Constitution

10 New Republican Precedents for Presidential Power that Trump and Co. May Come to Regret: Axios

Posted by on June 28, 2025 at 1:03 pm. 0 Comments :

The reign of wannabe dictator Donald Trump has produced some of the most repugnant policies ever to be foisted on the American people. They are replete with racist, misogynist, and xenophobic bigotry. They have the stench of corruption and flagrant self-enrichment. They serve to embrace our enemies and alienate our allies. And they are brazen assaults on the Constitution, particularly the promise of due process and protections of the free press.

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Donald Trump, Constitution

In five short months, Trump’s second occupation of the White House has proven to be far more destructive of the principles that shaped the nation. Trump has surrounded himself with suck-ups who will never challenge his anti-American proposals. And he has set a determined course to cleanse the government of knowledgeable, non-partisan administrators and legal counsel. That leaves him with a worshipful cult of sycophants who are devoted to Dear Leader…

SEE THIS: Trump Cult Priestess, Karoline Leavitt, Preaches the Divine Infallibility of Dear Leader

Unfortunately, Trump has succeeded in some measure to construct a cabal of loyalists in his administration. And with the help of the radical right-leaning Supreme Court, he has managed to secure a number of policy and process victories that he is giddily celebrating. However, Trump may not have as much to celebrate as he thinks. As reported by Axios, Trump and his minions in Congress are setting some new precedents that could come back to bite him in his asinine and arrogant rear flank.

“Through silence or vocal support, House and Senate Republicans are backing an extraordinary set of new precedents for presidential power they may come to regret if and when Democrats seize those same powers…New precedents are exhilarating when you’re in power — and excruciating when you’re not.”

Here are 10 new precedents, all set with minimal GOP dissent:

  1. Presidents can limit the classified information they share with lawmakers after bombing a foreign country without the approval of Congress.
    Trump is already refusing to brief Democrats in Congress on his adventurism in Iran, and who knows what else.
  2. Presidents can usurp Congress’s power to levy tariffs, provided they declare a national emergency.
    The constitution gives Congress the authority to levy taxes and tariffs, not the president.
  3. Presidents can unilaterally freeze spending approved by Congress, and dismantle or fire the heads of independent agencies established by law.
    Trump has unlawfully impounded funds allocated by law and terminated thousands of agency staff over which he has no authority.
  4. Presidents can take control of a state’s National Guard, even if the governor opposes it, and occupy the state for as long as said president wants.
    This is the fascist overreach that Trump has taken in Los Angeles, despite having no legal basis or justification.
  5. Presidents can accept gifts from foreign nations, as large as a $200 million plane, even if it’s unclear whether said president gets to keep the plane at the end of the term.
    The plane that Trump is getting from Qatar will cost taxpayers another billion dollars to retrofit to standards that comply with Air Force One. And then it will be gifted to his library.
  6. Presidents can actively profit from their time in office, including creating new currencies structured to allow foreign nationals to invest anonymously, benefiting said president.
    Trump is raking in millions (billions?) of dollars from his personal businesses and crypto scams.
  7. Presidents can try to browbeat the Federal Reserve into cutting interest rates, including by floating replacements for the Fed chair before their term is up.
    Trump has been lying that there is no inflation and, therefore, Fed Chair Jerome Powell is stupid for not cutting interest rates.
  8. Presidents can direct the Justice Department to prosecute their political opponents and punish critics. These punishments can include stripping Secret Service protections, suing them and threatening imprisonment.
    Trump has already pardoned 1,500 insurrectionists, and then fired the attorneys in the Justice Department who prosecuted them. And his Attorney Genuflect, Pam Bondi has indicted several Democrats on trumped up charges.
  9. Presidents can punish media companies, law firms and universities that don’t share their viewpoints or values.
    Trump is suing several ABC News, CBS News, the New York Times, and others, for having the audacity to report the truth about him. And he is threatening and defunding universities who refuse to kowtow to his fascist demands.
  10. Presidents can aggressively pardon supporters, including those who made large political donations as part of their bid for freedom. The strength of the case in said pardons is irrelevant.
    Not only is the strength of the case irrelevant, but so is the crime. Trump has pardoned deep-pocketed supporters who were convicted of drug trafficking, sex crimes, and more.

This is not a comprehensive list. The dangerous precedents being set by Trump extend to many other matters, including immigration, foreign aid, civil liberties, voting rights, state sovereignty, and so much more.

The one thing that Trump and the MAGA GOP have going for them is that Democrats are far more personally moral and legally ethical. While these precedents may apply to them as well when they are in power, they are less likely to avail themselves of them, or to abuse them the way that Trump and Republicans do. And at this stage in Trump’s dissolution of American democracy, it’s hard to say whether that’s a good thing or bad thing.

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FIRE EVERYONE! Trump Rages Over Accurate Reporting of Intelligence Regarding His Iran Bombing

Posted by on June 26, 2025 at 2:07 pm. 0 Comments :

In the wake of the bombing mission that Donald Trump ordered allegedly to rid Iran of nuclear weapons capabilities, the media had the audacity to do their job and report on what was known about the mission and its results. That, of course, drove Trump crazy, because the last thing he ever wants is for the truth about his often reckless escapades being exposed to the light of day.

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Donald Trump

In Trump World it is never permitted to do or say anything critical of Dear Leader. His every word is to be regarded as if gospel, and every act must be glorified with the enthusiasm of an adoring apostle. That’s evident in the worshipful testimony delivered by his devoted propaganda purveyors.

SEE THIS: Trump Cult Priestess, Karoline Leavitt, Preaches the Divine Infallibility of Dear Leader

On Thursday Trump underwent a severe mental breakdown triggered by the press that he hates and regularly maligns as “the enemy of the people.” In a barrage of rancid posts to his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, Trump unleashed a series of demands that journalists he doesn’t like be fired. He seems to think that he’s still on “The Apprentice” and can axe people from his program at will.

The primary target of Trump’s wrath was CNN’s Pentagon correspondent, Natasha Bertrand. Trump began his harangue by lashing out at her on Wednesday saying that…

“Natasha Bertrand should be FIRED from CNN! I watched her for three days doing Fake News. She should be IMMEDIATELY reprimanded, and then thrown out ‘like a dog.'” [And that] “She lied on the Laptop from Hell Story, and now she lied on the Nuclear Sites Story, attempting to destroy our Patriot Pilots by making them look bad…She should not be allowed to work at Fake News CNN….FIRE NATASHA!”

First of all, does anyone really believe that Trump watched CNN for three days? Setting that aside, Trump’s claim that she lied is…well, a lie. She reported what she was told by Trump’s own Defense Department Intelligence Agency. Trump even later admitted that. Although he complained that the DIA assessment was preliminary. Which Bertrand reported saying that “The analysis of the damage to the sites and the impact of the strikes on Iran’s nuclear ambitions is ongoing, and could change as more intelligence becomes available.”

Trump tried to spin this story as an attack on the pilots who flew the mission to Iran. Which is pure bullpucky. He also dredged up a five year old complaint about Hunter Biden’s laptop, which was also correctly reported by Bertrand. Then on Thursday, Trump continued his tantrum with several posts demanding the termination of many more reporters. He whined that…

“Rumor is that the Failing New York Times and Fake News CNN will be firing the reporters who made up the FAKE stories on the Iran Nuclear sites because they got it so wrong. Lets see what happens?”

And that…

“One of the greatest, most professional, and most ‘confirming’ News Conferences I have ever seen! The Fake News should fire everyone involved in this Witch Hunt, and apologize to our great warriors, and everyone else!”

And that…

“FAKE NEWS REPORTERS FROM CNN & THE NEW YORK TIMES SHOULD BE FIRED, IMMEDIATELY!!! BAD PEOPLE WITH EVIL INTENTIONS!!!”

And in a major escalation of his insanity, with zero evidence, Trump fumed that…

“The Democrats are the ones who leaked the information on the PERFECT FLIGHT to the Nuclear Sites in Iran. They should be prosecuted!“

Former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, who is currently playacting as Trump’s Secretary of Defense, held a press scolding Thursday morning, wherein he whined about the media in a manner that would embarrass an eight year old. During that reality TV-style melodrama, Hegseth chastised his former Fox News colleague, Jennifer Griffin, who wasn’t havin’ his asininity. And he demonstrated his pitiful lack of historical knowledge of American warfare…

This is a great example of how everything in Trump world dials up the hyperbole to preposterous levels, where whatever Trump does is the BESTEST in the history of humanity!Hegseth apparently never heard of D-Day, or Hiroshima, or Desert Storm, or getting Osama bin Laden.

— News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-06-26T17:26:27.476Z

What Trump and his minions are making abundantly clear is that they do not want any credible journalism to be practiced in this country. They regard news reporting as unpatriotic if it isn’t gushing with praise for Trump. But nothing is more patriotic than reporters who speak truth to power.

Unfortunately, Trump’s hatred of the Constitution’s First Amendment is all too apparent in his attempts to get journalists fired when they are less than reverential supplicants to His MAGA-STY. Consequently, this country needs bold journalists now more than ever.

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Trump Lashes Out at Democratic Women of Color as ‘Stupid’ Because They Dare to Defy Dear Leader

Posted by on June 24, 2025 at 1:54 pm. 1 Comments :

In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s bombing of Iran, there has been little to justify what was a dubiously sourced mission in the first place. His own Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, testified before Congress that there was no evidence that Iran was developing nuclear weapons. But Trump humiliated her and the broader intelligence community by declaring that they were all wrong.

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Donald Trump, MAGA

You have to wonder where Trump was getting his information about Iran if it wasn’t from the intel professionals that worked for him. Nevertheless, he pulled out all the stops to glorify himself and his faulty decision making by dispatching the minions of his regime to the media in a futile effort to deceive the American people.

SEE THIS: The Trump Regime’s Post-Iran Bombing Propaganda Party is a Sputtering Dud

Trump himself was the Liar-in-Chief as he unloaded preposterous defenses of his military adventurism. For instance he falsely declared that Iran’s nuclear facilities were “obliterated” before there was any credible damage assessment. And he told reporters that the ceasefire between Israel and Iran was complete and would “go forever.” It didn’t last but a few hours.

Trump throws a tantrum because Israel and Iran aren't obeying his demands to end their decades long hostilities. He whines: "they don't know what the fuck they're doing."Trump said just yesterday that the ceasefire would "go forever." Which proves that it's Trump who doesn't know what he's doing.

— News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-06-24T17:14:09.376Z

On Tuesday morning Trump threw another infantile temper tantrum aimed at a trio of his sworn archenemies who just happen to all be Democratic women of color. The comment that he posted to his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, maligned Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jasmine Crockett, and Ilhan Omar, with puerile insults to their intelligence. Trump raged that…

“Stupid AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the ‘dumbest’ people in Congress, is now calling for my Impeachment, despite the fact that the Crooked and Corrupt Democrats have already done that twice before.”

Demeaning women of color as “stupid” is a regular part of Trump’s racist rhetoric. However, AOC is only calling for Trump to be impeached because he initiated a war without the consent of Congress as required by the Constitution. And his having been impeached twice before seems like a peculiar thing to remind everyone about in the wake of his new impeachable offenses. But Trump was only just getting started. He continued…

“When we examine [AOC’s] Test Scores, we will find out that she is NOT qualified for office but, nevertheless, far more qualified than [Jasmine] Crockett, who is a seriously Low IQ individual, or Ilhan Omar, who does nothing but complain about our Country. […] How dare ‘The Mouse’ tells us how to run the United States of America!”

Trump doesn’t mention what test scores he’s referring to. But he might want to stop threatening the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to prevent them from releasing his grades. Let’s have some of that transparency that he likes to yammer about.

Although Trump did use this part of his comment to add Crockett and Omar to his hate post. It is no coincidence that all of his targets are women of color. He has exhibited this rancid racism innumerable times before. Often with journalists such as Yamiche Alcindor, Abby Phillip, and April Ryan. And let’s not forget that he said the same things about Kamala Harris. They just all happen to be stupid women in his eyes. Then he went further saying that…

“AOC should be forced to take the Cognitive Test that I just completed at Walter Reed Medical Center, as part of my Physical. As the Doctor in charge said, ‘President Trump ACED it,’ meaning, I got every answer right.”

Trump keeps repeating this lie about having “aced” a cognitive test. It was actually just a test to ascertain any early signs cognitive illness, wherein he was asked to perform simple functions such as counting backwards and identifying an elephant. The fact that he’s so proud of having succeeded in that is itself cause to worry about his mental acuity.

Trump closed with a challenge to “go ahead and try Impeaching me, again, MAKE MY DAY!” That’s a challenge that Democrats must accept. The case against him is extraordinarily strong.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that Republicans in the Senate will vote in accordance with the law and the Constitution. They still seem to be too enrapt in the cult sway of Trumpism. But the effort is necessary regardless. If only to insure that there is a historical record of Trump’s malfeasance in office.

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom Spells Out the Imminent Threat that Trump Represents, and the Solution

Posted by on June 11, 2025 at 9:48 am. 2 Comments :

On Tuesday, June 10, 2025, California Governor Gavin Newsom delivered a speech in response to the unprecedented deployment of National Guard troops and Marines to unlawfully engage in law enforcement activities in Los Angeles.

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King Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

Trump’s orders, that violate both civil law and the Constitution, are further evidence of his craving to impose an authoritarian dictatorship in the United States, with him as the unchallenged and unchallengeable tyrant reigning over the demolition of democracy. He has lied repeatedly about the situation on the ground in L.A., claiming that the city was on fire and would be “completely obliterated” if not for him. And he has maligned the leadership of its Democratic Mayor and Governor who were competently dealing with the protests. Trump even endorsed arresting Gov. Newsom.

SEE THIS: Herr Trump Calls for Gov. Gavin Newsom to Be Arrested and to Thank Him for Being ‘So Wonderful’

Newsom’s speech (video below) was an inspiring rebuttal to Trump’s seething hatefulness, ignorance, and anti-Americanism. What follows is a part of the speech that spelled out some of Trump’s most egregiously abhorrent actions, along with the solution. Some highlighting was added, but no further commentary, because Newsom says it all pretty damn well.

“This is a president who, in just over 140 days, has fired government watchdogs that could hold him accountable, accountable for corruption and fraud. He’s declared a war, a war on culture, on history, on science, on knowledge itself. Databases quite literally are vanishing.

“He’s delegitimizing news organizations and he’s assaulting the First Amendment, and the threat of defunding them. At threat, he’s dictating what universities themselves can teach. He’s targeting law firms and the judicial branch that are the foundations of an orderly and civil society. He’s calling for a sitting governor to be arrested for no other reason than to, in his own words, ‘for getting elected.’

“And we all know, this Saturday, he’s ordering our American heroes, the United States military, and forcing them to put on a vulgar display to celebrate his birthday, just as other failed dictators have done in the past.

“Look, this isn’t just about protests here in Los Angeles. When Donald Trump sought blanket authority to commandeer the National Guard. he made that order apply to every state in this nation. This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault right before our eyes.

“This moment we have feared has arrived. He’s taking a wrecking ball, a wrecking ball to our founding fathers’ historic project: three co-equal branches of independent government. There are no longer any checks and balances. Congress is nowhere to be found. Speaker Johnson has completely abdicated that responsibility.

“The rule of law has increasingly been given way to the rule of Don. The founding fathers didn’t live and die to see this kind of moment. It’s time for all of us to stand up. […]

“I know many of you are feeling deep anxiety, stress, and fear. But I want you to know that you are the antidote to that fear and that anxiety. What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty, your silence, to be complicit in this moment. Do not give into him.”

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Trump’s Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, Tries and Fails to Justify Trump’s War on Los Angeles

Posted by on June 10, 2025 at 1:26 pm. 0 Comments :

From the day that Donald Trump first nominated Pete Hegseth to serve as his Secretary of Defense, it was widely viewed as a dangerously inappropriate proposal to elevate a completely unqualified Fox News weekend host with a history of abusing both alcohol and women.

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Pete Hegseth with Drunk Emoji

Hegseth’s experience for the job that Trump sought to give him was his junior officer ranking in the Army twenty years ago, and his management of two military related non-profits that both fired him for his incompetence and malfeasance. But he met Trump’s prerequisites, which were that he would do or say anything that Trump told him without regard to the truth or the welfare of the nation, and that he looked good on TV.

SEE THIS: Pete Hegseth Spends Thousands for a Pentagon Makeup Studio to Fortify America’s Military Might

Following Trump’s declaration of war against the City of Los Angeles, Hegseth appeared before the Defense Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. His testimony was about as rife with ignorance and dereliction as one would expect from such an unfit official. He came utterly unprepared for the inquiry that he knew he would face. That includes not having any data regarding the Pentagon’s budget proposal that the Appropriations Committee was expecting.

To make matters worse, Hegseth was also stumped by questions he should have anticipated. Particularly those about Trump’s unlawful deployment of National Guard troops and Marines in response to an overwhelmingly peaceful protest against the hostile excesses of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) in Los Angeles. And in an exchange with Rep. Pete Aguilar, Hegseth provided a chilling demonstration of just how clueless he is about his duties…

Rep. Aguilar: The legal basis that the president used cites three examples in circumstances for the Guard. Invasion by a foreign nation; a rebellion or dangerous rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States; or the president is unable with regular forces to execute the laws of the United States. Which authority is triggered here to justify the use?
Hegseth: I don’t know. You just read it yourself, and people can listen themselves. But it sounds like all three to me.

"Sounds like all three to me" — Pete Hegseth suggests the United States is under invasion by a foreign nation, prompting the need for troops in Los Angeles

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-06-10T15:34:58.019Z

REALLY? Let’s examine these one at a time, shall we?

Invasion By a Foreign Nation:
There is no evidence whatsoever that any foreign nation had invaded the United States. Hegseth mentioned the presence of some Mexican flags, but that does not infer that the government of Mexico had anything to do with the protests, and they certainly did not. There were no Mexican troops or military assets deployed to take over the U.S. The notion is downright preposterous.

A Rebellion Against the Authority of the Government of the United States:
None of the protesters came anywhere near attempting to usurp the authority of the U.S. government. They were merely exercising their rights as stated in the First Amendment to the Constitution to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Which can only be seen as a rebellion by the tyrannical tendencies of the Trump administration, where Trump regards anything critical of him as treason.

The President is Unable With Regular Forces to Execute the Laws of the United States.
The leadership provided by the Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, and the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, were more than sufficient to deal with the sometimes rowdy behavior of a few protesters. If Trump was invoking this excuse for his military incursion, than he was, in effect, conceding that he was the one who was unable to execute the laws that he swore to uphold. Which shouldn’t surprise anyone, considering that he literally admitted that he doesn’t believe he has any obligation to do so.

MORE HERE: WTHF? When Asked ‘Don’t You Need to Uphold the Constitution,’ Trump Replies ‘I Don’t Know.’

Later in his testimony, Hegseth was asked about the costs associated with the deployment of troops to clamp down on the people’s right to protest. He tried to dodge the question, but was pressed on it until he finally allowed an aide to provide the answer…

“After persistent questioning about the cost of sending National Guard members and Marines to Los Angeles in response to protests over immigration raids, Hegseth turned to his acting comptroller, Bryn Woollacott MacDonnell, who said it would cost $134 million.”

With that amount of money, we could house and feed more than 4,000 homeless veterans for a year. We could provide more than 9,000 veterans with healthcare for a year. Or we could oppress and intimidate a few hundred advocates for migrants’ civil rights for a month. Spending money on this deployment is an even worse allocation of funds than Trump’s ludicrous and vain $45 million birthday parade that he’s throwing for himself in Washington, D.C. on Saturday. For which he is also threatening anyone who dares to protest it.

Hegseth is not the only member of Trump’s Quack Cabinet to malign the protesters in Los Angeles. His Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, also took a swipe at them and wound up hitting the entire population of the city, saying that L.A. “is not a city of Immigrants, it’s a city of criminals.” Really? All 4,000,000 of them?

However, the views of Noem and Hegseth are not shared by the American people. A new poll has found that “47% of U.S. adults disapprove of deploying the Marines to LA, with 34% approval…45% disapprove the National Guard deployment, while 38% said they approve.”

Not that Trump or his cronies care about what the American people think. But maybe this will get some Republicans in Congress to grow a spine and reject Trump’s totalitarianism. Keep hope alive.

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Trump’s Propaganda Secretary Lies to Fox News About Terry Moran, the AP, and the Constitution

Posted by on June 8, 2025 at 12:57 pm. 1 Comments :

The shamelessness of how Donald Trump is advancing his intentions to reign as a supreme monarch over the United States continues to rocket to new heights of abhorrent anti-Americanism. He ignores every principle upon which this nation was founded as he rolls roughshod over them. Which he will do literally on June 14, with his North Korean style military birthday parade in Washington, D.C.

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Donald Trump and Karoline Leavitt

This week Trump celebrated what he said was a big win over the Associated Press when a three judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court voted 2-1 to allow him to continue to ban the Associated Press from presidential press events in the Oval Office and other locations that he deemed private.

Trump’s problem with the AP was their refusal to comply with his vain decree that all media refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. Which other countries do not recognize. So in retaliation he took over the White House press pool, which was previously determined by the independent White House Correspondents Association. Under Trump the pool became populated by slobbering pro-Trump hacks.

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

The ruling that thrilled Trump so much was actually just a temporary stay of a prior federal court ruling that declared Trump’s ban unconstitutional. The stay was a 2-1 decision issued by a three judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court and is in effect until the full court hears the case. The two judges deciding in Trump’s favor are Trump appointees. The AP is expected to appeal the ruling to the full court or the Supreme Court. D.C. Circuit Judge Neomi Rao wrote that…

“These restricted presidential spaces are not First Amendment fora opened for private speech and discussion. No one suggests the Oval Office is a traditional public forum such as a park or sidewalk held in trust for expressive activity.”

That’s a twisted conclusion that ignores the fact that anywhere that the media is permitted general access, there may not be any exclusions based on viewpoint discrimination. That would be a violation of the First Amendment whether it is in the Oval Office or a park.

On Sunday morning, Trump’s Propaganda Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, took up her usual position on Fox News (where she spends most of her time) to flagrantly lie about several matters related to the media (video below). Among them was her defense of how Trump has reshaped the White House press corps to mirror his totalitarian image. Leavitt told Fox’s Senior Trump-Fluffer, Maria Bartiromo, that…

“In president Trump’s White House we have made so many significant and much needed changes to press access and transparency in the White House. We have invited in new media. We have shaken up the White House press pool.”

Indeed, They have “shaken up the White House press pool” by limiting the access of credible journalists and replacing them with fringy Internet trolls who worship Trump. And that includes a Russian funded MAGA podcaster. That isn’t transparency as much as it is blatant promotion of Dear Leader’s manifesto. And it has resulted in some painfully comical episodes of bullshittery.

FOR EXAMPLE: Trump Escalates His War on the Press – and the Courts – with Predictably Preposterous Results

Leavitt also addressed the Associated Press affair, bragging about the imaginary “major victory”. She mocked the AP for thinking that “they had a constitutional right to walk into the Oval Office or to fly on Air Force One,” which they do. She went on to say that “those are privileged spaces that belong to the president of the United States,” and calling it “a great ruling for democracy.” Which is the polar opposite of the truth. It’s grotesquely arrogant to suggest that the Oval Office is a “privileged space” for the president. And censoring journalists hardly makes it a banner day for democracy.

Finally, Leavitt complained about a commentary posted by ABC News correspondent Terry Moran, who engaged in some courageous truth-telling about Trump and his designated Goebbels aide, Stephen Miller. Moran said of Miller that “It’s not brains. It’s bile. Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater [and that] his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.” And about Trump Moran wrote that “his hatred is only a means to an end, and that end is his own glorification. That’s his spiritual nourishment.”

It would be hard to argue with Moran’s assessment. But Leavitt managed to find a way. She told Bartiromo that…

“ABC is gonna have to answer for what their so-called journalist put out on Twitter in the wee hours of the night […] Hopefully this journalist will either be suspended or terminated. You cannot go on these unhinged rants against administration officials and the president of the United States.”

Moran later deleted the tweet. It is impossible to discern if that was because of the complaints by the Trump administration. However, ABC did suspend Moran pending further review. But it’s notable that ABC is also in the middle of a lawsuit filed against them by Trump that is complicating their proposed merger with another media company.

That, however, doesn’t justify Leavitt’s threat that you can’t go “against administration officials and the president of the United States.” Never mind that the Constitution says that you can. This fascist-leaning administration won’t permit it. And if the media doesn’t start defending itself – and the Constitution – they will soon be unable to do anything but praise Dear Leader.

Leavitt: "ABC is gonna have to answer for what their so-called journalist put out on twitter … we have reached out to ABC. They have said they will be taking action, so we will see what they do … hopefully this journalist will either be suspended or terminated."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-06-08T14:21:49.375Z

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Wannabe Dictator Trump Threatens ‘Serious Consequences’ If Musk Donates to Democrats

Posted by on June 7, 2025 at 1:41 pm. 3 Comments :

This week there was a mammoth quake that shook the political firmament. The richest, most arrogant man in the world, Elon Musk, and the most powerful and ignorant one, Donald Trump, suffered an ugly divorce. It dissolved what was briefly a historic alliance of two self-serving billionaires with delusions of grandeur and aspirations of supremacy over mankind.

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Donald Trump, Constitution

The ballooning brouhaha started out slowly, then built up a head of steam that resulted in Musk implying that Trump was one of Jeffrey Epstein’s pedophilic pals, and Trump threatening to cut off Musk’s umbilical cord to government funding.

SEE THIS: Trump Threatens to Cancel Musk’s Government Contracts Because He ‘Just Went Crazy’

The MAGA-verse was discombobulated as to how to respond to this break up, and which daddy to love. Fox News nearly had an on air seizure trying to sort it all out. Although there were those on Fox, and within the Republican ranks, who relied on the wishful thinking that it would all blow over shortly when the two elite lovers reconciled. But that was not to be – at least so far.

On Saturday it was reported that Trump told NBC News host Kristen Welker that he “has no desire to repair his relationship with Musk.” However, he didn’t stop there. Trump escalated the rhetorical war with a threat that is further evidence of his lust for totalitarian rule.

“President Donald Trump on Saturday said there would be ‘serious consequences’ if tech mogul Elon Musk funds Democratic candidates to run against Republicans who vote in favor of the GOP’s sweeping budget bill.

“‘If he does, he’ll have to pay the consequences for that,’ Trump told NBC News in a phone interview, but declined to share what those consequences would be. ‘He’ll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that'”

For the record, Musk has suggested that he would back challengers to Republican members of Congress who vote for Trump’s preposterously named (by Trump) “Big Beautiful Bill.” Musk tweeted that he “can’t stand it anymore,” and that any Republicans who support that “disgusting abomination” should be ashamed.

While Democrats might accept Musk’s donations in order to bury the bill and get rid of some MAGA Republicans, that doesn’t mean that they approve of his prior sabotaging of critical government agencies and services via the phony “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE). The greater good served by casting out the GOP Trump cultists justifies the fiscal jiu-jitsu of diverting some of Musk’s billions to a decent cause.

However, Trump’s threat of “serious consequences” for donating to Democrats is an alarming escalation of his authoritarian aspirations. He is asserting that he has some sort of power to dictate how private citizens can contribute to politicians or political causes. That is flagrantly unconstitutional.

Trump had no problem when Musk donated more than a quarter of a billion dollars to his campaign. And if money equals speech, as the Supreme Court ruled in the right-wing Citizens United decision, then Trump’s threat is violating Musk’s freedom of speech. And, by extension, the freedom of speech of every other American.

Another curious twist in this continuing melodrama is the discovery that Musk has apparently deleted some of his recent tweets aimed at Trump. Was this in response to Trump’s threats? It’s hard to imagine that he had a pang of conscience. You need to have a conscience for that. And neither of them meet that criteria.

First TACO, now MACO (Musk Always Chickens Out)"Elon Musk deleted a number of social media posts attacking President Donald Trump Saturday…including one accusing the president of featuring prominently in the Epstein files – and covering that up."www.mediaite.com/media/news/e…

— News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-06-07T18:30:36.512Z

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Marco Rubio Bans Visas for Officials Who Censor Americans – Such as Marco Rubio and Trump?

Posted by on May 28, 2025 at 1:23 pm. NO Comments :

After nearly two and half centuries, the American Constitution remains one of the most revered documents of independence and liberty ever written and adopted as the legal foundation of a democratic republic. It defines the basic governing principles for a free society that is truly made of, by, and for the people.

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Donald Trump, Censorship

That said, if there is one thing for which Donald Trump has distinguished himself throughout his occupation of the White House, it is his fervent aversion to the Constitution and especially its prohibitions on abridging freedom of the press and free speech. He has literally taken control over the once independently managed White House Press briefings in order to transform it into a pro-Trump puppet show of pure propaganda.

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

On Wednesday Trump’s Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, accelerated the autocratic aspirations of the Trump regime by issuing a new decree aimed at foreign government officials and other diplomats seeking to visit the United States. Rubio tweeted that…

“For too long, Americans have been fined, harassed, and even charged by foreign authorities for exercising their free speech rights.

“Today, I am announcing a new visa restriction policy that will apply to foreign officials and persons who are complicit in censoring Americans. Free speech is essential to the American way of life – a birthright over which foreign governments have no authority.”

Paging Mr Orwell, Mr George Orwell. Please come to the White courtesy phone.

— digby (@digby56.bsky.social) 2025-05-28T18:15:01.190Z

Rubio’s policy specifically references foreign nations and/or persons engaging in the moderation of social media in order to mitigate hate speech, disinformation, and efforts to incite violence. It’s the sort of responsible moderation that was practiced in the U.S. until Trump coerced American tech platforms to discontinue it so that Trump and his cult followers could rabble-rouse uninterrupted.

However, the flaming hypocrisy of Rubio’s decree is impossible to ignore. The Trump administration is the most censorious regime to assume power in America since the 1950’s blacklisting and McCarthyism. Trump has been persecuting Harvard University and other academic institutions who refused to kiss his… let’s say ring. He has been pressuring law firms (not always successfully) to kneel down before him, and even pledge the support of hundreds of millions of dollars in free representation for his MAGA agenda.

Perhaps worst of all, Trump has been threatening the media with billion dollar lawsuits and revocation of broadcast licenses unless they kowtow to him and his fixation on getting the press to lavish him with unflinching adoration.

What’s more, Trump has installed himself as the chairman of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; he has banned the Associated Press from presidential media avails; he appointed Kari Lake to head the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which manages Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), Radio Television Martí, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN), and the Voice of America (VOA). And Lake has already made some preposterous decisions…

FOR INSTANCE: Trump Flunky Kari Lake Taps MAGA Propaganda Network, OAN, to Be the Voice of Voice of America

On the same day that Rubio issued his decree, Trump’s Re-education Secretary, Linda McMahon, told CNBC that universities must be “in sync” with the Trump administration in order to receive government grants. That will prohibit funding for life-saving research on cancer, Alzheimer’s, and other devastating illnesses.

Trump's Re-education Secretary, Linda McMahon, says that universities must be "in sync with the administration."In other words, they must abandon academic freedom and submit to their government overlords. Because that's what cult leader Trump demands.

— News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-05-28T15:41:30.011Z

If Rubio’s decree were to be fairly enforced, Trump and most of his Cabinet would be unable to get visas to enter the U.S. Their blatant and shameless acts of censorship would fail to meet Rubio’s criteria. So while Rubio and Trump are whining about what they imagine to be censorship by foreigners, they are the worst practitioners of it. Now, if we could only get them to self-deport.

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WTHF? When Asked ‘Don’t You Need to Uphold the Constitution,’ Trump Replies ‘I Don’t Know.’

Posted by on May 4, 2025 at 1:22 pm. 1 Comments :

Donald Trump seems to be doing his best to affirm that he intends to become America’s first dictator. He is furiously dismantling every cherished institution of the nation from justice to academia to journalism, and even religion. There are no principles or values that he won’t stomp on in pursuit of his own exaltation.

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Donald Trump, Constitution

Included among the pillars of American principles that Trump is eager to plunder is the nation’s Constitution itself. Not that he has any idea what it says or what it means. To Trump it is an archaic document that is only there for him to exploit if possible, or discard when necessary.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Justice Dept Threatens Journalists as ‘Treasonous’ for Not Disclosing Sources of Leaks

Trump confirmed his distaste for the Constitution in an interview with Kristen Welker on Meet the Press this weekend. During a portion of the interview that dealt with Trump’s unlawful deportation agenda, Welker sought to get his views on the legal aspects of rounding up allegedly undocumented persons and shipping them off to foreign gulags without any justification or legal recourse.

Welker: Your Secretary of State [Marco Rubio] says that everyone who is here – citizens and noncitizens – deserves due process. Do you agree?
Trump: I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know.
Welker: Well, the Fifth Amendment says as much.
Trump: I don’t know. It seems — it might say that, but if you’re talking about that, then we’d have to have a million or two million or three million trials. We have thousands of people that are some murderers and some drug dealers and some of the worst people on Earth. Some of the worst, most dangerous people on Earth. And I was elected to get them the hell out of here. And the courts are holding me from doing it.
Welker: “But even given those numbers that you’re talking about, don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?
Trump: I don’t know

Perhaps one of the most honest responses that Trump has ever given to a question is “I don’t know.” However, in this case, it is also one of the most disturbing. The president of the United States ought to know whether what he is doing is legal and constitutional. But Trump is admitting that he doesn’t know that the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution plainly says that “No person shall…be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” That’s “person,” not citizen.

Instead, Trump attempts to cower behind some unnamed flank of lawyers, but does not even bother to say whether or not they agree with him or the Constitution about due process. Then he suggests that due process – and thus the Constitution – can be ignored if there are too many people seeking its protection. And of course, because there has been no due process, Trump doesn’t know whether any of the people he is deporting are criminals or dangerous, or even in the U.S. illegally.

Worst of all is that Trump was asked directly if he needs to “uphold the Constitution” and replies that he “doesn’t know” about that either. He literally pledged an oath to do so when he was inaugurated. How is this not a five alarm warning that Trump is determined to discard the Constitution and declare himself King of America?

MORE HERE: Trump Marks His First 100 Days By Glorifying Why Most Americans See Him as ‘A Dangerous Dictator’

Given Trump’s responses, what’s to stop him from arresting a couple thousand journalists and then saying that there are too many of them to hold hearings to ascertain whether or not their First Amendment rights were violated. So it’s off to El Salvador for you. And he could do the same with lawyers, or teachers, or civil rights activists, or members of Congress, or anyone who triggers Trump’s ire. And yes, that means you.

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Trump’s Justice Dept Threatens Journalists as ‘Treasonous’ for Not Disclosing Sources of Leaks

Posted by on April 26, 2025 at 12:52 pm. 2 Comments :

The authoritarian aspirations of Donald Trump have hardly been kept hidden. To the contrary, he brags about it, even celebrates it, on a daily basis. His brazen attacks on everything from universities, to law firms, to independent federal agencies that he is expressly prohibited from interacting with, are naked attempts to unlawfully expand and abuse his position as president.

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Donald Trump, Censorship

Among the institutions that Trump regularly persecutes is the one profession that is explicitly protected in the Constitution by name: Freedom of the Press. For many years Trump has maligned the media in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people.” But more recently he has taken to filing ludicrous lawsuits and banishing those who are insufficiently worshipful from presidential events.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Press Secretary Takes Questions From a Russian Funded MAGA Podcaster in the WH Press Room

Trump’s most recent assault on the free press comes on the heels of its abhorrent attack on the judiciary with the arrest of a judge in Wisconsin on phony charges that she helped an undocumented immigrate evade apprehension by Trump’s ICE goons. This escalation of the Trump regime’s demolishing of the Constitution has infuriated even conservatives worried about Trump’s overreaching into totalitarian tactics.

However, if you thought that it couldn’t get any worse, you don’t know Trump. On Friday, Trump assigned his lickspittle Attorney Genuflect, Pam Bondi, to issue an official Justice Department memo aimed at threatening journalists with legal consequences – including arrest and potentially much worse – for merely doing their job.

Journalists have long been shielded from these sort of government threats by the First Amendment of the Constitution, along with Justice Department policy to refrain from imposing pressure on them to disclose their sources or other work product. But now Trump and Bondi are exacerbating their bullying by rescinding a Biden administration policy that prohibited such oppressive conduct.

What follows are a couple of the most harrowing portions of the Bondi memo, wherein she advocates for “the use of subpoenas, court orders, and search warrants to compel production of information and testimony by and relating to members of the news media.” As reported by Ken Dilanian, NBC News justice and intelligence correspondent…

“I have concluded that it is necessary to rescind Merrick Garland’s policies precluding the Department of Justice from seeking records and compelling testimony from members of the news media in order to identify and punish the source of improper leaks.”

Translation: Bondi is permitting Trump’s Justice Department to demand that journalists give up their confidential sources, including personal communications (texts, phone records, emails, etc.), under threat of subpoena, incarceration, and criminal prosecution if they refuse to comply. That is flagrantly unconstitutional. What’s more, it would hamper the ability of reporters to gather information from government sources who would be too afraid to talk if they knew the reporters could be coerced into revealing their identity. And leaks are not “improper” unless they include classified data. The memo continued…

“This Justice Department will not tolerate unauthorized disclosures that undermine President Trump’s policies, victimize government agencies, and cause harm to the American people. ‘Where a Government employee improperly discloses sensitive information for the purposes of personal enrichment and undermining our foreign policy, national security, and Government effectiveness— all ultimately designed to sow chaos and distrust in Government- this conduct could properly be characterized as treasonous.'”

Translation: Bondi is improperly assuming the role of policing the media’s disclosures of presidential activities. That is not remotely within the jurisdiction of the Justice Department. And it is especially improper if the intent is to avoid what it regards as “undermining” the president’s policies. The public has a right to know what the president is up to, whether the president or the Justice Department likes it or not.

Even worse, Bondi is overtly threatening journalists with the capitol crime of treason. She is actually advocating for the execution of a reporter who might tell the truth about some malfeasance by the president. Which the public also has a right to know about.

For the record, that portion of Bondi’s memo was lifted verbatim from Trump’s prior executive order instructing the Justice Department to conduct a punitive investigation of Miles Taylor, the former Chief of Staff to Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security, whose only crime was writing an honest book about Trump’s scandalous first term in office.

Trump’s fondness for threatening to execute his political foes is well documented. He has made a habit of calling his critics “treasonous.” Some of those he has targeted in the past include, Barack Obama, Liz Cheney, Nancy Pelosi, James Comey, Adam Schiff, the New York Times, and Google.

Now Trump has had his Attorney General codify his bloodlust so that he can begin to carry out his campaign of vengeance. This must not be allowed to proceed. And since his Justice Department cannot be relied on to do the right thing, it is left to Congress to find the courage to impeach him before he gets away with any more of his monarchal madness.

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