MAGA Mike Johnson Admits that the Shutdown is ‘Something that We’ve All Always Wanted to Do’

IT’S HERE! The long feared government shutdown has begun. It’s the first one since the last time that Donald Trump was occupying the White House. What does that tell you? And despite all the evidence – including the fact that Republicans control both houses of the legislative branch – Trump and his MAGA cronies are trying desperately to blame it all on Democrats.

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Donald Trump, Congress, Mike Johnson

The spin from the GOP is predictably centered on their hateful and racist fixation on immigrants. They are outright lying that Democrats are withholding their votes in order to obtain free healthcare for “illegal aliens.” Never mind that no Democrat is proposing that or even suggesting it as a condition for passage of the budget bill. And Republicans can’t provide any proof of their dishonest claim. Which is typical of the GOP.

SEE THIS: Trump Declares that He Will Not Negotiate with Democrats to Avoid Shutdown, Then Blames Democrats

Surprisingly, on Wednesday morning GOP House Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson decided to tell the truth for a change. During an interview with Fox News Senior Trump-Fluffer, Maria Bartiromo, Johnson admitted that shutting down the government was a long desired goal of the Republican Party….

Bartiromo: Trump has said that he could use this as an opportunity to further cut government and turn some of those temporary furloughs into permanent job cuts. Speaker, can you assess what you are expecting in terms of the job cuts and how severe they could be?
Johnson: Yes, the president and I talked about this at great length. While, a shutdown is very damaging for real American people who depend upon government services, it can provide an opportunity to downsize the scope and the scale of government, which is something that we’ve all always wanted to do.

So in a way, Chuck Schumer has now handed the keys to the kingdom to the executive branch under President Trump to do some things that we would not otherwise be able to do because we would never get Democrat votes for them.

Johnson: “While a shutdown is very damaging for real American people who depend upon government services, it can provide an opportunity to downsize the scope and the scale of government, which is something that we've all always wanted to do.”

The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) 2025-10-01T14:07:33.799Z

And there you have it. Johnson has explicitly stated that the shutdown – and the brutal consequences for the American people – is “something that we’ve all always wanted to do.” And he says this even as he acknowledges that it would be “very damaging for real American people.” So clearly he has thought this through.

Johnson went on to praise Russ Vought, a principal author of “Project 2025,” who is now in charge of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, saying that “He gets to decide now what services are essential, what programs and policies should be continued, and which would not be a priority for taxpayers.” It should be comforting to the nation to know that the author of the notorious authoritarian handbook will be making those critical decisions. Although it isn’t any more discomforting than knowing that critical decisions are already being made by Johnson and Trump considering how “unhinged and unwell” Trump is. And Johnson seems to know that too…

WOW, REALLY? In this exchange Mike Johnson…? Doesn't deny that Trump is "unhinged and unwell," just that he thinks some Democrats are too.? Claims he didn't see Trump's deranged speech to an unprecedented gathering of military leaders. Even after it made international news.

News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-10-02T09:33:51.151Z

For his part, Trump has previously expressed his agreement with what Johnson is saying now. “We can do things during the shutdown,” Trump noted gleefully, “that are irreversible and bad for them like cutting vast numbers of people out.” He’s referring to cutting people out of their healthcare programs. And for some reason Trump seems to think that this will only be bad for Democrats. It won’t be long before he finds out that Independents, and even some Republicans, are also going to be hurt – and pissed off.

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Trump’s Border Czar Lies to Fox News that Protesters are Paid and He Will Prosecute the Funders

For most of his toxic tenure in the tainted world of Republican politics, Donald Trump has viciously vilified his political foes and openly advocated for their persecution by his legal attack dogs in what used to be called the Department of Justice. Perhaps he will try to rename it the Department of Judgment to go along with his new Department of War.

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Fox News, Constitution

Already in the first few months of his second occupation of the White House, Trump has directed his Attorney Genuflect, Pam Bondi, to launch meritless investigations of everyone from Gov. Gavin Newsom, to Sen. Adam Schiff, to New York Attorney General Letitia James, to everyone who served honorably on the House Committee to Investigate January 6th. All driven by his personal animus and hunger for retribution.

SEE THIS: Trump’s ‘Weaponization Working Group’ Lives Down to Its Name with Threats to Persecute Democrats

On Sunday Trump dispatched his Migrant Harassment [and Border] Czar, Tom Homan, to Fox News to unleash another shipload of pure propaganda. The segment began with host Jason Chaffetz lining up a loaded, softball question for Homan…

Chaffetz: So those protesters that we do see, I mean, some of it might be organic, but does strike me, it seems, like a lot of them are being bused in. You see them at the end of these protests, actually getting back on buses. Are these protesters, the bulk of them, are they actually being financed from the outside? And is that something that Homeland’s looking at? Is the financing of how all these so-called organic protests are happening?
Homan: Absolutely. We know a lot of these protesters are being paid. Many have admitted to it. So, yes, there’s a whole effort right now in identifying those who are funding these operations, those who fund the weapons that are being used. So, yeah, and they’ll be held accountable too and held to the highest standards of the law. They will be prosecuted, too.

FOX: Are these protesters actually being financed from the outside, and is that something Homeland is looking at — the financing of how these so-called organic protests are happening?HOMAN: Absolutely … they will be prosecuted too

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-09-07T14:24:30.204Z

The suggestion by Chaffetz that protesters were “bused in” is intended to imply that they are not genuine protesters, but hired imposters. Like almost everything that Fox News airs, he has no evidence of that. Even if some protesters arrived in buses, it is not uncommon for people to organize transportation to a protest site. Chaffetz went on to ask whether the protesters were “financed from the outside.” Once again, that is a purely speculative commentary with no proof whatsoever.

Homan, however, took the bullpucky baton and ran with it. He affirmed that he will “absolutely” prosecute those who allegedly funded the protests. He claimed to “know a lot of these protesters are being paid.” Never mind that, despite his assertion, he is unable to name a single protester, much less many, who “admitted” to it.

Homan also claims that these mysterious funders were financing protesters with weapons. Which is peculiar, since none of them were found to be carrying any, and none were used during the protests. He is just escalating the accusations to instill more fear of a rich man who actually loves America. And, by the way, if Soros were funding some protesters, it is entirely legal to donate to groups who organize lawful protests. That is until Trump signs an executive order banning it in violation of the Constitution.

On the basis of those thin allegations, Hogan is promising to prosecute unnamed funders whose identities are still unknown. But rest assured it will likely lead to the rabid right’s perennial nemesis, George Soros. Trump himself recently threatened that “Soros should be charged with RICO because of their support of Violent Protests.” Which never happened. But that didn’t stop Trump from delivering the ominous warning that he “Be careful, we’re watching you!”

Soros is only guilty of having the audacity to criticize Dear Leader and to allegedly help other American citizens who share those criticisms to exercise their rights “peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” You know, like it says in the First Amendment.

MORE HERE: Trump Threatens to Prosecute George Soros and Others for Supporting Protests Against Dear Leader

Homan is one of Trump’s top generals in his war against democracy and freedom. And his frequent appearances on Fox News are not coincidental. Fox is Trump’s official Ministry of Propaganda and Disinformation. And Chaffetz is a high ranking disseminator of Trump’s lies. Here’s a taste of just how nauseatingly adoring and biased he is with regard to his orange messiah…

It's true. Democrats don't love America the way Republicans and Fox News do.Democrats are sincere and patriotic. Not performative and greedy. We don't hug flags. And our leaders don't pretend to care about law and order while committing dozens of felonies and violating the Constitution.

News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-09-07T19:42:57.675Z

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Kristi Noem Unleashes More of the Delusional Hyperbole That is the Hallmark of the Cult of Trump

The Primary Directive of every cult is that only Dear Leader will tell you the truth, and that every else is lying to you. It’s a doctrine that has been fully adopted by Donald Trump and his MAGA movement. In their world all judges are “lunatic radicals,” polls are manipulated. government bureaucrats are “deep state” operatives, opposition politicians are purposefully evil, and the media is, as Stalin said, “the enemy of the people.”

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Trump Lies

With the Cult of Trump, dishonesty is just the beginning. There is apparently a dictum that also mandates that their lies must be as far removed from reality as possible. Trump and company likely picked this up from Hitler and his Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, who pioneered the doctrine of “The Big Lie.” Trump himself coopted the concept in the book that he lies about having written, “The Art of the Deal,” by paraphrasing it as “truthful hyperbole.” Minus the “truthful” part.

SEE THIS: OMG! Pathological Liar Trump Says He is ‘the Most Honest Human Being God Ever Created’

These principles were affirmed on Sunday morning’s episode of “Face the Nation” where Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, was interviewed. In a discussion about Trump’s authoritarian agenda of deploying military troops in American cities – but only the ones led by Democrats – in order to restore his version of fascist order, Noem made the following preposterous comment…

“I do know that L.A. wouldn’t be standing today if President Trump hadn’t taken action. That city would have burned down if left to the devices of the mayor and the governor of that state.”

Kristi Noem: "I do know that LA wouldn't be standing today if President Trump hadn't taken action."

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-08-31T14:37:24.224Z

REALLY? The city of Los Angeles spans over 500 square miles. The demonstrations against Trump’s unwarranted and illegal deployments were centered in a few blocks of the downtown area. And the National Gaurd and Marine troops spent most of their time in their quarters or standing around some federal buildings that weren’t targeted by protesters. Reporting at the time noted that…

“LA County District Attorney Nate Hochman on Wednesday said that protests in the Los Angeles area involve less than 1% of the population and are largely peaceful. […] Hochman said that means 99.99% of residents have done nothing illegal in connection with the demonstrations.”

Noem also claimed that the DHS thugs were only going after “the worst of the worst.” That was also untrue according to the data from Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency:

“The majority of people currently detained by ICE have no criminal convictions. Of those who do, relatively few have been convicted of high-level crimes. […] The latest ICE statistics show that as of June 29, there were 57,861 people detained by ICE, 41,495 — 71.7% — of whom had no criminal convictions.”

The mammoth scale of the hyperbole coming from Noem is clearly commanded from the top. Trump’s own commentaries routinely include the same sort of monumental lies. For instance…

Trump on Taxes (aka Tariffs): “Without Tariffs, and all of the TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS we have already taken in, our Country would be completely destroyed, and our military power would be instantly obliterated.”

Trump on Court Rulings: “If allowed to stand, this Decision would literally destroy the United States of America.”

Trump has an incredibly negative view of America as a pitifully weak nation that could curl up and die at any moment. Either that, or he’s just mad because destroying America is his thing and he doesn’t want someone else horning in.

Of course, Trump’s Ministry of Propaganda – Fox News – is backing him up all the way. While some people might regard Trump’s relentless dispensing of hyper-hyperbole as evidence of a cognitive decline, Fox News is ready with a defense. And when the question of his mental acuity raised, his name doesn’t even have to be mentioned for his defenders at Fox to step up and deny the dementia that others claim to see…

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Trump Deploys ICE Thugs to Gavin Newsom’s Press Conference in an ‘In Your Face’ Show of Force

The totalitarian tendencies of Donald Trump continue to reveal themselves in ever greater clarity as his fear and desperation grow. He knows that none of his attempts to deflect from his unsavory relationships with child sex traffickers Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell have worked, and his approval polling keeps going down, so he’s upping the ante.

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Donald Trump and Gavin Newsom

On Thursday Gov. Gavin Newsom held a press conference to announce his plan to fight back against the election rigging by the Republican Party via unprecedented and unlawful mid-census redistricting in Texas and other red states at the behest of Trump. So to counter those moves by the GOP, Newsom is proposing that blue states like California do the same, unless the Republicans back off.

SEE ALSO: Wannabe Dictator Trump Orders a New Census to Rig Upcoming Elections, Violating the Constitution

However, while Newsom was presenting his plan to the press, Trump’s thugs gathered outside of the venue where the press conference was being held and began arresting people. This neo-fascist tactic was reported by Aishah Hasnie on Fox News during an interview with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem…

Fox News: This is coming from our reporters in L.A. right now, where they say that Border Patrol has arrived outside of the downtown L.A. venue where Gov. Gavin Newsom is actually holding a press conference today. And it appears that those Border Patrol agents are making arrests of illegal immigrants.

I don’t know if they were at this press conference or they were in the area. But this is a very ‘in your face way’ to let Democrats know that you are gonna do your job. That you’re gonna carry out these Trump policies. Can you just respond to this video that we’re watching right now?

Noem: Every single one of our ICE Border Patrol operations is built on information, on investigative work. It’s a case and an operation that has been planned because of who they think could be in that area and what they have for information that shows that there are illegal criminals there. Remember, we’re focusing on the worst of the worst.

"In your face" — Fox News plays video of Border Patrol agents arresting people right just now outside Gavin Newsom's press conference

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-08-14T18:54:21.885Z

Hasnie accurately described the ICE actions as an “in your face way” of intimidating Democrats in general, and Newsom in particular. It is not a coincidence that ICE was operating right outside of the Newsom press conference. And neither Fox News nor Noem even tried to deny it. Noem virtually admitted that the operation was “planned because of who they think could be in that area.” And the only information that they had as to who would be there was Gavin Newsom.

Newsom was aware of what was taking place outside and he mentioned it during his address saying that “Right outside, at this exact moment, are dozens and dozens of ICE agents. Do you think it’s coincidental?” Newsom, however, was not intimidated by ICE or Trump. And he let them know in no uncertain terms, exposing Trump’s failures and weakness…

“He’s a failed president. Who else sends ICE at the same time we’re having a conversation like this? Someone who’s weak. Someone who’s broken. Someone whose weakness is masquerading as strength. The most unpopular president in modern history.”

Newsom: "He's a failed president. Who else sends ICE at the same time we're having a conversation like this? Someone who's weak. Someone who's broken. Someone whose weakness is masquerading as strength."

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-08-14T19:33:44.817Z

Trump’s brazen escalation of hostile and anti-democratic assaults on his political foes should concern every American. He is becoming less and less hesitant about his authoritarian aspirations. And Newsom is taking the right approach in not allowing Trump to get away with any of it. The rest of the Democratic Party – and all American patriots – need to join this fight to halt Trump’s tyrannical takeover of the nation.

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Wannabe Dictator Trump Orders a New Census to Rig Upcoming Elections, Violating the Constitution

The abysmal job approval ratings achieved by Donald Trump are currently among the lowest he has ever recorded, as well as the lowest of his modern predecessors. And with regard to the issues that he has deemed crucial, he is underwater on everything from immigration and deportations, to tariffs and trade, to foreign policy and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, to the economy, and more.

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King Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

That explains why Trump and his MAGA minions are desperately plotting to rig the 2026 elections in order to maintain their tyrannical grip power. To that end, Texas governor Greg Abbott has assembled a special session of the Texas state legislature to force a rare mid-census redistricting, intending to redraw the district maps to favor Republicans and oust Democrats. Although he may end up regretting the partisan hornet’s nest that he has aroused.

SEE THIS: Gavin Newsom Floats Redistricting in California to Counteract the Texas Plan to Gerrymander

Not one to be left out of any fiery news cycle, Trump joined in with his own ideas that represent a massive escalation of his war to crown himself King of America. On his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, Trump posted a comment announcing his intention to raise the ante on redistricting with a grossly unlawful scheme to steal the elections in 2026 and 2028 and beyond…

“I have instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024. People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

First of all, Trump couldn’t care less about accuracy or facts. If he did he would not have just fired the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics simply because he didn’t like the accurate facts that were revealed in the recent jobs report.

More to the point, Trump’s decree to conduct a new census on a purely political partisan basis is blatantly unconstitutional. Not that he cares about that either. But the Constitution clearly states how the census is to be conducted in Article I, Section 2, Clause 3, which says that…

“The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.”

So according to the Constitution, the census is to be conducted once every ten years. There is nothing in that clause that allows for more frequent surveys. There are also no funds allocated by Congress to pay the $15 billion dollars that it costs to do a new, complete census.

However, that isn’t the only Constitutional obstacle to Trump’s ludicrous plan. He says openly that he wants his new survey to exclude “People who are in our Country illegally.” That is also prohibited by constitutional law. The 14th Amendment, Section 2, states that…

“Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed.”

While undocumented persons do not vote, they are persons. And it is critical to know the total number of all persons to ensure that states receive and allocate adequate resources to serve their entire resident population. You cannot simply pretend that real human beings don’t exist. An accurate complete count impacts everything from housing, to police and fire services, to education, to nutritional and health matters, to traffic, and more.

What’s more, the financial contributions of undocumented persons to the economy need to be assessed. For instance, in 2022, undocumented immigrant households paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes, and had $299 billion in spending power. They also fulfill labor needs in fields such as agriculture, construction, healthcare, etc. And they pay into the Social Security Trust Fund, even though they cannot collect from it. In fact, undocumented immigrants paid $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes in 2022.

Consequently, Trump’s idea of excluding undocumented persons from the census would be materially harmful to every municipality, and to the nation as a whole. Meanwhile, any changes to the apportionment of congressional representatives or Electoral Collage votes would be minimal with offsetting impact for both parties.

In conclusion, there is no reason to conduct another census with Trump’s racist adjustments other than to satiate the hatred by Trump and his MAGA movement. And the legal barriers to it are impossible to overcome without actions taken by Congress or constitutional amendment.

Trump tried this before and was struck down by the Supreme Court with a decision written by conservative Justice John Roberts. So maybe Trump’s motivation for doing this is not just to steal an election. Maybe he’s also using it as yet another distraction from the Jeffrey Epstein/Ghislaine Maxwell affair that he is trying so feverishly to avoid. And he’s losing on both counts.

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Uncaring Ignorance About Jobs and Medicaid is a Sickening Requirement to Be in Trump’s Cabinet

The lasting legacy of Donald Trump is going to be filled with examples of his craving to reign as an anti-democratic autocrat, and his insatiable thirst for enriching himself with sleazy scams. He will be forever remembered as the Grifter-in-Chief who sought the worshipful adoration of his small but noisy cabal of cult followers.

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Donald Trump

In addition to his acute case of malignant narcissism, Trump will also go down in history as the American “leader” who cherished the deliberate avoidance of intellect, declaring literally that he “loves the poorly educated.” Of course he does. Who else would vote for him? His tenure is a testament to infantile turpitude and the deranged, devolutionary dumbing down of academics in pursuit of a submissive society.

SEE THIS: WHO’S DERANGED? Trump on Biden Clones, Transgender Mice, Autopens, and His Own Mental Anguish

In a timely demonstration of Trump’s aversion to education, his Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins held a press conference to provide affirmation of Trump’s descent into Idiocracy. Responding to inquiries about how the United States will handle the consequences of Trump’s mass deportation agenda, and his “Big Ugly Bill” that slashes the budget for Medicaid, Rollins said that…

“There will be no amnesty. The mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way. And we move the workforce toward automation and 100% American participation, which with 34 million able-bodied adults on Medicaid we should be able to do fairly quickly.”

Brooke Rollins on farm laborers: "There will be no amnesty. The mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way. And we move the workforce toward automation and 100% American participation, which with 34 million able-bodied on Medicaid we should be able to do fairly quickly."

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-07-08T14:06:46.629Z

There’s a lot of witlessness to unpack in that brief commentary. Let’s begin with Rollins’ reference to continuing mass deportations in a “strategic way.” By which she means enforcing it only in Democratic cities and states. She then moved on to her intention to replace farm laborers with automation. Although she doesn’t explain how she would automate the harvesting of agricultural crops, or why it has never been done before. Neither does she explain how the labor force would be “100% American” in this new type of harvesting that is done by machines.

Perhaps the most preposterous part of Rollins’ remarks was what she had to say about Medicaid. She believes that there are “34 million able-bodied adults” who can be immediately recruited to staff the farms of the nation. She is referring to the number of people currently on Medicaid who are classified as “able-bodied.”

What Rollins doesn’t seen to understand is that many able-bodied people receive Medicaid who are not available to work. According to an analysis by the Brookings Institute, Medicaid recipients who would be described as “able-bodied” are mostly those who are caregivers to dependent children, those with disabling mental health conditions, full time students, and those already working 80+ hours per month.

Disenrolling those recipients from Medicaid would result in severe hardships for them and their families, and would save very little money. Does the Trump administration really want the parents of minor children, and those who are caregivers to seniors or other disabled family members, and those with mental health disabilities, to be forced to relocate to farming communities and harvest fruits and vegetables?

Furthermore, the agricultural work that Rollins thinks will be undertaken by those she would strip of Medicaid coverage generally does not provide health insurance to their employees. Consequently, any medical treatment required would not be be paid for, resulting in people not getting necessary care. It would also result in the hospitals providing such care incurring costs that they could not bear and would subsequently shut down, denying care to everyone else that used their services.

The bottom line is that Rollins and Trump are advocating an inhumane policy that would cause profound harm, while saving very little federal funds. The people that the Trump regime is targeting are not freeloaders trying to sponge of the government. They are not slackers playing video games in their mom’s basement. They are honest Americans struggling to make ends meet and to keep themselves and their families healthy.

For some reason, the Trump Republicans are offended by the lesser advantaged of us and thinks that they should be punished and made to suffer more, in order to afford tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy. Very Christian of them, isn’t it?

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What 1st Amendment? Trump Threatens to Prosecute CNN for Imaginary Crimes Against Dear Leader

The determination of Donald Trump to exert tyrannical control over the media that he despises has taken another turn for the worse. He is now not only insulting them as “fake” news, or demeaning them as “the enemy of the people,” or suing them on preposterous charges of defamation. He has escalated his wrath to outright threats of prosecution.

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Donald Trump, CNN

Bear in mind that Trump has not identified any actual crime that anyone in the press has committed. He has never needed any such trivialities as prosecutable offenses to backup his wild accusations. Trump merely babbles maniacally about some imagined illegality and expects his cult devotees to follow blindly.

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

Trump participated in a staged photo-op in Florida to visit a new migrant detention facility that features alligator infested surrounding waters. Of course, the alligators have no impact whatsoever on the security of the facility. But the gruesome cruelty of the notion of migrants – including children – being ripped to shreds delights the sickly morbidity of the MAGA crowd.

During the press conference Trump was asked questions about some of his other inhumane and unconstitutional mass deportation initiatives. One in particular addressed a news report by CNN about a publicly available app that advised people of where ICE agents were conducting operations. Which led to the following exchange…

Question: CNN yesterday pushed an app that lets you track where ICE agents are. [Border czar] Tom Homan said that perhaps CNN should be prosecuted for that. Your Thoughts?
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem: We’re working with the Department of Justice to see if we can prosecute them for that. Because what they’re doing is actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activities, operations, and we’re going to actually go after them and prosecute with the partnership of [Attorney General] Pam [Bondi] if we can, because what they are doing we believe is illegal.
Trump: And they may very well be prosecuted also for having given false reports on the attack in Iran. They were given totally false reports.

Trump on CNN: "They may be prosecuted also for having given false reports on the attack in Iran."

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-07-01T15:26:14.748Z

DHS Secretary Noem’s assertion that CNN engaged in some illegal activity has no basis in reality. They are entirely within their rights to report on the existence of an app that is available for anyone to download. That is journalism, not promotion. They never “encouraged” anyone to use the app. And it’s purpose is merely to notify the public about activities that ICE agents are openly engaging in. Which is also legal.

Trump went further – and wildly off-topic – to threaten CNN with prosecution for “having given false reports on the attack in Iran.” Once again, it is only Trump’s opinion that the reports were false. CNN derived the information from Trump’s own intelligence team. As previously reported, Trump’s Propaganda Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, complained about CNN for…

“…accurately reporting what Trump’s own intel professionals said about the results of the air strikes. They revealed that, according to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm, Iran’s nuclear capabilities had only been damaged partially, and that they could be rebuilt within months.”

So CNN’s reporting was correct. However, even if it were not, that isn’t illegal either. News organizations are allowed to make make mistakes, and corrections when necessary. In this case it wasn’t necessary. But if Trump still wasn’t satisfied, he could file another wholly unwarranted lawsuit for defamation. But he cannot issue criminal indictments. CNN replied to these anti-constitutional threats saying that…

“There is nothing illegal about reporting the existence of this or any other app, nor does such reporting constitute promotion or other endorsement of the app by CNN.”

Trump’s use of intimidation against the media is more proof of his penchant for fascism. He would love to throw journalists in jail for reporting the truth about him. He has also been threatening political foes with arrest. Just in the past 48 hours he has mused about arresting Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City, and Alejandro Mayorkas, the former Secretary of Homeland Security, and he indicated his openness to deporting Elon Musk, his former BFF and DOGE chief.

Trump’s threats of prosecuting journalists, along with his civil litigation, are long standing obsessions that reveal his hatred of the Constitution and its First Amendment protections. And it is a troubling signal of his intentions to control the media and form a fascist regime that won’t tolerate a free press or free thought. At this point in the process, he isn’t even trying to hide it. Which means that it is more imperative than ever to resist him and his authoritarian aspirations. The welfare of the country is at stake.

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As the World Burns: Trump Whines that ‘MAGA HATES Fox News’ After New Poll Shows Him Floundering

The responsibilities of the American president are always an extraordinarily weighty burden. The strength of the nation’s economy, the stability of its foreign relations, the administration of its laws, the defense of its international interests, the health and welfare of its people, are all part of the broad portfolio of the person commonly referred to as the most powerful leader on Earth.

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Donald Trump, Wah

Consequently, it is comforting to know that America’s president is always on active duty, seeing to the needs of the nation and addressing its international obligations. For example, Donald Trump is currently laser focused on the most critical matters facing him today, such as erecting giant flag poles at the White House, deploying the military against peaceful demonstrators who dare to exercise their constitutional rights, and staging parades to celebrate his birthday, while simultaneously putting fear into the hearts of our foes.

SEE THIS: Russia Trolls Trump’s Birthday Parade, Turning it Into $45 Million of Anti-American Propaganda

On Thursday morning Trump was hard at work again at one of his most important tasks, posting comments to his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social. On this occasion he was compelled to write about the imminent threat of war with Iran, who was already engaged in a deadly conflict with America’s ally Israel.

Just kidding. Trump hasn’t posted a single word about Iran in two days. Although he did mention it to reporters, to whom he said that “No one knows what I’ll do,” so “I’ll do whatever I want.” What Trump was actually posting today was a temper tantrum aimed at his Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News. He raged in part that…

“The Crooked FoxNews Polls got the Election WRONG, I won by much more than they said I would, and have been biased against me for years. They are always wrong and negative. It’s why MAGA HATES FoxNews, even though their anchors are GREAT.”

So that’s why “MAGA HATES Fox News.” Because they occasionally release a poll that isn’t adoringly worshipful of Dear Leader Trump. Daffy Don went on to complain that Fox News uses an “incompetent polling company,” as evidenced by their results showing that he got only “a little more than 50% at the Border.”

That alone would be enough to trigger Trump’s hissy fit. However, he left out some pertinent details that surely played a role in his hysterics. The Fox News poll also revealed that Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” had an approval rating of only 38%, while 59% opposed it. And his overall job approval stands at 46%, with 54% disapproving.

That can’t be helping to elevate his mood above its normal state ranging from cranky grandpa to raving lunatic. And the rest of the data from Fox’s poll could only make him even more furious. He is in negative territory on every issue other than the border. And that includes immigration where his failings are seen in almost every poll that asked the question.

Why is Trump FREAKING OUT now?According to a new Fox News poll, Trump is underwater on everything but the border. And his approval on immigration is almost universally negative.

News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-06-19T17:27:30.029Z

Given the abysmal polling that Trump is suffering through, it’s no wonder that a malignant narcissist like Trump would ignore minor inconveniences like impending war, recession, and the end of American democracy. His attention needs to be directed at whether or not his MAGA cult still loves him, and how to get his media flunkies to praise him with even more slobbering devotion.

Not ot worry, though. Trump will get around to Iran eventually. Or as his Propaganda Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said today, in about two weeks. No, really…

Everything with Trump is "two weeks." Now that includes his decision on whether to take America to war with Iran. He never follows through.Let's hope he fails again on this one. Although he is desperate to change narrative in the media that is all negative for him.

News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-06-19T17:54:49.161Z

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TACO Trump Chickens Out on His Mass Deportation Plans When it Affects Him and His Wealthy Pals

The unconstitutional, anti-American, and profoundly cruel immigration policies of Donald Trump and his fascist regime have proven to be a complete catastrophe. They do not further any goal of advancing the law, the safety, or the economic welfare of the nation or its residents.

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Donald Trump, Immigrant, Child

The only things that Trump’s totalitarian tactics accomplish are destabilizing communities, frightening families, bankrupting businesses, instilling distrust in authorities, and causing irreparable harm to individuals who don’t warrant such harsh, inhumane treatment. California’s Governor Gavin Newsom detailed some of this in a speech earlier this week.

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

Many politicians, economists, labor experts, and diplomats, have alerted Trump and his cronies to the obvious damage that his villainous impropriety causes. But typical of Trump, he doesn’t care until there is some impact on him or someone whose interests he is serving. Which is apparently what triggered Trump’s comment on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, on Thursday morning. He wrote that

“Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!”

There’s a lot of steaming bullpucky in that paragraph. For instance, it contains the first ever acknowledgement by Trump that some of the undocumented migrants in this country are “very good workers” who would be “impossible to replace” However, the only reason that Trump expresses any interest in them is because his wealthy pals in agribusiness have been whining about the adverse economic effects of his repugnant mass deportation schemes. And he adds “the Hotel and Leisure business,” because that’s Trump’s business.

So suddenly something has to be done about it to keep Trump and his friends from suffering financially. It’s emblematic of the TACO label that has recently been attached to him: “Trump Always Chickens Out!” In this case he folded at the behest of his billionaire buddies. Trump doesn’t explain why the same thing isn’t true for workers in restaurants, or factories, or construction, or healthcare, or landscaping, or even to students.

Trump went on to say that if farm workers are deported they will be replaced by criminals. He has absolutely zero evidence of that happening anywhere, but pathological liars don’t need evidence. And it seems unlikely that criminals have aspirations to move to rural areas where they can do hard labor in the fields. This is just further proof that Trump’s brain is severely dysfunctional. And he confirmed that diagnosis in an exchange with Fox News correspondent, Peter Doocy, later the same day…

Doocy: What made you change your mind about targeting in California, farmers and people in the hotels and leisure business?
Trump: Well, we’re not targeting. In fact, if you look today I put out a statement about farmers. Our farmers are being hurt badly by – you know they have very good workers. They’ve worked for them for twenty years. They’re not citizens, but they’ve turned out to be great. We’re going to have to do something about that. We can’t take farmers and take all their people and send them back because they don’t have maybe what they’re supposed to have.

Q: “What made you change your mind about targeting in California, farmers and people in the hotels and leisure business?”Trump: “Our farmers are being hurt badly. They have very good workers…They’re not citizens, but they’ve turned out to be great. We’re going to have to do something about that.”

The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) 2025-06-12T18:11:56.443Z

Notice that Trump misunderstood the question, failing to grasp that Doocy was asking about the change in targeting. But he also failed to answer the question which inquired as to why he changed his mind. Does he even know that he did change his mind?

What’s more, while Trump conceded that there is a problem, he neglected to suggest anything that resembled a solution. But in his defense, that’s only because he’s too cognitively deficient to have solutions to any problem. All he has is hostility and vengeance and greed and an aberrant lust for power.

UPDATE: On Thursday evening Trump posted a new comment to follow up his Thursday morning comment above. This one said that…

“The Biden Administration and Governor Newscum flooded America with 21 Million Illegal Aliens, destroying Schools, Hospitals and Communities, and consuming untold Billions of Dollars in Free Welfare. All of them have to go home.”

Is this what he meant by “Changes are coming”? So Trump has returned to his original stance where all migrants must be expelled. Is this what he meant by “Changes are coming”? And is he abandoning his concern for the farmers and hoteliers who just yesterday he was worried would be adversely impacted? Or is his hate and bigotry stronger than his servility to the rich and his greed?

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

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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