Tag Archives: White House

Los Angeles Times: ‘Even the cops don’t like us anymore’: Under Trump, ICE is despised and divided

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Poor crybabies!

Across the nation, ICE has never seemed more visible, especially as anger continues over the separation of immigrant families at the border under the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy. Protesters have rallied across the U.S., demanding that the agency be abolished — calls that have been echoed by politicians. Earlier this month, WikiLeaks published the identities and information of more than 9,000 supposed current and former ICE employees.

Being an ICE agent has always come with challenges. The agency has faced criticism for years from immigration activists, including during the uptick in immigration enforcement during the Obama administration.

But Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration has made ICE much more of a target. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf won praise from many of her constituents and criticism from the White House earlier this year when she alerted her city to upcoming ICE raids.

Many California police departments have longstanding policies against working with ICE to arrest suspects on immigration charges. But since Trump took office, California has enacted even tougher “sanctuary state” policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration officials even more, and that has heightened the strains.

…

Recently, “Occupy ICE” protests have sprung up across the nation. In Portland, Ore., protesters were able to shut down an ICE facility for at least a week.

On Saturday, hundreds of coordinated rallies were scheduled around the country to protest Trump’s zero tolerance policy, which has resulted in the separation of more than 2,000 children from their parents or guardians crossing the border.

This week, Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) stated that he plans to introduce legislation to eliminate ICE. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who beat Rep. Joe Crowley, the House Democratic Caucus chair, in New York’s Democratic primary, ran on a platform that called for the abolition of the agency.

And this is total bullshit:

ICE “fully respects the Constitutional rights of all people to peacefully express their opinions,” ICE said in a statement. “That being said, ICE remains committed to performing its immigration enforcement mission consistent with federal law and agency policy.”

Just ask all the students who are being deported for espousing pro-Palestinian views.

‘Even the cops don’t like us anymore’: Under Trump, ICE is despised and divided
In May, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were spotted in Union Station.

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ice-conflict-20180630-story.html

Latin Times: Stephen [“Goebbels”] Miller Says Trump Admin is ‘Looking At’ Suspending Habeas Corpus To Enforce Deportations

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White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said on Friday that the Trump administration could suspend habeas corpus to carry out deportations currently being blocked by courts.

Speaking to reporters at the White House grounds, Miller said Trump could invoke the Constitution to enforce the decision. “The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, is clear. It says that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion. So it’s an option we’re actually looking at,” Miller said.

“A lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not,” Miller added. He sought to back his argument by claiming courts around the country are overreaching and undermining the two other branches of government. He has repeatedly accused judges of committing a “judicial coup” when referencing rulings he or the administration disagree with.

The courts are doing EXACTLY WHAT THEY SHOULD BE DOING. The only problem is ASSHOLE DICTATORS like you who don’t want to provide the due process that everyone is entitled to under our Constitution.

Stephen Miller Says Trump Admin is ‘Looking At’ Suspending Habeas Corpus To Enforce Deportations
Stephen Miller, President Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff, suggested the Trump administration could suspend habeas corpus rights to enforce deportations

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/stephen-miller-says-trump-admin-is-looking-at-suspending-habeas-corpus-to-enforce-deportations/ar-AA1EuH75

Guardian: US considers special status for Greenland amid Trump push for control

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Officials float idea of compact of free association (Cofa), used by US to keep close ties with Pacific Island nations

US officials are discussing a plan to pull Greenland into America’s sphere of influence using a type of agreement that the United States has used to keep close ties with several Pacific Island nations, according to two US officials and another person familiar with the discussions.

Under the plan being considered, the Trump administration would propose to Greenland’s leaders that the island enter into a so-called compact of free association, or Cofa, with the United States.

While the precise details of Cofa agreements – which have only ever been extended to the small island nations of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau – vary depending on the signatory, the US government typically provides many essential services, from mail delivery to emergency management to military protection. In exchange, the US military operates freely in Cofa countries and trade with the US is largely duty-free.

Excuse me, King Donald, but the Greenlanders and Denmark have both made it clear that they want neither you nor J.D. Dunce, nor do they want the horses that you rode in on. To top it off, there’s not a single family in Nuuk that wants Dunce over for coffee. Not a one!

US considers special status for Greenland amid Trump push for control
Officials float idea of compact of free association (Cofa), used by US to keep close ties with Pacific Island nations

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/09/us-greenland-trump

The Hill: What is Trump even doing any more?

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One of the most frustrating things about the Trump administration is that it offers too much nuttiness to process.

Not long ago, the discovery that the president doesn’t know what the Declaration of Independence is would have consumed the country for months. Today, it barely registers because the Trump White House pumps out similar stories two or three times a week. 

When you compare such stories to the trade war with China or President Trump’s claim that he doesn’t know whether he’s required to uphold the Constitution, it’s tempting to view Trump’s recent brainstorms on movie tariffs and reopening Alcatraz as mere distractions. That would be a mistake. They are evidence of something much darker than Steve Bannon’s call to “flood the zone with s—.”

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5289900-trump-tariffs-alcatraz-constitution-hollywood

Reason: The U.K. Trade Deal Screws American Consumers

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Residents of the United Kingdom will get lower tariffs, while Americans are stuck paying higher ones.

The White House is hailing a new trade deal with the United Kingdom as “a great deal for America.”

But is it a great deal for Americans? The specifics of the deal seem to suggest otherwise.

The agreement maintains the 10 percent universal tariff that President Donald Trump imposed on nearly all imports to the United States. But even the president admits this is a tariff hike on American consumers, rather than a reduction.

The point of comparison should be the average tariff rate on imports from the U.K. before Trump took office. In 2023, the most recent year for which full data are available, the average U.S. tariff on British goods was 3.3 percent.

That means this “deal” charges American consumers a 10 percent baseline tax on goods that were previously taxed at 3.3 percent. That’s not a win for free trade or lower prices.

Meanwhile, it is British consumers who will benefit from lower tariffs. According to the White House, the deal means that American exports to the U.K. will now face an average tariff rate of 1.8 percent, down from 5.1 percent before the deal.

So it’s a 6.7% increase for us and a 5.1% decrease for the Brits? Thank you ever so much for screwing us over, King Donald!

The U.K. trade deal screws American consumers
Residents of the United Kingdom will get lower tariffs, while Americans are stuck paying higher ones.

https://reason.com/2025/05/09/the-u-k-trade-deal-screws-american-consumers

Reuters: Tufts student detained by US immigration authorities must be released, judge rules

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  • Rumeysa Ozturk ordered released immediately from Louisiana detention center
  • Ozturk was detained after pro-Palestinian campus advocacy
  • Judge said her detention chills free speech of non-citizens

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to immediately release a Tufts University student from Turkey who has been held for over six weeks in a Louisiana immigration detention facility after she co-wrote an opinion piece criticizing her school’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza.

U.S. District Judge William Sessions during a hearing in Burlington, Vermont, granted bail to Rumeysa Ozturk, who is at the center of one of the highest-profile cases to emerge from Republican President Donald Trump’s campaign to deport pro-Palestinian activists on American campuses.

…

Massachusetts-based Tufts has said it plans to help provide Ozturk housing upon her release. In a statement, a university spokesperson said it hoped she would be able to rejoin its community as soon as possible to resume her doctoral studies.

F*ck y** and rot in Hell, unAmerican *ssh*l* Stephen “Goebbels” Miller:

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called the judge’s ruling another sign of what he considers a “judicial coup” in the United States. Several parts of the president’s hardline immigration agenda have been blocked by judges.

“We cannot individually litigate every single visa that we want to revoke,” Miller told reporters.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/tufts-student-detained-by-us-immigration-authorities-must-be-released-judge-2025-05-09

The Atlantic: Trump’s Inevitable Betrayal of His Supporters

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On Sunday, Donald Trump went on TV and told Americans that their children should make do with less. “They don’t need to have 30 dolls; they can have three,” the president said on Meet the Press. “They don’t need to have 250 pencils; they can have five.” Critics were quick to point out the irony of America’s avatar of excess telling others to tighten their belt. But the problem with Trump’s remark goes beyond the optics. It’s that his argument for austerity contradicts his campaign commitments—and exposes the limits of his transactional approach to politics.

Throughout his 2024 run, the president promised Americans a return to the prosperity of his pre-COVID first term. “Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again, to bring down the prices of all goods,” he told a Montana rally in August. “They’ll come down, and they’ll come down fast,” he declared days later in North Carolina. But at the same time, Trump also promised to impose steep tariffs on consumer goods—dubbing tariff one of “the most beautiful words I’ve ever heard”—even though the levies would effectively serve as a tax on everyday Americans.

These two pledges could not be reconciled, and once elected, Trump was forced to choose between them. The results have disillusioned many of those who voted for him. Trump’s approval on the economy has plunged since he announced his “Liberation Day.” A former strength has become a weakness. “If you look at his economic net approval rating in his first term, it was consistently above water,” the CNN analyst Harry Enten noted last month. “It was one of his best issues, and now it’s one of his worst issues.”

Trump’s Inevitable Betrayal of His Supporters
Trump never meant to keep his promises. His voters are starting to notice.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/trump-s-inevitable-betrayal-of-his-supporters/ar-AA1EosZ3

The Atlantic: The Disturbing Rise of MAGA Maoism

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Trump seems to be ceding the future to China while emulating its past.

China may well come to dominate the next century—because President Donald Trump is taking a page from the most famous Chinese leader of the previous one.

The United States remains the world’s preeminent soft power. It’s a financial and cultural juggernaut, whose entertainment and celebrities bestride the planet. But as an industrial power, the U.S. is not so much at risk of falling behind as it is objectively behind already. A recent essay in the journal Foreign Affairs by Rush Doshi and Kurt Campbell, both China experts who served in the Biden administration, made the case with alarming specificity. China makes 20 times more cement and 13 times more steel than the U.S. It makes more than two-thirds of the world’s electric vehicles, more than three-quarters of its electric batteries, 80 percent of its consumer drones, and 90 percent of its solar panels. China’s shipbuilding capacity is several orders of magnitude larger than America’s, and its navy will be 50 percent larger than the U.S. Navy by 2030.

The Trump administration clearly recognizes the need to rebuild industrial capacity. In its executive order published on “Liberation Day,” the White House suggested that, without high tariffs, America’s “defense-industrial base” is too “dependent on foreign adversaries”—a clear allusion to China.

But …

But Trump’s approach to countering China has been so scattershot, so inept, so face-smackingly absurd, that it sometimes seems like covert policy to destroy America’s reputation. Rather than build a global trading and supply-chain alliance to match the scale of China, we’ve threatened to invade Canada and slapped new tariffs on our European and East Asian allies. Rather than invest in scientific discovery, which is the basis of our technological supremacy, the administration threatens to decimate the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation while attacking major research universities, including Harvard and Columbia. Rather than compete on clean energy, the White House has targeted solar and wind subsidies for destruction. Rather than invest in nuclear power by expanding the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, which provides billion-dollar loan guarantees for nuclear projects, the administration dismissed 60 percent of its staff. Rather than secure our reputation as the world’s premier destination for global talent, we’re driving away foreign students.

https://archive.is/j0lGD#selection-673.0-708.0

AFG: Web archivists scrambling to save US public data from deletion

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As President Donald Trump’s administration purges public records since storming back to power, experts and volunteers are preserving thousands of web pages and government sites devoted to climate change, health or LGBTQ rights and other issues.

Resources on AIDS prevention and care, weather records, references to ethnic or gender minorities: numerous databases were destroyed or modified after Trump signed an executive order in January declaring diversity, equality and inclusion programs and policies within the federal governmentto be illegal.

More than 3,000 pages from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site were taken down and more than 1,000 from the Justice Department’s website, Paul Schroeder, president of the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics, told AFP.

Web archivists scrambling to save US public data from deletion
As President Donald Trump’s administration purges public records since storming back to power, experts and volunteers are preserving thousands of web pages and government sites devoted to climate change, health or LGBTQ rights and other issues.EDGI, a consortium of academics and volunteers, began safeguarding public climate and environmental data after Trump’s first election in 2016.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/archivists-scrambling-save-us-public-191322244.html

Fox News: JB Pritzker rips Trump as ‘authoritarian,’ responds to president calling out his weight

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Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, D-Ill., a possible 2028 White House candidate, took aim at President Donald Trump on Thursday in a late-night appearance, calling him an “authoritarian” leader and mocking his weight.

Pritzker made the comments during an interview on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Egged on by the anti-Trump late-night host, the governor argued Trump was a major threat to the American people.

“I think everybody understands that, at this point, we’ve got an authoritarian in office. He’s essentially tearing apart the things that really matter to working families across the United States, and nobody’s stopping him,” he told Kimmel.

JB Pritzker rips Trump as ‘authoritarian,’ responds to president calling out his weight
Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker slammed President Donald Trump during interview with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/jb-pritzker-rips-trump-as-authoritarian-responds-to-president-calling-out-his-weight/ar-AA1E6hn3