When (repeated) public humiliations make you smile

What’s the most annoying sound in the world?

The sound of more Don Jr. in 2023. Per Axios:

Donald Trump Jr. has inked a multiyear podcast deal with Rumble Inc., the user-generated video platform that serves as a conservative alternative to YouTube, Axios has learned…. With the deal, Rumble will exclusively host a new Trump Jr. podcast called Triggered With Don Jr.—homage to the title of his 2019 book. The live show will air twice per week beginning the week of January 23rd, with the possibility of expanding its cadence in the future. Trump Jr. joined Rumble in early 2021. He has since amassed over 1 million subscribers, giving him one of the platform’s largest followings. Like his current Rumble videos, the podcast will continue to mostly feature Trump Jr.’s riffs on news of the day. He also plans to bring on guests for interviews.

Junior’s 2019 book, the full name of which is Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us, was a long list of complaints about how mean the left was to him and his family. He also wrote that the presidency was incredibly difficult on the Trumps for other reasons, namely that they couldn’t do any foreign deals while the big guy was in office; in one passage Jr. explained that this “sacrifice” was similar to the sacrifices made by US soldiers who’ve died on the field of battle. Recalling a visit to Arlington National Cemetery the day before Trump Senior’s inauguration, Junior wrote: “I rarely get emotional, if ever. I guess you’d call me hyper-rational, stoic. Yet as we drove past the rows of white grave markers, in the gravity of the moment, I had a deep sense of the importance of the presidency and a love of our country…In that moment, I also thought of all the attacks we’d already suffered as a family, and about all the sacrifices we’d have to make to help my father succeed—voluntarily giving up a huge chunk of our business and all international deals to avoid the appearance that we were ‘profiting off of the office.’” He added: “Frankly, it was a big sacrifice, costing us millions and millions of dollars annually…Of course, we didn’t get any credit whatsoever from the mainstream media, which now does not surprise me at all.”

Elsewhere!

GOP Rep. Bob Good says McCarthy opponents will “never cave” (CNN)

Who could be the next House speaker if McCarthy falls short (CNN)

Why House Republicans Keep Eating Their Own (Intelligencer)

Hope Hicks, former Trump aide, on Jan. 6: ‘We all look like domestic terrorists now’ (NBC News)

Sam Bankman-Fried Pleads Not Guilty to Fraud and Other Charges (NYT)

Elon Musk cuts Twitter expenses by falling behind on bills (AP)

Donald Trump’s Final Campaign (New York)

Bolsonaro takes his dying democracy vibes to Florida (MSNBC)

Cops: Driver Said He Hit 120 MPH After “a Good Song Came on His Stereo” (TSG)