Tag Archives: President Donald Trump

Intelligencer: Donald Trump Is a Crook, But He’s Their Crook

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What does seem genuinely new, even by the standards of America’s warped history, is the unabashed corruption. No president, really, has favor-traded like Trump. No president has ever tried to blatantly enrich himself like this while in office. No president has ever hung a for-sale sign over the White House — not like this, anyway. Trump is poised to accept a $400 million luxury jet from the Qatari royal family, which feels like something of a capstone to his latest corruption binge. He would be able to use the plane while in the White House and transfer it to his presidential foundation when he’s out of office. Trump’s inaugural committee also gobbled up $239 million from wealthy business interests who are desperate to curry favor with such a nakedly transactional president. The amount far outstrips the $107 million Trump raised for his committee back in 2017, and since there is no way to spend so much cash on dinner and events, it appears Trump might have a slush fund for the rest of his life.

And then there’s his crypto hustle ….

Donald Trump Is a Crook, But He’s Their Crook
What explains the president’s untouchable corruption.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/qatar-plane-trump-corruption.html

ABC News: Families separated by ‘zero-tolerance’ policy at risk of separation again, ACLU says

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Under a 2023 settlement, the government agreed to provide some services.

Hundreds of parents and children separated under the “zero-tolerance” border policy during President Donald Trump’s first term — who were later reunited and protected by a 2023 settlement — are at risk of being separated again due to a lapse in legal services, lawyers argue.

Under the 2023 court-approved settlement agreement, reached as a result of a class-action lawsuit filed in 2018, the federal government agreed to provide certain services to an estimated 5,000 people — families and children separated under the 2017-2018 “zero tolerance” policy — including behavioral health services and immigration legal services.

However, the ACLU says a recent decision made by the Trump administration to gut and then abruptly terminate a contract with the Acacia Center for Justice violates that agreement, leaving hundreds of migrants in legal limbo. The nonprofit organization is the main contractor that oversees services provided to separated families, such as helping them apply for parole and other benefits they’re “mandated” to receive at the government’s expense, the American Civil Liberties Union argues.

Families separated by Trump’s ‘zero-tolerance’ policy at risk due to lapse in legal services, ACLU argues
Under a 2023 settlement agreement, the federal government agreed to provide behavioral health and legal services.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/families-separated-trumps-zero-tolerance-policy-risk-due/story?id=121892150

Rolling Stone: Transgender Troops Deserve the Right to Serve

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As Trump and Hegseth push to remove transgender troops, Republicans in Congress want to make the change irreversible

Commander Emily Shilling served nearly 20 years in the U.S. Navy as a combat aviator with over 60 missions. Fighter pilots are very hard for the military to find, nonetheless. Shilling will be removed from service by Donald Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. So will many others, like former Navy SEAL Kristin Beck, who served 20 years in Naval Special Warfare, including with SEAL Team Six. She earned the Bronze Star with Combat “V,” the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, and the Purple Heart. 

Shilling and Beck are heroes the military will never get back, and the absence of service members like them will make America less ready, endanger troops, and hurt recruiting efforts.

…

Hegseth’s service could never compare to that of Shilling or Beck, even though Hegseth likes to pretend to be a Navy SEAL as he sycophantically follows them around the country during special events. Trump never served a day in his life. That is why it is odd to me and to many others that they are so adamant about preventing transgender troops — and likely, before his term ends, gay Americans — from serving in the armed forces. 

Transgender Troops Deserve the Right to Serve
As Trump and Hegseth push to remove transgender troops, Republicans in Congress introduced legislation to ensure the damage can’t be reversed.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/trump-hegseth-transgender-military-troops-right-service-1235341979

Alternet: ‘Breadth of corruption’: How Trump is ramping up to ‘blatantly enrich himself in office’

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Almost four months into his second presidency, Donald Trump continues to be one of the most divisive presidents in U.S. history. Trump is still adored by his hardcore MAGA base, while his critics are finding even more to dislike about his second presidency than they did about his first. And it remains to be seen how swing voters and independents will feel about him when the 2026 midterms arrive.

In an article published on May 17, New York Magazine’s Ross Barkan argues that “corruption” is the main thing that makes Trump’s second term uniquely bad.

“What does seem genuinely new, even by the standards of America’s warped history, is the unabashed corruption,” Barkan stresses. “No president, really, has favor-traded like Trump. No president has ever tried to blatantly enrich himself like this while in office. No president has ever hung a for-sale sign over the White House — not like this, anyway. Trump is poised to accept a $400 million luxury jet from the Qatari royal family, which feels like something of a capstone to his latest corruption binge…. And then there’s his crypto hustle.”

www.alternet.org
‘Breadth of corruption’: How Trump is ramping up to ‘blatantly enrich himself in office’

https://www.alternet.org/trump-corruption-barkan

Raleigh News & Observer: ‘Nullified’: Trump Suffers Blow in Court

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A U.S. federal appeals court has temporarily blocked former President Donald Trump’s effort to end benefits from the humanitarian parole program (CHNV) for over 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled that the administration did not meet the criteria for an emergency intervention to overturn a prior lower court ruling. Federal Judge Indira Talwani previously halted the cancellation of the CHNV ordered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Trump has since pushed for the Supreme Court to grant him the ability to put an end to the program.

The DHS under Trump has alleged that the CHNV program was misused. Critics argued that its cancellation violates the Immigration and Nationality Act, resulting in detrimental effects for migrants who relied on the established program.

…

Talwani found that the DHS’s measure did not comply with legal requirements for case-by-case reviews and ordered the reinstatement of the parole process and its associated immigration benefits. Her ruling mandated that notifications sent to individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela remain suspended pending further judicial orders.

‘Nullified’: Trump Suffers Blow in Court

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/nullified-trump-suffers-blow-in-court/ss-AA1EYz0E

Sacramento Bee: ‘We Fixed It’: Fallout from Suspension of Female Commander

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Fort McCoy in Wisconsin is a 93-square-mile military training base supporting nearly 75,000 service members this year. Colonel Sheyla Baez Ramirez took command in mid-2024, bringing extensive military intelligence and operations experience. The U.S. Army suspended Ramirez after portraits of President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on the base’s chain of command wall were turned to face the wall.

Hats off to whoever did it! 😀

‘We Fixed It’: Fallout from Suspension of Female Commander
Fort McCoy in Wisconsin is a 93-square-mile military training base supporting nearly 75,000 service members this year. Colonel Sheyla Baez Ramirez took command in mid-2024, bringing extensive military intelligence and operations experience. The U.S. Army suspended Ramirez after portraits of President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on the base’s chain of commandContinue reading ”‘We Fixed It’: Fallout from Suspension of Female…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/we-fixed-it-fallout-from-suspension-of-female-commander/ar-AA1EYKqT

Business Insider: A GOP congressman says raising taxes on top earners would help push Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ forward

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A GOP congressman said on Saturday that raising the top tax rate for high earners could help President Donald Trump‘s massive tax and immigration package get the votes it needs.

“The One Big Beautiful Bill has stalled — and it needs wind in its sails,” Rep. Nick LaLota said on X. “Allowing the top tax rate to expire — returning from 37% to 39.6% for individuals earning over $609,350 and married couples earning over $731,200 — breathes $300 billion of new life into the effort.”

LaLota said that his proposal would be fiscally prudent and could be done “without raising taxes on the middle class.” The New York congressman has suggested that the money generated from raising taxes on high earners could protect Medicaid and “fix” the cap on the so-called SALT deduction.

And get rid of the proposed tax on remittances!

And a wealth tax to cull the herd of plutocrats!

A GOP congressman says raising taxes on top earners would help push Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ forward
Rep. Nick LaLota says raising taxes on top earners would help Trump get the votes he needs to pass his massive tax and immigration package.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-congressman-says-raising-taxes-230856834.html

Raw Story: Trump’s own words are being thrown back in his face after his latest threat

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Now:

Donald Trump’s own words are being thrown back in his face after his Saturday Wal-Mart threat.

The president over the weekend told Walmart’s executives that they should absorb any increased costs that he has created on imported goods through trade policies.

“I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!” Trump wrote as he demanded Wal-Mart and China simply “eat the tariffs.”

Then:

But that didn’t sit well with many longtime Trump onlookers, who observed that the president previously said no one would need to eat the tariffs.

Author James Surowiecki said, “But Trump has said over and over again that foreign countries pay tariffs, not US businesses or consumers.”

“If that’s true, why would Walmart have to eat anything?” he then asked.

Trump’s own words are being thrown back in his face after his latest threat

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-own-words-walmart-threat

Washington Post: Court lifts block on Trump order to strip federal workers of union rights

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The injunction had frozen the president’s order seeking to remove collective bargaining rights from workers at dozens of government agencies and offices.

This sucks:

A federal appeals court on Friday lifted a block on an executive order from President Donald Trump that seeks to strip union rights from federal workers at dozens of agencies and offices.

Trump in March issued an executive order that said that parts of the United States Code that protect federal workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain would no longer apply to agencies including most or all of the Departments of Treasury, Defense, Veterans Affairs, State and Justice. The executive order covers about two-thirds of the federal workforce, according to the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which filed a lawsuit challenging it.

It had been blocked by a federal judge last month as part of the NTEU lawsuit, but that block was lifted Friday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In its order canceling the injunction, the appeals court’s 2-1 majority said the union had not proved it would suffer “irreparable harm” if the executive order was executed while the lawsuit challenging it was ongoing.

Court lifts block on Trump order to strip federal workers of union rights
The injunction had frozen the president’s order seeking to remove collective bargaining rights from workers at dozens of government agencies and offices.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/05/17/trump-executive-order-unions-block-lifted

Independent: Venezuelans ‘barricaded’ doors and ‘threatened to take hostages’ in ICE detention, Trump team alleges

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Administration calls on Supreme Court for permission to swiftly deport nearly 200 immigrants detained in Texas

In its latest demand to the Supreme Court to begin swiftly deporting immigrants from the United States, Donald Trump’s administration claims a group of Venezuelan men imprisoned in Texas tried to barricade themselves inside their unit, covered surveillance cameras and threatened to take hostages.

A group of 23 men the administration accused of being Tren de Aragua gang members “have proven difficult to manage,” according to a sworn statement in court documents from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official.

In an incident on April 23 that has not previously been reported, the men allegedly “refused their breakfast trays and barricaded both the front and rear entrance doors of their housing unit using bed cots” and “covered the surveillance cameras and blocked the housing unit windows.”

They “threatened to take hostages and injure facility contract staff and ICE officers” and “attempted to flood the housing unit by clogging toilets,” according to Joshua D. Johnson, acting ICE director for the Dallas office.

Can you blame them for trying to avoid an illegal deportation to a prison in a third country? They wanted to be deported (legally!) to their home country:

Another image captures a group holding up a sign that reads, in Spanish, “Help, we want to be deported. We are not terrorists.” The sign says “VZLA,” a reference to Venezuela, and suggests they are pleading with authorities to avoid their imprisonment in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, labeled by human rights groups as a “tropical gulag” and concentration camp.

Venezuelans ‘threatened to take hostages’ in ICE detention, Trump team alleges
Administration calls on Supreme Court for permission to swiftly deport nearly 200 immigrants detained in Texas

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-administration-supreme-court-alien-enemies-act-b2750299.html