Monthly Archives: April 2025

The Dispatch: Trump’s Team of Losers

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The president has hired lots of people who couldn’t win their own elections.

He’s not alone. Hegseth is only one member of the second Trump administration to have been plucked from the pantheon of electoral duds and given a second lease on political life. From the Cabinet all the way to high-profile White House aides, there are failed candidates for major office who might have otherwise toiled for years in obscurity or, even worse, local politics if not for Trump’s magnanimity. Contrary to the president’s boasted affection for winners, it’s loyalty to Trump, sometimes even in the face of defeat, that remains the most valuable characteristic for a Republican looking to get ahead these days. Even the losers.

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So the pathway for aspiring MAGA politicians is clear: in order to get the Trump administration imprimatur to win a future race for office, try losing one first.

Trump’s Team of Losers
The president has hired lots of people who couldn’t win their own elections.
Trump’s Team of Losers

CNN World: Why Trump’s Crimea proposal would tear down a decades-old pillar of the global order

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US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine should recognize Russia’s control over Crimea, the southern Ukrainian peninsula that Moscow annexed more than a decade ago, is threatening to upend international law and order.

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Is this legal?

No. If the Trump administration was to somehow recognize Russian sovereignty over Crimea, it would be breaching international law as well as multiple declarations and agreements made by the United States, including by the first Trump White House.

“In terms of international law, such a pronouncement would be null and void,” said Sergey Vasiliev, an international law expert and professor at the Open University in the Netherlands.

“That territorial acquisitions that result from the use of force shall not be recognized as legal is basically one of the bedrock principles of international law,” Vasiliev told CNN.

Recognizing Crimea as part of Russia would put the Trump administration in breach of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which the US made a commitment to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and borders, in exchange for Kyiv giving up its nuclear weapons.

In 2018, during the first Trump administration, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement reaffirming the US’ refusal to recognize the Kremlin’s claims of sovereignty over Crimea.

Why Trump’s Crimea proposal would tear down a decades-old pillar of the global order | CNN
President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine should recognize Russia’s control over Crimea, the southern Ukrainian peninsula Moscow siezed by force more than a decade ago, is threatening to upend international law and order.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/25/world/trump-ukraine-crimea-explainer-intl

Mediaite: ‘Give Me a Break!’ Judge Shreds DOJ Attorney Defending Trump Executive Order Targeting Law Firm

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A federal judge firmly swatted down a series of arguments from a Department of Justice attorney defending President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting the Jenner & Block LLP law firm at a hearing Monday, at one point uttering an exasperated “Give me a break!”

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Since the beginning of his second term, Trump has issued a series of executive orders targeting by name multiple BigLaw firms that represented prominent Democratic clients like Hillary Clinton, refused to represent him or other pro-MAGA causes, hired former federal prosecutors that investigated him, or worked on the criminal cases he was facing before he won re-election.

The president’s social media posts and executive orders often lambast these firms using language accusing them of being “dishonest” and a “dangerous” risk to national security. The sanctions he has sought to impose include stripping the security clearances of the firms’ attorneys and staff (critically important for certain types of federal legal cases), terminating contracts the firms had with federal agencies, barring the firms’ employees from federal buildings (again, a major obstacle for the lawyers to represent their clients), demanding firms abolish diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and programs, and threatening additional civil and criminal investigations against the firms.

‘Give Me a Break!’ Judge Shreds DOJ Attorney Defending Trump Executive Order Targeting Law Firm
A federal judge firmly swatted down a series of arguments from a Department of Justice attorney defending President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting the Jenner & Block LLP law firm at a hearing Monday, at one point uttering an exasperated “Give me a break!” Judge John Bates with the U.S. District Court for the District […] The post ‘Give Me a Break!’ Judge Shreds DOJ Attorney Defending Trump Executive Order Targeting Law Firm first…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/give-me-a-break-judge-shreds-doj-attorney-defending-trump-executive-order-targeting-law-firm/ar-AA1DNgFP

Raw Story: ‘He’s totally blown it’: Trump warned his polling numbers are about to get much worse

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Appearing on MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” GOP strategist Brendan Buck took issue with co-host Michael Steele who told the panel to slow down their enthusiasm over the president’s growing unpopularity.

“Obviously it’s just a snapshot, but I certainly don’t think it’s going to get better for him anytime soon,” Buck countered.

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“Just keep things humming, especially in contrast to what we had been through under Joe Biden,” he added. “Just stay out of the way, you would have been fine, and he’s totally blown it.”

‘To your point, tariffs are just getting started. this is only going to get worse,” he predicted. “You know, if anything is going to sort of check him, the guardrails are public opinion. So maybe he’ll see some of this and realize that it shouldn’t, he shouldn’t go forward. But he’s not shown himself to be somebody who, you know, recalibrates.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/he-s-totally-blown-it-trump-warned-his-polling-numbers-are-about-to-get-much-worse/ar-AA1DHUCN?

RNS: 550 US rabbis sign letter condemning Trump’s antisemitism policy

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More than 550 rabbis and cantors have signed a letter objecting to President Trump’s crackdown on universities for what the administration calls tolerance of antisemitism, calling Trump’s executive orders and detentions of students who criticized Israel “cynical attacks on higher education.”

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Rabbi Elliott Tepperman of Bnai Keshet, a Reconstructionist synagogue in Montclair, New Jersey, who helped edit the statement and is co-chair for the rabbinic cabinet for J Street, said the 550 rabbis and cantors who signed were the “tip of the iceberg.”

“I’m quite sure that the vast majority of American Jews support the sentiment behind this,” Tepperman said on Monday.

The letter begins by saying that the signatories are committed to fighting the rising tide of antisemitism. But it quickly adds: “… we cannot allow the fight against antisemitism to be twisted into a wedge issue, used to justify policies that target immigrants and other minorities, suppress free speech, or erode democratic norms.”

The Trump administration has launched a war against higher education for what it insists is a dangerous culture of antisemitism, cutting off federal funding for scientific and other research to Harvard, Columbia and Cornell Universities, among others, and threatening to investigate dozens more colleges and universities.

It has also sought to cancel visas and begin deportation proceedings against a number of students who had participated in demonstrations against Israel during the wave of campus protests last year over the war in Gaza.

“We reject these cynical attacks on higher education — institutions that have long been strongholds of Jewish academic and cultural life — under the pretense of protecting Jewish students,” the letter says.

A poll last week found that most American Jews oppose the way President Donald Trump is handling antisemitism. The poll, conducted by the Mellman Group in mid-April among 800 registered Jewish voters, found that 56% do not approve, while 31% do approve of how Trump is handling antisemitism.

550 US rabbis sign letter condemning Trump’s antisemitism policy
(RNS) — The letter comes after a poll found that most American Jews oppose the way President Donald Trump is handling antisemitism.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/550-us-rabbis-sign-letter-condemning-trump-s-antisemitism-policy/ar-AA1DNhfZ

The Week US: A ‘meltdown’ at Hegseth’s Pentagon

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was fighting to hold on to his Cabinet position this week after reports that he used a second Signal chat—which included his wife, brother, and personal lawyer— last month to discuss detailed plans for a U.S. military strike on rebel camps in Yemen. The New York Times reported that Hegseth, a former Fox News host, had created chaos “unmatched in the recent history” of the Pentagon, and that after he fired three top aides last week and accused them of leaking to the press, his circle of advisers “is in shambles.” A fourth recently departed aide, former Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot, said in a Politico column that the Defense Department is “in a full-blown meltdown” under Hegseth’s leadership and that “it’s hard to see” him retaining his post. NPR reported that the Trump administration has begun a search for Hegseth’s replacement.

A ‘meltdown’ at Hegseth’s Pentagon
The Defense Secretary is fighting to keep his job amid leaked Signal chats and staff turmoil

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/a-meltdown-at-hegseth-s-pentagon/ar-AA1DNG9m

Associated Press: Ex-Justice Department prosecutor challenges his firing by the White House after Laura Loomer post

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Adam Schleifer, an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, was fired without explanation last month in an email from a White House official. It came exactly one hour after Loomer, a conservative internet personality known for incendiary comments, called for his removal in a social media post highlighting his past critical views about Trump while running in a Democratic primary for a New York congressional seat.

In a filing with the Merit Systems Protection Board — which is responsible for protecting government employees from political reprisals — Schleifer argues he was unlawfully fired in retaliation for protected political speech from a time when he wasn’t working as a government lawyer. He’s seeking reinstatement, back pay and other relief.

Ex-Justice Department prosecutor challenges his firing by the White House after Laura Loomer post
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former career Justice Department prosecutor is challenging his firing by the White House, saying it was for “unprecedented partisan and political reasons” and undermines a “bedrock principle” of the justice system after he was dismissed following a post by right-wing activist Laura Loomer. Adam Schleifer, an assistant U.S. attor…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ex-justice-department-prosecutor-challenges-his-firing-by-the-white-house-after-laura-loomer-post/ar-AA1DMJZ4

USA Today: ‘I run the country and the world,’ Donald Trump says in Atlantic interview

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President Donald Trump declared that he runs the world as he reflected on what’s different during his second White House go around in an interview with The Atlantic magazine.

“The first time, I had two things to do ‒ run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys,” Trump said in the interview, published April 28. “And the second time, I run the country and the world.”

Sorry, Trumpsy dearest. God runs the world. You’re here only to scrub the toilets.

‘I run the country and the world,’ Donald Trump says in Atlantic interview
President Trump said he’s having more fun the second time around and again teased an unconstitutional third term in an interview with The Atlantic.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/i-run-the-country-and-the-world-donald-trump-says-in-atlantic-interview/ar-AA1DMR56

The Atlantic: DOGE Was Bad. Schedule F Will Be Worse.

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In the waning days of the first Trump administration, the White House announced a plan to convert an estimated 50,000 government employees to a status similar to political appointees—meaning that they would become “at will” hires who serve purely at the president’s pleasure. Schedule F, as this plan was known, was never implemented then and was revoked immediately under Joe Biden’s presidency. But now the policy is back, formally resurrected by executive order on April 18. If this new-look Schedule F survives the inevitable court challenges, it will mark a major step forward in a MAGA quest laid out by J. D. Vance in 2021 to “fire every single mid-level bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state,” and “replace them with our people.”

DOGE Was Bad. Schedule F Will Be Worse.
An executive order will convert 50,000 government employees into de facto political appointees who serve only at the president’s pleasure.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/doge-was-bad-schedule-f-will-be-worse/ar-AA1DLhQ7

Newsweek: Employees Have a New Fear: Immigration Raids

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“Every person in this country should be terrified, because when the government stops caring about due process, nobody’s citizenship papers are enough to keep them safe.”

Employees Have a New Fear: Immigration Raids
In a new Brightmine survey, three in five workers said they were worried about workplace immigration raids.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/employees-have-a-new-fear-immigration-raids/ar-AA1DMwil