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The Trump Presidency Timeline

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

Category: killing democracy
killing democracy

texas invents antifa the organization, trump admin applauds

Pam Bondi announces the defeat of Antifa™ Organization LLC, while a federal judge quietly reminds everyone that "antifa" is about as structured as a Reddit thread.

Pam Bondi announces the defeat of Antifa™ Organization LLC, while a federal judge quietly reminds everyone that "antifa" is about as structured as a Reddit thread.

Texas just beta-tested the Trump administration’s dream scenario: take a messy, violent protest outside an ICE detention center, strip out the legal nuance, and sell it as the grand triumph of the war on Antifa™. Nine activists were convicted on a mix of terrorism, riot, explosives, and firearms charges after a protest where one participant shot and wounded a police officer, while others vandalized cars and government property. The shooter, Benjamin Song, was hit with attempted murder; someone who wasn’t even at the protest was convicted for moving a box of zines afterward, because nothing says “domestic terror” like stapled pamphlets.

The Justice Department, led by Pam Bondi, responded with a press release that said "antifa" 16 times, like Beetlejuice for authoritarians, triumphantly declaring the verdict proof that their crusade against this "domestic terror group" is working. Tiny problem: the actual terrorism statute used in court didn’t require proving the existence of any organization or ideology at all. The judge openly wondered why "antifa" should be mentioned, comparing it to the Methodist Women’s Auxiliary — which, to be clear, has yet to be designated a terror cell by Pam Bondi. Jurors acquitted seven defendants on attempted murder, suggesting they didn’t buy the government’s "ambush on law enforcement" fan fiction, but that didn’t stop DOJ from treating the case like Nuremberg for kids in black hoodies.

The real innovation here isn’t public safety, it’s precedent. Prosecutors pointed to things like using Signal, wearing dark clothing, and reading leftwing books in a club as evidence of a coordinated "antifa cell" — meaning the government just basically argued that having encrypted messages, black jeans, and a reading list is suspicious terrorist behavior. Experts warn this is about scaring people out of protesting: show up at the wrong place, stand near the wrong person, or use the wrong app, and you might get swept into a terrorism conspiracy. The FBI already has investigations in at least 23 regions, and DOJ officials are telling prosecutors to "go big" and "go loud" against protesters.

So no, this verdict doesn’t legally establish antifa as an organization. What it does establish is that the Trump administration doesn’t need antifa to be real to prosecute it — it just needs your group chat, your book club, and your wardrobe. The message is clear: protest, and you might end up a test case in the government’s latest fanfic about the Antifa Menace. People should be scared; that’s the whole point.

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

trump digs up 1884 racism to rewrite the 14th amendment

The Supreme Court, preparing to decide whether the 14th Amendment still counts or if we’re just doing vibes and 1884 case law now.

The Supreme Court, preparing to decide whether the 14th Amendment still counts or if we’re just doing vibes and 1884 case law now.

The Trump administration has decided that if you’re going to attack birthright citizenship, you might as well raid the archives for one of the Supreme Court’s more openly racist hits. Enter Elk v. Wilkins (1884), a case where the Court said a Native American born in the United States was basically like "the children of subjects of any foreign government" and therefore not a citizen. Now Solicitor General D. John Sauer is waving that relic around as proof that the 14th Amendment never really meant what everyone thought it meant for the last century-plus. This all props up Trump’s day-one-of-term-two executive order that says you’re only a citizen at birth if at least one parent is a U.S. citizen or green card holder. Courts have it on ice, but the administration is begging the Supreme Court to "restore the meaning of citizenship"—which turns out to mean "let the president unilaterally erase the 14th Amendment’s core guarantee by misreading a case about quasi-sovereign tribal status." Native law experts are politely screaming that this is a legal faceplant, the ACLU is pointing out that the real target is the children of immigrants, and the White House is pretending this is all just originalism, not a trial run for stripping citizenship from people this administration doesn’t like. Legal scholars in Indian law note that Elk was about the unique, treaty-based status of Native tribes and has nothing to do with kids born to undocumented or temporary-visa parents. The administration’s response is essentially: nuance is for losers, we’ve got an 1884 quote to abuse. While tribes mostly stayed out—since Native people have had statutory birthright citizenship since 1924 and have diverse politics—the broader message is clear: if Trump wins here, the government gets a green light to decide who is "truly" American, and who just thought the Constitution meant what it said.

Source: nbcnews.com

#killing-democracy#lawlessness#anti-immigration
killing democracy

wisconsin’s gerrymander empire strikes out

Maria Lazar and Chris Taylor, starring in Wisconsin’s new hit courtroom drama: Law & Order: Gerrymander Victims Unit.

Maria Lazar and Chris Taylor, starring in Wisconsin’s new hit courtroom drama: Law & Order: Gerrymander Victims Unit.

Wisconsin Republicans are discovering that when you spend a decade building a beautiful, intricate gerrymandered fortress, it’s a real shame when a liberal Supreme Court comes along and says, "Yeah, that’s illegal." After Donald Trump managed to wheeze out a win in the state, the vibes were supposed to be permanently red. Instead, the party that turned Wisconsin into a case study in minority rule is now watching its legislative leadership sprint for the exits like someone just turned the lights on at a sketchy bar.

The conservatives’ old reliable friend — the Wisconsin Supreme Court — flipped, torched the GOP’s rigged maps, and suddenly Republicans have to do something they haven’t done in years: compete. With Speaker Robin Vos and Senate President Devin LeMahieu retiring, Democrats are openly fantasizing about a trifecta — governor, Legislature, and court — while another liberal-backed justice, Chris Taylor, is out-raising and out-advertising the conservative pick, Maria Lazar. It turns out when you spend 15 years weaponizing the courts to lock in power, people eventually notice and vote like they’re tired of living in a civics lesson on "How to Break a Swing State."

Meanwhile, Trump’s approval in Wisconsin is sinking to fresh lows during his second term, which is awkward for a party that rebuilt its entire brand around his insecurities. The GOP insists that the wave of retirements means nothing, the new maps mean nothing, and the polls mean nothing — which is technically true, if you define "nothing" as "the end of a carefully engineered system of anti-democratic control." The changing of the guard in Madison isn’t just generational; it’s what happens when your whole strategy depends on never letting voters actually choose anything.

Source: nbcnews.com

#killing-democracy#corruption
killing democracy

trump discovers federalism is bad when states protect kids instead of donors

Trump arriving in Miami to explain that only Washington can regulate AI, right after Washington made sure it wouldn’t.

Trump arriving in Miami to explain that only Washington can regulate AI, right after Washington made sure it wouldn’t.

Trump’s White House has discovered a bold new constitutional principle: states’ rights are sacred, unless they annoy David Sacks’ cap table. While Congress is in its usual coma, states across the country — including Republican-led ones — are actually passing AI laws to protect kids, demand transparency, and shield whistleblowers. Naturally, the administration’s response is to swoop in and tell them to knock it off because it might mildly inconvenience "innovation" (read: the venture capital guys who keep getting invited to Mar-a-Lago).

Utah GOP Rep. Doug Fiefia tried to require tech companies to explain how they’d protect consumers. The bill never even made it to a vote, thanks to a one-line memo from the Trump administration declaring it "unfixable" and contrary to the president’s AI agenda — no explanation, just vibes and donor priorities. Meanwhile, Trump’s AI and crypto czar David Sacks and OSTP head Michael Kratsios are demanding a single national framework to avoid a "patchwork" of state protections, which is very convenient given that Congress is so deadlocked the only thing it could pass is a kidney stone.

Republican state lawmakers like Pennsylvania’s Tracy Pennycuick are openly saying they don’t have time to wait for Washington to stop doing nothing, so they’ll keep writing their own rules. The White House, speaking anonymously (because apparently even they’re embarrassed), insists they’d never tell a state it can’t protect children — they just, coincidentally, keep kneecapping the bills that try. It’s a neat trick: federal government too broken to regulate AI, yet somehow still nimble enough to intervene when states try to protect their own citizens from the president’s tech friends.

Source: npr.org

#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
killing democracy

hegseth bravely defends america from the threat of black and female generals

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth explains that the Pentagon is a strict meritocracy now, which is why he personally kneecapped four promotions after reading Twitter threads about 'woke generals.'

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth explains that the Pentagon is a strict meritocracy now, which is why he personally kneecapped four promotions after reading Twitter threads about 'woke generals.'

Pete Hegseth, the guy who spent years calling the U.S. military "woke" from a Fox News couch, is now personally reaching into the promotion list to block four officers — two Black, two women — from becoming one-star generals. The move is so "highly unusual" that anonymous Pentagon officials are basically waving semaphore flags that say: this is political loyalty testing, not a personnel decision.

The pattern isn’t subtle. Hegseth has been busy "restructuring" the Pentagon by firing four-stars like he’s cleaning out a spam folder — including Gen. C.Q. Brown, only the second Black Joint Chiefs chair, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead the Navy. Official explanations: none. Unofficial explanation, straight from his own book The War on Warriors: too much diversity, not enough culture-war cosplay.

The Pentagon’s response, delivered by spokesman Sean Parnell, is that this is all "fake news" and that a pure, unsullied "meritocracy" now reigns. Which is a bold claim from an operation that keeps mysteriously deciding merit stops right around where the officer is Black, female, or not sufficiently eager to salute Trump’s latest truth-social brain fog. This isn’t personnel management; it’s an ideological purge in uniform.

Source: npr.org

#killing-democracy#fascism#racism
killing democracy

millions march to say 'no kings' to the guy who really wants a crown

Millions of citizens doing the civics lesson the Constitution was supposed to handle automatically: explaining to one very confused president that "No Kings" is not a suggestion.

Millions of citizens doing the civics lesson the Constitution was supposed to handle automatically: explaining to one very confused president that "No Kings" is not a suggestion.

The No Kings protests are back for round three, with more than 3,100 anti-authoritarian demonstrations planned across the US and 15 other countries. Organizers expect it to be the largest protest in American history, because nothing says "functioning democracy" like millions of people having to leave work on a Saturday to remind the president he is, technically, not a monarch. The movement has no single leader, no rigid demands, and no 30-page white paper — just a simple message that Trump’s "unconstitutional, illegal, immoral and frankly profane" regime doesn’t get to turn the presidency into a family business with airstrikes. Critics fret that No Kings is too broad and too leaderless; organizers counter that when law firms are cutting quiet deals with the White House, universities are rolling over, and media barons are treating Trump like a business partner instead of a subject, maybe the real problem isn’t that the peasants lack a PowerPoint. The protests have become a catch‑all container for public fury over ICE raids, mass firings of federal workers, climate rollbacks, threats to election security, and Trump’s war in Iran. Instead of offering yet another "cult of personality" to compete with Trump’s gold‑plated one, groups like Indivisible, MoveOn, and 50501 are betting on decentralized, bottom‑up power. You know, that weird old idea where people are sovereign and presidents aren’t kings, even if they really, really want the crown and a military parade.
#killing-democracy#fascism#lawlessness
killing democracy

trump’s new censorship czar discovers the off switch for ‘fake news’

Brendan Carr, freshly christened “Censorship Czar,” smiles as he explains that your First Amendment rights now come with an early-renewal option on your broadcast license.

Brendan Carr, freshly christened “Censorship Czar,” smiles as he explains that your First Amendment rights now come with an early-renewal option on your broadcast license.

Donald Trump introduced FCC chair Brendan Carr as “perhaps the most powerful man in this room,” which is an interesting way of saying: this is the guy I’m trusting to lean on the TV people until they stop showing me bad war coverage. Carr has been busy obligingly reposting Trump’s tantrums about Iran war reporting and warning that broadcasters who run “hoaxes and news distortions” could lose their licenses. Legal experts say those threats are basically cosplay authoritarianism with no solid legal basis — but as the lone Democratic commissioner Anna Gomez notes, newsrooms don’t need an actual revocation to start feeling the chill when the cop with the badge keeps stroking his holster.

When he’s not menacing licenses in public, Carr is working the petty file: leaning on stations over Jimmy Kimmel jokes about Charlie Kirk, launching an “equal time” investigation into The View for hosting a Democratic Senate candidate, and bragging about making national media less powerful while dangling the prospect of yanking local affiliates’ licenses. He insists license revocation is “always on the table” because otherwise it’s just a property right — a nice, blunt summary of how this administration thinks about independent media: a privilege that can be revoked if you forget to flatter Dear Leader.

Meanwhile, away from the cameras, Carr’s FCC quietly waved through Nexstar’s $6.2bn merger with TEGNA via the media bureau, neatly sidestepping a full commission vote and the FCC’s own 39% national ownership cap — then handed out waivers like party favors. The result is a 265‑station behemoth that critics say will gut local news and jack up prices, but at least consolidates more levers of information into fewer, more compliant hands. Even Ted Cruz, whose moral compass usually points directly to Fox’s green room, is muttering that maybe this should’ve gotten an actual vote.

So is Carr a paper tiger or uniquely powerful? Functionally, he’s the best of both worlds for Trump: a regulatory arsonist who mostly stops short of appealable actions, preferring vague threats, politicized probes, and rubber‑stamped mega‑mergers. No need to actually revoke licenses when you can get most of the censorship benefits just by reminding the press that their ability to broadcast now depends on not making the president too mad during wartime. Independent media, meet your new “public interest” test.

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#fascism#forever-grifting
killing democracy

breaking: trump discovers you can just yell 'emergency' and steal powers

Trump, mid-speech, carefully explaining that the real national emergency is anything that mildly inconveniences Donald J. Trump.

Trump, mid-speech, carefully explaining that the real national emergency is anything that mildly inconveniences Donald J. Trump.

Donald Trump has apparently decided the Constitution is more of a vibe than a document, and that every time reality says "no," he can just shout "NATIONAL EMERGENCY" and speed-run dictatorship. He tried to slap a trade embargo on Spain because they wouldn’t let him use their bases for his illegal war against Iran, then claimed the decades-old US trade deficit was an "unusual and extraordinary threat" so he could tariff 80+ countries under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The supreme court finally noticed that he doesn’t, in fact, get to cosplay as Congress and struck the tariffs down, but politely declined to mention the part where the "emergency" was as real as his inauguration crowd size.

The emergency fan fiction doesn’t stop there. Trump pretended Canada was a fentanyl supervillain to justify tariffs, despite the US seizing 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border versus 21,000 pounds at the Mexican one. He sent the National Guard into Portland while insisting the city was "burning to the ground" and full of "insurrectionists"—claims his own appointee, Judge Karin Immergut, described as "untethered to the facts" (legalese for "he’s making this up"). Now the concern is that he’ll declare yet another fake emergency—like hordes of undocumented immigrants allegedly voting—to send troops or masked ICE agents into communities of color during the election, help Republicans, and call it "security" while everyone else calls it voter intimidation.

Lower courts have started quietly saying the obvious part out loud: the emergencies are fabricated and the president is lying. The supreme court, however, is still mostly playing shy, striking down the worst abuses while studiously avoiding the phrase "this is nonsense." As Hannah Arendt warned, destroying truth is how authoritarians keep power. Trump has treated fake emergencies like a loyalty card—buy ten lies, get one new power free—and unless the courts explicitly tie his emergency theater to his avalanche of falsehoods, he’ll keep treating democracy like a suggestion and the rule of law like a speed bump.

Source: theguardian.com

#fascism#killing-democracy#lawlessness
killing democracy

trump admin discovers due process is optional if you yell ‘sanctions’ loud enough

Government-organized fans in Caracas watch their deposed president’s U.S. court appearance on the big screen, proving that authoritarian regimes and the Trump era share at least one value: turning legal proceedings into live entertainment.

Government-organized fans in Caracas watch their deposed president’s U.S. court appearance on the big screen, proving that authoritarian regimes and the Trump era share at least one value: turning legal proceedings into live entertainment.

The Trump administration has apparently decided the Sixth Amendment is now means-tested by foreign policy vibes. In New York, Judge Alvin Hellerstein asked the administration to explain why it’s still blocking Venezuela’s government from paying Nicolás Maduro’s and Cilia Flores’ legal bills in their U.S. drug trafficking case. The U.S. seized Maduro in a January military operation, reestablished diplomatic relations with Caracas, and even eased oil sanctions, but somehow the one thing that must remain sacred and untouched is… the part where the defendant can’t use his government’s money for his defense. Because nothing screams ‘rule of law’ like ‘we kidnapped you, we’re thawing relations with your government, but also we’re keeping the sanctions wall exactly where it most helps our prosecution.’ Hellerstein gently noted that the "paramount" goal now should be the right to a defense, while DOJ clings to its sanctions talking points like Stephen Miller to a broken immigration policy manual. Outside the courthouse, protesters alternated between "Maduro rot in prison" and "Free President Maduro," illustrating that while America can’t agree on basic facts, the executive branch has no trouble agreeing that its power should be limitless. Back in Caracas, the government that’s supposedly too evil to pay its former leader’s lawyers is organizing public watch parties of the trial like it’s the World Cup, while acting President Delcy Rodríguez quietly deletes Maduro from the regime’s LinkedIn page. So Trump gets his made-for-TV military snatch, his Justice Department gets a high-profile narco trial, sanctions get weaponized as a procedural cheat code, and the Constitution gets to sit in the corner and think about what it did wrong.

Source: npr.org

#killing-democracy#lawlessness
killing democracy

trump declares ai company a national security threat for not loving war enough

Trump and Pete Hegseth furiously labeling an AI company a “national security risk” because it refused to build their dream panopticon, while the Constitution quietly files its own restraining order in the background.

Trump and Pete Hegseth furiously labeling an AI company a “national security risk” because it refused to build their dream panopticon, while the Constitution quietly files its own restraining order in the background.

The Trump administration tried to solve a contract dispute the way it solves everything else: by screaming "NATIONAL SECURITY" and blacklisting Anthropic from the federal government for the crime of not wanting its AI used for autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth slapped the company with a "supply chain risk" label on social media, Trump announced a government-wide ban like he was canceling a cable subscription, and no one bothered with trivialities like evidence, process, or the Constitution.

Unfortunately for the aspiring warlord cosplay, a federal judge in California noticed. Judge Rita Lin politely translated "we're mad they won't build Skynet for us" into legal terms, calling the designation likely "contrary to law" and "arbitrary and capricious," and noting that the so-called Department of War (points for honesty, at least) offered no legitimate basis to paint Anthropic as a saboteur. She also pointed out the administration gave the company zero notice and zero opportunity to respond before publicly blacklisting it across the government and poisoning its private-sector work.

The ruling temporarily blocks the blacklist and restores the status quo, which still lets the Pentagon use other AI vendors—as long as it follows "applicable regulations, statutes, and constitutional provisions," three things this White House treats like optional app add-ons. Anthropic, the only AI cleared for classified Defense networks before this tantrum, calls the campaign "unlawful retaliation" for resisting military uses like autonomous killing machines and mass spying. Within hours of Hegseth's stunt, Sam Altman and OpenAI just happened to land their own classified deal, proving that in Trump’s America, the free market is very free—so long as you don’t get squeamish about building the surveillance state.

Source: nbcnews.com

#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

commander in chief, cashier in chief

Newly printed $100 bill featuring the traditional American symbols: an eagle, a pyramid, and the guy who tried to overturn the election signing the front like it’s a hotel check-in slip.

Newly printed $100 bill featuring the traditional American symbols: an eagle, a pyramid, and the guy who tried to overturn the election signing the front like it’s a hotel check-in slip.

Donald Trump has finally solved America’s pressing economic crisis: not enough of him on the money. The Treasury Department announced that, for the first time in US history, a sitting president’s signature will appear on paper currency. To make room for this historic act of ego, they’re removing the treasurer’s signature, which has been there since 1861. Why preserve a 165-year-old institutional norm when you can upgrade to the Donald J. Trump Autograph Collection? Treasury secretary Scott Bessent dutifully explained that plastering Trump’s name on the dollar is the "most powerful" way to honor both America’s 250th anniversary and, of course, Trump’s "historic achievements". US treasurer Brandon Beach chimed in to assure us that our money will symbolize the "unshakable spirit of the American people under President Trump’s leadership"—because apparently the republic is now a timeshare and he’s the salesman. This is just the latest entry in the MAGA State Rebranding Project, where Trump’s name and face are being stapled onto everything from the US Institute of Peace to the Kennedy Center to a new class of battleships. And for extra monarch chic, a Trump-appointed federal arts commission just approved 24-carat gold coins with his image, despite federal law saying living presidents can’t appear on currency. When the law says no and your handpicked panel says yes, that’s not governance, that’s a cult of personality flash sale.
#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

speaker invents trophy for dear leader while everything is on fire

Mike Johnson proudly presents a golden bird to the man setting the country on fire, calling it the dawn of a 'new golden era' as TSA agents dig for change in their couch cushions.

Mike Johnson proudly presents a golden bird to the man setting the country on fire, calling it the dawn of a 'new golden era' as TSA agents dig for change in their couch cushions.

While the US helps turn Iran into a live-fire demo and chokes Cuba with an oil blockade that’s starving people of food, fuel, and medicine, House Speaker Mike Johnson looked at all that chaos and thought, you know what this moment needs? A new Trump award. So at an NRCC fundraiser, Johnson unveiled the freshly invented "America First" award — a golden eagle statue to commemorate this "new golden era in America", where TSA workers go unpaid, airports are jammed, immigration agents stalk terminals, and the government is partially shut down because Trump wants more aggressive roundups. Naturally, the award will be annual, because the cult calendar demands regular sacraments. This is just the latest entry in the regime’s trophy-industrial complex: after the "Undisputed Champion of Beautiful, Clean Coal" honor from mining execs and the totally-real-sounding "Fifa peace prize" for promoting "peace and unity" while bombing things, Mike Johnson has now joined the race to see who can debase themselves fastest. Democrats and even some colleagues called it embarrassing, out of touch, and begged him to stop "kissing a$$" and maybe try governing instead. But why fix a shutdown or rein in military adventurism when you can give the guy responsible a shiny statue and call it patriotism?
#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

maha, but make it leaderless: rfk jr’s headless cdc experiment

The CDC leadership chart, currently just a sticky note that says "Ask RFK Jr." stapled to a conspiracy board.

The CDC leadership chart, currently just a sticky note that says "Ask RFK Jr." stapled to a conspiracy board.

The Trump-RFK Jr. dream team has discovered an exciting new form of public health governance: just don’t hire anyone, and let the conspiracy guy run everything by default. The CDC has been without a Senate-confirmed director for more than 210 days, which is the legal max for an acting head, but don’t worry – RFK Jr. is simply delegating authority so Jay Bhattacharya can keep juggling the CDC and NIH while the secretary quietly hoards the real power. A federal judge already ruled Kennedy’s handpicked vaccine advisory panel was unlawfully appointed and voided its decisions, so naturally the solution is… even less accountability and more RFK control over vaccine recommendations.

The last CDC director, Susan Monarez, lasted less than a month before being fired for not vibing with Kennedy’s anti-vaccine crusade, triggering a senior staff exodus and leaving the agency hollowed out after a shooting by a man who blamed the Covid vaccine. Now the White House can’t find anyone who both aligns with Trump’s "Make America healthy again" branding exercise and can survive basic Senate scrutiny. Meanwhile, the surgeon general slot has been empty for 320+ days while the nominee, wellness influencer Casey Means – not board certified, no active medical license, didn’t finish residency, but great at selling products online – tries to convince skeptical Republicans that Instagram medicine and Maha talking points are totally a substitute for actual public health expertise.

Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski are suddenly shocked – shocked! – that RFK Jr. lied to them about not meddling with vaccine policy, after he bulldozed ACIP and sidelined career experts the second he got the keys. Rand Paul is on organizing calls with the Maha Action political group pressuring them to confirm Means, demanding at least a clean enemies list if she goes down. The result: a leaderless CDC, an empty surgeon general’s office, an anti-vax health secretary effectively running national vaccine policy, and a government whose idea of "health" is gutting public health infrastructure while influencers and cranks fight over the rubble.

#killing-democracy#anti-science#forever-grifting
killing democracy

trump personally cancels the wind so oil doesn’t feel insecure

Wind turbines off Rhode Island, bravely continuing to exist until Trump figures out how to personally sue the breeze for disrespecting oil companies.

Wind turbines off Rhode Island, bravely continuing to exist until Trump figures out how to personally sue the breeze for disrespecting oil companies.

The Trump administration has discovered an exciting new use for presidential power: pressuring a French energy giant to stop building offshore wind and go pump more fossil fuels instead. Interior cut a deal with TotalEnergies to hand back nearly $1 billion in offshore wind lease payments off North Carolina and New York, in exchange for the company promising to shovel that cash into U.S. oil, gas, and an LNG plant in Texas. As a bonus, TotalEnergies also pledged to never again sully America’s pristine coastline with new offshore wind projects, bravely declaring that clean energy apparently isn’t in the “country’s interest.”

Energy analysts are politely screaming that this is a giant, flashing "do not invest here" sign for anyone thinking about long-term infrastructure. The administration has effectively rolled out a new presidential hobby: if Trump doesn’t like a sector, he’ll just lean on companies until they back out and get their money back. Leslie Abrahams of CSIS notes this kind of made-up-on-the-fly interference means fewer projects, slower timelines, and higher costs across the economy — so, a perfect complement to inflation fearmongering.

The White House punted questions to Interior, where Secretary Doug Burgum dutifully called this corporate hostage exchange "yet another win" for Trump’s "affordable and reliable energy" crusade — which, coincidentally, always seems to end with more oil rigs and fewer turbines. TotalEnergies’ CEO Patrick Pouyanné called it a "win-win" too, because of course it’s a win when the U.S. government refunds your bad bets and then begs you to drill more. The climate loses, regulatory certainty loses, and long-term infrastructure planning gets kneecapped, but the fossil lobby and Trump’s ego are having a fantastic week.

Source: npr.org

#killing-democracy#anti-science#forever-grifting
killing democracy

trump’s italian fan club runs into a constitution

Giorgia Meloni discovers that when you copy Trump’s homework on ‘fixing’ the judiciary, European voters still remember how the last strongman project turned out.

Giorgia Meloni discovers that when you copy Trump’s homework on ‘fixing’ the judiciary, European voters still remember how the last strongman project turned out.

Giorgia Meloni tried to speedrun the authoritarian playbook: complain that prosecutors are biased, dress it up as ‘reform’, and then quietly rewire the judiciary so the executive gets a lot more say over who holds the handcuffs. Her government pitched a constitutional overhaul that would split judges and prosecutors into separate career tracks, carve the judicial council into multiple bodies, and then pick members by lottery — because when you’re messing with the separation of powers, why not make it feel like a scratch-off ticket. Italians, being oddly attached to not sliding into post-fascist cosplay again, said no by 53.2% to 46.8%. The campaign turned into a bare-knuckle fight between the executive and the judiciary, with Meloni’s own past threats and her bromance with Viktor Orbán serving as Exhibit A for anyone worried about creeping illiberalism. Then there’s her proud alignment with President Trump, whose idea of ‘rule of law’ is “it doesn’t apply to me.” That special relationship hasn’t stopped Trump from slapping Italy with tariff threats and NATO spending ultimatums, and now his attack on Iran is driving up fuel prices and reminding Italians that hitching your democracy to a chaos engine has… costs. Funny how a president openly at war with prosecutors at home can make voters abroad skittish about letting their own executive tinker with the courts. Turnout surged in left-leaning regions, big cities, and among the young — the exact people least impressed by Meloni’s ‘responsible stateswoman’ act and her Trump-curious foreign policy. The defeat forces her to mothball grander plans to beef up the powers of the prime minister’s office, depriving her of a shiny constitutional trophy for the next campaign. She’s wounded but still the dominant figure in Italian politics, mostly because the opposition is a disorganized buffet of centre-left, populists, and wishful thinking. Still, it’s a neat little reminder for Europe’s far right: hugging Trump might thrill the base, but it’s a great way to convince everyone else you’re one constitutional amendment away from trying this coup thing at home.

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

mail-in ballots for me, coups for thee

Trump explains that mail-in voting is rigged and corrupt, except on the many occasions when he does it, which are flawless and beautiful and the best ballots anyone’s ever seen.

Trump explains that mail-in voting is rigged and corrupt, except on the many occasions when he does it, which are flawless and beautiful and the best ballots anyone’s ever seen.

Donald Trump stood up at an NRCC event and declared that mail-in ballots are a "way of cheating" — a bold stance from a guy who has repeatedly voted by mail himself. Apparently, when Trump does it, it’s patriotism; when anyone else does it, it’s fraud, rigging, and the deep state hiding in your mailbox. Projection remains the only part of his platform with consistent follow-through. This is the same playbook he ran in 2020: preemptively label legitimate votes as suspicious, then scream "stolen" if the numbers don’t go his way. It’s not about policy, it’s about building a ready-made excuse to reject any election he doesn’t win and training his base to distrust the basic mechanics of democracy. If you were looking for a subtle, responsible defense of the franchise, you accidentally tuned into the guy who tried to overthrow the last election.
#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

federal housing czar moonlights as trump’s personal revenge paralegal

Letitia James on screen, while somewhere in Washington a Trump appointee frantically prints out X posts and calls it a criminal case file.

Letitia James on screen, while somewhere in Washington a Trump appointee frantically prints out X posts and calls it a criminal case file.

Trump’s Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte has apparently decided his job description includes running opposition research for the boss, firing off not one but two new criminal referrals against New York Attorney General Letitia James after the Justice Department has already face-planted three times trying to prosecute her. The “evidence”? Stuff posted on X by MAGA lawyer/influencer Mike Davis, based on court documents from the already-collapsing criminal case against James in Virginia. Truly, our federal law enforcement system is now powered by quote-tweets.

Pulte is alleging that James committed insurance fraud by misrepresenting who lived in two Norfolk, Virginia homes and how often they were occupied, and has sent referrals to U.S. attorneys in Florida and Illinois, carefully chosen not because of any legal nexus, but because that’s where the insurers are based — and, coincidentally, where Trumpworld thinks they might find friendlier ears. James’ attorney Abbe Lowell notes that Trump and his “political enablers” are just renaming and refiling the same baseless accusations in a rolling vendetta, instead of, say, governing. Hard to argue when DOJ grand juries have already refused to indict her twice and a federal judge nuked the earlier case after finding Trump-appointed prosecutor Lindsey Halligan was unlawfully installed.

This flurry of referrals didn’t materialize in a vacuum: James is the one who sued Trump and the Trump Organization over more than 200 instances of fraud, winning a gigantic civil judgment that an appeals court later slashed as an “excessive fine” while still acknowledging, yes, the fraud was real. So the administration’s response is not "stop committing fraud" but "keep trying to criminally charge the prosecutor until something sticks." Pulte has also been churning out referrals against other Trump critics like Eric Swalwell, Adam Schiff, and Fed governor Lisa Cook, because nothing says “independent justice system” like a housing official acting as the president’s personal hitman with federal letterhead.

Source: nbcnews.com

#killing-democracy#lawlessness#retribution
killing democracy

trump tries to buy greenland, accidentally revives european social democracy

Artist’s impression of Trump pointing at a map and yelling, “Mine,” while Europe quietly restocks the blood banks.

Artist’s impression of Trump pointing at a map and yelling, “Mine,” while Europe quietly restocks the blood banks.

Donald Trump’s long-running fantasy of turning Greenland into Mar-a-Lago North has now escalated to the point where Denmark was literally flying in blood supplies in case the United States – the NATO ally – decided to invade. That’s not a war game, that’s a cry for help from a continent that just realized the guy with the nuclear codes thinks Risk is a policy manual.

The good news for Europe’s center-left is that Trump’s illegal, economically self-immolating war on Iran and his annexation fanfic are finally starting to rot the populist right’s sheen. Mette Frederiksen squeaks through in Denmark after running on the bold platform of “please don’t let the Americans take our giant ice rock,” while Marine Le Pen whiffs yet again in France and Giorgia Meloni gets smacked down by voters for trying to remodel Italy’s judiciary to White House specifications.

Meanwhile in Slovenia, a Trump-flavored opposition campaign allegedly enjoys a little foreign interference sparkle and still loses the tightest election in the country’s history, suggesting that the MAGA export model may be approaching its sell-by date. With Trump-made energy shocks hammering voters and the populist-right formula of militant nationalism plus tax cuts for rich guys named “Erik” starting to sour, European progressives suddenly look almost competent by comparison – which, in the Trump era, apparently counts as a political renaissance.

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#lawlessness#imperialism
killing democracy

trump loses his own backyard timeshare

Mar-a-Lago, seen here doubling as a war room, social club, and now the center of a district that just voted for literally anyone else.

Mar-a-Lago, seen here doubling as a war room, social club, and now the center of a district that just voted for literally anyone else.

Democrat Emily Gregory just walked into Florida House District 87, politely took the keys, and flipped the Republican seat that includes Mar-a-Lago — the place where Donald Trump has been casually directing wars like it's a themed dinner show. Trump endorsed GOP candidate Jon Maples, screamed into social media about it, even cast a ballot himself, and still watched his own backyard district go blue by 51% to 49%. The guy running American foreign policy from the pool deck can't even hold a state House seat containing his golf cart parking lot. This is now the 10th GOP-held state legislative seat Democrats have flipped since Trump’s second term began, while Republicans have flipped precisely zero. So yes, the man with approval ratings languishing in the high 30s who launched a wildly unpopular war with Iran from his beach club Situation Room is discovering a minor flaw in the "authoritarian strongman" brand: it helps if people actually like you. Democrats just proved they can win on Trump’s literal home turf, while he keeps proving that turning your private resort into a shadow government HQ is not, in fact, a long-term turnout strategy. Gregory ran on boring, real-life stuff like rising costs; Maples ran on the usual "business experience and tax cuts" PowerPoint, plus the coveted endorsement of the guy currently dragging his party’s numbers into the ocean. As Trump keeps treating Mar-a-Lago like a cross between a military bunker and a wedding venue, voters in his own district appear to have decided that maybe, just maybe, they’d like someone in office who isn’t trying to cosplay commander-in-chief from a gilded ballroom. Trump wanted a mandate from his backyard; he got an eviction notice instead.
#killing-democracy#losses
killing democracy

trump's magic endorsement shrinks to 23 sad little votes

Phil Berger stares into the middle distance, contemplating how six "BIG WINS" from Trump somehow turned into 23 very small losses.

Phil Berger stares into the middle distance, contemplating how six "BIG WINS" from Trump somehow turned into 23 very small losses.

Phil Berger, the top Republican in the North Carolina Senate and longtime architect of the state's hard-right makeover, just lost his primary by a grand total of 23 votes — with Donald Trump’s endorsement. After a recount confirmed that Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page beat him 13,135 to 13,112, Berger did the unthinkable for a modern Republican: he conceded reality.

This was not a clash between a moderate and a Trumpist. This was a contest between "I am fighting for the Trump agenda" and "I led Sheriffs for Trump." Trump tried to keep Page out of the race by praising him as "GREAT" and begging him to come to Washington instead of challenging Berger. Page responded by doing the most on-brand MAGA thing possible: ignoring Trump’s actual request and running anyway. Loyalty to Dear Leader now apparently includes steamrolling his stated preference.

Berger leaves behind a 15-year legacy of turning North Carolina into a test lab for gerrymandering, voter suppression, and right-wing power grabs, and his reward is getting politically shivved by a Trumpist sheriff in a primary decided by a couple dozen people who remembered to vote. Democracy remains barely functional in at least one corner of the GOP universe, but only as a tool for deciding which authoritarian-adjacent Republican gets to carry the banner in November.

Source: nbcnews.com

#killing-democracy#fascism