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The 2011 race also augured some of the next decades personalities and conflicts. Pence was at the track, and he had just recently announced he wouldnt run for president in 2012 but would pursue the governors residence instead. Pete Buttigieg, then a candidate for South Bend mayor, attended the race for the first time that year. The two Hoosier foes met that day. We exchanged some pleasantries, and I didnt think much of it or expect to see him anytime soon, Buttigieg wrote in his memoir, Shortest Way Home.

Trumps looming presence, though, had cast a shadow over the race. After news broke that Trump would drive the pace car, Wallack created a Facebook page calling on the IMS to Bump Trump. I have no problem if Trump dislikes President Obama or his policies, Wallack wrote on the page. But to step over the line into the realm of conspiracy-mongering is not good for politics or for America. And it should not be rewarded with the honor of driving the pace car at the Indianapolis 500.

Within days, the page had garnered more than 17,000 likes.

Reporters peppered IMS officials with questions about how they would respond to the controversy Trump had created. We are certainly aware of the Facebook page, and we have certainly received complaints, Boles, then the IMS vice president of communications, told reporters. But we have also received comments from other folks in support of Donald Trump driving the pace car.

Meanwhile, the Indianapolis Baptist Ministers Alliance called on IMS to rescind its invitation to Trump. Organizers of the 500 Festival, which hosts race-adjacent events such as the Indy 500 Festival Parade, weighed whether to have Trump featured in the parade through downtown Indianapolis. Weve always traditionally extended this invitation to the pace car driver, said Megan Bulla, who was in charge of public relations for the parade at the time. At what point do you kind of step in and say, no, because of politics, or no, because of peoples stances? It was kind of this uncomfortable, like, well, weve never said no in the past, so at what point do we draw the line or make a statement?

Jane Jankowski, spokesperson for then-Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, told reporters that Daniels was in favor of whatever sells tickets. Pence, who would stay quiet through most of Trumps biggest controversies as vice president, doesnt appear to have made any public comments about Trump at the time.

You could see and hear and feel how divisive this was even in our town, recalled Bulla, referencing the blue citys overall somewhat buttoned-down and conservative bent. Maybe it was the start of cancel culture.

The controversy even made it into the pages of POLITICO. Ben Smith, himself a one-time reporter for the Indianapolis Star, published a May 4 item headlined Indy 500 weighs dumping Trump. The reason many of us started to take the notion that Donald Trump would actually run seriously is that hes begun doing real harm to his brand, which is his main asset, Smith wrote, with a hat tip to his colleague Maggie Haberman. No cautious corporation is going to pay for rights to his name if theres a headache attached.

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The Time the Indy 500 Almost Canceled Donald Trump - POLITICO

Former President Donald Trump warned Wyoming rally-goers that the conflict between Ukraine and Russia could turn into World War III, which "would be like no other."

Speaking Saturday in support of his endorsed GOP congressional candidate Harriet Hageman, who is running against longtime Trump rival Liz Cheney, he told attendees at the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper that actions by the U.S. could escalate the situation.

"You may end up with a Third World War because of the stupidity of what we're saying and what we're doing," he said. "And we want to help people because of what's happening to them; they're being obliterated. But you know, we could end up in a Third World War because of the way we're going about it. And I never thought that would be possible."

He predicted it "would be like no other war" due to "renovated and brand new nuclear weapons."

"I completely rebuilt the United States military," Trump said. "I hated to do it because I saw the power. I know the power better than anybody. I know the power. And we are in a position that I never thought we'd be in. We have a major country, every day he mentions nuclear, nuclear, nuclear, and China's doing things that they would have never done with us."

Trump said "a lot" of it started with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

"I don't think our country has ever been in a worse position, in a weaker position, a more pathetic position, and a lot of it started from the way we withdrew from Afghanistan," he said.

When he was president, "we were respected. Nobody was going to war with us."

"We didn't have to go to war for people to know that we were the toughest and we were the strongest. We did it in a much different way," he said.

The former president believes Cheney "is at the front of the parade trying to get us to go into wars with Russia or anyone else that wants to bite."

"Liz Cheney hates the voters of the Republican Party and she has for longer than you would know," he said. "Wyoming deserves a congresswoman who stands up for you and your values, not one who spends all of her time putting you down, going after your president in the most vicious way possible. And loving endless, nonsensical, bloody, horrible wars that never end. They just never end."

Newsweek reached out to a Trump representative for additional comment.

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Donald Trump Tells Rally-Goers Third World War 'Would Be Like No Other' - Newsweek

The fate of state Sen. Burt Jones, whom Trump endorsed in the open race for lieutenant governor, remains unclear. While he was leading his nearest challenger by close to 20 percentage points, with 96 percent of the expected vote in, it wasnt clear if Jones would avoid a runoff: He was at 50.1 percent, a hair above the threshold.

Trumps House picks in Georgia werent much more successful. While all 5 of the Republican incumbents he endorsed won, none of them really faced a competitive race three of them, in fact, were unopposed. Trump also backed two candidates in open seat House primaries: Jake Evans in the 6th District and Vernon Jones in the 10th. Both finished in second place and moved on to June 21 runoffs.

The lone bright spot in Trumps Georgia record? His recruited candidate for Senate, Herschel Walker. The former football star maintained a steady lead in the polls since the early days of his campaign and easily sailed to his GOP nomination.

In Alabama, Trump ditched his original pick for the Senate, Rep. Mo Brooks, after the congressmans campaign appeared to be flailing. But Brooks one of Trumps strongest supporters in Congress launched a late comeback and made it to the June 21 runoff, where hell face first-place finisher, Katie Britt.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 electoral votes.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 electoral votes.

Won with 82 percent of the vote.

He voted to overturn 2020 electoral votes.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 electoral votes.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 electoral votes.

Donald Trump endorsed his former White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, for Arkansas governor.|Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Won with 83 percent of the vote.

Sanders, Trumps former White House press secretary, said she ran for governor to be part of the last line of defense against a Democratic-helmed federal government. In his endorsement, Trump said Sanders would always fight for the people of Arkansas and do what is right, not what is politically correct as governor.

Sanders, whos favored to win in November, would be the second in her family to serve as governor her father, Mike Huckabee, served two terms starting in the 1990s and later ran for president twice.

Won with 58 percent of the vote.

Boozman voted to acquit the former president in Trumps second impeachment trial, though the senator said Trump did bear some responsibility for the events of Jan. 6. Trump endorsed Boozman anyway, providing key cover in a tough primary against former Arkansas Razorbacks star and Army ranger Jake Bequette.

Won with 75 percent of the vote.

He voted to overturn 2020 election results.

Unopposed.

With 96 percent of the expected vote in, Jones was in first place with 50.1 percent of the vote.

In this Sept. 25, 2021, photo Senate candidate Herschel Walker speaks during former President Donald Trump's Save America rally in Perry, Ga.|Ben Gray, File/AP Photo

Won with 68 percent of the vote.

Walker, who will face Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in November, has had a relationship with Trump for decades, dating back to when Trump owned the short-lived New Jersey Generals football team in the USFL. He was a great football player and will be an even better U.S. Senator if that is even possible, Trump said in September.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 election results.

Won with 76 percent of the vote.

Clyde, who voted to overturn 2020 election results, drew national attention for his cavalier downplaying of the events of Jan. 6 during a House Oversight Committee hearing. Not only was there not an insurrection, Clyde said, but if you didnt know that TV footage was a video from January 6, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 election results.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 election results.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks during a court hearing on April 22 in Atlanta.|John Bazemore-Pool/Getty Images

Won with 70 percent of the vote.

Greene, who voted to overturn the 2020 election results, is one of Trumps most vocal supporters. In his endorsement, Trump said the lightning-rod freshman lawmaker has always been on his side, and is someone who loves our country and MAGA, its greatest ever political movement.

Ken Paxton waves after speaking during the Conservative Political Action Conference CPAC held at the Hilton Anatole in July 2021 in Dallas, Texas.|Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Won with 68 percent of the vote.

Paxton, who has been mired in scandal and faced abuse of office allegations for much of the past seven years, is a staunch Trump ally. As Texas AG, he challenged the results of the 2020 election in four battleground states but the case was thrown out by the Supreme Court.

He won his Trump endorsement at the expense of George P. Bush, the Bush family scion Paxton defeated in Tuesdays runoff.

Won with 69 percent of the vote.

Won with 59 percent of the vote.

Won with 64 percent of the vote.

Won with 59 percent of the vote.

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Trump made 27 endorsements in Tuesday's primaries. Here are the winners. - POLITICO - POLITICO

The Jaffa school offered an interpretation of American history that might be described as Inception, Consummation and Corruption. Its Great Consummator was Lincoln, who restored the promise of the founding by fully establishing the all men are created equal absolutism of the Declaration of Independence. Its villains were John C. Calhoun and the progressives of the early 20th century, the former for defending slavery and inequality, the latter for replacing a constitutional republic with a bureaucratized administrative state, and both for displaying a philosophical and moral relativism that Jaffa despised (and that, as his intellectual feuds multiplied, he claimed to discern in many of his fellow conservatives as well).

But one thing you noticed hanging around with Claremont folks was that while they were obviously interested in the good and bad of each American regime change, from the original founding (great) to the Lincolnian re-founding (even better) to the progressive re-foundings of Woodrow Wilson (their great villain, the Lost Cause sympathizer turned arrogant technocrat) and Franklin Roosevelt, they were also just really interested in the idea of founding itself, when moments of crisis bring new orders out of old ones.

At one point, as a break from reading founding-era texts, we were treated to a screening of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the great John Ford western whose theme is the Old Wests transition into political modernity, passing from the rule of the gun (embodied by John Waynes Tom Doniphon) to the rule of the lawbook (embodied by Jimmy Stewarts Ransom Stoddard).

In the movie, the transition cant happen without a dose of chaos, a mixture of violence and deception. Lee Marvins outlaw, Valance, challenges the peaceable lawyer Stoddard to a duel; Doniphon saves the lawyer by shooting the outlaw from the shadows and then the killing is mistakenly attributed to Stewarts character, who is lionized for it and goes on to be a great statesman of the New West while the cowboy and his vigilante code recede.

The not-so-subtle implication of the Claremont reading of American history is that this kind of fraught transition doesnt happen once and for all; rather, it happens periodically within the life of any nation or society. Whenever change or crisis overwhelms one political order, one version of (in our case) the American republic, you get a period of instability and rough power politics, until the new era or the new settlement is forged.

But it doesnt happen without moments like Doniphon shooting Valance or Lincoln suspending habeas corpus, say, or Roosevelt threatening to pack the Supreme Court when norms and niceties need to be suspended for the sake of the new system thats waiting to be born.

When I try to understand what Eastman imagined himself doing in serving Donald Trump even unto constitutional crisis, this is where my speculations turn. I dont think this is the necessary implication of Claremont thought; indeed, you can find in the latest issue of The Claremont Review of Books an essay by William Voegeli critiquing conservatives who seem enthused about chaos and overeager to re-found rather than conserve. But I think its an understandable place for the Claremont reading of American history to turn at a time when the American republic does appear sclerotic, stalemated, gridlocked and in need of some kind of conspicuous renewal.

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Opinion | Why Would John Eastman Want to Overturn an Election for Trump? - The New York Times

We salute the voters of Georgia: Their Republican primary last week was the first gigantic defeat for Donald Trump and the forces of authoritarianism within our borders, a cause for celebration.

Ever since their local Republican officials refused to bow to Trumps pressure to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and instead told the truth that Trump lost their state by more than 11,000 votes the former president has been on what Chris Christie dubbed a personal vendetta tour.

But the two officials Trump tried to purge both won bigly. Gov. Brian Kemp the guy Trump called a turncoat, a coward and a complete and total disaster for refusing to defy the will of the states voters won by over 50 points, absolutely destroying the sycophant Trump recruited, David Perdue. And Brad Raffensperger, Georgias secretary of state who famously refused to indulge Trumps fantasies and find 11,780 votes, won by nearly 20 points, so much he wont have to face a runoff.

It was a most welcome sign that the GOP might be starting to shake off its election conspiracy fever dream, that maybe Trump has peaked. This is an important one, Bill Palatucci, the GOPs national committeeman from New Jersey, told the Washington Post. Him losing gives people courage to speak out. Thats the hope, anyway.

Yes, we still have the Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC, deciding to gather in Hungary and the most watched personality on cable TV, Fox News Tucker Carlson, singing the praises of its strongman, Viktor Orban, whos destroying democracy over there.

We have Republicans trying to block an inquiry into an attempted coup on Jan 6th that was fueled by baseless fraud accusations, and many other races across the country in which people who trumpet the Big Lie are running for jobs in which they could sway the outcome of future elections. Truly scary.

But Trumps embarrassing defeat in Georgia is an enormous relief, when compared to the alternative. His endorsement is still a factor, no doubt, as we saw in Ohio with Senate hopeful JD Vance and Doug Mastriano in the Pennsylvania governors race. Yet it is no longer the most important one, says Mike DuHaime, a leading Republican consultant in New Jersey.

Even in states where his candidates are winning tough races, they are getting around one-third of the vote, meaning two-thirds of voters are looking past the endorsement or voting against it, he said.

And this time, we saw establishment Republicans come to Kemps aid as he was attacked by Trump including Christie, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and former VP Mike Pence; folks who in the past might have feared being punished for disloyalty. The idea that if you cross Trump, youre out of office is categorically not true anymore, DuHaime says.

Georgias primary was also a great barometer for the lingering passion about Trumps lie that the 2020 election was stolen, Brian Robinson, a Georgia Republican political consultant, told the Atlantic. It just shows that a lot of the air is out of the balloon, he said. The intensity has dissipated. DuHaime agreed: I think even voters who believe Trump are sick of it. Theyre moving on.

For Jon Bramnick, a moderate, Never-Trump Republican in New Jersey, its reason for cautious optimism. America deserves a Republican party that does not endorse totalitarian leaders, one in which local officials no longer get mobbed by misinformed voters asking why theyre not questioning the 2020 election results, after 60 federal judges both Democrats and Republicans, lifetime appointees who arent afraid of political retribution flatly rejected Trumps fraud falsehood.

They dont even hear you they go back to a Fox broadcast, Bramnick said, adding, When people lose their trust and confidence in government because of irrational allegations, it is a serious threat to democracy. Right.

So lets pray that Georgia is a sign of things to come; that it encourages more Republicans to defy Trump, to fight back against his poisonous efforts to flip elections, and to seek out better leadership people who, when our democracy is hanging by a thin thread, will have the mettle to help it survive.

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Cheers to Georgia for rejecting Trump and his Big Lie | Editorial - NJ.com