Earlier this month, amid all the sound and fury of the impeachment trial, something remarkable quietly happened: The House of Representatives passed a thoroughly bipartisan bill to save the United States Postal Service.The USPS has been slowly bleeding for the last decade. It has lost money for 13 years straight, it's been forced to brutally cut its workforce and infrastructure, and it's become more reliant on low-pay and part-time workers. At this rate, it will run out of funds in five years. This situation has turned the USPS into a topic of partisan rancor, with liberals blaming the right's anti-government ethos, while conservatives blame liberals' anti-market obtuseness.But then last Wednesday's passage of the USPS Fairness Act bucked the trend: It won a massive 309-to-106 majority in the House, including all 232 Democratic representatives, plus 87 Republicans. It does have sister legislation waiting in the Senate, which still needs to be passed. And then Trump (or whoever succeeds him) has to sign it — unless the bill passes the Senate with a similar two-thirds-or-more majority, in which case it's veto proof.What the USPS Fairness Act does is scrap a requirement first imposed by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) of 2006 — that the USPS set aside enough money to cover its likely pension costs for the next 75 years. To fully understand the significance of that, we need to back up slightly.For most of its existence, the U.S. Post Office was run and funded directly by the national government as a universal public service committed to delivering Americans' mail in rain, heat, snow, or gloom. Then, in 1970, Congress reorganized the agency into the modern U.S. Postal Service — a quasi-business entity, expected to cover its costs of operation with its own money, brought in by stamp sales and so forth, without extra subsidies from the federal budget.That worked fine for a while. But then stiffer competition arrived in the form of private sector rivals like FedEx and UPS — competition it could've easily shrugged off back when it was still a straightforward government-funded operation. The rise of the internet and email also cut into the Postal Service's revenue stream.That brings us to 2006's PAEA, which was basically an effort to tweak the USPS in multiple ways to shore up its finances. One of those tweaks was the pension funding requirement.This is wildly unusual: All other government agencies with pension obligations, plus two-thirds of private sector businesses with them, fund their pensions on a pay-as-you-go basis. What the 2006 law required the USPS to do was set aside enough money between 2007 and 2016 to cover all the retiree benefit obligations that would likely arise over the next 75 years. It's sort of like being required to pay the full cost of your house with cash up front rather than making mortgage payments for the next few decades. Needless to say, it's an enormous financial burden, which is why other government agencies and most private companies don’t do it that way.This has been a sore spot for liberals in the fights over what to do with USPS. There's a widespread suspicion that the 2006 change amounted to deliberate sabotage by conservatives, who were ideologically offended by the idea of the USPS as a public service, and who wanted to dismantle it and turn over its functions entirely to the private market. But according to a 2014 deep dive by Eric Katz in Government Executive, the pension-funding requirement may have just been a policy afterthought: "The decision made sense at the time, aides and stakeholders say, as the Postal Service was still on relatively strong financial footing and could absorb the costs in stride."Two years later, the Great Recession caught everyone off guard and absolutely decimated the Postal Service's expected future revenues. The USPS had to start borrowing from the U.S. Treasury Department. But that borrowing was capped at $15 billion, and in 2012 the Postal Services simply stopped making the pension fund contributions required by the PAEA. But according to an assessment from the USPS Inspector General, the damage was already done: Out of its total losses of $62.4 billion during the 2007-to-2016 period, $54.8 billion was related to pre-funding the pension.From Katz's reporting, it sounds like Congress recognized its error pretty quickly, but kept trying to pass a fix as part of larger compendium bills that kept failing. The USPS Fairness Act happened when lawmakers got fed up and proposed scrapping the 2006 pension-funding requirement as a standalone measure.Of course, while the PAEA is the overwhelming bulk of the problem, other reforms are still needed. The age of email and competitors like FedEx has been a drag on the Postal Service's finances. In December 2018, Trump's Treasury Department released a report with recommendations for fixing the Postal Service, which included further cuts to USPS employees' pay and benefits, plus a move away from USPS's traditional commitment to universal mail service, and towards charging more for various packages and routes. But there are far less draconian options as well. Reformers have suggested using the Postal Service to provide a public option for basic banking services, a move that would both bring in new revenue and give low-income Americans an alternative to predatory lenders and such. Lawmakers could also just return the Postal Service to its original pre-1970 incarnation as a straightforward, government-funded universal public service, rendering the internet's hit to mail revenue a moot question.For the moment, it's still an open question whether the Senate will pass the USPS Fairness Act as well. Under Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, that chamber has become the place where every bit of legislation that doesn't have the rightwing seal of approval goes to die. Then there's whether Trump would sign it. The president has complained about the Postal Service getting bilked by Amazon in the past, which might suggest pro-USPS sentiments. On the other hand, it may just be Trump's rivalry with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos at work there. That aforementioned Treasury Department report acknowledged the problems created by the 2006 law, while shying away from saying the pension-funding requirement should go — it instead called the PAEA "part of a mandate for postal self-sustainability."But the massive bipartisan majority behind the USPS Fairness Act suggests maybe Republicans in the Senate are more open to the change than meets the eye. Maybe Trump, ever the wild card, would sign it. And even if that doesn't happen, who knows what will be possible after November's elections.At the very least, the question of saving the U.S. Postal Service from its unjust financial fate is very much back on the table, with a thundering initial endorsement from both sides of the aisle.More stories from theweek.com No, Tom Steyer is not dropping out of the race In Twitter rampage, Trump attacks federal judge set to sentence Roger Stone Why Wall Street isn't freaking out about Bernie Sanders

Russian state media have welcomed enthusiastically the recent U.S. Senate acquittal of President Donald J. Trump. Having predicted this outcome for his impeachment trial, Russian experts and state media pundits are anticipating beneficial side effects for the Kremlin as Trump is more Trump—and more Russia’s Trump—than ever.Friday Night Massacre’s Just the Beginning for Acquitted TrumpDmitry Kiselyov, the host of Russia's most popular Sunday news program Vesti Nedeli, said, “Democrats are openly raging, but while they’re licking their wounds, Trump can now objectively afford to pursue a more positive course of action towards Russia—just as he planned all along while being elected for the first term.”  Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent invitation to Trump to attend Victory Day festivities in Moscow this spring is designed to bring the U.S. president ever deeper into the Kremlin fold. Appearing on Sunday Evening With Vladimir Soloviev, politician Sergey Stankevich asserted, “Donald Trump has to come to Moscow in May, no doubt about it. He is obligated to be here.”Expecting concessions from Trump, the Russian state media are playing along with his agenda, attacking the Democrats, the Ukraine whistleblower, and impeachment witnesses. Vesti Nedeli described the ouster of the Vindman brothers as Trump “settling the scores” against those who dared to speak up against him. It repeated a previously debunked conspiracy theory baselessly claiming Yevgeny Vindman was assigned to review former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s book manuscript before “leaking the draft to the press.”Pundits on Vladimir Soloviev’s show appeared practically giddy about Trump’s acquittal and the retaliatory onslaught that followed. “Trump pulled out a machine gun and started to purge everyone who ever said a bad word about him,” exclaimed Dmitry Egorchenkov, director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts, “because in his mythologized world, he is now a superhero.” Egorchenkov compared the copy of The Washington Post that Trump held up for the world to see to “the severed head of his dead enemy. He couldn’t show off the head of [Joe] Biden, so he was holding up The Washington Post instead.” (He also held up other papers, including USA Today, but the Post was the grand prize.)Russian experts previously anticipated that the reset in the U.S. relations with Russia would have to wait until Trump’s second term in office. But Egorchenkov opined that in his mind, Trump already won re-election, which is why the new ambassador to the Russian Federation, John J. Sullivan, arrived with a mandate to improve relations with Russia. For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin created an opening for mutual cooperation when he proposed during his annual state-of-the-nation address that the five permanent members of the UN Security Council—the U.S., China, Russia, Britain and France—start convening together “in order to prevent global conflicts.” Egorchenkov described the initiative as “ingenious” since this move would allow Trump to normalize relations with Russia under the guise of pursuing world peace.Russian experts believe that moving forward with such a concept would require a blank slate approach, calling for the removal of Western sanctions against the Russian Federation imposed after Putin seized and annexed Crimea, backed a separatist war that has killed 14,000 people in eastern Ukraine, worked to disrupt the 2016 U.S. elections and tilt them in Trump’s favor. Russia also was caught in 2018 poisoning and nearly killing former intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in Britain. TV host Soloviev suggested that Trump could “demonstrate goodwill” by immediately restoring the status of the closed Russian consulate and diplomatic annexes, shut down after the assassination attempt in the UK, and lifting the U.S. sanctions against Russia.Dmitry Egorchenkov predicted that Trump will promptly accept Putin’s offer, since he will be making this decision “without the pressure of the Democratic party” and free of the influence of “100 to 150 recently fired members of the National Security Council.” On another gleeful note, political scientist Dmitry Evstafiev argued that “Trump might start to engage in McCarthyism, which will be the first step in the self-destruction of the American system.” He predicted the disintegration of existing political institutions in the United States, prompted by Trump’s outright rejection of bipartisanship, which will be replaced by the authoritarian system he is striving to create.Evstafiev marveled at the 97 percent GOP votes cast for Trump in Iowa and pointed out that these votes symbolize the hollowing out of the Republican party, with no viable candidates who could follow in Trump’s footsteps. The host, Soloviev, chimed in: “Except for his daughter, Ivanka.” Evstafiev concurred and suggested that the Trump presidency is currently transitioning into the realm of authoritarian, clan-like regimes, “They keep telling us that it is impossible in the United States, but now we’ll find out for ourselves.”Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian Anne Applebaum remarked last week after a visit to Venezuela, “I observed, from Caracas, the finale of the impeachment trial, Romney's last stand, the firing of civil servants. All around me, people nodded wearily: Yes, they said, we've seen this before… Venezuela is not the US, Trump is not a Bolivarian socialist like [the late Hugo] Chavez, of course everything is different,” she said. “But it is amazing how familiar Trump's behavior seemed to people who had lived through the decline of their own democracy.”Russia’s State TV Calls Trump Their ‘Agent’“All of the elements were there,” Applebaum wrote: “The strongman who made people laugh, who seemed authentic, ‘different,’ the appeal to fear and anger, and the hatred of 'elites.' Also, the fact that everyone saw what was happening and described it, in real time. Brilliant academics, excellent journalists—they all knew that the dictatorship was expanding, that Chavez's personal power was growing. But they couldn't stop it.”The Kremlin would undoubtedly benefit from America becoming an authoritarian regime, unconstrained by constitutional checks and balances, far-removed from defending human rights or promoting democratic values. “Trump forever,” jeered the Russian state television channel Rossiya-1 host Artyom Sheynin. He asked a U.S. expert sarcastically, “Is America finished?” Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

Federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., recommenced 7 to 9 years in prison for President Trump's longtime adviser Roger Stone on Monday evening, and early Tuesday morning, Trump called that "a horrible and very unfair situation." A jury found Stone guilty on all seven charges of lying to Congress, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering in November, and Stone is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 20. Trump's claim that he — or someone? — "cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!" suggests Stone might get a presidential pardon or commutation of his sentence. Earlier Monday, Trump suggested drug dealers should get the death penalty.> This is a horrible and very unfair situation. The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them. Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice! https://t.co/rHPfYX6Vbv> > — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 11, 2020Stone was convicted of mendaciously obscuring his role in trying to hook the 2016 Trump campaign up with Wikileaks to coordinate the release of damaging information on Hillary Clinton that had been stolen by Russian military hackers. Among the charges was that Stone threatened to kill Randy Credico, a friend and radio host, and steal his comfort dog if Credico told Congress he wasn't Stone's go-between with WikiLeaks, as Stone had falsely claimed. Credico later told the court he believed Stone was kidding.More stories from theweek.com For better pasta sauce, throw away your garlic Late night hosts find an orange circle of mirth amid Trump's retaliatory post-impeachment purge Mike Bloomberg wins the 1st precinct in New Hampshire's primary, for both parties

Last week's Iowa caucuses continue to embarrass Iowa Democrats, but "tomorrow's vote in New Hampshire is the first actual primary of the 2020 election," Stephen Colbert said on Monday's Late Show. "The latest polls in New Hampshire are all over the map. Most show Bernie Sanders first, followed by Pete Buttigieg," and "one poll in New Hampshire said New Hampshire Democrats would prefer an extinction-causing meteor over Trump re-election. Hey New Hampshire Democrats, you okay? This explains why they've changed the state motto from 'Live Free or Die' to 'Please Let Us Die.'""With all the polls relatively tight, the candidates are getting nastier with each other, especially Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg," Colbert said, showing some of Biden's shots at Buttigieg. "But the strangest moment on Biden's campaign-resurrection tour came on Sunday," when Biden called a voter "a dog-faced pony soldier," he said. "What's going on inside Biden's head when he comes up with these insults?" Colbert tried out a Biden insult generator to find out. "Believe it or not, this was not the first time Biden has used this particular weird insult," he said, and it turns out "there's a perfectly reasonable, rambling explanation: John Wayne and Indian chief."The Daily Show created an actual Joe Biden insult generator if you want to see if you can top Colbert's "devious squirrel-kneed kangaroo mailman."> Listen up, Jack -- We made a Joe Biden Insult Bot. Tweet @BidenInsultBot to get personally insulted by Joe Biden, ya dog-brained milksop! pic.twitter.com/TRsZo9YaBP> > -- The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) February 10, 2020Buttigieg has responded to Biden but hasn't attacked him in any ads, "and maybe that's because he doesn't need to, because Biden keeps attacking himself," The Daily Show's Trevor Noah said, showing the "lying dog-faced pony soldier" clip. "Those are strong words that ... I don't really understand at all," he said, trying various out various literal representations of a dog-faced pony solider. "Nobody has been able to find this in any John Wayne movie, and I guess that's the beauty of quoting something from before the internet was invented," Noah said. "But look, wherever the line came from, it's not a great look for Biden, because it's yet another example of him beefing with a civilian on the campaign trail."The Daily Show's Ronny Chieng traveled to New Hampshire to see how it plans to avoid another Iowa. Watch his report below. More stories from theweek.com For better pasta sauce, throw away your garlic Trump slams 7-9 year prison proposal for Roger Stone, claims he 'cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!' Late night hosts find an orange circle of mirth amid Trump's retaliatory post-impeachment purge

Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) appeared on Trump-boosting Fox News host Sean Hannity’s show on the eve of the New Hampshire primary and defended President Donald Trump’s ouster of two key impeachment witnesses just two days after his acquittal.Last Friday, after celebrating being acquitted of abuse of power charges, the president fired National Security Council official Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and U.S Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland. Vindman, specifically, was marched out of the White House by security, along with his twin brother, who was also terminated from his NSC position.Gabbard, who has become a frequent Fox News guest in recent months, defended the firings to Fox News’ Neil Cavuto over the weekend, telling him that while she disagrees with many of Trump’s decisions “as it relates to foreign policy,” the public needs to realize that “there are consequences to elections.”“The president has, within his purview, to make the decisions about who he'd like serving in his Cabinet,” she added.Appearing on Hannity on Monday night, the Hawaii congresswoman first called for Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez to resign over the chaotic Iowa caucuses, saying “he’s had a failure of leadership” and has been unable to “uphold that faith and trust.”After telling Gabbard that she’s “been treated horribly” by the Democratic Party and that he supports her outspoken criticism of former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (Gabbard is suing Clinton for defamation), Hannity applauded her defense of Trump’s retaliatory firings.“I thought that was courageous,” he stated. “Just acknowledging a simple truth that a president gets to hire and fire the people he wants, not people that disagree with his policy.”Gabbard said the “deeper issue” is that her defense of Trump isn’t based on opinion but “on the Constitution,” noting at the same time that she’s still an active soldier in the National Guard.“Thank you for your service,” Hannity interjected.“Thank you, thank you very much, but as a member of Congress, I took an oath to the Constitution as does every member of Congress,” she continued. “And it is the Constitution that provides that our foreign policy is set by the president of the United States as well as, in some significant ways, by Congress, not by unelected bureaucrats and not by the military.”“And the reason why our founders had the wisdom to do this, they knew if voters were unhappy with the foreign policy decisions being made, they could make that decision at the ballot box to hire or fire where they can’t do that with unelected bureaucrats or others,” the Democratic lawmaker concluded.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

The president fired up thousands of supporters at first rally since his acquittal in the Senate impeachment trialAn emboldened Donald Trump celebrated his acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial at a campaign rally in New Hampshire, where he hoped his presence would rattle his Democratic opponents on the eve of the state’s first-in-the-nation primaries.While the Democratic candidates tore into the president at rallies and events across the battleground state, Trump fired up thousands of his most ardent supporters at the Monday night rally, his first since the Senate cleared him of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.“Our good Republicans in the United States Senate voted to reject the outrageous partisan impeachment hoax and to issue a full, complete and absolute total acquittal,” Trump thundered to a packed arena in downtown Manchester. “It wasn’t even close!”Trump tweeted ahead of the rally that he hoped to “shake up the Dems a little bit” as they face a competitive contest, in which Vermont senator Bernie Sanders leads the field in many surveys. The New Hampshire primary has always played an outsized role in the presidential nomination process, but it has taken on a heightened significance following the disastrous failure of the Iowa caucuses to produce a clear winner.Trump delighted in the debacle, playfully asking the crowd if anyone knew who had won the Democratic caucuses. "(“Nobody knows. Flip a coin!” he said.)He added later: “The Democrat party wants to run your healthcare but they can’t even run a caucus in Iowa.”As the Democratic hopefuls crisscrossed the state, Trump supporters came from across the region, braving rain and snow, to attend the rally in Manchester, a one-time manufacturing city of 110,000 people. The line to enter the arena snaked around the arena for several blocks; those at the front had arrived more than 24 hours in advance.Inside the arena, concession stands sold cotton candy, popcorn and Dippin’ Dots to people in red Make America Great Again hats and pink Women for Trump T-shirts.Trump’s hour-long speech reprised some of his most incendiary remarks, including the claim that undocumented immigrants entering the country are “murderers, rapists and some other things”. But he also made fresh references. He lashed out at the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, for her behavior during his State of the Union speech last week when she tore up a copy of his remarks after he finished.“I’m speaking and a woman is mumbling terribly behind me. Angry – there was a little anger back there,” Trump complained. “We’re the ones that should be angry!” The arena erupted in a round of “Lock her up!!”, a cry once directed at Hillary Clinton.​But Trump ​also credited the House speaker for his rising poll numbers. Last week, as the Democratic Iowa caucus collapsed into disarray, ​he recorded his highest ever approval rating in a Gallup poll. (“Thank you, Nancy,” he roared.)​Unlike the Democrats, Trump faces no real competition in the New Hampshire Republican primary on Tuesday, which four years ago delivered his first primary victory. Only Bill Weld, the former governor of Massachusetts, remains in the race as an alternative for the fast-dwindling faction of Never Trump Republicans.Noting his lack of opposition in the state’s open primary, Trump repeatedly returned to the prospect of his supporters influencing the result by voting for the Democrat who they believe Trump would have the best chance of defeating. New Hampshire election laws allow independents to cast ballots for either Democrats or Republicans. “A lot of Republicans tomorrow will vote for the weakest candidate possible of the Democrats,” he said. “My only problem is I’m trying to figure out who is the weakest candidate. I think they’re all weak.”The event on Monday night was part of a strategy to steal the attention from Democrats at a critical moment, as Trump did with a rally in Des Moines on the eve of the Iowa caucuses.The Trump campaign is using the primary on Tuesday as an opportunity to “flex its organizational muscles” and to reach Republican and independent voters who they hope to win over in November, said spokesman Tim Murtaugh.Trump lost the state by less than 3,000 votes but his campaign has it firmly in their sights this time around. At the rally, Trump again falsely claimed that he lost the state in 2016 due to voter fraud but said this year should be “a lot different”.Ray Buckley, the chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, called Trump’s visit a “blunder” that will remind voters “why it’s so important to vote” in November 2020. He said the party is investing heavily in the battleground state – which Trump once maligned as a “drug-infested den” on a 2017 call with the leader of Mexico – in case the eventual nominee needs its four electoral votes.While Trump spoke, the Democrats were spread across the state. Joe Biden held a campaign event across the city at Saint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral; Pete Buttigieg held a rally in Exeter and Bernie Sanders joined the congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and The Strokes for a concert-rally in Durham.Like Trump, many of his supporters at the event were emboldened by his acquittal in the Senate on Wednesday. Few expressed any doubt about the president’s prospects of being re-elected in November, pointing to a strong economy and the specter of “socialism” if a Democrat wins.“They’ll take our freedom away,” said Joanne Guimond, 64, from Bristol, Connecticut. “We’ll end up like Venezuela.”Attending a Trump rally is a “bucket list” event for Guimond, who came with her husband Emile, 69.Not only do they find Trump’s tell-it-like-it-is approach to politics refreshing, but they believe it has helped restore the US to a position of strength at home and abroad.“Trump’s the only one who’s got balls to do anything for our country,” he said. “He goes to other countries and fights for us. The Democrats? Forget it. He’s the one saving this country.”Michelle McBride, 58, a New Hampshire state government employee, is confident Trump will win re-election and is encouraged by the state of the economy under his stewardship. The unemployment rate in New Hampshire had already fallen to 2.8% under Barack Obama, but has reduced to 2.6% under Trump.McBride is alarmed that young people are attracted to the economic policies put forward by the Democratic candidates.“Today’s youth don’t understand what socialism means,” she said. “And they don’t know what’s going on because there’s no free speech on campuses anymore.”“The Democratic party is not the John F Kennedy party that we grew up with,” she said ruefully. “I don’t even know what they stand for anymore other than socialism. It’s scary.”

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump bragged about his “full, complete” acquittal in his first rally since the Republican-led Senate cleared him in his impeachment trial, while assailing Democrats and undocumented immigrants and repeating a false claim about his 2016 election.Trump addressed thousands of supporters in Manchester, New Hampshire the day before Democrats running to challenge his re-election will hold their primary election in the state. The president’s rally was his latest effort to steal the spotlight from his rivals; he held a similar rally in Des Moines, Iowa, before the error-plagued Democratic caucus there last week.In between the two rallies, the Senate voted to reject two articles of impeachment against Trump the Democratic-led House passed in response to his attempt to pressure Ukraine’s government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.Senate Republicans “voted to reject the outrageous, partisan impeachment hoax, and to issue a full, complete and absolute, total acquittal. And it wasn’t even close,” Trump said. “In the House, we won 196 to 0, and then we got three Democrats. And in the Senate, other than Romney, we got 52 to nothing.”Senator Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican, became the first senator in U.S. history to vote to remove a president of his own party from office. He supported one of the two articles of impeachment.“The radical left’s pathetic partisan crusade has completely failed and utterly backfired with 18 votes, think of that, 18 votes to spare,” he said. The Senate fell 18 votes shy of the two-thirds majority necessary to convict Trump.Dover StopAfter the rally, Trump planned to fly to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to witness the return of the remains of two service members killed in Afghanistan. Army Sergeant First Class Javier Gutierrez and Army Sergeant First Class Antonio Rodriguez were killed on Saturday in Nangarhar Province, according to the Pentagon. Both men were 28 years old.“These visits and the visits to Walter Reed are the toughest thing the president does,” National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien told reporters traveling with Trump. “He thinks it’s important to be there for the families.”NBC News reported that the two soldiers were killed by a person wearing an Afghan uniform during a joint operation with the country’s military.The solemn visit to the airfield was a contrast to the rally, where Trump reveled in his supporters’ adulation and mocked his political rivals. He has repeatedly jabbed Democrats for the chaotic Iowa caucuses last week that yielded no clear winner. He said Monday he would travel to New Hampshire in order to “shake up the Dems a little bit.”The rally is part of the Trump campaign’s strategy to try to spook Democrats by showing off its financial and organizational might in key early states, even without Trump facing a serious primary challenge.“We have the highest poll numbers that we’ve ever had,” Trump told his New Hampshire audience. “Thank you Nancy,” he said, referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.At one point the Manchester audience changed “lock her up” about Pelosi, re-purposing a chant Trump’s supporters usually apply to his 2016 opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.But a poll published Monday by Quinnipiac University shows that the president has reason to worry about the general election: All of the top Democratic candidates lead him in hypothetical matchups, with Michael Bloomberg beating him the worst at 51% to 42%, and Bernie Sanders defeating him 51% to 43%.The poll surveyed 1,519 registered voters nationwide and had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.(Bloomberg is the co-founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)False ClaimTrump narrowly lost to Clinton in New Hampshire during his 2016 victory, and on Monday revisited a false conspiracy theory about the election: That Democrats illegally bused voters from more liberal Massachusetts to New Hampshire to swing the vote for Clinton.“We should’ve won the election but they had buses being shipped up from Massachusets,” Trump falsely told his audience. He pointed out that Republican Chris Sununu is now governor of New Hampshire and said: “Now you get prosecuted if you do what they did.”He later encouraged his audience to vote for “the weakest” candidate in New Hampshire’s Democratic primary on Tuesday. The state has open primaries, meaning voters can choose to participate in either party’s nominating contest regardless of their registration.“If you want to vote for a weak candidate tomorrow, go ahead, vote for one,” Trump said. “Pick the weakest candidate, I don’t know who it is.”Return to ‘The Snake’Trump recited a poem he popularized during his 2016 election, “The Snake,” which he has re-purposed from its original meaning to apply to immigrants. The poem tells the story of a well-meaning woman who encounters a “half-frozen” snake on her way to work and brings it to her home to revive it, only for the snake to later bite and kill her.“This is illegal immigration,” Trump said before reciting the poem. It was originally written by civil-rights activist Oscar Brown in the 1960s, according to the Washington Post.“Got to come in legally and through merit,” Trump said after he had finished.Trump grabbed front page headlines in the Des Moines Register days before the Iowa caucuses by holding a rally and flooding the state with campaign and administration officials. He has since capitalized on the bungled caucus to argue that Democratic candidates would be incapable of governing the country.The campaign is using a nearly identical approach in New Hampshire, announcing last week that Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky would be among more than a dozen surrogates deployed to the Granite State before Tuesday’s primary.“While the Democrats are still shaking off the embarrassment of their Iowa caucuses disaster, Team Trump remains organized and focused, and we intend to move New Hampshire into the win column in November,” Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said in a statement.Trump’s appearance comes at a pivotal moment in the Democratic primary race. The final Boston Globe/Suffolk/WBZ tracking poll showed Senator Bernie Sanders in the lead in New Hampshire with 26% of likely primary voters, followed by former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 19% and Senator Amy Klobuchar at 13%. Former Vice President Joe Biden, once the field’s front-runner, and Senator Elizabeth Warren are each polling around 11%.Trump has seized on the popularity of Sanders, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, to argue the entire Democratic field as too far left. Murtaugh said the campaign’s main goal would be to “remind voters of the dangers of the Democrats’ big-government socialist agenda.”(Updates with Trump stop at Dover Air Force Base, beginning in seventh paragraph)To contact the reporters on this story: Jordan Fabian in Washington at jfabian6@bloomberg.net;Josh Wingrove in Washington at jwingrove4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, John HarneyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Republicans are doing little to rein in a vengeful president.

Trump slammed Mitt Romney again on Monday as he continued to seethe from the GOP senator's vote to remove him from office.