Daily Caller
Pollsters Say RFK Jr. Endorsement ‘Could Have A Really Big Impact’ And ‘Help Trump’

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Jason Cohen
Republican pollster Lee Carter and Democratic pollster Carly Cooperman on Friday said that independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s endorsement of former President Donald Trump could significantly boost his campaign.
Kennedy announced during a Friday speech that he would suspend his campaign and endorse Trump in states where he is not on the ballot, only withdrawing his name from consideration in key battleground states as not to spoil the vote. Carter and Cooperman, on “Your World With Neil Cavuto,” said that in such a close election, the votes that Trump could gain from Kennedy’s decision might boost his chances of defeating Vice President Kamala Harris.
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“When you’re looking at these battleground states, we’re looking at averages where Donald Trump might be ahead by 0.2%, and just getting some of those votes could have a really big impact. And I think RFK Jr. knows this,” Carter said. “He was very, very keen to say, ‘I am withdrawing my name from these 10 states because I know it can have an impact.’ And so I think there is a very, very clear directive here.”
“It’s absolutely the case that the polls in these swing states show that with RFK removed, there is a small advantage that goes to Donald Trump. And in these states, every single vote really does matter. This makes a lot of sense,” Cooperman said. “Democrats are far more enthusiastic about Kamala Harris as their presidential candidate than they were about Joe Biden. And so you’re seeing much more coalescing among Democrats for Kamala, and therefore the support that RFK was getting in the most recent polls was certainly going to help Trump more so with him removed from it.”
Cooperman also noted “there is uncertainty” about what Kennedy’s supporters will do in November.
“It’s going to really depend, what are these voters going to do? Are they going to stay home or are they going to throw their support behind Donald Trump? I’m very curious now to see how RFK Jr. is integrated into Donald Trump’s campaign and what kind of role they’re going to talk about for him and how they might use this,” Carter added.
“I think Donald Trump’s got to return himself to sort of the underdog status that would help to get those RFK Jr. supporters on his side,” the Republican pollster said.
Kennedy’s support plunged to as low as 2% as of early August, according to an Economist/YouGov poll. Trump is presently beating Harris in the main battleground states by 0.1%, according to the RealClearPoltics average.
A “Morning Joe” panel sounded the alarm on Friday about how difficult it will be for Harris to beat Trump, with the race being so tight and the former president historically outperforming polls on election day.
“You got to look at states like North Carolina and Arizona and, of course, Georgia. Now, you may get a break with minority voting down in Georgia, but you could also come up short in Pennsylvania and not quite win in North Carolina,” former MSNBC host Chris Matthews said. “This could squeak. This could be the toughest election, because if Pennsylvania doesn’t go the Democratic way and North Carolina doesn’t go that way, it’s tough, it’s really tough.”
Automotive
Tesla Vandals Keep Running Into The Same Problem … Cameras

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Hudson Crozier
People damaging Teslas in anger toward their owners and Elon Musk aren’t picking up on the fact that the vehicles have multiple cameras capable of catching them in the act.
At least nine perpetrators have been caught on video keying, writing graffiti or otherwise defacing Tesla vehicles in parking lots across the U.S. in the month of March alone. Most have led to an arrest or warrant based partly on the footage, which Tesla’s “Sentry Mode” automatically films from the side of the unattended vehicle when it detects human activity nearby.
“Smile, you’re on camera,” Tesla warned in a March 20 X post about its Sentry Mode feature. Musk’s company has been working to upgrade Sentry Mode so that the vehicles will soon blast music at full volume when vandals attack it. The camera system, however, has not stopped an increasing number of vandals from singling out Tesla owners, usually in protest of Musk’s work in the Trump administration for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
One incident happened on March 29, the same day leftists coordinated protests around the country for a “Global Day of Action” against Musk. That Saturday also saw alleged instances of violence at protests. The demonstrations stemmed from an online call to action by groups such as the Disruption Project, which encourages activists to foment “uprisings,” find a “target’s” home address and other confrontational tactics.
Tesla’s press team did not respond to a request for comment.
One man allegedly caught on camera keying a Tesla SUV on March 24 apologized to the owner who confronted him in a parking lot in Pennsylvania, police and media reports said. The man faces charges of criminal mischief, harassment and disorderly conduct for allegedly carving a swastika onto the vehicle.
“I have nothing against your car, and I have nothing against you,” the suspect said while the owner filmed him in the parking lot. “Obviously, I have something against Elon Musk.” The man called his own behavior “misguided.”
The defendant’s lawyer told Fox News his “client is a proud father, long-time resident, and is currently undergoing cancer treatment” and that he would not comment publicly “pending the outcome of the case.”
One of the most aggressive acts caught by Sentry Mode was in the case of a man who drove an ATV-style vehicle into a Tesla on March 25. Texas police identified the man as Demarqeyun Marquize Cox, arrested him and said he allegedly gave two other nearby Teslas the same treatment while also writing “Elon” on them. The public defender office representing Cox did not respond to a voicemail from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Tesla cameras also caught three other people in Florida, Texas and Arizona keying and smearing bubble gum on the vehicles in March. The three suspects named by police do not have attorneys listed in county records available for contact.
Many of the vandalism cases since Trump’s return have reportedly caused thousands of dollars in damage for individual owners. For example, the bubble gum incident in Florida brought $2,623.66 in costs, while another keying incident in Minnesota brought $3,200.
Some reported attacks on Tesla vehicles and chargers have gotten the attention of federal law enforcement, including cases of alleged firebombing or shooting.
Two other suspected vandals in New York, one in Minnesota and one in Mississippi have reportedly avoided arrest for now — with one owner declining to press charges — but were all seen on the Teslas’ cameras scratching up the vehicles. Police identified the Mississippi suspect as an illegal migrant from Cuba.
One Tesla owner in North Dakota ridiculed a man who allegedly carved the letter “F” into his Cybertruck in a Costco parking lot — as seen on the Cybertruck’s camera. The defendant faces charges of criminal mischief, and county records say he is representing himself in court.
“I can’t believe this guy is potentially ruining his life to follow a political ideology,” the owner told WDAY News.
“If you’re going to vandalize these vehicles, you’re going to get caught,” the owner said.
Daily Caller
‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ Or $50 Oil — Trump Can’t Have Both

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By David Blackmon
President Donald Trump has often made clear his goal of cutting prices for energy as part of his overall agenda to break the back of chronic inflation left behind by the Biden presidency. When talking about this goal, the president has placed special emphasis on lowering the price of crude oil, given its integral relationship to gas prices at the pump and transportation-related costs which go into the price of food, clothing and other consumer goods.
“A very big thing that I’m very happy with is oil is down,” Trump said in remarks in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “We’re getting that down. When energy comes down, prices are going to be coming down with it. So, in a very short period of time, we’ve done a very good job.”
White House advisor Peter Navarro has been quoted by The New York Times and other media outlets as saying that an average oil price of $50 per barrel would help tame inflation and set the stage for a return to a healthier economy. If that is indeed the goal, this week’s confluence of events, featuring a bigger-than-expected increase in oil production quotas from the OPEC+ oil cartel preceded less than 24 hours earlier by the president’s announced reciprocal tariffs on a wide array of countries went a long way to doing the trick.
Just prior to Trump’s tariff announcement Wednesday afternoon, the price for West Texas Intermediate crude stood at $70/bbl. Less than 48 hours later, the price had fallen below $61, a drop of about 15%. It was the largest 2-day decline in crude prices since 2021. How much of the price decrease is due to the tariffs as opposed to the OPEC+ agreement to pour another 137,000 barrels per day onto the international market is hard to know, but there is no doubt both actions had an impact.
As I’ve noted previously, this action to force lower prices for oil and natural gas lies directly at odds with the concurrent Trump “drill, baby, drill” objective which he sees as a key part of his American Energy Dominance agenda. The White House gave a nod to the oil refining segment in the Wednesday tariff announcement by exempting energy imports, another action at least in part aimed at lowering prices for gasoline and diesel fuel.
But that nod to the downstream segment does little for upstream companies who have seen supply chain muck-ups and Biden-era inflation raise break-even prices above Friday’s levels. The Q1 2025 Energy Survey Report published March 26 by the Dallas Federal Reserve estimates that drillers in the Permian Basin require a $61 oil price just to break even on drilling new shale wells. The needed breakeven price rises higher in other, less prolific basins. CNN quoted independent oil analyst Andy Lipow as saying that many upstream companies require prices closer to Monday’s $71/bbl level for new shale wells. It almost goes without saying that operators will have little incentive to “drill, baby, drill” if they stand to lose money doing it.
In an interview with Fox Business host Stu Varney on Tuesday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, himself a former oil industry executive, said, “If your state has expensive energy, it’s because of choices made by politicians in those states to virtue signal somehow they’re on some global mission. They’re going to solve climate change by making your utility bills more expensive and your businesses want to relocate out of the states. That’s just nonsense.” He added that Trump was pursuing energy policies based on common sense, saying, “common sense will deliver more investment in our country and lower energy prices.”
No doubt, few executives in the industry would agree that a pursuit of $50 oil prices has anything to do with common sense for their companies. If prices should drop that far and linger there for any length of time, layoffs and idled drilling rigs will become the prevailing topic of the day in oil and gas.
So, while the White House might continue touting its “drill, baby, drill” slogan for the time being, we won’t hear it echoing through the barbecue and Tex-Mex joints in Midland, Texas, for the time being.
David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
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