Tag Archives: White House

MSNBC: Leaked audio suggests Trump’s new Social Security chief had to Google his own job

Posted on by
Reply

The apparent fact that the new Social Security commissioner, up until recently, had no idea what his job entailed does not inspire confidence.

First Frank Bisignano  tries to pass himself off as:

“fundamentally a DOGE person,”

which sets off alarms for those who don’t want Social Security cut, so Bisignano 

took steps to distance himself from DOGE-imposed changes at the Social Security Administration

but

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon produced a statement from a purported whistleblower, who claimed that Bisignano had personally intervened to get key DOGE officials involved at the agency

Now that he is on the job, he admits that

he wasn’t familiar with the position and had to look it up online.

Bisignano said: “So, I get a phone call and it’s about Social Security. And I’m really, I’m really not, I swear I’m not looking for a job. And I’m like, ‘Well, what am I going to do?’ So, I’m Googling Social Security. You know, one of my great skills, I’m one of the great Googlers on the East Coast.”

Does he also know how to Google on the West Coast, or is he just a one-coast Googler?

This guy is running Social Security?

Does he remember his name?

Does he know where he is?

Does ….

Leaked audio suggests Trump’s new Social Security chief had to Google his own job

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/leaked-audio-suggests-trumps-new-social-security-chief-google-job-rcna208797

MSNBC: Trump admin regulators launch investigation into Media Matters, adding to pattern

Posted on by
Reply

If it seems as if there have been a lot of new federal investigations into Democrats and their allies lately, it’s not your imagination.

But it’s important to remember that many of the White House’s political antagonists are, in fact, facing the kind of investigations that Trump has in mind. The New York Times reported:

The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday opened an investigation into Media Matters, a liberal advocacy organization that has published research on hateful and antisemitic content on X, according to two people familiar with the inquiry. The regulator said in a letter sent to the organization that it was investigating the group, which is aligned with Democrats, over whether it illegally colluded with advertisers, according to the people.

…

The public has learned in recent weeks that the administration — led by a president whose second-term “revenge tour” has been unsubtle — is also investigating and/or prosecuting a variety of Democratic officials and candidates, including Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York Attorney General Letitia James and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.

This dovetails with the president directing the Justice Department to go after Christopher Krebs, who led the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; which came on the heels of Trump pressing the Department of Homeland Security to investigate Miles Taylor, a former high-ranking DHS official. The president did this not because there’s evidence of Krebs or Taylor having done anything wrong, but because they defied him several years ago. They went on his enemies list, and now he’s exacting revenge.

Around the same time, Trump also directed the Justice Department to investigate ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s most important fundraising platform.

And did I mention the investigation into former FBI director James Comey? Because that’s underway, too.

Trump and his team are also going after law firms, universities and news organizations they consider political foes of the White House.

What’s more, given Ed Martin’s new responsibilities at the Justice Department, this overtly and abusive partisan pattern is likely to intensify.

So Trump hates everybody?

Axios recently noted, “In the final days of the 2024 campaign, Axios identified a list of perceived adversaries who fit what Trump ominously described as ‘the enemies from within.’ As president, he has taken steps to retaliate against virtually all of them.” That was two months ago. The problem is vastly worse now, and there’s no reason to believe conditions will improve anytime soon.

Trump admin regulators launch investigation into Media Matters, adding to pattern

If it seems as if there have been a lot of new federal investigations into Democrats and their allies lately, it’s not your imagination.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-admin-regulators-launch-investigation-media-matters-adding-patte-rcna208780

MSNBC: Pro-Trump crypto bro Justin Sun embodied MAGA palm-greasing at Trump’s crypto soiree

Posted on by
Reply

The investor, who has put millions into the Trump family’s crypto company, reportedly left the president’s dinner with the prize of a gold watch.

The event was a private dinner with the president at Trump National Golf Club, where “investors spent an estimated $148 million on the $TRUMP meme coin to secure their seats … with the top-25 holders spending more than $111 million,” Reuters reported, citing crypto intelligence firm Inca Digital. Reuters also cited an analysis that found the Trumps have made $320.19 million in fees from their meme coins.

And the person in the photo is Justin Sun, a MAGA-aligned crypto bro who said he was “awarded” what he identified as a “Trump Gold Tourbillon” (a Trump-branded watch that retails for $100,000). The White House didn’t immediately respond to MSNBC’s question as to whether the president actually gifted this watch to Sun.

…

His investments in Trump have been considerable — but, for him, arguably worthwhile. Sun has been in the news in the last few months because, after he plowed $75 million into Trump family crypto, per NBC News, the SEC put a 60-day pause on the charges of market manipulation and offering unregistered securities it had been pursuing against him since 2023. 

…

But to really catch the flavor of what’s happening, it’s these images of brazen wealth and intolerably open corruption that one would expect from a president dead-set on dragging the United States back to the Gilded Age, an era marked by immense wealth inequality and widespread corruption.

As Chris Hayes noted on “All In” on Thursday, the contrasting images of Trump that day — whipping votes for a House budget with deep cuts to social programs, such as food aid and health care, in the morning, and in the evening reportedly helicoptering into a ritzy and self-enriching dinner for a few minutes — is too glaring to ignore.

Pro-Trump crypto bro Justin Sun embodied MAGA palm-greasing at Trump’s crypto soiree

The investor, who has put millions into the Trump family’s crypto company, reportedly left the president’s dinner with the prize of a gold watch.

https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/justin-sun-white-house-crypto-trump-meme-coin-rcna208769

MSNBC: The problem(s) with the White House’s defense of Trump’s scandalous crypto dinner

Posted on by
Reply

The White House came up with a handful of talking points to defend the president’s meme coin scheme, but they were all unbelievable.

In the beginning:

When Donald Trump unveiled a meme coin a few days before his second inaugural, the ethical mess was obvious. The Campaign Legal Center’s Adav Noti explained at the time, “It is literally cashing in on the presidency — creating a financial instrument so people can transfer money to the president’s family in connection with his office. It is beyond unprecedented.”

And recently:

But when the president and his partners launched a contest of sorts last month, it took the story to a new level: Those interested in investing in Trump’s meme coin — and by extension, giving the president money — were told they’d have a chance to win special access to Trump and the White House.

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said of the scheme, “This isn’t Trump just being Trump. The Trump coin scam is the most brazenly corrupt thing a president has ever done. Not close.”

The dinner:

The gambit proved predictably lucrative. NBC News reported this week:

More than 200 wealthy, mostly anonymous crypto buyers are coming to Washington on Thursday to have dinner with President Donald Trump. The price of admission: $55,000 to $37.7 million. That’s how much the 220 winners of a contest to meet Trump spent on his volatile cryptocurrency token, $TRUMP, according to an analysis by the blockchain analytics company Nansen. The top $TRUMP coin holders at a specific time — determined by the dinner’s organizers — secured a seat.

The dinner nevertheless happened at a Trump-owned property in Virginia on Thursday night, and it was described by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes as “the Met Gala of presidential pay-for-play.” Chris added that the dinner was “the most brazen act of corruption by a president in our lifetimes, probably in a century, possibly ever.”

While the resident Bimbo dodges questions …

Once:

The president’s chief spokesperson was asked, for example, whether Trump was using the gathering to enrich himself. Instead of answering directly, [White House Press Secretary Bimbo #1] Leavitt said the president was re-elected “because he was a successful businessman.” The problem with this, of course, was (a) she didn’t answer the question; (b) he wasn’t a successful businessman; and (c) there’s no evidence to suggest Trump’s private-sector background contributed to his successful 2024 candidacy.

Twice:

At the same briefing, [Bimbo #1] Leavitt also argued that Trump was attending the crypto dinner in his “personal time,” which made even less sense, given that presidents while in office don’t have the luxury of simply taking off the presidential hat and acting as a private citizen for a while. Ethical norms and legal standards always apply to the nation’s chief executive, especially when interacting with those eager to give them financial rewards.

Thrice:

But I was especially interested in [Bimbo #1]Leavitt’s third point: Trump’s assets, she insisted, are in a “blind trust” managed by his adult sons, which necessarily mitigates potential ethical conflicts.

This almost resembles a credible point, but there’s a problem: Trump’s “trust” isn’t actually “blind.”

When the president’s first term began, many urged the Republican to avoid ethical quandaries by utilizing a blind trust, but Trump refused. After he was elected to a second term, he did transfer assets into a trust controlled by his eldest son, but to call it “blind” is to stretch the definition to an unreasonable degree.

Indeed, The New York Times spoke to Dennis Kelleher, the chief executive of Better Markets, a nonprofit that pushes for more transparency on Wall Street, who emphasized the family connection. “This is not a blind trust with an independent trustee, where people can have confidence that the conflicts of interest are in fact removed,” he explained.

In other words, after having plenty of time to come up with a defense for Trump’s meme coin scheme, the White House came up with a handful of talking points, and all three fell apart rather quickly.

The conclusion:

All things considered, that’s not too surprising: Defending the indefensible isn’t easy.

The problem(s) with the White House’s defense of Trump’s scandalous crypto dinner

The White House came up with a handful of talking points to defend the president’s meme coin scheme, but they were all unbelievable.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/problems-white-houses-defense-trumps-scandalous-crypto-dinner-rcna208749

Snopes: Clarifying claim that DOGE, RFK Jr. found 8M people fraudulently on Medicaid

Posted on by
Reply

The numbers appeared tied to estimates on the number of people who may be cut from Medicaid under U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”

Snopes has a lengthy discussion of claims by F’Elon Musk (DOGE) and Robert “Brainworm” Kennedy Jr. that they found 8M people fraudently on Medicaid. Their conclusion:

These numbers don’t add up to 8 million … 

Like almost everything else involving DOGE, the math doesn’t work out.

You can click the link below to read the article:

Clarifying claim that DOGE, RFK Jr. found 8M people fraudulently on Medicaid

The numbers appeared tied to estimates on the number of people who may be cut from Medicaid under U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/05/24/medicaid-doge-rfk-jr

Alternet: ‘I don’t appreciate being lied to’: Judge threatens Trump admin with ‘serious consequences’

Posted on by
Reply

POLITICO writer Josh Gerstein reports a federal judge is demanding the Trump administration explain what looks like misinformation they shared with the court.

Proclaiming “I will not be strung along,” U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes set a hearing this morning to determine if the Trump administration is trying to shutter three important Department of Homeland Security (DHS) oversight offices in defiance of Constitutional arguments that only Congress has that power.

Reyes opted to set a follow-up hearing this morning after back-and-forth between the court and government attorneys at a May 22 hearing.

“I don’t appreciate being lied to,” Reyes said yesterday. “If that is indeed what has happened, there will be serious consequences.”

Attorneys for the Trump administration allegedly told the court last week that the U.S. ombudsman offices for the Citizenship & Immigration Services and the Office of Immigration Detention were still intact despite layoffs of hundreds of DHS employees, part-time employees and contract workers.

But a DHS staffer who department leaders had scheduled for termination submitted to the court an internal document saying “the entirety of the offices were eliminated.”

Reyes demanded DHS leaders immediately file statements to the court, under penalty of perjury, explaining the mixed information.

‘I don’t appreciate being lied to’: Judge threatens Trump admin with ‘serious consequences’

https://www.alternet.org/donald-trump-judge

Law & Crime: ‘Threatens to destroy’: Trump admin sued over move to ‘unleash’ commercial fishing in protected marine areas

Posted on by
Reply

Conservation advocacy organizations have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over an executive order cutting protections for marine ecosystems in the Pacific Ocean.

The Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument was established in 2009 by then-President George W. Bush in his final days in office, and former President Barack Obama expanded the monument’s protections five years later. However, an April proclamation by President Donald Trump rolled back the 2014 safeguards in an effort to “unleash” United States commercial fishing in the central Pacific Ocean.

The Conservation Council for Hawaii, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Kapaʻa, an “unincorporated association of Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners,” are seeking to stop the president from having his way.

Trump admin sued over move to ‘unleash’ commercial fishing in protected marine areas

Conservation advocacy organizations have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over an executive order cutting protections for marine ecosystems in the Pacific Ocean.
‘Threatens to destroy’: Trump admin sued over move to ‘unleash’ commercial fishing in protected marine areas

Western Journal: US Pardon Attorney Ed Martin Drops Pardon Bomb That Could Change Everything

Posted on by
Reply

Controversy over former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen to issue presidential pardons has taken a new turn.

United States Pardon Attorney Ed Martin wrote on social media platform X, “The integrity of the American Pardon system requires that we examine the Biden pardons and who did what.”

“We will get the bottom of it.

“Count on us,” he concluded.

I’m not counting on much, other than the usual hyperbole from King Donald and his fan club.

US Pardon Attorney Ed Martin Announces Investigation of Biden Pardons

Pardon Attorney Ed Martin announces he’s investigating “who did what” amidst the controversy surrounding the Biden pardons.
US Pardon Attorney Ed Martin Drops Pardon Bomb That Could Change Everything

KRON San Francisco: Father of 4 detained by ICE at citizenship interview after living in US for 12 years

Posted on by
Reply

A 31-year-old Danish national who was going through the naturalization process after living in the U.S. for more than 10 years was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials during a routine appointment to finalize his citizenship, according to multiple media reports.

Kasper Eriksen, a green card holder with no criminal record, works as a welder in Sturgis, Mississippi, where he lives with his wife and four children. On April 15, he was unexpectedly taken into custody and later transferred to the LaSalle Detention Center in Louisiana, Newsweek reported.  

The 31-year-old, according to his wife, Savannah Hobart Eriksen, first moved to the U.S. as an exchange student in 2009 and returned to Denmark.  

He returned to the U.S. legally in 2013 after he and his wife married and he began the legal process of becoming an American citizen. In September 2024, according to the outlet, the Eriksens received word that his application was under review, and, on March 7, an interview for his naturalization application was scheduled.  

ICE officials reportedly detained the 31-year-old for failing to file a single document, due in 2015, around the same time the couple lost their first child in a stillbirth. While grieving their loss, they forgot to file Form I-751, the Mississippi Free Press reported.  

If he needed to file an I-751 in 2015, then he received only a 2-year green card “with conditions” in 2013. I-751 is the “Removal of Conditions” filing.

So he’s been wandering around the U.S. for the last 9-10 years with an expired Green Card? It never occurred to him that something was amiss?

If he had filed everything on time and followed up as appropriate, he should have been a citizen by 2019 — about 6 years ago.

There must be more to this story. Given the current regime in Washington and its focus on deportation counts, that might not matter much. 🙁

Father of 4 detained by ICE at citizenship interview after living in US for 12 years

A 31-year-old Danish national with no criminal record who has been living in the U.S. for more than 10 years was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials during a routine app…

https://www.kron4.com/news/national/father-of-4-detained-by-ice-at-citizenship-interview-after-living-in-us-for-12-years/amp

2paragraphs: Trump’s Spokesperson Karoline [Bimbo #1] Leavitt “Just Took Away His Presidential Immunity Defense” Says Prosecutor

Posted on by
Reply
Trump’s Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt “Just Took Away His Presidential Immunity Defense” Says Prosecutor

President Donald Trump hosted a dinner at his golf club in Virginia on Thursday evening for the top 220 holders of his personal $TRUMP meme coin. The top 25 in the group of investors participated in a VIP reception with the president.

When a reporter asked White House spokesperson Karoline [Bimbo #1] Leavitt if the list of attendees was going to be made available to the public, she replied, “The president is attending it in his personal time.”

Republican political pundit and Trump critic Tim Miller responded: “Presidents don’t get ‘personal time.’ There’s not like a magic suit you wear when you are doing official business and one where you are just Donald from Queens.”

Former Republican political pundit and Supreme Court attorney George Conway (ex-husband of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign manager Kellyanne Conway) replied to Miller: “Actually, it’s fine. If Trump is saying he’s doing something on his “personal time,” then obviously that means he’s not acting within what the Supreme Court calls “the outer perimeter of his official responsibility,” which, in turn, means he’s not immune from criminal prosecution.”

Trump’s Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt “Just Took Away His Presidential Immunity Defense” Says Prosecutor

President Donald Trump hosted a dinner at his golf club in Virginia on Thursday evening for the top 220 holders of his personal $TRUMP meme coin. The top 25 in the group of investors participated in

https://2paragraphs.com/2025/05/trumps-spokesperson-karoline-leavitt-just-took-away-his-presidential-immunity-defense-says-prosecutor/