beautiful sunrise in washington, d.c. good morning and welcome to morning joe. it is thursday, may 18th. donald trump has claimed that he could declassify materials just by thinking about them. like i dream of jeannie. but there is new evidence in the mar-a-lago documents investigation that proves he knows it s not true. the former president is seizing on two failed endorsements in florida from governor ron desantis, while ignoring the lack of success his candidates had in the last election. also ahead, the latest on the debt ceiling negotiations with both sides digging in on one big issue. we ll explain what that is. and we re keeping an eye on president biden this morning as he is in japan for the g7 summit. welcome, everybody. along with joe, willie and me, we have the host of way too early, white house bureau chief at politico, jonathan lemire. former aide to the george w. bush white house and state departments, elise jordan is with us. and former white ho
saying he s the leader the country needs. these public endorsements are expected to serve as the starting point for a wave of support from rank and file republicans in florida. former president trump, however, has already secured the endorsement of ten florida members of congress. joining us now, national political correspondent for time, molly ball, who has a new piece published just moments ago on, quote, the desantis project. you write, in part, this, from school board meetings to the walt disney corp, the shelves of elementary libraries and face masks, it s a florida governor. any of these might represent a signature achievement. for desantis, they re the latest line items in an agenda he calls the florida blueprint. by operationalizing the culture war into a set of concrete