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More than a dozen Donald Trump supporters collapsed at his rallies amid record high temperatures in the Southwest in recent days — believed to have missed Trump’s pledge at the rallies to undermine Biden’s environmental policies and “drill, baby, drill ”. So what would a Trump administration mean for those who hope the world can limit global warming and the climate crisis? We’ll look at the headlines.
This is what you need to know…
1. Hunter Biden convicted on gun charges
Hunter Biden, the president’s son who has become a bete noire for Republicans, was found guilty of three charges related to buying a gun while using crack cocaine. Right-wing politicians and media have accused Hunter and his father of several corrupt acts, but a Republican-led House of Representatives committee spent a year investigating the couple and failed to come up with corruption charges. The judge will now decide on Hunter Biden’s sentence: the crimes carry a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, although a lower sentence is expected.
2. Trump awaits his fate
Trump was interviewed by probation officials on Monday ahead of his sentencing in July. The probation interview typically serves to prepare a report on a convicted person, which is then taken into consideration by the judge when handing down the sentence – which in this case could theoretically include a prison sentence. Trump was convicted of 34 crimes related to falsifying company records to cover up hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, the adult film actor who claims they had an affair. He will be sentenced on July 11.
3. A warning to Republicans?
Ohio’s sixth district went to Trump by 29 points in 2020 — but in a special election on Tuesday night, Republican candidate Michael Rulli prevailed by just nine points, which could indicate a lack of enthusiasm among voters. Elsewhere, Trump-backed candidates won the primaries in Nevada and South Carolina, including Nancy Mace, a congresswoman involved in the effort to oust Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House of Representatives: Mace had faced a revenge-led challenge from a McCarthy-backed candidate, but won comfortably.
Trump supporters fall down in extreme heat, waiting for their climate-denying kingpin
Last week, Trump and his campaign managed to send 17 supporters to the hospital after people at his rallies in Arizona and Nevada wilted in 90-degree heat. At the event in Phoenix, Trumpers were forced to queue outside a megachurch in the hot sun for hours, and those affected received only a brief mention from their leader, with Trump suggesting people won’t be “that excited” about being outside to wait.
The South West has been hit by record-breaking heat, with temperatures reaching 45 degrees Celsius in the past week. Half of Arizona and Nevada were under heat warnings this weekend, and given that extreme heat is believed to be a consequence of the climate crisis, we might have expected a presidential candidate to talk about environmental efforts to limit global warming.
No.
“[Biden has] There are windmills everywhere, every time you see a windmill coming up you need a huge subsidy, now it’s killing your birds, it’s ruining your landscape, ruining your value, if you have a house and you can see a windmill , your house is worth half,” Trump told the crowd in Phoenix.
He added: “We’re going to drill, baby, drill.”
My colleagues Oliver Milman And Dharna Noor, who cover the environment, have previously reported on the Trump team’s plans to increase fossil fuel production in “a frenzy” of oil and gas drilling while sidelining government climate scientists. In Phoenix, Trump reiterated his pledge to scrap key parts of Biden’s climate plans, including rebates for people who buy electric vehicles. And just last week, it emerged that Trump had promised lucrative tax breaks to fossil fuel executives if they gave his campaign $1 billion.
Biden has touted the Inflation Reduction Act for his campaign, which invested a record $278 billion in the transition to renewables, claiming in March: “I am taking the most important climate action ever in the history of the world. ”
But Oliver and Nina Lakhani also reported that Biden is weakening some of his previous climate plans — by delaying a regulation to reduce emissions from gas-fired power plants, and relaxing rules on the amount of carbon cars can emit.
So both parties could do more. But it’s worth considering an analysis that found a second Trump presidency could lead to an additional 4 billion tons of U.S. emissions by 2030.
By the way: Trump has never been a fan of wind farms, and in May he said he would scrap offshore wind projects on “day one” of his presidency. Part of Trump’s reasoning appears to be his incorrect belief that wind turbines cause cancer, when he has previously claimed – also incorrectly – that wind turbines cause whale deaths by “hurting” them.
Of course, this wasn’t the first time Trump showed interest in aquatic life, as…
Shark!
… the presidential candidate has a fascination for and aversion to sharks. Trump has previously tweeted that he ranks sharks alongside the “losers and haters of the world,” while Stormy Daniels, the porn star whose silence Trump bought (and was convicted of falsifying business accounts to pay for), has said that Trump ” is obsessed with sharks.” Daniels said he went so far as to say, “I hope all the sharks die.”
Clearly, Trump was still thinking about sharks this week. In Vegas, he delivered a typically meandering monologue, musing on whether it would be better to stay aboard a sinking electric boat or jump into shark-infested waters.
“Do you know what I would do if there was a shark or you’ll get electrocuted?” Trump asked the crowd. “I would be electrocuted every time.” Please, Please watch the full video.
Who had the worst week: Jesus Christ
After his resurrection at Easter, things got even worse for the Son of God this week when he was compared – and not for the first time – to Donald Trump.
“The Democrats and the fake news media want to keep talking about ‘President Trump is a convicted felon,’” Marjorie Taylor Greene told a crowd. ‘Well, you want to know something? The man I adore is also a convicted felon. And he was murdered on a Roman cross.”
Trump has previously encouraged comparisons with Jesus.
On the road: El Paso
“A gut punch.” “Political theater.” “Nonsensical.”
That was the response from lawyers in El Paso the day after Joe Biden announced a stricter approach to asylum policy. Many worried about the impact the order would have on migrants fleeing violence, poverty and persecution in their home countries.
I spoke to them as part of one incredible well-timed workshop on immigration reporting in El Paso, a historically liberal city in west Texas where Spanish and English are spoken interchangeably and the border is one that many cross every day for work, school or to grab a bite to eat.
Many were skeptical. Juan Acereto Cervera, an adviser to the mayor of Juárez, the Mexican city across the border from El Paso, said the policy would do little to deter people from seeking a better life elsewhere.
“Nothing will stop migration, nothing,” he said.
That’s the conundrum Biden faces as he tries to tackle an issue that poses both a serious policy challenge and a serious political threat to his reelection campaign.
– Lauren Gambino, Political Correspondent, El Paso, Texas
Biggest lie: Charlie Kirk
Joe Biden’s acceptance of legal proceedings in his son Hunter’s criminal case, and a pledge that he would not pardon him, stands in contrast to Trump’s response following his conviction of 34 crimes – of which the former president repeatedly and wrongly has claimed it was orchestrated. by the Biden administration.
It also provides an example against the Republican-pushed claim that the elder Biden can and does rig the courts against Trump. Wouldn’t he have saved his own son?
Of course not, say Trump allies, who have started pushing a new conspiracy about Hunter Biden’s conviction.
“This is a sham trial that tries to make the justice system appear ‘balanced,’” said Charlie Kirk, the leader of the conservative youth group Turning Point USA. “Don’t fall for it.”
