Almost four months into his second presidency, Donald Trump continues to be one of the most divisive presidents in U.S. history. Trump is still adored by his hardcore MAGA base, while his critics are finding even more to dislike about his second presidency than they did about his first. And it remains to be seen how swing voters and independents will feel about him when the 2026 midterms arrive.
In an article published on May 17, New York Magazine’s Ross Barkan argues that “corruption” is the main thing that makes Trump’s second term uniquely bad.
“What does seem genuinely new, even by the standards of America’s warped history, is the unabashed corruption,” Barkan stresses. “No president, really, has favor-traded like Trump. No president has ever tried to blatantly enrich himself like this while in office. No president has ever hung a for-sale sign over the White House — not like this, anyway. Trump is poised to accept a $400 million luxury jet from the Qatari royal family, which feels like something of a capstone to his latest corruption binge…. And then there’s his crypto hustle.”
Monthly Archives: May 2025
Raleigh News & Observer: ‘Nullified’: Trump Suffers Blow in Court
A U.S. federal appeals court has temporarily blocked former President Donald Trump’s effort to end benefits from the humanitarian parole program (CHNV) for over 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled that the administration did not meet the criteria for an emergency intervention to overturn a prior lower court ruling. Federal Judge Indira Talwani previously halted the cancellation of the CHNV ordered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Trump has since pushed for the Supreme Court to grant him the ability to put an end to the program.
The DHS under Trump has alleged that the CHNV program was misused. Critics argued that its cancellation violates the Immigration and Nationality Act, resulting in detrimental effects for migrants who relied on the established program.
…
Talwani found that the DHS’s measure did not comply with legal requirements for case-by-case reviews and ordered the reinstatement of the parole process and its associated immigration benefits. Her ruling mandated that notifications sent to individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela remain suspended pending further judicial orders.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/nullified-trump-suffers-blow-in-court/ss-AA1EYz0E
Sacramento Bee: ‘We Fixed It’: Fallout from Suspension of Female Commander
Fort McCoy in Wisconsin is a 93-square-mile military training base supporting nearly 75,000 service members this year. Colonel Sheyla Baez Ramirez took command in mid-2024, bringing extensive military intelligence and operations experience. The U.S. Army suspended Ramirez after portraits of President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on the base’s chain of command wall were turned to face the wall.
Hats off to whoever did it! 😀
Latin Times: Study: Ending Birthright Citizenship Would Increase, Not Decrease, Unauthorized U.S. Population
Researchers argue that without citizenship, future generation would face greater challenges to move up economically
But according to a recent study by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) and Penn State University’s Population Research Institute, eliminating birthright citizenship would increase—not decrease—the number of unauthorized individuals living in the United States in the long run.
…
A recent study cited by Border Report found that ending birthright citizenship for U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants or temporary visa holders would significantly increase the country’s population of unauthorized citizens.
Business Insider: A GOP congressman says raising taxes on top earners would help push Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ forward
A GOP congressman said on Saturday that raising the top tax rate for high earners could help President Donald Trump‘s massive tax and immigration package get the votes it needs.
“The One Big Beautiful Bill has stalled — and it needs wind in its sails,” Rep. Nick LaLota said on X. “Allowing the top tax rate to expire — returning from 37% to 39.6% for individuals earning over $609,350 and married couples earning over $731,200 — breathes $300 billion of new life into the effort.”
LaLota said that his proposal would be fiscally prudent and could be done “without raising taxes on the middle class.” The New York congressman has suggested that the money generated from raising taxes on high earners could protect Medicaid and “fix” the cap on the so-called SALT deduction.
And get rid of the proposed tax on remittances!
And a wealth tax to cull the herd of plutocrats!
https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-congressman-says-raising-taxes-230856834.html
Raw Story: Trump’s own words are being thrown back in his face after his latest threat
Now:
Donald Trump’s own words are being thrown back in his face after his Saturday Wal-Mart threat.
The president over the weekend told Walmart’s executives that they should absorb any increased costs that he has created on imported goods through trade policies.
“I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!” Trump wrote as he demanded Wal-Mart and China simply “eat the tariffs.”
Then:
But that didn’t sit well with many longtime Trump onlookers, who observed that the president previously said no one would need to eat the tariffs.
Author James Surowiecki said, “But Trump has said over and over again that foreign countries pay tariffs, not US businesses or consumers.”
“If that’s true, why would Walmart have to eat anything?” he then asked.
Washington Post: Court lifts block on Trump order to strip federal workers of union rights
The injunction had frozen the president’s order seeking to remove collective bargaining rights from workers at dozens of government agencies and offices.
This sucks:
A federal appeals court on Friday lifted a block on an executive order from President Donald Trump that seeks to strip union rights from federal workers at dozens of agencies and offices.
Trump in March issued an executive order that said that parts of the United States Code that protect federal workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain would no longer apply to agencies including most or all of the Departments of Treasury, Defense, Veterans Affairs, State and Justice. The executive order covers about two-thirds of the federal workforce, according to the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which filed a lawsuit challenging it.
It had been blocked by a federal judge last month as part of the NTEU lawsuit, but that block was lifted Friday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In its order canceling the injunction, the appeals court’s 2-1 majority said the union had not proved it would suffer “irreparable harm” if the executive order was executed while the lawsuit challenging it was ongoing.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/05/17/trump-executive-order-unions-block-lifted
Independent: Venezuelans ‘barricaded’ doors and ‘threatened to take hostages’ in ICE detention, Trump team alleges
Administration calls on Supreme Court for permission to swiftly deport nearly 200 immigrants detained in Texas
In its latest demand to the Supreme Court to begin swiftly deporting immigrants from the United States, Donald Trump’s administration claims a group of Venezuelan men imprisoned in Texas tried to barricade themselves inside their unit, covered surveillance cameras and threatened to take hostages.
A group of 23 men the administration accused of being Tren de Aragua gang members “have proven difficult to manage,” according to a sworn statement in court documents from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official.
In an incident on April 23 that has not previously been reported, the men allegedly “refused their breakfast trays and barricaded both the front and rear entrance doors of their housing unit using bed cots” and “covered the surveillance cameras and blocked the housing unit windows.”
They “threatened to take hostages and injure facility contract staff and ICE officers” and “attempted to flood the housing unit by clogging toilets,” according to Joshua D. Johnson, acting ICE director for the Dallas office.
Can you blame them for trying to avoid an illegal deportation to a prison in a third country? They wanted to be deported (legally!) to their home country:
Another image captures a group holding up a sign that reads, in Spanish, “Help, we want to be deported. We are not terrorists.” The sign says “VZLA,” a reference to Venezuela, and suggests they are pleading with authorities to avoid their imprisonment in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, labeled by human rights groups as a “tropical gulag” and concentration camp.
Independent: Trump endorses idea that Supreme Court ruling blocking his deportations under Alien Enemies Act is ‘illegal’
President reposted a comment claiming the Supreme Court was heading down the wrong path by blocking some of Trump’s actions
President Donald Trump endorsed the idea that the United States Supreme Court had placed an “illegal injunction” on him by temporarily blocking his administration’s ability to deport Venezuelans, accused of being gang members, without due process, while litigation on the matter plays out in lower courts.
On Truth Social on Saturday, Trump reposted two posts made by attorney Mike Davis, a close Trump ally and the founder of the Article III project, calling the court’s recent decision “illegal” and claiming it was “heading down a perilous path” by not allowing Trump to continue a constitutionally questionable action.
“The Supreme Court still has an illegal injunction on the President of the United States, preventing him from commanding military operations to expel these foreign terrorists,” Davis wrote.
Do these fools have any understanding as to why the Supreme Court exists?
USA Today: ‘Spaghetti against the wall?’ Trump tests legal strategies as judges block his policies
The Trump administration is fighting to kill 40 court orders blocking its new policies.
- Solicitor General John Sauer urged the Supreme Court to halt nationwide injunctions against Trump policies but said if class-action lawsuits took their place, he would oppose them too.
- Legal experts said if the Supreme Court abolishes nationwide injunctions, Trump could cut his losses by limiting the reach of court rulings that go against him.
As the Trump administration fights to kill 40 court orders blocking some of his most controversial or aggressive new policies, legal experts say the government’s strategy is to break the cases apart, into individual disputes, to delay an eventual reckoning at the Supreme Court.
One called President Donald Trump’s legal strategy a “shell game.” Another said government lawyers were “throwing spaghetti against the wall” to see what sticks.
“Their bottom line is that they don’t think these cases should be in court in the first place,” said Luke McCloud, a lawyer at Williams and Connolly who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he was on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. “They are looking for a procedural mechanism that will make it the most challenging to bring these sorts of cases.”