The former President of the United States, still the leader of the GOP and supposed “kingmaker” to any Republican desperate for his endorsement, is doing his best to undermine the Democrats and President Joe Biden, and he’s being criticized for it.

In one of his many press releases that still do not admit he is a former president, Trump on Wednesday said it would be “foolish and unpatriotic” of Republicans to not use the debt ceiling as a tool against the Democrats’ agenda, as he urged what could be economic catastrophe for the United States, should it default on its credit obligations and the government shut down.

As many have noted, raising the debt ceiling is to pay for the trillions of dollars in spending Trump signed into law.

“Republicans have no choice but to do what they have to do,” he claimed, implying he wants to see them carry out a scorched-earth policy.

Trump also falsely claimed Democrats are “trying to inflict…horror” upon America’s future.

He then called Democrats’ voting rights legislation that will protect and expand the franchise, “the end of our democracy.”

If the debt ceiling is not raised, ultimately, the federal government would default on its bills. What does that mean?

“If the U.S. government cannot pay its bills, millions of Americans would be affected,” CBS News reports today. “Social Security payments would not go out; U.S. troops and federal civilian employees would not be paid. Veterans could see compensation or pension payments lapse. And millions of Americans on food assistance would see benefits stop.”

Democratic Rep. Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands is warning if the GOP follows Trump’s demands it “will harm every American.”

Republicans are trying a dine and dash of historic proportions. Trump added 8 trillion dollars to the national debt. If the GOP careens toward default as we heal from COVID—it will harm every American. We will work raise the debt ceiling and avoid irreparable economic harm.

— Rep. Stacey Plaskett (@StaceyPlaskett) September 22, 2021

Trump’s press release:

Trump endorses Senate Republicans playing hardball on the debt ceiling, says it’s the “only powerful tool” they have: “Republicans have no choice but to do what they have to do.” pic.twitter.com/wUVn8SWEvP

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) September 22, 2021

According to the book “Peril,” as newly-inaugurated President Joe Biden first toured the White House after Donald Trump vacated it January 20, he encountered one room of the former president’s “toys,” and responded with a two-word vulgarity.

“Trump’s existence permeated the White House, even the residence,” Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa write in the new book, per an excerpt cited by ABC News, HuffPost reports. “One night, Biden wandered into a room where a huge video screen covered the wall. To relax, Trump used to upload programs to virtually play the world’s most famous golf courses.”

The new President had just two words to say about the golf “toy.”

“What a fucking asshole,” President Biden responded.

Image: Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz via Flickr

One of U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn‘s Democratic challengers has just released an ad accusing the North Carolina Republican of appearing to have been “radicalized by extremists,” and it’s going viral, with more than 300,000 views in about ten hours.

“Like too many young people before him from around the world to right next door, Madison Cawthorn exhibits the signs of a young man who has been radicalized by extremists and is now dangerously radicalizing others,” Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, one of four Democrats and seven Republicans running to unseat Congressman Cawthorn, says in her new ad accusing him of “stoking insurrection.”

Jasmine Beach-Ferrara is a North Carolina county commissioner, ordained minister, and founder and executive director of the Campaign for Southern Equality. She announced her run for Congress in March.

Her campaign website says: “Jasmine attended public schools through high school and received her undergraduate degree from Brown University. She holds a Master of Fine Arts and completed her Master of Divinity degree at Harvard Divinity School. She served on the Biden Foundation’s Advisory Council for Advancing LGBTQ Equality.”

The ad is emblazoned with images of young Nazis in Hitler’s Germany, along with neo-Nazis and white supremacists from the Unite the Right “rally” in Charlotte, NC, along with white supremacist, neo-Nazi, and mass murderer Dylann Roof who slaughtered nine Black bible study group members, and alleged teenaged killer Kyle Rittenhouse who goes on trial in November.

The video says eight months after the January 6 insurrection, Cawthorn “calls these violent insurrectionists ‘hostages’ and can’t let go of the Big Lie.”

The ad also features images of Beach-Ferrara with her wife and children, as she says, “as a mom, an ordained minister and a county commissioner, I’m running to defeat Madison Cawthorn, not by confronting hate with more hate, but with love of neighbor, love of community, and love of country. Because violent extremism has no place in western North Carolina. This isn’t who we are. We need to be crystal clear about the difference between right and wrong.”

Beach-Ferrara calls Cawthorn “a danger to our democracy,” and says, “I’m asking for your help, not just to defeat him, but to come together to create the America our kids deserve.”

Watch:

Like too many young people before him, from around the world to right next door, Madison Cawthorn exhibits the signs of a young man who has been radicalized by extremists and is now—dangerously—radicalizing others. pic.twitter.com/eleKvss2FJ

— Jasmine Beach-Ferrara (@JBeachFerrara) September 22, 2021