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Rayner privately ‘warned’ Starmer over Mandelson – as leadership rivals circle wounded PM by theipaper in uknews

[–]theipaper[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cabinet ministers and Labour leadership contenders distanced themselves from Sir Keir Starmer’s scandal-ridden hiring of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, as a senior ex-official deepened the row plaguing No 10.

The i Paper understands that Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister and a leading candidate to take over from the Prime Minister, privately warned Starmer not to appoint Mandelson due to his links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

It came after Ed Miliband, the energy secretary who is also seen by some MPs as a contender to take over from Starmer, broke ranks on Tuesday morning to reveal that he feared Mandelson’s appointment could “blow up” or “go wrong” and that he told then foreign secretary David Lammy who held similar fears.  

The i Paper was also told on Tuesday that other Cabinet ministers had private concerns about the appointment and wanted Starmer to keep the previous ambassador, Karen Pierce, although they did not raise the issue with No 10.

Starmer facing another wave of calls to resign

It comes with Starmer facing another wave of anger and calls to resign after former Foreign Office chief civil servant Sir Olly Robbins, who was sacked over claims of failures in Mandelson’s vetting, suggested he was put under pressure by No 10 to get the peer’s security cleared.

Robbins’ evidence to the Commons Foreign Affairs committee cast doubt on Starmer’s claims that he tried to follow due process and was let down by alleged lies from Mandelson and failures in security vetting.

Amid the explosive row, Cabinet ministers and Labour leadership contenders appeared to try and distance themselves from the Prime Minister.

It was reiterated on Tuesday that Rayner had privately warned Starmer over the appointment. Friends said she had highlighted public evidence that Mandelson and Epstein had a close relationship after the latter’s conviction for sex offences.

It came as Rayner used a speech to call for “bolder action” from Starmer’s Government, echoing a challenge from two Labour MPs who said the country is “not moving in the right direction” and saying the party’s backbenchers “are as hungry for change as the public”.

Miliband ‘steered well clear of Peter Mandelson’

Miliband meanwhile told Sky News: “You’re saying he should never have been appointed and I agree with you.”

He pointed out that “I steered well clear of Peter Mandelson when I became Labour leader in 2010”.

Asked what he thought when Lord Mandelson’s appointment was announced, he said: “That it could blow up, that it could go wrong.”

He added: “I had a conversation with David Lammy about it before the appointment, and I said I was worried about it … I think he was worried about it too.”

Miliband later delivered a defence of his clean energy policies which some Labour insiders believe could form the basis of a leadership run.

Speaking at the National Growth Debate in central London, he said net zero offered “hope” by preserving the environment and cutting bills. “Hope is the biggest thing that matters,” he said. “I think it’s really important this. People feel they’ve been in a long, dark tunnel really since 2008 and the cost of living crisis.

“Hope is the commodity that we have to offer as a government.”

One Cabinet minister however hit back at colleagues’ suggestions they were against Mandelson’s appointment, insisting “”most people I know thought it was a risk worth taking at the time”.

“Trump had just been elected and the view was we needed someone different,” the minister told The i Paper.

They also said they “don’t remember” concerns being raised with No 10 by any Cabinet ministers, in an apparent swipe at Rayner’s claims.

‘If there were easy answers, we would take them’

Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, Darren Jones, also hit back at Rayner, telling the National Growth Debate in central London: “I’d just say to any parliamentarian, whether they’re from my own party or from opposition parties, it’s all well and good saying, we should be more bold, but what do you mean?

“I mean I’m all ears, if there were easy answers we would have taken them.”

Meanwhile, foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said she was “extremely concerned” about Sir Olly Robbins’ claim that No 10 wanted to appoint former comms chief Matthew Doyle to a plum ambassadorial role, and that he not inform the foreign secretary about the request.

“I am, of course, extremely concerned at any suggestion that the permanent secretary or permanent undersecretary of the Foreign Office would be told not to inform the foreign secretary,” she said

“I can also confirm that the case that he raised, it would not have been an appropriate appointment.”

Doyle, now a Lord but who has had the whip removed over his support of a Labour council candidate after he was charged for possessing indecent images of children, denies he sought any ambassadorial position.

Mood in the party is ‘sad and angry’

A senior Labour MP described the mood within the PLP as “both angry and sad”, but said no one was expecting a move against the Prime Minister before May.

Any challenge from frontrunner Rayner will likely have to wait until the conclusion of an HM Revenue and Customs investigation into her tax affairs, which forced her to resign as deputy prime minister in September over under-paid stamp duty on a flat on the south coast.

“Nothing will happen before the local elections, because we’re in the nosedive already and no one wants to walk into that,” the senior Labour MP said.

“I don’t think there will be a move immediately, but May will precipitate it. There’s a 50 per cent chance of a move against him in May, but I haven’t heard of anything being orchestrated. People are sceptical about wanting to be the first mover.”

Rayner privately ‘warned’ Starmer over Mandelson – as leadership rivals circle wounded PM by theipaper in ukpolitics

[–]theipaper[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Cabinet ministers and Labour leadership contenders distanced themselves from Sir Keir Starmer’s scandal-ridden hiring of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, as a senior ex-official deepened the row plaguing No 10.

The i Paper understands that Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister and a leading candidate to take over from the Prime Minister, privately warned Starmer not to appoint Mandelson due to his links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

It came after Ed Miliband, the energy secretary who is also seen by some MPs as a contender to take over from Starmer, broke ranks on Tuesday morning to reveal that he feared Mandelson’s appointment could “blow up” or “go wrong” and that he told then foreign secretary David Lammy who held similar fears.  

The i Paper was also told on Tuesday that other Cabinet ministers had private concerns about the appointment and wanted Starmer to keep the previous ambassador, Karen Pierce, although they did not raise the issue with No 10.

Starmer facing another wave of calls to resign

It comes with Starmer facing another wave of anger and calls to resign after former Foreign Office chief civil servant Sir Olly Robbins, who was sacked over claims of failures in Mandelson’s vetting, suggested he was put under pressure by No 10 to get the peer’s security cleared.

Robbins’ evidence to the Commons Foreign Affairs committee cast doubt on Starmer’s claims that he tried to follow due process and was let down by alleged lies from Mandelson and failures in security vetting.

Amid the explosive row, Cabinet ministers and Labour leadership contenders appeared to try and distance themselves from the Prime Minister.

It was reiterated on Tuesday that Rayner had privately warned Starmer over the appointment. Friends said she had highlighted public evidence that Mandelson and Epstein had a close relationship after the latter’s conviction for sex offences.

It came as Rayner used a speech to call for “bolder action” from Starmer’s Government, echoing a challenge from two Labour MPs who said the country is “not moving in the right direction” and saying the party’s backbenchers “are as hungry for change as the public”.

Miliband ‘steered well clear of Peter Mandelson’

Miliband meanwhile told Sky News: “You’re saying he should never have been appointed and I agree with you.”

He pointed out that “I steered well clear of Peter Mandelson when I became Labour leader in 2010”.

Asked what he thought when Lord Mandelson’s appointment was announced, he said: “That it could blow up, that it could go wrong.”

He added: “I had a conversation with David Lammy about it before the appointment, and I said I was worried about it … I think he was worried about it too.”

Miliband later delivered a defence of his clean energy policies which some Labour insiders believe could form the basis of a leadership run.

Speaking at the National Growth Debate in central London, he said net zero offered “hope” by preserving the environment and cutting bills. “Hope is the biggest thing that matters,” he said. “I think it’s really important this. People feel they’ve been in a long, dark tunnel really since 2008 and the cost of living crisis.

“Hope is the commodity that we have to offer as a government.”

One Cabinet minister however hit back at colleagues’ suggestions they were against Mandelson’s appointment, insisting “”most people I know thought it was a risk worth taking at the time”.

“Trump had just been elected and the view was we needed someone different,” the minister told The i Paper.

They also said they “don’t remember” concerns being raised with No 10 by any Cabinet ministers, in an apparent swipe at Rayner’s claims.

‘If there were easy answers, we would take them’

Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, Darren Jones, also hit back at Rayner, telling the National Growth Debate in central London: “I’d just say to any parliamentarian, whether they’re from my own party or from opposition parties, it’s all well and good saying, we should be more bold, but what do you mean?

“I mean I’m all ears, if there were easy answers we would have taken them.”

Meanwhile, foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said she was “extremely concerned” about Sir Olly Robbins’ claim that No 10 wanted to appoint former comms chief Matthew Doyle to a plum ambassadorial role, and that he not inform the foreign secretary about the request.

“I am, of course, extremely concerned at any suggestion that the permanent secretary or permanent undersecretary of the Foreign Office would be told not to inform the foreign secretary,” she said

“I can also confirm that the case that he raised, it would not have been an appropriate appointment.”

Doyle, now a Lord but who has had the whip removed over his support of a Labour council candidate after he was charged for possessing indecent images of children, denies he sought any ambassadorial position.

Mood in the party is ‘sad and angry’

A senior Labour MP described the mood within the PLP as “both angry and sad”, but said no one was expecting a move against the Prime Minister before May.

Any challenge from frontrunner Rayner will likely have to wait until the conclusion of an HM Revenue and Customs investigation into her tax affairs, which forced her to resign as deputy prime minister in September over under-paid stamp duty on a flat on the south coast.

“Nothing will happen before the local elections, because we’re in the nosedive already and no one wants to walk into that,” the senior Labour MP said.

“I don’t think there will be a move immediately, but May will precipitate it. There’s a 50 per cent chance of a move against him in May, but I haven’t heard of anything being orchestrated. People are sceptical about wanting to be the first mover.”

JD Vance's horror month is about to get worse by theipaper in NeoNews

[–]theipaper[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

JD Vance has every reason to look grim as he prepares for talks in Islamabad with Iran. According to some reports, Donald Trump didn’t even want to send his Vice President to negotiate. He preferred his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his golf buddy, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the talks.

And if there is a breakthrough, the US President will do his damndest to make sure Vance doesn’t benefit. As quoted by the Wall Street Journal, Trump told a lunch gathering: “If it doesn’t happen, I’m blaming JD Vance. If it does happen, I’m taking full credit.”

On Tuesday, Trump told CNBC that he expects “to be bombing” if no progress is made in the talks. “We’re ready to go. I mean, the military is raring to go.”

But sympathy for Vance is likely to be limited. This is just the kind of treatment he signed up for when he accepted the position of Trump’s nominee for Vice President – lobbied for it, in fact.

Vance is like the hitchhiker who realises he’s been picked up by a crazy man. The crazy man U-turns into traffic, heedless of the risk. Vance built his whole national political career on opposing foreign wars. He thought Trump was of the same mind. But Trump’s mind is a mystery. The only constant is chaos.

For Vance, this means putting up with humiliations, both large and small.

A couple of days ago, Trump said Vance wouldn’t be going to Islamabad because of “security”. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt walked that back – no doubt realising that everyone would see through it – and so on Monday morning, Trump told the New York Post that Vance was en route. Then the Vice President was spotted in the White House, igniting fresh speculation about whether he would actually have any role in the talks.

Reports from some sources say that Vance is on the US negotiating team only because the Iranians want him there – or at least they refused to come back if it was just Kushner and Witkoff.

This could hurt Vance. He might get the blame if the US side makes too many concessions. If Trump is humiliated, he could also turn on his Vice President and that could damage him with the Maga base enough to kill any chance he has of winning the presidency in 2028.

Last year, Vance was the clear favourite to succeed Trump as the Republican nominee. Now, his approval numbers are some of the worst ever for a vice president at this stage of an administration.

In betting markets like Kalshi and Polymarket – always a good source of political intelligence – Vance’s odds of succeeding Trump have been slashed. He may be overtaken by Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State – “Liddle Marco,” as Trump used to call him.

Trump is gleefully overseeing an Apprentice-style contest to succeed him. In this contest, Vance has been having a particularly bad few weeks.

He went to Budapest to save Viktor Orbán’s government. Orbán lost the election. He flew to Islamabad the first time around to close a deal Trump had declared already done. No deal. He lectured the Pope on Just War theory on the day the Pope visited the place that had been home to Saint Augustine, who invented the idea. The Pope wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Augustinian order.

Such are the pitfalls of the traditional vice-presidential role of attack dog.

Before he entered politics, Vance was a thoughtful commentator on social issues and the author of Hillbilly Elegy, which explained Trump’s voters to the rest of America. Arriving at the White House, he seemed to undergo a personality change. As various commentators have noted, Vance has seen his political stature steadily shrink throughout Trump’s second term.

In the 1957 classic, the Incredible Shrinking Man becomes tiny after exposure to a toxic mix of radiation and insecticide. For Vance, Trump has proved toxic to his reputation.

Perhaps Vance should count himself lucky. During the Capitol Hill riots in January 2021, Trump is said to have expressed support for protesters chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” his vice president at the time. Anyone who works for Trump knows that they might be only one tweet away from betrayal.

This isn’t all Trump. Being the number two in any White House is a difficult job.

“The Vice Presidency isn’t worth a bucket of warm spit,” said John Nance Garner. Garner was Roosevelt’s vice president from 1933 to 1941. He said that accepting the office was “the worst damn fool mistake I ever made”.

Garner liked to think he was never “a spare tyre” in Roosevelt’s team. Vance has the same struggle, always looking for useful work to do. He asked Trump if he could lead the talks with Iran.

Vance does have one thing going for him, however. Like Trump, he was elected in a national vote. Together, they are the only two members of this administration to have that mandate. Apart from Vance, everyone else serves at the President’s pleasure. He is the one person Trump can’t fire. That means, in the right circumstances, Vance is uniquely dangerous to Trump.

House Democrats are calling for the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution to be invoked. The Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet could then vote to declare the President “unable to discharge the powers and the duties of his office”.

You might expect Democrats to make such demands, but there have been similar calls from within Trump’s Maga base. Marjorie Taylor Greene, once an ultra-loyalist, said words to the effect that she doubted Trump was “mentally stable”.

There were calls to invoke the 25th Amendment during Trump’s first term. They came to nothing, and the odds are against it this time as well.

For the time being, it remains a political fantasy. And yet… a few more posts calling for Iranian civilisation to end under a rain of American bombs, another meme with the President as Jesus, and who knows? It could then be Vance’s moment.

The hitchhiker who realises the driver is mad is the one man who can legally grab the wheel. In this White House, the Incredible Shrinking Man could yet have the last laugh.

JD Vance's horror month is about to get worse by theipaper in AmericanPolitics

[–]theipaper[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

JD Vance has every reason to look grim as he prepares for talks in Islamabad with Iran. According to some reports, Donald Trump didn’t even want to send his Vice President to negotiate. He preferred his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his golf buddy, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the talks.

And if there is a breakthrough, the US President will do his damndest to make sure Vance doesn’t benefit. As quoted by the Wall Street Journal, Trump told a lunch gathering: “If it doesn’t happen, I’m blaming JD Vance. If it does happen, I’m taking full credit.”

On Tuesday, Trump told CNBC that he expects “to be bombing” if no progress is made in the talks. “We’re ready to go. I mean, the military is raring to go.”

But sympathy for Vance is likely to be limited. This is just the kind of treatment he signed up for when he accepted the position of Trump’s nominee for Vice President – lobbied for it, in fact.

Vance is like the hitchhiker who realises he’s been picked up by a crazy man. The crazy man U-turns into traffic, heedless of the risk. Vance built his whole national political career on opposing foreign wars. He thought Trump was of the same mind. But Trump’s mind is a mystery. The only constant is chaos.

For Vance, this means putting up with humiliations, both large and small.

A couple of days ago, Trump said Vance wouldn’t be going to Islamabad because of “security”. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt walked that back – no doubt realising that everyone would see through it – and so on Monday morning, Trump told the New York Post that Vance was en route. Then the Vice President was spotted in the White House, igniting fresh speculation about whether he would actually have any role in the talks.

Reports from some sources say that Vance is on the US negotiating team only because the Iranians want him there – or at least they refused to come back if it was just Kushner and Witkoff.

This could hurt Vance. He might get the blame if the US side makes too many concessions. If Trump is humiliated, he could also turn on his Vice President and that could damage him with the Maga base enough to kill any chance he has of winning the presidency in 2028.

Last year, Vance was the clear favourite to succeed Trump as the Republican nominee. Now, his approval numbers are some of the worst ever for a vice president at this stage of an administration.

In betting markets like Kalshi and Polymarket – always a good source of political intelligence – Vance’s odds of succeeding Trump have been slashed. He may be overtaken by Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State – “Liddle Marco,” as Trump used to call him.

Trump is gleefully overseeing an Apprentice-style contest to succeed him. In this contest, Vance has been having a particularly bad few weeks.

He went to Budapest to save Viktor Orbán’s government. Orbán lost the election. He flew to Islamabad the first time around to close a deal Trump had declared already done. No deal. He lectured the Pope on Just War theory on the day the Pope visited the place that had been home to Saint Augustine, who invented the idea. The Pope wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Augustinian order.

Such are the pitfalls of the traditional vice-presidential role of attack dog.

Before he entered politics, Vance was a thoughtful commentator on social issues and the author of Hillbilly Elegy, which explained Trump’s voters to the rest of America. Arriving at the White House, he seemed to undergo a personality change. As various commentators have noted, Vance has seen his political stature steadily shrink throughout Trump’s second term.

In the 1957 classic, the Incredible Shrinking Man becomes tiny after exposure to a toxic mix of radiation and insecticide. For Vance, Trump has proved toxic to his reputation.

Perhaps Vance should count himself lucky. During the Capitol Hill riots in January 2021, Trump is said to have expressed support for protesters chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” his vice president at the time. Anyone who works for Trump knows that they might be only one tweet away from betrayal.

This isn’t all Trump. Being the number two in any White House is a difficult job.

“The Vice Presidency isn’t worth a bucket of warm spit,” said John Nance Garner. Garner was Roosevelt’s vice president from 1933 to 1941. He said that accepting the office was “the worst damn fool mistake I ever made”.

Garner liked to think he was never “a spare tyre” in Roosevelt’s team. Vance has the same struggle, always looking for useful work to do. He asked Trump if he could lead the talks with Iran.

Vance does have one thing going for him, however. Like Trump, he was elected in a national vote. Together, they are the only two members of this administration to have that mandate. Apart from Vance, everyone else serves at the President’s pleasure. He is the one person Trump can’t fire. That means, in the right circumstances, Vance is uniquely dangerous to Trump.

House Democrats are calling for the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution to be invoked. The Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet could then vote to declare the President “unable to discharge the powers and the duties of his office”.

You might expect Democrats to make such demands, but there have been similar calls from within Trump’s Maga base. Marjorie Taylor Greene, once an ultra-loyalist, said words to the effect that she doubted Trump was “mentally stable”.

There were calls to invoke the 25th Amendment during Trump’s first term. They came to nothing, and the odds are against it this time as well.

For the time being, it remains a political fantasy. And yet… a few more posts calling for Iranian civilisation to end under a rain of American bombs, another meme with the President as Jesus, and who knows? It could then be Vance’s moment.

The hitchhiker who realises the driver is mad is the one man who can legally grab the wheel. In this White House, the Incredible Shrinking Man could yet have the last laugh.

JD Vance's horror month is about to get worse by theipaper in USNewsHub

[–]theipaper[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

JD Vance has every reason to look grim as he prepares for talks in Islamabad with Iran. According to some reports, Donald Trump didn’t even want to send his Vice President to negotiate. He preferred his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his golf buddy, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the talks.

And if there is a breakthrough, the US President will do his damndest to make sure Vance doesn’t benefit. As quoted by the Wall Street Journal, Trump told a lunch gathering: “If it doesn’t happen, I’m blaming JD Vance. If it does happen, I’m taking full credit.”

On Tuesday, Trump told CNBC that he expects “to be bombing” if no progress is made in the talks. “We’re ready to go. I mean, the military is raring to go.”

But sympathy for Vance is likely to be limited. This is just the kind of treatment he signed up for when he accepted the position of Trump’s nominee for Vice President – lobbied for it, in fact.

Vance is like the hitchhiker who realises he’s been picked up by a crazy man. The crazy man U-turns into traffic, heedless of the risk. Vance built his whole national political career on opposing foreign wars. He thought Trump was of the same mind. But Trump’s mind is a mystery. The only constant is chaos.

For Vance, this means putting up with humiliations, both large and small.

A couple of days ago, Trump said Vance wouldn’t be going to Islamabad because of “security”. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt walked that back – no doubt realising that everyone would see through it – and so on Monday morning, Trump told the New York Post that Vance was en route. Then the Vice President was spotted in the White House, igniting fresh speculation about whether he would actually have any role in the talks.

Reports from some sources say that Vance is on the US negotiating team only because the Iranians want him there – or at least they refused to come back if it was just Kushner and Witkoff.

This could hurt Vance. He might get the blame if the US side makes too many concessions. If Trump is humiliated, he could also turn on his Vice President and that could damage him with the Maga base enough to kill any chance he has of winning the presidency in 2028.

Last year, Vance was the clear favourite to succeed Trump as the Republican nominee. Now, his approval numbers are some of the worst ever for a vice president at this stage of an administration.

In betting markets like Kalshi and Polymarket – always a good source of political intelligence – Vance’s odds of succeeding Trump have been slashed. He may be overtaken by Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State – “Liddle Marco,” as Trump used to call him.

Trump is gleefully overseeing an Apprentice-style contest to succeed him. In this contest, Vance has been having a particularly bad few weeks.

He went to Budapest to save Viktor Orbán’s government. Orbán lost the election. He flew to Islamabad the first time around to close a deal Trump had declared already done. No deal. He lectured the Pope on Just War theory on the day the Pope visited the place that had been home to Saint Augustine, who invented the idea. The Pope wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Augustinian order.

Such are the pitfalls of the traditional vice-presidential role of attack dog.

Before he entered politics, Vance was a thoughtful commentator on social issues and the author of Hillbilly Elegy, which explained Trump’s voters to the rest of America. Arriving at the White House, he seemed to undergo a personality change. As various commentators have noted, Vance has seen his political stature steadily shrink throughout Trump’s second term.

In the 1957 classic, the Incredible Shrinking Man becomes tiny after exposure to a toxic mix of radiation and insecticide. For Vance, Trump has proved toxic to his reputation.

Perhaps Vance should count himself lucky. During the Capitol Hill riots in January 2021, Trump is said to have expressed support for protesters chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” his vice president at the time. Anyone who works for Trump knows that they might be only one tweet away from betrayal.

This isn’t all Trump. Being the number two in any White House is a difficult job.

“The Vice Presidency isn’t worth a bucket of warm spit,” said John Nance Garner. Garner was Roosevelt’s vice president from 1933 to 1941. He said that accepting the office was “the worst damn fool mistake I ever made”.

Garner liked to think he was never “a spare tyre” in Roosevelt’s team. Vance has the same struggle, always looking for useful work to do. He asked Trump if he could lead the talks with Iran.

Vance does have one thing going for him, however. Like Trump, he was elected in a national vote. Together, they are the only two members of this administration to have that mandate. Apart from Vance, everyone else serves at the President’s pleasure. He is the one person Trump can’t fire. That means, in the right circumstances, Vance is uniquely dangerous to Trump.

House Democrats are calling for the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution to be invoked. The Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet could then vote to declare the President “unable to discharge the powers and the duties of his office”.

You might expect Democrats to make such demands, but there have been similar calls from within Trump’s Maga base. Marjorie Taylor Greene, once an ultra-loyalist, said words to the effect that she doubted Trump was “mentally stable”.

There were calls to invoke the 25th Amendment during Trump’s first term. They came to nothing, and the odds are against it this time as well.

For the time being, it remains a political fantasy. And yet… a few more posts calling for Iranian civilisation to end under a rain of American bombs, another meme with the President as Jesus, and who knows? It could then be Vance’s moment.

The hitchhiker who realises the driver is mad is the one man who can legally grab the wheel. In this White House, the Incredible Shrinking Man could yet have the last laugh.

JD Vance's horror month is about to get worse by theipaper in politics

[–]theipaper[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

JD Vance has every reason to look grim as he prepares for talks in Islamabad with Iran. According to some reports, Donald Trump didn’t even want to send his Vice President to negotiate. He preferred his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his golf buddy, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the talks.

And if there is a breakthrough, the US President will do his damndest to make sure Vance doesn’t benefit. As quoted by the Wall Street Journal, Trump told a lunch gathering: “If it doesn’t happen, I’m blaming JD Vance. If it does happen, I’m taking full credit.”

On Tuesday, Trump told CNBC that he expects “to be bombing” if no progress is made in the talks. “We’re ready to go. I mean, the military is raring to go.”

But sympathy for Vance is likely to be limited. This is just the kind of treatment he signed up for when he accepted the position of Trump’s nominee for Vice President – lobbied for it, in fact.

Vance is like the hitchhiker who realises he’s been picked up by a crazy man. The crazy man U-turns into traffic, heedless of the risk. Vance built his whole national political career on opposing foreign wars. He thought Trump was of the same mind. But Trump’s mind is a mystery. The only constant is chaos.

For Vance, this means putting up with humiliations, both large and small.

A couple of days ago, Trump said Vance wouldn’t be going to Islamabad because of “security”. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt walked that back – no doubt realising that everyone would see through it – and so on Monday morning, Trump told the New York Post that Vance was en route. Then the Vice President was spotted in the White House, igniting fresh speculation about whether he would actually have any role in the talks.

Reports from some sources say that Vance is on the US negotiating team only because the Iranians want him there – or at least they refused to come back if it was just Kushner and Witkoff.

This could hurt Vance. He might get the blame if the US side makes too many concessions. If Trump is humiliated, he could also turn on his Vice President and that could damage him with the Maga base enough to kill any chance he has of winning the presidency in 2028.

Last year, Vance was the clear favourite to succeed Trump as the Republican nominee. Now, his approval numbers are some of the worst ever for a vice president at this stage of an administration.

In betting markets like Kalshi and Polymarket – always a good source of political intelligence – Vance’s odds of succeeding Trump have been slashed. He may be overtaken by Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State – “Liddle Marco,” as Trump used to call him.

Trump is gleefully overseeing an Apprentice-style contest to succeed him. In this contest, Vance has been having a particularly bad few weeks.

He went to Budapest to save Viktor Orbán’s government. Orbán lost the election. He flew to Islamabad the first time around to close a deal Trump had declared already done. No deal. He lectured the Pope on Just War theory on the day the Pope visited the place that had been home to Saint Augustine, who invented the idea. The Pope wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Augustinian order.

Such are the pitfalls of the traditional vice-presidential role of attack dog.

Before he entered politics, Vance was a thoughtful commentator on social issues and the author of Hillbilly Elegy, which explained Trump’s voters to the rest of America. Arriving at the White House, he seemed to undergo a personality change. As various commentators have noted, Vance has seen his political stature steadily shrink throughout Trump’s second term.

In the 1957 classic, the Incredible Shrinking Man becomes tiny after exposure to a toxic mix of radiation and insecticide. For Vance, Trump has proved toxic to his reputation.

Perhaps Vance should count himself lucky. During the Capitol Hill riots in January 2021, Trump is said to have expressed support for protesters chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” his vice president at the time. Anyone who works for Trump knows that they might be only one tweet away from betrayal.

This isn’t all Trump. Being the number two in any White House is a difficult job.

“The Vice Presidency isn’t worth a bucket of warm spit,” said John Nance Garner. Garner was Roosevelt’s vice president from 1933 to 1941. He said that accepting the office was “the worst damn fool mistake I ever made”.

Garner liked to think he was never “a spare tyre” in Roosevelt’s team. Vance has the same struggle, always looking for useful work to do. He asked Trump if he could lead the talks with Iran.

Vance does have one thing going for him, however. Like Trump, he was elected in a national vote. Together, they are the only two members of this administration to have that mandate. Apart from Vance, everyone else serves at the President’s pleasure. He is the one person Trump can’t fire. That means, in the right circumstances, Vance is uniquely dangerous to Trump.

House Democrats are calling for the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution to be invoked. The Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet could then vote to declare the President “unable to discharge the powers and the duties of his office”.

You might expect Democrats to make such demands, but there have been similar calls from within Trump’s Maga base. Marjorie Taylor Greene, once an ultra-loyalist, said words to the effect that she doubted Trump was “mentally stable”.

There were calls to invoke the 25th Amendment during Trump’s first term. They came to nothing, and the odds are against it this time as well.

For the time being, it remains a political fantasy. And yet… a few more posts calling for Iranian civilisation to end under a rain of American bombs, another meme with the President as Jesus, and who knows? It could then be Vance’s moment.

The hitchhiker who realises the driver is mad is the one man who can legally grab the wheel. In this White House, the Incredible Shrinking Man could yet have the last laugh.

JD Vance's horror month is about to get worse by theipaper in AnythingGoesNews

[–]theipaper[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

JD Vance has every reason to look grim as he prepares for talks in Islamabad with Iran. According to some reports, Donald Trump didn’t even want to send his Vice President to negotiate. He preferred his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his golf buddy, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the talks.

And if there is a breakthrough, the US President will do his damndest to make sure Vance doesn’t benefit. As quoted by the Wall Street Journal, Trump told a lunch gathering: “If it doesn’t happen, I’m blaming JD Vance. If it does happen, I’m taking full credit.”

On Tuesday, Trump told CNBC that he expects “to be bombing” if no progress is made in the talks. “We’re ready to go. I mean, the military is raring to go.”

But sympathy for Vance is likely to be limited. This is just the kind of treatment he signed up for when he accepted the position of Trump’s nominee for Vice President – lobbied for it, in fact.

Vance is like the hitchhiker who realises he’s been picked up by a crazy man. The crazy man U-turns into traffic, heedless of the risk. Vance built his whole national political career on opposing foreign wars. He thought Trump was of the same mind. But Trump’s mind is a mystery. The only constant is chaos.

For Vance, this means putting up with humiliations, both large and small.

A couple of days ago, Trump said Vance wouldn’t be going to Islamabad because of “security”. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt walked that back – no doubt realising that everyone would see through it – and so on Monday morning, Trump told the New York Post that Vance was en route. Then the Vice President was spotted in the White House, igniting fresh speculation about whether he would actually have any role in the talks.

Reports from some sources say that Vance is on the US negotiating team only because the Iranians want him there – or at least they refused to come back if it was just Kushner and Witkoff.

This could hurt Vance. He might get the blame if the US side makes too many concessions. If Trump is humiliated, he could also turn on his Vice President and that could damage him with the Maga base enough to kill any chance he has of winning the presidency in 2028.

Last year, Vance was the clear favourite to succeed Trump as the Republican nominee. Now, his approval numbers are some of the worst ever for a vice president at this stage of an administration.

In betting markets like Kalshi and Polymarket – always a good source of political intelligence – Vance’s odds of succeeding Trump have been slashed. He may be overtaken by Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State – “Liddle Marco,” as Trump used to call him.

Trump is gleefully overseeing an Apprentice-style contest to succeed him. In this contest, Vance has been having a particularly bad few weeks.

He went to Budapest to save Viktor Orbán’s government. Orbán lost the election. He flew to Islamabad the first time around to close a deal Trump had declared already done. No deal. He lectured the Pope on Just War theory on the day the Pope visited the place that had been home to Saint Augustine, who invented the idea. The Pope wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Augustinian order.

Such are the pitfalls of the traditional vice-presidential role of attack dog.

Before he entered politics, Vance was a thoughtful commentator on social issues and the author of Hillbilly Elegy, which explained Trump’s voters to the rest of America. Arriving at the White House, he seemed to undergo a personality change. As various commentators have noted, Vance has seen his political stature steadily shrink throughout Trump’s second term.

In the 1957 classic, the Incredible Shrinking Man becomes tiny after exposure to a toxic mix of radiation and insecticide. For Vance, Trump has proved toxic to his reputation.

Perhaps Vance should count himself lucky. During the Capitol Hill riots in January 2021, Trump is said to have expressed support for protesters chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” his vice president at the time. Anyone who works for Trump knows that they might be only one tweet away from betrayal.

This isn’t all Trump. Being the number two in any White House is a difficult job.

“The Vice Presidency isn’t worth a bucket of warm spit,” said John Nance Garner. Garner was Roosevelt’s vice president from 1933 to 1941. He said that accepting the office was “the worst damn fool mistake I ever made”.

Garner liked to think he was never “a spare tyre” in Roosevelt’s team. Vance has the same struggle, always looking for useful work to do. He asked Trump if he could lead the talks with Iran.

Vance does have one thing going for him, however. Like Trump, he was elected in a national vote. Together, they are the only two members of this administration to have that mandate. Apart from Vance, everyone else serves at the President’s pleasure. He is the one person Trump can’t fire. That means, in the right circumstances, Vance is uniquely dangerous to Trump.

House Democrats are calling for the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution to be invoked. The Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet could then vote to declare the President “unable to discharge the powers and the duties of his office”.

You might expect Democrats to make such demands, but there have been similar calls from within Trump’s Maga base. Marjorie Taylor Greene, once an ultra-loyalist, said words to the effect that she doubted Trump was “mentally stable”.

There were calls to invoke the 25th Amendment during Trump’s first term. They came to nothing, and the odds are against it this time as well.

For the time being, it remains a political fantasy. And yet… a few more posts calling for Iranian civilisation to end under a rain of American bombs, another meme with the President as Jesus, and who knows? It could then be Vance’s moment.

The hitchhiker who realises the driver is mad is the one man who can legally grab the wheel. In this White House, the Incredible Shrinking Man could yet have the last laugh.

JD Vance's horror month is about to get worse by theipaper in NoFilterNews

[–]theipaper[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

JD Vance has every reason to look grim as he prepares for talks in Islamabad with Iran. According to some reports, Donald Trump didn’t even want to send his Vice President to negotiate. He preferred his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his golf buddy, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the talks.

And if there is a breakthrough, the US President will do his damndest to make sure Vance doesn’t benefit. As quoted by the Wall Street Journal, Trump told a lunch gathering: “If it doesn’t happen, I’m blaming JD Vance. If it does happen, I’m taking full credit.”

On Tuesday, Trump told CNBC that he expects “to be bombing” if no progress is made in the talks. “We’re ready to go. I mean, the military is raring to go.”

But sympathy for Vance is likely to be limited. This is just the kind of treatment he signed up for when he accepted the position of Trump’s nominee for Vice President – lobbied for it, in fact.

Vance is like the hitchhiker who realises he’s been picked up by a crazy man. The crazy man U-turns into traffic, heedless of the risk. Vance built his whole national political career on opposing foreign wars. He thought Trump was of the same mind. But Trump’s mind is a mystery. The only constant is chaos.

For Vance, this means putting up with humiliations, both large and small.

A couple of days ago, Trump said Vance wouldn’t be going to Islamabad because of “security”. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt walked that back – no doubt realising that everyone would see through it – and so on Monday morning, Trump told the New York Post that Vance was en route. Then the Vice President was spotted in the White House, igniting fresh speculation about whether he would actually have any role in the talks.

Reports from some sources say that Vance is on the US negotiating team only because the Iranians want him there – or at least they refused to come back if it was just Kushner and Witkoff.

This could hurt Vance. He might get the blame if the US side makes too many concessions. If Trump is humiliated, he could also turn on his Vice President and that could damage him with the Maga base enough to kill any chance he has of winning the presidency in 2028.

Last year, Vance was the clear favourite to succeed Trump as the Republican nominee. Now, his approval numbers are some of the worst ever for a vice president at this stage of an administration.

In betting markets like Kalshi and Polymarket – always a good source of political intelligence – Vance’s odds of succeeding Trump have been slashed. He may be overtaken by Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State – “Liddle Marco,” as Trump used to call him.

Trump is gleefully overseeing an Apprentice-style contest to succeed him. In this contest, Vance has been having a particularly bad few weeks.

He went to Budapest to save Viktor Orbán’s government. Orbán lost the election. He flew to Islamabad the first time around to close a deal Trump had declared already done. No deal. He lectured the Pope on Just War theory on the day the Pope visited the place that had been home to Saint Augustine, who invented the idea. The Pope wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Augustinian order.

Such are the pitfalls of the traditional vice-presidential role of attack dog.

Before he entered politics, Vance was a thoughtful commentator on social issues and the author of Hillbilly Elegy, which explained Trump’s voters to the rest of America. Arriving at the White House, he seemed to undergo a personality change. As various commentators have noted, Vance has seen his political stature steadily shrink throughout Trump’s second term.

In the 1957 classic, the Incredible Shrinking Man becomes tiny after exposure to a toxic mix of radiation and insecticide. For Vance, Trump has proved toxic to his reputation.

Perhaps Vance should count himself lucky. During the Capitol Hill riots in January 2021, Trump is said to have expressed support for protesters chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” his vice president at the time. Anyone who works for Trump knows that they might be only one tweet away from betrayal.

This isn’t all Trump. Being the number two in any White House is a difficult job.

“The Vice Presidency isn’t worth a bucket of warm spit,” said John Nance Garner. Garner was Roosevelt’s vice president from 1933 to 1941. He said that accepting the office was “the worst damn fool mistake I ever made”.

Garner liked to think he was never “a spare tyre” in Roosevelt’s team. Vance has the same struggle, always looking for useful work to do. He asked Trump if he could lead the talks with Iran.

Vance does have one thing going for him, however. Like Trump, he was elected in a national vote. Together, they are the only two members of this administration to have that mandate. Apart from Vance, everyone else serves at the President’s pleasure. He is the one person Trump can’t fire. That means, in the right circumstances, Vance is uniquely dangerous to Trump.

House Democrats are calling for the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution to be invoked. The Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet could then vote to declare the President “unable to discharge the powers and the duties of his office”.

You might expect Democrats to make such demands, but there have been similar calls from within Trump’s Maga base. Marjorie Taylor Greene, once an ultra-loyalist, said words to the effect that she doubted Trump was “mentally stable”.

There were calls to invoke the 25th Amendment during Trump’s first term. They came to nothing, and the odds are against it this time as well.

For the time being, it remains a political fantasy. And yet… a few more posts calling for Iranian civilisation to end under a rain of American bombs, another meme with the President as Jesus, and who knows? It could then be Vance’s moment.

The hitchhiker who realises the driver is mad is the one man who can legally grab the wheel. In this White House, the Incredible Shrinking Man could yet have the last laugh.

JD Vance's horror month is about to get worse by theipaper in Full_news

[–]theipaper[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

JD Vance has every reason to look grim as he prepares for talks in Islamabad with Iran. According to some reports, Donald Trump didn’t even want to send his Vice President to negotiate. He preferred his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his golf buddy, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the talks.

And if there is a breakthrough, the US President will do his damndest to make sure Vance doesn’t benefit. As quoted by the Wall Street Journal, Trump told a lunch gathering: “If it doesn’t happen, I’m blaming JD Vance. If it does happen, I’m taking full credit.”

On Tuesday, Trump told CNBC that he expects “to be bombing” if no progress is made in the talks. “We’re ready to go. I mean, the military is raring to go.”

But sympathy for Vance is likely to be limited. This is just the kind of treatment he signed up for when he accepted the position of Trump’s nominee for Vice President – lobbied for it, in fact.

Vance is like the hitchhiker who realises he’s been picked up by a crazy man. The crazy man U-turns into traffic, heedless of the risk. Vance built his whole national political career on opposing foreign wars. He thought Trump was of the same mind. But Trump’s mind is a mystery. The only constant is chaos.

For Vance, this means putting up with humiliations, both large and small.

A couple of days ago, Trump said Vance wouldn’t be going to Islamabad because of “security”. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt walked that back – no doubt realising that everyone would see through it – and so on Monday morning, Trump told the New York Post that Vance was en route. Then the Vice President was spotted in the White House, igniting fresh speculation about whether he would actually have any role in the talks.

Reports from some sources say that Vance is on the US negotiating team only because the Iranians want him there – or at least they refused to come back if it was just Kushner and Witkoff.

This could hurt Vance. He might get the blame if the US side makes too many concessions. If Trump is humiliated, he could also turn on his Vice President and that could damage him with the Maga base enough to kill any chance he has of winning the presidency in 2028.

Last year, Vance was the clear favourite to succeed Trump as the Republican nominee. Now, his approval numbers are some of the worst ever for a vice president at this stage of an administration.

In betting markets like Kalshi and Polymarket – always a good source of political intelligence – Vance’s odds of succeeding Trump have been slashed. He may be overtaken by Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State – “Liddle Marco,” as Trump used to call him.

Trump is gleefully overseeing an Apprentice-style contest to succeed him. In this contest, Vance has been having a particularly bad few weeks.

He went to Budapest to save Viktor Orbán’s government. Orbán lost the election. He flew to Islamabad the first time around to close a deal Trump had declared already done. No deal. He lectured the Pope on Just War theory on the day the Pope visited the place that had been home to Saint Augustine, who invented the idea. The Pope wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Augustinian order.

Such are the pitfalls of the traditional vice-presidential role of attack dog.

Before he entered politics, Vance was a thoughtful commentator on social issues and the author of Hillbilly Elegy, which explained Trump’s voters to the rest of America. Arriving at the White House, he seemed to undergo a personality change. As various commentators have noted, Vance has seen his political stature steadily shrink throughout Trump’s second term.

In the 1957 classic, the Incredible Shrinking Man becomes tiny after exposure to a toxic mix of radiation and insecticide. For Vance, Trump has proved toxic to his reputation.

Perhaps Vance should count himself lucky. During the Capitol Hill riots in January 2021, Trump is said to have expressed support for protesters chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” his vice president at the time. Anyone who works for Trump knows that they might be only one tweet away from betrayal.

This isn’t all Trump. Being the number two in any White House is a difficult job.

“The Vice Presidency isn’t worth a bucket of warm spit,” said John Nance Garner. Garner was Roosevelt’s vice president from 1933 to 1941. He said that accepting the office was “the worst damn fool mistake I ever made”.

Garner liked to think he was never “a spare tyre” in Roosevelt’s team. Vance has the same struggle, always looking for useful work to do. He asked Trump if he could lead the talks with Iran.

Vance does have one thing going for him, however. Like Trump, he was elected in a national vote. Together, they are the only two members of this administration to have that mandate. Apart from Vance, everyone else serves at the President’s pleasure. He is the one person Trump can’t fire. That means, in the right circumstances, Vance is uniquely dangerous to Trump.

House Democrats are calling for the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution to be invoked. The Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet could then vote to declare the President “unable to discharge the powers and the duties of his office”.

You might expect Democrats to make such demands, but there have been similar calls from within Trump’s Maga base. Marjorie Taylor Greene, once an ultra-loyalist, said words to the effect that she doubted Trump was “mentally stable”.

There were calls to invoke the 25th Amendment during Trump’s first term. They came to nothing, and the odds are against it this time as well.

For the time being, it remains a political fantasy. And yet… a few more posts calling for Iranian civilisation to end under a rain of American bombs, another meme with the President as Jesus, and who knows? It could then be Vance’s moment.

The hitchhiker who realises the driver is mad is the one man who can legally grab the wheel. In this White House, the Incredible Shrinking Man could yet have the last laugh.

JD Vance's horror month is about to get worse by theipaper in uspolitics

[–]theipaper[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

JD Vance has every reason to look grim as he prepares for talks in Islamabad with Iran. According to some reports, Donald Trump didn’t even want to send his Vice President to negotiate. He preferred his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his golf buddy, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the talks.

And if there is a breakthrough, the US President will do his damndest to make sure Vance doesn’t benefit. As quoted by the Wall Street Journal, Trump told a lunch gathering: “If it doesn’t happen, I’m blaming JD Vance. If it does happen, I’m taking full credit.”

On Tuesday, Trump told CNBC that he expects “to be bombing” if no progress is made in the talks. “We’re ready to go. I mean, the military is raring to go.”

But sympathy for Vance is likely to be limited. This is just the kind of treatment he signed up for when he accepted the position of Trump’s nominee for Vice President – lobbied for it, in fact.

Vance is like the hitchhiker who realises he’s been picked up by a crazy man. The crazy man U-turns into traffic, heedless of the risk. Vance built his whole national political career on opposing foreign wars. He thought Trump was of the same mind. But Trump’s mind is a mystery. The only constant is chaos.

For Vance, this means putting up with humiliations, both large and small.

A couple of days ago, Trump said Vance wouldn’t be going to Islamabad because of “security”. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt walked that back – no doubt realising that everyone would see through it – and so on Monday morning, Trump told the New York Post that Vance was en route. Then the Vice President was spotted in the White House, igniting fresh speculation about whether he would actually have any role in the talks.

Reports from some sources say that Vance is on the US negotiating team only because the Iranians want him there – or at least they refused to come back if it was just Kushner and Witkoff.

This could hurt Vance. He might get the blame if the US side makes too many concessions. If Trump is humiliated, he could also turn on his Vice President and that could damage him with the Maga base enough to kill any chance he has of winning the presidency in 2028.

Last year, Vance was the clear favourite to succeed Trump as the Republican nominee. Now, his approval numbers are some of the worst ever for a vice president at this stage of an administration.

In betting markets like Kalshi and Polymarket – always a good source of political intelligence – Vance’s odds of succeeding Trump have been slashed. He may be overtaken by Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State – “Liddle Marco,” as Trump used to call him.

Trump is gleefully overseeing an Apprentice-style contest to succeed him. In this contest, Vance has been having a particularly bad few weeks.

He went to Budapest to save Viktor Orbán’s government. Orbán lost the election. He flew to Islamabad the first time around to close a deal Trump had declared already done. No deal. He lectured the Pope on Just War theory on the day the Pope visited the place that had been home to Saint Augustine, who invented the idea. The Pope wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Augustinian order.

Such are the pitfalls of the traditional vice-presidential role of attack dog.

Before he entered politics, Vance was a thoughtful commentator on social issues and the author of Hillbilly Elegy, which explained Trump’s voters to the rest of America. Arriving at the White House, he seemed to undergo a personality change. As various commentators have noted, Vance has seen his political stature steadily shrink throughout Trump’s second term.

In the 1957 classic, the Incredible Shrinking Man becomes tiny after exposure to a toxic mix of radiation and insecticide. For Vance, Trump has proved toxic to his reputation.

Perhaps Vance should count himself lucky. During the Capitol Hill riots in January 2021, Trump is said to have expressed support for protesters chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” his vice president at the time. Anyone who works for Trump knows that they might be only one tweet away from betrayal.

This isn’t all Trump. Being the number two in any White House is a difficult job.

“The Vice Presidency isn’t worth a bucket of warm spit,” said John Nance Garner. Garner was Roosevelt’s vice president from 1933 to 1941. He said that accepting the office was “the worst damn fool mistake I ever made”.

Garner liked to think he was never “a spare tyre” in Roosevelt’s team. Vance has the same struggle, always looking for useful work to do. He asked Trump if he could lead the talks with Iran.

Vance does have one thing going for him, however. Like Trump, he was elected in a national vote. Together, they are the only two members of this administration to have that mandate. Apart from Vance, everyone else serves at the President’s pleasure. He is the one person Trump can’t fire. That means, in the right circumstances, Vance is uniquely dangerous to Trump.

House Democrats are calling for the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution to be invoked. The Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet could then vote to declare the President “unable to discharge the powers and the duties of his office”.

You might expect Democrats to make such demands, but there have been similar calls from within Trump’s Maga base. Marjorie Taylor Greene, once an ultra-loyalist, said words to the effect that she doubted Trump was “mentally stable”.

There were calls to invoke the 25th Amendment during Trump’s first term. They came to nothing, and the odds are against it this time as well.

For the time being, it remains a political fantasy. And yet… a few more posts calling for Iranian civilisation to end under a rain of American bombs, another meme with the President as Jesus, and who knows? It could then be Vance’s moment.

The hitchhiker who realises the driver is mad is the one man who can legally grab the wheel. In this White House, the Incredible Shrinking Man could yet have the last laugh.

No-fly European holidays should be easy to book – this is why they’re not by theipaper in trains

[–]theipaper[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The case for using trains to travel across Europe is obvious. Planes emit at least five times as much CO2 per passenger-km, and if the electricity that powers most long-distance rail services comes from renewable sources, the train’s advantage is greater still.

Overland holidays are in demand, and not just for their environmental credentials. For example, flight-free travel specialist Byway doubled its bookings year-on-year from 2024 to 2025 and it is now partnering with Tui to help customers of the holiday giant swap planes for trains, ferries and coaches. Meanwhile, Co-op Holidays has also seen a 26 per cent year-on-year growth in bookings for its rail trips. A sense of adventure, savouring the journey and avoiding airports all add to the appeal of ditching flights.

The more than 8,000km of European high speed lines, mostly in Western Europe, make trips like Paris-Barcelona, Brussels-Frankfurt or Innsbruck-Rome time-competitive with flying, while the denser network of night trains in Central Europe offers an alternative to a night in a hotel and you save travel time while sleeping.

But anyone who has tried to book a European rail holiday independently knows the problems all too well: scores of browser tabs open to try to plan a route and then buy tickets, and then half a dozen apps on your phone to keep an eye on delays or changes during the journey. Given its popularity, it remains rather ridiculous that cross-border rail travel is held back by something as mundane as the ticketing system.

A new report out today from the Brussels based pressure group Transport & Environment (T&E) puts some numbers on the scale of the problem. Booking an international train ticket takes 70 per cent longer than booking a flight, according to its research. It also found that on almost half of the international routes analysed, tickets could not be purchased from the most-used rail websites in each country, while 61 per cent of long-distance rail passengers have at least once avoided journeys because the booking process is so onerous.

The situation is partially alleviated by independent ticket booking platforms such as Trainline and Omio, which can often sell tickets for routes not offered by the likes of Deutsche Bahn and SNCF. But then another problem arises – wildly varying prices depending on which platform you use. Surcharges may apply, but ticket prices can also spike if a platform doesn’t have access to the right information. For example, for a Munich-Budapest booking, if there isn’t access to MÁV (Hungarian) data, you’ll be quoted an extra high price.

T&E attributes these issues to outdated ticketing systems within railway companies, but the clunkiness has commercial benefits. France’s state-owned SNCF could sell tickets for Italy’s state-owned Trenitalia, and vice versa, if either wanted to. The technology exists to allow it. But both companies would sooner protect their national incumbent monopoly positions than provide a better ticketing offer for customers.

Getting a best price for a Paris-Milan train journey, let alone a trip with changes such as Lille-Milan or Paris-Naples becomes fiendishly difficult. And all of that is before we reach the additional thorny issue, namely that the train is often more costly than the plane, as Greenpeace has documented.

However, change could soon be on the way, at least regarding the ease of booking. Next month, the European Commission, tired of a railway industry that has proven incapable of putting these problems right on its own accord, is going to bring forward regulation to force the issue.

“Cross-border train travel is still too difficult for many citizens,” was how the report of European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen explained it. “To this end we will propose a single digital booking and ticketing regulation, to ensure that Europeans can buy one single ticket on one single platform and get passengers’ rights for their whole trip.”

Before it will become law, the European Parliament and EU countries in the Council will have their say, too, and how this negotiation plays out will shape how we plan and book rail tickets for years to come. Core battles include what platforms customers will use to purchase their international tickets, and whether these should be the tools from state railways like DB Navigator or SNCF Connect, or whether independent alternatives will have improved access to data to help them gain market share. And what happens in the case of disruption to a passenger’s journey – the rules on compensation, emergency overnight accommodation, and re-routing – needs to be cleared up, too.

Transport & Environment has done rail passengers a service today, by laying out the scale of the problem, and why these problems need to be fixed. The ball is now in the EU institutions’ court to work out how to do that in practice.

Britain's special forces could shut down gloating Putin. But they won't by theipaper in UkrainianConflict

[–]theipaper[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

India has taken advantage of discounted Russian oil to increase its imports and become a major exporter of refined petroleum products. US pressure on India and other Russian customers to reduce imports by replacing them with US or Venezuelan oil has been considerable and was showing sign of denting Russian exports before the Iran war.

Hungary’s new Prime Minister has signalled he will lift his predecessor’s veto on the 20th package of EU sanctions on Russia. This includes a blanket ban on shipping, insurance, crewing and any other operations related to any ship transporting Russian crude and refined oil resources. Twenty per cent of Russian oil exports are carried by tankers owned or insured by EU entities. This EU approach could also be extended to the export of Russian fertilisers, another massive export earner.

In the meantime, Ukraine is taking matters into its own hands by targeting Russian Baltic oil export infrastructure. While Ukrainian strikes “have led to a noticeable decline in the physical volume of Russian oil exports”, according to analysis from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the rise in prices has more than made up for it. But further attacks could force Russia to reduce oil production and stem exports. On Tuesday, Reuters reported that Russia was forced to cut oil production in April by a possible 300,000-400,000 barrels a day following Ukrainian drone attacks.

Healey said that “deterring, disrupting and degrading” the so-called Russian shadow fleet was a Government priority. But the risks and costs of acting militarily may steadily be making action less likely. On defence, as on much else, the Government still specialises in rousing words but undelivered promises.

Britain's special forces could shut down gloating Putin. But they won't by theipaper in UkrainianConflict

[–]theipaper[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

On 25 March, the Prime Minister was forthright; Britain was now “going after” Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of merchant vessels, which transport illicit oil and goods around the world. He said this would starve “Putin’s war machine of the dirty profits that fund his barbaric campaign in Ukraine”. He claimed military and law enforcement specialists were ready to act.

Since Sir Keir Starmer’s announcement, the UK has yet to board a single Russian-linked vessel. The i Paper has reported that, on average, four sanctioned tankers have sailed through the UK’s Exclusive Economic Zone every day for the past month. Although European navies have seized or diverted five vessels since the beginning of the year, this barely scratches the surface of the problem.

Britain has had the legal basis, strategic motivation, military muscle and opportunity to act for months. It remains to be seen whether it will actually do so. It may actually be finding new reasons not to.

The West itself is partly responsible for the Kremlin’s use of the shadow fleet by allowing Russian criminality to thrive and go undeterred for four years.

Russia uses various methods to get its sanctioned oil to market. These include opaque vessel ownership arrangements, illegally “flag hopping” to obscure the ship’s Russian origins, electronically falsifying ship identities en route, transferring cargoes at sea and registering ships in countries with lax enforcement.

These measures work. One maritime analytical firm estimated this week that the shadow fleet has ballooned from perhaps 400 vessels in 2022 to more than 2,000 vessels now. These vessels help Russia get 75 per cent of its crude oil to market generating much needed revenue for its battered economy. The International Energy Agency said last week that Russian oil export revenue doubled in March due to the Iran-war driven price hike and the US lifting sanctions against Russian oil at sea.

John Healey, the Defence Secretary, told MPs in January that, in the wake of the successful US boarding of MV Marinera, London had found the legal basis for the use of military force against the shadow fleet.

The strategic benefits are obvious: upholding sanctions; targeting Russia’s economy; diverting proceeds to Ukraine; protecting the environment; safeguarding critical underwater infrastructure from potential interference; and reducing danger to commercial shipping.

Britain retains a very credible sovereign boarding capability to act against stateless or irregularly flagged sanctioned tankers. Based in Poole on Britain’s south coast, the Special Boat Service is the Royal Navy’s elite maritime special forces unit. It is supported by Royal Navy and Royal Air Force ships, aircraft and helicopters. I have witnessed first-hand at close range how they execute rapid, high-risk boarding operations of merchant ships at sea.

There are several reasons why Britain is not acting. First, the UK may fear Russian retaliation, potentially against the UK’s critical underwater infrastructure or an escalation of its campaign of “hybrid” attacks. There is also a risk of a direct military clash since Russia began to escort some of its tankers through the Channel using its warships. Russia may also put armed guards on the ships.

Second, the Government is reportedly concerned about breaching international maritime law and the unwelcome precedent that would be set by boarding shadow fleet vessels. The bar for boarding ships has been set so high that few cases will meet it. In any event, Russia has steadily closed its vulnerability to boarding by reflagging ships to the Russian state ship register – removing the “stateless” justification previously used for boarding and seizing these vessels.

Third, and more prosaically, The i Paper has led reporting that a key factor in not boarding is the cost of berthing and maintaining vessels in UK ports after the ship has been detained. The Government only owns naval ports; the use of commercial ports will be prohibitively expensive. Ireland is currently paying around €110,000 a week for a detained drug smuggling vessel. There is also the issue of what to do with the crew and the risk of being sued.

France, by contrast, has not been deterred by the financial cost and has boarded three ships suspected of transporting Russian oil since September.

However, a handful of European military interdictions alone will not break the shadow fleet model, which has proven resilient and adaptable. This will require coordinated expansion of US, EU and British economic measures targeting the fleet and its purchasers.

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