Alternate: Trump ‘made a mockery of all of us’: MAGA devotees revolt over foreign policy about-face

Politico reports President Donald Trump’s own MAGA devotees warned him of Israel’s penchant for military escalation. Now the retaliation is setting in.

“The White House claims it played no part in the strikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities Thursday night,” says Politico. Tehran was even slated to meet with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff over the weekend for peace talks, but now the U.S. is in a precarious place considering it unilaterally funds nearly a third of Israel’s military machine. Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s strike also threatens to pull the U.S. deeper into Middle East conflict  to the chagrin of a huge swathe of Trump’s MAGA base.

Politico reports President Donald Trump’s own MAGA devotees warned him of Israel’s penchant for military escalation. Now the retaliation is setting in.

“The White House claims it played no part in the strikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities Thursday night,” says Politico. Tehran was even slated to meet with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff over the weekend for peace talks, but now the U.S. is in a precarious place considering it unilaterally funds nearly a third of Israel’s military machine. Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s strike also threatens to pull the U.S. deeper into Middle East conflict  to the chagrin of a huge swathe of Trump’s MAGA base.

You cast your lot with a tyrant; now you are getting what you paid for! 😀

https://www.alternet.org/trump/trump-made-a-mockery-of-all-of-us-maga-already-pouncing-trumps-weakness-over-strikes

Alternet: America ‘being ripped apart’: Vietnam vet removes U.S. flag in Trump protest

Vietnam marine Morgan Akin, 84, has taken down his American flag, and he’s outspoken about his opposition to the White House in his conservative California community.

“He’s just tearing the country apart. The whole fabric of the country is just being ripped apart,” Akin said of President Donald Trump. “The worst part is the people that are getting hurt – the migrants that came here in earnest.”

The Guardian reports Akin took down his flag after flying it for decades. He says this is an official stand against a nation that has become unrecognizable to him over the decades. He says it “won’t fly again until things get straightened out down the line and administrations change.”

https://www.alternet.org/donald-trump-veterans-2672248921

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

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.

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