The Trump Presidency Is Going Great

The Trump Presidency Is Going Great

Documenting the chaos since day one — one awful day at a time.

4,856entries documented
+16added in last 24h
+167this week
Nov 2024covering since
Category: killing democracy

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

killing democracy

democrats discover they actually own some levers of power

Democratic leaders stare at a stack of unused constitutional tools like it’s an IKEA manual written in Latin while Trump’s police-state fantasy gets fast-tracked by the Supreme Court’s shadow docket.

Democratic leaders stare at a stack of unused constitutional tools like it’s an IKEA manual written in Latin while Trump’s police-state fantasy gets fast-tracked by the Supreme Court’s shadow docket.

Democrats, we are told, are sitting on a dusty, 19th‑century constitutional flamethrower while Trump builds a police-state ICE apparatus and the Supreme Court’s conservative bloc cosplays as “neutral umpires” on the shadow docket. Sidney Blumenthal politely reminds Team Blue that state legislatures can pass formal instructions and resolutions to put members of Congress and local Republicans on record about Trump’s authoritarian immigration crackdown and his open hostility to free and fair elections. You know, actual structural pressure instead of another fundraising email about “democracy on the ballot.” Instead of just watching as Trump’s DOJ and ICE run wild and the Court quietly rubber‑stamps his power grabs in unsigned midnight orders, Democratic trifecta states could hold hearings, drag witnesses into the spotlight, force Republicans to vote on whether they’re cool with a budding police state, and then march those resolutions straight to Washington. The numbers are not small: hundreds of GOP state legislators and dozens of House members in blue or mixed states could be squeezed between the frothing MAGA base and a general electorate that’s increasingly horrified by Trump’s tactics. The article even walks through Pennsylvania, where Josh Shapiro is popular, the GOP holds the state senate by a thread, and several swing House seats depend on Hispanic voters who have turned sharply against Trump’s ICE cosplay. In other words, there is a blueprint for using state power to resist an administration that treats the Constitution like a nondisclosure agreement. Whether Democrats choose to wield it or just workshop another “Democracy Dies If You Don’t Donate $7” subject line is, tragically, still an open question.
theguardian.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

trump demands $1bn from harvard for the crime of not obeying trump

Harvard University, moments before being rebranded as Trump National Patriotic Real University & Casino.

Harvard University, moments before being rebranded as Trump National Patriotic Real University & Casino.

Trump has decided that the appropriate way to handle campus antisemitism concerns is not, say, funding education or security, but shaking down Harvard University for $1 billion in "damages" because it won’t let the federal government run its curriculum like a MAGA school board. After the New York Times reported that the administration had backed off an earlier $200m settlement demand, Trump hopped on Truth Social to declare that, actually, they now want five times more and "nothing further to do" with Harvard. Apart from the part where he keeps trying to control it, obviously. This comes after his administration already tried to cancel $2.2bn in research grants, threatened $9bn in federal funding, demanded the end of DEI programs, ordered the snitching of international students, and even moved to block Harvard from enrolling foreign students altogether. A federal judge has already ruled that one of those little tantrums was unlawful, which naturally prompted the White House to appeal and then escalate the ransom note from $500m to $1bn. Harvard, for its part, is suing to stop the administration from "gain[ing] control of academic decision-making"—a phrase that, in healthier democracies, would be a red flag, not official policy. So the sitting president is now openly treating a private university like a hostile takeover target, using the federal government as his litigation department and research budgets as the crowbar. But sure, tell us more about how this is all about protecting Jewish students and not about turning higher education into a loyalty test for Alan Dershowitz and Turning Point USA.
theguardian.comSource ArticleAlso: nbcnews.comAlso: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy
killing democracy

dni tulsi auditions to be trump’s election cop

DNI Tulsi Gabbard, seen here workshopping new ways to merge U.S. intelligence, local election offices, and presidential ego into one seamless constitutional migraine.

DNI Tulsi Gabbard, seen here workshopping new ways to merge U.S. intelligence, local election offices, and presidential ego into one seamless constitutional migraine.

Tulsi Gabbard, now somehow the director of national intelligence in this timeline, decided that the best use of the nation’s top spy chief was to physically hover around an FBI search of a Fulton County election hub looking at 2020 records. She then helpfully dialed up Donald Trump so he could personally chat with the agents doing the search, which we’re told was just so he could say thank you, like a totally normal president who definitely hasn’t been ranting about “getting into the votes.” Absolutely no pressure on law enforcement there at all. Gabbard insists this was all “well within” her authority, because when the law says the DNI can lead counterintelligence on election security, it obviously means “show up at local election raids and act as the president’s concierge.” She also refused to brief Congress beforehand, claiming she didn’t want to “irresponsibly share incomplete assessments,” which is a poetic way of saying: oversight is for suckers. Meanwhile, DOJ’s Todd Blanche is on TV trying to explain that she “wasn’t at the search, just in the area,” and that she’s not part of the investigation, except that Trump wants her on the team investigating election integrity. National security experts are pointing out that the DNI is legally barred from domestic law enforcement and that this sort of stunt is “highly unusual”, which is Washington code for “what the hell are you doing.” Fulton County is now planning to sue the Trump administration, because of course it is. So we’ve got the intelligence chief at a local election raid, the president calling agents on scene, a legal justification written in crayon by ODNI’s own lawyers, and a case about old 2020 ballots that Trump keeps publicly hyping. America’s elections are safe and secure — just as long as they survive the federal government’s attempts to ‘protect’ them.
nbcnews.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: bbc.com
#killing-democracy#lawlessness#forever-grifting
killing democracy

judge explains haitians are doctors and engineers, not trump’s racist fan fiction

Kristi Noem, Homeland Security Secretary and part-time phrenologist, explaining that a neuroscientist and a registered nurse are actually "leeches" while a federal judge quietly reacquaints her with the concept of equal protection.

Kristi Noem, Homeland Security Secretary and part-time phrenologist, explaining that a neuroscientist and a registered nurse are actually "leeches" while a federal judge quietly reacquaints her with the concept of equal protection.

The Trump administration’s latest attempt at mass human disposal hit a small snag called "the law" after Judge Ana Reyes blocked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem from yanking Temporary Protected Status from up to 350,000 Haitians. Noem had apparently decided that people fleeing a collapsed state wracked by gangs and displacement were actually "killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies" – a description that, awkwardly, turned out to fit the administration’s moral compass better than the plaintiffs.

Reyes, in an 83-page opinion that sounded a lot like "have you people met the Constitution?", pointed out that the Haitian TPS holders in front of her were not Noem’s cartoon villains, but a neuroscientist researching Alzheimer’s, a software engineer at a national bank, a toxicology lab assistant, a college economics major, and a full-time registered nurse. She also noted it was "substantially likely" that Noem’s decision was preordained by "hostility to nonwhite immigrants" – legalese for "this was a racist stunt in search of a justification."

For now, the termination is "null, void, and of no legal effect," which is also a solid working description of this administration’s moral authority. Meanwhile, the same crew has been busy canceling protections for about 600,000 Venezuelans, 60,000 people from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal, more than 160,000 Ukrainians, and thousands from Afghanistan and Cameroon – all while insisting this is about "security" and not a mass deportation fantasy dreamed up by people who think the Statue of Liberty should carry an AR-15 and a homeowner’s association rulebook.

Attorneys for the Haitian TPS holders warned that if Noem’s termination stands, "people will almost certainly die" – from killing, disease, or starvation. The administration’s position, boiled down, is that this is an acceptable outcome so long as Fox & Friends gets a good segment out of it. The judiciary, for the moment, disagrees. Enjoy the stay of execution while it lasts.

theguardian.comSource Article
#killing-democracy#racism#anti-immigration

Monday, February 2, 2026

killing democracy

arsonist urges firefighters to hurry up already

Trump, having discovered that shutdowns are unpopular outside his rally merch tent, bravely calls for an end to the crisis his own party keeps manufacturing.

Trump, having discovered that shutdowns are unpopular outside his rally merch tent, bravely calls for an end to the crisis his own party keeps manufacturing.

Trump is now publicly urging Congress to pass a deal to end the partial government shutdown "without delay," which is a bold message from the guy whose entire political brand is breaking the machinery of government and then demanding applause when he stops hitting it with a hammer. After spending years normalizing shutdowns as a bargaining chip and turning federal workers into unpaid extras in his political hostage drama, he’s suddenly discovered urgency.

Speaker Mike Johnson is out doing his best "don’t worry, dad’s got this" routine, saying he’s confident the shutdown will end by Tuesday, while Republicans simultaneously wage yet another performative fight over DHS funding. So we get the usual GOP two-step: use national security as a prop, shut down the government over it, then claim Democrats are the ones endangering Americans. Strong family values, if your family is a crime syndicate.

Meanwhile, Democrats like Ro Khanna are saying they’re a firm no on reopening the government under yet another bad DHS deal, because apparently someone in the building remembers that governing is not supposed to mean "sign whatever the hostage-takers demand." Trump gets to posture as the dealmaker begging for resolution, Republicans get to keep breaking things, and millions of Americans get to learn, again, that their paychecks and basic services are just background scenery in the MAGA cinematic universe.
nbcnews.comSource ArticleAlso: bbc.comAlso: npr.org
#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
killing democracy

trump loses another war against the scary windmills

Artist’s impression of the grave national security threat: some wind turbines standing 30 miles offshore, menacing radar screens and the delicate ego of one very loud golf enthusiast.

Artist’s impression of the grave national security threat: some wind turbines standing 30 miles offshore, menacing radar screens and the delicate ego of one very loud golf enthusiast.

The Trump administration’s crusade against offshore wind just took another legal faceplant. A federal judge cleared Ørsted’s Sunrise Wind project off New York to move forward, making it the fifth and final offshore wind farm to get court permission to ignore Trump’s December "national security" freeze. Apparently, when you arbitrarily halt multibillion‑dollar infrastructure because the ex-president thinks turbines are ugly, judges eventually notice.

Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that losing access to specialized installation vessels and delaying construction is "irreparable harm"—a concept that somehow eludes the people currently running the Interior Department, who are still hiding behind classified "radar interference" claims while refusing to explain anything in public. Ørsted, which has already sunk more than $7bn into Sunrise Wind, is resuming work immediately but keeping its lawsuit alive, because nothing says stable investment climate like having to sue the U.S. government every time Trump remembers he hates windmills.

Meanwhile, analysts warn that even with the construction freeze lifted, the project now faces a "very difficult and turbulent period" thanks to ongoing Trump obstruction. Sunrise Wind is already about 45% complete and is supposed to power nearly 600,000 homes starting as soon as October—assuming the administration doesn’t invent a new emergency about how offshore turbines might be sending secret love letters to Chinese weather balloons. American energy policy, once again, is being made at the intersection of personal vendetta and executive overreach.
theguardian.comSource Article
#killing-democracy#anti-science
killing democracy

trump’s weaponization czar quietly shuffled to the pardon factory

Ed Martin, seen here auditioning for the role of Chief Revenge Officer, before being reassigned to the presidential absolution punch card desk.

Ed Martin, seen here auditioning for the role of Chief Revenge Officer, before being reassigned to the presidential absolution punch card desk.

The man Trump put in charge of the Justice Department’s "Weaponization Working Group" — a special little revenge squad tasked with going after prosecutors who dared investigate Trump and his buddies — is suddenly not in that job anymore, NBC reports. Ed Martin, a Jan. 6 apologist who openly promised to "name" and "shame" people the DOJ couldn’t actually charge with crimes, is apparently no longer leading the group. Which is awkward, because publicly smearing non-charged individuals is a blatant violation of long-standing DOJ norms, but an excellent fit for Trump’s justice-by-Truth-Social model. Don’t worry, though: Martin hasn’t been exiled, he’s just been promoted to a different part of the loyalty rewards program. A DOJ spokesman says he "continues to do a great job" as pardon attorney — you know, the guy who helps decide which friends, allies, and useful political martyrs get official forgiveness from the same government they tried to overturn. Martin was already wearing both hats after Republicans balked at making him U.S. attorney for D.C., so Trump simply made him pardon attorney and director of the weaponization group by executive order, while handing the actual D.C. U.S. attorney job to former Fox host Jeanine Pirro. Because if you’re going to dismantle rule of law, you might as well let cable news alumni and activist cronies drive. The working group’s mission reads like Trump’s personal enemies list: former Special Counsel Jack Smith, any federal cooperation with Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg over the hush money case, Jan. 6 prosecutions, and cases against anti-abortion activists. It’s a state-run grievance committee masquerading as oversight. Now the guy who wanted to run public shaming campaigns against people he couldn’t indict is parked in the pardon office, while no one will say who’s currently steering the weaponization ship. Fascism, but make it HR-compliant.
nbcnews.comSource Article
#killing-democracy#fascism#lawlessness
killing democracy

trump tests new idea: democracy without counting people

Census worker’s bag from 2020, back when the government still pretended counting everyone was the goal and not just the people Team Trump finds demographically convenient.

Census worker’s bag from 2020, back when the government still pretended counting everyone was the goal and not just the people Team Trump finds demographically convenient.

The Trump administration has discovered a bold new innovation in representative democracy: don’t actually test how to count people. The Census Bureau’s 2026 operational test for the 2030 census is being dramatically downsized from six states and a national sample to just two sites — Spartanburg, S.C., and Huntsville, Ala. Rural communities in western Texas and multiple tribal lands in Arizona and North Carolina have been quietly dropped, because why waste precious resources accurately counting people who aren’t big fans of authoritarian cosplay?

To really drive home the commitment to accuracy, the administration is also killing plans for Spanish- and Chinese-language online forms, leaving the test in English only. So the communities that are historically undercounted will now be scientifically under-tested as well. At the same time, the White House wants to experiment with replacing trained temporary census workers with already-overloaded USPS staff — because if there’s one institution Trump-world hasn’t finished kneecapping yet, it’s the Postal Service.

Meanwhile, the Census Bureau has refused to brief the members of Congress who are supposed to oversee it, and the administration has disbanded all of the bureau’s outside advisory committees, effectively pulling what one expert calls a “black-out shade” over 2030 planning. Translation: they’re messing with the machinery that decides political representation and hundreds of billions in federal funding, and they’d prefer you not watch while they do it. It’s less a census test and more a dry run for how far they can push voter dilution and structural minority rule before anyone manages to turn the lights back on.

npr.orgSource Article
#killing-democracy#racism#forever-grifting
killing democracy

trump doj releases half the epstein files, calls it transparency

Todd Blanche explaining that releasing half the Epstein files with 10,000 redactions is actually what "full transparency" looks like now.

Todd Blanche explaining that releasing half the Epstein files with 10,000 redactions is actually what "full transparency" looks like now.

The Trump justice department has announced, with a straight face, that the Epstein investigation is now "over" after dumping 3 million pages of documents and declaring victory, while quietly sitting on another 3 million. Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche insists "we have nothing to hide"—they're just refusing to release half the records, blacking out thousands of names, and ignoring both a congressional subpoena and a federal law that explicitly told them to hand everything over. Totally normal behavior for an administration that keeps insisting the whole Epstein thing is a "Democrat hoax" while Trump’s own name shows up in the files. Democrats like Jamie Raskin, Hakeem Jeffries, and Ro Khanna, plus Republican Thomas Massie (who apparently missed the memo that you’re not supposed to investigate rich predators in this country), are pointing out the obvious: this looks a lot less like transparency and a lot more like a state-sponsored damage control operation for the elite. Survivors are furious that their names were accidentally exposed while the powerful men they say abused them are still buried under redactions and missing documents. Lawyers for more than 200 victims are now in court asking DOJ to take down its document site because the department managed to produce what may be "the single most egregious violation of victim privacy in one day in US history"—but sure, tell us more about how this is all about justice. Meanwhile, Massie is being punished by his own party for the unforgivable sin of wanting "rich men perp walked in handcuffs"—a standard that, if ever actually applied, would turn half of Mar-a-Lago into a work-release program. As Republicans try to bounce him off the ballot for demanding Epstein transparency and Trump yells "hoax" into the void, the Trump administration is doing what it does best: weaponizing the federal government to protect friends, punish dissenters, and bury anything that might threaten the golden boys of America’s ruling class. Elite impunity remains undefeated; the rule of law, not so much.
theguardian.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#lawlessness
killing democracy

president extremely mad that jokes still legal

Trevor Noah on stage at the Grammys, moments before the president of the United States decided the biggest threat to the republic was a joke about Epstein and an island he swears he never visited.

Trevor Noah on stage at the Grammys, moments before the president of the United States decided the biggest threat to the republic was a joke about Epstein and an island he swears he never visited.

Donald Trump watched the Grammys, heard Trevor Noah make one Epstein joke, and immediately decided the real crime in America is defamation against Donald Trump. After Noah quipped that Trump needed Greenland since "Epstein's island is gone" and he needs a new place to hang with Bill Clinton, the president jumped onto Truth Social to call Noah a "poor, pathetic, talentless dope" and promised to sic his lawyers on him for "plenty$"—because nothing says "totally innocent and not defensive at all" like threatening to sue over an awards-show punchline.

Trump insisted he has "never been to Epstein Island" and, more importantly, had never even been accused of it "not even by the Fake News Media"—which is a very normal thing for a president to angrily clarify during the Grammys. Meanwhile, the crowd and artists spent the night denouncing his anti-immigrant policies, wearing anti-ICE pins, and reminding the country that "no one is illegal on stolen land", which probably didn’t help his mood as he live-posted through being publicly clowned.

This tantrum slots neatly into the broader second-term project: punishing comedians and media that dare to mock Dear Leader. Stephen Colbert’s show is being axed by CBS after he criticized the company for settling a $16m lawsuit with Trump (totally unrelated, they swear), Jimmy Kimmel got suspended by Disney and briefly had the president lobbying the FCC to yank ABC’s license, and Bari Weiss now oversees CBS’s rightward drift while Trump cheers the Grammys getting booted from the network as "garbage". The message is clear: criticize Trump and you might lose your show; joke about Trump and Epstein and he’ll threaten to sue you personally.

Noah, on his way out after six years hosting, responded to the outrage in real time: "It’s my last year! What are you gonna do about it?" The president has answered: deploy the lawyers, weaponize the chill, and keep testing how far a White House can go in treating mockery as a legal offense. Free speech is still technically alive; it’s just being sued, canceled, and harassed by the guy who swore an oath to protect it.

theguardian.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

trump threatens fed, gold investors discover gravity

Kevin Warsh, photographed moments before being informed his new job is "trying to keep the Fed independent while Trump live-tweets rate policy."

Kevin Warsh, photographed moments before being informed his new job is "trying to keep the Fed independent while Trump live-tweets rate policy."

Global markets just had a minor heart attack because everyone has spent weeks assuming Donald Trump was about to stuff the Federal Reserve with a MAGA mascot who'd cut rates whenever he got bored on Truth Social. Gold and silver had been blasting through record highs as investors fled into "safe havens" from the terrifying prospect of Trump turning the Fed into his personal campaign ATM. Then Trump announced he’d nominate Kevin Warsh, an actual central banker with real Fed experience and a reputation for not being a total pushover. Cue an 8% plunge in gold, a 7% drop in silver, and a bunch of traders suddenly realizing they might have slightly overpaid for their apocalypse bunker metals. One analyst politely translated this as "relief that a Trump cheerleader would not be installed" — Washington-speak for "we were all bracing for a loyalist who’d torch Fed independence on command." Bitcoin, oil, copper, platinum — basically the entire speculative panic buffet — also slid as tensions with Iran might be easing and markets recalibrated from "Trump breaks Fed" to "Trump only threatens to break Fed this quarter." Deutsche Bank still thinks gold can hit $6,000 this year, which is a fun forecast that doubles as a confidence poll on whether Trump will keep menacing monetary policy until investors start stockpiling bullion again. The underlying message: as long as Trump is hovering over the Fed like a raccoon over a trash can, nobody believes institutional stability is more than a temporary condition.
theguardian.comSource Article
#killing-democracy#money
killing democracy

trump nationalizes the arts, installs himself as head usher

Artist’s rendering of the Kennedy Center’s future: same building, 400% more gold letters and one very confused bust of JFK wondering how he ended up opening for Donald Trump.

Artist’s rendering of the Kennedy Center’s future: same building, 400% more gold letters and one very confused bust of JFK wondering how he ended up opening for Donald Trump.

Trump has decided that the Kennedy Center — the nation’s performing arts memorial to a murdered president — is "tired, broken, and dilapidated," which is bold talk from the guy whose brand is gold-plated bankruptcy. Having already stacked the Kennedy Center board with handpicked loyalists, made himself chair, stripped out Pride events, and jammed his name in front of John F. Kennedy’s on the façade, he’s now announcing a two-year shutdown for renovations, effective July 4. Because nothing screams "respect for institutions" like shuttering them on Independence Day. The funding, Trump assures us, is "completed, and fully in place" — from where, he declines to say, and the White House is suddenly very shy. The Kennedy Center itself isn’t commenting either, possibly because they found out about their two-year closure the same way the rest of us did: a Truth Social post citing "Contractors, Musical Experts, Art Institutions, and other Advisors and Consultants" — a phrase that reads like it was generated by an AI trained exclusively on Mar-a-Lago brunch conversations. Meanwhile, the actual arts community has responded the only way it can: by fleeing. Since the board voted to staple Trump’s name over Kennedy’s, artists have been canceling in droves. Stephen Schwartz bailed on hosting a Washington National Opera gala, and the opera itself has now left the building after more than 50 years. One of the board’s ex officio members, Rep. Joyce Beatty, is suing the administration over the renaming, arguing that you can’t just rebrand a congressionally created memorial like it’s another failed Trump casino. But sure, let’s lock the whole place down for two years of mystery-financed "renovations" under a board that already turned a national cultural institution into a MAGA vanity project. When it finally reopens for the promised "Grand Reopening," don’t be surprised if the nation’s performing arts center looks less like a living tribute to American culture and more like a very large, very tacky campaign rally venue with better acoustics.
nbcnews.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#forever-grifting

Sunday, February 1, 2026

killing democracy

loser endorses man who called him a loser

John Sununu, seen here discovering that calling Trump a "loser" is fine as long as you later agree he’s your dear leader and job reference.

John Sununu, seen here discovering that calling Trump a "loser" is fine as long as you later agree he’s your dear leader and job reference.

Donald Trump has bestowed his "Complete and Total Endorsement" on former senator John Sununu in the New Hampshire Senate race, because nothing says strong movement like a twice-impeached, insurrection-adjacent ex-president handpicking who’s allowed to run in a supposedly independent party primary. Sununu once wrote an op-ed calling Trump a "loser" while backing Nikki Haley, but in MAGA world, all sins are forgiven as long as you’re willing to carry the "America First" banner and pretend the cult leader is still the main character of American politics.

Democrat Chris Pappas responded by simply reposting Trump’s endorsement and saying he "approves this message," which is what you do when your opponent voluntarily brands himself as Trump’s franchise location in New Hampshire. Meanwhile, Scott Brown — former Massachusetts senator, Trump ambassador, and now rejected applicant for the MAGA loyalty badge — bravely announced he will "keep working," which here means running against both Sununu and the reality that Trump owns the GOP like another failed casino.

The RNC dutifully declared the race a top priority, thrilled that the party’s Senate strategy still boils down to: wait for Trump to pick a favorite, call it grassroots energy, and hope voters don’t notice the entire process is being run like a licensing deal for the "America First" trademark. Representative democracy, but with brand management.

nbcnews.comSource Article
#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

fbi raid, because trump still can't get over 2020

FBI agents hauling away boxes of Georgia ballots, bravely protecting America from the grave threat of Trump losing an election six years ago.

FBI agents hauling away boxes of Georgia ballots, bravely protecting America from the grave threat of Trump losing an election six years ago.

While ICE was busy turning Minneapolis into a campaign ad, another arm of Trump’s authoritarian fan fiction government was at work in Georgia. The FBI raided Fulton County’s central election facility and walked out with more than 700 boxes of 2020 ballots and election records, because nothing says "law and order" like using federal law enforcement to chase down your hurt feelings from four years ago. This is the first time in American history the FBI has seized ballots from a past election, but sure, tell us more about how it’s really about “election integrity.” To really underline that this is about raw power, not security, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard showed up in person, because apparently the nation’s top intelligence official now moonlights as Trump’s personal ballot repo agent. The warrant vacuumed up everything: tabulator tapes, ballot images from the original count and recount, absentee and early voting records, voter rolls — the whole thing Trump has been obsessively lying about since he begged Brad Raffensperger to "find" him votes. Every claim he made about Georgia fraud has already been repeatedly debunked, so naturally the solution is to send in the FBI and pretend it’s 2020 forever. Trump has openly said he regrets not ordering the National Guard to seize voting machines in 2020 because they weren’t "sophisticated" enough. Enter the FBI. Now he’s on Truth Social screaming "TRUMP WON BIG" and promising prosecutions, while his DOJ argues it has "sweeping power" to grab election records from states. In other words, the federal government will keep elections "free and fair" until they produce a result Trump likes. The Fulton County raid isn’t about the past; it’s a warning shot for 2026: cooperate with the narrative or watch your ballots disappear into a federal evidence locker. State officials like Maine’s Shenna Bellows are basically reduced to saying, "I have the key and he’s not getting our ballots," which is where we are now: democracy defended by whoever still controls the padlock. The ICE invasion of Minneapolis shows how Trump plans to police people; the FBI raid in Georgia shows how he plans to police votes. Different agencies, same message: the law is whatever serves the president’s grievances today.
theguardian.comSource ArticleAlso: nbcnews.comAlso: nbcnews.com
#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

stable genius explains nato to guy who lost his leg there

British Marines sprint toward Taliban positions in Helmand, bravely failing to meet Donald Trump’s standard of "a little back, a little off the front lines."

British Marines sprint toward Taliban positions in Helmand, bravely failing to meet Donald Trump’s standard of "a little back, a little off the front lines."

Donald Trump has discovered a bold new strategy for global security: tell the people who bled for you that they actually hung out "a little back, a little off the front lines." Lance Cpl. Cassidy Little, who left his right leg somewhere in Helmand and watched his friends die pushing into territory "not yet controlled by NATO," apparently just imagined being so far forward he couldn't even see the front line behind him. Trump, whose most dangerous deployment was to the buffet at Mar-a-Lago, has thoughts. NATO’s only-ever Article 5 mission — the one where over 1,000 allied troops from more than 25 countries died after answering America’s 9/11 call — is now, in Trump’s retelling, a half-hearted group project where everyone else slacked off and the U.S. did all the work. Veterans from Britain, Estonia, Denmark, Canada and more remember it slightly differently, probably because they were busy getting blown up instead of rage-posting on Truth Social. After managing to offend basically the entire United Kingdom, from Prince Harry to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump tried the classic "praise the troops, change none of the substance" maneuver, calling British soldiers "among the greatest of all warriors" while carefully not apologizing or acknowledging all the other dead allies. So the message to NATO is clear: We heard the call, we came running, and now we’re being told we were late, lazy, and standing in the wrong place. Truly a masterclass in alliance management from the guy who thinks threatening to abandon mutual defense is a negotiating tactic, not an engraved invitation to the next war.
nbcnews.comSource Article
#killing-democracy#national-security#fascism
killing democracy

texas voters briefly remember democracy is an option

The Texas Capitol, where Republicans just got a gentle reminder that permanent one-party rule isn’t actually in the state constitution.

The Texas Capitol, where Republicans just got a gentle reminder that permanent one-party rule isn’t actually in the state constitution.

In a plot twist no one at Mar-a-Lago focus group headquarters saw coming, Democrat Taylor Rehmet just flipped a Trump +17 Texas state Senate district by more than 14 points, because nothing says "mandate for authoritarian rule" like losing a blood-red seat to a union guy with a toolbox. This is a district Republicans have hugged tightly for decades, but apparently even Fort Worth-area voters have their limits on culture war cosplay and billionaire tax cuts.

Trump personally jumped onto his vanity social media app to boost Republican Leigh Wambsganss, calling her a "successful entrepreneur" and "incredible" MAGA loyalist, which turned out to be the electoral equivalent of a curse. Meanwhile, Rehmet — an Air Force veteran and machinist — ran on boring, dangerous ideas like lowering costs, funding public schools, and protecting jobs, and somehow that beat "more Trump, but from Austin." Democrats, already on a streak of special-election overperformance under Trump 2.0, are treating this as yet another neon warning sign that voters might not be fully on board with the whole slow-motion-democracy-strangulation project.

Rehmet only gets the seat until January unless he wins again in November, and the Texas GOP still holds a comfy majority, so no, this isn’t the part where the credits roll and everything is fine. But in a state where Republicans custom-ordered the maps and still managed to trip over their own gerrymander, a MAGA-branded candidate getting clobbered in a deep-red district is a useful reminder: you can suppress voters, you can rig districts, you can scream "fraud" into every microphone — but sometimes, people just walk into a voting booth and say, "actually, no."

npr.orgSource Article
#killing-democracy#losses

Saturday, January 31, 2026

killing democracy

europe decides trump’s america is bad, but not ‘skip the world cup’ bad

Germany’s DFB headquarters, where leaders courageously concluded that Trump’s travel bans, tariff threats, and protest crackdowns are troubling—but not nearly troubling enough to miss a single sponsored banner at the World Cup.

Germany’s DFB headquarters, where leaders courageously concluded that Trump’s travel bans, tariff threats, and protest crackdowns are troubling—but not nearly troubling enough to miss a single sponsored banner at the World Cup.

Germany’s football federation took a brave stand against authoritarianism by announcing that, after deep reflection on Donald Trump’s travel bans, threats of tariffs over his Greenland cosplay annexation bid, and his tear-gassing-protesters-for-photoshoot governing style, they have decided to… play the group stage in Houston, Toronto, and New Jersey. Because nothing says sending a message to Trump like absolutely not changing your plans at all.

DFB vice‑president Oke Göttlich briefly flirted with the radical notion that maybe holding a giant sports festival in a country busy menacing Europe, roughing up domestic protesters, and playing regime-change tourist in Venezuela might be a bad look. The federation swiftly smacked that down, insisting such debates should be held "internally"—in other words, behind closed doors where they can be safely ignored while everyone pretends football is magically separate from politics, visas, tariffs, and border guards with guns.

France chimed in with the same bold energy, saying there is currently “no desire” to boycott this “great competition,” though they graciously left the door open to caring later if things get even more on‑fire. Meanwhile, fans are staring down obscene ticket prices and Trump’s travel bans, which might bar some supporters from even entering the country. So the official line is: sport is unifying, politics should stay out of it, and if your fans can’t get past Trump’s border regime, well, at least the TV signal still crosses borders.

Fifa’s own disgraced ex‑lord Sepp Blatter is telling people not to travel to the US—when Sepp Blatter thinks your World Cup optics are too corrupt and unstable, that’s an achievement. But the DFB insists they’ll be there to “celebrate a peaceful festival of football,” apparently confident that Trump’s America will suspend the creeping police‑state vibes for 90 minutes at a time. The message to Trump is clear: keep undermining democracy and cracking down on dissent, just don’t touch the kickoff time.

theguardian.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#imperialism
killing democracy

government shuts down, deportation death squads keep the lights on

Congress turns out the lights on half the government while making sure ICE’s $75bn deportation slush fund stays plugged in—priorities, people.

Congress turns out the lights on half the government while making sure ICE’s $75bn deportation slush fund stays plugged in—priorities, people.

Congress has shut down chunks of the federal government again, but don’t worry: Trump’s deportation machine is fully funded and ready to kill more Americans. After federal agents gunned down Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis—during a Trump-ordered surge of immigration agents—Democrats decided maybe, just maybe, it was time to ask that armed federal officers not roam American cities like masked paramilitaries. The ask? No masks, mandatory body cameras, an actual code of conduct, independent investigations when agents kill people, and a ban on "roving patrols" that amount to "you look foreign, get in the van." In other words, basic 21st-century policing standards. The response from the Trump GOP: better to partially shut down defense, education, labor, health, transportation, and housing than mildly inconvenience the president’s pet deportation squads. Because nothing says "law and order" like blocking rules that might stop your agents from shooting citizens. Meanwhile, House Republicans—clinging to a one-seat majority and a full-size persecution complex—are trying to strap the "Save Act" voter-ID suppression scheme onto the funding bill, just to make sure that while ICE keeps its $75bn war chest from last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, fewer Americans can actually vote against the people running this clown show. And in case anyone wondered what gets protected in a Trump-era shutdown: health care subsidies for regular people quietly died at the end of 2025, but deportations roll on, agents can be forced to work through the shutdown, and the only thing the White House is really worried about is keeping the mass removal conveyor belt humming. So the government pauses, but the authoritarian core functions—militarized immigration raids, voter suppression demands, and total impunity for federal agents who kill citizens—keep right on operating. Trump’s America: where your subsidies expire, your government closes, but the deportation death squads are an essential service.
theguardian.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#anti-immigration#lawlessness
killing democracy

trump upgrades jobs numbers from 'rigged' to 'fixed'

Trump explaining that the real unemployment problem is too many statisticians who won’t lie for him.

Trump explaining that the real unemployment problem is too many statisticians who won’t lie for him.

Donald Trump, still mad that math refuses to pledge personal loyalty, has now nominated Brett Matsumoto to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics — the same agency whose commissioner he personally fired hours after a bad jobs report. Back in August, Trump declared the data "rigged" and implied Erika McEntarfer cooked the numbers "for political purposes," because nothing says "independent statistics" like the president decapitating the agency when the line on the chart points the wrong way. This comes after the administration’s first genius idea: nominating Heritage Foundation/Project 2025 warrior E.J. Antoni, whose qualifications included attacking BLS and being a self-described Jan. 6 "bystander" at the Capitol. That nomination had to be yanked once it turned out installing a coup-adjacent ideologue to control jobs data was a tiny bit on-the-nose. Now we get Matsumoto, a career economist everyone insists is "unbiased" — which is exactly what you want to hear after the president has already demonstrated he’ll fire anyone whose spreadsheets make him look bad. In other words, the message to every civil servant crunching numbers is clear: produce data that reflects reality, and you’re accused of rigging it and tossed out; produce data that flatters Dear Leader, and suddenly you’re a "Brilliant, Reputable, and Trusted Economist" on Truth Social. But sure, let’s all pretend this is just a normal nomination and not another step in turning official economic statistics into campaign literature.
nbcnews.comSource Article
#killing-democracy#fascism#forever-grifting

Friday, January 30, 2026

killing democracy

trump doj discovers bold new civil right: freedom from criticism

Don Lemon being led away in cuffs so the Trump administration can finally experience the sweet, sweet freedom of never being filmed doing anything wrong.

Don Lemon being led away in cuffs so the Trump administration can finally experience the sweet, sweet freedom of never being filmed doing anything wrong.

Don Lemon, former CNN anchor and current full-time Trump nemesis, was arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles for the unthinkable crime of … filming a protest in a Minnesota church. The Trump justice department is charging him and three others with civil rights crimes for allegedly interfering with religious freedom — because nothing says "defending the Constitution" like using civil rights law as a club against journalists who film protests against ICE.

Abbe Lowell, Lemon’s lawyer, noted that a federal magistrate judge already looked at this and basically said: "you’ve got nothing" — twice. So naturally, Pam Bondi’s DOJ did what any healthy democracy would do: got enraged, vowed to "pursue this to the ends of the Earth" on Megyn Kelly’s show, then sent the feds back in anyway. Meanwhile, independent journalist Georgia Fort was also arrested for the radical act of holding a camera, and press freedom groups are calling this what it obviously is: a "naked attack" on the First Amendment.

The White House responded with the seriousness the moment demanded by posting on X: "When life gives you Lemons" with a chain emoji — because nothing screams "not a police state" like the president’s official account openly celebrating the arrest of a journalist. Top Democrats called it authoritarian, a "police state" move, and "pure authoritarian bile", which is Washington-speak for "this is what we used to condemn in other countries." But sure, tell us again how this is the administration bravely defending religious liberty and civil rights — by arresting the press after a judge already said there was no evidence of a crime.

Trump, ever the neutral observer, called Lemon a "loser, lightweight" and denounced his walk into the church as "terrible" while praising the pastor as a victim of being "accosted" by people with cameras. In other words, the DOJ has been repurposed from "justice" to "Department of Vengeance", civil rights law now protects you from being criticized, and journalists are being hauled off in chains to send a message. But don’t worry, democracy is doing great.

theguardian.comSource ArticleAlso: theguardian.comAlso: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#fascism#lawlessness