The People’s House under Trump.

You may remember that in August 2017, Trump called the White House “a real dump.”

Races, races, races.

Texas.

The Hill reported:

Rep. Christian Menefee (D-Texas) is projected to defeat Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) in a Democratic primary runoff for the Houston-based 18th Congressional District, according to Decision Desk HQ.

Menefee, the 37-old-lawmaker who won a special election to fill the remainder of the late Rep. Sylvester Turner’s (D-Texas) seat in January, is almost certain to win the general election this fall in a district that Cook Political Report rates as solidly Democratic.

Neither Menefee nor Green, the 78-year-old who’s served in the House for over two decades, pushed past the 50 percent support needed in the March 3 primary to avoid a runoff.

The two lawmakers were pitted against each other after Texas Republicans advanced a GOP-friendly map that created multiple new pickup opportunities for the party ahead of the midterms. The controversial plan kicked off a national back-and-forth over mid-decade redistricting, including a Democrat-friendly plan to effectively counter the Texas changes in California.

Earlier this year, Al Green was booted from President Trump’s State of the Union Address for holding up a banner that read, “Black People Aren’t Apes.”

This is the second consecutive year that Al Green has been kicked out of the State of the Union.

Al Green held up the banner as President Trump walked by.

Majority Whip Steve Scalise ripped the banner down before Al Green was thrown out.

Green was censured…

Where Gerrymandering was an issue yesterday.

Clyburn’s seat survives for now as South Carolina Republicans buck Trump on redistricting.

President Donald Trump had ramped up pressure on the Palmetto State, but he fell short in his goal of ousting the state’s lone Democrat.

South Carolina Republicans defied President Donald Trump and blocked a redistricting measure that would have drawn out the state’s lone Democrat, Rep. Jim Clyburn.

The move Tuesday all but kills their chances of flipping that seat for 2026. It’s possible the GOP will still draw out Clyburn before 2028.

A procedural vote to end debate on the map early failed in the state Senate 24-20, with 12 Republicans joining all Democrats. The state Senate then voted to adjourn until June 10, effectively ending any hope of redistricting before the midterms.

It’s a massive pivot from just two weeks ago, when GOP Gov. Henry McMaster chose to call a special season to redraw after pressure from Trump and the White House. Now, Republican lawmakers who defected in South Carolina could face the same fate in 2028 as Indiana lawmakers who rebuked Trump — and then lost their primaries to MAGA-aligned challengers.

But because of the timing of the elections — the timing they refused to change — the South Carolina Republicans will likely be safe until the 2028 primaries, as early voting has already begun for this year.

In a statement after the measure failed, state Sen. Larry Grooms placed the blame at McMaster’s feet for declining to call a special session until it was too late.

“Republicans and the White House worked quickly to pass a redistricting plan before the start of in-person voting,” he said, “but the call from the governor came too late.” (McMaster called the special session almost immediately after the legislature’s regular session ended).

The rebuke from fellow Republicans came as a shock to Trump’s political operation, according to one person close to the White House granted anonymity to discuss the internal dynamics. McMaster never gave the White House a heads up that the vote was on track to fail, the person said.
McMaster’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The state’s Senate GOP leader, Shane Massey, had long opposed a redraw, giving a fiery speech during a procedural vote earlier this month that received national attention. Despite earlier votes in the Senate looking on pace for a redraw, a number of Republicans flipped on Tuesday, citing the start of early voting as reason for doing so.

Even without the extra seat from South Carolina, Republicans have an overall edge in the redistricting war. But many of those wins came from the courts.

The Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year to narrow the Voting Rights Act has led to swift redraws across other Southern states, and the Virginia Supreme Court erased a four-seat Democratic gerrymander that was approved by voters.

There are still some states outstanding before November. Alabama Republicans are trying to use a 2023 map that eliminates a Democratic-held seat, but it’s jammed up in court. And Louisiana Republicans are still working to pass a map before the midterms. (Politico).

Federal court blocks Alabama’s midterm gerrymandering plan, a blow for Republicans.

The three-judge panel blocked the state from reimplementing its 2023 congressional maps they found as “tainted by intentional race-based discrimination.”

A federal court on Tuesday blocked Alabama Republicans from implementing their preferred House map ahead of this year’s midterms, potentially preventing Republicans from picking up an additional seat via gerrymandering.

Following the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act ruling earlier this year, Alabama sought to revert to a 2023 map — with only one Democratic-leaning district — that had previously been blocked in court.

But a three-judge panel Tuesday prevented the state from using that map, mandating that Alabama use a map that has two majority Black, blue-leaning seats.

“Ultimately, we cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination,” the panel wrote in their decision.
Republicans said they would immediately appeal the decision back to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court earlier this month allowed Alabama to proceed with redistricting, kicking the process back down to the lower court.

Alabama held some of its primary contests last week, but not all of them, after GOP Gov. Kay Ivey delayed a handful of House districts to account for a new map. Primaries for the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th congressional districts are set for Aug. 11.

Republicans were immediately bullish that the high court would allow the GOP-favorable map to go into effect, citing a previous Supreme Court decision that overturned a ruling from the same three-judge panel.

“Know this — in my mind, it is not a matter of whether we win this case, only when,” Republican Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement.

Tuesday’s ruling comes after weeks of protest in the state over redistricting, with numerous prominent Democrats flocking to Montgomery to rally in support of voting rights.
In the lengthy ruling, the panel of judges ultimately were not swayed by Republicans’ argument for the 2023 map, especially under the tight timeline.

“There is no convincing evidence that it is necessary for us to allow Alabama to pivot to the 2023 Plan in the middle of an election, and substantial evidence that it is not,” they wrote.(Politico)

Expect defections from the MNBA to the WNBA.

Trump May Appear at N.B.A. Finals in New York.

President Trump is said to be considering the appearance after his hometown team, the Knicks, clinched a championship spot.

President Trump is considering making an appearance at the N.B.A. finals next week, a rarity for an American leader, after his hometown New York Knicks clinched a championship spot, according to three people familiar with the matter.

An appearance by Mr. Trump at Madison Square Garden would be the latest incidence of a high-profile sports event serving as a backdrop for his presidency. Mr. Trump last year showed up at the Super Bowl, the Daytona 500, the U.S. Open men’s final and a Yankees game. He is currently erecting an octagonal cage on the South Lawn of the White House for an Ultimate Fighting Championship match on his birthday next month. He has maintained friendships with the leaders of sports organizations, including Dana White, the head of the U.F.C., to galvanize support in the “manosphere.”

If the Knicks had lost Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Monday, Mr. Trump had planned to make a surprise appearance among the team’s faithful at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, according to three people familiar with the planning. But after the Knicks completed a sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday, the president is turning to the N.B.A. championship.

Mr. Trump has said in recent weeks that he remains a Knicks fan and has been following the team’s progress.

“I really like Jim Dolan a lot, I’m really happy for him and the team,” Mr. Trump said of James Dolan, the owner of the Knicks, the New York Rangers and Madison Square Garden, on WABC-AM, known as TalkRadio 77. “I think it’s great.”

The White House did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for Madison Square Garden said he did not know if Mr. Trump was attending the N.B.A. finals in New York, but that the president — no matter who holds the office — is always welcome at the venue.

Mr. Dolan has donated to Mr. Trump’s political campaigns over the years, and the two men have a longstanding friendship. In 2018, Mr. Dolan told ESPN that he got married at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s private club in Florida.

“I’m a member of Mar-a-Lago, and I support him as a friend,” Mr. Dolan said. “And you don’t have to agree with everything that he’s doing in order to support him. And he’s, by the way, our president, and I don’t understand people who wish our president to do badly. Why would you wish your president to do badly? It’s like wishing that your milkman will bring you sour milk.”

Other presidents have occasionally attended high-profile sporting events. Former President Barack Obama attended the N.B.A. Finals in Toronto in 2019, although he was out of office by then. But few, if any, presidents have watched bruising fights ringside and embraced politically aligned athletes and sparred on social media with other players as Mr. Trump has.

But even Mr. Trump, a native New Yorker, may encounter a much different experience when attending the next Knicks game.

While he has been embraced by mixed martial arts fighters and some teams in the National Football League, Mr. Trump has had a fraught relationship with the National Basketball Association.

San Francisco’s Golden State Warriors decided not to make the customary White House visit after winning the N.B.A. championship in 2017, prompting Mr. Trump to accuse the N.B.A. star Stephen Curry of “hesitating” and to withdraw the team’s invitation. The Warriors were not invited for a visit when they won another championship in 2018, but they did partake in the tradition during the Biden presidency.

Mr. Trump has also publicly criticized other prominent players in the league. He attacked the intelligence of LeBron James in his first term after the N.B.A. champion mentioned in a CNN interview that he would never sit down with Mr. Trump.

The Knicks’ opponent could also feature a Trump critic.

They would play the winner of the Western Conference Finals, in which the Oklahoma City Thunder are dueling the San Antonio Spurs. The star player of the Spurs, Victor Wembanyama, who is originally from France, expressed concern about living in the United States as a foreigner earlier this year when federal immigration agents shot and killed two American citizens. The Thunder also did not visit the White House after winning the N.B.A. championship last year, citing a “timing issue.”

Mr. Trump’s embrace of sports teams can occasionally cause internal turmoil.

The New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart introduced Mr. Trump at a rally last week, in which Mr. Trump called the young player a “future Hall of Famer” and said he had “legs like tree trunks.”

The Giants linebacker Abdul Carter later questioned his teammate’s decision, writing on social media that he thought the episode “was AI, what we doing man.” Mr. Carter later said that he had spoken to his teammate and that they had resolved the issue.

Mr. Trump has been known to change his plans often, and it is possible he elects to stay away from the Knicks’ first appearance in the finals since 1999. But Madison Square Garden, known as the mecca of basketball, holds both personal and political appeal for Mr. Trump.

As the Knicks have dominated the playoffs, the arena has become a magnet for New York celebrities and elite. The actors Timothée Chalamet and Ben Stiller are among those who have joined former Knicks players in watching the team from courtside seats.

The arena also served as the setting for a crucial moment during Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign. On the second-to-last Sunday before the 2024 election, Mr. Trump held a rally at Madison Square Garden in which he unleashed a series of grievances and racism. One comic took the stage and dismissed Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.” (New York Times)

There are many ways to win.