39. You can read all about him here with a gift link.
As always, thanks for reading, have a great evening, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!
