Tag Archives: Vice President JD Vance

Alternet: ‘Heavily vetted’: No ‘Bush-era Republicans’ welcome in Trump Jr.’s new MAGA safe space

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President Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jr., is opening a new exclusive club in Washington D.C. And he’s making it clear that only a certain kind of Republican is welcome.

The Daily Beast reported Monday that the new club, which will be called “Executive Branch,” is tailor-made for the MAGA crowd — and its founders are making it clear that traditional conservatives and journalists will be barred from entering. David Sacks, who the Beast described as Trump’s “crypto czar,” told the New York Times he wants to make sure that the type of conservatives who frequent other GOP-oriented D.C. clubs will be turned away at the door.

“To the extent there are Republican clubs, they tend to be like more Bush-era Republicans as opposed to Trump-era Republicans,” Sacks said. “So we wanted to create something new, hipper, and Trump-aligned.”

‘Heavily vetted’: No ‘Bush-era Republicans’ welcome in Trump Jr.’s new MAGA safe space

https://www.alternet.org/trump-maga-safe-space

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

Raw Story: Hegseth leak probe in chaos after White House told of ‘illegal wiretap’: report

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The White House has reportedly lost confidence in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s leak investigation after officials were told that an illegal wiretap was used in the probe.

The Guardian reported on Tuesday that officials had notified Vice President JD Vance after the Defense Department officials claimed they employed an “illegal warrantless National Security Agency (NSA) wiretap” to out senior Hegseth adviser Dan Caldwell, who was fired last month with two other aides.

Of course the White House absolved their boy Hegseth:

White House officials found the wiretap claim to be untrue “and complained that they were being fed dubious information by Hegseth’s personal lawyer, Tim Parlatore, who had been tasked with overseeing the investigation,” the report noted.

But now:

“Trump advisers tracking the investigation have privately suggested they no longer have any idea about who or what to believe,” the report said.

Hegseth leak probe in chaos after White House told of ‘illegal wiretap’: report

https://www.rawstory.com/pete-hegseth-leak-investigation

MiBolsilloColombia: Only 0.3% of SSA frauds were considered incorrect, what about DOGE?

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A recent initiative by the Social Security Administration (SSA) to detect fraud, partly driven by the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk, has sparked significant controversy. 

The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) recent anti-fraud initiative, influenced by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has stirred a storm of debate. The DOGE, once under the leadership of Elon Musk, made audacious claims about rampant fraud within the SSA. However, the SSA’s new detection system revealed a starkly different reality, identifying only a minuscule amount of potential fraud while inadvertently delaying the processing of numerous claims.

The primary justification for the SSA’s anti-fraud policy stemmed from statements by DOGE members. Aram Moghaddassi, a DOGE engineer, claimed on Fox News that 40% of calls to the SSA for direct deposit changes were from scammers. This assertion was echoed by Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance. Musk even suggested that his engineers had uncovered “$100 billion a week” in fraudulent payments, a figure that raised eyebrows across the board.

But:

Of over 110,000 claims reviewed, less than 1% were flagged for potential fraud, and only two were deemed to have a “high probability” of being fraudulent.

Only 0.3% of SSA frauds were considered incorrect, what about DOGE?
A recent initiative by the Social Security Administration (SSA) to detect fraud, partly driven by the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk, has sparked significant controversy.

https://www.mibolsillo.co/news/Only-0.3-of-SSA-frauds-were-considered-incorrect-what-about-DOGE-20250526-0031.html

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 Hill: Vance: Courts trying to ‘literally overturn the will of the American people’

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Vice-President J.D. [“Dunce”] Vance waded into the tug-of-war between the courts and executive branch in an interview published earlier this week, warning that the courts should pull back or risk stepping on the will of the American people.

How simple can I make this, Bubba?

The Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the courts exist to protect the rights and due process of our people from mob rule. Our rights are inalienable. The will of the people is irrelevant in this context.

How the hell did you ever pass high school civics, let alone earn a law degree? Your apparent stupidity is mindboggling.

Vance: Courts trying to ‘literally overturn the will of the American people’

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5315703-vance-judiciary-immigration-voters

Daily Digest: Trump’s latest controversy: the moment he insulted the South African president to his face

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According to Reuters, [South African President Cyril] Ramaphosa expected to mend diplomatic relations with the United States, after the Trump Administration decided to cut humanitarian aid, expelled the South African ambassador and offered refuge to white Afrikaners.

Instead, the US President confronted the South African leader with claims of white genocide and illegal land expropriations, which have been described by Reuters as patently false.

The BBC reports that Trump showed Ramaphosa a video, depicting several crosses along a road. The US President claimed that those were the burial sites of of murdered white farmers in South Africa.

According to the BBC, the video appears to be from a 2020 protest over a murdered farming couple in the Kwazulu-Natal province, with the crosses representing murdered farmers over the years.

Trumpian diplomacy = fake videos! Henry Kissinger would be so impressed! Not!

This White House is just a friggin’ joke!

Trump’s latest controversy: the moment he insulted the South African president to his face
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https://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/other/trump-s-latest-controversy-the-moment-he-insulted-the-south-african-president-to-his-face/ss-AA1Fh8rR

MSNBC: Trump admin blocks Harvard from enrolling international students, escalating radical fight

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The administration has gone from eliminating Harvard’s grants to targeting its tax-exempt status to halting its ability to enroll international students.

Harvard University has faced an unprecedented and radical offensive from Donald Trump and his team, which to date has focused on eliminating federal grants to the school, while simultaneously targeting Harvard’s tax-exempt status.

There is, however, a third element of the offensive. The New York Times reported:

The Trump administration on Thursday halted Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, a major escalation in the administration’s efforts to pressure the college to fall in line with the president’s agenda. The administration notified Harvard about the decision after a back-and-forth in recent days over the legality of a sprawling records request as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s investigation, according to three people with knowledge of the negotiations.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem personally sent a letter to the university, which she posted to X later Thursday, that read in part, “I am writing to inform you that effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification is revoked.”

This development is extraordinary, but it does not appear out of the blue: In mid-April, while canceling nearly $3 million in DHS grants to Harvard, Noem simultaneously demanded that the university turn over records on foreign students alleged to have engaged in “illegal and violent activities.” Failure to cooperate would jeopardize Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification — which allows schools to admit international students.

Evidently, [Bimbo #2] Noem has now followed through on that threat.

This may well be the undoing of Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem, as she learns that that the tentacles of Harvard’s alumni extend everywhere.

Trump admin blocks Harvard from enrolling international students, escalating radical fight
The administration has gone from eliminating Harvard’s grants to targeting its tax-exempt status to halting its ability to enroll international students.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-admin-blocks-harvard-enrolling-international-students-escalating-rcna208587

CNN: Vance says Roberts is ‘profoundly wrong’ about judiciary’s role to check executive branch

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Vice President JD Vance called Chief Justice John Roberts’ comments earlier this month that the judiciary’s role is to check the executive branch a “profoundly wrong sentiment” and said the courts should be “deferential” to the president, particularly when it comes to immigration.

“I thought that was a profoundly wrong sentiment. That’s one half of his job, the other half of his job is to check the excesses of his own branch. And you cannot have a country where the American people keep on electing immigration enforcement and the courts tell the American people they’re not allowed to have what they voted for,” Vance told New York Times opinion columnist Ross Douthat on the “Interesting Times” podcast, which was taped on Monday.

This idiot J.D. Dunce has a law degree?

Did he even pass civics in high school?

Vance says Roberts is ‘profoundly wrong’ about judiciary’s role to check executive branch | CNN Politics
Vice President JD Vance called Chief Justice John Roberts’ comments earlier this month that the judiciary’s role is to check the executive branch a “profoundly wrong sentiment” and said the courts should be “deferential” to the president, particularly when it comes to immigration.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/21/politics/jd-vance-john-roberts-judiciary-role

Newsweek: Why do MAGA Republicans hate Europe?

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In May 1988, Republican President Ronald Reagan spoke from the Oval Office in an address not targeted at the American people, but the citizens of Western Europe. The president was planning a trip to meet with Soviet Union General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and wanted to make his commitment to Europe clear.

Staring directly at the camera, Reagan said: “Shared [moral] standards and beliefs tie us to Europe today. They are the essence of the community of free nations to which we belong.”

Thirty years later, in July 2018, while sitting for an interview with CBS at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, Republican President Donald Trump was asked to name America’s top global foe. “Well, I think we have a lot of foes,” Trump said. “I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Now you wouldn’t think of the European Union, but they’re a foe.”

Why do MAGA Republicans hate Europe?
The Trump administration’s stance on Europe has grabbed headlines, but the Republican Party’s icy posture toward internationalism goes back decades.

https://www.newsweek.com/maga-republicans-donald-trump-jd-vance-europe-2071814