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

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!

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

Newsweek: White House rips federal judge who said Trump admin violated court order

White House press secretary Karoline [Bimbo #1] Leavitt tore into a federal judge on Thursday who accused the Trump administration of “unquestionably” violating a court order to provide “meaningful” due process to people who are targeted for deportation.

During Thursday’s White House press briefing, [Bimbo #1] Leavitt described Murphy as a “liberal activist district court judge” from Boston who “is trying to force the President of the United States to bring these monsters back to our country.”

While she spoke, a screen behind [Bimbo #1] Leavitt displayed photos of the deportees the White House says were on the flight and Leavitt rattled through a list of crimes the men are accused of or have been convicted of committing.

Your photos and rants are irrelevant, Karoline [Bimbo #1] Leavitt. Our constitution guarantees certain inalienable rights, including due process, to everyone in this country including immigrants, legal or not, whether a nattering fool like you agrees with it or not.

https://www.newsweek.com/karoline-leavitt-judge-brian-murphy-press-briefing-2075992

CBS News: RFK Jr. releases report on childhood chronic disease. Here’s what to know.

The White House’s “Make America Healthy Again” or “MAHA” commission, led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has published its first report on what it says are four leading drivers of childhood chronic disease. 

“The report is the product of a consensual process, and it represents a collaborative effort of all the agencies and the White House. And it represents a consensus that is probably the strongest and most radical consensus by a government agency in history about the state of America’s health,” Kennedy told reporters in a call ahead of its release.

Who’s going to take advice on our children’s health from a moron who takes his grandchildren swimming in a sewage-contaminated creek where swimming is banned for public health reasons? A moron who’s had brain worms likely because he eats bush meat and road kill?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-maha-report-childhood-chronic-disease

New Republic: Karoline [Bimbo #1] Leavitt Melts Down Over Blocked South Sudan Deportations

White House Press Secretary Karoline [Bimbo #1] Leavitt delivered a tirade Thursday against a federal judge who ruled against Donald Trump’s illegal deportations to South Sudan.

During a press briefing, [Bimbo #1] Leavitt railed against U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy of Massachusetts, who ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration had provided “plainly insufficient” notice to several third-country nationals before deporting them to South Sudan, which is in the midst of violence and political unrest. As a result, the migrants are being held at a U.S. naval base in Djibouti.

Deporting people to third countries, especially to a war-torn sh*th*l* like South Sudan, is beyond inhumane. How are people with no connection to the country, who in most cases (probably all cases) don’t know the language, going to survive and have any semblance of a decent life?

Karoline [Bimbo #1] Leavitt: You’re a cruel, dumb, stupid, ignorant, arrogant bimbo bitch!

https://newrepublic.com/post/195659/karoline-leavitt-donald-trump-south-sudan-deportations

Esquire: Trump’s Harvard Vendetta Just Sunk to a Ridiculous New Low

Watching a grifter who once ran his own fraudulent “university” try to devalue the institution would be funny if it weren’t so grotesque and tragic.

At this point, it’s just 300-plus years of institutional power against a jumped-up toddler who wants things his way and is willing to break them just so they’ll fit in his pocket. From The New York Times:

The Trump administration on Thursday halted Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, taking aim at a crucial funding source for the nation’s oldest and wealthiest college in a major escalation in the administration’s efforts to pressure the elite school 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.

The “sprawling records request” came from Secretary Kristi (Habeas? I hardly knew him!) [Bimbo #2] Noem of the Department of Homeland Security, which is wearing an even browner shirt than it wore at its creation. 

Of course, overseas, Harvard is one of America’s great selling points, certainly a more effective one than the current president of the United States, who’s done more damage to American prestige around the world than the Vietnam War ever did. A Harvard degree, especially at the graduate level, is still a valuable commodity, and to watch a grifter who once ran his own fraudulent “university” trying to devalue it would be funny if it weren’t so grotesque and tragic.

I, too, have mocked Harvard for its hubris and its conspicuous presence in America’s elites. It’s fun and, up until now, it has been harmless fun at that. But at least Harvard has earned its pride over three damn centuries of achievement. The president seeking to destroy it is a vainglorious bully dripping with fake and fraudulent gold. There is no other side to take except to hope Harvard stands for what it’s always said it stands for.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a64855916/harvard-university-trump-kristi-noem-international-students-funding

ABC News: New Social Security chief tells staff he had to Google the job when he was offered it

ABC News obtained audio of Frank Bisignano’s staff meeting with managers.

The newly sworn-in head of the Social Security Administration told agency staff this week that when he was first offered the job in the Trump administration, he wasn’t familiar with the position and had to look it up online.

Frank Bisignano, a former Wall Street executive, said during a town hall with Social Security managers from around the country on Wednesday that he wasn’t seeking a position in the Trump administration when he received a call about leading the SSA.

“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,” Bisignano said, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by ABC News. “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.”

“I’m like, ‘What the heck’s the commissioner of Social Security?'” said Bisignano, who now oversees one of the largest federal agencies that’s responsible for distributing retirement, disability, and survivor benefits to more than 70 million Americans.

“A former Wall Street executive”, once the head of a major financial services firm, has to use Google to find out what the Commissioner of Social Security does? He seems relatively harmless compared to F’Elon Musk and his band of DOGE stooges, but I’m still not impressed.

I’ll bet I’m a lot better with Google than he is. Am I qualified for the job? 😀

https://abcnews.go.com/US/new-head-social-security-hired-wall-street-tells/story?id=122075152

Associated Press: Trump’s $600 million war chest: How he plans to wield his power in the midterms and beyond

Between a barrage of executive orders, foreign trips and norm-shattering proclamations, Donald Trump has also been busy raking in cash.

The president has amassed a war chest of at least $600 million in political donations heading into the midterm elections, according to three people familiar with the matter. It’s an unprecedented sum in modern politics, particularly for a lame-duck president who is barred by the U.S. Constitution from running again.

The only way for MAGA & King Donald to survive is to buy their way through the mid-term elections in 2026.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-fundraising-midterms-leverage-ccee4d19d5b41f08504370839fb36364

Law & Crime: ‘We say enough’: Whistleblower lawyer targeted by Trump asks judge to speed up proceedings so he can get back to work

Prominent national security attorney Mark Zaid has filed a preliminary injunction request to restore his security clearance that the Trump administration revoked.

In late March, President Donald Trump rescinded the security clearance of Zaid and other well-known lawyers, politicians, and officials. Zaid sued the Trump administration in early May over this revocation, arguing the president’s executive order represented “dangerous, unconstitutional retaliation.”

“We say enough of Trump taking away security clearances out of retaliation & with no basis,” attorney Norman Eisen added on social media, along with a photo of the motion.

Fox News: White House shuts down reporter’s ‘ridiculous’ challenge of White South African farmer deaths

‘What’s unsubstantiated about the video?’ [Bimbo #1] Leavitt said

The White House pushed back against statements from a reporter challenging statements from the Trump administration regarding the treatment of White South African farmers — after President Donald Trump showed a video allegedly depicting burial sites of them at the White House on Wednesday. 

While hosting South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Trump aired a video in the Oval Office that showed white crosses that Trump said were approximately 1,000 burial sites of White Afrikaner South African farmers. Trump has claimed these farmers are being forced off of their land. 

But Yamiche Alcindor with NBC News questioned White House Press Secretary [& Bimbo #1] Karoline Leavitt on the credibility of the video, amid reports that the crosses were from a memorial demonstration following the murder of a White farming couple, not actual burial sites.

Trump never lets the truth get in the way of a good fib!

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-shuts-down-reporters-ridiculous-challenge-white-south-african-farmer-deaths

USA Today: Trump’s crypto dinner: Black ties, a Chinese billionaire and ethics questions

Referencing Trump’s business moves while in office, an ethics expert said, “His is one of the most blatant and appalling instances of selling access to the presidency I’ve ever seen.”

President Donald Trump dined with 220 investors who plowed a combined $148 million into his crypto venture, boosting the growing crypto industry and inviting a torrent of criticism about the ethical implications.

Black-tie dinners with the wealthy are nothing new for Trump. But this event, which took place on the evening of May 22 at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, stood out among the annals of presidential dining.

The dinner with the president was a reward for making the leaderboard in a contest to be among the top purchasers of the $TRUMP meme coin, a type of cryptocurrency. The top 25 buyers spent more than $111 million and were granted a private VIP reception with Trump, while the top four also received a limited edition Trump Tourbillon watch that sells for $100,000.

This is corruption and influence-peddling at is finest. King Donald is for sale!

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/05/22/trump-crypto-dinner-ethics-meme-coin/83787117007