Immigration, USA Theo Edwards Immigration, USA Theo Edwards

US Unveils new app for 'Self-deportations'

The Trump administration is repurposing a mobile application - originally created to facilitate asylum appointments - into a way for undocumented migrants already in the US to "self-deport". The app, known as CBP Home, allows migrants to submit an "intent to depart", which US Customs and Border Patrol says offers them a chance to leave without "harsher consequences."

BBC News, Washington
Bernd Debusmann Jr. | BBC News, Washington

The CBP One app is being repurposed to allow undocumented migrants to self-deport

The Trump administration is repurposing a mobile application - originally created to facilitate asylum appointments - into a way for undocumented migrants already in the US to "self-deport".

The app, known as CBP Home, allows migrants to submit an "intent to depart", which US Customs and Border Patrol says offers them a chance to leave without "harsher consequences".

US officials have repeatedly suggested that undocumented migrants in the country should leave voluntarily, rather than be arrested and subject to deportation.

This is the latest move in the White House's effort to dramatically overhaul the US immigration system, which has included promises of mass detentions.

Originally launched as CBP One in 2020, the mobile application was expanded during the Biden administration to allow prospective migrants to book appointments to appear at a port of entry.

At the time, officials credited the application with helping reduce detentions at the border and portrayed the technology as part of a larger effort to protect asylum seekers making the often dangerous journey.

Now, on the newly rebranded application, undocumented migrants identify themselves and declare their intention to leave the country.

In a statement, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that by self-deporting through the app, migrants "may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream."

"If they don't, we will find them, we will deport them, and they will never return," she added.

The app also asks migrants whether they have "enough money to depart the United States" and whether they have a "valid, unexpired passport from your original country of citizenship".

The BBC has contacted DHS for further details about how the process works once the forms on the app are filled out.

CBP Home can also be used to apply and pay for I-94 entry and exit cards up to seven days before travel, book inspections for perishable cargo, and check wait times at US border crossings.

According to DHS, the app is meant to complement a $200m (£155m) domestic and international ad campaign calling for undocumented migrants to "stay out and leave now."

The Trump administration moved quickly to scrap the CBP One app as part of a larger shift in immigration strategy. It also paused parole programs, and an uptick in Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in the country followed.

In late February, the administration said it would create a national registry for undocumented migrants and those failing to sign up could possibly face criminal prosecution.

The registration requires any undocumented migrants above the age of 14 to provide the US government an address and their fingerprints.

Experts said that the registration system will face hurdles, as it is difficult to enforce and fraught with logistical challenges.

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Politics, Canada, Trade War, USA Theo Edwards Politics, Canada, Trade War, USA Theo Edwards

Mark Carney Wins Race to Replace Trudeau as Canada's Prime Minister

OTTAWA, March 9 (Reuters) - Former central banker Mark Carney won the race to become leader of Canada's ruling Liberal Party and will succeed Justin Trudeau as prime minister, official results showed on Sunday. Carney will take over at a tumultuous time in Canada, which is in the midst of a trade war with longtime ally the United States under President Donald Trump and must hold a general election soon.

Reuters
By Promit Mukherjee and Ismail Shakil | March 10, 20252:46 AM EDT | Updated a day ago

Summary

  • Justin Trudeau stepping down after more than nine years in power
  • Former central banker Mark Carney will be next Prime Minister
  • Carney promises to fight Trump's tariffs

OTTAWA, March 9 (Reuters) - Former central banker Mark Carney won the race to become leader of Canada's ruling Liberal Party and will succeed Justin Trudeau as prime minister, official results showed on Sunday.

Carney will take over at a tumultuous time in Canada, which is in the midst of a trade war with longtime ally the United States under President Donald Trump and must hold a general election soon.

Carney, 59, took 86% of votes cast to beat former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in a contest in which just under 152,000 party members voted.

"There's someone who's trying to weaken our economy," Carney said of Trump, spurring loud boos at the party gathering. "He's attacking Canadian workers, families, and businesses. We can't let him succeed."

“Full Mark Carney speech tackles Trump tariffs after becoming new Prime Minister of Canada”
— Source

"This won’t be business as usual," Carney said. "We will have to do things that we haven’t imagined before, at speeds we didn’t think possible."

Trudeau announced in January that he would step down after more than nine years in power as his approval rating plummeted, forcing the ruling Liberal Party to run a quick contest to replace him.

"Make no mistake, this is a nation-defining moment. Democracy is not a given. Freedom is not a given. Even Canada is not a given," Trudeau said.

Carney, a political novice, argued that he was best placed to revive the party and to oversee trade negotiations with Trump, who is threatening additional tariffs that could cripple Canada's export-dependent economy.

Trudeau has imposed C$30 billion of retaliatory tariffs on the United States in response to tariffs Trump levied on Canada.

"My government will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect," Carney said.

Carney's win marks the first time an outsider with no real political background has become Canadian prime minister. He has said his experience as the first person to serve as the governor of two G7 central banks - Canada and England - meant he was the best candidate to deal with Trump.

The prospect of a fresh start for the Liberal Party under Carney, combined with Trump's tariffs and his repeated taunts to annex Canada as the 51st U.S. state, led to a remarkable revival of Liberal fortunes.

RALLY-AROUND-THE-FLAG MOMENT

At the start of 2025, the party trailed by 20 or more points but is now statistically tied with the official opposition Conservatives led by career politician Pierre Poilievre in several polls.

At a protest outside Canada's Parliament building in Ottawa on Sunday, dozens of Canadians held up signs protesting Trump with no reference to domestic politics.

"There is a rallying-around-the-flag moment that we would never have predicted a year ago," said University of British Columbia politics professor Richard Johnston. "I think it's probably true as we speak that the Liberals have been saved from oblivion."

Polls though indicate that neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives would be able to form a majority government. An election must be held by October 20.

Two Liberal Party sources said Carney would call an election in the coming weeks, meaning one could take place much sooner.

Carney could legally serve as prime minister without a seat in the House of Commons but tradition dictates that he should seek to win one as soon as possible.

Liberals sought to compare Conservative leader Poilievre to Trump in a recent advertisement. Poilievre in turn ramped up attacks on Carney on Sunday.

Source: Reuters
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Reporting by David Ljunggren, Promit Mukherjee and Anna Mehler Paperny; Editing by Caroline Stauffer, Mark Porter and Diane Craft
“FULL SPEECH: Justin Trudeau gives final speech as Liberal Party leader”
— Source
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Veterans Fired From Federal Jobs Say They Feel Betrayed, Including Some Who Voted For Trump

Veterans fired from federal jobs say they feel betrayed, including some who voted for Trump. Nathan Hooven is a disabled Air Force veteran who voted for Donald Trump in November. Barely three months later, he’s now unemployed and says he feels betrayed by the president’s dramatic downsizing of the federal government that cost him his job.

1 of 4| James Stancil is seen outside the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Nathan Hooven is a disabled Air Force veteran who voted for Donald Trump in November. Barely three months later, he’s now unemployed and says he feels betrayed by the president’s dramatic downsizing of the federal government that cost him his job.

“I think a lot of other veterans voted the same way, and we have been betrayed,” said Hooven, who was fired in February from a Virginia medical facility for veterans. “I feel like my life and the lives of so many like me, so many that have sacrificed so much for this country, are being destroyed.”

The mass firing of federal employees since Trump took office in January is pushing out veterans who make up 30% of the nation’s federal workforce. The exact number of veterans who have lost their jobs is unknown, although House Democrats last month estimated that it was potentially in the thousands.

More could be on the way. The Department of Veterans Affairs — a major employer of veterans — is planning a reorganization that includes cutting over 80,000 jobs from the sprawling agency, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. Veterans represent more than 25% of the VA’s workforce.

READ Sweeping Layoffs! Conditions in America Have Only Just Begun to Change. Anger, chaos, and confusion take hold. The insight!

In interviews, several veterans who supported candidates of both parties described their recent job losses as a betrayal of their military service. They are particularly angered by how it happened: in an email that cited inadequate job performance — despite, they say, receiving positive reviews in their roles.

James Stancil, a 62-year-old Army veteran who was fired last month from his job as a supply technician at a VA hospital in Milwaukee, said it felt like he’d been shot and dumped out of a helicopter.

“And you just free fall and hit the ground — that’s it,” said Stancil, who supported Democrat Kamala Harris last year. “I’m not dead weight. You’re tossing off the wrong stuff.”

Stancil said the email he received telling him his performance wasn’t good enough came as “a complete shock” because he had previously received positive feedback. Hooven also said his performance was cited despite similarly positive feedback during his 11 months as a probationary employee.

“I’ve been blindsided,” Hooven said. “My life has been completely upended with zero chance to prepare. I was fired without notice, unjustly, based on a lie that I’m a subpar, poor performer at my job.”

Stancil said he believes Trump owes fired veterans an apology.

Asked this week about fired federal workers who are veterans, Alina Habba, a former member of Trump’s personal legal team who now serves as a counselor in the White House, defended the cuts.

“But at the same time, we have taxpayer dollars, we have a fiscal responsibility to use taxpayer dollars to pay people that actually work,” Habba told reporters. “That doesn’t mean that we forget our veterans, by any means. We are going to care for them in the right way. But perhaps they’re not fit to have a job at this moment, or not willing to come to work.”

Veterans were much likelier to support Trump than Harris in November’s presidential election, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of the American electorate conducted in all 50 states. Nearly 6 in 10 voters who are veterans backed Trump, while about 4 in 10 voted for Harris.

Cynthia Williams, an Army veteran who lost her job as a dispatcher at a VA in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said she didn’t vote for either candidate but suspects fellow veterans who backed Trump might have changed their minds had they known this was coming.

“It was blindsiding because he said he wanted to make the country great again … but this is not making it great again,” Williams said.

Matthew Sims, an Army veteran, lost his job last month as a program support assistant at a mental health clinic at a VA in Salem, Virginia, after moving with his wife and three children from Texas. He voted for Trump and said he supports reducing the size of the federal government but not this way.

“I support downsizing, but it’s just the way they’re going about doing it. It’s like the chainsaw approach, I guess, versus the surgical approach that they should be doing,” Sims said.

Jared Evans, a recreation therapist at the Salem VA, was fired in February, his eighth month as a probationary worker. Evans said a patient had just told him how much he appreciated his work when he received his email. He had moved from California with his wife, 3-year-old son, and 1-year-old daughter for a job that he had long wanted.

Evans, a 36-year-old Army veteran, was the only one working in his family. He said he feels scared, numb and angry.

“I cried,” Evans said about learning of his firing. “I haven’t done that in a while, because you’re just kind of free-falling now. You’re in an area to where you’re not really familiar with, and you’re just being left out to dry.”

This article first appeared on APNews!
 
Share your thoughts in the 'Post Comments' section of this article if you believe this is the appropriate way to downsize the federal workforce.
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Special Counsel, Jack Smith's Final Report: Cutting through the noise and laying down the facts

The report lays out why charges were pursued or dropped—no politics, no games, just federal guidelines. It tackles two critical investigations involving Donald Trump: election Interference and Classified Documents. Smith dismantles Trump's 'witch hunt' cries and delves into how Trump tried to hijack democracy itself, bending federal laws to cling to power after losing in 2020. Some parts stay sealed.

Theo Edwards for YAME Digital

Jack-Smith and Donald Trump

The US Department of Justice released Special Counsel Jack Smith's final report, claiming that Donald Trump illegally conspired to overturn the 2020 election.

The report lays out why charges were pursued or dropped—no politics, no games, just federal guidelines. It tackles two critical investigations involving Donald Trump: election Interference and Classified Documents. Smith dismantles Trump's 'witch hunt' cries and delves into how Trump tried to hijack democracy itself, bending federal laws to cling to power after losing in 2020. Some parts stay sealed.

What does this say about our once-great nation?

The lengthy 137-page document, dated January 7, summarized years of Smith's investigation into the 2020 election interference case involving President-elect Donald Trump. It concluded that Trump would likely have been convicted in the case if he had not been elected president in 2024.

Preview or Download the full report Here:

 
 

Highlights from the "Final Report of the Special Counsel Under 28 C.F.R. § 600.8":

  • Investigations: The report covers two major investigations involving former President Donald J. Trump. The first investigation focused on potential interference with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election. The second investigation examined the possession of highly classified documents at Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence
  • Findings: The Special Counsel, Jack Smith, and his team conducted thorough investigations and subsequent prosecutions under their mandate. The report details the findings and prosecution decisions made during these investigations
  • Public and Confidential Volumes: The report is divided into two volumes. Volume One is available to the public, while Volume Two remains confidential due to ongoing criminal proceedings
  • Attorney General's Remarks: Attorney General Merrick B. Garland emphasized the importance of independence and accountability in handling these sensitive matters. He highlighted the Department of Justice's commitment to impartiality and fairness
  • Special Counsel's Commitment: Upon his appointment, Special Counsel Jack Smith pledged to exercise independent judgment, follow the best traditions of the Department of Justice, and conduct his work expeditiously and thoroughly to reach whatever outcome the facts and law dictated
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Politics, USA Theo Edwards Politics, USA Theo Edwards

Steve Bannon Slams ‘Toddler’ Elon Musk After Tesla Owner Tells Critics To ‘F**k Yourself In the Face’ As MAGA Civil War Rages On

He has his motives, and they are not ours. Musk is now officially in a public meltdown. Steve Bannon slammed Elon Musk as a “toddler” as the X owner doubled down on his views on H-1B work visas and his criticisms of American workers. “Someone please notify ‘Child Protective Services’— need to do a ‘wellness check’ on this toddler,” Bannon wrote on Gettr on Friday night in response to Musk telling his critics to “fuck yourself in the face.”

This article first appears on mediaite.com
Zachary Leeman Dec 28th, 2024, 10:15 am

Steve Bannon slammed Elon Musk as a “toddler” as the X owner doubled down on his views on H-1B work visas and his criticisms of American workers.

“Someone please notify ‘Child Protective Services’— need to do a ‘wellness check’ on this toddler,” Bannon wrote on Gettr on Friday night in response to Musk telling his critics to “fuck yourself in the face.”

“The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla, and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B,” Musk wrote in the original X post. “Take a big step back and FUCK YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot comprehend.”

 
 

Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have both earned the ire of fellow supporters of President-elect Donald Trump with their recent comments on American workers and support for H-1B work visas, specifically to fill tech jobs in the United States.

Musk previously endorsed a post calling American workers too “retarded” to perform high-skilled tech jobs.

In a lengthy post to X, Ramaswamy accused the United States of valuing “mediocrity over excellence for way too long,” going on to criticize the popularity of ’90s shows like Boy Meets World and the celebration of the “jock over the valedictorian.

 
 

Musk has taken things a step further, being accused of going back on his promise of X being a free speech haven as critics like Laura Loomer were stripped of their verification badges and locked out of their Twitter accounts as they accused Musk of pushing immigration views that go directly against Trump’s America First agenda.

“Those contemptible fools must be removed from the Republican Party, root and stem,” Musk said of his critics.

 
 

In followup posts on Gettr, Bannon argued that H-1B visas are used as a “tool” of the tech industry to drive wages down and he told Musk to “bring it.”

“Bring.It.Dude—All of It,” he wrote in response to Musk promising “war” on the issue of H-1B visas.

On his War Room podcast on Friday, Bannon referred to tech leaders like Musk as “on the spectrum” and incapable of taking criticism.

“The nerds don’t take criticism,” he said. “They’re kind of, you know, they’re a little bit all on the spectrum, right? They don’t know– they’re not deep in social skills.”

This article first appears on mediaite.com
 
He has his motives, and they are not ours. Musk is now officially in a public meltdown.
 
 
He would burn the world for his own advantage. What’s your take! Please comment below.
 
 
 
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Trump Picks Massad Boulos to Serve as Adviser on Arab, Middle Eastern Affairs

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday said Lebanese American businessman Massad Boulos would serve as a senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs. Trump made the announcement on Truth Social. Boulos, the father-in-law of Trump's daughter Tiffany, met repeatedly with Arab American and Muslim leaders during the election campaign.

Andrea Shalal and Maya Gebeily | Reuters
 
 
Andrea Shalal and Maya Gebeily | Sun, December 1, 2024 at 11:02 AM EST 5 min read

Eric Trump, his sister Tiffany Trump and her boyfriend Massad Boulos arrive for U.S. President Donald Trump's acceptance speech as the 2020 Republican presidential nominee in Washington

By Andrea Shalal and Maya Gebeily

WASHINGTON/BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday said Lebanese American businessman Massad Boulos would serve as senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.

Trump made the announcement on Truth Social. Boulos, the father-in-law of Trump's daughter Tiffany, met repeatedly with Arab American and Muslim leaders during the election campaign.

It was the second time in recent days that Trump chose the father-in-law of one of his children to serve in his administration.

READ The Second Coming. In the wake of Trump’s victory

On Saturday, Trump said that he had picked his son-in-law Jared Kushner's father, real estate mogul Charles Kushner, to serve as U.S. ambassador to France.

In recent months, Boulos campaigned for Trump to drum up Lebanese and Arab American support, even as the U.S.-backed Israel's military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Boulos has powerful roots in both countries.

His father and grandfather were both figures in Lebanese politics and his father-in-law was a key funder of the Free Patriotic Movement, a Christian party aligned with Hezbollah.

His son Michael and Tiffany Trump were married in an elaborate ceremony at Trump's Florida Mar-a-Lago Club in November 2022, after getting engaged in the White House Rose Garden during Trump's first term.

Boulos has been in touch with interlocutors across Lebanon's multipolar political world, three sources who spoke to him in recent months say, a rare feat in Lebanon, where decades-old rivalries between factions run deep.

Particularly notable is his ability to maintain relations with Hezbollah, they say. The Iranian-backed Shi'ite Muslim party has a large number of seats in Lebanon's parliament and ministers in the government.

Boulos is a friend of Suleiman Frangieh, a Christian ally of Hezbollah and its candidate for Lebanon's presidency. The sources say he is also in touch with the Lebanese Forces Party, a vehemently anti-Hezbollah Christian faction, and has ties to independent lawmakers.

Aron Lund, fellow at the Century Foundation think tank, said Boulos was well placed to influence Trump's Middle East policy after playing a small but significant role in expanding Trump's appeal to Arab American and Muslim voters during the campaign.

"Boulos' Lebanese political past gives no real indication of a geostrategic or even national vision, but it demonstrates ambition and a set of political allies that will stand out in Trump's circle like a sore thumb," Lund wrote.

MICHIGAN WIN

Boulos, a billionaire with extensive business ties in Nigeria, was born in Lebanon, but moved to Texas as a teenager, where he attended the University of Houston, earned a law degree, and became a U.S. citizen.

His son and Trump's daughter, whose mother is Trump's second wife, Marla Maples, met on the Greek island of Mykonos, at actor Lindsay Lohan's club, People Magazine reported in 2022.

Trump's election win in Michigan came in part because of Boulos' help flipping some of the 300,000 Arab Americans and Muslims in the state who overwhelmingly supported Biden in 2020 but opposed Biden's policies in Israel, Gaza and Lebanon, Trump campaign officials and supporters told Reuters.

"Boulos played a big role in the outreach to Muslim voters," said Rabiul Chowdhury, co-founder of Muslims for Trump.

Beginning in September, the Trump campaign held weekly meetings in person and via Zoom with dozens of Arab American and Muslim civic leaders and business executives.

Boulos spent weeks on the ground in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and other states with big Arab American and Muslim populations, assuring audiences in private lunches and dinners that tapped his own connections to Lebanese American businessmen that Trump was committed to ending the wars in the Middle East.

The Trump campaign spent tens of millions of dollars on the effort to mobilize Arab American and Muslim voters, Boulos told Reuters in an interview shortly after the election.

Trump won endorsements from Muslim imams and the Muslim mayor of Hamtramck, another town near Detroit with a large Arab American population, as well as the large Bangladeshi community, and courted Iraqi Americans, Albanian Americans, and others.

While the events on the ground in Lebanon played a factor, the economy did too. And conservative Arabs and Muslims were concerned about what they saw as the Democrats' "far-left ideology," including support of transgender rights, Boulos said.

Boulos met with members of the 150,000-strong Albanian community in Michigan.

POLITICAL AMBITIONS?

The new role could offer Boulos the kind of political clout he could not achieve in Lebanon. He had a brief run for Lebanon's parliament in 2018 alongside pro-Hezbollah candidates, but since then he has not consistently aligned himself with any particular party, sources in Lebanon said. He hails from a Greek Orthodox family. In Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system, that would cap his chances at a senior role in government at the level of deputy speaker of parliament. The post of president - the highest Christian role in the country - is reserved for Maronite Catholics.

While he used to travel to Lebanon frequently, he has not visited in the last four years, one of the sources said.

Some people in Lebanon were hopeful about the prospects of having a friendly face in Trump's inner circle even before the announcement on Sunday.

"It's a nice thing - and hopefully he will work for Lebanon. And Trump maybe is of the type who makes a promise and could possibly be more loyal to it than others," said Hamdi Hawallah, a Lebanese man in his late 70s.

"So we're optimistic about him. These days we hold on to a piece of driftwood just to be optimistic."

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington and Maya Gebeily in Beirut, additional reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Heather Timmons and Alistair Bell)
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Election 2024 Requiem for America

On the eve of the presidential election, America finds itself at a crossroads. It seems that the country has a clear binary choice. However, the media pundits tell us that the election is too close to call. They say the country is bitterly divided, and a huge percentage of people are conflicted.

By Aaron Humes | ‘Policy’ vs. ‘Personality’

‘Policy’ vs. ‘Personality’

By Aaron Humes

On the eve of the presidential election, America finds itself at a crossroads. It seems that the country has a clear binary choice. However, the media pundits tell us that the election is too close to call. They say the country is bitterly divided, and a huge percentage of people are conflicted.

When it comes to policy and personal integrity the contrast could not be clearer.

In my mind's eye, there are a myriad of reasons why voting for Donald J. Trump is tantamount to voting for more chaos and division. A second Trump presidency is a dire possibility.

In the past four years, we have all been able to breathe a collective sigh of relief that we no longer have to worry about 'what did he do or say now?'

Those who are ‘on the fence’ have forgotten the stress of COVID-19 deaths, economic downfall, and increased racial and economic division. We must reflect and never forget where this so-called leader of the free world has led us and where he will lead us.

The United States is or was considered one of the most powerful countries in the world, yet we are behind other countries in embracing a female leader. The challenges facing America involve the human spirit, not politics. We must commit to choosing better to become better.

The stain of J6 has tarnished our once-stellar reputation and champion of democracy, globally. Therefore, on November 5, we must commit to a path that will help us regain respect, both internationally and for ourselves. It is crucial to consider the impact our decisions will have on future generations.

 

RELATED

The ‘Red Mirage’ on election night. Listen!

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Analysis: 4 Key Moments From The Harris-Trump Debate

Trump falls into Harris’s traps as he lies about abortion and ‘eating pets.’ Donald Trump appeared to fall apart in his first head-to-head debate with Kamala Harris in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening, providing rambling answers on illegal immigration, abortion, and the economy and taking the bait whenever his opponent goaded him.

Harris at the debate: "I am not Joe Biden, and I am certainly not Donald Trump"

Andrew Romano · Reporter | yahoo!news | Wed, September 11, 2024 at 12:40 AM EDT

Harris at debate: "I am not Joe Biden, and I am certainly not Donald Trump"

Philadelphia: September 10, 2024

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Trump falls into Harris’s traps as he lies about abortion and ‘eating pets.’ Donald Trump appeared to fall apart in his first head-to-head debate with Kamala Harris in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening, providing rambling answers on illegal immigration, abortion, and the economy and taking the bait whenever his opponent goaded him.

 
Andrew Romano · Reporter | yahoo!news | Wed, September 11, 2024 at 12:40 AM EDT

The stakes couldn’t have been higher when Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump met Tuesday night for their only scheduled debate of the 2024 contest.

In the previous clash, President Biden — then the presumptive Democratic nominee — delivered such a wobbly performance that his own party soon forced him to withdraw. Now, after an initial burst of momentum for Harris, the polls show the race is (once again) too close to call.

With less than two months to go until Election Day — and no other debates on the calendar — Tuesday could have been the last best chance for Harris and Trump to shake things up before voters start casting their ballots. So who had a better night? Here are four takeaways from the face-off in Philadelphia.

Harris triggers Trump

The vice president spent most of her career as a prosecutor before heading to Washington. It showed Tuesday night.

To be sure, Harris used her time on stage to “prosecute the case” against Trump, as expected, criticizing his positions on taxes, abortion, the border, Jan. 6, Ukraine, Obamacare and so on.

But more important than what Harris told viewers about Trump — all of which they’ve heard before, and largely learned to tune out — was what she managed to show them: How easily he can be baited into losing control.

Skillful prosecutors know how to provoke self-incriminating behavior — and that was very much Harris’s strategy during the debate. Again and again, she set traps for Trump; again and again, he walked right into them.

Harris “invited” viewers to attend Trump’s rallies, for instance, where he “talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter” and “people start leaving … early out of exhaustion and boredom.” Moments later, after defensively claiming that “we have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics,” Trump suddenly started ranting about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, “eating the pets of the people that live there” — a claim that has no basis in reality.

READ Springfield, Ohio: A central Ohio city at a heated political conversation about immigration after political leaders make claims without evidence. Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck, through his office, released a statement saying there's no evidence of any cats or other pets being harmed or eaten by the Haitian immigrants.

Harris’s goal was to puncture Trump’s sense of pride. She attacked his business acumen (“he got $400 million on a silver platter” from his father, she said, “then filed for bankruptcy six times”); his military leadership (“world leaders are laughing at Donald Trump”); and his political success (“Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people … clearly he’s having a very difficult time processing that”) — and then stood aside as her opponent demonstrated, on live TV, that he can’t keep his cool in confrontational, high-pressure situations.

“These dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be president again because they're so clear they can manipulate you with flattery and favors,” Harris said at one point. “That is why we understand that we have to have a president who is not consistently weak and wrong on national security.”

No, “she's the one … that's weak,” Trump sputtered in response. But that’s not how Harris made it seem on stage.

Trump avoids ‘her’ while Harris addresses ‘you’

Presidential debates aren’t collegiate point-scoring affairs; they’re usually won or lost on vibes and moments rather than wonkery. And what was striking about Tuesday’s debate between Trump and Harris, aside from the words they said, was how differently they acted toward each other — and to the audience.

The tone was set in the opening seconds. Trump ambled slowly in from the wings, heading for his podium; Harris went directly to Trump and initiated a handshake that he seemed to want to avoid. “Let’s have a good debate,” Harris said.

That pattern — Trump avoidant, Harris direct — repeated itself throughout the evening. Trump only referred to his rival as the “vice president” once: to call her the “worst vice president in the history of our country.” Otherwise, he seemed only able to address Harris in the third person, as “she” or “her” — as if she wasn’t there. He rarely made eye contact.

In contrast, Harris called Trump the “former president” more than a dozen times — and when she wasn’t referring to Trump by his title, she was looking right at him and addressing him as “you.”

Harris did the same thing to the camera, and by extension, the people watching at home. “You will not hear him talk about your needs, your dreams, and your needs and your desires,” she said. “And I'll tell you, I believe you deserve a president who actually puts you first. And I pledge to you that I will.”

Harris and Trump’s respective behavior and body language reinforced that message — that only one candidate on stage was comfortable confronting the other, and that only one was interested in connecting with undecided voters.

One issue to rule them all … at least for Trump

Forced to play defense for much of the debate, Trump instinctively retreated to his comfort zone: immigration. No matter what the question was about, the former president found a way to accuse Harris — whom he inaccurately called Biden’s “border czar” — of “destroying the country” by allowing “millions of criminals” to pour into the country via Mexico.

Never mind that the best available data suggests the crime rate has fallen significantly over the past few years, down near the lowest levels ever recorded, and that numerous studies have found that immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than U.S.-born citizens. Trump has been running on the border for years, and he’s not about to stop now.

But what about when the debate turned to other issues — like, say, abortion?

There, Trump claimed that overturning Roe v. Wade and allowing states to ban the procedure was “what everybody wanted — Democrats, Republicans, and everybody else” (despite polls showing otherwise).

Harris was ready to pounce.

“I have talked with women around our country,” she said. “This is what people wanted? Pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term, suffering from a miscarriage, being denied care in an emergency room because the health care providers are afraid they might go to jail, and she's bleeding out in a car in the parking lot — she didn't want that. Her husband didn't want that. A 12- or 13-year-old survivor of incest being forced to carry a pregnancy to term? They don't want that. And I pledge to you when Congress passes a bill to put back in place the protections of Roe v. Wade — as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.”

In the run-up to the debate, much was made about the need for Harris to provide voters with more specifics. But while Trump accused Harris Tuesday of simply copying Biden’s agenda — “She IS Biden,” he snapped — he actually ceded the “policy” card to her by returning to the border so many times and saying so little of substance elsewhere.

“Clearly, I am not Joe Biden, and I am certainly not Donald Trump,” Harris said. “What I do offer is a new generation of leadership for our country — one who believes in what is possible, one who brings a sense of optimism about what we can do instead of always disparaging the American people.”

Harris then mentioned her “plan to give startup businesses a $50,000 tax deduction to pursue their ambitions, their innovation, their ideas, their hard work”; her plan to create a “$6,000 [tax credit] for young families, for the first year of your child's life;” her plan to offer “$25,000 [in] down payment assistance for first time home buyers.”

“That's the kind of conversation I believe... people really want tonight, as opposed to a conversation that is constantly about belittling and name-calling,” Harris concluded.

Trump has some plans too (or "concepts of a plan," as he put it when asked what he would replace Obamacare with). But the former president was too busy calling America “a failing nation” beset by foreign criminals to talk much about them.

The most consequential moment of this campaign?

That’s how ABC News billed the debate during its pre-show. But it remains to be seen whether Tuesday’s spectacle will move the needle.

Because Trump is such a familiar figure — and because views of him are so fixed — there’s little left for him to say or do to change how voters see him, one way or the other. Getting repeatedly fact-checked by ABC’s moderators won’t upend his campaign. So the former president is likely to hold onto the 45% or so of voters who tell pollsters they support him — the same 45% who voted for him in 2016 and 2020.

Yet 45% isn’t enough to win an election. What Trump really needed to do Tuesday night was change how voters see Harris — or let Harris do the job herself. Instead, Trump allowed his opponent to project precisely the kind of presidential, forward-looking positivity she wanted to project — without provoking any of the meandering, word-salad responses that have caused her problems in the past.

That probably means Harris won the debate. But two months can be an eternity in politics — and winning a debate isn’t the same thing as winning in November.

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“LIVE: ABC News Presidential Debate: Harris and Trump meet in Philadelphia”
— Moderated by “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir and “Prime” anchor Linsey Davis

Harris at debate: "I am not Joe Biden, and I am certainly not Donald Trump"

 
“And then he said, ‘They’re eating the dogs! They’re eating the pets!’ Video Excerpt from the Presidential debate on September 10, 2024.”
— Courtesy New York Post @nypost on TikTok
 

Apparently, their newfound relationship blossomed overnight. And by Wednesday, they shook hands for a second time, about 12 hours after their first handshake, at a ceremony in Manhattan to commemorate the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. And the niceties didn’t end there.

“Trump’s Surprise Compliment to Harris About That Debate— ‘Good job.’”
— Mary Ann Akers | Wed, September 11, 2024 at 2:52 PM EDT

“Good job,” Trump told Harris as they shook hands when they both arrived to sit in the front row for the commemoration, according to a source at the event.

Donald Trump has had really bad—even vile—things to say about Kamala Harris, who he’d never met until their epic Tuesday night debate when she forced him to shake hands before igniting his implosion on stage.

READ Trump’s Surprise Compliment to Harris About That Debate | DAILY BEAST

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