Tag Archives: Trump Administration

Fort-Worth Star Telegram: ‘My Head is Spinning’: Deportation Draws Backlash

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U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis has warned the Trump administration about its handling of Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case, a Salvadoran national mistakenly deported to El Salvador. Key officials have admitted ignorance about crucial details in court proceedings, raising concerns about compliance with the judge’s order to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return. Xinis has reportedly set a new compliance deadline and scheduled an in-person hearing.

Xinis said, “Evidently missing from the defendants’ filing is the privilege log that this court ordered to be produced.” She added, “Failure to file the privilege log or otherwise respond will be construed as an intentional refusal to comply with this court’s orders.”

…

Xinis said, “You haven’t complied, and you haven’t in bad faith.”

Xinis has identified officials’ ignorance as noncompliance with her order to produce witnesses with direct knowledge of Abrego Garcia’s situation.

…Xinis stated, “The whole reason we’re here is because I’ve said repeatedly you’ve done nothing, and now you tell the world you’re not going to do anything.

‘My Head is Spinning’: Deportation Draws Backlash

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/my-head-is-spinning-deportation-draws-backlash/ss-AA1FwI5y

Alternet: Alarm raised over Trump admin corruption following Trump media move

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Monday reporting from the Financial Times that U.S. President Donald Trump’s family media company “plans to raise $3 billion to buy cryptocurrencies” sparked a fresh wave of alarm over his administration’s policies and potential corruption.

After winning a second term last year, the Republican president transferred his stake in Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG)—which is behind the Truth Social platform—to a revocable trust overseen by his son Donald Trump Jr.

Citing six unnamed sources, FT reported that TMTG “aims to raise $2 billion in fresh equity and another $1 billion via a convertible bond,” and “also plans to launch an exchange-traded fund focused on cryptocurrency.”

https://www.alternet.org/trump-media-crypto/

https://www.alternet.org/trump-media-crypto

Independent: Inside Pete Hegseth’s chaotic inner circle as report says defense secretary’s team in ‘cold war’

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Questions raised over long-term viability of embattled head of Pentagon as two senior advisers said to be at loggerheads

The Pentagon is reportedly in the grip of a new Cold War, and it has nothing to do with Russia.

A rift between two senior advisers to Pete Hegseth has led to a wider schism at the department, fueling speculation about the long-term prospects of the embattled defense secretary as a member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, according to reporting by The Washington Post.

Numerous people familiar with the matter told the paper that claims of departmental unity are belied by continued dysfunction behind the scenes, stemming from personality conflicts, lack of experience, ongoing vacancies in important roles, and paranoia over what political crisis could erupt next.

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Sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing retribution, described the most combustible relationship as that between two Hegseth aides, Eric Geressy and Ricky Buria.

They claim that Geressy, a retired soldier whom Hegseth has credited with mentoring him during their service in Iraq, has expressed ongoing concerns that Buria, until recently a military assistant to the defense secretary and now his acting chief of staff, has attempted to marginalize colleagues to enhance his own standing within the Trump administration.

Amidst the fallout from the Signalgate scandal in March, tensions between the two are said to have boiled over when Geressy found out he was excluded from meetings during a trip across the Pacific by Hegseth and blamed Buria.

Geressy also voiced concern about how many administration officials were using Signal and told staffers that the White House had a dim view of Buria, seeing him as self-important.

…

Click on the link below to read the entire article:

Inside Pete Hegseth’s chaotic inner circle as defense secretary’s team in ‘cold war’
Questions raised over long-term viability of embattled head of Pentagon as two senior advisers said to be at loggerheads

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/hegseth-pentagon-chaos-defense-trump-b2758627.html

WCCO Radio Minneapolis: Federal judge dismisses consent decree between U.S. Justice Department and Minneapolis

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As expected, a federal judge today granted the United States’ motion to dismiss its consent decree against the City of Minneapolis.

In the filing, the court states:

“The Court has grave misgivings about the proposed consent decree serving the public interest.”

The document adds that the consent decree is “superfluous” due to the city and Minneapolis Police Department entering into an agreement with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.

Fortunately the police chief is committed to the reforms:

Last week, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said they will continue with reform measures despite the dismissal.

Federal judge dismisses consent decree between U.S. Justice Department and Minneapolis
As expected, a federal judge on Tuesday granted the United States’ motion to dismiss its consent decree against the City of Minneapolis. The court states it “has grave misgivings about the proposed consent decree serving the public interest.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/federal-judge-dismisses-consent-decree-between-u-s-justice-department-and-minneapolis/ar-AA1FB0xi

Talking Points Memo: The ‘Invasion’ Invention: The Far Right’s Long Legal Battle to Make Immigrants the Enemy

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The Trump administration is using the claim that immigrants have “invaded” the country to justify possibly suspending habeas corpus, part of the constitutional right to due process. A faction of the far right has been building this case for years.

When top Trump adviser Stephen Miller threatened on May 9 that the administration is “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus in response to an “invasion” from undocumented immigrants, he was operating on a fringe legal theory that a right-wing faction has been working to legitimize for more than a decade.

…

Hard-liners have referred to immigrants as “invaders” as long as the U.S. has had immigration. By 2022, invasion rhetoric, which had previously been relegated to white nationalist circles, had become such a staple of Republican campaign ads that most of the public agreed an invasion of the U.S. via the southern border was underway.

Now, however, the claim that the U.S. is under invasion has become the legal linchpin of President Donald Trump’s sweeping anti-immigrant campaign.

The claim is Trump’s central justification for invoking the Alien Enemies Act to deport roughly 140 Venezuelans to CECOT, the Salvadoran megaprison, without due process. (The administration cited different legal authority for the remaining deportees.) The Trump administration contends they are members of a gang, Tren de Aragua, that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is directing to infiltrate and operate in the United States. Lawyers and families of many of the deportees have presented evidence the prisoners are not even members of Tren de Aragua.

The contention is also the throughline of Trump’s day one executive order “Protecting the American People Against Invasion.” That document calls for the expansion of immigration removal proceedings without court hearings and for legal attacks against sanctuary jurisdictions, places that refuse to commit local resources to immigration enforcement.

So far, no court has bought the idea that the U.S. is truly under invasion….

And therein lies the problem: The Trump regime is off pursuing an unconstitutional tangent to solve a problem that is improperly framed as an “invasion”.

It’s a long well-researched article. Please click on the link below and read the entire article.

The ‘Invasion’ Invention: The Far Right’s Long Legal Battle to Make Immigrants the Enemy
This article first appeared at ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign…

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/the-invasion-invention-the-far-rights-long-legal-battle-to-make-immigrants-the-enemy

Talking Points Memo: More Than 50 Men Entered The US Legally Only To Later Be Sent To CECOT, Report Finds

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More than two months after the Trump administration flew more than 200 people to a detention camp in El Salvador, there’s still a lot that remains unclear.

We still don’t know who, exactly, the government sent there. We don’t know how many people were aboard each plane that went from Texas to El Salvador on March 15; we don’t know who was removed under the wartime Alien Enemies Act, and who was removed under more standard immigration authorities. The question of whether non-citizens that the U.S. government is paying El Salvador to hold are entitled to habeas corpus protections is also, somewhat ominously, unanswered.

It’s shocking given the lawlessness of the operation: the Trump administration sought to shield these removals from judicial scrutiny from the start, and, per the finding of one federal judge, sought to delay a court hearing until the airplanes could depart for El Salvador.

A report published this week by the Cato Institute adds another egregious fact to this story: many of those sent to El Salvador entered the United States legally.

The researchers behind the study attempted to learn as much as they could about a list of 238 men rendered to CECOT, the El Salvador prison, on March 15, obtained and reported by CBS News. They found that at least 50 of the more than 200 men sent to El Salvador complied with U.S. immigration law as they entered the country.

Their resulting removal and indefinite confinement in El Salvador has been a betrayal, David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute and the author of the study, told TPM.

So much for due process and the Bill of Rights in Trump’s Amerika!

More Than 50 Men Entered The US Legally Only To Later Be Sent To CECOT, Report Finds
More than two months after the Trump administration flew more than 200…

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/more-than-50-men-entered-the-us-legally-only-to-later-be-sent-to-cecot-report-finds

The Nation: The Supreme Court Gifts Trump Even More Power

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The court seems ready to give the president extraordinary power over what had been independent worker- and consumer-protection agencies.

The court seems ready to give the president extraordinary power over what had been independent worker- and consumer-protection agencies.

Here’s a troubling news alert for everyone who cares about workers and consumers being protected from illegal, exploitative, and dangerous business practices: The Supreme Court appears ready to give President Donald Trump extraordinary power over what for nearly a century have been independent expert federal worker and consumer protection agencies insulated from White House interference.

The court showed its hand in Wilcox v. Trump—the case involving Trump’s unprecedented effort to fire Gwynne Wilcox—a Senate-confirmed member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the first Black woman to ever serve as a member of the NLRB.

Members of independent agencies like the NLRB, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), are nominated by the president and confirmed by the US Senate for defined terms. They are protected by law against being removed from office except where there has been wrongdoing and only after notice and a hearing. The Supreme Court has recognized and respected these “for cause” removal protections for 90 years.

That is, until now. Upon taking office for his second term, Trump decided that he has the power to unilaterally remove members of independent boards and commissions whenever and for whatever reason he wants. The list of casualties is long—in addition to Wilcox, he has fired members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the FTC, the CPSC, the Merit Systems Protection Board, the Federal Labor Relations Authority, and more. And by firing these officials, Trump has left these consumer- and worker-protection agencies without a quorum to act and hold corporations accountable.

…

The court’s order is going to embolden a president who has already shown himself willing to push or violate the boundaries of his power. Now that the Supreme Court has nodded at his power to fire members of independent boards and commissions, he will undoubtably continue to do so, even before the Supreme Court definitively rules on the merits of the question in its next term.

The Supreme Court Gifts Trump Even More Power
The court seems ready to give the president extraordinary power over what had been independent worker- and consumer-protection agencies.

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/wilcox-trump-federal-agencies

ABC News: Trump pardons Virginia sheriff convicted of federal bribery charges

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President Donald Trump on Monday granted an unconditional pardon to a Virginia sheriff who had been convicted of federal bribery charges and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

Scott Jenkins, who had been the sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia, was set to report to jail on Tuesday.

Meanwhile the deranged King Donalds go off on yet another anti-Biden rant:

“Sheriff Scott Jenkins, his wife Patricia, and their family have been dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ,” Trump wrote in a statement on Truth Social. “In fact, during his trial, when Sheriff Jenkins tried to offer exculpatory evidence to support himself, the Biden Judge, Robert Ballou, refused to allow it, shut him down, and then went on a tirade.”

Birds of feather flock together!

Trump pardons Virginia sheriff convicted of federal bribery charges
President Donald Trump on Monday pardoned a Virginia sheriff who had been convicted of federal bribery charges and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-pardons-virginia-sheriff-convicted-federal-bribery-charges/story?id=122206606

Politico: Larry Summers Says Trump’s Latest Attack on Harvard Is a ‘Prescription for Failure’

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The former Harvard president says Trump’s effort to ban international students would damage not just Harvard but America.

In just the last 24 hours, the Trump administration announced it would effectively ban international students from attending Harvard University, Harvard sued, and a federal judge temporarily blocked the administration’s ban.

The whirlwind of attacks and counterattacks surrounding one of America’s preeminent educational institutions represented a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s war on Harvard. As the institution wrote in its lawsuit, “with the stroke of a pen, the government has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body.”

Harvard has been on the leading edge of the fight between the Trump administration and elite universities, and unlike some peer institutions, it has not backed down.

Former Harvard President Larry Summers has been a frequent critic of his old university, but he’s been an enthusiastic defender amid Trump’s latest attacks.

“Courage and capitulation are both contagious,” he said in an interview with POLITICO Magazine. “I am glad Harvard chose courage, because if Harvard, with all its good fortune, can’t resist authoritarian steps, who can?”

Summers argued the Trump administration’s legal case would find little merit in the courts, adding that the effort to rid Harvard of international students would only damage the United States in the long run.

“It’s hard to imagine a greater strategic gift to China than for the United States to sacrifice its role as a beacon to the world,” Summers said.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.…

Larry Summers Says Trump’s Latest Attack on Harvard Is a ‘Prescription for Failure’
The former Harvard president says Trump’s effort to ban international students would damage not just Harvard but America.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/05/23/trump-harvard-international-students-larry-summers-00367667

New York Times: As Trumps Monetize Presidency, Profits Outstrip Protests

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The president and his family have monetized the White House more than any other occupant, normalizing activities that once would have provoked heavy blowback and official investigations.

When Hillary Clinton was first lady, a furor erupted over reports that she had once made $100,000 from a $1,000 investment in cattle futures. Even though it had happened a dozen years before her husband became president, it became a scandal that lasted weeks and forced the White House to initiate a review.

Thirty-one years later, after dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Jeff Bezos agreed to finance a promotional film about Melania Trump that will reportedly put $28 million directly in her pocket — 280 times the Clinton lucre and in this case from a person with a vested interest in policies set by her husband’s government. Scandal? Furor? Washington moved on while barely taking notice.

The Trumps are hardly the first presidential family to profit from their time in power, but they have done more to monetize the presidency than anyone who has ever occupied the White House. The scale and the scope of the presidential mercantilism has been breathtaking. The Trump family and its business partners have collected $320 million in fees from a new cryptocurrency, brokered overseas real estate deals worth billions of dollars and are opening an exclusive club in Washington called the Executive Branch charging $500,000 apiece to join, all in the past few months alone.

Just last week, Qatar handed over a luxury jet meant for Mr. Trump’s use not just in his official capacity but also for his presidential library after he leaves office. Experts have valued the plane, formally donated to the Air Force, at $200 million, more than all of the foreign gifts bestowed on all previous American presidents combined.

And Mr. Trump hosted an exclusive dinner at his Virginia club for 220 investors in the $TRUMP cryptocurrency that he started days before taking office in January. Access was openly sold based on how much money they chipped in — not to a campaign account but to a business that benefits Mr. Trump personally.

trump-money-plane-crypto.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/25/us/politics/trump-money-plane-crypto.html