The Conversation -- April 16, 2025
Jacob Bogage & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration has asked the Internal Revenue Service’s top attorney to revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status, according to three people familiar with the situation, amid ... Donald Trump’s row with the institution over its handling of antisemitism and diversity practices.... Tax-exempt status is available to charitable, religious and educational organizations, as well as social welfare groups. But the organizations must adhere to tax laws that prohibit them from engaging in certain political activity. There is no proof that Harvard has violated any of those guardrails, experts say.... 'It is dangerous for any administration to even contemplate politicizing the tax code,' said Natasha Sarin, a Biden administration Treasury official and president of Yale University’s Budget Lab. 'It’s also illegal. We have protections in place in the code to make sure that the tax system isn’t weaponized by the executive branch, including the president, for political aims.'... The Trump administration has displaced numerous IRS leaders to empower political allies at the agency.” ~~~
~~~ Praveena Somasundarum of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump first made the suggestion in a Truth Social post Tuesday, proposing that 'perhaps' Harvard should lose the status and instead be taxed as a 'Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting “Sickness?”’... Federal law explicitly prohibits senior officials of the executive branch, including the president, vice president and members of their offices, from requesting the IRS conduct or cease an audit or other investigation of a taxpayer. Those found in violation of the law can face a maximum $5,000 fine and five years of prison time.... Sam Brunson ... of Loyola University Chicago School of Law, said the administration probably won’t succeed in its effort to revoke the status — and that Harvard would be well-positioned to mount a challenge.” ~~~
~~~ BUT. Evan Perez, et al., of CNN: “The Internal Revenue Service is making plans to rescind the tax-exempt status of Harvard University, according to two sources familiar with the matter, which would be an extraordinary step of retaliation as the Trump administration seeks to turn up pressure on the university that has defied its demands to change its hiring and other practices. A final decision on rescinding the university’s tax exemption is expected soon, the sources said.... Gary Shapley, whom Trump this week picked as acting IRS commissioner, has the authority to rescind the tax exemption under federal law. Doing so typically comes after the agency has made a determination that an organization has violated the rules that govern tax exemptions for not-for-profit entities.” More on Shapely linked below. MB: It certainly isn't accidental that Trump picked Shapely to head the IRS the same day he suggested revoking Harvard's tax-exempt status and the day before somebody in the administration asked the IRS to do so. I'd say there were quite a few people in the administration, starting with Trump, who are (allegedly!) eligible for that five-year prison term.
Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times: “... now we face another great test — of our Constitution, our institutions, our citizens — as ... [Donald] Trump ignores courts and sabotages universities and his officers grab people off the street. I’ve spent much of my career covering authoritarianism in other countries, and I’ve seen all this before.... The principal lawbreaking [in the case of the abduction and incarceration of Kilmar Abrego Garcia] appears to have been committed not by Abrego Garcia but by the Trump administration.... Trump prides himself on his ability to free hostages held in foreign prisons, yet he presents himself as helpless when it comes to bringing back Abrego Garcia — even though we are paying El Salvador to imprison deportees.... Trump’s defiance of the courts comes in the wider context of his attacks on law firms, universities and news organizations.... Like autocrats in China, Hungary and Russia, he’s trying to crush independent universities that might challenge his misrule.... Trump’s retaliatory funding freeze [of Harvard University] primarily strikes ... researchers affiliated with Harvard Medical School.... [This is] an administration that is not only authoritarian but also reckless; this is vandalism of the American project. That is why this moment is a test of our ability to step up and protect our national greatness from our national leader.”
Tim Balk of the New York Times: “The Associated Press said in a court filing on Wednesday that the Trump administration had defied a federal judge’s order requiring the administration to restore the wire service’s full access to the White House. Lawyers for the The A.P. wrote that a White House spokesman had told A.P. reporters on Monday that they would continue to be excluded from the press pool — a small, rotating group of journalists who cover certain events in confined spaces at the White House — because the 'case is “ongoing.’ For the last two months, The A.P.’s access to ... [Donald] Trump has been sharply curtailed over its refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, the name that Mr. Trump designated for the body of water.”
Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has begun to scrutinize the real estate transactions of New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, in what could be the opening move of ... [Donald] Trump’s first investigation into one of his foremost adversaries. The head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency sent a criminal referral letter to the Department of Justice this week, saying that Ms. James 'appeared to have falsified records' related to properties she owns in Virginia and New York in order to receive favorable loan terms. The letter was dated April 14, one day after Mr. Trump posted a story involving the claims against Ms. James on Truth Social and called her a 'crook.' It is unclear whether the allegations against Ms. James, which have been touted online for weeks by Mr. Trump’s allies, are substantive enough to merit criminal charges. Ms. James has been one of Mr. Trump’s primary opponents since her office filed a lawsuit against him in 2022, accusing him of overvaluing his assets by billions in order to receive favorable loan terms. The president has promised retribution against his political enemies.”
Comrade Rubio Shuts Down Disinformation Office. Edward Wong of the New York Times: “Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his aides shut down a State Department office on Wednesday that tracks and counters global disinformation from foreign actors, including the governments of China, Russia and Iran, U.S. officials said. The closing of the office, the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub, had been in the works for weeks. Mr. Rubio put all 40 or so of its employees on paid leave on Wednesday morning, the first step in firing them this spring. The State Department fired about 80 contractors working for the office in March and cut almost all contracts related to its work. The office had been tracking disinformation campaigns by rival powers of the United States, as well as terrorist groups, and publishing reports on them. Some Republican lawmakers in recent years have accused federal employees and nongovernment experts working on tracking disinformation of trying to stifle the views of right-wing political groups around the world.... Russian disinformation often circulates in far-right online channels. Mr. Rubio released a statement ... saying that the office and its precursor in the Biden administration had 'spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving.' Mr. Rubio did not present any evidence to support the claim.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Gosh, I remember way last year when Marco was a super-anti-dictator, anti-Russia, anti-China senator. He sure does an excellent about-face.
Marianne LeVine, et al., of the Washington Post: “Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of Washington, D.C., on Wednesday said he would launch proceedings to determine whether to hold Trump administration officials in criminal contempt for defying his order not to remove Venezuelan migrants from the country based on the wartime Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg’s order is the latest development in a broader showdown between the Trump administration and the federal judiciary, which has blocked or slowed many of the White House’s far-reaching actions. The Supreme Court ruled this month that the plaintiffs filed their lawsuit in the wrong venue, taking the central legal issues of the case away from Boasberg. Still, Boasberg moved forward with the contempt proceedings, saying that the Trump administration’s actions on March 15, as the removal flights proceeded despite his order to the contrary, 'demonstrate a willful disregard … sufficient for the Court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the Government in criminal contempt.'” At 1:00 pm ET, this is a developing story.
Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: “A federal judge has temporarily blocked ... Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency from terminating at least $14 billion in climate grants approved under President Joe Biden. U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of Washington, D.C., issued a preliminary injunction late Tuesday that prohibits the EPA from 'unlawfully suspending or terminating' the grant awards. She also ordered Citibank, which was tasked with disbursing the funds, to release the money to the grant recipients. The decision deals yet another setback to the Trump administration’s efforts to freeze climate spending across the government. Another federal judge ruled Tuesday that agencies must release billions in additional climate funding that had been paused since Inauguration Day.” (See story by Praveena Somasundarum of the WashPo linked earlier today.)
Su-prise, Su-prise. Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: “When some of the nation’s biggest law firms agreed to deals with ... [Donald] Trump, the terms appeared straightforward: In return for escaping the full force of his retribution campaign, the firms would do some free legal work on behalf of largely uncontroversial causes like helping veterans. Mr. Trump, it turns out, has a far more expansive view of what those firms can be called on to do. Over the last week, he has suggested that the firms will be drafted into helping him negotiate trade deals. He has mused about having them help with his goal of reviving the coal industry. And he has hinted that he sees the promises of nearly $1 billion in pro bono legal services that he has extracted from the elite law firms — including Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; and Willkie Farr & Gallagher — as a legal war chest to be used as he wishes.... White House officials believe that some of the pro bono legal work could even be used toward representing Mr. Trump or his allies if they became ensnared in investigations, according to the two people.... The emerging gap between what the firms initially thought they agreed to and what Mr. Trump says they can be used for shows how the deals did little to insulate them from his whims.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Who could have seen this coming? Oh, everybody except the top lawyers at the top U.S. lawfirms. Indeed, I expect the terms, at least in some of the agreements, are straightforward, & the lawyers probably figured they could wriggle lawyer-like out of every objectionable claim Trump made on their free time. Maybe they still can, but if so, it will likely cost them hours in otherwise billable time to defend themselves against Trump's demands.
Robert Jimison of the New York Times: “Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, traveled to El Salvador on Wednesday to press for the release of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant and Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration and remains imprisoned in his native country.... Mr. Van Hollen had said he hoped to visit Mr. Abrego Garcia at the maximum security prison where he is being held, known as CECOT, about an hour outside the country’s capital. The senator also said he hoped to talk to Salvadoran officials about securing Mr. Abrego Garcia’s release. 'Following his abduction and unlawful deportation, U.S. federal courts have ordered the safe return of my constituent Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States,' Mr. Van Hollen said in a statement before his departure. 'It should be a priority of the U.S. government to secure his safe release.'” The NBC News story is here.
Edith Olmsted of the New Republic, republished by Yahoo! News: “Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said Tuesday that leaders from cities and states with sanctuary policies could expect to face prosecution very soon. A reporter outside of the White House asked Homan whether he believed that the leaders of sanctuary states and cities should be 'prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and possibly go to prison,' alleging that they’d violated law prohibiting U.S. citizens from transporting, smuggling, or harboring undocumented immigrants. 'Absolutely, and hold tight on that one,' Homan replied. "’Cus it’s coming. It’s coming.'” Thanks to RAS for the lead.
It's Just a Coincidence! Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: “Thirty-eight of 43 people cut last month from the boards that review the science that happens in laboratories at the National Institutes of Health are female, Black or Hispanic, according to an analysis by the chairs of a dozen of the boards.... Six percent of White males who serve on boards were fired, compared with half of Black and Hispanic females and a quarter of all females, according to the analysis. Of 36 Black and Hispanic board members, close to 40 percent were fired, compared to 16 percent of White board members. The chairs’ analysis calculated the likelihood that this would have happened by chance as 1 in 300.... The Department of Health and Human Services strongly denied that race or gender played a role in why people were targeted, but it did not offer an explanation for the pattern.” MB: Probably they just showed the pictures of board members to Trump, and he picked the ones he liked. So not racist or anything.
Jeremy Roebuck of the Washington Post: “The Justice Department sued Maine’s Department of Education on Wednesday over its refusal to comply with demands to ban transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports, an escalation of a months-long standoff over the issue between the Trump administration and the state. Attorney General Pam Bondi accused state officials of discriminating against women and endangering the safety of female athletes through policies that support transgender inclusion.... Gov. Janet Mills (D) and the state’s Democratic attorney general, Aaron Frey, have repeatedly challenged the administration’s interpretation of federal law on the issue and contend that the participation of trans athletes is protected by state statutes. In a statement, Mills called the lawsuit part of a 'campaign to pressure the State of Maine to ignore the Constitution and abandon the rule of law.'”
David DiMolfetta of NextGov/FCW: “A user with a Russian IP address tried to log into National Labor Relations Board systems just minutes after the Department of Government Efficiency moved to access and extract troves of sensitive data from inside the agency, according to an extensive whistleblower disclosure released Tuesday. The whistleblower, Daniel Berulis, provided forensic evidence and internal documentation to Congress and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, accusing DOGE of exfiltrating large volumes of confidential data and disabling various security monitoring systems used to scan for malicious behavior in NLRB’s networks, NPR first reported. The user attempting to log in relied on a newly created DOGE email account and the attempts were 'near real-time,' according to the Berulis disclosure. It’s not clear whether the user was actually in Russia because hackers often use techniques to remotely mask their true location. The login attempts were blocked, but the person used a correct username and password, suggesting that adversaries may already be testing entry points potentially exposed by DOGE’s activities across the government.” Thanks to RAS for the link. See also RAS's comment below. Also, read the original NPR story (linked in DiMolfetta's report), as it contains additional scary information. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I don't know, of course, if the DOGE kidz are compromising federal data systems (a) because they're incompetent, or (b) because they're competent, and they had every intention to share info with Elon's Russian friends, for instance. Berulis appeared on both Jake Tapper's CNN show (here) and on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show, so Tapper & Maddow are taking him seriously.
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Steve Thompson of the Washington Post: “A federal judge on Tuesday said she will require Trump administration officials to produce in-depth details about the U.S. governments attempts, or lack thereof, to return a Maryland resident who was apprehended by immigration authorities and mistakenly sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador. The decision from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis to require documents and written explanations marks another escalation in the legal showdown with the White House. The case has widespread implications, with Justice Department lawyers arguing that the judge lacks the authority to force them to coordinate with the Salvadoran government to bring Kilmar Abrego García back to the United States. 'It’s going to be two weeks of intense discovery,' Xinis told Justice Department attorneys at the hearing.” (Also linked yesterday.) The story has been updated. The New York Times report is here. Politico's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Thin “Evidence” Gets Thinner. Greg Sargent of the New Republic, republished by Yahoo! News: “As Trump administration officials seek to defend their refusal to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States after deporting him in 'error,' one of the government’s chief justifications has been that he was a member of the MS-13 gang. One Trump official after another has lodged the charge, though Abrego Garcia denies this and the evidence for it is conspicuously thin.... The administration’s case that Abrego Garcia is a gang member and violent criminal is running into more trouble. The Maryland police officer who formally attested to Abrego Garcia’s supposed gang affiliation in 2019 — when he was detained the first time — was subsequently suspended from the force for a serious transgression: giving confidential information about a case to a sex worker....” ~~~
~~~ ⭐Yes, Trump 2.0 Is Much Worse Than Trump 1.0. Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: In 2018, the previous Trump administration erroneously deported an Iraqi immigrant to Iraq, Muneer Subaihani, who had been living in the U.S. for 25 years under the protection of a federal court order. “The case has striking similarities to one that is playing out now in Mr. Trump’s second term, after the United States deported a Salvadoran man because of what the government has acknowledged was an 'administrative error.' But the Trump administration’s response in the two cases could not be more different, a sign of how emboldened Mr. Trump has become in his defiance of the courts and in his determination to take a hard line on deportations, regardless of legal constraints. In Mr. Subaihani’s case, the government recognized its error to the federal court, setting off a monthslong odyssey to track down and retrieve a man who never should have been deported in the first place.” ~~~
~~~ Adam Liptak of the New York Times: “The Trump administration’s compliance with court orders started with foot-dragging, moved to semantic gymnastics and has now arrived at the cusp of outright defiance. Large swaths of President Trump’s agenda have been tied up in court, challenged in scores of lawsuits. The administration has frozen money that the courts have ordered it to spend. It has blocked The Associated Press from the White House press pool despite a court order saying that the news organization be allowed to participate. And it ignored a judge’s instruction to return planes carrying Venezuelan immigrants bound for a notorious prison in El Salvador. But Exhibit A in what legal scholars say is a deeply worrisome and escalating trend is the administration’s combative response to the Supreme Court’s ruling last week in the case of a Salvadoran immigrant. The administration deported the immigrant, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, to El Salvador despite a 2019 ruling from an immigration judge specifically and directly prohibiting that very thing....
“Assessing whether, when and how much the administration is defying the courts is complicated by a new phenomenon, legal scholars said, pointing to what they called a collapse in the credibility of representations by the Justice Department. These days, its lawyers are sometimes sent to court with no information, sometimes instructed to make arguments that are factually or legally baseless and sometimes punished for being honest.” Liptak goes into detail about the administration's obfuscations. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Donald Trump's press secretaries have been historically, hysterically awful, and Karoline Leavitt is doing her best to keep up with the likes of Sean Spicer & Sarah Huckleberry. Here's Leavitt making fun of one young man the Trump administration wrongfully deported to a foreign torture prison and excoriating Democrats & journalists for treating him like "a candidate for Father of the Year."
~~~ Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: “More than a constitutional crisis, this is a fundamentally tyrannical assertion of illegitimate power. To claim the authority to remand any American, citizen or otherwise, to a distant prison beyond the reach of any legal remedy is to violate centuries of Anglo-American legal tradition and shatter the very foundations of constitutional government in the United States. It is to reduce the citizens of a republic to the subjects of a king. It is, in the language of the American revolutionaries, to enslave the people to a singular, arbitrary will. It is not for nothing that among the accusations listed in the Declaration of Independence is the charge that the king is guilty of 'transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences.'” Bouie compares the plight of Americans now to that of “the fraught legal status of free Black Americans in the antebellum United States.” Emphasis added.
~~~ "State Terror." Timothy Snyder on Substack: "Yesterday the president defied a Supreme Court ruling to return a man who was mistakenly sent to a gulag in another country, celebrated the suffering of this innocent person, and spoke of sending Americans to foreign concentration camps. This is the beginning of an American policy of state terror, and it has to be identified as such to be stopped.... Basic to the [U.S.] Constitution is habeas corpus, the notion that the government cannot seize your body without a legal justification for doing so. If that does not hold, then nothing else does.... Trump spoke of asking Attorney General Pam Bondi to find legal ways to abduct Americans and leave them in foreign concentration camps. But by 'legal' what is meant are ways of escaping law, not applying it. It is that anti-constitutional escapism that enables abuse.... In the history of state terror, the escape from law into coercion takes three forms, all of which were on display, incipiently, in the White House yesterday: the leader principle; the state of exception; and the zone of statelessness." In the third instance, Snyder compares Abrego Garcia's rendition to El Salvador from which Trump claims he is unable to retrieve the wrongly-jailed man to the Nazis concentration camps, most of which were outside of Germany, and the Nazis claimed they were beyong German control. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Edward Luce of the Financial Times: "At around noon on April 14 2025, America ceased to have a law-abiding government.... On Monday..., Trump chose to ignore a 9-0 Supreme Court ruling to repatriate an illegally deported man. He even claimed the judges ruled in his favour. The US president’s middle finger to the court was echoed by his attorney-general, secretary of state, vice-president and El Salvador’s vigilante president Nayib Bukele. The latter is playing host to what resembles an embryonic US gulag. Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. In terms of clarifying moments, Trump’s meeting with Bukele compares with his dressing down of Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy in late February. Zelenskyy was berated for being insufficiently thankful for US military aid and for failing to wear a suit. A tieless Bukele, by contrast, got royal treatment. Trump’s team nodded when Bukele said he would not consider returning the wrongly deported Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. All baselessly agreed that Garcia was in fact a terrorist. The Oval Office drama offered a civics lesson to the world: America’s government pays greater respect to a foreign strongman than its own Supreme Court." MB: I had to sign up for FT, which was annoying. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Then, there are stories like these: ~~~
(1) Hard to Tell Who the Criminal Is. Gerardo Salinas of the New Bedford (Mass.) Light: "A Guatemalan immigrant with no Massachusetts criminal record was arrested Monday on Tallman Street after federal agents shattered the glass on his vehicle as he and his wife waited inside the car for their lawyer to arrive. Juan Francisco Méndez, 29, who was taken to an undisclosed location, has been in the United States for two years and was undocumented, but pursuing an adjustment of his immigration status, according to his attorney, Ondine Gálvez. Méndez’s wife, Marilú, a beneficiary of an asylum program, had petitioned for him so he could regularize his status. They are the parents of one child.... In video shot by Marilú and shared with The Light, one of the agents demanded that they open the door. Méndez replied that he would comply once his lawyer arrived, who was already on her way to assist him." ~~~
(2) Jericho Tran of NBC 10 Boston: "A New Hampshire real estate attorney and American citizen returning home from Canada says he was detained at the border without an explanation. Bachir Atallah and his wife, Jessica Fakhri, were traveling back from a quick family trip Sunday when they say U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped them when reentering the country in Vermont. 'I literally drove my car to Canada for the weekend, and on the way back, I was treated like a criminal,' said Atallah, who has been a U.S. citizen for 10 years. An official for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol on Tuesday called Atallah's account 'blatantly false and sensationalized.'... Atallah recalled being forced from his car. 'He asked me, "Exit the vehicle right now," and he reached for his gun,' he said. 'I said, "OK, I'm exiting the vehicle, keep your gun at your waist."'... After nearly five hours, Bachir Atallah says he and his wife were released." The Border Patrol statement appears at the bottom of the report. MB: Seems obvious to me the couple's offense was travelling while Arab. Weirdly, Atallah said he had thought Trump would "change things for the better."
Zach Montague of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Tuesday blocked ... [Donald] Trump from punishing the law firm Susman Godfrey, calling the retribution campaign he has waged from the White House against the nation’s top firms 'a shocking abuse of power.' In her ruling, the judge, Loren L. AliKhan of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, said that the executive order Mr. Trump signed last week targeting the firm stemmed from a 'personal vendetta.' Susman Godfrey represented Dominion, a manufacturer of voting machines that lawyers allied with Mr. Trump falsely attacked when he lost the 2020 election. The court decision grants the firm’s request for temporary relief and blocks the Trump administration from carrying out many of the order’s punishments, including one directing agencies to turn the firm’s lawyers away from federal buildings and another aimed at terminating any federal contracts Susman Godfrey holds.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Julie Bosman, et al., of the New York Times: “Joseph R. Biden Jr. forcefully defended Social Security in a speech to disability advocates in Chicago on Tuesday, condemning the Trump administration for 'taking a hatchet' to the Social Security Administration. In his first expansive public comments since leaving the White House, Mr. Biden said that President Trump had taken aim at Social Security, doing 'damage and destruction' to a program that millions of Americans depend on. 'Social Security deserves to be protected for the good of the nation as a whole,' Mr. Biden said, adding that Trump officials are applying a Silicon Valley mantra of 'move fast and break things' to the government. 'Well, they’re certainly breaking things. They’re shooting first and aiming later.'... Mr. Biden said that during his own administration, the Social Security Administration cut wait times, improved antifraud measures and made the appeals system for benefits more uniform. 'It all became more efficient and more effective,' he said, drawing applause from the audience, a group of hundreds of lawyers and other professionals who advocate on behalf of people with disabilities.”
Amanda Friedman of Politico: “... Donald Trump threatened to eliminate Harvard University’s tax-exempt status, following the Ivy League school’s refusal to implement policy changes demanded by his administration. '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?’” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Tuesday.... He added: 'Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!' Basically all major colleges and universities are tax-exempt organizations, and the government revoking that status over policy disagreements would be unprecedented.” MB: This is entirely consistent with Trump's “L'État, c'est moi” frame. In his view, the “public interest” is indistinguishable from his interest. (Also linked yesterday.)
Praveena Somasundarum of the Washington Post: “Five government agencies must release billions of dollars in funding for climate and infrastructure-related projects that had been paused by the Trump administration, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, a Trump appointee, issued a temporary injunction that instructs the administration to release the funds while the lawsuit proceeds. The injunction applies nationwide.... The lawsuit names as defendants the Agriculture, Energy, Interior and Housing departments, along with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Office of Management and Budget. It alleges that the funding freeze they carried out was illegal and imperiled climate and infrastructure projects, including programs to protect ancient trees and monitor species that can infest and kill them.... Donald Trump paused the awards given through the two statutes — the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — with an executive order on his first day in office.”
Shannon Najmabadi & Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration on Tuesday named a political ally who raised concerns about Hunter Biden’s taxes as the new acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, according to two people familiar with the matter. Gary Shapley was elevated in March to become the deputy chief of IRS criminal investigations and a senior adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. He was previously a mid-level career investigator. But soon after his promotion, IRS acting commissioner Melanie Krause announced plans to leave the agency, making her the third IRS leader to step down since ... Donald Trump took office.... Shapley’s swift elevation alarmed some current and former IRS officials, who told The Washington Post they were concerned that his roles within criminal investigations — and atop the agency — could consolidate the Trump administration’s power over both criminal and civil tax investigations, as well as audits, for the first time since Richard M. Nixon’s presidency.”
Maeve Reston of the Washington Post: “California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) are suing the Trump administration in federal court — claiming that ... Donald Trump exceeded his authority in imposing tariffs that they say are creating immediate and irreparable harm to California’s economy, the fifth-largest in the world. In the lawsuit that will be filed Wednesday morning in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Bonta and Newsom are challenging Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. They say the president cannot impose tariffs or direct Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security to enforce them without the consent of Congress.... Newsom argued that the tariffs have already inflicted billions of dollars in damage on the state’s economy.... California is the nation’s top agricultural producer, and it has a huge manufacturing sector that employs more than a million people. Mexico, Canada and China are California’s top three trade partners, and more than 40 percent of California’s imports come from those three countries — accounting for $203 billion of the $491 billion in goods that the state imported last year.” Politico's story is here.
David Lynch of the Washington Post: “The U.S. dollar is an early casualty of ... Donald Trump’s us-against-the-world trade war. The dollar has lost almost 10 percent of its value since Inauguration Day, with more than half of that decline coming this month after the president’s decision to lift taxes on imported goods to their highest level since 1909. The weaker dollar — now near a three-year low against the euro — is bad news for Americans traveling abroad and could also aggravate inflation by making foreign goods more expensive. U.S. exporters, however, should gain.”
The Insidious, Creeping DOGE Monster. Perry Stein of the Washington Post: “U.S. DOGE Service representatives told leaders of a nonprofit group Tuesday that it wants to assign members of its team to work at all institutes or agencies that receive federal funds, highlighting its aggressiveness as it attempts to reshape the federal government.... A 20-minute phone call involved two members of DOGE and attorneys for the Vera Institute of Justice, with DOGE representatives revealing plans to potentially attach its team members to more organizations and institutes that receive government funding, according to representatives of the institute.... A member of DOGE last week emailed the Vera Institute of Justice — an independent nonprofit organization that advocates for lower incarceration rates — to schedule a meeting about 'getting a DOGE team assigned to the organization.'...” The Raw Story has a derivative report here.
Mohar Chatterjee of Politico: “Under pressure from the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, nearly all the staff of the Defense Digital Service — the Pentagon’s fast-track tech development arm — are resigning over the coming month.... The resignations will effectively shut down the decade-old program after the end of April.... Without the program, some key efforts to streamline the DOD’s tech talent pipeline and counter adversarial drones will be sunset, one soon-to-be former employee said. Once dubbed the Pentagon’s 'SWAT team of nerds,' DDS was one of the department’s earliest efforts to inject Silicon Valley ethos into its massive bureaucracy.... 'The reason we stuck it out as long as we have is that we thought we were going to be called in,' said [Jennifer] Hay[, the director of the office]. Instead, according to interviews, they were sidelined by DOGE’s efforts. Several other digital modernization efforts within the government have met similar fates.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I suspect DOGE is sidelining these digital workers throughout the government because they are the only ones who can tell right away what DOGE is doing. Once users realize DOGE has screwed up their systems, it may be too late to fix them.
Greg Jaffe of the New York Times: “A top adviser of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was escorted from the Pentagon on Tuesday as part of an investigation into an unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information, a U.S. defense official said. Dan Caldwell, who was identified as part of an ongoing leak investigation, was placed on administrative leave, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Since arriving at the Pentagon with Mr. Hegseth in January, Mr. Caldwell has accompanied the defense secretary to some of his meetings with key foreign leaders. In a Signal text chain first disclosed by The Atlantic last month, Mr. Caldwell was listed as Mr. Hegseth’s representative to the White House as it prepared to launch strikes in Yemen.... Mr. Caldwell and Mr. Hegseth have a long relationship....” The Reuters report, which broke the news, is here. ~~~
~~~ Daniel Lippman & Jack Detsch of Politico: “Dan Caldwell ... was escorted out of the Pentagon by security officers and had his building access suspended pending further investigation.... Darin Selnick, the Pentagon’s deputy chief of staff, was also suspended as part of the same probe and escorted out of the building, according to one of the officials. The leaks under investigation include military operational plans for the Panama canal, a second carrier headed to the Red Sea, Elon Musk’s controversial visit to the Pentagon and pausing the collection of intelligence to Ukraine, the other official said.” MB: Ha ha. The Reuters & NYT reports, as well as Politico's report, of course, all are the result of leaks.
Marc Caputo of Axios: "Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suspended two top Pentagon officials, Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick, as part of an investigation into who leaked word of a planned top-secret briefing on China for Elon Musk.... Axios learned that Musk or Hegseth didn't just decide to call off that briefing after the leak.... [Donald] Trump himself ordered staffers to kill it. 'What the f**k is Elon doing there? Make sure he doesn't go,' Trump said, a top official recalled to Axios.... [After the New York Times reported on March 20 that Musk was slated for the Pentagon China briefing], Musk wrote on X: 'I look forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT. They will be found.'" And so they were.
Maegan Vazquez & Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post: “The White House said Tuesday that it has eliminated a permanent spot for wire services in the White House press pool, ending a long-standing tradition that allowed the outlets to have expanded access to the president’s public activities. According to a White House official, the pool will consist of one print journalist to serve as print pooler; one additional print journalist; a television network crew; a secondary television network or streaming service; one radio journalist; one 'new media/independent journalist'; and four photographers. The wire services in the pool usually included the Associated Press, Bloomberg News and Reuters.... But since February, the Associated Press had been banned from White House events over the outlet’s decision to continue using the name Gulf of Mexico rather than Gulf of America.... White House Correspondents’ Association President Eugene Daniels said in a statement on Tuesday that the latest changes to the structure of the pool 'show that the White House is just using a new means to do the same thing: retaliate against news organizations for coverage the White House doesn’t like.'” The AP's story is here.
Comrade Martin: “A Brilliant Choice.” Spencer Hsu & Aaron Schaffer of the Washington Post: Ed “Martin is now interim U.S. attorney for D.C. and Trump’s pick to serve full time in the role. But as a conservative activist and former Missouri Republican official, he appeared more than 150 times on RT and Sputnik — networks funded and directed by the Russian government — as a guest commentator from August 2016 to April 2024, according to a search of their websites and the Internet Archive’s database of television broadcasts. Martin did not disclose the appearances last month on a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire, which asks nominees to list all media interviews.... Martin’s frequent appearances, reviewed by The Washington Post, drew rebukes from some national security analysts, who accused him of amplifying anti-American propaganda on Russian outlets that the State Department last year said had moved beyond disinformation to engage in covert influence activities aimed at undermining democracies worldwide for President Vladimir Putin’s regime.... He is among a segment of American conservatives who appear to agree with Moscow’s geopolitical views and foreign policy aims, while embracing a worldview distrustful of U.S. institutions and experts, similar to disinformation pushed by the Kremlin.” MB: Too bad there's no senator for D.C. to blue-slip Comrade Martin. ~~~
~~~ Carl Hulse of the New York Times: “Senator Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat and minority leader, will be the first to challenge Mr. Trump on his selections [of federal prosecutors], by refusing to return blue slips consenting to consider the nominees for two top posts in New York: Jay Clayton to be the U.S. attorney for the Southern District and Joseph Nocella Jr. to be the lead prosecutor in the Eastern District.... In a recent interview, Senator Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who leads the Judiciary Committee, said that he intended to respect the blue slip tradition. Given Mr. Schumer’s stance, that means the two high-priority nominations of Mr. Trump are on track to die in the committee without receiving a vote.... The blue slip tradition is neither a law nor a rule. But like many things in the Senate, it has taken hold over time and is now considered sacrosanct.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: It is heartening to see White rural Iowans stand up for Abrego Garcia, just as it was the other day when mostly White National Building Trades Union members cheered President Sean McGarvey's demand that Abrego Garcia (a union member apprentice) be returned to the U.S.
Michael Gold of the New York Times: “Angry constituents on Tuesday confronted Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, about President ... [Donald] Trump’s refusal to bring back a Salvadoran immigrant mistakenly sent to a prison in El Salvador. In the most heated exchange of an hourlong town hall in the Southeast corner of his state, Mr. Grassley, 91, was asked by a shouting audience member whether he would do anything to help secure the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was deported last month.... 'Are you going to bring that guy back from El Salvador?' The question was met with enthusiastic claps from many in the crowd of about 100. 'I’m not going to,' Mr. Grassley said. Pressed to explain his stance, he added, 'Because that’s not a power of Congress.'... Others in the audience began piling on. Some noted that Mr. Grassley chairs the Judiciary Committee, which oversees immigration policy and judges, prompting the senator to stammer, then fall silent and wait for the shouting to die down before trying to respond. 'El Salvador is an independent country,' Mr. Grassley said. 'The president of that country is not subject to our U.S. Supreme Court.' The crowd practically erupted in jeers. The discussion was representative of the tone throughout the town hall, a standing-room-only event in Fort Madison, Iowa, in which the eight-term senator was repeatedly pressed about why he was not doing more to rein in the Trump administration.”
Maya Miller of the New York Times: “A town hall for Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia outside of Atlanta on Tuesday quickly deteriorated into chaos, as police officers forcibly removed several protesters. Ms. Greene ... had barely reached the podium to speak when a man in the crowd at the Acworth Community Center stood up and started yelling, booing and jeering at her.... Several police officers grabbed the man, later identified by the police as Andrew Russell Nelms of Atlanta, and dragged him out of the room. 'I can’t breathe!' Mr. Nelms shouted, interjecting with expletives as he was told to put his arms behind his back. The police then used a stun gun on him twice.... Minutes later..., police forcibly removed and used a stun gun on a second man, identified later as Johnny Keith Williams of Dallas, Ga., who had stood up and started to heckle.... Over the next hour, as Ms. Greene trumpeted the efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency to shrink the government and played clips of herself railing against witnesses in committee hearings, police officers escorted at least six people from the room.... Three people, including the two who were subdued with stun guns, were arrested.” The AP report is here.
~~~~~~~~~~
Tennessee. Ruby Mellen & Ian Livingston of the Washington Post: “Tucker Humphrey and his brother Justin, both farmers in Bogota, Tennessee, used an excavator to build a levee that protected their family’s home as a catastrophic storm ripped through the middle of the country earlier this month.... Aerial footage that showed the Humphrey home as the only untouched residence in a sea of brown floodwater went viral.... The family has always built levees when floods threatened the home. It’s a technique perfected by the brothers’ father, who died several years ago. Tucker said he wasn’t used to the internet attention, but he thought his father would be proud. 'He’d like seeing that,' Tucker said. 'He’d know we were listening when we were kids. 'The barrier, which rose up to nine feet tall in some places, Tucker said, walled the house off from flooding that soaked the rest of the community. As heavy rain pelted Bogota at the beginning of April, the Obion River, which runs adjacent to the town, rose about nine feet in as many hours during the storm. It then continued to rise as water funneled into the area.” Aerial video & photo, included with the article, are striking.
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Reader Comments (19)
Grassley's response at the town hall shows the consistency of GOP talking points. Once he regurgitated his claim that he can't do anything to fix the administration's error deporting a man to El Salvador, because it's a sovereign country, he had nothing else to defend his inaction.
GOP members of Congress get updated talking points at least weekly, and they know they are not allowed to stay from them without consequence. They are all apparatchiks.
This is a strange country we're living in right now.
I received an e-mail yesterday from my dentist. He's originally
from Canada, came here to attend Wayne State University and then
got a dental degree somewhere in Arizona.
He got a job here after receiving a work visa. Got married, had a
family here, and applied for a Green Card in 2022.
His Green Card was denied. He has a foreign sounding name,
maybe Italian.
During all that time waiting for a Green Card, a person is not
allowed to leave the U.S., so he missed all family events in Canada,
funerals, weddings, etc.
So now he is self deporting back to Canada rather than taking a
chance of being sent to Venezuela or someplace.
While hiking with our hiking group this morning, I wondered if we
might be considered a 'gang' by this government we have.
If we get arrested, I'm going to request being sent to Northern Italy
or Southern Spain instead of South America.
Anjeanette Damon and Perla Trevizo for The Texas Tribune and ProPublica,
Money for border security. Basic necessities, not so much
"Although billions of state and federal dollars flow into the majority-Latino communities along the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, many remain among the poorest places in the nation. In many towns, unemployment is significantly higher and income much lower than their interior counterparts, with limited access to health care, underfunded infrastructure and lagging educational attainment. Security walls are erected next to neighborhoods without running water, and National Guard units deploy to towns without paved roads and hospitals."
The WaPo article (above) about the "creeping DOGE", and the administration's demand that Harvard put outside monitors in all its parts, to ensure "viewpoint diversity", plus the experience of DOGE putting oversight reps into every federal agency, reminded me of one of the most hated practices of the Soviet Communist Party: placing "political commissars" throughout the Soviet military. Such party apparatchiks were also placed throughout Soviet academic, production and art/culture entities as well, but none were as well-endowed as in the military.
The idea is to put people into an organization, who are to ensure political/ideological purity. Nominally they are policy, morale and training cadre, but their main job is to ensure that unit leadership, at all levels, are loyal and demonstrative of party ideology and faithful to the "leadership principal" (see also Snyder, linked above). A phone call denouncing a "problem" officer can send that officer to the gulag. A recommendation of a doctrinally pure incompetent can promote that officer to higher levels of incompetence. Party loyalty is perserved, but organizational efficiency is destroyed.
This White House, and it's cabinet appointees, are putting such a system in place here. DOGE political commissars. Plus the "Schedule F" regime ploy. It probably won't work (Americans are a froward people, according to Lord North in the 1770's) but it can do a lot of damage in a short period of time.
Whistleblower
"A user with a Russian IP address tried to log into National Labor Relations Board systems just minutes after the Department of Government Efficiency moved to access and extract troves of sensitive data from inside the agency, according to an extensive whistleblower disclosure released Tuesday.
The whistleblower, Daniel Berulis, provided forensic evidence and internal documentation to Congress and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, accusing DOGE of exfiltrating large volumes of confidential data and disabling various security monitoring systems used to scan for malicious behavior in NLRB’s networks, NPR first reported.
The user attempting to log in relied on a newly created DOGE email account and the attempts were “near real-time,” according to the Berulis disclosure.
A user with a Russian IP address tried to log into National Labor Relations Board systems just minutes after the Department of Government Efficiency moved to access and extract troves of sensitive data from inside the agency, according to an extensive whistleblower disclosure released Tuesday.
The whistleblower, Daniel Berulis, provided forensic evidence and internal documentation to Congress and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, accusing DOGE of exfiltrating large volumes of confidential data and disabling various security monitoring systems used to scan for malicious behavior in NLRB’s networks, NPR first reported.
The user attempting to log in relied on a newly created DOGE email account and the attempts were “near real-time,” according to the Berulis disclosure."
Interview with Jake Tapper
This is incredibly scary since DOGE has been doing this all over the government, taking sensitive data. And then having a Russian ip trying to use the log in DOGE just created. So much of the sensitive government information and systems are potentially compromised. And the longer they are the more damage can be done and the more backdoors our adversaries can create to continue their access going forward.
@Patrick: I meant to comment on the story you told yesterday about attending a dinner in which Vice President Quayle suggested to a group of high-ranking Australian military men who were Viet Nam vets that Australia & the U.S. had not participated in any joint military efforts since WWII.
Unless Quayle made his remark off-the-cuff, surely this was an administration-wide Bush I national security failure. One would think that when the VPOTUS makes a speech to an international audience, the speech would be vetted by "experts" in any departments or offices whose areas of responsibility might be covered in the speech; in this case, State, Defense, National Security Council, at a minimum.
So even if Bill Kristol wrote the speech that contained a glaring, insulting lapse, it seems likely to me that the insult to our ally was a joint effort. Otherwise, either (a) Quayle was just riffing, or (b) Kristol was so arrogant he didn't think he needed to have the speech vetted (whether or not he wrote it).
I hope you're correct, Patrick.
There is a contradiction at work in the American psyche, which the Right happily takes advantage of.
Those you can't tell me what to do independents that got the country going in the first place have also here in the West staged a simmering sagebrush rebellion since the Reagan years. The question is which side will those independent sorts land on.
The armed militias, the Bundy nuts who took over the Malheur, the goofs who threatened Governor Whitmer, the sheriff's who they they alone are the law, all believe themselves representative of those stubborn, you can't tell me what to do Founders.
The problem with these types is not their defiance. It's their object and direction. Some just like to dress up in tough guy clothes. Some just need a friends and want to belong to something. Some need to have an enemy to define who they themselves are. "Own the libs!"
Many who could cast themselves as independent sorts blindly follow the man who is stomping on the Constitution that guarantees their own freedom to be froward.
"Truth Social launches scheme to profit from Trump's tariff policies
Moving forward, Trump can boost or depress the price of virtually any stock through the creation or elimination of tariffs. On Tuesday, Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), best known as the parent company of the social media platform Truth Social, announced it was launching a series of actively managed investment accounts. TMTG is marketing these "Truth Social-branded Separately Managed Accounts" as a way to invest in companies that benefit from Trump's political agenda. Trump remains the majority shareholder of TMTG."
Corruption
"Trump IRS Pick Was Just Enriched By Tax Schemers
New documents show Billy Long’s $130,000 personal debt was suddenly paid off by donors at firms policed by the tax agency he’d lead.
In new campaign finance filings, Long disclosed an outstanding personal loan of $130,000 that he had made to his failed 2022 U.S. Senate campaign. The dormant Senate campaign committee had raised less than $36,000 in the last two years, which could have forced Long to absorb the losses on the loan.
But after Trump named Long to head the IRS, the committee suddenly raked in nearly $137,000 in less than three weeks in January — money that Long then used to remunerate himself, according to disclosure documents filed this week.
Numerous Long contributors in his new campaign disclosure report are financial advisors for White River Energy and Lifetime Advisors, among others. Those firms are named in an April 14 letter from Senate Finance Committee members Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) calling for a criminal investigation into what they allege is a fraudulent tax credit scheme orchestrated by the companies, many of which employ donors that helped retire Long’s debt."
Homan
"Trump’s Border Czar Has Chilling Threat for Every Democratic Leader
Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said Tuesday that leaders from cities and states with sanctuary policies could expect to face prosecution very soon.
A reporter outside of the White House asked Homan whether he believed that the leaders of sanctuary states and cities should be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and possibly go to prison,” alleging that they’d violated law prohibiting U.S. citizens from transporting, smuggling, or harboring undocumented immigrants.
“Absolutely, and hold tight on that one,” Homan replied. “’Cus it’s coming. It’s coming.”"
That is the kind of question we get when winger "reporters" are asking the questions.
MAGA Law
Pet Food
"The wellness industry is killing animals, spreading disease, and fueling the next pandemic
The growth of raw pet food is contributing to the spread of H5N1 bird flu, especially in cats"
Marie, re DQ's 1989 speech. Two things:
1. I can assure you that no one outside Quayle's retinue had reviewed that speech. They did not want to "be controlled."
2. Shortly after that event in Sydney, the party went to Kuala Lumpur. I was there also and worked that visit, it was my post at that time. The entire WH party showed an absolute lack of planning, coordination, protocol, security practice, or courtesy. After the visit the US Deputy Chief of Mission was called in to the foreign ministry and admonished ... a first, such a thing had never happened with us before. The Malaysians felt insulted.
That entourage was moving around SE Asia just four months after the Bush I admin came in. It was clear that they had spent no effort at all paying attention to what they were doing. The US expatriate community in KL was fairly "republican," because most were in the oil bidness or manufacturing for US export. Those AmCit expats, no Pollyannas, were appalled by the behavior of the Quayle party.
High Steaks Testing
It’s all about looks…
Fat Hitler and Himmler Miller are planning now on sending their masked thugs out to disappear American citizens. How do I know?
At the Deluxe Dictator Putrid Palaver the other day, FH and the El Salvador self-named “cool dictator” (wtf is a “cool dictator”? Someone who wears Ray Bans to the torture chamber?), as they were both joshing around about how much fun it is to imprison their enemies, Fatty let it slip that “Next we start with the homegrown” (lol! Oh, what a card!), meaning deporting American citizens without due process to El Salvador gulags.
But how will they know? What kind of investimagation stuff will enable the Orange Monster and his goons to grab citizens off the street and load ‘em all on planes out of the country, as that other Nazi prick Homan snickered?
Easy.
How they look. Are they white? No deportation (unless registered Democrats), otherwise, anyone who looks like a furriner to Fatty’s masked army of thugs are goners.
Cuz looks is what matters to this fat fuck. Drunk Pete is now in charge of the Pentagon because to Trump, he looks the part. He has his Aryan Barbie doll working as his Lie Secretary cuz she looks hot (maybe to him). He himself is so obsessed with his own looks that he is slathered in orange makeup. He wears his Made in China MAGA cap at outdoor events if the wind could mess with that weird birds nest on his head, and he is constantly yapping about how good looking he is (to himself).
This is nothing new. Years ago, when trying to weasel his way into the casino business, he appeared before a congressional sub-committee to attack Native Americans who had applied for a casino license that Fatty was sure belonged to him. He was outraged. And the biggest charge leveled against the Native Americans? “In my opinion, they don’t look like Indians .”
I guess they weren’t wearing feathered bonnets with war paint on and riding in on horses, with bows and arrows.
Watch the video. All the classic Trump tricks are in play:
Hysterically hyperbolic declarations, biggest scandal in world history!
Personal attacks, anyone not agreeing with him is stupid or closed minded.
Whopper lies: “I love competition” sez the guy who tries to rig every encounter he’s ever had, including cheating at golf. Also…”No one loves Indians more than Donald Trump!”
Unsupported charges: the Native Americans are all part of organized crime. Worse than the Mafia.
Claims of superiority: he has secret information that even the stupid FBI doesn’t have.
Talking over everyone, demanding apologies (for Trump, an apology is a sign of weakness, so in his mind, if he gets one, it’s not an indication of an honest mistake, but a sign that he beat down someone weaker.)
And this was 1993.
But the idea that looks are all that matters still infects his tiny brain and let’s him move forward with the assuredness of the dim.
So, they look like foreigners, they must be terrorists. Deport ‘em.
Then go cheat at golf.
I saw that Tom Homan this morning (on CBS I think) stating that if Abrego Garcia returns to the US, he'll be arrested and deported back to El Salvador again. Homan needs to be arrested and confined in El Salvador. In fact, that's a great location for all of Trump, Vance and the cabinet members.
@Patrick: Thanks for the follow-up. It's depressing to know the Bush 1 administration was so careless. On the other hand, I guess we should be grateful that sometime somehow Quayle learned something, because, reportedly, it was he who talked Mike Pence out of going along with Trump's January 6 plan to overthrow the presidential election. It may have been Dan Quayle, of all people, who saved democracy for another four years.
Pretend(er) justice:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/us/immigration-asylum-judges-policy.html
Of course. Prove you’re not guilty before you get a hearing to prove you're not guilty.
Fatty is smirking about rounding up American citizens and sending them off to the Cool Dictator’s gulag with no due process. Rapists, killers, and other criminals.
Hang on, I know this one guy. Woof! What a rap sheet. Found guilty of dozens of felony fraud charges, a convicted sexual molester who brags about assaulting women, started an insurrection against the nation in which dozens of police officers were attacked and injured, four people killed, a nasty piece of work who let hundreds of thousands die of a disease so he could win an election, a schemer who tanked the economy so he and his billionaire and MAGA pals could make a bundle on insider trading while thousands lost their retirements.
This asshole is a perfect candidate for that gulag. He checks all the boxes for criminal behavior.
He’s pretty fat though, probably take up two seats on Homan’s plane.
Oh, one other thing I forgot to bring up about that video from 1993 in which Trump accuses Native Americans of not looking Indian enough to suit him, meaning they should all go to prison and he should be handed a casino license.
The lies come so fast and furious (one of the few things he’s actually good at) that it’s hard to keep up.
At one point he whines that Native Americans pay no taxes while he pays “hundreds of millions in taxes”.
He is immediately challenged on his assertion that Native Americans pay no taxes, by a congressman who says they do pay taxes, just not on the casino, to which Trump shouts “I never said that!” But yes he did say exactly that.”
Hundreds of millions in taxes. It’s a wonder his nose didn’t extend all the way out the door.