Republicans went on holiday and would not negotiate.
10-2-2025
TrumpRx Is Obamacare in Trump’s Handwriting
Pfizer wins big in Trump’s new drug discount gimmick.
This week, President Donald Trump announced the next in a long line of vanity projects: TrumpRX, a forthcoming, federally branded website where Pfizer sells steeply discounted drugs in exchange for a three-year exemption from his proposed 100 percent tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals. Imagine a strip mall furniture store with a permanent, flashy 70-percent-off sale, masking the fact that prices were inflated in the first place. TrumpRx, slated to launch in early 2026, is no different—a government-run platform that promises savings while hiding costs.
But this isn’t just another Trump-branded vanity project like the ill-fated Trump Steaks or Trump University. It’s a wild pivot in right-leaning political thought on health care, and it’s a gut punch for those who see where this road leads.
Flash back to 2016: Trump hammering the Affordable Care Act, calling it a “disaster” and suggesting that the government’s only role should be to ensure these companies have “plenty of money.” He was channeling what economists had long warned: Government-run health care distorts markets, creates perverse incentives, and collapses under its own weight. Now, the president is embracing the very heavy-handed tactics he once trashed.
What is TrumpRx?
TrumpRx isn’t healthcare reform or even a program in any real sense. It’s a carve-out for one company. Under the agreement, Pfizer will list a large share of its primary care and select specialty drugs at deep discounts on a federal site that redirects patients to Pfizer’s direct-to-consumer checkout.
Examples of savings floated by the administration include Xeljanz (list price of $6,073/month) for arthritis and other conditions at about 40 percent off, Eucrisa (list price of $692) for eczema at $162 on TrumpRx, and newer brands like Zavzpret for migraines and Duavee for symptoms of menopause, included in the mix. In return, Pfizer receives a three-year grace period from the pharmaceutical tariffs while pledging $70 billion in U.S. manufacturing and research and development.
It’s a protection racket in reverse. The president rattles his tariff saber, Pfizer pays its tribute in the form of price cuts, and voilà, TrumpRx is born.
Who Does This Help?
The savings are shaky because that money has to come from somewhere. Part of it, certainly, is just the market advantage of being exempted from a 100 percent tax that all your competitors are forced to pay. Any savings beyond that will be carved out of something else—less research, higher prices on other drugs, or hidden costs buried elsewhere in the system.
And for most people, the ‘discounts’ aren’t really discounts. Roughly 90 percent of Americans are insured, and their co-pays are almost always cheaper than TrumpRx’s cash prices. Medicaid patients already get the steepest rebates—more than 60 percent off by law—so TrumpRx adds little there. That leaves the approximately 27 million uninsured Americans.
But even for the uninsured, the math falls apart: A $6,000 arthritis drug at “half price” is still $3,000 in cash, a stretch on any budget. Eucrisa at $162 on TrumpRx beats few insurance copays. And $499/month for Wegovy (semaglutide) on TrumpRx compares poorly to the $25 many insured patients now pay. And all of this bypasses the way Americans actually get prescriptions. CVS, Walgreens, and the rest are cut out entirely, replaced by a federally branded coupon pop-up that punts you to a manufacturer’s checkout page. TrumpRx looks like a deal, but in practice, it helps almost no one.
How much it helps Trump’s bottom line will never be known as Pfizer can purchase Trump’s bitcoin to line Trump’s pocket.
10-2-2025
Over the years, Qatar has served quietly a central role in U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. The country has hosted a Hamas political office since 2012, a move local officials say they made at the explicit request of the U.S.
Even before Qatar was mediating the Gaza ceasefire, it was a critical bridge between the U.S. and the Taliban during peace talks on Afghanistan and during the evacuation in 2021. Qatar has also helped secure prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine. And in 2023, it was Qatar that mediated a prisoner swap between the U.S. and Iran.
Qatar has also loomed over lucrative deals negotiated by some in Trump’s orbit. The son of Trump’s Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff sought money from gulf states, including Qatar, as the elder Witkoff met with Qatari mediators on the Gaza ceasefire, the New York Times found.
“In the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act, Congress consented to some gifts, including gifts valued up to $480, and certain ceremonial gifts, but that certainly does not include a 747 airplane,” said Richard Painter, who served as White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush.
But Trump has never been one to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. Some analysts say that the questionable deals between Trump and the Qatari’s may have swayed the president toward offering the security guarantee.
The U.S. & Qatar signed defense & aviation agreements.
During the trip, there was discussion of Qatar offering (or gifting) a luxury Boeing 747-8 to the U.S., to be used as an interim Air Force One, though details are murkier.
Also, a real-estate development: Qatar (via Qatari Diar & Dar Global) introduced a Trump-branded project in Qatar – Trump International Golf Course & Villas in the Simaisma resort area.
10-2-2025
Trump To Cancel Biden-Era Green Energy Grants, but Only for Blue States
The president would be justified in wanting to rescind all state grants. Instead, he’s apparently letting states that voted for him keep the cash.
Some lawmakers and experts have said the notification is a dubious legal justification for what have been unlawful military strikes on alleged civilian criminals in the Western Hemisphere, a far cry from combatants engaged in direct battle with American forces.
“The United States has now reached a critical point where we must use force in self-defense and defense of others against the ongoing attacks by these designated terrorist organizations,” the notice reads.The administration has described recent strikes against alleged traffickers at sea as targeting Venezuelan gangs, though the notice to Congress, reported earlier by the New York Times, did not name any specific organizations.
10-2-2025
The Trump administration that has waxed loudly about horrible criminals has NO issue with breaking the law itself. Following the shutdown, many federal government websites carry the same sort of “warning” that the Justice Department’s does.
It’s a partisan message, blaming Democrats for the government shutdown (even though Republicans control the White House, the Senate, and the House). And it’s being paid for with taxpayer dollars on government websites. That’s a clear violation of the Hatch Act, which restricts civilian executive branch employees from participating in partisan political activity. And as if irony isn’t already dead, it’s also on the DOJ website page advising employees they are subject to the Hatch Act.
Imagine if a Democratic president had done this. The Hatch Act may seem like a small thing, but it isn’t. It’s how Congress has chosen to prevent the party that is in power from abusing the resources entrusted to it and government employees and using them for political advantage. Employees are prohibited from engaging in political activity while on duty. They can’t wear clothing with political slogans on it. But now, all of government is clothed in this rank and deceitful political exercise.
So when this administration talks about Democrats as though they’re at fault in all of this, the ones who are trying to divide the country with hate, remember this Hatch Act violation, which will likely go unaddressed because Trump doesn’t care about the rule of law or about what’s right. It may seem like a small thing, but it used to be a big one. Until the first Trump administration and during the Biden administration, the Hatch Act was taken seriously. But with Trump, L’état c’est moi. This is a lawless administration that wants only one thing: more power.
Education Department employees are discovering their automatic email responses during the government shutdown have been unknowingly changed to blame Democrats for the lapse in funding. |
10-2-2025
On September 25, The New York Times reported on a directive issued by a “senior Justice Department official” to “more than a half dozen U.S. attorneys’ offices,” instructing them “to draft plans to investigate a group funded by George Soros, the billionaire Democratic donor who President Trump has demanded be thrown in jail.” In multiple ways, this represents a flagrant violation of the rule of law and norms of justice, and in each of them, the situation departs markedly from Obama-era alleged malfeasance.
First and most obviously, the call to investigate Soros’ group is part of a pattern in which Trump is not just overseeing executive branch operations but personally weighing in on the substantive exercise of state power and even forcibly overruling those tasked with impartially implementing the law. At least until recently, it was widely recognized that presidents are political actors motivated by political concerns—exactly the types of concerns that are not supposed to enter into decisions about, say, whom the Department of Justice (DOJ) investigates and prosecutes.
Trump has disregarded the expectation that presidents remain at arm’s length so as to prevent partisan considerations from implicitly or even inadvertently bleeding over into tasks that must be nonpolitical if the system is to maintain its credibility. Even if he were not intentionally weaponizing the DOJ against his political opponents, his direct involvement would be a red flag. Again, nothing of the kind can be said of Obama and the IRS.
Second is the fact that Trump is weaponizing the federal bureaucracy against his political opponents—explicitly so. As I documented just before the last election, he has repeatedly called for his rivals and critics to be arrested and jailed. For what, exactly? His minions will figure that out later.
This reverses the order of operations that characterizes a legitimate system of justice. As the conservative lawyer (and DOJ alum) Gregg Nunziata pointed out, “The government investigates crimes, finds those responsible, and prosecutes them. Trump would have the government investigate his enemies, find crimes, and prosecute them. This is quite literally a mortal threat to all our liberties.”
To begin with a target—particularly one you’ve chosen for political reasons—and then go looking for misdeeds to punish is a perversion of due process. The perception that that’s what was happening is what made the IRS scandal a scandal. The Soros case, where a high-ranking official is asking his subordinates to come up with a reason to subject a major donor from the other party to law enforcement action (as opposed to observing wrongdoing and following the facts from there), is just as scandalous. That it’s happening in broad daylight, without shame or apology, makes it immeasurably more destructive to the legal and social order.
Finally, the ostensible rationale in this case is one that should be troubling to civil libertarians and anyone else who cares about free speech. The call to investigate Soros’ Open Society Foundations followed immediately on the heels of a report by Ryan Mauro of the Capital Research Center, a conservative advocacy group, which faults the foundation for having “poured over $80 million into groups tied to terrorism or extremist violence” and recommends “various accountability actions, including federal investigations and prosecutions, U.S. State Department and Treasury Department sanctions, revocations of tax-exempt statuses of Open Society and its grantees by the Internal Revenue Service, congressional investigations, and civil lawsuits.”
A closer examination shows that those supposed ties to terrorism include an awful lot of First Amendment–protected activity. For example, Mauro claims that Open Society has given millions of dollars to grantees “that have endorsed terrorist attacks like those on October 7, 2023, and/or are directly linked to foreign terrorist groups or their known front groups.” In many cases, grant recipients are considered to have links to terrorism merely for having downplayed (in the author’s view) the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas.
Consider this Instagram post by the progressive group 18 Million Rising, which urges “our Asian American community to join in support” for the “Palestinian people rising up against 75+ years of Israeli settler colonial violence and occupation.” It features a painting of a crying mother and child bearing the words “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free.”
That phrase is deeply offensive to many supporters of Israel, and understandably so. But it’s still a phrase—that is to say, a textbook instance of political expression. While it’s fine to criticize groups who express ideas you find abhorrent (just as it was fine to criticize people who celebrated the assassination of Charlie Kirk), using the coercive power of the state to punish such speech is another matter. And punishing someone for having a financial relationship with someone else who has expressed unsavory views is even less defensible.
In some cases, the supposed terrorist sympathizer is multiple steps removed from the grantmaking institution: According to the Capital Research Center, some grant recipients do not themselves support terrorism and may even have condemned Hamas’ attack on Israel, but mere association with activists who have sided with the Palestinians is presented as reason enough to turn the U.S. government against the Open Society Foundations.
A related claim is that Soros has funded groups such as the Movement for Black Lives that “engage in or materially assist violence, property destruction, economic sabotage, harassment, and other criminality” here in the U.S. Yet few of the report’s examples of objectionable behavior involve actual violence, and a considerable number amount to petty infractions and mild civil disobedience. To treat things like “using false IDs” and “revealing the identities of government agents” as “acts of domestic terrorism,” as Mauro seems to do, is dubious in the extreme. To further include legal actions, such as posting bail and providing legal defenses to arrested protestors, or saying nice things about the Chinese Communist Party, ought to set off alarm bells for all those concerned with preserving a free society.
When laws are broken, perpetrators need to be brought to justice. It’s fair to think that prosecutors should be doing more to respond to genuine violence, property destruction, and actions that egregiously interfere with the normal functioning of society, such as shutting down roads and bridges. But stretching the definition of “domestic terrorism” and allowing it to become an all-purpose pretextual weapon for ideologues in positions of power to use against their enemies is a massive strategic misstep in addition to being unjust.
Imagine if Democrats went after a think tank that gave a prize to Tucker Carlson because Carlson has sided with Russia over Ukraine and platformed Holocaust revisionism. Or if donors to an international pro-life organization were accused of funding the criminal activities of foreign elements because some of the group’s members have been arrested for praying outside U.K. abortion clinics. Is this really a path conservatives want to go down? How does the right think things will play out next time left-wing activists—the kind who like to accuse Christian traditionalists of perpetuating a genocide against LGBT bodies—have the ear of White House senior staff?
The Capital Research Center accuses Soros of “a systemic pattern of empowering groups that glorify violence and destabilize societies.” This is exactly the kind of language that might be turned against any movement protesting entrenched injustices, from the civil rights demonstrations of the 1960s to the March for Life today.
Conservatives once understood all of this. In the wake of the IRS scandal, Bradley A. Smith, a Republican former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, reflected in an op-ed on the “lesson on abuse of power” to be learned from that experience. “The real problems are first, the president and leaders in Congress should not use their power to pressure the bureaucracy to do their partisan bidding,” he wrote, “and second, if you give government the tools to regulate political speech, the government will weaponize them for partisan gain by the party in power. No ‘criminal’ behavior is necessary.”
10-2-2025
The Food and Drug Administration this week approved a generic version of the abortion pill mifepristone, expanding the supply of the medication at a time when the Trump administration is under pressure from abortion opponents to sharply restrict access to abortion pills.
The approval, issued on Tuesday, means that three American companies can now produce mifepristone for abortion. The F.D.A. approved the original pill 25 years ago and gave approval in 2019 for another company to produce a generic version.
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“NSPM-7” refers to National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, a directive signed by President Trump on September 25, 2025, entitled “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence.”
Here’s a breakdown of what it does, what the implications are, and what the controversies entail:
What NSPM-7 Does
- Expands the Focus on Domestic Political ViolenceThe memo states that recent assassinations, riots, threats, and property destruction are part of organized campaigns of political violence intended to “silence opposing speech, limit political activity, change or direct policy outcomes, and prevent the functioning of a democratic society.”
- Directs Agencies to Investigate and Disrupt
- The Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs), and other law enforcement agencies, are ordered to investigate, prosecute, and disrupt networks, individuals, and organizations connected to “political violence and intimidation.”
- It instructs agencies to look into funders, officers, employees, and donors of such organizations who “aid or abet” wrongdoing.
- Financial and Tax Measures
- The Treasury Department is tasked with identifying and disrupting financial networks that fund political violence, and directing financial institutions to report suspicious activity.
- The IRS is instructed to ensure that tax-exempt entities do not directly or indirectly finance political violence, and to refer such entities or their employees to the Department of Justice for possible legal action.
- Designation of Domestic Terrorist Organizations
The memo authorizes the Attorney General to recommend that groups or entities meeting certain criteria be designated as “domestic terrorist organizations.” - Legal and Priority Adjustments
- It declares domestic terrorism a “National Priority Area”, meaning resources and grants may be allocated accordingly.
- It also instructs that investigations should draw upon statutes already in law (e.g. conspiracy, money laundering, aiding terrorism, etc.).
- Scope of “Political Violence”NSPM-7 includes behaviors like organized doxing, swatting, civil disorder, rioting, property destruction, threats of violence among the acts to be considered under the banner of political violence or terrorism.
- Citational Clauses & Legal Guardrails
- The memo states it should be implemented consistent with applicable law and does not itself create enforceable rights or causes of action.
- It clarifies that it does not alter the authority or functions of existing executive departments beyond what is lawful.
Key Concerns & Criticisms
- First Amendment / Free Speech Risks
Critics argue the definitions and indicators (e.g. “anti-capitalism,” “anti-Americanism,” “anti-Christianity”) are vague and broad enough to sweep in dissent, protest, and political advocacy.The ACLU, for instance, says this memorandum could be used to “target non-profits, activists, and their donors … using vague and overbroad labels of ‘terrorism’ and ‘conspiracy against rights.’” - Symbolic vs. Substantive Power
Some analysts note that although the memo leverages strong rhetoric, »federal law already defines “domestic terrorism,” but Congress has not attached many new consequences to that label. Thus, merely labeling a group domestic terrorists does not, by itself, confer new criminal or civil powers. - Tax-Exempt and Nonprofit Risks
Because the memo directs scrutiny toward tax-exempt organizations’ involvement in funding or supporting key actions, nonprofits and advocacy groups worry they could lose tax status or face referrals to criminal investigation. - Execution & Oversight Unclear
The memo leaves many implementation details to subsequent agency guidance. Exactly how agencies will interpret “aid or abet,” or differentiate between protected speech and violent acts, remains to be seen—and might be litigated. - Chilling Effect on Political Activity
Because of the possibility of investigation or punitive measures, some groups or individuals might self-censor or reduce lawful political expression to avoid risk.
I found that “anti-capitalism,” “anti-Americanism,” and “anti-Christianity” do in fact appear in NSPM-7 (in the publicly released version), though not in the U.S. Code. They are included in the “motivations / indicia” language in the White House text of NSPM-7. The White House
Here is the relevant passage from NSPM-7:
“Common threads animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.” The White House
So:
They are not part of 18 U.S.C. § 2331 or the terrorism statutes.
They are part of the policy language in NSPM-7, used as examples of “threads animating … violent conduct.” The White House
10-2-2025 Pope Leo
“Someone who says I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life,” the pontiff told journalists outside his residence in Castel Gandolfo.
Catholics pay attention!
10-2-2025
Trump administration’s distortions and spin, including the bizarre claim that Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is donating his time to world peace by inserting himself into the affairs of countries that have given him billions of dollars.
Months later, whatever happened to RFK Jr.’s self-imposed deadline on autism?
10-2-2025 Cancer research
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Sept. 30 doubling the current federal budget for research into childhood cancer using artificial intelligence, building on a 2019 initiative he established to create a data system to collect, standardize and share information on every child diagnosed with cancer in the United States.
There is, however, a concern as to the broader context: Investing an additional $50 million into pediatric cancer research does not make up for the Trump administration’s other proposed cuts to cancer research.
The Trump White House has, for example, proposed slashing funding for the National Cancer Institute by billions of dollars, shrinking its budget to levels unseen in decades. His conspiratorial and anti-science health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., scrapped funding for mRNA research, despite clinical trials showing mRNA-based vaccines increase survival in patients with deadly cancers.
For that matter, I’ve lost count of how many cancer-related research grants at universities have been cut off without explanation.
A few weeks ago, The New York Times reported that a half-century after Richard Nixon declared war on cancer, there have been a great many breakthroughs that have saved and extended lives. The incumbent Republican president, however, is effectively waving the white flag in this war.
Trump White House adds Jane Fonda to its growing list of celebrity targets
Trump offers Qatar, which gave him a fancy plane, a NATO-like security guarantee
(I guess he will spend his own money to do that)
The White House published an executive order on Wednesday vowing to defend Qatar in the event of an attack from another country, a remarkable security guarantee for a single country akin to NATO’s Article 5. The order, which President Donald Trump signed Monday, states that the White House will now consider ‘any armed attack’ on Qatar ‘as a threat to the peace and security of the United States.’
10-2-2025
THE DEMOCRATS WANT TO GIVE YOUR HEALTHCARE MONEY TO ILLEGAL ALIENS AND OPEN OUR BORDERS TO THE CRIMINALS OF THE WORLD, A DEADLY COMBINATION BECAUSE EVERYBODY WILL COME!
Nope, those are lies.
10-2-2025
Trump said he never heard of Project 2025, now this??
I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent. I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity. They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DJT
A Trump appointee’s post shows that Project 2025 was the plan all along
On the campaign trail last year, Donald Trump swore he knew “nothing” about Project 2025. As a candidate, he said he didn’t even know who had written the far-right blueprint for his second term, called some of its ideas “absolutely ridiculous” and “abysmal” and argued it was “pure disinformation” for Democrats to try to link him to that plan.
In case it wasn’t clear at the time, Trump was lying.
When he won a second term, Trump dropped the pretense and began enacting Project 2025’s proposals, in some cases to the letter. In the eight months since inauguration, he has checked off most of its major proposals:
• launching a mass deportation program
• purging civil servants and replacing them with partisan loyalists
• defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
• reducing the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s role in disaster response
• eliminating federal “diversity, equity and inclusion” efforts
• banning transgender troops in the military
10-1-2025 What’s 47’s attempt to throw the NYC election?
Trumps narcissism led him to a gross miscalculation. He thought that countries, intimidated by the mighty Trump, would come groveling and begging for mercy. But Trump is so accustomed to people without a shred of dignity, who surround him, that he could not fathom that other leaders aren’t also going to bow to him. They are, instead banding together, finding other markets, they don’t trust USA any more, they don’t want to trade with someone who is treacherous, and they certainly do not want to rush to invest money or build factories there.
Trump is killing USA . China is stepping into the breach. China has come a long long way. They do not produce only cheap shoddy goods,( like the stuff Trump sells to his cult) but some great stuff, great cars, great EVS GREAT TECH products etc. and they buy enormous amounts. I believe almost everything I own has Chinese components somewhere. I believe soy bean farmers are still feeling the repercussions from Trumps first term tariffs on China.
Some countries may bow, but I doubt it. Russia and North Korea are not being Tariffed. That should tell you everything.
9-30-2025 Trump grift
A Forbes article (June 2025) estimates that over the prior ~9 months, Trump’s involvement in crypto (various ventures) has “made” him roughly $1 billion (i.e. net gains) in that time horizon. Forbes
Trump executed a pump and dump with Trump Media, netting him billions. Media outlets have noted that Trump’s stake in DJT “helped lift his overall net worth” in public estimates. For example, CBS reported that “Trump’s stake in the social network has helped lift his overall net worth to $5.5 billion, more than double his $2.4 billion in wealth at the start of 2024.”
A “pump and dump” is a type of securities fraud in which the price of a stock is artificially inflated (the “pump”)—often via misleading positive statements, hype, or coordinated buying—so that insiders or early holders can sell at a high price (the “dump”), leaving later buyers with losses.
Key signs often include:
- Heavy promotional / hype activity (especially on social media) not matched by fundamentals
- Sudden bursts of trading volume and price without clear catalyst
- Insider selling after price run-up
- Weak business fundamentals to justify the high valuation
- Rapid decline after insiders unwind positions
The stock was $50 when he pumped it and people bought it on Trump being president, now it is $16, people lost, Trump profited.
Trump — strongest public evidence & legal status
Pay-for-access via private club memberships / dining. Reporting shows Trump raised Mar-a-Lago membership prices substantially and hosted high-price donor dinners that critics say give wealthy guests enhanced proximity to the president — a classic pay-for-access concern. Journalistic lists of who paid to dine with Trump have been published. The Guardian+1
Opaque financing for Trump Media & foreign loans. Investigations (e.g., Guardian reporting and subsequent probes) documented bridge loans and investments (ES Family Trust, etc.) into Trump Media that were structured through opaque entities and raised questions about foreign money and influence. Those financing flows are central to questions about outside influence on Trump projects. The Guardian+1
Other ethics concerns / appointments. Journalists and watchdogs have documented links between donors, members, and appointments or favors; congressional groups and watchdogs have flagged “pay-to-play” patterns as ethically problematic though not always criminally prosecuted. NewsTRACS
Main limits / open questions: direct proof that Trump traded specific official acts for payments in a criminal sense; whether the financing arrangements rose to criminal bribery or racketeering; and disentangling legitimate business revenue from improper influence. Some Trump-related entities have faced legal penalties in other contexts (tax, corporate practice), but not a judicial finding that Trump ran a coordinated influence-peddling racket.
A ‘big show’ in Portland |
That’s what Portland, Oregon mayor Keith Wilson called it when residents noticed an uptick in federal agents on Friday night. “This may be a show of force, but that’s all it is. It’s a big show, and after the big show, everyone goes home,” he remarked. Trump confirmed the “show” on Saturday, writing that he told Pete Hegseth to “provide all necessary troops” to the “war ravaged” city.
Trump’s rhetoric has pushed many Portlanders to post photos of what life is really like in the city. “The war will not be televised. Mainly because it doesn’t exist ” Rolling Stone senior politics writer Tim Dickinson wrote on Bluesky from outside the ICE facility that has drawn many protests. CNN’s Andy Rose has more on the local reactions here…
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Trump indeed was laughed at during his 2017 UN speech — but in September 2025 things got worse.
It’s definitely not a laughing matter when the most powerful country in the world is totally at whims of a deranged old man set on personal vendettas.
“Your countries are going to hell!” told Trump to the stunned world leaders at the U.N. general assembly on Sep.24, 2025.
- 46% of Trump’s 56-minute speech was dedicated to referencing himself and his administration.
- Only 17% of Trump’s speech was actually about foreign policy: wars, NATO, and trade.
- 11% was dedicated to illegal immigration.
- 8% was dedicated to criticism of the U.N.
- 7% was about the climate/green energy hoax.
- 6% was about the U.S. domestic issues.
- 3% was dedicated to Trump’s whining that he didn’t get the real estate deal to renovate the U.N. building in New York decades ago.
- 1.7% was Trump’s complaints about the teleprompter not working (it was operated by Trump’s team) and escalator coming to a halt (i.e. turning into stairs) as one of his entourage accidentally tripped the safety switch, as Trump stepped on it.
I think loud laughing would be totally appropriate — but the leaders gave Trump a polite round of applause, when he finished.
UK’s “Mirror” gave its verdict on the front page.
9/28/2025 TikTok
Trump wants to control what you see, he wants to turn TikTok into a Republican only platform where he can not allow anything he does not like. The prize everyone is fighting over is the algorithm itself—the secret engine that decides what billions of people see every day.Many users now fear a future where their voices are surveilled or quietly silenced. The concern isn’t just about Beijing. A U.S. takeover could place that same megaphone in the grip of American tech giants and media moguls, swapping one gatekeeper for another. We’ve already watched how Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter turned it into a volatile, hyper-partisan space. A “U.S. TikTok” could suffer the same fate, only with even greater reach.
- Designated ANTIFA as a terrorist organization in an executive order on Monday,
- Issued a memorandum on Thursday titled “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” a one-sided recitation of political violence in this country, referring, for instance, to Charlie Kirk’s murder but not the attacks on Minnesota legislators and their families, before concluding that recent political violence, “is a culmination of sophisticated, organized campaigns of targeted intimidation … and violence” and apparently designating anyone who actively opposes Trump as potentially part of a domestic terror group and subject to criminal investigation (there is no legal mechanism for designating domestic terror organizations in the U.S. and any attempt to do so would surely face First Amendment challenges for violating free speech, association, and assembly rights),
- Indicted former FBI Director Jim Comey,
- Directed his appointees at the Justice Department to “instruct more than a half dozen U.S. attorney’s offices to draft plans to investigate a group funded by George Soros, the billionaire Democratic donor whom President Trump has demanded be thrown in jail.”
9/28/2025 Trump tweet:
“This appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America.”
Nope it is an attack BY A CHRISTIAN!
Many Christian denominations do not consider Mormons to be “Christians” in the theological sense because LDS doctrines about God and Jesus differ so sharply from historic creeds like the Nicene Creed.
Some evangelicals see Mormonism as a “false gospel” and actively oppose its teachings.
Enough so a Christian killed Mormons and burned down their church with them in it!
Trump is exactly the type of leader the Founding Fathers tried so hard to keep out of the White House, wrote the Constitution and created institutional checks and balances to avoid.
Sadly, it has failed. This generation has failed; firstly, by voting him into power. Secondly, by not reading the absolutely HUGE red flags since January this year. Granted, we all make mistakes. But please: how on Earth anyone would vote into power a liar, a corrupt, failed business man with clear Russian ties (documented), saved from bankrupcy 6x by them, with a personal vendetta agenda, a felon with over 4,000 court cases and deranged man with clear, stated dictatorial tendencies (admitted by him during the campaign), and admitted admirer of all other dictactors is beyond me.
Finally, sure, we can all make mistakes. But NOW, given it is obvious the US is unquestionably heading for a dictatorship WHY people (especially Republicans) are not motivated enough to do something about it is really beyond my and any logical, sane person´s level of comprehension.
God help America because it doesn´t seem anyone else is willing to do so.
9-26-2025
It was an extraordinary week. The slumbering giant of America is awakening.
Americans forced Disney and its affiliates to put Jimmy Kimmel back on the air. Over 6 million people watched Kimmel’s Tuesday monologue assailing Trump’s attempt to censor him. Another 26 million watched it on social media, including YouTube. (Kimmel’s usual television audience is about 1.42 million.)
Trump’s dictatorial narcissism revealed itself nearly as dramatically in the criminal indictment of former FBI director James Comey, coming immediately after Trump fired the U.S. attorney who refused to indict him.
As did Trump’s demand that prosecutors go after philanthropist George Soros, Senator Adam Schiff, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and other perceived enemies.
As did Trump’s order yesterday, directing the “Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth” to use “full force, if necessary” to “protect War ravaged Portland” Oregon and any “ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.” He is escalating his use of the U.S. military against Americans.
There was also his bonkers speech to the United Nations telling delegates that their nations are “going to hell.” His attribution of autism to Tylenol, even though doctors say it is safe for pregnant women in moderation. His unilateral imposition of tariffs as high as 100 percent on imports of pharmaceuticals and kitchen cabinets.
Friends, his neofascism and his dementia are both in plain sight.
Americans — including independents and many Republicans — are appalled by what we’re seeing
His polls continue to drop.
Voters are turning against him and his Republican party. On Tuesday, Democrat Adelita Grijalva won Arizona’s 7th Congressional District in a special election — leaving House Republicans with a majority of just five.
Grijalva’s victory comes on the heels of another Democratic win: James Walkinshaw’s in Virginia.
Two more special elections are coming, in Texas and Tennessee.
Speaker Mike Johnson is struggling to hold House Republicans together, facing rebellion on issues such as the release of files relating to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Johnson is also refusing to seat Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ), who won a special election in Arizona on September 23, 2025. This delay is a procedural tactic that blocks Grijalva from providing the deciding signature on a discharge petition to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
Democrats are refusing to go along with Republicans to fund the government beyond Tuesday unless Republicans agree to extending Affordable Care Act subsidies — now set to expire at the end of the year and cause 24 million people to lose coverage or pay skyrocketing premiums.
Friends, I can’t tell you exactly when the tipping point will occur — when elected Republicans will rebel against him, or when his dementia becomes so apparent he’s forced to resign, or when so much of the nation rises up against his dictatorship that he’s impeached and convicted of high crimes — but we’re getting closer.
As I said a few days ago, I’ve been in and around politics for 60 years and have developed a sixth sense about the slumbering giant of America. That giant is now stirring. He about to stand. He’s angry. Soon he will roar.
Nearly nine years later, Obama is apparently seeing our core values in jeopardy with increasing frequency. Take this week, for example. Politico reported:
Barack Obama has accused President Donald Trump of ‘violence against the truth’ for linking autism to the use of Tylenol by pregnant women. The former president made a direct attack on his successor that was as rare for its forcefulness as for its setting — an arena stage on foreign soil in London on Wednesday — as he warned that the Trump administration’s claims undermine public health. Speaking to a large crowd at London’s O2 Arena, the former president said, “We have the spectacle of my successor in the Oval Office, making broad claims around certain drugs and autism that have been continuously disproved.”He added, “The degree to which that undermines public health, the degree to which that can do harm to women who are pregnant, the degree to which that creates anxiety for parents who do have children who are autistic — which, by the way, itself is subject to a spectrum, and a lot of what is being trumpeted as these massive increases actually have to do with a broadening of the criteria across that spectrum so that people can actually get services and help. All of that is violence against the truth.”
And while it’s true that Obama was speaking at the time to a foreign audience, it’s also true that he wanted a domestic audience to be aware of his comments: The Democrat promoted excerpts from his appearance, including his Trump criticisms, via social media.
This was notable in its own right, especially given how dangerous Trump’s misguided claims about medicine, vaccines and public health have been. But circling back to our recent coverage, it’s also worth emphasizing the recent pattern involving the former president.
In April, Obama spoke at Hamilton College, where he took aim at Trump’s trade tariffs, condemned the White House’s offensive against higher education, expressed his concerns that the values of the United States have “eroded” and said the incumbent president’s efforts to extort law firms were “contrary to the basic compact we have as Americans.”
In June, Obama spoke at The Connecticut Forum in Hartford, warning that the country was “dangerously close” to normalizing behavior “consistent with autocracies.”
In July, after the White House started falsely accusing him of “treason,” Obama’s patience wore thin, and he issued a statement about how “ridiculous” Team Trump’s claims had become.In August, Obama publicly condemned the GOP’s mid-decade gerrymandering schemes — they represent “an existential threat to our democracy,” he said in a video — while having private chats with rising Democratic stars such as Zohran Mamdani and touting his party’s recent victories in special elections.
In September, Obama slammed Trump for politicizing the Charlie Kirk shooting and not doing more to unite the country, before taking rhetorical aim at the right’s recent efforts to undermine the First Amendment.
A week later, the former president also shared a few thoughts about his successor’s anti-Tylenol rant.
When thinking about Trump’s most prominent and most vocal Democratic critics, Obama does not spring immediately to mind. That, however, is starting to change.
The rapid rise and sudden fall of the United Nations escalator ‘controversy’
“All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that, on the way up, stopped right in the middle,” the president said, before twice more repeating the same complaint. He stressed the same issue soon after in a social media item.
While his remarks included a dizzying amount of lies, this part was largely true: The president and first lady Melania Trump were on an escalator on Tuesday, which came to an abrupt halt. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote online that this might’ve been intentional. Hours later, Leavitt appeared on Fox News and suggested that United Nations staffers might have been trying to injure Trump. “When you put all of this together, it doesn’t look like a coincidence to me,” she said.Evidently, the truth was more benign.
The United Nations has concluded its one-day investigation into the mysterious halting of President Donald Trump’s escalator Tuesday as he arrived at the U.N. General Assembly. The accidental culprit? A White House videographer who most likely tripped a safety mechanism.A U.N. spokesperson explained: “The escalator had stopped after a built-in safety mechanism on the comb step was triggered at the top of the escalator. The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing. The [White House] videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function described above.”
As incidents go, this will likely soon be forgotten, but it’s worth noting that some Republicans seized on this “controversy” in rather outlandish ways — before the facts were available.
Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, for example, who has a deeply unfortunate record when it comes to peddling misinformation online, published a message that said: “The UN deep state tried to embarrass Trump and make him less safe.”The Utah Republican, in related items, said that the U.N. might’ve been “trying to give us a hint” by “orchestrating” the escalator malfunction, adding that he wants to “defund” and withdraw from the international institution.
All of this, of course, came before the public learned that it was a White House videographer that apparently triggered the escalator’s safety measures.
Kevin Kruse, a historian at Princeton University, noted soon after: “This is the perfect encapsulation of Trumpism — because of its obsession with imagery, the White House crew caused a problem but blamed it on other people, leading to MAGA making threats against the United Nations for their own screw up.”
LONDON — Health officials across the globe on Tuesday rejected President Donald Trump’s warning that pregnant women should limit the use of acetaminophen over unsubstantiated claims of a link to autism.
Authorities from Australia to Europe moved swiftly to respond to the U.S. announcement, which Trump made with great fanfare while flanked by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“Don’t take Tylenol. Don’t take it. Fight like hell not to take it,” Trump said.
The EMA said it would not be making changes to the region’s current recommendations, maintaining that pregnant women should take the lowest effective dose of the drug for the shortest possible time and as infrequently as possible.
“A large amount of data from pregnant women who used paracetamol during pregnancy indicates no risk of malformations on the developing fetus or on newborns,” the EMA said in a statement to NBC News.
The World Health Organization said that “the evidence remains inconsistent” regarding any link between the use of Tylenol during pregnancy and autism.
WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević cited unspecified studies that pointed to a possible link but said that this was not confirmed by subsequent research. “This lack of replicability really calls for caution in drawing casual conclusions,” he said.
Trump on Monday also suggested that additives in vaccines may cause autism, which the WHO was similarly quick to dispute.
“We know that vaccines do not cause autism. Vaccines, as I said, save countless lives. So, this is something that science has proven, and these things should not be really questioned,” Jašarević told a Geneva press briefing.
Australian health officials were among the first to reject the claims, labeling them “a misrepresentation of the science.”
Australia’s medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, together with the country’s Chief Medical Officer, said Tuesday that it was joining other global medicines regulators in repudiating Trump’s claims.
“Robust scientific evidence shows no causal link between the use of paracetamol in pregnancy and autism or ADHD, with several large and reliable studies directly contradicting these claims,” they said in a statement.
A number of other countries restated their existing guidance, which differs from the new warning issued by the Trump administration.
New Zealand’s Ministry of Health reiterated that its guidance had not changed, describing paracetamol as “the safest medicine to take in pregnancy” for treatment of pain or fever.
A spokesperson for the German Health Ministry told NBC News that there was no link between taking paracetamol during pregnancy and developmental abnormalities. “In certain situations, taking medication is necessary to avoid endangering the mother and unborn child, for example in the case of high fever,” they said in an emailed statement.
The U.K.’s health regulator, MHRA, issued a similar statement, stressing that “paracetamol remains the recommended pain relief option for pregnant women when used as directed.”
“Untreated pain and fever can pose risks to the unborn baby, so it is important to manage these symptoms with the recommended treatment,” Dr Alison Cave, chief safety officer at the MHRA, said in a statement on the agency’s website.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting told ITV early Tuesday: “I would just say to people watching, don’t pay any attention whatsoever to what Donald Trump says about medicine.”
Spain’s health minister, Mónica García Gómez, also called out Trump by name, accusing him of “ignoring all medical studies.”
“Denialism not only destroys trust in science: it puts lives at risk,” she wrote on X on Monday.
Scott White, chair of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Women’s Health Committee, said he was “worried” about the messaging from the U.S.
“Paracetamol is safe and actually important to use because pain and fever are associated with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes themselves,” White told NBC News in a phone interview.
“I’m really worried about the messaging that says pregnant women should just tough it out, that pregnant women should be denied access to pain relief, which is a fundamental human right. It’s every woman’s right,” White said.
“To suggest that women can’t access a medication that we feel has been shown to be safe simply because they’re pregnant women, is misogynistic.”
White cited a study published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association that studied 2.5 million children in Sweden. It compared siblings and found no association between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and the risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disability.
While other studies have suggested some kind of link, including research published last month that Trump administration officials are citing, White argues many struggled to exclude factors like genetics or environment.
Outside autism researchers have said that literature review, by researchers from Harvard and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, wasn’t rigorously conducted and that it cherry-picked studies that supported its conclusion.
White also said the reason a woman is taking paracetamol, such as to treat a fever or infection, could be what affects the mental development of the child.
“We know that women who’ve got complicated pregnancies in some way are more likely to go on to have babies that are neurodevelopmentally impacted,” he added, citing fever as a prime example.
9/23/2025
Escalator and teleprompter (Trump’s team hit the stop button, and the teleprompter was Trump’s, not the UN)
What happened (according to media reports)
As Trump and First Lady Melania entered the UN building, an escalator (some reports say “elevator,” but most say escalator) abruptly stopped while they were on it. Reuters+2AP News+2
When Trump began his address, the teleprompter (which typically displays the speech text) initially failed to show his remarks. He paused and made jokes about it, saying “whoever’s operating this teleprompter is in big trouble.” PBS+4People.com+4EW.com+4
After a short delay (about 15 seconds, per some reports), the teleprompter resumed and he proceeded. PBS+3People.com+3EW.com+3
He summarized the glitches with a quip:
“These are the two things I got from the United Nations — a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter.” Reuters+2People.com+2
Disputes / clarifications
The UN has pushed back on the implication that their equipment was at fault. They say the teleprompter was run by the White House team, not the UN itself. EW.com
On the escalator incident, UN officials said the stoppage was likely triggered by a safety mechanism (to prevent entrapment) which may have been accidentally activated — possibly by someone from Trump’s entourage filming their entrance. Reuters+2AP News+2
After his speech, the President of the UN General Assembly affirmed that the UN’s internal teleprompters were working correctly. Reuters+2EW.com+2
2025
Key Alleged / Established Trump Violations
Hatch Act violations
A report from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel found that at least 13 senior Trump administration officials improperly mixed government work with campaign activity. They violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits certain federal employees from engaging in political campaigning while performing their official duties. The report also criticized Trump for allowing these violations and not disciplining those responsible. The Washington PostIgnoring or defying court orders
An analysis by The Washington Post found that in about one-third of more than 160 lawsuits where substantive rulings were issued against the Trump administration, the administration was accused of not complying with those rulings. The Washington Post
In particular, there are cases where federal judges have blocked executive orders or directives issued by Trump, but the administration has allegedly worked around or delayed compliance. The Washington Post+1
Misuse of charitable foundation funds
The Trump Foundation was found to have violated laws governing charitable organizations: misusing tax-exempt funds for political and business purposes, making improper payments (e.g. a portrait of Trump), etc. A judge ordered Trump to pay damages. The GuardianGag order violations / contempt of court
In New York hush-money trials, Trump was fined for violating court gag orders that barred him from making public statements about witnesses and jurors. AP News
Also, in civil fraud proceedings, he was fined for violating gag orders regarding personal attacks on court staffers. AP NewsElectoral / election-law / constitutional violations alleged around Jan. 6, 2020 election
The House Jan. 6 select committee alleged (from its investigations) that Trump and some of his allies may have violated several laws in attempting to obstruct Congress’s certification of the election result, and engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States. PoliticoHandling of classified / presidential records
There is a federal case concerning Trump’s holding onto classified documents after his presidency (at Mar-a-Lago etc.), allegedly contrary to requirements under the Presidential Records Act and other laws. WikipediaForeign Emoluments Clause / “emoluments” lawsuits
Lawsuits (like Blumenthal v. Trump) have alleged that Trump violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution by accepting payments, gifts, or benefits from foreign governments without Congressional approval. WikipediaImpoundment Control Act / Congressional power of the purse
According to some scholarly commentary, an example is the Trump administration’s attempt to freeze or withhold large amounts in federal spending without following required procedures. Experts say that may have violated the Impoundment Control Act (which restricts the president’s ability to withhold funds appropriated by Congress). The Guardian+1But try to imagine the current situation. Try to taste it. Blatant nepotism; a poisonous mix of stupidity, corruption and shameless self-interest, eating away at America’s civil society, supported and cheered on by one of the major parties. If you love and respect American values, the taste may be physical: it’ll bring bile into your mouth.
Fact-Checking Trump’s U.N. Speech
The president made inaccurate claims about the economy, renewable energy and the mayor of London.-
- He claimed that millions of people “from prisons, from mental institutions” all over the world had crossed the United States’ southern border. (There is no evidence for this.)
- He claimed to have “ended seven unending wars” since taking office in January. (His role in some of those conflicts is disputed.)
- He misleadingly claimed that the Biden administration “lost nearly 300,000 children” and many were trafficked or dead. (The figure is inflated and there is no evidence that many had died.)
- He falsely claimed that 300,000 Americans died last year from drug overdoses. (The number was about 80,000.)
- He falsely characterized Washington, D.C., as “the crime capital of America” (it was not). But since the federal takeover, “everyone’s going out to dinner.” (Dining reservations were level).
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He falsely claimed “Not only is the U.N. not solving the problems it should—too often, it is actually creating NEW problems…. The United Nations is FUNDING an assault on Western countries and their borders… The U.N. is supposed to STOP invasions—not CREATE them and not FINANCE them.”
No — the United Nations is not funding any assault on Western countries or their borders.
Here’s some context:
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The UN is an international organization with 193 member states. Its funding primarily supports humanitarian aid, peacekeeping, development, refugee assistance, and climate programs.
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Agencies like the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM, linked to the UN) work with displaced people worldwide — sometimes helping them apply for resettlement in Western countries.
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Critics sometimes interpret refugee or migration aid programs as encouraging migration to Europe or North America. But the UN does not organize or fund “assaults” on borders. Its role is usually coordinating humanitarian relief, not directing migration.
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Actual border and immigration policies are controlled by individual countries, not by the UN.
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The Latest on the Trump Administration
- Tylenol and Autism: President Trump and health officials urged pregnant women not to use acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, claiming it could cause autism. The proclamation ignored decades of scientific research.
- Antifa: Trump signed an executive order targeting the left-wing antifascist movement, threatening “investigatory and prosecutorial action” against those who financially support it.
- Lindsey Halligan: Though she has no prosecutorial experience, the former Trump defense attorney was sworn in as the top U.S. prosecutor in eastern Virginia, where she will take over the cases of two people despised by the president.
- Border Czar: The White House denied that Tom Houman, Trump’s border chief, accepted $50,000 in cash as part of an undercover F.B.I. investigation in 2024, contradicting news reports.
- H-1B Visa Program: The visa granted to skilled professional workers lured a generation of Indians to take part in the American dream, but President Trump’s proclamation imposing a $100,000 fee has forced a rethink of the route. Here’s what to know about the program.
- Argentina: The administration pledged to support the country’s struggling economy, throwing a lifeline to President Javier Milei, a Trump ally, ahead of legislative elections there next month.
- Russia: President Trump said In the event that Russia is not ready to make a deal to end the war, then the United States is fully prepared to impose a very strong round of powerful tariffs… But for those tariffs to be effective, European nations would have to join us in adopting the exact same measures… they have to immediately cease ALL energy purchases from Russia. (Not a reality)
SEPTEMBER 22, 2025
President Donald Trump is worried that Attorney General Pam Bondi is moving too slowly to prosecute his political adversaries on fake charges. Trump has good reason to be concerned. He is carrying out his project to consolidate authoritarian power against the trend of declining public support for his administration and himself. He is like a man trying to race upward on a downward-moving escalator. If he loses the race, he will be pulled ever deeper below—and the escalator keeps moving faster against him.
Autocracies are headed by one man but require the cooperation of many others. Some collaborators may sincerely share the autocrat’s goals, but opportunists provide a crucial margin of support. In the United States, such people now have to make a difficult calculation: Do the present benefits of submitting to Trump’s will outweigh the future hazards?
As Bondi makes her daily decisions about whether to abuse her powers to please Trump, she has to begin with one big political assessment: Will Trump ultimately retain the power to reward and punish her? It’s not just about keeping her present job. On the one hand, people in Trump’s favor can make a lot of money from their proximity to power. On the other, Richard Nixon’s attorney general, John Mitchell, served 19 months in prison for his crimes during Watergate. If Trump’s hold on power loosens, Bondi could share Mitchell’s fate.
Trump’s hold on power is indeed loosening. His standing with the voting public is quickly deteriorating. Grocery prices jumped in August 2025 at the fastest speed since the peak of the post-pandemic inflation in 2022. Job growth has stalled to practically zero.
Almost two-thirds of Americans disapprove of higher tariffs, Trump’s signature economic move. His administration’s attack on vaccines for young children is even more unpopular. This year has brought the highest number of measles cases since the Clinton administration introduced free universal vaccination for young children in 1993. Parents may be rightly shocked and angry.
Shortly after MSNBC reported that Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, had accepted $50,000 in cash from FBI agents posing as businessmen last year, allegedly in exchange for a promise to help secure government contracts, the pro-Trump podcaster Megyn Kelly posted, “We DO NOT CARE.” This kind of acquiescence to corruption has been one of Trump’s most important resources. But the American people become a lot less tolerant of corruption in their leaders when they feel themselves under economic pressure. As of early August, nearly two-thirds of Americans regarded Trump as corrupt, 45 percent as “very corrupt.” More than 60 percent think the Trump administration is covering up the Jeffrey Epstein case. Almost 60 percent regard Bondi personally responsible for the cover-up.
The MAGA project in many ways resembles one of former businessman Donald Trump’s dangerously leveraged real-estate deals. A comparatively small number of fanatics are heart-and-soul committed. Through them, Trump controls the Republican apparatus and the right-wing media world, which allows him to do things like gerrymander states where he is in trouble (50 percent of Texans now disapprove of Trump, while only 43 percent approve) or wield the enforcement powers of the Federal Communications Commission to silence on-air critics. But overleveraged structures are susceptible to external shocks and internal mistakes.
Trump in his first term mostly avoided screwing up the economy. His trade wars with China triggered a nearly 20 percent stock-market slump in the fall and early winter of 2018. Trump retreated, and no recession followed the slump until the COVID shock of 2020. But in his second term, Trump has jettisoned his former economic caution. The stock market is doing fine in 2025 on hopes of interest-rate cuts. The real economy is worsening. The percentage of Americans who think the country is on the “wrong track” rose sharply over the summer. Even self-identified Republicans are now more negative than positive.
The souring is especially bitter among younger people. More than 60 percent of Republicans younger than 45 say things are on the wrong track, a 30-point deterioration over the three summer months.
Trump has a shrewd instinct for survival. He must sense that if he does not act now to prevent free and fair elections in 2026, he will lose much of his power—and all of his impunity. That’s why he is squeezing Bondi. But for her, the thought process must be very different. Trump is hoping to offload culpability for his misconduct onto her. She’s the one most directly at risk if she gives orders later shown to be unethical or illegal.
The survival of American rights and liberties may now turn less on the question of whether Pam Bondi is a person of integrity—which we already know the dismal answer to—than whether she is willing to risk her career and maybe even her personal freedom for a president on his way to repudiation unless he can fully pervert the U.S. legal system and the 2026 elections.
I’m afraid Pam Bondi is going to have to pay for what she did to destroy the Republic. Steven Miller too. And the rest of them. They hitched their wagon to the star of a demented old man who is clearly very unhealthy. No thousand-year reich for the MAGAt kingdom.
Once Trump is gone and Democrats take power back, which one day in one way or another they will, the next Attorney General won’t be a lamb like Merrick Garland. People will demand justice. Or revenge. Call it whatever you wish.
In the case of Trump and his vile minions, it’s going to be the same.
Donald Trump is deeply unpopular with most Americans and knows that he has little chance of ever uniting us all behind his racist, fascist, kleptocratic agenda. By ensuring that we’re divided, he keeps his base energized and loyal. It’s the only thing propping him up politically at this point.
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian political system that emphasizes:
Dictatorial power – one leader (Trump) controls the state.
Suppression of opposition – censorship, imprisonment, or violence against dissenters.
Nationalism – often extreme, sometimes tied to ideas of racial or cultural superiority.
Militarism and violence – glorification of war, order, and force as tools for national strength.
Control over society – limits on personal freedoms, control of media, education, and sometimes the economy (tariffs).
Mythic unity – portraying the nation as a single organic community, where individuality and class struggle are rejected in favor of collective identity.
Trump protecting his friends:
Trump Justice Dept. Closed Investigation Into Tom Homan (our border czar) for Accepting Bag of Cash
Trump degenerate corruption at its worst. He finds Homan in a bribery operation, gives him a $200,000 a year job he is not qualified for, then saves him from prosecution. Now Homan is indebted to Rump big time and will do anything Rump wants.
Mr. Homan came under scrutiny after he was said to be recorded last year taking $50,000 in cash from undercover F.B.I. agents.
Tom Homan, who was later named President Trump’s border czar, was recorded in September 2024 accepting a bag with $50,000 in cash in an undercover F.B.I. investigation, according to people familiar with the case, which was later shut down by Trump administration officials.
The cash payment, which was made inside a bag from the food chain Cava, grew out of a long-running counterintelligence investigation that had not been targeting Mr. Homan, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the case.
Mr. 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 government contracts related to border security, the people said.
After Mr. Trump took office this year, Justice Department officials shut down the case.2
Airlines will no longer be required to compensate passengers for flight delays under Trump.
- Headlining this year’s 80th General Assembly will be Trump, who calls for slashing U.S. funding for the U.N., stopped U.S. engagement with the U.N. Human Rights Council, extended a halt to funding for the Palestinian relief agency UNRWA and quit the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO. He has also announced plans to quit the Paris climate deal and the World Health Organization.
- The Trump administration is aiming to use any levers of power it has to respond to Charlie Kirk’s killing, in part to send a message to political opponents.
- ABC taking comedian Jimmy Kimmel off the air for his comments on Kirk this week is just one major highlight of the administration’s enormous pressure on ideological opponents it aims to punish.
- An official said the White House is “exploring a wide variety of options to put pen to paper to address left-wing political violence and the network of organizations that fuel and fund it,” adding that specifics continue to be discussed.
- Trump is steering the response through his own rhetoric over the last few days, insisting that the “radical left” is responsible. Top officials have made clear they would use Kirk’s death to target left-wing groups, with Vice President Vance at one point suggesting they would be dismantled.
- The president suggested on Thursday late-night shows in particular should not be allowed to overwhelmingly be critical of him when asked about Kimmel’s indefinite leave.
- “They’re 97 percent against; they give me only bad press….I would think maybe their license should be taken away,” Trump said, adding that the decision would ultimately be left up to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr.
- A former aide to Trump’s first term said Kimmel being pulled off the air is “a good case study” in the “lever pulling happening with speech and censorship.”
- “There isn’t as much handwringing over what constitutes ‘hate speech’ – they are more focused on what regulatory levers they can pull to put intense pressure on liberal Hollywood media,” the former aide said. “The White House is now using the FCC against Disney in a way we haven’t seen, threatening with license risk, merger scrutiny, spectrum headaches – and suddenly now the affiliates and advertisers are doing the policing on the White House’s behalf.”
- Republicans, meanwhile, seem to have Trump’s back on any actions he makes in the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination, argued Sam Geduldig, managing partner at GOP lobbying firm CGCN.
‘Out of Stalin’s playbook’: Massive new Trump banners on DC buildings sets off concern
- Mr. Trump has pursued retribution against political opponents in his second term. He’s used regulatory leverage against Paramount and CBS in a weak lawsuit and squeezed liberal law firms to do pro bono work, while the Justice Department is investigating prosecutors who brought cases against him. A regulator like [FCC chair Brendan] Carr who might have ignored Mr. Trump’s musings about revenge in the first term doesn’t need direct orders in the second. The squeeze on Disney looks to be a case of cancel culture on the right. Mr. Kimmel’s comments Monday associating Charlie Kirk’s killer with the “MAGA gang” were callous. But they weren’t inciting violence, and in a free society they shouldn’t be cause for the government to push someone off the airwaves.
Smith Special Counsel Investigation & Indictment (2023)
The DOJ, through Special Counsel Jack Smith, indicted Trump on August 1, 2023, on four counts related to attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Some of those charges echo what the Jan. 6 Committee had referred. Wikipedia+1Smith’s Final Report and DOJ policy
Jack Smith submitted his final report to the DOJ on January 7, 2025 and then resigned a few days later. Wikipedia+1
Volume I of the report, concerning the election-obstruction case, was publicly released on January 14, 2025. Wikipedia
Volume II (dealing with classified documents) has been subject to delays / legal limits on full release because parts of it are tied up in ongoing appeals or co-defendant cases. Wikipedia
Policy preventing prosecution of sitting president
One reason no further prosecutions arose (based on the Committee’s referrals) while Trump was in office is DOJ policy that a sitting president cannot be criminally prosecuted. After Trump was reelected and reinstalled in 2025, some of the cases or charges were dropped without prejudice. Wikipedia+1
Use of the Committee’s Materials
The first volume of Smith’s report says that DOJ used material from the Jan. 6 Committee’s December 2022 report and some materials the Committee had provided. However, those Committee materials made up “a small part” of the overall investigative record. Wikipedia+1
What hasn’t changed / What is not known
No new criminal charges have been brought solely because of the Jan. 6 Committee’s referrals beyond those already pursued by DOJ/Smith. The DOJ case largely overlapped with the referrals but wasn’t a direct result of them in all respects.
There has been no reversal yet of the policy or legal environment that blocked further proceedings while Trump was in office.
Some aspects of the referred statutes (for example incitement / insurrection under 18 U.S.C. § 2383) are not part of the charges in the indictment.
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