The Dictatorship

Democrats can do better than Graham Platner. They must demand he drop out.

Published

4 weeks ago

June 6, 2026

Jun. 6, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT

Graham Platner needs to drop out of the Maine Senate race — and Democrats should be the ones to coax him toward the door.

When Platner first threw his hat in the ring last year, there was a reasonable argument for his candidacy — here was a political outsider with a fresh perspective who represented a new generation of political talent for Democrats.

But everything we have learned about Platner over the past several months suggests that he is a moral and political trainwreck, with enough skeletons in his closet to fill a graveyard.

Platner has been caught in so many lies that it’s difficult to take anything he says seriously.

Indeed, since Platner announced his candidacy last year, there has been an unceasing drumbeat of scandals about him. He filled a Reddit message board with sexist, racist and off-color comments. He has exaggerated his working-class background and appears to have spent most of his life living off handouts from his parents. But above all, there was the revelation last fall that he had gotten a Nazi Totenkopf tattoo on his chest two decades ago — and by his account only realized it was a Nazi tattoo in the fall of 2025, as he began his campaign for the U.S. Senate.

In recent days, the stories about Platner have taken on a darker, more troubling hue. Last week, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times revealed that soon after his marriage in 2023, Platner was caught by his wife sexting as many as a dozen women. His profile page on Kikan anonymous social media site often used for dating, was still active.

Then on Thursday, The New York Times published an account of three former girlfriends of Platner who described him as volatile, unfaithful and physically threatening. One woman, Lyndsey Fifield, a conservative activist, reported that during an argument, Platner “twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn’t get out.” Another former romantic partner, Jenny Racicot, who is a Democrat, said of Platner, “This person does not respect women.” The Times spoke with several other women Platner dated who spoke well of him, including that “they felt safe with him” and remain friends with him to this day. Platner on Thursday told MS NOW’s Chris Hayes that “some allegations” in the Times’ article “are simply not true,” specifically, “anything alleging physicality, anything alleging that I knew what my tattoo was.” Platner did acknowledge that he spent a good amount of time “struggling, not being a good boyfriend, certainly self-medicating with alcohol.”

Fifield also told the Times that Platner had joked to her about his Nazi tattoo — contradicting his denials — and even produced a screenshot from a group chat in August 2025 of her talking to friends about the Nazi emblem. Platner has said he didn’t know about the tattoo’s Nazi origins until months later.

Platner has been caught in so many lies that it’s difficult to take anything he says seriously. And every time Platner is caught, he makes the same excuse: that he was in a dark period after he returned from serving in Iraq. While one can sympathize with Platner’s post-war experiences, this justification for his past behavior should not and cannot excuse a pattern of consistently bad behavior that dates back years and was occurring as recently as a few years ago.

Yet none of these revelations have pushed congressional Democrats to call on Platner to stand down. In fact, some are rallying around him.

According to Rhode Island liberal Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the latest reports about Platner’s behavior toward women “seems like a lot of nothing.”

Where will Platner’s numbers be in November after five months of GOP ads hammering him?

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., called Platner’s behavior “wrong and toxic,” but that’s not stopping him from appearing at a rally with Platner in Maine this weekend. When asked earlier in the week about Platner, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who has publicly endorsed him, offered a classic whataboutist defense: “Is he a saint? I guess not. I don’t know too many saints here”

Even New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who led the charge against former Minnesota Sen. Al Franken when he was accused of sexual impropriety, has refused to condemn Platner, telling reporters, instead, “We are still going to win Maine.”

Put aside the hypocrisy of national Democrats, who have long preached the idea of believing women when they claim sexual harassment or violence; none of this makes sense from a political standpoint. Recent polling suggests Platner has a narrow lead over Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

In a political environment that heavily favors Democrats and in a state that has voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in each of the past three presidential elections, Democrats should be well-positioned to flip the Maine seat from red to blue. And this is the polling situation today, before Maine voters have fully digested the latest Platner scandals. Where will Platner’s numbers be in November after five months of GOP ads hammering him? That’s not even taking into account the very real possibility that more scandals will emerge. Quite simply, even if one thinks that Platner is a unique political talent — and there isn’t much evidence that he is — why take the risk?

Sticking with Platner is not only a dangerous political move, but it also opens up Democrats to charges of hypocrisy, especially when they attack Republicans for sticking with morally and ethically flawed candidates like Ken Paxton in Texas. And after all, if there is one party that should care about how a man treats women, both in public and in private, it’s Democrats. It’s not as if Republicans have much of a leg to stand on with President Donald Trump as their standard-bearer.

In an ideal world, Platner would recognize that he is a flawed candidate who is putting the Democrats’ chances of flipping the Senate in significant danger. But he appears more focused on his political aspirations than doing what’s best for the Democratic Party. His staff would tell him the same thing, but they seem more focused on covering up for his sins than doing what’s best for the party.

That’s why it’s incumbent on national Democrats to demand Platner drop out of the race, either before or after Maine Democrats go to the polls next week. They can look to Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who, even though she dropped out of the race, is still on the ballot. Or they can look to recruit the runner-up in the competitive Democratic primary for governor. At least that person will have been vetted by the media. But considering how politically vulnerable Collins is, the mood of the electorate and Maine’s Democratic tilt, seemingly anyone would be a better option than Platner and his heavy baggage.

Heading into November with Platner as their nominee risks Democrats losing both the Maine Senate race and their souls.

Michael Cohen is the publisher of the newsletter Truth and Consequences and hosts the weekly podcast “That ‘70s Movie Podcast.”

The Dictatorship

Trump filing shows he took in about $1.2 billion from crypto businesses last year

Published

6 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Trump filing shows he took in about $1.2 billion from crypto businesses last year

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump took in nearly $1.2 billion from his crypto businesses last year, a federal filing released Tuesday shows, locking in profits while his investors were socked with losses.

Mere startups when he took the oath of office, the new ventures have now eclipsed in revenue much of his vast property portfolio that took him decades to accumulate. Fueling their rise were billionaire investors and Trump’s own move to quash a federal crackdown on the industry.

Trump got more than $500 million from his World Liberty Financial business selling new crypto products, including “governance tokens,” according to the required annual disclosure report with the Office of Government Ethics. It also showed another crypto business, CIC Digital LLC, took in more than $600 million from sales of souvenir-type “meme” coins stamped with his face.

Both the tokens and the coins have plunged in value since the sales.

Trump also took in millions last year from selling Trump-branded Bibles, sneakers and other small items in another unprecedented move for the presidency. The sale of Trump-branded watches alone brought in $4.7 million.

The 927-page disclosure form paints a stark, if incomplete picture of the massive growth of the president’s wealth since taking office last January through a web of business interests — many of which have benefited from the policy moves of Trump’s own government. Trump has insisted that his sons direct his finances but the arrangement rejects the conflict of interest protections that his recent predecessors in office had instituted.

Forbes estimates Trump’s net worth at $6 billion, up from $2.3 billion in 2024.

The Trump business is growing abroad

The rise of crypto relative to Trump’s property is especially noteworthy because he first rode to office boasting of his property wins. It’s also remarkable because that mainstay business also boomed last year. Trump took in tens of millions in fees from a flurry of new hotel, resort and condo deals overseas that amounts to the biggest property expansion ever in the century since the family business was founded.

Many of those countries were negotiating with the U.S. over tariffs, military aid and other important matters while the family business was striking the deals.

A property in the United Arab Emirates generated $10.4 million for the Trump business last year. One in Saudi Arabia being built by a real estate developer close to the ruling family sent the president’s company $9 million. And one in Bucharest, Romania, and another in Qatar sent him $5 million each.

One of his prominent domestic properties, Mar-a-Lago in Florida, notched big growth last year, too.

Sign up for Morning Wire: Our flagship newsletter breaks down the biggest headlines of the day.

Trump took in $77 million from the property, a 50% jump from the year earlier when he was just another citizen, as heads of state and business people flocked to it in his new term.

The disclosure report doesn’t give profit figures, just revenue, so it’s impossible to know how much he is earning.

Trump is now the billion-dollar crypto man

Trump said Wednesday that most of his gains last year came from the stock market and he’s just riding along with everyone else.

“We’re all profiting,” he said. “I’m profiting because I have a lot of money and a lot of cash.”

But crypto was clearly the big revenue generator last year in part due his own moves since taking office — pushing policies friendly to the industry and reversing a Biden administration regulatory crackdown.

The regulators are still worried. Before Trump’s World Liberty began selling “governance tokens,” they issued warnings about this new kind of crypto asset, saying that unlike stocks, the tokens offer no ownership stake in the issuing company, just voting power on certain corporate policies, and are difficult to value.

Buyers pounced anyway, including a Chinese billionaire who spent $75 million on the tokens and $200 million on the souvenir coins. In February last year, a federal lawsuit charging him with duping investors was paused before being settled for a $10 million fine.

The billionaire, Justin Sun, has repeatedly denied his spending on Trump businesses had anything to do with his federal case, while World Liberty has dismissed the notion of a conflict of interest.

Meanwhile, investors have seen the value of their Trump-tied holdings drop significantly.

The price of World Liberty tokens has fallen 80% since they started trading in September. And the Trump souvenir coins that spiked to more than $74 in the days after launching in January 2025 now sell for $1.68.

The White House says Trump only acts in the public interest

The White House has repeatedly said Trump put his business in a trust managed by his sons and is not involved in its decisions and that there are no ethics issues to discuss.

“Neither the President nor his family has ever engaged — or will ever engage — in conflicts of interest,” spokeswoman Anna Kelly said. “All actions by President Trump and his administration are taken in the best interest of the American people.”

The Trump umbrella company, the Trump Organization, has said its deals overseas were with private companies, not with governments.

Still, it is difficult to know what is truly private in countries ruled by authoritarians, royal families and one-party governments.

For a new Trump resort in Vietnam, the report shows Trump took in $5 million last year after the ruling Communist Party sent its deputy prime minister to sign off on the deal and, according to The New York Times, pushed farmers off the land to make way for the construction.

Whether the deals played any role in changing U.S. policies in ways these countries sought is nearly impossible to know, but the countries did get what they wanted.

Vietnam got tariff relief. Qatar got access to advanced U.S. technology previously off limits, and Saudi Arabia got U.S. fighter jets it had coveted for years.

___

AP White House reporter Josh Boak contributed from Washington.

The Dictatorship

‘REGIME CHANGE’ sold 300,000 copies…

Published

6 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

It turns out readers still want to learn more about President Donald Trump after all.

“Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” the l atest book on the Trump presidencywritten by political journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, has sold more than 300,000 copies in its opening week, according to publisher Simon & Schuster.

They’re the kind of sales that numerous works about Trump reached during his first term, but had been rare during his second term. Publishers had speculated that the public had tired of Trump books, believing there was little left to know.

The total figures include preorders, print book sales, ebooks, and e-audiobooks and orders that have yet to be fulfilled because of demand, the publishing house said. Simon & Schuster said the book is into its third hard copy printing, with 200,000 copies on order, after it sold out quickly in bookstores and on Amazon. It’s the best first-week clip of any hardcover nonfiction book in 2026.

The book covers the first 14 months of Trump’s second presidency and takes readers inside the West Wing, White House residence and Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, aboard Air Force One and on foreign trips with the president.

Trump, who has a long history with Haberman from her days covering him as a New York City business and society figure, has trashed the book as “mostly made up.” Haberman and Swan are now New York Times reporters.

Their manuscript depicts meticulous details of Trump’s military decisions, how he’s wielded the power of the Justice Department against his political opponents, his conversations with other power players, and the time and attention he’s devoted to remaking the aesthetics and structure of the White House.

The book spells out a thesis that Trump himself believes: Had he not lost the 2020 election, he would not be as powerful in his second term as he is now — emboldening him to trample norms, dismantle established institutions and push the limits of presidential power.

Haberman and Swan have been featured regularly across news talk shows promoting the book and sharing details of their reporting, including a sit-down with Trump in which he boasted about being compared to some of history’s great villains.

Sean Manning, vice president and publisher at Simon & Schuster, said the book “has entered the national conversation” and will hold up as “a work of historic importance.”

The Dictatorship

Vance contradicts Trump about bipartisan cooperation on housing bill

Published

13 hours ago

July 1, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Vance contradicts Trump about bipartisan cooperation on housing bill

As a rule, JD Vance seems to go out of his way to say whatever Donald Trump wants him to say, but from time to time, contradictions emerge between the president and the vice president.

Take the recently passed housing bill, for example, which arrived at the White House earlier this week.

As part of an interview Tuesday night with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, the Ohio Republican said, “Frankly, Laura, I would love it if Democrats were willing — you know, not that they will agree with Republicans all the time — but if they were willing to work with us on lowering housing prices, on lowering gas prices, on actually making the lives of American citizens better. You know, we could have some real bipartisan compromise. That’s not what they’re talking about.”

I realize the vice president must be very busy, but it really isn’t that difficult to keep up with the basics of current events. In this case, when Vance said Democrats are unwilling to work with Republicans on priorities such as “lowering housing prices,” he turned reality on its head. It was literally last week when Democrats offered unanimous support for a bipartisan bill to address housing prices — legislation that members such as Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts helped to write.

Democrats recognized that doing so would offer the GOP some election-season bragging rights, but Democrats did it anyway because they have prioritized governing and “actually making the lives of American citizens better” over partisan considerations.

But Vance didn’t just contradict reality; he also contradicted his boss.

Just one day before the vice president brazenly misled a national television audience, Trump was asked about the pending housing bill. “It’s very bipartisan; that means the Democrats like it,” the president saidwhile acknowledging that he hasn’t yet decided whether to sign it.

In other words, when Vance said policymakers “could have some real bipartisan compromise,” he seemed indifferent to the fact that we’ve already had some real bipartisan compromise — a detail that even Trump was willing to acknowledge a day earlier.

Whether the vice president will suffer for publicly contradicting the president remains to be seen.

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”