Author Archives: M

MSNBC: Trump admin regulators launch investigation into Media Matters, adding to pattern

Posted on by
Reply

If it seems as if there have been a lot of new federal investigations into Democrats and their allies lately, it’s not your imagination.

But it’s important to remember that many of the White House’s political antagonists are, in fact, facing the kind of investigations that Trump has in mind. The New York Times reported:

The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday opened an investigation into Media Matters, a liberal advocacy organization that has published research on hateful and antisemitic content on X, according to two people familiar with the inquiry. The regulator said in a letter sent to the organization that it was investigating the group, which is aligned with Democrats, over whether it illegally colluded with advertisers, according to the people.

…

The public has learned in recent weeks that the administration — led by a president whose second-term “revenge tour” has been unsubtle — is also investigating and/or prosecuting a variety of Democratic officials and candidates, including Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York Attorney General Letitia James and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.

This dovetails with the president directing the Justice Department to go after Christopher Krebs, who led the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; which came on the heels of Trump pressing the Department of Homeland Security to investigate Miles Taylor, a former high-ranking DHS official. The president did this not because there’s evidence of Krebs or Taylor having done anything wrong, but because they defied him several years ago. They went on his enemies list, and now he’s exacting revenge.

Around the same time, Trump also directed the Justice Department to investigate ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s most important fundraising platform.

And did I mention the investigation into former FBI director James Comey? Because that’s underway, too.

Trump and his team are also going after law firms, universities and news organizations they consider political foes of the White House.

What’s more, given Ed Martin’s new responsibilities at the Justice Department, this overtly and abusive partisan pattern is likely to intensify.

So Trump hates everybody?

Axios recently noted, “In the final days of the 2024 campaign, Axios identified a list of perceived adversaries who fit what Trump ominously described as ‘the enemies from within.’ As president, he has taken steps to retaliate against virtually all of them.” That was two months ago. The problem is vastly worse now, and there’s no reason to believe conditions will improve anytime soon.

Trump admin regulators launch investigation into Media Matters, adding to pattern
If it seems as if there have been a lot of new federal investigations into Democrats and their allies lately, it’s not your imagination.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-admin-regulators-launch-investigation-media-matters-adding-patte-rcna208780

MSNBC: Pro-Trump crypto bro Justin Sun embodied MAGA palm-greasing at Trump’s crypto soiree

Posted on by
Reply

The investor, who has put millions into the Trump family’s crypto company, reportedly left the president’s dinner with the prize of a gold watch.

The event was a private dinner with the president at Trump National Golf Club, where “investors spent an estimated $148 million on the $TRUMP meme coin to secure their seats … with the top-25 holders spending more than $111 million,” Reuters reported, citing crypto intelligence firm Inca Digital. Reuters also cited an analysis that found the Trumps have made $320.19 million in fees from their meme coins.

And the person in the photo is Justin Sun, a MAGA-aligned crypto bro who said he was “awarded” what he identified as a “Trump Gold Tourbillon” (a Trump-branded watch that retails for $100,000). The White House didn’t immediately respond to MSNBC’s question as to whether the president actually gifted this watch to Sun.

…

His investments in Trump have been considerable — but, for him, arguably worthwhile. Sun has been in the news in the last few months because, after he plowed $75 million into Trump family crypto, per NBC News, the SEC put a 60-day pause on the charges of market manipulation and offering unregistered securities it had been pursuing against him since 2023. 

…

But to really catch the flavor of what’s happening, it’s these images of brazen wealth and intolerably open corruption that one would expect from a president dead-set on dragging the United States back to the Gilded Age, an era marked by immense wealth inequality and widespread corruption.

As Chris Hayes noted on “All In” on Thursday, the contrasting images of Trump that day — whipping votes for a House budget with deep cuts to social programs, such as food aid and health care, in the morning, and in the evening reportedly helicoptering into a ritzy and self-enriching dinner for a few minutes — is too glaring to ignore.

Pro-Trump crypto bro Justin Sun embodied MAGA palm-greasing at Trump’s crypto soiree
The investor, who has put millions into the Trump family’s crypto company, reportedly left the president’s dinner with the prize of a gold watch.

https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/justin-sun-white-house-crypto-trump-meme-coin-rcna208769

MSNBC: The problem(s) with the White House’s defense of Trump’s scandalous crypto dinner

Posted on by
Reply

The White House came up with a handful of talking points to defend the president’s meme coin scheme, but they were all unbelievable.

In the beginning:

When Donald Trump unveiled a meme coin a few days before his second inaugural, the ethical mess was obvious. The Campaign Legal Center’s Adav Noti explained at the time, “It is literally cashing in on the presidency — creating a financial instrument so people can transfer money to the president’s family in connection with his office. It is beyond unprecedented.”

And recently:

But when the president and his partners launched a contest of sorts last month, it took the story to a new level: Those interested in investing in Trump’s meme coin — and by extension, giving the president money — were told they’d have a chance to win special access to Trump and the White House.

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said of the scheme, “This isn’t Trump just being Trump. The Trump coin scam is the most brazenly corrupt thing a president has ever done. Not close.”

The dinner:

The gambit proved predictably lucrative. NBC News reported this week:

More than 200 wealthy, mostly anonymous crypto buyers are coming to Washington on Thursday to have dinner with President Donald Trump. The price of admission: $55,000 to $37.7 million. That’s how much the 220 winners of a contest to meet Trump spent on his volatile cryptocurrency token, $TRUMP, according to an analysis by the blockchain analytics company Nansen. The top $TRUMP coin holders at a specific time — determined by the dinner’s organizers — secured a seat.

The dinner nevertheless happened at a Trump-owned property in Virginia on Thursday night, and it was described by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes as “the Met Gala of presidential pay-for-play.” Chris added that the dinner was “the most brazen act of corruption by a president in our lifetimes, probably in a century, possibly ever.”

While the resident Bimbo dodges questions …

Once:

The president’s chief spokesperson was asked, for example, whether Trump was using the gathering to enrich himself. Instead of answering directly, [White House Press Secretary Bimbo #1] Leavitt said the president was re-elected “because he was a successful businessman.” The problem with this, of course, was (a) she didn’t answer the question; (b) he wasn’t a successful businessman; and (c) there’s no evidence to suggest Trump’s private-sector background contributed to his successful 2024 candidacy.

Twice:

At the same briefing, [Bimbo #1] Leavitt also argued that Trump was attending the crypto dinner in his “personal time,” which made even less sense, given that presidents while in office don’t have the luxury of simply taking off the presidential hat and acting as a private citizen for a while. Ethical norms and legal standards always apply to the nation’s chief executive, especially when interacting with those eager to give them financial rewards.

Thrice:

But I was especially interested in [Bimbo #1]Leavitt’s third point: Trump’s assets, she insisted, are in a “blind trust” managed by his adult sons, which necessarily mitigates potential ethical conflicts.

This almost resembles a credible point, but there’s a problem: Trump’s “trust” isn’t actually “blind.”

When the president’s first term began, many urged the Republican to avoid ethical quandaries by utilizing a blind trust, but Trump refused. After he was elected to a second term, he did transfer assets into a trust controlled by his eldest son, but to call it “blind” is to stretch the definition to an unreasonable degree.

Indeed, The New York Times spoke to Dennis Kelleher, the chief executive of Better Markets, a nonprofit that pushes for more transparency on Wall Street, who emphasized the family connection. “This is not a blind trust with an independent trustee, where people can have confidence that the conflicts of interest are in fact removed,” he explained.

In other words, after having plenty of time to come up with a defense for Trump’s meme coin scheme, the White House came up with a handful of talking points, and all three fell apart rather quickly.

The conclusion:

All things considered, that’s not too surprising: Defending the indefensible isn’t easy.

The problem(s) with the White House’s defense of Trump’s scandalous crypto dinner
The White House came up with a handful of talking points to defend the president’s meme coin scheme, but they were all unbelievable.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/problems-white-houses-defense-trumps-scandalous-crypto-dinner-rcna208749

Snopes: Clarifying claim that DOGE, RFK Jr. found 8M people fraudulently on Medicaid

Posted on by
Reply

The numbers appeared tied to estimates on the number of people who may be cut from Medicaid under U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”

Snopes has a lengthy discussion of claims by F’Elon Musk (DOGE) and Robert “Brainworm” Kennedy Jr. that they found 8M people fraudently on Medicaid. Their conclusion:

These numbers don’t add up to 8 million … 

Like almost everything else involving DOGE, the math doesn’t work out.

You can click the link below to read the article:

Clarifying claim that DOGE, RFK Jr. found 8M people fraudulently on Medicaid
The numbers appeared tied to estimates on the number of people who may be cut from Medicaid under U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/05/24/medicaid-doge-rfk-jr

Newsweek: Victims’ families slam Pam [Bimbo #3] Bondi over Boeing deal: Next crash her fault

Posted on by
Reply

Families of victims of Boing 737 Max crashes are speaking out after the Justice Department reached a deal Friday that will allow the airplane giant to avoid criminal prosecution for allegedly misleading regulators about the 737 Max jetliner before two of the planes crashed and killed 346 people.

Nadia Milleron, whose 24-year-old daughter, Samya Rose Stumo, died in a 2019 plane crash in Ethiopia, told Newsweek via email, “Pam [Bimbo #3] Bondi is afraid to try a case. She is reinstituting the coddling corporate criminal’s policy. Boeing remains a criminal corporation and [Bimbo #3] Bondi is enabling them. The next crash will be her fault.”

Victims’ families slam Pam Bondi over Boeing deal: Next crash her fault
Many relatives of the passengers who died in the Boing 2018 and 2019 crashes have spent years pushing for a public trial.

https://www.newsweek.com/victims-families-slam-pam-bondi-over-boeing-deal-next-crash-her-fault-2076613

Alternet: ‘I don’t appreciate being lied to’: Judge threatens Trump admin with ‘serious consequences’

Posted on by
Reply

POLITICO writer Josh Gerstein reports a federal judge is demanding the Trump administration explain what looks like misinformation they shared with the court.

Proclaiming “I will not be strung along,” U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes set a hearing this morning to determine if the Trump administration is trying to shutter three important Department of Homeland Security (DHS) oversight offices in defiance of Constitutional arguments that only Congress has that power.

Reyes opted to set a follow-up hearing this morning after back-and-forth between the court and government attorneys at a May 22 hearing.

“I don’t appreciate being lied to,” Reyes said yesterday. “If that is indeed what has happened, there will be serious consequences.”

Attorneys for the Trump administration allegedly told the court last week that the U.S. ombudsman offices for the Citizenship & Immigration Services and the Office of Immigration Detention were still intact despite layoffs of hundreds of DHS employees, part-time employees and contract workers.

But a DHS staffer who department leaders had scheduled for termination submitted to the court an internal document saying “the entirety of the offices were eliminated.”

Reyes demanded DHS leaders immediately file statements to the court, under penalty of perjury, explaining the mixed information.

‘I don’t appreciate being lied to’: Judge threatens Trump admin with ‘serious consequences’

https://www.alternet.org/donald-trump-judge

Guardian: US police officer resigns after wrongfully arresting undocumented teen

Posted on by
Reply

A Georgia police officer resigned from his job on Friday after erroneously pulling over a teenager, causing her to spend more than two weeks in a federal immigration jail, and leaving her facing deportation.

The officer, Leslie O’Neal, was employed at the police department in Dalton, a small city more than an hour north of Atlanta.

His arrest of college student Ximena Arias-Cristobal not only led to a domino effect that could lead to her deportation – it also engendered anger and criticism, especially given the circumstances of her immigration-related detention.

Though Dalton’s municipal government did not provide any information about why O’Neal resigned, his wife posted his resignation letter on Facebook, which said he believed the local police department did not adequately defend him.

Why should they defend him? He made a mistake that is turning that poor girl’s life upside down. If he can’t take the heat, he should get out of the fire, which apparently he’s done. 🙂

And I have no sympathy for cops who destroy other people lives with their “mistakes”. Screw them!

“The department’s silence in the face of widespread defamation has not only made my position personally untenable but has also created an environment where I can no longer effectively carry out my duties within the city of Dalton without fear of further backlash from the community,” O’Neal wrote in the letter.

But I’m curious: How did she get a Mexican driver’s license? I doubt she’s crossing the border for driver training, road test, etc. How would Mexico know she’s qualified to drive?

US police officer resigns after wrongfully arresting undocumented teen
Leslie O’Neal of Georgia pulled over college student who then spent more than two weeks in federal immigration jail

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/25/georgia-police-officer-resigns-arrest-undocumented-student

Law & Crime: ‘Threatens to destroy’: Trump admin sued over move to ‘unleash’ commercial fishing in protected marine areas

Posted on by
Reply

Conservation advocacy organizations have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over an executive order cutting protections for marine ecosystems in the Pacific Ocean.

The Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument was established in 2009 by then-President George W. Bush in his final days in office, and former President Barack Obama expanded the monument’s protections five years later. However, an April proclamation by President Donald Trump rolled back the 2014 safeguards in an effort to “unleash” United States commercial fishing in the central Pacific Ocean.

The Conservation Council for Hawaii, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Kapaʻa, an “unincorporated association of Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners,” are seeking to stop the president from having his way.

Trump admin sued over move to ‘unleash’ commercial fishing in protected marine areas
Conservation advocacy organizations have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over an executive order cutting protections for marine ecosystems in the Pacific Ocean.
‘Threatens to destroy’: Trump admin sued over move to ‘unleash’ commercial fishing in protected marine areas

Latin Times: Trump Insists ‘Nobody Told Us’ That International Students’ Home Countries Don’t Foot Their Tuition Bills

Posted on by
Reply

International students are ineligible for federal aid, and most pay tuition with personal or family funds

President Donald Trump claimed in a Truth Social post shared Saturday that “nobody told us” international students’ home countries are not responsible for paying tuition, just two days after his administration moved to ban international students from enrolling in or attending Harvard.

Does the U.S. government pay foreign schools for American students? Why should the reverse be any different? And if you didn’t know, your ignorance is your own problem.

“Why isn’t Harvard saying that almost 31% of their students are from FOREIGN LANDS, and yet those countries, some not at all friendly to the United States, pay NOTHING toward their student’s education, nor do they ever intend to,” Trump wrote. “Nobody told us that!”

See above, fool.

“We want to know who those foreign students are, a reasonable request since we give Harvard BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, but Harvard isn’t exactly forthcoming,” he continued, adding he wants “names and countries.”

Your immigration records (student and other visas) already provide that information, fool.

“Harvard has $52,000,000, use it, and stop asking for the Federal Government to continue GRANTING money to you!” Trump added.

Grants are a quid pro quo in exchange for something of value, usually research in a university context. If you wish to benefit from their research, you’ll provide the grants.

Contrary to the president’s claim, international students are ineligible for federal aid and most aid at the state level. They also typically pay higher tuition rates than U.S. students, either at the out-of-state level or designated international rates. While private universities like Harvard may provide some financial aid and scholarships, nearly 61% of foreign students rely on personal or family funds to pay for schooling in the U.S.

Don’t overload poor King Donald with useful information. He’s brain dead already, a total waste of oxygen.

Trump Insists ‘Nobody Told Us’ That International Students’ Home Countries Don’t Foot Their Tuition Bills
Amid his ongoing battle with Harvard, President Trump claimed he was unaware international students’ home countries don’t cover their tuition, despite most paying with personal or family funds.

https://www.latintimes.com/trump-insists-nobody-told-us-international-students-home-countries-dont-foot-tuition-bills-583766

Western Journal: US Pardon Attorney Ed Martin Drops Pardon Bomb That Could Change Everything

Posted on by
Reply

Controversy over former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen to issue presidential pardons has taken a new turn.

United States Pardon Attorney Ed Martin wrote on social media platform X, “The integrity of the American Pardon system requires that we examine the Biden pardons and who did what.”

“We will get the bottom of it.

“Count on us,” he concluded.

I’m not counting on much, other than the usual hyperbole from King Donald and his fan club.

US Pardon Attorney Ed Martin Announces Investigation of Biden Pardons
Pardon Attorney Ed Martin announces he’s investigating “who did what” amidst the controversy surrounding the Biden pardons.
US Pardon Attorney Ed Martin Drops Pardon Bomb That Could Change Everything