Of course Trump stood by his stooges — his suck-up sycophants can do no wrong.
MPs voiced fury today after an extraordinary security bungle revealed some of Donald Trump’s most senior team condemning Europe as ‘pathetic freeloaders’.
A bombshell exchange on the Signal messaging app – accidentally shared with a journalist – showed an elite group including JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and national security advisor Mike Waltz voicing ‘loathing’ for their long-term allies.
They also discuss how to get money out of European countries in return for US military strikes intended to stop Houthi rebels disrupting critical shipping routes in the Red Sea.
But UK politicians said glimpse behind the scenes showed America was ‘unreliable’ and accused them of plotting ‘extortion’. One normally US-friendly MP described the situation as a ‘nightmare’ and warned Europe must ‘take it seriously and not think it’s just casual chat’.
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The second Trump administration has clearly made a decision to move fast and break things. Largely gone are the establishment Republican figures and steady hands that sometimes resisted President Donald Trump during his first term. In their place are a bunch of people with less subject-matter and governmental experience but with the zeal of MAGA true believers, eager to implement Trump’s complete governmental overhaul and to bust through the traditional guardrails in the process.
The result is a very — and increasingly — sloppy first two months, by any objective measure.
The editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added to the string of messages on Signal, an open-source encrypted messaging service. The group included the names of prominent administration figures, such as national security adviser Michael Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance, all strategizing about the impending attacks.
The messages were sent before the strikes began last weekend and previewed almost precisely when they ultimately took place.
Trump’s shocking military plan leak epitomizes a sloppy operation
Top national security officials for President Donald Trump, including his defense secretary, texted war plans for upcoming military strikes in Yemen to a group chat in a secure messaging app that included the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic, the magazine reported in a story posted online Monday. The National Security Council said the text chain “appears to be authentic.”
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Goldberg said he received the Signal invitation from Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, who was also in the group chat.
As expected, Hegseth resorts to character assassination rather than explaining the lapse in security:
Hegseth in his first comments on the matter attacked Goldberg as “deceitful” and a “discredited so-called journalist” while alluding to previous critical reporting of Trump from the publication. He did not shed light on why Signal was being used to discuss the sensitive operation or how Goldberg ended up on the message chain.
Trump officials text Yemen war plans to Signal group chat with journalist | AP News
The corruption continues unabated, shamelessly, in plain sight — VP Dunce just got $170,000 slipped into his wallet. And what will the government contractor / lobbyist receive in return?
JD Vance’s Home Sold To Government Contractor And Lobbyist Who Was A Trump Appointee
Apparently harvesting names of students (especially demonstrators) whose political views do not align with the Trump dictatorship, with the intent of canceling their visas & green cards and deporting them:
When federal civil rights attorneys launched investigations in February into whether universities properly responded to antisemitism on campuses, they noticed something unusual about the marching orders from their bosses at the Education Department.
An early step in civil rights investigations is always a letter to the university demanding certain information. Typically, the department asks how many discrimination complaints were received, and what school officials did in response.
But the Trump administration told the attorneys working on the cases to also collect the names and nationalities of students who might have harassed Jewish students or faculty, according to documents and three attorneys with the Office for Civil Rights who have direct knowledge of the situation and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the cases publicly.
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The job of the Office for Civil Rights is to investigate whether schools properly handled complaints of discrimination and harassment. Its role does not include disciplining students who may have been responsible for the harassment, so the government does not normally request their names — much less their nationalities.
A second attorney familiar with the process said, “There is no investigative reason for us to be asking for that information.” This person added that making the request might be a violation of civil rights law.
“There is no doubt that it can be used improperly,” a third attorney said.
New Trump demand to colleges: Name protesters — and their nationalities
If Musk can’t take the heat, he shouldn’t be a federal employee, “special” or otherwise.
Threatening messages began filling up Valerie Costa’s inboxes after Elon Musk in an X post accused her of “committing crimes.”
Her alleged crimes? Leading and promoting protests against Musk at Tesla showrooms across the Seattle area.
Costa and her housemates started asking whether they are safe and whether the FBI or law enforcement will show up. She then began to pull the website for her fundraising and nonprofit management business offline and scrubbed her personal information from the internet.
Nevertheless, threats continued.
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But no criminal activity has been reported at anti-Tesla protests in Seattle, said Sgt. Patrick Michaud with the Seattle Police Department.
Nevertheless, the lack of criminal activities at those protests hasn’t stopped Musk and others from accusing Costa and others of violating laws. Musk’s post on X quoted a video suggesting Costa was inspired by Luigi Mangione, the man charged in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, which Costa said is not true.
Musk’s tweet and rhetoric from federal authorities communicate a grim message about the state of protections for the First Amendment, Costa said.
Seattle activist verbally attacked by Elon Musk vows to push back
Another half a million immigrants (mostly refugees and asylum candidates) will now be available for Trump’s ICE bullies to abuse and deport.
It’s as though Trump strives to create misery for people on the largest scale possible.
President Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly gearing up to end temporary legal status for more than 530,000 people who arrived in the United States from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Haiti.
This comes after Trump directed his officials to “terminate all categorical parole programs that are contrary to the policies of the United States,” on the first day of his second term at the White House.
According to a Federal Register document, these people entered the country via former President Joe Biden’s temporary parole programs which are scheduled to end on April 24.
According to the document, people who had parole under these programs “must depart the United States before their parole termination date.”
If these people do not leave before the parole is terminated, the Department of Homeland Security will “remove” them.
Homeland Security Secretary [& Bimbo #2] Kristi Noem said that this move “directly” follows Trump’s order and “complements and underscores the Administration’s pivot to a foreign policy that prioritizes the United States’ interests in a secure border …”
Trump administration moves to end temporary status for 530,000 people
Only problem is that USIP is a branch of Congress, not an executive agency. Musk and his merry bunch of misfits with large testicles have no legitimate business there.
The Department of Justice is exploring potential criminal charges against former U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) officials who attempted to block the Trump administration’s leadership changes at the federally funded think tank Monday, a senior DOJ official told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The official, who requested anonymity, told the DCNF the DOJ is examining whether certain USIP actions — such as the removal and destruction of internal and external door locks — created illegal fire hazards. The official also flagged the widespread distribution of internal flyers instructing USIP staff not to cooperate with incoming Trump administration officials as potentially obstructive conduct. The DCNF was the first to report on USIP’s internal flyer campaign and destruction of door locks.
EXCLUSIVE: DOJ Explores Criminal Charges Against Ousted USIP Mutineers
Trump’s Bimbo #1, Karoline Leavitt (not the brightest bulb on the planet), got smacked down.
President Donald Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, responded tersely after being corrected by a journalist regarding her assertion that the judge who obstructed the Alien Enemies Act was a “democratic activist.”
After Leavitt’s remarks, a reporter promptly interjected, “He [the judge] was originally appointed by George W. Bush and elevated by Obama. Feel I should clear that up.”
Taken aback, Leavitt swiftly countered, although she is accustomed to scrutiny for spreading misinformation during briefings. Nevertheless, the correction elicited subtle grins from other journalists in attendance.
