This mop would be a better president.
This mop would be a better president. MSCORNELIUS/GETTY

Like Gaga, Trump lives for the applause, as evidenced in his constant rallying. He'll be holding a rally in Mississippi, his third in four days, at 7:40 p.m. ET.

He will, presumably, yell about this:


God. That picture. It will haunt me.

The New York Times released a 14,000+ word piece (!!!) that is "unprecedented in scope and precision, offering the first comprehensive look at the inherited fortune and tax dodges that guaranteed Donald J. Trump a gilded life." The long, very long reporting by David Barstow, Susanne Craig, and Russ Buettner gathers data from more than 100,000 pages of documents from public sources and confidential records, including more than 200 tax returns from papa Trump, concluding:

The Times’s investigation, based on a vast trove of confidential tax returns and financial records, reveals that Mr. Trump received the equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father’s real estate empire, starting when he was a toddler and continuing to this day.

Much of this money came to Mr. Trump because he helped his parents dodge taxes. He and his siblings set up a sham corporation to disguise millions of dollars in gifts from their parents, records and interviews show. Records indicate that Mr. Trump helped his father take improper tax deductions worth millions more. He also helped formulate a strategy to undervalue his parents’ real estate holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars on tax returns, sharply reducing the tax bill when those properties were transferred to him and his siblings.

Now, if you're giddy over this gotcha moment, check yourself:

According to tax experts, it is unlikely that Mr. Trump would be vulnerable to criminal prosecution for helping his parents evade taxes, because the acts happened too long ago and are past the statute of limitations. There is no time limit, however, on civil fines for tax fraud.

The Times's reporting on Trump's tax maneuvers is both astonishing and routine, in the unique way that every day living under Trump is both astonishing and routine. If you don't have an hour or so to read the whole thing, the Times was nice enough to make a cheat sheet.

At this time, no word from Trump on Twitter about the reporting. But there is this:


And this! Did you know America's finally respected again? Can you believe?


As we gear up for a Kavanaugh clusterfuck later this week, Lindsay Graham suggested today that Trump should renominate Kavanaugh if the Senate fails to confirm him, per USA Today:

The South Carolina Republican said he still believes Kavanaugh will be confirmed to the high court soon. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has vowed that the Senate will vote on Kavanaugh this week.

But Graham offered Trump a contingency plan in case the nominee is narrowly defeated.

"If his nomination were to fall short, I would encourage President Trump to re-nominate Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court," Graham said in a statement. "It would – in effect – be appealing the Senate’s verdict directly to the American people."

Trump told CNN that it's a "scary time" for men:

When asked about the allegations of sexual assault against his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump said that it is a "scary time" for men in the United States and that men are now "guilty until proven innocent."

And speaking of scary, Foreign Policy reported that the Trump administration plans to deny visas to same-sex partners of diplomats:

The Trump administration on Monday began denying visas to same-sex domestic partners of foreign diplomats and United Nations employees, and requiring those already in the United States to get married by the end of the year or leave the country.

The U.S. Mission to the U.N. portrayed the decision—which foreign diplomats fear will increase hardships for same-sex couples in countries that don’t recognize same-sex marriage—as an effort to bring its international visa practices in line with current U.S. policy. In light of the landmark 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage, the U.S. extends diplomatic visas only to married spouses of U.S. diplomats.

Samantha Power, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, tweeted this about the policy:


It is the 620th day of Trump's presidency. 620 is roughly the amount of times you will sigh while reading that very long story in the Times.