The Trump Presidency Timeline
Documenting the chaos since day one. 1088 entries and counting.
Category: killing democracy
killing democracy
trump’s doj indicts seashells for thoughtcrime
James Comey, moments before learning that seashell numerology is now a federal offense in Trump’s America.
The Trump Justice department has filed new criminal charges against former FBI director James Comey for the high crime of … an Instagram seashell arrangement. Comey posted shells spelling out “86 47”, which the government has now decided is basically a murder plot against Donald Trump. He deleted the post, apologized, and said he didn’t realize the numbers were linked to violence. Trump’s DOJ response: perfect, let’s indict him.
This is Comey’s second trip through the Trump justice funhouse; the first case for allegedly lying to Congress collapsed when a judge ruled the prosecutor was illegally appointed. That same tiny legal speed bump also wiped out the DOJ’s paper-thin mortgage fraud case against New York AG Letitia James. Rather than taking the hint that these prosecutions look like political hit jobs, acting attorney general Todd Blanche — who really wants the job permanently — has decided to speedrun the purge, greenlighting flimsy cases against Trump critics like the Southern Poverty Law Center and even cranking up an inquiry into former CIA director John Brennan.
All of this is happening days after a California man was arrested with weapons at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and charged with trying to assassinate the president. Faced with an actual violent threat, Trump’s DOJ has chosen to focus its firepower on … a seashell post and the career of Comey’s daughter, Maurene, who just won the right to sue over her own allegedly political firing. The message from Trump’s America is clear: if you investigate Trump, criticize Trump, or are related to someone who did, the state will come for you — but don’t worry, it’ll be under the very solemn banner of “law and order.”
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#fascism#lawlessness
killing democracy
trump discovers a new form of permanent residence: indefinite detention
Delaney Hall ICE detention center in Newark, where the Trump administration briefly experimented with the legal theory that time, due process, and basic humanity are all optional.
The Trump administration’s latest legal theory is that if you once crossed the border illegally, you are forever “seeking admission” — like an eternal DMV line, but with handcuffs. A unanimous Second Circuit panel, led by Judge Joseph F. Bianco (yes, one of Trump’s own first-term appointees, awkward), just shredded that idea, ruling that the policy of locking up people who crossed years ago and denying them bond hearings is unlawful. Bianco politely translated the government’s argument as an “attempt to muddy these textually clear waters,” which is judge-speak for: are you kidding me?
The administration’s position would let ICE treat anyone who ever crossed illegally as a permanent target for near-indefinite detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1225 — even if they’ve been living and working here for years. Two other appeals courts already nodded along with this, because why not toss due process on the bonfire one more time, but now there’s a circuit split and the whole mess is headed to the Supreme Court, where the Federalist Society fan club will decide how long “seeking admission” can last. (Current Trump theory: until death, and possibly beyond.)
Meanwhile, thousands of migrants have already been jailed for months under this scheme, flooding federal courts with habeas petitions and overwhelming both judges and the Justice Department, which keeps getting yelled at for not releasing people it had no legal basis to cage in the first place. Even another Trump appointee, Judge Ralph Erickson on the Eighth Circuit, has been waving a red flag about this policy in dissent. When your own handpicked judges are telling you your detention regime “defies” the statute’s text, history, structure, and purpose, you might just be running an authoritarian fantasy rather than an immigration system.
The administration’s position would let ICE treat anyone who ever crossed illegally as a permanent target for near-indefinite detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1225 — even if they’ve been living and working here for years. Two other appeals courts already nodded along with this, because why not toss due process on the bonfire one more time, but now there’s a circuit split and the whole mess is headed to the Supreme Court, where the Federalist Society fan club will decide how long “seeking admission” can last. (Current Trump theory: until death, and possibly beyond.)
Meanwhile, thousands of migrants have already been jailed for months under this scheme, flooding federal courts with habeas petitions and overwhelming both judges and the Justice Department, which keeps getting yelled at for not releasing people it had no legal basis to cage in the first place. Even another Trump appointee, Judge Ralph Erickson on the Eighth Circuit, has been waving a red flag about this policy in dissent. When your own handpicked judges are telling you your detention regime “defies” the statute’s text, history, structure, and purpose, you might just be running an authoritarian fantasy rather than an immigration system.
Source: nytimes.com
#killing-democracy#anti-immigration#lawlessness
killing democracy
trump’s illegal tariffs now available in refund form
Mary Barra smiles through gritted teeth while explaining how GM’s earnings now depend on whether Donald Trump’s illegal tariffs get refunded before his next tantrum.
General Motors is expecting a cool $500m refund because the US supreme court finally noticed that Donald Trump’s "national emergency" tariff cosplay under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act was, legally speaking, hot garbage. GM’s 2026 earnings outlook jumps on the news, because nothing says "stable rule of law" like corporate balance sheets yo-yoing with every unconstitutional stunt the president dreams up between cable hits.
The court torched Trump’s IEEPA-based "reciprocal" tariffs and his "trafficking tariffs" on Mexico, Canada, China, Brazil, India and basically anyone else who looked at him funny. Customs and Border Protection now has an online portal so more than 330,000 importers who paid about $166bn under this illegal scheme can line up for their refunds, like a very depressing Black Friday sale on authoritarian overreach. Meanwhile, the still-legal Section 232 tariffs keep bleeding companies like GM, and the administration is promising even more duties, because the lesson they took from having a giant chunk of their trade agenda ruled unlawful was apparently: "Do it again, but harder."
Trump, naturally, is publicly pressuring companies not to seek refunds for the illegal tariffs and openly threatening to "remember" those that do, turning corporate tax treatment into a loyalty test. He calls it "brilliant" if firms just eat the costs of his unlawful trade war for him, which is one way to describe being shaken down by a government that first breaks the law, then dares you to ask for your money back. The message from Trump’s America is clear: pay for the president’s illegal economic experiments, and if you want your refund, be prepared to get on his enemies list.
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#trade-war#lawlessness
killing democracy
trump’s fraud czar discovers minnesota, declares war on daycares
Federal agents descend on a Minneapolis daycare to bravely defend America from toddlers, snacks, and Democratic governors.
The Trump administration has once again parachuted into Minnesota, this time with 22 federal search warrants and a new branding exercise: daycare fraud panic. The DOJ insists this has nothing to do with immigration, which is a comforting claim from the same federal machinery that just finished an ICE surge so aggressive it left two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, dead and thousands more living under occupation by 3,000 federal agents.
Now the show has a new ringmaster: JD Vance, freshly anointed "fraud czar" by Donald Trump, because if there’s one thing this White House knows, it’s how to identify fraud (call it professional courtesy). Vance vows to be "relentless" in chasing down scammers in Democratic-led states, while Trump confidently asserts that cracking down on alleged blue-state fraud could "literally" balance the entire US budget. Economists call this deranged; the administration calls it policy.
Minnesota Republicans like House majority whip Tom Emmer are dutifully applauding the raids and thanking Trump for defending taxpayers, as federal agents systematically target Medicaid and childcare providers, disproportionately in Somali American communities. This all follows Trump unilaterally freezing Minnesota’s childcare funding over alleged fraud, helpfully turning social services for kids into a hostage in his culture war. The underlying fraud investigation actually started under Biden and has already produced more than 60 convictions, but the current White House has upgraded it into a convenient excuse to punish a Democratic governor, intimidate immigrants, and send a clear message: federal law enforcement is now a partisan blunt instrument with a siren on top.
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#anti-immigration
killing democracy
civil rights? we’re doing vibes now
Linda McMahon, preparing to explain how cutting half the civil rights staff will somehow help twice as many kids, using only the power of corporate buzzwords.
The Trump Education Department, now helmed by WWE alumna and noted civil-rights visionary Linda McMahon, managed to resolve 30 percent fewer discrimination complaints in 2025 than in 2024 — during a year when a record number of students begged Washington for help with prejudice, bias and outright bigotry in their schools. So yes, more kids are being harassed, and the federal government’s answer is: "have you tried waiting quietly in the corner?" Roughly 20,000 students are now stuck in bureaucratic limbo, which is a fun way of saying their civil rights complaints are sitting in a digital junk drawer while the administration workshopped new ways to blame Joe Biden.
Officials are pointing at a supposed "backlog" from the Biden years and a 43-day government shutdown, as though the real mystery here is how time works, not how you enforce laws. Meanwhile, the White House is pushing a 35 percent budget cut for the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights and a 49 percent staff reduction — from 530 people to 271 — while McMahon insists a "more efficient" skeleton crew can magically handle the same statutory duties. It’s the classic Trump formula: break the thing, starve the thing, then swear the thing is failing because government just doesn’t work.
To really turbocharge this efficiency miracle, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly M. Richey has "restructured" the office, creating special teams for disability- and race-based complaints. On paper, that sounds like focus; in practice, it looks a lot like rearranging the deck chairs on a ship you’re actively scuttling. The result is an Education Department that treats civil rights enforcement as optional paperwork rather than, you know, the law — a quiet, grinding way to tell the most vulnerable kids in America that under Trump, their rights are just another line item to be cut.
Source: nytimes.com
#killing-democracy#racism
killing democracy
the demon-possessed heir to maga?
Tucker Carlson, fresh off being allegedly mauled by demons, auditions to be the next one haunting American democracy.
Tucker Carlson says a demon once physically mauled him in bed, which is honestly the most relatable thing about his biography so far. Now he claims he’s being haunted by a different kind of evil spirit: the memory of having spent years mainlining Trumpism into America’s frontal lobe while privately texting that he hated Trump’s guts. After helping build the MAGA cult, he’s suddenly on a very public "journey of conscience" where he apologizes for misleading people and insists he’s tormented by his past support for Dear Leader.
This bout of soul-searching happens to coincide perfectly with growing chatter that Carlson is gearing up for a 2028 presidential run as the “true heir to MAGA” once Trump, JD Vance, and Marco Rubio are all covered in Iran-war shrapnel and the fallout from Trump’s "big beautiful bill" that guts services for poor people to hand cash to billionaires. Prediction markets, biographers, and podcast guys are all reading the same tea leaves: Tucker is rebranding from propagandist to "movement leader" who can say he opposed the disastrous war and is totally different from the monsters he helped elect.
Naturally, Carlson tells outlets like The Economist and Piers Morgan that politics is "disgusting" and he’s not really interested, which is exactly what you say when you’re building a donor list and test-marketing your redemption arc. As Trumpism’s economic pain lands in 2027 and Americans get more furious about the cost of living, Tucker is perfectly positioned to run as the guy who set the house on fire, filmed it for ratings, and now wants the keys to the fire department. The demons may be metaphorical this time, but the nightmare for democracy is very real.
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy
trump tries to buy italy’s loyalty with a world cup slot and pasta tariffs
Giorgia Meloni, wondering if a World Cup wildcard spot and cheaper pasta were really worth hitching Italy to a president who picks fights with the pope and treats allies like expendable extras.
The Trump administration, having already set the Middle East on fire again, has now moved on to its true area of strategic genius: World Cup roster management. According to reporting, Trump’s people quietly sounded out Fifa about kicking Iran out of the tournament and swapping in Italy, like it’s a reality show where you can just vote a country off the island. This transparent stunt just happens to come right after Trump threw a televised tantrum at Italian PM Giorgia Meloni for refusing to join his Iran bombing adventure, accusing her of lacking “courage” because she wouldn’t help him turn the region into a parking lot.
Meloni has spent years hugging the Trump brand like it was a life raft – talking "civilisational" West, flattering Washington, swallowing his anti‑EU rants, and getting basically nothing in return except a small reprieve on pasta tariffs and the privilege of being insulted on American television. When Trump then picked a public fight with the pope over the Iran war, Meloni, a self-styled Catholic conservative, finally had to pretend she has a spine and call his comments “unacceptable.” Trump responded the only way he knows how: more public abuse, turning their special relationship into a live-streamed codependency meltdown.
Now Meloni’s stuck: at home, Trump is deeply unpopular and her referendum on judicial reform already tanked in part because of her MAGA cosplay. Abroad, she’s trying to rebrand as a respectable European grown-up, hugging Macron at a Paris summit while Trump’s envoy floats the idea of buying back her affection with a World Cup slot. The Italian government has already backed away from that clown move, and voters aren’t thrilled by the idea of their foreign policy being run like a late-night phone call between Trump and some random Italian fixer on his payroll. As Trump keeps making Europe less safe and more unstable, Meloni’s grand strategy of "adapt to the chaos and never complain" is starting to look less like realpolitik and more like getting dragged by a guy who thinks international diplomacy is just another season of The Apprentice: NATO Edition.
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#imperialism
killing democracy
land of the free* (*offer not valid overseas, processing delays apply)
A canceled US passport, symbol of the hottest new American export: people who’ve decided the ‘shining city on a hill’ looks a lot more like a gated compound run by Trump, Vance and Rubio.
At US consulates around the world, the new Statue of Liberty is a bored clerk with a laminated card asking if you’re sure you don’t want to be American any more. The waiting list to renounce citizenship in London is over 14 months, Sydney and Canadian cities are similarly jammed, and even random European posts like Ghent are now running a "get me out of this looming dictatorship" drive-thru. On the wall: a comforting panorama of Boston Harbor and, across from it, the holy trinity of totally normal democracy: Donald Trump, JD Vance and Marco Rubio, beaming down like a limited-edition authoritarian collectible set.
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#fascism#forever-grifting
killing democracy
king charles helps america celebrate 250 years of not having a king… at trump’s white house
King Charles and Queen Camilla arrive in the land that once beheaded monarchy—only to have it reintroduced as a photo-op accessory for Donald Trump.
America is gearing up to celebrate 250 years since it told the British monarchy to get lost, so naturally King Charles and Queen Camilla marked the occasion by popping over to Washington to be greeted with a red carpet, military band, and a warm embrace from the guy who openly fantasizes about ruling for life. Nothing says "enduring democracy" like fusing colonial nostalgia with a man who tried to overturn an election.
After landing at Joint Base Andrews to a full ceremonial welcome, Charles and Camilla were serenaded with both national anthems, greeted by flower‑holding children of UK service members, and ushered through a guard of honour as if the last two and a half centuries were just a cute misunderstanding. The whole thing is billed as a celebration of the "strong relationship" between the two countries, which now apparently includes politely pretending the US president didn’t sic a mob on Congress.
The royal couple then headed to the White House for afternoon tea with Donald and Melania Trump, because this timeline refuses to stop doing bits. The visual is perfect: a hereditary monarch and an aspiring autocrat sharing dainty refreshments in the People’s House, each lending the other a sheen of legitimacy. It’s like a crossover episode where the British Empire meets MAGA World and everyone politely agrees not to mention the crimes, the coups, or the small matter of the Constitution.
Source: bbc.com
#killing-democracy#oligarchy
killing democracy
trump breaks america so badly even npr is scolding the left now
Stock photo of an American brain trying to load objective reality over a four-year buffer of Trump-era lies.
NPR sits down with Slate's Molly Olmstead to marvel at a truly American achievement: after years of Trump, QAnon, and a Republican Party mainlining Facebook memes, conspiracy culture is now so baked into our politics that even parts of the left are wandering into "deep state did the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting" territory. When your entire information ecosystem has been turned into a fog machine, eventually everyone starts seeing shapes in the smoke.
This isn’t a story about new Trump crimes; it’s the hangover. After an administration that called the press the "enemy of the people," pushed election lies as official policy, and made up terrorist attacks on TV, the baseline for reality has been permanently lowered. Now NPR is doing somber segments about left-wing conspiracies, as if the firehose of right-wing disinformation, stochastic violence, and state-enabled lying was just a quirky prequel instead of the reason everyone's brains are scrambled.
Source: npr.org
#killing-democracy#full-stupid
killing democracy
melania trump demands abc protect america from late-night jokes
Melania Trump at the Correspondents’ Dinner, moments before discovering that the real emergency isn’t gunfire near the ballroom, it’s Jimmy Kimmel’s punchlines on ABC.
Melania Trump has discovered the true threat to American democracy: Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue. After Kimmel joked at a pre-White House Correspondents’ Dinner bit that she had the ‘glow of an expectant widow,’ the First Lady jumped on X to label his words ‘hateful and violent’ and urged ABC to ‘take a stand’ against his ‘atrocious behavior’. Apparently, in Trump World, the correct response to a comedian needling the president is corporate-enforced silence, not switching the channel.
Context: days after the joke aired, a gunman opened fire near a security checkpoint at the Correspondents’ Dinner, where Trump and Melania were evacuated. Conservatives promptly dug up the clip and accused Kimmel of encouraging political violence, because nothing says serious concern for public safety like using a shooting to pressure a TV network into disciplining a critic of the president. Melania’s line that people like Kimmel ‘shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate’ is doing a lot of work there—enter our homes via broadcast, and maybe leave only the programming that flatters Dear Leader.
Kimmel has already been briefly yanked off air once for comments about the killing of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, so the message to late-night hosts is clear: mock the Trump orbit, and the outrage machine will try to turn your punchlines into grounds for corporate punishment. The White House shrugs at actual political violence, but a joke about an ‘expectant widow’? That’s the red line.
Context: days after the joke aired, a gunman opened fire near a security checkpoint at the Correspondents’ Dinner, where Trump and Melania were evacuated. Conservatives promptly dug up the clip and accused Kimmel of encouraging political violence, because nothing says serious concern for public safety like using a shooting to pressure a TV network into disciplining a critic of the president. Melania’s line that people like Kimmel ‘shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate’ is doing a lot of work there—enter our homes via broadcast, and maybe leave only the programming that flatters Dear Leader.
Kimmel has already been briefly yanked off air once for comments about the killing of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, so the message to late-night hosts is clear: mock the Trump orbit, and the outrage machine will try to turn your punchlines into grounds for corporate punishment. The White House shrugs at actual political violence, but a joke about an ‘expectant widow’? That’s the red line.
Source: bbc.com
#killing-democracy#fascism#full-stupid
killing democracy
netanyahu runs the situation room, u.s. media runs the fan club
The White House Situation Room, now available for birthday parties, corporate retreats, and foreign leaders shopping for a quick little U.S. war.
Donald Trump apparently decided to go to war with Iran the same way he decides everything else: let the last guy in the room with a PowerPoint do the thinking. This time, the "last guy" was Benjamin Netanyahu, who literally turned the White House Situation Room into his personal war-pitch studio, flanked by Mossad and Israeli military brass, theatrically framed as a wartime leader while the actual American president played hype man for someone else’s security agenda.
You’d think "foreign leader commandeers U.S. war decision process" would be the headline everywhere. Instead, most of the American press is doing its best impression of state TV by politely averting its gaze from Israel’s role while breathlessly dissecting Russia and Gulf monarchies. As Jason Stanley points out, this isn’t just bad journalism; this is the deluxe, NPR tote-bag edition of propaganda: no outright lies, just the careful, consistent omission of the one ally whose influence is too awkward to mention.
The kicker: the excuse for this blackout is allegedly fighting antisemitism — which, as Stanley notes, is itself antisemitic, because it explicitly fuses the State of Israel with Jews everywhere. So we end up with a media class that manages to (1) help sanitize a U.S.-backed war pushed in the Situation Room by a foreign government accused of genocide and ethnic cleansing, and (2) reinforce classic antisemitic tropes about Jews and the media while pretending they’re preventing them. America’s "free press" isn’t running cover for Trump’s foreign-influenced war decisions because they’re censored; they’re doing it because they’re scared — which is how you slide from democracy into a very polite, very credentialed form of killing-democracy.
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#imperialism
killing democracy
california flirts with importing the voter suppression starter pack
California voters lining up to decide whether voting should stay a right or be upgraded to a limited-time, documentation-required luxury experience.
California, long derided by Republicans as a socialist wasteland where people vote too easily, is now considering joining the great American pastime of making democracy a paperwork obstacle course. Nearly 1 million Californians signed on to a Carl DeMaio–backed ballot measure to require photo ID at the polls and a four-digit PIN for mail ballots, because nothing says "election integrity" like pretending Donald Trump’s repeatedly debunked voter fraud fantasies are public policy instead of a coping mechanism.
The measure drops right as Trump is demanding the Senate kill the filibuster so Republicans can ram through the "Save America Act"—a federal "show me your papers" law dressed up as safeguarding elections. Ron DeSantis already cosplayed the federal bill in Florida on 1 April, fittingly April Fools’ Day, while courts ping-pong around the country deciding which flavor of voter ID counts as "integrity" and which is just old-fashioned voter suppression with better branding. Now even deep-blue California is deadlocked on whether to import the same suppression machinery that other states are racing to the courthouse to defend or dismantle. When your democracy is hanging by a thread, why not hand the scissors to the people who keep insisting the thread is fake?
The measure drops right as Trump is demanding the Senate kill the filibuster so Republicans can ram through the "Save America Act"—a federal "show me your papers" law dressed up as safeguarding elections. Ron DeSantis already cosplayed the federal bill in Florida on 1 April, fittingly April Fools’ Day, while courts ping-pong around the country deciding which flavor of voter ID counts as "integrity" and which is just old-fashioned voter suppression with better branding. Now even deep-blue California is deadlocked on whether to import the same suppression machinery that other states are racing to the courthouse to defend or dismantle. When your democracy is hanging by a thread, why not hand the scissors to the people who keep insisting the thread is fake?
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy
attempted shooting immediately repurposed as ballroom infomercial
Artist’s rendering of the new White House ballroom: half panic room, half monarch fantasy suite, all legally questionable.
Trump survived an apparent assassination attempt at the Washington Hilton and immediately did what any serious statesman would do: turned it into a live infomercial for his $400m, legally-contested, larger-than-the-White-House ballroom already being jackhammered into the East Wing without full authorization. The incident, he declared, proves that "every President for the last 150 years" has been begging for a giant, "Militarily Top Secret" party bunker on White House grounds, which is a fascinating historical claim no one has ever heard before, including any of those presidents.
At a late-night press briefing, Trump explained that the Hilton scare "would never have happened" if everyone had been safely gathered in his drone-proof, bulletproof-glass megaplex currently under construction, and then followed up on Truth Social by demanding that all lawsuits trying to stop the project "must be dropped, immediately." Translation: existing law, environmental review, and separation of powers are cute, but have you considered how much safer democracy would be if we just fast-tracked my personal gala fortress?
The ballroom, funded through a still-murky financial scheme and already controversial for being physically larger than the core White House itself, is now being rebranded as a national-security necessity rather than a $400m ego extension. Trump praised the press for their "very responsible" coverage and suggested his future remarks might be less "inappropriate" than the roast he’d planned, which is convenient, because the real joke is that a near-shooting instantly became Exhibit A in his argument that the only way to protect the republic is to keep building his imperial ballroom and shut down the courts trying to stop it.
At a late-night press briefing, Trump explained that the Hilton scare "would never have happened" if everyone had been safely gathered in his drone-proof, bulletproof-glass megaplex currently under construction, and then followed up on Truth Social by demanding that all lawsuits trying to stop the project "must be dropped, immediately." Translation: existing law, environmental review, and separation of powers are cute, but have you considered how much safer democracy would be if we just fast-tracked my personal gala fortress?
The ballroom, funded through a still-murky financial scheme and already controversial for being physically larger than the core White House itself, is now being rebranded as a national-security necessity rather than a $400m ego extension. Trump praised the press for their "very responsible" coverage and suggested his future remarks might be less "inappropriate" than the roast he’d planned, which is convenient, because the real joke is that a near-shooting instantly became Exhibit A in his argument that the only way to protect the republic is to keep building his imperial ballroom and shut down the courts trying to stop it.
Source: theguardian.com
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#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
killing democracy
dems promise bold new strategy: hoping trump behaves this time
Hakeem Jeffries carefully explaining that yes, the house is on fire, but his main priority is making sure the rent on the burning building is affordable.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries went on Fox News to reassure everyone that if Democrats win back the House, holding Donald Trump accountable for anything he’s done as president is “of course not” a top priority. Trump is busy driving up gas prices in the middle of his Iran war, threatening Republicans with impeachment if they lose the midterms, and inspiring open chatter about the 25th Amendment, and the opposition party’s big message is: we’ll get right on that cost of living thing and maybe circle back to the whole authoritarian crime spree later.
Instead of treating “the president openly says he’ll be impeached if his own party loses” as the blinking red siren that it is, Democrats are selling a vibes-based return to the American Dream, where you “work hard, play by the rules” and hope the guy who breaks all the rules eventually gets bored and wanders off. Rep. Greg Meeks helpfully explains they don’t have the votes now, which somehow turns into a preemptive promise not to use power for oversight even if they get it back. Bold new strategy: campaign on how dangerous Trump is, then reassure everyone you won’t actually do much about the danger.
Jeffries touts redistricting and a renewed focus on working-class voters while politely stepping around the fact that it’s hard to “thrive” in a country where the president can start wars, spike gas prices, ignore oversight, and treat impeachment like a loyalty punch card. But sure, let’s all pretend you can fix the economy while the arsonist is still in charge of the gas can and the matches.
Instead of treating “the president openly says he’ll be impeached if his own party loses” as the blinking red siren that it is, Democrats are selling a vibes-based return to the American Dream, where you “work hard, play by the rules” and hope the guy who breaks all the rules eventually gets bored and wanders off. Rep. Greg Meeks helpfully explains they don’t have the votes now, which somehow turns into a preemptive promise not to use power for oversight even if they get it back. Bold new strategy: campaign on how dangerous Trump is, then reassure everyone you won’t actually do much about the danger.
Jeffries touts redistricting and a renewed focus on working-class voters while politely stepping around the fact that it’s hard to “thrive” in a country where the president can start wars, spike gas prices, ignore oversight, and treat impeachment like a loyalty punch card. But sure, let’s all pretend you can fix the economy while the arsonist is still in charge of the gas can and the matches.
Source: thehill.com
#killing-democracy#lawlessness#losses
killing democracy
senator bravely caves after 48 hours of pretending to care about fed independence
Thom Tillis, moments before accepting the DOJ’s pinky swear as a robust safeguard of Federal Reserve independence.
Sen. Thom Tillis briefly cosplayed as a defender of Federal Reserve independence, blocking Trump’s Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh while the Justice Department ran a sketchy investigation into current chair Jerome Powell. After weeks of righteous concern that DOJ might be used as a political bludgeon, Tillis emerged on Meet the Press to announce that, good news everyone, he got some “assurances” from the very DOJ he was worried about. Problem solved, nothing to see here, please enjoy your pre-approved Trump Fed chair.
The Justice Department conveniently dropped its investigation into Powell on Friday — an inquiry that had somehow inflated a headquarters renovation project into a federal case — and by Sunday Tillis was back on TV clearing the runway for Warsh’s confirmation “on time.” The message is crystal clear: as long as the executive branch promises it definitely isn’t weaponizing law enforcement against an independent central bank, the Senate is delighted to wave through the president’s handpicked money man. Checks and balances? No, just checks, and Trump’s friends will handle the balances.
Source: nbcnews.com
#killing-democracy#lawlessness
killing democracy
florida prepares to 'fix' the maps that already gave republicans a 20–8 advantage
Ron DeSantis studies a map of Florida, trying to decide which voters to make disappear without leaving too many constitutional fingerprints.
Trump’s big 2026 gerrymandering master plan is sputtering, so naturally the last hope for salvaging this democracy-speedrun is Florida, where Ron DeSantis is dragging lawmakers into a special session to "revisit" congressional maps that already handed Republicans a 20–8 delegation. The goal: squeeze out another two to five GOP-leaning seats while pretending this is about "fair and compact" districts, not about desperately bubble-wrapping a fragile House majority.
There’s just one tiny problem: Florida’s constitution explicitly bans maps drawn with partisan intent. So while Republicans on TV swear they’re just cleansing the state of the lingering ghost of a 2012 Democratic map, the entire political class is openly talking about the partisan stakes, practically writing Democrats’ legal briefs for them. Marc Elias and a group of voters have already sued DeSantis for overstepping his authority by trying to strong-arm the Legislature into doing his bidding, because apparently the governor’s reading of the state constitution begins and ends with "I want this."
The fun twist is the intraparty knife fight. GOP members of Congress and state legislators are begging DeSantis not to get too greedy, pointing out that you can’t keep jacking up the partisan score without diluting existing safe seats and potentially losing incumbents. Karl Rove is on Fox gently explaining basic math to Florida Republicans like they’re being walked through long division for the first time. Lawmakers admit nobody actually wants to do this, they’re just resigned to riding the DeSantis vanity train as long as the maps aren’t too egregious—always a comforting standard for democratic representation.
Meanwhile, the Trump White House is lurking offstage, desperate for a Florida bailout but terrified of leaving fingerprints because the entire scheme is already dangling over a legal woodchipper. Public hearings? Not scheduled. Actual proposed maps? Not released. Constitutional limits? Treated as more of a vibes-based suggestion. It’s less a redistricting process than a group project where the laziest kid demands everyone rewrite the paper so his grade looks better, then threatens to sue the syllabus.
There’s just one tiny problem: Florida’s constitution explicitly bans maps drawn with partisan intent. So while Republicans on TV swear they’re just cleansing the state of the lingering ghost of a 2012 Democratic map, the entire political class is openly talking about the partisan stakes, practically writing Democrats’ legal briefs for them. Marc Elias and a group of voters have already sued DeSantis for overstepping his authority by trying to strong-arm the Legislature into doing his bidding, because apparently the governor’s reading of the state constitution begins and ends with "I want this."
The fun twist is the intraparty knife fight. GOP members of Congress and state legislators are begging DeSantis not to get too greedy, pointing out that you can’t keep jacking up the partisan score without diluting existing safe seats and potentially losing incumbents. Karl Rove is on Fox gently explaining basic math to Florida Republicans like they’re being walked through long division for the first time. Lawmakers admit nobody actually wants to do this, they’re just resigned to riding the DeSantis vanity train as long as the maps aren’t too egregious—always a comforting standard for democratic representation.
Meanwhile, the Trump White House is lurking offstage, desperate for a Florida bailout but terrified of leaving fingerprints because the entire scheme is already dangling over a legal woodchipper. Public hearings? Not scheduled. Actual proposed maps? Not released. Constitutional limits? Treated as more of a vibes-based suggestion. It’s less a redistricting process than a group project where the laziest kid demands everyone rewrite the paper so his grade looks better, then threatens to sue the syllabus.
Source: nbcnews.com
#killing-democracy#corruption#forever-grifting
killing democracy
trump cancels diplomacy because fox news is calling
Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, not boarding a plane to Pakistan, bravely defending America from the threat of successful diplomacy.
Donald Trump has decided that painstakingly arranged ceasefire talks between the US and Iran in Pakistan are overrated, so he’s told his envoys to stay home and told Fox News, essentially, that Iran can just, you know, call him. High-stakes shuttle diplomacy over nuclear war and global oil supplies has been downgraded to “leave a message after the beep.” Jared Kushner and real-estate guy Steve Witkoff were supposed to fly to Islamabad to help revive the ceasefire process; instead, Trump pulled the plug right after Iran’s foreign minister left Pakistan, because nothing says "serious statesman" like ghosting your way through a regional war.
While Trump is playing hotline fantasy, the actual facts are bleak: Iran controls the near-closed Strait of Hormuz, has been attacking ships, and the US is running a blockade while Trump orders the military to "shoot and kill" small boats that might be laying mines. Oil prices are still up nearly 50%, global trade is snarled from Hormuz to the Panama Canal, and thousands are dead in Iran, Lebanon, Israel, and across the region. But the guy who helped start the war the day after failed Geneva talks is now cancelling follow-up negotiations and acting like this is a customer-service dispute that Tehran can resolve by calling his imaginary 1‑800‑CEASEFIRE hotline.
Pakistan locked down its capital, its army chief and prime minister spent hours hearing Iran’s red lines, and JD Vance already led a 20-hour round of direct talks – the highest-level US-Iran engagement since 1979. All of that careful diplomacy is now subject to Trump’s TV schedule and whatever mood he’s in when Fox calls. Iran, having been attacked by the US and Israel immediately after earlier talks on its nuclear program, is openly asking how it’s supposed to trust Washington. The answer, apparently, is: you’re not. You’re supposed to hope that Donald Trump’s attention span outlasts a segment break on cable news while he personally micromanages a war that’s killed thousands and destabilized global trade, then cancels meetings on a whim from the comfort of his studio lighting.
Meanwhile, European allies like Germany are planning minesweeping operations for whenever this circus ends, Iran is gingerly reopening flights, and Hezbollah is fighting in Lebanon while pointedly ignoring Washington’s diplomacy. The world is trying to build a fragile ceasefire architecture; Trump is busy kicking out the support beams because he’d rather posture on television than let his own envoys sit in a room and talk. This is what "America First" looks like in practice: everyone else gets the shrapnel while the president gets the camera.
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#imperialism
killing democracy
congress opens formal investigation into vibes and ufos
Artist’s rendering of Congress heroically investigating a spreadsheet of random tragedies with a UFO sticker slapped on top.
Republicans have discovered a new national security emergency: math. Out of more than 2 million US researchers, a tragic handful of deaths and disappearances among people tangentially connected to space, defense, or nuclear work has been alchemized into a full-blown UFO deep state murder conspiracy. Rightwing media and podcasters spin a random cluster of suicides, homicides, and missing hikers into an X‑Files reboot, and – because this is Trump’s America – the nonsense promptly migrates from Substack fever dreams to the White House briefing room.
Rather than letting investigators handle individual cases like adults, Trump says he’ll "look into it," and professional time-waster James Comer teams up with Eric Burlison to demand that the FBI, DOE, NASA and friends investigate a "possible sinister connection" between all of it, solemnly warning of a "grave threat" to national security. They even loop in Trump’s defense secretary Pete Hegseth, because when your government is run by Fox News greenroom alumni, every conspiracy deserves a task force. Meanwhile, actual experts point out that 11 incidents in a sea of hundreds of thousands of cleared scientists is… statistically unremarkable. But why let basic probability get in the way when you can convert grief, mental illness, and random tragedy into content for Joe Rogan and another round of congressional performance art?
So agencies that should be focused on real threats are now forced to burn staff hours politely explaining to UFO‑pilled lawmakers that correlation is not causation, and that "I saw it on NewsNation" is not an evidentiary standard. It’s a perfect snapshot of the Trump-era information ecosystem: weaponize disinformation, elevate cranks, and convert the machinery of the state into a prop for whatever clickable paranoia the base is currently binging. Governance, as always, comes in a distant last behind the algorithm.
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#full-stupid
killing democracy
caitlyn jenner meets the fine print on trumpism
Caitlyn Jenner realizing that when you vote for the guy promising government-sponsored bigotry, the terms and conditions also apply to premium subscribers.
Caitlyn Jenner has discovered a shocking twist in the Trump saga: when you back a president who signs an executive order forcing all federal IDs to reflect your “immutable biological classification as either male or female”, he means you too. Jenner renewed her passport and, surprise, it came back marked "male"—twice. On Tomi Lahren’s podcast, she called it a “safety factor” that means she can’t travel and plaintively noted she can’t get Trump to return her calls. She still insists she “loves” him and “doesn’t blame” him, which is some Olympic-level self-absolution from a woman who openly backed a guy whose campaign spent millions on anti-trans ads.
Trumpism’s central promise has always been: don’t worry, the cruelty is for other people. Jenner is now learning that when you help build the machine, it doesn’t check your donor history before it runs you over. She joins the long line of supporters who thought he’d “hurt the people he needs to be hurting” and are now shocked to find out they’re on the list.
Elsewhere in Our Functioning Democracy, a 62-year-old woman in Alabama was actually prosecuted for wearing a 7-foot inflatable penis costume with a “No Dick Tator” sign at a protest. The city claimed it was about “public safety,” as if the real threat to the republic was latex satire, not the guy trying to criminalize dissent. A court finally found her not guilty, after the local government generously burned taxpayer money to prove it hates jokes.
And in the Pentagon’s ongoing cosplay as a far-right message board, Trump fired Navy Secretary John Phelan and swapped him out for Hung Cao, a DEI-basher who’s joked about KKK hoods and warned that witches have “taken over” Monterey, California. The U.S. Navy is now partially overseen by a man whose worldview sounds like a rejected QAnon fanfic. But sure, tell us more about how the real danger to national security is drag queens and pronouns.
Trumpism’s central promise has always been: don’t worry, the cruelty is for other people. Jenner is now learning that when you help build the machine, it doesn’t check your donor history before it runs you over. She joins the long line of supporters who thought he’d “hurt the people he needs to be hurting” and are now shocked to find out they’re on the list.
Elsewhere in Our Functioning Democracy, a 62-year-old woman in Alabama was actually prosecuted for wearing a 7-foot inflatable penis costume with a “No Dick Tator” sign at a protest. The city claimed it was about “public safety,” as if the real threat to the republic was latex satire, not the guy trying to criminalize dissent. A court finally found her not guilty, after the local government generously burned taxpayer money to prove it hates jokes.
And in the Pentagon’s ongoing cosplay as a far-right message board, Trump fired Navy Secretary John Phelan and swapped him out for Hung Cao, a DEI-basher who’s joked about KKK hoods and warned that witches have “taken over” Monterey, California. The U.S. Navy is now partially overseen by a man whose worldview sounds like a rejected QAnon fanfic. But sure, tell us more about how the real danger to national security is drag queens and pronouns.
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#anti-immigration#full-stupid