Tag Archives: Marco Rubio

CNN: Trump admin proposed sending up to 500 alleged Venezuelan gang members during negotiations to use El Salvador’s mega-prison

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The United States proposed sending up to 500 Venezuelan migrants with alleged ties to the Tren de Aragua gang to El Salvador as the two governments sought to reach an agreement on the use of the Central American nation’s notorious mega-prison, according to emails seen by CNN.

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“These people are being thrown out of the country because of tattoos,” Judge Alvin Hellerstein said in court last Tuesday. “There is nothing in this statute or proclamation that authorizes the United States of America to hire a jail in a foreign country for people could be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment not allowable in the United States jails.”

Trump admin proposed sending up to 500 alleged Venezuelan gang members during negotiations to use El Salvador’s mega-prison
The United States proposed sending up to 500 Venezuelan migrants with alleged ties to the Tren de Aragua gang to El Salvador as the two governments sought to reach an agreement on the use of the Central American nation’s notorious mega-prison, according to emails seen by CNN.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-admin-proposed-sending-up-to-500-alleged-venezuelan-gang-members-during-negotiations-to-use-el-salvador-s-mega-prison/ar-AA1DNdhA

Daily Beast: Marco Rubio Contradicts Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi [Bimbo #3] on Due Process

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio forgot the Gospel According to Donald Trump on Sunday by admitting that anyone on U.S. soil is entitled to a fair hearing before being removed from the country.

“Yes, of course,” Rudio said in response to the host’s question of whether the Fifth Amendment still applies under Trump during his morning interview with MSNBC. “That’s what the law says!”

Yup! Got that right!

Perhaps conscious of having contradicted the latest White House statements and directives on the matter, he then scrambled to tell the network that “if you’re in this country illegally, you have no right to be here and you must be removed.”

Oops! It must be painful to have spoken the truth for a change. Suck it up, Bubba!

Marco Rubio Contradicts Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi on Due Process
Secretary of State Marco Rubio forgot the Gospel According to Donald Trump on Sunday by admitting that anyone on U.S. soil is entitled to a fair hearing before being removed from the country. “Yes, of course,” Rudio said in response to the host’s question of whether the Fifth Amendment still applies under Trump during his morning interview with MSNBC. “That’s what the law says!” Perhaps conscious of having contradicted the latest White House…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/marco-rubio-contradicts-trump-and-attorney-general-pam-bondi-on-due-process/ar-AA1DIJO4

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

Polygraph Threats, Leaks and Infighting: The Chaos Inside Hegseth’s Pentagon

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Defense secretary has chastised top military officers and staffers as he seeks to quiet a storm he helped create.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied discussing sensitive military information with his wife and others in the Signal app.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was rattled.

Word had leaked that he was planning a classified briefing for Elon Musk on China, a revelation that infuriated President Trump and raised alarms inside the Pentagon given Musk’s business ties to Beijing.

https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/pete-hegseth-pentagon-fired-aides-cfa9e0d5

NBC News: Trump slams Zelenskyy for rejecting Ukraine-Russia negotiations, saying a deal was ‘very close’

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High-level talks in London aimed at bringing a pause to fighting in Ukraine disintegrated after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff pulled out.

President Donald Trump slammed Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, accusing him of derailing negotiations to end the war in Ukraine while a peace deal was “very close.”

In a long post on Truth Social, Trump described Zelenskyy’s rejection of Russia’s takeover of Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, as “very harmful” to achieving peace.

“It’s inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War,” Trump wrote.

Zelenskyy has consistently rejected the suggestion that his country give up its claim to the Crimean Peninsula.

“There’s nothing to talk about here,” he said at a media conference Tuesday. “This is against our constitution.”

It’s “very close” only in Trump’s deranged mind. All parties need to honor the 1990 agreement on the Sovereignty of Ukraine. Russia’s aggression must not be rewarded.

Trump slams Zelenskyy for rejecting Ukraine-Russia negotiations, saying a deal was ‘very close’
High-level talks in London aimed at bringing a pause to fighting in Ukraine disintegrated after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff pulled out.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/rcna202525

Telegraph: Trump to let Putin keep land seized from Ukraine

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Seven-point plan gives Kyiv no clear security guarantee from the US

Donald Trump will let Vladimir Putin keep almost all the territory he has seized from Ukraine under the terms of a proposed peace deal.

The condition is part of a seven-point plan to end the war that leaves Ukraine with no clear US security guarantee.

It was due to be discussed in London on Wednesday, when US officials would hear Kyiv’s reaction, though the talks were downgraded when US secretary of state Marco Rubio pulled out.

Foreign ministers from the UK, France, Germany and Ukraine withdrew in an apparent response. Discussions were instead scheduled to take place between senior officials from those nations and the US.

The Trump administration’s peace proposal involves the US offering formal recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea and implies de facto recognition of other occupied territories.

This would mean freezing the current front line, allowing Putin to keep almost all the territory Russia has gained.

As if it’s King Donald’s decision. My bet is that this “proposal” is Dead on Arrival. Rewarding Russia’s aggression will only invite them back to grab the rest of Ukraine when they think they can get away with it.

Trump to let Putin keep land seized from Ukraine
Seven-point plan gives Kyiv no clear security guarantee from the US

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/04/22/trumps-plan-to-let-putin-keep-land-seized-from-ukraine

Daily Mail: Colombian president stunned his US visa has been revoked… and reveals nickname for Trump in response

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Colombian President Gustavo Petro is seemingly no longer welcome in the United States.

Petro, a former member of the 19th of April Movement guerrilla group and Colombia’s first leftist president, claimed the Trump administration revoked his visa to attend meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

He is instead be replaced by the Minister of Finance Germán Avila, who is in Washington, D.C. this week.

The major international snub comes after Donald Trump threatened ‘decisive retaliatory measures’ against government officials over Colombia’s refusal to let two US Military flights full of migrants land in January. 

‘I can’t go anymore because I think they’ve revoked my visa,’ Petro said during a Council of Ministers meeting on Monday.

‘I didn’t need a visa, but hey, I’ve seen Donald Duck several times. So, I’m off to see other things.’

King Donald is like a child in a school yard who can’t bear to lose a marble.

World leader stunned to learn his US visa has been revoked
A world leader says he’s been denied entry into the United States in what appears to be a major escalation in the Trump administration’s trade and tariff war.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14635611/colombian-president-visa-revoked-donald-trump-gustavo-petro.html

Robert Reich: Ineptitude, incompetence, stupidity, and chaos

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Trump is fundamentally incapable of governing. That’s the theme that unites everything.

Some Democrats fear they’re playing into Trump’s hands by fighting his mass deportations rather than focusing on his failures on bread-and-butter issues like the cost of living.

But it’s not either-or. The theme that unites Trump’s inept handling of deportations, his trampling on human and civil rights, his rejection of the rule of law, his dictatorial centralization of power, and his utterly inept handling of the economy is the ineptness itself.

In his first term, not only did his advisers and Cabinet officials put guardrails around his crazier tendencies, but they also provided his first administration a degree of stability and focus. Now, it’s mayhem.

Ineptitude, incompetence, stupidity, and chaos
Trump is fundamentally incapable of governing. That’s the theme that unites everything.

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/ineptitude-incompetence-stupidity

AFP: Palestinian protest leader detained by US misses son’s birth

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Detained pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil missed the birth of his son on Monday after US authorities refused a temporary release, his wife said.

A graduate student at New York’s Columbia University who was one of the most visible leaders of nationwide campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, Khalil was arrested by immigration authorities on March 8.

He was ordered deported even though he was a permanent US resident through his American citizen wife, Noor Abdalla.

Abdalla said that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) denied a request to release Khalil temporarily for the birth of their child.

“This was a purposeful decision by ICE to make me, Mahmoud and our son suffer,” she said in a statement.

MSN

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/palestinian-protest-leader-detained-by-us-misses-son-s-birth/ar-AA1DlyOg

LA Times: UCLA international student detained at U.S.-Mexico border amid Trump visa cancellations

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A UCLA international graduate student has been detained at the U.S.-Mexico border and is being held by Customs and Border Protection, the school confirmed late Thursday.

The student, whose name was not released, was taken into custody Wednesday night, according to faculty members and students who quickly organized a campus rally in her support Thursday evening.

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Few details were released about the student, including her name and nationality. Faculty, and an immigration attorney who has been attempting to contact the student, said late Thursday they had not yet spoken to her. They added that the student was detained at the San Ysidro border crossing south of San Diego and was able to reach a UCLA contact before she was taken into custody.

It is unclear why the student was in Mexico or what led to her detention.

Earlier in April:

On April 4, UC San Diego said an international student there was also detained at the U.S.-Mexico border while attempting to cross. In a campus message, UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla said the student was “detained at the border, denied entry and deported to their home country.”

UCLA international student detained at U.S.-Mexico border amid Trump visa cancellations
UCLA confirmed that an international student was detained at the U.S.-Mexico border. A campus rally was quickly organized in her support.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-04-17/ucla-international-student-detained-us-mexico-border