Tag Archives: White House

MSNBC: Trump is making an unprecedented effort to scrub the historical record

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A new Associated Press analysis of President Donald Trump’s many methods for destroying records raises the remarkable possibility that the Trump administration could “leave less for the nation’s historical record than nearly any before it.” It’s a useful lens for understanding how Trump conceals information to evade accountability and undermine democracy.

As the AP notes, there are many different ways that Trump is making it impossible to track what his administration is doing:

The Trump administration is scrubbing thousands of government websites of history, legal records and data it finds disagreeable. It has sought to expand the executive branch’s power to shield from public view the government-slashing efforts of Elon Musk’s team and other key administration initiatives. Officials have used apps such as Signal that can auto-delete messages containing sensitive information rather than retaining them for recordkeeping. And they have shaken up the National Archives leadership and even ordered the rewriting of history on display at the Smithsonian Institution.

This all comes as HuffPost recently estimated that the White House has declined to release transcripts for about 80% of the president’s speeches and interactions with the press so far.

And Trump’s first term involved many extraordinary attacks on recordkeeping, including reportedly routinely discarding papers in the White House fireplace, deriding his staff for taking notes and tearing up documents into tiny pieces. Trump also improperly stored classified material at Mar-a-Lago after he left office.

As The Associated Press observes, the president is legally required to “keep up the historical record.” But retention laws are difficult to enforce, which means that a lot of compliance with them effectively relies on the honor system.

Trump’s view of honor systems, of course, is that they are for suckers. And he knows that he stands to benefit from keeping the public in the dark and avoiding mechanisms for accountability.

Opinion | Why Trump is making an unprecedented effort to scrub the historical record
A president hostile to accountability will try to keep the public — and future generations — in the dark.

https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/trump-lowest-historical-documentation-records-president-rcna207710

Newsweek: Woman Faces $1.82M fine for failing to self-deport from US

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A Florida woman has reportedly racked up over $1.82 million in civil penalties after failing to comply with a deportation order issued two decades ago.

The 41-year-old undocumented immigrant from Honduras, who has lived in the United States since at least 2005, was fined $500 per day for each day she remained in the country following her removal order, according to documents obtained by CBS News.

Simply absurd! How many undocumented immigrants have a spare $1.82 mil sitting around? And …

… she … is now the mother of three U.S. citizen children.

Woman Faces $1.82M fine for failing to self-deport from US
The woman, who has lived in the U.S. since at least 2005, was fined $500 each day she remained in the US after her removal order.

https://www.newsweek.com/florida-woman-fined-deportation-immigration-2074184

Talking Points Memo: Trump DOJ Admits It Used Bogus Info In Key Deportation Case

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In an important federal case in Massachusetts over whether deportees can be sent to third countries rather than their countries of origin, the Trump administration admitted Friday to a grievous error and managed to compound it in the process.

It’s a bit complicated so let me boil it down to its essentials:

  • Background: A gay Guatemalan national who had a U.S. immigration judge order barring his removal to his home country because he feared continued persecution was instead deported to Mexico in February by the Trump administration, partly on the grounds that he had told ICE that he didn’t fear being sent to Mexico. That was odd because the man, identified only by the initials O.C.G., had previously testified that he had been targeted and raped in Mexico, his lawyers say.
  • Thursday: The Trump DOJ abruptly cancelled the scheduled deposition of an ICE official “whom Defendants previously identified as giving Plaintiff O.C.G. notice of deportation to Mexico and recording his response of lack of fear,” O.C.G.’s lawyers later told the court.
  • Friday: The Trump DOJ filed a “Notice of Errata” admitting that during the judge’s ordered discovery in the case it had been unable to “identify any officer who asked O.C.G. whether he had a fear of return to Mexico.” A key factual element of the Trump administration’s case had evaporated. But it got worse …
  • Sunday: Lawyers for the deportee – who is now in hiding in Guatemala because he fears persecution as a gay man – filed an emergency motion pointing out, among other things, that the government’s filing about its own error revealed the deportees name and other information, further jeopardizing his safety despite a court order anonymizing his identifying information.

Still with me? In the course of admitting its error, the Trump administration outed the gay man who it had wrongfully deported in the first place.

This is what happens when you staff up with a bunch of sycophantic suck-ups and bimbos instead of competent personnel!

Trump DOJ Admits It Used Bogus Info In Key Deportation Case
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This…

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/trump-doj-admits-it-used-bogus-info-in-key-deportation-case

Raw Story: ‘Went off the deep end’: Backlash hits sole Republican who demanded Hegseth be fired

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Congressman Don Bacon (R-NE) still remains the only GOP lawmaker who called for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to be ousted from his position — and it could be costing him support, according to a Washington Post report.

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Bacon, a retired Air Force general, has split his constituents with his stance — though he stands firmly outside of his party’s line on Hegseth.

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Bacon is an Air Force veteran who has previously said his lack of support for Hegseth “had nothing to do with anything political … It’s just what’s right.”

His calls to remove Hegseth began after the secretary used an unclassified messaging app to share “highly sensitive details of a planned U.S. assault on Yemeni militants.” The chat included a journalist and later became known as “Signalgate.”

“I could have forgiven it if he had said, ‘I was wrong and I won’t do it again,’” Bacon said. “People make mistakes.” But instead, Hegseth “tried to deny it was a problem,” and he sought to shift the blame to the journalist, he said.

‘Went off the deep end’: Backlash hits sole Republican who demanded Hegseth be fired

https://www.rawstory.com/hegseth-2672113281

CNN: Trump warns America’s businesses: Eat my tariffs, or pay the price

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President Donald Trump is sending a stern warning to Corporate America: He will use his bully pulpit to publicly shame companies that dare to raise prices because of tariffs.

Walmart:

After Walmart last week said it would have to jack up some prices because of high costs of the global trade war, Trump on Saturday responded forcefully in a Truth Social post, demanding Walmart reverse its decision.

“Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain,” Trump said. “Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, “EAT THE TARIFFS,” and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!”

The rebuke was the White House’s third such public reprimand of a big American business that discussed the possibility of raising prices because of the steep cost of tariffs.

Amazon:

On April 29, after Amazon reportedly considered displaying an additional tariff charge next to the listed price on its Haul platform, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt at a press briefing held up a photo of Amazon Chairman Jeff Bezos and called the move a “hostile and political act.” Trump, whom a senior official described as “pissed,” called Bezos to complain, saying the company’s founder “solved the problem very quickly.”

Amazon said that although it was considering displaying the tariff cost, the plan was ultimately not approved and “not going to happen.”

Mattel:

A week later, on May 6, Trump threatened a 100% tariff on Mattel after the Barbie and Hot Wheels maker said it would have to raise prices. Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz said Trump’s tariffs won’t bring toy manufacturing to America, because toys couldn’t be manufactured in America and still be sold at affordable prices.

“We don’t see that happening,” Kreiz told CNBC after Mattel warned that tariffs will increase toy prices for American consumers.

Trump fired back from the Oval Office, threatening the company and its CEO.

“We’ll put a 100% tariff on his toys, and he won’t sell one toy in the United States, and that’s their biggest market,” Trump said. “I wouldn’t wanna have him as an executive too long.”

Trump = a narcissistic bully suffering a severe case of arrested development!

Trump warns big business: Eat my tariffs, or pay the price | CNN Business
President Trump used his bully pulpit to warn America’s businesses about raising prices due to tariffs.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/19/business/trump-tariffs-price-consumers

MSNBC: I confronted Sec. Noem [Bimbo #2] because our democracy is threatened like never before

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Last month, President Donald Trump shared an edited image of the knuckles of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident with protected status wrongfully sent to a Salvadoran detention facility. The photo showed “MS13” apparently added above his knuckle tattoos, even though other photos of his hand did not have that text. Last week, I had a chance to ask Homeland Security Security Kristi Noem [Bimbo #2] if she had investigated how an edited image came into the president’s hands. Not only did she refuse to answer, she barely acknowledged that the image was edited.

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The groundwork for jailing the innocent is being laid right now — not behind closed doors, but out in the open.

First, Trump appointed Kash Patel as FBI director, an unqualified podcaster who published a book listing names of Trump’s enemies who should be imprisoned. I didn’t make the top 60; rather, I was mentioned in the foreword to Patel’s list as a legislator who should be targeted.

Next, in Trump’s first hours as president, rather than issuing executive orders that would lower consumer costs, he pardoned or commuted the sentence of every Jan. 6 criminal. A man willing to free hundreds of political allies seems more than willing to jail his political enemies.

Accordingly, last month, Trump directed his attorney general to investigate Christopher Krebs, former head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Miles Taylor, former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security. Krebs made the mistake of declaring the 2020 election the most secure in history. Taylor had the courage to organize other concerned Trump national security officials to bring to light Trump’s constitutional crimes.

And Trump demonstrated he’s willing to tell any lie to justify jailing anyone — which brings us back to Abrego Garcia. In April, the Trump administration admitted in court that it had mistakenly sent Abrego Garcia to El Salvador.

Every court that’s heard Abrego Garcia’s appeal — including the Supreme Court — has ordered Trump to facilitate his return to the United States. When asked about the case, Trump boasted he “could” return Abrego Garcia, but he “won’t.” To justify the man’s imprisonment, Trump has pointed to the altered image.

Opinion | I confronted Sec. Noem because our democracy is threatened like never before
President Trump has demonstrated he’s willing to tell any lie to justify jailing anyone.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/eric-swalwell-kristi-noem-kilmar-abrego-garcia-rcna207275

Daily Beast: Pope Leo Snubs JD Vance After Inaugural Mass

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The pope gave the vice president short shrift after the ceremony.

Pope Leo XIV spurned JD Vance on Sunday, offering him a quick greeting after his inaugural mass while holding extensive private meetings with other world leaders.

The first American pope shook Vance’s hand during a brief, 17-second exchange during the procession line after the mass.

Leo met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Peruvian President Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra on Sunday after celebrating his inaugural Mass, which included world leaders from Canada, Italy, Germany, and other European Union officials in the audience.

Pope Leo Snubs JD Vance After Inaugural Mass
The pope gave the vice president short shrift after the ceremony.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pope-leo-xiv-snubs-jd-vance-as-he-meets-with-world-leaders

Knews: ‘Repudiated’: WSJ Delivers Blow to Trump

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The WSJ editorial board argued that the tariff policy has weakened U.S. credibility by targeting allies and obstructed coalition efforts against Beijing’s trade practices. The editorial board wrote, “Rarely has an economic policy been repudiated as soundly, and as quickly, as President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs—and by Mr. Trump’s own hand.”

The editorial board added, “A ‘tragedy’ of Trump’s ‘shoot-America-in-the-foot-first approach,’ is that he’s hurt his chances of rallying a united front of countries against Beijing’s mercantilism.” It added, “By targeting allies with tariffs, Mr. Trump has eroded trust in America’s economic and political reliability.”

‘Repudiated’: WSJ Delivers Blow to Trump
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/repudiated-wsj-delivers-blow-to-trump/ss-AA1F0uoz

Knewz: Trump DHS Threatens AOC With Arrest

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[DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia] McLaughlin warned Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) would also face arrest if she took similar unauthorized actions. An investigation into assaults on ICE agents is underway. McLaughlin said, “If she trespasses and if she assaults law enforcement officers, as we saw earlier, I think that’s certainly on the table. As far as we’ve heard, a lot of Democrats make the argument that they’re just conducting oversight, congressional oversight.”

Just lots of huffing & puffing & theatrics from one of King Donald’s unqualified bimbos for a hypothetical problem that hasn’t happened and likely never will.

Trump DHS Threatens AOC With Arrest
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-dhs-threatens-aoc-with-arrest/ss-AA1F12N9

Washington Examiner: Judge allows Trump to fire top CIA doctor who appeared on ‘Deep State Target List’

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A federal judge cleared the way for President Donald Trump to fire a top CIA doctor involved in the firing of agents who refused to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

At a Friday hearing, U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff declined to prevent Dr. Terry Adirim from being fired from her position as head of the CIA Centers for Global Health Services. Adirim claimed that her firing was due to her being targeted by “a political extremist,” but the Department of Justice argued the evidence was only circumstantial.

Her firing came shortly after right-wing activist Laura Loomer met with Trump at the White House, leading some to suspect that her firing was the direct result of an appeal from Loomer. She has “exposed” several Trump administration staffers for alleged disloyalty and ties to foreign adversaries, coinciding with several firings.

Judge allows Trump to fire CIA doctor on ‘Deep State Target List’
Dr. Terry Adirim claimed that her firing was due to her being targeted by “a political extremist.”
Judge allows Trump to fire top CIA doctor who appeared on ‘Deep State Target List’