Elizabeth Preza, AlterNet

Former Republican Rich Logis — executive director of the nonprofit Leaving MAGA — on Sunday unveiled 5 “critical guideposts” to reach loved ones who continue to support President Donald Trump, noting that in his own experience, “MAGA became all-consuming” until he “managed to find [his] way out … on [his] own.”

“It’s seemingly a daily occurrence to see testimonials from people who voted for Donald Trump but are now ready to renounce” his Make America Great Again movement, Logis wrote in Salon. “This buyer’s remorse is just beginning, and we need to provide an off-ramp for the increasingly uncertain.”

As Logis noted, “many people only care about something when it affects them personally” — and for Trump’s most fervent supporters, that realization could come in the form of deportations, tariffs or the president’s bucking of the Constitution.

For Logis, it’s best to avoid saying “I told you so” when speaking with disaffected Trump supporters.

“That may afford instant gratification, but it only strengthens an obsequious subservience to Trump,” Logis opined. The writer also suggested people interested in making inroads with Trump’s faithful should avoid referring to “MAGA as a cult, even if you believe that term fits.”

“MAGA people will shut down,” Logis noted.

The former Republican blamed support for Trump on “three primary reasons”: “Misinformation and disinformation; a tendency to believe the worst about the "other side"; and a profound misunderstanding of capitalism and free markets, which has created widespread financial dissatisfaction.”

“There will be a gradual, and then sudden, realization among many Trump voters that the chaos created, and havoc wreaked, by the likes of Trump … will harm lower-income and middle-class Americans, along with small business owners, worst of all,” Logis said.

The former Republican then offered his 5 “critical guideposts” to engaging Trump supporters:

1. "Search for relatability and common ground.”
2. “Don’t attack!”
3. “Introduce the possibility of reconciliation with their family and friends.”
4. “Rather than debating facts and policy, open up a respectful back and forth.”
5. “After you make some progress — which will likely take more than a single conversation — ask if they’re open to hearing about the regrets of former Trump supporters, which might include the work of our nonprofit.”

“I understand that you may feel the MAGA supporter in your life is racist, homophobic, misogynistic or downright unpatriotic,” Logis added. “Please consider that saying those things will absolutely not convince them to leave MAGA. The way to begin creating doubt — the necessary precursor to self-empowerment and, ultimately, to leaving MAGA — is through empathy and education.”...

Nevada truckers who voted for President Donald Trump now face “significant hardship” as the president’s controversial tariffs go into effect.

Steve Finn, owner of Premium Trucking in Las Vegas, who voted for Trump in 2024, “said he wouldn’t pull the lever for Trump again if given the opportunity today,” the Las Vegas Sun reports, frustrated by what he considers a lack of preparation from the president regarding his trade policies.

“We did everything way too fast,” Finn told the Sun.

Trump, Finn added, “should have prepared some businesses for this. And I don’t think anybody’s [prepared] for this because all this administration talked about was, ‘Everything’s going to be great.’”

According to the report, “Much of Finn’s business relies on conventions. The CES tech extravaganza each January sets the tone at the start of the year.”

And, as Finn told the Sun, “As of right now, it looks pretty bleak.”

“I think a lot of people are pulling out [of] CES, so I think that’s going to be a sign that 2026 is going to be a rough start,” he said.

Truline Corp. President Paul Truman said his company is struggling “to be proactive” in the face of Trump’s chaotic economic policies.

“You become very reactionary to the marketplace and just try to do the best job you can do,” Truman said.

Truman said consumers will start to see the effects of Trump’s tariffs on the store shelves in as little as two weeks.

Shashi Nambisan, director of University of Nevada, Las Vegas’s Transportation Research Center, likewise told the Sun consumers are “going to be looking at the middle of May when you can see the ripple effects of that hit our store shelves.”


But Nambisan warned the impact won't be limited to the trucking industry.

“Think about the people they hire: the drivers, people who maintain their trucks, others who will be in the warehouse,” Nambisan said. “Then at each of these stores where we as consumers go to buy stuff, there are people who work in these stores to stock the store, so on and so forth.”

“It’s got a major ripple effect in the economy,” he added.

Read the full report at the Las Vegas Sun.

...

ABC News on Sunday reported President Donald Trump is poised to accept “what may be the most valuable gift ever extended to the United States from a foreign government” — “a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar” to be used “as the new Air Force One until shortly before he leaves office, at which time ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation.”

According to ABC News, “the gift is expected to be announced next week” after “lawyers for the White House counsel's office and the Department of Justice drafted an analysis for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth concluding that is legal for the Department of Defense to accept the aircraft as a gift and later turn it over to the Trump library.”

As AlterNet reported Sunday, the proposed gift — which aviation industry experts told ABC is estimated to value "about $400 million” — stunned Democrats and journalists alike. But, as news of the plane plan proliferated on social media Sunday, even some Republicans were concerned about conflicts of interest arising from the proposal.

READ MORE: 'Bribery in broad daylight': Experts stunned by Qatar plan to gift Trump $400 million 'flying palace'

“I’m sure the podcasters who are deeply alarmed by foreign influence will be all over this,” National Review editor Philip Klein wrote Sunday on X.

“Call me a crazy RINO neocon, but I think it’s bad for the President of the United States to accept a $400 million ‘gift’ from an Islamist regime that funds terrorist organizations that murder Americans,” conservative writer and podcast host Ian Haworth argued.

Conservative radio host Erick Erickson agreed.

“The Qatari government is not our friend, cooperates with Iran and its proxies, and funds terrorism and pro-terror propaganda around the world,” Erickson wrote in a tweet Sunday.

READ MORE: 'Buyer’s remorse' as MAGA faithful face 'gradual — then sudden — realization' Trump only hurts them

The Bulwark podcast host Tim Miller suggested Trump’s interest in receiving a gift from Qatar undermines the president’s “anti-semitism initiative.” The Trump administration has threatened funding for private universities over what it claims is a failure of universities to address rampant antisemitism on campus.

“Hamas’ sugar daddies are giving Trump a fancy plane? I guess the admin’s anti-semitism initiative has some carve outs,” Miller wrote Sunday.

National Review commentator Stephen L. Miller offered a succinct analysis on reports of Trump’s gift from Qatar.

“That sounds like a very bad idea,” Miller wrote.

Read the full report from ABC News.

...

Sawyer County, WI Judge Monica Isham on Saturday announced she’ll “refuse to hold court” following the arrest of Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan “if there is no guidance for … and no support for” judges in the state.

Isham sent the letter Saturday to her fellow Wisconsin judges, insisting she has “no intention of allowing anyone be taken out of [her] courtroom by [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and sent to a concentration camp, especially without due process.”

The judge’s announcement comes after Dugan, first elected to the Milwaukee County Circuit Court in 2016, was arrested on Friday by the FBI for “allegedly obstructing federal authorities who were seeking to detain an undocumented immigrant,” NBC News reports.

READ MORE: Here’s the real reason behind Trump’s 'startlingly fast turnaround' on his trip to Rome

Dugan was described by NBC News as “a longtime social justice advocate before she took the bench.”

Isham, in her letter to fellow judges, argued Dugan “stood on her Oath” and “was arrested and charged with felonies for it.”

“I no longer feel protected or respected as a Judge in this administration,” Isham wrote.

Isham also described multiple instances of “racial attacks in [her] court” since President Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, writing she’s been “called an ‘immigrant,’” was told she has “no jurisdiction over while people in [her] county” and “had a juror loudly proclaim” they would not follow orders “from a brown or black person.”

READ MORE: 'Real War on Christmas': Trump threatens toy industry ahead of holiday shopping season

As Isham noted, she was “elected as the first woman, first Native American, first minority all together to serve as circuit court judge” in her county.

"If this costs me my job or gets me arrested then at least I know I did the right thing," Isham wrote.

Isham’s colleague “Dugan was arrested and charged with obstruction of an official proceeding on Friday after evidence came to light that she had shielded the migrant from ICE agents, according to a criminal complaint,” Fox News reports. “She was also charged with concealing an individual to prevent discovery and arrest.”

READ MORE: 'Doom for the president’s party': Analyst says there’s 'no way to sugarcoat' Trump’s 'awful' polling...

President Donald Trump spent a mere “14 hours in Rome,” as his “whirlwind trip to Italy” came against the backdrop of “global discord,” the New York Times reports.

The reason for his quick turnaround?

“He wanted to make it back to his golf resort in New Jersey before the end of the day,” Trump told aides, according to the Times.

READ MORE: 'Drowning in hubris': How a conservative legal doctrine — and his own 'stupidity' — could topple Trump

As reporters David Sanger and Motoko Rich report, Trump “flew briefly this weekend into a European continent he has thrown into chaos in recent months, paying respects to Pope Francis at his funeral, but also meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine at a critical moment that may decide both the country’s boundaries and its fate.”

“Trump was on the ground in Rome for about 14 hours, and left immediately after the services for the pope,” the reporters note, describing it as a “startlingly fast turnaround for the first overseas trip of a new president.”

The trip “left no time for discussion of his tariffs on the European Union, his turn toward normalizing relations with Russia or his insistence that Europeans must take far larger responsibility for their own defense,” the reporters add.

According to the report, Trump’s “speedy departure came despite a suggestion from a Ukrainian spokesman that more talks would take place in Rome on Saturday.”

READ MORE: This is how one swing state transformed into a Republican stronghold in just one decade

The Ukrainian spokesman later acknowledged the “very tight schedules of the presidents” after Trump boarded Air Force One to depart back to the United States — and his New Jersey golf resort.

“The spokesman then said a second meeting would not occur,” the Times reports....