PHEW! Trump’s Billionaire Commerce Secretary is Cool If His Mom’s Social Security Doesn’t Come

Are you better off than you were four – or eight – weeks ago? That paraphrase of the famous question once asked by Ronald Reagan has a distinctly more ominous ring to it today as Donald Trump reprises his occupation of the White House. In the short time that he has presided over the nation he has exceeded the worst predictions of the harm that his ignorant and incompetent stewardship would provide.

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Social Security Hands

Ever since Trump’s inauguration, the prospects for the financial well being of America and the American people have declined precipitously. Most economists are predicting a recession. Prices for many common consumers goods (gas, groceries, housing, etc.) have risen. And Trump’s punitive, inflationary tariffs promise to make things even worse.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Press Secretary Visits Fox News to Contradict Her Boss’s Lies About the Cost of Tariffs

But not to worry. Trump himself is going to be just fine. He is fully engaged in a White House based grifting operation that is keeping him flush with corrupt endeavors such as his floundering media company, and his crypto coin, both of which have lost billions of dollars for most investors not tied to the immediate Trump family. However, they provide a neat vehicle to make contributions (e.g. bribes) to Trump.

What’s more, the oligarch class to which Trump has pledged fidelity is also going to be just fine. As evidence of that, Trump’s Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, made an appearance on the All-In podcast, whose hosts are right-wing venture capitalists, including Trump’s AI and Crypto Czar, David Sacks.

During the discussion with this mutual adoration society, the subject of Social Security came up. Specifically, there were questions about the viability of the program in the wake of the efforts by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Elimination (DOGE) to undermine and eventually terminate it. With regard to that, Lutnick offered a little parable…

“Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law – who’s 94 – she wouldn’t call and complain. She just wouldn’t. She’d just think something got messed up, and she’ll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling, and complaining.”

Oh Cool… This billionaire (Trump's commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick) is cool with his mother not getting her Social Security check on time.Is your mother cool with that? Are you?

News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-03-21T18:54:25.485Z

See? No problem. Except for one small detail. Not everyone’s family is fortunate enough to have a billionaire like Lutnick in it. While his mother-in-law could comfortably skip a month or thirty, most families can’t. Missing a month to the average Social Security recipient could mean missing a rent payment, missing meals, skipping medications and doctor’s visits, forfeiting child care services, and so many more financial obligations being unmet.

And if that’s not bad enough, Lutnick mocks anyone who might have reasonable complaints about the suffering that Trump is causing, and accuses them of being “fraudsters.”

The prospect of Social Security failing to send out benefit checks on schedule has never been as imminent as it is today. That is solely due to DOGE seeking to cut staff, end telephone access, appoint hostile administrators, and require in-person servicing, while simultaneously closing offices.

It is the clear intent of the Trump regime to sabotage the program that Musk has preposterously called “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” A characterization that is utterly absurd since it is funded by the contributions of the recipients throughout their working lives. And if funding were an issue due to the fluctuations of population, it could easily be resolved by removing the arbitrary salary cap that allows wealthy earners like Trump, Musk, and Lutnick, to avoid paying into the Social Security trust fund at the same rate as working class Americans.

Lutnick’s flaming insensitivity to the financial burdens of ordinary people is typical of the ultra-elitist mindset of the Trump administration. They can’t comprehend that there are people living check-to-check because they are so wrapped up in their excess. But that selfish blindness will not go unnoticed by Americans living on Social Security, or who will be, or their children, or other family members and caregivers. And Trump and Company will pay the price for their callous “let them eat cake” indifference to the realities that most people endure.

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The Daily Show Welcomes the Astronauts Back to an Earth They Won’t Recognize Or Want to Live On

It has been only 59 days since Donald Trump was inaugurated. And in the short passage of time he has managed to do more harm to American democracy than any prior occupant of the White House. His implementation of policies in conjunction with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Elimination (DOGE) are ripping apart the foundations of the American way of life.

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Donald Trump, Woman, Fear

If someone were to have been in a coma for the past three months, they would be awakening to a country that would seem foreign, oppressive, and steeped in the dystopia of totalitarian regimes. They would find it hard to believe that they weren’t still in a nightmarish comatose state. They would be seeing an autocratic leader imposing his will on the nation, disregarding its Constitution, and ignoring its laws.

SEE THIS: Trump is on a Crusade to Intimidate and Impeach Judges Who Dare to Rule Against Dear Leader

It’s not really funny. However, The Daily Show couldn’t resist bringing to life a scenario wherein someone who was temporarily removed from this world would be reintroduced to it in all its gory. So Desi Lydic anchored a video wherein she welcomed the astronauts who enjoyed an extended stay on the International Space Station back to what they thought was their home planet. She began with a hearty “Hello astronauts, and welcome back to Earth.” Then she went on (video below)

“As you are flown back to the U.S., this video will re-acclimate your mind on what you missed while you were in space. First, the Gulf of Mexico you landed in is now the Gulf of America. But don’t worry, the name change is symbolic. We’re not going to war with Mexico. We’re going to war with Canada and Greenland, maybe Panama, also Mexico.”

Imagine their surprise to learn that Trump assumed the authority to rename international bodies of water to whatever he thought would tickle his cult followers. And worse, he embarked on a series of threats aimed at American allies, demanding that they bow to his will and agree to become colonies of the imperial empire he hopes to create. Then Lydic elaborated…

“Speaking of wars, when you left it was Russia that invaded Ukraine. Now it’s the other way around. Don’t worry about it. For now, just focus on resting. And after you enter U.S. territory, your space capsule will face crippling steel tariffs and you will be deported to an El Salvadorian prison just until we’re sure that you’re not Venezuelan gang members.

“And after your release in 2026, you will be honored at the White House, which is now run by Fox News anchors. Also, the anti-vaccine guy (RFK Jr) is now in charge of vaccines. The anti-FBI guy (Kash Patel) is now in charge of the FBI. And the lady in charge of the WWE (Linda McMahon) is now running the Education Department.”

That’s right! Whatever you thought you knew before you left, is no longer true. Russia is the American Fuhrer’s best buddy. Europe will be hammered with punitive tariffs. And Fox News now has a stranglehold on government operations with at least nineteen from their ranks working for Trump in the White House.

SEE ALSO: Trump’s Nominees Are Largely Fox News Alum, Mar-a-Lago Patrons, and Billionaires

Lydic then points out that Trump is welcoming back all of the astronauts except for Suni Williams, because “when you left, you were a female astronaut. Now you’re a DEI astronaut, and also you’re fired.” And her job prospects are going to be hindered by an economy that is careening into recession. “The stock market is down, Lydic notes, “and eggs are $400.00. But those are both good things, and also Joe Biden’s fault.” Then Lydic closes saying that…

“At this point you’re probably wondering ‘When can NASA send me back up into space?’ Well, it probably can’t. NASA just got DOGE’d. Which is a real sentence now. So from all of us here in America, welcome to Hell – Earth. Welcome back to Earth.”

Lydic’s humorous take on current events is a welcome respite from the horror show being played out by Trump and company. And while the decidedly pessimistic outlook that anchors her comedy is, sadly, rooted in reality, there is a plus side. The American people are beginning to awaken themselves.

CNN’s Harry Enten unveiled the recent polling on Trump and his policies. And the numbers are likely to trigger another Trump tantrum. They show that Trump in his current term is only the second president since 1937 to have a net negative approval two months into a term. The other president to achieve that dishonor? That was also Trump in his first term. So at least he is consistent in his ignorance, incompetence, and deliberate malfeasance.

Enjoy Lydic’s welcoming to the astronauts. But don’t miss Jordan Klepper’s ruminations on Elon Musk.

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Fox News Host Mangles the Constitution to Justify Denying the Rights of People They Don’t Like

After nearly thirty years of deliberately disseminating ultra right-wing propaganda, Fox News is already regarded by thinking individuals as a cesspool of conservative sewage. It was even found liable for lying in a defamation lawsuit that resulted in a record setting settlement that cost them 3/4 of a billion dollars.

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Fox News, Constitution

Yet the audience that they have conned so completely remains loyal despite their record of documented dishonesty and the repeated disgraces of its perverted personnel (Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, Tucker Carlson, etc.). That devotion to Fox’s deceit has only grown during the years that Donald Trump has taken over the network as its media messiah.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Anti-Press Secretary Talks More to Fox News than to Reporters in the White House

On Wednesday, Fox News took another stab at the dead horse of its credibility. In an episode of “The Faulkner Focus,” it’s host, Harris Faulkner, interviewed Republican Rep. Kat Cammack about the unlawful apprehension and incarceration of Mahmoud Khalil, a legal U.S. resident who participated in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. He was arrested on March 8, and remains in custody despite still not being charged with any crime.

Faulkner started out the grossly biased interview by agreeing with Cammack’s preposterously broad and baseless allegation that campus protestors are terrorists, apparently just because they are protesting. Then Faulkner demonstrates just how ignorant she is about the law and the Constitution:

Faulkner: “Look, free speech, I thought under our laws and Constitution, was for our citizens. Mahmoud Khalil was not a citizen. He was here first on a student visa, and a green card then. He’s not a citizen. We don’t have to promise him anything. We’re a great country. It’s very gracious of us to give him anything. And we can give him a free ride back to wherever he’d like to go.”

Faulkner: "Look, free speech I thought under our laws & Constitution was for our citizens. Mahmoud Khalil was not a citizen… we don't have to promise him anything. We're a great country. It's very gracious of us to give him anything. We can give him a free ride back to wherever he'd like to go."

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-03-19T15:42:58.030Z

It’s a sad display of dimwittedness when the host of an alleged “news” network is so pitifully ill-informed about something so familiar as the First Amendment of the Constitution. The Constitution has no citizenship test. It applies to everyone. We are not being “gracious” by recognizing the rights enumerated in the Constitution. We are respecting the law of the land.

For Faulkner’s benefit, what the First Amendment says is that “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” There’s no mention of any individual or citizenship status. It is a prohibition on Government behavior.

Khalil is fully entitled to the rights in the Constitution. He would be entitled to those rights whether or not he was a citizen. As it turns out, he is a green card holder who is married to a U.S. citizen, who happens to be eight months pregnant with a future citizen.

The fact that Faulkner believes that the Constitution “was for our citizens,” is her way of justifying discrimination against people that she doesn’t happen to approve of. She is misinterpreting the law in order to exercise her vile bigotry. And the fact that she can deny Khalil his rights under the assumption of his guilt (a violation of the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments) is evidence of why these rights are so important and need to be preserved.

Don’t expect anyone on Fox News to offer a retraction or correction of Faulkner’s remarks. They are perfectly happy to allow these misrepresentations to persist. It advances their mission – and that of Donald Trump – to oppress those with whom they disagree, and those who have the gall to not be conservative White evangelical Christian Republicans. How dare they?

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Mob Boss Trump Taps JD Vance as Finance Czar of the Republican National Committee (RNC)

The regime of Donald Trump is undergoing some period of panic as their cult senses the deterioration of its grasp on power. Trump’s polling, like the stock market over which he is presiding, is in a severe decline. So he is circling the wagons in order to stave off the disaster that he fears.

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Donald Trump, JD Vance, Dr. Evil, Mini-Me

The bunker mentality that is driving Trump is manifesting in his ever more reclusive behavior. He spends very little time outside of his safe spaces at the White House and Mar-a-Lago. He conducts business almost exclusively by phone. He dispatches his flunkies – Elon Musk, Pam Bondi, Marco Rubio, etc. – to perform the duties that a president would ordinarily take on himself. And he relies on the MAGA media to disgorge the propaganda necessary to keep his flock in line.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Anti-Press Secretary Talks More to Fox News than to Reporters in the White House

The latest example of Trump’s burrowing defense can be seen in the appointment of his vice-president, JD Vance, to the position of finance chair of Republican National Committee (RNC). This appointment was announced in an exclusive report by – who else? – Fox News…

Vice President JD Vance will serve as the Republican National Committee’s finance chair, telling Fox News Digital that he will work with the party to ‘fully enact the MAGA mandate’ and grow the Republican majority in Congress in 2026.

“This is the first time in the history of the GOP that a sitting vice president will serve in the role.”

Trump’s wing man, Vance, told Fox News that he is looking forward to his new job so that he can “fully enact the MAGA mandate and President Trump’s vision.” For the record, the MAGA “mandate” is a measly 1.5% margin of victory over Kamala Harris. And Trump’s “vision” consists primarily of fattening his wallet, getting revenge against his critics, and exalting himself. All at the expense of the welfare of the American people – and the world.

Trump putting his VP in charge of the fundraising arm of the GOP comes with some blatantly egregious conflicts of interest. While the Party apparatus is already gamed to solicit money from self-interested individuals, lobbyists and, corporations, assigning your VP as the point person for collecting that money places an extra layer of coercion on those you are squeezing for cash. It makes it just that much harder to say no, when the collector is the president’s consigliere.

Vance has already distinguished himself in Trump’s eyes with his belligerent assault on Ukrainian President Zelenskyy during a White House visit. In the course of what was supposed to be a routine diplomatic affair, Vance chastised Zelenskyy for being “disrespectful” by failing to grovel sufficiently before Dear Leader Trump.

SEE ALSO: Was Trump’s Ambush of Zelenskyy Preplanned, Including Stacking the Press Pool with Kremlin Hacks?

For its part, Fox News composed their exclusive report on Vance’s RNC job in their typically fawning style. The story included some predictably positive quotes from Trump and current RNC chair, Michael Whatley. But they didn’t bother to seek responses from any Democrat or nonpartisan political analysts. As always, “fair and balanced” means unabashedly one-sided to Fox News.

So now the Vice-President of the United States, someone whose duties are supposed to be to serve the country, is also the Principal Panhandler for the Republican Party. And the role he is filling for the GOP replaces in part their previous co-chair, Lara Trump, who now has a primetime program on Fox News. So that revolving door swings both ways.

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PROCLAMATION: Trump’s Pardons Are Hereby Declared Void, Vacant, and of No Future Force or Effect

When Joe Biden won the presidency in 2020, he not only ushered in a new term of rational, thoughtful, progressive, policies, he also provided a respite from the daily insanity that Trump imposed on the nation. Trump’s first term was a non-stop barrage of ignorance, insults, lies, and shameless self-glorification.

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Donald Trump

Now as Trump embarks on his second occupation of the White House, he is returning to the practice of battering the nation with his infantile outbursts and petulant whining. And while it often doesn’t seem possible, each day’s deluge of dumfuckery is worse than the day before.

FOR INSTANCE: Trump at the ‘Justice’ Department: CNN, MSNBC, and Other Media are Illegal and ‘It Has to Stop’

On Monday morning Trump once again outdid himself in his quest for quackery. He posted a comment on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, that purported to revoke the pardons issued by President Biden. Never mind that there is nothing in the Constitution that permits him to do that. Trump long ago abandoned any fealty to the law or America’s founding principles. He raged that

“The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen. In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them!” […]

“Therefore, those on the Unselect Committee, who destroyed and deleted ALL evidence obtained during their two year Witch Hunt of me, and many other innocent people, should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level.”

There is an abundance of derp in that dopey discharge. Let’s dig a little deeper, shall we? To begin with, Trump’s justification for his preposterous position is his assertion that Biden signed his pardons with an autopen. So what? Many other presidents, including Trump, have used the autopen to sign official documents. Trump, however, has no evidence whatsoever for his claim that Biden used it for the pardons.

Furthermore, Trump charged that Biden was cognitively incapable of issuing the pardons and “did not know anything about them.” That’s another unsupported allegation by Trump. In fact, Biden spoke about the pardons publicly and provided a detailed explanation of why they were warranted, saying in part that “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.” Even Trump’s anti-Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, conceded that she couldn’t back up Trump’s claims about Biden’s mental acuity when asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins…

WOW! Trump's anti-press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, tells CNN's Kaitlan Collins that she "should find out" if there is any evidence of the blatant lie that Trump told about President Biden.Leavitt doesn't bother to verify any of her Boss's lies.

News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-03-17T19:05:28.853Z

That said, if any presidential pardons were subject to revocation, it’s Trump’s. The proclamation he issued at the time said that…

“Acting pursuant to the grant of authority in Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution of the United States, I do hereby: … (b) grant a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021;

“The Attorney General shall administer and effectuate the immediate issuance of certificates of pardon to all individuals described in section (b) above.”

Note the vague references to who he was pardoning. He doesn’t mention them by name. Which would be difficult because there were more than 1,500 of them. And his specification of “individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021,” could mean anybody. He doesn’t say. He doesn’t even define the “event that occurred” to which his pardons apply. It could mean a bank robbery that was “at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.” Does the bank robber, and everyone who committed any crime at or near the Capitol that day, get a pardon?

Trump went on to threaten the members of the Select Committee on the Investigation of January 6th (Liz Cheney, Bennie Thompson, Adam Kinzinger, etc.) with investigations, despite their having been properly pardoned by Biden. He also accused them, falsely, of having “destroyed and deleted ALL evidence obtained.” That’s a lie that was debunked long ago.

SEE ALSO: Trump Demands Indictments Be Withdrawn After Fox News Falsely Reports on January 6th Committee

Trump’s belief that he can revoke Biden’s pardons is just more proof of his ignorance of, and disrespect for, the Constitution and the law. It affirms his utter unfitness to serve. And if anyone’s pardons are improper and revocable, it’s Trump’s. So I am hereby declaring them “Void, Vacant, and of No Future Force or Effect.” You’re welcome!

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Trump is on a Crusade to Intimidate and Impeach Judges Who Dare to Rule Against Dear Leader

The risk of America’s constitutional democracy falling into totalitarian tyranny has never been more imminent than during the reign of wannabe dictator Donald Trump as he embarks on his second occupation of the White House. And he hasn’t been the least been hesitant to express and even brag about his nefarious intentions.

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Donald Trump, Constitution

America’s founders deliberately divided the powers of the government into three branches – the executive, the legislative, and the judicial – in order to insure than no one person or party could acquire enough power to rule like the monarchs that they fought a revolution to break away from. Ignoring that objective, Trump promised Sean Hannity of Fox News that he would be a “dictator on day one,” and he reinforced that pledge during his inauguration address.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Inauguration Day Rants Affirm that He is a Wannabe Dictator and a Pathological Liar

Ever since, Trump has been feverishly endeavoring to undermine the founders’ foresight and impose his own aspirations to unchecked autocracy. To a frightening degree, he has succeeded in cowing the Republicans in Congress to serve as his loyal legislative servants. So now he only needs to gain control over the judiciary to complete his tyrannical trifecta. And he’s hard at work to at that.

On Sunday morning, Trump’s anti-press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, visited Fox News again (she is there more often than she is at White House Press Room). She told Fox’s Senior Trump-Fluffer, Maria Bartiromo, about how horribly persecuted her crybaby boss is (video below)…

“He has been facing more resistance than anyone who has run for office in American history. And the mainstream media is part of that, but also, as you mentioned, we have judges in our judicial branch who are acting as activists, not real arbiters of the law. And there has been 15 injunctions in one month of president Trump’s agenda. The Biden White House only faced 13 injunctions in the entirety of his presidency. So clearly there are left wing activists who sit behind a bench who don’t like this president and his policies.”

It is written in the bylaws of the Cult of Trump that every critical reference to him be described as the “most,” or the “worst,” of anything since time began. However, Leavitt actually came close to grasping the reality of Trump’s tribulations with the courts. The reason that Trump has had so many more injunctions than Biden isn’t because of “activist” judges or left wing opposition to his political views or to him personally. It’s because he has been more grossly disrespectful of the law. Many of the rulings against him came from judges appointed by Republicans. And a growing number of conservative legal scholars have spoken out against his fitness for the presidency.

Leavitt went on to gaslight the Fox News audience with assertions of Trump’s fictional fidelity to the law…

“The fact is, everything president Trump is doing is within his executive authority to do it. He is acting within the bounds of the law. All of his actions are constitutional. And our White House, and our entire administration are prepared to fight back against this resistance. Don’t bet against president Trump. I think his epic return to the Oval Office proves that he is going to win against this weaponization of our justice system.”

If everything that Trump is doing is in accordance with his executive authority and the law, the courts would not be ruling against him with such frequency and near unanimity. You don’t get 15 injunctions against you from diverse courtrooms by being faithfully law abiding.

For the record, Trump is the one who is shamelessly engaging in the weaponization of the Justice Department. He has placed fanatical loyalists like Pam Bondi and Kash Patel in charge of the DoJ and the FBI. He has fired dozens of career prosecutors, as well as inspectors general who monitor ethical violations. And he has explicitly declared that he intends to get revenge on those in the legal system – and the media – who he believes wronged him.

MORE HERE: Trump’s Free Press? His FBI Flunky Kash Patel Threatens to ‘Come After the People in the Media’

What’s more, Trump has recruited his MAGA allies to aid and abet his vengeance, including Elon Musk, his co-president and oligarch bro. Musk has been furiously pushing to impeach judges that he says are “evil” and “corrupt.” He tweeted that “We are witnessing an attempted coup of American democracy by radical left activists posing as judges!” And that “The only way to restore rule of the people in America is to impeach judges.”

UPDATE: Trump is now brazenly defying judicial rulings by continuing to deport migrants without due process, despite a court ruling ordering him to stop. His border “czar,” Tom Homan, told Fox News that “We’re not stopping. I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care what the left thinks. We’re coming.” This is open defiance of the rule of law by an administration committed to its neo-fascist ideology.

If Trump and Musk and MAGA can successfully intimidate judges to bend to his will, his domination of this once democratic republic will be complete. He needs to be stopped at the earliest stages of this anti-American coup. Which means that a coalition of the people, their representatives, and the press must act quickly and courageously. This isn’t a game. It’s our future.

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Leavitt: "We have judges in our judicial branch who are acting as activists, not real arbiters of the law … the fact is, everything President Trump is doing is within his executive authority to do it … all of his actions are constitutional."

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-03-16T14:41:28.025Z

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Fox Nation vs. Reality:
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Trump at the ‘Justice’ Department: CNN, MSNBC, and Other Media are Illegal and ‘It Has to Stop’

This week the parade of perfidy that has characterized the Second Scumming of Donald Trump (and the first one as well) took its roadshow to the hallowed halls of the United States Department of Justice. It was a particularly nauseating spectacle considering the role that those halls have represented in America’s history.

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Donald Trump, Censorship

The purpose of this presidential outing was, according to the White House, to discuss problems related to fentanyl and other drug trafficking related crimes. But as it unfolded it was clear that Trump had an entirely different agenda. Most the time he spoke was allotted to his whining about the results of the 2020 election; to his fixation on getting revenge for being prosecuted for crimes that he actually committed; and to smearing his political opponents for his own failures. It was little more than a repeat of his partisan and hostile speech before the Joint Session of Congress last week.

SEE THIS: Collected Quotes Displaying Trump’s Obsession with Himself In His Pseudo State of the Union Spiel

Crammed into his caterwauling commentary was another example of his hysterical hatred for the free press that he regularly maligns as “the enemy of the people.” Nothing bothers Trump more than hearing the truth be told about him. He raged that…

“I believe that CNN and MSDNC, who literally write 97.6% bad about me are political arms of the Democrat Party. And in my opinion they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal. What they do is illegal. It makes no difference how big a victory I had. I can have the biggest victory in history. It makes no difference what kind of a failure the other side has. These people are gonna go after me. […]

“These networks and these newspapers are really no different than highly paid political operatives, and it has to stop. It has to be illegal. It’s influencing judges, and it’s really a changing law, and it just cannot be legal. I don’t believe it’s legal. And they do it in total coordination with each other.”

First of all, let’s note that Trump uses the word “literally” when he obviously means “figuratively.” That’s because he literally doesn’t understand the English language. More to the point, his rant should serve as a five-alarm warning to all Americans who cherish the Constitution. His attack on the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of the press is nothing new in his repugnant repertoire, but it remains among the most troubling.

Trump is not joking when he says that, in his opinion, CNN, MSNBC, and other media outlets are “illegal” and that, given the opportunity, he will see to it that they are stopped. He has already banished several news networks from the White House press pool, and he has declared that he will now determine which reporters are allowed to ask him questions, a role that was handled by the independent White House Correspondents Association for decades.

MORE HERE: Trump Declares Himself King of the White House Press Corps, Will Now Decide Who Can Question Him

One of the most egregious inanities in his speech was his assertion that any media that criticizes him is “no different than highly paid political operatives.” You’ll notice that he didn’t mention Fox News, a truly political operation, in his attack. And many of their personnel are literally paid to be political hacks. At least 19 of them have joined the Trump administration.

SEE ALSO: Trump’s Nominees Are Largely Fox News Alum, Mar-a-Lago Patrons, and Billionaires

Trump also claimed, without any evidence whatsoever, that reporting by his media foes was “influencing judges,” and was done “in total coordination with each other.” That’s another example of projection by Trump. He often accuses his critics of the grossly improper behavior that he engages in regularly.

When a national leader’s authoritarian rhetoric descends to the depths that Trump is dredging, it is not long before he starts to implement campaigns of brutal censorship and even incarceration of journalists that he opposes. He is executing the playbook for media suppression that he got from Vladimir Putin. And if the media doesn’t take this seriously now, they will later find out that they are unable to do anything about it from their prison cells.

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Sean Hannity and Trump’s WH Counsel Insult AOC’s Intelligence Because She Once Worked in a Bar

There is a certain stench of superiority in virtually everything that Fox News airs. It comes it part from their foundational belief in white supremacy. But it is also driven by an inbred personality disorder that affects people who are overcompensating for their more deeply set inferiority complexes and their fear of those with real, demonstrated intellect.

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Fox News Sean Hannity

This would explain the segment that aired on Sean Hannity’s program Thursday night. Hannity interviewed Donald Trump’s White House counsel, Alina Habba, for the umpteenth time in the few short weeks that she has held the position. She seems to have made Fox News her official workplace because she (just like his Anti-Press Secretary) appears on the network nearly every day, rather performing any useful duties for which the American people are paying her. Which is something that she shares with all of the other Trump staffers that he recruited directly from Fox News.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Nominees Are Largely Fox News Alum, Mar-a-Lago Patrons, and Billionaires

On this episode of Hannity, the two Trump mouthpieces took time to cast childish insults at a favorite target of the MAGA right, Democratic representative, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They were upset that AOC recently had correctly described Elon Musk, Trump’s oligarch pal and co-president, as lacking intelligence and morality. She said that…

“This dude is probably one of the most unintelligent billionaires I have ever met or seen or witnessed [and that] the danger in the lack of intelligence and the lack of expertise that Elon has, I mean, this guy is one of the most morally vacant, but also just least knowledgeable about these systems that we know of.”

AOC was right, and has the goods to prove it. Contrary to the myth that he has built around himself, he has invented nothing. He bought Tesla from the engineers who developed it. He also bought SpaceX and Twitter from their founders. But he takes all of the credit for whatever value they may have left. Which is a character flaw that he shares with Trump.

More recently, Musk’s Department of Government Elimination (DOGE) has executed on such a disastrously stupid level that he has had to undo much of what he claimed to have done. The savings he crowed about are imaginary and were quietly removed from his website. And the courts have ordered the workers that he tried to fire to be returned to their jobs.

Naturally, the pair of Trump-fluffers on Fox felt compelled to attack AOC with the classic “I know you are but what am I” gambit. They launched into the following exchange that they surely thought closed the subject on who is really intelligent…

Hannity: I love when AOC lectures Elon Musk about not being intelligent. I’m like, “Oh, she’s such a genius.” I’m inspired by her every word.
Habba: You [AOC] were in the bar. You were in a bar. You were in a bar, AOC. Calm down. And not to have a drink, to serve one.

Let’s examine this assault strategy a bit farther, shall we? First of all, we have college dropout Sean Hannity, and Trump’s parking lot lawyer, Alina Habba, mocking AOC’s intelligence. Had they done even the slightest bit of research they would know that she graduated Cum Laude from Boston University with degrees in international relations & economics.

What’s more, the “evidence” of their intellectual insult is that AOC worked her way through college as a bartender. So to Hannity and Habba having working class roots and honorable jobs is an insult. They seem to think it’s even worse to be employed as a bartender than to be a drinking patron of a bar. Maybe that’s why they love Trump’s alcoholic Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth so much.

The insult that they lobbed at AOC actually hits every American who works in bars, restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, and every other non-professional type of employment. Auto mechanics, and construction workers, and nursing assistants and teachers are also regarded by them as lacking intelligence. Even if those jobs were held temporarily many years ago while they obtained advanced degrees.

This is a common bias on the right. They have always looked down on working people. And their political agenda has always sought to disadvantage them, while simultaneously providing substantial, undeserved benefits to corporations and the wealthy instead. And that is more true in the MAGA era than ever.

Yet somehow, they still have the gall to try to brand themselves as champions of the common man. Fortunately, they can also be depended on to expose their their repugnant views due to their own intellectual deprivation (note to MAGA: that means dumb).

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Trump’s Press Secretary Visits Fox News to Contradict Her Boss’s Lies About the Cost of Tariffs

The utterly unnecessary trade war that was started by Donald Trump continues to escalate wildly as the targets of his wrath – mainly historical allies of the U.S. – attempt to deal with his incomprehensibly reckless and childish behavior. Trump’s latest attack is on the European Union and their alcohol products, and was triggered by the E.U. having the gall to defend their markets from Trump’s inbred hostility.

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Donald Trump and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt

From the inception of this economic battle, Trump has steadfastly clung to a justification that has no basis in reality. But despite that absence of any rational foundation, Trump knows that he can rely on his Ministry of Propaganda – aka Fox News – to run cover for him.

SEE THIS: Fox News Trump-Fluffer Insists that the Coming Trump Recession Has Nothing To Do With Trump

Trump’s erstwhile Anti-Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, made yet another visit to Fox News to spin her web of lies for the network’s cult viewers. She actually spends more time on Fox News than she does in the White Press Briefing room. And on this occasion she came prepared to unleash a particularly egregious falsehood concerning the Trump Tax (aka tariffs)…

“The president will continue to effectively utilize tariffs while again driving down the cost-of-living in this country. Both things can happen at the same time. Just look at president Trump’s first term as an example. When he left office inflation was a low 1.4 percent.”

There’s a lot of wrong in that brief bit of babble. Let’s begin with the fact that interests rates were low at the end of Trump’s first term because the nation was still recovering from the catastrophic effects of the deadly COVID pandemic that Trump so horribly mismanaged. That is not a scenario that any sane person wants to repeat.

More to the point, Leavitt’s claim that Trump can impose tariff’s and drive down the cost-of-living at the same time is preposterous. Trump himself “has recently acknowledged that tariffs will cause a ‘disturbance.’ [and he] declined to predict that America would avoid a recession as a result of his trade policies.” So Leavitt is straight-up contradicting her boss.

For the record, Trump’s tariff policy is grossly incoherent. On one hand he says that “tariffs” is a “beautiful word” and that they will will raise billions of dollars and greatly improve the economy. On the other hand he says that he will remove the tariffs if his bullying tactics result in our trading partners reciprocating. So he is pledging to revoke the very thing that he said will make America wealthy and boost the economy. Also, he continues to lie that other countries pay the tariffs when, in fact, they are paid by U.S. importers who generally pass the costs on to American consumers.

Even Trump’s argument that the tariffs will cause U.S. consumers to buy American is nonsense. First of all, if we buy American, we don’t get the funds that Trump lies are generated by the tariffs. What’s more, the reason so many products are imported is because they are made cheaper overseas. If we have to buy American, we will be paying more for those products. Unless American companies slash salaries and jobs in order to compete.

So with Trump’s policies we’re paying more if we buy domestic. But we’ll also pay more if we buy imported. And as a bonus he’s hurting American workers. It’s a lose-lose-lose proposition for Americans across the board, and a recipe for economic turmoil. He appears to be determined to spark either a recession or inflation. Do you think that Trump cares? (You don’t have to answer that).

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Trump’s Defense Secretary Rages that ‘The Department of Defense Does Not Do Climate Change Crap’

When Donald Trump recruited Pete Hegseth from Fox News to lead his Department of Defense, it was unarguably among the worst nominations in the history of the country. Hegseth had zero experience in military management, or in leading an enterprise on the scale of the Pentagon. He was just a weekend talking head on a propaganda network. So what could go wrong?

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Donald Trump Climate Change

Since his confirmation, Hegseth has proven to be just as incompetent and corrupt as his lack of experience and judgment predicted. In his brief tenure to date he has fully embraced the agenda of Trump and co-president Elon Musk to decimate the Defense Department. And to make sure that nobody gets any reliable information about that, he has banished credible news outlets from the Pentagon and replaced them MAGA media hacks.

SEE THIS: Trump Kicks Reporters Out of Pentagon Offices, Replaces Them with MAGA Media Mouthpieces

Determined to diminish the military readiness of the United States, Trump and Hegseth continue to implement policies that will surely delight Trump’s idol and mentor, Vladimir Putin. Among them is an official rejection of the risks posed by climate change. In response to a news story on the subject, Hegseth posted a tweet that said only that, “The @DeptofDefense does not do climate change crap.”

The CNN article that Hegseth was so cavalierly dismissing was an in-depth analysis of how the climate crisis would impact America’s military engagements around the world. It said in part that…

“As the Pentagon and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency [DOGE] set their sights on climate-related programs at the Defense Department, officials and experts are warning that slashing them could put US troops and military operations at risk, both in the near and long term.”

Despite the well-reasoned insights by experts in military matters and meteorology, Hegseth felt comfortable posting his pithy little reply that wasn’t merely a blind disagreement with the science, but a childish insult characterizing the nearly universal consensus on climate as “crap.” His bullheaded ignorance is very likely going to result in catastrophes for American soldiers, as well as America’s military strength worldwide.

For the record, Hegseth’s views – and Trump’s – are contrary to those of prior secretaries of defense. And that includes one of Trump’s own from his first term, James Mattis, who warned that

“Climate change is real, and a threat to American interests abroad and the Pentagon’s assets everywhere. [And that] this is a real-time issue, not some distant what-if. Climate change is impacting stability in areas of the world where our troops are operating today.”

MORE HERE: Trump’s Defense Secretary Says Climate Change Is a Real Threat to American Interests

Mattis wasn’t the first Defense Secretary to issue such a warning. Fourteen years prior, under George W. Bush’s defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, the Pentagon published a report titled ‘An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security.’ that warned that “threats to global stability posed by rapid warming vastly eclipse that of terrorism.”

These views were shared by at least seven of the past Secretaries of Defense (Mattis, Ash Carter, Chuck Hagel, Leon Panetta, Robert Gates, Rumsfeld, and another Trump appointee, Mark Esper), who all subscribed to the policy that climate change is one of America’s top strategic risks. And five of the seven are Republicans.

The military has been crystal clear for decades about the very real consequences of a world where water and arable land become scarce, and nations erupt into chaos and war. Migration, border disputes, and even the habitability of the bases the U.S. has around the world are all risk factors that the military have long recognized as critical to our national security.

While this dangerous rejection of reality is reprehensible, it isn’t surprising. After all, Trump has long been a climate change denier. And a pretty asinine one at that. He still believes that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by China.

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Fox Nation vs. Reality:
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