Tag Archives: Melania Trump

‘Trump’s $45M taxpayer-funded parade embarrassment was so pitiful it sickened Melania’

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President Trump’s birthday parade has been branded a ‘grotesque birthday party for an ageing man’ – and even wife Melania Trump ‘couldn’t stomach it’

Donald Trump’s ridiculous military parade was never about the troops.

It wasn’t about patriotism, unity, or honouring the 250th anniversary of the US Army, no matter how many flags were waved or tanks rolled by.

It was about one thing only: Donald J. Trump and his obsessive, delusional need to feel worshipped.

Billed as a grand celebration of America’s armed forces, this taxpayer-funded farce was really a grotesque birthday party for an ageing man who’s spent his life confusing adoration with leadership.

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The tanks, the troops, the blaring anthems – all orchestrated not to salute American service but to feed Trump’s insatiable ego as he marked 79 years of being the world’s biggest narcissist.

This wasn’t a show of strength. It was a pitiful attempt to copy the authoritarian pageantry of his role models, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un – leaders Trump has fawned over while undermining American democracy at every turn.

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While America burns, literally and politically, Trump played emperor on a hollow throne.

Just hours after an elected official was assassinated in her own home, and as millions of Americans rallied in the streets under the banner of “No Kings,” Trump paraded down Constitution Avenue like some bloated monarch.

And where were the throngs of adoring fans he so desperately craves? Not in Washington, DC.

Only a few thousand bothered to turn up.

‘Trump taxpayer-funded parade embarrassment was so pitiful it sickened Melania’
President Trump’s birthday parade has been branded a ‘grotesque birthday party for an ageing man’ – and even wife Melania Trump ‘couldn’t stomach it’

https://www.themirror.com/news/politics/trumps-45m-taxpayer-funded-parade-1210226

Daily Beast: Trump Rages at Claim War on Harvard Is Revenge for Rejection

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Donald Trump blew up on Truth Social over a claim from author Michael Wolff that his crusade against Harvard is personal.

Wolff, author of several books about the president, claimed on The Daily Beast Podcast last week that Trump “didn’t get into Harvard” and is now targeting the university out of revenge.That is The Most Realistic PC Game of 2025

Trump has gone after the university with gusto, freezing its federal funding, threatening its tax-exempt status and moving to block it from enrolling international students.

The president claimed Wolff’s story is “totally FALSE” and insisted he never applied to the Ivy League school.

Or maybe it was Barron:

According to Wolff, a running joke in White House circles held that Trump’s war on the prestigious school stemmed from the rejection of another Trump: his youngest son, Barron.

Or perhaps just a figment of Michael Wolff’s imagination?

Trump Rages at Claim He Launched Harvard War Because He Didn’t Get In
Author Michael Wolff struck a nerve, it seems.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-rages-at-author-michael-wolff-over-harvard-claim

Raw Story: ‘Second biggest scandal’: Trump accused of new grift that puts Qatari plane in Shade

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“The plane is the second-biggest scandal on this trip,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told Raw Story. “The $2 billion crypto investment in Trump stablecoin [by an Emirati firm] is the more offensive grift.”

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Now, Trump is unshackled. The president and his sons aren’t even pretending to close shop: they’re expanding, thirsty for deals like the one they signed in April to build a golf club in Qatar.

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“What he’s doing is already illegal, so we don’t actually need a statute for that,” Schatz told Raw Story. “Now I would say his corruption complicates the conversation for sure, but I am not one of these people who think we need to make a new law to reiterate that the existing laws shouldn’t be broken.”

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As for the confluence of multi-billion dollar crypto investments, real-estate deals and a $400 million plane?

“That’s just what we know,” Whitehouse said. “I don’t think it gets better.”

‘Second biggest scandal’: Trump accused of new grift that puts Qatari plane in Shade

https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/trump-qatar-plane-2672031382

New York Times: As Trumps Monetize Presidency, Profits Outstrip Protests

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The president and his family have monetized the White House more than any other occupant, normalizing activities that once would have provoked heavy blowback and official investigations.

When Hillary Clinton was first lady, a furor erupted over reports that she had once made $100,000 from a $1,000 investment in cattle futures. Even though it had happened a dozen years before her husband became president, it became a scandal that lasted weeks and forced the White House to initiate a review.

Thirty-one years later, after dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Jeff Bezos agreed to finance a promotional film about Melania Trump that will reportedly put $28 million directly in her pocket — 280 times the Clinton lucre and in this case from a person with a vested interest in policies set by her husband’s government. Scandal? Furor? Washington moved on while barely taking notice.

The Trumps are hardly the first presidential family to profit from their time in power, but they have done more to monetize the presidency than anyone who has ever occupied the White House. The scale and the scope of the presidential mercantilism has been breathtaking. The Trump family and its business partners have collected $320 million in fees from a new cryptocurrency, brokered overseas real estate deals worth billions of dollars and are opening an exclusive club in Washington called the Executive Branch charging $500,000 apiece to join, all in the past few months alone.

Just last week, Qatar handed over a luxury jet meant for Mr. Trump’s use not just in his official capacity but also for his presidential library after he leaves office. Experts have valued the plane, formally donated to the Air Force, at $200 million, more than all of the foreign gifts bestowed on all previous American presidents combined.

And Mr. Trump hosted an exclusive dinner at his Virginia club for 220 investors in the $TRUMP cryptocurrency that he started days before taking office in January. Access was openly sold based on how much money they chipped in — not to a campaign account but to a business that benefits Mr. Trump personally.

trump-money-plane-crypto.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/25/us/politics/trump-money-plane-crypto.html

MSNBC: Trump is finally getting his parade — and it’s only going to cost taxpayers tens of millions

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President Donald Trump is finally nearing the fulfillment of a dream that he’s had since his first term in office: a lavish military parade that proceeds through the streets of Washington.

NBC News reports the parade will be “to commemorate Flag Day,” and will also mark the Army’s 250th birthday on June 14. As it happens, that’s also the president’s birthday, though Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker that the “big, beautiful” parade is “not necessarily” about his birthday. But, he said, “It’s a very important day.”

Regardless of the exact significance of the date, Trump throwing a party for himself with jets and tanks parading down Constitution Avenue will be a wasteful, infrastructure-destroying display of jingoism with authoritarian undertones, as well as a pithy summary of Trump’s presidential vision. That Trump is succeeding in staging this ceremony in his second term instead of his first also seems apropos, given how his second term so far has been defined by more baldly despotic stunts and policies.

In 2018, Trump was bowled over by Bastille Day celebrations during a visit to France. “It was one of the greatest parades I’ve ever seen,” Trump told reporters after the event. “It was two hours on the button, and it was military might.” He also said to French President Emmanuel Macron: “We’re going to have to try to top it.”

Trump is finally getting his parade — and it’s only going to cost taxpayers tens of millions
Trump’s military parade could cost up to $45 million, but for Trump it’s worth it for the imperial symbolism.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/trump-is-finally-getting-his-parade-and-it-s-only-going-to-cost-taxpayers-tens-of-millions/ar-AA1EBAai

The Atlantic: Trump’s Inevitable Betrayal of His Supporters

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On Sunday, Donald Trump went on TV and told Americans that their children should make do with less. “They don’t need to have 30 dolls; they can have three,” the president said on Meet the Press. “They don’t need to have 250 pencils; they can have five.” Critics were quick to point out the irony of America’s avatar of excess telling others to tighten their belt. But the problem with Trump’s remark goes beyond the optics. It’s that his argument for austerity contradicts his campaign commitments—and exposes the limits of his transactional approach to politics.

Throughout his 2024 run, the president promised Americans a return to the prosperity of his pre-COVID first term. “Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again, to bring down the prices of all goods,” he told a Montana rally in August. “They’ll come down, and they’ll come down fast,” he declared days later in North Carolina. But at the same time, Trump also promised to impose steep tariffs on consumer goods—dubbing tariff one of “the most beautiful words I’ve ever heard”—even though the levies would effectively serve as a tax on everyday Americans.

These two pledges could not be reconciled, and once elected, Trump was forced to choose between them. The results have disillusioned many of those who voted for him. Trump’s approval on the economy has plunged since he announced his “Liberation Day.” A former strength has become a weakness. “If you look at his economic net approval rating in his first term, it was consistently above water,” the CNN analyst Harry Enten noted last month. “It was one of his best issues, and now it’s one of his worst issues.”

Trump’s Inevitable Betrayal of His Supporters
Trump never meant to keep his promises. His voters are starting to notice.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/trump-s-inevitable-betrayal-of-his-supporters/ar-AA1EosZ3

Associated Press: FBI reassigns agents photographed kneeling during 2020 racial justice protest, AP sources say

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The photographs at issue showed a group of agents taking a knee during one of the demonstrations following the May 2020 killing of Floyd, a death that sparked widespread anger after millions of people saw video of his arrest and led to a national reckoning over policing and racial injustice.

The kneeling angered some in the FBI but was also understood as a possible de-escalation tactic during a period of widespread protests, and the agents were not punished at the time.

Patel pledged at his January confirmation hearing that he would not “go backwards” in seeking retribution against perceived adversaries of the Trump administration. But even before he was sworn in, there was concern that the Justice Department was poised to do exactly that, including by demanding a list of the thousands of agents who worked on investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, a request seen by some as a possible precursor to a purge at the bureau.

FBI reassigns agents photographed kneeling during 2020 racial justice protest, AP sources say
The FBI has reassigned several agents who were photographed kneeling during a racial justice protest in Washington that followed the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

https://apnews.com/article/fbi-george-floyd-kash-patel-c59a8d2e055dadea1adf5187f7ee3620

Star-Telegram: ‘Unprecedented’: Trump Suffers Supreme Court Loss

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The Supreme Court recently paused deportations of Venezuelan migrants held in Texas under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which allows summary deportation during declared wars. The court ordered the government to halt removals until further notice.

Trump’s been whacked!

‘Unprecedented’: Trump Suffers Supreme Court Loss
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/unprecedented-trump-suffers-supreme-court-loss/ss-AA1DJheJ

Irish Star: Footage emerges of Donald Trump committing ‘disrespectful’ act at major event

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President Trump has been captured on camera doing something that some people deem questionable at a major event. It’s left a lot of people around the world stunned

A clip was recently shared on TikTok, which shows the President appearing to fall asleep while attending a major event. The footage appears to show First Lady, Melania Trump, trying to keep him awake as he dozes off during a National Prayer Service.

Over the video, which shows him closing his eyes and dozing off during a musical performance, the content creator wrote: “Melania makes sure Trump doesn’t turn prayer service into nap time”.

The video has left people stunned, as they can’t believe he would do something that could be considered “disrespectful” at such an important event. It’s claimed he “struggled to stay awake”, causing his wife to subtly intervene.

One person said: “Time to call him sleepy Don.” Another wrote: “Sleepy.”

A third thought it was for good reason though, as they added: “Considering the mess he’s been cleaning up, I say my boy is very tired.”

Yet he whines about “Sleep Joe” Biden? Look in the mirror, Bubba!

Footage emerges of Donald Trump committing ‘disrespectful’ act at major event
President Trump has been captured on camera doing something that some people deem questionable at a major event. It’s left a lot of people around the world stunned

https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/footage-emerges-donald-trump-committing-34873314

Washington Post: How [Bimbo #2] Kristi Noem’s $50,000 Rolex in a Salvadoran prison became a political flashpoint

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When Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem visited El Salvador’s most notorious mega-prison on Wednesday, she sported an eye-catching piece on her wrist that experts have identified as an 18-karat gold Rolex Cosmograph Daytona watch that sells for about $50,000.

The high-end Swiss watch lent a striking contrast to Noem’s tour of the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, where imprisoned men watched silently from a crowded cell as she recorded a video for a social media post warning undocumented immigrants not to enter the United States.

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“You’re in front of all these people in a very poor country, who are in the bottom 10 or 20 percent of their country … and it looks like you’re just flaunting your wealth while you flaunt your freedom,” said Adam Isacson, an analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights group.

“This is an administration that is trying to be populist, anti-elite, appeal to the common man,” he added. Meanwhile, there’s “people stacked up like cordwood behind her.”

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“To be wearing that in El Salvador while visiting a” maximum-security prison, he said, “is kind of like a big F you.”

Noem visited the prison as part of her trip to three Latin American nations to discuss crime, deportation and immigration. The Trump administration has sent scores of Venezuelan migrants to CECOT without judicial hearings, despite a court order to return them to the U.S.

During Noem’s tour, she walked past a containment unit, the prison armory and two crowded cell blocks, where men in a cell packed almost to the ceiling were told to remove their face masks and shirts and stand in the shot, according to a press pool report.

Men in the prison, which can house up to 40,000 inmates, sleep on metal bunks with no mattresses and are not allowed visits from lawyers or family members.

During her visit, Noem turned her back to the bars to record a selfie video. When Noem left, the cell block erupted in indecipherable chants, according to the pool report.

How Kristi Noem’s $50,000 Rolex in a Salvadoran prison became a political flashpoint

How Kristi Noem’s $50,000 Rolex in a Salvadoran prison became a political flashpoint