Trump19 Bak
4 26 capt
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ESTB 1 26
RENEE GOOD SEE FRCE TAG
KILLED EPA ENDANGERMENT 2 26 ZELDIN COAL FAKE AWARD
SEE SCOTUS 4 IMMUNITY
SEE CONSPIRACY EARTH2
SEE LIE GASLT EG SOTU 2 26 alt fact 6 earth 2
SEE FASCISM ~ JUDGE RULE OF LAW RETALIATE
SEE PRESS SUPPRESS
SEE XO EMERGENCY DECLAR BS --> VOTER SUPPRESS
SEE FOX WATTERS
SEE CORRUPT 3 see KAKI KLEPTO
see RACISM OBAMA APE PIX 2 26
SEE TARIFF
SEE DOJ 3
XIAN NAT?
SEE BIZZOMG
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AN 4 26
Rumors have been swirling that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito might announce he is retiring at the end of this term, and while some wonder if the rumors are part of a "pressure campaign," there are valid reasons why an Alito retirement — or one by Justice Clarence Thomas — would be beneficial to President Donald Trump.
According to CNN analysis, even though Alito, 76, and Thomas, 77, are staunch conservatives, they are near the average retirement age for Supreme Court justices. There are signs Democrats might take control of the Senate after the November midterm elections. Even if Republicans keep control, the GOP's margin might shrink, making a confirmation battle difficult for any Trump nominee.
CNN notes that "even if Senate Democrats come up short in November, there could be a big difference between Trump nominating a justice with 53 Republican votes this year and trying to do so with 50 or 51 in the second half of his term."
"But the president may have other reasons, apart from the confirmability factor, to try and usher things in this direction," CNN notes.
For instance, a confirmation fight could be an election issue that Republicans could use to drive a "significantly less enthusiastic" GOP base to the polls.
"There is some thought," CNN notes, "that Democrats’ attempts to defeat Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh in the runup to the 2018 election helped the GOP win some vulnerable red-state Senate races in what was otherwise a tough election for the party."
There are other reasons.
"Given Trump’s recent disenchantment with two of his appointees who ruled against him on the tariffs case — Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch — he would likely prefer to have some cushion to choose someone he might view as more loyal," CNN notes.
But Trump’s legacy might be the more motivating factor for the almost 80-year-old president.
"Trump in his comments to Fox Business spoke about appointing someone who could serve for 40 years," CNN reports. "If he replaced even one of Alito or Thomas with someone in their 40s, for example, the average age of the conservative justices would be less than 60. If he replaced both with justices in their 40s, that average age would drop into the mid-50s."
With four or five appointments over two terms to the nation's highest court, Trump could be among the few presidents in modern history to so fully shape the Supreme Court in their image.
“In theory, it’s two or three, they tell me," Trump said of the number of possible nominations he might still be able to make.
"If you just read statistics, it could be two, could be three, could be one. I don’t know,” Trump told Fox Business, adding: “I’m prepared to do it.”
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an 4 26
rogan haha at dr expl?
President Donald Trump may have posted a meme of himself as Jesus Christ at the urging of an adviser previously referred to by other Republicans as a “nut.”
“Before President Trump posted an image of him as a Christ-like healer, he discussed the meme with his controversial housing finance chief Bill Pulte,” Axios journalist Marc Caputo wrote on Wednesday. Both Trump and Pulte declined to comment to Axios, although a third adviser friendly to Pulte denied the accusation to Axios.
“Trump was in South Florida over the weekend and the two spent time together, according to two advisers who spoke to the president about the image,” Axios reported. “At some point, Pulte brought the image to Trump's attention, the advisers told Axios. It's not clear whether he just displayed the rendering on his phone or actually sent it to the president.”
The meme was widely criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike, with both sides characterizing it as both disrespectful to Christianity and indicative of Trump potentially experiencing cognitive decline. It does not help that the person who allegedly suggested he post the meme is Pulte, who aroused controversy last year for being connected to an alleged attempt to get the Justice Department to investigate mortgage and tax fraud against former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California. A wealthy real estate developer who Trump put in charge of the powerful Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to develop public housing policy, Pulte is regarded as extremely conservative as well as volatile and eccentric.
“I think he’s a nut,” one House Republican recently told Politico about Pulte, who has caused friction in the Washington bureaucracy with his fiery personality and assistance in the president’s campaigns against Federal Reserve figures like Jerome Powell and Lisa Cook. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent reportedly threatened to punch Pulte in the face at a recent Washington dinner party, with other Republicans reportedly approving Bessent’s outburst.
“The guy’s just a little too big for his britches,” one lawmaker said.
On another occasion in November Pulte was reportedly in danger of losing his job for his role in convincing Trump to push a 50-year mortgages plan.
"The thing that became clear from this latest episode — if it wasn’t already clear — is that Bill Pulte doesn’t know the first f— — thing about how the mortgage markets operate," a source claimed. "After publicly humiliating the president with his moronic 50-year mortgage plan it’s safe to assume that his days are numbered.”
The FHFA told Politico in response to the Bessent story that “lobbyists’ anonymous sources will not deter Director Pulte from working with the entire administration to ensure a competitive, safe, and sound mortgage market.”
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// prez phys fitness test?
an 4 26
Trump’s “gauche” habit of naming everything after himself is more than just a quirk picked up by his narcissistic father; it is, quite literally, a threat to our republic.
“He got it from his father, Fred Trump,” USA Today's Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy reported in an interview with Barbara Res, a former executive vice president at Trump Organization who oversaw major projects like building Trump Tower in the 1980s. The elder Trump was a wealthy New York City real estate developer who raised his son to inherit that empire and expand it.
“He (the president) was raised to believe that he was different and his family was different,” Res said. “And by different, I mean better than and more important than anyone else.” Res was a close adviser to the younger Trump from the late 1970s to the early 1990s.
Jeffrey Engel, founding director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, added that Trump’s renaming obsession speaks to a deeper authoritarian trend in his governing style.
“The leader is the state is what those messages are trying to convey,” Engel told Ramaswamy. “And in our country, the leader's not the state, the people are the state.”
He added that there are only two reasons why presidents’ names are added to buildings and other important institutions only after they have died. The first is that doing otherwise is “gauche”; the second is that “more importantly, this is still a constitutional republic.”
Despite the fact that renaming important institutions after a living president implies that America is a dictatorship rather than a constitutional republic, Ramaswamy noted that “the 79-year-old commander-in-chief’s name has been inserted into decades-old establishments such as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the U.S. Institute of Peace. He’s also slapped his name on key policies including TrumpRX, Trump Gold Card, Trump Coin and Trump Accounts.”
Ramaswamy added, “Federal buildings – including the Department of Labor, Department of Agriculture and Department of Justice – unfurled large banners with Trump’s face on them over the past few months. Lawmakers have sought to cater to Trump's ego with legislation to put him on Mount Rushmore. The latest canvas? The Treasury Department announced in March that Trump’s signature will appear on future U.S. paper currency in honor of the country’s 250th anniversary.”
Veteran reporter Michael Wolff reported in February that Trump initially wanted the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which was named after the assassinated President John F. Kennedy, to be named solely after himself.
"His first idea was to call this the Trump Center,” Wolff explained, adding that Trump asked, “Why does this have to be Kennedy? That was such a long time ago.” He then insisted that because Trump himself had been “almost assassinated," the name on the center should be his alone.
“You can’t say, ‘This is a terrible idea. This is a megalomaniacal idea. This is not good politics.’ You just cannot say any of that stuff to Trump,” Wolff explained regarding the perspective of those who work for Trump. “So instead, they said, ‘Well, why don’t we call it the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center?’”
Wolff added, "It’s a perfect Trump setup. He goes for the absurd, and he settles for the outlandish."
Also in February it was reported that Trump told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) that he would lift his hold on $16 billion for a long-planned railway project connected New York and New Jersey if Washington Dulles International Airport and New York’s Penn Station were both renamed for him. Two unnamed sources later told CNN that Schumer "swiftly rejected" Trump's demand.
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an 4 26
Ex-prosecutors tear apar Trump for demanding total obedience from judges - Alternet.org
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Trump delivers baffling excuse for post depicting himself as Jesus - Alternet.org
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AN 4 26 DING DONG ORBAN
Trump 'crashing out' over Orban loss: 'He can't handle the truth' - Alternet.org
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an 4 26
President Donald Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp, Rupert Murdoch and others has been thrown out of court.
U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles in Florida, an appointee from President Barack Obama, ruled that “Because President Trump has not plausibly alleged that defendants published the article with actual malice, both Counts must be dismissed."
The judge also said that Trump could file a new amended lawsuit if he wishes, but he only has until April 27 to do so.
Last year, the WSJ reported that there was a book celebrating trafficking Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday. In the book, Trump submitted a little skit of a conversation about "secrets" the two shared. It was within a drawing of a woman. Trump alleged it was false, but the page was revealed showing that the drawing did exist.
As an appellate lawyer, Gabriel Malor said, "Trump can replead."
Economist Teresa Fort commented, "There needs to be some penalty for bringing lawsuits that will be dismissed like this. There is a huge cost for defendants to deal with them."
A few people suggested that theWSJ sue Trump.
"Since most everything Trump does is illegal or a lie, fighting back pays off. He banks on the fact that his victims can’t afford to do so. Those who can, win," said Michael Curry.
"Stupid defamation lawsuits are a real threat to free speech. The story was true. It was well documented. And the President still managed to make a newspaper pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to report it," wrote lawyer Andrew Fleischman.
He explained that the WSJ was denied legal fees because Trump could still amend his complaint and suit.
"I am still surprised they did not raise the failure to give five days notice before suing, which has been successful in Florida federal district courts," said Fleischman.
He also recalled, "Republicans used to be all about tort reform. But many lack the stomach to support a federal anti-SLAPP to deter these stupid lawsuits until our litigant in chief shuffles off this mortal coil."
"In dismissing (without prejudice) Trump’s lawsuit vs WSJ over that Epstein birthday card, the judge shows why a reporter — asking someone for comment and quoting their response fully — is a smart legal, as well as ethical, thing to do," explained journalist Bill Grueskin.
"Yeah, tough to prove actual malice over a newspaper printing a real document you signed," quipped reporter David Weigel. "And lied about," added lawyer Scott Greenfield.
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AN 4 26
Trump is suing the IRS for $10 billion.
He accuses the IRS of not doing enough to prevent a former IRS contractor from leaking Trump’s tax returns to The New York Times in 2020. (Using those tax returns, The Times published a series of articles revealing that Trump had paid little or no income tax for many years.)
On February 18, Trump’s lawyers served the government with the lawsuit, giving the Justice Department 60 days to respond — a deadline that will be reached, ironically, just around tax day, April 15.
So who’s representing you and me and other American taxpayers in this lawsuit? After all, if he wins, we’ll be the ones to have to fork over the $10 billion to him.
This is beyond bizarre. Trump heads the executive branch of the United States government. And since being installed as president for the second time, he’s consolidated that power into the closest thing to a dictatorship we’ve ever had in this country.
He’s decided on his own to wage a war in Iran, decided on his own not to spend money that Congress has appropriated, decided on his own to move money from one purpose to another, decided on his own to shut down entire federal agencies without Congress’s okay, decided on his own to fire the heads of “independent” agencies and to fire “independent” inspectors general.
He’s also taken over the Justice Department — instructing his attorney general to prosecute particular people he deems to be his enemies and to pardon those he believes are his friends and supporters (including 1,200 people jailed for rioting at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021).
He’s also issued an executive order that binds all government lawyers to his owninterpretation of the law.
In other words, Trump has cast himself as the legal embodiment of the United States. So how can the United States defend itself against a lawsuit coming from him?
Assigning a Justice Department lawyer to defend the United States from Trump’s lawsuit would pose an insuperable conflict of interest, given that Trump has made it clear that any such person ultimately works for him.
Even if the Justice Department asks the unlucky judge who’s presiding over this absurd case (Judge Kathleen M. Williams, an Obama nominee) to appoint an independent counsel to defend us taxpayers from Trump’s lawsuit, who will represent us in the inevitable settlement negotiations with Trump and his lawyers?
Who’s going to tell Trump’s lawyers that we’ll cough up, say, $2 billion instead of $10 billion? And how can we trust “our”lawyer to represent our interests, anyway?
Here’s a better way.
The Supreme Court has given Trump and all future presidents immunity from lawsuits that arise from his (eventually her) official duties.
But Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS for leaking his tax returns to The Timeshas nothing whatever to do with his official duties. He’s therefore not immune to a lawsuit against himfor bringing that suit.
I have a simple recommendation.
Congressional Democrats (and any Republican member of Congress with sufficient guts to join them) should sue Trump for $20 billion.
Theirlawsuit should allege that Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS and the United States, is (1) frivolous and fraudulent, (see Neitze v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 325 (1989)); (2) instigated for the sole purpose of defrauding the United States, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371; (3) intended to obstruct normal proceedings of the IRS, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1512(c); and (4) an interference with the congressional members’ constitutional duties to conduct oversight of the IRS, in violation of Article I of the U.S. Constitution.
The members of Congress bringing this lawsuit against Trump should be willing to settle it with Trump for whatever amount Trump is willing to settle his lawsuit against the IRS, plus costs.
Congressional Democrats, take it away.
*Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found athttps://robertreich.substack.com/
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trump attacks rw diss
mma
Fox Business guests ridicule the network’s fantasy of 4-5% economic growth this year: “Dream on”
04/10/26 2:00 PM EDT
Benny Johnson: “Netanyahu should be banned from the White House as far as I'm concerned”
04/10/26 12:18 PM EDT
Laura Loomer takes credit for Trump's attacks on Tucker Carlson: “I'm the one who sent the president all your shit, Tucker”
04/10/26 12:08 PM EDT
“Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander: Trump “has got to be ripped politically, peacefully, legally, from the Oval Office”
04/10/26 11:49 AM EDT
Tim Pool on Trump's post attacking right-wing pundits: “I don't know that this post was necessary. What is to be gained by attacking these individuals?”
04/10/26 11:05 AM EDT
Alex Jones responds to Trump's attack on him: “I will now stand against this new Trump who by the day becomes more demonic, more twisted, and more sick”
04/10/26 11:00 AM EDT
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MMA
Alex Jones on Trump's threats to Iran: "That's genocide" | Media Matters for America
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an 4? 26
Critics aghast after Fetterman tells Fox’s Hannity Trump has 'made the world safer' - Alternet.org
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an 4 26
Congress's cowardice exposed again as Trump ignores judge's ruling
:{:{Sabrina Haake April 09, 2026}:
From his first days back in power, Trump has set about remaking the nation’s capital in his own gilded image.
He paved over the 1903 Rose Garden, then matched the new patio to his Mar-a-Lago hotel, demolished the entire East Wing, and spray painted Oval Office fixtures in a
Let-them-eat-cake gold frenzy. The Kennedy Center, left alone until one artist after another refused to perform there following Trump’s rebrand, is now facing an unplanned two year “closure” for “comprehensive renovations.” Still in the works are Trump’s massive ‘arch de Trump’ between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial, the conversion of three historic municipal golf courses into private, luxury courses, and a 90,000 square foot ballroom styled after his Palm Beach bordello that will dwarf the White House.
The Commission of Fine Arts is an independent federal agency established by Congress to advise the President and Congress on aesthetics and design in order to preserve the quiet dignity of the nation's capital. After Trump packed its governing board with allies, the Commission voted to approve his gold-appointed ballroom, no notes. However, on March 31, 2026, in a delicious smackdown that got out-noised by Trump’s WWIII insanity, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon put a pin in it.
Addressing the planned ballroom, Judge Leon wrote that the President of the United States “is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families,” however, he is not the owner.
What gives Trump the right to redraw the nation’s capital?
Facing down Trump’s claims of foolproof authority to control what happens to the White House, Judge Leon belabored the historical context in which Congress —not the president— has always controlled construction at the White House. His opinion can be found here.
Leon started by noting that the original White House construction was directed and funded by Congress. The initial build was quickly followed by repairs necessitated by the War of 1812. From there Leon detailed how Congress appropriated funds for construction of the South Portico in 1823, the North Portico in 1829, and the East and West Wings in 1902. In the late 1940s, Leon noted, after the discovery of major structural issues, Congress appropriated funds for “the renovation, repair, and modernization” of the White House but prohibited any change of the “architectural appearance of the exterior of the mansion or the interior of its main floor.”
Despite the clarity of historical precedent, easily found on the White House’s own Historical Association website, the White House announced in August 2025 that, “President Trump, and other patriot donors, have generously committed to donating the funds to build” a 90,000 square foot ballroom, at “zero cost to the American Taxpayer!” (Cancer! Lobotomies! at zero cost!)
Less than two months later, photos circulating online confirmed that the East Wing had been entirely demolished to make way for Trump’s ballroom eyesore.
National monuments don’t belong to Trump’s oligarchs
Trump has claimed repeatedly that he, not Congress, possesses vast powers to control the nation’s purse strings. To construct his ballroom, he claimed the right to supplant Congressional funding with money donated by his wealthy donor class, as if centuries of American tradition could be restyled in Trump’s taste by simply paying for it. Trump’s ballroom donors wouldn’t have $400 million laying around to begin with if not for Trump’s $117 billion in tax cuts lining their pockets.
Issuing a preliminary injunction against the ballroom’s construction last week, Judge Leon ordered it to “stop until Congress authorizes its completion.” Under 40 USC. § 8106, in effect since 1912, “[a] building or structure shall not be erected on any reservation, park, or public grounds of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia without express authority of Congress.” The statute further instructs the Secretary of the Interior to protect the District of Colombia’s scenery, natural and historic objects “in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”
Trump’s legal team tried numerous spins around these statutory hurdles, but Judge Leon rejected them in turn, ruling that “no statute comes close to giving (Trump) the authority he claims to have” to bypass Congress for such major alterations, regardless of who’s paying for them.
Ultra vires: ‘beyond the powers of,’ ‘unauthorized’
Letting Trump and his oligarchs pay to control the landscape of our nation’s 235 year capital is blatantly unethical. Donor entities such as Amazon, Apple, Meta, Google, and Microsoft, defense contractors, and cryptocurrency firms paying for the ballroom expect paybacks in the form of regulatory breaks, merger approvals, more tax breaks, and lucrative federal contracts. That’s why the Antideficiency Act restricts government agencies from accepting private funds without explicit authorization from Congress- to prevent people and corporations from donating to the government in order to buy influence.
Trump, above that law thanks to SCOTUS, is now freely and openly selling influence and accepting bribes. Aside from the obvious corruption of pay to play, by revising national monuments with private funds, Trump is also trying to transfer the power of Congress, a co-equal branch of government, to his own corporate donors. That Congressional Republicans are letting him do it suggests severe pathologies and hints at a flaw in our founding document.
Fittingly, as to Trump’s lamentations that the work had already begun on the ballroom, with the destruction of the East Wing now leaving an unsightly mess, Judge Leon called it “a hole of the President's own making.”
If that’s not a metaphor for this disastrous presidency, nothing is.
Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. She writes the free Substack, The Haake Take.
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rww
04/07/2026
Ruth Ben-Ghiat @ Lucid: Disaster Fascism: One Civilization Must Disappear So Another Can Prosper
The Trump state revolves around White Christian nationalism, not only as a domestic policy goal justifying human rights crimes to reduce the non-white immigrant population (killing, detention, deportation) but as the watchword and rationale for foreign alliances and national security policy.
Adam Lynch @ AlterNet: 'Pray for America': Petrified MAGA now fleeing their 'madman'
Panicking MAGA everywhere appear to be clinging to one another and wailing at the creature they’ve let lose onto the townspeople
Timothy Snyder @ Thinking about…: The President speaks genocide
Whatever happens tonight, the president, by saying such things, has already changed the world for the worse, and made acts of mass violence more likely.
Stephen Beschloss @ Lincoln Square: Donald Trump Needs to Be Removed
He is becoming increasingly dangerous and unable to perform the duties of his office, requiring the invocation of the 25th Amendment.
Matt Gertz @ Media Matters: Between Hegseth and the Fox Cabinet, no restraints on Trump’s war crimes plan
Hegseth’s distinguishing characteristic in his prior role as weekend host of Fox’s morning show was his delight in the prospect of American service members engaging in brutality.
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an 4 26
The 2026 midterms are kicking into gear and Republicans are eager for President Donald Trump's super PAC to start spending its $300 million war chest to help save the GOP from an anticipated defeat.
Axios reported on Wednesday that the PAC intends to start spending while his popularity continues to fall off of the political cliff. "His operation has one of the biggest political bank accounts in history," the report explained. Democrats, however, have momentum and rage on their side.
Trump celebrated his "win" in Georgia on Tuesday, where a Republican candidate won Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-Ga.) seat by 12 points. The problem for the GOP, however, is that Trump won the seat in 2024 by 37 points. It shows a significant over-performance by Democrats in the reddest of red districts around the country.
Trump's personal account takes the $300 million in the PAC to half a billion dollars. So, Republicans are hoping that they can buy their way to victory.
Unlike previous elections, Trump doesn't need to spend the money on his own campaign. So, Republicans are hoping that Trump's desperation to "prevent a Democratic takeover of the House," will inspire him to spend all of the cash. Trump has said publicly that if Democrats take over, it will be nothing but impeachments. Trump is already the only president in history to have been impeached twice.
Democrats don't seem to be able to raise the money and are being out-raised by a 7 to 1 margin.
While Trump's political advisers Chris LaCivita and Tony Fabrizio say that they have been designing a data program to find hard-to-reach voters, there is a fear that the president's moods can flip on a dime. He is "notoriously protective of his money, and takes great interest in how it's spent."
It's entirely possible that Trump will decide to shift all of his money to his presidential library, his non-profi, or other projects, like his giant arch or the ballroom project. Trump could slow the spending and wait until the last minute to use it.
Axios reported that in the 2022 midterms, "Trump amassed piles of cash but ended up using little of it — and withheld much of his spending until late in the campaign." Republicans think that if he had spent more, they could have held off Democrats.
Other Republicans think that all the money in the world can't save the GOP now. "What really matters now is whether candidates can connect with voters in a visceral way," the party thinks, according to Axios.
A good example is New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who destroyed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.). The ousted governor outspent Mamdani by a 3 to 1 margin.
Far-right activist and host Steve Bannon commented, "Money has lost its edge." He said that the real difference is made with "authenticity, urgency, energy [and] grassroots commitment."
Trump adviser Taylor Budowich announced that he'd be spending $100 million to support Trump's AI agenda and the candidates that stand with him. But the AI issue isn't a popular one either. A Republican suburb outside of Milwaukee became the first in the country to block a data center project backed by Trumpin Tuesday's election.
A March poll by NBC News showed that only 26 percent reported a positive feeling about AI, while 27 percent were neutral. All others are against it.
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AN 4 26
President Donald Trump is degrading his own vice president, JD Vance, over the latter’s opposition to the former’s Iran war — and it is painfully obvious to White House observers.
“Nobody in Mr. Trump’s inner circle was more worried about the prospect of war with Iran, or did more to try to stop it, than the vice president,” reported The New York Times’ Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman on Tuesday. “Mr. Vance had built his political career opposing precisely the kind of military adventurism that was now under serious consideration. He had described a war with Iran as ‘a huge distraction of resources’ and massively expensive.’”
The Times elaborated that, although Vance is not a dove, he privately expressed the belief that a regime-change war in Iran would end badly for the United States. Because Trump wished to engage in some military action against Iran, Vance urged limited action rather than a large-scale campaign, even advocating for Trump to use “overwhelming force, in the hope of achieving his objectives quickly.”
Yet the president has reportedly noticed Vance’s reticence to declare war against Iran and is politically penalizing his own vice president accordingly, including through public displays of how he is out of the loop.
“The White House’s plans to completely annihilate Iran are so haphazard that even the vice president can’t keep up with them,” reported The New Republic’s Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling on Tuesday. “JD Vance was apparently caught off guard Tuesday when a journalist informed him that Donald Trump had threatened to obliterate the entire Iranian civilization by 8 p.m. Vance was onstage in Budapest at the time, feet away from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.”
Even though Vance was at an event with a powerful foreign leader and Trump ally, he was forced to acknowledge that he was not part of the president’s policymaking inner circle.
“Wouldn’t you like to know the subject of this message?” Vance said at one point. “But no, uh, I need to read it first before I talk about it. But here’s, here’s … uh, what time is it in the United States right now?”
Overall, as the Times noted, Trump has emerged as a foreign policy hawk who does not want participation from those who question his judgment.
“In the end, even the more skeptical members of Mr. Trump’s war Cabinet — with the stark exception of Mr. Vance, the figure inside the White House most opposed to a full-scale war — deferred to the president’s instincts, including his abundant confidence that the war would be quick and decisive,” the Times reported. “The White House declined to comment.”
Further emphasizing how Trump does not Vance, the Times noted that the president prioritized secrecy for the meeting.
"'The gathering had been kept deliberately small to guard against leaks," the Times reported. "Other top Cabinet secretaries had no idea it was happening. Also absent was the vice president."
By contrast, the Times reported that the biggest supporter of the Iran war in Trump’s Cabinet was Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
“Within the Cabinet, Mr. Hegseth was the biggest proponent of a military campaign against Iran,” the Times reported, contrasting his attitude with that of Trump’s Secretary of State. “Mr. Rubio indicated to colleagues that he was much more ambivalent. He did not believe the Iranians would agree to a negotiated deal, but his preference was to continue a campaign of maximum pressure rather than start a full-scale war. Mr. Rubio, however, did not try to talk Mr. Trump out of the operation, and after the war began he delivered the administration’s justification with full conviction.”
Writing for USA Today in March, conservative columnist Dace Potas observed that Trump’s war against Iran is hurting Vance’s chances to become the Republican presidential nominee in 2028.
“I don’t have any serious issue with the Trump administration’s actions in Iran,” Potas wrote last month. “Immediately following our initial strikes, I wrote that the actions should have gone through Congress, but that I generally support military action against Iran, and I stand by my view.”
Despite his personal support for the war, though, Potas anticipated bad things politically for Vance as a result of it.
“Trump invoked the rhetoric of isolationism on the reelection campaign trail, promising no new wars to MAGA voters who rallied around that aspect of the ‘America First’ brand,” Potas wrote, adding that this is politically inconvenient for the more isolationist Vance.
“Vance is a more talented candidate than [2028 Democratic frontrunner former Vice President Kamala] Harris, but I’m not sure that’s enough to overcome his involvement in an unpopular administration,” Potas wrote. “Nor is it all that clear how he reconciles his intellectual opposition to interventionist foreign policy with his involvement in an administration active in that arena.”
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AN 4 26
In March, Scottish journalist Andrew Neil — known for being a staunch conservative — expressed his frustration with U.S. President Donald Trump's foreign policy when he lamented, "I think, in some ways, he regards (Russian President Vladimir) Putin as more of an ally than he regards the United Kingdom or any of his European NATO allies."
Neil complained, "He slapped tariffs on all of his allies. He didn't put tariffs on Russia. And he's helped to bail out Russia now with what he's done on the price of oil."
Neil isn't the only one who views Trump as more favorable to Putin than to longtime North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies of the United States. MS NOW host Joe Scarborough, a former GOP congressman, lamented, during an April 7 rant, that "the Republicans I grew up with" who "believed in a strong west" have "vanished" and been replaced by admirers of Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
In an essay/opinion column published on April 7, the New York Times' Thomas B. Edsall laments that Trump's fondness for Putin hasn't gone away.
"Events over two days last month — Friday, March 6, and Saturday, March 7 — demonstrated President Trump's willingness to sacrifice American interests in subservience to President Vladimir Putin of Russia," Edsall argues. "On that Friday, the Washington Post reporters Noah Robertson, Ellen Nakashima and Warren P. Strobel revealed that 'Russia is providing Iran with targeting information to attack American forces in the Middle East.' The next day, Trump attended the transfer at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware of the flag-draped coffins of six U.S. members of the Army Reserve killed by a kamikaze drone strike at the Shuaiba port in Kuwait. An inevitable, but unanswerable, question: Was the drone strike guided by information Russia provided to Iran?"
Edsall notes that the Trump White House staff "followed orders to tow Trump's line" on Putin and Iran.
"His press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters that the Russia-Iran intelligence sharing 'is not making any difference with respect to the military operations in Iran,'" Edsall explains. "She declined to say whether Trump has discussed the issue with Putin or whether the administration would pursue repercussions…. Trump's deference not just to Putin' but to other authoritarian leaders' has repeatedly and profoundly corrupted American foreign policy."
In an interview, Daniel Fried, a former U.S. ambassador to Poland, told Edsall, "Trump does seem attracted to Putin as a strongman ruler. He seems more comfortable with — and gives more credence to — Putin than with leaders of America's democratic allies or with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine."
Former National Security Council (NSC) official Fiona Hill is also frustrated by Trump's affinity for Putin.
Hill recently told the BBC, "Well, I think the first thing to disavow everybody of is the idea that there is a relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. I think that's part of the problem, because Trump would like a relationship with Putin, and that's exactly why he doesn't criticize him. It's a kind of unrequited love of some description. You know, everyone keeps talking about bromance. He hasn't even got there. And you know, Putin is very good at playing hard to get, incredibly hard to get. And this drives Trump mad, because he never gets what he wants off Putin, which is really adulation, respect."
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4/7/26 IRAN F BOMB END CIV WAR CRIMES --> 25TH IMPEACH
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AN 4 26
Although Fox News and Fox Business are decidedly right-wing on the whole, Fox News has one liberal panelist who often butts heads with her colleagues: Jessica Tarlov. And President Donald Trump angrily railed against her during a Monday night, April 6 rant on his Truth Social platform.
Trump posted, "For Fox executives only, take Jessica Tarlov off the air. She is, from her voice, to her lies, and everything else about her, one of the worst 'personalities' on television, a real loser! People cannot stand watching her. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT."
But Trump went after one of Fox News' conservative hosts, Shannon Bream, as well.
"Tell Shannon Bream of FoxNews that it's not the Save Act, it’s the Save America Act, a big difference!," Trump posted. "Also, when she insists on having lightweight Democrat Congressmen, such as Jake Auchincloss, on her not very hard hitting show, she should correct them when they spew out Democrat propaganda and lies. She never does! I always close deals, unlike the Dems, and did great with China in every way, also, unlike the Dems!"
The Daily Beast's Cameron Adams notes that it is "unclear what triggered Trump" about Tarlov and inspired him to "offer unsolicited advice to the bosses at his favorite network about his least-favorite presenter."
"Tarlov is the latest in a growing line of female journalists to be targeted by Trump," Adams observes. "On April 1, he lost his cool with NewsNation's Libbey Dean, who had asked him whether Iran would have to make a deal for him to end the U.S. military intervention. 'You're a fresh person, you know?' Trump snapped. 'We've had a lot of problems with you, haven’t we?' In March, on board Air Force One, Trump opened fire on a female reporter from ABC. 'I think it's maybe the most corrupt news organization on the planet,' he said. 'I don’t want any more from ABC.'
The Daily Beast reporter adds, "In February, the president laid into CNN's Kaitlan Collins, 33, when she asked him what he would like to say to the survivors of convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein."
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~ MAIL IN BALLOT FLORIDA
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AN 4 26
Vets revolt after 'the most anti-veteran president in history' kills popular program - Alternet.org
10K LOSE HSE
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President Donald Trump and his Republican supporters have “played” themselves in their latest attempt to rig the 2026 midterm elections, according to a key conservative critic.
Because Trump’s executive order is likely to fail in court, “Trump’s latest and most madcap executive order on mail-in voting isn’t just a policy pivot; it’s a full-frontal assault on the plumbing of American democracy, delivered with the Cromwellian subtlety of a sledgehammer to a stained-glass window,” wrote Rick Wilson, a former adviser to Trump’s fellow Republican, President George H. W. Bush. “It’s classic Trumpism: find a functioning, if unglamorous, part of the civic infrastructure, set it on fire because arson is your only tool when electoral reality is bearing down.”
He added, “But it’s also among the dumbest ideas to slither out of the wet-brained claque of Trump’s advisors and lackeys, and that’s a very, very high bar.” After all, as he noted, many Republicans vote using mail-in ballots. If the executive order is overturned but MAGA voters still hesitate about mail-in ballots because of Trumpian propaganda, then “the MAGA voter now says, “Well… can’t do that mail-in ballot. George Soros has a secret army of gnomes in the mailbox to change my vote and make me trans!’”
Wilson added, “In the words of the poet and philosopher DJ Kahled: ‘Congratulations. You played yourself.’”
Of course, as Wilson pointed out, the reason Trump supporters want to make it harder to vote is not because they believe voter fraud is rampant, as no evidence exists that this is the case. Rather they do this because they realize they are likely to suffer major losses in the 2026 midterm elections.
“This isn’t born of a sudden, scholarly interest in administrative efficiency; it’s born of a cold, acidic flopsweat over the 2026 midterms,” Wilson said. “The MAGA brain trust has seen the polling, and many of them are asking ChatGPT, ‘What is seppuku?’ and ‘How to enter witness protection.’
Wilson has taken aim at Trump before. In his weekly Lincoln Project podcast last month, Wilson said that Trump had utterly failed to distract the public from the scandal surrounding his association with the late child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Even though Congress passed a law saying the Justice Department can only redact the names of survivors, Wilson obtained a document which was redacted and mentions Trump.
"In it, Trump's attorney at the time, Alan Garten, I believe, is the name, revealed a few small things," Wilson said. "One of which is that Trump never threw Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago."
Also in March, Wilson warned Republicans that Trump has already started to experience his downfall.
“There’s a moment in every failed strongman’s story when the noise fades, the flunkies fall silent and slip from the throne room one final time before the shooting starts,” Wilson said. “There’s a moment where the court jesters stop laughing at the Dear Leader’s every joke, and when reality comes crashing through the gilded walls like a breaching charge. There’s a moment when the loyal bodyguard’s eyes flicker with some new signal, and the dictator wonders if the tools of oppression and brutality will be turned on him.”
He added that Trump’s political problems are serious “now.”
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4 6 26 f bomb praise allah
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AN 4 26
President Donald Trump is known for his singular way of speaking. It tends to be, to quote Shakespeare, “full of sound and fury.” But according to a language expert writing for the New York Times, the Bard’s next line applies too, for when Trump speaks, much of what he says is “signifying nothing.”
Having spent two terms analyzing Trump’s speech patterns, linguist Sarah L. Kaufman identified a number of patterns.On one hand, Trump tends to speak in a manner that evades responsibility or obscures reality. As an example of this, Kaufman points to when he declared “We’ve won” at a rally in mid-March, even though everyone was well aware that the war was slogging on and delivering terrible consequences. “Let me tell you,” Trump insisted, “we’ve won.”
“Trump’s use of the past participle of ‘win’ expresses a completed action,” writes Kaufman. “’Win’ can’t mean victory when ongoing fighting continues to throw the world economy into chaos. This instance is one of many in which Mr. Trump uses crisp, straightforward verbs to obfuscate.”
Or take his recent statement, “I do believe I will be having the honor of taking Cuba.”
Again, says Kaufman, we see that lack of clarity: “He repeats ‘take’ — an aggressive word — while keeping its meaning hidden. Is he considering capturing the island’s president, as he did with Venezuela; attacking the infrastructure, as in Iran, or simply dragging out the economic torture to a brutal end?”
At the same time, Kaufman explains, he uses language to “proclaim a new form of leadership.”
“Forceful action verbs and verb phrases” like “tell, hit, crush, destroy, knock out, kill, obliterate” and others lend “drama and emotion” to Trump’s speeches, especially when he’s suggesting violence. According to Kaufman, there is a point to such language beyond that violence. While it could be dismissed as “mad ravings,” “reveling publicly over killing, and claiming that verb to describe one’s personal activity, undermines norms of democratic leadership.”
Trump also likes repetition, “restating simple verbs without further explanation … he uses these words to create maximal stakes and paint a vivid, if misleading, picture.”
As an example of this, she pointed to Trump’s State of the Union in January, where he attempted to pin blame for the affordability crisis on the Democrats, claiming, “You caused that problem. You caused that problem. They knew their statements were a lie. They knew it. They knew their statements were a dirty, rotten lie. Their policies created the high prices.”
Writes Kaufman, “He persisted with ‘cause,’ ‘know’ and ‘create,’ repeating the verbs in a chant.” He was leveraging “bullying aggression and hyperbole” to make “his message of blame stick in the minds of listeners… Yet the president did not elaborate on how his targets caused the problem; he offered no details to back up his accusations. The verbs were a dead end.”
She says that while Trump is effective at conjuring emotions with his speech, when it comes to communicating policy, he “reverts to a limited roster of reliable, often coarse verbs that he wields with bravado and uses to say very little.”
Or to once again borrow from Shakespeare, “It is a tale told by an idiot.”
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THIS IS ACTUALLY FROM THE WHITE HOUSE?!
AN 4 26
Trump’s new app has no privacy policy and uses Russian software - Alternet.org
President Donald Trump has been promoting the White House’s new mobile app — pushing it to become the third-most downloaded item on Apple’s popular App Store. But the app reportedly has numerous cybersecurity vulnerabilities, does not properly disclose the data it shares, and uses software components from a Russia-founded company.
“Cybersecurity researchers warn that the White House’s new app regularly shares users’ IP addresses, time zones and other data to third-party services,” NOTUS reports. “But most of its users wouldn’t know that, because the app doesn’t disclose its data sharing the way most others do.”
Cybersecurity experts were shocked by the app’s “slipshod” approach to cybersecurity, especially as it is essentially a product of the White House, and especially since the U.S. is at war.
“The U.S. government’s infrastructure is being attacked from all sides right now, and having an amateur WordPress developer running the White House’s public presence puts everybody who visits it at risk,” Philip Fields, a cybersecurity researcher and former FBI intelligence analyst, told NOTUS. He explains that if this were just a small business’ “random app,” it would not be a story.
“But it’s not,” Fields added. “This is the White House.”
Additionally, the app reportedly has left users and some White House staffers vulnerable. One researcher showed NOTUS screenshots revealing that a Russia-founded software kit company that “provides premade widgets for the app makes public the personal information of some White House staffers through the app.” NOTUS chose to not disclose the staffers’ personal information.
Cybersecurity experts also told NOTUS that the data collected by the White House is not being properly disclosed.
“The White House, as of its latest version released on Friday, left that privacy manifest completely blank, suggesting it collects no data from users,” NOTUS reported.
“It seems to be sharing quite a lot of data about the users to these third parties,” a researcher told NOTUS. “The problem is that the privacy manifest says they do not share that information, but in fact they do. … That is a problem for end-user privacy because effectively, they’re misleading users about how their data is shared.”
A White House press release promoted the launch of its “powerful new official mobile app — delivering President Donald J. Trump and his Administration directly to the American people like never before.”
In his promotional video, Trump says, “Every American should expect their government to have transparency, and the Trump administration is the most transparent in history. That is for sure.”
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On Thursday morning, President Donald Trump posted a lengthy diatribe against rockstar Bruce Springsteen, calling the singer “boring,” accusing him of having “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” and disparaging his appearance before urging MAGA to “boycott his overpriced concerts, which suck.”
Security expert and Atlantic contributor Tom Nichols had a frank assessment of the president’s post, tweeting, “The President of the United States is an emotionally unstable man with obvious cognitive issues. We are in the middle of a war, he tanked an important speech to the nation, and this is what he's worried about.”
While Trump has attacked Springsteen before, this particular post seems to be in response to statements the singer made onstage Tuesday night during the kickoff of his latest tour.
“While working Americans struggle,” said the Boss, “our president and his family enrich themselves by billions of dollars trading on the people’s office in corruption unmatched in American history.”
He went on to assert that Trump is “destroying the American idea and our reputation around the world,” and that the U.S. is “no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave” but a “reckless, unpredictable, predatory rogue nation. That is this administration’s and this president’s legacy.”
Trump was, unsurprisingly, not happy about Springsteen’s assessment, saying the “Born in the USA” singer “looks like a dried up prune.”
As Nichols pointed out, Trump’s response came the morning after his national address on the war against Iran, which has caused gas prices to skyrocket and disrupted the global economy with no end in sight. The president’s fixation on Springsteen has prompted many to question his priorities.
“We are on the brink of World War III and a global recession, and Trump woke up thinking about Bruce Springsteen,” posted a popular America First account, the owner of which is a two-time Trump voter. “You can’t make this up.”
For his part, Springsteen had something to say about the conflict: “I want to begin tonight with a prayer for our men and women in service overseas. We are here in celebration and defense of our American ideals. The America I love that's been a beacon of hope and liberty around the world, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless, and treasonous administration. We ask you to join with us in choosing hope over fear, unity over division, and peace over war.”
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LOST ON FLA STATE REP THO MAX ENDORSE, VOTED BY MAIL AND
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OFFICIAL 3 26
Doomsday Clock Today | Current Time & Complete Timeline (2026)
The Doomsday Clock is currently at 85 seconds to midnight — the closest it has ever been to global catastrophe since its creation in 1947.
clock moved to 85 seconds in February 2026 due to increased nuclear risks, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, the Middle East conflict, climate change, and AI-related threats. It had previously been at 89 seconds.
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With its controversial 6-3 ruling in Trump v. the United States, the U.S. Supreme Court's GOP-appointed hard-right supermajority ruled that U.S presidents enjoy absolute immunity from prosecution for "official" acts in office but not for "unofficial" acts. Donald Trump applauded the ruling. But on Tuesday, March 31, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta — applying that standard — ruled that Trump's speech at a January 6, 2021 rally in Washington, D.C. was political in nature and therefore, is not protected from civil lawsuits related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol Building.
According to Politico journalists Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney, Mehta "delivered a serious setback" to Trump "in long-running civil lawsuits seeking to hold him liable for the violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021."
Mehta, they note, "ruled that evidence produced so far in the litigation brought by police officers and Democratic lawmakers indicated that Trump's speech at the Ellipse that day was political in nature and not subject to the immunity the Supreme Court has found for a president's official acts."
Gerstein, in a March 31 post on X, former Twitter, noted that Mehta's "ruling could lead to a trial but appeal could lead to year-plus more delay."
Attorney Joseph Sellers, who is representing the Democratic lawmakers suing Trump in civil court, is applauding Mehta's ruling.
Sellers told Politico, "We're very pleased that the court recognized that President Trump cannot avoid accountability for his conduct on January 6, 2021. This decision, if it holds up, is going to pave the way to a trial in federal district court on these claims."}:
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rww
03/30/2026
by
- Kathryn Wilkens @ Mediaite: ‘Trump Is Winning’: FCC Chair Boasts He’s Remaking the Media by Pushing Out Left-Leaning Figures
During a Friday CPAC appearance, FCC Chair Brendan Carr bragged that he’s remaking the media by pushing out left-leaning figures, declaring, “[President Donald] Trump is winning.”
- Patrick Marley @ The Washington Post: He took Pelosi’s lectern on Jan. 6. Now he’s running for office.
Adam Johnson has rarely voted and embraces his role as clown prince of Jan. 6. Floridians will decide whether a man who tried to upend democracy can help lead one.
- Hafiz Rashid @ The New Republic: January 6 Rioters Pardoned by Trump Sue Over “Emotional Distress”
January 6 insurrectionists say police used excessive force while trying to stop them from storming the Capitol.
- Jason Wilson @ The Guardian: College Republicans director made racist and sexist remarks on live streams
Review of Kai Schwemmer’s broadcasts undermines claim ‘process of growth’ had led him to abandon bigoted views.
- Lydia O'Connor @ HuffPost: A Running List Of The Totally Real, Not At All Fake Awards Donald Trump Has Received
The president is the "undisputed champion of beautiful clean coal," and he has the trophy to prove it.
- Amogh Dimri @ The Atlantic: Nick Fuentes’s Strategy is Working
Viral clips of the far-right white supremacist are growing his audience.
- Ben Jacobs @ Slate: CPAC Now Has No Trump and No Swag
CPAC was never cool, but it was once exciting. In 2026 the conference was no longer a hotbed of insurgents against a Republican establishment, let alone a place where factions of conservatives maneuvered for dominance. It wasn’t even an out-and-out MAGA pep rally that celebrated the ascension of Trump. It didn’t have a clear function anymore. Instead, it just felt like an event held out of habit.
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MMA
President Trump told his followers to “Watch Mark Levin.” The Fox host called for U.S. troops to seize Iran’s uranium.
Under Levin’s plan, U.S. troops would try to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of buried nuclear material while under fire
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 03/30/26
Fox News host Mark Levin suggested the U.S. military should seize Iran’s uranium — a risky escalation experts say would place troops under fire on Iranian soil for days — during a Saturday night program that President Donald Trump had urged his supporters to watch for its discussion of “the importance of hitting Iran, HARD!!!"
Under normal circumstances, the nasal-voiced screeds a sycophantic Fox news host yells on his taped weekend program wouldn’t matter for much. But Trump is often persuaded by what the network’s MAGA propagandists tell him through his television, he’s previously leaned on council from Levin with regard to Iran in particular, and earlier on Saturday, the president urged his supporters to tune in to Levin’s show that evening.
“Watch Mark Levin interview of Brilliant Marc Thiessen tonight at 8:00 P.M., on FoxNews,” Trump posted to Truth Social. “Will discuss the importance of hitting Iran, HARD!!!”
Trump’s instruction for supporters to watch Fox discourse on the prospect of further escalations in Iran comes as the war approaches a flashpoint. Iran’s regime is intact and it has successfully closed the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic victory that threatens global trade. With Trump’s initial prediction of a four-to-five-week war in doubt, U.S. troops are streaming toward the region and preparing for weeks of ground operations. The Pentagon has reportedly prepared a list of purported “final blow” options that include seizing Iran’s Kharg Island oil terminal and extracting Iran’s uranium, even as Trump himself is reportedly “getting a little bored” and “wants to move on” from Iran, as a senior White House official told MS NOW.
Fox’s pro-Trump hosts are trying to influence the president’s next move. Laura Ingraham warned last week that further escalation could trigger “cascading problems for the region” and “political problems for the president,” while Sean Hannity suggested that the war is all but over and Jesse Watters said any further action would amount to a “knockout.”
Saturday’s broadcast illuminates Levin’s position among the network’s biggest hawks. And he appears to be showering Trump with praise in an effort to get the president on board with his latest escalation scheme. Levin touted Trump’s “enormous intelligence,” claimed his “victory” against Iran is “absolutely incredible,” and portrayed the war’s critics as merely Trump-haters.
The Fox-Trump feedback loop has in recent months played a role in the president’s decisions to send White House border czar Tom Homan to oversee immigration enforcement in Minnesota; prioritize the SAVE Act over all other legislation; order the deployment of ICE agents to airports; and start the war against Iran. Will it now help trigger an incredibly risky military operation?
Levin: We need ground troops in Iran because “we’ve got to get the uranium”
After spending the bulk of Saturday’s monologue praising Trump’s war and denouncing its critics (described below), Levin came to the point: He wants the president to deploy ground troops in Iran to seize Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile.
“Why would we need troops on the ground?” he explained. “Well, there's a lot of reasons, and we wouldn't need 300,000 of them.”
“We've got to get the uranium — if it cannot be destroyed, if it cannot be altered, we've got to get it,” Levin said. “That's why I am reading in the paper, we are talking about the 82nd Airborne, we're talking about these various special forces and the various military services and so forth.”
“He's not talking about sending regular Army and infantry in by the hundreds of thousands — the men he's talking about, the units he is talking about, they are specialized,” Levin continued. “And you know what else? I remember from my days in the Reagan administration, many of them are trained for a moment like this to try and secure enriched uranium. Many have been trained for moments like this.”
Video
Citation
From the March 28, 2026, edition of Fox News' Life, Liberty, and Levin
Thiessen, the Washington Post columnist and Fox contributor whom Trump described as “Brilliant,” likewise argued that “if we don't get that enriched uranium, and they want to get back at us for what we've done, the easiest way to do it would be to get it to al-Qaida and let them use it for a dirty bomb.”
“So we have got to get what Donald Trump correctly calls the nuclear dust before this operation is done,” Thiessen concluded.
Video
Citation
From the March 28, 2026, edition of Fox News' Life, Liberty, and Levin
The Wall Street Journal’s description of an operation to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of nuclear material buried in the middle of a hostile country during a shooting war does not sound as easy as Levin and Thiessen made it out to be. The paper reported:
Teams of U.S. forces would need to fly to the sites, likely under fire from Iranian surface-to-air missiles and drones. Once on site, combat troops would need to secure perimeters so that engineers with excavating equipment could search through debris and check for mines and booby traps.
The extraction of the material would likely need to be conducted by an elite special operations team specially trained to remove radioactive material from a conflict zone. The highly enriched uranium is likely contained in 40 to 50 special cylinders that resemble scuba tanks. They would need to be put into transportation casks to protect against accidents. That could fill several trucks, said Richard Nephew, a senior research scholar at Columbia University and a former nuclear negotiator with Iran.
Unless an airfield was available, a makeshift one would need to be set up to bring equipment in and take the nuclear material out. The entire operation would take days or even a week to complete, experts said.
Trump “hasn’t made a decision on whether to give the order” and is “considering the danger to U.S. troops,” but “remains generally open to the idea,” the Journal reports.
More open, perhaps, after hearing the pitch from Levin and Thiessen.
Levin: Trump has “enormous intelligence,” his Iran “victory” is “absolutely incredible”
Before urging Trump to send U.S. ground troops to invade Iran, Levin began his Saturday monologue by offering fulsome praise for the war of choice he had urged the president to start.
“I've been thinking about the war with Iran,” he began. “I like to call it a military operation. I actually like to call it a peace mission, because that's what it is, and how incredible it is, and the magnitude of this victory. It's not a final victory, but this victory up to this point is incredible, absolutely incredible.”
Levin meandered through his justification for the war, denouncing President Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which he described as “an agreement that would ensure they get a nuclear weapon,” and comparing U.S. military deaths during the Iran war with those during other U.S. conflicts dating back to the Korean War as well as fatalities from murder and fentanyl overdoses.
He ultimately claimed that Iran could have turned its enriched uranium for a “dirty bomb” and then employed terrorists to detonate it in a U.S. city. “So what the president is doing is monumental in terms of protecting the American people,” Levin explained.
The host concluded that “we're in good hands” with Trump “because he's a man with enormous intelligence, enormous common sense. He's not an ideologue. He doesn't run around with slogans. He is prudential. He looks at the facts, he looks at the challenge, and he's dealing with it.”
Thiessen likewise gushed over the president’s war.
“We're about halfway through this thing,” Thiessen claimed, “and when this is all over, this is going to go down in history as possibly the greatest military campaign the United States has waged since the American Revolution.”
Levin: War critics “aren’t serious people,” they “are people who just oppose Trump”
Levin finds his own arguments so compelling that he can’t imagine why anyone would disagree with them.
Pointing to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and recently resigned former Trump intelligence official Joe Kent, Levin commented, “These aren't serious people with serious disagreements. These aren't serious people with substantive knowledge that's different than it was before. No, no, no. These are people who just oppose Donald Trump. That's the truth.”
He later complained that Schumer, “the conga line of Democrats,” and “the woke Reich neofascist isolationists” were giving Iran “the benefit of the doubt.”
“Why would you give a terrorist regime that slaughtered Americans and is the biggest promoter of terrorism the benefit of the doubt?” he whined.
Thiessen likewise told Levin that the Democrats are “rooting for defeat,” adding, “There are people in this country who hate Donald Trump more than they hate the Iranian regime that just massacred 32,000 people in their streets.”
That’s what Trump wanted his followers to tune-in for: A totally one-sided dismissal of the Iran war’s critics in favor of continued escalation in an aimless conflict that's already spiraled out of control.
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02/19/26 1:58 PM EST
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President Donald Trump’s proposed law to “crack down on rogue judges” and his rhetoric toward judges who rule against him — such as calling them “criminals” and “a disgrace to our nation” — is a “breathtaking” danger to the Constitution, according to an expert.
“Demanding that the legislative branch enact laws that punish the judiciary is a breathtaking breach of the president’s oath to support and defend the Constitution, which creates our three separate — and coequal — branches of government,” lawyer and former US attorney Barbara McQuade wrote in a recent editorial for Bloomberg. “Trump’s recent attacks came after the Supreme Court struck down his tariffs, which he has used to wield economic power against foreign governments, last month. By a 6-3 majority, the Court held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act did not authorize the president to impose tariffs, a power otherwise reserved for Congress. Among the justices joining the majority were two of Trump’s own appointees, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett.”
Trump, who said Gorsuch and Barrett “sicken” him because they dissented, is doing something “different” with his attempts to cower judges, McQuade wrote.
“His proposed legislation would target the judges themselves for punishment,” McQuade said. “It seems likely that Trump knows he will not get his wish. Even a Congress that has been largely submissive during his second administration would surely not go so far as to retaliate against judges based on their case decisions, a move that would wreak havoc on the separation of powers. But the president’s public statements nonetheless risk the independence of the judiciary, an essential pillar of democracy. By attacking judges and justices who rule against him, Trump is sending a message to the others: Rule my way or else you’ll be next.”
McQuade is not alone in criticizing Trump’s attacks on the judiciary. Earlier this month The New York Times reported that judges themselves are “quietly” saying that it is concerning how much “risk” is involved in speaking out against the president.
"Judges are turning up the volume" in their rulings against Trump, eschewing the judiciary’s traditional “restrained” tone in favor of "an emotive, populist approach" which permits them to give "full vent to the intensity of their concerns about cases flooding their dockets since President Trump returned to office."
The Times added, "One compared her district’s ballooning caseload to a demigod’s battle against a mythological monster. Another sought to buttress his argument against National Guard deployments to U.S. cities with a YouTube link to a 1970 protest song. A third compared the Trump administration’s rewriting of American history to the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s novel '1984.'"
Trump’s intimidation of the judiciary extends to the jurists he has appointed in his second term, many of whom have been required to avoid telling the truth about Trump losing the 2020 presidential election while under oath.
Senate Judiciary member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) typically ended each hearing for a judgeship with the question, “Who won the popular vote in 2020?”
He always received variations on the same reply, namely that “President Biden was certified and served four years as president.” By using the word “certified,” they curry favor with the president who nominated them by refusing to flat-out say that Trump lost.
“There is a special peril when federal judges, who serve for life if confirmed, agree to demean themselves in this fashion,” legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said at the time.
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an 3 26
President Donald Trump held his first Cabinet meeting since starting the war in Iran. He began with several of his top officials speaking. After Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth talked about how the people of the United States should be praying for him, Trump began talking about crime in Chicago and the recent shooting death of the daughter of one of his staffers' friends.
"It's a young lady who — whose life would be saved if we had — if we did what we did. As an example, in Washington D.C, which is now a safe city, all the time people come up to me in the building, people who work here, they say, 'Thank you so much.' I know immediately what they're talking about," said Trump, talking about the crime rate in the nation's capital.
According to the Council on Criminal Justice data, Washington, D.C. saw an increase in drug crimes in 2025 over 2024, despite the efforts of the federal agents. Cases of sexual assaults remained even. Homicides were down by 21 percent, and 9 percent fewer aggravated assaults, 2 percent fewer domestic violence incidents, while robberies fell by 23 percent, and carjackings (which are included in robbery) fell by 43 percent. While carjackings had been on the rise in 2020, the trend reversed in 2024 and began going down. There were 27 percent fewer motor vehicle thefts in 2025 than in 2024.
Trump's deployment of the National Guard to D.C. happened in the last five months of 2025 and is estimated to cost about $1 million per day after an initial cost of about $1.8 million per day. Trump heralded the Guard soldiers, who he said were "opening doors" for people and "picking up trash." So far, the cost has totaled about $330 million as of the start of February, WTOP said, citing data from the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
Trump cheered the Guard because citizens are "able to walk to work, they walk to work. You all walk to work."
Then Trump dropped the bombshell that his Cabinet officials had been robbed.
"Some of you were mugged. I know you told me stories. Some of you were mugged. One person in particular was viciously mugged in the group right here," he pointed to the people across the table from him. "It's not happening anymore. You have a safe city."
Those sitting across the table from him in the meeting included Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner. Internet searches found no reports of any of those individuals being mugged in Washington, D.C. Vance's home in Ohio was vandalized and broken into, however, in May 2025.
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AN 3 26
New revelations have emerged in President Donald Trump's classified documents case, per a "damning" memo obtained by MS NOW, showing that he seemingly intended to profit from illegally retaining the sensitive materials.
According to the report published Friday, special counsel Jack Smith determined that Trump had retained "secret documents that related to his worldwide business interests," revealing a key potential motive for his dogged efforts to hang onto them. Trump held the documents, often in questionable places, at his Mar-a-Lago resort, after departing the White House in 2021, later insisting that he had the right to retain them and that he had declassified them with his mind before leaving office. He was indicted on 32 felony counts related to his retention of the materials, and an additional eight charges for conspiracy to obstruct justice, but the case was halted after his reelection.
The revelations about Trump's business motive originate from a January 2023 progress memo produced by Smith's office, though the specific businesses and how they relate to the classified information were not disclosed.
“Trump possessed classified documents pertinent to his business interests — establishing a motive for retaining them,” the memo explained. “We must have those documents.”
As MS NOW's report explained, Trump's motive for retaining the materials had, up until now, been largely uncertain. Trump himself has long insisted that he had every right to retain the documents, likening them to the materials kept on hand by his predecessors for their presidential libraries. Some reports indicated that Trump seemed to show off the documents to impress people who visited Mar-a-Lago, while other critics warned that he may have been attempting to sell the sensitive information.
"Trump’s reason for taking hundreds of pages of classified documents when he left office in January 2021 — and then concealing them when the Justice Department subpoenaed him for their return in May 2022 — has been one of the larger mysteries of the case," MS NOW explained. "FBI agents conducting an unannounced search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022 discovered hundreds more pages of top-secret records that Trump and his lawyers had failed to return to the government after claiming they had fully returned all classified materials."
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin cited this memo in a scathing letter to Attorney General Pam Bondion Tuesday, accusing the agency of covering up Trump's misdeeds while scrambling to find incriminating evidence against Smith.
“These new disclosures suggest that Donald Trump stole documents so sensitive that only six people in the entire U.S. government had access to them, that the documents President Trump stole pertained to his business interests,” Raskin wrote “This glimpse into the trove of evidence behind the coverup reveals a President of the United States who may have sold out our national security to enrich himself.”
The congressman further added: "Apparently blinded by the frenzied search to find any scrap of evidence that could be twisted and distorted to level an attack against Special Counsel Smith (despite constantly coming up empty-handed), you have, quite amazingly, missed the fact that some of the documents you provided include damning evidence about your boss’s conduct and may well violate the gag order your DOJ and Donald Trump demanded from Judge Aileen Cannon."
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AN 3 26
Over the course of President Donald Trump’s second term, says New York Times legal columnist Jeffrey Toobin, one pattern has stood out in regard to the federal judges he nominates. During their confirmation hearings, when asked who won the 2020 presidential election, they consistently word their responses to leave the door open for election denial.
At each hearing, Senate Judiciary member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) typically asks the same question: “Who won the popular vote in 2020?”
And every time, he receives some variation of the same response: “President Biden was certified and served four years as president.”
The key word there is “certified.” While it acknowledges that Biden was indeed named president, it doesn’t explicitly state that he outright “won” the election. This, says Toobin, is a blatant attempt to curry favor with Trump, who six years later still denies his loss on a regular basis.
Responses like this are common among Trump nominees to any government position, but according to Toobin, “There is a special peril when federal judges, who serve for life if confirmed, agree to demean themselves in this fashion.”
Blumenthal told Toobin that he always asks judicial nominees about the 2020 election as a “test of whether they are willing to stand up and be independent arbiters of fact, which they are required to be as district court judges, who often have to show some courage and backbone with cases with unpopular causes. The fact that they are so meek and easily cowed speaks volumes about their qualifications for the job.”
These days, such cowed behavior from nominees speaks to a new requirement for Trump approval: absolute loyalty. While during his first term he was content to select judges from a list provided by the conservative Federalist Society — judges who were more dedicated to conservative ideology than any one president — during his second term, he has made it clear that he expects personal loyalty above all else.
As an example for this, Toobin pointed to Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, two Supreme Court justices appointed by Trump who drew his ire after ruling against his tariffs. For Gorsuch and Coney Barrett, the decision was likely motivated by little more than their interpretation of the law. But for Trump, this was an act of betrayal. He didn’t merely express disapproval of their decision, but declared them “an embarrassment to their families.”
To Toobin, this kind of reaction portends that Trump will from now on select only judges he thinks are directly loyal to him above all else.
For his part, Senator Blumenthal says that with each nomination, he will continue to press the question of the 2020 election.
“I keep waiting for one or two of them to stand up and say, ‘I’m not going to say this nonsense. I’ve got plenty of other ways to make a living,’” he said. During one recent hearing, he was blunt with his words to a stonewalling nominee: “Don’t you feel kind of like monkeys or puppets here?”
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AN 3 26
On Friday, March 20, a woman identified as "Linda from Arizona" called into a, "The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show," with a suggestion: sending U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to airports. President Donald Trump later did exactly that, and his supporters praised the move as a way to help U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers who are feeling overwhelmed as a partial shutdown of the federal government drags on.
Linda's main concern, however, wasn't helping TSA employees, but upsetting liberals and progressives. Linda told the hosts, "I think it would set their hair on fire" — to which one of them responded, "Democrats would go absolutely insane."
In an article published on March 25, Salon's Amanda Marcotte notes that Trump's idea to send ICE agents to airports appeared to come from Linda — a move that, the journalist stresses, did nothing to ease the long lines at U.S. airports.
Marcotte explains, "Both Linda and the hosts were blunt that the goal was not actually helping the Transportation Security Administration run more efficient checkpoints, but to trigger the liberals…. Liberals hate ICE, the logic went, so why not inflict ICE on liberals and make them squeal? But the MAGA coalition has not been known for its logic, and it's clear from the conversation that no one involved was really thinking this through. Instead, the scheme was rooted in a childish — and sadistic — impulse to bully."
The headaches at U.S. airports are illustrated by passenger Will Frampton. During a March 24 appearance on MS NOW, Frampton told host Chris Jansing that he showed up at Atlanta's airport five hours early for a flight — but missed it because he spent nine hours waiting in a TSA security line.
According to Marcotte, the ICE-in-airports idea is hurting, not helping, Trump.
"After the idea percolated up from Linda to Clay-and-Buck and then to Fox News, Trump thought it was a stroke of genius," Marcotte writes. "Since he couldn't admit that he got the idea from a random woman in Green Valley, Arizona, he took credit for it on Monday, (March 23), comparing himself to the man who invented the paperclip in the process. What is remarkable is that everyone involved — all of them, from Linda to Trump himself — are so consumed with the desire to trigger the liberals that no one stopped to wonder if the plan to put ICE in airports would backfire, as it appears to be doing."
Marcotte continues, "Early reports show ICE is doing nothing to speed up security lines, many of which have hours-long waits due to Republicans' refusal to pass a Democratic proposal to fund the TSA directly while still withholding DHS funding. The presence of ICE is instead ratcheting up tensions at the already stress-laden airports. Federal immigration officers can't do the real work of screening passengers, but they can harass and manhandle people suspected of being immigrants. Despite credulous media reports perpetuating the belief that ICE has been deployed to help TSA agents, every indication is that Trump's goal is to make already-miserable traveling experiences even worse."
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AN 3 26
This time last year, they were among President Donald Trump’s best friends. Now they’re the MAGA faction not only on the outs, but marginalized into their own splinter wing of the GOP.
The Hill reported that key figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tucker Carlson and Joe Kent — the former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center — have broken with Trump in a blaze of bridge‑burning.
Kent’s public resignation letter accused Israel of lying to Trump to drag him into war, despite years of “America First” promises and vows of “no new wars.”
Greene has been on Trump’s enemies list since last year, when she backed releasing the Jeffrey Epstein investigation files, even as Trump resisted full disclosure. Since leaving Congress, Greene has gone on a bash‑Trump tour, appearing on “The View” and CNN, after once spending her own money to campaign for him nationwide.
Carlson is furious about Iran and thinks there's a conspiracy afoot in the Epstein files.
Fox's Mark Levin proclaimed that he is one of Trump's true allies, not the likes of Carlson, Greene and Kent. He's not alone, the GOP is behind Trump to the tune of 90 percent, polls show.
Just as Trump bragged in 2016, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK? It's, like, incredible."
According to commentator and SiriusXM host Emily Jashinsky, calling yourself MAGA translates to Trump.
“MAGA” is used as an “imprecise catchall for Trump’s coalition, often meaning Rogan types, Rust Belt Obama voters, etc," she said.
Megyn Kelly, for example, describes herself as “MAGA‑adjacent,” even though she was on the trail promoting Trump in 2024. Meanwhile, the “shadow MAGA” faction feels betrayed by a GOP establishment that has been beating the war drum for years.
“There seems to be broad agreement even among supporters of Trump’s Iran war that he’s broken campaign pledges by initiating it,” The Hill notes.
The report cited a Politico poll that found even self-described MAGA Trump voters support his war only to the tune of 56 percent, even though they support him at 90 percent. But, many (36 percent) think Trump has broken his promises.
Now there's a nuanced argument about whether "America First" means no wars and a policy of restraint in foreign policy is a key part of "shadow MAGA" the report said.
The question remains whether that faction could outlast Trump himself. While all three remain publicly loyal to Trump, the report suggests they are quietly building separate fundraising networks, media ecosystems, and issue niches that could let them inherit or fracture the Trump coalition. The result is a movement that is less a singular Trump cult than a growing ecosystem of Trump-aligned but potentially rival power centers, with serious implications for the future of the Republican Party and American politics.
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AN 3 26
Donald Trump, in the 2024 presidential election, not only attracted his hardcore MAGA base — he also expanded his appeal, winning over newcomers who included Latinos, independents, swing voters, tech bros, the Manosphere and Generation Z. It was still a close election; Trump won the national popular vote by roughly 1.5 percent, but he returned to the White House on January 20, 2025 with a lot of converts who were willing to give him a chance.
Fourteen months into his second presidency, however, Trump is suffering fromlow approval ratings in poll after poll.
In an op-ed published by The Hill on March 23, John Kenneth White — a professor emeritus at the Catholic University of America and author of the 2024 book "Grand Old Unraveling: The Republican Party, Donald Trump, and the Rise of Authoritarianism" — argues that Trump now lacks the "consent of the governed."
"The Trump presidency is over," White writes. "Those words seem harsh and, perhaps, overstated. But Donald Trump is governing without the consent of the governed. Most polls show Trump's approval hovering around the 40 percent mark. But behind these numbers is a presidency in distress. On handling inflation and the cost of living and immigration — issues that matter to voters — Trump has dismal scores. In 2024, voters elected Trump to do four things: curb inflation, restore the economic conditions that prevailed before the COVID-19 pandemic, deport individuals living in the U.S. illegally with criminal records, and keep the U.S. out of any possible forever wars. He has failed on all counts."
White adds, "His tariffs have raised prices, inflation persists, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is deporting people indiscriminately and Trump has started a war of choice with Iran."
White argues that while some U.S. presidents bounced back from bumps in the road —Ronald Reagan after Iran-Contra, Bill Clinton after the red wave of the 1994 midterms — others suffered irreparable damage, such as Jimmy Carter with the Iranian Hostage Crisis. And White puts Trump in the latter category.
"Presidents who don't recover can't change the subject," White observes. "(Lyndon B.) Johnson couldn't get the public’s mind off the Vietnam War. (Richard) Nixon was undone by the daily revelations of the Watergate scandal. Carter couldn't get the public's mind off the hostages in Iran…. For the next two years, Trump will retain the powers of the presidency. He can veto bills, issue pardons and executive orders and even wage war. But he will govern without the consent of the governed."
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Trump's vicious response to Robert Mueller's passing draws condemnation - Alternet.org
GLAD DEAD NO HURT INNOC PPL
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AN 3 26
President Donald Trump and his supporters describe liberals as “radical” and “extreme,” an accusation that one comedy writer describes as “epic-level gaslighting.”
“Republicans have made it abundantly clear, from behind the presidential seal and in the halls of Congress and on all manner of news networks, that the extremists in America are liberals like me,” wrote humor columnist Rex Huppke for USA Today on Sunday. “We are, in the oft-repeated words of President Donald Trump, ‘radical left lunatics.’ We are agitators. Insurrectionists. Thugs. Our ideas are extreme, always. ‘Radical left climate extremism.’ ‘Extreme gender ideology.’”
Yet Huppke pointed out that Trump supporters “all kneel at the altar of a narcissistic conman who eviscerates every democratic norm he comes across and slaps his name on things like a dollar-store Mussolini,” making it ludicrous for them to accuse people who merely want a clean planet and equal rights for all gender identities of being extremist or dangerous.
“As the Republican Party has morphed into an averse-to-democracy cult of personality – 63% of Republicans now identify as part of Trump’s MAGA movement – their labeling of the left as radicals has had to keep pace,” Huppke wrote. “It’s the ‘No I’m Not, YOU ARE!’ approach honed throughout history by bullies and abusers.”
Huppke went on to point out that Trump has failed to solve the myriad problems his administration blamed on the supposed radicalism of President Joe Biden (rising prices, a ballooning national debt, lawfare against political opponents). Additionally, one of Trump’s first acts as president was to pardon the insurrectionists who attempted a coup on Jan. 6, 2021 so that Trump could steal the 2020 presidential election.
“Promoting mass deportation, Trump and his party have proudly dispatched squads of masked and warrantless federal immigration agents across the country, resulting in the killing of U.S. citizens and repeated acts of transparent inhumanity,” Huppke added. “Without any form of approval, Trump had the historic East Wing of the White House demolished to make way for a ballroom funded by corporate and private donors, opening a door for shameless influence peddling.”
He then pointed out, “War, cruelty and racism. Isn't that all a bit extreme?”
Huppke also described as “extreme” Trump waging war against Iran without congressional approval, allowing a Christian nationalist pastor to lead a Pentagon worship service and creating a party in which Young Republican leaders in Arizona, Kansas, New York and Vermont “were found to be swimming in racist and antisemitic chats, saying things like ‘I love Hitler’ and casually using slurs for Black people.” He also mentioned the party’s Islamophobia, proposed $1 Trump coin in circulation and use of a neo-Nazi anthem (By God We’ll Have Our Home Again’) to recruit for the Department of Homeland Security.
“Frankly, I don’t ever want to hear the term ‘radical leftist’ again,” Huppke said. “At least not as long as Republicans are okey doke with a man whose every utterance is radical, a man who has subjugated an entire party and brainwashed them to obey his every whim.”
Huppke, despite being best known as a humorist, is also frequently scathingly critical of Trump. In December he claimed Trump had reached a “new low” after a “decade of Trumpian loathsomeness” because Trump applauded the murder of director/actor Rob Reiner, another frequent Trump critic. In November Huppke urged Americans to confront their Trump-supporting relatives at Thanksgiving, arguing that “at this moment in history, I wholly reject avoiding a subject that, thanks to Trump’s extremism and unquenchable thirst for attention, envelops virtually every aspect of our lives.”
Further into the article he added “not talking politics with your MAGA relatives is letting them off the hook. When a president is routinely bombing boats in international waters, ordering masked federal agents to round up hardworking immigrant families and sidestepping Congress while slapping tariffs on countries willy-nilly, those who disagree with such things have a responsibility to speak up.”
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AN 3 26
President Donald Trump’s belligerent foreign policy can be understood by his “abusive, impulsive narcissist relations with women,” says the associate editor of a prominent Washington DC magazine.
Describing Trump’s statement last week that he plans on “taking Cuba in some form” because he can “do anything I want with it,” the bottom line is that “Trump’s megalomania continues to grow because he is so rarely punished for it,” wrote Washington Monthly associate editor Gillen Tener Martin in a Sunday editorial.
From winning the 2016 presidential election despite the "Access Hollywood” tape leaking (in that tape he bragged about sexually assaulting women) to getting reelected in 2024 even though he was found liable by a civil jury for the sexual assault of E. Jean Carroll, Trump has learned that he can harm others with impunity — and that translates into his policy choices.
“But, of course, ‘I can do anything’ isn’t just Trump’s modus operandi with women,” Martin wrote. “It’s his mantra—how he moves through life: selfishly, chaotically, with little forethought and no expectation of consequences. And we’ve seen how that translates into policy; from tariffs to vaccines to DOGE, from Minneapolis to Venezuela to Iran.”
Martin added, “Turns out, if you’re an abusive, impulsive narcissist in your relations with women, you tend to be one in other areas of life, too. Who would’ve thought?”
There is good news for anti-Trumpers in that Trump’s attitude of invincibility does not translate into actual invincibility, Martin pointed out. He failed to repeal Obamacare, contain the COVID-19 pandemic, steal the 2020 presidential election or convince America’s former allies to back his reckless military venture in Iran.
“Even a military superpower needs allies in war, and allies are hard to find when war is waged on specious grounds without a diplomatic endgame,” Martin concluded regarding the last point. “Under different circumstances, the president being forced to reckon with the consequences of his actions may have brought solace—even glee—to some. Alas, the repercussions of this mess will come for us all.”
Martin’s concern over a possible US invasion of Cuba is based on Trump’s recent fixation on the Caribbean island country. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose parents are Cuban immigrants and who is a staunch opponent of that nation’s longstanding Communist regime, has long called for the island to be democratized.
"There is a very personal and corrupt agenda that he is carrying out, which seems to be sacrificing the national interests of the U.S. in order to advance this very extremist approach," Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla told the AP in October about Rubio.
In response to additional Trump threats in January, Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel told Reuters that "Cuba is a free, independent, and sovereign nation. Nobody dictates what we do. Cuba does not attack; it has been attacked by the U.S. for 66 years, and it does not threaten; it prepares, ready to defend the homeland to the last drop of blood."
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AN 3 26
President Donald Trump clashed with a far-right reporter on Monday morning as he left Palm Beach, Florida, where he spends his weekends.
Speaking to reporters at the base of his stairs at the airport, the president shouted questions at the reporters. One began asking about the ICE agents deployed to American airports and was about to ask a question about it when Trump asked, "Who are you with?"
He said he was with Newsmax.
"You're not doing a very good job," Trup said.
The reporter ignored the slight, continuing to ask about ICE agents deployed to airports, but Trump interrupted.
"You're not doing a good job. Did you hear me?" Trump said and turned to take a question from someone else.
"I'm taking CNN over Newsmax. Can you believe it?" he asked no one in particular.
Trump has a long history of attacking media outlets and individual journalists who ask tough questions or report unfavorably on his administration. Newsmax, a conservative cable news network, has generally been sympathetic to Trump, though the president has occasionally criticized the outlet when he feels it hasn't provided sufficiently favorable coverage.
Trump frequently praises Fox News while attacking CNN, MS Now, and other mainstream media organizations he labels as "fake news."The clash at Palm Beach International Airport comes as Trump faces mounting criticism over his administration's policies, including the deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to airports across the country. The move has drawn concerns from civil liberties advocates and some lawmakers who worry about racial profiling and the militarization of civilian spaces.
Trump has defended the airport deployments as necessary to address security concerns and enforce immigration laws.Trump's public criticism of individual reporters is part of a broader pattern of attacking the media that has continued throughout his political career. He frequently uses social media and public appearances to challenge journalists' credibility and question their motives, often referring to critical coverage as "enemy of the people" rhetoric.
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AN 3 26
Last week, reports revealed the U.S. government has redesigned the Great Seal of the United States to use on the dime for the country's 250th birthday. And on Thursday, coin aficionados are set to commence the next great coin debate: whether President Donald Trump will get his own official U.S. government gold coin.
*The Washington Post* reported that the Commission of Fine Arts will meet Thursday and decide whether to approve a 24-carat gold coin showing the president leaning on a desk. As the report notes, every member of the committee was nominated by Trump.
In the past year, Trump has made vast strides to leave his mark on Washington D.C., including tearing down the East Wing of the White House to build a monstrous ballroom and planning to build the Arch de Trump — a large arch resembling the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. More recently, Trump appointed his own board to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and had them vote to add his name to the building.
The coins, typically sold for several thousand dollars, would be made available at a time when the economy is taking a serious hit, and families are struggling to afford housing, fuel and groceries.
The barrier might come when the coin has to go before the second panel of deciders, a bipartisan Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, which last month refused to consider Trump's gold coin
"In interviews, members opposed putting a sitting president on currency, saying it would break with democratic norms and reek of subservience to royalty," the report said.
It would also break with the laws that mandate someone be dead before they go on currency.
Republican coin collector Michael Moran, who was appointed to the panel by by former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said, “It’s wrong. It goes against American culture and the traditions that drive what we put on our coinage. I didn’t sign up for this."
The Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee includes people who regularly collect coins, along with a historian and an artist specializing in medallic arts.
Retired basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was once on the committee; he's an avid coin collector. He said he was disheartened by the Trump coin, the Post reported. "He believed well-designed coins could inform and inspire. He cited as examples a 1998 silver dollar that honored Crispus Attucks, who was enslaved, escaped and was killed in the Boston Massacre in 1770, and a 2017 gold coin that depicted Lady Liberty as an African American woman."
“I’m not enthusiastic about memorializing Mr. Trump on a coin because he has done so much damage to our country,” said Abdul-Jabbar. “It takes a huge consensus to get agreement on something like this, and I’m not inclined to be supportive of the president’s request.”
Last year, the commission approved a $1 Trump coin, which Democrats tried to stop.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Navada) called it "embarrassing."
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Or.) added, “Monarchs and dictators put their faces on coins, not leaders of a democracy."
A 2005 law restricts presidents from appearing on a $1 coin unless they are dead. Trump is getting around the law by making it a "gold coin."
“They can definitely make the coin without our review. But it would be an illegal coin,” said Donald Scarinci, a Democratic appointee on the committee. “It’s not about Donald Trump. It’s about whoever the president is. It’s not something done in a democracy.”
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PRESS SUPPRESS MMA
The Trump administration demands American press propagandize his Iran war
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 03/16/26
We are two weeks into President Donald Trump’s ill-conceived war of choice against Iran, and the president is already suggesting his administration should shut down news outlets for producing critical reports — or even consider treason charges based on spurious claims of collusion with America’s enemies.
Though U.S. and Israeli forces have successfully bombed a wide array of Iranian targets and assassinated its former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran has followed through with its strategic doctrine by closing the Strait of Hormuz, shutting down a major channel for the global energy and fertilizer trades.
As a result, Trump is begging/demanding foreign navies bail him out by sending ships to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, deploying additional troops and ships to the region for unknown reasons, lifting sanctions on Russia in hopes of lowering the price of oil, denying reports that a Pentagon investigation preliminarily found the U.S. military accidentally incinerated scores of Iranian schoolchildren with an errant missile — and railing against the American press for refusing to report that the war is going well.
Meanwhile, Trump’s hand-picked Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr, is signaling to broadcast stations that they will face regulatory retribution if they don’t “correct course."
It’s all part of the authoritarian playbook Trump wields against news outlets that produce anything less than Fox News-style propaganda. The protections of the First Amendment ensure that those outlets could likely prevail in court — but fighting is expensive, and over the course of Trump’s second term so far, the corporate moguls who control them have proven unnervingly unwilling to do so.
### Trump rails against press, demands government retribution
Last week, former Fox News host Megyn Kelly bemoaned that the network’s coverage is offering lockstep support for Trump’s Iranian “excursion.”
“Now it's, you cheerlead the war, support the military industrial complex, or … you're a loser,” she said on her podcast. “It's infuriating because we're talking about life and death. We're talking about American life or death. And this is a dereliction of duty.”
As Kelly suggests, when Trump turns his television to Fox, he is getting unhinged validation of his efforts. But the president is not satisfied with that. He wants every American news outlet producing the same Fox-style war propaganda.
Trump used what he baselessly described as “an intentionally misleading headline by the Fake News Media” to denounce the press in a Saturday morning Truth Social post.
“The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal (in particular), and other Lowlife 'Papers’ and Media actually want us to lose the War,” he wrote. “Their terrible reporting is the exact opposite of the actual facts! They are truly sick and demented people that have no idea the damage they cause the United States of America.”
In another post on Sunday evening, the president baselessly claimed that Iran had been “working in close coordination with the Fake News Media” to promote a fake, AI-generated video depicting a U.S. ship burning in the Persian Gulf.
“The story was knowingly FAKE and, in a certain way, you can say that those Media Outlets that generated it should be brought up on Charges for TREASON for the dissemination of false information!” Trump posted. “The fact is, Iran is being decimated, and the only battles they ‘win’ are those that they create through AI, and are distributed by Corrupt Media Outlets.”
(In reality, responsible news outlets have been debunking that video, not distributing it, according to CNN’s Brian Stelter.)
“It's pretty criminal because our media companies, who have no credibility whatsoever, are putting out information that they know is false, and it's a very dangerous thing for the country,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One later that night, “I think they could be in serious jeopardy."
Trump’s weekend anti-press binge followed coverage complaints from Pete Hegseth, the former Fox & Friends weekend host who now heads the Pentagon, who used a press conference on Friday morning to gripe extensively about the banners he has seen on TV news coverage.
Yet some in this crew, in the press, just can't stop. Allow me to make a few suggestions. People look up at the TV and they see banners, they see headlines. I used to be in that business. And I know that everything is written intentionally.
For example, a banner or a headline: “Mideast war intensifies,” splashing on the screen the last couple of days, alongside visuals of civilian or energy targets that Iran has hit, because that's what they do. What should the banner read instead?
How about, ‘Iran increasingly desperate,’ because they are. They know it and so do you, if it can be admitted.
Hegseth posited that an “actual patriotic press” would produce such coverage. He also decried a CNN report detailing how the Trump administration “failed to fully account for the potential consequences” of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz. “The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better,” he commented, referencing a Trump ally’s effort to take over CNN’s parent company with the help of the administration.
### With Carr, a cause for alarm
It is disturbing enough that the president of the United States is a deranged authoritarian who responds to a faltering war by ranting about its coverage. But what makes it worse is that his administration is filled with apparatchicks eager to carry out his demands for retribution.
Carr, who was reportedly with the president at his Mar-A-Lago club over the weekend, responded to Trump’s initial post complaining about journalists who “actually want us to lose the War” by threatening the licenses of broadcast stations that produce critical coverage.
“Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions - also known as the fake news - have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up,” Carr wrote. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not."
Carr was nonspecific about how broadcasters could avoid reprisal (and Trump had lashed out at newspapers, not broadcast networks, in his post), but he’s a hack who is typically willing to carry Trump’s water no matter how absurd the underlying complaint may be.
Trump signaled his approval for Carr’s threats in his Sunday evening “TREASON” post, writing, “I am so thrilled to see Brendan Carr, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), looking at the licenses of some of these Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic ‘News’ Organizations."
Stelter, in an extensive report drawing on comments from First Amendment lawyers, notes that Carr “has very little power to follow through” and that television stations, if they are willing to fight such attempted reprisals in court, “are not at serious risk of being banned."
“Any government action against a licensee would cause a protracted legal battle, even more so given the current media-bashing climate, because a station would likely cite Trump’s retributive streak and mount a First Amendment case,” Stelter wrote.
There is a strong argument that stations would be victorious if they fought Carr’s attempts to strip their licenses. But there were also strong arguments that ABC News and CBS News would be victorious if they fought the lawsuits Trump filed over their coverage in 2024. The problem was that rather than going to court on behalf of a free press, Disney and Paramount, their parent companies, decided it was in the interest of their broader business holdings to fold.
The advantage Trump and Carr have in their fight to cudgel the press into line is that it can be very expensive to fight the federal government on behalf of the First Amendment — and what the last year shows is that many people who own or control news outlets don’t care enough about such principles to do it. And Disney and Paramount had much deeper pockets to pay lawyers than an individual local broadcast news station does. Even Sinclair Broadcast Network, which owns or operates nearly 200 stations across the country, has a market cap of around $1 billion, compared to roughly $175 billion for Disney.
If Carr threatens the licenses of Sinclair stations, are its pro-Trump owners really going to go to the mat for the free press rather than using his complaints as an opportunity to push coverage even further to the right?
It’s also worth taking seriously Trump’s threats of treason charges against news outlets. The Justice Department is now staffed by loyalists like former Fox host Jeanine Pirro who are willing to follow through on his demands for political prosecutions. Those efforts keep failing — but they raise the cost of dissent and thus chill free speech.
And that’s what the president wants, as Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt made clear when she channeled him on Monday morning.
“The president has said enough with this coverage from other networks that are not telling you the truth, that are so negative about what’s going on,” she said. “This is a pro-America fight, and every network needs to get on board with that."
And if they aren’t, there will be consequences.
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BEGS ALLIES RUN BLOCKADE, THEN SAID WE DO NOT NEED; CHANNEL 2 MI WIDE KILL BOX
MMA
Fox personalities used to claim that energy independence would shield the US from potential retaliatory action by Iran — such as closing the Strait of Hormuz
As gas prices rise, the network has scarcely invoked the concept of “energy independence,” mentioning it a fraction as often as it did during the start of the Russia-Ukraine war
Special ProgramsClimate & Energy
Written by Allison Fisher
Published 03/18/26
- The current surge in gas prices in response to President Donald Trump’s war against Iran challenges Fox News’ long-touted narrative that so-called “energy independence” would insulate the U.S. from disruptions in the global oil market and potential overseas conflicts, specifically in the Middle East. And while Fox personalities have wielded this narrative against Democratic presidents and used its talking points to advocate for more drilling and fossil fuel extraction, the network has fallen nearly silent on the concept of achieving energy independence as domestic energy costs continue rising despite Trump’s claims of achieving “energy dominance.”
In reality, America has never truly been energy independent, and such a policy is not even truly possible. Energy prices are determined by a global market, meaning the United States will never be free from oil and gas price fluctuations no matter how much oil it produces domestically. Indeed, this moment represents the most definitive rebuke yet of the idea of American “energy independence.”
Even as the U.S. is producing record amounts of oil and the Trump administration pursues a voracious pro-fossil fuel agenda, the national average price of gas reached $3.45 a gallon on March 8, with The New York Times reporting that oil prices rose “above $100 a barrel for the first time in roughly four years, more than 40 percent more expensive than it was before the United States and Israel began attacking Iran on Feb. 28.” As of March 18, gas has climbed to a national average of $3.84 a gallon.
But rather than conceding the point that oil markets have always been and will likely always be volatile, Fox personalities are moving the goal posts on what “energy independence” means compared to the network’s narratives in 2022 and 2020. They’re now suggesting that energy independence can be achieved by releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, that it means disruptions to gas prices caused by conflicts overseas are only temporary, or that energy independence enables the U.S. to start new wars that “wouldn't even have been possible if Joe Biden was president.”
- ## In 2022, as gas prices surged in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Fox blamed Biden’s energy policies. Now the network is downplaying the price increases as temporary.
- The rapid increase in fuel prices surrounding Trump’s war with Iran mirrors how the global oil markets responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. At the time, one of the dominant narratives across Fox was the suggestion that gas prices in the U.S. were rising due to losing “energy independence” under President Joe Biden — a claim which is categorically false. (Oil production in 2022 was the second highest of any year in U.S. history, yielding approximately 12 million barrels a day.) In some cases, Fox personalities and guests even suggested America’s purported lack of “energy independence” under Biden emboldened Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression in the Ukraine.
In fact, Fox News mentioned “energy independence” at least 329 times in the first two weeks of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and it continued to be a central narrative of Fox’s coverage after that, with mentions increasing to 632 one month into the conflict. Now, as prices skyrocket in response to Trump’s war on Iran, that talking point has been far less prevalent. In the first two weeks of the conflict, from February 28 through March 13, the terms “energy independence” or “energy security ” were mentioned just 12 times on Fox News programs.
Part of the 2022 narrative on Fox was also attacks on the Biden administration for releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to lower gas prices after Russia invaded Ukraine. Fox’s Maria Bartiromo claimed the move “tells you that they were blindsided” because the SPR “is supposed to be a reserve for crises and emergencies.”
Now, on the March 13 edition of *Fox & Friends First*, co-host Carley Shimkus claimed that “President Trump is restoring America’s energy independence [by] ordering 172 million barrels of oil to be released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve,” calling it an example of how he is “battling back” against “the economic impacts of war.”
Notably, Fox correspondent David Spunt pointed out on March 9, before Trump decided to tap the reserves, that Biden was criticized by the right for releasing oil from the SPR in 2022 to offset sanctions against Russia by putting more oil in the global market.
In 2022, energy independence meant maintaining low gas prices during a foreign conflict. Now, Fox and others in right-wing media suggest price hikes driven by the fighting are only a temporary “sacrifice” for attacking Iran.
One Fox host, Tomi Lahren, did seem to acknowledge that energy independence has not shielded the U.S. from price shocks, though she still worried that people would grow impatient with gas costs.
It’s “really such a shame too because this president has worked so hard up until now on getting those gas prices down,” Lahren said. “American energy independence, still obviously a priority, but this kind of shakes the boat a little bit.”
In 2022, Fox personalities suggested energy independence was about insulating us from foreign conflicts. Frequent Fox guest and former Trump adviser Steve Moore now suggests it's about enabling us to start new wars abroad, claiming during a March 5 appearance on *Fox & Friends* that “this incursion wouldn't even have been possible if Joe Biden was president, because we didn't have the energy capacity to do it.”
“Thanks to drill, baby, drill, and Trump's America energy independence plan, … we produce more oil and gas than any other country in the world today,” he continued. “Thank you, Donald Trump, for making that possible. It’s really made it much — we're much less reliant on the Middle East than we used to be.”
And Fox anchor Shannon Bream tried to quickly move past the connection between rising global oil prices and Trump’s domestic energy policies during a March 1 interview with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), calling it “a whole ‘nother conversation.”
Kaine rebutted that it “does connect — the president wants energy independence, so he says, while he is terminating offshore wind projects and alternative energy all over the United States. If you want U.S. energy, why are you doing that?”
Video
Citation
From the March 1, 2026, edition of Fox News Sunday
- Kaine raised a key point that often takes a back seat to calls for more drilling during moments of oil volatility: the role of domestic clean energy in reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. As U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres noted last week, “homegrown renewable energy has never been cheaper, more accessible, or more scalable,” offering countries a way to protect themselves from the “shock waves” conflicts can create in a “global energy system largely tied to fossil fuels.”
- ## In 2020, Fox claimed that US energy independence under Trump “makes us far less vulnerable” to retaliation from Iran. The country’s leader just said the Strait of Hormuz will stay closed as oil prices continue to climb.
- In 2020, after the U.S. assassinated Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani under the first Trump administration, right-wing media not only claimed that our supposed energy independence made the action possible, but also that it had made the U.S. “far less vulnerable” to any retaliatory action by Iran, such as cutting off the Strait of Hormuz. Now, the country’s newest supreme leader has promised the strait will remain closed, and while Trump has announced some actions to address oil market disruption, like releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, experts have warned that “higher prices will likely persist until traffic through the Strait of Hormuz returns.”
In a January 4, 2020, op-ed for Fox News, Daniel Turner with the pro-industry think tank Power the Future argued that the “US can withstand Iranian attack on global oil supplies, thanks to Trump energy policies.” He wrote: “Fortunately, President Trump has aggressively pursued deregulation and other needed policies that have led to big increases in U.S. production of oil and natural gas. This makes us far less vulnerable to Iranian threats to block the Straits of Hormuz."
Fox Business host Jackie DeAngelis said on the January 3, 2020, edition ofFox News’ *Outnumbered* that Trump’s oil deregulation efforts were a “national security strategy.”
“Yes, the Strait of Hormuz, about 25% of the world's oil comes through there, so we'll be watching that closely,” she said. “But the U.S. just hit 12.6 million barrels a day in production. ... So when I look at the Trump administration rolling back regulation, what they’ve done with the oil strategy, I really look at it as a national security strategy.”
Fox Business host Stuart Varney even claimed on the January 3, 2020, episode of Fox & Friends that because of Trump’s energy independence policies, “if you took out Iranian oil installations, I don't think it would have that big an impact on us in America.”
Now, Trump is threatening to target the centerpiece of Iran’s oil production facilities on Kharg island — a major escalation that analysts warn risks “accelerating a structural shift in how energy supply chains are priced.”
“War-risk insurance premiums will likely remain elevated long after the last missile is fired,” wrote Jeff Currie of Carlyle Analysis. “And the behavioral response — hoarding, contract renegotiations, the scramble for alternative suppliers — permanently reprices the supply chain.”
The reality is that the U.S. cannot drill its way to “energy independence.” Becoming truly energy independent means weaning ourselves off of fossil fuels and adopting clean, renewable energy sources. That was true in 2020 and 2022, and it's even more important now.
Methodology...
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an 3 26
The United States remains under a cloud of international criticism after it bombed a girls' school in Iran and tried to blame it on Iran itself. Now it's being revealed that the CIA gave President Donald Trump the false intelligence, but made it clear after 24 hours that it was a U.S. bomb. Still, Trump ran with the allegation that it was Iran that hit their own people.
According to *The Guardian*, the CIA believed that the missile may not have been from the U.S. because "the fins appeared to be positioned too low for it to be a Tomahawk cruise missile." But they quickly realized it was, in fact, a Tomahawk missile from the U.S., and the sources said they briefed the president on the reality.
The truth didn't matter to Trump, however, as he "had already settled on the explanation that Iran was responsible for the strike." Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth refused to say one way or another so as not to contradict Trump. Instead, he told reporters that it was under investigation.
Trump's biggest problem with the lie is that he accepted the reality that it was a Tomahawk, and falsely said that Iran had such missiles when it is "used only by the US and a handful of allies, including the U.K., Japan and Australia," the report explained.
“Giving Trump preliminary information is dangerous because he can turn it into a total embarrassment,” a former CIA officer told The Guardian. “If the principal asks you a question, the best thing to say is you don’t know. Knowing how hard it is to go back later to correct the record.”
Former intelligence members blame the briefers and Trump for the public embarrassment.
The most recent numbers show that at least 175 people, mostly children, were killed in the blast at the school.
The report said that the updated numbers mean that the strike is "one of the deadliest targeting errors in recent decades."
The investigation Hegseth referenced is trying to uncover why the intelligence claimed that it was a military target when it was well-known that it was a school. The Australian version of ABC News reported that it was even clear on Google Maps that the IRGC naval base was separated from the colorfully painted school by a large wall. The wall has been there since 2013. The school was converted sometime between 2013 and 2016, The Guardian said.
The Pentagon investigation has been focused on why the intelligence was outdated and whether it was double-checked.
International humanitarian law (IHL) is a set of rules designed to protect those who are not directly involved in the conflict. It includes aid workers, medical professionals, the sick, injured and children. The U.S. has signed and ratified Geneva Conventions of 1949. Breaking those rules is considered a war crime.
The Guardian explained that the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency look at imagery to build a "target database" using a program called Maven Smart System.
A former senior defense official explained that there are years of analysis that go into the system and "layers of oversight." However, once "entered into the database as a possible target, it may not necessarily be reviewed again until a strike is considered." The target list is generated by the system using Maven and "artificial intelligence tools such as Claude, Anthropic’s large language model," the report explained.
In late February, around the time Trump decided to go to war, he instructed all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic's AI technology. PBS News reported at the time that Anthropic has long demanded that the government not use its system for "fully autonomous weapons systems" and mass surveillance.
On Feb. 23, five days before the bombing, Axios reported that the Pentagon and Elon Musk's AI company, Grok, had reached an agreement under which his AI tools would be used instead. xAI agreed to allow its system to be used for everything, including military and warrantless surveillance. So, it's unclear which systems were responsible for putting the girls' school on the target list.
The head of Centcom, Adm. Brad Cooper, told reporters last Wednesday the United States is “leveraging a variety of advanced AI tools" for the attacks.
The Washington Post reported last week that two Israeli officials claimed the girls' school "was not cross-checked or discussed with the Israel Defense Forces before it took place."
Human Rights Watch has called for a war crime investigation.
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an 3 26
Brendan Carr, the Donald Trump-appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), is threatening retaliation against broadcasters who offer negative coverage of U.S. war operations against Iran. After Carr threatened to take away their broadcast licenses, President Trump applauded him on his Truth Social platform — writing that he was "thrilled" that Carr was "looking at the licenses" of some "Highly Unpatriotic 'News' Organizations."
But Robert Francis Prevost, AKA Pope Leo the 14th, has very different viewpoint.
In a Monday, March 16 post on X, formerly Twitter, the Catholic Church's first American pope urged journalists to cover the Iran war honestly and not sugar-coat its harsh realities.
Pope Leo tweeted, "In the dramatic circumstances of war, information must guard against the risk of turning into propaganda. It is every journalist's duty to verify the news, so as not to become a megaphone for power. They must show the suffering that war always brings to populations, which entails showing the face of war and recounting it through the eyes of victims."
Journalist John Harwood noted the Pope's candor, tweeting, "The Pope calling out Trump's authoritarianism."
Patrick Strother, CEO of Strothers Communications Group, posted, "This is the 33rd conflict the US has started or participated in during my life. Propaganda played a vital role in selling these wars, but they didn't even bother with the Iran invasion, so journalists have a golden opportunity to change some minds about the ever increasing futility of murdering 'enemies.'"
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PUZZLE HOW HE GETS AWAY W FUCKING OVER VETS
AN 3 26
President Donald Trump’s new proposal for addressing widespread veteran homelessness involves forcibly institutionalizing hundreds or even thousands of them — and this is raising concerns about civil liberties.
“Our new partnership with the Justice Department reflects our ongoing commitment to ensuring that every veteran receives timely, appropriate care,” explained Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) Doug Collins in a public statement. The VA says that they will initiate legal guardianships for veterans who are either homeless or “at risk of homelessness,” thereby empowering the federal government to involuntarily commit them to care facilities.
"Critics say the policy shift raises significant civil liberties concerns, noting that in earlier generations, people with severe mental illness were routinely stripped of their legal rights and confined to state hospitals,” reported The New York Times.
Representative Mark Takano, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said that “the Trump-Vance administration is pursuing policies that would push hundreds, if not thousands, of veterans into institutions and court-ordered guardianships.”
Takano added, “Guardianship should always be a last resort, after all less restrictive options have been exhausted, to ensure veterans’ rights are respected.”
By contrast, Michael Figlioli, the director of the National Veterans Service for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said “that some of our nation’s most vulnerable veterans must be approached through a public health and social services framework” and argued that if the program is carried out thoughtfully, guardianships could offer more “structured support” for vulnerable veterans. At the same time, he said that there would need to be due diligence taken to account for “veterans’ privacy, potential implementation gaps and the need for sufficient resources.”
As the Times reported, “There are about 33,000 homeless veterans in the United States, about 14,000 of whom live on the streets. Veterans make up around 5 percent of the unsheltered homeless population.”
Prior to this policy change, Trump has often disappointed veterans. He reneged earlier in March on a promise to establish a National Center for Warrior Independence, and his sweeping cuts to the federal workforce led to 62,000 veterans losing their jobs.
“The Trump Administration has radically slashed the federal civilian workforce, sidestepping Congress and causing disruptions, slowdowns, and fragility in a range of critical public services that people and communities depend on,” wrote the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities earlier in March. “Veterans have been affected by these cuts both as members of the federal workforce and as recipients of federal health care and other benefits available to them based on their service.”
Trump has also been accused of showing disrespect toward veterans, such as earlier in March when he ignored protocol and left his hat on while greeting the remains of six soldiers killed in his Iran war.
“This fool has ABSOLUTELY no sense of dignity or appreciation for the moment,” Michael Steele, Republican National Committee chair from 2009 to 2011, wrote on X. “It is called the Dignified Transfer for a reason. Take your damn hat off!!”
Douglas Heye, a former communications director for the Republican National Committee, said that there is a partisan double standard.
“I know what Republicans would have said if Obama had done this — I would have written the statement,” Heye posted on X. “Shameful.”
A number of administration sources, including Trump’s former chief of staff and retired Marine Corps. General John F. Kelly, have said that Trump privately referred to soldiers as “suckers” and “losers” because he could not understand them fighting for things other than self-interest.
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AN 3 26 FARM
'Lost all hope': Trump policies are crushing food industry in Republican heartland
Trump-loving farmers threaten 'to quit' as president’s war spikes fertilizer prices
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an 3 26
'Unclear where' missing $63 million for Trump library has gone: report - Alternet.org
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fired noem for mullins, no bs DEGREE
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an 3 26
Even MAGA is questioning Trump after he taps Erika Kirk for Air Force Academy board - Alternet.org
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an 3 26
Details involving Jane Doe number 4 in the file related to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein were confirmed by local news investigators after the survivor was found to be from South Carolina.
A report by *The Post and Courier* confirmed the details about her roots in South Carolina. This survivor was recruited after her mother handed out fliers saying her 13-year-old daughter was available for babysitting jobs.
In 2019, Jane Doe came forward and was interviewed by the FBI four times about her encounters in the early 1980s. This was the individual that Hillary Clinton referenced in her comments to the House Oversight and Reform Committee.
During the testimony, Clinton commented, "And this latest example of the missing files about the allegations, and they are absolutely nothing more than allegations, but the FBI interviewed that witness four times. You don't interview a non-credible witness four times. You don't put into the FBI reporting 'protect this source' if you think there is nothing to it. So, of course, I would like to know, like every other American deserves to know, what is in those files and who is going to hold people accountable? Because the Justice Department seems to be either unwilling or incapable of doing so."
Longtime Epstein reporter and researcher Julie K. Brown wrote about Doe in a report for the Miami Herald last week. She noted on Substack, "This story is massive, and it will take a village of journalists to put the threads together."
Doe's reports to the FBI include accusations of Epstein, President Donald Trump and at least two other people of sexually assaulting her when she was 13. She alleged that she was told to engage in oral activity with Trump, who allegedly forced her head down. She bit him, and in response, he punched her in the head.
The Post and Courierresearched some of the details the survivor provided about the account, including Epstein renting a home from her mother. She was then called to that home by Epstein, and the pattern of abuse began.
Among those allegations was that Epstein took photos of her posing nude and tried to extort her mother to keep the images secret. Her mother couldn't afford what was demanded by Epstein, the allegations said, and she stole $22,000 from the real estate firm she worked for in an effort to pay for it. The Post and Courieralso confirmed this detail using public records.
The survivor also "offered the name of an Epstein business associate on Hilton Head Island who became a central figure in the drama, with specifics that are reflected in public records," the report also said.
Another one of the individuals she alleged was involved was an Ohio businessman "affiliated with a Cincinnati-based college." The outlet found the alleged person and confirmed that the man was part of a for-profit school.
Trump continues to deny all of the allegations surrounding his involvement with Epstein.
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AN 3 26
President Donald Trump’s administration is allowing prediction markets to gamble on war, prompting one conservative critic to describe the practice as “satanic.”
“Like dogfighting, gambling on war is the sort of hobby that is best described in simple, direct moral terms,” Joe Perticone of The Bulwark wrote on Thursday. “(‘Satanic’ was the one that came to my mind.) But I wanted to pose the question about regulating or banning this industry to some of the lawmakers who are familiar with prediction markets.”
After Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour recently argued Americans should be able to “financialize everything and create a tradable asset out of any difference of opinion,” Perticone interviewed members of Congress about regulating or even banning the practice of gambling on war.
“Polymarket. Kalshi. I love ’em!” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) told Perticone “before I could finish my question.” The journalist added that when he asked Tuberville if “it’s good for society to be gambling on events tied to war and military engagements,” the senator changed his tune.
“Oh, well, I didn’t know they were doing that,” Tuberville told Perticone. “Well, if it’s legal, I guess you can do it. I wouldn’t do it. But everybody’s got their own opinion on that.”
By contrast Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) accused the Trump White House of using their insider information to profit on the prediction markets about the Iran war.
“To me, it’s pretty clear there were people inside the White House who were making bets on Friday that war would start on Saturday,” Murphy told Perticone. “That particular bet—that war will occur within twenty-four hours—was not a normal bet that was being made on Polymarket. It was made on one day, Friday, by an unusually high number of people.”
Murphy added, “Unquestionably, that is people at the White House or friends of the White House. So the Iran war is a disaster on its merits, but it is facilitating a new kind of corruption in the White House in which people are making money through Polymarket and Kalshi on war.” For this reason, the senator is drafting a ban on prediction markets gambling on government activity with “some exceptions for bond markets and financial markets.” At the same time, “Murphy pointed out that regulating and restricting the prediction markets will probably be an uphill battle, given how lucrative they seem to have been for administration insiders.”
“Obviously given that it looks like Trump’s crowd is making money on these prediction markets, Republicans are gonna react as if it’s an attack on them,” Murphy told Perticone. “It’s not. This would be really awful even under a Democratic president.”
Similar to Murphy, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told Perticone “the concept is predatory at its very core.”
“I think it’s very unhealthy, and I worry that these markets are not only speculative, but that there are insiders who may be manipulating them or manipulating the outcomes,” Warren told Perticone. “If this were an SEC-regulated market, there would be an automatic investigation into every one of those bets [on U.S. foreign policy]. But when the market is unregulated, insiders have free rein to manipulate it however they want.”
Earlier this week, the ongoing schism between Trump supporters over the war in Iran continued in earnest, with Trump supporter and influencer Laura Loomer sparring on X with former congresswoman and Trump critic, Marjorie Taylor Greene.
"This b—— is celebrating the death of American military members and thanking their families for their blood sacrifice,” Greene wrote of Loomer on Sunday. “But this is who Trump takes late night calls from and laps up her praise and worship. … And now Americans are once again coming home in flag draped coffins from another stupid pointless foreign war for foreign regime change on behalf of Israel.”
In response Loomer asked, "How much money are you making off of Muslims?"
Indeed, people in the Trump administration often seem not to be on the same page about whether the Iran action even constitutes a war. Appearing on CNN Monday with host Kasie Hunt, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Ok.) — who later that week was tapped as Trump’s new Homeland Security Secretary — insisted that Trump’s actions in Iran were not a war and had to be publicly corrected.
“This isn't a war, we haven't declared war. Everybody wants to say,” Mullin told Hunt. The CNN host then showed a clip of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth saying earlier that day that “we set the terms of this war from start to finish. We didn't start this war. But under President Trump, we are finishing it.”
Mullin responded by saying, “What he declared on us was war — meaning the Ayatollah declared war on us. We are not at war with the Iranian people. The Ayatollah declared war on us, we've already taken him out, and now we're eliminating the threat."
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AN 3 26
Many prominent U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) alumni — including former federal prosecutors and MS NOW legal analysts Joyce White Vance and Barbara McQuade — are scathing critics of President Donald Trump and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi's criminal justice policies. Trump and Bondi, they argue, are using DOJ as a tool of retribution against political foes and doing things they never would have considered when they were federal prosecutors.
But at the same time, Trump isn't shy about issuing presidential pardons for his allies. On his first night back in the White House, Trump pardoned hundreds of rioters who violently attacked the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.
In an article published on March 6, New York Times reporter Kenneth P. Vogel emphasizes that Trump's use of presidential pardons isn't merely a matter of policy — it is an "industry."
According to Vogel, a "lucrative pardon industry" has "emerged around Mr. Trump."
"It is based in part on the proposition that paying the right person to deliver a message tailored to Mr. Trump's politics or grievances is more important than demonstrating remorse or a low likelihood of recidivism," Vogel explains. "A growing number of practitioners promise access in this murky enterprise, but some also may exaggerate their effectiveness to elicit payments from clients desperate to avoid incarceration. Pardon seekers routinely offer to pay as much as $1 million or more, often with bonus payments triggered by a successful outcome, according to lobbying filings and people familiar with the fees."
Vogel continues, "This transactional approach to clemency has been welcomed by white-collar offenders like those serving time at the Otisville camp, a minimum-security facility about 75 miles northwest of Manhattan. Many of its inmates cheered Mr. Trump's election, seeing him as a kindred spirit who shares their grievances about the unfairness of financial crime prosecutions like the one that led to his own conviction, according to four people familiar with conversations at Otisville."
One of Trump's pardons was Joseph Schwartz, who was convicted of federal tax crimes related to nursing homes he owned and sentenced to three years but served only three months.
"Mr. Schwartz had not been shy about sharing the strategy behind his clemency campaign with other inmates," Vogel reports. "So they knew he had paid multiple people to try to get the job done, according to two people familiar with conversations at Otisville. Nearly a million dollars went to right-wing operatives who claimed to have worked with Laura Loomer, a social media provocateur who has the ear of Mr. Trump, to advocate for Mr. Schwartz's release…. The perception that freedom is for sale to affluent offenders like Mr. Schwartz outrages some of his victims, including former employees of his nursing homes who were deprived of health insurance or left scrounging for supplies to care for residents."
One of those ex-employees, Theresa Dante, told the Times, "This man hurt a lot of people. If it's OK for Mr. Schwartz to do this to everybody, then in the future is this going be OK?"
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an 3 26
Trump uses voter ID push to stoke base with 'men in women’s sports' claim - Alternet.org
After touting the controversial SAVE America Act as “a Country Defining fight for the Soul of our Nation!”, President Donald Trump is now suggesting it would reshape rules for sports participation and health care access for transgender people — changes the bill does not actually make.
The SAVE America Act would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, and voter ID to vote at the polls. It would also sharply restrict mail-in voting. Critics argue the legislation will disenfranchise millions of Americans who do not have a passport or access to their birth certificates. It could make voting difficult for married people who changed their names but not their names on their records. Some estimates say more than 140 million Americans do not have a valid passport and millions do not have access to a paper copy of their birth certificates.
According to President Trump’s Truth Social post on Thursday, the bill requires voter ID and proof of citizenship to vote, and no mail-in ballots except for illness, disability, military, or travel. It also bans “men in women’s sports,” and “transgender mutilation surgery for children, without the express written approval of the parents.”
The current House and Senate versions of the bill do not mention transgender people or sports.
Transgender issues are a hot button issue for many of Trump’s supporters, as he continues to push passage of the bill “at the expense of everything else.”
Last month, Trump said that if Congress passes strict voting measures Republicans “won’t lose a race for 50 years,” CNN reported.
“We’ll never lose a race for 50 years. We won’t lose a race. We want voter ID. We want proof of citizenship, and we don’t want mail-in ballots,” he said, while supporting some exceptions.
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https://wareagle.substack.com/p/the-iran-war-exposes-the-farce-of
SUBSTACK
NO LNX
The Iran War Exposes the Farce of American “Representative Democracy”
J Richard Duke
Mar 03, 2026
The Iran War Exposes the Farce of American “Representative Democracy”
Ryan McMaken
“The Trump administration has unilaterally—without any Congressional debate or vote, of course—forced Americans into yet another war. This time, the war is a large-scale military campaign against Iran. Was there any groundswell of public support for this war? Did the Congress vote to spend more American tax dollars on another war? Apparently not. According to a March 1 poll from Reuters, only 27 percent of Americans polled said they support the US’s new war on Iran. Needless to say, few Americans have been calling their representatives in Congress asking for yet another Middle Eastern war.
:{:{So, why is the US now at war with Iran? Not even the administration appears to know for sure. After the war had already begun, the White House repeatedly changed its stated rationale for opening hostilities against Iran. At the beginning the US regime had been claiming it wanted regime change in Iran to “liberate” Iranians. Yet, by Monday, when Trump listed his reasons for starting the war, he didn’t mention regime change at all. Rather, the administration now seems to have settled on claims that the Iran regime was creating a missile program that, somehow, endangers the United States.}:
Yet, virtually no one believes that the Iranian regime has ever had long-range missiles capable of getting anywhere near US territory. Rather, the only “threat” to the United States is a threat to US bases which the US government has insisted on building 10,000 miles from US territory, and which have nothing to do with the safety of Americans in the United States.}:
On Monday, Rubio said that the United States began the war because the State of Israel planned to attack Iran, and that this would lead to Iranian reprisals against US bases. Rubio was essentially stating that Tel Aviv forced the US into the war. Trump today directly contradicted his Secretary of State—as well as the GOP Speaker of the House and GOP Senator Tom Cotton—and claimed “I might’ve forced their hand.”
Completely absent from all these confused and retroactive attempts to justify the war is any mention of the American people, their tax dollars, their freedoms, or even their alleged representatives in Congress. Nor is this surprising. The current war is a timely reminder that the US ruling elites regard the US taxpayers and ordinary Americans as little more than inconvenient afterthoughts in the formation of US foreign policy. At the same time, the US regime also claims to have the moral high ground precisely because the American regime is supposedly “democratic” with the support of “the people.”
Indeed, the Trump administration overall has helped make it abundantly clear that US elections and public opinion are almost completely irrelevant to the foreign policy. Throughout his campaigns, Donald Trump repeatedly claimed to be the peace candidate, announcing in his speeches that he would end wars, rather than start them. In the days before the 2024 election, the GOP posted this image in social media, clearly presenting the Trump administration as “the pro-peace ticket”:
Yet, less than a year into his second term, Donald Trump’s foreign policy looks largely indistinguishable from that of the foreign policy of Barack Obama or Joe Biden. Indeed, if the current war drags on, we’ll be able to say Trump’s foreign policy is reminiscent of the George W. Bush administration.
It was clear during the campaign that the Trump ticket was trying to take advantage of public sentiment which favored less US involvement in foreign wars. With American foreign policy, however, elections don’t matter. This was recently emphasized by the bumbling US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, in a recent interview with Tucker Carlson. Carlson began with a simple question for Huckabee:
Carlson: How much does it matter what Americans think?
Huckabee: Well, it matters every bit what Americans think.
[Huckabee is a delusional liar. - JRD]
Carlson then points out that about 21% of Americans support war with Iran. He asks Huckabee if that’s enough for the US regime to start a war with Iran. Huckabee states “We don’t live in a world where you have a poll taken to find out whether our policy should be in a particular direction...”
Carlson then points out that Huckabee had just said public opinion matters a lot and Huckabee says “we care deeply about it...”
[Huckabee is a liar. - JRD]
Carlson: “If we’re ignoring it, in what sense to we ‘care deeply about it?’”
Huckabee then offers a non sequitur: “I think we care deeply when we see there’s a threat.” Huckabee then continued with more word salad in a desperate attempt to make a connection between public opinion and his preferred policy of repeatedly starting elective wars with Middle Eastern regimes that are no threat to the US population.
[Huckabee, the Ambassador to Israel, is a former pastor who does NOT understand the Bible and is puts Israel first and American somewhere below. - JRD]
The reality, of course, is closer to Rubio’s explanation for the US’s involvement in the war: following the lead of the State of Israel.
This is apparently fine with Ambassador Huckabee, of course, who in his Carlson interview, was asked if Huckabee thinks the State of Israel has a “right” to take over most of the Middle East. Carslon stated: ”Does Israel have the right to that land?” Huckabee responded ”It would be fine if they took it all.”
And what if most Americans don’t share this opinion? Clearly, the US regime doesn’t care, and neither does Huckabee, or Donald Trump.
In spite of all the US regime’s posturing about “the will of the people” and “representation” in Congress, what really matters in Washington is serving powerful interest groups. The taxpaying public simply exists as a resource to be bled dry in favor of wars, protectionism, and federal spending which serves the ruling elite’s complex system of patrons and clients that keeps the elite in power.
When it comes to US foreign policy in the middle east, the dominant interest group is the State of Israel. This is executed through the American-Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC) and other elements of what foreign-policy scholars John Mearsheimer and Stephen walt call “the Israel lobby.” When Mearsheimer and Walt released their book The Israel Lobby in 2007, they were predictably accused of anti-semitism. Yet, the book was ahead of its time in describing how pro-Israel interest groups have been extremely successful in gaining financial, military, and strategic favors for Israel from US policymakers. It has all been done at the expense of American taxpayers. The result has been an American foreign policy elite that overwhelmingly favors incessant foreign intervention to favor a foreign state—the State of Israel—regardless of any concern for the cost borne by Americans or the potential for drawing the US into broader conflicts that do not in any way increase the security of the United States.
In 2007, The Israel Lobby seemed controversial to many. In 2026, it is merely a statement of the obvious—that US foreign policy is tailored to favor certain interest group, rather than the interests of ordinary voters. This, however, is how all interest group politics works. The voting public doesn’t matter, and it hasn’t mattered for a long time.
This is shown in empirical studies that have tried to find a connection between public opinion and actual policies favored in Washington. The connection is tenuous at best.
For example, in a 2014 study by Martin Gilens and Benajmin Page, the authors note that when it comes to “impacts on U.S. government policy ... average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.” Gilens and Page note that “the preferences of economic elites ... have far more independent impact upon policy change than the preferences of average citizens do.”
This can be seen in Trump’s own fundraising given how one of his biggest donors, billionaire Miriam Adelson, is notable for an extreme pro-Israel position. This is, not surprisingly, reflected in Trump’s foreign policy.
The final conclusions of Gilens and Page are clear:
In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule—at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it.
Perhaps no group of “economic elites” is more influential in foreign policy than those who control campaign funds distributed through pro-Israel interest groups like AIPAC, or through the spending of wealthy individuals like Adelson.
Other studies have come to similar conclusions. For example, in a 2017 paper on voter preferences, John Matsusake concluded that legislator preferences don’t correlate with voter preferences:
[W]hen legislator preferences differed from district opinion on an issue, legislators voted congruent with district opinion only 29 percent of the time. The data do not show a reliable connection between congruence and competitive election, term limits, campaign contributions, or media attention. The evidence is most consistent with the assumption of a citizen-candidate model that legislators vote their own preferences.
There is, of course, no such thing as a “district opinion,” but the general idea is clear enough: if a legislator’s campaign war chest depends on pleasing a specific interest group, then the preferences of the voters don’t really matter.
Similarly, in a 2016 study from Michael Barber, he writes on how votes in the US Senate bear little relation to public opinion: “[S]enators’ preferences diverge dramatically from the preference of the average voter in their state. The degree of divergence is nearly as large as if voters were randomly assigned to a senator.”
So, if policymakers are largely independent of the voters who the policymakers ostensibly “represent,” then what determines federal policy?
The current war is just the latest reminder that pluralism is wrong and elite theory is right. There is no “we the people.” There is no “representative democracy.” And, when it comes to the big stuff like war, federal spending, and the central bank, elections don’t matter. It’s why, no matter who gets elected, US foreign policy proceeds more or less as usual, year after year after year.
This is why it doesn’t matter that only about one in four Americans is interested in being on the hook for yet another Middle Eastern war with no apparent benefits for any average American. This is why the administration continues to engage in shifting claims about the origins of this conflict. The administration knows that claims about Iran being a threat to the American people are not tenable, and are on the same level as claims about Iraqi WMDs. Nor can the regime just come right out at say “our pro-Israel funders told us to fight Iran.” So, we have Rubio telling us the war was a “preemptive strike” against the potential blowback from US-funded Israeli strikes on Iran. This explanation is already falling apart, which is why Trump now denies it.
In the end, the regime doesn’t even really need to come up with a plausible explanation. The political fallout will settle largely on the current administration, and this will have little effect on the real governing elite which remains in control regardless which party is ostensibly “in power.”
Open link
SEE:
Why Parts of MAGA Feel ABANDONED After Trump Goes to War with Iran, with Marjorie Taylor Greene
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OMG AN 3 26
Political scientist Austin Sarat on Wednesday warned that Donald Trump's Justice Department is making a "virtually unprecedented" demand on behalf of MAGA activist Steve Bannon that would effectively "rewrite the past" and further encourage supporters to break the law on his behalf.
Writing in a piece for The Hill this week, Sarat, a professor of political science at Amherst College, highlighted an extremely unorthodox legal request submitted by the DOJ last month, asking a federal judge to dismiss the contempt of Congress indictment leveled against Bannon over four years ago. This would, in turn, essentially vacate his conviction on that same charge.
Bannon, a former adviser to Trump and outspoken proponent of the MAGA agenda, was initially indicted by Congress in late 2021 for refusing to answer a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol. By the summer of 2022, he was convicted and sentenced to serve four months in prison and pay a $6,500 fine. Despite years' worth of appeal efforts, all the way up to the Supreme Court, Bannon ultimately ended up serving his time from July to October 2024 at a federal prison in Connecticut.
While the DOJ's new request on Bannon's behalf might fly under the radar for many as another in a long line of efforts by Trump to reward his loyalists, Sarat argued that this effort to dismiss a conviction after the prison sentence has been completed is "unprecedented" and would represent a new escalation in Trump's efforts to incentivize loyalty towards him at all costs.
"To dismiss an indictment after a prison sentence has already been served is virtually unprecedented and shows the lengths to which the administration will go to whitewash history and rewrite the past," Sarat wrote. "The judge, Trump appointee Carl Nichols, would be well advised to refuse."
It is not unheard of for prosecutors to ask that indictments or convictions be overturned, though Sarat said it is "extraordinarily rare" for it to happen after a sentence has been completed. Typically, such requests are only made after new evidence of the convict's innocence has been discovered or if there is a clear argument that their constitutional rights were violated.
"Again, none of that applies to Bannon," Sarat wrote.
Trump previously decried Bannon's indictment and conviction, claiming that the attempt to compel his testimony before Congress was a violation of his legally dubious assertions about "executive privilege." In the request from February, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche called the original subpoena "improper" and claimed that the DOJ is attempting to "undo the prior administration’s weaponization of the justice system."
"Bannon had his day in court. He was tried and convicted. He appealed all the way to the Supreme Court and lost before going to prison," Sarat wrote. "The only thing that has changed is that his friends have returned to power. What the Justice Department is doing in the Bannon case is just the latest example of why, as former Secretary of Labor Robert ReichRobert Reich puts it, 'Trump justice is an oxymoron.'"
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klepto expl for policy
3 3 26
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mona+charen+bulwark
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mma context?
In Iran, the most consequential test of the Fox-Trump feedback loop yet
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 03/02/26
President Donald Trump, across both of his terms, has regularly shaped federal policy in response to the propaganda he hears from his sycophants at Fox News. But his decision over the weekend to launch a war of choice against Iran without a clear goal may prove to be the most consequential example of this feedback loop to date.
Trump is deeply immersed in the Fox universe. He famously consumes the network’s content; highlights particular segments that strike his fancy on social media; hires its employees to run his administration; consults its personalities for advice on domestic and foreign policy; and doles out contracts and pardons alike based on what he sees on its airwaves.
And for decades, the Fox stars Trump trusts most have consistently called for military strikes and regime change in Iran.
That campaign took on new urgency when Trump returned to the White House.
Last June, Fox personalities — particularly Trump loyalists Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and Brian Kilmeade — used their programs to urge Trump to follow up on Israeli attacks on Iran by launching strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. They warned that Iran is, as Kilmeade put it, “our enemy,” that it posed an imminent threat to American citizens and that, in Levin’s words, “force” is the “only thing to stop” Iran.
Other MAGA media figures from non-Fox outlets opposed U.S. involvement in the conflict. But the overwhelmingly pro-war Fox coverage — and a White House meeting Levin had with the president — were apparently dispositive.
And after Trump ordered the U.S. military to attack three Iranian nuclear sites, Fox’s war hawks rewarded the president by showering him with praise for what Hannity said would “go down in history as one of the greatest military victories.”
The same pattern appears to be playing out eight months later, albeit on a much larger scale.
A Fox-fueled push for war with Iran
Over the past weeks, as U.S. military forces converged in the Middle East, the same Fox figures again urged Trump to attack. Notably, their argument was noticeably light on defining a goal for U.S. military operations after the bombs began to fall.
Instead, they argued that because Iran could, at some point in the future, pose a threat, Trump should act now while he is empowered to do so — and that the result would be an easy U.S. victory. “I cannot think of any reason not to take this regime out,” Levin argued. The U.S. would “lose credibility forever” without a strike, Kilmeade claimed. For Hannity, “The world is going to be better and safer.”
While some on the network seemed to shy away from the topic, criticism of potential strikes largely took place elsewhere in the MAGA media — outside of the Fox programming the president himself watches.
On Friday, hours before the attack began, the trio made their final pitch.
“I hope the president chooses to go at it,” Kilmeade said Friday morning. “We have been looking at these headlines for 47 years, and we have an opportunity to end it. And this president likes to make history.”
“This president knows right from wrong,” Levin told Hannity that night. “He knows good from evil. He knows that this regime is a death cult. And he knows that there's only really two countries that are prepared and willing to put an end to this.”
“We don't need to put up with their crap,” he concluded, as Hannity nodded along. “It's time to put it to an end.”
They got what they wanted: The U.S. and Israeli militaries began attacking Iranian targets that night. Since then, hundreds of Iranians have reportedly been killed, including Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the Pentagon has reported the first U.S. casualties in the conflict. There is no end currently in sight — the Iranian government remains defiant, while the U.S. is sending more troops to the region.
The propaganda war has an aim. The real one doesn’t.
Trump, meanwhile, has had trouble articulating what he’s trying to accomplish.
He first suggested his aim was regime change when he urged the Iranian people to “take over” the government in his first public statement after the attack, but in interviews since then, he just seems to be riffing. He told The Washington Post he is seeking “freedom for the people” of Iran, but he bemoaned to ABC News that regime figures he expected to take over the country had also been killed in the initial strikes. Trump also stressed to The New York Times that his model was the U.S. attack on Venezuela, where the dictatorial regime remained in place after U.S. forces seized its leader. But he also suggested that the Iranian military could turn over its arms to its public. “They would really surrender to the people, if you think about it,” he explained.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox & Friends host, added to the incoherence of the administration’s message when he said at a Monday morning press conference, “This is not a so-called 'regime change war,' but the regime sure did change.” But the Iranian regime currently remains in place, and according to at least some of his statements, Trump may prefer it that way.
Perhaps the reason there doesn’t seem to be a clear goal for the U.S. bombing of Iran is because the goal, as laid out by Trump’s Fox propagandists, was for the U.S. to bomb Iran. That is the aim the likes of Kilmeade, Hannity, and Levin had in mind, and now that they’ve goaded Trump into following through, they are cheering him on.
“Donald Trump did what nobody else could do for half a century,” Levin marveled on Saturday. “How do you like that? And you know why he did it? Because he loves his country.”
So what happens next in Iran? That’s beyond the remit of Trump’s Fox Cabinet. Instead, they are gearing up for a propaganda war in which they declare Trump a world-historic victor and paint his critics as terrorists and traitors. For them, the details of what happens to the Iranians is for someone else to handle.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like anyone within the official Trump administration has answers either.
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02/28/26
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MMA
You can’t celebrate the First Amendment with Donald Trump
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 03/03/26
The White House Correspondents Association has decided that now is the time to link arms with President Donald Trump. After Trump claimed Monday night on Truth Social that the group had “asked me, very nicely, to be the Honoree” at the annual White House Correspondent’s Dinner, its president, CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang, confirmed in a press release that he had accepted its invitation.*
The White House Correspondent’s Dinner — an annual event in which D.C.’s top journalists rub elbows with the people they cover and an odd array of celebrities — is, at its best, an unseemly affair excused by the conceit, as Jiang put it in her press release, that it is “a dinner that celebrates the First Amendment.” Under past administrations, there was a benefit to have the president attend the event and give a speech in which he would inevitably pay tribute to the freedom of the press.
But as a matter of principle, you can either have a dinner that celebrates the First Amendment or you can have a dinner that features Donald Trump. You can’t have both because the president holds the freedom of the press in contempt and is using the administration to hammer reporters into compliance with his whims — and everyone knows it.
Trump’s White House violated the First Amendment by punishing the AP. The president kicked off his second term by barring Associated Press reporters from the White House press pool and other events because the AP continued referring to the “Gulf of Mexico” instead of adopting Trump’s new “Gulf of America” moniker. When a Trump-appointed judge ordered the AP’s access restored on the grounds that this violated the First Amendment, the White House sidestepped the ruling by eliminating the press pool’s dedicated slot for wire service reporters.
The Pentagon replaced its press corps with Trumpist propagandists. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News propagandist, has overseen the replacement of credible reporters with MAGA shills. After handing the workspaces of national news outlets to right-wing publications and barring unescorted reporters from much of the building, in September the department rolled out stringent new reporting guidelines that nearly every member of the established press corps refused to sign on the grounds that it would make them “stenographers parroting press releases.” They were subsequently replaced by far-right outlets and influencers willing to accept those terms.
At Trump’s behest, the Justice Department targets journalists. Trump ranted about the “fake news” during a March 2025 speech at DOJ headquarters, instructing its employees to “watch for” their “totally illegal” behavior. Attorney General Pam Bondi subsequently rescinded the previous administration’s restrictions protecting journalists from prosecutorial scrutiny. Several journalists, including former CNN host Don Lemon, were arrested in January and charged with federal crimes in connection with their filming of a protest inside a Minnesota church. The same month, the FBI conducted an unprecedented search of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s home, seizing her devices as part of a leak investigation.
Trump has also suggested that Bondi could prosecute critical reporters for “hate speech” on the grounds that “you treat me so unfairly, it’s hate,” and said media pollsters whose surveys show he is unpopular “should be investigated for ELECTION FRAUD.”
The FCC crackdown on free speech. Trump has frequently called for the Federal Communications Commission to rescind the broadcast licenses of ABC, CBS, and NBC in retaliation for coverage he finds unfavorable. While taking those networks off the air is not actually within the FCC’s power, its Trumpy chairman, Brendan Carr, is leveraging its authority to cudgel them into line, leading to the censoring of Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert.
An authoritarian plan for America’s media. Trump emulates the authoritarian policies of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, who dismantled his country’s independent news media by steering critical outlets into the hands of his cronies. CBS News, the social media platform TikTok, and Paramount’s movie studios have already come under the thumb of the pro-Trump billionaires Larry and David Ellison — and CNN, along with HBO and Warner’s movie business, could soon follow after Trump’s threats of regulatory retribution influenced their sale.
Trump’s endless lawsuits over journalism he doesn’t like.ABC News and CBS News faced lawsuits from Trump they could have won over coverage he didn’t like, but after Trump’s reelection, their parent companies capitulated and settled them. Trump is currently suing The New York Times and several of its reporters for $15 billion over its coverage of his businesses; The Wall Street Journal, two of its reporters, several related entities, and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, for $10 billion over coverage of Trump’s relationship with notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein; and The Des Moines Register and its pollster, J. Ann Selzer, for publishing poll results that showed Trump trailing in Iowa in October 2024.
Trump is also currently suing the Pulitzer Prize Board for defamation over its 2018 award to the Times and the Post for their reporting on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The WHCA’s Jiang should probably consult with the group’s lawyers before announcing the “awards honoring excellent journalism” she said would be given at the event — if the “wrong” honoree wins, the president attending the dinner to celebrate the First Amendment may respond with a lawsuit.
Trump is well aware that the media establishment is capitulating to his will.
“You know at some point, they give up,” he said of media owners in an interview last year with The Atlantic. “At some point they say, No más, no más.”
Now it’s the WHCA’s turn to surrender.
*Notably, Jiang did not address Trump’s assertion that he would be the dinner’s “Honoree.” That's almost certainly a lie designed to humiliate the press — Trump loves grinding them into the dirt, which is what we should expect from the forthcoming event.
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05/28/25 12:56 PM EDT
12/03/25 10:00 AM EST
09/24/25
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AN 3 26
President Donald Trump has campaigned for the past decade on "America First" and promising "no new wars." The breach of that promise may not be a shock to Trump foes, but to his supporters, a new war is not what they were promised.
Monday's Bulwark chat with Sam Stein and Will Sommer noted the MAGA anger bubbling, particularly after American soldiers were killed. As of Monday morning, a fourth American death was announced.
"There is, I think, a pretty significant voice on the right opposed to the war on day two," Sommer said. "And so, where is this headed? You know, if they're talking about four or five weeks, I think there's going to be more and more of that."
Stein noted that longtime defense contractor Erik Prince, who founded Blackwater, which profited heavily during the Iraq War, spoke to Steve Bannon about the war, saying, "I'm not happy about the whole thing. I don't think it was in America's interest."
It's an unusual comment, given Prince has long been a supporter of war and profited handsomely from it.
"It's going to uncork a significant can of worms and chaos and destruction in Iran now. Who takes over? You still have tens, hundreds of thousands of IRGC people that will be positioning to be number two, to be the next rulers of that country. I don't see how this is in keeping with the president's MAGA commitment. I'm disappointed," Prince continued.
Stein called it "mind-blowing."
Sommer joked it was "Aries, the god of war," weighing in, saying, "You know, I'm not so sure about this one."
He thinks that Prince's trepidation is likely because the billionaire is "heavily involved with the Emiratis and folks like that who are kind of caught in the middle here."
The Bannon wing of the GOP tends to prefer isolationism, and he sees it as a waste of political capital. When asked about it by the New York Post, Trump made it clear, "I don't care about the polling."
"I'm just gonna be frank," Bannon said, "if it's gonna be a hard slog, that was not pitched in the 2024 campaign. It just wasn't. We're going to bleed support."
He was speaking to the hawkish Frank Gaffney, Sommer noted. Gaffney agreed with Bannon.
Sommer also pointed out that during the Monday morning press conference hosted by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, the friendly right-wing content creators were asking the same questions the national media was asking: What's the plan? Hegseth made it clear he wasn't going to talk about it.
They went on to discuss the Charlie Kirk angle of Iran, in which he opposed a war, noting that regime change wasn't easy. That said, Kirk also made the argument "in Trump we trust."
It prompted Sommer to say that MAGA is now trying to turn on a dime to say "trust the plan."
"What's the plan?" wondered Stein.
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AN 3 26
When Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential race, many Republicans hoped he would evolve into more of a traditional conservative. But Trump only doubled down on his MAGA agenda during his first presidency, often clashing with non-MAGA conservatives in his administration. And after returning to the White House following the 2024 election, Trump made a point of surrounding himself with ultra-MAGA loyalists.
In an article published on March 2, Politico's Alexander Burns emphasizes that Trump is "burying" 20th Century norms during his second presidency — from foreign policy to legal precedents.
"With a roar of rockets and bombs, a gasp of international outcry and the death of Iran's supreme leader, President Donald Trump's legacy became clearer than ever," Burns observes. "He is burying the 20th Century: Its villains, its alliances, its political norms and ceasefires. And he is unleashing a future of uncertainty and disruption with no new equilibrium in sight. Across both his terms as president, and in so many different areas of policy and governance and culture, his signal achievements have been acts of demolition."
Burns continues, "His Supreme Court appointees struck down Roe v. Wade, ending the seething political and legal stalemate on abortion rights that governed America since the 1970s. His military interventions in Latin America have brought the Cuban government, one of the last surviving Cold War regimes, to the brink of collapse. His tariffs and trade threats have blown apart the Reagan-Clinton policy consensus on free trade, upending half a century of global commercial arrangements and diplomatic relations. His America First worldview and contempt for Europe's political establishment have increasingly relegated NATO's charter — the 1949 accord forging the globe's most powerful military alliance — to antique status. His acts of corporate favoritism and personal enrichment, and his use of the justice system as a weapon of vengeance, have erased the post-Watergate regime of legal and ethical norms for the presidency."
Former President Joe Biden, according to Burns, tried to "build a bridge to the 20th Century" but was unsuccessful. And in 2026, he writes, Trump is "tearing down old structures and systems without a vision for replacing them." A
"At age 79," Burns writes, "Trump is himself a creation of the age he is now unwinding… The next time the country chooses a replacement for Trump, resurrecting the past won’t even be an option…. For American policymakers and voters, there’s no longer any prospect of mimicking détente with regimes in Iran and Cuba that are unraveling at this very hour…. America's credibility as a trade negotiator and commercial partner is already changed forever; the next president will be unable to restore Bush-era trade relations even if he or she wants to. NATO’s place in the world won’t return to where it was in 1998 just because the next president says the right words about Washington's commitment to its allies."
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OMFG
AN PP 3 26
Several high-ranking federal election officials attended a summit last week at which prominent figures who worked to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election pressed the president to declare a national emergency to take over this year’s midterms.
According to videos, photos and social media posts reviewed by ProPublica, the meeting’s participants included Kurt Olsen, a White House lawyer charged with reinvestigating the 2020 election, and Heather Honey, the Department of Homeland Security official in charge of election integrity. The event was convened by Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, and attended by Cleta Mitchell, who directs the Election Integrity Network, a group that has spread false claims about election fraud and noncitizen voting.
Election experts say that the meeting reflects an intensifying push to persuade Trump to take unprecedented actions to affect the vote in November. Courts have largely blocked his efforts to reshape elections through an executive order, and legislation has stalled in Congress that would mandate strict voter ID requirements across the country.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that activists associated with those at the summit have been circulating a draft of an executive order that would ban mail-in ballots and get rid of voting machines as part of a federal takeover. Peter Ticktin, a lawyer who worked on the executive order and had a client at the summit, told ProPublica these actions were “all part of the same effort.”
The summit followed other meetings and discussions between administration officials and activists — many not previously reported — stretching back to at least last fall, according to emails and recordings obtained by ProPublica. The coordination between those inside and outside the government represents a breakdown of crucial guardrails, experts on U.S. elections said.
“The meeting shows that the same people who tried to overturn the 2020 election have only grown better organized and are now embedded in the machinery of government,” said Brendan Fischer, a director at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan pro-democracy organization. “This creates substantial risk that the administration is laying the groundwork to improperly reshape elections ahead of the midterms or even go against the will of the voters.”
Five of six federal officials who attended the summit didn’t answer questions about the event from ProPublica.
A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said federal officials’ attendance at the gathering shouldn’t be construed as support for a national emergency declaration and that it was “common practice” for staffers to communicate with outside advocates who want to share policy ideas. The official pointed to comments Trump made to PBS News denying he was considering a national emergency or had read the draft executive order. “Any speculation about policies the administration may or may not undertake is just that — speculation,” the official said.
In the past, Trump has expressed an openness to a federal takeover as a way to stem projected Republican losses in November. This month, he said in an interview with conservative podcaster Dan Bongino that Republicans need “to take over” elections and “to nationalize the voting.”
Mitchell did not respond to questions from ProPublica about the summit. A spokesperson for Flynn responded to detailed questions from ProPublica by disparaging experts who expressed concerns, texting, “LOL ‘EXPERTS.’”
The 30-person roundtable discussion on Feb. 19, at an office building in downtown Washington, D.C., was sponsored by the Gold Institute for International Strategy, a conservative think tank. Afterward, activists and government officials dined together, photos reviewed by ProPublica showed.
Flynn, the institute’s chair, told a social media personality why he’d arranged the event.
“I wanted to bring this group together physically, because most of us have met online” while “fighting battles” in swing states from Arizona to Georgia, Flynn said to Tommy Robinson on the gathering’s sidelines. Robinson
of these
. “The overall theme of this event was to make sure that all of us aren’t operating in our own little bubbles.”
Flynn has repeatedly advocated for Trump to declare a national emergency and posted on social media after the event addressing Trump, “We The People want fair elections and we know there is only one office in the land that can make that happen given the current political environment in the United States.”
In addition to Olsen and Honey, four other federal officials from agencies that will shape the upcoming elections attended the event. At least four of the six attended the dinner.
One is Clay Parikh, a special government employee at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence who’s helping Olsen with the 2020 inquiry. A spokesperson at ODNI said Parikh had attended the summit “in his personal capacity.”
Another, Mac Warner, handled election litigation at the Justice Department. A department spokesperson said that Warner had resigned the day after the event and had not received the required approval from agency ethics officials to participate.
The department “remains committed to upholding the integrity of our electoral system and will continue to prioritize efforts to ensure all elections remain free, fair, and transparent,” the spokesperson said in an email.
A third administration official who attended the summit, Marci McCarthy, directs communications for the nation’s cyber defense agency, which oversees the security of elections infrastructure like voting machines.
Kari Lake, whom Trump appointed as senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, was a featured speaker. Lake worked with Olsen and Parikh in her unsuccessful bid to overturn her loss in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election.
Lake said in an email that she “showed up to the event, spoke for about 20 minutes about the overall importance of election integrity, a non-partisan issue that matters to all citizens — both in the United States and abroad. I left without listening to any other speeches.”
“Elections should be free from fraud or any other malfeasance that subverts the will of the people,” she added.
At the meeting, activists presented on ways to transform American elections that would help conservatives, according to social media posts and interviews they gave on conservative media, such as LindellTV, a streaming platform created by the pillow mogul Mike Lindell. They said the group broke down into two camps: those who wanted to pursue a more incremental legal and legislative strategy and those who wanted Trump to declare a national emergency.
Multiple activists left the meeting convinced Trump should do the latter, a step they believe would allow the president to get around the Constitution’s directive that elections should be run by states.
Former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, a prominent funder of efforts to overturn the 2020 election, told LindellTV that Trump has “played nice” so far in not seizing control of American elections. “But at some point,” Byrne said, “he’s got to do something, the muscular thing: declare a national emergency.”
Byrne responded to questions from ProPublica by sending a screenshot of a poll that he said suggested “2/3 of Americans correctly do not trust” voting machines, which the proposed national emergency declaration aims to do away with.
Will Huff, who has advocated for doing away with voting machines, told a conservative vlogger that Olsen, the White House lawyer, and other administration representatives would take the “consensus” from the gathering back to Trump. “It’s got to be a national emergency,” said Huff, the campaign manager for a Republican candidate for Arkansas secretary of state.
In response to questions from ProPublica, Huff said in an email that Olsen and Trump would use their judgment to decide whether to declare a national emergency.
“The President has been briefed on findings of shortcomings in election infrastructure,” Huff wrote. “I believe there are steady hands around the President wanting to ensure that any action taken is, first, constitutional and legal, but also backed by evidence.”
McCarthy, the cybersecurity official, expressed more general solidarity with fellow attendees in a post on social media about the summit. “Grateful for friendships forged through years of standing shoulder-to-shoulder, united by purpose and conviction,” she wrote. “The mission continues… and so does the fellowship.”
Last week’s gathering was the latest in a string of private interactions between conservative election activists and administration officials, according to emails, documents and recordings obtained by ProPublica. Many have involved Mitchell’s Election Integrity Network. Before taking her government post, Honey was a leader in the Election Integrity Network, ProPublica has reported, as was McCarthy.
Previously unreported emails obtained by ProPublica show that just weeks after Honey started at the Department of Homeland Security, she briefed election activists, a Republican secretary of state and another federal official on a conference call arranged by her former boss, Mitchell.
“We are excited to welcome her on our call this morning to hear about her work for election integrity inside DHS,” Mitchell wrote in an email introducing presenters on the call.
Honey didn’t respond to questions from ProPublica about the call. Experts said Honey’s briefing gave her former employer access that likely would have violated ethics rules in place under previous administrations, including the first Trump administration — though not this one.
The prior “ethics guardrails would have prevented some of the revolving door issues we’re seeing between the election denial movement and the government officials,” said Fischer, the Campaign Legal Center director. Those prior rules “were supposed to prevent former employers and clients from receiving privileged access.”
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no lnx
Trump's new hustles demand a day of reckoning
Thom Hartmann March 01, 2026
On Tuesday night in the State of the Union, we watched the most corrupt president (and presidency) in the history of America lie his way through a fascist-friendly speech. He didn’t mention how rich he’s made himself and his kids off the presidency, as he tried to paint in a good light what is, frankly, the most dishonorable, unprincipled, and criminal regime in the history of the free world.
On Tuesday night in the State of the Union, we watched the most corrupt president (and presidency) in the history of America lie his way through a fascist-friendly speech. He didn’t mention how rich he’s made himself and his kids off the presidency, as he tried to paint in a good light what is, frankly, the most dishonorable, unprincipled, and criminal regime in the history of the free world.
Rumors have been flying for years — ever since Rudy Giuliani apparently confessed during Trump’s first term he and Trump were selling pardons for $2 million each and splitting the money — that Trump is at it again, taking what look like bribes for everything from pardons to business deals to regulatory and tariff relief. And the evidence is piling up in ways that are unmistakable.
For example, Judd Legum’s Popular Info news site is reporting that the parent company of crypto.com has made a series of “donations” to Trump’s main SuperPAC, MAGA Inc., amounting to $35 million.
That SuperPAC has already paid tens of millions for Trump’s legal fees, apparently including personal defense lawyers and business deal lawyers, and can hang onto that money to support Trump’s lavish lifestyle once he leaves office.
Shortly after the last donation, as Legum reports:
“25 days later, on February 17, the Trump administration’s Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), intervened on Crypto.com’s behalf in high-stakes lawsuit in federal court.”
But that’s just the tip of this particular iceberg. Crypto.com also runs prediction markets, the slick new way to get around laws regulating gambling, and recently cut a deal with Trump’s media company (which owns and runs his Truth Social site that’s so badly Nazi-infested and whose majority stockholder is Trump himself) to offer prediction market products through Truth Social or the company that owns it.
Then there’s the report from The New York Times that lays out how the United Arab Emirates (UAE) desperately wanted to buy super-high-tech chips from the US to kick-start their move from being a petrostate into becoming the Silicon Valley of the Middle East. The only problem was that they have a military cooperation agreement with China, and the US was concerned that they’d funnel some of the chips to that country.
So, the UAE “invested” $500 million in Trump’s new crypto scheme. As the Times laid out:
“An investment firm tied to the United Arab Emirates purchased nearly half of the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company last year, making the family business partners with the U.A.E. even as President Trump negotiated foreign policy matters with the Middle Eastern nation …“At the same time that the crypto deal came together, the Emirati government secured an agreement with the Trump administration for the export of hundreds of thousands of advanced chips to power A.I. technology.”
Similarly, after Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner backed the Saudi‑UAE blockade of Qatar and defended the crown prince after the Khashoggi killing, the Saudi’s gave Kushner $2 billion to fund his investment firm. No droids in that car!
Not to mention the millions that the Saudi’s gave Trump’s tacky golf motels to put on their LIV Golf Tournaments. Or the millions he makes by forcing the Secret Service to pay to follow him to his golf courses and Mar-a-Lago, along with a regular army of foreign governments and corporations seeking favors, as CREW just exposed.
Or when Ivanka Trump was the “senior White House advisor” as she and her father were managing a trade and tech confrontation with China and that government “gave” her at least 34 Chinese trademarks worth millions.
Immediately thereafter, Trump suddenly reversed course to “save” Chinese telecom giant ZTE and later moved to ease pressure on Huawei via temporary licenses, despite U.S. national‑security warnings. She and her husband reportedly made as much as $640 million during their time exploiting the White House in Trump’s first term.
Trump’s boys are opening Trump-branded hotel/golf deals all over the world in countries that have had contentious relationships with the United States, mostly because of authoritarianism and corruption, with hundreds of millions to billions of dollars flowing into the Trump family’s money bin.
They include: India, Indonesia, Oman, Vietnam, Romania, Bali (Indonesia), Maldives, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Or all other the corrupt “deals” making Trump’s two oldest sons mindbogglingly rich that Liz Dye documents.
And, of course, it works both ways. When Pam Bondi was Florida Attorney General, her office opened an investigation on behalf of Floridians who’d been ripped off by Trump’s scam Trump University. Trump had his fake charity — which was later closed down for fraud — write her campaign an illegal $25,000 check and suddenly the investigation vanished.
And then there’s Trump’s pardon pipeline.
Consider Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire founder of Binance. Zhao pleaded guilty to violating U.S. anti-money-laundering laws, agreed to massive financial penalties, but was thrown into prison nonetheless. Not long after, Trump granted him clemency as Binance worked out a $2 billion stablecoin deal anchored in a Trump entity.
Or take Ross Ulbricht, the Silk Road operator serving a life sentence. Ulbricht ran what was allegedly the world’s largest hub for trading in illegal guns, narcotics, and human trafficking. Nonetheless, Trump gave him a pardon, stunning the legal world.
Other recipients have included well-connected political allies and donors, such as former Las Vegas council member Michele Fiore — convicted of wire fraud — whose sentence was vacated despite a jury verdict, and extremist figures like Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys pardoned after participating in the January 6 insurrection.
Even British billionaire Joe Lewis was pardoned for insider-trading convictions, again showing how Trump’s clemency has disproportionately flowed to the wealthy and well-connected.
None of this should surprise Americans; a jury of his peers found Trump’s little personal corporation guilty of felony tax fraud and fined it over a half-billion dollars (which apparently has yet to be paid). And he was personally convicted of 34 felonies involving falsification of business documents in a successful effort to rig the 2016 election by preventing the public from learning of his relationship with Stormy Daniels.
Since his inauguration just 14 months ago, Trump’s personal wealth has increased by an estimated $4 billion. Not bad for a guy who could have been headed to prison if he hadn’t gotten elected president. After all, both Brazil and South Korea just gave their former presidents long prison terms for trying to pull off what Trump tried to do on Jan. 6, 2021.
This is the most corrupt administration in the history of America, with Trump following Vladimir Putin’s formula for becoming wildly rich step-by-step. And somehow Fox “News” and the rightwing echo chamber never seem to report on any of it…
Thom Hartmann is a New York Times best-selling author and SiriusXM talk show host. His Substack can be found here.
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2 26 sotu trump literally says they are all lunatics
rhet trap [knew pol was silent defiance?] stand up ~ illegal aliens
content clickbait rage ploy
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an 3 26
gingrich sick lang in iran spew // hegs xian natl
Pope Leo 'deeply concerned' about US war in Middle East: 'Assume the moral responsibility'
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AN 3 26
Canada on Monday announced "landmark" new deals with India as it moves away from reliance on the U.S., per a report from The Daily Beast, as Donald Trump continued to alienate allies with his military strikes on Iran.
Per the report, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a major 10-year "strategic energy partnership as well as agreements on technology, critical minerals, space, defense and education." The partnership will also include a free trade deal by the end of the year as both countries, who are ostensibly key allies of the U.S., seek to avoid exposure to Trump's sweeping global tariffs. The deal is intended to generate as much as $50 billion in bilateral trade between Canada and India.
Spurred into action by the unprecedented political and economic hostility from the U.S. during Trump's second term, Canada has been seeking new partnerships with other nations. Carney is scheduled to visit with two other key U.S. allies, Australia and Japan, in the coming days. Speaking about the new deal with India, the Canadian prime minister touted just how much engagement with India has resulted from Trump's aggressive global trade moves, and celebrated the two nations "charting our own course for the future."
"There has been more engagement between the Canadian and Indian governments in the last year than there has been in more than two decades combined," Carney said. "This is not merely the renewal of a relationship, it is the expansion of a valued partnership, with new ambition, focus and foresight. A partnership between two confident countries, charting our own course for the future."
The announcement came three days into Trump's unpopular military operation against Iran, conducted in cooperation with Israel. Polls have recently found that more Americans were opposed to the idea of military action against the Middle Eastern nation than supported it, with allies close to Trump worried that he will turn off his own MAGA base by focusing on foreign conflicts that they have long opposed.
As Canada creates new partnerships overseas, allies have also begun to distance themselves from Trump's operation in Iran. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday said that the country would not be aiding the U.S. in the campaign, stating that his government "does not believe in regime change from the skies." Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said that the U.S. will not be allowed to use military bases in Spain to conduct operations in Iran, with the country's government condemning the strikes.
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AN 2 26
Donald Trump's plan to launch a "coup d'état" against the upcoming midterms is becoming more and more inevitable, according to a new analysis from the New Republic, and while his purported plan can be stopped, time is running out to do so.
In a piece published Friday, The New Republic's editor, Michael Tomasky, said that while early on he struggled to envision what Trump could actually do to try and rig the midterms against Democrats, in light of recent reports, "we’re now beginning to see" what the plan is. Specifically, he cited reports this week that activists close to the White House have been circulating a draft proposal calling for Trump to declare an emergency via executive order and use it to ban mail-in voting and require voter ID, all under the long-debunked pretense that China rigged the 2020 election.
The U.S. intelligence services studied foreign influence in the 2020 election, and in March 2021, the government released an intelligence report concluding that China “considered but did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the US Presidential election.”
"The premise, it almost goes without saying, is a total lie," Tomasky wrote, later adding, "But Trump administration officials—including Attorney General Bill Barr — pushed the China lie aggressively. So it’s very easy for Trump today to invoke China again and lie that the threat of even greater Chinese interference in 2026 demands that he take emergency measures."
Tomasky further noted that this specific effort by Trump would almost certainly be demolished in court, just as his tariff agenda recently was by the Supreme Court. For starters, as Tomasky broke down, the basis for this proposed election security emergency is completely unsubstantiated by any concrete evidence. Secondly, despite what he might claim and his past use of executive orders, he lacks any authority as president to actually impose new rules on elections. Tomasky cited legal expert and Trump critic Norm Eisen, who said that the president has "even less" power over elections.
However, Tomasky warned, lack of authority has never stopped Trump from trying things anyway. The real danger inherent in this emergency plan is that there might not be enough time to stop them before the midterms begin, as the story of Trump's tariff's show.
"Between tariff 'Liberation Day' (April 2, 2025) and the day the Supremes finally ruled against Trump on tariffs (February 20, 2026), more than 10 months passed," Tomasky wrote.
There would, therefore, be nothing to stop Trump from trying these executive orders just weeks before Election Day, giving them enough time to derail voting across multiple states. Failing that plan, he could then take even more drastic measures.
"Trump has no power to 'decree' that voters must present ID or to end mail-in balloting," Tomasky explained. "But that doesn’t mean he can’t at least try both. Under the Insurrection Act or some other dusty statute, he can declare a state of emergency. Then he can decide that said state permits, nay requires, him to take extraordinary measures."
He continued: "On October 5, say, that might mean outlawing early voting. By October 13, it might mean no mail-in voting. By October 29, a reminder that all voters must present ID to vote. And by Sunday, November 1, two days before the election — an announcement that all these 'reasonable' measures have alas failed, and he is now forced, against his will, to postpone the election."
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AN 2 26
'Make an example of this guy': MAGA pundit wants vengeance on De Niro
Actor Robert De Niro keeps criticizing President Donald Trump — and now pro-Trump commentator Bill O’Reilly wants Trump to “make an example” of the two-time Oscar-winning thespian.
In response to De Niro telling MS NOW’s Nicole Wallace that if Trump refuses to leave office after the end of his term “we have to make him leave,” O’Reilly insisted without evidence in his podcast that De Niro was actually threatening the president’s life.
“What do you mean by that?” O’Reilly asked. “He’s elected. Seventy-seven million people voted for him. What’s ‘we got to get rid of him’? Are you talking about impeachment? What are you talking about?”
After saying it is illegal to “knowingly and willfully” threaten the president, O’Reilly urged Trump to “make an example of this guy,” adding De Niro “better have a lawyer” because he believes the Secret Service should interrogate him.
O’Reilly anti-De Niro rant comes mere days after Trump’s own anti-De Niro rant. While criticizing two progressive Democrats who shouted “You have killed Americans!” at him during his State of the Union address, Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Trump lumped them in with De Niro and former talk show host Rosie O’Donnell (another frequent Trump critic).
“When you watch Low IQ Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, as they screamed uncontrollably last night at the very elegant State of the Union, such an important and beautiful event, they had the bulging, bloodshot eyes of crazy people, LUNATICS, mentally deranged and sick who, frankly, look like they should be institutionalized,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. After saying “they are Crooked and Corrupt Politicians” and “we should send them back from where they came — as fast as possible,” he added they “should actually get on a boat with Trump Deranged Robert De Niro, another sick and demented person with, I believe, an extremely Low IQ, who has absolutely no idea what he is doing or saying — some of which is seriously CRIMINAL!”
It is unclear whether O’Reilly was aware of Trump’s previous threat against De Niro’s First Amendment rights when he called for Trump to “make an example of him.”
In his social media post, Trump added “When I watched him break down in tears last night, much like a child would do, I realized that he may be even sicker than Crazy Rosie O’Donnell, who is right now in Ireland trying to figure out how to come back into our beautiful United States.”
He concluded, “The only difference between De Niro and Rosie is that she is probably somewhat smarter than him, which isn’t saying much. The good news is that America is now Bigger, Better, Richer, and Stronger than ever before, and it’s driving them absolutely crazy!”
Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival in France last year, De Niro said that in America “we are fighting like hell for the democracy we once took for granted. That affects all of us here, because art is the crucible that brings people together, like tonight. Art looks for truth. Art embraces diversity. That’s why art is a threat.”
He added, “That’s why we are a threat to autocrats and fascists. America’s philistine president ha[s] had himself appointed head of one of our premier cultural institutions [the Kennedy Center]," he continued while the crowd applauded. "He has cut funding and support to the arts, humanities and education.”
De Niro was similarly scathing toward Trump in 2023, telling The Guardian that he channeled Trump’s character when playing William Hale, the real-life early 20th century Oklahoma crime boss convicted of cattle rustling, contract killings and insurance fraud during the Osage Indian murders. De Niro depicted Hale in director Martin Scorsese’s award-winning epic film, “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
The Guardian wrote that "at a press conference earlier in the day, De Niro had suggested that Hale's kind of immorality – his entitlement and greed, his racism, his disregard for anyone outside his own bloodline, all of it wrapped up in a kindly aspect – is easy to spot in contemporary politics, in what was a not-so-veiled swing at Trump and a broader swipe at members of the Republican party, accessories to the chaos."
When it comes to the question of whether the First Amendment protects speech that could be construed loosely as threatening to the president, the Supreme Court settled that matter in the 2015 Supreme Court case Elonis v. United States,which revolved around the 2007 Whitest Kids U Know sketch “It’s Illegal to Say…” In that sketch comedian Trevor Moore repeatedly said “I want to kill the President of the United States of America” in various forms before then explaining for the audience that those phrasings were all illegal. After a man named Anthony Douglas Elonis repurposed the sketch to target his wife, the constitutionality of even implying a threat regardless of the context appeared before the Supreme Court, which reversed Elonis’ conviction by 8-to-1.
“As far as making a big splash, I don’t think you can beat going to the Supreme Court,” Moore told Salon about the case in 2020.
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AN 2 26
President Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union was replete with Christian nationalist rhetoric that “weaponized” religion, according to a First Amendment journalist.
“To some religious studies experts and advocates of the separation of church and state, the language used in Trump's Feb. 24 speech and his administration more broadly is different” than that employed by previous openly-religious presidents such as Abraham Lincoln, Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush, wrote USA Today First Amendment reporter BrieAnna J. Frank.
Frank cited specific examples of this rhetoric including “In Charlie's [Charlie Kirk] memory, we must all come together to reaffirm that America is one nation under God” and “when God needs a nation to work his miracles, he knows exactly who to ask,” as well as saying “destiny is written by the hand of Providence.”
"Such sentiments resemble “an updated version of manifest destiny,” the Freedom From Religion Foundation argued in a public statement on X. They were joined by Rev. Paul Raushenbush of Interfaith Alliance, who told USA Today that the Trump administration is “the most hostile to religious freedom in generations” and has “weaponized religion for their white Christian nationalist crusade.”
Frank further reported that only 3 in 10 Americans are adherents of or sympathetic to Christian nationalism, based on a survey published in February by the Public Religion Research Institute. The Public Religion Research Institute's study also discovered that two-thirds of Christian nationalists and over one-half of sympathizers believe “immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background.” Because Christian nationalists believe America should be a white and Christian nation, Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric included “smaller, more subtle” nods to their ideology. For example, this is the case when he described Somali-Americans as coming from “parts of the world where bribery, corruption and lawlessness are the norm.”
He added, "Importing these cultures through unrestricted immigration and open borders brings these problems right here to the USA and it's the American people who pay the price.”
Trump’s State of the Union message was notable for many other reasons. Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) was escorted from the chamber for holding a sign declaring that “Black People Aren’t Apes.” Trump falsely claimed that other countries are happy about his tariffs and that they could potentially replace income taxes. At one point Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) called Trump a “murderer” to his face. On another occasion, Trump claimed without evidence that Democrats cheat in elections. He also had a stare down with Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) while trying to trick Democrats into standing in support of his policies.
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AN 2 26
Donald Trump's stubborn insistence against the Supreme Court's recent tariff ruling shows that he has "slipped his constitutional leash," and is driving the U.S. towards a new "civil war," according to a scathing new analysis from a conservative journalist.
Ambrose Evan-Pritchard is the international business editor for the British newspaper, The Daily Telegraph. This week, he published a new op-ed examining Trump's moves to denigrate the Supreme Court and use other tariff authorities to "pick the pockets of the people by new means."
Last week, the Court voted 6-3 that Trump's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping global tariffs without congressional approval was illegal, effectively shutting down his most prized economic and foreign policy tool. Instead of taking the rare defeat from the conservative-majority court with grace, Trump lashed out at the justices and moved forward with using Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act as a limited alternative to keep some tariffs in place.
In his piece on the matter, Evans-Pritchard hailed the "thunderous" ruling as "the most consequential assertion of Supreme Court authority since the Dred Scott case of 1857 on the eve of the American Civil War," for its affirmation of the separation of powers between the branches of government and the limits of the presidency that the Founding Fathers envisioned. Trump's reaction, he argued, sees the country hurtling "towards a full-blown constitutional crisis" and decaying from a democracy into a form of "elective despotism."
"But this welcome return to civic spirit resolves nothing because Trump refuses to accept the verdict," Evans-Pritchard wrote. "His behavior pushes this simmering constitutional showdown into the open and takes it to a more dangerous level."
He later added: "[The] larger story is that the president has entirely slipped his constitutional leash, accepts no constraint of any kind and will drain US democracy of its substance unless stopped by greater political force – leaving aside the other little matter that he is deploying carrier strike groups around the world with escalating hubris and as if they are his own personal toys."
Evans-Pritchard further argued that Trump's actions with tariffs directly echoed those of British monarchs, who fomented both the English Revolution and the American Revolution. He also noted that European powers will inevitably need to take economic action to try and exert pressure "as Trump pushes America closer to political civil war." The real deterrent for this, he argued, will have to come from the Supreme Court and Congress continuing to stand up to Trump.
"The giant question hanging over America is whether the Supreme Court will remain courageously high-minded as fresh cases arise or whether it will bow to intimidation and let Trump pick the pockets of the people by new means," Evans-Pritchard wrote. "The justices have no artillery. They cannot stand up to the White House without the backing of Congress. The Republicans on Capitol Hill now face their test of character. Are they really so tribal, so drunk with ideology and so far gone that they will collude in the degradation of American democracy for the sake of this rogue presidency?"
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an 2 26
Legal and voting rights experts are sounding the alarm after a Washington Post bombshell report revealed that President Donald Trump — who has been insisting on federalizing voting and has issued an executive order to pressure states to require proof of citizenship for voter registration — is now being urged by activists to sign an executive order declaring a voting "emergency."
The proposed 17-page order would "unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting,” the Post reported, noting that the proposal "claims China interfered in the 2020 election" which would be the "basis to declare a national emergency."
Former Trump national security official Miles Taylor warned that the "biggest electoral crime in American history might be unfolding."
"The president cannot seize control of state-run elections by declaring a fake 'emergency.' There’s no statute that permits it," wrote Fair Fight Action communications director Max Flugrath. "Reviving debunked conspiracy theories to force changes before a major election is what politicians do when they believe they’re going to lose."
Flugrath added that the Post's reporting follows up on an October New York Times investigation which found "that Trump officials discussed a fake 'national emergency' to force new election rules on states. A DHS official said it could allow Trump to 'go around Congress' and take over elections."
“What a gift such a clearly unconstitutional executive order would be!" election security expert David Becker told CBS News' Scott MacFarlane. "Though divorced from legal and factual reality, it would enable the courts to invalidate this power grab well in advance of the election, and confirm the clear limits to fed'l interference in elections."
Prominent elections attorney Marc Elias wrote, "My team and I have been anticipating this for months. It is unconstitutional and illegal. The media should note: Last time he issued an EO about voting, we sued and won. If Trump issues such an order we will sue again and we will win again."
"Far right voices in Colorado," journalist Kyle Clark noted, "have long called for this step as a prelude to military tribunals and mass executions."
U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) said, that there is "no national emergency exception" to Article 1, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution.
"States regulate elections unless Congress passes law," he added, stating that is why Trump "desperately" wants to pass the SAVE Act, "to suppress voting."
The NAACP called the proposed executive order a "dangerous proposal," and "a direct assault on our democracy."
Former WBZ-TV anchor Liam Martin commented, "I tend to think even this SCOTUS would block an attempt to federalize elections. But what Trump and his team are doing is setting the stage to declare the midterms void and refuse to seat the new members. What do we do then?"
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he keeps freezing money to blue states
AN 2 26
Another state agency is smelling weakness after President Donald Trump’s humiliating court loss over frozen funds, reports the Gothamist.
Earlier this month, a Manhattan federal judge ruled the Trump administration must release funding for an expensive road infrastructure project connecting New York and New Jersey, after Trump tried to use the funding to pressure the states to put his name on major travel centers.
Now, mere weeks after Judge Jeannette Vargas ordered the Trump administration to “unfreeze” the funding and NY AG Letitia James ordered him to be quick about it, another New York agency is threatening a lawsuit over yet another of Trump’s funding freezes.
This freeze involves a suit to release money for crucial subway construction if Trump doesn’t hand it over by March 6.
“If we don't have the resumption of reimbursements … We're going to have to actually follow our friends in the Gateway program and pursue a solution through the federal court, through the court process,” MTA Chair Janno Lieber said during a Wednesday board meeting.
In August, The Gothamist reports New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved a nearly $2 billion contract to complete most of the work for the project. Over the next year, MTA officials plan to issue two more contracts to complete the work, but Trump and his lieutenants are holding up that money for reasons similar to the unconnected project for which Judge Vargas dinged Trump.
Roughly a year into Trump’s second term, U.S. judges are beginning to turn on the president. Trump’s war on illegal searches and seizures of journalists took a blow in court this week after a judge blocked the Justice Department from conducting further action in the "outrageous" seizure of a journalist's phone. That judge also accused the administration of misleading him about the law to get the original warrant.
Another U.S. District judge invoked anti-totalitarian author George Orwell to rebuke the Trump administration’s removal of items recognizing the history of slavery in the United States from a Philadelphia exhibit.
In addition to countless little cuts, judges are delivering to Trump, his own conservative Supreme Court handed him a devastating blow over the illegality of his unilateral tariffs under emergency orders.
These many decisions appear to be emboldening Trump’s perceived enemies into further legal action.
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an 2 26
Donald Trump and his MAGA allies repeatedly make claims that abuse basic math and break from reality, according to one mathematician and Harvard, who wrote on Thursday that the administration's lofty claims shatter both truth and "mathematical possibility."
Aubrey Clayton is a PhD mathematician who teaches subjects like probability, statistics and philosophy at Harvard University. Writing in an op-ed for the New York Times, he called out Trump and his allies for their use of numbers and statistics, which he claimed were divorced from reality and used only to make their arguments sound bigger.
As a prime example, Clayton cited Trump's oft-repeated claims about how much he has brought down prescription drug prices. While the reality of those price drops is debatable on their own, the president has claimed multiple times to have them down by percentages well over 100. Most recently, he claimed a 600 percent drop during his State of the Union address. As Clayton pointed out, since a 100 percent drop in price would make the drugs free, Trump's claims "would require a pharmaceutical company to pay you five times over to take a medication."
"From the perspective of a math educator, this is not a minor abuse of statistics but a failure of epistemic responsibility, one that undermines the possibility of public reasoning itself," Clayton wrote, later adding that these claims were meant to "short-circuit" public debate about his policies.
Clayton further highlighted Attorney General Pam Bondi's claim that Trump's anti-fentanyl policies had "saved 119 million American lives (later revised to 258 million)," a number only matched by the deadliest plagues in human history. He contested Trump's claim that his tariffs had created $18 trillion in new investments for the U.S., "which would represent a rate of economic growth that dwarfed even the greatest periods of post-World War II expansion." He also noted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's claim that the agency could deport up to 100 million people, despite that being roughly double the actual number of immigrants in the U.S.
"Elementary number sense and some understanding of the world reveal that these numbers are grossly out of scale," Clayton argued, later adding, "These numbers go beyond plausibly being true to being inconsistent with known mathematical axioms and definitions."
Clayton concluded his arguments by suggesting that Trump's use of "absurd" statistical claims shows his disdain for the intelligence of Americans, since he does not expect them to be smart enough to debunk them.
"We can and must hold our political leaders to a higher standard," he wrote. "When officials use absurd numbers, it shows that they believe that Americans are incapable of critiquing them."
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'Extraordinary Presidential Power': Trump Is Urged to Declare Emergency Over Voting
Trump, who has insisted on federalizing voting and who issued an executive order last March to pressure states to require proof of citizenship to register voters, is reportedly now being urged to declare an emergency over voting.
“Pro-Trump activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that claims China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to declare a national emergency that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting,” The Washington Post reported in an exclusive.
“President Donald Trump has repeatedly previewed a plan to mandate voter ID and ban mail ballots in November’s midterm elections, and the activists expect their draft will figure into Trump’s promised executive order on the issue.”
According to Florida lawyer Peter Ticktin, who is advocating for a presidential order on voting, “we have a situation where the president is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes.”
“That causes a national emergency where the president has to be able to deal with it,” Ticktin told the Post.
Claiming there is an emergency would allow the president to ban voting by mail and voting machines “as the vectors of foreign interference, Ticktin argued.”
Trump has repeatedly urged Republicans to pass the SAVE Act, which critics say could disenfranchise millions of American citizens who do not currently have a passport or access to their birth certificates. It could also disenfranchise people who have married and changed their names but did not do so on all their legal documents.
“Trump has said that if the bill fails, he will act unilaterally to impose the changes for the midterms,” the Post reported.
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an 2 26
Melania Trump will preside over the United Nations Security Council next week — a decision igniting backlash before it begins.
“First Lady Melania Trump is set to make history at the United Nations, taking the gavel as the United States assumes the Security Council Presidency to emphasize education’s role in advancing tolerance and world peace,” a press release from the Office of the First Lady reads.
“Mrs. Trump’s leadership will mark the first time a sitting U.S. First Lady presides over the Security Council as members consider education, technology, peace, and security.”
An opinion piece at The New Republic says, “While the first lady has shown an interest in children’s welfare, particularly in Russia’s war on Ukraine, it’s hard to imagine her address as any more than a symbolic gesture that will look good in a social media post.”
READ MORE: ‘Extraordinary Presidential Power’: Trump Is Urged to Declare Emergency Over Voting
U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, wrote: We are thrilled to have @Flotus gavel in the US Presidency of the Security Council.”
Critics online are blasting the decision.
“Just when you thought they couldn’t disrespect professional, career U.S. diplomats, American diplomacy or international organizations more- they produce this grotesque theatre of the absurd,” wrote former U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica, Luis Moreno.
Associate professor of History Thomas Småberg commented, “I’m a social network scholar with a focus on the Middle Ages and Trump’s uses of family, friends and followers is straight out of medieval aristocracy. It’s so interesting to [see] his abuse of presidential power and his disregard for Republicans.”
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Fox & Friends really does not want viewers to understand that Trump’s tariffs are taxes paid by Americans
Donald Trump illegally raised your taxes. Fox would rather not talk about it.
Written by Craig Harrington
Published 02/25/26
For the second time in a week, a Fox News personality went to bat to protect President Donald Trump from the fallout of the Supreme Court overturning his unpopular tariff policies, falsely reassuring viewers that they are not paying for Trump’s import tax scheme.
During two February 25 segments of Fox & Friends, co-host Lawrence Jones responded to criticism of Trump’s tariff policies by repeatedly (and falsely) telling viewers that the president’s critics were lying when saying his tariffs had cost American families money over the past year. His comments followed a segment last week wherein Fox host Harris Faulkner had wondered aloud whether foreign countries would seek refunds for tariffs they paid to the U.S. — before she was informed that tariffs are taxes paid by American consumers, not foreign exporters.
During today’s Fox & Friends segment, the hosts aired a portion of newly inaugurated Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s
to Trump’s State of the Union speech where she said that “everyday Americans are paying the price” of Trump’s tariffs and described his latest tariff proposal “another massive tax hike on you and your family.” Jones scolded Spanberger: “Just to be clear, what she said is 100% false,” claiming that “there has been zero inflation based on the tariffs” and that “you cannot say that it caused inflation on the American people.”
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From the February 25, 2026, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
Later, Jones returned to the topic during a segment with pollsters Kellyanne Conway and Mark Penn, discussing a portion of Spanberger’s rebuttal when the governor noted that Trump’s “reckless trade policies have forced American families to pay more than $1,700 each in tariff costs.” Jones responded that Spanberger's statement was “not true” and again added that tariffs had not been inflationary. Conway was even more direct, simply claiming, “Those are lies.”
Jones wrapped up his performative outrage by acting aghast that Spanberger would claim tariffs cost American families money. “To say it was inflationary, that it's costing you more money, the data doesn't support that, yet she told the people that,” he said.
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From the February 25, 2026, edition of Fox NewsFox & Friends
Americans are absolutely paying the cost of Trump’s tariffs.
As economists and experts have repeatedly explained, foreign countries do not pay tariffs. Tariffs are import taxes paid by American consumers.
Trump massively increased tariff receipts compared to 2024, raising a record-breaking amount of tariff revenue in his first year in office. The money had to come from somewhere.
And last November, The Budget Lab at Yale estimated that Trump's tariff policies had at that point cost the average American family roughly $1,700. An analysis by the Joint Economic Committee's minority staff released just last week estimated that “American consumers overall paid more than $231 billion in tariff costs between February 2025 and January 2026, an average of roughly $1,745 per family.”
Far from misleading viewers with her speech, Spanberger actually did Trump a favor by rounding the cost of his tariffs down.
And this isn’t just a question about whether or not tariffs are generally inflationary (they are) or whether Trump’s tariffs have shown up in consumer prices (they have). This is about real costs that have been passed along to actual Americans as a result of Donald Trump illegally raising their taxes.
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The North Koreans do a more nuanced show than Sean Hannity’s take on Trump’s State of the Union
The Fox host raved about Trump’s “iconic,” “uplifting,” “patriotic,” “glowing,” “powerful,” “very unique” speech
Written by Matt Gertz
Published 02/25/26
The Wall Street Journal published a report from Korea Bureau Chief Timothy W. Martin early Wednesday morning detailing how the “unbridled flattery” North Korean state media provides Kim Jong Un “underscores the dictator’s need to establish cult-of-personality supremacy as a smokescreen for his nation’s woes.”
That also happens to serve as a handy description of the role performed by the Journal’s corporate cousins at Fox News, the propaganda outlet whose servile treatment of President Donald Trump helps the deeply and increasingly unpopular American leader rally his core supporters.
Martin wrote that Kim had received “lavish praise in the regime’s largest newspaper” for a meaningless accomplishment, citing an editorial which called the dictator “the greatest person in the world,” praised his “unimaginable achievements,” and stated, “Our future is infinitely bright and promising!”
Such language, while overwrought, frankly pales in comparison to the unabashed sycophancy Fox star and Trumpist operative Sean Hannity provided in response to Trump’s State of the Union on Tuesday. His coverage was with that of his fellow Fox propagandists, but serves as an instructive window into how the network works to “establish cult-of-personality supremacy,” as Martin put it in the North Korean context.
Hannity launched his post-speech show by declaring that “moments ago, President Trump wrapped up yet another iconic, uplifting, patriotic State of the Union,” and devoted the rest of his broadcast to lavishing the president with praise and hosting others to do the same.
In a monologue interspersed with lengthy clips from the president’s speech, the Fox host said Trump had “championed our country and the achievements of you, the American people.”
“Now clearly tonight was not about the Democratic Party, in fact it wasn’t about either party,” Hannity claimed of a speech in which Trump called Democrats “sick” and “crazy” and accused them of “destroying our country.”
“Instead,” the host continued, “President Trump delivered a glowing speech highlighting the triumphs, the struggles, the bravery of so many American people.”
Hannity concluded his monologue by declaring, “Now, under President Trump’s leadership, America's full potential is on lock, and the state of our union, thankfully, is strong.”
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From the Feburary 24, 2026, edition of Fox News' Hannity
The Fox host kept laying it on thick during a series of interviews with Republican leaders, who likewise showered the president with accolades.
“Let's go to some observations,” he told House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). “The president said the nation is back, bigger, stronger than ever before, golden age of America, that he inherited a nation in crisis, a turnaround for the ages, talked about the border, talked about inflation, talked about interest rates, talked about gas prices, talk about mortgage rates, talked about safety and security around the globe.”
“This was not your typical laundry list that you often get at a State of the Union. This was deep, impactful, profound success stories and he took the time to tell all of them in a very different manner,” he continued. “I thought it was very unique tonight.”
Johnson replied, “I thought it was unique. I think it was the best State of the Union speech I’ve seen.”
“What made tonight so powerful is he did everything he said he was going to do and then some,” Hannity later marveled to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH). “A lot of politicians use words, he’s actions.”
Like Johnson, Jordan told Hannity that Trump’s “amazing” State of the Union had been “by far the best one” he’d seen.
Hannity closed out his coverage with more fawning over the president’s address from a panel of former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway (“one of Trump's best speeches”), Fox host Trey Gowdy (“it was almost like our 250th birthday party started tonight”), and former Trump White House chief of staff Reince Priebus (“one of the greatest, most triumphant speeches ever given by a president").
Hannity has taken over the role played in Trump’s first term by then-Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, who told viewers that Trump’s White House featured “sunlight beaming throughout the place, and on almost every face” and at one point signed off, “Have a great weekend. The president makes such a thing possible for us all.”
As Fox News President Jay Wallace said of Dobbs at the time, “The North Koreans do a more nuanced show.”
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AN 2 26
Trump’s State of the Union address was full of factual errors, although this is consistent with his lengthy history.
:{:{Among other things, Trump falsely claimed to have secured $18 trillion in investment commitments since assuming office even though that figure is wildly inflated, reported CNN. The news network also found Trump’s claim about gas prices being as low as $1.85 per gallon were untrue; it is nowhere below $2.37 per gallon, even though Trump said he saw a gas station with that price in Iowa.}:
Similarly, Trump lied when he said inflation was at an all-time high when he took office (its Biden-era height of 9.1 percent was far short of the all-time height of 23.7 percent in 1920) and that the economy is “roaring” under his stewardship (it only grew 2.2 percent in 2025, slower than any year of Biden’s presidency).}:
The news network was not alone in fact-checking Trump’s tariffs in real time. The progressive think tank American Bridge 21st Century tweeted during the broadcast that “American families and businesses paid at least 90% of Trump’s tariffs last year. His agenda taxes Americans anyway you slice it.”
:{:{The news network was not alone in fact-checking Trump’s tariffs in real time. The progressive think tank American Bridge 21st Century [tweeted](}:
https://www.alternet.org/trump-fact-check-2675328781/%20%20%E2%80%9CI%20believe%20that%20tariffs%20paid%20for%20by%20foreign%20countries%20will,%20like%20in%20the%20past,%20substantially%20replace%20the%20modern%20day%20system%20of%20income%20tax,%E2%80%9D%20Trump%20claimed%20during%20a%20key%20moment%20in%20his%20speech,%20prompting%20the%20progressive%20think%20tank%20American%20Bridge%2021st%20Century%20to%20point%20out%20that%20%E2%80%9CAmerican%20families%20and%20businesses%20paid%20at%20least%2090%%20of%20Trump%E2%80%99s%20tariffs%20last%20year.%20His%20agenda%20taxes%20Americans%20anyway%20you%20slice%20it.%E2%80%9D)
during the broadcast that “American families and businesses paid at least 90% of Trump’s tariffs last year. His agenda taxes Americans anyway you slice it.”}:
Others have also called out Trump’s misstatements about inflation. The New York Times responded to Trump’s claim to have had “almost no inflation” that “inflation has slowed under Mr. Trump, but not by the drastic margins he is claiming. And prices are still increasing above the target of 2 percent set by the Federal Reserve." Similarly CNN’s Daniel Dale wrote earlier this month that “inflation is not over; prices continue to rise. Overall prices have gone up, not down. Overall grocery prices have gone up, not down. Iowa’s average gas price is much higher than $1.95. And Democrats have certainly not stopped mentioning affordability; in fact, it remains a key focus of their public remarks.”
“While criticizing the Biden administration’s border policies, Trump repeated his regular claim that the Biden administration allowed 11,888 murderers to enter the US as migrants – saying, ‘They were murderers, 11,888 murderers. They came into our country,’” CNN also reported. “Trump was inaccurately describing federal data. The Department of Homeland Security and independent experts have noted that the figure it appears Trump was referring to when he uses the ‘11,888’ number is about non-citizens who entered the US not just under Biden but over the course of multiple decades, including during Trump’s own first administration.”
CNN added, “They were convicted of homicide at some point, usually in the US after their arrival, and are still in the US while being listed on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s “non-detained docket” – which includes people who are currently serving their prison sentences, not roaming free as Trump has also claimed.”
The network also reported that Trump lied when he claimed foreign countries bear the costs of his tariffs, citing both the Federal Reserve and Congressional Budget Office in reporting that roughly 90 to 95 percent of the tariffs are shouldered by American businesses and consumers. It also pointed out that Trump’s claims of voter fraud being rampant have long ago been thoroughly discredited.
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Fact-checkers catch Trump's 'fantasy' claims in real time - Alternet.org
Trump was fact-checked in real time on Tuesday night when he falsely claimed during his State of the Union address that tariffs could replace the income tax.
“I believe that tariffs paid for by foreign countries will, like in the past, substantially replace the modern day system of income tax,” Trump claimed during a key moment in his speech, prompting the progressive think tank American Bridge 21st Century to point out that “American families and businesses paid at least 90% of Trump’s tariffs last year. His agenda taxes Americans anyway you slice it.”
Others reinforced the think tank’s assertion.
“After a fairly sober opening, Trump is now veering into fantasy, falsely claiming that he ended taxes on Social Security and suggesting that tariffs paid by foreigners will mostly replace the income tax,” Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times posted on X. “All false.”
Quartz’s Joseph Zeballos-Roig further elaborated on the dishonest nature of Trump claiming his tariffs were anywhere close to being ready to replace income taxes.
“Trump is promoting his signature tariffs that the Supreme Court knocked down last week,” Zeballos-Roig posted. “Costco, Fedex, Goodyear among the companies suing for refunds. At least $134 billion in revenue in limbo. Tells Congress he doesn't need them: ‘Congressional action will not be necessary.’”
Citing studies from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and a think tank called the Tax Foundation, CNN’s Daniel Dale tweeted that “US importers, not foreign countries, make the tariff payments to the US government. And study after study, in both of Trump’s presidential terms, found US businesses and consumers are bearing the overwhelming majority of the costs of his tariffs.”
Quoting the Federal Reserve report, Dale pointed out that almost 90 percent of the 2025 tariffs’ economic burden fell on American businesses and consumers. The Tax Foundation, meanwhile, found that “the Trump tariffs amount to an average tax increase per US household of $1,000 in 2025 and $1,300 in 2026.”
Democratic legislators attending Trump’s speech likewise fact-checked the president in real time.
“Tariffs are a national sales tax in disguise; one that punishes the poor, protects the rich, and shifts the cost of government onto the backs of working families,” wrote Rep. Jonathan L. Jackson (D-Ill.) “Trump wants to force poor people to pay down the deficit while the rich buy new jets and spaceships.”
He was not alone in pointing out that Trump is disguising his tariffs as taxes.
“Reminder: Trump’s tariffs are the largest tax hike in history—costing American families an average of $1,745 over the last year,” wrote Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) “His tariffs are a tax. You pay for them.”
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Trump confronted with sign saying 'Black people aren't apes' at State of the Union - Alternet.org
al g taken out; minn brain injury arrested for standing silently DN 2 25 26
omar tlaib
sotu 2 26 an
Donald Trump's "biggest policy announcement" from his State of the Union address was not actually something he signed into law, with reporters noticing that the plan he touted was actually signed by his predecessor and rival, former President Joe Biden.
Trump's address on Tuesday broke his own record for the longest State of the Union address, but various observers noted that it was light on any actual policy announcements. The main "new" policy he touted will allow workers without access to 401K accounts to set up retirement accounts that the federal government can match contributions to, up to $1,000. Trump claimed that this plan, which some reporters likened to "Trump accounts for adults," will offer "access to the same type of retirement plan offered to every federal worker."
Reporters reacting to the address quickly noted that Trump was, in fact, talking about a law signed by Biden in 2022 as part of a major funding bill. Josh Wingrove, a political correspondent for Bloomberg, cited clarification from a "White House official."
"Trump is referring to the Savers Match program under the 2022 Secure 2.0 law, which expands retirement savings plans to millions of working Americans and incentivize [sic] savings with a gov-funded match for eligible workers, per a White House official," Wingrove posted to X. "It provides a path for an annual match of up to $1,000 for low-income workers. 56 million workers will be eligible, per the official."
"Biggest policy announcement of Trump SOTU was actually touting a bipartisan retirement savings law signed by Biden," Erik Wasson, a congressional reporter for Bloomberg, observed in a post to X late Tuesday night.
"Totally forgot about this," Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman wrotein his own post Wednesday morning. "The retirement savings accounts that Trump announced last night were already signed into law by President Joe Biden. It was part of a big funding bill that Congress passed in 2022."
Wingrove later added that the Trump administration is essentially planning to "tweak" this existing law to make participation simpler, and is seeking "philanthropic" funding to cover the costs.
"Trump is looking to basically tweak it -- he has set up a structure for workers who don't have employer plans to more easily participate, per an official. The admin will also seek to allow philanthropic contributions," Wingrove explained in another post to X.
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Trump escalates his corrupt campaign to gift CNN to the Ellisons
02/23/26
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AN 2 26 CAIN?
Trump fumes at 'fake news' after 3 separate reports reveal general’s White House warning IRAN WAR
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'Head scratcher': Trump aides struggle to spend $500 billion more the military asked for
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AN 2 26
Donald Trump is losing support from almost every voting bloc there is as his second term wears on, but according to a new analysis from Thomas Edsall, the richest Americans are sticking by him. These "superrich" donors are now fueling a "Republican financial juggernaut," and they want favors in return.
"Determined to get a piece of the action, the very wealthy are lining up in droves," Edsall wrote in his latest New York Times column. "Despite Trump’s having lost ground in almost every demographic during his second term, one group stands firmly in the president’s camp: the superrich who have their wallets open."
These superrich voters, Edsall explained, are standing by with Trump thanks to his economic policies, which "have reinforced and, in some cases, intensified trends toward the increasing concentration of wealth and income at the highest levels." Citing data from the Federal Reserve, he noted that by the third quarter of last year — months into Trump's second term and right around the time he signed the "One Big Beautiful Bill" — the richest 0.1 percent's share of all the wealth in the U.S. had grown to 14.4 percent, up from 8.6 percent in 1989, while the share for the rest of the richest 1 percent grew to 17.3 from 14.2 percent.
Edsall further broke down how these superrich voters made a striking shift towards overt support for Republicans in the 2024 election. In years prior, the split between donations they made to Republicans and Democrats was closer to even, though the GOP held the edge. Citing data from the Washington Post, Edsall demonstrated just how much they made a rightward shift in 2024.
"Then that pattern abruptly shifted," Edsalld wrote. "Contributions by the very rich to Republicans grew from roughly $300 million in 2022 to just under a billion in 2024, while donations to Democrats fell from roughly $300 million to less than $200 million."
The Post's original report noted that "more than 80 percent of the federal campaign spending by the 100 wealthiest Americans in 2024 went to Republicans." Reporting from OpenSecrets found that one-time Trump ally Elon Musk was the biggest contributor that year, donating nearly $300 million.
By way of contributions to Trump's MAGA Inc. super PAC, the wealthy have continued to flood Trump with more money. The committee currently boasts over $300 million in cash-on-hand, with 90 percent of that amount coming in donations over $1 million. Edsall cited another report from the New York Times earlier this month, which found that the GOP overall has "an unheard-of edge of more than $550 million" over Democrats.
"The wealthy have created what amounts to a Republican financial juggernaut," Edsall wrote.
That level of fundraising around a president like Trump, who has no legal path to running for a third term, seems odd on the surface. However, Edsall observed, these donors are backing Trump in exchange for preferential treatment, including regulatory changes and investments, and favors, such as pardons.
"Evidence of the pervasive corruption is endemic, in the presidential pardons to donors and the well connected, in the regulatory favoritism found at key agencies, in the flow of special interest and foreign investments into the Trump family’s cryptocurrencybusinesses."
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2 20 26 SCOTUS TARIFF
FAM SHD BE ASHAMED RINO --DEMS
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AN 2 26
President Donald Trump is crossing “a dangerous line” by attacking the Supreme Court for overturning his controversial tariffs, according to America’s most distinguished organization of lawyers.
“The recent remarks by the president of the United States, leveling personal criticisms against members of the U.S. Supreme Court, are not acceptable and cross a dangerous line that threatens the safety of the judiciary and our judicial process,” declared American Bar Association (ABA) President Michelle A. Behnke in a statement.
“Vigorous debate over policy is a strength of our democracy, but attacks that demean the judiciary are not,” Behnke added. “Incendiary rhetoric has helped contribute to the alarming increase in attacks on and threats to our judges. It must stop.”
The ABA head is referring to Trump’s criticism of the six Supreme Court justices who ruled against his emergency tariff authority, including two jurists — Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett — that Trump himself appointed. Deriding them as “fools and lapdogs for the RINOs and the radical left Democrats,” Trump said Gorsuch and Barrett are “an embarrassment to their families. You want to know the truth, the two of them.” He also said the liberal justices were loyal to the Democrats, which he admired, but added that he believes they are a “disgrace to our nation.” The president also claimed those judges were motivated by foreign powers, although did not provide evidence for this assertion.
“Personal attacks against individual justices, particularly allegations that they are influenced by ‘foreign interests,’ are wholly inappropriate,” Behnke criticized Trump in that statement. “Such statements risk undermining the rule of law and the public’s faith in an impartial judiciary, foundational pillars of our democracy that have guided our nation since its founding.”
She added, “The men and women of the Supreme Court, regardless of who appointed them, deserve respect for exercising their duty to interpret the Constitution faithfully and independently. The health of our constitutional system depends on maintaining that independence, free from political intimidation or retribution.”
Perhaps anticipating Trump’s lashing out, Gorsuch explained in his opinion that the president’s seeming desire to bypass the legislature to more effectively achieve his policy goals is dangerous to the American system of government.
“Yes, legislating can be hard and take time,” Gorsuch said. “And yes, it can be tempting to bypass Congress when some pressing problem arises. But the deliberative nature of the legislative process was the whole point of its design. Through that process, the nation can tap the combined wisdom of the people’s elected representatives, not just that of one faction or man.”
In addition to the ABA, one of the most prominent Republicans currently holding elected office also criticized Trump for his words about the Supreme Court. Former Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), who told Trump in a statement that "Congress is not an inconvenience to avoid." The conservative publication The Wall Street Journal similarly argued that Trump’s language was “ugly,” adding that “this is the same Court that ruled Mr. Trump’s way on presidential immunity, which was more personally consequential for this President.”
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AN 2 26
President Donald Trump’s sweeping government cuts have cost 62,000 veterans their jobs, according to a budget-oriented think tank — and worse is yet to come.
“The Trump Administration has radically slashed the federal civilian workforce, sidestepping Congress and causing disruptions, slowdowns, and fragility in a range of critical public services that people and communities depend on,” wrote the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on Friday. “Veterans have been affected by these cuts both as members of the federal workforce and as recipients of federal health care and other benefits available to them based on their service.”
The federal government has been a large employer of veterans for many decades, with veterans accounting for roughly 30 percent of all federal employees in recent years. The number of veterans working in the federal government fell by nearly 10 percent between September 2024 and December 2025, resulting in the lowest number of veterans in the federal workforce in over 15 years, according to data no longer available online from the Office of Personnel Management.
“Veterans have felt the impact of the Administration’s chaotic and sweeping personnel policies across the federal government, including at the IRS, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and Department of Education,” the think tank writes. “But it’s at the VA — the federal agency dedicated to running programs and services that benefit veterans and their families, including providing care through nearly 1,400 health care facilities — where the harm to veterans may be most acute.” Trump has eliminated nearly 28,000 VA employees, or roughly 6 percent of the agency’s staff, including more than 2,700 nurses, more than 1,000 medical officers, more than 1,000 psychologists and social workers and more than 1,800 people tasked with evaluating veterans’ claims for benefits.
“Congress needs to continue to crack down on the Administration’s abuse and weaponization of personnel policy and address its unilateral cuts in federal capacity,” the think tank concluded. “Otherwise, the delivery of services and programs that Congress chooses to fund will continue to deteriorate, and everyone, including veterans, will continue to feel the worsening impact.”
The Trump administration has only walked back its past cuts to veterans services when facing intense pressure. On Thursday Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins ended a controversial VA policy that lowered veterans’ disability ratings and subsequent monthly compensation.
“DAV is extremely disappointed and alarmed by VA’s decision to issue an interim final rule today that could potentially reduce disability compensation for millions of disabled veterans,” Coleman Nee, national commander of Disabled American Veterans, said prior to Trump’s reversal.
In addition to rolling back veterans benefits, Trump is also accused of politicizing the military. The Atlantic's Missy Ryan, who has covered 10 defense secretaries, recently wrote that she has never seen anything like Trump Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s political actions, such as trying to penalize veterans such as Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) for their political speech.
"Expanding the military’s ability to control veterans’ speech would be a major and historic reversal of basic freedoms," Ryan wrote. "Retired service members turned public officials have a long history of criticizing Pentagon leaders in ways those leaders might find objectionable."
She added, "If the government prevails, the silencing of longtime service members would be like barring retired doctors from opining on health policy. When debating matters of war and peace, he said, it serves the public to hear from the very people who have served on the front lines — and lived through the consequences."
Gen. Stanley McChrystal (Ret.) recently told The New York Times something similar, arguing that“once lost, the legitimacy of a military that reflects and represents all Americans will be difficult to recover." Meanwhile MS NOW's Steve Benen wrote that Trump's partisan speeches to the military erode “a foundational, bedrock principle of the United States. Partisan, ideological and electoral considerations must be utterly irrelevant to what the military is and how it functions. It is nevertheless a principle for which Trump appears to have no use, creating an untenable dynamic."
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an 2 26
Trump caves on cutting military veterans' treatment after outcry
Adam Lynch
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AN 2 26
Note to the decision-makers at the Gallup Organization,which for nearly 90 years has tracked presidential approval ratings: Capitulation never works.
I learned this the hard way as a teen playing basketball on D.C. playgrounds. I regretted my fecklessness.
Gallup last week admitted it would no longer survey Americans’ sentiments on how the commander in chief was faring, though I couldn’t find news of that major switchon the company’s website.
The organization’s latest presidential barometer,in December, placed Donald Trump’s approval rating at an abysmal 36%. The worst was34%, another honorific Trump earned as he was leaving office at the end of his first term. It was right after the Jan. 6, 2021, siege on the U.S. Capitol.
Yes, other companies conduct surveys nowadays about the presidency. Gallup, though, held a unique place in the industry.
A Gallup spokesman told The New York Times the company was shifting strategy. He also used other corporate-speak that, frankly, doesn’t justify Gallup’s cowardice.
As The Times noted, the polling firm’s decades of data gave “historical context to what amounts to a monthly snapshot of Americans’ views.” The independent barometer has been valuable.
It’s curious the company didn’t make the change under then-President Joe Biden, but is doing so now under a thin-skinned president.
Trump and his administration havetargeted journalists with criminal indictments,filed lawsuits against media outlets and often lied about theactions of violent federal immigration agents – even whenvideo footage andwitness statements proved the contrary.
My questions to Gallup’s media folks, including what role Trump’s attacks on journalists played in the polling decision, weren’t returned by my deadline.
Gallup’s groveling reminds me of when I relinquished my chance to play a playground basketball game – even though I’d earned it – to a guy bigger, stronger, and a little older than me. “I’m taking your spot,” he declared, with a hint of menace.
The shame was I didn’t fight for it, even if I would’ve gotten bloodied. I couldn’t return to that court because no one would respect me. As I got older, I stood up for myself more, no matter whether it made me uncomfortable.
That a private company like Gallup would cave so dramatically to this administration is reprehensible. Why is it acting beholden to officials who disrespect law, precedent and common decency?
The capitulation is a stain on Gallup’s reputation and legacy, and it leaves Americans with less information on how we all feel our top government executive is faring.
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Since returning to the White House almost 13 months ago, President Donald Trump and his allies have been pushing for federal prosecutions of critics and opponents — including former FBI Director James Comey, New York State Attorney General Letitia James and former National Security Adviser John Bolton (who served in the first Trump Administration but is now an outspoken critic of the president).
Other Trump foes who have been targeted by Trump allies in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) include Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) and Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan). In a video posted online in late 2025, Kelly and Slotkin, along with four Democrats serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, urged members of the U.S. Armed Forces to defy Trump if he asks them to do anything that is blatantly illegal.
In an article published by the libertarian Reason on February 18, reporter Jacob Sullum emphasizes that Trump's efforts to use DOJ against his critics is running into legal obstacles — from federal grand juries to judges in the lower federal courts.
"In 2013, several Republican senators questioned President Barack Obama's use of drones to kill suspected terrorists," Sullum explains. "The lawmakers, who included Sens. Rand Paul (R–Ky.), Ted Cruz (R–Texas), Mike Lee (R–Utah), and Marco Rubio (R–Fla.), were especially troubled by the possibility that drones might be deployed against American citizens on U.S. soil, which, they argued, would be clearly unlawful in the absence of an imminent threat. How would Republicans have reacted if Obama, assisted by a Justice Department eager to do his bidding, threatened to arrest and jail those critics? That is how President Donald Trump has responded to Democratic legislators who worry about his potentially illegal use of military power."
Sullum adds, however, that Trump's efforts to use DOJ against Kelly, Slotkin and four other Democrats for their video are hitting "roadblocks."
"Trump called the legislators 'TRAITORS' who had engaged in 'SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR,'" the Reason journalist notes. "But nothing they did came close to meeting the elements of treason or seditious conspiracy…. In this case, a grand jury in Washington, D.C., declined to cooperate with Trump's vendetta. Two days later, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled that the video was 'unquestionably protected' by the First Amendment."
Sullum adds, "Leon was responding to a lawsuit by Sen. Mark Kelly (D–Ariz.), a retired Navy captain whom Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had censured for the video and other public comments that offended him. Hegseth, who equated criticism of him with 'conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline,' sought to punish Kelly, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, by reducing his retirement rank and pension."
Sullum argues that just as GOP Sens. Cruz and Paul were under no obligation to support Obama's policies when he was president, Kelly and other Democratic lawmakers have every right to call out Trump.
"Like the Republican senators who criticized Obama's military policies," Sullum writes, "Kelly and his Democratic colleagues indisputably have a right, as Americans and as legislators charged with overseeing the Pentagon, to speak their minds, even when it irks the president."
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Conservatives, including a former clerk for Republican Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, are attacking President Donald Trump as he sues the government he controls for up to $10 billion… all of which would come out of taxpayers' pockets.
"There is a glaring conflict of interest with Trump being on both sides of the claim," Edward Whelan, a conservative and former lawyer at the Justice Department, told NPR’s Carrie Johnson and Tamara Keith about Trump seeking $230 million over FBI investigations into his ties to Russia and handling of classified documents. "It is outrageous that he and those answering to him would be deciding how the government responds to these extravagant claims."
A White House official admitted to Johnson and Keith on background that “these claims amount to unfinished business for the president.” Meanwhile Rupa Bhattacharyya, a former Justice Department lawyer who specializes in these types of misconduct allegations, said that “some of them are run of the mill, right? Postal vehicles get into traffic accidents, VA doctors have malpractice claims brought against them, people slip and fall in federal buildings." Yet even on those occasions, the most serious cases (such as those involving people who cleaned up after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack) almost never amount to payouts of more than $10 million.
"Two hundred thirty million dollars would be an order of magnitude [23 times] greater than any administrative settlement the Department has ever agreed to in a Federal Tort Claims Act case," Bhattacharyya told NPR.
Like Whelan, Andrew Egger of the center-right publication The Bulwark is among the conservatives criticizing Trump’s attempt to personally pocket billions of taxpayer dollars. Egger pointed out that Trump allowed X CEO Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut billions in foreign aid to impoverished nations, particularly those that provide food and medical relief, on the grounds that this is best left to charity. Yet Trump is now contradicting that rationalization by saying nobody cares if he takes $10 billion from the IRS “if it goes to a good charity.”
Egger also pointed out that Trump was legally proved to have self-dealt in his previous “charitable” contributions, making it dubious that he would not actually keep the money himself.
“Trump had been using his personal charity, it came to light after a lawsuit from the state of New York, to pay his business debts, make political contributions, and buy things for himself,” Egger wrote.
Trump insists that he deserves the money.
"The IRS wrongly allowed a rogue, politically-motivated employee to leak private and confidential information about President Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization to the New York Times, ProPublica and other left-wing news outlets, which was then illegally released to millions of people,” Trump's private legal team said in a statement to NPR. “President Trump continues to hold those who wrong America and Americans accountable." Trump himself has said that “I've gotta make a deal. I negotiate with myself."
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an 2 26
Revealed: Trump already made plans to personally profit off of airport name change
Trump mocked for 'unhinged tantrum' as 'Trump Station' story shifts again - Alternet.org
'Grifter in chief' already set to profit off of Palm Beach airport - Alternet.org
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AN 2 26
President Donald Trump is costing US taxpayers “billions” with his various military ventures, an expert wrote on Tuesday, even though both he and his critics have been strangely silent on the subject.
From his quite real military action in Venezuela to his threatened activities in Colombia, Mexico, Nigeria, Gaza, Iran and Greenland, Trump is repeatedly actually or potentially engaging in multibillion dollar military campaigns all over the globe, according to a report by Bloomberg. For example Operation Southern Sphere in January, during which Trump captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, cost $31 million per day, according to an analysis by the Washington think tank the Center for Strategic & International Studies.
“That comes to more than $11 billion a year if the US maintains its current level there,” reported Bloomberg’s Wes Kosova. If Trump successfully pushes US oil companies to spend $100 billion to rebuild Venezuela’s energy industry, “that means you’re bringing in some kind of occupation,” explained Heidi Peltier, director of programs at Brown University’s Costs of War project. “US taxpayers would be rebuilding the oil industry and paying for a military presence there to stabilize the country and make it a safe enough investment.”
Similarly Trump’s threatened attacks against Iran, which he said would be “far worse” than the B-2 bomber attacks from last year, would cost $8 million daily or $2.9 billion annually.
“That’s on top of the at least $2 billion the US spent on military action against Iran and its proxies in 2025, according to calculations by the Costs of War project,” Bloomberg wrote. “Needless to say, those numbers will climb dramatically if Trump orders further strikes.” And that doesn’t include the cost of Trump’s threatened occupation of Greenland (roughly $700 billion).
“No matter how compelling a president’s argument may be for missile strikes or troop deployments, the current practice of heaping war costs atop the nation’s already staggering pile of debt can last only so long,” Bloomberg reported. “At the start of the Iraq War, US debt held by the public was $3.7 trillion, or 33 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Today it’s more than $30 trillion, equal to 97 percent of GDP.”
Bloomberg is not alone within the business world in looking askance at Trump’s invasion of Venezuela. TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné told reporters that he quit the country in 2022 and Trump’s invasion has not changed that.
"It was too expensive and too polluting," Pouyanné said, "and that is still the case.”
Similarly Exxon CEO Darren Woods has described the Venezuelan market as “uninvestable.” Trump replied by threatening to sideline the Exxon leader by “playing too cute.” Trump’s former National Security Adviser John Bolton also observed in January that oil companies might not feel comfortable investing in Venezuela because of the instability injected by Trump’s policies.
“If I were an oil company executive being pressured by Trump to invest billions of dollars of capital expenditures to revive Venezuela's oil infrastructure, I would want a regime in place committed to the rule of law,” Bolton said.
Overall the economic risk involved in Venezuela stems from the uncertainty baked into the military operation’s future, said one expert.
"Tactically, it was executed with precision," retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling said for the conservative publication The Bulwark. "But the immediate aftermath revealed a strategic uncertainty. Even in the (Trump) Administration's first press briefings, it was unclear who was in charge in Caracas, what authority Washington claimed to exercise, and what political end state the United States was pursuing. That ambiguity has not improved with time."
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Past U.S. presidents, both Democratic and Republican, sounded much different at military gatherings than they did at campaign events. When addressing members of the U.S. Armed Forces, they were careful to avoid the type of overtly partisan comments they typically made during campaign speeches.
But MS NOW's Steve Benen, in an opinion column published on February 16, warns that President Donald Trump is ramping up his push to overtly politicize the military.
"When the Republican meanders his way through partisan red meat when speaking at a political rally," Benen explains, "it's tiresome but predictable. When he delivers the same message to active-duty military personnel, it's a qualitatively different kind of story."
Benen cites specific examples of Trump bringing partisan politics to speeches in military settings.
"The president, speaking at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, seemed especially focused on the state's U.S. Senate race, condemning the leading Democratic candidate, former Gov. Roy Cooper, while touting the likely GOP nominee, former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, who shared the stage with Trump during the on-base political rally," Benen notes. "'You have to vote for us,' Trump told the troops, referring to his party and the 2026 midterm elections. There is no modern precedent for any American president engaging in such radical politicking with active-duty servicemembers, though over the last several months, it's become a more common sight."
The "Rachel Maddow Show" producer continues, "In June, for example, Trump also spoke at Fort Bragg and treated U.S. troops like they were just another MAGA audience, even goading troops to boo Joe Biden, the free press and American elected officials whom the president doesn't like."
Benen points out that during an event celebrating the U.S. Navy’s 250th anniversary, Trump declared, "We have to take care of this little gnat that's on our shoulder called the Democrats."
"An apolitical military is a foundational, bedrock principle of the United States," Benen writes. "Partisan, ideological and electoral considerations must be utterly irrelevant to what the military is and how it functions. It is nevertheless a principle for which Trump appears to have no use, creating an untenable dynamic."
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an 2 26
Canadian deputy mayor nails Trump as the cause for $4.5 billion loss in US tourism
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AN 2 26
The United States is facing a major test of American democracy as experts warn that the Trump administration is dragging the nation into “some form of autocracy,” NPR reports.
The U.S. has already crossed the threshold and become an “electoral autocracy,” Staffan I. Lindberg, the director of Sweden’s V-Dem Institute, told NPR.
“I would argue that the United States in 2025-26 has slid into a mild form of competitive authoritarianism,” said Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard University and co-author of How Democracies Die. “I think it’s reversible, but this is authoritarianism.”
“Under competitive authoritarianism,” NPR explained, “countries still hold elections, but the ruling party uses various tactics — attacking the press, disenfranchising voters, weaponizing the justice system and threatening critics — to tilt the electoral playing field in its favor.”
Levitsky cited several critical points in September as examples, including the Trump administration’s threat against ABC parent company Disney following host Jimmy Kimmel’s remarks on the killing of Charlie Kirk.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), said.
He also cited Trump’s proposal to use American cities as “training grounds” for troops.
“We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military, National Guard, but military,” Trump said, as the Military Times reported.
The president “told the commanders that defending the homeland was the military’s ‘most important priority’ and suggested the leaders in attendance could be tasked with assisting federal law enforcement interventions against an ‘invasion from within’ Democratic-led cities, such as Chicago and New York City.”
“No different than a foreign enemy,” Trump said, “but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms.”
Levitsky, NPR reported, “said this is the kind of language dictators in South America used in the 1970s — leaders like Augusto Pinochet in Chile.”
NPR notes that the “next big test” could come during the midterms.
Kim Scheppele, a Princeton University sociologist who has studied the authoritarian tactics of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, warned that in 2014 Orbán’s government “disenfranchised almost all the Hungarians in the U.K., most of whom were oppositional to Orbán,”
Dartmouth College professor of government Brendan Nyhan warned, “The way Election Day works in this country, there are no do-overs.”
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AN 2 26
Conservative columnist and historian Max Boot explained on Monday that President Donald Trump has “become toxic” even among right-wing movements in Europe analogous to his MAGA movement in the United States.
“I've been covering Trump's unprecedented interference in foreign elections, and what strikes me most is how brazen it's become,” Boot wrote for The Washington Post. “We're not talking about subtle diplomatic preferences here—Trump is issuing formal endorsements in other countries' elections as if they were Republican primaries back home.”
After listing the foreign politicians to receive Trump’s endorsement — including Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, the UK’s Boris Johnson, Giuseppe Conte in Italy, Javier Milei in Argentia, Karol Nawrocki in Poland, Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, Viktor Orban in Hungary and Sanae Takaichi in Japan — Boot wrote that the first problem is that it continues “Trump’s unfortunate habit of personalizing relations with other countries: He rewards leaders he likes and punishes those he dislikes.” Not only does this risk “making an enemy of the political opposition in their countries,” as happened when Trump “all but endorsed Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre” only for Poilievre to lose to Liberal Party leader Mark Carney, but it also could boomerang against Trump in areas where he is very unpopular.
“Now Trump is inviting a similar backlash in Europe, where he has become toxic with his tariffs, his attacks on European digital regulations and immigration policies, his attempt to take over Greenland, and his insults about European soldiers supposedly shirking combat in Afghanistan,” Boot wrote. “A poll released last month by the European Council on Foreign Relations found that only 16 percent of Europeans now consider the U.S. an ally. In Denmark, 84 percent have an unfavorable view of the United States.”
Boot added that “Vice President JD Vance was booed at the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies in Milan, even though Italy has a Trump-friendly prime minister” in Giorgia Meloni. Meloni even joined the rest of Europe in rebuking Trump last month for his Greenland threats, a fact which further demonstrates even the European far right does not necessarily want to be associated with the American president.
“A Politico poll in December found that in France and Germany, only a third of the people who support right-wing parties have a favorable view of Trump,” Boot wrote. “Little wonder that far-right leaders in Europe denounced Trump’s attempted takeover of Greenland and sought to distance themselves from the American leader.”
He concluded, “A president who zealously guards America’s sovereignty should show more respect for the sovereignty of other countries.”
Boot is not alone in raising the alarm about Trump’s meddling in other nations’ politics. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Susan B. Rogers has repeatedly met with far right parties in Europe and characterized efforts to marginalize extremists as anti-free speech, prompting criticisms from the British publication The Guardian. Vice President JD Vance has encouraged Germany to allow the neo-Nazi Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) Party to have a greater role in its political life, which was roundly denounced throughout Germany.
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MMA
Fox cheers Trump’s repeal of the EPA endangerment finding — a move that could cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars in health care costs
Special ProgramsClimate & Energy
Written by Allison Fisher
Published 02/13/26
- On February 12, the Trump administration finalized repeal of the endangerment finding – the landmark legal determination that protected Americans by limiting greenhouse gases and carbon pollution from cars, power plants, and other industries. The Associated Press reported last year that the protections mandated by this finding were projected to “prevent an estimated 30,000 deaths and save $275 billion each year they are in effect.”
Ignoring these benefits, Fox News and Fox Businesses personalities celebrated the repeal while pushing climate denial talking points to bolster support for this huge rollback of pollution safeguards — including dismissing the overwhelming scientific evidence that underpins the endangerment finding, suggesting that cold weather in winter somehow disproves climate change, or outright calling climate science a “hoax.”
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin has referred to the endangerment finding as “the holy grail of the climate change religion,” while The New York Times reports that “dozens of conservative activists, lawyers, scientists and others had worked for years to prepare the case against the endangerment finding,” including a secretive campaign underwritten by The Heritage Foundation. As documented by Media Matters, this effort has also relied on a decades-long right-wing media campaign to undermine climate science.
- ## Pollution from the burning of fossil fuels is an unequivocal threat to human health and safety
- In 2009, the EPA’s endangerment finding established that greenhouse gases must be regulated because they “cause or contribute to air pollution that may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.” Lisa Jackson, the agency’s first Black administrator, formally “announced an endangerment finding on greenhouse gases, setting the stage for EPA action on climate change. Under her leadership, EPA issued clean air standards designed to reduce emissions from large facilities without burdening small businesses, and a clean cars program.” Environmental Protection Agency, accessed [7/30/25, accessed 7/30/25]
- The Trump administration’s proposed repeal of the endangerment finding, issued in July, was based on arguments made by a handpicked working group of climate contrarians. NBC News reported that “it’s not clear whether the final rule will rely on the same arguments or change its justifications in response to public comments,” while also pointing out that “a judge ruled last month that (Energy Secretary Chris) Wright and the Energy Department had violated transparency laws in the way it formed and operated the working group behind the report.” Media Matters, [7/31/25, 8/14/25; NBC News, 2/10/26]
- EPA regulations reducing greenhouse gases, based on the agency’s own assessment, were projected to “prevent an estimated 30,000 deaths and save $275 billion each year they are in effect.” AP further noted that “experts say the numbers are conservative and that even a partial dismantling of the rules would mean more pollutants such as smog, mercury and lead — and especially more tiny airborne particles that can lodge in lungs and cause health problems.” The Associated Press, [6/5/25]
- :{:{The Trump administration claims that repealing the endangerment finding will benefit the economy — including bringing down the cost of “light-duty cars, S.U.V.s and trucks” — are dubious. The New York Times reported the administration has declined to explain how it assessed the benefits of repealing the finding, with one expert noting, “‘It’s hard to find any math in their assessment that doesn’t seem, frankly, a little bit ridiculous.” On CNN News Central, correspondent Renee Marsh pointed out that by “the EPA’s own data” under the Clean Air Act, “between 1970 and 2023 combined emissions of six common pollutants dropped some 78% and that all happened while the U.S. economy continued to grow,” with a 321% increase in gross domestic product. }:
Marsh continued, “So it's not an either or — you don't have to pick dirty air in order to have a strong economy.” Later in the program, author and climate expert Porter Fox pointed out that “back when the endangerment finding was adopted in 2009, we were looking at a billion-dollar climate disaster roughly every month or so. Now it's every three weeks. So, you know, if Trump is going to claim that $1.3 trillion will be saved by easing these regulations, just do the math. In less than 10 years, we're already going into the red, and those billion-dollar disasters are getting more and more expensive and more and more frequent every year.” The New York Times, [2/12/26; CNN, CNN News Central, 2/12/26, 2/12/26]}:
- Video
Citation
From the February 12, 2026, edition of CNN News Central
- The scientific evidence supporting the endangerment finding has only strengthened since 2009. As reported by Stanford University, “evidence for climate change’s damaging impacts – such as food insecurity, mass migration, and health problems – has only grown since the finding was established.” Meanwhile, the Earth just experienced its hottest decade ever recorded, “the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide – as well as methane and nitrous oxide – are at the highest levels in the last 800,000 years,” and in the U.S. alone there were “two dozen billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in 2025, causing at least 276 fatalities and costing a total of $115 billion in damages.” Stanford Report, [9/19/25; AccuWeather, 3/19/25; ABC News, 1/8/26]
- ## Right-wing media personalities celebrated Trump’s ending of the endangerment finding and pushed climate denial talking points to justify scrapping regulation of greenhouse gas pollutants
- Fox Business host Stuart Varney celebrated news that the Trump administration would end the endangerment finding: “Wave goodbye to the Green New Deal — the energy policies of Obama and Biden are going, going, gone.” Varney said, “If you questioned that finding, the climate crowd called you a denier as if you were denying the Holocaust — the science is in, they said, the argument is over. Not so fast.” Fox Business, *Varney & Co.*, [2/10/26]
- Video
Citation
From the February 10, 2026, edition of Fox Business' Varney & Co.
- :{On Fox Business’The Evening Edit, the :{Federalist}:’s Brianna Lyman said: “All we’ve been doing for the past 15 years or so is saddling American consumers and businesses with these regulatory burdens that are expensive and ineffective in the grand scheme of things.” She claimed, “China is responsible for a third of the world's global emissions and a third of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. The United States on its own accounts for about 10% of CO2 emissions, 10% of greenhouse gases, which means 90% of these emissions are coming from other countries. So at the end of the day, no matter what we do here, it is ultimately negligible until countries like China, and India and Russia abide by the same set of standards that we are abiding by, and they don't.”
The argument that the U.S. shouldn’t act to regulate pollution because of the emissions output of other countries has been employed by climate deniers for more than a decade. It discounts the domestic benefits of climate action and the role of U.S. leadership in driving solutions, and also falsely suggests that other countries are not taking action. For example, according to a new analysis, China’s emissions fell by 1% in the last three months of 2025, and the drop “extends the ‘flat or falling’ trend in China’s CO2 emissions that began in March 2024 and has now lasted for nearly two years.” Fox Business, *The Evening Edit*, [2/10/26; Newsweek, 12/1/23; Carbon Brief, 12/2/26]}:
- The Bottom Linehost Dagen McDowell called the endangerment finding “an Obama-era rule — shocker — that has been used for years as the foundation to push its climate religion up our wazoo.” McDowell said: “Oh, this is so delicious — the Trump administration about to mark its most sweeping rollback yet. Get 'er done. An Obama-era rule — shocker — that has been used for years as the foundation to push its climate religion up our wazoo.” Fox Business, *The Bottom Line*, [2/10/26]
- Fox Business host and former Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow: “The whole climate change crowd never proved their case” behind the endangerment finding. Kudlow said, “We can argue till we are blue in the face but I will say the whole climate change crowd never proved their case. Or let me put it to you this way. It never proved the existential risk, what I would call the extremist case. I’m not denying that there’s emissions in the air. The question is how much and how bad is it for your everyday health.” Fox Business, T*he Big Money Show*, [2/10/26]
- Video
Citation
From the February 11, 2026, edition of Fox Business' The Big Money Show
- In the same segment about President Donald Trump’s end to the endangerment finding, Fox Business host Jackie DeAngelis claimed: “There is no global warming here. Maybe the president is right.” She said, “This idea that the climate is changing — it was negative 8 degrees here on Sunday. There is no global warming here. Maybe the president is right that this is moving, this is the climate doing what it does and that it goes in cycles.” Fox Business, *The Big Money Show*, [2/10/26]
- Describing the endangerment finding as “a regulatory wet blanket on the economy,” Fox contributor Marc Thiessen said, “We've got to recognize climate change isn’t an existential crisis. It is a problem that can be managed. … AI will help us find lots of ways to adapt to a warming climate so we can live with it.”Thiessen: “First of all, the regulations were a regulatory wet blanket on the economy that’s now being taken off, which is good for Trump and good for Americans. … We've got to recognize climate change isn’t an existential crisis. It is a problem that can be managed. And the answer is adaptation. … Air conditioning is cheaper than heat. AI will help us find lots of ways to adapt to a warming climate so we can live with it. Because we can't destroy the free market economy in order to stop the planet from warming.” Fox News, *Special Report with Bret Baier,* [2/12/26]
- New York Post columnist Miranda Devine cheered Trump’s repeal of the endangerment finding as “the final nail in the coffin of the climate hoax that we’ve all been laboring under all around the world.” Devine: “Look, it’s absolutely huge. This is really the final nail in the coffin of the climate hoax that we’ve all been laboring under all around the world since at least 20 years ago when Al Gore brought out that piece of propaganda, that apocalyptic movie An Inconvenient Truth that scared, you know, a generation of kids to thinking that really planet would be all burned up by now. You know, their deadlines have kept on have come and gone and nothing has changed. So I think people are now waking up to the fact that it was a hoax.” Fox Business, *Kudlow*, [2/12/26]
- Video file
Video
Citation
From the February 12, 2026, edition of Fox Business' Kudlow
- Fox & Friendsco-host Brian Kilmeade said the rollback is “really going to be jet fuel for the economy,” adding, “You will be surprised about the impact because they can't back up the science when it comes to the new green mania.”Kilmeade: “It’s really going to be jet fuel for the economy. Cover of the New York Post, cars will cost $2,400 less. You will be surprised about the impact because they can't back up the science when it comes to the new green mania.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [2/13/26]
//
08/14/25 2:26 PM EDT
07/31/25 12:45 PM EDT
- ### Right-wing media hyped a supposed “shovel” attack against ICE. Prosecutors just dropped the charges.
02/13/26
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AN 2 26
3 times Trump promised stimulus checks — and never followed through
'No one seems to notice' Trump’s inflicting 'catastrophic damage' on dollar: conservative
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GIVING HIMSELF 10B $ FROM TREASURY BESSANT BONDI BC IRS? DEBANKED?
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AN 2 26
Trump fires top DOJ official after disagreement over case
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OMFG
AN 2 26
Donald Trump's aggressive "America First" agenda has caused a "profound shift" around the world, with a new analysis reported on by The Guardian showing the extent to which more countries are siding with China as strong U.S. alliances have "crashed."
On Friday, The Guardian published a report sharing the findings of a survey by the firm, FocalData. Using the results of United Nations votes over the first year of Trump's second term as a measure of how much the nations of the world are siding with either the interests of the U.S. or China. The results, as depicted in a chart showing a map of the world, are significant, with many more countries, including once-key allies, shifting towards China, as Trump's machinations have "started to redraw the geopolitical map in favour of China."
Based on the map created with FocalData's findings, every UN country in Europe has shifted more towards China in the last year, as have the likes of Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Most of South and Central America has made the same shift, except for Peru. Africa and Asia are closer to an even split, but countries that shifted towards China are still in the majority, including major players like Japan, South Korea, India and even Russia.
Among the countries that have shifted more towards the U.S. are North Korea, South Africa, Madagascar, Iran, Iraq, Indonesia, and Nigeria.
Though the shifts show some notable trends, many countries have not yet changed their overall voting allegiance. Most of Europe, for example, remains largely aligned with the U.S. despite the shift towards China. Still, the trends show a world power balance in the midst of a historic shift.
"In 2026, the world is now diplomatically closer to Beijing than it has been in recent memory," The Guardian explained. "With significant shifts in alignments taking place during the start of Trump’s second presidential term."
The report further detailed: "The total number of countries strongly aligned with the US has crashed under Trump, in contrast to China, which has maintained its allies. When comparing all of Trump’s years in the White House, including his first term, with those of his immediate predecessors – Barack Obama and Joe Biden – the number of countries strongly aligned with the US has collapsed, from 46 to just seven. The number of countries closely in China’s orbit has remained broadly constant."
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YT MSNBC 
“BIGGEST DEREG IN AM HIST BY FAR”
SO CALLED END FINDING OBAMA ERA; PRICES WENT UP FOR WORSE PRODUCT; NO BASIS IN FACT OR LAW; FF SAVE LIVES; WIND INTERMITTENt MOST COSTLY; DIE NO AC HEATING; RADICal rule --> green new scam mebbe worse than rissia; jobs decimated but coming back bc tariffs; harmed car indist; ford plant wd be closed;
hated start sop feature; ev mandate; had to pay 5 trill$ for pwr stations for ev
car price up 22% biden fo gnscam
#$
CAR START EZIER... DOW
Z HOLY GRAIL OVERREACH; SAVE 1/3 TRILL$; 2400 ON CAR; IDEOL CRUSADE REGU PWR GRAB MOST; TRILLIONS $ STRANGLED, LIMIT CHOICE; LEFTWING WISHLIST EV MANDATE ; abuse? go to church; target am dr; red tape; forced trans to ev; climate partic triphy = startstop; bureaucrats demand; delivers wins cafe duffy ca; jobs;
restores the rule of law?!
...
TIRED OF PLAYING GAMES; EV NO ONE BOUGHT; WE HEARD YOU AND ACTED; COMMITED TO CLEAN AIR LAND AND WATER FOR ALL HARNESS AM GREATNESS? FREEDOM ABD CHOICE, RULE OF LAW VONGR NEVER MADE LAW; NEVER WAVER ON MISSION, GOLDEN AGE OF AM
SPK ONLY OF CAR EMISSION NOT PWR PLANTS?
NO THER PREZ WD DO THIS; 1.3 TRILL SAVINGS
VOUGHT
LEE FARM EQUIP JOHN DEER; SMOG NO NEED TO GO TO FINEST SCHOOL TO WORK LAWN MOWER TRMP
WINDMILL ALL MADE IN CHINA GERMANY KILL BIRDS, EYESORE; EUROPE NOT RECOG W/ WIND AND MIGRANTS; MOST EXPENSIVE ENERGY; HOPE NOT 1 BUILT; ENDNGERMENT FOR MILITARY AND AIRLINES
NO ONE DOES MORE FOR HEALTH CARE THAN GOP; DRUG PRICES, BIGGEST EVER
CARS EV NO WORK MULT COMPUTER TO SAVE TINY AMT OF GAS
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OMFG 2 26 12TH DN
UCS AND --- SUED TO SHUT DN BS COMM BUT STILL LOST ON EPA REGS
9:31
President Trump accepted the Washington
9:33
Coal Club's inaugural award on
9:36
Wednesday, declaring him the quote
9:38
undisputed champion of beautiful, clean
9:42
coal, unquote.
9:44
Trump accepted the award, a statue of a
9:47
coal miner from Peabody Energy President
9:49
and CEO Jim Gretch during a White House
9:52
event where Trump announced he directed
9:54
the Pentagon to purchase electricity
9:56
from coal fired plants and said he'd
9:59
asked the energy department to provide
10:01
$175 million in federal funds for
10:05
upgrades at several US coal plants.
10:09
I've saved 74 coal power plants from
10:13
crushing restrictions and closures that
10:16
would have been forced to shut down in
10:18
the very immediate future. And today,
10:20
I'm proud to announce that the Tennessee
10:22
Valley Authority is taking action to
10:24
save two major coal plants in Tennessee.
10:27
Tennessee Valley Authority. In response,
10:30
the Natural Resources Defense Council
10:33
wrote, quote, "While Americans are
10:35
demanding clean, affordable energy, the
10:38
Trump administration's using our tax
10:40
dollars to prop up the nation's
10:42
dirtiest, least efficient power plants.
10:45
It's no wonder fossil fuel lobbyists are
10:48
handing Trump an award today." unquote.
10:51
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an 2 26
spox most transparent admin in hist while denying info access?
Before concluding his work as special counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Jack Smith submitted a two-volume report on his federal prosecutions of Donald Trump — the first volume on his election interference case (which was assigned to Judge Tanya Chutkan), the second volume on his Mar-a-Lago documents case (which was assigned to Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee).
Volume 1 was released in January 2025, although Chutkan dismissed the election interference case without prejudice at Smith's request. After Trump defeated Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, Smith cited DOJ's policy against prosecuting a sitting president when he made his request to Chutkan.
Volume 2, however, remains unreleased, and two groups — American Oversight and Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute — are urging the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to order Cannon to make it public in redacted form.
Law & Crime reporter Matt Naham, in an article published on February 10, explains, "The latter volume has never seen the outside of Cannon's chambers. Cannon, the Trump-appointed judge who threw out Trump's Espionage Act prosecution and ruled that Smith was unlawfully appointed as special counsel, has, for a calendar year, kept Volume 2 of Smith's report out of public view. At first, the rationale behind the injunction was preventing 'prejudice' to valet Waltine Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira Mar-a-Lago property manager, former Trump co-defendants who had active appeals. But those appeals went away when the Trump Administration dropped the cases, following Trump's inauguration, and so did the prospect that Nauta and de Oliveira will face charges in the future, according to the Knight Institute."
In a legal brief filed on February 9, the Knight First Amendment Institute and American Oversight told the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, "There is also no risk that a future administration will revive the charges, because the five-year statute of limitations that applies to the charges will expire in 2028, before President Trump leaves office. It is thus disingenuous for Nauta and De Oliveira to represent that they remain in 'jeopardy' and that as a result 'their due process rights remain a serious concern that strongly outweighs any interest that the Government or the public might have in the release of the Special Counsel's Report.'"
Cannon's injunction against the release of Volume 2 expires on February 24, and American Oversight is arguing that her reason for the injunction "no longer exists."
"Before the expiration date," Naham notes, "Trump and his former co-defendants have each supported Cannon issuing an order which would 'permanently' block the DOJ from releasing 'so-called Special Counsel' Smith's 'unlawfully prepared' report and destroy it."
Trump was facing four criminal indictments when he won the 2024 GOP presidential nomination: Smith's two federal cases, Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis' election interference/RICO case, and then-Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.'s hush money case. Trump was convicted on 34 criminal counts in Bragg's case, but all four cases were doomed when he won the 2024 election.In an official statement, American Oversight Executive Director Chioma Chukwu said the group "will not allow the president and his guard dogs to bury information that belongs to the American people."
Chukwu stated, "For more than a year, Judge Cannon has kept the Special Counsel's final report under seal, long after any legitimate claims by Trump's co-conspirators expired. By blocking our effort to challenge her gag order, the court handed President Trump a roadmap for burying the report through delay and procedural gamesmanship."
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rww
02/06/2026
by
- Ryan Bort @ Rolling Stone: Trump Posts Wildly Racist Video of the Obamas
The president shared a video that included a clip depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. The post has since been removed.
- David Gilmour @ Mediaite: White House Shrugs Off ‘Fake Outrage’ Over Trump Post Depicting Obamas as Apes
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has dismissed criticism of President Donald Trump for having shared an AI-generated video on Truth Social depicting former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.
- David Edwards @ Raw Story: Loyal Trump ally sickened by Obama attack: 'Most racist I've seen out of this White House'
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) lashed out after President Donald Trump posted a racist video that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.
- Chris Marquette, Mia McCarthy, Meredith Lee Hill, Ry Rivard and Jordain Carney @ Politico: Trump wanted Dulles Airport and Penn Station named after him as condition of releasing rail tunnel funds
Funding for the Gateway Project has been held up since October.
- John Fea @ The Way of Improvement Leads Home: On Trump’s “Presidential Message on the Anniversary of Our Victory in the Mexican-American War”
This is the kind of history the Trump administration wants taught in schools.
- Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: The key lesson from Trump’s embarrassing National Prayer Breakfast speech
Those who thought Trump might approach the event with any maturity or solemnity were kidding themselves: He has anti-gravitas.
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mma
02/09/26
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AN 2 26 NOT PROCE
Aging President Donald Trump with his cankles, slurred speech, drooping face and reports of a collapsing circulatory system is not the threat to democracy it once was, say a panel of New York Times columnist. The real threat, they say, is the power structure that put him in place — and could soon install another Trumpy president.
During a panel discussion, columnist David French admitted that the MAGA movement is already “wanting to have a life after Donald Trump.”
“If you look at [White House Advisor] Stephen Miller’s side of things, in many ways, what we’re seeing and reporting is demonstrating is that he’s often more ruthless than Trump’s own instincts. This is a big part of MAGA — they’re more vicious, more cruel — even than Donald Trump,” said French.
French added that the personalities behind MAGA, also unlike Trump, “have a greater degree of sophistication.”
“I always object when people call Trump dumb — but when you’re talking about political sophistication, turning around the next corner, I don’t think Trump thinks in those lines,” French told the panel. “But I think MAGA is fully aware of what it has done. They are governing as if they will never lose power, and they’re very keenly aware of that.”
While Trump is determined to pursue his debunked argument that he actually won the 2020 election, and to raid old Fulton County ballots from 2020, the shadowy figures behind the MAGA movement are looking to exploit the president’s bile for their own purposes.
“When you see a situation where Trump is raiding Fulton County, Bannon is saying, ‘Get ICE all around polling precincts,’” said French. “While Trump is waiting for that phone call from [U.S. National Intelligence Director] Tulsi Gabbard [confirming his 2020 victory], [Alabama GOP Sen.] Tommy Tuberville is saying, ‘Get rid of voting machines.’ You’ve got this environment where MAGA is very focused on the midterms because they’ve been governing like they’re never going to lose power.”
There is a cohort inside the administration that “is not backward-looking the way Trump is,” argued French. “It’s very forward-looking. So, I’m very concerned about the MAGA apparatus. I’m less concerned about Trump, the puppet master. … the Steve Bannons, the Stephen Millers, they have a generational project and I don’t think that they want to see their generational project go up in flames after two years, after 2024.”
As example, French noted MAGA’s recent attacks on mail-in voting after Trump noticed Democrats overtaking Republican in-person voters as mail in ballots get counted.
“Watch for this: After Election Day, in closely contested races where Republicans are ahead, watch for an enormous effort made to call into question the legitimacy of all counting going forward after that,” French predicted.
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AN 2 26
America lost $35 billion in clean energy projects last year — thanks to Trump
===
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AN 2 26
President Donald Trump drew widespread criticism after forwarding, on his Truth Social platform, an overtly racist, AI-generated video depicting former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes. Much of the criticism came from a combination of liberals, progressives, centrist Democrats and right-wing Never Trump conservatives, yet there was some outcry in MAGA World as well.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) called the video out, and a frustrated 2024 Trump voter from New Mexico called C-SPAN and lamented, "I voted for the president; I supported him. But I really want to apologize. I mean, I'm looking at this awful picture of the Obamas. What an embarrassment to our country. All this man does is tell lies. He is not worthy of the presidency. He takes bribes blatantly, and now he’s being a racist blatantly."
A few days after that, Puerto Rican reggaetón star Bad Bunny performed en español at the 2026 Super Bowl Half Time Show — much to Trump's chagrin — and the event enjoyed way more viewers than Turning Point USA's alternative halftime show, headlined by Kid Rock. According to CBS News, 135 million viewers watched Bad Bunny; the El Paso Times reports that 6.1 million people watched Turning Point's event.
During a conversation for The New Republic's podcast posted on February 9, host Greg Sargent (formerly of the Washington Post) and NR reporter Alex Shephard stressed that between the "backlash" to the racist video and all the viewers who watched Bad Bunny, it's obvious that many Americans are rejecting MAGA's view of the world.
Shephard told Sargent, "I think that one of the big shifts is that there was this idea in the last election — 'Let Trump be Trump' — sort of pushed by Susie Wiles in particular, currently the chief of staff. That, essentially, the president knows best and that what he's doing may seem kooky and off the wall and irrelevant to politics as usual — but pursuing that kind of stuff is what people like about him, and you should just let him do it…. I think what we’re starting to see now is an increased willingness for politicians to call this kind of stuff out."
Shephard argued, however, that even with the "backlash," Trump is still going to say and do offensive things.
Shephard told Sargent, "I think that we're not even close to seeing the bottom here yet, but it's really, really starting to break…. But the truth of the matter is that if they go anywhere, they're met with massive public resistance and backlash. You see it at the Grammys. You see it at the Super Bowl. You see it in the streets of Minneapolis. You see it all over the country. And I think there was this brief moment where it seemed like we were entering into a kind of 'new era' defined by hard-edged, right-wing culture, and that everything had changed. And all of that power that they had a year ago? It's just already gone now."
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an 2 26
President Trump and his Republican Party are in danger of losing one or both houses of Congress during the upcoming midterm elections, according to NPR — and there is more than one reason why this is the case.
NPR points to five specific variables that suggest Trump and the Republicans will suffer significant losses in November. Trump’s approval rating is currently at 39% and has remained below 40% since November, even though parties whose presidents have less than 50% approval ratings lose an average of 32 House seats during midterm elections. On average, the president’s party has lost 27 House seats and four Senate seats since World War II. Because of Trump’s unpopular economic, immigration and foreign policies, he is polling poorly among key groups that he won during the 2024 election, including independents, young voters and Latinos.
Honing in on the economy, NPR pointed out as its second observation that 54% of Americans feel Trump should prioritize lowering prices and only 36% approve of his handling of the economy. Almost three out of four voters (72%) say his economy has been either fair or poor, while roughly three out of eight (38%) say they believe conditions will worsen. More than half (52%) say Trump’s policies have made things worse.
NPR’s third point is that Democrats have recently overperformed in special elections, including a recent Texas State Senate race held in a district that Trump won by 17 points in 2024 but was won by the Democratic candidate by 14 points, indicating a 31-point swing. Overall Democrats have overperformed their 2024 margins by an average of nearly 16 points in the various congressional, gubernatorial and special elections that have occurred during Trump’s second term.
Making matters more ominous for Republicans, NPR’s observes as its fourth point that 30 Republican House members are retiring this cycle compared to only 21, both reflecting on Republicans’ feelings of vulnerability and because — with only a four-vote margin in the current House — the nine-vote deficit eliminates House Republicans’ potential incumbency advantage.
Finally, Democrats currently hold a roughly 5-point advantage over Republicans when voters are asked which party they want to control Congress, a significant shift from when Republicans led on this question last year.
Further fleshing out Republicans’ midterms dilemma, Press Pass author and Bulwark congressional correspondent Joe Perdicone explained that Trump’s dominance over the Republican-controlled Congress has actually hindered individual members’ ability to serve their constituents’ local needs.
“Mike Johnson does everything that Trump says and he doesn't allow anything that Trump won't allow. And, so, the House doesn't get to do anything,” Perticone said. “You don't get to prioritize your little pet projects. A lot of these members of Congress, they like to do things that are very specific to their interests. But when you have this paralyzed floor, you have a very thin majority. So they're not having fun right now and they know it's only going to get worse when they're in the minority. So, you know, go find a job elsewhere. Go get rich lobbying.”
Many of Trump’s critics worry that, in anticipation of losing the midterm elections and facing potential impeachment, he will try to rig them in his favor. Trump has lent credibility to these concerns by baselessly claiming the 2026 midterm elections will be rife with fraud and that he therefore may need to send ICE to monitor them. The White House even recently announced a position of FBI Election Executive, a seemingly-new position they claim is not an original creation.
To explain Trump’s actions, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday that there is “horrible corruption on elections — and the federal government should not allow that. The federal government should get involved.”
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RWW
02/05/2026
by
- Jim Garlow thanks God for President Donald Trump: "We have been profoundly blessed, as the people of God."
- Joshua Haymes declares that there will be "no more drag shows, no more Pride parades": "We are done with it. We are going to put an end to the public display of this filth and we're going to do it because Christ is king. We will see it done."
- William Wolfe says that Jesus "would support ICE and mass deportations" and proclaims that "if we want to save Western Civilization, we must become immune to the tears of liberal women."
- Joel Webbon claims that a college student recently informed him that all the rich, popular, smart frat bros love Nick Fuentes.
- Finally, Trump announced that his administration will be hosting a day of prayer, praise and thanksgiving on the National Mall in May during which participants will be "solemnly rededicating our country as One Nation under God."
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RWW
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AN 2 26
Washington Monthly writer David Atkins says the Republican Party has been President Donald Trump’s greatest enabler, but even they might be willing to curb a president’s wanton power for granting pardons after Trump’s second term.
“Often [Trump’s] pardons appear to have been a product of direct bribes to the president’s election campaigns himself,” said Atkins. “[I]n other cases, the recipients were donors or friends of donors; and, of course, many of them had committed crimes in direct support of Trump’s attempts to overthrow democracy itself.”
The scam goes much further than pardons, argued Atkins, pointing out that The Wall Street Journalreported that an investment firm tied to the United Arab Emirates purchased nearly half of the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company in 2025. And soon after, the Emirati government nabbed an agreement with the Trump administration for the export of hundreds of thousands of advanced chips — despite President Biden rightfully withholding the technology for national security reasons.
But don’t ask too much of the Republican Party these days, said Atkins. At least the president’s abuse of the pardon power may be “one issue that is both so obviously in need of reform and potentially prone to abuse by all future presidents, that reform should be achievable across party lines.”
Atkins pointed out that gradual democratic backsliding under Trump goes much further than pardons, and it remains a product of the executive branch’s “direct flouting of the law." He asserted that Trump violates laws and direct judicial orders only to be rescued later by the Supreme Court, “without penalty or consequence.”
“This is because 1) the framers of the Constitution did not anticipate that a man of such ill character as Trump would gain office, … but also 2) they expected that a lawless Executive would be countered by a Legislative Branch that jealously guarded its power as a coequal branch,” said Atkins. “One consequence of the devolution of the conservative movement into a cult of personality around Donald Trump is that almost no Republicans remain who dare to challenge the president.”
The framers, he said, expected a president who so avariciously abused the pardon power to be impeached, “but Republicans in Congress refuse to fulfill their constitutional role.”
“Meanwhile, the pardon power in the hands of a ruthlessly criminal president is the skeleton key to a dictatorship,” said Atkins. “So long as his allies in Congress refuse to impeach, a criminal president could repeatedly, openly and intentionally violate the law and order his accomplices to do likewise, with promises of infinite pardons to follow.”
“Only the threat of state-level prosecutions might dissuade his minions, but many of the worst crimes Executive Branch officials can commit are covered more by federal law than state law,” Atkins added. “The pardon power, combined with the Supreme Court’s ruling that a president has immunity for all ‘official acts’ conducted while in office, functionally allows a president to rule as a tyrant. So the power itself must be curtailed.”
This would require a constitutional amendment. However, Atkins wrote that despite Republicans' enabling of their own corrupt president, their suspicion of future Democratic administrations could cause them to cross party lines and support such an amendment.
“Republicans would want to constrain the next Democratic president,” Atkins said.
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AN 2 26
'I have stopped nuclear wars': Trump defends allowing major treaty to expire
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AN 2 26
MS NOW analyst Cornell Belcher a recent boo-down at a major professional wrestling event in Las Vegas reveals President Donald Trump may have lost a bigger sector of the voting class than originally expected.
“That clip … at a wrestling match is, quite frankly, startling because the cultural stuff has such importance,”. “These blue-collar non-college voters have been the face of Trump's support for a long time. Non-college white voters broke for Trump by 34 points in the last election.”
Belcher pointed to surveys showing 57 percent of non-college white voters now believe Trump’s Department of Homeland Security personnel have “gone too far,” even on an issue that Trump once enjoyed widespread support.
“His policies are actually losing the people who helped bring him to the dance and, by the way, are critical to Republicans in the upcoming election,” said Belcher, who studies poll numbers.
Belcher also blasted Democratic Party leaders for “dumbing down” the scope of Trump’s disapproval to a single issue, when the rancor actually spreads across a spectrum of issues.
“Democrats always want to say, ‘oh, it's affordability. And we found the silver bullet. We got to talk about affordability.’ As if Democrats hadn't been talking about affordability in the last election. And as if we didn't see these massive swings, even in red areas, towards Democratic candidates simply because Democrats say the word affordability. It's so dumb as to make your head explode, said Belcher. “There is something bigger and larger happening out there in America.”
The public’s frustration with Trump, he said, is welling up from a grassroots level. as communities are being torn apart and neighbors are afraid to walk out of the house.
“It's not just the affordability. Economy's always going to be a top issue … but to act like there’s only one variable that’s driving Trump's numbers into the ground and swinging Republican areas towards Democrats … is absolutely absurd,” said Belcher. “And if I were a Republican in a swing district, [the bad poll numbers] would put me on the seat on the edge of my seat.”
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AN 2 26
Donald Trump seems to believe he will get to Heaven when he dies, but according to an analysis from The Bulwark, he has created a "dangerous" force by engaging in violence on behalf of Christianity.
Amid the ongoing concerns about Trump's advanced age and physical health, observers have often cited the president's frequent comments about getting into Heavenwhen he dies, arguing that they are a sign of a person grappling with mortality. Trump most recently made such comments during Wednesday's National Prayer Breakfast event in Washington, D.C., where he suggested that he ought to make it to Heaven, given all that he claims to have done for Christianity.
"I really think I probably should make it,” Trump said. “I mean, I’m not a perfect candidate, but I did a hell of a lot of good for perfect people.”
Analyzing Trump's comments on Friday, Andrew Egger, White House correspondent for The Bulwark, argued that Trump views himself not as a proper Christian, in a way that he views someone like House Speaker Mike Johnson, but as someone willing to commit violence and other transgressions in the name of protecting the religion.
"He sees himself as Christianity’s Punisher, the guy who will blacken his own soul to do what must be done to protect the righteous," Egger wrote.
To this point, Egger also highlighted comments Trump made about his military campaign against Islamists in Nigeria: "When Christians come under attack, they know [their attackers] are going to be attacked violently and viciously by President Trump. I know it’s not a nice thing to say, but that’s the way it is.”
"That violently and viciously isn’t just rhetorical window-dressing," Egger continued. "This is the service Trump explicitly offers to conservative Christians: There’s dirty work that needs doing. Let me be the one to do it for you. And it isn’t just a political pitch. Trump sincerely seems to believe he has reached a moral accommodation with God for his unique services rendered."
Egger further argued that, despite how Trump and his Christian allies might feel about his actions, his actions are, in fact, fundamentally incompatible with the faith's teachings.
"This is part of what makes Trump-brand Christianity as a cultural and political force so dangerous," Egger concluded. "Trump’s political project is seen by the MAGA faithful as utterly righteous, the work of God on earth against the forces of Satan. But he has broad license to transgress all moral boundaries as he does that work. When he does so, it doesn’t cause MAGA Christians to reevaluate whether he’s actually on the side of the angels. Instead, it makes them perversely grateful that he’sdoing it so theirhands can be clean. None of this, it should probably go without saying, is compatible in the slightest with the teachings of actual Christianity. Sin is sin, the faith teaches, no matter whom it’s directed against..."
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an 2 26
President Donald Trump, in what appeared to be an attempt to pressure two major cable news networks, warned against booking two prominent former officials from his first administration.
Trump targeted CNN and MS NOW — formerly MSNBC, which he called “MSDNC” — while denouncing attorney Ty Cobb, a former member of the White House legal team who reported directly to the president, and former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor.
The president called Cobb “one of the Worst Lawyers in Washington, D.C.,” and a “WHACKJOB, who I hardly knew,” and said Taylor is “another major Loser … who I have no idea who he is.”
He charged that both “make livings talking about me like they know me well.”
“So, when you watch these two guys on Television, which, fortunately, doesn’t happen often because there’s very little audience at either CNN or MSDNC,” he wrote, “remember, they know nothing about me — Just two DOPES trying to make a ‘buck’ by pretending to know something about someone who turned out to be very famous.”
Trump already was the president when they served in his administration.
“These two Networks are forewarned not to put them on the air again, because they have no knowledge or credibility with respect to anything have [sic] to do with DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Discover moreDiversity inclusion trainingRepublican Party newsLGBTQ rights updates
Last month, Cobb “claimed President Trump is experiencing a ‘significant decline’ in his mental faculties,” according to The Hill.
“I think the dementia and the cognitive decline are, you know, palpable, as do many experts, including many physicians,” Cobb said.
Trump’s social media post came just about the same time that he or someone with access to his social media account deleted what many, including several prominent Republicans, denounced as a racist meme that depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.
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02/05/26
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an 2 26 FOX IGNORES
MMA
02/06/26
02/06/26
[T IM POOL REACTS TO A VIDEO TRUMP POSTED WITH THE OBAMAS AS APES: “IT IS NOT RACIST” 02/06/26
Trump deletes Obama video after 'Republican lawmakers called him directly': CNN sources
New York Times slammed for 'providing cover' to Trump over racist Obama ape video
The New York Times is being destroyed over a since-deleted excerpt in its report on President Donald Trump sharing racist imagery online.
Trump shared an AI video spreading conspiracies about voter fraud that depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as monkeys, a trope often used refer to Black Americans in a disparaging context.
The Times report included the passage: "It was unclear if Mr. Trump was aware that the clip had been included in the video before he shared it. It was unclear how the clip was made, although it appeared to have been generated by A.I. The clip appeared to have been taken from a video that was shared in October by a user on X whose watermark is shown with the caption 'President Trump: King of the Jungle,' and an emoji of a lion."
The beginning of that paragraph has since been removed by The Times, but not before activist Oliver Willis copied it and posted the initial screenshot online.
"The New York Times has finally covered the Trump video of Obama as an ape — and they are still providing cover for him. F—— the Times," Willis added as a comment.
Long-time attorney Max Kennerly wrote, "Love how the presumption here is that the President doesn't know what he's sharing and that's fine and normal. Sorry, no, if the President doesn't know what he's sending out, then that is indisputable proof of gross incompetence, cognitive unfitness, or both."
White House delivers jaw-dropping excuse for Trump’s racist AI Obama post
'Most racist thing I’ve seen': Even GOP’s Tim Scott is calling out Trump’s AI Obama post
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AN 2 26
Donald Trump is planning to do everything he can to subvert the 2026 midterms and prevent Democratic victories, but according to conservative commentator David French, there is a new bill in Congress that stands a chance of stopping his quest for "permanent power."
Writing for the New York Times Thursday morning, French reiterated his past warning that voters should not expect the midterms to be "free or fair" under Trump's watch. Indeed, he noted that the recent FBI raid on an election office in Fulton County, Georgia, and Trump's assertion on a right-wing podcast that election control ought to be "nationalized" as clear evidence of Trump's intentions.
"President Trump has made it clear — very clear — that he is set to accept only one outcome: MAGA wins," French wrote. "Any other outcome is proof that the Democrats cheated."
French said that while anything that might properly stop Trump's election plans "feels impossible," he highlighted a portion of the U.S. legal code, 42 U.S.C. Section 1983, which "gives you the right to sue for damages when state or local government officials deprive you of 'any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws,'" including your voting rights. While federal officials like Trump and his allies are immune from being targeted by this law, there is a bill currently before Congress that aims to change this.
"In November, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representatives Hank Johnson and Jamie Raskin reintroduced a bill called the Bivens Act," French explained. "It’s remarkably simple. It would amend Section 1983 by stating that officials “of the United States” can be held liable on the same basis as officials of any state. That’s it. That’s the bill. And it’s worth shutting down the Department of Homeland Security to get it passed."
He continued: "If the bill passes and Trump signs it, he would be able to pardon his cronies if they commit federal crimes, but not relieve them from potentially immense civil liability. Money judgments don’t present the same deterrent as prison time, but they’re consequential nonetheless... Yes, a corrupt president may pardon the crooks and cronies who act on his behalf, but a modest change in the law could give them pause. Violating civil rights should carry a profound cost, and the message to the Trump administration should be simple and clear: Protect the integrity of the election, or we will make you pay."
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AN 2 26
Court system 'chaos' as judges say Trump officials make it hard to 'keep up with it all'
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AN 2 26
Donald Trump may appear to be retreating from his operations in Minnesota, but according to an analysis from The i Paper, it is only a small move, and he remains committed to a "bigger and more sinister" plan for the coming elections.
On Wednesday, Tom Homan, Trump's leading adviser on border security and immigration matters, announced that 700 federal agents from ICE and CBP would be withdrawing from Minnesota. This followed weeks of a massive deportation operation in the state's Twin Cities that terrorized and harassed residents, and resulted in two U.S. citizens getting killed by federal agents on camera. The ongoing operation has been widely credited with further tanking public approval of federal immigration officers, and Trump's overall handling of the issue.
Despite this move, political reporter James Ball, writing for The i Paper on Thursday, said this was a relatively small reduction in force, as there were 3,000 agents deployed to the state to begin with. Reports from residents on the ground in the Twin Cities have also indicated that ICE and CBP tactics have not changed much, even as the Trump administration built the narrative of softening its approach.
Ball further argued that no matter what Trump is doing about his immigration operation in Minnesota, he remains committed to a much more worrisome plot involving these federal immigration officers: using them to interfere with future elections and cling to power.
"There are signs, too, of a bigger and more sinister plan in motion than simply using the machinery of the federal government to ramp up deportations," Ball wrote. "More than one figure close to Trump has connected these ICE raids to bids by the President and the Republican machinery around him to cling on to power at the midterms and other future elections."
He continued: "Trump’s Attorney General, Pam Bondi, appeared to give this game away in a letter to Minnesota’s Governor, Tim Walz, in which she seemingly demanded access to the state’s voter records, asking for the power to purge voters she saw as ineligible. Under the U.S. Constitution, elections are managed by the states, not the federal government."
This letter from Bondi was followed this week by comments the president made during an appearance on a right-wing podcast, in which he asserted that elections ought to be "nationalized" in certain states, raising alarms among many lawmakers and experts that he intends to go further with his desire to control the outcomes of future elections.
Steve Bannon, the former Trump aide who maintains a prominent voice in MAGA politics, also said this week that the administration plans to deploy ICE agents to polling locations in upcoming elections. He characterized this idea as an effort to prevent election rigging — an echo of Trump's false claims about the 2020 race — while others argued that this tactic would instead be used to suppress voter turnout via intimidation. Not directly affiliated with the administration, Bannon has in recent months made several outlandish claims about Trump's future plans, including that he intends to run for an illegal third term.
"The White House has, for now, disavowed Bannon’s proposal, but that means little," Ball wrote. "Trump himself spent much of the 2024 election campaign disavowing 'Project 2025' – the radical nationalist blueprint for his second administration – only to hire one of its chief architects into his White House, and enact the plan almost in full. The President’s opponents are right to view Bannon’s plan as a very real possibility."
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AN 2 26
Led by Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, four Democratic senators on Wednesday outlined plans to reduce the costs of prescription drugs after President Donald Trump claimed he would do so—only to allow Big Pharma companies to delay negotiating lower prices and secure “zero commitments” from top executives on making lifesaving medications more affordable for millions of Americans.
“There is no greater fraud than Donald J. Trump when it comes to lower drug prices,” Wyden (D-Ore.) said. “Our doors are wide open to anybody who wants to take the bold next step forward on lowering drug costs for Americans.”
Along with a “flash report” on Trump’s “broken promises” regarding his pledge to bring drug prices down “to levels nobody ever thought was possible,” Wyden sent a Dear Colleague letter to Democratic senators regarding his committee’s plans to follow through with lowering costs.
“Finance Committee minority staff will dedicate substantial time and effort this year to developing the next generation of healthcare solutions that lower costs for American families,” Wyden wrote. “These solutions will rein in Big Pharma’s outrageous price increases, lower costs for consumers, guarantee predictability for patients, and reduce wasteful government spending that pads the profits of big corporations. Alongside the co-signers of this letter, I invite you to be a part of this bold vision.”
The letter, co-signed by Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), notes that “the only concrete drug pricing policy Trump enacted within the past year was a price hike for the biggest blockbuster cancer drugs on Earth, giving an $8.8 billion windfall to the pharmaceutical industry.”
In contrast, the senators wrote, the Senate Finance Committee will develop policies to incorporate international pricing models into the Medicare drug price negotiation framework, including by allowing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to consider international prices as a factor or penalize drugmakers when pricing for US customers exceeds international benchmarks.
“Democrats are determined to bring prices down, and we’re willing to work with anyone to find concrete ways to do it.”
The committee will also work to end Republican “blockbuster drug bailouts from negotiation,” like the ones included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that shielded several high-priced drugs—including the cancer drug Keytruda—from Medicare price negotiations.
“The Republican budget bill contained a nearly $9 billion sweetheart deal that benefits the biggest drug companies by delaying or exempting some lifesaving medications from negotiation,” reads the Democrats’ flash report.
Gallego said that “when Big Pharma gets richer off the back of a grandmother struggling to pay for cancer medication, the system is broken.”
“That’s what this is all about: Big Pharma execs sitting in their fancy corner offices profiting off of sick, working-class Americans,” the senator said. “We are not going to accept an America where millions of families live in fear of getting sick and needing to fill a prescription. We are going to fight and fight hard for a healthcare system that does what Donald Trump never did: actually lower costs for working families.”
The lawmakers emphasized that even if manufacturers are forced to lower drug prices, patients are not currently guaranteed to directly benefit, because as much as 45% of the $5.4 trillion the US spends on healthcare annually is “absorbed by middlemen such as insurers, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and drug distributors.”
“Healthcare middlemen profit when drug costs are high because they make money off of drug margin or payments that are linked to the price of a drug, ripping off patients who pay more than they should. Medicare Part D and the patients it serves should stop footing the bill for inflated drug prices and instead pay for drugs in a more transparent manner that reduces middleman margin,” wrote the senators.
The Finance Committee will develop policies to eliminate abuses in the prescription drug supply chain including “egregious drug price markups,” and to ensure that patient cost-sharing on drugs more closely aligns with the costs to plans and PBMs.
Finally, the Democrats said they would work to fix the “unmitigated disaster” that Trump and Kennedy have been “for innovation and drug development,” as the administration has proposed slashing the National Institutes of Health budget by 40% and has cut off access to treatment for an estimated 74,000 patients who were enrolled in NIH clinical trials.
The Finance Committee, they said, plans to create new incentives for innovation and drug development, including through the tax code.
In their flash report, the Democrats wrote that while failing to force Big Pharma to the negotiating table to save money for Americans, Trump “has been parading Big Pharma executives through the White House, claiming to be cutting cost-saving deals with these corporations.”
“One look under the hood reveals the truth: Trump is giving them a pass on tariffs, while receiving zero commitments about how they will lower costs for taxpayers and patients,” they wrote. “Donald Trump is getting fleeced by Big Pharma CEOs, and Americans are going to foot the bill.”
Welch said that the president “loves to talk a big game and make promises to working families about lowering prescription drug prices. But in reality, his administration is handling this like a PR problem: They’ve got to keep moving and talking about it, but then do nothing to really address the crisis.”
“Democrats are determined to bring prices down, and we’re willing to work with anyone to find concrete ways to do it,” said Welch. “We’re going to lower healthcare costs and ensure everyone can access affordable, lifesaving, and pain-relieving medication.”
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AN 2 26
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump sat down with NBC News reporter Tony Llamas for a wide-ranging interview on multiple subjects. However, Llamas often let the president lie without pushing back. Now, CNN is taking Llamas to task for not doing his job — while debunking Trump's lies.
In a Thursday article, CNN's Daniel Dale did a point-by-point fact-check of Trump's biggest lies, and admonished Llamas for doing little to counter what he called Trump's "rapid-fire dishonesty." The CNN fact-checker observed that while NBC published a fact-check of Trump's claims after the interview, Llamas himself frequently responded to Trump's outright falsehoods with "right" or "yeah," and sometimes "didn’t acknowledge them at all."
"Llamas’ hands-off approach to the president’s falsehoods left people watching the interview on television and through social media clips without immediate corrective information on a variety of pressing subjects," Dale wrote. "An exchange about inflation, for example, was littered with a bunch of inaccurate Trump figures and assertions that Llamas let pass by with the word 'right.' And in one case, when Trump claimed it’s only 'very few' product prices that have stubbornly refused to fall during this presidency, Llamas initially responded with a comment that made it sound like he was endorsing the false claim: 'Yeah, very few. I get it.'"
When it came to Trump's insistence about presiding over an increase in prices of consumer goods, Trump insisted to Llamas that the increases are limited to "very few" items. But Dale wrote that the Consumer Price Index was actually 2.7 percent higher in December 2025 compared to December 2024, and many more products have become more expensive since Trump's second term began than have become cheaper.
Dale also disputed Trump's claim to Llamas that he "inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country." The all-time highest inflation rate of 23.7 percent was actually set in 1920. And while former President Joe Biden saw the inflation rate jump as high as 9.1 percent under his watch in 2022, that was a 48-year high. Dale credited Llamas for telling Trump that Biden had to contend with the Covid-19 pandemic, which was the chief cause of high inflation rates.
Trump also told the NBC reporter that gas prices were "$1.99 a gallon" in 2026, though Dale found that the average price for a gallon of gas was $2.89 per gallon according to data published by AAA. GasBuddy head of petroleum analysis Patrick De Haan told CNN that out of more than 150,000 gas stations, only 18 to 34 offered gas prices under $2 per gallon. Dale reminded readers that Llamas' only response to Trump's claim was "yeah."
"An average over those dates would be 28 stations over the course of the week, or 0.018% of all U.S. stations. I think I’d rather find the needle in the haystack at that point," De Haan said.
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AN 2 26
After being introduced as the “Greatest of All Time,” President Donald Trump used his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast to launch a partisan attack on Democrats.
“I don’t know how a person of faith can vote for a Democrat,” he told the largely conservative Christian audience. “I really don’t.”
“And I know we have some here today, and I don’t know why they’re here, because they certainly don’t give us their vote,” he complained.
Trump then turned his sights onto voter ID.
“I certainly know that we’re not gonna be convincing them to vote for a little thing called voter ID,” the president said of Democrats.
“It polls at 97 percent,” he alleged. “And even the Democrats, the people, the voters, are at 82 percent for voter ID, but the leaders don’t want to approve it.”
“It’s polling at over 90 percent,” he claimed.
According to the Pew Research Center, majorities of both parties support voter ID, with an average of 81 percent.
Trump then attacked Democrats, alleging, “they cheat.”
He also praised himself, saying, “I’ve done more for religion than any other president,” and declared, “not too many presidents have done too much for religion.”
“They want to be neutral or against. You know, the Democrats are against” religion, he charged.
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An 2 26
President Donald Trump's administration seems very confused as to why Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was in Georgia for the FBI's raid on the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center late last month. The story has now changed four times, and twice in the past 24 hours.
The first to comment on Gabbard was Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who claimed that Gabbard just happened to be in Atlanta when the raid happened. Gabbard then said that Trump asked her personally to go to Atlanta for the raid.
In a letter she sent to Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), Gabbard wrote, "My presence was requested by the President and executed under my broad statutory authority to coordinate, integrate and analyze intelligence related to election security, including counter-intelligence, foreign and other malign influence and cybersecurity."
By Wednesday, Trump appeared to forget about it.
In a conversation with "NBC Nightly News" anchor Tom Llamas, Trump spoke about his conspiracy theory that he lost the 2020 election. Llamas asked Trump point-blank, “Why is Tulsi Gabbard there?”
“I don’t know,” Trump answered. “But a lot of the cheating comes from, it’s international cheating.”
Less than 24 hours later, Trump's story changed again.
While he was speaking to the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump gushed over Gabbard for attending the raid.
“She took a lot of heat two days ago because she went in at Pam’s insistence,” the president said, referring to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“They say, ‘why is she doing it’… because Pam wanted her to do it. And you know why? Because she’s smart," Trump added, relayed The Guardian.
Georgia lawmakers are concerned about Trump's spreading of conspiracy theories and the purpose of the Fulton County raid. Georgia’s Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to Bondi on Thursday morning, asking for specifics.
“We are deeply concerned that President Trump’s consistent spreading of misinformation and dangerous conspiracy theories about the 2020 election fundamentally undermines the electoral process, endangers election workers, and erodes public trust in our democracy,” the lawmakers wrote. “This unprecedented seizure only heightens those concerns.”
If "the Trump administration is investigating a legitimate foreign intelligence nexus," it would legally require "an immediate congressional briefing," said Sen. Raphael Warnock and Reps. Lucy McBath and Nikema Williams all Democrats from Georgia.
The search warrant that demanded "copies" of the necessary documents didn't come from a local judge. According to the lawmakers, “unusually, the warrant was filed by the U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Missouri and follows the reported firing of the Atlanta FBI special agent in charge Paul Brown after expressing concern about this search."
The Associated Press reported that Brown was ousted the week before the raid. He was overseeing the Atlanta office. MS NOW confirmed in the days that followed that the Brown was pushed out because he refused to cooperate.
The group requested a briefing from the Department of Justice “concerning this activity and its related investigation by February 13, 2026."
The statute of limitations on the case has long expired. So, the only way the administration would be able to do anything about it is if there was some kind of ongoing conspiracy, said Georgia lawyer Michael J. Moore when speaking to CNN.
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AN 2 26 LOUDERMILK
Mass exodus of Republicans continues as 30th GOP rep announces retirement from Congress
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AFRAID TO BE BOOED AT SUPERBOWL? //
AN 2 26
Profanity-laden anti-MAGA chant erupts at major pro-wrestling event
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AN 2 26
President Donald Trump's second term will enter its second year on January 20, and there is already a running tally on the number of people who have been either killed or wounded by U.S. immigration agents.
Nonprofit gun violence news outlet The Trace reported Wednesday that after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shot a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Trump administration immigration officials have so far killed four people and shot five others since Trump officially took office last year. There have also been 28 incidents in which federal agents held people at gunpoint during immigration operations, and 14 shootings.
"They include the shootings of three people observing or documenting ICE raids; the shootings of five people driving away from traffic stops or evading an enforcement action; and the September 30 raid on a Chicago apartment building, during which half-asleep tenants and their children were held at gunpoint," wrote The Trace's Jennifer Mascia.
Mascia noted one particularly controversial shooting in which U.S. citizen Marimar Martinez was shot by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in Chicago, Illinois last October. Martinez was shot five times but survived.
"I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes," read a text message from the officer who shot Martinez. "Put that in your book boys."
According to The Trace, there have also been 13 incidents in which federal immigration agents fired less-than-lethal munitions (like pepper balls and rubber bullets) at both suspects and the public. Mascia wrote that those munitions "can cause welts and burning in the lungs and eyes."
"[The Trump administration is] describing what’s happening to cities across the United States as an invasion and using language and imagery that’s evocative of war," Ohio State University law professor César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández told The Trace. "The fact that immigration agents are responding in a way that is more aggressive than what is customary cannot be divorced from the fact that the rhetoric that leading figures in the Trump administration, including the president himself, are using is far more aggressive than what is customary."
Click here to read The Trace's report in full.
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AN 2 26
Overnight court filing reveals DOJ’s latest excuse for Trump’s ballroom
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President Donald Trump recently penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal entitled "My Tariffs Have Brought America Back." A team of CNN fact-checkers are now alleging that many of the president's claims in the op-ed don't measure up to scrutiny.
In a Tuesday article, CNN's Daniel Dale, Alicia Wallace and Tami Luhby zeroed in on nine specific claims Trump made about his second term agenda, noting that they were "based in part on figures that are plain false or highly misleading, using cherry-picked beginning and ending points for various calculations to serve the president’s argument." They also wrote that some of Trump's "qualitative claims" were false.
1. Foreign investment in the US
CNN pointed out that Trump's claim of $18 trillion in foreign investment in the United States was "not only unfathomable but factually incorrect." The network observed that even the White House website quotes a $9.6 trillion figure, though that included "trillions of dollars in vague investment pledges, pledges that were about 'bilateral trade' or 'economic exchange' rather than investment in the US, and vague statements that didn’t even rise to the level of pledges."
2. High GDP growth estimates
The Trump administration has frequently touted a 4.4 percent GDP growth rate from the third quarter of 2025, and has claimed that the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta is projecting fourth-quarter growth in excess of five percent.
"While the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model was estimating fourth-quarter 2025 growth of more than 5 percent just over a week ago, the latest update from the model, released four days before Trump’s op-ed was published, was down to 4.2 percent," the fact-checkers wrote. "Also, some other estimates suggest fourth-quarter growth was lower than 4.2 percent."
3. Lowering the trade deficit
Trump claimed in his op-ed to have lowered the trade deficit by 77 percent, and that he did so "with virtually no inflation." CNN noted that Trump got that figure from "a one-time decline in October that quickly reversed in November." The 77 percent October decline was reportedly after fluctuations in the trade of gold and pharmaceutical products, which jumped 95 percent higher the following month.
"The November figure was still 56 percent lower than the January 2025 figure, but 56 percent is not 77 percent," CNN wrote.
The network further reported that Trump's starting point of January 2025 for measuring the trade deficit is misleading, as many companies went on a buying spree in expectations of the massive tariffs Trump ran on. In fact, CNN found "the overall trade deficit has been higher in 2025 than it was in 2024."
4. Stock prices since Trump's"Liberation Day" tariffs
In April of 2025, Trump announced sweeping tariffs on virtually all of the United States' trading partners. He claimed in his op-ed that since then, the stock market has "skyrocketed," with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 17 percent since April of last year. CNN reported that while that figure is accurate, Trump omitted the fact that many foreign stock exchanges have significantly out-performed the Dow in that same time frame.
"For example, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up about 47 percent, China’s SSE Composite up about 20 percent, South Korea’s Kospi Composite up about 98 percent, Canada’s S&P/TSX Composite up about 27 percent, and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 [is] up about 20 percent," CNN wrote.
5. New factory construction in the U.S.
The president argued that factory construction in the U.S. has increased by 42 percent since 2022, which CNN found curious, as the premise of his op-ed was about the tariffs he imposed last April. By the time Trump announced the "Liberation Day" tariffs, factory construction had actually gone down. And as the network reported, the bulk of that 42 percent increase happened in 2023, when former President Joe Biden was still in office. Many of those new factories were due to both the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act.
"It’s interesting (Trump) would take credit for something that transpired during the Biden administration," Associated Builders and Contractors chief economist Anirban Basu told CNN. "... That boom ends in 2025.
6. "Real wealth" during the Biden administration
Trump asserted that under Biden's presidency, the "typical" American household lost an average of "$33,000 in real wealth." But one leading economist said that figure is only accurate during one brief moment of Biden's time in office. In actuality, "real wealth increased significantly for the middle class, as well as all other groups, if you look at Biden’s presidency from beginning to end," per CNN.
"There was a dip in 2022-2023 but a clear rebound in 2024," said Nobel-winning economist Emmanuel Saez.
7. Inflation under Trump
The president wrote in his op-ed that he lowered the trade deficit with "virtually no inflation," which CNN observed was untrue, though the network said Trump's use of the word "virtually" gave him some wiggle room. Between December of 2024 and December of 2025, average consumer prices increased by roughly 2.7 percent. Trump also hammered Biden on overseeing an inflation rate of 9.1 percent, which was the highest in 40 years. However, CNN wrote that Trump's attribution of that rate to "trillions of dollars in wasteful spending" and an "extremist green energy agenda" was inaccurate.
"Inflation’s rapid ascent, which began in early 2021, was the result of a confluence of factors. Those included effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, such as snarled supply chains, and geopolitical issues, notably including Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, that caused shocks in energy and food prices," CNN wrote. "Heightened consumer demand boosted in part by pandemic-era fiscal stimulus from both the Trump and Biden administrations also led to higher prices."
Many Americans have not bought Trump's explanation for higher prices. A January CBS/YouGov poll found that 74 percent of Americans believe Trump is not focused enough on inflation, while 76 percent of respondents said their income has not kept up with the pace of inflation.
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an 2 26
Donald Trump is reportedly on the "knife-edge" of starting a new war in the Middle East, with The iPaper reporting Tuesday that officials are scrambling behind-the-scenes to stop it.
On Trump's orders, the U.S. military is currently building up a "massive" deployment of naval hardware in the Persian Gulf, the outlet explained. The president has been inching closer to an all-out conflict with Iran since bombing three of its nuclear facilities last summer. More recently, he has threatened to take military action against the Middle Eastern nation in response to reports that the government has brutally cracked down on recent nationwide protests, allegedly killing thousands in the process.
“If we don’t make a deal, we’ll see what happens," Trump said of the situation on Friday.
In its report from Tuesday, The iPaper laid out the efforts underway to stop a war between the U.S. and Iran from breaking out. On Friday, Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, took a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Upon his return to Tehran, he reportedly took another meeting with Qatari Prime Minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, with The iPaper reporting that the PM was there to deliver a "final warning" from the U.S.
Despite Trump's recent rhetoric about Iran's treatment of protesters, the tension between the two nations is still dominated by nuclear matters.
"Iran’s stockpile and the possibility of enriching more uranium in future are key points of contention for the U.S.," The iPaper explained. "Last year, the International Atomic Energy Agency raised 'serious concerns' that Iran was enriching uranium to 60 per cent – a short step from the roughly 90 per cent needed for weapons-grade. Reports have suggested that since the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites last summer, Iran has been trying to rebuild those sites deeper underground. Any US talks are bound to demand significant concessions on Iran’s nuclear program."
After a meeting with Iranian officials, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly contacted the Trump administration to offer Turkiye's help in facilitating negotiations with Iran. As of Tuesday, the White House had not responded to the offer.
Trump's persistent threats of military action against various foreign nations have been a major departure from his 2024 campaign, where he promised to keep the country out of more costly conflicts. This reversal has been a significant factor in his plummeting approval ratings, especially among Gen Z voters, who do not want to have to fight in Trump's wars.
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NO LNX
Newly unmasked evidence shows who put Trump in the White House
Thom Hartmann February 04, 2026
The British newspaper Daily Mail is out with a deeply researched investigative report, the result of a long collaboration between columnists Glen Owen and Dan Hodges, along with Mark Hookham (Assistant Editor Investigations), and Daisy Graham-Brown (Investigative Reporter).
It’s shocking in its detail and its implication that Vladimir Putin has basically owned Donald Trump for years, even before Trump ran for president in 2016.
They note of last week’s partial (about 50 percent) Epstein document release:
“The files include 1,056 documents naming Russian President Vladimir Putin and 9,629 referring to Moscow. [Jeffrey] Epstein even seems to have secured audiences with Putin after his 2008 conviction for procuring a child for prostitution.”
Essentially, they’re arguing that Epstein was running an operation on behalf of the KGB/Putin that lured wealthy and powerful men to Epstein’s New York and Palm Beach mansions and his island where they were surreptitiously filmed having sex with underage girls.
That material was then presumably passed along to Putin, who used it for leverage when he needed it:
“Intelligence sources believe Epstein was running ‘the world’s largest honeytrap operation’ on behalf of the KGB when he procured women for his network of associates.”
In return for giving Putin videos of wealthy, famous men in criminally compromising positions, Putin reportedly arranged for massive amounts of corrupt Russian money to be handed to Epstein to launder in the US.
Such money typically comes from illicit drug and oil deals, outright theft, sanctions evasions, and Russian organized crime oligarchs (including Putin and his associates) and is frequently laundered in this country using real estate. It’s the Mafia’s favorite, too.
America has the most lax and largely useless real estate transaction laws in the developed world, so a main way to launder such dirty cash is through cash-based real estate transactions (which are illegal in almost every other developed country).
And we know that Trump and his sons, when US and European banks refused to loan him any more money after his multiple bankruptcies, started taking in enough money to ensure the survival of his little real estate empire and it was all coming from Russia.
As Don Jr. told wealthy attendees to a 2008 real-estate conference:
“In terms of high-end product influx into the U.S., Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.”
Similarly, Eric Trump told a friend, who later testified about it:
“‘Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.’ I said, ‘Really?’ And he said, ‘Oh, yeah. We’ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they’re really invested in our programs. We just go there all the time.’”
This is one of the reasons Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the Ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee (that oversees US banking) has been demanding access to Epstein’s finances and even introduced legislation (the Produce Epstein Treasury Records Act) to require that disclosure, which Republicans are currently blocking.
That alone is worth a call to your two US senators.
The documents released last week included a series of email conversations between Epstein and senior European officials close to Putin. This is way beyond Gary Hart and Monkey Business; this is the President of the United States being in the pocket of a foreign power and profiting from it. They pretty much openly suggest Epstein knew about ways to “handle” Trump:
“Other messages revealed Epstein claimed he could give the Kremlin valuable insight into Mr Trump ahead of a summit with Putin in Helsinki. …“In a June 2018 exchange, Epstein indicated that Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, ‘understood Trump after our conversations.’ …
“Earlier that month Epstein had also messaged Steve Bannon, a Trump ally, to tell him Mr Jagland was due to meet Putin and Lavrov and was then staying overnight with him at his mansion in Paris.” [Emphasis added]
Epstein, of course, died under deeply suspicious circumstances in jail while Trump was president (and now Epstein’s partner in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell, has been moved to a country club type of facility where she reportedly spends the days training puppies). As Republican consultant Harlan Hill noted on Twitter at the time of Epstein’s supposed suicide:
“Dead men tell no tales. Just as Jeffrey Epstein starts to name names, he decides to kill himself? Mkay. Totally believable.”
So, if Epstein had given Putin video of Trump having sex with underage girls, and Trump knows it and has for decades, how might that have changed Trump’s behavior?
Might it provoke him to hang a photo of Putin in the White House?
Or go along with Putin’s daily slaughter of Ukrainian children?
Give Putin’s top diplomat information that burned a spy and an anti-Russia operation?
Tell the world that he trusts Putin over the US intelligence services?
Put a Putin-friendly conspiracy fan in charge of all US intelligence?
Severely damage NATO, a perpetual thorn in Putin’s side?
Shatter our alliances with the EU and other democratic nations in ways that may well last for generations?
Refuse to make America’s dues payments to the UN, causing that body to have to shut down, perhaps permanently, this summer?
Steal US intelligence secrets, including top-secret nuclear information, and put it in a place where Russian spies or their associates can easily access and photocopy it?
Unleash ICE in a way that turns Americans against each other leading to the “Second US Civil War” that Russian media and Putin’s #2 man (Medvedev) have been gleefully predicting?
Gut America’s soft power around the world by shutting down USAID, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands mostly children, in the Third World while opening opportunities for Putin and Xi to pick them up as new alliances?
In 2019 The Washington Post revealed that, throughout his first presidency, Donald Trump was having secret phone conversations with Putin (over 20 have been identified so far, including one just days before the 2020 election).
The Moscow Project from the American Progress Action Fund documents more than 270 known contacts between Russia-linked operatives and members of the Trump campaign and transition team, as well as at least 38 known meetings, all just leading up to the 2016 election.
The manager of his 2016 campaign, Paul Manafort — who was previously paid tens of millions by Vladimir Putin’s people to install a pro-Putin puppet as Ukraine’s president in 2010 — has admitted that he was regularly feeding secret inside-campaign strategy and polling information to Russian intelligence via the oligarch who typically paid him on their behalf.
Throughout the campaign, he regularly let Russia know where Trump needed specific types of help, and how, and when.
With that help, an army of bots, shills, and trolls were unleashed on social media to successfully swing the young white male vote toward Trump.
Trump pardoned Manafort, which got him out of prison. He’s still fabulously rich from his work for Russia and his unpaid efforts to elect Trump.
As The New York Times noted in 2020:
“[I]nvestigators found enough there to declare that Mr. Manafort created ‘a grave counterintelligence threat’ by sharing inside information about the presidential race with Mr. Kilimnik and the Russian and [pro-Russian] Ukrainian oligarchs whom he served.”
There is no known parallel to this behavior by any president in American history — one could argue it easily exceeds Benedict Arnold’s audacity — and criminally bringing stolen top secret documents to Mar-a-Lago is just the tip of the iceberg.
The Washington Post reported that Trump had a habit of carrying top-secret information that could severely damage our national security, leaving it in hotel rooms in hostile nations.
Was he bringing these documents with him to sell? Or just to show to leaders or oligarchs in those countries to impress them? Or because Putin told him to?
Trump doesn’t put all that effort into hauling things around unless he’s terrified.
“Boxes of documents even came with Trump on foreign travel,” The Post noted, “following him to hotel rooms around the world — including countries considered foreign adversaries of the United States.”
When Robert Mueller’s team tried to investigate Trump’s ties to Russia and his possibly sharing sensitive military information with Putin, they were stonewalled.
The Mueller Report identified ten specific instances of Trump trying to obstruct the investigation, including offering the bribe of a pardon to Paul Manafort, asking FBI Director Comey to “go easy” on General Flynn after Flynn’s dinner with Putin, and directing Attorney General Jeff Sessions to limit Mueller’s ability to investigate Trump’s connections to Russia.
As the Mueller Report noted:
“The President launched public attacks on the investigation and individuals involved in it who could possess evidence adverse to the President, while in private the President engaged in a series of targeted efforts to control the investigation.“For instance, the President attempted to remove the Attorney General; he sought to have Attorney General Sessions un-recuse himself and limit the investigation; he sought to prevent public disclosure of information about the June 9, 2016 meeting between Russians and campaign officials; and he used public forums to attack potential witnesses who might offer adverse information and to praise witnesses who declined to cooperate with the government.”
It adds, detailing Trump’s specific Obstruction of Justice crimes:
“These actions ranged from efforts to remove the Special Counsel and to reverse the effect of the Attorney General’s recusal; to the attempted use of official power to limit the scope of the investigation; to direct and indirect contacts with witnesses with the potential to influence their testimony.”
There are, after all, credible assertions from American intelligence that when Trump was elected, members of Russian intelligence and Putin’s inner circle were literally partying in Moscow, celebrating a victory they believed they made happen.
And apparently Putin and his intelligence operatives had good reason to be popping the champagne in November, 2016. They were quickly paid off in a big way.
In his first months in office, Trump outed an Israeli spy to the Russian Ambassador in what he thought was going to be a “secret Oval Office meeting” (the Russians released the photo to the press), resulting in MOSAD having to “burn” that spy.
The undercover agent was apparently working in Syria that year against the Russians, who were embroiled in the midst of Assad’s Civil War and indiscriminately bombing Aleppo into rubble (creating a brown-skinned refugee crisis in Europe, which both Putin and Orbán exploited).
That, in turn, prompted the CIA to worry that a longtime American spy buried deep in the Kremlin was similarly vulnerable to Trump handing him over to Putin.
As CNN noted (when the story leaked two years later):
“The source was considered the highest level source for the US inside the Kremlin, high up in the national security infrastructure, according to the source familiar with the matter and a former senior intelligence official.“According to CNN’s sources, the spy had access to Putin and could even provide images of documents on the Russian leader’s desk.”
The CIA concluded that the risk Trump had burned or was about to burn our spy inside the Kremlin was so great that — at massive loss to US intelligence abilities that may even have otherwise helped forestall the invasion of Ukraine — they pulled our spy out of Russia in the first year of Trump’s presidency, 2017.
Similarly, when they met in Helsinki on July 16, 2018, Trump and Putin talked in private for several hours and Trump ordered his translators’ notes destroyed; there is also concern that much of their conversation was done out of the hearing of the US’s translator (Putin is fluent in English) who may have been relegated to a distant part of the rather large empty ballroom in which they met.
The Washington Post reported, after a leak six months later, that when Trump met privately for those two hours with Putin the CIA went into “panic mode.” A US intelligence official told the Post:
“There was this gasp’ at the CIA’s Langley, Virginia headquarters. You literally had people in panic mode watching it at Langley. On all floors. Just shock.”
Three weeks after Trump’s July 16, 2018 meeting with Putin in Helsinki, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) made a solo trip to Moscow to personally hand-deliver a document or package of documents from Trump to Putin. Its contents are still unknown, although Paul told the press it was a “personal” letter of some sort.
Paul has also consistently taken Trump’s and Putin’s side with regard to the Ukraine war: he single-handedly blocked a $40 billion military aid package in the Senate. When the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, he responded with a call for the repeal of the Espionage Act, which Jack Smith was prepared to charge Trump under. Paul further suggested the FBI may have “planted” Secret documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Ten days after Paul’s trip to Moscow, The New York Times reported that the CIA was worried because their sources inside Moscow had suddenly “gone silent”:
“The full reasons the sources have gone silent are not known,” the Times reported, but Trump having intentionally burned a man working for the FBI — whose job at that time was to find and reveal Russian agents involved in or close to the Trump campaign — may also have had something to do with it:
“[C]urrent and former officials said the exposure of sources inside the United States has also complicated matters,” noted the Times. “This year, the identity of an F.B.I. informant, Stefan Halper, became public after [Trump-loyal MAGA Republican] House lawmakers sought information on him and the White House allowed the information to be shared. Mr. Halper, an American academic based in Britain, had been sent to talk to Trump campaign advisers who were under F.B.I. scrutiny for their ties to Russia.”
Things were picking up the following year, in 2019, as Putin was planning his invasion of Ukraine while Trump was preparing for the 2020 election.
In July 2019, Trump had conversations with five foreign leaders during and just before a presidential visit that month to Mar-a-Lago; they included Putin and the Emir of Qatar.
In one of those conversations, according to a high-level US Intelligence source, Trump “made promises” to a “world leader” that were so alarming it provoked a national security scramble across multiple agencies.
As The Washington Post noted in an article titled “Trump’s communications with foreign leader are part of whistleblower complaint that spurred standoff between spy chief and Congress”:
“Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson determined that the complaint [against Trump] was credible and troubling enough to be considered a matter of ‘urgent concern,’ a legal threshold that requires notification of congressional oversight committees.”
On the last day of that month, July 31, Trump had another private conversation with Putin.
The White House spokespeople told Congress and the press that Trump said that he and Putin discussed “wildfires” and “trade between the nations.” No droids in this car…
But the following week, on August 2nd, The Daily Beast’s Betsy Swan reported that Trump had that week asked the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for a list of all its employees (including all our “spies”) who had worked there more than 90 days, and the request had intelligence officials experiencing “disquiet.”
Perhaps just by coincidence, months after Trump left office with cases of classified documents, The New York Times ran a story with the headline Captured, Killed or Compromised: C.I.A. Admits to Losing Dozens of Informants:
“Top American counterintelligence officials warned every C.I.A. station and base around the world last week,” the Times’ story’s lede began, “about troubling numbers of informants recruited from other countries to spy for the United States being captured or killed, people familiar with the matter said.“The message, in an unusual top secret cable, said that the C.I.A.’s counterintelligence mission center had looked at dozens of cases in the last several years involving foreign informants who had been killed, arrested or most likely compromised. Although brief, the cable laid out the specific number of agents executed by rival intelligence agencies — a closely held detail that counterintelligence officials typically do not share in such cables.”
In the years since, Trump continues to maintain a close relationship with Putin; most recently he revealed that he’d asked “a favor” of the Russian dictator to “pause” his murderous, war-crime bombing of civilian infrastructure in Ukraine “for one week.” Putin, being in the power position, chose to laugh at Trump and continued his assault on the nation, although he did throw Trump a bone by pausing his hits on Kiev for a few days.
These aren’t just “a few bad judgment calls” or a president with “strange foreign policy instincts.” These stories (and literally hundreds of others) point to a man who’s behaved, consistently and predictably, like someone under leverage, someone whose personal fear of exposure of some sort of major crime — like the ones we know Epstein was holding over other billionaires — outweighs his loyalty to the nation he swore to serve.
If Americans don’t demand real investigations, genuine accountability, and impeachment and jail time for what sure looks like the greatest counterintelligence failure in our history, we may lose what’s left of our democracy before the 2028 elections can fix things.
If Democrats can take control of either branch of Congress and if Schumer and Jeffries get spine transplants and begin a serious investigation into Trump’s destruction of the United States and our historic role in the world, they’ll have enough to keep them busy for years.
This is not about politics or personality. It’s about whether a country can survive being led by someone who looks captured and compromised by a foreign power. If even half of this is true, then staying quiet is the same as going along with it.
We must demand real investigations and real consequences, or accept that the presidency can be bought, blackmailed, and used against the country itself.
Let your elected officials know your thoughts on this, and don’t forget to demand your elected Republicans step up and defend America, too. You can reach your member of Congress and both your Senators via the congressional switchboard at: (202) 224-3121.
See you in the streets on March 28th!
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AN 2 26
Tulsi Gabbard is said to be conducting her own "solo" investigation into the 2020 election, according to a new report from The Guardian, one of multiple investigations currently underway as Donald Trump's obsession with his reelection loss nearly six years ago ramps back up.
On Friday, FBI agents conducted a raid at an election center in Fulton County, Georgia, seizing records and ballots related to the 2020 election. This came not long after comments from Trump indicating that he was ramping up his focus on the false claims that the election, which he lost to Joe Biden, was stolen from him due to widespread fraud.
Gabbard, meanwhile, generated headlines, confusion and controversy when she was spotted at the site of the raid, for reasons that were not clear. As the Director of National Intelligence, her focus would typically be far from issues pertaining to the FBI, especially since she otherwise lacks any sort of law enforcement experience.
According to a Wednesday report from The Guardian, three officials with knowledge of the matter said that Gabbard is conducting her own parallel investigation of Trump's accusations of voter fraud in 2020. One of the sources said simply, "She’s doing her own thing." This, the report argued, suggests the increased scope and focus that Trump's 2020 obsession is now taking up.
Gabbard has reportedly been briefing Trump and other "senior White House advisers" about her investigation on a weekly basis. The president was reported to have specifically requested that she be present for the raid to observe it. Administration officials had previously claimed that Gabbard had just so happened to be in Atlanta when the operation took place.
"The parallel investigations into the 2020 election underscore the extent to which it has returned as a priority for the president," the outlet explained. "And Gabbard being sent to the raid showed the interest on voting machine manipulation claims that Trump has cited as evidence the election was stolen. The review led by the office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI), authorized on the basis that it is assessing election integrity, has been focused for months on potential vulnerabilities in voting machines and the possibility of foreign interference."
Trump's renewed focus on his 2020 loss gained significant attention during his address to the World Economic Forumin Davos two weeks ago, where he falsely claimed that his accusations had been proven and threatened that prosecutions would begin shortly.
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AN 2 26
President Donald Trump has frequently had to answer for one of his top advisors, who has angered everyone from ordinary Americans, to Republican senators and even CEOs of public traded corporations. However, the president has yet to take any concrete action to limit his influence and power.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller – who has been a key member of Trump's inner circle since his first administration – is an increasingly divisive figure in the president's second term. Trump's hardline immigration enforcement tactics seen in Minneapolis and Chicago are the brainchild of Miller, who convinced the president to center his 2024 campaign on immigration rather than the economy.
However, the Trump administration's actions in Minneapolis – which include the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti — have put Miller in the spotlight. After Pretti was killed, the deputy White House chief of staff asserted that Pretti was an "assassin" wanted to do "maximum damage to law enforcement." This is despite ample video evidence showing the 37 year-old ICU nurse never reached for his gun, let alone threatened federal agents.
The Journal's Josh Dawsey and Tarini Parti wrote in their report that "cracks have appeared" in the Oval Office, as the administration faces mounting pressure over its heavy-handed tactics.
"The president, aware of polls showing that much of his immigration agenda isn’t popular, has told advisers he wasn’t comfortable with how far Miller has gone on some fronts, according to people who have spoken with Trump," the Journal reported. "The president has said that business officials are calling and complaining to him about longtime workers being thrown out of the country."
Miller has also attracted the ire of Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has called on both Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to be fired. The retiring Republican senator accused both Miller and Noem of taking Trump's strongest issue and turning it into a liability for Republicans ahead of the midterms.
"That is amateur hour at its worst,” Tillis said, adding, “Stephen Miller never fails to live up to my expectations of incompetence.”
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3 ART SAME DAY AN 2 26
CNN is reporting that the real reason President Donald Trump announced the two-year renovation project for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is more about upcoming shows than about the project itself.
Host Dana Bash announced on her show Monday that there wouldn't be much programming to announce for Trump's newly renamed theater.
Several actors, singers, bands, composers, comedians and other performers are withdrawing from show commitments because they don't support Trump. After Trump announced that the center would be closing, he was ridiculed on social media.
"The Kennedy Center does not have a 2026 2027 season," a source told Bash. "There would not have been any programming to announce."
The move comes after Trump made himself the chairman of the Kennedy Center board, fired several others on the board and replaced them with loyalists. Trump then ordered new letters to change the name to the Trump-Kennedy Center and the board voted to affirm the name change.
Democrats note that because Congress established the xenter by law, the name cannot be changed unless it is also by law.
White House Associated Press reporter Michelle Price said closing the center is an interesting move because most of the renovations Trump wanted were not expected to require closing the entire building. Trump even boasted on Truth Social that he could have done all of his renovations without disruption, such as updating the upholstery and redoing the carpet.
"But we got to the point where the list of cancellations was longer than the list of people" performing, she noted.
"And it seems that something has changed in the last few days that he is pushing for this change now to close it for two years," said Price.
Last week, Trump's head of the Kennedy Center quit after just two weeks on the job.
The Kennedy Center audience is typically made up of people who live in the tri-state area of Washington D.C., Virginia and Maryland. Those cities have all rejected Trumpism both in elections and in protests.
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AN 2 26
Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has accelerated his use of the presidency to enrich himself in unprecedented new ways compared to his first term. A new analysis from The Nation argues it all comes down to his discovery that "nobody cared."
In a piece from Monday, The Nation's Jeet Heer compared the scale of Trump's kickbacks and corruption during his two terms in office and found stark differences. This is not because the president is greedier, as Heer argued that the escalation has been driven by Trump now having the "imagination and connections" to extract wealth from the White House "on a grand scale."
"It’s now clear that, in the grand scheme of things, Trump’s first-term corruption was penny-ante, involving tens of millions of dollars rather than billions," Heer explained. "It’s not that Trump was less greedy; he simply lacked the imagination and connections to realize how the presidency could really be milked on a grand scale."
He continued: "But his four years out of office allowed him to remake his business empire, moving into realms like social media (with Truth Social) and cryptocurrency (with World Liberty Financial, founded in September 2024 with the Trump family owning 75 percent). During these years, the Trump family also deepened its ties to the wealthy elites of Middle Eastern petro-states such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). These shifts allowed Trump to move from being a relatively small-scale con man to his current position as perhaps the most corrupt elected official in human history."
Heer also highlighted a quote from an interview Trump did last month with the New York Times, in which he, usually "not given to regret," said that he ought to have gotten more for himself business-wise during his first term, and revealed why he now thinks that way.
"I found out that nobody cared. I’m allowed to," Trump told the Times. "You know, George Washington, when he was president… had two desks. He had a business desk and he had a president desk, and he did both. It’s OK to do that."
Heer noted that this alleged anecdote about the first president is one that Trump has been fond of repeating over the years, and that "it won’t shock anyone to find out that it is nonsense." According to a CNN fact-check, while Washington did continue to own and manage land while in office, numerous historians said that the claim about two desks is "baseless."
“It’s an absurd allegation, basically,” Elizabeth Cobbs, a history professor at Texas A&M University and senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, told CNN. “Certainly, every one of the founders had personal property that they maintained while they were in office. Whether they kept their materials in a separate desk or not is irrelevant.”
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RWW
02/02/2026
by
- David Badash @ The New Civil Rights Movement: Trump to Bongino: ‘Republicans Ought to Nationalize the Voting’
President Donald Trump called into the podcast of his former Deputy FBI Director, Dan Bongino, and said that Republicans should “nationalize” the voting process, especially in fifteen “crooked” states, while insisting that undocumented immigrants are voting in America.
- David Edwards @ Raw Story: 'Grifter bums': Ex-FBI deputy Dan Bongino returns to air with obscene attack on enemies
During his Monday program, Bongino lashed out at the people he perceived as his enemies while he was working for the FBI.
- Perry Stein and Beth Reinhard @ The Washington Post: Justice Dept. demotes Ed Martin, stripping Trump ally of most authority
Martin will no longer head the Justice Department task force that pushed investigations into Trump’s foes.
- Alex Nguyen @ Mother Jones: Texas Democrat Flips State Senate District That Trump Won by 17 PointS
“This overperformance is a warning sign to Republicans across the country.”
- Jake Lahut @ New York Magazine: Nancy Mace Is Not Okay
“Something’s broken. The motherboard’s fried. We’re short-circuiting somewhere.”
- Alex Griffing @ Mediaite: Bombshell Report on Trump’s ‘Secret Deal With UAE’s ‘Spy Sheikh’ Rocks Political World: ‘Unprecedented and Mind-Boggling’
The Wall Street Journal dropped a bombshell report over the weekend on what it dubbed an “unprecedented” deal between a foreign country and an incoming U.S. president, in this case, the United Arab Emirates and Donald Trump.
- Kelli Wessinger and Noel King @ Vox: You may not like what comes after Charlie Kirk
His followers are drifting toward Nick Fuentes, his onetime nemesis.
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an 1 26
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MMA
Right-wing media’s cynicism about climate leaves out ongoing global success of renewables
Special ProgramsClimate & Energy
Written by Ilana Berger
Published 02/02/26
Right-wing media are suggesting that the energy transition has permanently fallen out of favor as a global priority, evidenced by business leaders’ and governments’ rapid shift in focus toward artificial intelligence. But other recent milestones and ambitious projects signal that long-term interest in climate action is still very much alive.
At the World Economic Forum’s annual convening of elites in Davos, for instance, which has championed corporate climate ambitions for the past several years, right-wing media claimed the message this year was that renewable energy “literally cannot be used.”
Although it’s true that U.S. financial companies such as BlackRock — whose CEO, Larry Fink, headed this year’s conference — have largely abandoned net zero goals, and the Trump administration, which has encouraged fossil fuel expansion abroad, brought thatattitude to the conference, conversations about the clean energy transition continued to take place at Davos.
And reporting from The Wall Street Journal and CNBC demonstrate that business leaders are still talking about renewables, and the European Union just hit “‘a major tipping point’ of the clean energy era” according to The Guardian, with renewables generating “30% of the EU’s electricity in 2025” compared to just 29% from coal, oil, and gas.
The Trump administration pushed its fossil fuel agenda at Davos
- In a “free wheeling special address” to the World Economic Forum, Trump said that “windmills” are “losers” and “the more windmills a country has, the more money that country loses and the worse that country is doing.”Trump has spread misinformation about wind energy for years. He also falsely claimed during the Davos speech that he has not “been able to find any wind farms in China.” According to PolitiFact, “China has about 44% of the world’s wind farm capacity, ranking No. 1 globally and almost triple what the U.S. has.” CNBC, [1/23/26; PolitiFact, 1/21/26; Media Matters, 10/2/23]
- The Financial Times wrote that during a speech at a private dinner hosted by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick “told his audience that the world should focus on coal as an energy source rather than renewables.” Financial Times, [1/21/26]
- According to The New York Times, at Davos, “the focus on climate and stopping biodiversity loss has taken a backseat” where it was once “a center for the corporate climate movement.” The shift can largely be attributed to “pushback from Republicans, the fallout from the war in Ukraine and the return of President Trump to the White House,” David Gelles wrote for The New York Times. Instead, “Panels on AI, the energy transition, and industrial reinvention were packed. Private discussions focused on expansion, deployment, and long-term prospects,” wrote CNBC. The New York Times, [1/22/26; CNBC, 1/24/26]
- While the conference has historically touted a focus on corporate sustainability, it has been rife with greenwashing and false climate solutions for years.The New Republic noted of Davos in recent years: “Oil companies were formal partners for the event, which was marketed as being carbon-neutral while it involved a bunch of corporate and governmental executives flying via private jet to an Alpine town whose signature sport climate change is currently decimating. The confab hyped ‘solutions’ like carbon credits and carbon capture that would allow corporations to keep polluting as usual—even as rigorous reporting showed a lot of carbon credits weren’t backed by real reductions and carbon capture wasn’t yet feasible at scale.” The New Republic, [1/23/26]
Right-wing media suggest climate solutions are no longer relevant, often citing Davos
- On Fox Business, climate skeptic Marc Morano said that Davos was a sign that Trump has “completely obliterated the entire climate agenda.” “This just goes to show you that the entire climate agenda, within one year of Donald Trump getting to work, … has just decimated it,” Morano said. Fox Business, *The Bottom Line*, [1/23/26; Fox News Primetime, 8/9/21]
- On One America News, Morano told host Dan Ball, “Even the billionaire class is departing from the climate agenda, including Michael Bloomberg. Washington Post editorial [board] has been doing anti-Green New Deal-type editorials.” One America News, *Real America with Dan Ball*, [1/27/26]
- On Newsmax, Morano and host Carl Higbie discussed how climate change is “nowhere to be found” at Davos and has “dropped down off the list” of priorities. Higbie said Morano “laid out that the global elites have dropped the doom and gloom of [the] climate agenda, largely because it doesn't fit with their billionaire agenda when they fly in on their private jets. … This was like the center of their agenda and now it's nowhere to be found.” Morano claimed, “They did a survey of World Economic Forum members before this conference started, and climate has just dropped down off the list. It's so bad.” Newsmax, *Carl Higbie Frontline*, [1/22/26]
- Fox host Greg Gutfeld said that Trump made the climate agenda “irrelevant.”On The Five, Gutfeld said, “Wherever Trump goes, wherever that place is is kind of rendered permanently different. Sometimes even irrelevant. … Look at the climate agenda, look at the trans movement. Davos falls into the same pattern. It looks like another small town leveled by the orange tornado.” Fox News, *The Five*, [1/22/26]
- RedState headline: “Davos Ditches Climate: Elites Now Eyeing Economy Instead.”The right-wing outlet wrote that “this year in Davos … interest in all things climate seemed to be nearing an all-time low,” claiming that “the general run of citizens - you know, the people who elect a lot of the ‘elites’ at Davos - are a lot more worried about the price of eggs than their carbon footprints.” RedState, [1/22/26]
- Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy said that while the network typically mocks “all the private planes that come into Davos,” 2026 “feels very different from other years” because “nothing starts until President Trump arrives — until daddy's home, as so many people say.” Campos-Duffy noted that Fox News usually mocks “all the private planes that come into Davos because, of course, this is the elite globalist crowd that will tell you you can't travel in your car, you shouldn't take a plane, and actually wants to limit your ability to take long-haul flights as they fly in privately.” She added, “Here you have this global conference where President Trump is about to blow it up in terms of his negotiations and stands, and yet nothing starts until he arrives. … President Trump is the leader that everyone is — that everything hinges on.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [1/21/26]
- On Infowars,War Roomhost Harrison Smith said, “It’s kind of weird how the World Economic Forum and the Davos meeting used to be so into climate change. Remember how they would talk about nothing but climate change for a long time, and now this year it’s like not even a concern?”Infowars, *War Room*, [1/20/26]
- Fox News headline: “Conservative groups declare 2025 a tipping point on ‘climate hysteria’ as Trump unleashes energy agenda.”The report highlighted several fossil-fuel advocacy groups that outlined “2025 as a pivotal year in trading climate activism for energy production and economic realism.” It also quoted American Energy Institute CEO Jason Isaac’s claim that “governments, investors, and even climate activists are abandoning the hysteria and choosing energy security, affordability, reliability, and common sense. President Trump led this shift by putting America’s energy strength first.” Fox News Digital, [12/19/25; E&E News, 2/28/25; Energy & Policy Institute, 8/5/24; Daily Kos, 11/2/22]
- Right-wing media celebrated a November 2025 memo from Bill Gates, claiming that he flipped on climate change and no longer thinks it is important.In the memo, Gates wrote that climate change will have “serious consequences” but that he does not think it will “lead to humanity’s demise.” Right-wing media presented Gates’ comments to argue that climate change is not a concern and never has been. Media Matters, [11/14/25]
Recent reporting shows continued global interest in renewable energy expansion
- In 2025, wind and solar generation exceeded fossil fuel generation in the European Union, according to a report from the U.K. think tank Ember Energy.“Wind and solar generated a record 30% of EU electricity, higher than fossil power for the first time on record,” which generated 29%, the report said. Ember Energy, [1/22/26]
- The U.K. and nine other European countries just announced plans to build 100 gigawatts of offshore wind power in the North Sea, enough to power 143 million homes. The governments signed a declaration that promises “to collectively build 5GW of offshore wind capacity every year between 2031 and 2040 by helping to support private sector investments.” The Guardian, [1/26/26]
- The CEO of German insurance and asset manager company Allianz, Oliver Bäte, told CNBC that “he disagreed with the suggestion that it may just be a matter of time before net zero is dismissed in Europe, saying short-term thinking on this issue is ‘bulls---.’” “Asked about political leaders backtracking on their much-vaunted European Green New Deal and Norway’s oil fund reportedly defending a push from companies to water down their climate goals, Bäte said anyone who has children ‘will have to worry’ about the planet’s future.” CNBC, [1/22/26]
- In a Davos interview with The Wall Street Journal, Fortescue Metals Group CEO Andrew Forrest, said he was surprised that green energy and sustainability have been dropped from the agenda because renewable energy has allowed him to “compete with the rest of the world” and “deliver … the lowest cost product.” He also told the Journal, “I’m saying to all of my fellow leaders in business and politics, to say, Hey, you are your values. … If you drop your values just because there’s pressure on them or people don’t agree with them or you get political pushback, then, well, who actually are you?” The Wall Street Journal, [1/21/26]
- The CEO of one of the world’s largest iron ore mining companies, Forrest has been vocal about keeping climate goals relevant and “convened three private meetings with between 20 and 50 CEOs” on the topic at Davos, according to Axios. Forrest acknowledged that other leaders “fear retribution” from Trump, but told Axios, “Everyone cares what the economics are, and the economics are going straight to green energy.” Axios, [1/27/26]
- Recapping the event, The World Economic Forum wrote, “Davos in 2026 will be remembered as a week when geopolitics owned the stage – yet the climate and nature crisis persisted in the wings.” Ester Baiget, co-chair of WEF’s Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders and CEO of Novonesis, a Danish biotech company, said during the convening, “Business-smart is climate-smart – they are two sides of the same coin.” Leaders spoke about the plummeting price of renewable energy and energy storage, the global electric vehicle transition, and the importance of getting ahead of climate change tipping points that will “self-amplify warming and undermine the basis for stable economies.” World Economic Forum, [1/30/26; Climate Home News, 1/21/26]
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MMA
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AN 2 26
Trump’s gold smartphone company just hit another roadblock
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AN 2 26
With the United States' 2026 midterms a little over nine months away, President Donald Trump's low approval ratings are a major source of anxiety for GOP strategists. And a series of Democratic election victories has them worried as well.
The latest came on Saturday night, January 30 in a special election for a Texas State Senate seat in the Ft. Worth suburbs. Donald Trump carried that district by 17 percent in 2024, but on January 30, Democratic nominee Taylor Rehmet defeated Republican Leigh Wambsganss (who Trump endorsed) by 14 percent.
But one thing Trump isn't lacking in the 2026 midterms is a huge political war chest.
In an article published on February 1, Politico's Jessica Piper reports that the amount of money Trump has raised is "unprecedented" in U.S. history.
"Donald Trump's political war chest grew dramatically in the second half of 2025, according to new campaign finance disclosures submitted late Saturday, giving him an unprecedented amount of money for a term-limited president to influence the midterms and beyond," Piper explains. "Trump raised $26 million through his joint fundraising committee in the back half of last year, and another $8 million directly into his leadership PAC. And a super PAC linked to him has more than $300 million in the bank."
Piper continues, "All together, a web of campaign accounts, some of which he controls directly and others under the care of close allies, within the president’s orbit have $375 million in their coffers. The funds far outstrip those of any other political figure — Republican or Democrat — entering 2026, and have no real historical precedent. And Trump could put them to use this year for the midterms, or to shape future elections, even as he cannot run for president again."
According to Piper, Trump "continues to outpace any other Republican in raising money, both from large and small-dollar donors."
"His joint fundraising committee — Trump National Committee, which pools fundraising for a variety of Trump-aligned groups — accounted for 1 in 8 dollars raised on WinRed, the primary Republican online fundraising platform, during the second half of 2025, according to a Politico analysis," Piper reports. "And no super PAC raised even half as much in 2025 as the $289 million from MAGA Inc., the Trump-aligned super PAC that both the president and Vice President J.D. Vance appeared at fundraisers for last year. Trump has given few clues as to how he might put the funds to use."
Piper adds, "Trump National Committee primarily sends funds to the president's leadership PAC, Never Surrender, with a bit of money also going to the Republican National Committee and (Vice President JD) Vance's leadership PAC, Working For Ohio."
Trumps's "massive war chest," according to Piper, makes him a "political force" who is "independent of the traditional party infrastructure."
"The RNC (Republican National Committee) — which derives a significant portion of its fundraising from Trump — had $95 million in the bank at the end of the year, roughly a quarter of what the Trump-linked groups have," Piper observes. "And their rivals at the Democratic National Committee are far worse off — at just over $14 million, while owing more than $17 million in debt."
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AN 1 26
Gingrich calls on Trump admin to stop 'behaving like a mob'
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AN 1 26
Walmart directly debunks Trump's 'wildly inaccurate' claim
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AN 1 26 ALEX PRETTI POST
George Will calls for Supreme Court to halt Trump’s overreach
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AN 1 26
Kicking off what is expected to be a weekly campaign-style tour of the nation to promote his agenda ahead of the November midterms, President Donald Trump engaged in what CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale described as an “alternative reality” of “piling lie upon lie” for his Iowa audience.
“You know, inflation we’ve solved; it’s done,” Trump told Fox News during the trip to Iowa. “We have it good where prices are coming way down. They were just saying, in Iowa the fuel is $1.95. Did you hear that? Somebody said $1.85. But it was $3.50, $4.50 just a year ago, a year and a half ago. You look at eggs, you look at groceries, it’s all down. Everything’s come down. Do you notice they don’t mention affordability anymore?”
According to Dale, it’s “true” that egg prices have fallen significantly, but the “rest of his narrative was thoroughly inaccurate.”
He continued his fact check: “Inflation is not over; prices continue to rise. Overall prices have gone up, not down. Overall grocery prices have gone up, not down. Iowa’s average gas price is much higher than $1.95. And Democrats have certainly not stopped mentioning affordability; in fact, it remains a key focus of their public remarks.”
Dale apparently wasn’t the only one fact-checking gas prices.
“In an unusual moment,” he writes, “Trump was fact-checked on this subject by an attendee at his Iowa speech on Tuesday. When he
of gas in Iowa being $1.95 or $1.85 per gallon, someone in the crowd shouted, ‘No, $2.63,’ according to CNN’s Steve Contorno, who was on scene.”
According to Dale, “Overall consumer prices have increased during this presidential term; in December 2025, seasonally adjusted overall prices were 2.2% higher than they were in January 2025, and, again, 2.7% higher than they were in December 2024.”
He also noted that “It’s not true that ‘you look at groceries, it’s all down.’ In fact, the 0.7% increase in the Consumer Price Index for groceries between November 2025 and December 2025 was the biggest month-to-month jump reported in more than three years.”
And he added, “Iowa gas prices are generally much higher than Trump said.”
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AN 1 26
President Donald Trump was up early Thursday morning for a Truth Social posting spree that focused largely on his 2020 election loss — but included a dash of claims about 2016's "Russiagate."
The rant included a nearly decade-long conspiracy that Trump was spied on by former President Barack Obama. Trump reposted Fox News commentary from far-right host Jesse Watters who claimed Obama personally ordered a CIA spying operation on Trump.
"ARREST OBAMA NOW," one post read.
According to the "Truths," the Obama administration manufactured evidence to undermine Trump's election in 2016, though none of the information about the Trump campaign's ties to Russia was revealed publicly until after the election. Other reports about the Russian hack of Hillary Clinton's campaign, Russian bots and content farms were reported throughout 2016, a Washington Post timeline shows.
Trump on Thursday morning also posted a series of "Truths" showing he's still focused on his 2020 election loss.
Among the posts was a flood of accusations claiming that the election was "crooked."
Trump appeared to post screenshots of random users from X who agree with his sentiment that he actually won the 2020 election.
Another video Trump posted from CNN appears to show a discussion about Trump winning Georgia in 2024, though Trump doesn't explain how that is relevant to his 2020 conspiracy theories about the election.
Trump also shared another conspiracy cited by former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly about the Chinese government funding leftist groups and the Minnesota Immigration Rights Action Committee.
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AN 1 26
Trump’s playbook threatens US as foreign allies reevaluate 'endgame': British intel expert
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AN 1 26
After pledging to deescalate tensions in Minnesota, President Donald Trump kicked off Wednesday by taking aim at the mayor of Minneapolis, asserting — incorrectly — that declining to enforce federal immigration laws is unlawful.
Legal analysts and administration critics have warned that the moves the president made this week in the wake of the second deadly shooting of a U.S. citizen by federal agents were simply a change in tone — not in strategy or tactics, and not an actual pivot. Trump has recalled Greg Bovino, the head of Operation Metro Surge, from Minneapolis, and sent in border czar Tom Homan.
“Surprisingly,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Mayor Jacob Frey just stated that, ‘Minneapolis does not, and will not, enforce Federal Immigration Laws.’ This is after having had a very good conversation with him.”
“Could somebody in his inner sanctum please explain that this statement is a very serious violation of the Law, and that he is PLAYING WITH FIRE!” the president declared.
The president declared Frey’s stance is unlawful but legal experts note that cities and states generally cannot be forced to carry out federal immigration enforcement.
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance noted that “the feds can’t ‘commandeer’ state law enforcement resources to execute their policies.”
She also called the president’s statement, “More evidence Trump isn’t changing course on mass deportations.”
Politico senior legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney offered some additional insight.
“Trump could not have designed a better statement to convince Judge Menendez that Operation Metro Surge is meant to coerce policy changes,” Cheney wrote.
He noted that courts have “ruled repeatedly” that the federal government “cannot coerce states to enforce federal law.”
“Nor is it illegal for states to decline to do so,” Cheney added.
“And the menacing ‘playing with fire’ is exactly the kind of statement (‘retribution is coming’) that worked against the administration in court earlier this week,” he added.
Indeed, ABC News interviewed the president on Tuesday and reported that Trump was suggesting federal agents would take a “more relaxed” approach in Minnesota after the two deadly shootings.
Trump said, “we can start doing maybe a little bit more relaxed,” and, “we’d like to finish the job and finish it well, and I think we can do it in a de-escalated form.”
ABC called it “a shift in tone.”
The New Republic’s Greg Sargent wrote on Wednesday, “The media narrative that Trump is ‘pivoting’ and ‘deescalating’ on his ICE raids … is wildly overstated. As long as the military occupations and the treatment of US cities as enemy territory continue, there’s no pivot. It’s that simple.”
“Trump wants to appear eager to minimize clashes between his govt militias and protesters. But he doesn’t want them to stop doing the things that are causing the clashes in the first place,” he continued. “There’s no Trump ‘pivot’ until we see real investigations into the government’s killings and real accountability for them.”
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an 126
'Out of his mind': European ally 'traumatized' by Trump’s mental state after meeting
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MMA
January 25, 2026, episode of CNN This Morning Weekend
VICTOR BLACKWELL (ANCHOR): We're seeing the impacts of that winter storm across multiple states. This is Kansas City from our affiliate KMBC. You can see the roads covered in snow there. We'll keep you updated on the storm and where it's headed throughout the day here on CNN. Now, President Trump says that he's pulling the U.S. out of the global U.N. Climate treaty. The move would leave the U.S. out of international climate change talks and is likely to raise tensions even more with allies. The timing of the announcement is notable, as tens of millions of Americans are facing an enormous and potentially catastrophic winter storm. Let me bring in Robert Kopp. He's a climate scientist at Rutgers University and is lead author on U.N. climate assessments. Mr. Kopp, thank you for being with me. Let me first talk about the overlap between the big story of the day, the storm that's hitting so many Americans, and climate change.
The president posted on Truth Social. We can put it up on the screen, "Record cold wave expected to hit 40 states. Rarely seen anything like it before. Could the environmental insurrectionist please explain – Whatever happened to global warming?" Suggesting that the two were divorced from one another. What does he need to know?
ROBERT KOPP (CLIMATE SCIENTIST, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY): Well, he needs to know that the United States is not, in fact, the world, and global warming is a global phenomenon. Just because it's cold where I am, you know, it’s about 15 degrees outside here in New Jersey, doesn't mean it's cold everywhere. In Greenland, in fact, its highs today are above freezing. They're about 25 degrees above average. And in parts of south Australia there are 120 degrees. We also know that it's cold in winter, and it will continue to get cold, even as the average temperature of the planet increases.
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an 1 26
Like a paid opera singer': Trump attacks woman shouting 'shame' after Renee Good shooting
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see resign protest DOJ3 fail courts fail
SEE TARIFF
SEE VENEZ 3
OMFG DOH: privatization, financialization, militarization, and criminalization, which together are producing a steadily creeping authoritarianism
SEE 4 HORSE MILITARIZATION:
AHA DOH NEGLECTED NOTE MILITARISM TRUMP 2ND TERM: ICE MuRDER GOOD, RAPELL BLACKHAWK CHIC FALLUJAH BATTLE RATTLE BLUE CITIES // VENEZ BOAT STRIKE JSOC KIDNAP 1 26 TAKE GREENLAND THE HARD WAY, PANAMA, MEX
see 2026 midterm voter suppress gerry voting machine martial law
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AN 1 26
President Donald Trump is proving to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney — and to the world — why other leaders may want nothing to do with his controversial statements, a New York Times columnist argued Sunday.
Columnist Ezra Klein wrote that America’s president now looks less like a world leader and more like a sulking hegemon.
“Everything Trump has done over the last week has made him look tawdry, addled and small,” Klein said.
Trump recently disinvited Canada from his so‑called “Board of Peace,” which he claims will be responsible for rebuilding Gaza. The invitation was withdrawn after Carney publicly said he had no role in the group. Most of Europe has also rejected Trump’s offer to join the “board.”
Klein wrote that Carney’s knack for “assessing [Trump’s] transactionalism” is what landed him on the president’s list of adversaries.
Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week accomplished several things, Klein argued. “First, Carney’s speech used the word ‘hegemon’ four times. He said the word ‘America’ only once, and then only to specify ‘American hegemony,’” Klein noted. “This is who we are now to our northern neighbors: not the America they once knew, or thought they knew, but ‘the hegemon.’”
In Davos, Carney said, “The system’s power comes not from its truth but from everyone’s willingness to perform as if it were true.” Klein cast Carney’s role as refusing to “perform” and giving others permission to stop performing as well. Trump and Carney, he wrote, understand each other “all too well.”
Ahead of Trump's term, Klein said he spoke to advisors about the foreign policy philosophy of the second term. All of them said some version of the same warning that the U.S. never uses its power as leverage, and under Trump, it will.
Carney called that out, alleging that great powers of the world are “using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage. Financial infrastructure as coercion. Supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited. You cannot ‘live within the lie’ of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination.”
Trump promptly responded in his speech that Canada only exists because of the United States. "Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements," said Trump.
Klein closed by calling the speech a "risk," as he rejected Trump's "nakedly transactional or thoroughly corrupt" worldview. Unlike Trump, Carney "intend[s] to do something more with his power than profit off it. It was a bracing speech, but more than that, it was a brave act. It was the kind of act that Trumpism suggests does not exist, the kind of act that rebuts Trumpism by simply existing."
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NO RIZZ? AN 1 26
Secret recordings reveal Ted Cruz trashing Trump and Vance
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AN 1 26
Trump fires off post accusing Fox News of 'criminal offense' over plummeting poll numbers
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AN 1 26
Trump blames welfare fraud investigation for 'violent' protests in Minnesota
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2X SAME DAY ADMIN WORDS BITE ASS
AN 1 26
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to respond to President Donald Trump's claimthat a national emergency justified his drastic tariff moves. However, the Constitution allocates tariff-regulation power to Congress, not the presidency.
The New Republic's Greg Sargent spoke with MS NOW's Steve Benen on Monday morning, noting that Trump’s own words may be the strongest case against his tariff powers. The two analysts argued that Trump has repeatedly blown up the legal and political rationale for his trade war in public statements.
During a morning podcast "The Daily Blast,"Sargent and Benen dissected Trump’s recent threats to increase tariffs on parts of Europe not because of some economic reason but because the countries sent military to aid in the defense of Greenland from the U.S.
Trump keeps publicly admitting that his “emergencies” are more whims and leverage plays. Trump threatened tariffs on Brazil for multiple reasons and also claimed that France rejected his Gaza 'Board of Peace.'
Trump boasted that he raised tariffs from 30 to 39 percent after a call with Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter “rubbed [him] the wrong way,” then lowered them after being courted by industry executives who brought him a Rolex and a personalized gold bar.
The two incidents make it clear that there isn't an "emergency" necessitating a tariff, but that Trump is using them for his own personal gain, the men agreed.
Benen argued that these anecdotes from the president undermine the administration’s legal claim that Trump is using emergency powers under the 1977 law to address a genuine economic emergency, namely trade deficits.
He continued, saying that Trump is "so far gone, is so wrapped up in his own delusion that he forgets he’s supposed to maintain the emergency pretense." Trump then ends up “confessing in public that the entire rationale for his policy is a sham.”
The trade deficits that Trump claimed are an emergency, Benen said, are not inherently harmful.
He explained, “You and I have trade deficits with our grocery store,” and they have been shrinking, not exploding into crisis. The Constitution vests tariff power in Congress, through Article I, not to the presidency. It's the main reason most legal scholars and experts think Trump is likely to lose at the Supreme Court if the justices follow the statute and the Constitution. In fact, one of Trump's own officials thinks the policy might fall at the high court.
The two men go on to skewer House Speaker Mike Johnson, who praised Trump’s supposed “Article II” tariff power, which simply doesn’t exist. Tariff authority sits in Article I, Benen told Sargent, making Johnson’s hands-off posture “completely antithetical” to the system he claims to revere.
Meanwhile, Republicans who privately dislike tariffs are allowing Trump to proceed unilaterally, even though it is "pushing prices up and that it’s becoming a drag on the economy."
Sargent agreed, saying, "It’s very, very clear that affordability is an enormous issue in these elections." Those high costs are hammering voters and it could cost the GOP the House, and possibly the Senate, in 2026.
If the Supreme Court upholds Trump’s approach despite his public admissions, Benen said, it would mark “a breakdown of American governance at crisis levels,” normalizing an enormous abuse of power with no institutional check.
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CONTEXT
2ND MURDER PRETTI 1ST AND 2ND AMEND
AN 26
A leading Republican candidate for governor in Minnesota has withdrawn from the race, citing the Republican Party’s “stated retribution on the citizens of our state,” and saying he cannot count himself a member of a party that would do so.
Chris Madel’s announcement Monday morning, just two days after federal agents shot and killed a second U.S. citizen in Minneapolis in under three weeks, was deemed “stunning” by the Minnesota Star Tribune.
Madel recorded a nearly eleven-minute video explaining his decision to withdraw.
“United States citizens, particularly those of color, live in fear,” he told supporters. “United States citizens are carrying papers to prove their citizenship. That’s wrong.”
“ICE has authorized its agents to raid homes using a civil warrant that need only be signed by a border patrol agent. That’s unconstitutional, it’s wrong. Weaponizing criminal investigations against political opponents is unconstitutional, regardless of who is in power,” he continued.
Madel also pointed to the “countless United States citizens who have been detained in Minnesota due to the color of their skin. I personally have spoken to several law enforcement officers, some Hispanic, and some Asian who have been pulled over by ice on pretextual stops,” he said.
“Driving while Hispanic is not a crime,” Madel added. “Neither is driving while Asian.”
The Star Tribune reported that Madel “launched his campaign for governor as a staunch defender of law enforcement and had **:{recently provided legal counsel to Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.”}:
“I do this because I believe the constitutional right to counsel is sacrosanct,” he said.
He also called the federal operation in Minnesota, Operation Metro Surge, “an unmitigated disaster.”
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AN 1 26
Donald Trump's ego appears to be driving a conflict with the various "hardcore nationalists" in his administration, according to a new analysis from The i Paper, with his desire to be "loved and thanked" conflicting with their desire to go further in cracking down on immigration and protestors.
The administration is facing mounting unrest in Minnesota, where over the weekend, federal officers killed another American citizen, intensive care nurse Alex Pretti. This death, only weeks after the killing of Renee Good by an ICE officer, has soured more and more Americans on Trump's immigration crackdown plans, which were already tanking the president's approval on immigration, one of his key issues overall.
Writing for The i Paper on Monday, James Ball wrote that the administration is largely uninterested in discontent and protests from Democratic voters, and in fact seems to "relish" causing them pain and distress. The killing of Pretti, however, is driving away increasing numbers of independents and even some Republicans. This has created a conflict, Ball argued, between Trump's desire to be popular with non-Democratic voters and the desires of key figures in his administration to go as far as possible with the immigration crackdowns, as part of their plot to fundamentally remake the U.S.
"The problem for Trump in responding to this self-inflicted crisis is that while most of the American public hates what they are seeing in Minneapolis, some in his White House love it. This is what they came into office to do," Ball wrote. "Trump is surrounded by hardcore nationalists who see him as their vehicle to rebuild America – and mass deportations are the first step in doing that. A faction led by Stephen Miller, and represented by the ambitious US Vice President J.D. Vance, is leading this hardline movement. They are urging the President to go further, all but openly seeking an excuse to activate the Insurrection Act, enabling them to send in American troops into American cities."
Trump, meanwhile, wants on some level to be seen as a unifying figure and as a great president, typified by his recent focus on legacy projects. This instinct, Ball argued, will cause him to pull back on issues like Minnesota when they become toxically unpopular, despite the ambitions of his top officials.
"The main obstacle standing in their way is Trump himself, who, on some level, still wants to be loved and thanked by the nation he so divisively leads. Even now, he complains about the difficulties of building the new White House ballroom, wondering plaintively why anyone would mount legal challenges against a building project he sees as his legacy," Ball wrote.
He continued: "Trump is a petty and vindictive man who wants revenge on his enemies, but he still wants to be seen as a unifying figure – he has more than once spoken of his wish to one day be represented alongside other great presidents on Mount Rushmore. Trump doesn’t look at the footage out of Minnesota and feel horror in the same way most of us do, but he understands that it’s bad for him – trapping him between the hardliners he’s surrounded himself with, and his own political instincts."
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AN 1 26
Senators demand answers as Trump claims 'complete control of our nation’s capital'
Congressional leaders want answers from the Interior Department after President Donald Trump's administration abruptly moved to take back control of Washington, D.C.’s three public golf courses.
The Washington Post reported Monday that the administration's moves are raising alarms about transparency, public access, and potential presidential self-dealing. The courses in D.C. include East Potomac Park, Rock Creek Park and Langston. They sit on National Park Service land and have long been operated under a 50-year lease by the nonprofit National Links Trust (NLT), which was selected in 2020 to restore the aging facilities and preserve affordable public golf in the nation’s capital.
The NLT has slowly been renovating the courses, beginning with East Potomac Park. Then, suddenly, the Interior Department cut off the lease only a few years into it.
In late 2025, Interior notified NLT it was in default, but according to the nonprofit, it did not clearly specify the violations or how to cure them. Then, on Dec. 30, the department terminated the lease, claiming NLT failed to carry out required capital improvements and rent obligations. NLT forcefully disputes that.
Four senators from the D.C. region sent a letter Monday to Interior Department Secretary Doug Burgum questioning the move and demanding an explanation.
“The Trump Administration seems to feel they have complete control of our nation’s capital, Washington D.C., when in reality, we — the Senators of its neighboring states — know D.C. belongs to the American people and great people of the District,” said Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) in a statement. “The Administration’s ousting of National Links Trust in addition to dumping their new ballroom construction debris on the East Potomac White Course is just further proof of this Administration’s complete overreach.”
The senators want specific details about the violations they're claiming the courses made and whether the NLT was given time to comply with the demands before the decision to end the lease was made.
The lease requires that if there are issues, the department must "provide sufficient time to remedy them, as required under the lease," the report said.
Lawmakers are also angry that none of the officials in the region were notified.
“The Trump Administration is attempting to rob local communities of these treasured recreational spaces,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) in a statement. “The public has a right to know what legal justification the Administration has for this takeover, as well as any public health and safety risks resulting from their activities on these properties.”
They also want to know about the construction debris the White House dumped into the Potomac River from the demolition of the East Wing. There remains an open question about whether the construction material contained hazardous materials, as other parts of the White House have. The lawmakers want to know if any steps were taken to protect "assess risks to golfers, employees, youth participants and the surrounding environment."
“Decisions affecting their future — and the health and safety of the public — must be guided by law, transparency, and respect for long-standing partnerships,” the senators said in the statement.
The Links Trust has continued to operate two of the three courses while exploring legal options.
Trump, who owns his own golf courses, expressed interest in rebuilding the East Potomac course, located just south of the Tidal Basin and a popular tourist spot during the spring cherry blossom season.
As Americans question the president's economic policy and an affordability crisis, Trump has turned his eyes to building his ballroom, reconstructing golf courses, and building a large arch while issuing foreign threats, bombings, and an invasion to nab a Venezuelan political leader. Trump personally shopped for marble and onyx for the ballroom at a local Florida tile store on the day before the raid in Venezuela. The stop was before he went to play golf.
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1 25 MORANO
gmail
pull out of 66 orgs
Trump withdraws US from 66 organizations, including UN climate treaty | Fox News Video
1992 rio will req senate re-ratification; un pop fund, ipcc pol body masquerade as from ---take orders from pols; will save us $ bimbo rachel brn hair prolly shd pull out of un altogether; state limit number mi crush totalitarianism mass; mass state 15 member cncl; biden ev mandate trying to take away your freedom of movement; davos trying to get rid of cars, colo CA, limit gas station; carbon passport to monitor your travel; gubt will check your mi to see if you too much; life is hwy bimbo
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01/22/26
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01/21/2026
by
- Ryan Bort @ Rolling Stone: Trump in Davos: ‘Sometimes You Need a Dictator’
The president delivered an erratic address to the World Economic Forum, pushing for the U.S. to take control of Greenland.
- Steven Bechloss @ America, America: The Goal Was (And Is) Dictatorship
This was clear years ago: Trump hungered for total power and retribution, while extremist Republicans mocked liberal government and right-wing groups plotted a fascist takeover.
- Jim Carroll @ Flux: MAGA authoritarianism takes square aim at Minnesota
As the Trump administration unleashes repressive mayhem in Minneapolis-St. Paul, crippling biases and blind spots keep the Democrats and major media from conveying the full story to the public.
- Nina Martin @ Mother Jones: Trump’s Abortion Strategy? Do Nothing. But His Base Has Other Plans
Historian Mary Ziegler sees conservative courts poised to force his hand.
- Brian Kaylor @ Public Witness: Hegseth Shares War Psalm He Prayed During Venezuela Attack
During the first Christian worship service at the Pentagon in 2026 — and the first since the U.S. military operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — Secretary of War Pete Hegseth framed that military action as a godly mission. Hegseth also detailed the Bible passage he prayed during the mission and urged the military personnel present to similarly pray for their work decisions.
- Ruth Graham @ The New York Times: An Alabama Pastor Credits Trump for Putting ‘Christ’ Back in Christmas
The president has given a new class of evangelists direct access to the White House. In return, many support him without question.
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01/20/2026
by
- Sean James @ Mediaite: Trump Proclaims ‘God Is Very Proud’ of His First Year Back in the White House
The Good Lord is smiling down approvingly at President Donald Trump — according to the president.
- Ashley Parker @ The Atlantic: Trump Exhaustion Syndrome
Among the greatest tricks Donald Trump ever pulled is convincing significant portions of the population that the slow erosion of their rights is not, actually, that big of a deal.
- New York Times: How Trump Has Pocketed $1,408,500,000
One year ago, Donald Trump took an oath to serve the American people. Instead, he has focused on using the presidency to enrich himself.
- Alex DeLuca @ Miami New Times: Miami Club Plays ‘Heil Hitler’ for Right-Wing Influencers
The group was seen throwing up Nazi salutes inside the Miami Beach nightclub.
- Andrew Kordik @ Salon: The revival of Moms for Liberty
After setbacks and scandals, the group's efforts have expanded — and its role in public education is growing.
- Olivia Little @ Media Matters: Nick Fuentes’ Instagram takeover
An army of groypers is spamming Instagram with Fuentes’ content, netting millions of views.
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MMA DAVOS LUNACY
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an 1 26
Conservative-leaning New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman has little patience with conspiracy theories targeting President Donald Trump — but not because he is a supporter or a supporter. Rather, Friedman's view is that with Trump, simple facts are damning enough. And in his January 21 column, Friedman argues that although Trump considers himself an "America First" president, his real outlook is "me first."
Trump, Friedman laments, is so "self-absorbed" and such a "pathological narcissist" that he is incapable of putting U.S. interests over his own.
"Trump's worst un-American impulses and intellectual laziness were contained in his first term in the White House by a group of serious advisers," Friedman explains. "This time around, there is no one to contain them. He has surrounded himself with sycophants. So, Trump is now basically running our country the way he ran his companies — as a one-man show free to make terrible deals. That management style led to six bankruptcy filings by his companies."
The Times columnist continues, "Unfortunately, today, we're all his shareholders, and I fear he is going to bankrupt us as a nation — morally for sure, if not one day financially and politically. Trump's behavior has become so reckless, so self-absorbed, so obviously contrary to American interests — as even Republicans have long defined them, let alone Democrats — that the question must be asked: Is America now being ruled by a mad king?"
Describing Trump's recent letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store — which found him complaining about not being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, argues that Trump was essentially saying, "I, Donald Trump, am ready to seize Greenland, at the price of breaking up the nearly 77-year-old NATO alliance, because the Nobel Committee did not give ME its peace prize last year."
"If indeed America were a company," Friedman writes, "the board of directors would have responded to behavior like Trump's by announcing an 'intervention' with the CEO. Unfortunately, America's board of directors, the Republican-led U.S. Congress, has been completely self-neutered. And so now, we the people, we the shareholders, are about to get stuck with the bill…. The American people elected a man who, no matter what he tells us, is taking us to a future not of 'America first,' but of 'America alone' and 'Me first.'"
*Thomas L. Friedman's full New York Times column is available at this link.
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AN 1 26
Officials in President Donald Trump's administration have accused both Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz of "domestic terrorism." One legal expert says is arguing that phrase is being used for a specific reason.
In a Tuesday interview with Slate legal writer Mark Joseph Stern, Julia Gegenheimer — a former attorney in the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Civil Rights Division who is now a special litigation counsel at the Georgetown University Law Center – said the Trump administration's use of the word "terrorism" is done with intent to cause harm to leading Democrats in Minnesota.
"It is profoundly disturbing. And the reason why this feels different to you is that it is a bit of a different flavor," she said. "It’s pitting the federal government against the states and creating tension where it doesn’t need to be. And frankly, it’s implicitly encouraging acts of political violence against these elected officials by turning them into the enemy."
The Trump administration has so far issued subpoenas to both Frey and Walz along with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, alleging that they conspired to impede law enforcement operations. Stern remarked that the Trump administration was not only "falsely accusing" Frey and Walz of committing political violence, but effectively sowing the seeds for violence to be committed against them. Gegenheimer agreed and asserted this was part and parcel of Trump's agenda in Minneapolis.
"We’ve seen this throughout history, even recent history: When you put people in opposition like that — when you portray them as the enemy, when you describe them as kind of threatening a person’s way of life or things that they hold dear — that creates the conditions under which people are more likely to resort to political violence, and it becomes more and more the norm," Gegenheimer said.
Stern reminded readers that the Trump administration has taken numerous actions to antagonize residents of blue states, along with those states' leaders, in an effort to frame them as the "enemy of the federal government and even the American people." Gegenheimer pointed to the administration's deployment of troops in Washington D.C. and Chicago, Illinois as further illustrations of what she characterized as a politically motivated retribution campaign against people who didn't vote for him.
"It doesn’t take too much reading between the lines to see that that’s what’s going on," she said.
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AN 1 26
The rollout for President Donald Trump’s new Board of Peace, which has drawn controversy and is facing resistance, does not appear to be going smoothly. The American president wants national leaders who join to donate at least $1 billion within the first year to become a permanent member. According to reports, Trump would be chairman for life, the organization could be filled with authoritarian leaders, and it is being seen as a possible rival to the United Nations.
Already, French President Emmanuel Macron, who appears to be leading the charge against Trump in Europe, reportedly has declined to join.
“The body was originally conceived as part of the U.S. president’s push to create a new governance framework for the shattered Palestinian enclave in the wake of Israel’s devastating two-year offensive against Hamas,” The Financial Times reported.
“The Board of Peace has had a rough landing,” reported Bloomberg News’ UK political editor Alex Wickham, noting that “it’s been criticized by Israel, questioned by Europe and has Russia’s friends celebrating.”
READ MORE: ‘25th Amendment Territory’: Critics Warn Trump Impeachment Is ‘Not Enough’
“World leaders were blindsided and bewildered by Trump’s demand they pay $1 billion for permanent membership, sources say,” Wickham noted. “European allies are working to modify the terms and coordinate a response, sources say. They are trying to persuade Arab leaders to help lobby Trump for changes.”
As chairman, Trump would have the ability to add or remove member nations, veto the board’s decisions and cast tie-breaking votes, and create or dissolve committees.
Critics are blasting Trump’s proposed Board of Peace.
Daily Mail UK columnist Andrew Neil said it will probably be Trump’s “most radical step yet to replace the post-WW2 global order. It will also be quite the dictators’ tea party. Putin, Lukashenko (Belarus tyrant) and the dictator of Kazakhstan have all been asked to join!!”
Fox News’ Jessica Tarlov remarked, “The board of peace stars dictators apparently.”
The Wall Street Journal’s chief foreign-affairs correspondent, Yaroslav Trofimov, observed, “Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ looks very much like a plan to replace the UN Security Council with an imperial court of vassals in which he is chairman for life, even after leaving the White House, with veto over every decision and the sole right to designate a successor. And a $1 billion fee for aspiring permanent members.”
Former chief White House ethics attorney Richard Painter wrote, “Almost 75,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in this war, and now we are auctioning off seats on a Gaza ‘Board of Peace’. For a Middle East peace policy, this is pathetic.”
---
AN 1 26
Wall Street calls Trump a source of 'major volatility' as markets tank
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AN 1 26
Trump’s one-year anniversary speech on Tuesday served up a lazy rambling of easily disputed untruths and low-energy grump.
1. U.S. declares war on a binder clip
Trump launched into his list of accomplishments by pulling up an enormous file and picking a fight with the binder clip that held it together.
“Here's a — the book on accomplishments. And this is something,” said Trump. “I'm glad my finger wasn't in that socket. That could have done some damage. But you know what? I wouldn't have shown the pain. I would have gone back.”
“What, did you hear that?” Trump continued, speaking of the binder’s snap “That was nasty. But I would not have shown the pain. I would have acted like nothing happened as my finger fell off. That was a nasty. I think somebody did that. I think it was him. It was my man. You didn't do it. I know you did. I know you didn't. So. But here is the, here's the book. These are all things we have [done]. I'm going to read a few of the samples, but look at this. These are all. Each line is something that we did. Nobody did that before. And it’s big stuff to look at. We have the hottest country in the world.”
2. Trump calls jobs created by Democratic presidents “fake”
Knowing that he is facing a slumping job market that surveys are reflecting, Trump made a point to run down the competitor’s product, claiming the legion of jobs Democrat presidents created before him were “real.”
“We cut millions of people off the federal payroll. I don't like doing that. But the good news — I I don't feel badly because they're getting private sector jobs and they're getting sometimes twice as much money, three times as much money. They're getting factory jobs,” Trump said despite data showing factory jobs are in steep decline in the U.S. — including under his administration.
“They're getting much better jobs and much higher pay. But ... you know what the Democrats do all the time, they hire a million people and then they hire another million, another million. They load it up and it says, ‘oh, they only have a 3 percent unemployment rate.’ It's a fake rate. So, with us, we're proud of the fact that we cut so many because again, I don't want to cut people, but when you cut them and they go out and get a better job, I like them.”
3. "Best stock market in history."
The president does not appear to feel American voters are giving him the gratitude he deserves, claiming the likely AI bubble currently keeping the U.S. stock market afloat is a sign of a healthy economy that more Americans should appreciate.
“In the old days, if you had good numbers, they'd lower interest rates so they wouldn't do anything. Here, they try and kill it,” he said, possibly referring to the Federal Reserve’s refusal to lower interest rates “… But — by the way, we've had the best stock market in history. The best 401(k)s in history. And we inherited a mess. The numbers that we inherited are way were way up. And now we brought them, almost all of them way down. We brought them way down. I mean, I'm not getting — maybe I have the bad public relations people, but we're not getting it across.”
4. "Somalia isn't even a country."
Trump lit into the embattled nation of Somalia, and also into one of its former residents who now serves as a legislator for the state of Minnesota.
“It's not a country. They don't have government. They don't have anything. I always hate to see this (Rep.) Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), she comes from Somalia, a backward country, probably the worst country. They say it's the worst country in the world. If it's a country, I don't even think it's a country. There's no organization, no anything. They don't have police. They don't have military; they don't have anything. They just have people running around killing each other and trying to pirate ships. But she'll come here. And then she wants to tell us how to run our country. The Constitution says that I am entitled to this. I can't stand her,” Trump said, adding that he “terminated all taxpayer funding” to her state.
5. “We have no inflation.”
Trump made a point to deny the existence of national inflation, despite countless polls labeling inflation as one of the chief issues still facing voters in elections. He also denied his tariffs affecting inflation and warned the Supreme Court not to curb his power to unilaterally raise taxes on U.S. consumers and businesses through tariffs.
“If we lose that case, it's possible we're going to have to do the best we can in paying it back. I don't know how that's going to be done very easily without hurting a lot of people, but we're waiting for that case anxiously,” Trump said, adding that “we have tremendous national security because of tariffs and tremendous income.”
“You know, we have — and by the way — no inflation. So everyone said, ‘oh, tariffs will cause inflation.’ We have no inflation. We have very little inflation. Biden had inflation and he didn't do tariffs. We had a huge problem.”
Despite Trump’s claims he and his Republican Party are likely to get hammered again on inflation fears in upcoming elections, as they did in 2025’s off-year elections.
---
AN 1 26
In a stark warning on the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s second term in office, The Bulwark’s editor, Jonathan V. Last, suggests that under Trump, America may adopt Putinism as its domestic policy, having already adopted it for its foreign policy.
“Will Putinism take over American domestic politics, too?” Last asks, in an opinion piece titled, “This Is the End.”
“America has adopted Putinism as its modus operandi for foreign affairs,” he says. “Why would America not also adopt Putinism in its domestic affairs? Why would the American regime tolerate free and fair elections or the transfer of power to an opposition party?”
Pursuing the question, Last continued: “Are there examples of expansionist, rogue regimes which ignored international law and attempted to subjugate free people abroad, but respected liberal democratic outcomes that terminated their possession of power at home?”
To those who suggest Trumpism is temporary, Last suggests he disagrees.
“Many people comfort themselves by saying some version of ‘Donald Trump is an aberration’ or ‘This isn’t who we are,'” he writes.
But, he continues, “If Trump was an aberration and his actions did not have sufficient public support, then he would be removed from office. There are two mechanisms for doing so—impeachment and the 25th Amendment.”
“Trump will not be removed from office; which allows one of two conclusions. Either: Trump’s policies are supported by a sufficient percentage of Americans to be viable; or America’s constitutional order is so ossified that it no longer functions to safeguard the will of the people.”
“Neither of these is an alibi,” Last warns, noting that, “either one supports the conclusion that the problem is not Trump. It is America and Americans. This is who we are. Like it or not.”
Last also makes several other predictions:
“The days of intelligence sharing between America and our former allies are drawing to a close.”
“The death of NATO.”
“Germany, Poland, and Canada will acquire nuclear weapons. So will Japan. Sweden, Australia, and South Korea may develop nuclear capabilities as well.”
“Europe will draw closer to China.”
“Greenland will become disputed territory.”
---
context SEE FASCISM
an 1 26
Nebraska mom Jamie Bonkiewicz filmed her interaction with Secret Service agents who came to her door because of a tweet.
"The Secret Service came to my door today because of a tweet. No threats. No violence. Just words. That’s where we are now," she wrote on X in a thread about the ordeal.
"For anyone doubting me. Here they are," Bonkiewicz said, posting a photo of a local police officer and the federal agent as she stood with her screen door open.
She was asked about the comments she made online, and she made it clear, "I want to see their trials."
He then asked if she goes to protests, which she refused to answer.
"Why do you want to know that?" Bonkiewicz asked.
"I'm just curious," he responded. "For certain questionnaires, we have to ask."
He asked if there were weapons in the house and she said there were not. Bonkiewicz was also asked if she "traveled to any Democratic functions or rallies."
"I just answered you," she said about the question he'd previously asked.
"Anything else you want to tell me? Any statements at all?" the agent asked.
Her husband, who was filming the incident, asked what is considered crossing the line on social media.
"Something like this, a veiled threat," he said, shrugging. "Is it a threatening nature? Now that I know you didn't mean anything by it, it's basically a non-issue."
He asked her again what she meant by the comment, and she made it clear she was talking about officials having Nuremberg-style tribunals for those who enabled unlawful behavior.
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AN 1 26
Trump’s top trade negotiator has a plan to buck the Supreme Court if it rules against him
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AN 1 26
Today, as more than 3,000 ICE and Border Patrol agents — possibly joined by 1,500 active duty military, as Trump threatened yesterday — patrol Minneapolis, hundreds of global CEOs and titans of finance and more than 60 prime ministers and presidents are gathering in Davos, Switzerland, for the annual confab of the world’s powerful and wealthy, called the World Economic Forum.
This year’s Davos meeting occurs at a time when Trump is not just unleashing his brown shirts on Minneapolis but also dismantling the international order that’s largely been in place since the end of World War II — threatening NATO, withdrawing from international organizations including the UN climate treaty, violating the United Nations Charter by invading Venezuela and abducting Nicolas Maduro, upending established trade rules, and demanding that the U.S. annex Greenland.
He’s even hiked tariffs on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland — fellow NATO members that have expressed solidarity with Denmark in its refusal to yield to Trump’s demand to annex Greenland.
I hope the leaders now assembling at Davos speak out against Trump’s tyrannous assault on international laws and rules. Their collective repudiation of Trump would give other CEOs and world leaders cover to express their opposition as well. It could be a tipping point.
Will they? Trump is trying to stop them from doing so.
For example, he announced Saturday that he’s suing JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, headed by one of the most prominent CEOs in the world — Jamie Dimon — who is now in Davos.
Trump said he’s suing JPMorgan “for incorrectly and inappropriately DEBANKING me after the January 6th Protest, a protest that turned out to be correct for those doing the protesting – The Election was RIGGED!”
Rubbish. There’s no evidence that Chase “debanked” Trump. (And obviously no evidence that the 2020 election was “rigged.”) Besides, if Trump thought the bank acted improperly, why would he be suing it now, five years later?
In reality, Trump’s lawsuit has nothing to do with any so-called “debanking.” Trump is suing JPMorgan Chase because last week Dimon came out publicly against Trump’s criminal probe of Fed Chair Jerome Powell, and apparently Trump worries about what Dimon might say at Davos.
Dimon’s opposition to the criminal investigation was couched in the mildest of terms: “Anything that chips away at [the Fed’s independence] is not a good idea. And in my view, will have the reverse consequences. It’ll increase inflation expectations and probably increase rates over time.”
Yet Dimon’s comment infuriated Trump.
Presumably, the reason Trump says he’ll sue JPMorgan “over the next two weeks” rather than immediately is because Trump wants to maximize the pressure on Dimon.
Dimon has a major speaking role at Davos. If Dimon uses it as an opportunity to blast Trump for taking a wrecking ball to the world economy as well as democracy, he gives cover to every other CEO and many heads of state to criticize Trump, too.
But if Trump can intimidate Dimon into silence, it’s unlikely any other CEO will risk it.
Hence, Trump’s shot across JPMorgan’s bow — aimed not so much at winning a lawsuit against the bank as silencing Dimon and others.
Does Dimon have enough integrity to put the bank’s profits and his own compensation ($770 million for 2025) at risk by speaking the truth — that Trump must be opposed by anyone still possessing power and integrity?
We will see, but I’m not betting on it. Dimon has shown time and again that he has more loyalty to JPMorgan than to the United States. His mild criticism of Trump for undermining the independence of the Fed could reflect no more than concern for his bank’s bottom line.
But who knows? Dimon will soon be retiring. This is his opportunity to be on the right side of history.
To ensure that the assembled CEOs and heads of state are cowed, Trump is traveling to Davos himself and taking with him the largest U.S. delegation ever to attend the meeting, including five Cabinet secretaries and other senior officials.
Will any prime minister or other head of state attending Davos dare repudiate Trump, when Trump is showing no qualms about raising tariffs on, or otherwise punishing, countries that oppose him?
Perhaps, but at most meekly and indirectly. Who wants to taunt the bear?
Yet Dimon and others at Davos must speak out against what is occurring. If there were ever a time for world leadership, it is now.
Davos’s excuse for existing is supposed to be world leadership — although its attendees have not exactly distinguished themselves in the past by their fealty to democracy, social justice, or the rules of international law. Some are directly benefiting from Trump’s tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks. Many occupy their positions precisely because of their reluctance to rock any big boats or cause any trouble.
Yet if there were ever a time for them to speak out, it is now. This is their opportunity. It is also their duty. The world needs to hear from world leaders a clear and firm denunciation of the havoc Trump is wreaking.
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an 1 26
During his first presidency, Donald Trump's critics often attacked him as an "isolationist" who was uninformed about the rest of the world. But Trump has taken a much more imperialistic turn since returning to the White House, from capturing leftist Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to threatening to take Greenland by force to calling for Canada to become "the 51st state." Libertarian/conservative Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) and MAGA ex-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) believe Trump is betraying the "America First" agenda he once championed.
Trump went from being called an "isolationist" to being called a warmonger with a belligerent foreign policy.
In a scathing opinion column published on January 18, MS NOW's Paul Waldman (formerly of the Washington Post) argues that Trump is waging a "comprehensive war" — only he isn't talking about Venezuela or Greenland. Trump, Waldman stresses, is declaring "war" on Americans who didn't vote for him in 2024.
"Something important and dangerous is happening," Waldman warns. "The Trump Administration is engaged in a comprehensive war, and its enemy is half of America. This war is being waged in rhetoric and regulation, budget cuts and violence. Its aim is to tear the country in two. There is no precedent in modern times for this; one might make an analogy to Reconstruction in the wake of the Civil War, in which the federal government forced the South to accept democracy. But that was for the best of reasons, and Trump's attempt to bend blue states to his will is for the worst. We're seeing the ugliest face of Trump's plan in Minnesota."
Referring to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Minneapolis, Waldman laments that Minnesota's largest city is "under siege from roving gangs of masked federal thugs."
"Trump promised a 'DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION' against the city and the state of Minnesota, and he is already delivering," Waldman observes. "Even before an ICE officer shot dead Renee Good, ill-trained and overly aggressive agents rampaged through the community, brutalizing people, lobbing tear gas into crowds and spreading an atmosphere of fear that has everyone in the city on edge. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz wrote on social media this week, 'Minnesota voted against him three times and now he's punishing us,' and it's hard to argue, especially since Trump is openly talking about 'retribution'…. Most remarkably — as in the administration's filings in the case on environmental grants — officials in Trump's administration don’t even pretend they should serve all Americans equally. Trump himself certainly doesn't."
Waldman adds, "Every day he makes clear that if you support him he likes you — and if you don't, you’re his enemy."
Paul Waldman's full column for MS NOW is available at this link.}:
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AN 1 26
Trump may have gotten Insurrection Act idea from Brett Kavanaugh
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an 1 26
U.S. President Donald Trump was furious when, on January 8, five GOP senators — Kentucky's Rand Paul, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, Maine's Susan Collins, Missouri's Josh Hawley, and Indiana's Todd Young — joined Senate Democrats in a War Powers Act resolution opposing military escalation in Venezuela. Trump railed against them relentlessly, saying that they "should be ashamed" and "should never be elected to office again."
But in a column published on Thursday, January 15, MS NOW's Steve Benen laments that two of them — Hawley and Young — have caved in to "bullying" from Trump.
"Three of the five GOP senators who voted with Democrats last week — Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky — stuck to their guns, but two did not," Benen observes. "Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri was the first to fold, announcing his reversal on Wednesday morning, and Indiana's Todd Young soon followed suit. It's worth appreciating why."
Benen continues, "Almost immediately after last week's vote, the president made no effort to hide his disgust…. In the days that followed, MS NOW confirmed that Trump called each member of the quintet, berating the GOP members who defied him. The president, as MS NOW's source summarized, was 'very upset, angry, yelling.' Trump was especially animated with Young, whose phone meeting with the president was 'very heated.' On Tuesday, during remarks in Detroit, Trump continued to target the senators who'd disappointed him, slamming Paul as a 'stone-cold loser' and describing Collins and Murkowski as 'disasters.'"
The MS NOW columnist and "Rachel Maddow Show" producer argues that Hawley and Young underscore Trump's ability to intimidate Republicans who disagree with him.
"Paul, Collins and Murkowski, however, followed through on their beliefs," Benen argues. "Hawley and Young reversed course under pressure…. Trump wasn't willing to tolerate any attempt to limit his authority in Venezuela — even if the Senate vote wouldn't have actually limited his authority in Venezuela — and so, he tried to scold Senate Republicans into submission. By surrendering, Hawley and Young sent an unsubtle reminder to the White House: Sometimes, with some people, bullying works."
Steve Benen's full MS NOW column is available at this link.
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AN 1 26
Economist Paul Krugman mocks Trump for blackmailing Nobel laureate into handing over medal
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rww
01/16/2026
by
- Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: Trump received a Nobel Peace Prize the same way he received a Purple Heart
The president seems to prefer a model where others do the heavily lifting and then generously turn over their honors.
- Alexander Willis @ Raw Story: Trump issues ominous warning amid threats to invoke Insurrection Act.
President Donald Trump issued an ominous warning Friday to Minnesota leaders over the ongoing protests against federal immigration officials, hinting that he may be “forced” to quash the protests himself amid recent threats of invoking the Insurrection Act.
- Gideon Taaffe & Torri Lonergan @ Media Matters: “Arrest them all”: Right-wing media back Trump as he threatens to use the Insurrection Act
Posting to his Truth Social platform on January 15, President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act supposedly because “the corrupt politicians of Minnesota” aren’t stopping “the professional agitators and insurrectionists” from attacking Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Several right-wing media personalities backed him up, saying that it’s “time to do it” and claiming that “Trump’s core base, the hardest core of MAGA” are “the biggest advocate of invoking the Insurrection Act.”
- Zachary Leeman @ Mediaite: Trump Threatens Tariffs Against Countries That Don’t Support Greenland Takeover
President Donald Trump threatened to use tariffs to force support for the annexation of Greenland, which he maintains is critical for the United States’ “national security.”
- Edith Olmstread @ The New Republic: ICE Attacks Car Full of Kids, Leaving 6-Month-Old Baby Unconscious
ICE’s brutal crackdown on Minnesota is growing more terrifying each day.
---
---
MMA
:{:{MMA}:
01/15/26 1:55 PM EST
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- ### Tim Pool: “At what point will Trump just do it? Invoke the Insurrection Act. Round these people up.”
01/15/26 10:42 AM EST
---
AN 1 26
Trump officials leak his plans to 'retaliate' against states if his agents are arrested
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YELLED PEDO PROTECTOR, FLIPPED OFF UAW
AN 1 26
Fundraisers for worker suspended for heckling Trump top $800K
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an 1 26
President Donald Trump, rejecting criticism from within his own party, the economic challenges facing the American people, and polling on Greenland, suggested that his second-term accomplishments were so extensive that they should render the 2026 midterm elections unnecessary.
In an interview with Reuters, President Trump “expressed frustration” that Republicans may lose control of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate in the November midterm elections.
Calling it “some deep psychological thing,” Trump told Reuters that “when you win the presidency, you don’t win the midterms.”
He then “boasted” of his accomplishments, telling the reporter, “when you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.”
Trump, Reuters reported, “repeatedly dismissed concerns by the public, business leaders and even his fellow Republicans on issues ranging from the future of Greenland and the criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, to the state of the economy.”
He deemed “fake” a Reuters/Ipsos poll that found little support — just 17 percent — for him seizing control of Greenland.
He repeatedly declared, “I don’t care” when confronted with news that some Senate Republicans oppose the Department of Justice’s investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and “when reminded of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s concerns that White House interference in the Fed could harm the economy.”
Trump also dismissed the concerns of the American people over high prices they are facing, instead incorrectly declaring the economy the strongest “in history.” He told Reuters that he simply needed to do a better job promoting his achievements.
He appeared to suggest that “he follows his own compass” rather than put much stock in public opinion.
“A lot of times, you can’t convince a voter,” he said. “You have to just do what’s right. And then a lot of the things I did were not really politically popular. They turned out to be when it worked out so well.”
On actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Reuters reported that Trump “said he would continue sending armed agents into cities, claiming that his efforts had taken ‘thousands of murderers out of our country.”
Reuters noted that there is “no evidence to support that assertion.”
---
AN 1 26
Republicans snub Trump’s big credit card plan
---}:
an 1 26
'Pathetic': CBS host pilloried over fawning interview with Trump
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an 1 26
Trump’s policies have cost the auto industry a staggering $25 billion so far
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AN 1 26
Fox News hosts are suggesting that President Donald Trump is just an average guy.
In a segment on the cable network’s “Outnumbered” on Wednesday, co-host Harris Faulkner told her colleagues, “it’s ironic, though, but he’s not really all that different.”
Faulkner then sought to portray Trump — a billionaire real estate developer who owns multiple golf courses and the Mar-a-Lago resort — as relatable, describing him as “just a guy’s guy” and “not really all that different” from ordinary Americans.
“He loves McDonald’s,” she said.
“He likes to hang.”
“He loves his family.”
“And kind of, like, not that McDonald’s is poor to being, like, an all American, but I think it is — love those fries,” Faulkner remarked.
“But, I mean, he’s all those things that you don’t have to have a billion dollars or have to have zero dollars to get,” she exclaimed. “He’s just a guy’s guy.”
Faulkner went on to say that Trump “respects women.”
“He’s hired a lot of tremendously talented women — we’ve met them.”
“My dad,” she added, “used to say, the test of a man is how he treats the women in his life.”
“Can he be that alpha, and be loving, and generous, and all those things?”
Co-host Riley Gaines added, “They called him a misogynist but really he’s the worst misogynist, ever.”
---
18 HEADERS:
YIKES 11 24 SEE FASCISM censor propaganda
MERRI OK
SEE NEG TAG LONG TERM SYSTEMIC DAMAGE
SEE FASCISM
SEE PRESS SUPPRESS MBS KHASHOGGI 11 25
SEE STATE OF EXCEPTION CRISIS EMERGENCY ~ RULE OF LAW
MARTIAL LAW MILITARIZATION POSSE COM
KIRK SHOOT 9 25 ACTIV SUPPRESS
SEE TERROR BS 3
MASS DEPORT RACISM GREAT REPLACEMENT = CONSPIRACY EARTH2
SEE CRUEL (sado-populism)
SEE DOGE COUP // pjt 2025
SEE NAVARRO TARIFF FAIL fox pretzel rationale
SEE SYMPTOM SYSTEM DEGRADATION DISRUPT CRUEL
SEE TRUST CRED RELIABLE ~EPSTEIN EPISTEMIC CRISIS COGN DISS
SEE LIE GASLT PWR ANY MEANS ALT FACT 6 EARTH2
SEE SOW DOUBT CHAOS EG: Stanford Law School Professor Nathaniel Persily, who focuses on democracy and elections-related law, told the Post, “I’m concerned about chaos and uncertainty in the administration of the 2026 election. There is a kind of avalanche of potential changes that are being proposed, and it’s at a time when people have lost trust in the election infrastructure and everybody’s on edge.” 1/11? TRUMP TOLD GOP MOC ALL ELECTIONS ARE RIGGED?! NO PUSHBACK
SEE NORMS [HCR SAYS GONE], SANEWASHING
SEE TRUMP ADMIN 2 CORRUPT
SEE TRUMP TRANS 2
SEE CORRUPT 3 CRYPTO-CURRENCY ARAB griftuae OIL TAX BRK DEREG exxon chev bd donors ~FTC BRIBE COOK APPLE SWISS
SEE PARDON CORP BITMEX ETC, DONORS SHERIFF
SEE XO TRUMP 1 25 PRIVACY DOGEBAGS
see lie 2 gaslight esp on jan 6 revision ALT FACT EARTH2 DENY DEFLECT PROJECTION RUSSIA-GATE OBAMA TREASON EPSTEIN FILES
SEE LIE POWER ANY MEANS GERRY VOTER SUPPRESS ELECTION INTEGITY BS XO ILLEGAL ALIEN VOTERS
SEE RETALIATION LAWFARE BS
SEE BOLSONARO TARIFF BS 7 25
see CENSOR
see press suppress defam: BONDI BARI WEISS 60 MIN CECOT
SEE VOTER SUPPRESSION GERRY MAIL IN BALLOTS
see legal suppression RETALIATION ABC CHENEY
SEE ACTIV SUPPRESS PPL LOSE CONST RTS
see klepto- kaki buy elections
SEE MERCURY COAL
see agno earth2 lie BIZARRO
---
AN 1 26
When President Donald Trump holds a press conference, he often gets a comprehensive fact-check from CNN and MS NOW. CNN's Daniel Dale will go point by point, debunking false or inaccurate claims. And MS NOW hosts Chris Jansing and Ana Cabrera will pause coverage of a Trump presser to point out something that's blatantly false. Trump typically responds to debunking on CNN or MS NOW by attacking it as "fake news."
In a biting article published on January 13, Salon's Chauncey DeVega argues that Trump's use of "distortions" is an effective tool for the president because MAGA voters and politicians take comfort in an "alternate reality."
"Donald Trump has constructed a political hall of mirrors," DeVega warns. "It is a sinister, distorting reality that shows the president only what he wishes to see: fantasies of greatness and unchecked power. The effect disorients those who still live in the reality-based community, with centrists, institutionalists, mainstream liberals and progressives among the most vulnerable. For the president and his MAGA followers, though, these distortions are more comforting and real than the outside world. Since Trumpism is a political personality cult, the hall of mirrors and alternate reality it creates are a powerful tool for tying its followers to their dear leader."
DeVega adds, "This illusion is not to be found at some traveling carnival in small-town America. It exists in the White House and is expanding across the United States — and, increasingly, the world, where Trump's behavior is, by his own admission, constrained only by 'my own morality…. my own mind.'"
This "alternate reality," DeVega laments, is reinforced by Trump loyalists in Congress and his administration. The Salon journalist even compares Trump's Cabinet meetings to North Korea, where communist officials relentlessly praise "Dear Leader."
"In scenes that recall North Korea, or some other dictatorship or banana republic," DeVega observes, "Cabinet meetings increasingly function as loyalty rituals, with participants taking turns praising Trump's greatness and flawless leadership…. The president's followers in Congress want to put his face on the silver dollar and other currency. They also want to see Trump's face on Mount Rushmore."
DeVega continues, "The U.S. Navy recently announced plans for a new type of 'battleship' called 'the Trump-class'…. Trump's hall of mirrors is much more than narcissism or egomania. It is a vainglorious Orwellian project to rewrite America's public memory with the goal of further hollowing out democracy and the rule of law.
*Chauncey DeVega's full article for Salon is available at this link.
---
AN 1 26 SEE RETALIATION EXXON CEO
MAGA defender says CEO who rejected Trump was 'speaking the truth'
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AN 1 26
During the first few weeks of 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump has generated plenty of headlines — from capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to sending even more U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to Minneapolis, Minnesota following the fatal shooting of unarmed 37-year-old U.S. citizen Renee Nicole Good in that city.
Trump's actions have plenty of defenders in MAGA media outlets. But MS NOW's Vaughn Hillyard, in an article published on January 13, stresses that Trump's "increasingly brazen assertions of executive power" are "running into an unexpected problem: They risk undermining the very goals they were meant to achieve."
"His threats to seize Greenland from NATO ally Denmark are accelerating European discussions about looking for alliances beyond the United States," Hillyard observes. "His public verdict in a fatal shooting by an immigration agent — delivered before a Justice Department investigation — risks further politicizing law enforcement. His administration's attempts to pressure Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to reduce interest rates — culminating in the DOJ's investigating Powell for criminal charges — threatens to make it harder for Trump to appoint Powell's successor. And a week after the mission to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power, the chief executive of ExxonMobil called the country 'uninvestable,' undercutting the economic rationale for the military intervention."
According to historian/author Ruth Ben-Ghiat — a New York University professor known for her expertise on the history of authoritarianism — authoritarians can become increasingly volatile when they are feeling desperate.
Ben-Ghiat told MS NOW: "Trump was recently on a downward path in terms of popularity with his base, and that is when autocrats do unpredictable things to assert their power."
A Pentagon official, interviewed on condition of anonymity, warned that Trump's belligerent foreign policy risks destroying alliances that have served the U.S. well for many years.
The official told MS NOW: "If Greenland goes, so goes the allies in Europe. The one refrain I've been hearing is we don't realize how many equities the U.S. has in Europe and how valuable Australia is, too, and they'll all pull the bridge out from over the moat."
After Good's death, Trump and his allies — including Vice President JD Vance and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — defended the ICE agent who killed her. And according to MS NOW legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance, attacking Good can only hurt law enforcement in Minneapolis.
"If people don't have confidence in DOJ excessive force investigations, communities will spiral down without closure after events like the shooting of Renee Good," Joyce Vance said. "If the president fully breaks it, the consequences will be dire — we could become a country of endless protests with escalating violence from law enforcement on American streets."
*Read Vaughn Hillyard 's full article for MS NOW at this link.
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hcr 1 12? 26 gmail
story underlying all others is that the United States Congress passed a law requiring the Department of Justice to release all the Epstein files—the files from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into the activities of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein—no later than December 19, and it has not done so.
Epstein and President Donald J. Trump were close friends for many years, and the material the Department of Justice (DOJ) has released suggests that Trump was more closely tied to Epstein’s activities than Trump has acknowledged. Although Trump ran in 2024 on the promise of releasing the Epstein files, suggesting those files would incriminate Democrats, his loyalists in the administration are now openly flouting the law to keep them hidden.
Despite the clear requirement of the Epstein Files Transparency Act that they release all the files by December 19, to date they have released less than 1% of the material.
Another part of the backstory of the past week is that the Supreme Court on December 23, 2025, rejected the Trump administration’s argument that it had the power to deploy federalized National Guard troops in and around Chicago, a decision that seemed to limit Trump’s power to use military forces within the United States.
Yet another part of the backstory is that on New Year’s Eve, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee released a 255-page transcript of former special counsel Jack Smith’s December 17 closed-door testimony before the committee. In that testimony—under oath—Smith said that his office had “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power. Our investigation also developed powerful evidence that showed that President Trump willfully retained highly classified documents after he left office in January of 2021, storing them at his social club, including in a ballroom and a bathroom. He then repeatedly tried to obstruct justice to conceal his continued retention of those documents.”
With pressure building over the Epstein files and Jack Smith’s testimony, and with the Supreme Court having taken away Trump’s ability to use troops within the United States, the administration went on the offensive.
Only a week ago, on January 3, the military captured Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. After months of suggesting that he was determined to end what he called “narco-traffickers,” Trump made it clear as soon as Maduro was in hand that he wanted control of Venezuela’s oil.
Then, on January 6, the fifth anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters determined to keep Trump in office despite Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s majority of 7 million votes, Trump’s White House rewrote the history of January 6, 2021, claiming that the rioters were “peaceful patriotic protesters” and blaming the Democrats for the insurrection.
That same day, after the Supreme Court had cut off the administration’s ability to federalize National Guard soldiers and send them to Democratic-led cities, the administration surged 2,000 federal agents to Minneapolis in the largest federal immigration enforcement operation ever launched.
The next morning, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good, and the administration responded by calling Good a domestic terrorist.
On Thursday, January 8, as protests broke out across the country, Republicans in both chambers of Congress began to push back against the administration. In the House, Representatives Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY), the leading sponsors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, asked U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer to appoint “a Special Master and an Independent Monitor to compel” the DOJ to produce the Epstein files as the law requires. The House also passed a measure to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits for three years.
The Senate advanced a bill to stop the Trump administration from additional attacks on Venezuela without congressional approval. And, just two days after Trump had reversed the victims and offenders in the January 6, 2021, insurrection, suggesting that Capitol Police officers had been among the offenders, the Senate unanimously agreed to hang a plaque honoring the police who protected the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Congress passed a law in March 2022 mandating that the plaque be hung, but Republicans until now had prevented its installation.
Friday was a busy day at the White House.
On Friday, Trump threatened Greenland, saying that he was “going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not.”
Trump’s threat against a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ally has had American lawmakers and foreign allies scrambling ever since. In a joint statement, the leaders of Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom said that “Greenland belongs to its people.” Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) released a video explaining that “what you are essentially talking about here is the United States going to war with NATO, the United States going to war with Europe. You’re talking about the U.S. and France being at war with each other over Greenland.”
Trump’s threats against Greenland came at a meeting with oil executives. When he attacked Venezuela to capture Maduro, Trump told reporters that United States oil companies would spend billions of dollars to fix the badly broken infrastructure of oil extraction in that country. But apparently the oil companies had not gotten the memo. They have said that they are not currently interested in investing in Venezuela because they have no idea how badly oil infrastructure there has degraded and no sense of who will run the country in the future.
What oil executives did suggest to Trump on Friday was that they would quite like to be repaid for their losses from the 2007 nationalization of their companies from the sale of Venezuelan oil Trump has promised to control. ConocoPhillips, for example, claims it is owed about $12 billion. “We’re not going to look at what people lost in the past, because that was their fault,” Trump told them. “That was a different president. You’re going to make a lot of money, but we’re not going to go back.”
Yesterday the government made public an executive order President Donald J. Trump signed on Friday, declaring yet another national emergency—his tenth in this term, by my count—and saying that any use of the revenue from the sale of Venezuelan oil to repay the billions of dollars owed to oil companies “will materially harm the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”
Specifically, the executive order says, such repayment would “interfere with our critical efforts to ensure economic and political stability in Venezuela” and, by extension, jeopardize U.S. foreign policy objectives including “ending the dangerous influx of illegal immigrants and the flood of illicit narcotics;…protecting American interests against malign actors such as Iran and Hezbollah; and bringing peace, prosperity, and stability to the Venezuelan people and to the Western Hemisphere more generally.” So, it appears, Trump wants to retain control of the money from the sale of Venezuelan oil.
Tonight Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he is under federal criminal investigation related to his congressional testimony about a $2.5 billion renovation of historic Federal Reserve buildings. On Friday the Department of Justice served the Federal Reserve grand jury subpoenas.
Powell, whom Trump appointed, released a video noting that he has kept Congress in the loop on the renovation project and saying that complaints about renovations are pretexts. Trump is threatening criminal charges against Powell because the Fed didn’t lower interest rates as fast as Trump wanted, instead working in the interest of the American people. “This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions—or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.” Powell vowed to “continue to do the job the Senate confirmed me to do, with integrity and a commitment to serving the American people.”
The Federal Reserve is designed to be independent of presidents to avoid exactly what Trump is trying to do. The attempt to replace Powell with a loyalist who will give Trump control over the nation’s financial system profoundly threatens the stability of the country. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), who sits on the Senate Finance Committee, appeared to have had enough. He posted that “[i]f there were any remaining doubt whether advisers within the Trump Administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none. It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question.” He said he would “oppose the confirmation of any nominee for the Fed—including the upcoming Fed Chair vacancy—until this legal matter is fully resolved.”
Kyle Cheney of Politico observed that it is “[h]ard to overstate what a remarkable statement this is from a Republican senator…accusing the Trump White House of weaponizing DOJ to control the Fed.”
Over a picture of the demolished East Wing of the White House, conservative lawyer George Conway noted: “I also must say that it’s a bit rich that Trump and his DOJ think it’s a good idea to gin up a bullshit investigation about supposed illegalities in....{checks notes}…renovating a federal building.”
On social media tonight, Trump posted a portrait of himself with the title: “Acting President of Venezuela.”
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Notes:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/j6/
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/world/americas/trump-greenland-annex.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/12/fed-jerome-powell-criminal-probe-nyt.html
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/powell20260111a.htm
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-republican-senators-venezuela-war-powers/
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/4405/text
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/06/epstein-files-release-justice-department
Bluesky:
chrismurphyct.bsky.social/post/3mc4iyclym222
gtconway.bsky.social/post/3mc73ftktkj2w
gtconway.bsky.social/post/3luuiczrpis2e
federalreserve.gov/post/3mc6san2usk2g
justinwolfers.bsky.social/post/3mc6wyjaqwk2g
muellershewrote.com/post/3mc6vzhk2dk2o
kyledcheney.bsky.social/post/3mc6xpvvtez26
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an 1 26
The White House says President Donald Trump has been “laser-focused on making America affordable” since taking office. Just one month ago, President Trump called affordability a “hoax” perpetrated by Democrats.
President Trump has recently attempted to preserve his sweeping tariffs amid Supreme Court review, has engaged in foreign policy messaging involving Venezuela, Iran, and Greenland — including promoting himself as the “acting President of Venezuela” — and has responded sharply to protests involving federal officers.
The president campaigned on lowering the cost of living on “day one,” but nearly 51 weeks into his second term, inflation remains high.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that the president would travel to Detroit on Tuesday to deliver a speech about “all of the positive economic news that we continue to see as a result of his agenda.”
“So tomorrow, he looks forward to traveling to the great state of Michigan, a state he won big, to not only tour a factory that produces Ford F-150s, and is going to be hiring more, and producing more trucks right here in the USA because of President Trump’s effective tariff policies,” Leavitt said.
Trump narrowly won Michigan, taking less than half of the vote and besting Vice President Kamala Harris by 1.4 percentage points.
Leavitt said that “mortgage rates that are falling under 6% for the first time in years,” “the national average of gasoline is the lowest that it’s been in five years,” and core inflation is “at its lowest level in five years.”
She suggested that “with a little bit of patience, the American people are going to continue to see that the best is yet to come,” and claimed that Trump “has a proven economic formula that works.”
Leavitt also said that Trump has a housing plan “in the works” and a healthcare plan “in the works,” and vowed that Americans will “continue to hear from the president, and he’ll continue to hit the road across the country to speak directly with the people he loves most, the American people.”
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AN 1 26
THE FED IS HOLY TO FREE MKT?TRUMP NEEDS TO GOOSE THE ECON BEFORE MIDTERMS?
The bombshell revelations from Sunday that Donald Trump's Department of Justice is criminally probing the Federal Reserve have prompted heated pushbackfrom the president's allies in the GOP-controlled Congress, according to Politico, with one House member warning that the move "will haunt us all for a generation."
Trump spent much of his first year back in the White House pressing Jerome Powell, the man he appointed as chair of the Federal Reserve back in 2018, to lower interest rates. As Powell resisted, Trump escalated to threats, looking for grounds on which to fire the Fed chair. Trump's campaign against Powell alarmed many observers concerned about the independence of the Fed and its ability to keep the US economy stable.
On Sunday, news emerged that Trump's DOJ was moving forward with a criminal investigation into Powell over allegations that he misled Congress over the scope of a renovation to the Fed's D.C. office. The president is barred by law from removing the Fed chair for any reason, and can only do so in response to misconduct. In a rare public statement, Powell himself called the probe an effort by Trump to reshape the nature of the Fed and create a dynamic whereby the country's monetary policy is "directed by political pressure or intimidation."
Speaking to Politico, one anonymous senior House GOP member expressed considerable frustration over the probe, lashing out at the Trump administration's insistence on having everything "their way" and warning of the lasting repercussions it could cause.
“Will they stop at nothing to force their way on everything?” the anonymous lawmaker told Politico's Meredith Lee Hill. “The administration is setting a standard they cannot achieve themselves and will haunt us all for a generation.”
This comment added to the flames of conservative revolt against Trump's feud with Powell, coming on the heels of Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican and member of the Senate Banking Committee, threatening to withhold his support for Trump's pick to replace Powell over this probe. As Politico explained, if every Democrat on the committee voted against the nominee, Tillis' opposition would be enough to stall the process of appointing a new Fed chair.
“If there were any remaining doubt whether advisers within the Trump Administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none,” Tillis said. “It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Alaska Republican, took to social media on Monday to decry the probe as "an attempt at coercion."
"After speaking with Chair Powell this morning, it’s clear the administration’s investigation is nothing more than an attempt at coercion," Murkowski said in a post to X. "If the Department of Justice believes an investigation into Chair Powell is warranted based on project cost overruns,— which are not."
Notably, Powell's term as Fed chair is up in the spring, meaning Trump only needs to wait a few months to be able to replace him lawfully.
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AN 126 ROBT R
At the same time agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol are swarming into Minnesota and other states and cities, Trump is planning bombing raids on other countries.
Domestically and internationally, he is putting America on a war footing.
ICE is reportedly investing $100 million on what it calls “wartime recruitment” of 10,000 new agents, in addition to the 20,000 already employed. Its recruitment is targeting gun and military enthusiasts, people who listen to right-wing radio, who have gone to Ultimate Fighting Championship fights or shopped for guns and tactical gear, live near military bases, and attend NASCAR races. It’s calling for recruits willing to perform their “sacred duty” and “defend the homeland” by repelling “foreign invaders.”
Meanwhile, Trump has announced that he’ll ask Congress for a $1.5 trillion defense budget for the next fiscal year — a 66 percent increase over the 2026 defense budget Congress just authorized.
There’s coming to be no difference between Trump’s foreign and domestic policies.
Both are based on the same eight maniacal ideas: (1) Might makes right. (2) Law is irrelevant. (3) America is at war with the world’s “radical left,” who are defined chiefly by their opposition to Trump. (4) Fear and force are better weapons in this war than hope and compromise. (5) The U.S. stock market is the best measure of Trump’s success. (6) Personal enrichment by Trump and other officials is justified in pursuit of victory. (7) So are lies, cover-ups, and the illegal use of force. (8) Trump is invincible and omnipotent.
These ideas are at such fundamental odds with the norms most of us share about what America is all about and how a president should think and behave that it’s difficult to accept that Trump believes them or that his White House thugs eagerly endorse them. But he does, and they do.
Rather than some “doctrine” or set of principles, they’re more like guttural discharges. Trump is not rational, and the people around him trying to give him a patina of rationality — his White House assistants and spokespeople — surely know it.
The media tries to confer on Trump a coherence that evaporates almost as soon as it’s stated. The New York Times’s breathless coverage of its recent Oval Office interview with Trump — describing his “many faces” — is a model of such a vapidity.
According to the Times, Trump “took unpredictable turns” during the interview. But instead of seeing this unpredictability as a symptom of Trump’s diminishing capacities and ever-shorter attention span, the Timesreported it as “a tactic he embraces as president, particularly on the world stage. If no one knows what you might do, they often do what you want them to do.”
Attempts to show inconsistencies or hypocrisies in Trump’s domestic or foreign policies are fruitless because they have no consistency or truthfulness to begin with.
Nor is it possible for the media to describe a “big picture” of America and the world under Trump because there is nothing to picture other than his malignant, impulsive, unbridled grandiosity all the way up and all the way down.
Trump has unleashed violence on America’s streets for much the same reason he has unleashed violence on Latin America and is planning to unleash it elsewhere: to display his own strength. His motive is to gain more power and, along the way, more wealth. (On Sunday, he even posted an image referring to himself as the “Acting President of Venezuela.”)
“Policy” implies thought. But under Trump, there is no domestic or foreign policy because it is all thoughtless. It is not even improvised. It is just Trump’s ego — as interpreted by the toadies around him (Miller, Vought, Vance, Kennedy, Rubio, Noem) trying to guess what his ego craves or detests, or fulfilling their own fanatical goals by manipulating it.
We must stop trying to make rational sense out of what Trump is doing. He is a ruthless dictator, plan and simple.
All analyses of what is happening — all reporting, all efforts to understand, all attempts at strategizing — are doomed. The only reality is that an increasingly dangerous and irrational sociopath is now exercising brutal and unconstrained power over America and, hence, the world.
Trump is putting America on a war footing because war is good for him as it is for all dictators. War confers emergency powers. It justifies ignoring the niceties of elections. It allows dictators to imprison and intimidate opponents and enemies. It enables them to create their own personal slush funds. It distracts the public from other things (remember Jeffrey Epstein?).
War gives dictators like Trump more power and more wealth. Period.
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AN 1 26:
President Donald Trump is quickly losing support from those in his home state of Florida.
Bloomberg opinion columnist Mary Ellen Klas penned a Sunday piece where she revealed that many of the people she knows who are supporters of Trump are privately uncomfortable with his actions in the first year.
The Florida resident described the MAGA voters "queasy" over "brazen corruption" coming out of the second Trump administration.
The invasion of Venezuela is the most recent example. While ousting former President Nicolás Maduro was supported overwhelmingly by both sides of the political aisle, there is still a need for transparency about what the U.S. intends to do there and how much tax payer dollars will be used to fund what Trump wants.
"Yet, they don’t feel right calling out Trump for this or his other transgressions, so they dance around it — often trying to find some equivalent outrage under a Democratic administration," Klas said.
The problem they're finding, she wrote, is that there are no equivalences. While Trump's Cabinet officials have taken a "wrecking-ball" to the U.S. government, she noted GOP lawmakers "have remained virtually dormant." The administration has taken over Congress' power to control budget and spending, appointments to independent agencies and demote the power of other branches of the federal government.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department is trying to prosecute Trump's opponents. All the while, Trump is taking advantage of "self-enriching deals, the firing of Justice Department watchdogs, the sweeping use of the president’s pardon power to free his allies — regardless of the seriousness of their crimes — and the frightening near-abandonment of the rule of law," wrote Klas.
From those she's spoken to, Klas said that many MAGA supporters bought into his 2024 campaign messages. Now, however, Americans are "afraid."
“My parents fled an authoritarian regime and that’s the type of government that instills fear and puts people in jail and punishes them for their viewpoints,” said Marcos Daniel Jiménez, a former US attorney under former President George W. Bush told Klas.
“That’s exactly what this president is doing — maybe not to that level — but the retribution and the attacks by the president and his cronies have caused many people who own businesses and have families to be afraid," Jiménez continued.
In fact, several Cuban Americans told Klas that they see parallels between Trump and former President Fidel Castro. Jiménez was the only one who would go on the record with her. Others were afraid of retaliation from Trump and his allies.
"Those who have experience with life in an authoritarian regime know best what will happen if the Trump administration continues down its current path. But they don’t see it in their self-interest to speak out. Social scientists call this the 'collective action problem,' when individuals acting in their own self-interest contribute to a worse outcome for the entire group," she continued.
In an essay for his students, Associate Professor of Law Dakota Rudesill advised Americans to consider their personal values and refuse to lower their standards.
Rudesill explained to Klaus that often when people see things that conflicts with their values they try to explain it away rather than standing up for what they believe in.
“But if everybody just looks to their immediate self-interest, then we are all just going to consent to transaction, submission, intimidation and threat — which undermines everything we believe in," Rudesill said.
Sometimes, she closed, it only takes one voice.
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AN 1 26
The cities that President Donald Trump and his allies are targeting for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids — Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and now, Minneapolis — have something in common: They are run by Democrats. And the cities that Trump is singling out have Democratic governors such as California's Gavin Newsom, Illinois' JB Pritzker and Minnesota's Tim Walz.
In an article published on January 12, Politico reporters Blake Jones, Jeremy B. White and Nick Reisman cite fraud allegations as one of the tactics that Trump is using against blue states.
"Donald Trump has found a new way to bludgeon blue states: accuse them of fraud, then move to cut off their money," the journalists explain. "The attacks ramping up across the map — from Albany and Springfield to Denver and Sacramento — follow Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz ending his reelection campaign amid allegations of welfare fraud in his state — a case Trump's MAGA allies seized to cast similar aspersions at other Democratic leaders. The Trump Administration cited unproven fraud allegations last week as it put a hold on $10 billion in child care funding to five Democratic-run states."
Jones, White and Reisman add, "The Department of Justice announced it's launching a new division of fraud enforcement, pointing to Minnesota's 'fraud epidemic.' And in California, Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said he's pursuing additional charges of fraud involving state homelessness programs after railing for months against Gov. Gavin Newsom's management of state spending…. The spending-focused line of attack from Trump marks an escalation in Trump’s already red-hot war on blue states."
Democratic New York State Sen. Liz Krueger argues that Trump's attacks on blue states were easy to predict during the 2024 presidential election.
Kreuger told Politico, "I'll say one thing about our president: He told us he was going to do this. He told us he was going to punish blue states. We have to brace for impact, we have to use our legal skills, our amazing attorney general, and endless lawsuits to at least hold them back."
According to U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Illinois), Trump is using a range of methods to attack blue states.
Schneider told Politico, "He's attacking blue states out of revenge. If that's in the form of sending in ICE, he sends in ICE. If it's denying food and education to their children, which to be clear are America's children, he's gonna do that. What he is doing is seeking revenge at the cost of America's most vulnerable people, putting those communities at risk."
*Read the full Politico article at this link.
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an 1 26
One MS NOW producer is sounding the alarm about a comment President Donald Trump made during his extensive interview with theNew York Timesthat is telling about his 2026 intentions.
Kyle Griffin, executive producer of Weeknight wrote on Xthat the detail was a "BIG FLAG."
"Trump said during his interview with The New York Times that he regretted not ordering the National Guard to seize voting machines in swing states after his loss in the 2020 election. He doubted whether the Guard was 'sophisticated enough' to carry out the order effectively," Griffin said.
The comments come as the Washington Post reported Monday morning "if his party loses," in the 2026 midterm elections, it is expected that Trump will "sow doubt in their validity."
Trump's new plans included forcing Republican state lawmaker to redraw congressional lines in Republicans' favor. That step, however, was only the beginning. Trump is also pushing to make voter registration more difficult and end the use of voting machines and mail-in ballots.
"The administration has gutted the role of the nation’s cybersecurity agency in protecting elections; stocked the Justice Department, Homeland Security Department and FBI from top to bottom with officials who have denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election; given a White House audience to people who, like the president, promote the lie that he won the 2020 election; sued over state and local election policies that Trump opposes; and called for a new census that excludes noncitizens," the Post explained.
"The wide-ranging efforts seek to expand on some of the strategies he and his advisers and allies used to try to reverse the 2020 results that culminated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021," the report added.
Stanford Law School Professor Nathaniel Persily, who focuses on democracy and elections-related law, told the Post, “I’m concerned about chaos and uncertainty in the administration of the 2026 election. There is a kind of avalanche of potential changes that are being proposed, and it’s at a time when people have lost trust in the election infrastructure and everybody’s on edge.” 1/11? TRUMP TOLD GOP MOC ALL ELECTIONS ARE RIGGED?! NO PUSHBACK
The White House claims that they're focused on making sure only eligible American citizens vote.
While Trump has joked about canceling the 2026 election, he doesn't have the authority to do it because local and state officials handle elections — not the federal government. That will be the barrier to a lot of Trump's efforts to change mail-in ballots or bar certain voting machines.
Trump issued an executive order that aimed to stop any state from accepting mail-in ballots received after Election Day. In many states, as long as a voter has the ballot post marked by Election Day, it is legal. A lower court has blocked the order, but the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the matter this year.
In another matter, the Justice Department has been in a battle with at least 40 states and Washington D.C., demanding voter rolls with personal identifying information including birth dates and partial Social Security numbers. Ten states have agreed to cooperate with the DOJ.
Read the full list of efforts Trump has made to change the 2026 midterm elections here.
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HAS TO GOOSE ECON W/ CHEAP $ BEFORE MIDTERMS?
AN 1 26
President Donald Trump's vendetta against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell escalated on Friday when the outgoing leader of the central bank was handed a Justice Department subpoena.
Trump's Justice Department claims that Powell lied under oath to Congress when he testified about the Federal Reserve's renovations of two historic buildings.
Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall told Fox Business News that there were more important things to do than to worry about Trump trolling people.
Other Republicans appeared to take it more seriously.
Maria Bartiromo asked Marshall if Powell broke the law.
"Well, Maria, I think we'll let the system play through here," Marshall began. "I think there's other issues that we should be focused on. I think this is the president throwing out one more, uh, maybe he's even trolling here, as well. We got bigger issues to go after than this one though."
Marshall's tepid dismissal of Trump's attack on the independent Federal Reserve drew consternation from some.
KansasCity.com opinion columnist Joel Mathis wrote on BlueSky, "If Roger Marshall can’t stand up for Trump on this one, you know that it’s total bulls——. That endangers the American economy. But get the heck out of here with trolling. You don’t use the Department of Justice to troll. What a stupid, stupid comment."
CNN reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere commented, "Where we’re at: the Justice Department pursuing charges against a government official is 'the president almost trolling.'"
"On Democracy" podcast host Fred Wellman responded to Marshall's claims by saying, "Hahah. He’s just trolling with a Constitutional crisis. Trump is hilarious. What a prankster that guy is. The Republican Doormat Congress manages to find a new way to humiliate themselves daily."
Fiscal conservative Brad Polumbo was bothered by it too. He wrote on X, "'Just trolling' with the fate of the global economy is a wild defense."
Vanity Fair's Aidan McLaughlin said, "Criminal investigations are trolling now."
"Do these people want careers after Trump's term or what?" asked Tahra Hoops, director of economic analysis at the Chamber of Progress.
Professor Mark D. White noted he was "waiting for someone to say 'libs can't take a joke' about this."
New York media director Greg Krieg questioned, "When they shot Renee Good in the head, was that a cheeky troll too?"
CNN reporter Aaron Blake commented, "When even Roger Marshall chooses to downplay rather than defend..."
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an 26
Two Colorado lawmakers say President Donald Trump is harming his own voters after appearing to veto an important clean water bill to slight a personal enemy.
“Sadly, this veto is part of a broader campaign of attacks against our state,” wrote Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) in a Thursday op-ed for MS NOW.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) previously accused Trump of blocking a non-controversial water project affecting her district after she challengedTrump to force the release of files pertaining to Trump’s old friend and convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein in November.
“Trump decided to veto … a bipartisan bill that passed both the House and Senate unanimously. Why? Because nothing says ‘America First’ like denying clean drinking water to 50,000 people in Southeast Colorado, many of whom enthusiastically voted for him in all three elections,” Boebert said.
Hickenlooper and Bennet said the water bill is only the latest act of vindictiveness from a vengeful president however.
“Over the past month, Trump has denied Colorado critical disaster relief after wildfires and flooding. His administration abruptly announced the dismantling of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, without any plan to continue its life-saving scientific work. His administration canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in transportation and child care grants for our state,” they said. “When a president puts political vendettas ahead of clean water for schools, hospitals and ranchers, he isn’t ‘shaking up’ Washington. He is undermining the people he swore to serve. And it’s working people and rural communities that pay the price.”
The bill, they said has “no measurable increase in federal spending,” and it passed both the Senate and the House with the support of every member of Congress.
“In a Washington defined by division, Republicans and Democrats alike agreed that this was the right thing to do — everyone except the president,” they said.
“Projects like the Arkansas Valley Conduit are “too important to fall victim to Trump’s strategic chaos,” they said. “It’s southeast Colorado today, but if we allow basic infrastructure projects to be used as a political weapon, it could be your community tomorrow.”
Read Bennet's and Hickenlooper's full MS NOW op-ed at this link.
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AN 1 26
Politico reports giant energy companies are worried about President Donald Trump pressuring them to invest resources in Venezuela and are quietly planning to ignore him.
Trump is reportedly now pressing American oil giants to spend “billions of dollars reopening Venezuela,” after he sent troops to arrest Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. However, Politico reported Thursday that the companies with the most resources and experience to drill in the South American nation are on the fence about the project, according to six anonymous oil company executives and industry lobbyists.
According to Politico, Trump is planning a White House meeting Friday that may include executives from companies with experience in Venezuela, including U.S.-based Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips. But executives tell Politico that the assembly could turn into an arm-twisting session.
“Some of the CEOs fear that Trump will use the meeting — and invite television cameras — to pressure them to make public commitments sooner than they would like,” Politico reports.
Executives want to know who will guarantee their companies’ security and property in a country still run by the same corrupt politicians who stole millions of dollars’ worth of their oil exploration and drilling equipment two decades ago. In addition to who will pay company bills and in what currency, Politico reports there remains the question of how much information the White House is sharing with acting President Delcy Rodriguez’s interim government. Industry insiders are still unsure whether the White House has even told Venezuelan officials that the it has given some companies licenses to sell 50 million barrels of oil that Trump claims the nation was “turning over” to U.S invading forces.
In addition to questions of safety, companies are wondering why they should invest in hard-to-process heavy Venezuelan crude oil given the nation’s busted infrastructure and uncertain political environment, only to dump more oil on a global market and hurt their bottom line with the resulting cheaper oil prices.
With so many reasons not to invest, Politico reports oil executives may simply string Trump along with big promises while delivering nothing.
“Companies may follow the playbook of promising the White House they are interested in investing in Venezuela just to stay on Trump’s good side but ultimately not following through,” one business lobbyist told Politico. This tactic — called “Everyone Makes Promises And Never Actually Does Anything” — is so common for dealing with the distracted president that it’s got its own acronym.
“My impression is it’s EMPANADA all over again,” an anonymous executive told Politico.
Read the Politico report at this link.
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AN 1 26
After U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and transported him to a federal detention center in New York City, U.S. President Donald Trump gave his support to Vice President Delcy Rodríguez — not opposition leader María Corina Machado. Rodríguez, an ally of Maduro and the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, is now the South American country's acting president.
Supporters of Machado, a Nobel laureate, were hoping to see her give her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump — the goal, according to Daily Beast reporter Tom Latchem, being getting goal to endorse Machado as Venezuelan president.
Trump endorsed that idea during a Thursday night, January 8 appearance on Fox News. The U.S. president told longtime Fox News host Sean Hannity, "I've heard that she wants to do that. That would be a great honor…. I've stopped eight wars."
But according to the Norwegian Nobel Institute, rules forbid Machado to give someone else her prize.
A Nobel spokesperson told the Daily Beast, "A Nobel Prize can neither be revoked nor transferred to others. Once the announcement of the laureate(s) has been made, the decision stands for all time. As for the prize money, the laureate(s) are free to dispose of it as they see fit."
Latchem notes that Nobel's "organization’s refusal to bend its own rules" will "be a disappointment not just to Trump, but also, to some of his loyalists, who are reported to have lobbied for Machado to hand the president the prize he so covets."
Latchem reports, "Fox News presenter Rachel Campos-Duffy, the wife of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, both 54, is reported to have been working both publicly and privately to get Machado to offer the prize to Trump when they meet next week, according to political journalist Rachael Bade's Substack. Campos-Duffy is said to have worked hard to get Machado the Oval Office audience where she would 'give Trump her Nobel Peace Prize,' Bade writes, saying the push has come from Trump World insiders who know the president is fixated on the award."
*Read Tom Latchem's full article for the Daily Beast at this link (subscription required).
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an 1 26
Zeteo reports two White House officials and an anonymous military source say President Donald Trump's administration privately plans to go scorched-earth if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials are arrested or prosecuted for breaking the law.
“As one senior Trump administration official describes it, the mandate was clear: Don’t give an inch, and protect the accused agents ‘no matter what,’” write Zeteo correspondents Asawin Suebsaeng and Prem Thakker. “Two of the sources add that within the past year, President [Donald] Trump himself has privately said that if one of his immigration agents were ever subject to arrest or prosecuted, he and his administration could retaliate by refusing to hand over the officer, counter by federally charging Democrats or local officials with ‘obstructing’ immigration enforcement, or threaten to further cut off federal funding to the state in question.”
Trump began rolling masked ICE forces through U.S. cities last year, triggering violent arrests and harassment of local residents, often over the opposition of local leaders. Now that 43 year-old ICE agent Jonathan Ross has killed a 37 year-old mother in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the administration is already swinging into action to bar unbiased investigations into the slaying, claiming local courts and prosecutors have no jurisdiction into the murder of one of its own residents.
Administration officials say the White House and the president’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, “gamed out since early last year” what to do if Democrats, or state or local prosecutors, ever moved to arrest or prosecute ICE officers or federal immigration personnel accused of crimes, even murder.
“Almost instantly after news of the fatal shooting began circulating on social media, the Trump administration and its close allies fanned out to insist to the American people that the victim had it coming, or that Democrats will only suffer more if they try to hold anyone accountable for the killing,” Zeteo reports.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem quickly labeled the victim, Renee Nicole Good, a “domestic terrorist.” One anonymous military policy official told Zeteo he was surprised at “Noem so readily moving to defend the murderous ICE agent.”
“[It] never has bode well, historically, once the state stops pretending to care about some level of institutional respect and acts without regard for the public backlash,” the source told Zeteo. “Only makes me worried about what it’ll do next.”
The state of Minnesota may yet move to prosecute the ICE agent, but sources say the Trump administration is already “primed to retaliate.”
An anonymous National Guardsman told Zeteo that the ICE agent’s “weapons training, the trigger discipline is completely f—— up” but added that’s “lower down the list of issues.”
Read the Zeteo report at this link.
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AN 1 26
On Thursday morning, January 8, five Republican senators — Maine's Susan Collins, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, Kentucky's Rand Paul, Missouri's Josh Hawley, and Indiana's Todd Young — joined Senate Democrats in voting to advance a resolution to block President Donald Trump from using military force against Venezuela. And Trump responded by personally attacking the senators in a post on his Truth Social platform.
Trump wrote: "Republicans should be ashamed of the Senators that just voted with Democrats in attempting to take away our Powers to fight and defend the United States of America. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and Todd Young should never be elected to office again. This Vote greatly hampers American Self Defense and National Security, impeding the President’s Authority as Commander in Chief."
Trump went on to attack the senators for invoking the War Powers Act in their resolution.
The U.S. president posted: "In any event, and despite their 'stupidity,' the War Powers Act is Unconstitutional, totally violating Article II of the Constitution, as all Presidents, and their Departments of Justice, have determined before me."
Trump's post is drawing a lot of responses on X.
MAGA Republican Breanna Morello, formerly with far-right network Newsmax, applauded Trump's post, writing: "President Donald Trump calls out The RINO Senators that are teaming up with Senate Democrats to undermine the White House. This includes Senators Susan Collins, Rand, Paul, Lisa Murkowski, Josh Hawley, and Todd Young."
Eric Daugherty of the right-wing Florida's Voice News posted, "The White House CONFIRMED this would be vetoed."
But CNN's Aaron Blake, formerly of the Washington Post, argued that Collins is important to Republicans holding the U.S. Senate in the midterms.
Blake posted, "Collins is up for reelection this year and is key to Trump keeping a Senate majority."
MS NOW's Mychael Schnell tweeted: "Woah. President Trump blasts the 5 Senate Republicans who voted to advance the Venezuela war powers resolution. 'Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and Todd Young should never be elected to office again.' Republicans should be 'ashamed' of them, he adds."
The Missouri Independent's Jason Hancock wrote: "Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Todd Young of Indiana, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska split with their party to act as a check on the administration's use of military forces."
Bloomberg News' Steven Dennis tweeted: "5 Republicans defied Trump on Venezuela, with some citing his talk of running the country indefinitely: Todd Young (Served as a Marine) Josh Hawley Susan Collins Lisa Murkowski Rand Paul."
Dennis, in a separate tweet, also posted: "Trump issued a veto threat, so passing this in the Senate - expected next week after today's 52-47 vote - is 15 votes shy in the Senate of an override (and needs 2/3rds in House too.)…. Still this is a very rare rebuke of Trump 2.0. (He's also lost votes on his tariffs on Canada)."
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AN 1 26
The fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by a U.S. Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis was followed by large protests all over the United States, from Portland, Oregon to Philadelphia (where a crowd of demonstrators gathering outside City Hall).
Allies of President Donald Trump are aggressively defending the agent and claiming that he acted in self-defense, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Vice President JD Vance. Noem even described Good as a "domestic terrorist." But many others on both the left and the right are attacking the shooting as excessive force, and former Judge Andrew Napolitano — a right-wing libertarian/conservative legal analyst for Newsmax — believes that the agent should face criminal charges.
Good's death came four days after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and transported him to a federal detention center in New York City. And Salon's Brian Karem, in an article published on January 9, draws a parallel between the two events — both of which, Karem argues, show that Trump is feeling increasingly emboldened.
"(Trump) Administration officials used nearly the same language in describing Renee Nicole Good as they did the alleged narco-terrorists," Karem notes. "Trump said she was 'very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self-defense.' He also blamed the death on the 'Radical Left' and said they are 'threatening, assaulting and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis.'"
Karem fears that Trump will use the outrage following Good's death as a pretext to impose martial law and cancel the 2026 midterms.
"Trump is hell-bent, along with those who work for him, on total control," Karem warns. "Good's death is likely to foment more anger and hatred, both of which Trump bathes in. Should something nasty befall ICE officers, Trump would gladly declare martial law. And speculation is rife that he could cancel the midterm elections — since he's scared to death he’ll be impeached should the Democrats regain control of Congress in November…. Renee Nicole Good is an example of how Trump villainizes American citizens. Maduro shows how Trump exploits the villainy of other villains. The oil tankers are symbolic of his greed and reality-show tendencies."
Karem adds, "All three of these examples show that the consequences of Trump are very real and increasingly acute. At this point, they are painfully and terrifyingly obvious. Be prepared for martial law."
*Brian Karem's full article for Salon is available at this link.
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AN 1 26
Former Republican Chief of Staff William Kristol says President Donald Trump is precisely the king U.S. founders were trying to avoid when they devised a Constitution setting the rule of law over all things.
“Two-hundred fifty years ago tomorrow, on January 10, 1776, in Philadelphia, Thomas Paine published his pamphlet Common Sense,” said Kristol, which made the argument against monarchy like the ‘Royal Brute of Great Britain.’”
Paine’s book sold well, and the rule of law has been central to the American experiment in self-government. From Paine on, Kristol says “No Kings” has meant that the law is king.
“[But] is the law king in America today?” asked Kristol. “We’re seeing a sustained and conscious effort to undermine the rule of law. From Minneapolis to Caracas, from the White House to the Department of Justice to the Department of Homeland Security, the Trump administration has engaged in … eviscerating the rule of law and reducing us to mere subjects rather than self-governing citizens.”
Trump confirmed on Wednesday in the New York Times that he respects no legal limits on his power, acknowledging only “My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
“I suppose we should thank Trump for providing a kind of living illustration, a kind of tableau vivant, of the claims of absolute monarchy that Thomas Paine ridiculed and denounced. But Trump’s not a faraway king from whom we’re about to separate ourselves. He’s our president,” said Kristol.
Meanwhile, Kristol said Trump’s Justice Department is “routinely ignoring the law that required the full release of the Epstein files by December 19, 2025,” forcing lawmakers to ask a federal court to appoint “a Special Master and an Independent Monitor to compel” the Justice Department to produce the files as legally required
“Earlier this week, political scientist Jeffrey Isaac addressed the apparent paradox that people who allegedly believe in ‘America First’ have rallied to support Trump’s attack on another country. But as Isaac puts it, at its heart Trumpism is neither isolationist nor interventionist. It’s about authoritarianism: ‘contempt for the very idea of law’ and ‘an embrace of the power politics of domination and conquest.’
“So which is it to be?” Kristol asked, “A stand for liberty in the spirit of Thomas Paine, or acquiescence to the depredations of our own mad King George? The rule of law or the rule of Trump?”
Read the Bulwark report at this link.
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Pope Leo condemns 'Orwellian-style language' in veiled jab at Trump admin
AN 1 26
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SCOTUS WILL NOT HEAR OVERTURN HIS FELONIES? 12 25
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Trump’s net worth keeps soaring — but his investors are taking a hit
AN 1 26
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AN 1 26
The federal government passed a whole raft of laws in the wake of the 1970s Watergate scandal, aimed at curbing the power of the presidency and imposing widespread ethical reforms, but according to a new analysis from the New York Times, since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has been systemically crushing these laws "as if in a shooting gallery."
The Watergate scandal began in 1972, when reporting uncovered efforts by President Richard Nixon to surveil his Democratic rivals by bugging their National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C. The scandal bloomed ever bigger over the course of two years, with ever more "revelations of rot in the Nixon administration" coming to light, according to Times reporter Matthew Purdy, ultimately leading to Nixon's resignation in 1974 ahead of an impeachment inquiry.
Fearing that the affair had critically damaged the public's trust in its government, Congress undertook a massive reform campaign, passing a whole host of laws to rein in the presidency. According to Purdy's analysis, "a strain of conservative legal thinking has been aiming to reassert the president’s powers ever since they were curbed in the post-Watergate era," and in Trump's second term, it has found the most success, with the president systematically wrecking laws, norms and positions specifically created in response to Watergate.
"From the opening days of his second term, President Trump took aim at Watergate’s ethical checkpoints as if in a shooting gallery," Purdy wrote, first noting how Trump, "fired 17 inspectors general, a job established in the Watergate era to ferret out waste, fraud and abuse in government."
This move came as Trump and his newly created "DOGE" officeclaimed to be going after waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government.
The firings did not step there, Purdy continued.
"He also fired the head of the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency created by legislation in 1978 to protect government whistle-blowers," he wrote. "Then he fired the director of the Office of Government Ethics, created around the same time to guard against financial conflicts of interest by top government officials. And he has used the Justice Department and the F.B.I. as political tools, roles they worked to shed after Watergate."
The "raw result" of this approach, despite the "high-minded Constitutional argument" Trump's legal aides put forward for it, has been to empower his use of the presidency to pursue his own personal whims and desires.
"He has removed barriers that might slow his pursuit of a highly personal presidency — punishing opponents and rewarding allies and financial backers while also reaping profits for family businesses that intersect with his powers as president," Purdy explained.
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AN 1 26
Russian-U.S. national Ilya Lichtenstein, who hacked a crypto exchange and stole nearly 120,000 bitcoin, claims he has been freed after only a year into his five-year sentence.
Lichtenstein posted on X late Thursday night, saying, “Thanks to President Trump’s First Step Act, I have been released from prison early.”
The admitted fraudster pleaded guilty to a money laundering conspiracy charge and admitted to hacking crypto assets now valued in the billions of dollars," CNBC reported.
The Justice Department calculated the value at approximately $4.5 billion.
The First Step Act was a 2018 piece of legislation that allowed non-violent offenders to earn credits toward an early release.
"Allows certain prisoners to earn 10 days of time credits for each 30 days of successful participation in recidivism reduction programming or activities, including prison jobs. Allows these prisoners to apply their time credits to transfers into pre-release custody, which includes halfway houses and home confinement. Certain inmates are excluded from earning credits, including violent offenders, sex offenders, leaders or organizers of fentanyl or heroin trafficking rings, etc,"the Justice Action Network described.
The goal of the program is to reduce recidivism rates.
“I remain committed to making a positive impact in cybersecurity as soon as I can,” Lichtenstein’s post continued. “To the supporters, thank you for everything. To the haters, I look forward to proving you wrong.”
In a statement to CNBC, a Trump administration official claimed Lichtenstein “has served significant time on his sentence ..."
Lichtenstein was able to count part of his time awaiting trial for his sentence. So, he was in jail after his 2022 arrest through his Nov. 2024 plea deal.
The official confirmed he was "currently on home confinement consistent with statute and Bureau of Prisons policies.”
Lichtenstein’s wife, Heather Morgan, also pleaded guilty to helping to launder funds. She too celebrated his release on X, saying, “The best New Years (sic) present I could get was finally having my husband home after 4 years of being apart.”
He has not received a pardon or commutation from President Donald Trump.
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an 1 26
Trump’s bizarre responses to health questions expose 'disdain for science': analysis
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an 12 25
Estimates on President Donald Trump's net worth vary, but according to Forbes, it went from $3.9 billion in 2024 to $7.3 billion in September 2025. In the past — before he became a prominent figure in U.S. politics — Trump's profits came primarily from his real estate assets. But Trump expanded his business activities with the tech-oriented Trump Media & Technology Group (which is separate from the Trump Organization and announced a merger with TAE Technologies in December) and Trump Mobile.
The family-owned Trump Mobile (which is run by President Trump's sons Eric and Don Jr.) planned to release a gold-colored smartphone by the end of 2025 and sell it for $499. But according to The Guardian's Joanna Partridge, the phone's release is facing a likely delay.
"The Trump Organization licensed its name to launch a mobile service and the device in June, in the latest monetization of his presidency by a family business empire now run by Trump's sons," Partridge reports in an article published on December 31. "In the latest setback for the project, Trump Mobile said there was a 'strong possibility' the handset would not be delivered this month, the Financial Times reported. The company's customer service team told the FT that the recent government shutdown had disrupted shipments."
Trump Mobile is using overtly political messaging to market the T1 smartphone, describing it as "proudly American."
"Etched with an American flag," Partridge observes, "the T1 was initially promised in August — and the website still states it will be released 'later this year.' Customers are required to pay a $100 payment to pre-order the device. The T1 launch came shortly after Trump criticized Apple over its plans to move the production of iPhones destined for the U.S. market from China to India."
Partridge notes, however, that considering the "low levels of domestic smartphone production in the U.S.," it "remains unclear who could manufacture the T1 handset."
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an 12 25
President Donald Trump has hinted about the falling out he had with Jeffrey Epstein after their years-long friendship, but the Wall Street Journal revealed specifics about the story in an exclusive report late Tuesday evening.
According to the report, Mar-a-Lago wasn't merely a frequent hangout for Epstein; the country club would also send Epstein young women to handle his "massages, manicures and other spa services."
A former Mar-a-Lago employee told the Journal that the "services" went on for years. Trump's staff warned each other about the kind of person Epstein was, according to former Epstein employees.
The spa employees would frequently warn each other about Epstein's sexual suggestions, reporting that he would expose himself during appointments.
Epstein was never a dues-paying member of Mar-a-Lago, but Trump still gave his close friends the perks. He even went so far as to tell the spa staff to treat Epstein as if he was a dues-paying member. Epstein's longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, would frequently book the appointments on his behalf.
Everything stopped when an 18-year-old beautician returned from a "house call" to Epstein and said that he had pressured her for sex, the ex-employees told the Journal.
"A manager sent Trump a fax relaying the employee's allegations and urged him to ban Epstein, some of the former employees said. Trump told the manager it was a good letter and said to kick him out," the report said.
The woman gave details to human resources, but the incident was never reported to the police.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt alleged the report was false.
"No matter how many times this story is told and retold, the truth remains: President Trump did nothing wrong and he kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago for being a creep," Leavitt said after claiming the Journal was "writing up fallacies and innuendo."
Trump is currently in a lawsuit against the Journal for a report that Trump submitted a note for Epstein's birthday book that included the outline of a woman's body. Trump denied the report even as the birthday book entries were published.
CNBC's Carl Quintanilla highlighted an excerpt of the report that talked about Trump's ex-wife, Marla Maples, being so "uneasy" about Epstein's presence that she didn't want to spend time with him or Trump when they were together. Still, Epstein continued to party at Mar-a-Lago with Trump.
Mother Jones editor-in-chief Clara Jeffrey cited the ongoing lawsuit between Trump and the Journal. The paper, she said, "continues to break news about their relationship..."
Washington Monthly's politics editor Bill Schersaid he was speechless reading that Trump was willing to send young women to Epstein's mansion.
Linguist Luke Steuber remarked, "WSJ just blew this all up by carrying Trump's water. On a lot of people, I think it's going to work."
National security analyst Marcy Wheeler added, "What's interesting abt this story is 18-yo who returned to MAL saying Epstein had pressured her for sex is not clearly IDed as girl whose father was MAL member who really let Trump have it. She could still be, but if not, it would be THREE (known) MAL girls Epstein assaulted before he was reported."
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AN 12 25
ISRAEL HOSTAGE
'Verifiably false': CNN fact-checks Trump lie
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an 12 25
Over the Christmas holiday, it was clear that President Donald Trump spent a lot of time on his social media. Many of the things he amplified in his 150 posts, however, turned out to be from foreign trolls.
The Daily Beast wrote Tuesday about Trump's posting frenzy, calling him "confused" and highlighting his advanced age. It cited research done into the posts by the MeidasNetwork, showing that at least 15 of the people Trump promoted weren't posting from the United States.
Sami Nathaniel, for example, got five of his posts shared by Trump, including one calling America "for Americans." Yet, he was posting from South Asia.
Trump frequently reposts memes and comments from South Asia accounts “Sami Nathaniel” and “Caroline."
Charlie's Voice Rising, another X account that has a blue checkmark, only joined the site in Dec. 2024. That individual is tweeting to its 194,400-plus followers from "Eastern Europe (Non-EU)."
"Trump Girl" features a white person with long blond hair and a MAGA hat. They're also tweeting from South Asia. Trump shared a screenshot of one of her X posts, which is a share of one of Trump's posts about the "STOLEN" election.
This isn't the first time Trump has amplified accounts from foreign accounts pretending to love him. In one late-night spree at the start of the month, Trump posted 160 things in under four hours.
The details displayed about the user come from Elon Musk's recent decision to show where each account was registered, when it was created, how often it has switched usernames and how the app was downloaded. It also details where someone might be trying to circumvent monitoring attempts. Caroline, for example, shows that X believes the user deployed a "VPN," or Virtual Private Network, to mask their true location.
Once the tool was rolled out, a reporter noticed that scores of the top MAGA influencers and right-wing personality accounts weren't posting from the United States. Each of them was fishing for likes and shares.
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AN 12 25
MAGA Republicans and right-wing media figures often attack liberals and progressives for obsessing over language, whether it's saying "unhoused" instead of "homeless" or using "Latinx" instead of "Latino." And not everyone who has that complaint is on the right: veteran Democratic strategist James Carville, "Real Time" host Bill Maher and Sen. Rubén Gallego (D-Arizona) are all disdainful of the term "Latinx," and Maher argues that progressives should spend less time on language-policing and more time "getting s--- done."
But President Donald Trump is obsessed with language as well, from demanding that reporters call the Gulf of Mexico "the Gulf of America" to renaming the U.S. Department of Defense the "War Department" to renaming Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center —which now has a sign that reads "the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts."
The Kennedy Center renaming is drawing a strong rebuke from Trump's critics, who view it as both goofy and narcissistic. But Austin Sarat, a professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College in Massachusetts, believes that Trump's "renaming binge" is much more than buffoonish — it's outright dangerous.
In an op-ed published by The Hill on December 29, Sarat warns, "Before you know it, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport may become Donald J. Trump International Airport. The city's metro system may become the 'Trump Train.' I think more is at stake here than a mere effort to feed the president's ego. The renaming project is very much in keeping with what strongmen do when they take power."
Sarat argues that it's important to defy Trump and continue to use the names he wants to change.
"So, let's not meekly acquiesce," Sarat writes. "In our daily conversations, let's continue to refer to The Kennedy Center by its proper name. Newspapers and other media outlets will have to decide whether to comply or refuse to fall in line. That is what the Associated Press did when it said it would continue calling the Gulf of Mexico by that name, even after the president's January 20 executive order renaming it 'Gulf of America.' It reminded readers, 'The Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years,' and no president can undo that history with the stroke of a pen."
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AN 12 25 DANGLES TARIFF CHECK BS?
No, Trump did not end taxes on Social Security
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AN 12 25
Donald Trump on Monday night went after the New York Times in a "deranged" rant on Truth Social, per a report from the Daily Beast, though the exact reason for the attack is unclear.
"The Failing New York Times, and their lies and purposeful misrepresentations, is a serious threat to the National Security of our Nation," Trump's post read, echoing many of his recurring complaints about negative media coverage. "Their Radical Left, Unhinged Behavior, writing FAKE Articles and Opinions in a never-ending way, must be dealt with and stopped. THEY ARE A TRUE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! Thank you for your attention to this matter. PRESIDENT DJT."
As the Daily Beast noted in its coverage of the social media blast, it is unknown what precisely set the president off this time, though the outlet highlighted two possibilities.
Last month, Trump was "triggered for days" by a report fromTimesdetailing his lightened schedule of public events and later start to the day, presenting these as symptoms of increasing "fatigue" due to his old age and observing that his "battery shows signs of wear." Trump lashed out against this report numerous times, at one point attacking co-writer Katie Rogers' physical appearance.
More recently, the Times published a piece about Trump's long friendship and history with deceased pedophile sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein, describing the pair as having “pursued women in a game of ego and dominance” in which “female bodies were currency.” Trump has been dogged about his past affiliation with Epstein for years, but most intensely during his second term in the White House, when his administration appeared bent on preventing the release of files related to the late trafficker, prompting mass speculation that the president was implicated in Epstein's crimes, or was at least aware of them.
The report contained "one particularly damaging section," according to the Daily Beast, in which the mother of a 14-year-old girl invited to an event at Mar-a-Lago alongside other young models was confronted by Trump's then-wife, Marla Maples, who told her, “Whatever you do, do not let her around any of these men, and especially my husband.”
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President Donald Trumpfutilely tried to delete his Sunday night Truth Social rant, but his typo-filled fury was captured by various screen shots, The Daily Beast reports.
“Ther [sic] are laws that effect our nation," Trump posted, but then quickly deleted, they note.
On Trump's second attempt at posting, he confused “effect” and “affect,” instead going with what The Daily Beast describes as "the less problematic word" “impact” instead.
Trump's edited version finally made it to Truth Social, with both ending in the taunt, "DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE!!!”
"Trump seemed to be quoting former U.S. Navy Commander Kirk Lippold, who now works as an inspirational speaker, as part of a rant against Democratic 'traitors,'" the Daily Beast reports.
Last week, six Democratic lawmakers with military and intelligence backgrounds released a video urging current U.S. service members to refuse any orders they deem unlawful, an action that aligns with U.S. military law.
Trump called them the “Seditious Six” andposted that the lawmakers, including former Navy captain and astronaut Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) had committed “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
This tear comes after another of Trump's Truth Social tantrums, in which he used an offensive slur against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) "in a scathing post at Thanksgiving, where he also called out political correctness," the Daily Beast explains.
"There’s something wrong with him, absolutely, sure,” Trump told reporters Sunday on Air Force One, refusing to apologize.
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an 12 25
President Donald Trump's Sunday night decision to name Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) as his administration's new special envoy to Greenland is already making waves around the world.
Trump posted late Sunday to his Truth Social account that Landry "will strongly advance our Country’s Interests for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Allies, and indeed, the World," and that the Louisiana governor "understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security." Landry appears to accept the role, though he posted on his official X account that his new "volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S." would not intrude on his ongoing responsibilities in Baton Rouge.
Simon Marks, who is a contributor to the United Kingdom-based iPaper, quipped that Landry's role advancing U.S. efforts in Greenland's capital city of Nuuk "won’t be easy, since so far there is limited appetite for non-stop flights between the two cities." He also observed that Trump's announcement has caused a significant amount of consternation for Denmark, which has dominion over Denmark and controls its military and foreign policy (though Greenland has its own parliament).
"Land borders and the sovereignty of states are rooted in international law," Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland Parilament chairman Frederik Nielsen said in a joint statement. "You cannot annex other countries. Not even with an argument about international security. Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders … We expect respect for our territorial integrity."
Marks went on to note that Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen called Landry's appointment "unacceptable" and that he was "deeply angered" upon learning of Trump's announcement. Ken Howery, who is the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark (and a co-founder of PayPal) has reportedly been summoned to Copenhagen to discuss Landry's appointment.
Trump's announcement that he was putting Landry in charge of the United States' diplomatic efforts in Greenland comes as his administration continues to threaten Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, which Trump recently admitted was about "getting land" and "oil rights." Marks wrote that "Trump is indicating that his expansionist tendencies are back in vogue, especially with regard to worldwide locations that are rich in natural resources."
The iPaper columnist hypothesized that if Venezuela is about oil, Trump's efforts in Greenland may be about mineral resources. He reminded readers that Greenland was rich in 25 of 34 minerals classified as "critical raw minerals" by the European Commission.
Click here to read Marks' full column in iPaper.
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Trump wants his name on new fleet of battleships that would have 'zero tactical use'
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