trump disappointed he didn’t finish the coup with tanks at the polling place
Donald Trump, presumably pondering how much better 2020 would have gone if he’d added "invade the voting machines" to his list of presidential duties.
Donald Trump has now gone on the record with the New York Times to say the quiet part even louder: he regrets not using the National Guard to seize voting machines after losing the 2020 election. In other words, the former (and now current) president is sad his coup didn’t involve more troops and fewer laws. He still insists he actually won 2020—"I won three times," he boasts—because nothing says "strong democracy" like a guy who keeps adding imaginary wins to his record like they’re Trump University diplomas.
The idea to grab voting machines wasn’t some fever dream from a Telegram channel; it was floated in a December 2020 Oval Office meeting with Sidney Powell and Michael Flynn, the brain trust of "what if martial law, but make it kooky." They even drafted executive orders to have the Defense Department "seize, collect, retain and analyze" voting machines in swing states, which is a fun way of saying "use the military to overturn an election." Even Bill Barr—yes, that Bill Barr—reportedly "immediately shot down" the plan, because when Bill "Cover-Up" Barr is your voice of restraint, you are way, way off the constitutional map.
Trump now muses that the National Guard might not be "sophisticated enough" to pull off his fantasy machine grab, praising them as "good warriors" but questioning their ability to navigate the alleged dark arts of "crooked Democrats." Translation: he wanted soldiers to help him stay in power, but worries the troops might not be as committed to overthrowing American democracy as Sidney Powell’s group chat. Meanwhile, actual election security experts still say 2020 was the most secure election in US history, and Trump’s lawsuits crashed and burned in courts nationwide—but sure, the real problem is that the tanks never made it to the county clerk’s office.
#killing-democracy#fascism#lawlessness
trump admin solves police shooting by sending in more cops with bigger guns
Nothing says “listening to the community” like lining the streets with more federal agents and calling it freedom.
In response to protests over a police shooting in Minnesota, the Trump administration has come up with a bold new strategy: not accountability, not de-escalation, not reforms—just more federal agents. Because nothing says "we hear your concerns about state violence" like flying in a fresh batch of armed federal officers to stand between angry citizens and any hope of justice.
The plan, as usual, is to treat a political crisis as a PR opportunity and a law-enforcement cosplay convention. Instead of supporting independent investigations or protecting protesters' rights, the White House is beefing up the federal presence in Minneapolis, turning a grieving city into a live-fire backdrop for Trump's "law and order" campaign trailer. In other words: when the public demands less brutality, this administration's answer is always, proudly, unapologetically, more boots, more badges, more batons.
And just to complete the democracy-speedrun, all of this is wrapped in the familiar rhetoric that anyone in the streets is a threat, local officials can't be trusted, and only Washington's loyal shock troops can restore "order." It's the same old formula: federalize the response, criminalize dissent, and then act shocked when people use words like "authoritarian" to describe an administration that keeps treating American cities like occupied territory. But sure, tell us again how this is all about "public safety."
#fascism#killing-democracy
trump tries to solo rage-quit a senate-ratified climate treaty
Trump signs a memo declaring the U.S. free from climate reality, surrounded by men who think the greenhouse effect is a liberal hoax.
Donald Trump has discovered a new climate solution: if you pull the U.S. out of the UN’s core climate treaty, the planet just… stops warming, right? In a fresh presidential memo, he announced that the U.S. "shall withdraw" from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and 65 other international bodies that allegedly offend American "sovereignty"—in other words, anything that mildly inconveniences fossil fuel donors. There’s just one tiny problem: legal experts keep pointing out that he probably doesn’t have the constitutional authority to yank the U.S. out of a Senate-ratified treaty by himself, no matter how many all-caps memos he signs.
Harold Hongju Koh, former top State Department lawyer, says the quiet part out loud: because the Senate approved the UNFCCC back in 1992, Trump doesn’t get to un-sign it like a bad prenup. He calls for a “mirror principle”—if it took the Senate to get in, it takes the Senate to get out. Meanwhile, Columbia’s Michael Gerrard and others note that past presidents have sometimes acted like they can ditch treaties unilaterally, and Congress just sort of shrugged, which Trump is now treating as a blank check to dismantle decades of international law between Truth Social posts.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse politely sums up the situation as "not just corrupt, it’s illegal," calling the move "polluter-driven stoogery"—because nothing says "defending American prosperity" like making sure oil and gas companies never have to deal with the inconvenience of a habitable planet. The Supreme Court has never clearly decided who actually gets to terminate treaties, which Trump is apparently reading as: "go nuts, no refs on the field." Legal scholars are now arguing over whether this stunt would also make it harder for a future president to rejoin the treaty, or whether a successor can just stroll back in and pretend the tantrum never happened.
The bottom line: Trump is trying to unilaterally blow up the foundational global climate agreement that a previous Republican president negotiated and a unanimous Senate ratified—while insisting this is about "sovereignty" and "freedom," not the fossil fuel industry’s death grip on his administration. The rest of the world gets a clear message: the U.S. is an unreliable partner, its treaty commitments are only as durable as the next Fox segment, and the constitutional separation of powers is just another speed bump on the road to climate arson.
#killing-democracy#anti-science
affordability is a hoax, says man who made everything more expensive
Trump explains that the affordability crisis is a hoax while standing in front of a $10 carton of eggs and a tax bill labeled 'Working Families Tax Cut.'
Democrats have finally discovered a magic word that isn’t "bipartisanship" or "please stop": affordability. While Trump tours the country declaring the cost-of-living crisis a "hoax", Americans are apparently failing to notice how blessed they are by 2.7% inflation on top of already jacked-up prices, gutted healthcare subsidies, and a president whose main economic policy is yelling "DAY ONE" at grocery receipts. In other words, the White House line is: if you can’t afford your meds, just try believing harder.
On Capitol Hill, things are going so well that 17 House Republicans had to mutiny against their own leadership to reinstate Affordable Care Act premium tax credits for three years, after Speaker Mike Johnson bravely refused to allow any vote that might make health insurance less ruinously expensive. Moderates then used a discharge petition to drag the bill onto the floor, because nothing says "fiscally conservative" like forcing your own speaker to stop deliberately raising people’s premiums. Democrats, naturally, are thrilled to discover that "not making people poorer on purpose" is a winning message.
Meanwhile, the GOP is betting that their One Big Beautiful Bill Act — now rebranded as the "Working Families Tax Cut" because focus groups didn’t love "Massive Handout to Donors" — will shower Americans with such huge refunds that they’ll forget about higher prices, healthcare cuts, and Trump’s little Venezuela adventure. Johnson promises "all boats begin to rise," which is a bold claim for a party that keeps drilling holes in the bottom of the lifeboat and calling it structural reform. And when that doesn’t work, Republicans will go back to the classics: blame Biden for everything, scream about fraud in childcare spending, and hope voters don’t notice who’s been methodically making life more expensive for them this whole time.
#forever-grifting#killing-democracy
trump eyes greenland like it’s a foreclosure sale
Artist’s impression of Trump staring at a map of the Arctic like it’s Zillow for aspiring autocrats.
Donald Trump is once again looking at Greenland the way he looks at a golf course that hasn’t yet been strip‑mined for branding opportunities. In the brave new world of post‑post‑cold war geopolitics, the former guy’s big idea is basically: what if Manifest Destiny, but colder? From Venezuela to the Arctic, Trump’s instinct is the same old might makes real-estate politics—because nothing says 21st‑century diplomacy like treating an inhabited island as a distressed asset.
Europe, meanwhile, is sitting around writing strategy papers about the Arctic while Washington is out here doing full‑blown Risk LARP. The EU has three Arctic member states, a massive economic footprint, and a supposedly rules‑based identity—so naturally its response to Trump’s Greenland fixation has been a bold, coordinated … awkward silence and a few useless social‑media posts. Ursula von der Leyen managed to give an entire State of the Union without mentioning the Arctic once, which is a choice when the United States is openly spitballing territorial acquisition.
The authors suggest a radical concept: instead of waiting for Trump to show up with a checkbook and a MAGA icebreaker, the EU could actually do politics. As in: offer Greenland, the Faroes, Iceland and Norway a pathway into the EU, with phased membership, fisheries deals, infrastructure money, and explicit protections for Inuit culture and self‑government. In other words, use law, institutions and investment to counter Trump’s ‘how much for the big icy one?’ energy.
So while Trump dreams of buying Greenland like it’s a failing casino he can slap his name on, Europe is being gently begged to stop cosplaying a ‘normative power’ and start acting like one. Either the Arctic becomes a space for multilateral coordination, or it becomes another stage for Trump’s grab‑bag geopolitics—because if there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that he will absolutely try to sign a deed for an entire island and call it a historic win.
#imperialism#killing-democracy
ai, burgers, and bribes: america’s finest buy a piece of trump
Trump signs an AI executive order while tech billionaires calculate the ROI on their latest $10 million 'conversation starter.'
Donald Trump enters his second decade as the main character of American decline, and suddenly a bunch of very rich people discover a deep, heartfelt commitment to…writing seven- and eight-figure checks to his super PAC. More than a dozen donors who had never come close to this level of political giving before 2024 are now dropping $1 million or more into MAGA Inc. — after Trump wins, while he’s governing, and exactly when their companies and families just happen to have major business, federal contracts, regulatory problems, or prison sentences on the line. But sure, this is all about “democracy” and “innovation.”
OpenAI president Greg Brockman and his wife each cut $12.5 million checks to MAGA Inc., right as Trump rolls out an AI agenda written on Palantir letterhead and an executive order preempting pesky state AI regulations. Brockman solemnly explains on X that this is about “responsible AI” and “constructive dialogue,” because nothing says responsible governance like quietly handing $25 million to the guy who just gave your industry everything it wanted by fiat. Palantir CEO Alexander Karp also suddenly finds $1 million for MAGA Inc. (on top of $1 million for the inaugural) while his surveillance company is hoovering up high-profile federal contracts, including for Trump’s immigrant-tracking obsession. In other words: the government cuts the checks, he cuts the checks, everyone’s happy — except the people being tracked.
Then there’s William Ford of General Atlantic, who casually bumps his giving from five figures to $1.25 million right before Trump takes office, while he sits on the board of ByteDance — the TikTok parent company that was supposed to be banned in the U.S. until Trump graciously delayed the hammer. Miraculously, ByteDance gets time to arrange a cushy American joint venture sale. Other new megadonors, like private equity guy Konstantin Sokolov and In‑N‑Out’s Lynsi Snyder‑Ellingson, join the fun, some with relatives staring down long federal prison sentences. And because this is America, all of this is technically legal: just a bunch of patriotic billionaires independently deciding to give life-changing sums to a president who just happens to control their contracts, regulations, and loved ones’ futures.
So no, this isn’t bribery, it’s just the free market in action: Trump sells access and policy, and the donor class finally stops pretending their money isn’t a down payment on government favors. Campaign finance reform is for suckers; real players just buy the presidency wholesale.
#corruption#forever-grifting
trump state dept defends musk’s ai creep factory
Elon Musk’s X: now with state-sponsored outrage protection from the Trump administration, for when your AI sex-picture machine meets the slightest hint of regulation.
In the latest episode of "Free Speech Means Never Having To Moderate Anything," Elon Musk’s X gets caught helping users churn out sexualised AI images of women and children, and the UK government has the audacity to say, "hey, maybe don’t do that." Ofcom fast-tracks an investigation into Grok, X’s built-in AI image tool, which is apparently great at turning random photos into sexualised garbage and Auschwitz bikini shots—but sure, tell us more about how AI will save civilisation.
Business secretary Peter Kyle and technology secretary Liz Kendall say Ofcom can go all the way up to banning X in the UK if the company won’t stop turning its platform into a premium service for unlawful images. X’s brilliant response? Don’t fix the abuse pipeline, just limit the image generator to paying subscribers—because nothing says "responsible tech governance" like putting exploitation behind a paywall.
Enter the Trump administration, stage hard-right: Sarah Rogers, the US undersecretary for public diplomacy—because of course it’s public diplomacy—rushes out to compare the UK’s potential action to Putin-style censorship. In other words, a US official is now publicly defending Musk’s right to let a platform crank out sexualised AI images of women and kids, and calling any attempt to stop it ‘authoritarian.’ The message from Trump-world is clear: regulating corporate abuse is tyranny, but state power deployed to protect a billionaire’s engagement farm is just good old-fashioned ‘freedom.’
#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
oil coup: trump threatens to ban exxon from the country he just stole
Donald Trump on Air Force One, explaining that Venezuela’s oil companies now report directly to Washington, because nothing says sovereignty like having your natural resources rerouted through the US Treasury.
Donald Trump, having just conducted a “brazen overnight raid” to snatch Nicolás Maduro out of Venezuela, is now mad that ExxonMobil’s CEO Darren Woods called the country “uninvestable.” So, naturally, Trump’s response is to threaten to ban Exxon from investing in the very oil playground he just helped seize. Because nothing says “free market capitalism” like a president personally deciding which oil giants are allowed to profit off a country whose leader he just removed at gunpoint.
In a meeting with at least 17 oil executives, Woods pointed out that Exxon has had its assets seized in Venezuela twice and might like some actual legal protections before going back for round three. Trump’s takeaway? Not that maybe regime-change-by-raid is a bad investment climate, but that Exxon is “playing too cute” and should probably be kept out of the spoils. In other words, if you’re not sufficiently enthusiastic about the new colonial management, you don’t get a slice of the colony.
Trump also helpfully clarified that oil companies would now be “dealing with us directly. You’re not dealing with Venezuela at all. We don’t want you to deal with Venezuela.” Subtle. Meanwhile, he signed an executive order shielding Venezuelan oil revenues parked in US Treasury accounts from courts and creditors—because when you’ve just toppled a government and are divvying up its natural resources, the last thing you need is the rule of law getting in the way.
So to recap: US forces remove a foreign president, Trump installs himself as the gatekeeper of that country’s oil industry, and then threatens to punish one of the world’s biggest oil companies for not being bullish enough on the new arrangement. But sure, tell us more about how this is all about “democracy” and not a live-action tutorial in 21st-century imperial looting.
#imperialism#corruption
trump threatens to indict the fed for not kissing his interest rates
Jerome Powell, patiently explaining that interest rates are not supposed to be set by whichever president is currently threatening to indict him.
Jerome Powell just announced that the Trump Justice Department slapped the Federal Reserve with subpoenas and the threat of a criminal indictment, because nothing says "independent central bank" like the president’s lawyers showing up with handcuffs. Officially, this is totally about his testimony on a headquarters renovation project. In other words, the administration found some drywall and cost overruns and decided that was a good enough pretext to go after monetary policy.
Powell, who apparently still believes words like "evidence" and "economic conditions" mean something, pointed out the obvious: this is about forcing the Fed to set interest rates based on Trump’s political needs, not the actual economy. He calls the renovation angle a "pretext"; the White House calls it Tuesday. Meanwhile, DOJ is also digging into mortgage-fraud allegations against Fed Governor Lisa Cook, who—what do you know—has a permanent vote on interest rates. Totally random coincidence, we’re sure.
Even Republican Sen. Thom Tillis momentarily looked up from the rubble of his party’s spine to say this is an open attempt to end Fed independence and vowed to block Trump Fed nominees until this is resolved. Markets mostly shrugged, the dollar dipped a bit, and Trump, who’s spent months attacking Powell for not slashing rates fast enough, is already bragging he has a replacement lined up when Powell’s term ends in May. The message from the administration is clear: set rates the way Trump wants, or enjoy your complimentary criminal investigation from Attorney General Judge Jeanine’s Justice Department.
#killing-democracy#fascism#lawlessness
ministry of portraits memory-holes the impeachments
The National Portrait Gallery’s new Trump display, now with 50% more "unmatched aura" and 100% less mention of that time his supporters sacked the Capitol.
The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has quietly upgraded Trump’s wall space from "twice-impeached coup-curious president" to "vibes-only" by swapping out his photo and deleting any mention of his two impeachments and the Jan. 6 insurrection. The new portrait, courtesy of the White House photographer, comes with a new caption style that, very conveniently, no longer includes the awkward little bits about trying to overturn an election. Because nothing says "America’s Presidents" like pretending history is a choose-your-own-adventure novel.
The museum insists this is just part of "exploring quotes or tombstone labels" and a routine refresh, while declining to say whether the caption change was requested by the Trump administration. Meanwhile, the old label — which dared to mention the impeachments, the attack on the Capitol, and other actual facts — has been exiled to the internet like some subversive samizdat. But don’t worry, the Smithsonian promises the concept of presidential impeachments still exists somewhere else in the building, presumably in a broom closet behind a "woke content" warning.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle celebrated that, "for the first time in history," the Portrait Gallery is hanging an "iconic" Trump photo whose "unmatched aura will be seen and felt" throughout the halls — which is one way to describe state-curated personality cult energy. This all dovetails perfectly with Trump’s executive order demanding the removal of "improper ideology" from Smithsonian exhibits ahead of the country’s 250th anniversary. In other words: welcome to the taxpayer-funded rebrand of January 6 from "insurrection" to "incident we do not discuss" — a federally sponsored history scrub brought to you by the guy who keeps insisting he’s the real victim here.
#killing-democracy#fascism
trump considers bombing his way to human rights
Trump, thoughtfully posing in front of military imagery, bravely considering which part of the Middle East to set on fire this time for freedom.
Trump is reportedly "weighing military options" in Iran as that government ramps up a brutal crackdown, because nothing says support for democracy like threatening to drop bombs on a country already on fire. The same guy who gushed over dictators, tried to overturn his own election, and tear-gassed peaceful protesters for a photo-op now wants you to believe he's deeply concerned about human rights in Tehran.
In other words, it's the standard Trump foreign policy package: maximum chest-thumping, minimum strategy, and absolutely no concern for Congress's war powers, international law, or the people who'd actually die. The administration is floating "options" on TV while allies scramble, the Pentagon pretends this is normal, and the White House shops for the best cable-news angle. Because if there's one lesson from the last two decades of US intervention, it's clearly that we haven't started enough wars yet.
So here we are again: a president who couldn't pass a basic civics test casually playing with escalation in the Middle East like it's a Truth Social engagement hack. No authorization, no coherent policy, just vibes, grievances, and the eternal belief that a good military showdown can fix the polls. But sure, tell us more about how this is all about "supporting the Iranian people" and not about another would-be strongman using other people's lives as props.
#imperialism#national-security#killing-democracy
trump discovers article ii means ‘do what i say or i end your career’
File photo of Republican senators bravely defending the Constitution, right up until Trump calls and they remember Article II now stands for ‘If It Irritates Donald, It’s Illegal.’
Trump spent his post–war powers vote evening doing what any totally normal, definitely-not-authoritarian president does: calling up Republican senators and threatening to destroy their careers because they dared to vote that maybe, just maybe, Congress should have a say before he starts a new war in Venezuela. Josh Hawley, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, Susan Collins, and Todd Young all crossed the aisle on a procedural vote to advance a war powers resolution, so Trump responded like a calm, rational leader by promising them primary challengers and blasting on Truth Social that they "should never be elected to office again."
On Truth Social, he helpfully explained that the War Powers Act is "Unconstitutional" and totally violates Article II, which in Trump-ese means "I read somewhere that I’m a king now". He also claimed the vote "greatly hampers American Self Defense and National Security," because nothing says "self-defense" like giving one guy unlimited power to launch military action in another country without Congress getting in the way with all that pesky "law" and "oversight."
The best part: some of the targeted senators, like Hawley and Paul, praised him anyway. Hawley declared, "I love the president. I think he’s doing a great job," and floated changing his vote later—as if being personally threatened by your party leader is just a fun little performance review. In other words, Trump openly intimidates legislators for exercising constitutional war powers, calls their vote "stupidity," and the response from parts of the GOP is basically: thank you sir, may I have another.
#killing-democracy#fascism
trump turns antitrust into a content moderation service
Trump watches CNN on mute, points at the screen, and tells America’s billionaires, “One of you will make this stop or your merger dies.”
Donald Trump has decided that antitrust law is just another content moderation tool, loudly insisting that CNN "should be sold" as a condition for any Warner Bros Discovery deal. In a stunning coincidence that is definitely not state pressure, one giant media company (Netflix) is trying to swallow Warner Bros Discovery for $82.7bn, while another (Paramount Skydance, run by David Ellison, son of Trump buddy Larry) is lunging in with a hostile $108bn bid and promising "sweeping changes" at CNN—aka giving Trump exactly what he wants. Because nothing says free press like the president personally shopping your news network to the highest sycophant.
Paramount has already run the playbook: it paid Trump $16m to settle a meritless lawsuit over a CBS interview, then installed Kenneth R Weinstein—Trump’s almost-ambassador to Japan—as a CBS "bias" monitor to soothe regulators. An FCC commissioner called this "never-before-seen" government control of newsroom decisions that violates the First Amendment, which is lawyer-speak for "this is straight-up authoritarian garbage". In the fallout, the 60 Minutes producer quit, the CBS News president quit, and Stephen Colbert’s show was cancelled just in time to smooth the path for a merger. In other words: corporate America has discovered that the easiest way to get your deal approved is to pre-cancel the jokes about the president.
Netflix, meanwhile, wants to pretend it’s the "benign" option while having its own track record of folding to political pressure—like yanking a Saudi-critical satire episode and shrugging that it’s "not in the truth-to-power business". Translation: we’ll do whatever the biggest market wants, up to and including memory-holing documentaries and political content that might upset a regime or a regulator. Handing that platform even more control over which stories exist, while Discovery’s news assets are spun into a separate corporate orphan, is how you get quiet, algorithmic censorship: fewer buyers, fewer distributors, and more executives deciding that anything "too political" just isn’t worth the regulatory headache.
The result of either deal is the same: more concentrated media power, fewer independent voices, and a president who has learned he can turn merger review into a protection racket for his ego. Give the Ellison family both CBS News and CNN, or let Netflix’s walled garden swallow another legacy studio, and you don’t just get fewer movies and higher prices—you get a media landscape where challenging journalism and dissenting stories are preemptively killed in the boardroom so they never have to be censored in public. But sure, tell us again how this is all about "consumer choice" and "efficiency" and not about killing democracy with mergers and vibes.
#killing-democracy#oligarchy
trump and rfk jr heroically protect babies from… not getting hospitalized
Robert F Kennedy Jr heroically saving babies from effective medicine so they can experience the full, authentic American emergency room.
The Trump administration, led on health policy by noted vaccine expert Robert F Kennedy Jr, has decided that since RSV shots dramatically reduce infant hospitalizations, the obvious move is to restrict them. Because nothing says "pro-life" like deliberately making it harder for babies to breathe. Previously recommended for all infants, RSV protection is now limited to "high-risk" babies—an inspired choice in a country where only about a third of pregnant people get the maternal shot and universal healthcare is a Republican ghost story.
Meanwhile, four new JAMA studies show the RSV shots are very effective and very safe: up to 81% reduction in hospitalizations, protection against other lower-respiratory infections, and no safety signal in millions of infants. Doctors who remember winters of hospitals overflowing with gasping toddlers are, strangely, not thrilled about bringing that back for the sake of RFK Jr’s brand and Tracy Beth Høeg’s statistical fan fiction. Høeg, now running the FDA’s drug regulation, is hyping a non–statistically significant blip in trial deaths (from things like dehydration) as a pretext for an FDA "investigation" that magically lines up with the political agenda.
Experts describe the decision as made "by political appointees without a scientific basis", which is a polite way of saying the nation’s vaccine policy is now being set by YouTube comments. The result: fragmentation, confusion, and clinics likely not stocking the shots even for high‑risk babies, right as RSV season ramps up. In other words, the administration is actively engineering a preventable surge in infant hospitalizations—and possibly deaths—while calling it "safety" and "parental choice". But sure, tell us more about how this is all about protecting children.
#anti-science#killing-democracy
smithsonian launches new exhibit: 'donald trump, noted normal president'
The Smithsonian, bravely documenting history by pretending the ‘insurrection’ era was just Trump’s ‘standing near a desk’ phase.
The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has helpfully decided that history is more of a vibe than a record, swapping out Donald Trump’s portrait and quietly deleting any mention of his two impeachments and that minor incident where his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6. The old caption that accurately said “impeached twice” and “incitement of insurrection” has been replaced with a new label so short the outline of the old sign is still visible on the wall — like a ghost of accountability past the museum is desperately trying to exorcise.
This is not happening in a vacuum. After Trump publicly claimed he had fired National Portrait Gallery director Kim Sajet for being too into DEI (in other words: insufficiently devoted to his cult of personality), she resigned under pressure, and now the museum is suddenly “exploring” bland, minimalist “tombstone labels.” Because nothing says independent cultural institution like nervously sanding off the parts of history Dear Leader doesn’t like.
Trump already signed an executive order banning Smithsonian exhibits that “degrade shared American values” or “divide Americans based on race,” which is authoritarian code for: stop telling the truth if it makes my base mad. The National Museum of American History has already scrubbed references to his impeachments, and now the Portrait Gallery is following suit. Meanwhile, the man who added a “Presidential Walk of Fame” to the White House that literally erased Joe Biden is getting exactly what he wants: taxpayer-funded museums turning into a soft-focus propaganda reel where he’s just a regular president who scowled at a desk and not the guy who tried to overturn an election.
But sure, tell us again how this is about neutral “label policy” and not the president of the United States leaning on national museums to rewrite his biography in real time. It’s fine. Democracies don’t die in darkness; they die under new captions that simply note the years in office and politely forget the coup attempt.
#killing-democracy#fascism
donroe doctrine: trump tells cuba to kiss the ring or freeze
Trump unveils the Donroe Doctrine, explaining that every country south of Florida is now either a client state, a battlefield, or Marco Rubio’s future side gig.
Donald Trump has decided the Monroe Doctrine needed less diplomacy and more branding, so welcome to the Donroe Doctrine: the U.S. owns the Western Hemisphere now, and everyone else can line up for their shakedown. Fresh off a made-for-TV commando raid that literally abducted Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro and killed 32 Cuban security personnel in Caracas, Trump is now telling Cuba to "make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE"—while the U.S. seizes Venezuelan oil tankers and deliberately deepens Cuba’s fuel and electricity crisis. Because nothing says "rules-based international order" like starving a country of energy and then offering them a protection racket on Truth Social.
Trump is bragging that there will be "ZERO" Venezuelan oil or money going to Cuba, while Cuba points out that it actually has the right to buy fuel without Washington playing cartel boss of the Caribbean. He calls Cuban security forces "thugs and extortionists" in the same breath he promises that Venezuela now has the "most powerful military in the World (by far!)" to "protect" it—a nice tidy euphemism for U.S. occupation-lite. Meanwhile, Cuba notes that it never charged for its security services, which is adorable, because Team Trump only understands foreign policy as a series of invoices and hostage situations.
Enter Marco Rubio, now Secretary of State and apparently auditioning to be President of Cuba. Rubio warns that Cuba’s leaders should be "concerned" and "in a lot of trouble," while Trump happily reposts a message suggesting Rubio could just, you know, run Cuba, adding "Sounds good to me!" In other words, we’re now openly fantasizing about installing a Florida Republican as head of a foreign country, because why even pretend we’re not doing imperial cosplay anymore?
All of this is wrapped in Trump’s "Donroe Doctrine"—his rebranded Monroe Doctrine that explicitly asserts U.S. supremacy in Latin America, justified by yelling "DRUGS" at anything to the left of Mitt Romney. He’s already floated a military operation in Colombia, slapped sanctions on President Gustavo Petro, and keeps telling him to "watch his ass" on camera. He’s also threatening that "we’re gonna have to do something" about Mexico if they don’t let U.S. troops in to fight cartels. But sure, tell us again how the real authoritarian threat is student protesters with cardboard signs.
#imperialism#fascism
america’s institutions saw a bully and chose to eat paste
Michael Steele, standing in front of the rubble of American institutions, politely noting that maybe letting the bully run the school was a bad idea.
Michael Steele, former RNC chair and current "Motel 6 Republican" (he’ll leave the lights on while the party burns down), says the most shocking part of Trump’s first year back isn’t the authoritarianism – everyone knew the guy was going to treat the Constitution like a used napkin – but how fast America’s elite institutions folded. Within six months, Trump had, in Steele’s words, "slapped the crap out of everything and everyone he could" and instead of fighting back, law firms, universities, and media companies basically curled up in the fetal position and asked if they could at least keep the logo.
Trump’s White House went with an everything-everywhere-all-at-once strategy: threaten law firms that opposed him or touched the 2016 investigations with revoked security clearances, locked doors at federal buildings, and shredded government contracts, then force them into "settlements" where they provide pro bono legal work aligned with Trump’s priorities. Because nothing says "rule of law" like making your legal critics work for you for free. Elite universities didn’t do much better: the administration froze more than $5bn in grants and contracts over weaponized investigations into antisemitism, DEI, and alleged liberal bias, and most schools promptly negotiated away funding, policies, and oversight rather than risk losing their federal allowance. Harvard was the notable holdout, which tells you how low the bar is when "didn’t immediately surrender to the autocrat" puts you in the hero column.
There were flickers of a spine: millions joined "No Kings" protests, and Disney backed down and reinstated Jimmy Kimmel after unions, free speech advocates, and hemorrhaging subscribers reminded them that groveling to Charlie Kirk isn’t a business model. But Steele warns that even if 79‑year‑old Trump eventually runs out of breath mid-rant, his entourage of professional autocracy enthusiasts – Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, Kash Patel and friends – are more than happy to keep the machinery humming. They know what he wants, they share his diktats, and they fully expect to cash in, directly and indirectly, on the wreckage.
Steele’s sales pitch for the midterms is basically: Congress as accountability tribunal. He argues Democrats (plus whatever’s left of the non-feral Republicans) need to take back the House and make the Senate competitive not for yet another doomed impeachment, but to go after the secretaries, administrators, directors, and advisers who happily turned the federal government into a loyalty test and protection racket. In other words: Trump might eventually leave, but the people who helped him turn law firms into vassals and universities into hostages need to find out that "just following orders" is not a retirement plan.
#killing-democracy#fascism
from stealing pelosi’s lectern to asking for your vote
Florida man discovers that in today’s GOP, stealing the Speaker’s lectern is just the internship before you run for office.
In today’s episode of “The Consequences Were the Friends We Made Along the Way,” Adam Johnson — the grinning Florida man immortalized while strolling off with Nancy Pelosi’s lectern during the January 6 insurrection — is now running for an at-large seat on the Manatee County commission. He filed his paperwork on January 6, the fifth anniversary of the attack, and assures us that’s “not a coincidence” because nothing says solemn respect for democracy like using an attempted coup as your campaign launch party. His logo is literally an outline of the viral photo of him stealing the lectern, turning a federal crime scene into a branding asset.
Johnson, who pleaded guilty to entering and remaining in a restricted building, served 75 days in prison, and told a federal judge it was a “very stupid idea,” has since workshopped his material and now compares the whole thing to “jaywalking.” He insists he was just exercising his First Amendment rights by walking into a restricted building, grabbing government property, and helping a mob shut down the peaceful transfer of power. In other words, the new Republican resume: trespass, obstruct democracy, get a Trump pardon, run for office.
He’s not alone. Jake Lang — charged with assaulting an officer and civil disorder before also getting the Trump magic eraser — is now running for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Marco Rubio, because apparently the bar for federal office is now somewhere under the Capitol steps. The GOP, meanwhile, is slowly rolling out the welcome mat for its pardoned insurrectionists, signaling that January 6 wasn’t a shameful attack on democracy so much as a lightly rowdy networking event for future Republican candidates.
Johnson says he’ll be “more heavily scrutinized than any other candidate” and that this is a “positive” because voters will finally “know” their local politicians. And he’s right, in a way: when your campaign logo is you joyfully committing a federal crime during an attempted coup, the transparency is pretty hard to miss. Republicans used to pretend to back the blue and respect the rule of law; now they’re just cutting out the middleman and running the defendants directly.
#killing-democracy#lawlessness
trump bans high interest rates, forgets to invent laws first
Trump bravely regulates credit card companies using the most powerful tool in American governance: a late-night social media post with zero legal authority.
Donald Trump hopped on Truth Social to announce that, starting 20 January, credit card interest rates will be capped at 10% for one year — by sheer force of vibes, apparently. No legislation, no regulatory framework, no explanation of how the government will enforce any of this. Just a late-night post declaring that he will no longer let the American public be "ripped off" by credit card companies, which is bold coming from the guy who spent his term trying to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
This sudden populist cosplay arrived hours after Bernie Sanders called him out for breaking his campaign promise and instead deregulating big banks so they could happily charge close to 30% interest. Like clockwork, Trump responded not with policy, but with a press-release tweet-thread that pretends executive wishful thinking is the same thing as law. Elizabeth Warren politely pointed out that "begging credit card companies to play nice is a joke" and noted that if Trump were serious, he’d have supported an actual bill — like the Sanders–Hawley proposal that would cap rates at 10% for five years.
Meanwhile, Wall Street’s feelings got briefly hurt. Trump ally and billionaire hedge fund guy Bill Ackman initially called the move a "mistake" before editing himself into a more donor-friendly concern-troll about "credit availability" and "subprime risk" — because nothing says "we care about working families" like warning that if you stop us from charging 28% APR, we’ll just cancel poor people’s cards. The banking lobby rolled out the standard hostage note about how any cap would be "devastating" for the very people it’s currently gouging, and promised that if forced to be slightly less predatory, they’ll just shove everyone toward even worse, less regulated products.
In other words, Trump is trying to launder a year of pro-bank deregulation into a one-year, likely-to-be-ignored, maybe-not-even-legal rate "cap" that exists mainly as a social media stunt. He weakened the cops, handed the banks a crowbar, and now wants credit for taping a "please don’t rob us" sign on the door. But sure, tell us again how this is the historic triumph of the "very successful Trump Administration."
#forever-grifting#money
trump discovers welfare fraud, decides poor kids should starve just to be safe
Trump officials studying a welfare budget line item and asking, "But have we tried just… not feeding them?"
The Trump administration found alleged fraud in Minnesota and responded with the subtle, targeted precision we've come to expect: it froze $10 billion in welfare funding for low-income families and children across multiple states. Because nothing says "good-faith oversight" like using one state's scandal as an excuse to kneecap basic assistance for everyone else.
So now five Democratic-led states are suing Trump for yanking crucial aid, arguing that maybe, just maybe, you can't collectively punish millions of poor families because you discovered fraud in one program. The administration, of course, is selling this as fiscal responsibility — in other words, we found some thieves, so we're shutting down the food supply.
The message from Trumpworld is clear: if there's even a hint of mismanagement, the appropriate response isn't to fix it or prosecute the actual fraudsters — it's to freeze lifesaving funds and dare blue states to sue while kids and families twist in the wind. But sure, tell us more about how this is all about protecting taxpayers and not another round of cruelty-as-policy.
#killing-democracy#forever-grifting
