Tag Archives: President Donald Trump

Raw Story: Trump is being ‘played for a fool’: conservative columnist

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President Donald Trump is being “played by a fool” in negotiations over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, conservative columnist Max Boot warned in The Washington Post — and he has no idea how effortlessly he’s being used.

Trump has been tough to pin down on the Ukraine war. He has spent much of his political career sympathetic to Russia’s Vladimir Putin after his government interfered in the 2016 presidential election, and has frequently suggested Ukraine should give up territory to appease Russian aggression, but has more recently acted aware that Russia isn’t interested in peace — yet, Boot wrote, he keeps giving Putin far more chances than he is entitled to.

“President Donald Trump is not known for being patient or forgiving with those who defy his will,” wrote Boot. “In just the past few days, he has lashed out at New York Attorney General Letitia James, Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé and former FBI director James B. Comey — all of whom have incurred his wrath for various reasons. Yet when it comes to dealing with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin — who continues to sabotage Trump’s showcase efforts to end the war in Ukraine — the president seems to have an endless supply of patience, goodwill and understanding.”

Trump is being ‘played for a fool’: conservative columnist

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-ukraine-2672134891

Mediaite: Trump Made the First Move for Jet ‘Gift’ From Qataris: Report

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President Donald Trump’s claim that a jet plane from the Qatari royal family was a “gift” is facing turbulence after multiple sources tell CNN it was in fact the Trump administration that initiated talks to acquire the Boeing 747 that could temporarily serve as Air Force One.

Four sources familiar with the discussions contradict Trump’s implied line that Qatar spontaneously offered the plane. Instead, they say US officials, frustrated by delays in Boeing’s delivery of the new presidential fleet, actively pursued alternative options — Qatar among them.

“Qatar was one of the clients,” a source told CNN, explaining that Boeing pointed the Pentagon toward existing international customers. “The Pentagon offered to buy the plane and Qatar indicated it was willing to sell it.”

…

The administration was told by Boeing, which is making the next generation of Air Force One planes, that the two planes would not arrive until 2027. Trump wanted something sooner. So the Pentagon, with the White House backing, reached out to Qatar.

Boeing had given the administration a list of possible planes that could work as Air Force One in the meantime, and Qatar had one of those planes.

The president’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, he also helped facilitate these early meetings. The Pentagon then offered to buy the plane, and Qatar offered to sell it. Now, we’re told the lawyers are still hashing out the details, but the White House is still claiming that this is going to be a donation from Qatar. Or, as Trump wrote on Truth Social recently, a gift “free of charge.”

Trump Made the First Move for Jet ‘Gift’ From Qataris: Report
Trump’s claim that a promised Qatar jet plane was a “gift” is facing turbulence after sources tell CNN it was in fact the administration that initiated talks.
Trump Made the First Move for Jet ‘Gift’ From Qataris: Report

Fortune: U.S. economy is experiencing ‘death by a thousand cuts’, says Deutsche Bank, as confidence in national debt management erodes

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Economists have criticized politicians’ plans to reduce America’s national debt as too little, too late. But analysts are warning that the issue is now coming home to roost, with the once unshakeable confidence in the United States’ fiscal future beginning to erode.

America’s national debt, which currently stands at more than $36.2 trillion, is increasingly rising on economists’ agendas. Their fear is that as the nation’s debt burden increases, alongside the interest payments to service the debt, the economy will not grow fast enough to sustain the spending.

Such fears were reflected in a Moody’s downgrade of U.S. credit last week from Aaa to Aa1. Moody’s justified: “While we recognize the US’ significant economic and financial strengths, we believe these no longer fully counterbalance the decline in fiscal metrics.”

U.S. economy is experiencing ‘death by a thousand cuts’, says Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid says Moody’s recent debt downgrade continues a drip of bad fiscal news for the American economic outlook.

https://fortune.com/2025/05/20/us-economy-experiencing-death-by-thousand-cuts-deutsche-bank

Also here:

U.S. economy is experiencing ‘death by a thousand cuts’, says Deutsche Bank, as confidence in national debt management erodes

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/u-s-economy-is-experiencing-death-by-a-thousand-cuts-says-deutsche-bank-as-confidence-in-national-debt-management-erodes/ar-AA1F7C7n

EURweb: Artifacts Tied to Slavery and Civil Rights Quietly Pulled from Black History Museum as Trump Orders ‘Race‑Free’ Review

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More than 30 objects, including Harriet Tubman’s hymnal, have been rotated out of the National Museum of African American History and Culture amid President Trump’s executive order targeting “divisive” racial exhibits.

In all, NBC News counted 32 artifacts that have disappeared from public view at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) just weeks after Trump signed a March 27 executive order demanding that the Smithsonian eliminate material that “divides Americans based on race.”

…

The executive order charges Vice President J.D. Vance with a top‑to‑bottom review of Smithsonian content deemed to “degrade shared American values.” Its timing has fueled accusations of historical whitewashing. 

artifacts-tied-to-slavery-and-civil-rights-quietly-pulled-from-black-history-museum-as-trump-orders-racefree-review

https://eurweb.com/2025/artifacts-tied-to-slavery-and-civil-rights-quietly-pulled-from-black-history-museum-as-trump-orders-race%E2%80%91free-review

Knews: AOC Rips ‘Anti-American’ Trump Over Democratic Arrests

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) criticized President Donald Trump and his administration for being “anti-American” following a confrontation involving Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Democratic lawmakers at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center. Baraka was accused for trespassing and released after arrest. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused New Jersey Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, LaMonica McIver, and Robert Menendez of trespassing and assaulting ICE agents.

Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said, “If anyone’s breaking the law in this situation, it’s not members of Congress, it’s the Department of Homeland Security. It’s people like Tom Homan and Secretary Kristi Noem.” She added, “You lay a finger on someone, on Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman … or any of the representatives that were there, you lay a finger on them, we are going to have a problem. Because the people who are breaking the law are the people not abiding by it.”

AOC Rips ‘Anti-American’ Trump Over Democratic Arrests
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/aoc-rips-anti-american-trump-over-democratic-arrests/ss-AA1F5sac

Independent: Immigrants are being rounded up in Hawaii’s coffee fields and being treated worse than ‘cats and dogs,’ locals say

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Armando Rodriguez and his wife Karina have employed immigrant workers on Aloha Star Coffee Farms on the Big Island in Hawaii for decades, but ICE officials are now arresting their workers

Donald Trump’s war on immigration has impacted all corners of the U.S., but now, immigration officials have targeted an isolated patch on Hawaii’s Big Island.

“Even cats and dogs have rights here and in the United States, and they’re being treated better than some of our community members here,” Armando Rodriguez, owner of Aloha Star Coffee Farms, told local station KITV.

…

He explained that his initiative, Aloha Latinos, has focused on protecting civil rights for Hispanic residents who live with their families on the island.

Yet, many lives were now being torn apart because of the recent raids, he added.

“Our fear has turned into anger. A lot of communities are mad, they’re creating angry people here,” he said.

…

“It’s terrifying. People today are seeing their parents arrested right in front of them. Children are seeing their parents treated as criminals,” Kona Coffee farmer, Victoria Magana, told KITV.

ICE officials have been targeting Hawaii’s coffee farmers, locals say
Armando Rodriguez and his wife, Karina, employ green-card workers on Aloha Star Coffee Farms on the Big Island in Hawaii. They say ICE officials have now started arresting other local farmers on the island

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/immigrants-hawaii-coffee-farms-ice-b2753911.html

Law & Crime: ‘We have concerns’: Appeals court shoots down Trump DHS bid to continue carrying out ‘third country’ deportations

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A federal appellate court on Friday declined to lift a nationwide injunction that bars the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from carrying out President Donald Trump’s plans to summarily deport immigrants to countries where they are not from, allegedly without due process.

The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals issued the ruling in a two-page order, denying an emergency motion from the government for a stay of an April 18 preliminary injunction. The three-judge panel determined that DHS failed to satisfy the criteria required for such relief, and the court has “concerns regarding the continuing application of the Department of Homeland Security’s March 30 Guidance Regarding Third Country Removals,” among other things, according to the order.

…

The ruling stems from a class-action lawsuit filed by immigration advocates after DHS issued new guidance authorizing the removal of certain noncitizens to “third countries” not named in their immigration proceedings, and with which they allegedly have no historical or legal ties. The plaintiffs argued that the policy violates the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, as well as obligations under the Convention Against Torture human rights treaty.

1st Circuit shoots down Trump DHS bid to continue ‘third country’ deportations
A federal appeals court on Friday declined to lift a nationwide injunction that blocks Trump’s plans to summarily deport immigrants to countries they are not from, allegedly without due process.
‘We have concerns’: Appeals court shoots down Trump DHS bid to continue carrying out ‘third country’ deportations

New Republic: Transcript: Trump’s Threats to Defy Courts Suddenly Get More Dangerous

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As Trump’s intent to override the courts gets more obvious, a legal commentator who closely observes MAGA lawlessness explains why the Trump-MAGA strategy here is darker than you thought.

This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent.

President Donald Trump is very unhappy with how things went at the Supreme Court when it comes to his effort to end birthright citizenship. He uncorked two angry epic tirades about the High Court, essentially putting it on notice that it had better rule his way on this and other matters coming before it or else. This may look like typical Trumpian bullying and threats, but we think there’s a game going on here that people are missing. It’s that Trump is, in a very real sense, playing chicken with the Supreme Court. He’s trying to bluff the justices into constraining themselves from putting limits on Trump’s power. We’re going to explore how this really works today with one of our favorite legal commentators, Matthew Seligman, a fellow at Stanford Law School.

Best to click on the link and read the dialogue:

Transcript: Trump’s Threats to Defy Courts Suddenly Get More Dangerous
As Trump’s intent to override the courts gets more obvious, a legal commentator who closely observes MAGA lawlessness explains why the Trump-MAGA strategy here is darker than you thought.

https://newrepublic.com/article/195392/transcript-trump-threats-defy-courts-suddenly-get-dangerous

Raw Story: Trump’s henchmen are driving him to Supreme Court clash that he doesn’t care about: expert

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President Donald Trump seems likely to stage a major showdown with the U.S. Supreme Court that a legal expert believes is an intentional effort to gather up authoritarian powers.

The president has been attacking judges who rule against him in legal challenges to his executive orders, and Stanford Law School’s Matthew Seligman told The New Republic’s Greg Sargent that Vice President JD [“Dunce”] Vance and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen [“Goebbels”] Miller were even more eager than Trump to break the courts.

“This implicates an important distinction between Trump as an optical authoritarian versus [“Dunce”] Vance and [“Goebbels”] Miller as substantive authoritarians,” Seligman said. “Trump wants the trappings of authoritarianism. He wants everybody to talk about how he’s the most powerful person, and he wants it to look like he’s in charge.”

“He wants the big parade,” …

But:

The vice president and Trump’s deputy chief of staff want to break the court’s opposition to Trump so the president carry out the “pure will of the people,” meaning the MAGA base, without bureaucratic obstacles, as Sargent put it.

“[“Goebbels”] Miller and [“Dunce”] Vance, I think, are much more committed to substantive authoritarianism,” Seligman agreed. “They actually want to exercise the power. They actually want to degrade the rule of law because they actually want to impose this particular vision — very dark vision — of America’s future on the country. 

Trump’s henchmen are driving him to Supreme Court clash that he doesn’t care about: expert

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-supreme-court-2672130148

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