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The Trump Presidency Timeline

Documenting the chaos since day one. 793 entries and counting.

Category: killing democracy
killing democracy

maga theologians rush to defend pope leo truth-teller

NPR hosts calmly discussing how a major political party just rewrote church history to keep up with one man's talking points.

NPR hosts calmly discussing how a major political party just rewrote church history to keep up with one man's talking points.

The Trump administration has apparently decided its new core constituency is "people who think theology is a Fox News segment." The White House is dutifully circling the wagons around Trump's latest remarks about Pope Leo, because when your entire political project is a personality cult, the maximum allowable distance from Dear Leader's every utterance is zero. Republican allies are now busy explaining that what Trump really meant was both historically profound and spiritually correct, a sort of MAGA catechism where centuries of Catholic doctrine must yield to whatever he blurted out into a microphone this week. The question NPR politely asks — what does this mean for the GOP base? — has a less polite answer: the party's voters are being trained that faith, facts, and history are all negotiable, but loyalty to Trump is not. So instead of governing, we get another news cycle spent watching elected officials retrofit their religion and their spines to match the latest presidential riff about a long-dead pope. American conservatism used to kneel before the Constitution; now it genuflects before Trump's commentary on Pope Leo. Truly a golden age of spiritual leadership.
#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

trump tries to repo the federal reserve

Jerome Powell, wondering when the job description for Fed chair quietly changed from ‘guard the economy’ to ‘survive the president’s Fox Business interviews.’

Jerome Powell, wondering when the job description for Fed chair quietly changed from ‘guard the economy’ to ‘survive the president’s Fox Business interviews.’

Trump is once again explaining central banking the only way he knows how: as a loyalty test. He’s publicly threatening to fire Jerome Powell if he dares stay one minute past his term while the White House frantically shoves Kevin Warsh at the Senate like a sketchy replacement part from the MAGA discount bin. The president’s gripe? Powell won’t crank interest rates down on command, which Trump thinks is how an independent central bank is supposed to work. Banana republics everywhere are filing copyright complaints. Meanwhile, the administration is happily leaning on a criminal investigation into Fed HQ renovations like it’s just another handy crowbar. Even Thom Tillis — a Republican who actually supports Warsh — is saying the DOJ probe is "reaching the point of absurd" and threatening to block the nomination until the lawfare cosplay stops. When a guy from the Trump-era GOP is your institutional integrity spokesman, you know the separation of powers has packed a bag and is quietly browsing one-way tickets. For extra flavor, Janet Yellen is out here saying Trump’s rate-cut push looks like a banana republic, while Trump is on Fox Business bragging that he "held back" from firing Powell because he wanted to be "uncontroversial" — a fascinating word choice from the man who turned governing into a 24/7 rage-stream. The message to every regulator and judge is clear: rule by spreadsheet and statute is out, rule by tantrum and TV hit is in.

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
killing democracy

dhs turns a murder into a campaign ad

Markwayne Mullin, freshly installed at DHS, peers solemnly at a tragedy and sees what really matters: an opportunity to tweet about citizenship vetting.

Markwayne Mullin, freshly installed at DHS, peers solemnly at a tragedy and sees what really matters: an opportunity to tweet about citizenship vetting.

A horrifying string of attacks in the Atlanta area leaves two women dead and a homeless man in critical condition. One victim, 34‑year‑old DHS inspector general staffer Lauren Bullis, was killed while walking her dog. It’s a human tragedy, so naturally the Trump administration’s first instinct is to weaponize it for the immigration panic industrial complex.

Homeland Security secretary Markwayne Mullin rushes out a statement, not to provide clear facts, but to hint darkly that the 26‑year‑old suspect, British‑born Olaolukitan Adon Abel, somehow slipped through the citizenship process in 2022. He catalogs alleged past crimes, carefully avoids saying whether any of them happened before naturalization, then brags that since Donald Trump’s glorious return, USCIS has been heroically making sure people with criminal histories don’t become citizens. Small problem: U.S. law has already barred most violent felons from naturalizing for a very long time. Details, schmeetails.

When pressed for basic information about what DHS knew and when, the department suddenly develops a severe case of we-refuse-to-comment-itis and sends reporters back to a generic condolence post. So we get the full political talking point about the dangers of immigrants and the strongman’s promise that Trump alone can fix it, but none of the transparency that might show whether this was a bureaucratic failure, a loophole, or just Mullin using a grieving family’s nightmare as a backdrop for his boss’s reelection brand.

It’s a grimly familiar formula: a brutal crime, a devastated community, a murdered civil servant remembered by friends and family for her kindness and decency — and an administration that looks at all that pain and sees a chance to tighten the fear screws a little more. Policy by hashtag, governance by dog whistle.

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#anti-immigration
killing democracy

vought discovers new budget category: mass death

Russell Vought explains that laws, like HIV meds, are more of a suggestion than a requirement.

Russell Vought explains that laws, like HIV meds, are more of a suggestion than a requirement.

Russell Vought, Trump’s budget arsonist-in-chief, finally wandered into a House hearing and got greeted by AIDS activists chanting the radical slogan "please don’t let millions of people die for your culture war." Protesters interrupted the hearing twice, yelling "Pepfar saves lives – spend the money" and holding signs like "Vought cuts kill people with Aids" because when the administration slow-walks and blocks already-approved HIV funding, that’s not a metaphor – that’s a body count.

Congress appropriated $4.6bn for PEPFAR this year, but the Trump team is letting it out in a drip-feed, like a sadistic game show where the prize is "maybe your clinic can pay staff next month." Nearly all USAID funding was already gutted, a $400m rescission request for PEPFAR was shot down, and Vought just… kept slow-walking the money anyway. The GAO has already said the funds were illegally impounded in violation of the Impoundment Control Act, but Vought assured lawmakers he "fully complied" with the law while also declaring they’re "not fans" of that law and Trump "ran against it" – bold strategy, telling Congress their power of the purse is optional now.

Meanwhile, the numbers are what you’d expect when you put a Fox News comments section in charge of global health: an estimated 780,000 people dead in the first year of cuts, with a Lancet study projecting 14 million deaths by 2030, including 4.5 million children. Vought bragged about dismantling USAID because too much money was going to NGOs that "don’t share this administration’s perspective" – which, according to whistleblower Nicholas Enrich, includes appointees who thought USAID was basically an overseas abortion dispenser and demanded Barney-style presentations. So yes, the world’s leading HIV program is being strangled because the president’s guys think global health is a satanic PBS cartoon.

Health advocates describe the administration’s approach as "sabotaging the program" and "defying the will of Congress," measured in preventable deaths and resurgent epidemics. The tools to fight HIV are literally "in the cupboard gathering dust" while the virus spreads – not because the science failed, but because Trump, Rubio, and Vought decided the real emergency was that NGOs helping poor people didn’t vote for them. American soft power, global health leadership, and millions of human beings have all been reassigned to the same budget line: expendable.

#killing-democracy#lawlessness#forever-grifting
killing democracy

thom tillis discovers the real problem is *everyone* around trump

Thom Tillis bravely explains that the arsonist-in-chief is only dangerous because his matches keep giving him bad advice.

Thom Tillis bravely explains that the arsonist-in-chief is only dangerous because his matches keep giving him bad advice.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis went on TV to perform the classic MAGA magic trick: separate Trump from the consequences of Trumpism. The new script is that the president isn’t the problem, it’s just a few naughty Cabinet secretaries giving him bad advice — as though the guy who demands loyalty oaths, purges anyone who says "no," and governs by Truth Social post is actually a helpless victim of his own handpicked yes‑men. This is the updated "adults in the room" fantasy, except now the adults are the villains and the man signing the executive orders is a wide‑eyed bystander. Instead of confronting the obvious — that the chaos, abuses of power, and authoritarian lurches are features, not bugs — Tillis helpfully offers up a couple of scapegoats in the Cabinet, like a company blaming middle management for the CEO driving the business into a volcano. What we’re really watching is the party trying to launder responsibility for every disastrous policy and norm‑shredding stunt: blame the staff, protect the boss, and hope voters never notice that Trump personally hired, fired, and publicly humiliated these same people on a rotating basis. The message from Tillis: the system isn’t broken because of Trump’s behavior; it’s just suffering from a few bad influencers. Democracy will be fine once the emperor’s entourage gets a light refresh.

Source: nbcnews.com

#killing-democracy#full-stupid
killing democracy

supreme court governs by sticky note to help trump

Ketanji Brown Jackson politely explaining that the Supreme Court is not supposed to be Trump’s emergency suggestion box.

Ketanji Brown Jackson politely explaining that the Supreme Court is not supposed to be Trump’s emergency suggestion box.

Ketanji Brown Jackson went to Yale Law School and basically told the country that the conservative justices have turned the Supreme Court into a late-night fax machine for Trump. She called their pro-Trump emergency orders “scratch-paper musings” and “back-of-the-envelope” impressions, which is a very polite way of saying: the highest court in the land is now issuing policy-changing rulings with the intellectual rigor of a napkin at a steakhouse.

The pattern is simple and bleak: Trump’s second administration files 34 emergency applications; the conservative 6–3 majority quietly hits the green button most of the time; lower courts that actually looked at the law say the policies are probably illegal; the Supreme Court shrugs and lets them go ahead anyway. These supposedly “short-term” orders then function as de facto policy, greenlighting anti-immigrant crackdowns and steep funding cuts while the merits cases crawl through the system. Judicial review, but make it express lane for the president.

Jackson’s core point is devastating: the Court is not only issuing these thin, barely explained orders, it’s demanding that lower courts treat these sketches as binding guidance, while pretending that abstract “harm” to the president’s agenda outweighs the very real harm to actual humans. As she put it, the president “certainly isn’t harmed if what he wants to do is illegal” — a concept that used to be basic civics, not controversial judicial philosophy. Yet here we are, with the Trump-boosted majority repeatedly grabbing the third rail of every divisive policy fight and calling it neutral law.

She, Sotomayor, and Kagan keep dissenting, but dissents don’t stop deportations or funding cuts. So Jackson is now saying the quiet part very loudly in public: the conservative bloc has discovered a handy tool for helping Trump sidestep legal obstacles, off the regular docket, without full briefing or argument. The shadow docket was meant for true emergencies; under Trump’s Court, the emergency is apparently that his agenda might have to follow the law.

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#lawlessness
killing democracy

trump’s ai jesus fan cam presidency

When you can’t walk on water, but you can ask Midjourney to make it look like you did.

When you can’t walk on water, but you can ask Midjourney to make it look like you did.

Trump has discovered a new favorite presidential power: not the veto, not the pardon, but the Generate button. The White House and Trump’s own accounts are now a nonstop firehose of AI fan art depicting him as a doctor, a king, a pope, a Nobel laureate, a Sith lord, and, most recently, a kind of off-brand Jesus beaming holy light into a patient’s skull. When called out for the Christ cosplay, he insisted it was just him as a humble medical professional, healing the masses with… divine head lasers. The AI worship doesn’t stop at theology. The administration is systematically pushing these images as political messaging: Trump as Superman, Trump roaring with a lion, Trump as a football star, Trump as an Apocalypse Now tough guy. Fact-checkers have already noted that this “slopaganda” isn’t just cringe; it’s designed to rally the base and drown out reality with glossy, fabricated hero shots. Why bother governing when Midjourney can just render you into greatness? While Trump rage-posts through the night about Pope Leo and invents unverified death tolls in Iran by the tens of thousands, the AI content mill keeps churning. By Wednesday morning he was reposting yet another image of Jesus literally embracing him from behind, proudly announcing that the “Radical Left Lunatics” won’t like it—but he thinks it’s “quite nice.” Authoritarian aesthetics 101: blur the line between leader and messiah, flood the zone with fake visuals, and hope no one notices that the only thing getting resurrected is his poll numbers.

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

trump rediscovers his love for spying on americans

Trump and Congress bravely defend America from the terrifying threat of unchecked government power… by expanding unchecked government power.

Trump and Congress bravely defend America from the terrifying threat of unchecked government power… by expanding unchecked government power.

Donald Trump has heroically overcome his deep constitutional principles and personal grievances to once again embrace warrantless mass surveillance. After spending years screaming that FISA was a deep state plot to spy on his 2016 campaign and should be “KILLED,” he’s now demanding an 18‑month, no‑changes extension of Section 702 because it’s suddenly an “effective tool” that’s “extremely important to our military” during the war in Iran. Turns out, when the spying machine might work for you instead of on you, it starts to look pretty patriotic. Inside the House, the show is even better. A bipartisan blob of security-state enthusiasts is frantically trying to ram through a clean renewal, while a weird alliance of progressive Democrats and far‑right Republicans is yelling “maybe get a warrant before you dig through Americans’ emails?” Speaker Mike Johnson, channeling his inner J. Edgar Hoover, refuses any amendments because reform would “jeopardize its passage” – which is Washington‑speak for: the abuses are a feature, not a bug. This is despite the FISA court itself saying FBI compliance problems are “persistent and widespread,” and despite agents using 702 to rummage through the communications of protesters, journalists, a state judge, political commentators, and even members of Congress. The FBI proudly reports only 7,413 queries on Americans last year, while privacy advocates point out that a handy new “filtering tool” just means a lot of searches don’t get counted at all – a bold innovation in the field of creative accounting for civil liberties violations. Meanwhile, surveillance can keep running through March 2027 thanks to secret court certifications, even if Congress pretends to have a debate or accidentally does its job. The intelligence agencies swear warrants would be too “burdensome” because some queries wouldn’t meet legal standards, which is a remarkably honest way of saying: if we followed the Constitution, we couldn’t do half of what we’re doing now. So Trump gets to posture as Commander in Chief of Safety, the security state keeps its favorite toy, and Americans get the same deal they always get under this crowd: perpetual fear, perpetual war, and a government that insists it loves freedom so much it has to read your messages to protect it.

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#lawlessness
killing democracy

bernie tries to unplug trump’s bomb subscription box

Bernie Sanders attempts the dark Washington art of ‘listening to voters’ while the Senate checks with AIPAC to see if that’s allowed.

Bernie Sanders attempts the dark Washington art of ‘listening to voters’ while the Senate checks with AIPAC to see if that’s allowed.

Bernie Sanders is once again wandering into the Senate chamber with the radical, fringe idea that maybe the United States shouldn’t keep mailing 1,000lb bombs and demolition bulldozers to Benjamin Netanyahu like it’s an arms-themed Birchbox. This time he’s trying to block a $151.8m shipment of 12,000 bombs and another $295m in bulldozers that have a well-documented habit of turning homes, neighborhoods, and international law into dust and legal footnotes.

Democrats, who have spent years deeply concerned about Israel’s conduct while voting to fund every missile that concern requires, are now facing voters who have noticed that “ally” apparently means “we underwrite whatever Netanyahu and Trump dream up in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran.” Sanders is framing the vote as a chance to stand up to AIPAC, the super-PAC that has been carpet-bombing US elections with cash so senators can bravely represent the views of their wealthiest constituents. As he politely suggests they try listening to actual voters, groups like Indivisible, MoveOn, J Street, and Jewish Voice for Peace are outside reminding Democrats that supporting mass displacement and annexation might not be the electoral slam dunk AIPAC’s checks implied.

Over in the House, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ro Khanna have committed the unpardonable Washington sin of saying the quiet part out loud: if Israel wants Iron Dome, it can buy it with its own money instead of siphoning more from US taxpayers to underwrite an endless Trump–Netanyahu foreign-policy fanfic. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are also pushing a war powers resolution to stop Trump from continuing his wildly unpopular hostilities against Iran — a symbolic gesture Republicans will kill so the president can keep playing commander-in-chief with other people’s lives and other countries’ cities. American democracy: where public opinion is advisory, bombs are mandatory, and the real war is making sure AIPAC never feels ignored.

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#imperialism
killing democracy

workers attempt democracy, trump’s nlrb files hostile workplace complaint

Attendees at the Union Now rally in New York display the extremely controversial idea that workers should have power too, prompting immediate concern from Trump’s NLRB about this obvious threat to shareholder feelings.

Attendees at the Union Now rally in New York display the extremely controversial idea that workers should have power too, prompting immediate concern from Trump’s NLRB about this obvious threat to shareholder feelings.

American workers are doing something truly radical under Donald Trump: trying to have some power over their own lives. Union leaders have launched "Union Now", a nonprofit designed to boost union density in a country where about 70% of workers say they want a union and only 10% are allowed to have one – a ratio that would make any self-respecting corporation drool, but somehow is considered "freedom" when it’s about paychecks instead of phones.

Sara Nelson and other organizers are trying to build a war chest to help workers withstand bosses who fire people illegally during organizing drives, stall first contracts for years, and generally behave like they read the National Labor Relations Act and thought it was a list of suggestions. Meanwhile, Trump’s newly re-rigged NLRB has swiveled from watchdog to corporate HR department, making it even easier for employers to drag out negotiations until workers either quit in despair or die at their second job.

Former labor secretary and current NYC deputy mayor Julie Su politely calls these endless delays a "form of union busting," which is a very professional way of saying: companies are breaking the law and the federal agency in charge of stopping them is now cheering from the luxury box. Union membership is down from 21 million in 1979 to 14.7 million today, even as the population has grown by over 100 million, but don’t worry – billionaire wealth is doing great. Trump’s America: collective bargaining for CEOs, bootstraps for everyone else.

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
killing democracy

save america by stopping americans from voting, naturally

Behold: quaint little "I voted" stickers from that brief era when casting a ballot didn’t require a document scavenger hunt and a DHS background check.

Behold: quaint little "I voted" stickers from that brief era when casting a ballot didn’t require a document scavenger hunt and a DHS background check.

The "Save America" Act is back, and once again the plan to "save" democracy is to make sure fewer people can participate in it. This year's model bolts together strict documentary proof-of-citizenship requirements, a very tight voter ID regime, and the casual threat of criminal charges for election officials who don’t perfectly navigate this booby-trapped mess. As a bonus, states would have to hand their voter rolls over to the Department of Homeland Security on the regular, because nothing screams "free and fair elections" like running your local precinct out of a national security file cabinet. Instead of just calling this what it is — a mass voter suppression bill built to lock in minority rule — the Trump orbit is selling it as "election integrity" while his supporters are still relitigating 2020 and the FBI is poking around Fulton County. Meanwhile, civil rights groups are in court trying to stop Trump from kneecapping mail-in voting, because the GOP finally noticed that when more people can vote, they tend to lose. The Guardian is politely inviting readers to ask questions about what this all means for November’s midterms and the future of American democracy. The short answer: if Trump gets his way, the future looks a lot like DHS-approved voter lists, terrified election workers, and a government that only trusts elections it has pre-rigged.

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

trump discovers minority rights are for losers

Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans gazing lovingly at the filibuster, wondering if they should kill it now or wait until it can hurt them personally.

Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans gazing lovingly at the filibuster, wondering if they should kill it now or wait until it can hurt them personally.

President Trump is once again staring at a guardrail of American democracy and asking, very sincerely, whether it would look better smashed through the windshield. This time it’s the Senate filibuster, which he wants to vaporize so he can shove the so‑called Save America Act through the chamber without the pesky inconvenience of needing more than 50 senators to agree.

Senate Republicans, however, are having a rare moment of semi-conscious thought. They’re reportedly nervous about detonating the filibuster because they understand that one day, they might not be the ones holding the gavel, and then Democrats could use the same no‑rules sandbox to pass things that aren’t handouts to donors and Christian nationalists. So we get the usual GOP dilemma: protect basic institutional norms, or hand Trump the matches and hope the fire only burns other people.

The filibuster has a long, ugly history — from civil-rights obstruction to routine gridlock — but it’s still one of the last speed bumps left between Trump and full‑tilt majoritarian rule dressed up as populist revolution. The fact that the future of a 200‑year‑old legislative norm now hinges on whether Senate Republicans are more afraid of Trump’s rage tweets than of someday being in the minority tells you exactly how sturdy American democracy is in 2026: held together with vibes, cowardice, and a parliamentary procedure nobody actually likes.

Source: npr.org

#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

acting ag proudly announces doj now a trump family office

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche explains that the Justice Department runs best when the defendant is also the boss.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche explains that the Justice Department runs best when the defendant is also the boss.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche went on NBC to do the one thing the Justice Department was specifically not designed for: gush about how wonderful it is that Donald Trump is personally "involved" in its work. The nation’s top law enforcement official-in-training wheels essentially confirmed what everyone already knew — the DOJ is no longer an independent institution, it’s just another Trump property, somewhere between Mar-a-Lago and the food court at Bedminster. Instead of even pretending to defend the traditional wall between the White House and federal prosecutors, Blanche praised Trump’s hands-on approach like he was talking about a tech startup founder, not a guy facing more criminal exposure than a mob convention. The message to career prosecutors was clear: your new job is not to enforce the law, it’s to enforce Trump’s feelings. Investigations? Charging decisions? That’s adorable. The only thing that really matters now is whether the king is pleased. This is the part of the movie where the regime usually tries to hide the capture of the justice system. The Trump administration has politely skipped that step and gone straight to bragging about it on cable news. When the acting attorney general is on TV applauding the president’s direct meddling in prosecutions, you’re not looking at a justice system anymore — you’re looking at a loyalty test with subpoenas.
#killing-democracy#fascism#lawlessness
killing democracy

trump bravely refuses to apologize to literal pope

Trump, moments before explaining that actually *he’s* closer to God in the polls than the Pope.

Trump, moments before explaining that actually *he’s* closer to God in the polls than the Pope.

Trump is facing bipartisan backlash after deciding the most pressing issue for the leader of the free world is... publicly beefing with Pope Leo and then announcing he will absolutely not apologize. Because when you’ve got inflation, wars, and a melting planet, what voters really want is a presidential slap-fight with the Vatican.

Republicans and Democrats alike are reportedly telling him to knock it off, but Trump is digging in, insisting he did nothing wrong and sees no reason to say sorry. So instead of basic statesmanship, we get another episode of “The President vs. Anyone Who Doesn’t Clap Loud Enough”, this week featuring the head of the Catholic Church.

The White House could have used this as a chance to look even vaguely presidential. Instead, they’ve chosen the path of maximum grievance, minimum dignity, and zero self-awareness. American soft power continues its long, tragic journey from "shaping the global order" to "starting a flame war with the Pope on morning TV."
#killing-democracy#full-stupid
killing democracy

trump fires the refs in immigration court

Artist’s impression of judicial independence under Trump: a courtroom with a trapdoor under every judge’s chair, controlled from the White House.

Artist’s impression of judicial independence under Trump: a courtroom with a trapdoor under every judge’s chair, controlled from the White House.

The Trump DOJ has discovered a bold new theory of law: if the judge doesn’t give you the deportation you ordered, you just fire the judge. Two immigration judges, Roopal Patel and Nina Froes, have been dumped near the end of their probationary terms after they blocked the administration’s attempts to deport pro-Palestinian university students Rümeysa Öztürk and Mohsen Mahdawi, both swept up in Trump’s crusade against the Gaza protest movement. Patel and Froes, appointed under Biden and guilty of the unforgivable sin of having defended immigrants in court, did the unthinkable: they looked at the law and concluded the government had no grounds to kick these students out. Within months, both are gone, part of a group of six judges terminated as Trump’s people quietly remodel the immigration bench into an assembly line where "due process" means do you process this removal order fast enough. Patel describes a system under mounting pressure to move cases quicker with fewer experienced judges, which is exactly what you build if the goal is error, fear, and mass deportation dressed up as paperwork. Naturally, the Justice Department insists this is all about "impartiality" and "integrity"—because nothing screams neutrality like purging judges who rule against the government in politically sensitive cases while keeping the ones who treat every non-citizen like a security threat. The message to the remaining judges could not be clearer: rule for the Constitution and you’re out, rule for Stephen Miller’s dream board and you’re "meeting performance expectations". Independent judiciary, meet the Trump model: you’re independent right up until you’re inconvenient.
#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

trump shares ai jesus fan art, claims he thought he was a doctor now

Trump, seen here in his preferred specialty: artificial intelligence, artificial humility, and artificial martyrdom.

Trump, seen here in his preferred specialty: artificial intelligence, artificial humility, and artificial martyrdom.

Donald Trump, the man with access to nuclear codes and apparently zero access to his own eyeballs, tried to explain away a controversial AI image he shared that depicted him as a Christ-like figure by saying he thought it showed him "as a doctor." Yes, the guy who suggested injecting disinfectant now wants you to believe he saw a lab coat, not the Son of God cosplay. The image, widely criticized as yet another piece of MAGA messianic propaganda, is part of the growing pile of AI hero-fanfic Trump and his followers pump out to replace reality with something more flattering. Rather than admit he boosted a blasphemous campaign meme casting him as Jesus, he’s going with the ‘oops, wrong delusion’ defense. Authoritarian cult building, but make it badly Photoshopped. While the White House spends its time laundering AI worship posters through the presidential social feed and then pretending it’s all just an innocent misunderstanding, the line between religious devotion and political obedience gets a little blurrier. The message to the base is clear: Trump isn’t just a leader, he’s a savior — and if anyone complains, it was just a harmless little doctor picture, why are you so upset?
#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

trump heroically agrees not to take down the pride flag he already took down

Stonewall’s Pride flag, still flying—for now—while the Park Service quietly edits LGBTQ+ history like it’s a Trump tweet gone off-message.

Stonewall’s Pride flag, still flying—for now—while the Park Service quietly edits LGBTQ+ history like it’s a Trump tweet gone off-message.

The Trump administration has graciously agreed to keep flying the Pride flag at the Stonewall national monument, but only after yanking it down first and then getting dragged into court by LGBTQ+ and historic preservation groups. According to court papers, Interior and the National Park Service now "confirm" they’ll maintain a Pride flag at Stonewall and only remove it for "maintenance or other practical purposes"—a bold new standard in civil rights: equality, as long as the paperwork and lawsuits check out. This tiny concession comes packaged with a broader project: Trump’s people have been busily scrubbing references to transgender people from Stonewall’s website and materials, while putting parks, museums, and landmarks under a political content filter that flags anything "divisive or partisan"—which somehow always means queer people, racial history, and anyone who fought back against police raids. Stonewall, the first national monument to LGBTQ+ history, now gets to keep its rainbow flag wedged between the US and park service flags, while the administration quietly rewrites the story underneath. Congratulations to everyone on this hard-fought victory: the flag can stay, as long as the history it represents is carefully edited for MAGA comfort.

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#trumps-america
killing democracy

trump sues murdoch for $10 billion, discovers judges still read the law

President Trump, seen here on the South Lawn, preparing to board Marine One and presumably go brainstorm his next multi-billion-dollar tantrum lawsuit against reality.

President Trump, seen here on the South Lawn, preparing to board Marine One and presumably go brainstorm his next multi-billion-dollar tantrum lawsuit against reality.

Donald Trump’s bold new strategy for crisis management: sue everyone who reminds the public he was friendly with Jeffrey Epstein. This time, he went after the Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch for a casual $10 billion because they published a story about a sexually suggestive letter, allegedly signed by Trump, in Epstein’s 2003 50th birthday album. Apparently the real defamation, in Trumpworld, is journalism with receipts.

U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles responded the way the legal system often does to Trump’s rage-litigation: by tossing the case. The judge ruled that Trump failed to show the article was published with actual malice, which is a polite judicial way of saying, "you can’t just scream ‘fake news’ and demand ten billion dollars." Gayles did let Trump file an amended complaint, presumably for the comedic value.

Lawyers for the Journal and Murdoch tried to go a step further and get the court to declare the article’s statements true as a matter of law, but the judge said questions like whether Trump wrote the letter or was Epstein’s friend are factual issues for later. Meanwhile, the whole spectacle is just the latest episode in the administration’s ongoing effort to weaponize defamation suits to freeze out reporting it doesn’t like, especially around the embarrassingly real Epstein files Congress pried loose from the estate.

The White House and Dow Jones both declined to comment, perhaps too busy calculating how many more times the president can try to sue his way out of his own documented history. The First Amendment, annoyingly for Trump, remains in effect.

#killing-democracy#lawlessness
killing democracy

trump’s floating death penalty for ‘bad boats’

US warship heroically defeats two unverified fishing boats in the name of freedom and engagement metrics.

US warship heroically defeats two unverified fishing boats in the name of freedom and engagement metrics.

The Trump administration has apparently decided that the ocean is now a summary-execution zone. US Southern Command blew up two more small boats in the eastern Pacific, killing five people and leaving one survivor, bringing the body count from these “drug boat” strikes to at least 168 since September. Evidence the boats actually had drugs? Naturally, that’s classified in the same vault as Trump’s humility and basic understanding of international law. The public gets grainy clips on X of tiny boats, then giant fireballs, and we’re told to clap for another victory in the War on Nouns. This is all wrapped in Trump’s new favorite legal theory: the United States is in “armed conflict” with Latin American cartels, so he can treat random maritime suspects as enemy combatants and blow them up on the high seas. No trials, no due process, just “narcoterrorist” stamped on your forehead from 10,000 feet. Minor detail: the fentanyl actually killing Americans mostly comes over land from Mexico, not from cartoon villain speedboats in the open ocean. But why let facts get in the way of a good explosion? While the Pentagon is playing whack-a-mole with skiffs in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, Trump is also gearing up for a naval blockade of Iran’s ports after ceasefire talks stall. So on one front, the US is conducting what looks a lot like extrajudicial killings in Latin America; on another, it’s threatening to choke off 20% of global oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Congress didn’t declare any of this, but who needs that dusty old branch of government when you’ve got a president who treats the US military like his own private cartel, armed with cruise missiles and a social media account?

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#imperialism#lawlessness
killing democracy

commander-in-chief declares holy beef with the pope

President Trump explains Catholic doctrine to reporters, having just promoted himself to assistant savior of the Western world.

President Trump explains Catholic doctrine to reporters, having just promoted himself to assistant savior of the Western world.

The leader of the free world has now formally entered a beef with the leader of the Catholic Church, because of course he has. Flying home from Florida, Donald Trump took a break from threatening Iran with annihilation to rage-post about Pope Leo XIV, calling the American-born pontiff "very liberal," "WEAK on Crime" and "terrible for Foreign Policy" — which in Trumpworld means Leo's main sin is suggesting that maybe waging a quasi-religious war in Iran fueled by a "delusion of omnipotence" is bad.

Trump, whose administration is currently justifying the Iran war in explicitly religious terms, then accused Leo of being fine with Iran having nukes (he isn't) and attacked him for criticizing the U.S. ouster of Venezuela's government, bragging that he's doing exactly what he was elected "IN A LANDSLIDE" to do. So we’ve got the president boasting about toppling foreign governments and threatening to wipe out "an entire civilization" while smearing the Pope as a radical leftist for quoting Isaiah about blood-soaked hands. Totally healthy democracy vibes.

Not content with screaming at the Vicar of Christ, Trump capped the night by posting an image of himself in biblical robes, glowing hands outstretched over a sick man, surrounded by eagles, a flag, and reverent onlookers — a sort of QVC knockoff of Renaissance religious art. Having already suggested Leo was picked "because he was an American" to deal with him, Trump helpfully clarified the theology of Trumpism: if he wasn't in the White House, Leo wouldn't be in the Vatican, God is apparently his campaign manager, and the presidency is now a part-time role moonlighting as messiah-in-chief.

#killing-democracy#imperialism