The Trump Presidency Is Going Great

Trump took to primetime TV to "ease economic anxieties" by doing what he does best: telling everyone they’re actually rich now if they’d just stop looking at their bank accounts. In a speech marketed as comfort for struggling Americans, he instead celebrated his own "achievements" since clawing his way back into office, because nothing calms a family facing eviction like hearing a 78-year-old billionaire cosplayer brag about the stock market.

The address was basically a live infomercial for trickle-down fan fiction: ignore the layoffs, ignore the prices, ignore the debt, focus on the vibes. Structural problems? Corporate price-gouging? Policy choices that shove more money upward and leave everyone else with a prayer and a GoFundMe? Not on the script. But sure, if you squint hard enough at the White House backdrop and mute the part where your rent is due, it was very reassuring.

The US government has graciously admitted that, yes, it did in fact have a tiny role in the midair collision near DC that killed 67 people, including a group of elite young figure skaters, their parents, coaches, and four union steamfitters. In a court filing, government lawyers acknowledged that the FAA and the Army both breached their "duty of care" when an Army Black Hawk flew into the path of an American Airlines regional jet near Reagan National—because nothing says "world’s most advanced country" like your capital’s airspace operating on vibes and night-vision goggles.

The filing says the air traffic controller violated procedures about when to dump responsibility onto pilots for "visual separation," while the Army helicopter crew managed to both fly too high and not see the giant passenger jet they were supposedly avoiding. This all unfolded in an environment where the FAA had already logged 85 near misses in three years around the same airport and somehow decided the appropriate response was… to keep doing the same thing. In other words, it wasn’t an accident so much as the logical endpoint of a policy best described as "let’s hope it works out."

The National Transportation Safety Board has already flagged a charming combo of errors: the helicopter flying 78 feet above its already razor-thin altitude limit, an altimeter reading 80–100 feet low, controllers "overly reliant" on visual separation at night, and crews wearing night-vision goggles while trying to spot airliners in a crowded corridor. The FAA has now, heroically, stopped that practice after dozens of people died. American Airlines, for its part, is in court arguing that everyone should really be suing the government instead, while insisting it’s been "supporting the families"—because nothing screams accountability like "please direct all legal liability to Washington, DC."

So the government admits it owed a duty of care, breached it, and "proximately caused" the country’s deadliest crash in more than 20 years. The families are "anchored in grief"; the agencies are anchored in lawyered-up passive voice. But sure, tell us again how we can’t afford regulation and oversight, and how the real problem in America is too much "red tape" choking our freedom to die in preventable disasters.

Dan Bongino, the former NYPD cop turned full-time rage-podcaster, is stepping down as FBI deputy director – a job that, until the Trump era, was typically reserved for people who had actually, you know, worked at the FBI. Bongino thanked Donald Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and FBI Director Kash Patel for the chance to "serve with purpose," because nothing says serious federal law enforcement like a Fox greenroom reunion tour running the Bureau.

Bongino was a "surprise" pick in February only if you somehow missed the last decade of Trump-world, where the main qualification for overseeing federal power is being loudly loyal on camera. The FBI Agents Association opposed his appointment – the 14,000 people who actually do the job were apparently less enthused about turning the deputy director’s office into a podcast set with subpoena power.

Trump now says Bongino "did a great job" and just "wants to go back to his show," which is a very normal thing to say about the person who was literally the No. 2 at America’s premier domestic law enforcement agency. Meanwhile, reports say he clashed with Bondi over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, because in this administration even the FBI succession drama comes bundled with conspiracy-bait fan service for the base.

In other words, the man installed to help run federal law enforcement like a MAGA media property is leaving to go back to being a MAGA media property. The revolving door between propaganda and power keeps spinning, but sure, tell us again how this is all about "law and order" and not capturing the justice system for the content grind.

Fani Willis went to the Georgia state senate to answer questions about prosecuting Donald Trump for trying to steal an election, and the Republicans responded by holding a full-on feelings hearing about how mean it was that she ever tried. The special committee, originally created to investigate her relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, has now evolved into a taxpayer-funded therapy circle for MAGA officials still processing the trauma of Trump briefly facing consequences.

Vice-chair Greg Dolezal — who, totally coincidentally, is running for lieutenant governor — used Wade’s billing records to spin a grand theory of "coordination" between Willis, the January 6 committee, and the White House, because nothing says "serious oversight" like turning routine contact with a congressional investigation into a Lawfare Cinematic Universe. Willis, meanwhile, pointed out the actual threats, racial slurs, and swatting she’s faced, and the GOP response was basically: fascinating, but back to how this hurt Donald Trump’s feelings.

The committee can’t actually sanction Willis, but it can rewrite Georgia law to make it easier to punish local prosecutors who inconvenience Republicans in the future — in other words, it’s a dry run for the next round of prosecutor-hunting season. Dolezal insisted this is all about misuse of grant funds and "lawfare" against the now re-elected president, while denying any coordination with Jim Jordan, who just happens to be running a matching witch-hunt from Washington. But sure, it’s all totally organic grassroots concern about accounting practices, not a coordinated campaign to warn every DA in America what happens if they indict Dear Leader.

Jack Smith went to the House Judiciary Committee to do the unthinkable in Trump's America: calmly explain that prosecuting crimes is not, in fact, a partisan coup. In a closed-door session demanded by Republicans who then immediately leaked the parts they thought helped them, Smith said he brought charges against Trump "without regard" to his politics, beliefs, or 2024 candidacy — because nothing says "witch hunt" like following the evidence and the statute book.

Smith told lawmakers his team had "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" that Trump took part in a criminal scheme to overturn the 2020 election, plus "powerful evidence" that he willfully hoarded classified documents and tried to obstruct justice to cover it up. In other words, the stuff we all watched play out on live television and then read about in the indictment like it was a greatest-hits compilation of felonies. Smith even said that, given the same facts, he'd prosecute a former president again, Republican or Democrat — a cute, old-fashioned belief in equal application of the law that really doesn’t fit the current GOP brand.

Of course, all of this is happening after Trump's 2024 win, when the Justice Department helpfully tossed the election case and walked away from the classified documents prosecution like it was a drink someone else ordered. So the Republican-led committee hauled in the guy whose cases they helped kill, so they could accuse him of being political for daring to bring them in the first place. Because nothing screams "rule of law" like punishing the prosecutor for proving your cult leader did crimes.

Smith is also reportedly trying to correct GOP "mischaracterizations" of his work, including the horror that investigators obtained phone records of some Republican members of Congress — you know, the ones who were texting their way through a coup plot. But sure, the real scandal here is not the attempted overthrow of an election; it's that the people investigating it had the nerve to follow the evidence. America: where the crimes are public, the accountability is secret, and the retribution is televised.

Jack Smith went to the Hill to answer for his unspeakable crime: investigating the crimes Donald Trump actually committed. The former special counsel, who brought two now-dropped criminal cases against Trump — one for hoarding classified documents like they were Trump steaks, the other for trying to overturn an election — told the House judiciary committee that the basis for the prosecutions "rests entirely with President Trump and his actions." In other words: if you don’t want to be investigated for a coup, maybe don’t do a coup.

Jim Jordan, the human embodiment of a forwarded Facebook chain email, insisted the whole thing was “political” and “about going after our candidate for president, President Trump” — because nothing says totally innocent man like needing the House GOP to run PR damage control in a secret hearing. Smith, who actually requested a public hearing, calmly explained that Trump and his buddies tried to pressure Members of Congress to delay certification of the 2020 election. “I didn’t choose those Members; President Trump did,” he noted — a very polite way of saying, "your guy dialed his own co-conspirators."

Democrats who were in the room said Smith answered every question and that a public hearing would have been “absolutely devastating to the president,” which is of course why Republicans made sure it was behind closed doors. Meanwhile, the GOP is outraged — outraged! — that investigators looked at data from conservative groups and a handful of Republican senators while investigating an attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters. Because nothing screams “weaponization of government” like law enforcement checking the phone records of the people whose supporters tried to beat cops with flagpoles to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

Smith’s bottom line: he’d bring the same prosecutions again on the same facts, regardless of party. The DOJ’s bottom line: you apparently can’t prosecute a sitting president, even if he tried to overthrow the last election to become a sitting president again. But sure, tell us more about how the real abuse of the legal system is the guy who followed department policy while investigating a president who didn’t follow any policy, law, norm, or basic human instinct for shame.

The FCC quietly deleted the word “independent” from its mission statement while its Trump-loyalist chair Brendan Carr was testifying to the Senate that, actually, the agency isn’t independent “formally speaking.” Because nothing says "we’re definitely not becoming authoritarian state media" like live-editing your own website mid-hearing to line up with Dear Leader’s power grab.

Carr, who’s been moonlighting as Trump’s personal TV hall monitor, previously leaned on networks over Jimmy Kimmel’s jokes about the MAGA movement, warning broadcasters they could change their behavior “the easy way or the hard way.” In other words: nice broadcast license you’ve got there, shame if something regulatory happened to it. But sure, this is just about the timeless and totally-not-vague-at-all “public interest standard” from 1934, not about punishing criticism of Trump.

Senators Amy Klobuchar, Ed Markey, and Tammy Baldwin took turns pointing out that this looks a lot like government censorship and a lot less like neutral oversight, with Baldwin flatly calling Carr a “parrot for President Trump.” Carr responded by insisting broadcasters are finally being “held accountable” under hoax and news distortion rules — conveniently enforced against Trump critics and Trump-critical outlets. So the FCC has gone from “independent agency overseen by Congress” to “Trump’s Content Moderation Team,” but hey, at least they updated the website to match the coup.

Jack Smith showed up to Capitol Hill to explain the wild, radical theory that if you have proof beyond a reasonable doubt that a president ran a criminal scheme to overturn an election and hoarded classified documents, you should maybe, possibly, consider charging him. In other words, basic rule-of-law stuff — which of course means he’s now being hauled in front of Jim Jordan’s "Oversight and Retaliation Committee" for the crime of doing his job before Trump got back the nuclear codes and the DOJ.

Smith told lawmakers that the evidence "rests entirely with President Trump and his actions," which is very rude because the official MAGA line is that the real criminals are FBI lawyers, election workers, and that one Republican county clerk who didn’t "find" enough votes. Republicans are especially outraged that their phone records were subpoenaed, because nothing says "totally innocent" like panicking over who the prosecutor saw you calling on January 6.

The hearing is, naturally, closed-door — not because Smith wanted it that way (he volunteered for an open hearing), but because nothing says "transparency" like silencing the guy who investigated your dear leader while you publicly smear him as a "criminal" who should be "put in prison." This is the same justice system that recently tried to prosecute James Comey over old testimony with a prosecutor a judge later ruled was improperly appointed — because if you can’t jail the people who investigated Trump, you can at least prove the entire system now exists to deter anyone from trying again.

Nonprofits across America are frantically scrubbing their IRS filings like it’s 1953 and Joe McCarthy just discovered the word “inclusion.” After Trump ordered his administration to root out “illegal” diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts — because nothing says law and order like threatening charities that help poor kids and sick people — more than 1,000 nonprofits quietly rewrote their mission statements to delete words like “disadvantaged,” “underrepresented,” and “racial equity.”

UNICEF USA no longer wants “a more equitable world for every child,” just a “better” one — whatever that means when the government has made “equity” a suspect word. The American Athletic Conference is still into “inclusion,” but apparently diversity and equity had to go live on a farm upstate. Community health centers now serve “all” instead of “medically underserved populations,” because if you don’t name the people being shafted, then surely the inequity disappears. Meanwhile, the Trump White House and IRS won’t even comment, while civil rights groups sue over these executive orders calling them unconstitutional and based on a “blatant and corrosive lie.”

In other words, Trump couldn’t repeal the Civil Rights Act, so he’s trying to intimidate anyone who notices racism still exists. Charities reliant on federal money — and even plenty that aren’t — are preemptively censoring themselves to avoid MAGA inquisitions into their HR trainings. But sure, the real “pernicious discrimination” here is a hospital hiring a DEI director, not the government using funding and investigations to scare organizations out of helping the people Trump’s base would prefer remain invisible.

NPR is apparently doing historical preservation now, inviting Leon Panetta — an actual former White House chief of staff from a functioning government — to talk about Susie Wiles and her interpretive dance version of the job in the Trump administration. Panetta once managed Bill Clinton’s West Wing; Wiles manages Donald Trump’s ego, legal exposure, and vendetta calendar — because nothing says "chief of staff" like doubling as the in-house retribution coordinator.

The segment teases a sober, institutional view of the role while Trump World treats it as a mix of concierge service, loyalty enforcement, and election-subversion logistics. In other words, Panetta is describing how the job works in a democracy, while Susie Wiles is busy showing us how it works in a personality cult that’s still mad the coup paperwork didn’t go through. But sure, let’s pretend this is just another normal chapter in American governance and not a live-fire stress test of whether the rule of law can survive a Mar-a-Lago guest list.