Friend, 

First of all, a disclaimer from the team at The Lincoln Project: Yes, we can point out how insane the MAGA convention is. And we will. But just remember: These are the people who are going to be in charge if Trump wins. This is Project 2025 in spittle-flecked ranting form. It is real. And we have to stop it. That’s our goal, and we need you with us.

But onto the recap so far: Hell week is somehow halfway done! Actually, Hell may be better than a convention hall filled with today’s GOP and all the other Donald Trump bootlickers. For the next couple days, Milwaukee will continue to have the displeasure of hosting the RNC. The themes for the past two nights have defied belief. Monday’s was “Make America Wealthy Once Again.” Whatever that means. And no, they didn’t just watch the stock market tickers rise and rise (as they are – who’s president right now?)

As expected, the convention so far has been full of election-denying, January 6th-deflecting, anti-woke “fun.” Accordingly, we heard from some of our favorite-least-favorites. MTG yelled for a while and lied about everything from the economy to the Middle East – and even CNN called what she spewed “Not even close to true.”

We also heard from MAGA Mike, who definitely defended his title of weirdest guy on Capitol Hill. At the end of his speech, all he had to do was make a simple introduction for the Iowa Attorney General, but he had a little trouble. Apparently the teleprompter went out when Mike was just a couple words away from being done. Instead of finishing his sentence, he abruptly walked offstage, which led to a subpar cover band riffing for about 20 minutes until the teleprompter was fixed. Those 20 minutes may end up being the best 20 minutes of the entire convention.

And Ron Johnson. Just wow, Ron. Apparently another teleprompter “flub” caused him to deliver THE WRONG SPEECH. That’s what he’s saying. Speech 1: Democrats are a “clear and present danger.” Speech 2: some blather about unity. Ron chose Speech 1. Does anyone really believe it was a teleprompter error? Almost makes MAGA Mike look normal. We can’t underestimate how hard that is.

And continuing with the pattern of weirdo MAGA people, we have to touch on Ol’ Pudding Ron’s speech. He did that thing where he wears 5 inch heels and blathers on about how great the guy who referred to him as “meatball” is in between uncontrollably licking his lips. Even though he’s been out of the news lately, he clearly hasn’t changed. He’s still the most uncomfortable guy in the GOP.

Nikki Haley proved to us once again that when she suspended her campaign, she suspended having a spine too, because this was the ass-kissing of the year. She was booed before taking the stage, and from the looks of it, Trump was dozing off during her speech. Maybe she won’t get that cabinet spot after all.

Yes, night two had its moments, but perhaps none better than one that occurred offstage. The saga of Matt Gaetz and Kevin McCarthy beefing continues, and it just gets more hilarious. Kevin was being interviewed when Gaetz came up behind the camera and started heckling. What did Kevin do about it? He went for the ace in the hole of course and called Gaetz a pedophile on live TV. Kinda hard to recover from that one. We’re guessing that’s why Matty G wasn’t asked to speak at the convention. 

Remember folks, we’re only halfway through. And the circus is only going to get worse. The more you read about the convention, the more we hope you realize how badly we need to win this thing in November. 

Help us defeat MAGA >>

-The Lincoln Project