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The Trump Presidency Timeline

Documenting the chaos since day one. 2714 entries and counting.

killing democracy

pope clarifies: not every 'tyrant' is named donald

Pope Leo arriving in Angola, bravely attempting to promote peace while the President of the United States is busy uploading AI Jesus selfies of himself to yell at him online.

Pope Leo arriving in Angola, bravely attempting to promote peace while the President of the United States is busy uploading AI Jesus selfies of himself to yell at him online.

Pope Leo, the first American pope and apparently the last adult in the room, had to clarify that when he condemned "tyrants" who spend billions on "killing and devastation" instead of education and rebuilding, he wasn’t specifically subtweeting Donald Trump. The speech, he noted, was written two weeks earlier – i.e., before Trump decided to have a public meltdown because someone suggested war might be bad.

Trump, never one to pass up a chance to be the main character of global morality, responded by calling the Pope "WEAK on crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy" and then posting an AI-generated image of himself as a Jesus-like figure, which he later deleted once someone presumably explained that this was a bit on the nose for the whole authoritarian personality cult vibe. This all comes after Trump warned that "a whole civilisation will die" if Iran doesn’t meet US demands over the war and the Strait of Hormuz, thereby treating potential mass death as just another negotiating tactic.

Meanwhile, Leo is touring Africa, talking about a "bloodstained" region of Cameroon, condemning an "endless cycle of destabilisation and death," and pointing out that the "masters of war" love how easy it is to destroy and how hard it is to rebuild. Trump’s response? Not reflection, not restraint, but a public feud with the Pope and some messianic AI cosplay. American foreign policy under Trump continues to be run like a cross between a televangelist show and a Call of Duty livestream.

#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

joe rogan, rfk jr, and the fda walk into a trip

Donald Trump, RFK Jr, and Joe Rogan stand in the Oval Office like they’re about to launch a wellness podcast, while the FDA quietly screams into a clipboard off camera.

Donald Trump, RFK Jr, and Joe Rogan stand in the Oval Office like they’re about to launch a wellness podcast, while the FDA quietly screams into a clipboard off camera.

Donald Trump has decided the best way to modernize drug policy is to hand the federal government’s psychedelic strategy to a podcaster and an anti-vax conspiracy heir, then tell the FDA to hit fast-forward. Via executive order, he’s directing the agency to "expedite" review of drugs like ibogaine, a powerful hallucinogen that might help with PTSD and addiction, while also dangling $50m in federal research money and another $50m conveniently lined up in Texas, the nation’s new testing ground for every culture war fever dream.

On paper, expanding evidence-based psychedelic treatment for veterans and people with substance use disorders is a sane, even overdue idea. In practice, this White House is treating the FDA like a content moderation team for Joe Rogan’s brain. The agency that’s supposed to be a buzzkill about safety and data is now under orders from a president who jokes, "Can I have some please? I don’t have time to be depressed," while RFK Jr – who previously accused the FDA of "aggressive suppression of psychedelics" – stands there as health secretary, nodding along like this is fine.

The reforms are framed as a breakthrough for science, but what’s really getting tested here is how much pressure the executive branch can put on a supposedly independent regulator whenever a pet cause lines up with a friendly media ecosystem and a red-state governor’s budget. If it works, great – more tools to fight PTSD and addiction. If it doesn’t, we’ve just taught future presidents that drug approval is a vibes-based negotiation between the Oval Office, a podcast studio, and whichever state wants to be the clinical-trial Thunderdome. America’s public health policy, now with 100% more ayahuasca-adjacent energy.

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

trump’s $400m panic room for his ego gets green light

Artist’s rendering of the new White House ballroom, where national security threats will be neutralized by exclusive donor galas and very strong chandeliers.

Artist’s rendering of the new White House ballroom, where national security threats will be neutralized by exclusive donor galas and very strong chandeliers.

The Trump administration just got the go-ahead from a DC appeals court to keep pouring concrete into its $400m White House ballroom, built on the corpse of the East Wing. A federal judge had actually paused the project over the small matter of whether the president can bulldoze part of the White House and slap on a mega-ballroom without congressional approval. The appeals court’s response: please hold our gavel while we consider the "emergency"—and in the meantime, keep building. The administration insists that stopping construction would cause “grave national-security harms” to Trump, his family, and staff, which is a very poetic way of saying the president desperately needs a fortified party bunker. Judge Richard Leon tried to split the difference, allowing only below-ground "national security" work that didn’t lock in the final ballroom size. The appeals court then stepped in to temporarily override even that, so the cranes and donors could keep moving. Speaking of donors, Trump swears this $400m ego chamber is privately financed by a who’s who of corporate America: Meta, Apple, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Palantir, Google, Comcast—basically a sponsorship deck for American oligarchy. The ballroom is just one piece of Trump’s broader campaign to physically rebrand Washington in his image: a 250ft arch, a years-long Kennedy Center overhaul, and now a corporate-branded, security-pretexted monument to himself attached to the White House. Democracy may be crumbling, but at least the event space will be spectacular.

Source: theguardian.com

#oligarchy#forever-grifting
killing democracy

usaid fed into the wood chipper for freedom

Marco Rubio and Elon Musk stand over the shredded remains of USAID, proudly explaining that millions losing healthcare is just America getting tough on waste.

Marco Rubio and Elon Musk stand over the shredded remains of USAID, proudly explaining that millions losing healthcare is just America getting tough on waste.

The Trump-Rubio-Musk brain trust has finally solved the age-old problem of "how do we stop millions of poor people from not dying?" by taking USAID – a six-decade-old pillar of US foreign policy – and shoving it “into the wood chipper”, Elon Musk’s own charming phrase for the DOGE-led cuts. Within months, Trump froze funding, announced dissolution, and by July had canceled over 80% of programs before stuffing the agency’s corpse into the state department and slapping on a "trade over aid" sticker so US companies wouldn’t feel left out of the carnage.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio dutifully bragged that 5,200 contracts spending "tens of billions" were gone, while Oxfam quietly pointed out that at least 23 million children will lose education and up to 95 million people will lose basic healthcare, with more than 3 million preventable deaths per year on the menu. So naturally, inside USAID, the political appointees behaved like a condo board with a grudge: a White House liaison demanding "Barney-style" slides so leadership might understand tuberculosis trials, paranoid Republicans insisting USAID was secretly providing abortions (it wasn’t, by law), and one senior official apparently convinced career staff killed his dog and therefore deserved to have their life’s work obliterated.

When acting global health chief Nicholas Enrich wrote a memo warning that freezing foreign aid would have "severe domestic and global consequences," he lasted a full 30 minutes before being put on leave – which, in this administration, counts as due process. Meanwhile, Musk waltzed into the White House to claim Ebola work had been restarted on the same day his DOGE crew canceled the contracts, because why let epidemiology get in the way of a good lie? The result: a small group of ignorant, vengeful ideologues and tech bros who neither understood nor cared what USAID did, gleefully shredding decades of expertise while calling it reform and selling it to the base as fighting "waste, fraud and abuse."

#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
killing democracy

trump takes the pulpit, approval ratings stay in hell

President Trump addresses a megachurch crowd while Turning Point USA staff carefully blur the line between worship service and campaign rally, just as the founders definitely intended.

President Trump addresses a megachurch crowd while Turning Point USA staff carefully blur the line between worship service and campaign rally, just as the founders definitely intended.

With his approval ratings tunneling somewhere below the Arizona bedrock, President Trump sought refuge in the one place where reality never quite makes it past the parking lot: a Turning Point USA rally at a megachurch. When your numbers are at record lows, you don’t broaden your coalition, you just crank the fog machine and preach to the already-converted in a tax-advantaged stadium for Jesus and merch sales.

This is the modern GOP strategy in miniature: wrap raw power in a sermon, run campaign events out of churches, and let Charlie Kirk’s youth propaganda factory provide the vibes while everyone politely pretends this isn’t one long test of how far you can push church–state boundaries before the IRS wakes up. It’s not governance, it’s not outreach, it’s just the same shrinking base getting louder in increasingly holy-sounding venues while the rest of the country quietly backs away.

Source: npr.org

#killing-democracy#fascism
oligarchy

trump’s favorite rich kid vs the guy who actually works for a living

Max Miller, bravely representing the struggles of inherited wealth, prepares to explain to an iron worker why the real victims are people whose gambling losses aren’t yet fully deductible.

Max Miller, bravely representing the struggles of inherited wealth, prepares to explain to an iron worker why the real victims are people whose gambling losses aren’t yet fully deductible.

Max Miller, former Trump aide and proud election-denial enthusiast, is suddenly discovering that running on “the economy” might be a bit awkward when an actual iron worker shows up and asks why the hell he’s been voting against workers the entire time. Miller, grandson of a man who helped run a multi-billion-dollar real estate empire, has spent his congressional career bravely tackling the struggles of the common man by, for example, authoring a bill to make gambling losses tax deductible. Finally, a voice in Washington for the most oppressed class of all: guys who lose their shirts at the casino and want the IRS to say "there, there." Brian Poindexter, meanwhile, is a union iron worker, apprenticeship instructor, and five-term local councilman whose life story involves working seven days a week in high school and clawing his way into community college one night class at a time. So naturally, in Trumpworld, he’s the radical one. Poindexter is running on the shocking premise that the economy should reward work more than inherited wealth and that laws shouldn’t be rigged against workers—a direct threat to the Miller business model. He’s also pointing out that Miller barely shows up in the district, doesn’t hold real town halls, and can’t even manage competent constituent services, unless the constituent is a billionaire or a roulette wheel. Miller’s labor record is about what you’d expect from a Trump-endorsed mini-oligarch: a 14% lifetime AFL-CIO score and a vote against the PRO Act, because helping workers organize might cut into the supply of cheap, compliant labor and sad campaign photo-ops in hard hats. While Democrats try to flip this R+5 district with a slate of candidates that includes Poindexter and a few establishment retreads, the core question is simple: will voters stick with the pampered election-denying heir who thinks tax policy should comfort problem gamblers, or try the guy who’s actually worn a tool belt for something other than a campaign commercial?

Source: theguardian.com

#oligarchy#killing-democracy
lawlessness

trump’s illegal oil war accidentally invents a green new world

Trump staring at an oil barrel like it’s a mirror, accidentally jump-starting the renewable revolution he tried to kill.

Trump staring at an oil barrel like it’s a mirror, accidentally jump-starting the renewable revolution he tried to kill.

Donald Trump, the world’s loudest Exxon lobbyist with nuclear codes, has apparently done more to accelerate the green transition than any climate summit ever managed — by launching an illegal war on Iran that blew up global oil markets. Fossil fuel companies bankrolled his campaign to stop the energy transition, he repaid them by shredding clean energy rules, killing green programs, and calling environmentalists “terrorists” with his usual evidentiary standard of absolutely none. Oil CEOs are cashing out stock at obscene prices, Putin’s war budget gets a fresh injection, and the planet gets… a crash course in why depending on petro-autocrats and a tantrum-prone U.S. president for energy might be a bad idea. The chaos has done what decades of polite reports never could: convince voters that fossil fuels are a geopolitical suicide pact. As Trump’s Iran adventure sends prices soaring, demand for EVs, solar panels, and heat pumps spikes across Europe, Asia, and even the United States — despite his administration kneecapping renewables at every turn. While Trump and his fossil-fuel friends cling to the past, battery tech races ahead, grid-scale storage is poised to make gas plants obsolete as “backup,” and Chinese EV makers plan five-minute ultra-fast chargers in countries that still pretend North Sea drilling will somehow save them. The green revolution isn’t happening because of Trump’s vision; it’s happening because the world just watched what happens when you hand the oil economy to a corrupt, attention-deficient strongman and thought, “Yeah, let’s not do this again.”
#lawlessness#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
forever grifting

trump sues the irs for the crime of telling the truth

Trump, presumably calculating how many billions he can bill taxpayers for the emotional distress of everyone finding out he paid less in taxes than their dog-walking side hustle.

Trump, presumably calculating how many billions he can bill taxpayers for the emotional distress of everyone finding out he paid less in taxes than their dog-walking side hustle.

Donald Trump is in "talks" with the IRS to resolve his $10 billion lawsuit over leaked tax records, because of course the man who paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017 now wants a life-changing lotto payout from the same taxpayers he barely contributed to. The suit claims the leak caused him "reputational and financial harm" and "public embarrassment," which is a bold way of saying: people found out what he actually pays and didn’t clap.

Trump, his two adult failsons Donald Jr. and Eric, and the Trump Organization are all listed as plaintiffs, because if there’s a pot of public money on the table, the whole family crime syndicate has to get in line. The leak came from an IRS contractor, Charles Littlejohn, who already pleaded guilty and got five years in prison for stealing the tax records of Trump and thousands of other rich guys, including Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. The IRS called his actions “unacceptable,” but not nearly as unacceptable as the part where the president now wants taxpayers to cut him a check for having his own numbers exposed.

Democrats, apparently tired of watching this administration treat the U.S. Treasury like a Mar-a-Lago ATM, introduced a bill to ban presidents, vice presidents, and their families from pocketing settlement money from the government. Elizabeth Warren called it an effort to close loopholes that enable this "apparent corruption" and stop Trump and future presidents from "stealing Americans’ hard-earned money"—which is a very polite way of saying "absolutely not, you are not suing the IRS to get richer off your own presidency." Trump, ever the philanthropist on other people’s dime, says he’d donate any payout to charity. The catch: it’s still your money he’s generously giving away.

Source: nbcnews.com

#forever-grifting#corruption
killing democracy

president ancient-aliens orders the pentagon to drop the ufo mixtape

Barack Obama, briefly trending again because the current president heard the word ‘aliens’ and decided the Pentagon should become a promotional partner for UFO TikTok.

Barack Obama, briefly trending again because the current president heard the word ‘aliens’ and decided the Pentagon should become a promotional partner for UFO TikTok.

The President stood before Turning Point USA — the nation’s premier conference for future podcast guests — and announced that the Pentagon will be releasing “very interesting documents” about UFOs “very, very soon.” Because when you’ve turned every other part of government into a reality show prop, why not weaponize the Department of Defense as your personal Ancient Aliens writers’ room?

Trump bragged that he’d ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — yes, the Fox News guy, not a typo — to comb through files on “alien and extraterrestrial life,” while the actual Pentagon quietly declined to say anything, presumably because they’re busy doing things like real national security. Meanwhile, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna is threatening subpoenas over 46 UAP videos like she’s chasing down Watergate instead of blurry footage of what a 2024 report already said were mostly misidentified ordinary objects. Rep. Tim Burchett is on X thanking Trump for “keeping your word to me,” as if this is the moon landing and not a content drop for the conspiracy crowd.

The fun twist: multiple Pentagon reviews have already said there’s no credible evidence of a government alien cover-up, no proof of extraterrestrial life, and that most sightings are just… regular stuff. But why let that stop anyone from turning classification, oversight, and defense intelligence into a fan-service teaser campaign? If you were wondering whether the serious machinery of state would be used to methodically inform the public or to juice the base with vibes about little green men, the answer has arrived from Phoenix, and it’s wearing a red hat.

Source: nbcnews.com

#killing-democracy#full-stupid
national security

trump wants the ai with god-mode hacking… but only if he controls it

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, moments before being told his company is both a terrifying 'supply chain risk' and also absolutely essential, please sign here.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, moments before being told his company is both a terrifying 'supply chain risk' and also absolutely essential, please sign here.

The Trump White House just had a "productive and constructive" meeting with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, which is a very diplomatic way of saying: the administration tried to kneecap his company for not handing over an all‑purpose surveillance and weapons bot, and now they need his new super hacker AI too badly to keep pretending.

Two months ago, the administration branded Anthropic a "supply chain risk" – the first US company ever publicly slapped with that label – right after Amodei refused the Pentagon's push for unfettered access to its tools over concerns they'd be used for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth allegedly retaliated with the designation, a federal court largely agreed, and yet somehow the same agencies still quietly keep using Anthropic anyway. Regulation as performance art; procurement as addiction.

Trump, naturally, ranted that Anthropic was run by "left wing nut jobs" and vowed the government would "not do business with them again!" while his own bureaucracy continued doing business with them again, and again, and again. Now Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles are huddling with Amodei to "explore the balance" between innovation and safety, which appears to translate to: how do we get this Mythos model that "outperforms humans at hacking" without admitting we weaponised procurement rules to punish a company for not building us a turnkey surveillance state?

Asked about the CEO’s White House visit, Trump claimed he had "no idea" it was happening, which is either a lie or an accidental confession that the government is negotiating access to a world‑class cyber weapon behind the back of the guy who keeps screaming on social media that he’s in charge. Either way, the message is clear: refuse to build mass spying tools and killer robots, get branded a national security threat… until your tech is too good to blacklist, at which point everyone pretends this was just a friendly chat about "shared protocols" and not a hostage negotiation with the future of civil liberties.

Source: bbc.com

#national-security#killing-democracy
killing democracy

trump turns doj into the 'lock her up' fan club, again

The Department of Justice, seen here auditioning for the role of Trump’s personal legal hit squad.

The Department of Justice, seen here auditioning for the role of Trump’s personal legal hit squad.

The lead prosecutor on the John Brennan investigation has noped out after expressing reservations about the whole thing, which is usually what happens when you realize your "national security case" is actually just the president’s latest revenge fantasy. Maria Medetis Long, a career national security prosecutor in the Southern District of Florida, quietly told attorneys she’s no longer on the case—because nothing says "independent justice system" like experienced prosecutors stepping away when the boss demands a scalp.

The Brennan probe is tied to the intelligence community’s 2016 assessment that Russia interfered to help Donald Trump win, an analysis Trump has hated ever since it dared to be true. Now the local US attorney, Jason Reding Quiñones, is telling Main Justice an indictment may be coming soon, just as Trump has been publicly raging about the lack of prosecutions of his enemies. Pure coincidence, obviously.

Earlier this month, Trump fired attorney general Pam Bondi for failing to put enough heads on pikes and replaced her, on an "audition" basis, with acting AG Todd Blanche, who apparently understands the assignment. A former top Blanche aide has just been shipped down from DC to the Southern District of Florida to work on the Brennan matter, because if you’re going to criminalize a former CIA director for not lying about Russia, you want a loyalist who knows where the political pressure points are.

This is all part of a pattern so blatant it might as well have its own DOJ letterhead. When Trump tried to prosecute New York AG Letitia James last year, career prosecutors in Virginia balked and were fired. Now another career official expresses doubts about a transparently political case and is promptly removed from it. Rule of law has been replaced with a simpler standard: if Trump hates you, the Department of Justice will be right with you shortly.
#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

ukraine politely asks america to stop doomscrolling the other war for a minute

Ukraine’s ambassador carefully explains that her country is still being invaded, while America wonders if it has the bandwidth to care about more than one catastrophic war at a time.

Ukraine’s ambassador carefully explains that her country is still being invaded, while America wonders if it has the bandwidth to care about more than one catastrophic war at a time.

While Washington pundits chase the latest Iran crisis like it's a new streaming series, Ukraine’s ambassador is on Meet the Press gently reminding everyone that Russia’s full-scale invasion did not, in fact, hit pause just because the Beltway found a new war to binge-watch. She’s basically reduced to saying: once you’re done nearly blowing up the Middle East, could you maybe pivot back to the European democracy still being shelled daily?

The subtext is loud enough to rattle NATO headquarters: with Trump back to trashing the alliance on television and Republicans treating Ukraine aid like a Fox News loyalty test, Kyiv is watching U.S. attention – and weapons – drift toward whatever crisis happens to spike oil prices this week. The ambassador’s "hope" that the Iran war ends so the world can refocus on Russia’s aggression is diplomatic code for: your superpower ADHD is going to get us all killed.

And hanging over all of this, again, is Trump’s open hostility to NATO, his long public crush on Putin, and a GOP caucus that now treats defending Ukraine as optional but defending Trump’s feelings as sacred duty. Authoritarian regimes are coordinating, democracies are pleading for focus, and the American right is busy asking whether helping a country being dismembered by Russia is really "worth it". The leopards are not just eating faces anymore; they’re drafting new borders.
#killing-democracy#national-security
killing democracy

stephen miller’s friends help arizona ‘fix’ elections

Justin Heap, freshly empowered to restore ‘trust’ in elections by the same movement that spent four years torching it to the ground.

Justin Heap, freshly empowered to restore ‘trust’ in elections by the same movement that spent four years torching it to the ground.

Maricopa County just had a judge decide which group of Republicans gets to sit closest to the election machinery, and Stephen Miller’s friends won. County recorder Justin Heap – a former GOP legislator who built a career gently fanning the ‘something’s wrong with our elections’ crowd without quite saying the magic words ‘stolen’ – sued the Republican-controlled Board of Supervisors for daring to control key election functions. The judge agreed the board had “acted unlawfully” by seizing his office’s staff, systems, and equipment, and handed Heap more authority over early voting and other operations.

The board says it’s only ever wanted to give Heap the resources he needs and that “voters always come first,” which is a fascinating way to describe a knife fight over who gets to place ballot drop boxes and run early voting in a state where MAGA conspiracy theorists have been screaming about bamboo ballots for four years. The previous recorder, Republican Stephen Richer, says Heap “catered to the really ugly stuff” and helped feed the harassment and threats aimed at the elections office. Naturally, Heap’s lawsuit arrived with the enthusiastic backing of America First Legal, the “public interest” group founded by Stephen Miller, now helpfully stationed in the White House as deputy chief of staff to make sure this kind of thing scales nationally.

So in Arizona’s largest county, the lesson is clear: whip up distrust in the election system, ride that wave into office, then use your new job – and Miller’s legal machine – to claw back more direct control over how people vote. The board is talking about an appeal, but the damage is done: the 2026 races in one of the country’s most important swing states will be run by a guy who built his brand on telling voters the system is trash, now armed with a court order and a far-right legal shop cheering from Washington. What could possibly go wrong with that for democracy.

#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

trump admin defeats free speech, phd student graduates anyway

ICE agents bravely protecting America from the mortal threat of a child-development PhD who co-signed a campus op-ed.

ICE agents bravely protecting America from the mortal threat of a child-development PhD who co-signed a campus op-ed.

The Trump administration’s crusade against higher education has hit another devastating setback: the Tufts PhD student they tried to disappear for writing a campus op-ed has the audacity to finish her doctorate and go home on her own terms. Rümeysa Öztürk, who co-wrote a piece calling Israel’s assault on Gaza a genocide, was rewarded with a revoked visa, a masked ICE snatch-and-grab in Massachusetts, and a one-way trip to a for-profit detention center in Louisiana — because nothing says "land of the free" like throwing grad students in prison for newspaper columns. Marco Rubio’s state department reached deep into the authoritarian toy box, using a rarely invoked power to cancel visas of pro-Palestinian students and smear them as Hamas supporters while producing absolutely zero evidence beyond "they criticized a US ally in the school paper". An immigration judge eventually ruled the government had no grounds to deport Öztürk, so naturally that judge was fired last week as the administration continues its project of converting immigration courts into a rubber stamp factory. Internal records later confirmed what everyone with a brain already knew: the entire case rested on the op-ed and vibes. After a settlement that restored her student status and ended the bogus proceedings, Öztürk completed her PhD in child study and human development and returned to Turkey, pointing out that the "time stolen" from her by the US government also belonged to the children she’s dedicated her work to. The message from Trump and Rubio is loud and clear: speak out for Palestinian rights, and the state will try to wreck your life. The message from Dr Öztürk is louder: she got the degree, kept her integrity, and left America’s would-be speech police looking like the petty, lawless authoritarians they keep insisting they’re not.

Source: theguardian.com

#killing-democracy#lawlessness#anti-immigration
forever grifting

ontario premier buys gravy plane to fight trump, definitely not for vibes

Doug Ford in a hat that says "CANADA IS NOT FOR SALE", shortly after billing taxpayers C$28.9 million for his personal frequent flyer program.

Doug Ford in a hat that says "CANADA IS NOT FOR SALE", shortly after billing taxpayers C$28.9 million for his personal frequent flyer program.

Doug Ford looked at a province where people are struggling to pay rent and buy groceries and thought: you know what would really help? A C$28.9 million pre-owned Bombardier Challenger 650 for his "extensive travel" — primarily his own, naturally. Opposition leaders have dubbed it the "gravy plane", because apparently "flying cash bonfire" didn't clear legal. Ford’s office insists the jet is vital for "more certain, flexible, secure and confidential travel" across Ontario, which they remind everyone is "twice the landmass of Texas" — always a good sign when the sales pitch for your austerity-era luxury jet starts with Texas cosplay. The plane will also whisk Ford around Canada and the US so he can heroically "make the case against President Donald Trump's tariffs", because nothing says prudent trade diplomacy like arriving to complain about tariffs in a C$28.9m taxpayer-funded status symbol. To justify the splurge, Ford’s team pointed at Quebec and the federal government, noting they spent even more on planes — for things like air ambulances and military/government transport. So yes, the defense here is literally: other people bought more expensive jets for actual public services, therefore Doug deserves a cheaper one for personal shuttle service and TV hits. Ontarians get higher costs of living and anti-tariff ads that made Trump mad enough to stall trade talks; Doug Ford gets a Challenger 650. Truly, a shared sacrifice.

Source: bbc.com

#forever-grifting#money
corruption

senate votes to let foreign mining company eat minnesota

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, seen here just before Congress decided it would look better as a toxic chemistry experiment for a Chilean mining conglomerate.

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, seen here just before Congress decided it would look better as a toxic chemistry experiment for a Chilean mining conglomerate.

The US Senate has narrowly decided that Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness would look much better as a sulfide mining experiment, voting 50–49 to repeal Biden’s 20-year mining moratorium so Trump can sign it and call it patriotism. The big winner isn’t Minnesotans, or the millions who visit one of America’s most beloved wilderness areas – it’s Twin Metals Minnesota, the local costume worn by Chilean mining giant Antofagasta, which is itching to drop a copper and nickel mine just a few miles from the Boundary Waters.

Democratic senator Tina Smith helpfully pointed out that this is the exact opposite of "America First": the mine is owned by a foreign company, the ore will go to Chinese state-owned smelters, and the metals will be sold on the open market. So naturally, the GOP and a bare Senate majority raced to approve it, because if there’s one thing this era stands for, it’s handing US public lands to foreign corporations and calling it supply-chain security. Two Republicans, Susan Collins and Thom Tillis, voted against turning a national treasure into a chemistry set, while Josh Hawley simply didn’t bother to vote – presumably conserving his strength for more performative outrage on television.

Environmental groups are describing this as a "dark day" for the Boundary Waters and a warning for public lands everywhere, which is polite code for "Congress just put a ‘for sale’ sign on your favorite national forest." Twin Metals, meanwhile, insists it will "responsibly" mine the area and pass "stringent" environmental standards, which is exactly what every mining company says right before the river starts glowing. Legal fights and permitting hurdles remain, but the message from Trump’s Washington is unmistakable: if you’re a foreign corporation with a good lobbying team, America’s wilderness is your strip mall.

Source: theguardian.com

#corruption#forever-grifting
killing democracy

trump gives ice $75bn, gets discount goon squad

ICE recruiters reviewing applications: "Bankrupt, fired, lied on a report? Perfect. Can you start Monday and bring your own handcuffs?"

ICE recruiters reviewing applications: "Bankrupt, fired, lied on a report? Perfect. Can you start Monday and bring your own handcuffs?"

The Trump administration handed ICE a $75bn shopping spree and told them to double their force to supercharge mass deportations, and ICE responded by raiding the clearance bin of American law enforcement. The Associated Press found new agents with two bankruptcies, six police jobs in three years, failed police academy attempts, alleged lies in police reports that led to a $75,000 settlement, and a whole lot of "please don't look too closely at my past" energy. Perfect résumés for a job where you get a gun, broad discretion, and almost no public accountability. ICE leadership, naturally, is very proud of this. Acting director Todd Lyons bragged to Congress about an "expansion of a well-trained and well-vetted workforce" while the agency quietly admitted some recruits were given tentative offers and allowed to start work before full background checks were done. To help move the warm bodies along, they dangled signing bonuses up to $50,000, dropped any pretense of requiring a college degree, and then insisted that vetting is "ongoing"—which is a poetic way of saying, "We’ll find out what crimes our agents have committed after they start making arrests for us." Because transparency might endanger the feelings of the new stormtroopers, ICE hides its employees’ identities, making meaningful oversight impossible. Yet even with that secrecy, a simple LinkedIn search turned up officers with massive unpaid debts, repeat bankruptcies, and prior misconduct lawsuits. Internal memos tell supervisors to forward "derogatory information"—like terminations and forced resignations—to internal affairs after the fact, as though this is a fun scavenger hunt and not a federal law enforcement agency. When your deportation machine is staffed with people other departments quietly shuffled out the back door, “abuse of power” stops being a risk and starts looking like a feature.
#killing-democracy#lawlessness
killing democracy

vice president of jesus tells pope to watch his mouth

JD Vance, America’s self-appointed assistant pope, pauses between media hits to explain Catholicism to the guy in the white hat.

JD Vance, America’s self-appointed assistant pope, pauses between media hits to explain Catholicism to the guy in the white hat.

JD Vance, the guy who wrote a self-help book for rich people to feel good about ignoring poor people, has now upgraded himself to assistant regional pope. At a MAGA-faith conference, the sitting vice-president of the United States announced that the actual pope should be "very, very careful" when he talks about theology. Bold strategy: tell the Bishop of Rome he’s doing Catholicism wrong while your own conversion memoir is still somewhere in the publishing colon, waiting to be passed. Meanwhile, Trump is busy posting AI art of himself as Jesus, because of course the only trinity he recognizes is Trump, Trump, and Also Trump. Some MAGA Catholics are reportedly starting to wonder if the guy who described avoiding STDs as his "personal Vietnam" and called every vagina a "potential landmine" might not, in fact, be the moral lodestar of Christendom. Their dawning realization that the casino messiah maybe isn’t super devout is being treated as a theological breakthrough instead of the late-stage cult deprogramming it clearly is. Hovering over all this is the cheery little question of what happens when a narcissistic president with a God complex, a vice-president who thinks he outranks the pope, and a defense secretary with Crusader cosplay tattoos all have access to the levers of state power. The Vatican is getting gentle mob-movie warnings, the base is being trained to treat Trump as literal messiah content, and we’re all supposed to act surprised later when the theocracy cosplay turns into actual policy. Don’t worry, though – when historians ask whether there were any warning signs, JD Vance is right there on tape threatening the pope like he’s shaking down a pizza joint in Rome.
#killing-democracy#fascism
killing democracy

president infomercial hits the road

Trump pauses mid-rally to explain that if you squint hard enough, a billionaire tax cut looks exactly like a paycheck for you.

Trump pauses mid-rally to explain that if you squint hard enough, a billionaire tax cut looks exactly like a paycheck for you.

Trump has launched a multi-state "please don't fire my enablers" tour ahead of the midterms, dragging Air Force One and the full presidential stagecraft around like it's his personal campaign bus. Officially, he's promoting the GOP's economic message; in practice, he's workshopping new material about how giving billionaires more tax cuts is the same thing as helping the middle class.

Reporters dutifully describe this as a "message to voters" instead of what it is: the sitting president barnstorming key states to prop up a Congress that keeps rubber-stamping his judges, his corruption, and his "what if the rule of law, but less" agenda. The White House insists it's all about policy, which is adorable, given that the policy is mostly "trust me, it'll be great" and a PowerPoint written by corporate lobbyists.

While Trump rallies the base with culture-war greatest hits and fantasy economics, the subtext is clear: keep Republicans in charge or the investigations, subpoenas, and faint whiff of accountability might return. It's not quite Mussolini-on-a-balcony, but it's definitely the early-access tour for a government where elections are treated as a minor inconvenience to be managed, not a mandate to be earned.

Source: today.com

#killing-democracy#oligarchy
killing democracy

trump world discovers children make excellent target practice

America First Policy Institute staffers workshop new ways to say “we’re banning your healthcare” while insisting it’s all very compassionate and science-based.

America First Policy Institute staffers workshop new ways to say “we’re banning your healthcare” while insisting it’s all very compassionate and science-based.

The America First Policy Institute — the MAGA fanfic shop that somehow keeps turning into actual federal policy — is now saying the quiet part out loud: children are the "low-hanging fruit" in their longer-term project to wipe out gender-affirming care for everyone. Jennifer Bauwens, AFPI’s "family issues" guru, told a friendly DC crowd that bans on trans care for minors are just the opening bid, a starter course in a multi-course meal of state-enforced gender conformity. Don’t worry though, they insist it’s all about "first, do no harm" — a charming slogan from the people whose entire business model is medically banning what every major medical association says prevents suicide.

AFPI isn’t just some fringe crank operation; it’s basically Trump’s HR department. The group brags that Trump’s second-term administration has implemented over 90% of its agenda and placed at least 73 of its people in his government, including eight at the cabinet level. That agenda includes five early executive orders targeting trans people in the military, schools, sports, healthcare, and even on legal documents, plus federal bans on care for anyone under 19 and for incarcerated adults. A former Trump Domestic Policy Council aide, Scott Centorino, happily told the AFPI audience that Trump gave him a "blank check" and "essentially no leash" to go after gender-affirming care — which is exactly what you want to hear about a government crusade against a hated minority.

The plan now is to keep squeezing. AFPI and its friends in the broader Project 2025 ecosystem have already helped push anti-trans laws through at least half the states, targeting everything from puberty blockers to sports teams to bathroom use. Having used trans kids as the test market, they’re openly eyeing adults next, while the White House pretends it’s just about "defending girls’ sports" and stopping "unscientific" care. When a president hands ideological operatives "endless runway" to decide which medical treatments entire groups of people are allowed to receive, that’s not policy — that’s a theocratic control freak fantasy with executive orders attached.
#killing-democracy#fascism