After President Biden concluded his remarks Saturday evening — a denunciation of political violence in the immediate wake of an attempt to assassinate Donald Trump — CNN turned to a panel of political observers to offer their thoughts.
Washington
Analysis | Even Donald Trump can’t shift the momentum of Trumpism
“I hate to say it, but the rhetoric around him over the last few weeks that if he wins an election, our country will end, our democracy will end. It’s the last election we’ll ever have,” Jennings said. “These things have consequences, okay? I don’t know what the motivations of the shooter are. I don’t know any of the details. But I know the rhetoric around Trump has grown extreme.”
This sentiment has emerged often over the past two days in different manifestations. Jennings was correct in saying that he didn’t know what motivated the shooter; even on Monday morning that isn’t clear. But he assumed that the motivation was linked to the “extreme” rhetoric suggesting that Trump was a threat to American democracy. By extension, then, those expressing concern about Trump’s politics were culpable for the shooting — a link made more explicit by some in Trump’s orbit.
Many Trump supporters view these concerns as fundamentally illegitimate, if not cravenly opportunistic. Jennings appears to be among them. To some extent, this reflects how much erosion the country has already seen: Trump’s explicit effort to subvert the results of the 2020 election is retconned as appropriate or insignificant, largely because it was unsuccessful. Any critical observation of what an unfettered Trump might do in a second term is waved away as extreme, just as pre-2020 concerns were breezily dismissed.
It is also obviously useful for Trump supporters to argue that the shooting was downstream from unacceptable criticism of his candidacy. The presidential race, at least until Saturday afternoon, was heavily driven by the same dynamic at play in 2020: Trump supporters eager to vote for Trump and Biden supporters eager to vote against Trump. This is in part driven by concern about American democracy during a second Trump administration. If that concern can be reframed as melodramatic or dangerous — or if Trump supporters can cow Democrats into not elevating the issue — the impulse to vote against Trump might be muted. Some Biden supporters might simply stay home.
Since the shooting, Trump has given several interviews to friendly writers. Speaking to the Washington Examiner’s Salena Zito, for example, Trump indicated that the attempt on his life prompted him to rethink what he would say during his acceptance speech at the Republican convention this week.
“This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together,” Trump told Zito. “The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago.”
At Axios, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen leaned into this idea: Maybe Trump really can bring the country together.
“Imagine he gave a speech featuring something he rarely shows: humility,” they wrote. “Imagine him telling the nation that he has been too rough, too loose, too combative with his language — and now realizes words can have consequences, and promises to tone it down and bring new voices into the White House if he wins.”
This idea that Trump has the opportunity to reform his approach to politics and/or unify the nation is as old as Trump’s career as a national politician. And, sure, maybe this time it will happen, who knows? But after he won the election in 2016, he claimed that he would seek to unify the country. That quickly manifested as an insistence that Americans should rally around his presidency and his policies. Trump is nearly 80 years old and has been the same political actor for fully 10 percent of his life. The odds that this pattern is reshaped by the shooting — an unquestionably reprehensible act and an obviously dire threat — seem low. His first instinct in the moment on Saturday was to exhort the crowd to “fight.”
The idea that concern about Trump is rooted in his rhetoric or his brashness is a common one. His supporters say things such as that they are fine with a few “mean tweets” from Trump, as though that is the focus of his opponents. It isn’t. His critics, like his supporters, focus on what he does and what he hopes to do. Telling America that he’s been “too rough, too loose, too combative with his language” will almost certainly not convince anyone, but it also ignores the point: Will he still try to deport more than 10 million people? Will he still try to overhaul the federal government to install political loyalists?
Trumpism has grown well beyond Trump. Tucker Carlson is scheduled to speak at the Republican convention this week; his rhetoric about immigration and the war in Ukraine helped reshape how Trump’s base viewed both issues. Trump has the fervent support of a number of other far-right voices, like Jack Posobiec, who last week described the right’s opponents as “unhuman” and “atheist Marxist globalists.” Is the idea that Trump’s shift to positivity will somehow trickle down to his most fervent supporters and that their tone, too, will shift? Or that they’ll accept his reshaping his political agenda to appeal to more moderate voters?
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 has been singled out for criticism by the Biden campaign and Democrats because it outlines what right-wing supporters of Trump want to see should he return to the White House — including a centralization of power in the chief executive that would erode democracy. A shift in tone from Trump at the convention won’t somehow relegate that document and its authors to insignificance. It’s still the vision embraced by the right. And Trump has proved to be malleable in the face of criticism from his base; his shift on vaccines is evidence enough of that.
Trump credits his thankfully minor injuries from the assassination attempt to his having fortuitously turned his head to make an observation about a chart being displayed on a screen in front of the crowd. That chart had been shown before; it provides a misleading and exaggerated assessment of border crossings under Biden as part of Trump’s rhetoric about the dangers of immigrants. It’s a good reminder that the issue for his opponents isn’t that Trump uses mean words when describing his policies; it’s that they object to the policies and the dishonesty used to promote them.
In another address on Sunday night, Biden reiterated that the way to stop Trump was not with violence but at the ballot box (though he said “battle box,” a reminder of the political conversation before Saturday). This was a way to subtly contrast himself with Trump, reinforcing that democracy is the mechanism for allocating power in the United States.
It was a change in tone, but not in policy.
ASHBURN, Va. – The Washington Commanders have released their 2026 Training Camp schedule, with eleven open practices between August 1 and August 19, including five open to all fans and six reserved for season ticket members.
For the fifth straight year, training camp will take place at the team’s football operations headquarters in Ashburn, Virginia.
Open practices for all fans are scheduled for August 1, August 7, August 8, August 18 and August 19.
Season ticket member practices will be held August 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 and 12.
All sessions begin at 8:30 a.m., with gates opening at 7:30 a.m.
Fans can claim free tickets beginning June 23 at 10 a.m. General admission fans may request up to six tickets and one parking pass for a single day of camp. Season ticket members can claim tickets for two member‑exclusive days in addition to one general admission day. All parking will be on site at the BigBear.ai Performance Center and requires a parking pass.
The team plans several themed events throughout camp, including Back Together Weekend on August 1, Military Appreciation Day on August 7 and Kids Day on August 8. Local youth football and community groups will also be hosted throughout the summer.
For more information visit the Washington Commanders online.
The Source: Information in this article comes from the Washington Commanders.
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Washington’s National Mall is set to be drained again for repairs after algae and peeling paint appeared just weeks after a US$14.7 million renovation, while President Donald Trump threatened prison time for anyone caught damaging the pool.
The DC Water authority issued a permit to drain the 609-metre rectangular pool, it said on Monday, while the repair company said it would fix the pool as part of its warranty.
Peeling paint and algae growth have been visible in the pool since soon after Trump declared the renovation project complete on June 6. Critics have raised concerns about the no-bid contract to recoat the pool before the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations next month, as well as for the ducks that use its water. Workers from the National Park Service earlier this week poured hydrogen peroxide into the pool to combat the algae.
Trump, without evidence, has blamed vandals for the state of the landmark. On Monday, he echoed a weekend threat by US Attorney Jeanine Pirro to prosecute people accused of attempting to destroy the pool.
“Please remember that there is a 10-year prison sentence for the destruction, or even the attempted destruction, of such things – Which will be fully enforced!” Trump earlier wrote in a social media post. Destruction of federal property can carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.
It was not immediately apparent what criminal or civil violation someone might commit reaching into the pool.
Half a year can be an eternity in the NBA.
Seven months ago, as Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks headed toward a divorce, Young’s value within the league had never been lower.
On Monday, Young and the Washington Wizards agreed to a new four-year, maximum-salary contract worth approximately $212.9 million, according to a league source. The fourth year of the contract will be a player option.
Young’s first-year salary is estimated to be $49.5 million, which amounts to 30 percent of the projected 2026-27 salary cap of $165 million. During the 2029-30 season, the final year of the contract, Young will earn $56.9 million if he accepts his player option.
Wizards officials would love it, of course, if Young can return to the form that made him an All-NBA Third Team player during the 2021-22 season. But at the very least, they place significant value on knowing that their team’s offense will start with him on most occasions, and that he will be around to shoulder a large portion of the scoring load while the team’s young players, who comprise the team’s long-term nucleus, continue to improve.
Wizards get the No. 1 draft pick. Will it make a difference?
David Aldridge
That Young will receive such large annual salaries no doubt will come as a shock to many observers, especially after Young’s reputation took a beating toward the end of his Hawks tenure. The NBA rumor mill, which is often inaccurate, predicted months ago that any new deal between Young and the Wizards would average no more than $40 million annually.
But in recent weeks, Wizards decision-makers became convinced that, with the NBA’s new anti-tanking measures compelling more teams to compete, Young was going to command maximum-salary contract offers from other franchises through either a straight free-agent signing or a sign-and-trade proposal.
Because the Wizards hold Young’s Bird rights, the Wizards had the latitude to offer Young up to a five-year contract with 8 percent annual raises. But Young’s new four-year deal instead features 5 percent year-over-year raises, the maximum year-over-year raise that any other team could have offered Young as a non-Bird free agent. For Washington, the difference between signing Young to 5 percent raises instead of 8 percent raises will amount to a total savings of $8.9 million over four years.
Wizards officials are not concerned that Young’s new contract will age poorly and prevent them from making future moves to improve their roster. Anthony Davis, who is due to earn $58.5 million in 2026-27, and Young are now Washington’s highest-paid players on its young roster, but the person with the third-largest salary is big man Alex Sarr, who will be paid the relatively small sum of $12.3 million this season. At the earliest, the Wizards do not expect to approach the dreaded first apron until the 2028-29 season, when any new rookie-scale contract extensions for Sarr and Kyshawn George would go into effect.
Plus, Wizards officials reason that Young, who will turn 28 years old in September, will remain in his prime years through the end of his contract. The onerous large contracts that age the worst — potentially Jimmy Butler’s current deal with the Golden State Warriors and Paul George’s current deal with the Philadelphia 76ers, for example — tend to be contracts in which players already are past their primes at the start of their contracts.
Young is by no means a perfect player. Undersized at 6 feet 1, and undeniably more focused on the offensive end of the floor, he tended to be a significant defensive liability throughout his Hawks tenure. That trend could worsen if he begins to lose a step (or two) over the next several years.
At the same time, though, Wizards officials have always known that their lineups would have to feature enough positional size and enough defensive-oriented players to compensate for Young’s shortcomings — in the same way that the defensive liabilities of LaMelo Ball, Jalen Brunson, Luka Dončić, Kyrie Irving and Donovan Mitchell (and others) are compensated for by their respective teams.
The Wizards’ decision-makers believe Davis and youngsters Bilal Coulibaly, Davis, George, Sarr and whomever they pick first overall in Tuesday night’s draft will develop into strong enough defenders to help Young.
Young appeared in only five games for Washington last season after his trade from Atlanta for CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert. That was a large enough sample size to demonstrate how his gravity and his passing skill could create open shots for his new teammates. George, Tre Johnson and others should receive more wide-open 3-point looks when Young directs the offense, and Sarr and Davis should feast on lobs from Young in pick-and-rolls.
Only 16 players in NBA history have averaged at least 20 points and 10 assists per game in the same season, according to Basketball Reference. Young is one of those players, and he has done it three times, during the 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. The only other players who have had at least three seasons of at least 20 points and 10 assists per game are James Harden (four times), Kevin Johnson (three times), Magic Johnson (three times), Oscar Robertson (five times), Isiah Thomas (four times) and Russell Westbrook (five times).
The franchise expects Young to make Washington’s offense more efficient and, because opponents will have to take the ball out of their net more often, give Washington’s defense more opportunities to set itself.
July 6 is the first day when new free-agent contracts may be signed and made official.
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