Rolling Stone: Trump’s FEMA Denies North Carolina’s Request for Hurricane Helene Aid

The president repeatedly bashed the Biden administration’s response to the disaster

Late in the 2024 campaign cycle, parts of western North Carolina were devastated by Hurricane HeleneDonald Trump accused former President Joe Biden of abandoning the region and mishandling the response to the crisis. The disaster in North Carolina became the jumping point for a myriad of conspiracies and attacks by Republicans against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FAMA). Trump vowed he would improve disaster responses as president. 

That was then.

This is now:

Now, four months into his administration North Carolina Governor Josh Stein, a Democrat, has become the latest lawmaker from a disaster-ravaged state who has been forced to beg the president to provide much-needed aid. 

On Friday, Stein published a video on social media informing the public that the Trump administration had denied the state’s request for FEMA to honor a Biden-era commitment to pay for 100 percent of debris removal costs. 

I guess King Donald changed his mind.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/fema-denies-north-carolina-request-hurricane-helene-aid-1235347521


Raw Story: Trump’s FEMA thumbs nose at state that backed him 3 times: ‘Gonna cost a lot’

Under President Donald Trump, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has turned down a request from a storm-ravaged state that narrowly voted for him three times.

Western North Carolina saw massive devastation last year from Hurricane Helene, which killed over 100 people and left the city of Asheville, along with a number of small communities in the Appalachian Mountains, struggling to pick up the pieces after flooding in areas that had hardly ever seen floods before. At the time, Trump supporters spread baseless conspiracy theories that the federal government was ignoring communities there, or only giving aid to Democratic areas, and Trump himself vowed to improve emergency management.

According to Rolling Stone, however, Trump’s administration is now denying an extension of a commitment to pay the full amount for a vital portion of the recovery process.

See above for the Rolling Stone article.

https://www.rawstory.com/fema-north-carolina

Raw Story: White House claim puts Trump ‘potentially outside the immunity shield’: attorney

An attempt by White House press secretary Karoline [Bimbo #1] Leavitt to blow off ethical and legal concerns about Donald Trump’s crypto dinner on Thursday night might come back to haunt her boss.

Thursday afternoon [Bimbo #1] Leavitt lectured reporters in the Brady Briefing Room about the dinner which was to include foreign investors at a Donald Trump golf resort in Virginia, telling NBC’s Garrett Haake, “Well, as you know, Garrett, this question has been raised with the president. I have also addressed the dinner tonight. The president is attending it in his personal time. It is not a White House dinner, it’s not taking place here at the White House. But certainly I can raise that question and try to get you an answer for it.”

[Bimbo #1] Leavitt’s claim of “personal time” caught the ear of multiple Trump critics.

On X, The Bulwark’s Tim Miller pointed out, “President’s don’t get ‘personal time.’ There’s not like a magic suit you wear when you are doing official business and one where you are just Donald from Queens.”

Conservative lawyer and ardent Trump opponent George Conway took the next step and suggested, “Actually, it’s fine. If Trump is saying he’s doing something on his ‘personal time,’ then obviously that means he’s not acting within what the Supreme Court calls ‘the outer perimeter of his official responsibility,’ which, in turn, means he’s not immune from criminal prosecution.”

Oops! You probably shouldn’t run your mouth so much, Karoline [Bimbo #1] Leavitt, but I understand that’s all you do, and you do it so exceptionally well. 😀

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-immunity-2672194246

Newsweek: Why do MAGA Republicans hate Europe?

In May 1988, Republican President Ronald Reagan spoke from the Oval Office in an address not targeted at the American people, but the citizens of Western Europe. The president was planning a trip to meet with Soviet Union General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and wanted to make his commitment to Europe clear.

Staring directly at the camera, Reagan said: “Shared [moral] standards and beliefs tie us to Europe today. They are the essence of the community of free nations to which we belong.”

Thirty years later, in July 2018, while sitting for an interview with CBS at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, Republican President Donald Trump was asked to name America’s top global foe. “Well, I think we have a lot of foes,” Trump said. “I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Now you wouldn’t think of the European Union, but they’re a foe.”

https://www.newsweek.com/maga-republicans-donald-trump-jd-vance-europe-2071814

Fox News: ‘Flood the system’: US attorney unleashes new task force to crack down on blue state’s sanctuary policies

New task force filing up to 50 warrants weekly to get more illegal immigrants into federal custody

United States Attorney for the District of California Bill Essayli is taking major action to crack down on “sanctuary” policies in the Golden State.

He’s launching “Operation Guardian Angel,” which is a task force, made up of assets from ICE, HSI, DEA, FBI, ATF, and Border Patrol, to begin scanning a criminal database every single day to identify arrested illegal aliens in local jurisdictions that DOJ can charge with felony illegal-reentry.

“They’ve made it almost impossible for ICE to do their job, issue detainers and get criminal illegal immigrants out of jails. So what we’re doing instead is we’re going to start issuing warrants,” he told Fox News.

Which is bullshit!

The Tenth Amendment says that the states can’t be forced to do the Fed’s work for them. If the Feds want to bust illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities, they’ll have to do their own leg work.

That still doesn’t be they’ll be welcomed with open arms on the streets. Good luck with that!

USA Today: Thousands of federal employees are on a roller coaster of being fired, rehired

‘Inefficency in the name of efficiency,’ according to one federal employee who was fired, rehired and may be fired again.

In recent months, tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired, rehired and threatened with firing again.

For now, they have a two-week reprieve, after a federal judge in California ordered the Trump administration not to carry out any additional firings for two weeks, but the administration has asked the Supreme Court to overturn that ruling.

But employees describe weeks of uncertainty, worry and doubt as their jobs are off, then on, then off again.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/05/18/federal-employees-fired-rehired-await-court-decision/83600693007

New York Times: Energized by Kennedy, Texas ‘Mad Moms’ Are Chipping Away at Vaccine Mandates

A measles outbreak in the state has not stopped “medical freedom” activists from pushing forward with their goal. They now have an influential ally in Washington: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Rebecca Hardy and Michelle Evans helped found Texans for Vaccine Choice with a group of like-minded women in 2015, as measles was spreading in California. They defeated legislation tightening Texas school vaccine requirements, and helped oust the lawmaker who wrote it, earning a catchy nickname: “mad moms in minivans.”

Now, as a measles outbreak that began in West Texas spreads to other parts of the country, the “mad moms” have a slew of new allies. The 2024 elections ushered in a wave of freshman Republicans who back their goal of making all vaccinations voluntary. But no ally may be as influential as the one they gained in Washington: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s most prominent vaccine skeptic.

Yes, concerned mothers who want only the “best” for your children, you should always seek medical guidance from the brainworm-infested roadkill-eating Health Secretary, who recently took his grandkids swimming in a sewage-infested creek that was off-limits to public swimming for obvious reasons.

Sacramento Bee: ‘Reeks of Unconstitutionality’: Trump’s Executive Order Sparks Outrage

Several major law firms have stepped up to challenge the Trump administration. District Judge John Bates recently expressed skepticism about the legality of a Trump executive order targeting the law firm Jenner & Block. He raised concerns that the order primarily serves a punitive purpose. The court recently granted a temporary halt to the order and is now considering a request for a permanent injunction.

Legal arguments center on whether the order aims to deter clients from working with Jenner & Block by restricting their access to federal resources. The order refers to the firm’s previous employment of Andrew Weissmann, who served on former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team.

Michael Attanasio, attorney for Jenner & Block, contended that the executive order is punitive and unconstitutional, targeting the firm due to its affiliations. Bates rejected Justice Department claims that the sanctions on Jenner & Block and other firms were not punitive.

Bates said, “It’s trying to punish Jenner by stopping the flow of money to Jenner.” He questioned, “Isn’t it logical that clients are going to be reluctant to engage Jenner & Block if they know there’s a real chance that Jenner and Block isn’t going to be able to go into a federal building or talk to federal agencies?”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/reeks-of-unconstitutionality-trump-s-executive-order-sparks-outrage/ar-AA1EV5Kf

USA Today: Inmate’s last words before execution: ‘President Trump, keep making America great’

Every inmate put to death in the US is afforded the opportunity to say last words. Some apologize, some express anger or words of love for family. Glen Rogers had a message for President Trump.

A serial killer used his last words on Earth to shout-out President Donald Trump on Thursday.

“President Trump, keep making America great. I’m ready to go,” Glen Rogers, known as the “Casanova Killer,” said as he lay strapped to an execution gurney seconds before three drugs coursed through his veins and ended his life at the Florida State Prison in Raiford.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/05/15/florida-death-row-inmate-glen-rogers-donald-trump/83656998007

MarketWatch: Millions of Americans may lose health insurance under GOP tax plan. Here’s who will be affected most.

The plan would represent the largest cut to Medicaid ever

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill could lead to at least 8.6 million Americans losing health coverage, with the majority expected to lose Medicaid. Most affected would be low-income adults without dependents, earning a bit more than a poverty income of $15,650 for a single person.

Go for it, suckers! Mid-terms are coming, and they will come with a vengeance!

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/millions-of-americans-may-lose-health-insurance-under-gop-tax-plan-heres-who-will-be-affected-most-bd965669

Newsweek: Trump Administration Accused of Declaring ‘Fake’ Emergency By 15 States

A coalition of attorneys general across 15 states is suing the Trump administration over declaring a “national emergency” on the first day of Donald Trump‘s presidency.

On January 20, President Trump declared a “national energy emergency” via executive order, over what he claimed to be “our Nation’s inadequate energy supply.”

The attorneys general from Washington and California say this is not true, and that US energy production is actually at “an all time high.”

“Washington state filed suit today alongside 14 other states to challenge the president’s fake “energy emergency,” declared to line the pockets of Big Oil by handing out free passes to pollute our environment,” said Washington Attorney General Nick Brown on May 9.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-administration-fake-energy-emergency-15-states-2070864