President Donald Trump on Monday said he would target former President Joe Biden’s circle, calling them “evil people.”
“There were some brilliant people,” Trump said, referring to Biden’s allies in his White House. “But they’re evil people, and they’re going to be brought down. They have to be brought down ’cause they really hurt our country.”
Trump’s threat to have his political opponent’s allies “brought down” marks his latest move to potentially target political adversaries in a pattern that has alarmed critics who paint the president as pursuing retribution and say he is weaponizing the Justice Department — a claim the president has made about the Biden administration.
Biden’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump made the comments during lengthy remarks in the Oval Office, where the president and his allies made a series of claims about the impact of his anti-crime efforts in D.C. and top officials took turns heaping praise on him. While signing executive orders that aim to do away with cash bail, Trump repeatedly focused on the murder rate in the city, saying it had not seen a single person killed in 11 days — a change that he has been brandishing in recent days as he touts his administration’s efforts to address D.C. crime. That push has included federalizing the D.C. police force, deploying the National Guard and stepping up the federal law enforcement presence in the city.
Trump claimed that it has been “many years” since D.C. went a week without a murder. Publicly available crime data from the Metropolitan Police Department, however, indicate that D.C. went 16 days without a murder earlier this year, from Feb. 25 to March 12.
Trump argued that the city’s restaurants are experiencing a “boomtown,” a comment that is uncertain, as restaurant employees in a D.C. neighborhood with a large immigrant community told NBC News last week that business was declining due to Trump’s policies. His deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, who attended the signing with Vice President JD Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, claimed that people in D.C. had resumed wearing jewelry and carrying purses because of Trump’s anti-crime push.
“They’re wearing jewelry again. They’re carrying purses again,” Miller said. “People had changed their whole lives in this city for fear of being murdered, mugged and carjacked. It is a literal statement that President Trump has freed 700,000 people in this city who were living under the rule of criminals and thugs.”
At the start of the operation, though, crime in D.C. was down 26% compared to last year. Many city residents, too, have slammed the deployments and said it is scaring Washingtonians.
The president has frequently claimed that Democrats weaponized the Justice Department and other law enforcement agencies against him, pointing to his criminal indictments related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents, as well as his conviction related to falsifying business records, which were dropped when he was elected to a second term. Trump repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the cases against him.
Democrats have gone after Trump’s comments, arguing that the Trump administration’s several investigations into his political foes constitute the exact weaponization that he claimed they pursued against him.
The Justice Department is investigating Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and New York Attorney General Letitia James on allegations of mortgage fraud.
James led a civil fraud case against Trump, and Schiff served as the lead House manager in Trump’s first impeachment trial. They denied any wrongdoing.
NBC News has also previously reported that the Justice Department is in the initial stages of an investigation into James’ handling of her civil fraud case against Trump, which her attorney likened to a “political retribution campaign.”
Trump also threatened Friday to fire a Federal Reserve governor, Lisa Cook, if she did not resign after facing separate accusations of mortgage fraud. Cook said she won’t step down.
On Monday night, Trump said he was removing Cook from her post. Trump has been highly critical of the Federal Reserve for not adjusting interest rates as he would like.
And late last week, the FBI searched the home of former national security adviser John Bolton. A source familiar with the matter told NBC News at the time that the search was part of a “national security investigation in search of classified records.” Bolton did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment Friday.
Also on Monday, Trump left the door open to investigating former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a staunch critic of Trump who was among the Republicans who ran against him for president. Trump was referring to a 12-year-old scandal called “Bridgegate.“
“If they want to look at it, they can,” Trump said, responding to a question about whether the White House planned to investigate Christie. “You can ask Pam. I think we have other things to do, but I always thought he got away with murder.”
On Sunday, after Christie criticized him on ABC News’ “This Week,” Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social, “For the sake of JUSTICE, perhaps we should start looking at that very serious situation again?”
Meanwhile, Trump’s allies in Congress have pushed to hear testimony from Biden’s circle about his mental acuity while in office, which Trump and Republicans claim was in decline but was covered up by the former president’s team. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has sought testimony from Biden’s former White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor and former White House aides, including his domestic policy adviser, Neera Tanden and his deputy chief of staff, Annie Tomasini.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/-going-brought-trump-vows-go-bidens-advisers-rcna227019
President Donald Trump and his allies are charging ahead with plans to try to redraw the congressional map in red states beyond Texas, pressuring GOP lawmakers to act and setting up an all-out push for political advantage that will be difficult for Democrats to match ahead of the midterms.
Republican state lawmakers early Saturday approved an unusual mid-decade redraw of the U.S. House districts in Texas, adding five red seats on a new map that Trump advocated. Democrats in California retaliated by passing bills that will ask the liberal state’s voters to add five blue seats in a November special election. Now the legislative action in a nationwide redistricting battle is set to move to Missouri and three other Republican-controlled states.
Democrats have repeatedly promised to “fight fire with fire,” relying on the states they control. But they face more obstacles — and have taken few concrete steps toward redrawing blue-state maps outside California.
Many state Republicans balked at redistricting outside the usual census-driven schedule, reluctant to shake up existing lines and use their political capital on such a divisive move. But Trump’s team — backed up by activists threatening primary challenges — have pushed forward. Changing the maps could help Republicans maintain their narrow control of the U.S. House in 2026, paving the way for Trump’s agenda and preventing Democrats from using the House to launch investigations or impeachment proceedings.
“Our more moderate members in both the House and Senate — this is not something they would be inclined to do,” said Gregg Keller, a Republican strategist in Missouri, the next red state expected to redraw its maps. “However, when it became clear that these calls were coming directly from the president, directly from the White House, that this was part of a larger national strategy, they realized they were going to need to go along with it whether they liked it or not.”
Federal law restricts the political activities of federal employees. But White House staff have been acting in a personal capacity while discussing redistricting with state Republicans, said a person familiar with the effort, who like some others interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. James Blair, the White House deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs, has been leading the effort.
Missouri is expected to add one more red seat — likely after state lawmakers return to the Capitol on Sept. 10, according to people familiar with the plans. Trump got ahead of state Republican officials on Thursday, saying on Truth Social that Missouri “is IN.”
Trump has spoken directly with Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe (R) about redistricting, two people familiar with the discussions said. White House staff, acting in a personal capacity, have discussed the matter with members of the state’s congressional delegation and also called state lawmakers — including the openly skeptical Missouri House Speaker Pro Tem Chad Perkins, according to Perkins and others told about the outreach.
State leaders are assessing “options for a special session” to redraw the maps, Kehoe spokesperson Madelyn Warren said after Trump’s social media post. Warren said the governor “regularly speaks with the President on a variety of topics” but has not discussed “any specific or potential maps” with him.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
In Indiana, state Republicans also face mounting pressure to get on board with a redraw that would be likely to give the GOP one additional red seat. Vice President JD Vance discussed the issue with state leaders in person this month, and White House staff have been calling state legislators, according to Republicans in the state.
“The pressure from the White House is intense,” said Republican state Rep. Ed Clere, who said he has not been contacted but knows others who have. Clere has previously said special sessions “should be reserved for emergencies,” and that Trump’s “desperation to maintain a U.S. House majority by stacking the deck in favor of Republicans does not constitute an emergency.”
Every member of Indiana’s congressional delegation got on board with redistricting this past week. Recorded calls from a group identifying itself as Forward America have urged Indiana residents to call their legislators in support, according to the Indianapolis Star and other news outlets. The Washington Post could not reach Forward America for comment.
Trump ally Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, said his organization would back primary challenges to state lawmakers “who refuse to support the team and redraw the maps.”
The White House is hosting Indiana Republicans in Washington on Tuesday — part of a series hosting various states. Cabinet secretaries, senior White House officials and members of the Domestic Policy Council will join and take questions, according to an invitation. Clere said he is not attending.
Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston (R) has also been reluctant to redraw the map, according to a person familiar with the matter. A spokeswoman for Huston said he has not taken a position. Gov. Mike Braun (R) recently said he has not decided whether to call a special session.
Others have been openly skeptical. “Please help me understand the push to pick up MAYBE 1 Congressional seat while putting many good state elected officials at risk because of a political redistricting stunt!” state Rep. Jim Lucas (R) said on social media.
Trump’s team is optimistic they will persuade Indiana Republicans and have not “put their back into it” yet, said one person familiar with the redistricting effort. “I think they will all come to the realization this isn’t going away,” the person said of state Republicans.
In Trump’s home state of Florida, top Republicans have expressed support for a redraw and gone further by asking the federal government to grant Florida an extra U.S. House seat.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier recently sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce, which oversees the census, arguing that the state should have gotten more representation after 2020 and that Florida “should not have to wait” for the next one. The Commerce Department did not respond to a request for comment about the letter.
“Obviously we’d love to do it before the midterms next year,” Uthmeier said this week at a news conference.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has said he supports redrawing the map even without a census revision. And Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez (R) moved this month to create a “select committee” on congressional redistricting.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/08/23/trump-gop-redistricting-missouri-indiana
President Donald Trump’s ploy to bully Senate Republicans into dropping a longstanding rule about presidential nominations appears to have crashed and burned, Politico reported on Tuesday — with lawmakers holding their ground against him in a way they generally dare not do.
The drama began in July, when Trump lashed out at 91-year-old Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA), calling him “weak and ineffective” and demanding he axe “blue slips,” the tradition that committees must have the approval of a nominee’s home state senators to advance a nominee.
Republicans already weakened blue slip rules for circuit court nominees in 2017, which is how Trump’s former personal lawyer Emil Bove got a circuit court appointment earlier this year despite objections from both of New Jersey’s senators. But they have been adamantly against eliminating them for district court judges or executive nominations.
Grassley pushed back, taking umbrage at Trump’s “personal insults” against him, and the broader Senate GOP caucus followed suit. According to Politico, there’s no sign of the GOP backing down — they may tinker with nomination rules to speed up confirmations on the Senate floor, but they won’t eliminate blue slips or weaken the committee vetting process.
Unlike in many other cases of resistance against Trump, where GOP lawmakers have given quotes anonymously, some senators are being quite open in rebuffing the president, with Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) telling Politico, “As a practical matter, the Senate’s not going to give up the blue slip. So my appeal to the president is: please reconsider. Why do we want to have this fight for nothing?”
There’s a key reason GOP senators don’t want to undermine their rules for Trump’s benefit here, strategists told Politico: they know it would backfire on them.
Mike Fragoso, a former adviser to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), “argued that even Republicans wary of crossing the president now have taken advantage of the blue slip policy when Democrats held power. He added that there are relatively few bench seats in solidly Democratic states that Trump could even fill now without consent from Democrats,” noted the report. This means Trump would get very few judges nominated by totally eliminating blue slips, but a future Democratic president could flood red states with district court judges of their own.
Beyond judges, however, Trump is being stymied by blue slips when it comes to appointing federal prosecutors.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has blocked Jay Clayton’s confirmation to be U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, while New Jersey’s senators have blocked another personal Trump lawyer, Alina Habba, for the prosecutor office there, prompting a standoff where Trump’s Justice Department has skirted rules and reversed decisions of local judges to install her on an acting basis.
Donald Trump made an eyebrow-raising remark about the potential to halt US elections as he sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss efforts to negotiate peace with Russia.
Monday’s historic meeting marked Zelensky’s first time back in the White House since Trump and Vice President JD Vance laid into him live on TV during a spectacular Oval Office blowout in February. This time around, things remained relatively calm as the pair appeared far more civil with each other.
But Trump still escalated the tension in the room with a controversial statement. It comes as Trump appears to relish idea of a violent clash in DC as the city takes steps to de-escalate.
At one point during their press conference, the US president suddenly interrupted Zelensky as the Ukrainian leader was responding to a question about his commitment to holding elections after the war with Russia is over.
“So you’re saying during the war you can’t have elections,” Trump said. The president hinted that before the 2028 presidential election, he could call off elections as he joked: “So, let me just say, three and a half years from now so you mean if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections. Oh, that’s good.”
Zelensky laughed before shaking his head as he responded: “You like this idea, no no no no.” Trump’s remarks, which have since gone viral on X, quickly saw him accused of spouting “dictator talk”.
Trump has previously called Zelensky a “dictator” and criticised him for halting elections during wartime in Ukraine. Critics raised the alarm, claiming there was a more sinister side to the joke.
One wrote: “You can practically see the dim little lightbulb flicker on above his head. ‘Wait a second… if my country is in a war… I don’t have to leave the White House… EVER?! THAT’S GOOD!’ It’s the giddy, amoral excitement of a child who has just discovered a brand new and fantastic way to cheat at the game. Except the game is the Constitution of the United States.”
A second warned: “His remark to Zelensky wasn’t just a slip of the tongue it’s a window into his authoritarian fantasies. If Trump thinks he can dodge elections by dragging us into some endless conflict, he’s not just dreaming; he’s planning. The question isn’t just ‘who’ we’re going to have a long war with it’s ‘how long’ before we wake up to the fact that this man will stop at nothing to cling to power.”
Trump’s comments to Zelensky aren’t the first time that he has hinted at plans to remain in the White House beyond his second term, something which is currently unconstitutional. In a phone interview with NBC news back in March, Trump said he’s “not joking” about running for a third term and insinuated that “there are methods” of bypassing the Constitution.
When asked to elaborate on those methods the following month, the president told TIME Magazine: “I’d rather not discuss that now, but as you know, there are some loopholes that have been discussed that are well known.”
“But I don’t believe in loopholes,” Trump added. “I don’t believe in using loopholes.” However, earlier this month the president appeared to back-peddle on talk about running for a third term.
Asked whether he would make another bid for president in 2028, Trump told CNBC: “No. Probably not. I’d like to run. I have the best poll numbers I’ve ever had. You know why? Because people love the tariffs.”
Despite this, Trump on Monday showed off his collection of MAGA hats to Zelensky, including one emblazoned with the phrase “4 More Years”.
https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/donald-trump-elections-zelensky-usa-1337245
All eyes will be on Volodymyr Zelensky when he arrives at the White House on Monday afternoon—if only to see what he’s wearing when he meets President Donald Trump.
Ukraine’s wartime president found himself the target of a pile-on in his last Oval Office visit in February, when Vice President JD Vance accused him of being “disrespectful” to the U.S. by not wearing a suit and tie.
Keen to avoid a repeat, White House officials have reportedly been pressing Zelensky to dress up for Monday’s crucial talks at the White House, where Zelensky and Trump will be joined a slew of major European leaders.
Citing two sources inside the Trump administration, Axios reported Monday that the White House had explicitly asked Ukrainian officials whether Zelensky would be wearing a suit to the Oval Office.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
One source told the outlet that Zelensky would be wearing the same sort of black jacket he wore to meet Trump at the NATO summit in June, rather his usual army-style sweatshirt. “Trump was happy about that,” Axios reported in its newsletter.
Monday’s talks, which come on the heels of Trump’s summit meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, could help bring an end to Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II.
But all anyone in MAGAworld seems to have cared about over the past few days is what Zelensky will be wearing when he shakes Trump’s hand.
In a scathing preview of the Oval Office talks, Real America’s Voice host Brian Glenn told viewers on Sunday: “Two questions right now. One: Will we have peace? But two: Will Zelensky wear a suit?”
The channel, which calls itself the “authentic voice and passion of real people all across America,” then played a clip from Zelensky’s infamous visit to the White House earlier this year when Glenn himself sparked a brutal pile-on from the room by criticizing Zelensky for what he was wearing.
Zelensky’s casual battle dress was reminiscent of that worn by previous wartime leaders during visits to the White House, including Britain’s prime minister during WWII, Winston Churchill. But the February meeting descended into acrimony, with Vance leading what many observers considered an ambush of Zelensky.
Zelensky will be joined at the White House by European leaders including Britain’s Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron of France who will try to persuade Trump that the pressure should be on Putin to end the conflict he started in 2022. Casualties are widely reported to be past the million mark after more than three years of attritional fighting.
The Oval Office talks come just days the Alaska summit, at which no real progress appears to have been made—and which some White House officials reportedly left looking ashen-faced.
Trump rolled out the red carpet for Putin, who has largely been ostracized by the international community since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. After greeting him like an old friend, Trump let Putin talk first at a post-summit press conference—with no actual questions allowed—and even game him a lift in his armored “Beast” limousine.
It remains clear, however, that Putin is still clinging to his maximalist demands for sovereignty over large parts of Ukraine and subsequent demilitarization.
Trump is expected to greet Zelensky today at 1 p.m. ET, with a series of meetings with other European leaders scheduled throughout the afternoon.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/shallow-trump-pressures-zelensky-to-wear-a-suit-to-the-white-house
Far-right activist Laura Loomer has an ominous outlook about the state of the Republican Party once President Donald Trump finishes his second term.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Loomer — who has been dubbed as an “instrument” of the president — predicted that she doesn’t think the GOP is “going to survive post-Trump.”
“There’s too many conflicting personalities trying to jockey for the mantle to MAGA, and none of them have what it takes to be Trump’s successor,” Loomer wrote.
“We are witnessing the end of a future post-MAGA movement as we know it because everyone inside the ‘big tent’ the GOP forced on us realizes that hate each other,” she continued.
Loomer’s post comes as she finds herself at the center of a firestorm with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), another close ally of Trump.
The feud between the two erupted after Loomer criticized the Army for recognizing Medal of Honor recipient Florent Groberg, who saved the lives of fellow soldiers from a suicide bomber in Afghanistan, resulting in catastrophic injuries.
Loomer claimed that Groberg was a Democrat who has “campaigned against Trump,” and added that he was not a “US born soldier,” despite Groberg becoming a naturalized citizen in 2001. Greene shot back on Monday, calling her a “coward” and saying that she has “ZERO respect or reverence for even the most heroic people in America.”
The jabs, however, quickly became personal. Loomer went on to call Greene a “lying fake Christian wh—” and “probably the dumbest b—- in Congress” after the congresswoman said “she psychotically turns on everyone,” including Trump’s most ardent supporters.
“Like I said before, @RepMTG’s claims about me on X yesterday are completely unhinged, deceitful, and rooted in jealousy,” Loomer wrote on Tuesday, adding “She started to hate me as soon as I started being recognized for my work in support of Trump. That’s when she went from calling me her friend to calling me a foreign spy.”
Her prediction was met with mixed reactions on social media — with many floating Vice President JD Vance as a successor.
“I really hate seeing the infighting, bums me out, though I understand the passion on both sides,” one user replied, adding that Vance “has pleasantly surprised me more than anyone else in the Trump administration…”
Another user asked: “If anyone has it, it’s JD Vance. Do you disagree?”
“How about find 3 optimistic things to post about for every one negative post. All your negativity is exhausting!” a different user said.
Trump last week had described Vance as the next “most likely” GOP leader. Vance has been floated as a potential contender for the 2028 presidential election as numerous recent polls list him as the clear frontrunner in the Republican Party.
Since Trump took office, Loomer has used her prominence on social media to expose figures in Trump’s administration that she sees as disloyal, such as digging up their old social media posts and sifting through their past political donations. She has claimed credit for a number of firings, including a senior Customs and Border Protection official.
https://www.nj.com/politics/2025/08/trump-whisperer-makes-dire-prediction-about-future-of-gop.html
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reposted a video that features the leader of the Christian evangelical movement he follows calling to make gay sex illegal.
The segment from CNN focused on Doug Wilson, co-founder of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC).
“In the late ’70s and early ’80s, sodomy was a felony in all 50 states,” Wilson says in the clip. “That America of that day was not a totalitarian hellhole.”
He adds that he wishes America would bring back those laws, which made sex between people of the same sex illegal. In fact, sodomy was a felony punishable by imprisonment or hard labor in every state until 1962, when Illinois became the first state to remove criminal penalties for consensual sodomy. The Supreme Court invalidated bans on gay sex in its 2003 ruling, Lawrence v Texas.
At other points in the video, Wilson says that some American slave owners were “decent human beings” and suggests that women should focus on having and raising children.
“Women are the kind of people that people come out of,” Wilson says.
The video also features a female congregation member saying that she “submits” to her husband and a pastor from the movement calling to repeal the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.
“All of Christ for All of Life,” Hegseth wrote alongside the clip. The CNN report noted that Hegseth has publicly declared his support for Wilson in the past.
Asked for comment, chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told the Daily Beast that Hegseth is a “proud” member of a church associated with CREC and “very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson’s writings and teachings.”
During the nomination process for defense secretary, Hegseth’s past comments arguing that women should not be allowed to serve in military combat roles resurfaced as a source of controversy.
Hegseth walked back the comments after it became clear that they might impede his nomination. He was eventually confirmed with a tie-breaking vote cast by Vice President JD Vance.
Since taking over the Pentagon, Hegseth has instituted more stringent fitness standards for women, and removed at least five senior female military officials from leadership roles.
In May, Hegseth sparked controversy when he brought his personal pastor, Brooks Potteiger, to the Pentagon to lead a monthly prayer circle. The pastor praised President Donald Trump as divinely appointed.
Hegseth, despite being a devout Christian, was rocked by reports during the nomination process detailing his repeated infidelity during his first marriage. He has been married three times.
Hegseth also has several controversial pro-Christian tattoos, including one that has been criticized as anti-Muslim, and others that allude to the Crusades.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/pete-hegseth-posts-video-of-pastor-saying-women-shouldnt-vote
Author Katherine Stewart says Vice President JD Vance is “polishing ideas from the far-right gutters with an Ivy League sheen,” particularly when it comes to smearing a pretty face over the racist Great Replacement Theory.
Stewart says President Donald Trump is expelling asylum seekers, abusing foreign visitors and deporting and incarcerating people who have never been accused of any crime. Meanwhile, Vance is in the wings, pushing a “thoughtful” version of the “Great Replacement Theory” that’s sure to appease nativists who embrace the idea that immigration is part of a deliberate plot to destroy the U.S. by replacing “real” or “true” Americans with aliens.
Stewart notes how Vance recently argued that America’s founders understood “that our shared qualities, our heritage, our values, our manners and customs confer a special and indispensable advantage. … Social bonds form among people who have something in common. They share the same neighborhood. They share the same church.”
“Vance is using a sleight of hand here,” said Stewart, agreeing that social bonds do form when people share things in common, but she adds that a nation’s people who “define themselves according to the church their grandparents attended … [is] not the America that Lincoln and Jefferson … established.”
“We the people have agreed to promote the general welfare not by conducting a survey of the views of some subset of ancestors who happened to be present at the Civil War, but by making laws through representative government based on the idea that all people are free and equal before the law.”
Versions of the Vance ideology haunt American history, Steward argues, and always with the same malicious intent: to divide “real” Americans from the ones who “don’t belong.”
“The intent becomes clear the moment you ask the speaker who the ‘real’ Americans are,” Stewart said. “Are they the descendants of the Mayflower? That’s just silly. … Are the real Americans white? That’s not just racist but stupid; most Black Americans today have ancestors that lived in America significantly longer, on average, than white Americans.”
But the argument serves the purpose of putting a lot of money in the hands of a few, said Stewart, whether it’s letting slaveholders get rich while their white neighbors get outcompeted by slave labor or funneling money to “the establishment of a grifty concentration camp on American soil.” (Research shows contractors affiliated with the controversial “Alligator Alcatraz” have “lost” tens of millions of dollars, while others have forced states to pay for detention centers it never built.)
“We can’t know what’s in JD Vance’s heart,” Stewart argued, but “he seems to believe that, to keep himself and his associates in power, the U.S. government needs to ship asylum seekers off to random islands and engage in an ever-expanding menu of sadistic acts. Meanwhile, none of our actual immigration issues are resolved and the rest of us are simply forced to pay the price.”
Read the full New Republic report at this link.
https://www.alternet.org/jd-vance-baseless-claim
More in The New Republic:
President Donald Trump’s administration has adopted an aggressive posture toward Minnesota in his second term, launching a series of investigations into the state’s laws, canceling federal dollars with no warning and conducting sweeping law enforcement raids without any advance word to local authorities.
A probe into Minnesota’s affirmative action laws, announced last week, is the latest salvo in an escalating battle between the White House and the Democrats who run the state. The relationship is noticeably more hostile than in Trump’s first term.
The Justice Department’s newest challenge to Minnesota hinged on a policy issued by the state Department of Human Services requiring supervisors to provide justification if they hire a non-diverse candidate. The protocol has been in place since 2002, tied to a state law passed nearly four decades ago, according to the state agency.
The White House has been aggressive in challenging blue-state policies out of step with its agenda. Since Trump returned to office in January, his administration has launched investigations and court challenges to Minnesota’s laws. It also has made moves that directly affected the day-to-day operations of the state, including canceling funding without warning and slowing or halting communication between agencies.
“They are actively against us,” said DFL Gov. Tim Walz, who has become a prominent foe to Trump since his stint on the national Democratic ticket last year.
Walz avoided public clashes with Trump’s first administration but now openly admonishes the president and his allies.
The DOJ is pursuing four probes in Minnesota ranging from state laws surrounding transgender athletes, college tuition rates for undocumented students and, on the local level, a policy instituted by the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office directing prosecutors to consider race in charging decisions and plea deals.
In announcing the probe of Minnesota’s diversity hiring policy, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said last week the Civil Rights Division “will not stand by while states impose hiring mandates that punish Americans for their race or sex.”
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called the DOJ’s investigations “garbage” and “nonsense” pursuits without merit during an interview Monday with the Minnesota Star Tribune. He said he believes the Trump administration is targeting predominantly Democratic states.
“We’re probably more targeted than a red state,” Ellison said.
Another major blow to Minnesota by the feds came in late May when the same Justice Department division moved to dissolve Minneapolis’ federal consent decree, the long-awaited agreement brokered between the DOJ under the Biden administration and Minneapolis meant to usher in sweeping changes to the city police department. In their dismissal, DOJ officials under Trump described such court-enforceable agreements as federal overreach and anti-police.
Some city officials and advocates decried the timing of the announcement, just days before the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s death.
Such major decisions have sometimes come with no warning at all. The Trump administration abruptly froze and canceled some funding streams to Minnesota earlier this year, including grants to track measles, provide heating assistance and prevent flooding.
On Monday, Ellison joined a lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking to unfreeze more than $70 million for Minnesota schools. Ellison said Trump’s Education Department recently cut the funding “without warning.”
“They don’t cooperate,” Ellison said. “Even during Trump [term] one, it was common for us to be in touch with federal partners. Now, they don’t. It’s like they want to catch you by surprise.”
The hostilities go beyond investigations and court challenges to Minnesota’s laws. The state’s communication with the federal government has ground to a halt, Walz said. When state officials asked for a meeting with a local Veterans Affairs official, they were told it would take six to eight weeks to get an answer.
“If I want to talk to him now or my administration wants to talk to him, we have to put in a request to D.C. It has to be approved by the White House in addition to the VA, before he is able to engage in any meaningful conversation with us,” Walz said.
Federal law enforcement agencies didn’t warn state officials before they raided a Mexican restaurant in south Minneapolis in June, Walz said. That raid prompted confrontations between protestors and law enforcement on E. Lake Street after misinformation spread that an immigration sweep was under way.
An exception is the local U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI, which worked with state law enforcement to arrest suspect Vance Boelter after the assassination of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband last month. Walz said the state has “fantastic relationships” with those two agencies.
But Trump refused to call Walz after the assassinations of the Hortmans and the serious wounding of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife. Trump said it would be a waste of his time and then proceeded to insult the DFL governor. Vice President JD Vance did speak with Walz, however.
For his part, Walz also has been outwardly antagonistic toward Trump, comparing his administration to “wannabe dictators and despots” and accusing him of using federal immigration agents as a “modern-day Gestapo.” The Department of Homeland Security referred to Walz’s comments as “sickening.”
The broader breakdown in communication with the federal government is a notable change from Trump’s first term, when Walz could more easily reach administration officials. Walz told a group of States Newsroom editors in June that Vice President Mike Pence called him every couple of weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic to try to deliver masks and other relief.
Walz said he worries about how the federal government would treat Minnesota in a natural disaster. Critics have noted a contrast in how Trump treats blue and red states; he promised full support for Texas following deadly flash floods but criticized elected Democrats in California who sought federal help after wildfires devastated Los Angeles.
“The way California was treated on wildfires, that worries all of us,” Walz said. “How are we going to be treated when these things happen?”
