The Trump Presidency Timeline
Documenting the chaos since day one. 1019 entries and counting.
national security
foreign policy live from the mar-a-lago buffet line
Trump, live from the world’s tackiest command center, explains that Iran ‘may be behaving badly’—unlike the U.S., which only tears up treaties and threatens wars for sport.
Trump popped up on NBC to announce that "Iran may be behaving badly," which is a bold statement from a guy whose own foreign policy record is a highlight reel of shredded treaties and impulsive drone strikes. From the comfort of Mar-a-Lago — America’s least secure Situation Room and most expensive members-only food court — he warned Iran against building up weapons, as if the entire world hasn’t watched him spend years nuking U.S. credibility on arms control and diplomacy.
In other words, the man who unilaterally torched the Iran nuclear deal is now back on TV warning that Iran might be doing exactly what experts said they’d do after he torched the Iran nuclear deal. Because nothing says ‘serious statesman’ like blowing up the one agreement actually constraining a nuclear program and then acting shocked that the guardrails are gone. But sure, let’s all pretend this is a coherent strategy and not just another episode of ‘Grievance Theater’ filmed live at his golf resort.
Meanwhile, the whole performance fits neatly into the ongoing project of running U.S. foreign policy as a personal branding exercise: tough talk for the cameras, zero consistency, and maximum chaos for everyone who has to clean up after him. America’s institutions burned their credibility to enable this once, and here we are again, watching him freelance nuclear-adjacent threats between meetings with Netanyahu at the cabana bar.
In other words, the man who unilaterally torched the Iran nuclear deal is now back on TV warning that Iran might be doing exactly what experts said they’d do after he torched the Iran nuclear deal. Because nothing says ‘serious statesman’ like blowing up the one agreement actually constraining a nuclear program and then acting shocked that the guardrails are gone. But sure, let’s all pretend this is a coherent strategy and not just another episode of ‘Grievance Theater’ filmed live at his golf resort.
Meanwhile, the whole performance fits neatly into the ongoing project of running U.S. foreign policy as a personal branding exercise: tough talk for the cameras, zero consistency, and maximum chaos for everyone who has to clean up after him. America’s institutions burned their credibility to enable this once, and here we are again, watching him freelance nuclear-adjacent threats between meetings with Netanyahu at the cabana bar.
Source: nbcnews.com
#national-security#killing-democracy#full-stupid
killing democracy
trump cuts $11bn from aid, tosses $2bn back and calls it reform
A family in a makeshift Gaza tent, thoughtfully excluded from Trump’s new, more ‘efficient’ model of who deserves to eat.
The US just announced a shiny new $2bn humanitarian package through a "new model" with the UN, which sounds very impressive until you notice the fine print: Washington's total UN humanitarian contributions crashed from $17.2bn in 2022 to about $3.38bn in 2025. In other words, Trump took a sledgehammer to global aid, then showed up with a roll of duct tape and a press release about efficiency and accountability.
Under the new setup, the UN's humanitarian office gets to manage the money, but the US gets to decide which countries are "priority" enough to be saved this year. Yemen, Afghanistan, and Gaza — all places with catastrophic humanitarian crises — are not on that priority list. But don’t worry, says UN aid chief Tom Fletcher, they'll go around with a begging bowl to other donors for those inconvenient wars and blockades.
State Department under secretary Jeremy Lewin cheerfully explains that these are just the places "where our interests overlap" and that more countries might get help later, if more money magically appears. Gaza, where people are literally living in tents and aid agencies are screaming about shortages, is being kicked to a "separate track" with a vague promise of phase-two funding and "additional donors" that may or may not exist. Because nothing says neutral and impartial humanitarian action like Washington carving the world into politically acceptable and unacceptable famines.
And just to round it out, the administration proudly notes it is cutting climate-related and other non-priority projects, while the UN slashes its global appeal from $47bn to $23bn because donor governments — led by the US and friends — decided tanks and missiles are a better investment than keeping millions of people alive. But sure, "millions of lives will be saved across 17 countries" — after Trump personally helped turn off the tap for everyone else.
Under the new setup, the UN's humanitarian office gets to manage the money, but the US gets to decide which countries are "priority" enough to be saved this year. Yemen, Afghanistan, and Gaza — all places with catastrophic humanitarian crises — are not on that priority list. But don’t worry, says UN aid chief Tom Fletcher, they'll go around with a begging bowl to other donors for those inconvenient wars and blockades.
State Department under secretary Jeremy Lewin cheerfully explains that these are just the places "where our interests overlap" and that more countries might get help later, if more money magically appears. Gaza, where people are literally living in tents and aid agencies are screaming about shortages, is being kicked to a "separate track" with a vague promise of phase-two funding and "additional donors" that may or may not exist. Because nothing says neutral and impartial humanitarian action like Washington carving the world into politically acceptable and unacceptable famines.
And just to round it out, the administration proudly notes it is cutting climate-related and other non-priority projects, while the UN slashes its global appeal from $47bn to $23bn because donor governments — led by the US and friends — decided tanks and missiles are a better investment than keeping millions of people alive. But sure, "millions of lives will be saved across 17 countries" — after Trump personally helped turn off the tap for everyone else.
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#imperialism
imperialism
trump announces mystery strike on mystery target in mystery war
US warships enforcing a totally-not-a-blockade "quarantine" on Venezuela, bravely protecting America from the mortal threat of discounted oil and brown people with sovereignty.
Donald Trump told Republican donor and supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis that the US "knocked out" a "big plant, or a big facility, where the ships come from" in Venezuela — but didn’t say what it was, where it was, or why he’s announcing possible acts of war on a radio chat instead of, you know, Congress. The White House has offered zero details, because nothing says responsible use of military force like your commander-in-chief vaguely bragging about blowing something up he can’t quite identify.
If confirmed, it would be the first acknowledged land strike on Venezuela since Trump ordered a massive military buildup in the Caribbean, originally sold as a noble effort to stop drug trafficking allegedly directed by Nicolás Maduro. That mission has now "evolved" into a maritime "quarantine" that just happens to target Venezuela’s oil exports — except for Chevron, the one US-approved company still allowed to make money there. In other words, it’s less "war on drugs" and more "war on anyone not cutting checks through the right lobbyists."
The administration is carefully avoiding the word "blockade" while stationing about 15,000 personnel, a carrier strike group, F‑35s and Coast Guard cutters in the region to choke off Venezuelan oil. Trump has been openly threatening to expand strikes inside Venezuela — a move that would, in a functioning republic, require congressional authorization. Instead, we get anonymous officials telling CNN he meant a "drug facility" and grainy online video of an explosion in an industrial zone that no one has independently verified. But sure, let’s just trust the guy who can’t remember if it was a "plant" or a "big facility" as he casually escalates an undeclared war over the radio.
Source: theguardian.com
#imperialism#killing-democracy
killing democracy
state tv auditions go badly, trump sues anyway
Trump glares at a bank of TV screens while billionaires fight over the remote, and somewhere in the corner a lone Guardian reporter is holding up a tip jar labeled “actual journalism.”
US media in the Trump era is apparently a group project between angry billionaires and a vengeful president, and somehow the only ones not invited are readers and the truth. While Murdochs, Bezos, Soon‑Shiong, and the very Trump‑friendly Ellison clan play Monopoly with newsrooms, they helpfully “guide” coverage so it aligns with their pet projects, personal feuds, and investment portfolios. Because nothing says “independent press” like your boss’s hobbyhorse turning into the editorial line.
On the other side, Trump is running his own quality-control department, where “quality” means “does it flatter me.” He’s using frivolous defamation suits and weaponized regulatory agencies to squeeze outlets that offend his delicate feelings: a giant settlement out of CBS over a banal Kamala Harris edit, a lawsuit against the New York Times for being mean in print, and an FCC chair threatening ABC’s broadcast license over a comedian’s joke. In other words, it’s not censorship if you just bankrupt or de-license everyone who laughs at you.
Under pressure from both their billionaire owners and Trump’s retribution machine, big outlets are dialing everything down to legally vetted mush—soft-pedaled coverage, hedged language, and opinion sections that read like hostage notes to shareholders and the White House. The result: worse journalism at the exact moment the country needs better. But don’t worry, The Guardian would like you to know that they don’t have a billionaire owner, they’re not pulling punches, and they answer to readers instead of oligarchs or the guy threatening broadcast licenses. Also, please click the big donate button to help fund this rare, non-captured corner of the press.
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#oligarchy#fascism
corruption
leopards ate my face, says woman who campaigned for leopards
Marjorie Taylor Greene, freshly trampled by the Trump train she helped drive, explaining she was 'naive' to think the guy screaming about revenge and loyalty oaths wasn’t in it for himself and his Epstein-adjacent friends.
Marjorie Taylor Greene has discovered, very late in the series finale, that Donald Trump is not actually a humble servant of the working class but a raging narcissist who openly declares, "I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them." In other words, the quiet part has been on a bullhorn for ten years and she’s just now hearing it.
Greene says she had her big come-to-Jesus moment watching Charlie Kirk’s widow publicly forgive her husband’s killer, only for Trump to stomp onstage and announce that forgiveness is for suckers. That, she says, showed he has no faith. Not the attempted coup, not the family-separation policy, not the pandemic death cult, not the endless grift—the line was mean words at a memorial service. But sure, that’s the bright red line.
The real fireworks come when she describes her final break with the White House over the vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein investigative files. After meeting victims and deciding maybe the sex-trafficking blackmail ring of America’s ruling class should see daylight, Greene says Trump called her and yelled that "my friends will get hurt" if those files come out. Because nothing says "man of the people" like trying to bury evidence to protect your billionaire pals from consequences.
Now Greene, who once screamed that Democrats were traitors and cheered on the MAGA purge, is shocked to find herself "radioactive" and exiled from both parties. She insists she hasn’t changed her views, she’s just "matured" and discovered that Washington is broken and run for the benefit of rich, powerful elites doing horrible things and getting away with it. Which, awkwardly, is exactly the thing she helped build, defended, and voted for—until the machine finally turned on her too. The leopards-ate-my-face caucus claims another alumni speaker.
Greene says she had her big come-to-Jesus moment watching Charlie Kirk’s widow publicly forgive her husband’s killer, only for Trump to stomp onstage and announce that forgiveness is for suckers. That, she says, showed he has no faith. Not the attempted coup, not the family-separation policy, not the pandemic death cult, not the endless grift—the line was mean words at a memorial service. But sure, that’s the bright red line.
The real fireworks come when she describes her final break with the White House over the vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein investigative files. After meeting victims and deciding maybe the sex-trafficking blackmail ring of America’s ruling class should see daylight, Greene says Trump called her and yelled that "my friends will get hurt" if those files come out. Because nothing says "man of the people" like trying to bury evidence to protect your billionaire pals from consequences.
Now Greene, who once screamed that Democrats were traitors and cheered on the MAGA purge, is shocked to find herself "radioactive" and exiled from both parties. She insists she hasn’t changed her views, she’s just "matured" and discovered that Washington is broken and run for the benefit of rich, powerful elites doing horrible things and getting away with it. Which, awkwardly, is exactly the thing she helped build, defended, and voted for—until the machine finally turned on her too. The leopards-ate-my-face caucus claims another alumni speaker.
Source: theguardian.com
#corruption#leopards-ate-my-face
trade war
trump launches a trade war, then hides the body (and the data)
Donald Trump triumphantly announcing record tariffs while his staff frantically tapes over the economic dashboard with "DO NOT RESUME UNTIL AFTER ELECTION" signs.
Trump cranked average US tariffs from 2% to 18% – the highest since the 1930s – blowing past his first-term trade war and even Smoot-Hawley, because nothing says "America First" like reenacting the pre–Great Depression policy playbook. He did it while violating international trade agreements and torching the GOP’s 40-year cosplay as a "free trade" party, but sure, tell us more about conservative principles.
Economists braced for inflation, layoffs, and a real-income beating. Instead, the headline numbers look... not catastrophic. Why? For starters, the federal government literally stopped measuring reality: Trump’s shutdown kneecapped the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the BEA, so the CPI and GDP data are full of holes and heroic assumptions. In other words, the economy hasn’t held up so much as the scoreboard’s been unplugged.
On top of that, the "tough" tariffs aren’t even fully in effect. Trump keeps delaying some, rolling others back when voters notice grocery prices going vertical, and handing out massive exemptions to Canada and Mexico after briefly slapping them with a 25% auto tariff for 48 hours of performative chest-thumping. Business and markets now operate under the rule of TACO – "Trump Always Chickens Out" – where the president does nuclear-threat cosplay, then quietly retreats once donors scream.
Meanwhile, companies spent a year panic-buying imports ahead of the tariffs, stockpiling everything from Swiss gold to Irish weight-loss drugs and dodging billions in duties. So the real hit is delayed to 2026, when the inventories run out and the exemptions run thin. But for now, Trump gets to claim victory in his imaginary trade war: he broke international rules, sabotaged data collection, destabilized supply chains, and called it winning – because if you can’t see the damage, it must not exist.
Source: theguardian.com
#trade-war#killing-democracy#full-stupid
forever grifting
historic comeback mostly happening to other people
Trump explains the ‘historic comeback’ to people whose bank accounts appear to be participating in a completely different economy.
Nearly half of Americans now say their financial security is getting worse, and the other half are presumably just waiting for the next layoff email. A new Harris poll finds 45% of people feel less secure than before, while only 20% say things are improving—but the White House insists we’re living through a "historic comeback" and that prices are "coming down fast." Because nothing says ‘comeback’ like mass government layoffs, chaotic tariffs, and a crackdown on immigrant labor that breaks supply chains.
The economy on paper is doing fine—strong GDP growth, no technical recession—yet 57% of Americans say we’re in a recession anyway. That’s what happens when your "booming" economy is a K-shaped funhouse where the stock market is high, the rich are richer, and everyone under $50,000 a year is watching their finances go through the floor. Fifty-nine percent of those making under $50k say their security is getting worse, compared with 37% of those over $100k. In other words: Trump’s "comeback" is mostly a vibes-based recovery for people who own multiple ETFs.
The partisan breakdown is a chef’s-kiss of dysfunction. Democrats and independents are increasingly blaming the government for rising prices—76% and 72% respectively—while Republicans are heroically trying to pin it on "corporate practices" instead, as if Trump’s tariffs and mass firings are just a weird coincidence. Women, Black, and Hispanic voters—whom Trump bragged about winning over in 2024—are now far more likely to say their finances are deteriorating and that we’re in a recession. But sure, keep rolling out the teleprompter speeches about how everything is totally fixed and the only problem is people’s "perceptions." If only people could pay rent in White House talking points.
Source: theguardian.com
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
racism
president shithole reboots the culture war
Donald Trump, fresh off signing another executive order to erase someone’s rights, explains that the real victims in America are white guys who say ‘shithole countries’ into microphones.
Donald Trump spent year one of Term Two proving that when he said he’d end ‘woke’, he meant ‘civil rights’. Within weeks, he signed executive orders to kill diversity, equity and inclusion and affirmative action across government, detonating thousands of DEI-related jobs in both the public and private sectors and helping purge journalists of color from newsrooms. Because nothing says ‘merit-based opportunity’ like making sure the only people left to cover the White House look like the country club directory.
He followed that up by banning gender-affirming care for anyone under 19, sending families of trans kids into a nationwide panic as they scrambled to preserve basic medical treatment. Then, in case it wasn’t clear that this is a white grievance administration, he ordered JD Vance to block federal spending on Smithsonian programs about race and tried to erase Indigenous history again by renaming Denali back to Mount McKinley. Add in mass deportation raids that are literally tearing families apart, and you’ve got the full ‘America First, everyone else last, or deported’ package.
On the mic, Trump dropped the quiet parts into a bullhorn. He mused about turning Gaza into a ‘demolition site’ and relocating Palestinians elsewhere, because ethnic cleansing is apparently just a real estate problem. He ranted that the FAA was ‘too white’ until DEI allegedly ruined it, smeared Somalia as a place where people ‘run around killing each other’, and called Rep. Ilhan Omar ‘garbage’ who should be ‘thrown the hell out’ of the country. At rallies, he dusted off his ‘shithole countries’ routine, demanded more Norwegians, and bragged about a ‘permanent pause on third world migration’ while crowing on Truth Social that he ‘loves the smell of deportations in the morning’—in other words, the Ellis Island reboot is Apocalypse Now.
And because he never met a bigotry buffet he didn’t want to hit twice, Trump tossed in some casual antisemitism for dessert: declaring Chuck Schumer ‘used to be Jewish’ but is now ‘a Palestinian’, and referring to ‘shylocks and bad people’ while bragging about his estate tax cuts. Women, of course, get the usual treatment—dismissed as nasty, boring, or not smart enough whenever they dare mix faith, politics, or criticism of Dear Leader. The Guardian calls it ‘Trump in his own words.’ The rest of us call it what it is: racism and misogyny as official U.S. policy, narrated live by the guy holding the nuclear codes.
Source: theguardian.com
#racism#trumps-america#killing-democracy
trumps america
shutdowns for fun, hunger for leverage
Nothing says 'greatest country on Earth' like seniors in Ohio waiting in the cold for heating aid because the president needed a talking point on cable news.
Nothing says "America is back" like making poor people line up in the freezing rain because the president wanted a hostage for his latest stunt. In Logan, Ohio, people like Scott Skinner and Lisa Murphy are standing outside a food pantry before dawn, not because there’s a natural disaster, but because the Trump administration decided that shutting down the government and suspending SNAP and heating aid was a perfectly acceptable negotiating tactic.
SNAP benefits are delayed, heating assistance is frozen, and local charities like "The Market" are left trying to patch the holes blown in the safety net by people in Washington who have never had to choose between groceries and the gas bill. Weeks of suspended food aid mean months of fallout as families play catch-up on rent, utilities, and basic survival, while Republicans on TV brag about "fiscal responsibility" and "draining the swamp" by draining people’s pantries.
In other words, 2025 will be remembered by anti-poverty workers as the year the federal safety net turned into a political ransom note: pay Trump’s demands or watch seniors and disabled people freeze in the dark. But sure, tell us more about how the real crisis is people "dependent on government."
Source: npr.org
#trumps-america#killing-democracy
killing democracy
the ryder coup: turning golf into a trump loyalty pageant
Donald Trump fist-bumps Bryson DeChambeau at the Ryder Cup, celebrating their shared achievement of turning golf into a traveling MAGA personality cult with snipers, misogyny merch, and Secret Service apple warnings.
At Bethpage Black, Europe won the Ryder Cup, but the real star was the weird little authoritarian theme park that sprang up around Donald Trump’s presence. You had a woman shrieking at Bryson DeChambeau about how much she loves him "for everything you’ve done for the Donald", like a QAnon Hallmark card come to life. Fans wore shirts bragging "It’s Official – Trump Beats Women" and "Alex Jones did nothing wrong", because nothing says family sporting event like open celebration of misogyny and conspiracy cranks.
New York’s Democratic governor Kathy Hochul got drowned out by a furious Trumpist crowd, police hassled credentialed press for ID anyway, and yard signs proudly declared: "We are all Charlie Kirk now"—a threat if there ever was one. On the train, a white guy literally sat on a young Black woman’s belongings while screaming "This is the Long Island Rail Road, bitch" as bystanders argued over whether basic decency is "everything that’s wrong with this country". In other words: MAGA culture war, now with 30% more Bud Light and golf polos.
Security turned the course into a low-budget police state: snipers on the clubhouse roof, "airport-style" checkpoints, and a Secret Service agent informing a fan that yes, he could keep his apple, but if he threw it at the president he was going to jail. Because nothing screams robust democracy like threatening prison over hypothetical fruit. The golf was dramatic, Europe won in style, and yet the lasting memory is that under Trump, even a Ryder Cup becomes a stress test for how much petty authoritarianism and public cruelty people will tolerate between tee shots.
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#trumps-america#full-stupid
killing democracy
dems discover the internet, ten years after the coup
Democrats, circa 2025, staring at a TikTok ring light like it’s the Ark of the Covenant while the right’s propaganda Death Star orbits overhead.
Democrats, having just been steamrolled in 2024 and graciously handed Donald Trump his second shot at wrecking the republic, have finally identified the real problem: they forgot the internet existed. After decades of the right building a lavish, billionaire-subsidized outrage machine — Fox, Daily Wire, Breitbart, Blaze, PragerU, Turning Point USA, the whole "what if propaganda but as a lifestyle brand" universe — party strategists have realized that maybe, just maybe, buying more TV ads for MSNBC viewers wasn’t going to cut it.
Kyle Tharp, who launched his aptly named newsletter Chaotic Era just before Trump’s second inauguration, has been chronicling the scramble as Democrats rush onto TikTok, podcasts, and YouTube like it’s 2012 and not the part of the timeline where democracy is on fire. Suddenly, members of Congress and presidential hopefuls are flooding podcasts, begging liberal donors to fund a left-leaning media ecosystem, and discovering the radical concept of "creator marketing" — i.e., paying people who actually know how to talk to normal humans.
On the plus side, there’s now a "whole new bench" of progressive creators and partisan outlets trying to counter the MAGA content mill. On the minus side, the right has a 10–20 year head start, a massive influencer bench, and a propaganda infrastructure that’s been softening the ground for authoritarianism since the Obama years. But sure, a few more podcast appearances and TikTok collabs will definitely fix the part where Trump is back in the White House threatening the rule of law on live TV.
Kyle Tharp, who launched his aptly named newsletter Chaotic Era just before Trump’s second inauguration, has been chronicling the scramble as Democrats rush onto TikTok, podcasts, and YouTube like it’s 2012 and not the part of the timeline where democracy is on fire. Suddenly, members of Congress and presidential hopefuls are flooding podcasts, begging liberal donors to fund a left-leaning media ecosystem, and discovering the radical concept of "creator marketing" — i.e., paying people who actually know how to talk to normal humans.
On the plus side, there’s now a "whole new bench" of progressive creators and partisan outlets trying to counter the MAGA content mill. On the minus side, the right has a 10–20 year head start, a massive influencer bench, and a propaganda infrastructure that’s been softening the ground for authoritarianism since the Obama years. But sure, a few more podcast appearances and TikTok collabs will definitely fix the part where Trump is back in the White House threatening the rule of law on live TV.
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
killing democracy
history confirms: trump is more coffee stain than renaissance masterpiece
Trump gazes into the distance, presumably searching for the historic legacy that keeps stubbornly refusing to exist.
Donald Trump has spent a decade insisting he’s Alexander, Washington, Napoleon and Gandhi in a single spray-tanned package, but history seems poised to file him under "miscellaneous stains". Simon Tisdall notes that for all the fascist cosplay and "civilisation war" manifestos, Trump’s grand legacy is shaping up less like a world-historic realignment and more like a four-year Prohibition for populists: loud, destructive, and ultimately remembered as a national bender everyone would rather forget.
The piece skewers Trump’s self-mythology against the reality: a flailing "authoritarian, anti-European" national security strategy that trashes alliances, an economy wobbling under his tariff brainwaves, and a MAGA coalition already cracking as his approval sinks. In other words, he’s not the epoch-defining strongman he imagines so much as an unsightly smear on the canvas of history – the guy who tried to turn the US into Hungary with nukes and mostly managed to vandalize the institutions rather than fully replace them.
Yet even as Trump and his far-right pals push "civilisational erasure" nonsense and nationalist-populist snake oil, the article argues that the deeper continuity is democracy itself: still the preferred system, still outliving its would-be gravediggers. The cold war ended, then sort of didn’t; the Arab Spring rose and fell; 9/11 rewrote the rulebook mostly by shredding it. Trump slots neatly into that pattern as another overhyped "turning point" who will be remembered less as a transformative leader and more as the cautionary footnote: this is what happens when you let a reality TV landlord play at autocrat.
The piece skewers Trump’s self-mythology against the reality: a flailing "authoritarian, anti-European" national security strategy that trashes alliances, an economy wobbling under his tariff brainwaves, and a MAGA coalition already cracking as his approval sinks. In other words, he’s not the epoch-defining strongman he imagines so much as an unsightly smear on the canvas of history – the guy who tried to turn the US into Hungary with nukes and mostly managed to vandalize the institutions rather than fully replace them.
Yet even as Trump and his far-right pals push "civilisational erasure" nonsense and nationalist-populist snake oil, the article argues that the deeper continuity is democracy itself: still the preferred system, still outliving its would-be gravediggers. The cold war ended, then sort of didn’t; the Arab Spring rose and fell; 9/11 rewrote the rulebook mostly by shredding it. Trump slots neatly into that pattern as another overhyped "turning point" who will be remembered less as a transformative leader and more as the cautionary footnote: this is what happens when you let a reality TV landlord play at autocrat.
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#fascism#full-stupid
full stupid
trump discovers prices exist, declares it a campaign platform
Trump, moments after learning that groceries cost money, announces a bold new strategy: complain about ‘pricing’ on television.
Trump is now floating "pricing" as a key midterm issue after previously blasting "affordability," which is a long way of saying: he’s discovered that everything is expensive and decided the real problem is the words people are using. Because nothing says serious economic leadership like rebranding your own inflation as a messaging challenge.
In other words, instead of admitting that corporate price-gouging, deregulation, and tax cuts for the rich might have something to do with people not being able to afford rent, groceries, or health care, the plan is to yell about "pricing" on TV and hope voters forget who’s been in charge while their bills exploded. Policy remains MIA, but the buzzwords are having a fantastic quarter.
So the White House response to families getting crushed is: don’t worry about your empty bank account, we’re workshopping the slogan. It’s the perfect encapsulation of Trump-era governance — all branding, no fixing — but sure, tell us more about how just saying "pricing" a lot is going to magically make eggs cost less.
In other words, instead of admitting that corporate price-gouging, deregulation, and tax cuts for the rich might have something to do with people not being able to afford rent, groceries, or health care, the plan is to yell about "pricing" on TV and hope voters forget who’s been in charge while their bills exploded. Policy remains MIA, but the buzzwords are having a fantastic quarter.
So the White House response to families getting crushed is: don’t worry about your empty bank account, we’re workshopping the slogan. It’s the perfect encapsulation of Trump-era governance — all branding, no fixing — but sure, tell us more about how just saying "pricing" a lot is going to magically make eggs cost less.
Source: nbcnews.com
#full-stupid#money
killing democracy
trump’s ice gets absolutely owned by a frog costume
America 2025: heavily armed federal agents deploying chemical weapons against a balloon frog, but sure, tell us more about law and order.
In the latest episode of "Authoritarian Hellscape, but Make It Whimsy," Trump’s immigration goons in Portland managed to turn an inflatable frog into a national protest icon by spraying chemical agents straight into its air intake. Because nothing says "serious law enforcement" like gassing a man in a puffy frog suit while the president rants about a "war-ravaged" city.
The BBC helpfully traces how frogs went from Pepe — the far-right’s favorite cartoon Nazi amphibian, boosted by Trump himself — to Seth Todd, a Portland protester who responded to being chemically doused with the line that he’d tasted "spicier tamales." That clip went viral, and suddenly frogs, unicorns, chickens, and assorted party-store fauna are front-line symbols of resistance to ICE and Trump’s immigration dragnet. In other words: the administration militarized the streets, and the streets replied with tactical frivolity, salsa lessons, and a giant frog that made them look ridiculous.
So while Trump deploys the National Guard and talks like he’s retaking Fallujah, protesters show up in costumes and turn the whole thing into a meme that undercuts his strongman cosplay. Pepe started as a "chill frog-dude," got hijacked by the far right, and now the government is tear-gassing a different frog on camera. The Trump era really did manage to turn even amphibians into a referendum on fascism.
Source: bbc.com
#killing-democracy#anti-immigration#fascism
killing democracy
trump discovers democracy is inconvenient, demands off switch
Donald Trump, explaining that democracy would work much better if people would stop using rules to slow him down.
Donald Trump has once again discovered that the US Senate has rules, and his solution is, naturally, to get rid of them. In a Politico interview, he urged Republicans to scrap the filibuster "without question" because it’s "hurting the Republican Party" and preventing him from doing "everything we want". Because nothing says "limited government" like demanding the power to ram through your entire wishlist on a 51–49 vote.
Trump insists that nuking the filibuster will prevent government shutdowns and magically deliver "great health care" and voter ID laws—totally coincidentally the same agenda that Democrats, independents, and a decent chunk of Republicans keep rejecting. Senators usually hesitate to kill the filibuster because they know power shifts and they don’t want to be steamrolled later; Trump’s view is that future consequences are someone else’s problem as long as he can rule by bare-majority decree right now.
He also unveiled his big 2026 midterm message: it’s all about "pricing", which he says is different from Democrats’ "affordability" even though, linguistically and economically, it isn’t. But sure, just relabel the same concept and call the other party’s word a "hoax" while claiming you’re cleaning up Biden’s economic mess—as new reports show inflation cooling and growth beating expectations. In other words, reality continues to be stubbornly uncooperative, so the plan is to change the rules, change the words, and hope no one notices they’re being asked to hand one man the keys to the entire legislative process.
Trump insists that nuking the filibuster will prevent government shutdowns and magically deliver "great health care" and voter ID laws—totally coincidentally the same agenda that Democrats, independents, and a decent chunk of Republicans keep rejecting. Senators usually hesitate to kill the filibuster because they know power shifts and they don’t want to be steamrolled later; Trump’s view is that future consequences are someone else’s problem as long as he can rule by bare-majority decree right now.
He also unveiled his big 2026 midterm message: it’s all about "pricing", which he says is different from Democrats’ "affordability" even though, linguistically and economically, it isn’t. But sure, just relabel the same concept and call the other party’s word a "hoax" while claiming you’re cleaning up Biden’s economic mess—as new reports show inflation cooling and growth beating expectations. In other words, reality continues to be stubbornly uncooperative, so the plan is to change the rules, change the words, and hope no one notices they’re being asked to hand one man the keys to the entire legislative process.
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy
trump kills usaid, gives fbi hoover’s ghost a hot desk
The soon-to-be-empty J Edgar Hoover building, about to be replaced by an even uglier concept: ignoring Congress and moving the FBI into the corpse of USAID.
Kash Patel, now somehow in charge of the FBI because this timeline refuses to stop getting weirder, has announced that the bureau is finally abandoning the brutalist J Edgar Hoover building. Instead of moving to the long-planned, congressionally funded Maryland headquarters, the FBI will scatter into existing DC office space — including the former USAID offices in the Ronald Reagan Building, which just happen to be empty because Marco Rubio and Trump nuked the agency earlier this year.
So: Congress appropriated money for a new FBI HQ in Maryland, the Trump administration unilaterally scrapped those plans, Maryland is suing, and Patel is bragging on X about delivering a "safe, modern facility" at a "fraction of the cost" — because nothing says fiscal responsibility like ignoring appropriations law and turning a destroyed humanitarian aid agency into prime real estate for domestic intelligence. In other words, they killed USAID and handed its corpse to the FBI, then called it efficiency.
Patel insists this is all about "defending the homeland" and "crushing violent crime," which is an interesting way to describe stiffing a state out of a promised federal facility, overriding Congress, and quietly consolidating power in the capital. The Hoover building may be "the greatest monstrosity ever constructed," but at least it didn’t start as a development agency and end as a monument to killing democracy at a discount.
So: Congress appropriated money for a new FBI HQ in Maryland, the Trump administration unilaterally scrapped those plans, Maryland is suing, and Patel is bragging on X about delivering a "safe, modern facility" at a "fraction of the cost" — because nothing says fiscal responsibility like ignoring appropriations law and turning a destroyed humanitarian aid agency into prime real estate for domestic intelligence. In other words, they killed USAID and handed its corpse to the FBI, then called it efficiency.
Patel insists this is all about "defending the homeland" and "crushing violent crime," which is an interesting way to describe stiffing a state out of a promised federal facility, overriding Congress, and quietly consolidating power in the capital. The Hoover building may be "the greatest monstrosity ever constructed," but at least it didn’t start as a development agency and end as a monument to killing democracy at a discount.
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#corruption
killing democracy
kennedy center rebrands as the donald j trump grievance palace
Richard Grenell, newly self-appointed guardian of patriotic jazz purity, explains why federal law, congressional intent, and artistic freedom must all yield to Donald Trump’s feelings.
In a bold new interpretation of "arts administration," Trump ally and Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell has demanded $1 million from jazz musician Chuck Redd for the high crime of…canceling his Christmas Eve concert after the White House slapped Donald Trump’s name on a building Congress explicitly dedicated to John F Kennedy. Because nothing says "non-profit arts institution" like trying to bankrupt a drummer for exercising his conscience.
Grenell’s letter accuses Redd of "classic intolerance" and calls his cancellation a "political stunt"—this from the guy whose boss just unilaterally renamed a congressionally created memorial to himself, despite a law that forbids putting anyone else’s name on the building or turning it into a memorial to another person. Legal scholars are already pointing out that this is almost certainly illegal, but sure, the real problem is the jazz guy who didn’t want to play under the neon sign for creeping authoritarian narcissism.
Trump forced out the previous Kennedy Center leadership, installed Grenell, and then had his handpicked board rubber-stamp the renaming that Congress likely has to approve. Kennedy niece Kerry Kennedy is promising to strip Trump’s name off the building once he’s gone, and historians are saying the same thing: this isn’t how any of this works. In other words, the "living memorial" to JFK has been temporarily converted into a live-action case study in how a petty, thin-skinned administration treats the law, the arts, and anyone who dares to say "no."
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#fascism
pro life
trump 2.0: now with extra forced birth and expired condoms
Trump 2.0 staring proudly at a stack of expired birth control, wondering how many forced births that translates to in the next election cycle.
In the grand 2025 patriarchy recap, Donald Trump’s second term shows up like a wrecking ball made of fetal personhood and Hobby Lobby coupons. One of his first moves was to slam the Global Gag Rule back into place, cutting off U.S. aid to any group that dares even whisper the word “abortion.” The State Department then went the extra mile for the culture of life by letting between $10m and $40m worth of contraceptives simply expire rather than send them to women who might actually use them. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, that little tantrum could mean more than a million unintended pregnancies and thousands of maternal deaths – but sure, tell us more about how this is about “protecting women.”
At home, Trump 2.0 has been busy turning the U.S. into a live-action Handmaid’s Tale reboot. There were sustained attacks on birth control access and abortion pills, because nothing says "small government" like micromanaging women’s uteri via federal regulation and friendly lawsuits from Texas and Florida. Meanwhile, some prominent MAGA types have moved on to asking whether women should even be allowed to vote anymore – in other words, they’ve stopped pretending this isn’t about rolling back a century of basic rights. Abroad, the reinstated gag rule and weaponized aid policy help undermine reproductive healthcare globally, proving once again that this administration’s idea of foreign policy is exporting American misogyny at scale.
And just to really drive home how little bodily autonomy matters in Trump’s America, Georgia law turned a brain-dead woman, Adriana Smith, into a state-mandated human incubator, keeping her on life support against her family’s wishes to carry a pregnancy doctors said was unlikely to result in a healthy baby. The infant, born prematurely and still unable to breathe unaided months later, is the perfect metaphor for this administration’s pro-life agenda: maximum suffering, minimum care, and zero interest in what happens after birth. But don’t worry, the patriarchy assures us this is all about “family values” and “freedom” – just not for women, pregnant people, or anyone who thought democracy included them.
Source: theguardian.com
#pro-life#killing-democracy#lawlessness
killing democracy
alligator alcatraz: america’s favorite illegal swamp gulag
Nothing says ‘land of the free’ like families begging for basic due process outside a secretive swamp prison while the government insists everything is totally normal and very legal.
The Trump–DeSantis dream project "Alligator Alcatraz" is going so well that thousands of people are spending their Sundays standing in a mosquito-infested swamp just to yell at a concrete box in the distance. The Everglades immigration jail, personally celebrated by Trump for its harsh conditions and touted by Ron DeSantis as a "model" for mass detention, is now the subject of weekly vigils where families trade legal scraps and horror stories because the government has thoughtfully replaced due process with a bus ticket to Mexico.
Inside, detainees like 54-year-old diabetic Justo Betancourt are allegedly being denied basic medical care and told they can "get it in Mexico" after being disappeared from routine check-ins. According to his daughter, people aren’t getting court dates or seeing judges; they’re just yanked from cells at night and dumped over the border regardless of where they’re actually from—because nothing says rule of law like secret nighttime deportation flights. A federal judge ordered the place closed in August, an appeals court swooped in to save the cruelty, and the administration took that as a green light to lean even harder into the human rights abuse speedrun.
So now you’ve got pastors filling buses, multi-faith crowds blasting prisoners’ voices over speakers about worms in their food and nonexistent showers, and regular Americans driving hours through the Everglades to stare at a barbed-wire monument to Trump’s deportation agenda. In other words: the government built an unconstitutional swamp prison, staffed it with bureaucrats who think Geneva is a type of cheese, and the only functioning oversight mechanism left is a weekly caravan of furious relatives and clergy with megaphones. But sure, tell us again how this is all about "border security" and not about building a shiny new authoritarian playground.
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#anti-immigration
killing democracy
trump and musk team up to deport the fact-checkers
Thierry Breton, now learning that under Trump the punishment for annoying tech oligarchs is a State Department exile order.
The Trump administration has discovered a bold new frontier in free speech: using the State Department to try to deport people who expose hate, lies, and extremism online. Imran Ahmed, head of the Center for Countering Digital Hate and a lawful DC resident with an American wife and infant daughter, was suddenly informed he faces removal from the US. His crime? Daring to hold social media and AI companies accountable, which so enraged Elon Musk that X tried—and failed—to sue his group, then apparently found a friendlier venue in Trump’s deportation machine.
Ahmed is one of five Europeans, including former EU commissioner Thierry Breton, slapped with visa bans for allegedly leading “organised efforts to coerce American platforms to censor…American viewpoints.” In other words: they pushed platforms to deal with hate speech, disinformation, and extremist content, so Trump’s people labeled that “censorship” and tried to throw them out of the country. A State Department official even bragged on X that if you “spend your career fomenting censorship of American speech, you’re unwelcome on American soil” — because nothing says robust marketplace of ideas like the government exiling critics at the request of billionaires.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked Ahmed’s detention or removal, but he spent Christmas separated from his family because, as he notes, others whose green cards were yanked in recent months have been arrested and shipped hundreds or thousands of miles away from their support networks. Meanwhile he calmly points out that this isn’t about partisan politics but about tech companies with “sociopathic greed” using their money and connections to corrupt the system so they can never be held accountable. Trump gets to cosplay as the defender of “American viewpoints,” Musk gets fewer pesky reports about rising racism and extremism on X, and anyone who documents the damage done by social media and AI learns that in Trump’s America, the algorithm doesn’t just shadowban you—it calls ICE.
Source: theguardian.com
#killing-democracy#fascism