500 Worst Things

Shortly after a man drove a truck into a crowd in New Orleans, Trump latched on to false reports that the perpetrator was a migrant who just drove across the border: “When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true.” A few hours later, Fox had to debunk Trump: “To be clear, the suspect was born in the US. He served in the Army. He was a veteran. But Trump said ‘criminals coming in’ in his statement, meaning into our country, and that is not accurate.”

With as many as 20 Republican Reps lining up to oust Mike Johnson as Speaker on Jan 3, Trump began an intense pressure campaign to get rebels to fall in line at a time many expert observers thought there was no way he could get the votes to keep the gavel. Trump got the Speaker he wanted - the weakest in history who ended any semblance of separation of powers or oversight of the executive branch.

JD Vance weighed in on Elon Musk’s OpEd endorsing the German white nationalist Nazi-sympathizing AfD party: “I’m not endorsing a party in the German elections, as it’s not my country and we hope to have good relations with all Germans. But this is an interesting piece. American media slanders AfD as Nazi-lite, but AfD is most popular in the same areas of Germany that were most resistant to the Nazis.”

On the day Canadian PM Justin Trudeau resigned, Trump responded by posting that he want to take over Canada: “Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st state. The US can no longer suffer the massive trade deficits and subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat. Trudeau knew this, and resigned. If Canada merged with the US, there would be no tariffs, taxes would be way down. Together, what a great nation it would be!!!”

Donald Trump, Jr. led a MAGA delegation that included Charlie Kirk to Greenland to try to pressure people there to become part of the US. Elon Musk responded to news about the trip: “The people of Greenland should decide their future and I think they want to be part of America!”

Trump on Truth Social: “I am hearing that the people of Greenland are MAGA. Trump posted: “My son Don Jr, and various representatives, will be traveling there to visit some of the most magnificent areas and sights. Greenland is an incredible place and the people will benefit tremendously if and when it becomes part of our nation. We will protect it and cherish it from a vicious outside world.”

The following day, Trump gave a press conference to threaten Greenland and Denmark: “People really don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to it. But if they do, they should he give it up because we need it for national security.” When asked if he could assure the world that he will not resort to using military force to seize Greenland or the Panama Canal, Trump responded: “No. I can’t assure you on either of those two.”

Don Jr posted a video from Greenland with Kirk claiming that people there loved Trump and wanted to separate from Denmark: “So many of these young kids coming up and telling us, ‘when we go to Denmark we’re treated like 2nd and 3rd class citizens.’ There seems to be quite a bit of racism in Denmark. From what I saw on the ground, everyone was really into this concept. They loved it. They loved America. They love MAGA. They love Trump.” A Greenland news report: “A portion of people who appear in the video are homeless and socially disadvantaged, who often find themselves outside the Brugsen in Nuuk, which is just across from the Hotel Hans Egede. It was homeless and old people who can’t make ends meet who can suddenly eat at a restaurant they’ve never been to before. All they have to do is put on a cap and be in Trump’s staff’s videos.”

Trump blamed the devastating LA wildfires on Gavin Newsom: “He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water, but didn’t care about the people of CA. Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is to blame for this. No water for fire hydrants, no firefighting planes. A true disaster!”

Trump threatened Comcast with a 1:24 AM post after watching Seth Meyers: “How bad is Seth Meyers on NBC - a network run by truly bad people. I got stuck watching Marble Mouth Myers the other night. Every time I watch this dumb moron I feel an obligation to say how dumb and untalented he is, merely a slot filler for the scum that runs Comcast. These guys should be paying a lot of money for the right to give these ‘in kind’ contributions to Democrats. Comcast should pay a BIG price for this!”

Mike Johnson caused an uproar with fellow Republicans when he removed House Intel Chair Mike Turner from his position yesterday. Turner was a harsh critic of Putin and an ardent supporter of Ukraine and Zelensky. Turner confirmed that Trump called Johnson and wanted him ousted. Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT): “Mike Turner is dedicated to national security and thoughtful oversight of the Intel Committee. His removal makes our nation less secure and is a terrible portent for what’s to come. The Constitution demands Congress function as a check on the Executive Branch, not cater to its demands.”

Trump’s incoming Border Czar Tom Homan announced that he wants to do DNA testing on migrant children to see if they are really biologically related to their parents: “We know for a fact that some of these families aren’t families. We need to do a deep dive to make sure these families are really families.”

The weekend before taking office, Trump launched his biggest scam ever with his crypto grift. Trump’s 80% stake in his new crypto was worth billions after just one day of trading. From a non-partisan account on X that monitors crypto scams: “Trump has dropped what might be the biggest grift in crypto meme coin history: $TRUMP. Days before taking the presidency, he launches a coin with 80% allocated to him, unlocking over the next 3–12 months and throughout his presidency. Does he want the presidency—or just to scam? Buckle up, wild times are here.”

Then the day before the inauguration, Melania Trump also issued a cryptocurrency. She posted her ad for it on X and was hit with a Community Note warning that a single unnamed owner (guess who) controls 89% of it, far outside the norms to be considered reliable: “Buying this token is incredibly risky and will like result in the loss of funds.” That turned out to be true, the coin has lost 98% of it’s value since January.

Minutes after being sworn in as president, Trump removed Gen. Mark Milley’s official portrait from the hallway of the Pentagon, where it was displayed with all the former Chairs of the Joint Chiefs. The Vengeance and Retribution Tour begins.

Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of all 1,500 J6 defendants - including those who beat up police just days after Vance said that nobody who engaged in violence that day would be pardoned. Brian Sicknick’s brother, Craig: “This is a betrayal of decency. We now have no rule of law. Trump is a poor excuse of a man.” Ofc. Aquillino Gonnell: “It’s a desecration to our service and the sacrifices made to keep everyone safe.” Another current officer: “I just worked about 14 hours making sure Trump’s inauguration was secure and peaceful, got home, read about this. Thanks America.”

Trump also commuted the two life sentences being served by dark web Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. His site facilitated more global drug transactions than perhaps any other in history. Millions of pills and mountains of fentanyl were bought and sold using his encrypted site. When Trump was seeking the endorsement of the Libertarian Party during the campaign, he promised them he would pardon Ulbricht after a straw poll showed it was an important issue for them.

Trump signed an executive order to end birthright citizenship to children born on US soil if their parents are migrants.

Trump signed an executive order to abolish the office that monitors AI companies to ensure safe, secure and trustworthy development.

Trump signed an executive order to cancel the resettlement in the US of 1,660 Afghans, some of whom are family members of active-duty US service members.

Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization.

Trump signed several executive orders deregulating the oil and gas industry.

Trump signed an executive order renaming Mt. Denali to Mt. McKinley. Both AK GOP senators denounced the move. Lisa Murkowski: “I strongly disagree with the President’s decision on Denali. Our nation’s tallest mountain, which has been called Denali for thousands of years, must continue to be known by the rightful name bestowed by Alaska’s Koyukon Athabascans, who have stewarded the land since time immemorial.” Dan Sullivan: “My view on this is to keep it Denali —that’s what the Athabaskan people named it 10,000 years ago. They’re brave. They’re strong. They’re patriotic.”

Trump finally unveiled his promised secret plan to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours - a Truth Social post: “Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the US. We can do it the easy way, or the hard way - and the easy way is always better. It’s time to “MAKE A DEAL.” NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!” It didn’t work.

Trump signed an executive order revoking the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, which was signed by Lyndon Johnson in 1965 and had remained in effect for 60 years. It prohibits discrimination against protected classes in employment by any contractor who does business with the fed govt. At least it did for the last 60 years.

Trump signed an executive order banning all new leases for offshore wind turbines.

Trump pardoned anti-abortion activists convicted under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a law that protects doctors, nurses, staff and patients at clinics from violence, threats of violence, intimidation and harassment. 21 people were convicted of crimes under the FACE Act, and 10 were in prison.

Trump launched his pressure and intimidation campaign on the independence of the Federal Reserve, demanding that Chair Jerome Powell dramatically lower interest rates immediately: “I think I know interest rates much better than they do. And I think I know certainly much better than the one who's primarily in charge of making that decision.”

Trump threatened Bank of America because they refused to do business with convicted J6 defendants: “I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives, because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business with the bank, and that included a place called Bank of America. They don’t take conservative business. And I don’t know if the regulators mandated that because of Biden or what, but I hope you’re going to open your banks to conservatives because what you’re doing is wrong.”

Tom Homan defended ICE going after children while they were attending class in schools: “How many MS-13 gang members are aged 14-17? Many of them.”

Trump announced that he wanted to remove all 2.2 million people in Gaza to resettle them in other Arab countries: “I’d like Egypt to take people. And I’d like Jordan to take people. You’re talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing.” He then ended Biden’s hold on 2,000 pound bombs being shipped to Israel.

Trump fired all 17 non-partisan, independent Inspectors General at govt agencies in violation of federal law, which states that Congress must be provided with written notice by the president 30 days before they intend to remove any IG. Hannibal Ware, Chair of the Council of the Inspectors General: “They are appointed, by law, without regard to their political affiliation and, during their tenures, they work effectively across Admins and with Congress, without regard to political party.”

Trump fired every DOJ prosecutor who was assigned to work on any of the J6 cases. DOJ Spokesman: “In light of their actions, the Acting AG does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the President’s agenda. This action is consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of gov t."

Russian state TV mocked Trump’s new Ambassador to the EU: “Andrew Puzder, Trump has known him personally for a long time. But he has no diplomatic experience whatsoever. He spent his whole life developing fast food in the US. Puzder replaces a career diplomat who specialized in Central and Eastern Europe.” Puzder was the CEO of Hardee’s.

Trump signed an executive order offering reinstatement and back pay to all 8,000 US service members who were discharged by the Biden Admin for refusing to get vaccinated.

Brazil was outraged that 88 immigrants deported from the US arrived in their country by plane in handcuffs and leg shackles, calling it a “flagrant disregard” for their rights. The Justice Ministry said that passengers were subjected to “degrading treatment” and demanded that handcuffs and shackles be removed immediately when the plane landed. Edgar Da Silva Moura, a computer tech who was one of the immigrants on the flight: “On the plane they didn’t give us water, we were tied hands and feet, they wouldn’t even let us go to the bathroom. It was very hot, some people fainted.”

The Trump admin directed officials to stop extending the status of immigrants from Ukraine with pending asylum claims, as well as Afghans who were evacuated during and after the US withdrawal. Immigration lawyer Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “This confirms that USCIS is no longer granting re-parole to Ukrainians who came through the Uniting for Ukraine program or Afghans who were evacuated after the fall of Kabul. Many in the veteran community are furious at Trump’s decision to halt refugee flights for Afghans who worked with US forces in Afghanistan and who had to flee to US army bases to get processed for refugee status over the last couple years.”

The Trump Admin adopted a MAGA loyalty test in their written questionnaires to job applicants. They searched people’s social media accounts to see how active they were in the MAGA movement, applicants were required to provide all social media handles so their accounts can be reviewed, and they are asked to share their ‘MAGA revelation’ moment. One applicant said he even considered buying some of Trump’s crypto meme coin to demonstrate loyalty.

Kristi Noem made her first of many cosplay appearances for social media videos. She showed up in NYC in full tactical gear to cosplay an ICE agent right after she was sworn in as DHS Secretary: “I’m here in NYC this morning. We are getting the dirtbags off these streets.” Actress Heather Thomas: “So Kristi Noem got her face puffed up with filler and Botox, underwent hours of hair extension attachments, hired professional make-up and hair, strapped on her customized bulletproof vest, and filmed herself arresting a housekeeper.”

Trump ordered that fed grants, loans and payments to millions of Americans be frozen immediately so he can review them to determine if they were appropriate or were awarded because of DEI. This is money that was previously allocated by Congress. When asked how that doesn’t violate the 1974 Impound Control Act that was passed to prevent a president from doing exactly this, Karoline Leavitt responded: “WH Counsel believes that this is within the president’s power to do it, so he’s doing it.”

Long after the CA wildfires were out, Trump sent two DOGE staffers to order the Army Corps of Engineers to turn on water pumps: “The US military just entered the Great State of CA and, under Emergency Powers, TURNED ON THE WATER flowing abundantly from the Pacific Northwest, and beyond. The days of putting a Fake Environmental argument, over the PEOPLE, are OVER. Enjoy the water, CA!” CA Dept of Water Resources responded immediately: “The military did not enter CA. The fed govt restarted water pumps after they were offline for maintenance for 3 days. State water supplies in CA remain plentiful.” Fox: “US defense officials said they did not send troops to ‘turn on the water’ in CA, despite Trump’s claims overnight.”

Two whistleblowers filed a class action lawsuit against the admin alleging that incoming appointees were asked to collect detailed info on career civil servants who work under them, and for all the information be sent to Amanda Scales, who works personally for Musk. They said the email requesting the info was disguised to make it look like it was coming from the WH Office of Personal Management, but was actually being sent to Scales.

Immediately after a helicopter crashed into an airliner, Trump baselessly speculated that the Air Traffic Controller on duty must have been a DEI hire: “They put a big push to put diversity into the FAA. Brilliant people have to be in those positions when you have many planes coming in to one target.” He was asked what evidence he had that a diversity hiring caused this crash? “It just could have been. You have to go by brain power, you have to go by psychological quality. We want the brightest, smartest, sharpest, we want somebody that’s psychologically superior - and that’s what we’re going to have.”

Trump defended his admin’s illegal freeze of funding to programs across govt with this bizarre justification: “We identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas. And you know what's happened to them? They've used them as a method of making bombs.” The whole thing was a lie. No condoms were sent to Gaza. No money was sent to Gaza to buy condoms.

Trump announced he will be sending migrants to Gitmo: “I’m signing an Executive Order to instruct DOD and DHS to begin preparing the 30,000 person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay. This will double our capacity immediately. That’s a tough place to get out of.” Pete Hegseth: “We don’t want criminal illegals on our soil - they need to go home. Using Gitmo will facilitate that. It’s the perfect location.” Immigration expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “No one arrested in the US has EVER been sent to Guantanamo. It’s a first in American history and raises a ton of serious legal questions.”

Trump rescinded an 18-month extension of Temporary Protected Status for 300,000 Venezuelans. Trump-loving Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, who represents a huge Venezuelan immigrant community in Miami: “Venezuela’s dictator Nicolas Maduro jails, beats, rapes, and kills anyone who speaks against him,” which is why she “supported TPS for Venezuelans fleeing political persecution.”

The Quakers sued the Trump Admin over a new DHS order that allowed ICE agents to enter churches to arrest suspected migrants. The DHS order ended a Biden-era policy that forbid ICE from entering so-called “protected” areas such as churches, hospitals, and schools: “The very threat of govt officials wearing ICE-emblazoned jackets outside of our religious service will have a significant impact on our communities and ability to practice our faith. Enforcement actions that stops people from entering our meeting house, or scares them from doing so, affects us personally, viscerally, emotionally, and theologically.”

RFK Jr at his confirmation hearing: Q - “Did you say that Lyme disease is highly likely a materially engineered bioweapon? RFK JR: I probably did say that. Q - Did you say that exposure to pesticides causes children to become transgender? RFK Jr: No, I never said that. Senator - I have the record that I’ll give to the chairman.” (He said it. On video). Q - Did you say that Covid was a genetically engineered bioweapon that targets Black and White people, but spared Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people? RFK Jr: “I just quoted a published study.”

Karoline Leavitt invited right-wing podcasters and grifters into the WH briefing room: “We’re also opening up this briefing room to new media voices who produce news-related content and whose outlet is not already represented by one of the seats in this room. We welcome independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers, and content creators to apply for credentials to cover this WH.” Alex Jones announced that he was invited to be one of the new WH correspondents by Leavitt.

Elon Musk offered a buyout to all 2 million employees of the fed govt where they would get 8 months if they would permanently resign their positions. WaPo reported the scheme to gut the fed workforce blindsided Trump advisers who were completely unaware the memo was sent out to all federal employees, and were surprised that key agency officials at the Budget and Personnel offices were not consulted.

Musk installed two of his young disciples in key positions in the WH Office of Personnel Management. One is a 21 year old who worked for Peter Thiel who was given the job as Senior Advisor to the OPM Director. The other Senior Advisor is 18 years old and graduated high school in 2024. His listed prior work experience was a camp counselor and bicycle mechanic.

Pete Hegseth launched an investigation of Mark Milley because he called his counterpart in China after J6 to assure him there would be a peaceful transfer of power: “If you actively undermine the chain of command - as Gen. Milley did under the previous Trump Admin - we are going to review those actions. Accountability is BACK.” He also removed the official portrait of Trump’s former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper from the Pentagon on the same day.

Trump’s DOJ dropped all pending federal campaign finance fraud charges against former Republican Congressman Jeff Fortenberry.

USDA IG Phyllis Fong, who was with the dept for 22 years, was escorted out of her office by security agents after she refused to comply with her termination. Fong sent an email to colleagues that she was protesting in this manner because the Council of the IGs “has taken the position that these termination notices do not comply with the requirements set out in law and therefore are not effective at this time.”

Trump launched his global trade war with an announcement that 25% tariffs will be imposed on imports from Canada and Mexico, and 10% additional tariffs on China. But he was just getting started. He was asked why he was doing this since he promised Americans that he would lower prices: “Tariffs don’t cause inflation. Tariffs cause success. There could some temporary short term disruption. And people understand that.”

WaPo reported that Musk forced the resignation of FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker on Trump’s first day in office. The FAA was about to fine Musk's company SpaceX $630,000 for violations related to its launches, and Musk threatened to sue the FAA for "regulatory overreach." Sen. Tim Kaine: "Trump let Musk force the resignation of the FAA Administrator. He disbanded an aviation safety committee within DHS. He's got an anti-safety agenda.”

David Lebryk, the highest-ranking career official at the Treasury Dept, was forced to resign after he refused Musk’s demand that he gain access to sensitive payment systems that disperse trillions of dollars every year. Lebryk has served in non-political roles in the Treasury Dept since 1989 and was considered a consummate nonpolitical civil servant.

Musk then locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees, and senior career employees at the Office of Personnel Management have had their access revoked to some of the dept's data systems.

Sean Duffy sent out a memo to give priority grant funding to parts of the country with higher marriage and birth rates than the national avg. The memo states that DOT will give “preference” for grant funding to “communities with with marriage and birth rates higher than the national avg.” A DOT official to HuffPost: “Considering fertility rates when prioritizing fed grants? We obviously have no idea what the full impact of that will be. It’s absolutely creepy. It’s a little like the Chinese govt. I don’t know where else I’ve seen a policy of ‘we need to incentivize baby-making.’”

Trump’s DOJ ended a criminal investigation of TN Rep. Andy Ogles right after he introduced a bill in Congress to amend the Constitution to allow Trump to run for a 3rd term.

Trump fired every FBI agent who was assigned to work on J6 cases. The FBI Agents Assn: “These outrageous actions are fundamentally at odds with the law enforcement objectives. Dismissing hundreds of Agents will severely weaken the Bureau’s ability to protect the country from national security and criminal threats and will ultimately risk setting up the Bureau and its new leadership for failure.”

FCC Chair Brendan Carr ordered an investigation of NPR and PBS, with the stated goal to end federal funding for both orgs: "I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating fed law by airing commercials. I do not see a reason why Congress should continue sending taxpayer dollars to NPR and PBS given the changes in the media marketplace.”

The Pentagon repealed a Biden-era policy that allowed military members to travel to get abortions and have their expenses paid if they were stationed in a state where abortion had been banned.

Trump posted about his stunt to release water in CA long after the wildfires, and nowhere near LA: “Photo of beautiful water flow that I just opened in CA. Today, 1.6 billion gallons and, in 3 days, it will be 5.2 billion gallons. Everybody should be happy about this long fought Victory!” Water scientist Peter Gleick: “I don’t know where this water is going, but this is the wrong time of year to be releasing water from these reservoirs. It’s vitally important that we fill our reservoirs in the rainy season so water is available for farms and cities later in the summer.” Water consultant Dan Vink: “This is going to hurt farmers. This takes water out of their summer irrigation portfolio.”

Scott Bessent gave Musk access to the Treasury’s payments system. WaPo: “The sensitive systems control disbursement of over $6 trillion a year in fed funds. Tens of millions of people across the country rely on the systems. They are responsible for paying Social Security and Medicare benefits, salaries for fed personnel, payments to govt contractors and grant recipients, and tax refunds, among tens of thousands of other functions. Typically, only a small group of career employees control the payment systems, and former officials have said it is extremely unusual for anyone connected to political appointees to access them.”

Reuters reported that lawyers at the Securities Exchange Commission have been told they now need to seek permission from the politically appointed leadership before beginning any new investigations.

JD Vance reiterated that the admin was determined to take over Greenland: “It’s really important to our national security. Denmark is not being a good ally. If that means that we need to take more territorial interest in Greenland, that is what President Trump is going to do because he doesn't care about what the Europeans scream at us.”

USAID officials were put on leave after they tried to stop Musk from accessing their agency’s computer systems. Musk’s team threatened to call the police after they were refused access the security and personnel files. Musk then posted on X: “USAID was a viper’s nest of radical-left marxists who hate America.”

Musk then locked USAID staffers out of their building: “It became apparent that it’s not just an apple with a worm it in. What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair.” He was asked if he got Trump’s approval first: “I checked with him a few times. ‘Are you sure?’ Yes, we’re shutting it down. He agreed we should shut it down.”

Rep. John Olszewski on an initial consequence of Musk shutting down USAID: “Prison guards overseeing thousands of ISIS combatants in Syria walked off the job after their pay was frozen until a waiver was thrown together after the fact. Let me say that again, prison guards overseeing thousands of ISIS combatants walked off the job.”

Trump’s US Attorney for DC Ed Martin threatened to prosecute people after Musk’s secret DOGE staff members were identified in a story. He wrote to Musk: “I recognize that some of the staff at DOGE has been targeted publicly. Any threats, confrontations, or other actions in any way that impact their work may break numerous laws. Let me assure you of this: we will pursue any and all legal action against anyone who impedes your work.”

NPR identified dozens of J6 defendants that Trump pardoned who had prior convictions or pending charges for rape, sexual abuse of a minor, domestic violence, manslaughter, production of child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking.

Right-wing white nationalist Darren Beattie was appointed as senior spokesperson for the State Dept. Beattie is the first one who launched conspiracies that the FBI instigated J6, and claimed that Kamala Harris was somehow involved with the pipe bomber. This was one of Beattie’s posts on X: “Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work. Unfortunately, our entire national ideology is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities, and demoralizing competent white men.”

Trump was asked why he was sending Marco Rubio to the Panama Canal: “We’re gonna take it back, or something very powerful is going to happen.”

Trump said the US is going to occupy Gaza at a joint press conference with Netanyahu: “The US will take over the Gaza Strip - and we will do a good job with it too. We’ll own it. We’ll level the site.” He then said we are going to go in there and develop it with new properties. When asked by a reporter if he was talking about a permanent occupation of Gaza by the US: “I do see a long-term ownership position” for the US.

Ed Martin posted an update on his investigation of media outlets who identified DOGE employees: “We will investigate them and we will chase them to the end of the Earth to hold them accountable. We will not rest or cease in this. No one is above the law. I am proud that we have been able to assist local law enforcement in protecting the DOGE workers.” Musk: “Don’t mess with DOGE.”

Trump nominated right-wing podcaster Sean Parnell to be Pete Hegseth’s Chief Pentagon spokesperson. Trump endorsed Parnell for Senate in PA in 2022, but he dropped out of the race when he lost custody of his children after his wife testified in court that Parnell abused her and their children by choking her and pinning her down, and also struck one of their children in a fit of rage.

Trump said that he wants other countries to start housing our prison inmates, and President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador accept the offer to put them in his concentration camp: "We have offered the US the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system. We are willing to take in convicted criminals (including convicted US citizens) into our mega-prison CECOT in exchange for a fee. The fee would be relatively low for the US but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable."

Karoline Leavitt on the Trump admin’s plan to dismantle and ultimately abolish the Dept of Education: “As a mother of a child, I want an education system that helps my child read, write and teaches him math and nothing else in the classroom.”

AG Pam Bondi dismantled the DOJ's foreign bribery unit’s ability to investigate and monitor foreign interference in US elections.

Bondi also eliminated DOJ’s Kleptocracy Initiative, which seized Russian oligarchs' yachts, planes and real estate pursuant to sanctions. Bradley Hope: “The units recovered billions in stolen assets since 2010. But here's the real story: Sources say a key objective is gaining control of a multi-billion dollar forfeiture fund - money seized from corrupt officials that was meant to be returned to victim countries. Where's that money headed?

Harris County (TX) DA arrested Andrew Taake for an outstanding warrant for online solicitation of sex with a minor. Taaka was incarcerated for unrelated crimes he committed on J6, but when Trump pardoned him he was released by the federal Bureau of Prisons despite the active warrant.

Trump announced he wanted Ukraine’s commodities in exchange for further aid to defend itself against Russian aggression: "One of the things we're looking at with Zelensky is having the security of their assets. They have assets underground. Rare early and other things. But primarily rare earth. Really, we want security."

FCC Chair Brendan Carr opened an investigation of KCBS after it shared locations and vehicle descriptions of ICE officials: “We have sent a letter of inquiry, a formal investigation into that matter, and they have just a matter of days left to respond to that inquiry and explain how this could possibly be consistent with their public interest obligations.” David Loy, with First Amendment Coalition: “Law enforcement operations, immigration or otherwise, are matters of public interest. People generally have the right to report this on social media and in print. So it’s very troubling because it’s possible the FCC is potentially being weaponized to crack down on reporting that the admin simply just doesn’t like.”

Musk announced he was cutting NIH funding for cancer research and other public health research. Gary Marcus, one of the US’s leading experts on neuroscience: “Drastically cutting NIH & NSF funding and reducing grant ‘overhead’ to 15% are among the dumbest ideas I have ever seen. America will never be the same. Science will take a huge hit; academic stars will leave; university reputations will crumble, and homegrown talent will be even harder to find. Asia and Europe will profit.”

Trump Budget Director Russ Vought announced he was eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Act by starving the agency of funding: “I have notified the Federal Reserve that CFPB will not be taking its next draw of unappropriated funding because it is not ‘reasonably necessary’ to carry out its duties.” Before Vought made that announcement, Musk posted on X: ‘RIP CFPD’ with a grave headstone emoji. CFPD’s website was also taken down.

Trump announced on Truth Social that he is making himself the Chairman of the Kennedy Center and firing the Board: “At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center GREAT AGAIN. I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture. We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!”

Trump issued an executive order stating that the US will only honor asylum claims from one group of people on earth - white South Africans: “The US shall not provide aid or assistance to South Africa. The US shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping govt-sponsored race-based discrimination.” The order then says that the Sect of State shall “prioritize admission and resettlement through the US Refugee Admissions Program for Afrikaners in South Africa.”

Rubio’s new spokesman at the State Dept Darren Beattie responded to a shooting in Atlanta that involved Black people by saying that the govt should provide incentives for them to be sterilized. His post on X: “When a population gets feral, a little snip snip keeps things in control. Could offer incentives - Air Jordans, etc.”

Trump issued an executive order directing DOJ to pause enforcing the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits American companies and foreign firms from bribing officials of foreign govts to obtain or retain business. CNBC: “The FCPA’s intent is in part to prevent American firms from fueling rampant public corruption that undermines the rule of law in many parts of the world. Over time, the FCPA’s rules have grown into bedrock principles of how US businesses operate overseas. The law barred Americans from paying bribes to foreign officials.”

Trump issued an executive order reversing Biden’s ban on bank overdraft fees, and another which prevented medical debt from being used to negatively affect credit reports.

Trump announced a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum coming into the US from any other country: "Any steel coming into the US is going to have a 25% tariff. Aluminum, too."

Trump was asked about his plan for Gaza: Q - “Does your commitment to rebuilding Gaza extend beyond your time in office? Trump: I’m committed to buying and owning Gaza. As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it. There’s nothing to move back into—the place is a demolition site. The remainder will be demolished.”

Trump pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, 5 years after commuting his 14-year prison sentence for 18 felony counts, including his attempt to sell the appointment to Barack Obama’s former Senate seat in exchange for $1 million.

Steve Bannon made a deal with Trump’s DOJ to resolve his pending charges arising out of his border wall scam. Bannon received no punishment or jail time. He bilked millions from MAGA donors promising to use it to finish the border wall, but pocketed most of the money.

Trump’s DOJ instructed the US Attorney in NY to drop all charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams. Republican Danielle Sassoon, the interim US Attorney in charge of the case, resigned after refusing to drop the charges after DOJ Dep AG Emil Bove demanded it. Sassoon wrote a scathing 8-page letter to Bondi, explicitly outlining how Adams’s attorneys proposed “what amounted to a quid pro quo” where Adams promised to assist with ICE deportations “only if the indictment were dismissed.”

Karoline Leavitt was asked about AP reporters being banned from events because they continue to use ‘Gulf of Mexico’ instead of ‘Gulf of America’ in their articles: “I was very up front in my briefing on day one that if we feel that there are lies being pushed by outlets in this room, we are going to hold those lies accountable. And it is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America.”

Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker on Hegseth’s disastrous speech to the NATO summit in Europe: “He wasn’t my choice for the job. He made a rookie mistake in Brussels and he’s walked back some of what he said. I don’t know who wrote the speech - it is the kind of thing Tucker Carlson could have written, and Carlson is a fool. There are good guys and bad guys in this war, and the Russians are the bad guys. They invaded, contrary to almost every international law, and they should be defeated.”

The Trump admin fired more than 300 employees of the National Nuclear Security Admin, then reversed course after backlash 24 hours later and reinstated them. The NNSA has oversight of nuclear power and nuclear weapons. CNN reported that some of the fired employees included NNSA staff oversee the contractors who build nuclear weapons are built, and inspect the weapons. A source said the critical employees were stupidly fired because “no one has taken any time to understand what we do and the importance of our work to the nation’s national security.”

WaPo: “After JD Vance met with the co-leader of Germany’s far-right AfD party, one German expert here in Munich said: ‘First, America de-Nazified Germany. Now, America is re-Nazifying Germany.’” Rep. Dan Goldman: “The AfD is the neo-Nazi party. Musk and now Vance have shown strong support for the AfD in the run-up to German elections.”

DOGE chief Elon Musk called for 60 Minutes producers to be put in prison after their segment about his dismantling of USAID programs: “60 Minutes are the biggest liars in the world! They deserve a long prison sentence.” Maybe he was upset about this truthful line in the segment: “The world’s richest man cut off aid for the world’s poorest people.”

Special Envoy Ric Grenell met with and pressured Romania’s foreign minister Emil Hurezeanu to ease travel restrictions on Andrew Tate, who was charged with human trafficking, trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor, and money laundering. MAGA podcaster Abby Libby: “I voted for an admin that would stop human trafficking at our borders. I voted to get rapists and pedophiles off the streets. Trump's action in freeing the Tate brothers was a stunning betrayal of his mandate.”

Denise Cheung, Criminal Division Chief for the US Attorneys Office in DC, resigned after refusing to carry out an unethical order to launch a criminal probe and pursue an asset freeze on a govt contract issued during the Biden Admin. She said there was no legal basis to support the demand: “I have been proud to serve at DOJ and the DC office for over 24 years. During my tenure, which has spanned over many different admins, I have always been guided by the oath I took to support and defend the Constitution.”

USDA employees who were reviewing Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink were fired. 20 people in the FDA’s office of neurological and physical medicine devices were terminated, several of whom worked on Neuralink oversight.

Michelle King, former acting Commissioner of the Social Security Admin, resigned after she refused to comply with DOGE’s demand that she turn over data on millions of Americans, which included Social Security numbers, work histories, and medical info. King was a non-partisan career civil servant who worked for SSA for decades.

After reviewing Social Security data for two days, Musk claimed that over $4.7 trillion was fraudulently paid out to millions of dead people. Republican politicians and MAGA influencers went crazy over his claim. Karoline Leavitt on Fox: “President Trump has directed Elon Musk and the DOGE team to identify fraud at the social security admin. They suspect there are tens of millions of deceased people who are receiving fraudulent social security payments.” The whole thing was a hoax.

The first proposed peace plan from the Trump admin was delivered to Zelensky. The plan was described as essentially “the US economic colonization of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity,” and also “implies a burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved.” The Trump shakedown guaranteed the US 50% of the revenues generated by the extraction of natural resources in Ukraine. Telegraph: “Trump’s demands would amount to a higher share of Ukrainian GDP than reparations imposed on Germany at the Versailles Treaty.”

Tom Homan made a criminal referral to DOJ requesting they arrest AOC: “We’re looking to start taking action on people. AOC wants to say she’s teaching people their constitutional rights. You can call it that, but we all know what she’s really up to.” AOC responded: “This is why you fight these cowards. The moment you stand up to them, they crumble. Homan has nothing. The 4th Amend is clear and I am well within my duties to educate people of their rights. He can threaten me with jail and call names all he wants. He’s got nothing else.”

Trump supporter and First Responder John Feal was fuming after funding for medical care and benefits of 9/11 survivors was eliminated by DOGE: “If you really want to save money, stop going golfing every day. If you really want to save money, don’t go to the Super Bowl. Don’t drive your limo around the racetrack. There you go. I just saved the govt a couple billion dollars. Come on. Trump signed our bill in 2019. He turned to me, shook my hand, gave me the sharpie that he signed the bill with, and he said, ‘nobody deserves this more than you. You worked harder than anybody.’ And for him to callously and recklessly allow Musk to do this to us, his words are shallow and meaningless to me now.”

Howard Lutnick claimed that they were going to balance the budget this year because Musk was going to find at least $1 trillion in waste, fraud and abuse in entitlements: “Think about it, we have almost $4 trillion of entitlements and no one has looked at it before. You know social security is wrong, you know medicaid and medicare are wrong. So he's going to cut a trillion.” Nothing remotely close to this happened.

Trump posted that Zelensky was a dictator: “He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle.’ A Dictator without Elections, Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left. Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelensky probably wants to keep the ‘gravy train’ going. Zelenskyy has done a terrible job.” Trump also claimed that Zelensky won’t hold elections is because he only has a 4% approval rating. Where did Trump get the 4% number from? That’s what Putin told him in their recent phone call.

10% of the employees at the NIH’s Center for Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias were fired, including its incoming director, a highly regarded scientist credited with important innovations in the field. Andrew Singleton send an email to fellow employees: “This loss will have a profound impact on the work we do to understand and treat disease. The next period will be difficult.” Stanford neurologist Michael Greicius: “CARD has developed infrastructure and a braintrust that’s really unmatched in the world, in terms of its advances in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Weakening CARD will set Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s research back substantially. It’s going to be really hard to recover.”

Trump broke his campaign promise on IVF. On the campaign trail last Aug, Trump said: “For people that are using IVF, the govt is going to pay for it or we’re going to mandate your insurance company to pay for it.” But that’s not what happened. When Trump rolled out his much-hyped executive order, it merely called for “policy recommendations” to “aggressively reduce out-of-pocket and health plan costs.” In other words, it did nothing.

Sean Duffy cut funding approved by Congress for the high speed rail project between LA and SF. The project employs 14,000 people with strong wages. It has cleared every environmental hurdle and track was already being laid. Of the $13 billion spent, $10.5 billion came from the State of CA and $2.5 billion came from the federal govt.

Musk sent an email to all fed employees ordering them to respond with everything they accomplished that week or they will be automatically terminated: “Consistent with President’s instructions, all fed employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” Employees were ordered to provide “5 bullets of what you accomplished last week.” Sen. Tina Smith: “This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk - except he isn’t even the boss, he’s just a dick.”

Kristi Noem launched a $200 million ad campaign paid by taxpayers to hype herself at ICE arrests. She claimed that Trump wanted it, telling her: “We’re not going to let the media tell this story, because the media will never tell the truth. We’re going to run a marketing campaign to make sure the American people know the truth of what you’re doing. I want you in the ads, and I want your face in the ads. But in the first ad, I want you to thank me.”

Pete Hegseth explained why he was firing all of the of top Judge Advocate General lawyers in the military: “We want lawyers who don’t exist to be roadblocks to anything that happens."

Stuart Dowell, who covers Poland: “Poland has spent 30 years building its foreign policy around a strong US alliance. Yesterday, that foundation cracked. President Duda flew across the Atlantic for a planned hour-long meeting with Trump. He got 10 minutes. This wasn’t just bad optics. It was a humiliation. Poland has positioned itself as America’s most loyal ally in Europe. But when Trump is reshaping US policy on Ukraine and NATO, Poland was given barely a moment of his time. For years, Poland’s security strategy rested on unquestioning faith in the US alliance. That strategy is being dismantled day by day.” Polish PM Donald Tusk: “This is nothing to laugh at. Let’s be serious, because the situation is getting really serious.”

Trump’s new Special Envoy and Putin pal Steve Witkoff blamed Ukraine for Russia’s invasion: "The war didn't need to happen. It was provoked. It doesn't necessarily mean it was provoked by the Russians. There were all kinds of conversations back then about Ukraine joining NATO. That didn't need to happen. It basically became a threat to the Russians."

CNN: “The CIA is conducting a formal review to assess any potential damage from an unclassified email sent to the WH that identified officers by first name and last initial of people working undercover. A senior career Treasury official delivered a memo warning Scott Bessent that granting a 25-year-old with Musk’s DOGE access to the govt’s ultra-sensitive payments system risked exposing highly classified CIA payments that flow through it. Access granted to individuals without training or experience in the systems gave foreign intelligence services the potential to see who is receiving funds, in what amounts, and for what purposes. This especially endangers undercover agents and assets in foreign countries.”

The US voted with Russia and a handful of Russian-allied countries against a resolution in the UN that condemned Russian aggression and demanded that that they withdraw from territory it occupies in Ukraine. The resolution passed easily with 93 countries voting for it. Trump was asked if he could explain his rationale for the US voting against the UN Resolution with Russia: “I would rather not explain it now, I think it is self-evident I think.” John Bolton: “That vote in the UN was a clear marker. We are on the path out of NATO. Trump has already done enormous damage to the NATO alliance.”

Chancellor-elect Friedrick Merz complained about Musk and Vance’s attempt to influence the German election by openly supporting the far-right AfD party: "The interventions from Washington were no less dramatic and drastic and ultimately outrageous than the interventions we have seen from Moscow. We are under such massive pressure from two sides that my absolute priority now really is to create unity in Europe."

Right-wing podcaster Dan Bongino was appointed to serve as Kash Patel’s Dep. Director of the FBI despite zero qualifications. Former senior FBI official Christopher O’Leary: “This is beyond problematic. Any hope that Kash could be steered by having experienced leaders around him is out the window. We now have two conspiracy theorists and election deniers running our premier law enforcement and intelligence agency.”

Trump announced he will be selling US citizenship for $5 million: “We’re going to be selling a Trump Gold Card. We going to put a price on that card of $5 million. It’s going to give you Green Card privileges plus. It’s going to be a route to citizenship and wealthy people will be coming into our country.” He was then asked if a Russian oligarch could buy the card: “Yeah, possibly. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people. I think they can afford $5 million.”

Karoline Leavitt notified reporters that she will decide who will attend briefings from now on: “For decades a group of DC based journalists, the WH Correspondents’ Assn, has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the president in these most intimate spaces. Not anymore.” Jacqui Heinrich, WH Correspondent for Fox: “This move does not give the power back to the people - it gives power to the WH. The WHCA is democratically elected by the full-time WH press corps.”

Trump’s DC US Attorney nominee Ed Martin said that DOJ should act as Trump’s personal law firm to go after his enemies: “As President Trump’s lawyers, we are proud to fight to protect his leadership as our president and we are vigilant in standing against entities like AP that refuse to put America first.”

Sen. Tammy Duckworth: “Trump's VA fired an additional 1,400 workers—on top of the over 1,000 fired earlier this month. There are no ‘non-critical’ VA positions when it comes to ensuring Veterans receive the care they've earned. Another betrayal. Another middle-finger. Another promise broken.”

A shady crew of right-wing social media influencers/notorious liars were invited to the WH to receive special binders from Pam Bondi that were supposed to contain the Jeffrey Epstein files. But the whole thing was a sick farce, as only a small amount of things that had already been publicly released were put in a binder so they could hold them up for a photo op.

Romania lifted the travel restrictions on Andrew Tate to allow him to fly to the US. He arrived in FL on a private jet. Tate has a huge US right-wing social media following and is a big Trump supporter. It was later revealed that Trump’s son Barron is a fan. Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said she was “a big fan” of his. Tate was charged with human trafficking, sexual abuse, and money laundering - allegedly trafficking girls and women from multiple countries to himself, his brother and friends where they were abused and sexually assaulted.

Musk on DOGE: “We will make mistakes. We won’t be perfect. For example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled very briefly was Ebola prevention. But we reversed it.” Jeremy Konyndyk said Musk lied: “I’ve actually led Ebola outbreak response at USAID. This is bunk from Elon. They have laid off most of the experts, they’re bankrupting most of the partner orgs, have withdrawn from WHO, and muzzled CDC. What’s left is a fig-leaf effort to cover their asses politically.” NYT reported that Musk did NOT reinstate Ebola prevention.

RFK Jr was asked about the measles outbreak in Texas among an anti-vaccine community that resulted in at least 120 cases and one death: “It is not unusual, we have measles outbreaks every year.” He also claimed that the most of the hospitalizations were because of a quarantine, not because of serious cases. Local health officials said that was also a lie. The outbreak would later spread to other states and get significantly worse while he refused to recommend vaccination.

AP obtained the full list of 875 contracts to be cut from the VA’s budget by Musk, including one that supports disability ratings assessments; a contract to answer 24,000 requests for military records to help veterans with proving their toxic exposure and other conditions were connected to their time in service; the engineering needed to integrate VHA, DOD, VA and other agency datasets to assist with medical histories; calibrating radiation detection equipment, and many more.

Trump and Vance put on the most disgraceful display in the WH of any US president meeting with the leader of a foreign ally, publicly berating Zelensky. It was clear their intent was to create a confrontation to justify pulling aid from Ukraine, and it was Vance’s job to be the instigator: “I think it’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems, you should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to his conflict. You have no men left in your country.” Zelensky responded: “Come to Ukraine and see.”

International Pride Orchestra says it was “disinvited” from presenting a summer Pride Celebration Concert at the Kennedy Center the same day Trump fired the board and took it over. Trump posted that day on Truth Social: “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA.” Orchestra Director Roest: “We were heartbroken when we learned that our concert would no longer be welcome at the Kennedy Center.” Orchestra Conductor Christine Brandes: “Sadly, this is not surprising, but is in itself profoundly un-American and therefore disheartening.”

Meteorologist Matt Lanza: “NOAA, the parent agency of the National Weather Service, indiscriminately fired a number of employees. This makes the country less safe. Full stop. I am gravely concerned about tools breaking that are critical to observations, analysis, and forecasts as we head into severe weather and hurricane seasons. This will degrade forecasts in all areas. The NWS provides an outsized benefit to rural, more conservative communities compared to larger cities.”

CNBC reported that another benefit of Trump’s Gold Card proposal (for people to buy US citizenship for $5 million) is that wealthy foreigners are also going to get a big tax break as part of the deal. It grants a tax loophole that will not be available to American citizens. US citizens must pay income tax on their US earnings as well as any income they earn overseas, including in their home country. But purchasers of the Trump Gold Card would not be subject to taxes on their overseas income.

DC US Attorney Ed Martin announced he was investigating a fake conspiracy from a foreign right-wing account that claimed Anthony Blinken, Victoria Nuland, Susan Rice, and Alex Vindman met with Zelensky right before his meeting with Trump and told him to reject his deal. He claimed it violated the Logan Act. Martin: “Concerning. No one is above the law.” Martin later dropped it after learning it was a hoax.

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins told Fox that the solution to high egg prices is for people to raise chickens in their backyards: “The silver lining in all of this is how do all of us - we’ve got chickens in our back yard - how to we solve something like this? People are looking around and saying, ‘How can I get a chicken in my back yard?’ It’s awesome!”

Trump on Truth Social: “My Executive Order on Digital Assets directed the Presidential Working Group to move forward on a Crypto Strategic Reserve that includes XRP, SOL, and ADA. I will make sure the US is the Crypto Capital of the World. And, obviously, BTC and ETH, as other valuable Cryptocurrencies, will be the heart of the Reserve. I also love Bitcoin and Ethereum!” One crypto commentator on X: “In 20 years of investing, this is the most corrupt thing I’ve ever seen in financial markets. The President is deliberately pumping crypto coins, of which he owns huge amounts.”

Ben Norton on David Sacks: “Jaw-dropping corruption: Trump's billionaire crypto czar is heavily invested in a fund whose top 5 holdings are the 5 in the proposed US govt Crypto Strategic Reserve. Mere hours before Trump announced it, someone bought $200 million in Ethereum & Bitcoin on 50X LEVERAGE. I'll say it again: The blatant corruption and looting in the US today is like what was done to Russia in the 1990s - but this time, the USA is doing it to itself. The US govt was always run on behalf of oligarchs, but now the oligarchs are directly in charge. It's pillage!”

Pete Hegseth ordered Cyber Command chief Gen. Timothy Haugh to halt all work on countering cyber threats from Russia, and focus instead on China and Iran. US officials said Russia launched a major ransomware effort right after Trump took office attempting to penetrate US hospitals, infrastructure and municipal networks. One official told CNN that this is “a major blow” to national security because it will make the US more vulnerable to cyberattacks from Russia, which has a formidable cadre of hackers capable of disrupting US critical infrastructure and collecting sensitive intelligence. One insider to Guardian: “Our systems are not going to be protected and our adversaries know this. Russia is winning. Putin is on the inside now.”

DOGE canceled a contract for nutritional peanut paste that served as lifesaving assistance for starving kids abroad. It is grown by US farmers and huge amounts of it ready to ship sat in GA warehouses rotting. Former USAID official Atul Gawande told them this will result in “a massive loss of life.” After backlash, Musk announced that the funding was reinstated, except he reinstated funding for the wrong company. Harvard Medical School’s Sasha Gusev: “The beauty of DOGE is that it is self-correcting. For example, someone pointed out to Musk that he was letting food we had already paid for go to waste, Musk called that person an ‘imbecilic propagandist’, and then several hours later reinstated the wrong contract.”

RFK Jr’s chief spokesman at HHS Thomas Corry abruptly resigned after just 2 weeks on the job. Corry was reportedly upset with RFK Jr’s lack of response to the measles outbreak in Texas.

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau: “Today, the US launched a trade war against Canada: their closest partner and ally - their closest friend. Canadians are reasonable, but we will not back down from a fight. Not when our country is at stake.”

JD Vance infuriated our allies again by disparaging the French and UK militaries: “If you want real security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine. That is a way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years.” The UK and France just pledged to send 20,000 troops to Ukraine. They also fought with US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Trump threatened protesters on college campuses: “All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested.”

Right after she was confirmed as Secretary of Ed, Linda McMahon said her “final mission” will be to dismantle the agency: "Send it back to the states. Our job is to respect the will of the American people and the president they elected, who has tasked us with accomplishing the elimination of bureaucratic bloat here at the Dept of Ed - a momentous final mission."

Trump reversed his tariffs on Canada and Mexico days after announcing them because the stock market was tanking: “After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement. This Agreement is until April 2nd. I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President Sheinbaum.” On Canada: “Believe it or not, despite the terrible job he’s done for Canada, I think that Justin Trudeau is using the Tariff problem, which he has largely caused, in order to run again for PM.

Honda issued a statement that Trump lied in his speech to Congress about their company building a new plant in Indiana. Trump: “In fact, already, numerous car companies have announced that they will be building massive automobile plants in America, with Honda just announcing a new plant in IN, one of the largest anywhere in the world.” Honda said that plant has been in IN since 2008 and they had no immediately plans to build another one.

The Broadway musical “Hamilton” announced they are canceling plans to perform at the Kennedy Center, citing Trump’s hostile takeover of the iconic venue. “Given the recent actions, our show simply cannot, in good conscience, participate and be a part of this new culture that is being imposed on the Kennedy Center. We are not acting against his admin, but against the partisan policies of the Kennedy Center as a result of his recent takeover.”

CIA Director John Ratcliffe paused intelligence support to Ukraine. The US military cut Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Recon flights near Ukraine, while telling allies to not share US shared-intelligence with Ukraine. A Ukrainian official has confirmed that all intelligence support from the US ceased. The Economist: “America cut a key intel link for alerts. Before that, they cut targeting data for HIMARS. Ukraine also isn’t receiving realtime info for long-range strikes.” Source: “Trump wanted a thank you. We will be writing it on graves of dead Ukrainians.’”

Mike Johnson was asked on Fox about DOGE firing people who work for the VA’s suicide hotline: “Look, in Elon’s defense, there is no playbook for what he’s doing. So there are gonna be some mishaps and mistakes along the way. But we will do course correction immediately.” Lindsey Graham: “It’s political malpractice not to consult Congress if that’s what you intend to do. Maybe you’ve got a good reason to do it. We don’t need to be reading memos in the paper about a 20% cut at the VA.” Rep. Michael McCaul: “Jeez. I worry because our vets are hurting after Afghanistan; PTSD has gone way up. Suicide rates gone way up, and morale has gone way down. So I worry in the sense that I don’t want that to be a signal that we don’t care about our vets.”

Pam Bondi claimed that the release of the full Epstein report is delayed because it has to be redacted “for national security reasons.”

US satellite imagery company Maxar cut off Ukraine from receiving its imagery. Kyiv Independent: “Kyiv has relied on high-resolution satellite images for defense and strategic planning, tracking Russian troop movements, assessing battlefield conditions, and monitoring Russian infrastructure. The restriction was imposed under an order from the Trump's admin, with the State Dept prohibiting US companies from providing satellite data to Ukraine.”

Fox: “Trump’s plan to house migrants at Guantanamo is facing major hurdles. Since he announced the military would prep 30,000 tents for mass deportations, 256 total illegal migrants have passed through the base. The US military has built only 195 tents but halted in late Feb once they realized the tents did not meet DHS/ICE standards. As of Wed, only 20 migrants were being held at the base.”

AL Political Reporter said that DOGE directed GSA to sell the building housing the historic Freedom Rides Museum in Montgomery. The museum was built on the site where Freedom Riders were attacked by white supremacists in 1961, and is owned by the govt.

AP reported that Pete Hegseth is erasing some aspects of US military history from DOD, which includes tens of thousands of images and achievements recognizing pioneering firsts by Black soldiers and female service members. The purge even mistakenly flagged photos of WWII Hiroshima bomber Enola Gay, since the algorithm thought it might have something to do with LBGTQ because “Gay” is in the name. Hegseth ordered them removed.

The Atlantic reported that issues in the FAA go beyond a shortage of air traffic controllers: “Many jobs with critical safety functions are indeed being sacrificed. Records show that employees classified as eligible for early retirement—and therefore allowed to walk off the job—include aviation-safety techs, quality-assurance specialists, and engineers.”

DOJ removed the 3 top officials in the highly sensitive National Security Division, which works with the FBI and other intel agencies to protect the nation from threats. Bloomberg: “The removals reflect the Trump admin’s effort to push out experienced career officials from nonpartisan roles at DOJ, likely paving the way for Trump and his allies to install people in these traditionally nonpartisan positions who align ideologically with the president.” Rep. Jamie Raskin: “This is what Viktor Orban has done in Hungary - clear out the civil service with real expert professionals and people devoted to the public interest and replace them with a bunch of party hacks and sycophants to the dear leader.”

Polish PM Donald Tusk responded to Musk insulting his Foreign Minister and combat veteran Radek Sikorski, calling him a ‘small man’: “True leadership means respect for partners and allies. Even for the smaller and weaker ones. Never arrogance. Dear friends, think about it.”

Rubio: “After a 6 week review, we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID.

Trump re-ignited his trade war with Canada: “Canada is a Tariff abuser, and always has been, but the US is not going to be subsidizing Canada any longer. We don’t need your Cars, we don’t need your Lumber, we don’t your Energy, and very soon, you will find that out. I will add an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE US FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. If other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada, I will substantially increase the Tariffs on Cars coming into the US which will, essentially, permanently shut down the auto manufacturing business in Canada.”

Liz Oyer, head of the DOJ office that makes pardon recommendations to the president, said she was fired after refusing to recommend restoration of gun rights to actor Mel Gibson. Gibson lost his gun rights because of his domestic battery conviction in 2011: “He explained to me that Gibson has a personal relationship with Trump and I would be wise to make the recommendation. Unfortunately, experienced professionals throughout DOJ are afraid to voice their opinions because dissent is being punished. Decisions are being made based on relationships and loyalty, not based on facts or expertise or sound analysis, which is very alarming given that what is at stake is our public safety. This is dangerous. This isn’t political - this is a safety issue.”

Funding for the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, which supports food banks, was eliminated with another program that supports local farmers by buying produce to use in healthy school lunches. Statement from USDA spokesperson: “This funding is no longer available and those agreements will be terminated. These programs, created under the former Admin, no longer effectuate the goals of the agency.” MA Gov. Maura Healey: “Trump and Musk have declared that feeding children and supporting local farmers are no longer ‘priorities’.”

Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced that her dept is firing 50% of their employees.

Trump launched a trade war with the EU on Truth Social: “The EU, one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World, which was formed for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the US, has just put a nasty 50% Tariff on Whisky. If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the US will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES.”

NYT reported that after Musk’s DOGE website was busted repeatedly for posting false info on the amount of cuts they were making, he made changes to the site to make it more difficult to fact-check: “Previously when it posted new claims, DOGE had included identifying details about the cuts it took credit for. That allowed the public to fact-check its work by comparing its figures with fed spending databases and talking to the groups whose funding had been cut. This time, it did not include those details. A WH official said that was done for ‘security purposes’. It is now nearly impossible to fact-check many of his claims on the website, after he promised that DOGE was going to be ‘maximally transparent.’”

Fox reporter Jennifer Griffin: “GITMO detention plans hit another bump. The Admin’s decision to take migrants to Gitmo appears at best to have been an expensive photo op. All the migrants held at Gitmo have been sent back to the US and plans to send more have been put on hold. There are currently no migrants being held at Gitmo, and no flights scheduled to arrive with more migrants. None of the 195 tents set up to hold migrants have been used because they do not meet ICE standards.”

WH Faith Office Director Paula White told OAN that God saved Trump from assassination so he could put Bibles and prayer back in public schools. She said she expects his Admin to challenge existing case law on separation of church and state and take it the Supreme Court: “Our nation was founded on Judeo-Christian beliefs. I know that God saved Trump’s life from an attempted assassination, and that purpose is to restore faith in America.”

Trump posted propaganda that tracked word-for-word what Putin claimed the day before: “We had very good and productive discussions with President Putin of Russia yesterday, and there is a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end — BUT, AT THIS VERY MOMENT, THOUSANDS OF UKRAINIAN TROOPS ARE COMPLETELY SURROUNDED BY THE RUSSIAN MILITARY, AND IN A VERY BAD AND VULNERABLE POSITION. I have strongly requested to President Putin that their lives be spared. This would be a horrible massacre, one not seen since World War II.” Julian Röpcke, Editor of BILD: “You must be kidding me. THIS IS 100% RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA. No Ukrainian troops are surrounded. No lives must be spared. Putin is in no position to do any good.” Ukraine’s General Staff: “Reports of the alleged ‘encirclement’ of Ukrainian units by the enemy in the Kursk region are false and fabricated by the Russians for political manipulation and to exert pressure on Ukraine and its partners.” Former GOP Rep. Mo Brooks: “It’s a good thing we didn’t have this kind leadership back in The Revolutionary War. If we had, we might still be a British colony.”

After the Kremlin told the US State Dept that they did not want Special Envoy Keith Kellogg to be involved in peace negotiations with Russia since they deemed him too sympathetic to Ukraine and wanted Steve Witkoff instead, Trump dutifully complied and removed him from his position: “Kellogg has been appointed Special Envoy to Ukraine. General Kellogg, a Highly Respected Military Expert, will deal directly with President Zelensky.”

The New Republic: “Trump’s State Dept quietly terminated a contract that was in the process of transferring evidence of Russian abductions of Ukrainian kids to European law enforcement. This contract is highly sensitive. The Yale lab tracking these kids is doing highly sophisticated work. They released an explosive report about 314 kidnapped kids in Dec. The transfer of underlying evidence to Europol has now been interrupted.” Sen. Amy Klobuchar: “The Trump Admin just terminated a contract with a university research team working to find Ukrainian children kidnapped by Russia.”

EPA chief Lee Zeldin announced he was rolling back 31 key environmental rules on everything from clean air to clean water and climate change. Zeldin said he is “driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion and ushering in America’s Golden Age”. The Guardian reported that one of the former EPA administrators called it “the most disastrous day in EPA history”. William Reilly, EPA chief under George HW Bush said it is a “catastrophe” and “represents the abandonment of a long history” of EPA actions to protect the environment.

Voice of America was shut down, with employees showing up to work only to find that they had been locked out their building. All 1,000+ employees were fired. Kari Lake signed an order cancelling all contracts, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks. VOA Director Michael Abramwitz: ”I am deeply saddened that for the 1st time in 83 years, the storied Voice of America is being silenced. Today’s action will leave Voice of America unable to carry out its vital mission.”

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele: “Today, the first 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, arrived in our country. They were immediately transferred to CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Center, for a period of one year (renewable). The US will pay a very low fee for them, but a high one for us.” We later learned that they were not all gang members.

Trump claimed that the pardons Biden issued are not valid, so he can prosecute members of the J6 Committee: “The Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen. Therefore, those on the Unselect Committee should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level.” Adam Kinzinger: “Trump’s latest threat against me is as real as his ‘perfect’ phone calls and ‘biggest crowds ever.’ More whining, more victimhood, zero follow-through. Either do it or keep crying, fatso. I’m so tired of your victimy whiney belly aching crap. You friggin won and you STILL are complaining all the time. BRING IT YOU SMALL LITTLE BOY.”

Nearly 200 senior experts with the National Nuclear Security Admin left the agency as part of Musk’s DOGE cuts. The agency builds reactors for nuclear submarines and manages 3,748 nuclear bombs and warheads. Scott Roecker, VP of the Nuclear Threat Initiative: “This is going to make the job more difficult because what you lost were some of your most valuable leaders. These were very accomplished, very successful, very well-trained people who were performing complex, niche jobs.” Among the departures: 27 engineers, 13 program or project analysts, 12 program or project managers, 6 budget analysts/accountants, and 5 physicists/scientists.

Chris Rilling, former NOAA Division Director: “The NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory on Mauna Loa near Hilo, Hawaii, which has been monitoring CO2 levels for the past 65 years, is set to be shut down. Trumpian reality: If we can't see CO2 levels rising, then it must not be happening.”

Two days after Director Lee Zeldin announced he was gutting the EPA, Trump announced he was going to fire up “clean coal” plants: “After years of being held captive by Environmental Extremists, Lunatics, Radicals, and Thugs, allowing other Countries, in particular China, to gain tremendous Economic advantage over us by opening up hundreds of all Coal Fire Power Plants, I am authorizing my Admin to immediately begin producing Energy with BEAUTIFUL, CLEAN COAL.”

HUD Secretary Scott Turner and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum jointly announced a plan to open up protected federal land around the country so housing could be constructed: “This will unlock federal lands for the benefit of all Americans.” Burgum also talked about opening up federal lands to mining: “Ukraine, Greenland, our allies around the world, and here at home on our incredible amount of federal land, our gigantic balance sheet that we have here - all of these are areas where we’ve gotta be more strategic in going after critical minerals.”

A sworn affidavit filed with Judge Boasberg by DOJ stated that ICE “carefully vetted” each of the migrants who were deported without due process. CBS reported that an ICE official said “many” of them deported as alleged gang members to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act did not have any criminal records at all. David Bier, Director of Immigration Issues at the CATO Institute: “Unreal. ICE implies that MOST of the Venezuelans sentenced to hard labor in a brutal Central American prison without charge or trial or so much as a cursory hearing had never been convicted or even charged with ANY CRIME whatsoever, not even a trivial one.”

Trump signed an illegal executive order dismantling the Dept of Education, which was created by Congress. Even Fox reported that it must be dissolved by Congress. The order would slash funding for already underfunded schools, likely eliminate Individualized Education Programs for students with disabilities, eliminate programs for students who speak English as a second language, and destroy Pell Grants and fed financial aid for low-income students.

RFK Jr. told Fox that cell phones cause cancer: “Cell phones cause electromagnetic radiation which has been shown to do neurological damage to kids who are around them all day - cause cellular damage, and cancer.”

NYT reported that Elon Musk was scheduled to receive a briefing at the Pentagon about the US military’s plan for any war that might break out with China. The Times cited multiple sources who came forward because they were concerned that Musk would be receiving that info since he has extensive ties to the Chinese govt with his businesses. Then after the story broke and a firestorm ensued, Trump and others issued a series of denials. Musk angrily posted that he wanted to hunt down the people in the Pentagon who leaked info about his briefing so they can be put in prison: “The NYT is pure propaganda. I look forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT. They will be found.”

The Atlantic reporter Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that he was invited to a group Signal chat where the planning was conducted and decisions were made on the first military action taken by the Trump Admin - missile attacks against the Houthis in Yemen: “I knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth had texted me the war plan at 11:44 AM. The plan included precise info about weapons packages, targets, and timing.”

At a House Intel Committee hearing, Rep. Jim Himes asked Tulsi Gabbard why she lied under oath the day before in front of the Senate when she claimed that specific targets or weapons were not mentioned on the chat: “My answer yesterday was based on my recollection, or the lack thereof, on the details that were posted there.” Himes: “So it’s your testimony that less than two weeks ago you were on this chat that had all this info about F-18s, and Reapers, and targets on strike, and you in that two week period forgot that?” Sen. Mark Warner: “What makes it particularly galling is when the DNI self-righteously tweets 12 days ago, ‘Anybody leaks, we’re going to pursue them to the full extent of the law.’ Well, does that apply to the leadership?”

Trump announced that he was banishing his NJ US Attorney appointee to Namibia to serve as their US Ambassador so he could make way for his grossly incompetent and unqualified attorney and frequent companion Alina Habba to take over: “It is with great pleasure that I am announcing Alina Habba, who is currently serving as Counselor to the President, and has represented me for a long time, will be our interim US Attorney for the District of NJ, her Home State, effective immediately!” It would not end well.

JD Vance went to the US military base in Greenland, where he trashed Denmark and continued to pressure Greenlanders to seek independence to become part of the US: “Denmark has not kept pace in devoting the resources necessary to keep this base, our troops, and to keep the people of Greenland safe from aggressive incursions. We have no other option. We need to take a significant position in Greenland to keep the people here safe and to keep our own country safe.” GOP Rep. Don Bacon: “Let’s stop the stupid Greenland talk. We look dumb all over the world and we sound like Russia. Greenland and Denmark are our allies. Let’s treat our allies with decency and save the bullying for dictators who invade their neighbors.”

7 Republican senators told Jewish Insider that they were disgusted with Vance’s comments on the Signal chat where he said he was against the strike on the Houthis because he didn’t want to do anything that would help Europe. Vance: “7 anonymous quotes from cowardly Republicans.”

Kristi Noem had perhaps her most repulsive of many photo ops, as she dropped in to film a video at the concentration camp in El Salvador where the US contracted with their govt to imprison deported migrants. She stood before inmates glammed out and wearing a Rolex in her PR video: “I want to let everyone know, if you come to our country illegally, this is one of the consequences you face. This facility is one of the tools in our tool kit we will use.”

AP’s Tara Copp: “Pete Hegseth’s younger brother is serving in a key position inside the Pentagon as a DHS liaison and senior adviser. The high-profile job has meant meetings with a UFC fighting champion, a trip to Guantanamo Bay and traveling on the Pentagon’s 747 aircraft as Hegseth makes his first trip as defense secretary to the Indo-Pacific. Based on Phil Hegseth’s publicly available resume, his past experience includes founding his own podcast production company and working on social media and podcasts at The Hudson Institute.”

NYT: “Trevor Milton, just pardoned by Trump for fraud, donated over $2 million to Republicans between Sept and Dec of last year. His largest was $920K to the Trump 47 PAC. He’d never previously made political donations. Milton was convicted in 2022 on 3 counts of fraud and sentenced to 4 years in prison and $169 million in restitution and fines. Prosecutors recommended Milton pay $676M in restitution to the people he defrauded, plus interest. But now with just $2M in campaign contributions, he pays none of it and is a free man.”

Trump signed an executive order directing the Smithsonian Institute to make widespread changes to their museums and exhibits. The order targets “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology” that was supposedly promoted by Smithsonian. Trump specifically singled out the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Women’s History Museum, and the American Art Museum for special scrutiny.

Trump signed an executive order ending collective bargaining for employees of the State Dept, DOD, DOJ, HHS, CDC, FCC, and ICE. WH statement: “The President needs a responsive and accountable civil service to protect our national security.” Govt employee unions have “declared war on President Trump’s agenda” by filing lawsuits to “block Trump policies. President Trump refuses to let union obstruction interfere with his efforts to protect Americans and our national interests.” AFGE President Everett Kelly, who represents more than 800,000 employees: “President Trump’s latest executive order is a disgraceful and retaliatory attack on the rights of hundreds of thousands of patriotic American civil servants—nearly one-third of whom are veterans—simply because they are members of a union that stands up to his harmful policies.”

Dr. Peter Marks, head of vaccine research at FDA, resigned his position to protest RFK Jr’s statements and policies: “It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.” RFK Jr. said he was delivering vitamin A to measles-stricken communities in Texas. But a Texas health official told The Atlantic that no doses of vitamin A ever arrived at the state health dept—not because RFK Jr. broke his promise, but because Texas doctors didn’t want them. Kennedy also said that he believes budesonide, clarithromycin, or cod-liver oil can treat measles, but the health dept didn’t want those either.

DOJ suspended the lawyer who admitted in court that they mistakenly deported Kilmar Abrego García to a prison in El Salvador and conceded that he did not know the legal basis for the expulsion. Erez Reuveni worked at DOJ for 15 years and specialized in Immigration cases. Pam Bondi: “At my direction, every DOJ attorney is required to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States. Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences.”

Politico reported that Cameron Hamilton, the head of FEMA, was given a lie detector test by DHS to determine if he leaked info about a private meeting he had with Kristi Noem and her advisor and long-time rumored special extramarital friend Corey Lewandowski. DHS Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin: “Under Secretary Noem’s leadership, DHS is unapologetic about its efforts to root out leakers that undermine national security. We are agnostic about your standing, tenure, political appointment or status as a career civil servant - we will track down leakers and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.”

Trump escalated his trade war with China on Truth Social: “If China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the US will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th. Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated!”

Crypto analyst Molly White: “Trump has directed DOJ to stop pursuing crypto fraud, dismantling the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team and ordering the Market Integrity and Major Frauds Unit to cease cryptocurrency enforcement.” Trump and just about every member of his family have individually launched their own crypto scams.

Trump signed an executive order directing DOJ to criminally investigate former members of his first admin. Chris Krebs was in charge of cybersecurity and fired by Trump after he said that the 2020 election was “the most secure in American history.” Trump: “We’ll find out whether or not it was a safe election, and if it wasn’t, he’s got a big price to pay.” Sen. Angus King (I-ME): “Chris Krebs’ crime appears to be telling the truth, in saying the 2020 election’s infrastructure was secure - and it was. To take an action like this, which appears to be straight-up vengeance, is dangerous because of the message it sends to anyone in the federal govt that tells the truth that you’ll lose your clearance, be slandered by the President, and investigated.”

NYT detailed how RFK Jr has taken steps against vaccination efforts: “The NIH halted funding for researchers who study vaccine hesitancy and canceled programs intended to discover new vaccines to prevent future pandemics. The CDC shelved an ad campaign for the flu shot. HHS cut billions of dollars to state health agencies, including funds needed to modernize state programs for childhood immunization. The FDA canceled an open meeting on flu vaccines with scientific advisers. Kathleen Hall Jamieson of Annenberg Public Policy Center: “This is a simultaneous process of increasing the likelihood that you will hear his voice and decreasing the likelihood that you’ll hear other voices. He is decertifying other voices of authority.”

WaPo reported that Greg Pearre, a senior executive at the Social Security Admin, was physically dragged from his office this week after a dispute with DOGE staff. Pearre was in charge of an IT team working on the agency’s data systems, and objected to DOGE’s effort to cut off immigrants from being able to access bank accounts or credit cards.

Two days after Trump issued his 4th “final warning” to Putin that he better agree to a cease fire or he might impose sanctions, Putin bombed a church service on Palm Sunday in Kiev. Financial Times: “Russia just killed dozens of Ukrainians in a missile strike on Palm Sunday, a day after Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met Putin, shook hands and posed for cameras. Witkoff visited an Orthodox Christian cathedral. The death toll from Russia’s Palm Sunday ballistic missile attack on Sumy is now 32 killed, including 2 children, and 99 people injured, of which 11 are children.”

Trump told Salvadorian autocrat Bukele that he wanted him to build more concentration camps in El Salvador so he can send US citizens there next. Trump was speaking quietly and privately to Bukele in the Oval Office away from reporters, but was captured on a hot mic: “Home-growns are next. The home-growns. You gotta build about 5 more places. It’s not big enough.” Trump later to the press: “I’d like to go a step further. I said to Pam Bondi, I don’t know what the laws are, but we also have homegrown criminals. I’d like to include them in the group of people to get them out of the country.”

WSJ reported that Trump’s personal attorney Boris Epshteyn has been shaking down law firms that Trump targeted with executive orders. So far he has negotiated almost $1 billion in free legal services from firms that have surrendered and caved to Trump. Epshteyn led Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election with Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman.

When asked about the Putin Palm Sunday massacre bombing that killed dozens in Ukraine including children, and injured over a hundred, Trump blamed Biden and Zelensky: “I was told Russia made a mistake. But this is Biden’s war - this is not my war. Zelensky and Biden did an absolutely horrible job in allowing this travesty to begin.”

Zelensky gave an interview on 60 Minutes where he said that attacks on population centers could be prevented but the US is withholding weapons systems the EU is willing to pay for: “Honestly, I don’t understand why we can’t come to an agreement on additional Patriot systems. Especially since such an agreement was reached at the NATO summit. We still haven’t received these additional Patriot systems. Russia strikes Ukrainian cities daily. 1,700 attacks on schools, 600 children dead. 780 hospitals and clinics attacked. 13,000 civilians killed. And up to 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers dead.”

Trump posted that he wanted to revoke the broadcast license of CBS because of the Zelensky interview: “They are not a ‘News Show,’ but a dishonest Political Operative simply disguised as ‘News,’ and must be responsible for what they have done, and are doing. They should lose their license! Hopefully, the FCC as headed by Brendan Carr, will impose the maximum fines and punishment, which is substantial, for their unlawful and illegal behavior. CBS is out of control, at levels never seen before, and they should pay a big price for this.”

Former NYT reporter Nicole Perlroth on constant tariff changes: “Every one of these moves whiplashed America’s biggest corps. Take FedEx. Every single move forced FedEx to code in new rules into its tracking systems to reflect whatever Trump was feeling that day. These aren’t necessarily variables that are easy to code in. They cost companies 6-7 figures to adjust. And then the next day they have to do it all over again.”

Harvard rejected the Trump admin demand that they agree to govt oversight and make sweeping changes to governance, admissions and hiring practices. The admin retaliated by freezing $2.2 billion in fed grants and a $60 million contract.

Trump then made new threats: “Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired / supporting “Sickness?” Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!”

After his meeting with Putin, Witkoff told Fox there were great business opportunities for US billionaires in Russia: “We actually came up with Putin’s request to have a permanent peace. Q - I imagine Putin probably wants to be in business with the US and Europe. Is that a potential that could come out of this? Witkoff: There’s no doubt about it - there’s a possibility to reshape the Russia-US relationship through some very compelling commercial opportunities.”

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said they were unable to lower interest rates because of Trump’s tariffs: “The level of tariff increases announced so far is significantly larger than anticipated, and the same is likely to be true of the economic effects which will include higher inflation and slower growth.” Trump then threatened to fire Powell: “Too Late Powell should have lowered Interest Rates long ago, but he should certainly lower them now. Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!” Powell responded: “Our independence is a matter of law. We’re not removable except for cause. Fed independence is very widely understood and supported in Congress.”

Bloomberg reported that China was furious about Vance calling Chinese workers “peasants”, and will not engage in trade talks until Vance apologizes for the remark: “China wants to see a number of steps from Trump’s admin before it will agree to trade talks, including showing more respect by reining in disparaging remarks by members of his cabinet.” WaPo’s Robyn Dixon: “That JD Vance comment about ‘Chinese peasants’ was taken in China as deeply offensive, and it is now a hurdle to trade talks. Trump admin’s approach appears tone deaf on this.” MSNBC’s Catherine Rampell: “This is the problem with electing an admin of too-online edgelords instead of people who actually want to govern. You can’t just ‘shitpost’ your way to a deal with China.”

FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened to go after Comcast and CNN over what he said is biased coverage over the Kilmar Garcia story: “Comcast outlets spent days misleading the American public—implying that Abrego Garcia was merely a law abiding US citizen, just a regular ‘Maryland man’. When the truth comes out, they ignore it. Comcast knows that fed law requires its licensed operations to serve the public interest. News distortion doesn’t cut it.”

Billy Long, Trump’s nominee to run the IRS, had past campaign debt paid off by several people who had current tax issues pending before the IRS. The New Republic: “Long reported in campaign finance disclosures that he loaned $130,000 to his unsuccessful 2022 campaign for the US Senate, with the dormant campaign committee raising $36,000 in the past two years. This meant that Long would have been personally on the hook for more than $100,000. Shortly after Trump announced Long as his pick to head the IRS, the committee was suddenly flush, taking in $137,000 in Jan, and Long used that to reimburse himself.”

WSJ that WH Faith Office leader Paula White continues to raise huge amounts of money on the side for her StoryLife ministry. While making her solicitations, she references her work in the WH and uses clips of herself praying over Trump in the Oval Office. Richard Painter who was WH Ethics counsel for Bush: “This is the use of a public office for private gain. You cannot use the presidency or any other public office to raise money for private orgs. No private org should be doing this.”

RFK Jr got intense backlash over comments he made about autistic children: “These are kids who will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.” The Atlantic writer Jemele Hill: “Thinking of my friend Holly Robinson Peete, who has raised a productive, amazing autistic son, who is fearless, gainfully employed and pays taxes. These were disgusting, irresponsible comments by someone who is charged with overseeing public health for hundreds of millions of people. He is not qualified for this.”

Trump’s for DC US Attorney Ed Martin failed to report hundreds of media interviews he made in the last few years, including over 150 he gave to Russian state media. The disclosure form he recently filed with the Senate before his confirmation failed to disclose ones that included comments that he would prosecute family members of Biden and criminally charge people involved in fed investigations of Trump.

Marco Rubio shut down the Global Egagement Center, which identified and countered foreign disinfo campaigns - mostly from Russia, China and Iran. AP: “While the center’s mission was to track foreign influence operations, it occasionally called out domestic websites and social media accounts it believed were amplifying propaganda related to issues like the Russia-Ukraine war. Rubio argued this crossed into dangerous territory for free expression.” Former State Dept spokesman Ned Price: “This is a deeply misleading and unserious portrayal of an organization focused on identifying foreign - primarily Russian - disinfo ops.”

Treasury Dept appointee David Eisner attempted to run interference for Pillow Man Mike Lindell with the IRS on his pending audit. Eisner wrote to senior IRS staff that Lindell - whom he called a “high profile friend of the president” - received his second audit letter in two years and “he is concerned he may have been inappropriately targeted.” Nina Olson: “That’s so inappropriate. In my 18 years as the national taxpayer advocate with over 4 million cases that came into the Taxpayer Advocate Service, in that time with taxpayers experiencing significant problems with the IRS, I have never had a Treasury official write me about a case.”

Hegseth’s former spokesman John Ullyot published an editorial in Politico where he said the DOD was in “total chaos” since Hegseth took over: “From leaks of sensitive operational plans to mass firings, the dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president—who deserves better from his senior leadership. It’s hard to see Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer.”

NYT reported that US soybean farmers will be amongst the hardest hit by Trump’s tariffs. The US sells $12.8 billion in soybeans to China every year, more than any other single product. Soybeans were 9% of all US exports to China last year. China is now looking replace those soybeans with increased imports from Brazil and Argentina. Soybean farmer Heather Feuerstein: “Farmers deal with bad weather. We deal with pests. We deal with tractors breaking. That’s our lives. But tariffs are a threat to our continued way of life.”

Tyler McBrien, Editor of Lawfare: “The new State Dept reorg pretty much cuts all departments related to global women’s issues, global criminal justice, conflict stabilization operations, trafficking in persons, and international religious freedom offices/bureaus.”

The FDA suspended a quality control program for testing of milk and other dairy products because of dramatic staff cuts by RFK Jr to the food safety and nutrition division. RFK Jr fired 20,000 HHS employees already with more likely to come. The Food Emergency Response Network has also suspended its quality control program for 170 food testing labs due to staff shortages.

Trump called on Rupert Murdoch to fire the Fox pollster after their latest poll showed his approval rating down to 44%: “Murdoch has told me for years that he is going to get rid of his FoxNews, Trump Hating, Fake Pollster, but he has never done so. This ‘pollster’ has gotten me, and MAGA, wrong for years. Also, and while he’s at it, he should start making changes at the China Loving Wall Street Journal. It sucks!!!”

Fox: “Another US MQ-9 Reaper drone was shot down by the Houthis in Yemen. This is the 7th MQ-9 Reaper drone shot down by the Houthis since March 3rd. It is the 6th US MQ-9 drone shot down over Yemen since US Central Command began daily airstrikes on the Houthis on March 15th. Today marks Day 40 of US daily air strikes against the Houthis, and yet the Houthis continue to fire missiles to shoot these expensive US assets down. Each MQ-9 drone costs about $30 million a piece.”

Fox Chief Political Analyst Brit Hume: “Trump keeps pounding Zelensky and saying it's harder to deal with him than it is with Putin. Putin hasn't agreed to much of anything except yes, he'd love to annex Crimea, which is part of the proposal that's before him now. That's no concession. All that is, is taking a gain. Zelensky resists that because Crimea, up until the Russians invaded it 10 years or so ago, was part of Ukraine. So, I'm not exactly sure what the president's talking about when he says that Zelensky has been more difficult to deal with than Putin."

AP: “Pete Hegseth had an internet connection that bypassed the Pentagon’s security protocols set up in his office to use the Signal messaging app on a personal computer. Known as a dirty’ internet line by the IT industry, it connects directly to the public internet where the user’s information and the websites accessed do not have the same security filters or protocols that the Pentagon’s secured connections maintain.” WaPo reported that Hegseth used a workaround so he could continue to use Signal in secure areas where he wasn’t permitted to use his personal cell phone, by installing the app on a computer in his Pentagon office.

CBS reported that Hegseth ordered modifications to a room next to the Pentagon press briefing room to retrofit it with a makeup studio that can be used to prepare for TV appearances: “The price tag for the project was several thousand dollars, at a time when the admin is searching for cost-cutting measures. The renovation that was initially planned was estimated to cost more than $40,000, but the ideas were scaled back.”

Citadel CEO Ken Griffin said US Treasuries’ used to be the gold standard as a safe and reliable investment, but Trump has “put that brand at risk. It can be a lifetime to repair the damage that has been done.” He talked about capital fleeing the US for other bond and currency markets, especially Europe: “There’s no great opportunity when the pie is rapidly shrinking. All you’re trying to do is tread water and not drown.” Bridgewater, the largest hedge fund in the world: “We have been through many big economic shifts over Bridgewater’s 50-year history, so we don’t speak lightly when we say that this looks like a once-in-a-generation one. We see exceptional risks to US assets.”

DC US Attorney Ed Martin apologized for praising a Nazi sympathizer as he awaits his Senate confirmation. Martin praised Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, who is described by DOJ as a Nazi sympathizer and white supremacist. Martin called Hale-Cusanelli ‘extraordinary’ while emceeing an awards ceremony last year at Trump’s golf club. Martin: “I denounce everything about what that guy said, everything about the way he talked. At the time, I didn’t know it. I certainly didn’t know all the terrible things that he said and how he had acted.” Politico’s Kyle Cheney: “It is unfathomable that Martin was unaware of the widely publicized allegations about Hale-Cusanelli, who he has interviewed for hours and whose case made national headlines for years after J6.”

Trump pardoned Michele Fiore, the high profile Las Vegas Republican councilwoman who was convicted of defrauding donors who believed they were giving money for a statue to honor a police officer who was killed in the line of duty.

DOGE created havoc again by moving 4 million people in the Social Security Dead Master File. Rennie Glasgow, a SSA claims analyst: “DOGE staffers went into the system and they killed off people. About 4 million people, they marked them as dead. But they’re not sure if those people were supposed to be marked as dead, so they’re sending us an email saying, ‘If these people come into the office with their ID, you can reinstate them.’ So we’re going to be resurrecting a lot of dead people. We have to go through this long process to resurrect them, to get them back as alive, which can take about 3-4 days. When they mark someone dead on the Social Security record, it stops their life. It stops their car payments, it stops their credit, it stops their ability to do anything. Their ID gets flagged. And most times those things have to go to the payment center.”

Trump invited the top 220 investors in his $TRUMP crypto scam to “a private intimate dinner” with him at his club in VA, followed by a private tour of the WH. NYT: “As news of the dinner invitation spread on social media, the memecoin’s price surged more than 60%, suggesting that investors were rushing to accumulate the coin to qualify for a seat at the dinner.” Corey Frayer, who oversaw crypto policy for the SEC during the Biden admin: “This is really incredible. They are making the pay-to-play deal explicit.”

KY Gov. Andy Beshear said FEMA unjustly denied disaster aid for 8 counties affected by serious flooding in his state. FEMA wrote to him: “Based on the results of the joint Preliminary Damage Assessments, it has been determined that the impact to the individuals and households in Butler, Franklin, Knox, Laurel, Lawrence, and Whitley Counties is not of the severity and magnitude to warrant their designation under the Individual Assistance program.”

Chinese importers canceled orders for 12,030 metric tons of US pork. Dexter Roberts with the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub: “This is a targeted response from China to hurt parts of the US that are red. Farmers are very worried. One bad year and you might be mortgaging the farm.” The Nat Pork Producers Council: “US pork producers remain at the tip of the spear with China tariffs. The new tariffs make it impossible for American pork producers to compete in that market”. China bought $125 million in US pork in 2024.

Witkoff met with Putin alone again. Fox Chief Nat Sec Correspondent Jennifer Griffin: “Where are the subject matter experts with Witkoff? Putin, the KGB officer, is laughing. Meanwhile the instability at the Pentagon is not helping project strength during these delicate negotiations. There is still no confirmed NSA (Cyber Command) director after Hegseth fired Gen Hauck and his deputy for no reason, not even a nominee yet for the person overseeing the crown jewel of US intelligence and SIGINT, which might come into handy when you are negotiating with Putin and Xi.” Alex Marquardt, CNN’s Chief Nat Sec Correspondent: “Yet again, Witkoff meets with Putin with no other senior US officials. While Putin has two of his closest aides. This is the 4th Witkoff-Putin meeting this year and Witkoff doesn’t appear to have taken a senior diplomat/intel/expert with him to any of them.”

CNN: “In the month since the US launched a major military campaign targeting the Houthi rebel group in Yemen, the militants have successfully shot down at least 7 multi-million-dollar American drones, hindering the US’ ability to move into ‘phase two’ of the operation. The US was hoping to achieve air superiority over Yemen within 30 days, but the platforms best suited to conduct that persistent effort, the MQ9 Reaper drones, keep getting shot down. Over the last 6 weeks, the Houthis have launched 77 one-way attack drones, 30 cruise missiles, 24 medium-range ballistic missiles, and 23 surface-to-air missiles either at US forces, into the Red Sea, or at Israel. The intel community assessed that over nearly 6 weeks of US bombing, the Houthis’ ability and intent to keep lobbing missiles at US and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and at Israel is little changed.”

Kristi Noem inundated the HQ building of Customs and Border Patrol in DC with over a dozen action photos of herself in various outfits out in the field with agents. Many photo ops were ridiculed from both the right and the left. After Noem was asked about it by a sneering Laura Ingraham on Fox, she stopped doing them for a few months. But she has the photos all over DHS buildings.

The Trump admin made it easier for Musk to launch his self-driving cars on US roads by loosening crash reporting requirements. Musk has complained in the past about the regulations and crash reporting rules. Transportation Sec Sean Duffy: “This admin understands that we’re in a race with China to out-innovate, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. Our new framework will slash red tape and move us closer to a single national standard that spurs innovation.”

Trump ordered DOJ to investigate ActBlue, the fundraising platform used by almost every Democratic candidate and cause. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT): “If anyone out there was undecided on whether Trump is operationalizing a precise, coordinated plan to destroy our democracy so he can rule until he dies, the move to shut down Act Blue, the primary way Democrats’ campaigns are funded, should be the final proof point.”

Trump’s FEMA administrator Cameron Hamilton outlined a plan that would make it more difficult for states to get disaster aid. CNN: “It dramatically raises the threshold for states to qualify for public assistance, effectively quadrupling the amount of damage a community must suffer in order to receive fed aid. The proposal also recommends reducing the share of recovery costs the federal govt will pay, limiting the types of facilities eligible for assistance and denying all major disaster declarations for snowstorms.”

Politico reported that RFK Jr’ fired workers with the Center for Firefighter Safety, Health and Well-being, the World Trade Center Health Program, the Health Hazard Evaluation program, and CDC’s National Firefighter Registry for Cancer. These agencies provided services for hundreds of thousands of people over the years. Kenny Schroeder, a firefighter hired by the CDC to help recruit participants for the cancer database, described the cuts as “really a gut punch. It’s very disheartening.”

Pam Bondi vowed to lock up journalists who receive info from govt officials: “Fed govt employees intentionally leaking sensitive info to the media undermines the ability of the DOJ to uphold the rule of law, protect civil rights, and keep America safe. This conduct is illegal and wrong, and it must stop. Therefore, I have concluded that it is necessary to rescind Merrick Garland's policies precluding DOJ from seeking records and compelling testimony from members of the news media in order to identify and punish the source of improper leaks.”

Don Jr., Trump megadonor Omeed Malik, and Steve Witkoff’s sons Zach and Alex launched an invite-only club with an initial fee of $500,000 to join. The club is called the “Executive Branch”. Politico: “Their goal is to create the highest-end private club that DC has ever had, and cater to the business and tech moguls who are looking to nurture their relationships with the Trump admin.” Sen. Chris Murphy: “Trump has set up a new club where CEOs, tech bros, and foreign oligarchs can pay $500,000 to join in order to get access to the Trump Cabinet who will all be there regularly. This is the most corrupt WH in history.”

China’s Foreign Ministry said Trump continued to lie about speaking to President Xi about a trade deal. Spokesman Guo Jiakun responded to Trump’s most recent claim in his TIME interview: "The two heads of state have not called each other recently. I would like to reiterate that China and the US have not conducted consultations or negotiations on the tariffs issue. If the US really wants to solve the problem through dialog and negotiation, it should stop threatening and blackmailing.”

Jeremy Warner, Economics Editor, Daily Telegraph (UK) on Trump’s tariff chaos: “Trump has in the meantime made himself – and the US – into an international laughing stock, never mind the damage that policy uncertainty is inflicting on the global economy. Repeatedly forced to row back on its demands and aspirations, the WH has been left looking back-footed and ridiculous. His policy positions change with such frequency – often dramatically so – that it is impossible to know what’s real and what isn’t. One moment, he wants the chairman of the Fed Reserve fired, the next he says he’s never had any such intention. It would be nice to think that tomorrow we might awake to find it’s all been a bad dream, but sadly, this is no nightmare: the bewildering confusion of it all is entirely real.”

Charlotte Observer editorial said since Trump took office they have been getting screwed on disaster aid: “Payments have been delayed for hundreds of FEMA grants and reimbursements. Reimbursements of more than $60 million for debris removal and other operations are overdue, and $105 million from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund has been frozen. The state is still awaiting over $1 billion in related Dept of Ag funding that was due March 21.”

60 Minutes’ Scott Pelley told viewers that Executive Producer Bill Owens resigned in protest over editorial restrictions being placed on the show because principle stockholder Shari Redstone needs the Trump admin to approve her sale of parent-company Paramount to tech billionaire Larry Ellison: “Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways. Stories we pursued for 57 years are often controversial — lately, the Israel-Gaza War and the Trump admin. Bill made sure they were accurate and fair. He was tough that way. But our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump admin must approve it.”

Pete Hegseth posted on X: “This morning, I proudly ENDED the ‘Women, Peace & Security’ program inside DOD. WPS is yet another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative that overburdens our commanders and troops - distracting from our core task: WAR-FIGHTING. WPS is pushed by feminists and left-wing activists. GOOD RIDDANCE WPS!” The WPS was signed into law by President Trump in 2017. Its sponsor in the Senate was Marco Rubio. Its sponsor in the House was Kristi Noem. Former Marine F-18 pilot Amy McGrath to Hegseth: “You are lying again. It’s not divisive. It’s a small program for DOD but one based on real data, so it doesn’t fit your caveman style understanding of security.”

WaPo reported that Harmeet Dhillon, Trump’s new head of DOJ’s civil rights division, is cleaning house with at least half of the 380 career prosecutors getting fired or quitting: “Since being sworn in this month, Dhillon has redirected her staff to focus on combating antisemitism, the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports and what Trump has described as anti-Christian bias and the Democrats’ ‘woke ideology.’”

Trip Gabriel from NYT: “World Liberty, the Trumps' crypto firm, has erased centuries-old presidential norms, eviscerating the boundary between private enterprise and govt policy in a manner without precedent in modern American history. Donald Trump Jr. said of the guys running their crypto firm, ‘You could put them in a boardroom at Goldman Sachs, and they’re going to smoke the people in the room.’ One of them ran the website ‘Date Hotter Girls’. Two worked together selling colon cleanses and get-rich-quick advice.”

After getting a half-dozen very expensive Reaper drones shot down, Trump’s war in Yemen also cost us a $67 million fighter jet. An F/A-18E Super Hornet, along with the tow tractor that was pulling it, fell off the deck of the USS Harry Truman and into the Red Sea.

Trump fired his NSA Mike Waltz, making him take the fall for SignalGate. Sen. Mark Kelly said Hegseth should have been the one fired: “I think they’re holding the wrong guy accountable - I think they fired the wrong guy.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren: “Pete Hegseth shows real leadership by passing the blame to Mike Waltz. Was it Waltz who set up Signal on Hegseth’s office computer and added his wife, brother, and lawyer in a war plan group chat?”

NYT: “Trump Org has agreed to a new Middle East golf course and real estate deal that involves a Qatari govt-owned firm, two weeks before Trump is set to travel to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE on a state visit. The project in Qatar is a partnership with Qatari Diar, a real estate company established by the country’s sovereign wealth fund and chaired by a govt minister. Eric Trump traveled to the Middle East this week to attend a crypto conference and promote the company’s real estate developments, which include a separate Trump-branded tower in Dubai. The two projects will also involve Dar Global, the international subsidiary of the private Saudi real estate firm Dar Al Arkan, which is leading the project and has close ties to the Saudi govt.”

Marco Rubio, Vance, and Musk condemned Germany labeling the AfD party an extremist organization. Rubio: “Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy—it’s tyranny in disguise. Germany should reverse course.” Vance: “The AfD is by far the most representative of E. Germany. Now the bureaucrats try to destroy it.” Former CIA agent Marc Polymeropoulos: “This is the depths to which the US has sunk, globally. We are now defending a ‘Nazi-light’ party - in Germany of all places. It will take a generation, if ever, before the world looks at the US again as the bright shining city on a hill. It is infuriating- and embarrassing.”

HuffPost: “An international trucking logistics firm is buying as much as $20 million worth of Trump’s crypto coins to influence the admin’s trade policy. Freight Technologies CEO Javier Selgas said that buying Trump coin would be ‘an effective way to advocate for fair, balanced and free trade between Mexico and the US.’ They filed a notice with the SEC that it was issuing bonds to raise the money to buy Trump Crypto.” Tony Carrk with Accountable.us: “It’s just another day for Trump that an international freight company is paying a $20 million tribute towards the Trump family fortune after openly wishing it will lead to admin tariff relief.”

Trump said he’s putting tariffs on movies filmed in other countries: “The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death. Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the US States. This is a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda! Therefore, I am authorizing the Dept of Commerce to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.”

EU Commission Pres. Ursula von der Leyen and French Pres. Macron announced a massive effort to lure top scientists and researchers from the US to Europe as the Trump admin declares war on science. Von der Leyen: “We will put forward a $500 million package to make Europe a magnet for researchers. We will also offer the best and brightest the right incentives to come to Europe. Trump made a gigantic miscalculation. The role of science in today’s world is questioned. The investment in fundamental, free and open research is questioned. But science has no passport, no gender, no ethnicity or political party.”

Eric Trump and Junior circled the globe cashing in on the presidency. NYT: “A luxury hotel in Dubai. A second high-end residential tower in Saudi Arabia. Two cryptocurrency ventures. A new golf course and villa complex in Qatar. And a new private club in DC. In many cases these new deals promoted over the last week will personally benefit not only Eric and Don Jr., but also President Trump himself.” Just in the past 10 days, Trump Jr. made stops in Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria, which included visits with foreign govt leaders. Eric Trump was shuttling among Qatar, UAE and other Middle East spots to push the family’s real estate and crypto plans.”

Trump: “REBUILD, AND OPEN ALCATRAZ! For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering. Today, I am directing the Bureau of Prisons, together with DOJ, FBI, and DHS, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders. The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE.” Stephen Miller: “Alcatraz was built at a time when this country was strong and it knew how to take care of villains and monsters. We need a place in this country where we can send people to visually demonstrate their total separation from society.”

764,000 people lost money on Trump’s crypto scam. CNBC: “Most of the wallets that lost money held smaller amounts of the token. While around 2 million wallets have bought into the token, 58 wallets made more than $10 million apiece, totaling roughly $1.1 billion in gains.” 58 people made millions. 764,000 lost money.

Melania Trump also got in on the action. FT reported that that a small handful of unknown individuals made millions in a few days after Melania announced her crypto scam the day before the inauguration: “24 accounts bought $2.6 million in tokens 2 minutes before they went live, then 81% of their purchases were sold within 12 hours at windfall profits. One person bought $681,000 of Melania crypto 64 seconds before the existence of the project was made public and sold it for $39 million hours later.”

Reuters reported that Pete Hegseth inexplicably halted a shipment of weapons to Ukraine. He stopped 11 flights loaded with artillery shells and other weapons: “In a matter of hours, frantic questions reached Washington from Ukrainians in Kyiv and from officials in Poland, where the shipments were coordinated. Who had ordered TRANSCOM to halt the flights? Was it a permanent pause on all aid? Or just some? Top national security officials - in the WH, the Pentagon and the State Dept - couldn’t provide answers. Within one week, flights were back in the air. The verbal order originated from Hegseth. The president was unaware of Hegseth’s order, as were other top national security officials in the meeting. The cancelations cost TRANSCOM $2.2 million.”

FEMA Dir Cameron Hamilton was fired by Kristi Noem one day after he said this to a House Appropriations subcommittee: “I do not believe it is in the best interests of the American people to eliminate FEMA.”

Trump withdrew the nomination of Ed Martin for DC US Attorney because he couldn’t get the votes in the senate: “I have to be straight. I was disappointed. A lot of people were disappointed, but that’s the way it works. Sometimes, that’s the way it works.” He then appointed Fox host Jeanine Pirro to take over, which later resulted in the office descending into complete disarray with an unprecedented string of court losses.

Trump’s fired his Surgeon General and nominated Casey Means. The Independent: “Trump has selected a conspiracy theorist and self-styled Make America Healthy Again ‘wellness influencer’ who is not currently licensed to practice medicine to be the nation’s next Surgeon General. According to a newsletter than Means publishes, she believes in using spiritual mediums, praying to ancestor shrines, doing full moon ceremonies to amplify her dreams, asking the trees in the forest to deliver advice on men, and dabbles in hallucinogenic mushrooms.”

The State Dept and US embassies pushed countries to buy Musk’s Starlink if they want tariffs lifted. WaPo: “Marco Rubio has increasingly instructed officials to push for regulatory approvals for Musk’s satellite firm at a moment when the WH is calling for wide-ranging talks on trade. In India, govt officials have sped through approvals of Starlink with the understanding that doing so could help them cement trade deals with the admin.”

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested outside an ICE detention center. Baraka was engaged in a peaceful protest to assert local jurisdiction over an ICE operation he claims violates city law. Baraka was speaking with members of Congress who were present for a scheduled visit when ICE agents blocked his access. Shoving ensued, then Baraka was placed in handcuffs by fed agents. Rep. Robert Menendez Jr, who was there: “It was an act of intimidation. They feel no weight of the law and no restraint on what they should be doing. And that was shown in broad daylight today when they not just arrested the Mayor of Newark but when they put their hands on two members of congress standing behind me. How is this acceptable!?”

NBC on Kash Patel: “For decades, the head of the FBI has attended a daily 8:30 AM ‘director’s brief,’ where he is presented the most important intelligence and law enforcement info gleaned from thousands of agents and analysts across the country. Unlike his recent predecessors, Patel is receiving the brief two days a week. Officials who worked on the morning director’s briefings were told that the schedule was changed because Patel sometimes failed to arrive on time. Two current FBI officials said Patel sometimes seemed uninterested in the material and his intelligence briefers are struggling to craft a briefing that captures his attention. Since taking office, Pate has made 3 flights on FBI planes to Nashville, where his girlfriend, a country singer, lives; 2 flights to Las Vegas, and one flight to NY, where he attended a pro hockey game.”

Judge William Sessions ordered Tufts Univ student from Turkey Rümeysa Öztürk to be released from ICE custody after Marco Rubio stripped her of her visa and ordered her deported for co-authoring an op-ed in her student newspaper calling on the Tufts president to support a student vote to divest from Israeli companies: “These are very substantial claims of First Amendment and due process violations. This is a woman who is just totally committed to her academic career in a caring and compassionate way. There is no evidence that she has engaged in violence or advocated violence.”

Guardian: “Large institutional investors have massively increased their holdings of Trump Media in recent months, with many enlarging their positions by 100s of millions of dollars.” Tony Carrk with Accountable.us: “Institutional Wall Street investors and even a foreign company with business before the admin have effectively offered a form of tribute by bulk purchasing shares in DJT. Considering Trump Media has been hemorrhaging hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, there’s little doubt these hedge fund managers are hoping for a different kind of return on their investment. The President might as well put up a ‘bribe me’ sign on the WH – it’s corruption out in broad daylight.”

After Trump was forced to drop the nomination of DC US Attorney nominee Ed Martin, he announced that Martin will now be in charge of reviewing pardon requests at DOJ. This led to some of the most corrupt pardons in US history. Stay tuned.

ABC: “Trump accepted a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar - a gift that is to be available for use as the new Air Force One until shortly before he leaves office, at which time ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation. Trump toured the plane, which is so opulently configured it is known as ‘a flying palace,’ while it was parked at the W. Palm Beach Airport.”

CREW: “During the 4 years that Trump serves his 2nd term, real estate developers will be working on, planning, building and opening a total of 20 Trump-branded projects around the globe. In 9 foreign countries, these developers will seek subcontractors, buyers and permits from the govt. The developments that are underway—being planned, constructed, sold and delivered to buyers—will nearly triple the number of Trump properties operating abroad.”

NBC: “Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff broke with long-standing protocol by not employing his own interpreter during three high-level meetings with Putin, opting instead to rely on translators from the Kremlin. A short video of a meeting shows a smiling Witkoff entering the room alone before he shakes hands with Putin, who is also broadly beaming. Witkoff does not appear to be accompanied by any advisers or experts who typically support American officials conducting delicate and complicated negotiations.” Former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul: “This is a very bad idea. I speak Russian and have listened to Kremlin interpreters and US interpreters at the same meeting, and the language is never the same. At the end of every meeting that I attended, I debriefed the interpreter to make sure we heard everything correctly. You can’t do that using a Russian official.”

DNI Tulsi Gabbard sent out a directive to intel agencies to gather info on Greenland’s independence political movement, perceptions about US interest in the island’s resources, and to identify people who might support Trump’s move to take it over.

Trump surrendered again on tariffs - this time reducing his 145% tariffs to 30% on China. Economist Justin Wolfers: “Yet another zig, another zag, and another 90-day pause is just more policy chaos. I mean, we are now in the midst of a different 90-day pause with 189 other countries. The extent of this chaos cannot be understated.” Fox Business analyst Charles Gasparino: “Trump raised tariffs on the world, the markets, particularly the bond market - which we need to finance our debt - rebelled. Trump then was forced to back off. End of story. Film at 11 of the president spinning this as a major victory.”

WSJ on Trump’s trip to the Middle East: “Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar, the three countries on the president’s itinerary, stand out for their warm embrace of Trump Inc. In the past year, Trump-branded residential towers have been launched in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, and a developer unveiled a Trump luxury golf resort at a state-owned project in Qatar at an event featuring Eric Trump and a Qatari minister. A UAE state and royal family fund earlier this month used $2 billion of a new crypto coin issued by Trump’s World Liberty Financial. Trump admin accepted a plan from Qatar.” David Schenker, Asst Sec of State for Middle East Affairs in Trump’s first term: “The national interest has seemingly merged with the president’s interests in some ways. It’s obviously a different way of doing business, unprecedented for the US.”

One day after Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa offered to build a Trump Tower Damascus as a sweetener to persuade Trump to meet with him during his Middle East trip to discuss the US lifting sanctions on his country, Trump announced he was lifting sanctions. He said it will “give them a chance at greatness” and claimed he was only doing it as a favor to Saudi Arabia’s MBS: "Oh, the things I do for the Crown Prince."

Trump fired the head of the US Copywright Office Shira Perlmutter. Rep. Joe Morelle: “It is surely no coincidence he acted less than a day after she refused to rubber-stamp Musk’s efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models. It seems like a highly relevant detail.” Perlmutter warned that if AI companies are allowed to mine copyrighted works from artists, scientists, engineers, inventors, and others that could be used by those companies to compete with human creators and put them out of business.

The NYT reported that Trump’s month-long operation bombing Yemen cost $1 billion in military assets with virtually zero tangible results before Trump declared victory and gave up. The Houthis shot down at least six $30 million MQ-9 Reaper drones and lost two F/A-18 Super Hornets worth $67 million each. Despite that fact that Trump pledged the Houthis were going to be “completely annihilated,” they continued firing at vessels and drones while reinforcing their bunkers and relocating weapons stockpiles underground and continued launching missiles at Israel even after the US backed out.

For the first time since 1917, Moody’s Rating Service downgraded the credit rating of the US. CNBC: “The debt downgrade pressured bond prices, sending yields higher, at a time when the economy is already awaiting the full impact of Trump’s unfolding tariff policy. The 30-year US bond yield traded above 5% and the 10-year yield topped 4.5%, levels that hurt equity markets last month and helped lead Trump to back off his stiffest tariff measures. Rates on mortgages, car loans and credit cards track the 10-year yield.”

Trump called for the arrest of former FBI Director James Comey after he posted a photo of sea shells on the beach in the shape of the numbers “86 47”. He claimed that “86” means “assassinate”, and Comey was sending out a code to operatives to take him out. Stephen Miller: “As the former FBI director, and key leader of the deep state, Comey’s call for assassination is a chilling escalation of the war against our democracy by a faction committed to its destruction.” Trump: “He knew exactly what that meant - it meant assassination.”

Kash Patel and Dan Bongino did a joint interview on Maria Baritromo’s Fox show, and she asked them whether Jeffrey Epstein really committed suicide. They both reversed themselves on a position they had taken publicly for many years. Patel: “I know a suicide when I see one, and that’s what that was.” Bongino: “He killed himself. I’ve seen the whole file - he killed himself.”

US taxpayers paid the family of J6 insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt nearly $5 million after the Trump admin agreed to settle a wrongful death lawsuit. Sen. Ruben Gallego: “Paying money to a terrorist’s family using US taxpayer dollars. The hundreds of Police injured that day should be compensated.” Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger: “I was extremely disappointed, and I disagreed with the DOJ’s decision to settle.”

Venezuelan immigrants who supported Trump feel betrayed that he is revoking their Temporary Protected Status. Carol Perez: “I supported Trump. I believe there is a large community of Venezuelans who did. This was a hard blow because practically the same day he took office he went against Venezuelans. It seems personal.” Adelis Ferro, Venezuelan American Caucus: “We feel beyond betrayed. They used us. During the campaign, officials from the Republican Party told us that they will not touch the documented people.”

AP reported that 2 months after tornados destroyed their towns, people in MS were still waiting for FEMA. Firefighter and homeowner Bobby McGinnis: “We need federal help, and we need it desperately, and we need it now. Trump said ‘America first’, we’re going to help our American folks first. But we haven’t seen the federal folks down here.”

St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer said FEMA had not provided any assistance yet after the city was devastated by tornadoes: “What we need right now is fed assistance. This is where FEMA and the fed govt has got to come in and help communities. Our city cannot shoulder this alone. We need partners at the national level, at the fed level, to step up and help. Cities across the nation, when they are experiencing disasters such as this, this is what the fed govt is for. We need your help. FEMA has not been on the ground. We do not have confirmed assistance from FEMA at this point.”

Kristi Noem revoked Harvard’s Foreign Exchange Student Program, preventing Harvard from enrolling any additional students and requiring foreign students currently enrolled to transfer to another school or be forced to leave the country. Noem demanded that Harvard provide her with records of all disciplinary actions taken by the University against foreign students to be used to revoke visas. Harvard refused.

WSJ: “Private clubs have emerged as a moneymaking venture for the president’s second term, and a hub for donors and favor-seekers alike. It now costs a record $1 million to join Mar-a-Lago, up from about $500,000 during his first term. The initiation fee at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster rose to $125,000, surging from $75,000 in recent years. Another Trump golf club in FL now charges more than $300,000 to join.” NBC: “More than 200 wealthy, mostly anonymous crypto buyers are coming to DC to have dinner with Trump. The price of admission: $55,000-$37.7 million. That’s how much the 220 winners of a contest to meet Trump spent on his volatile cryptocurrency token, $TRUMP.”

Bloomberg: “Already since the early days of his reelection campaign, Trump has more than doubled his net worth to about $5.4B. The approach is clear, the Trump’s are selling the family name - and doing it at scale. They’re licensing their name to billions of dollars in projects around the world, and the deals include foreign govts.”

Vietnam broke some of their own laws to rush approval of a Trump golf resort and a Trump Tower Ho Chi Minh City because they believe that’s what they have to do to get new US tariffs lifted. NYT: “Vietnam has granted concessions more generous than what even the most connected locals receive.” Le Van Troung was coerced into signing a consent form to allow a burial site with 5 generations of his ancestors to be plowed over to make room for the golf course, as well as rich farmland that has sustained local families for centuries. Vietnamese officials face intense pressure to strike a trade deal that would head off Trump’s threat of steep tariffs, which would hit about 30% of Vietnam’s exports.”

Trump announced he surrendered on EU tariffs again while declaring victory, claiming he was only doing it because the EU Commissioner was nice to him in a phone call. Trump reduced the tariffs on China in exchange for nothing. He paused the tariffs on Canada and Mexico in exchange for nothing.

Trump pardoned a Sheriff who was convicted of taking bribes to sell law enforcement badges to people who used them to drive in emergency lanes, bypass TSA lines, and other abuses. BBC: “Jenkins was found guilty of 1 count of conspiracy, 4 counts of honest services fraud and 7 counts of bribery concerning programs receiving fed funds. Prosecutors said he accepted bribes from 8 people, including 2 undercover FBI agents. The men who bribed Jenkins paid for auxiliary deputy sheriff positions so they could avoid traffic tickets and carry concealed firearms without a permit.”

NYT on another pardon: “Weeks before Trump pardoned Paul Walczak, his mother, Elizabeth Fago, attended a $1M/head ‘candlelight dinner’ with Trump for MAGA Inc. Walczak’s pardon application emphasized Fago’s financial support for Trump and her connection to a plot to publicize Ashley Biden‘s diary. A judge sentenced Paul Walczak to 18 months in prison and $4.4M in restitution. Trump’s spared Walczak from serving even 1 day in prison or paying any of the $4.4M.” Former Rep. Tom Malinowski: “Guy steals his workers’ Social Security contributions to buy himself a yacht. His mom donates $1 million to Trump for a pardon. The pardon not only gets him out of jail - it saves him $4 million in restitution payments. Pretty good return for bribing the president.”

Trump then pardoned another 11 felons. WaPo: “Trump pardoned a couple who admitted to knowingly employing a felon at their insurance company and a popular hip-hop artist convicted of gun charges, in addition to commuting the sentence of former Gangster Disciples leader Larry Hoover. The pardons of former congressmen Michael Grimm of NY and John Rowland of CT brought to 9 the number of former Republican members of Congress Trump has pardoned.” NBC: “Larry Hoover Sr. the ‘chairman of the board’ of Chicago’s Gangster Disciples, was serving 6 life sentences tied to the drug trade and is called ‘one of the most notorious criminals in Illinois history’.”

Trump fired another one of his senior nominees right before his confirmation hearing, this time NASA chief Jared Isaacman. Trump posted on Truth Social: “After a thorough review of prior associations, I am hereby withdrawing the nomination of Jared Isaacman to head NASA. I will soon announce a new Nominee who will be Mission aligned, and put America First in Space.” He would then appoint Sean Duffy as interim. Then removed Duffy and renominated Isaacman after Musk called him “Sean Dummy” after he threatened to award some of Musk’s contracts to Bezos.

Trump bizarrely reposted an “article” from a deranged supporter that said Joe Biden was assassinated in 2020 after the election and Democratic leaders made a clone of him using robotics to appear as president publicly while they ran the govt behind the scenes. There was literally nothing else in the article beside the bizarre QAnon conspiracy theory. Even Fox did a story on this one, with the headline: “Trump shares post saying Biden was executed, replaced with clones.”

Stephen Miller summoned 50 senior ICE officials from around the country for an emergency meeting about deportation numbers. One official after the meeting: “They’ve been threatened, told they’re watching their emails and texts and Signals. It’s a fearful environment. Everybody is afraid. There’s no morale. Everybody is demoralized. Miller came in there and eviscerated everyone. ‘You guys aren’t doing a good job. You’re horrible leaders.’ He just ripped everybody. He had nothing positive to say about anybody, shot morale down. Miller wants everybody arrested. ‘Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at 7-Eleven?’”

Steel market analyst Josh Spoore on Trump’s 50% tariffs on steel: “This was an absolute surprise. Already steel prices in the US are higher than anywhere else, and it is a net importer which needs to have volumes coming in. All this does is raise prices there. Autos, construction products and appliances are all products that are going to feel the impact.” Economist Justin Wolfers: “If you wanted to find a way to really destroy American manufacturing, what you would do is figure out a way to jack up the cost of steel for American manufacturers.”

Even Trump’s own supporters were outraged about his plan to develop a massive database on Americans using the tech firm Palantir, which was co-founded by Musk’s former mentor Peter Thiel. Jason Bassler, co-founder of The Free Thought Project: “This Palantir database isn’t like the others. It will combine: Tax filings, Student debt, Social Security, Bank accounts, Medical claims, Immigration status. No previous database system has ever centralized this much personal info across various fed agencies.”

Trump was asked in the Oval Office why he has repeatedly threatened additional sanctions on Russia but has done nothing: “When I see the moment where it’s not going to stop, we’re going to be very tough. And it could be on both countries.”

Trump appointed a 22-year old former campaign worker to run a counter-terrorism unit for DHS. ProPublica: “When Thomas Fugate graduated from college last year with a degree in politics, he celebrated in a social media post about the exciting opportunities that lay beyond campus life in Texas. A year after graduation, the 22-year-old with no apparent national security expertise is now a DHS official overseeing the govt’s main hub for terrorism prevention, including an $18 million grant program intended to help communities combat violent extremism.”

Trump issued an executive order directing the State Dept and DOJ to prevent any new foreign students from enrolling at Harvard. AG Pam Bondi: “Admission to the US to study at an ‘elite’ American university is a privilege, not a right. This DOJ will vigorously defend the President’s proclamation suspending the entry of new foreign students at Harvard University based on national security concerns.” Harvard: “This is yet another illegal retaliatory step taken by the Admin in violation of Harvard’s First Amendment rights. Harvard will continue to protect its international students.”

NYT: “Trump took extraordinary action by calling up 2,000 National Guard troops to quell immigration protests in CA, making rare use of fed powers and bypassing the authority of Gavin Newsom. It is the first time since 1965 that a president has activated a state’s National Guard force without a request from that state’s governor, the last time was when LBJ sent troops to Alabama to protect civil rights demonstrators in 1965.”

Trump was asked about Tom Homan’s statement that he may arrest Gavin Newsom: “I would do it it I were Tom, I think it would be great.” Newsom responded: “The President just called for the arrest of a sitting Governor. This is a day I hoped I would never see in America. I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican this is a line we cannot cross as a nation — this is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism.” Sen. Tommy Tuberville: “Lock him up. LA looks like a third world country.”

Pete Hegseth: “Due to increased threats to federal law enforcement officers and federal buildings, approximately 700 active-duty US Marines are being deployed to LA to restore order. Newsom said he spoke to Trump the night before and he never mentioned it: “We talked for 20 minutes, this issue never came up. I kept trying to talk about LA, he wanted to talk about all these other issues. He never once brought up the Nat Guard. He’s a stone cold liar. There’s no working with the President. There’s only working for him. I will never work for Trump.”

RFK Jr. disbanded and fired all 17 members of the scientific committee that advises the CDC on how vaccines should be used. He promised Sen. Bill Cassidy, who cast the deciding vote to confirm him, that he would not do this during his confirmation hearing. Cassidy even posted a statement that RFK Jr. assured him he would not disband this panel. Sen Susan Collins: “It seems excessive to ask for everybody’s resignations. Generally, I think vaccine and other advisory committees are very helpful to the public. So to cancel all of the people or cancel the meetings raises serious questions.”

Trump held a military parade in DC on his birthday. Axios: “The parade will include 28 M1A1 Abrams tanks, 28 M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and 4 Paladin Howitzers. There will be 8 CH-47 Chinook helicopters, 16 AH-64 Apache helicopters, and 16 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.” Sen Bernie Sanders: “We all like to enjoy a nice birthday party. But most of us don’t celebrate with a $45 million taxpayer-funded military parade.” Sen Sheldon Whitehouse: “For the first time in 30 years, a Vietnam Veterans ceremony must relocate from DC to Virginia - so Vietnam Draft Dodger Trump can throw himself the world’s creepiest birthday party.”

Trump went to Ft. Bragg today where he gave an overtly partisan political speech to active duty troops, which is something George Washington in his farewell address to the nation said a president should never do: “In LA the governor of CA, the mayor—they're incompetent and they paid troublemakers, agitators and insurrectionists, they're engaged in this willful attempt to nullify fed law and aid the occupation of the city by criminal invaders.”

DNI Tulsi Gabbard posted an unhinged video of Putin talking points where she went through how bad a nuclear war with Russia would be and finished with this: “As we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elite warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers. Perhaps because they are confident that they will have access to nuclear shelters for themselves and their families that regular people won’t have access to.” Sen. John Kennedy: “She obviously needs to change her meds.”

Sen. Alex Padilla was forcibly dragged out of Kristi Noem’s press conference by multiple FBI agents when he showed up to ask her questions. Padilla was dragged out of the room into the hallway where he was pinned to the ground and handcuffed by multiple federal agents. Padilla: “If this is how the admin responds to a Senator with a question, you can only imagine what they're doing to farmworkers, cooks, and day laborers throughout the country.”

Eric Trump announced the latest family grift - Trump Mobile: “Trump Mobile is going to revolutionize cell phones. We’re going to do it better and safer. You’re going to have phones made in America and it’s going to be cheaper. We’re really excited to get into this space.” They promised delivery in September. People were still waiting in Dec. They changed the photo of the phone on the website after press inquiries and also deleted references to it being Made in America. The whole thing was a scam.

Director of WH Personnel Sergio Gor refused to say what country he’s from and refuses to complete the paperwork for his background check. NY Post: “Gor is in charge of picking about 4,000 executive-branch staff, but has not turned in his SF 86 - a set of questions required for officials who need security clearances.” “Gor claimed to be from Malta, though an official could not confirm he was born there. It would later turn out that Gor was from the Soviet Union. Gor would be replaced by Trump’s former golf caddie and named Ambassador to India.

India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said that Trump lied about an imminent trade deal with India and also lied about brokering a peace deal between India and Pakistan: “PM Modi clearly told Trump that during this entire episode, there was never any discussion at any level about an India-US trade deal or US mediation between India and Pakistan. The discussion to halt military action occurred directly between India and Pakistan through existing channels between both armies and was made at Pakistan's request.”

Trump called for a Special Prosecutor to be appointed to investigate the 2020 election: “Crooked Joe Biden, a man who lost the 2020 Presidential Election by a “LANDSLIDE!” Biden was grossly incompetent, and the 2020 election was a total FRAUD! The evidence is MASSIVE and OVERWHELMING. A Special Prosecutor must be appointed. This cannot be allowed to happen again in the USA! Let the work begin!”

A court blocked Sean Duffy from his attempt to withhold money from states for roads, bridges and infrastructure if they don’t actively assist ICE with deportations: “Congress did not authorize or grant authority to the Secretary of Transportation to impose immigration enforcement conditions on fed dollars specifically appropriated for transportation purposes.”

Narcisco Barranca is a landscaper and father of 3 US Marines. He was working outside an IHOP when several masked men approached him. Frightened, he began to run away and he was tackled, beaten, and pepper sprayed. He suffered a dislocated shoulder and denied medical treatment, food and water for 24 hours in detention. Podcaster Joe Rogan: “These ICE raids are fucking nuts. If Trump had said during the campaign that we’re gonna go to Home Depot and arrest everyone, tackle people at construction sites, I don’t think anyone would’ve signed up for that. They said we’re going to get rid of the criminals and gang members. Now we’re seeing Home Depots raided. It’s crazy.”

Trump decided to threaten nuclear war with Russia because of a drunken midnight tweet from their former president: “Did I hear Former President Medvedev casually throwing around the “N word” (Nuclear!), and saying that he and other Countries would supply Nuclear Warheads to Iran? The “N word” should not be treated so casually. I guess that’s why Putin’s “THE BOSS.” By the way, far and away the strongest and best equipment we have, 20 years advanced over the pack, is our Nuclear Submarines. They are the most powerful and lethal weapons ever built.”

DOJ lawyer Erez Reuveni came forward as a whistleblower to Congress and the DOJ IG. He said senior DOJ official Emil Bove planned to intentionally ignore court orders on deportations. He said during a key meeting with several senior DOJ officials, Bove announced plans for Trump to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to swiftly deport a group of immigrants that weekend. Bove emphasized that the removal flights needed to depart “no matter what.” Anticipating possible judicial intervention, Bove said if a judge issued an order to halt the removals then DOJ might have to tell the courts “fuck you” and proceed with the deportations.

NYT: “The Trump admin said that it would open up 58 million acres of back country in national forests to road construction and development, removing protections that had been in place for 25 years. Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins announced plans to repeal the 2001 ‘roadless rule’ that had preserved the wild nature of nearly a third of the land in national forests in the US.” Chris Wood, CEO of Trout Unlimited: “Most Americans value these pristine backcountry areas for their sense of wildness, for the clean water they provide, for the fishing and hunting and wildlife habitat.”

Forbes reported that Trump cashed out hundreds of millions of dollars from his crypto scam. This followed previous sell-offs in the hundreds of millions: “The change, which came with zero fanfare, is the latest indication that the president—or someone working on his behalf—continues conducting backroom deals while he serves in office.”

Fox: “DHS has announced it is terminating Temporary Protected Status for more than half a million Haitians in the US, arguing that conditions in Haiti have improved enough for them to return home. Haitians have 2 months to leave the country or find another form of relief or legal status.” Immigration lawyer Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “The Trump admin claims, despite all reality, that Haiti is a safe country to return to - even though large portions of the country are ruled by vicious gangs and civil governance has collapsed.”

AP: “Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that her admin is investigating contamination from a SpaceX facility near the Mexican border in Texas, and planning its next course of action. This follows the explosion of a Starship rocket during a test, which sent a massive fireball into the sky. Pieces of metal, plastic and rocket pieces were reportedly found in Tamaulipas, which borders the SpaceX’s Starbase.” Sheinbaum on Musk’s company, which has largely been deregulated by Trump: “There’s a general review underway to find out what international laws they are violating. There is contamination.”

Local 10 (FL): “DOD announced it would immediately stop ingesting, processing, and transmitting data essential to most hurricane forecasts. NOAA distributed a service change notice to all users, including the National Hurricane Center, that they would no longer receive real-time microwave data collected aboard 3 weather satellites jointly run by NOAA and DOD. The permanent discontinuation of data from the SSMIS will severely impede and degrade hurricane forecasts, affecting tens of millions of Americans who live along its hurricane-prone shorelines.”

Sen. Brian Schatz on Trump’s budget: “Building Trades Opposed. Solar industry opposed. Musk Opposed. Nursing homes opposed. Hospitals opposed. This thing is a rotting fish. 1) Biggest wealth transfer in American history. 2) Kills solar industry, raising prices. 3) Almost a trillion dollar cut to Medicaid. 4) Nursing homes shutting down. 5) Energy shortages. 6) 4.5 trillion in NEW DEBT. 300,000 fewer jobs per year in wind and solar. 300 GW less wind and solar built this decade. This is several times more than what we add to the grid in an entire year and we’ll just lose it, as demand soars. $450 billion of lost capital. Meanwhile China will surge ahead. Loser stuff.”

NBC: “Pam Bondi has fired 3 career DOJ prosecutors who worked on cases related to the J6 insurrection. The attorneys were informed in letters signed by Bondi that they were ‘removed from federal service effective immediately’ with no further explanation.” A fed official: “This is a slap in the face not only to them, but to all career DOJ prosecutors. No one is safe from this admin’s whims and impulses, and the public certainly is not served by the continued brain drain of DOJ—we are losing the best among us every day.”

After an Israeli court denied Trump’s demand to postpone Netanyahu’s corruption trial, he threatened to withhold aid to Israel if they didn’t reverse their decision: “It is terrible what they are doing in Israel to Bibi Netanyahu. He is a War Hero, and a PM who did a fabulous job working with the US to bring Great Success in getting rid of the dangerous Nuclear threat in Iran. The USA spends Billions of Dollar a year, far more than on any other Nation, protecting and supporting Israel. We are not going to stand for this.” 12 hours later, an Israeli court complied with Trump’s demands and postponed the trial.

Trump pardoned reality-TV fraudsters Todd and Julie Chrisley from 12 convictions for bank fraud and tax evasion. They got out of prison and no longer have to pay back the $17.8 million they defrauded. Todd: “We owe thanks to God and God touched President Trump’s heart. God led people to advocate for us. Every night I would pray that God would return me home, and he did that.”

Financial Times: “The US dollar is headed for its worst first half of the year since 1973, as Trump’s trade and economic policies prompt global investors to rethink their exposure to the world’s dominant currency. The dollar index, which measures the currency’s strength against a basket of 6 others including the pound, euro and yen, has slumped more than 10% so far in 2025, the worst start to the year since the end of the gold-backed Bretton Woods system.”

Francesco Pesole, strategist at multinational banking firm ING: “The dollar has become the whipping boy of Trump 2.0’s erratic policies. The president’s stop-start tariff war, the US’s vast borrowing needs and worries about the independence of the Federal Reserve had undermined the appeal of the dollar as a safe haven for investors.”

Lisa Tate, a 6th-generation farmer in CA, to Reuters: “In the fields, I would say 70% of the workers are gone. If 70% of your workforce doesn’t show up, 70% of your crop doesn’t get picked and can go bad in one day. Most Americans don’t want to do this work. Most farmers here are barely breaking even. I fear this has created a tipping point where many will go bust.” One farm supervisor was overseeing a field being prepared for planting strawberries. Usually he would have 300 workers, he said. On this day he had just 80. Another supervisor at a different farm said he usually has 80 workers in a field, but today just 17.

Energy Sec Chris Wright argued that solar power is unnecessary: “Our biggest source of reliable power today by far is natural gas. Our second biggest source is nuclear. And our third biggest source, right behind that is coal. So those are the three keys to the future of our electricity grid.” Elon Musk responded: “Everything else combined is like cave men throwing little sticks into the fire compared to the Sun.”

WSJ’s Yaroslav Trofimov: “The Pentagon cut off ammo for Ukraine without even the courtesy of informing Kyiv or NATO allies. This just 4 days after the NATO summit, Trump’s meeting with Zelensky, and his public promise to look into more Patriots for Kyiv. This removes his key leverage over Russia. There are legitimate reasons for the DOD to evaluate weapons stocks, especially after the wasteful and inconclusive campaign against the Houthis. But look at the timing and the fashion in which decision happened.”

Trump threatened Dem nominee for NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani on Truth Social: “I’m not going to let this Communist Lunatic destroy New York. Rest assured, I hold all the levers, and have all the cards. I’ll save NYC, and make it ‘Hot’ and ‘Great’ again, just like I did with the Good Ol’ USA!”

Pam Bondi announced DOJ is closing the Epstein investigation and not releasing any additional info. Axios’s Alex Isenstadt to Meidas: “The DOJ says it has found no evidence to suggest that disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein kept a client list, blackmailed any of his clients, or that he was murdered.” Savannah Hernandez with Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA: “This is a slap in the face to the American people and it’s disgusting that our DOJ is protecting pedophiles.”

Trump announced massive tariffs on over 100 countries with form letters, which included this language: “If for any reason you decide to raise your Tariffs, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added onto the 25% that we charge.” Tahra Hoops, Chamber of Progress: “Unless this gets pulled back, consumers would be seeing a large impact on prices, especially for cars, electronics, and industrial goods. The US imports billions in vehicles, semiconductors, and machinery from Japan and S. Korea.”

Trump finally transferred 10 Patriot interceptor missiles to Ukraine from 30 that were previously stuck in Poland due to the suspension of military aid. Phillips O’Brien, Prof of Strategic Studies at St. Andrews Univ: “So Trump snatched 30 Patriot missiles away from Ukraine at the last minute, and is now agreeing to hand over 10. It’s a strategy of death by little cuts for Ukraine. It’s a derisory move, meant to appease pro-Ukraine voices in the GOP.”

CNBC: “The IRS in a new federal court filing says that churches can endorse political candidates without risking the loss of their tax-exempt status. The move upends a 70-year interpretation of the US tax code, whose Johnson Amendment has barred non-profit groups, including churches, from endorsing political candidates without putting their tax-exempt status in jeopardy.”

EPA Secretary Lee Zeldin said he is going to investigate the latest right-wing conspiracy that the Deep State caused deadly Texas floods: “Americans have questions about geoengineering and contrails. They expect honesty and transparency from their govt when seeking answers. For years, people who asked questions in good faith were dismissed, even vilified by the media and their own govt. This ends today.” Rep. Don Beyer responded: “Some people have ‘questions’ about whether birds are real. Will that be your next project? How much taxpayer money will you be spending on this?”

CNN: “Kristi Noem enacted a sweeping rule aimed at cutting spending: Every contract and grant over $100,000 now requires her personal sign-off before any funds can be released. As Texas towns were submerged in rising waters, FEMA officials realized they couldn’t pre-position Urban Search and Rescue crews from a network of teams stationed regionally across the country. In the past, FEMA would have swiftly staged these teams closer to a disaster zone. But even as Texas rescue crews raced to save lives, FEMA officials realized they needed Noem’s approval before sending those additional assets. Noem didn’t authorize FEMA’s deployment of the teams until more than 72 hours after the flooding began.”

Trump appointed Transportation Sec Sean Duffy to also run NASA after he dumped Musk’s friend. The former Fox host was now in charge of Transportation and the US space program. Max Burns: “I get that Sean Duffy was a natural pick to be Transportation Secretary because he was on MTV’s Road Rules, but as far as I can tell he’s never been on any space-themed reality TV.”

Trump hit Brazil with 50% tariffs, driving up prices on coffee and other goods: “Brazil is doing a terrible thing on their treatment of former President Jair Bolsonaro. I have watched, as has the World, as they have done nothing but come after him, day after day, night after night, month after month, year after year! LEAVE BOLSONARO ALONE!” Brazilian President Lula: “Brazil is a sovereign nation with independent institutions and will not accept any form of tutelage. The judicial proceedings against those responsible for planning the coup d’état fall exclusively under the jurisdiction of Brazil’s Judicial Branch and, as such, are not subject to any interference or threats that could compromise the independence of national institutions.”

Trump infuriated his supporters for days with this post, and permanently lost some: “What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’ They’re all going after AG Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening. For years, it’s Epstein, over and over again. My so-called ‘friends’ are playing right into their hands. Kash Patel, and the FBI, must be focused on investigating Voter Fraud, Political Corruption, ActBlue, The Rigged and Stolen Election of 2020, and arresting Thugs and Criminals, instead of spending month after month looking at nothing but the same old, Radical Left inspired Documents on Jeffrey Epstein. Let’s not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.”

Bondi attempted to divert attention away from Epstein by dropping charges in the middle of the trial against a MAGA favorite, Michael Kirk Moore. Moore was charged with discarding hundreds of covid vaccines and distributing 2,000 fraudulent vaccination cards in exchange for cash or required ‘donations.’ Moore gave saline shots to children so they would think they were getting the vaccine.

Trump announced 30% tariffs on the EU in another form letter. EU leader Ursula von der Leyen urged countries around the world hit with Trump tariffs to do business with each other: “We’re living in turbulent times, and when economic uncertainty meets geopolitical volatility, partners like us must come closer together. In hard times, some turn inward, toward isolation and fragmentation. But you are always welcome here, and you can count on Europe.”

Trump called on Sen. Adam Schiff to be prosecuted: “I have always suspected Shifty Adam Schiff was a scam artist. And now I learn that Fannie Mae’s Financial Crimes Division have concluded that Schiff has engaged in a sustained pattern of possible Mortgage Fraud. Schiff said that his primary residence was in MD to get a cheaper mortgage and rip off America, when he must LIVE in CA because he was a Congressman from CA. Mortgage Fraud is very serious, and CROOKED Schiff needs to be brought to justice.”

DOJ fired James Comey’s daughter Maurene, who was Epstein and Maxwell’s prosecutor. Sen. Adam Schiff: “Either she was fired because she’s James Comey’s daughter, which would be totally inappropriate and a wrongful termination, or she was fired because she was prosecuting Epstein and his accomplices. And why would they fire her over that? And why would they fire her now?”

The Telegraph (UK): “Trump has overseen nearly as many air strikes in the first 5 months of his second term as Biden launched in his entire presidency. The onslaughts on Houthis in Yemen and jihadists in Somalia have been more ferocious than Biden’s, and he has ordered strikes on Iraq, Syria and Iran. After campaigning on a pledge to end American involvement in military conflicts, he has sharply escalated the country’s air campaigns. Trump has overseen 529 air strikes since his inauguration, compared with 555 over the entire 4 years of the previous admin.”

Trump sued WSJ and Rupert Murdoch after they published his signed birthday card to Epstein: “The WSJ, and Rupert Murdoch, personally, were warned directly that the supposed letter they printed was a FAKE and, if they print it, they will be sued. Murdoch stated that he would take care of it but, obviously, did not have the power to do so. I will be suing WSJ, NewsCorp, and Murdoch. The WSJ printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein. These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper.”

Daily Mail: “DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has moved from her private residence into a US military installation, after her cozy living arrangement with senior adviser Corey Lewandowski was exposed. Lewandowski, however, still makes trips to see his longtime rumored lover, now at her new digs at the Coast Guard Commandant’s quarters. Noem cites security concerns for her decision to relocate, but some insiders have ridiculed that rationale.” An inside source: “Public safety is her concern here? That’s rich. She and her chief of affair(s) show up to every public safety event like it’s a couples’ retreat.”

Sen. Dick Durbin on the FBI assigning as many as 1,000 agents to search the Epstein files for references to Trump: “Who made the decision to reassign hundreds of NY Field Office personnel to this March review of Epstein-related records? Why were personnel told to flag records in which Trump was mentioned?”

Mike Johnson shut down the House to avoid a vote on the Epstein Files. Johnson sent the House home early for summer recess and canceled all scheduled votes and business to prevent a vote on the bipartisan motion to release the Epstein files. AOC: “Ummm so let me get this straight: Republicans have ground Congress to a halt and are considering adjourning the entire House for 6 weeks to avoid releasing the info they have on Epstein? What is going on here?” Elon Musk: “There is only one reason - to avoid voting on releasing the Epstein files.”

NBC: “Trump says DNI has proof of President Obama ‘treasonous’ acts re: 2016. If true, that evidence would’ve been missed by a bipartisan Senate Intel Committee investigation, Trump 1.0 DOJ, Special Counsels Mueller and Durham, survived through 4 years of Biden, then were found in less than 6 months by Gabbard.” Trump was asked who DOJ should target based on Gabbard’s criminal referral: “Obama. And Biden was there with him, but the leader of the gang was Obama. Barack Hussein Obama. He’s guilty. This is treason. There should be very severe consequences. It’s time to go after people.

The head of FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue branch resigned in protest over Kristi Noem’s new policy which delayed teams from being dispatched to save lives during the Texas flooding for several days. Ken Pagurek told colleagues at FEMA that the delay was the tipping point that led to his voluntary departure after months of frustration with the Trump admin’s efforts to dismantle the agency. It took more than 72 hours after the flooding for Noem to authorize the deployment of FEMA’s search and rescue network.

One week after Ghislaine Maxwell’s former prosecutor was fired, Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer Todd Blanche met with her a federal prison in FL. Maxwell’s attorney David Markus told reporters outside the prison after the meeting that it was a “very productive day” for his client. Former Dep. Asst. AG in Bush admin John Yoo reacted on Fox: “It’s extraordinary. I can’t think of another time in the history of this country where something like this has happened. I worked for a Deputy AG and clerked for another. They would never meet with any suspect or any witness or anyone convicted or serving time.”

Trump visited the Federal Reserve HQ in his latest attempt to pressure Fed Chair Jerome Powell by accusing him of fraud on building renovations. Powell called him out live on camera when Trump tried to lie: “Trump: It looks like it’s over cost by about $3.1 billion. Powell shaking his head: I’m not aware of that. Trump: It just came out. (Trump then takes paper out of pocket and hands it to Powell) who looks at it and says: That’s cap. And you just added in a third building. This is a different building. Trump: It’s a building that’s being built. Powell: It was built 5 years ago.”

A report from the IG for DOD confirmed that Pete Hegseth shared classified info on his Signal chat which included a reporter, despite his denials under oath to Congress. Former CIA agent Marc Polymeropoulos: “Of course it was classified - to nobody’s surprise who knows this world. And let’s not forget the entire Intel Community leadership (who knew it was classified) did not come clean during previous congressional testimony.”

Washington Examiner: “The Trump WH rejected a disaster relief request from Gov. Wes Moore following devastating flooding in western MD. Moore requested $15.8 million in disaster relief funds from FEMA for repairs due to heavy flooding in May. At the same time Maryland’s request was denied, Trump approved disaster relief in Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, and WV.”

NYT reported that $934 million was transferred from funds being used to modernize the aging US ground-based nuclear stockpile to an account used to refurbish Trump’s new ‘Palace in the Sky’ jet that was a “gift” from Qatar.

Politico: “The EU has admitted it doesn’t have the power to deliver on a promise to invest $600 billion in the US economy, only hours after making the pledge at trade talks in Scotland. That’s because the cash would come entirely from private sector investment over which Brussels has no authority. EU President Ursula von der Leyen struck a deal with Trump to invest $600 billion of EU money into the US over the coming years. But officials clarified that money would come exclusively from private European companies, with public investment contributing nothing. EU has not said it will introduce any incentives to ensure the private sector meets that $600 billion target, nor given a precise timeframe for the investment.”

Kristi Noem traveled to Argentina and Chile for a week at taxpayer expense. She went with her “special friend” Corey Lewandowski as usual. Noem posted a video of herself riding a horse in Argentina that was professionally shot with a film crew in a vehicle riding alongside. DHS also posted a video of Noem riding horses and having a great time.

Tom Homan said that even though many of the people ICE are arresting don’t have criminal records, they are probably planning to commit crimes in the future: "I’ve done a lot of interviews where people keep saying that ICE is arresting a lot of people with no criminal records. They’re trying to turn the American people against us and steal the narrative. Most national security threats don't have a criminal history because they try to lay low until it's time for them to do things bad."

CNBC: “Trump signed an order imposing a universal 50% tariff on copper imports. The Trump admin says that the new duties, which follow 50% US tariffs already imposed on steel and aluminum, are aimed at boosting domestic industries and addressing ‘trade imbalances.’ But experts warn that they could raise prices on all sorts of products, ranging from construction materials to electronics, that utilize the versatile metal. Copper is the 3rd-most-consumed metal, behind iron and aluminum. The US imports nearly half of the copper it uses, most of which comes from Chile.”

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Fox Business: “Q- I thought we needed all forms of energy, including wind, to power AI. But it looks like the admin is killing the entire wind industry. Is it? Burgum: We’re ending the last 33 years of highly subsidized preferential treatment for certain forms of energy, particularly wind and solar. When the sun goes down, you have a catastrophic failure called sunset and there’s no solar energy produced, and yet we’re subsidizing these things that are intermittent, unreliable, and expensive.” Rep. Seth Magaziner responded: “Hey Doug, they are called batteries. They are why clean energy continues to power millions of homes even at night. But you know that because wind and solar provide 40% of the energy in North Dakota where you were Governor. Stop lying for your boss.”

CNBC: “DOJ dropped its case against Fat Brands and its Chair Andy Wiederhorn. In May 2024, the company and Wiederhorn were indicted by a federal grand jury in LA on charges of wire fraud, tax evasion and other counts related to what prosecutors alleged was a sham loan scheme that netted Wiederhorn $47 million. Prosecutors dismissed all charges against Wiederhorn and the company that owns Fatburger, Johnny Rockets and Great American Cookies.” The company donated $100,000 to Trump’s inauguration fund and major personal donations were made to Trump’s campaign.

Todd Blanche moved Ghislaine Maxwell from her prison in FL to a minimum security Club Fed in TX after she claimed Trump did nothing wrong. The family of Epstein/Maxwell victim Virginia Giuffre: “It is with horror and outrage that we object to the preferential treatment convicted sex trafficker Maxwell has received. Maxwell is a sexual predator who physically assaulted minor children on multiple occasions, and she should never be shown any leniency, without any notification to the victims. MSNBC’s Ken Dilanian: “Maxwell was technically ineligible to be transferred from to a minimum-security federal prison camp - and the Bureau of Prisons had to waive a rule to facilitate the move. A prison consultant who deals with the Bureau of Prisons all the time told us he had never seen this done before for a sex offender.”

Trump posted that the terrible jobs report was rigged: “Today’s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad. But the good news is, our Country is doing GREAT!”

Trump then announced that he was firing the statisticians who compile the data to replace them with his own political hacks: “I was just informed that our Country’s ‘Jobs Numbers’ are being produced by a Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics. We need accurate Jobs Numbers. I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified.”

NYT: “While Elizabeth Fago had raised money for Republican candidates for decades, her previous largest donation on record was $100,000 to the RNC in 2002. Yet the day before the dinner with Trump, she donated $1 million to MAGA Inc. Fago had particular incentive to curry favor with Trump at the time - she was appealing to the president to pardon her son, Paul Walczak, who had pleaded guilty to tax crimes late last year. Less than 3 weeks after Fago attended the dinner, Trump signed a full and unconditional pardon for Walczak. It spared him from having to pay nearly $4.4 million in restitution and from reporting to prison for an 18-month sentence.”

NYT: “Trump unveiled plans to construct a $200 million, 90,000-square-foot state ballroom off the East Wing. The project would be one of the largest renovations to the iconic building in decades. Questions about who is funding the project are also still largely unanswered. WH officials said the president and ‘other patriot donors’ would pay for the renovations but declined to give details.” It would get a lot more expensive, and bigger.

Pam Bondi directed DOJ to act on Tulsi Gabbard’s referral and conduct a criminal grand jury investigation into whether Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, James Clapper and others committed treason in 2016. Fox: “Bondi directed her staff to act on the criminal referral from Gabbard related to the alleged conspiracy to tie Trump to Russia, and DOJ is now opening a grand jury investigation into the matter. It is unclear who is under investigation and what charges could be in play given statutes of limitations for much of the activity from nearly a decade ago have lapsed.”

Transportation Secretary and now NASA administrator Sean Duffy announced that the primary focus of the agency over the next several years will be to build a nuclear power plant on the moon: “Energy is important. If we are going to be able to sustain life on the moon to then go to Mars, this technology is critically important. We have to marshal all our resources, all of our focus on going to the moon, which is what we’re going to do.”

NPR: “Less than 5 years after urging rioters to ‘kill’ police at the Capitol, a former J6 defendant is working as a senior adviser for DOJ. NPR has obtained police bodycam footage from multiple angles of the former defendant and current admin official, Jared Wise, berating officers and calling them ‘Nazi’ and ‘Gestapo.’ NPR also obtained the transcript of Wise’s testimony, in which he acknowledged that he repeatedly yelled ‘kill ‘em’ as officers were being attacked.” DOJ spokesperson: “Jared Wise is a valued member of the Justice Department and we appreciate his contributions to our team.”

RFK Jr: “BARDA is terminating 22 mRNA vaccine development investments because the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu.” Jerome Adams, Trump’s Surgeon General in his first term, responded: “I’ve tried to be objective and non-alarmist in response to current HHS actions – but quite frankly this move is going to cost lives. mRNA technology has uses that go far beyond vaccines - and the vaccine they helped develop in record time is credited with saving millions.”

Trump fired IRS Commissioner Billy Long just two months after he was confirmed. Long, a former GOP congressman and staunch ally of Trump, will now be nominated as Ambassador to Iceland. NYT: “Long had been an unusual choice to lead the IRS. He did not have much background in tax policy beyond promoting a tax credit that the IRS has warned was riddled with fraud, and while he was in Congress he supported legislation calling for the abolition of the agency entirely.” Punchbowl: “The wild thing about this is that the Senate spent precious time confirming Long, who had basically no qualifications. GOP senators defended him. Voted for him. And he got pushed out almost immediately.”

Trump redecorated the WH to put gold everywhere. Rock icon Jack White: "Look at how disgusting trump has transformed the historic WH. It's now a vulgar, gold leafed and gaudy, professional wrestler's dressing room. Can't wait for the UFC match on the front lawn too, he's almost fully achieved the movie ‘Idiocracy’. Look at his disgusting taste, would you even buy a used car from this conman, let alone give him the nuclear codes? A gold plated trump bible would look perfect up on that mantle with a pair of trump shoes on either side wouldn't it? What an embarrassment to American history.”

Russian state media account RT posted a clip on X from a interview from JD Vance where he talked about Putin: “He’s more soft spoken than you’d necessarily expect. The American media has a particular image of him. He’s soft spoken in a certain way. He’s very deliberate, he’s very careful. Fundamentally, he’s a person who looks out for the interests as he sees it of Russia.” CNN’s Senior Nat Sec Correspondent Zachary Cohen: “This is not really a conclusion that’s consistent with anything US intel agencies or folks who studied Putin for a long time, have articulated, as far as I’m aware.” Mehdi Hasan: “Compare and contrast how Vance speaks about Putin and how he spoke about Zelensky. And then ask yourself why.”

Trump threatened Colorado if they refuse to release Mike Lindell associate Tina Peters from her 9-year prison sentence: “FREE TINA PETERS, a brave and innocent Patriot who has been tortured by Crooked Colorado politicians, including the big Mail-In Ballot supporting the governor of the State. Let Tina Peters out of jail, RIGHT NOW. She did nothing wrong, except catching the Democrats cheat in the Election. She is an old woman, and very sick. If she is not released, I am going to take harsh measures!!!”

NYT: “The Trump admin is preparing to lower the recruitment standards for FBI agents, eliciting alarm from many agents who worry that the move will undermine the agency’s primary mission of conducting complex investigations and tracking threats to national security. Under a plan pushed by Kash Patel, the FBI will start welcoming new classes of recruits who will receive less training and no longer be required to have a college degree. Instead of spending 18 weeks training at the academy, recruits will receive 8 weeks. The new plan seems to be part of a larger effort by Patel to have the bureau focus more on street crime, rather than on complicated cases touching on financial fraud, public corruption and national security.”

WSJ: “The Pentagon has for months been blocking Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles to strike inside Russia, limiting Kyiv from employing a powerful weapon in its fight against Moscow’s invasion. A high-level DOD approval procedure, which hasn’t been announced, has prevented Ukraine from firing any US-made long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems, or Atacms, against targets in Russia since late spring. On at least one occasion, Ukraine sought to use Atacms against a target on Russian territory but was rejected.The review gives Pete Hegseth final say over whether Ukraine can employ the Atacms, which have a range of nearly 190 miles, to strike Russia.”

Trump was asked about sending the National Guard to Chicago: “I have a slob, like Pritzker, criticizing me. They say he's a dictator, he's a dictator. A lot of people are saying maybe I like dictators. I'm not a dictator. I'm a man with great common sense. I'm a smart person. We hate to be treated horribly by bad politicians, like a guy like Pritzker, he ought to spend more time in the gym. He is a disaster.”

Guardian on a plot by Vance to oust Zelensky after their confrontation in the Oval Office in March: “There was a flurry of telephone activity at the Ukrainian embassy in London. Vance’s team was on the line and wanted to set up a call with Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK and formerly the commander in chief of the army. Vance and others in Trump’s orbit were apparently sounding out potential alternatives to the troublesome Zelensky. Vance’s team ‘tried various diplomatic and other channels’ to get through to Zaluzhnyi. Zaluzhnyi refused to take the call. For Zaluzhnyi, whatever bad blood there was with Zelensky, siding with the Trump team against his own president was not an option. He met Zelensky at the airport in London, and posted on his social media channels a photograph of the two men shaking hands.”

Trump: “Despite a very high popularity and, according to many, among the greatest 8 months in Presidential History, ABC & NBC FAKE NEWS, two of the worst and most biased networks in history, give me 97% BAD STORIES. IF THAT IS THE CASE, THEY ARE SIMPLY AN ARM OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AND SHOULD, ACCORDING TO MANY, HAVE THEIR LICENSES REVOKED BY THE FCC. I would be totally in favor of that because they are so biased and untruthful, an actual threat to our Democracy!!!”

Even Trump supporters hated his executive order criminalizing flag burning. Radio host Jesse Kelly: “I would never in a million years harm the American flag. But a president telling me I can’t has me as close as I’ll ever be to lighting one on fire. I am a free American citizen. And if I ever feel like torching one, I will. This is garbage.” Radio host Dana Loesch: “Flag burning is vile but the govt has no right to control speech or expression.” Barstool lead host: “I’m not gonna burn a flag, but that’s what America’s about - freedom of speech. I don’t like burning flags - it’s a dick move, but this is nuts to me. I need gas cheaper and food cheaper. That’s what makes this country America - the right to protest.”

Iowa Senator and corn farmer Chuck Grassley was upset about Trump’s fertilizer tariffs: “Fertilizer input prices are at ALL TIME HIGH relative to the low low prices of grain. The fastest relief for farmers would be lowering duties on fertilizer imports. Input price/grain price is the ratio historically used to predict profit or loss in farming.”

Trump became the first president to fire a director of the Federal Reserve when he tried to fire Lisa Cook: “Trump purported to fire me ‘for cause’ when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so. I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022.” Cook’s attorney Abbe Lowell: “Trump’s reflex to bully is flawed and his demands lack any proper process, basis or legal authority. We will take whatever actions are needed to prevent his attempted illegal action.”

NBC: “DNI Tulsi Gabbard blindsided CIA leaders last week when she disclosed the name of an undercover CIA officer on a list of people she stripped of security clearances. The CIA officer whom Gabbard publicly identified and stripped of her security clearance was a veteran analyst. Days earlier, she had worked intensely to help prepare the WH team for a summit in Alaska between Trump and Putin. She was due to take up a new assignment for the CIA in Europe. After the summit, the CIA informed the analyst that she had lost her security clearance, effectively ending her career. A CIA source: ‘She did most of the prep for the Putin summit and to this day has no idea why her clearance was removed.’”

NYT: “Social Security’s chief data officer, Charles Borges, resigned 3 days after submitting a whistle-blower complaint that alleged members of DOGE had uploaded the confidential personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans to an insecure cloud server. Borges said he was quitting because he could not ‘verify that agency data is being used in accordance with legal agreements or in compliance with federal requirements.’ He also said employees were afraid to speak out internally for ‘fear of retribution or termination.’”

Sen Lisa Murkowski (R-AK): “The firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez just a month after her confirmation, along with the departure of other high-level disease experts the day after her termination, raises considerable questions about what is happening within the agency. Americans must be able to fully trust that CDC rigorously adheres to science-based and data-driven principles when issuing policy directives. The removal of the director after such a short tenure appears to be evidence that politics are taking precedence over policy.”

WSJ on how Trump’s bumbling has driven China, Russia and India closer together: “India is the cornerstone of America’s strategy to prevent a Chinese domination of Asia. Sino-Indian relations have remained nearly frozen since deadly clashes along the two giants’ disputed border erupted in 2020. Modi traveled to China for the first time in 7 years after Trump’s abrupt move to impose 50% tariffs on India, half of them as punishment for New Delhi buying cheap Russian oil, sparked widespread outrage in India. These tariffs are higher than those enacted against China, America’s strategic rival, and have been accompanied by many statements by Trump admin officials that amplify Indian anger. Trump’s trade adviser, Peter Navarro, caused particular outcry in recent days by using caste terminology as he said that Indian ‘Brahmins are profiteering at the expense of the Indian people.’”

Russian opposition leader Mikhail Khodorkovsky says the Trump admin has been quietly deporting dissidents back to Putin’s waiting arms: “The US is now Putin's deportation partner. Russian political refugees who sought safety in the US are being returned on charter flights. Upon return, they face hours-long interrogations by security services. On Aug 27, at least 30 Russian citizens were deported from the US back to Russia. Most were asylum seekers who had fled political persecution.”

Trump was asked about Russia’s assassination attempt of EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyden by jamming the GPS navigation system on her plane during a flight to Bulgaria: “They did take away her ability to use a phone. Sometimes that's a good thing. Sometimes that could happen to me, I'd be very happy.”

Even Fox Business host Stuart Varney was incredulous about Trump’s new crypto grift after it went public, where his interest is worth $5 billion on paper - more than all his other assets combined: “My goodness me! $5 BILLION? Eye-popping numbers. What it amounts to is crypto-friendly legislation coming from the president, who is in turn cashing in on the crypto phase. Personally. And his family. A clear conflict of interest.”

CBS’s Scott MacFarlane reported on the National Guard’s recent update on its deployment in DC, which included this: “Guardsmen have cleaned more than 3.2 miles of roadways, collected more than 500 bags of trash, and disposed of three truckloads of plant waste.”

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) who is also a doctor: "Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then I've grown deeply concerned. The public has seen measles outbreaks, leadership in the NIH questioning the use of MRNA vaccines, and the recently confirmed director of CDC fired. Americans don't know who to rely on." Sen. Chris Murphy: “It's like we're living a nightmare. We have conspiracy wackos running our nation's most important health agencies. And people are going to die. This shouldn't be another left/right, red/blue issue. RFK Jr. has to go. And Republicans should just say what they know is true.”

Punchbowl : “Rep. Thomas Massie stood up in the closed party meeting to push Republicans to sign his discharge petition. He also said billionaire friends of the WH are running ads against him in his district because their names are on the Epstein list. Massie: “Let me give you the name of one the billionaires who’s running $2 million dollars of ads in my district since I started this effort - John Paulson. He is a major donor to the Republican Party, a major donor to the Speaker, a major donor to the president’s campaign and he is in Epstein’s black book.”

Rep. Marge Greene: “Trump called it a hoax while these women were speaking out. It's not a hoax, because Epstein is a convicted pedophile. One of the Trump admin officials came out and called this press conference a ‘hostile act against the Trump admin’. The hostile act was Epstein raping 14-year-old girls.” Epstein survivor Jena-Lisa Jones: “I voted for Trump. And for him to say what he's saying is beyond me, because I put my hope in him and he's supposed to protect us. And for him to say that this is a joke and that it's sides, this is not sides.”

CNN: “Trump’s new nominee to run the BLS ran an anonymous Twitter account filled with sexually degrading attacks on Kamala Harris, anti-gay slurs, and far-right conspiracy theories. EJ Antoni tweeted, ‘You can’t run a race on your knees,’ in response to a tweet of a doctored campaign poster that depicted a sexually explicit AI image of Harris.” The WH would withdraw his nomination two weeks later.

WSJ: “S. Korean workers were arrested in an ICE raid at a Hyundai Motor battery plant under construction in GA, weeks after the carmaker pledged $26 billion in US investments. Around 450 people were arrested.” Economist Paul Novosad: “How stupid is this? Hyundai is building an $8 billion factory in Georgia, and ICE is imprisoning company staff who are on business trips from S. Korea. So much for investing in manufacturing!”

Vance responding to someone stating bombing boats is a war crime: “I don’t give a shit what you call it.” Sen. Rand Paul responded: “What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial.”

NYT: “Signs bearing Trump’s name have gone up at major construction projects financed by the Biden infrastructure law, which he strenuously opposed ahead of its passage.” Trump removed signs from the sites and switched out his name on the projects even though he told Republicans in Congress to vote against the bill that funded them.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright: “Wind and solar energy infrastructure is essentially worthless when it is dark outside, and the wind is not blowing.” His post was hit with a fact-check Community Note: “Solar and wind aren’t ‘worthless’ when it’s dark or calm. Their output is variable but very predictable. Grid-connected renewables use storage, geographic diversity, and backups to stay reliable. All generation types face downtime for maintenance, fuel, and safety.”

WaPo: “The number of Americans missing work for Nat Guard deployments or other military or civic duty is at a 19-year high, adding disruption to a labor market that’s already under strain. Between Jan-Aug, workers reported 90,000 instances of people missing at least a week of work because of military deployments, jury duty or other civil service. That is more than double the number of similar absences in the same 8-month period last year.”

Raphael Rashid, who covers Korean politics: “S. Korea’s entire media establishment across political spectrum has united in unprecedented editorial consensus expressing profound betrayal, outrage, national humiliation, and fundamental breach of US-ROK alliance re: mass arrest of Korean workers at Hyundai’s GA plant. While Korean media occasionally unite on domestic issues, these are usually severely politicized. Here, the level of scorn spanning from conservative establishment to progressive outlets is extraordinarily rare. They are furious.”

Trump: “Our great West Point has smartly cancelled the Award Ceremony for actor Tom Hanks. Important move! We don’t need destructive, WOKE recipients getting our cherished American Awards!!! One X user responded: “Tom Hanks was instrumental in raising funds for DC’s WWII Memorial when Congress appropriated only 10% of the funds needed. He also raised funds for the National WWII Museum, narrated documentaries on WWII and co-produced Band of Brothers. Naturally, Trump hates this.”

Trump’s FEMA Dir Cameron Hamilton after he was fired for testifying that it shouldn’t be abolished: “That’s when the divide started to happen between myself and DHS leadership, which was saying, ‘No, we don’t want it. We want it cut, shut down.’ My argument was, ‘This is extremely irresponsible.’ I didn’t think they were going to let me testify, but they did. So, before I go to the testimony, I packed up my whole office.” He was fired the next day.

RFK Jr was asked why the US has so many mass shootings compared to other countries: “There are many things that happened in the 1990s that could explain these. One is the dependence on psychiatric drugs. There could be connections with video games, and number of things. And we are looking at that.”

CNN: “DNI Tulsi Gabbard directed the NSA in recent months to recall a classified report about Venezuela – despite agency staff affirming it was accurate and complied with all NSA policies – in a move that has raised major questions inside the intel community. The classified report related to Trump’s special envoy, Richard Grenell. It included conversations that Grenell had with Nicolas Maduro, the leader of Venezuela whom the US has accused of drug trafficking, as well as info about Grenell collected by the NSA.”

NYT: “Hopes for the fast capture of the person who shot Charlie Kirk in UT evaporated when Kash Patel announced that the authorities had released a man he had described as a central subject of a multiagency manhunt. Two hours earlier, Patel had stoked expectations of a fast end to the search by congratulating state, local and fed officials for taking into custody ‘the subject for the horrific shooting today.’ The backtrack was a source of significant embarrassment for the FBI director.” Right-wing activist Christopher Rufo: “I think it is time for Republicans to assess whether Patel is the right man to run the FBI. He performed terribly in the last few days, and it’s not clear whether he has the operational expertise to investigate, infiltrate, and disrupt the violent movements—of whatever ideology—that threaten the peace in the US.”

After Trump’s threats to seize Greenland, Denmark responded by announcing it will make its purchases in Europe for construction of their new missile defense system. Portugal announced they are buying from a French jet manufacturer instead of American F-35s. Denmark MP Rasmus Jarlov: “It pays to be a good ally. Denmark yesterday announced our biggest defense investment ever. We will buy air defense for 8 billion euros, and it will all come from European producers. It has been a strong political desire to buy from reliable and non-threatening partners.” GOP Rep. Don Bacon: “The ugly and foolish diplomacy this Admin showed towards our great ally, Denmark, is costing us money. It should not surprise us.”

NYT: “Steve Witkoff met with Sheikh Tahnoon, who controls $1.5 trillion of the Emiratis’ sovereign wealth. Witkoff and Tahnoon have become both diplomatic allies and business partners, testing the limits of ethics rules while enriching the president, his family and his inner circle. In May, Witkoff’s son Zach announced the first of the deals at a conference in Dubai. One of Sheikh Tahnoon’s investment firms would deposit $2 billion into World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency start-up founded by the Witkoffs and Trumps. Two weeks later, the WH agreed to allow the UAE access to hundreds of thousands of the world’s most advanced and scarce computer chips, a crucial tool in the high-stakes race to dominate AI.”

Pam Bondi said she agreed with Vance and Stephen Miller’s comments that Democrats should be prosecuted for comments made about Charlie Kirk after his death: “There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech, and there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie, in our society. We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.” Fox political analyst Brit Hume: “Someone needs to explain to Bondi that so-called ‘hate speech,’ repulsive though it may be, is protected by the First Amend. She should know this.”

MSNBC: “Roughly 20% of FBI agents - 2,840 out of around 13,800 - have been diverted to work on immigration enforcement. The impacts have been significant. Nearly every agent on Baltimore’s domestic terrorism squad was reassigned this year to work full time on immigration enforcement, forcing them to walk away from investigations of a network of violent predators that targets and exploits children online.”

Marco Rubio was asked how much longer Trump is going to give Putin before he moves forward with the sanctions that he has threatened numerous times: “There are still countries in Europe that are buying Russian products, including Russian oil. And what the President has challenged our European partners is to impose the sanctions themselves that they’re asking us to impose.” European economist Anders Aslund: “What a disgrace! The two EU countries that buy Russian oil are Trump’s favorites Orban (Hungary) and Fico (Slovakia). Trump should talk to them. The US has eased its sanctions on Russia, while the EU has imposed more sanctions, which Rubio omits. How can anybody deal with the Trump lies?”

Jimmy Kimmel’s show was briefly taken off the air by ABC after Trump called for his firing and FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened the network with revocation of their broadcast license and other govt penalties. Carr made the threat hours before ABC sadi they were canceling the show: “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take actions on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead. We can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way.” Rolling Stone: “Multiple execs felt that Kimmel had not actually said anything over the line, but the threat of Trump admin retaliation loomed.”

Trump: “I am pleased to inform our many Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices.” Malcolm Nance: “You cannot designate an idea as a terrorist group. There is no organization called ANTIFA. There is no leadership or funding path. There is no membership. What he is doing is setting the stage to designate ANY American as a terrorist. That’s Fascism.”

Mike Pence criticized Trump for having the US take ownership in companies: “State ownership of business is very common in China and Russia. Taking a percentage of the sales of Nvidia, taking a percentage of the stock of Intel is inconsistent with free market principles, and I think it’s taken our country to a very perilous place and I think we need to resist that very strongly.”

ABC: “Trump fired his US attorney for the E. District of VA Erik Siebert after he was unable to find incriminating evidence of mortgage fraud against NY AG Letitia James. Prosecutors in VA uncovered no clear evidence to prove that James had knowingly committed mortgage fraud when she purchased a home in the state in 2023, but Trump officials pushed Siebert to nevertheless bring criminal charges against her.”

WaPo: “FCC Chair Brendan Carr has criticized nearly every major media company. He launched an investigation of NPR and PBS, demanded answers from YouTube parent Alphabet over allegations that it discriminated against faith-based programming, threatened to block mergers of companies engaged in DEI practices, and approved Skydance’s $8 billion merger with Paramount with an ombudsman - who has been a Trump donor - installed at CBS News as a concession.” Frank Sesno: “It’s not just Kimmel. It’s a $15B lawsuit against NYT. It’s a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register because he didn’t like a poll. It’s settlements with ABC or 60 Minutes because he didn’t like an edit.”

Trump posted on Truth Social: “Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, ‘same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.’ There is a GREAT CASE, and many lawyers, and legal pundits, say so. We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!” It was later reported by WSJ that Trump intended this to be a private DM to Bondi but he posted it publicly by mistake.

NYT: “Tom Homan was recorded in Sept 2024 accepting a bag with $50,000 in cash in an undercover FBI investigation, which was later shut down by Trump admin officials. The cash payment was made inside a bag from the food chain Cava. Homan’s encounter with the undercover agents, recorded on audiotape, led him to be investigated for potential bribery and other crimes, after he apparently took the money and agreed to help the agents - who were posing as businessmen - secure future govt contracts related to border security.”

Time: “The Pentagon released new restrictions for journalists covering DOD, requiring them to sign a pledge not to gather or report on info that has not been authorized for release—even if it is unclassified. Those who do not obey the new rules risk having their press credentials revoked.” Kevin Baron who covered the Pentagon for 15 years: “It’s 100% an intimidation tactic. It’s 100% an attempt to kill transparency and funnel all public information through the govt, which goes against every constitutional principle of free speech you can imagine.”

The Mirror: “Child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell strolls to a yoga class in the cushy new lock-up where she is serving a 20-year stretch. The images have infuriated her victims – who were already angry at her move to the soft jail dubbed Camp Cupcake. The decision broke US prison rules which state that a sex offender cannot serve their time in a min-security facility. Her transfer came just 7 days after she spoke favorably of Trump’s notorious friendship with her pedophile ex Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell now takes morning strolls to her clerical job or to work out.”

Trump and RFK Jr gave a press conference claiming that pregnant women taking Tylenol is the cause of autism: Trump: “With Tylenol, don’t take it. Don’t take it. And if you can’t live, if your fever is so bad, you have to take one because there’s no alternative to that, sadly. First question, what can you take instead? Actually, there’s not an alternative to that. As you know, other of the medicines have been proven bad with the aspirins and Advils and others, right?”

Forbes reported that the Trump family’s net worth has doubled since the 2024 election: “Crypto is the big driver, but additional funds have come from advising right-wing companies in America and partnering with cash-rich firms overseas, especially in the Middle East. Family members who have never had significant fortunes of their own - Eric, Don Jr, Melania and Barron - have accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars. All told, the family is now worth an estimated $10 billion, having nearly doubled its net worth since the election.”

Scott Bessent announced the US is going to bail out Trump’s friend Javier Milei: “Argentina is a systemically important US ally in Latin America, and the Treasury stands ready to do what is needed within its mandate to support Argentina. All options for stabilization are on the table. These options may include, but are not limited to, swap lines, direct currency purchases, and purchases of US dollar-denominated govt debt.”

Forbes: “Trump’s $100,000 H1-B fee is a ‘blessing in disguise’ for European AI startups that need more senior level talent, founders say. The ‘human tariff’ will likely impact early stage US startups that use equity for compensation.” One EU tech CEO: “We almost say thank you to Trump, in a way. He’s really helping us keep our talent.”

Trump claimed the UN tried to assassinate him: “A REAL DISGRACE took place at the UN - Not one, not two, but three very sinister events! First, the escalator going up to the Main Speaking Floor came to a screeching halt. It stopped on a dime. It’s amazing that Melania and I didn’t fall forward onto the sharp edges of these steel steps, face first. It was only that we were each holding the handrail tightly or, it would have been a disaster. This was absolutely sabotage. The people that did it should be arrested!”

Kristi Noem on CNN: Q - “Stephen Miller called the Democratic Party a domestic extremist organization. As the head of the DHS, would you agree with that characterization? Noem: We certainly have seen Democrats out there take extreme positions and and support radical criminal organizations. Q - But as the DHS Secretary, would you say that Democrats are a domestic extremist organization, yes or no? Noem: Their views are extreme and they don’t align with the American people at all.”

CNN: “Jeremy Carl, top Trump State Dept. nominee, deleted 1000s of social media posts, many with inflammatory commentary, including incendiary posts about race, claims that ‘peaceful coexistence’ with Democrats is impossible, even a call for teacher’s union president Randi Weingarten to be executed. One deleted tweet said Capitol rioters on trial had it worse Black people in Jim Crow Mississippi. He mocked George Floyd’s death and said he was ‘looking up from hell’ and called celebrating Juneteenth a ‘surrender’ for white people.”

After his newly appointed US Attorney Lindsey Halligan indicted James Comey, Trump posted: “JUSTICE IN AMERICA! One of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to is James Comey, the former Corrupt Head of the FBI. Today he was indicted by a Grand Jury on two felony counts for various illegal and unlawful acts.” Ken Dilanian: “What I am hearing from DOJ sources: The Comey indictment is among the worst abuses in DOJ history. Shocking. It’s hard to overstate how a big a moment this is.” The illegal indictment was later dismissed by the court.

Trump: “At the request of Kristi Noem, I am directing Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists. I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary.” Gov. Tina Kotek: “There is no insurrection, there is no threat to national security and there is no need for military troops in our major city.”

ABC: “Dar Global said it plans to launch a Trump Plaza in the Saudi city of Jeddah. The announcement by the company said the $1 billion development is to rise in the heart of the city. It is the second collaboration in the coastal Saudi city with Trump Org and Trump Plaza Jeddah will represent the second Trump-branded development in Saudi Arabia, following the launch of Trump Tower Jeddah in Dec last year.”

Fox reported that Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s Special Envoy to Ukraine, is frustrated that Trump has authorized long-range strikes into Russia but Pete Hegseth and Elbridge Colby keep blocking them. GOP Rep. Don Bacon: “The WH authorized long-range Ukrainian strikes into Russia. But, the Pentagon routinely blocks. Who is the Commander in Chief? We want freedom to win.”

Trump-supporting TV host David Brody weighed in on his deal to give a NATO-style security guarantees to Qatar: “Sorry if I don’t understand ‘Ten dimensional geopolitical chess’, but shedding AMERICAN BLOOD in defense of Qatar is a HARD NO. This ain’t America First. Not by a long shot. Establishing a working relationship with Qatar is one thing. I get that (to a degree) but this is a whole other level. This makes the gifted Qatari plane look like small potatoes. MAGA should be infuriated by this move.”

Politico: “The Trump admin is planning to roll out the first tranche of bailout payments for farmers, likely using billions of dollars in funding from an internal USDA account. But it won’t be enough: USDA’s Commodity Credit Corp fund - which Trump previously tapped to provide $28 billion in farm aid during his first-term trade war with China - has just $4 billion left in the account. Some Republicans estimate they will eventually need to provide $35-$50 billion in aid to farmers hit by Trump’s tariffs.”

Trump gave an outrageously partisan political speech to Navy sailors and cadets, crossing a bright red line that no president before him has ever done so blatantly: “I was president in 2016. And then they rigged the election on me. And then we caught ‘em, didn’t we?” Trump later: “We have to take care of this little gnat on our shoulder called the Democrats. They want to give all of our money to illegal aliens who pour into the country.” National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem: “‘Take care of’ is not subtle. The ground has shifted and no person can deny what the president, unpopular and unfit, intends. To remain silent is to welcome this. They can both sides or claim they didn’t hear, but there is no wiggle room about his plans now.”

RFK Jr claimed there is a connection between circumcision and autism: “There are two studies that show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism. It’s highly likely because they are given Tylenol.” RFK Jr said he is determined to prove his theory: “It is not proof. We’re doing the studies to make the proof.” Dr. Michelle Au: “Ah yes, the scientific method famously instructs us to predetermine a conclusion and then do studies to ‘make the proof.’”

Pete Hegseth announced that the Qatari Air Force will now have a base in Idaho and their military fighter pilots will be training over the US: “We’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari AF facility at the Mountain Home Airbase.” Right-wing talk show host Dana Loesch: “I feel like if you sponsor Hamas you shouldn’t get a base in the US. What am I missing here?” Jessica Tarlov: “You are missing how much Qatar is paying the Trump family in real estate deals and personal gifts.”

MSNBC: “RFK Jr. moved one step closer to his goal of dismantling the nation’s premier public-health agency by dismissing more than 1,000 scientists, doctors and public health officials from HHS.” Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, former director of CDC’s Center on Immunization and Respiratory Diseases: “CDC is over. It was killed. This admin only knows how to break things. They have made America at risk for outbreaks and attacks by nefarious players. People should be scared.” Infectious Disease Dr. Neil Stone: “The CDC has been gutted. I’m telling you now. The US will NOT be ready for the next pandemic.”

SA Today: “The Dept of Ed fired nearly everyone in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in a wave of new layoffs. Most employees below the leadership level were part of the workforce reduction. Separately, employees involved in the college access program known as TRIO were also let go. An Education Dept staffer said the agency laid off just about every employee who works to administer funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. He was unsure how those programs will exist moving forward.”

Kristi Noem released a partisan political video to be played in US airports: “It is TSA’s top priority to ensure that you have the most pleasant and efficient airport experience possible while we keep you safe. However, Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal govt, and because of this most of our operations are impacted and most of our TSA employees are working without pay. Our hope is that Democrats soon recognize the importance of reopening the govt.”

WSJ: “The Trump admin is preparing sweeping changes at the IRS that would allow the agency to pursue criminal inquiries of left-leaning groups more easily. A senior IRS official involved in the effort has drawn up a list of potential targets that includes major Democratic donors. The undertaking aims to install allies of Trump at the IRS criminal-investigative division to exert firmer control over the unit and weaken the involvement of IRS lawyers in criminal investigations.”

WSJ: “More than three dozen organizations and individuals, including companies with business before the govt, attended a dinner with Trump after opening their checkbooks to support the new $250 million ballroom under construction at the WH. Companies that sent reps included Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet’s Google, Amazon, and Palantir. The guest list also featured wealthy individuals and families, such as oil billionaire Harold Hamm and Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman. Trump said is planning to build a large white arch across from Arlington National Cemetery. He expects that project will also be funded by corporate donations. It is unclear how much the project would cost.”

NYT: “Adm. Alvin Holsey is leaving his job as head of the US Southern Command, which oversees all operations in Central and S. America, even as the Pentagon has rapidly built up some 10,000 forces in the region in what it says is a major counterdrug and counterterrorism mission. Officials said that Holsey had raised concerns about the mission and the attacks on the alleged drug boats.” CNN’s Zachary Cohen: “Hegseth did not believe Holsey was moving quickly/aggressively enough to combat drug traffickers in Caribbean. But SOUTHCOM was concerned about ops not being lawful.”

Politico: “The Trump admin is preparing to allow oil and gas leasing across the entire Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain, a wilderness landscape that has been protected for more than 4 decades.” AK Wilderness League Dir Kristen Miller: “This is the crown jewel of our public lands system. Opening the entire Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge to drilling would destroy one of the most ecologically significant landscapes on Earth - the birthing grounds of the Porcupine Caribou herd, vital habitat for polar bears and migratory birds, and sacred land for the Gwich’in people who have stewarded its resources for millennia.”

Hegseth and Vance had the Marine Corps fire artillery rounds over I-5 so Vance could make a TikTok video. Gavin Newsom responded by closing that section of the highway, saying that the admin was acting irresponsibly. Vance denounced that move as unnecessary. Turns out it wasn’t. NBC: “The Marines Corps has launched an investigation after the CA Hwy Patrol said shrapnel from an artillery shell struck a law enforcement vehicle which was on hand to help stop and divert traffic on I-5.” CHP Chief Tony Coronado, who was also a Marine: “This was an unusual and concerning situation. It is highly uncommon for any live-fire or explosive training activity to occur over an active freeway.”

Financial Times on a Trump meeting with Zelensky: “Trump urged Zelensky to accept Russia’s terms for ending its war in a volatile WH meeting, warning that Putin had said he would ‘destroy’ Ukraine if it did not agree. The meeting between the US and Ukrainian presidents descended many times into a shouting match, with Trump cursing all the time. Trump insisted Zelensky surrender the entire Donbas region to Putin, and repeatedly echoed talking points the Russian leader had made in their call a day earlier.”

Trump said he is willing to settle his lawsuit against DOJ for $230 million claiming malicious prosecution. The DOJ supervisors who have to decide whether to approve the settlement offer from Trump’s current lawyers also happen to be Trump’s former lawyers: “They owe me a lot of money. They rigged the election. That decision would have to go across my desk. It’s strange to make a decision where I am paying myself. One of those cases where you have to decide how much you are paying yourself in damages. I was damaged greatly.”

The Atlantic: “Trump’s plan to double the size of the ICE workforce has met a foe more powerful than any activist group. It is the ICE personal-fitness test. More than a third have failed so far, impeding the agency’s plan to hire, train, and deploy 10,000 deportation officers by Jan. To pass, recruits must do 15 push-ups and 32 sit-ups, and run 1.5 miles in 14 minutes. ‘It’s pathetic,’ one career ICE official said, adding that before now, a typical class of 40 recruits had only a couple of candidates fail, because the screening process was more rigorous. The academy’s standards have already been eased to boost recruitment. He told me that agency vets are concerned about the quality of the new recruits being fast-tracked onto the street to meet Trump’s hiring goals.”

Washington Times: “Pete Hegseth has lost the trust and respect of some top military commanders. Numerous high-ranking officers painted Hegseth’s speech to hundreds of generals and admirals as a turning point in how his leadership style, attitude and overall competency are viewed in the upper echelons of the US armed forces. A current Army General: ‘It was a massive waste of time. If he ever had us, he lost us.’ The speech - described by other sources as ‘embarrassing’ and theatrical to a degree that ‘is below our institution’ - seemed to crystallize beliefs about Hegseth that had taken root among some senior officers - that the secretary operates with a junior officer’s mentality.”

Politico: “John Thune urged Trump to pull his nomination of Paul Ingrassia to lead the Office of Special Counsel after blockbuster revelations of a text chain that showed offensive messages Ingrassia sent last year. Ingrassia told a group of fellow Republicans that the MLK Jr. holiday should be ‘tossed into the 7th circle of hell’ and said he has ‘a Nazi streak’. Ingrassia made the ‘Nazi’ remark in a chat with a half-dozen Republican operatives in 2024 after a participant wrote, ‘Paul belongs in the Hitler Youth with Ubergruppenfuhrer Steve Bannon.’ Ingrassia replied: ‘I do have a Nazi streak in me from time to time, I will admit it.’”

Fox host Sean Hannity had former Rep. George Santos on his show, fresh out of prison after Trump commuted his sentence. He pointed out that Santos is now no longer obligated to make restitution to the many victims he defrauded: Q - “As part of this commutation, you don’t have to pay back anything. Even though you’re not compelled with this commutation to pay it back, you think you should? Santos: We have a lot to process. I’ll look into the best I can, best efforts.”

Trump demolished the entire East Wing of the WH. NYT: “The scope of the demolition, and Trump’s repeated promises that the WH itself would not be affected by the work, were in many ways symbolic of how he has conducted his presidency. On a variety of issues, Trump has blown past norms and traditions, often moving so quickly that it can be too late for courts, Congress or the public to catch up. He is also leaving his mark on the Oval Office, which now features many gilded flourishes. He also paved over the Rose Garden; erected huge flag poles on the WH grounds; and is planning to build an arch in the style of the Arc de Triomphe.”

WSJ: “Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the convicted founder of the crypto exchange Binance, following months of efforts by Zhao to boost the Trump family’s own crypto company.” CBS: “In its sentencing memo against Zhao, DOJ argued his company ‘critically undermined the effectiveness of US sanctions against Iran by providing its Iranian customers the ability to transact with the US customers.’” NYT: “To spearhead his clemency push, Zhao hired Teresa Guillen, who also represents Zach Witkoff, son of special envoy Steve Witkoff. Guillen’s co-counsel was Ches McDowell, a longtime hunting companion of Donald Trump, Jr.”

Financial Times: “A little-known drone company backed by Donald Trump Jr has won its largest contract from the Pentagon, as the US govt expands its procurement of the drones. FL-based Unusual Machines, in which Trump Jr has held a $4 million stake, said the US Army had contracted it to manufacture 3,500 drone motors, alongside various other drone parts. The company added the Army indicated it planned to order an additional 20,000 components next year. Unusual Machines brought Trump Jr on as an adviser in Nov 2024. Shares in the company tripled in price in the weeks leading up to its disclosure of the move.”

Reuters: “Eric Trump was in Dubai on family business. Meeting with a Chinese businessman and his associates on the sidelines of a cryptocurrency conference in May this year, he urged them to buy at least $20 million of ‘governance tokens’ in the Trump family’s crypto business, World Liberty Financial. On June 26, an obscure entity called Aqua1 Foundation, which said it was based in UAE, announced it was buying $100 million of cryptocurrency tokens from WLF. The Chinese businessman was Guren “Bobby” Zhou, who is under investigation in Britain for money laundering. In the first half of this year, the Trump Org’s income soared 17-fold to $864 million from $51 million a year earlier. Of this total, $802 million – more than 90% – came from Trump crypto ventures, including sales of World Liberty tokens.”

Trump announced that the US will resume testing nuclear weapons for the first time in 33 years: “Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Dept of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.” Nuclear proliferation expert Tom Nichols: “No nation except North Korea has tested nuclear weapons since the 1990s.”

Bloomberg: “The FBI forced out a senior official overseeing aviation shortly after Kash Patel grew outraged about revelations of his publicly-available jet logs indicating he’d flown to see his musician girlfriend perform. Steven Palmer, a 27-year veteran of the FBI, became the third head of the critical incident response group to be fired in Patel’s short regime, adding to a year filled with retributive terminations. Patel was angered this week by social media posts and news stories calling attention to his use of an FBI jet that arrived in PA, where his girlfriend Alexis Wilkins sang the national anthem at a wrestling match.”

NYT on the DC US Attorney’s Office since Fox host Jeanne Pirro took over: “The office is in crisis, distrustful of its leadership and demoralized by waves of dismissals, demotions and resignations that have slashed its head count by as much as a third since Trump returned to the WH. The departures have fallen particularly hard on the office’s fraud, public corruption and civil rights unit, which has lost nearly half of its prosecutors. That has damaged the office’s ability to make the big-ticket white-collar cases it has long been known for.”

Trump: “Walmart just announced that prices for the Thanksgiving Dinner is now down 25% since under Biden in 2024. AFFORDABILITY is a Republican Stronghold. Hopefully Republicans will use this irrefutable fact!” Trump’s post was hit with a Community Note fact check: “The 2025 Walmart Thanksgiving meal used in this example contains 15 items while the 2024 meal contained 21 items. Additionally, most of the brand name items in the 2024 meal were replaced with Great Value items in this comparison.”

CNBC: “The US saw a huge spike in announced layoffs in Oct, reaching levels not seen in 22 years. Companies cut 153,074 jobs last month—an increase of 183% from Sept and 175% higher than Oct of last year. It’s the largest number of cuts for any Oct since 2003 and adds to what has become the worst year for layoffs since 2009.”

NBC: “Trump pardoned former TN House Speaker Glen Casada and his former chief of staff, Cade Cothren, who were convicted on corruption charges. Casada, a Republican, was sentenced in Sept to 36 months in prison after being convicted on 17 charges, including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.”

US District Judge Mark Wolf: “In 1985, President Reagan appointed me as a federal judge. I resigned Friday. My reason is simple, I no longer can bear to be restrained by what judges can say publicly. Trump is using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing friends and donors from investigations, persecution, and possible punishment. This is contrary to everything that I stood for in my more than 50 years in DOJ and on the bench. The WH’s assault on the rule of law is so deeply disturbing to me that I feel compelled to speak out.”

Trump’s housing finance director Bill Pulte: “Thanks to Trump, we are indeed working on The 50 year Mortgage - a complete game changer.” Former GOP Rep. Bob Good: “50-year mortgages would prevent people from earning equity, or true home ownership, and essentially create lifelong renters. This is a terrible idea.” Kobeissi Letter: On a $400K Mortgage at 7% Interest: 30Y Mortgage - $558,000 in lifetime interest; 50Y Mortgage - $1,116,000 in lifetime interest. With a 50Y mortgage, you pay DOUBLE the amount of interest compared to a 30Y mortgage.”

Guardian: “Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski recently arranged to buy 10 Boeing 737 aircraft from Spirit Airlines. They intended to use the jets to expand deportation flights – and for personal travel. ICE officials cautioned them that buying planes would be far more expensive than simply expanding existing flight contracts. Complicating matters further, Spirit, which filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time, did not own the jets and their engines would have had to be bought separately. The plan has since been paused.”

NYT: “Trump has pardoned Troy Lake. Lake, who owned a diesel servicing company. Lake had pleaded guilty to disabling emissions controls on hundreds of heavy-duty commercial trucks, causing increases in carbon monoxide and pollutants known to cause lung cancer.”

WSJ: “Fannie Mae watchdogs who were removed from their jobs had been probing if Trump appointee Bill Pulte had improperly obtained mortgage records of key Democratic officials, including Letitia James. Fannie Mae’s ethics and investigations group received internal complaints alleging senior officials had improperly directed staff to access the mortgage documents of James and others. About a dozen members of the ethics and internal investigations unit of Fannie were fired.”

Trump after the Epstein petition got the required signatures: “The Democrats are doing everything in their withering power to push the Epstein Hoax again. Some Weak Republicans have fallen into their clutches because they are soft and foolish. Epstein was a Democrat, and he is the Democrat’s problem, not the Republican’s problem! Don’t waste your time with Trump. I have a Country to run!”

NYT: “Trump pardoned the husband of Rep. Diana Harshbarger last week amid a string of clemency grants to allies. Robert Harshbarger Jr., a licensed pharmacist at the time, pleaded guilty to health care fraud and distributing a misbranded drug, some of which came from China and were not approved for the purpose by the FDA. Medicare, Medicaid and other health benefit programs paid more than $845,000 for Chinese drugs that he falsely passed off as an FDA-approved American drug used to replenish iron in patients with chronic kidney disease.”

NBC: “Bill Pulte has referred Rep. Eric Swalwell to DOJ for a potential federal criminal probe, based on allegations of mortgage and tax fraud related to a DC home. He is the 4th Democratic official to face mortgage fraud allegations in recent months.” Swalwell: “As the most vocal critic of Trump over the last decade and as the only person who still has a surviving lawsuit against him, the only thing I am surprised about is that it took him this long to come after me.”

NYT: “Lauren Boebert has been the target of an unrelenting pressure campaign from the WH to remove her name from the Epstein petition. WH officials have issued vague threats, reminding her of the risks of crossing Trump. But the hardball tactics did not have their desired effect. Instead, people familiar with Boebert’s thinking said, it caused Boebert to dig in and more seriously entertain the possibility of a real conspiracy at play to cover up what is in the Epstein files.”

NBC: “Trump’s directive to change the name of DOD to the Dept of War could cost as much as $2 billion. The name change, which must be approved by Congress, would require replacing thousands of signs, placards, letterheads and badges, as well as any other items at US military sites around the world that feature the Dept of Defense name.”

ProPublica: “Kristi Noem has hailed a $200 million, taxpayer-funded ad campaign as a crucial tool to stem illegal immigration. DHS invoked ‘national emergency’ as it awarded contracts for the campaign, bypassing the normal competitive bidding process. DHS has kept at least one beneficiary of the deal a secret: a Republican consulting firm with long-standing personal and business ties to Noem and her senior aides at DHS. Corey Lewandowski, her top adviser at DHS, has worked extensively with the firm. And the company’s CEO is married to Noem’s chief spokesperson at DHS, Tricia McLaughlin.”

Bloomberg: “A convicted Ponzi schemer whose 24-year prison term was commuted by Trump now faces as much as 50 years behind bars for an investor fraud that took place after his clemency. Eli Weinstein faces sentencing after being convicted of defrauding more than 150 investors out of $41 million. Investors believed their money was going to Covid-19 masks, baby formula and first-aid kits bound for Ukraine, but it actually went to gambling, real estate and luxury watches.”

CBS on another one of Trump’s pardon recipients: “Former J6 defendant John Banuelos - who was accused of pulling gun while amid the mob at Capitol - is back in court. He’s facing a new set of charges in Salt Lake City for aggravated kidnapping and sexual assault.”

Daily Beast: “The US reached a trade deal with Switzerland. The Swiss govt said that the deal cut its tariff rate from 39-15%. The relief is welcome for Switzerland, as the high tariff rate saw Swiss tech exports drop to the U.S. by 14.2% in Q3. Rolex CEO Jean Frédéric Dufour, Johann Rupert from luxury goods maker Richemont, and Marwan Shakarchi from gold refining company MKS visited the WH on Nov. 4. After the meeting, Trump had a gold clock and a bar of gold on the Oval Office desk.”

After multiple business deals were announced between the Saudi global wealth fund and Trump Org on everything from golf courses, to hotels, resorts and crypto, Trump announced that he is selling F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia despite concerns from the Pentagon that they will allow the Chinese to steal the technology. The Street: “Trump Org is planning to build a luxury resort in the Maldives. Trump Org and Dar Global announced the plan. Dar Global is a Saudi real estate development company. Called the Trump Intl Hotel Maldives, it is the group’s first property in the Maldives.”

The Atlantic: “In the morning after he won a second term as president, Trump placed an unexpected call to his top fundraiser, Meredith O’Rourke. ‘I want you to keep going,’ he told her. That message went out to donors, as well as to Fortune 500 companies and billionaire investors who typically avoided politics. Trump estimated that he had collected at least $2B since the election, more than all the money raised to support his 2024 campaign. Defense contractors, cryptocurrency investors, and tech companies have put in tens of millions of dollars as he has deregulated the industry or dropped enforcement proceedings.”

Trump called for the execution by hanging of 2 Democratic senators and 4 reps after they posted a video reminding members of the military that it is their legal obligation to refuse to follow unlawful orders. Trump responded with a series of posts on Truth Social: “This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???” He then reposted this: “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD!!” Another: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”

NBC: “The senior military lawyer for the combatant command overseeing lethal strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats near Venezuela disagreed with the Trump admin’s position that the operations are lawful — and his views were sidelined. Marine Col. Paul Meagher, who serves as the senior JAG at US Southern Command, raised his legal concerns in Aug before the strikes began.”

Financial Times correspondent Christopher Miller on Trump’s latest peace plan : “The proposal pushed upon Ukraine from the Trump admin in its current form is one that so closely resembles the Kremlin’s maximalist demands that senior Ukrainian officials briefed on it called it a Putin wishlist and said it would essentially amount to Ukraine giving up its sovereignty.”

WaPo on a missile strike that killed 11 people: “Hegseth gave a spoken directive, ‘The order was to kill everybody.’ As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Ops commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions. The two men were blown apart in the water.”

Trump pardoned one of the largest drug traffickers in history. Rep. Joaquin Castro: “Juan Orlando Hernandez was convicted by a jury of conspiring to traffic 400 tons of cocaine into the US. DOJ estimated that this represents 4.5 billion doses of cocaine and that he was ‘at the center of one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world.’ He is responsible for the deaths of countless American citizens, and will now be pardoned by Trump. Don’t tell me Trump is killing people in boats in the Caribbean to stop drug trafficking.”

NYT: “Trump set free a private equity executive who had served less than 2 weeks of a 7-year sentence for his role in what prosecutors described as a $1.6 billion scheme that defrauded thousands of victims. Over several years, David Gentile used private equity funds controlled by his company, GPB Capital, to defraud 10,000 investors by misrepresenting the performance of the funds and the source of money used to make monthly distribution payments. More than 1,000 people submitted statements attesting to their losses, according to prosecutors, who characterized the victims as ‘hardworking, everyday people,’ including small business owners, farmers, veterans, teachers and nurses.” One of the victims: “I lost my whole life savings.”

TechCrunch: “Vulcan Elements, a rare-earth magnets startup backed by Donald Trump Jr.’s VC firm 1789 Capital, has secured a $620 million contract from DOD. Trump Jr. joined 1789 Capital as a partner in 2024. The firm invested in Vulcan Elements around 3 months ago. This govt contract represents the largest ever made by the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital. This year alone, at least four 1789 companies have received govt contracts.”

Estonian Toomas Hendrik Ilves: “After the publication of the US National Security Strategy, we all now know Europe is seen as America’s primary enemy. No other part of the world is treated with such overt hostility and bellicose ‘regime change’ threats. The US goal is a continent of Hungaries - a prewar patchwork of individual countries too weak to stand up to any security or economic threats. Easy to bully, invade, take over.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov: “The adjustments to the US NSS largely align with our own vision.”

Trump: “I have informed President Xi that the US will allow NVIDIA to ship its H200 products to approved customers in China, and other Countries, under conditions that allow for continued strong National Security. President Xi responded positively! 25% will be paid to the USA.” Chris McGuire, head of China policy for CFR: “This is a sea change in US policy, and a significant strategic mistake. If the US sells AI chips to China that are 18 months behind the frontier, it negates the biggest US advantage over China in AI.”

Michael Glasheen, director of the national security branch of the FBI: “Antifa is our primary concern right now. What you look at the domestic terrorist threat that we’re facing, that’s the most immediate violent threat we’re facing. Rep. Bennie Thompson: Where is Antifa headquartered? Glasheen: We are building out the infrastructure right now. Thompson: What does that mean? How many members do they have? Glasheen: That’s very fluid. The investigations are active.”

Trump, hours after Rob and Michele Reiner were murdered: “Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME. His obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Admin surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before.”

Daily Mail: “Kash Patel is at the center of another embarrassing fiasco after the FBI released a person of interest detained over the mass shooting at Brown Univ. The FBI had wrongfully detained a 24-year-old Army sniper whose name and photo was leaked to the press. 48 hours later, the FBI is back at square one and Patel is under scrutiny over the botched arrest.”

Karoline Leavitt: “The highly respected Board of the Kennedy Center have just voted unanimously to rename it to the Trump-Kennedy Center. Congratulations to President Trump, and likewise, congratulations to President Kennedy, because this will be a truly great team long into the future!” Maria Shriver: “Some things leave you speechless, and enraged, and in a state of disbelief.”

NBC: “The CDC has logged 26,632 cases of whooping cough in 2025. The last time the US saw so many cases was more than a decade ago. Vaccination rates are plummeting across the country, as part of a larger, troubling trend of growing vaccine hesitancy that is fueling a resurgence of preventable diseases, including measles.”

NYT: “Since Trump was elected a second time, he and his allies have raised nearly $2 billion for his favored political causes and passion projects. A large portion of the funds raised - more than half a billion dollars’ worth - come from 346 donors who each gave at least $250,000. More than half of them have benefited from the actions or statements of Trump, the WH or fed agencies.”

Doug Burgum: “We’re sending notifications to the 5 large offshore wind projects that are under construction that their leases will be suspended due to national security concerns. The Dept of War has come back conclusively that the issues related to these large offshore wind programs create radar interference.” Foreign policy journalist Kevin Baron: “Bullshit. False flags like this undermine public trust in warnings about ACTUAL security threats. The truth: Trump has an obsession with wind and renewable energy conspiracy theories.”

Trump: “I am pleased to announce that I am appointing the GREAT Gov of LA, Jeff Landry, as the US Special Envoy to Greenland. Jeff understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security, and will strongly advance our Country’s Interests.” Landry responded on X: “It’s an honor to serve you in this volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the US.” Landy then posted a video: “All we’re gonna do is go up there and have a conversation with those folks in Greenland. They’re in the western hemisphere so they fit inside the Monroe Doctrine. And we’re going to bring them some great cajun food.”

CNBC: “The Trump admin will start garnishing the wages of student loan borrowers in default in early Jan. The US govt has extraordinary collection powers on federal debts, and it can seize borrowers’ federal tax refunds, wages, and Social Security retirement and disability benefits. Student loan holders have been under pressure from a weakening labor market. More than 5 million student loan borrowers are currently in default, and that total could swell to roughly 10 million borrowers soon, the Ed Dept said earlier this year.”