Heather Cox Richardson's "Letters from an American"

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I haven’t heard of issues with bad faith actors in administration of the US citizenship test, but now I’m curious about that. For candidates, it would be difficult to use a stand-in to cheat (something that comes up in professional certifications, as just one example).

Literacy is part of the US citizenship testing, and might help us avoid scenarios like this in the future:

I’ve lost count of how many times :tangerine: :clown_face: asks reporters in the Oval Office if they understood the verbal explanation of an executive order right before he signs it. However, he’s not the one reading or explaining the documents. All he’s doing is signing what’s been handed to him.

I guess my focus should be on questions where the response includes “Answers may vary” in the civics Q&A examples here:

:thinking:

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June 10, 2025 (Tuesday)

Today President Donald J. Trump made it clear that the provocations he and his administration are escalating in Los Angeles and now elsewhere are using the issue of immigration to suppress dissent entirely.

In the Oval Office today, Trump said of the military parade scheduled for this Saturday: “If there’s any protester wants to come out, they will be met with very big force…. For those people that want to protest, they’re going to be met with very big force.”

His statement comes after the administration instituted aggressive immigration sweeps in Los Angeles during which Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) met the few hundred protesters with violence.

Then, over the protests of both Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass and California governor Gavin Newsom, Trump federalized 4,000 members of California’s National Guard and ordered 700 Marines to Los Angeles. He and his advisors have repeatedly threatened to arrest anyone who does not cooperate with ICE, including Mayor Bass and Governor Newsom.

Trump has said he based his decision to federalize the National Guard on his insistence that Los Angeles is staggering under violent riots, but in fact the protests are largely peaceful and local officials maintain they can handle the situation.

Still, Trump described Los Angeles as “invaded and occupied by Illegal Aliens and Criminals,” and said “violent insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our Federal Agents to try and stop our deportation operations.” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem called Los Angeles a “city of criminals,” and other MAGA lawmakers have gotten into the act. Will Sommer of The Bulwark pointed out today that MAGA influencers are also pushing for more crackdowns and more cruelty in a feedback loop as they and White House officials push each other toward more and more cruelty toward immigrants.

But the narrative that L.A. is under siege is hard to make stick. Protesters have been filming the bands playing and people dancing at the protests, which remain small. They have also filmed the ICE agents shooting less-lethal bullets at individuals, including an Australian journalist who was speaking to a camera when she was shot from behind. The complaint against SEIU leader David Huerta, who has been charged with conspiring to impede an officer, says that he walked and sat on a public sidewalk in such a way that he blocked an ICE van before an officer pushed him to the ground and arrested him.

Economist Paul Krugman notes that “Los Angeles right now is probably as safe as it has ever been,” and Newsom has been meeting the claims of MAGA politicians that the city is a hellscape with actual statistics showing that California is safer than their own states. He reminded Oklahoma senator Markwayne Mullin that Oklahoma’s murder rate is 40% higher than California’s and, after Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville called for Newsom to be arrested, retorted: “Alabama has 3X the homicide rate of California. Its murder rate is ranked third in the entire country. Stick to football, bro.”

As Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post noted today, California recently became the fourth largest economy in the world. It has the highest number of immigrants in the country—although many have moved in the past few years to more affordable states—and unemployment numbers are close to the national average.

But Trump has always managed his public affairs by projecting dominance in a fake world; his political instincts for keeping attention on himself have been compared to the kayfabe of professional wrestling.

This afternoon he upped the ante again. In a speech at the Army base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Trump delivered a fiercely partisan speech that sounded like it was written by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. In front of a crowd of enlisted personnel who journalist Jane Coaston reported had been carefully selected to be Trump supporters and “to be fit and not look fat,” Trump claimed the U.S. was under a “foreign invasion” because of “stupid people or radical Left people or sick people.” He goaded the personnel into booing Newsom and Bass.

Since the days of George Washington, the American armed forces have been strictly nonpartisan, declaring their allegiance to the U.S. Constitution itself rather than to any leader.

Simon Rosenberg of Hopium Chronicles noted that Trump is “turning the world’s powerful military away from its focus on Russia and China toward a new enemy—the American people themselves.” He mused: “I’ve been saying that I felt Trump’s dramatic escalation in recent days was driven in part by Musk’s emasculation of him last week. I also wonder whether it’s being driven by Zelensky’s profound humiliation of Putin, and Putin lashing out at Trump for not delivering Ukraine to him.”

Steven Lee Myers of the New York Times reported today that right-wing bots, trolls, conspiracy theorists, and MAGA influencers are flooding social media with messages designed to attack immigrants and Democrats and defend Trump. Many of those accounts are linked to Russia and Russian disinformation.

It certainly feels as if administration officials are going for broke in ways that benefit Russia. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard today released a video warning that the world is close to a nuclear war caused by a political elite that expects it can survive one in special bunkers. Gabbard has a history of parroting Russian propaganda, and famously, Russian president Vladimir Putin has used the threat of nuclear war to press his demands against Ukraine.

A YouGov poll out today shows that only 34% of American adults approve of Trump’s deployment of Marines to the Los Angeles area to respond to protests over the enforcement of immigration laws while 47% do not approve. Only 38% of American adults approve of Trump’s deployment of National Guard soldiers to L.A., while 45% disapprove. A strong majority—56%—of Americans think state and local officials should take the lead in responding to the L.A. protests, while only 25% think the federal government should.

Strikingly, 50% of adults disapprove of the administration’s handling of deportations, while only 39% approve.

Those numbers were gathered before Pentagon comptroller Bryn MacDonnell told the House Defense Appropriations Committee today that the Pentagon estimates the cost of federalizing the National Guard and deploying the Marines to Los Angeles at $134 million.

Today the Department of Justice announced it was indicting Representative LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) on three counts of “forcibly impeding and interfering with federal law enforcement officers” after a May 19 event in front of a Newark, New Jersey, ICE detention center. McIver was at the detention center with others as part of her oversight responsibilities, and a video shows her being jostled with a crowd that includes an ICE officer, but no one breaks stride. McIver called the charges “a brazen attempt at political intimidation.”

Tonight Governor Newsom delivered a prime-time address about the events of the past few days. He outlined the story of the ICE raids and Trump’s escalation of conflict. He urged protesters to exercise their First Amendment rights peacefully and warned that anyone participating in violence would be held accountable.

Then the governor launched into a wholesale condemnation of the Trump regime. He warned that “[i]f some of us can be snatched off the streets without a warrant, based only on suspicion or skin color, then none of us are safe. Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves. But they do not stop there.”

Newsom called Trump out for firing the government watchdogs that could hold him accountable for fraud, and for declaring 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…. [H]e’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…, in his own words, ‘for getting elected.’”

“[T]his isn’t just about protests here in Los Angeles,” Newsom said. “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 under assault right before our eyes,” Newsom said. “This moment we have feared has arrived. He’s taking a wrecking ball…to our founding fathers’ historic project: three coequal branches of independent government.”

Newsom urged Americans to stand up for the country. “I know many of you are feeling deep anxiety, stress, and fear,” he said. “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,” Newsom said.

“Do not give in to him.”

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June 11, 2025 (Wednesday)

While President Donald Trump is trying to project strength by ordering a federalized National Guard and the Marines into Los Angeles, a new Quinnipiac poll of American registered voters out today reinforces that both Trump and his policies are unpopular. The numbers are remarkable.

The poll shows that 38% of registered voters approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president; 54% disapprove. Voters aren’t keen on Trump’s appointees, either. Thirty-eight percent of voters approve of the way Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is handling his job; 53% disapprove. Thirty-seven percent of voters approve of the way Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is handling his job, while 46% disapprove. Thirty-eight percent approved of the work billionaire Elon Musk did, while 57% said it was either “not so good” or “poor.”

More voters disapprove than approve of Trump’s handling of immigration issues (43% approval to 54% disapproval), deportations (40% approval to 56% disapproval), the economy (40% approval to 56% disapproval), trade (38% approval to 57% disapproval), universities (37% approval to 54% disapproval), the Israel-Hamas conflict (35% approval to 52% disapproval), and the Russia-Ukraine war (34% approval to 57% disapproval).

Voters are opposed to the budget reconciliation bill the Republicans have dubbed the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” (and Democrats have called the “Big, Beautiful Betrayal”) by 53% to 27%. While the measure cuts almost $800 billion out of Medicaid over the next ten years, only 10% of registered voters believe the federal funding for Medicaid should decrease.

There is little good news for the administration in economic numbers, either. Yesterday, the World Bank, an international organization of 189 countries, joined the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in concluding that Trump’s trade war would cut U.S. economic growth sharply. The World Bank estimates that growth will fall by half in 2025 compared to 2024. In 2024 U.S. economic growth was 2.8%; in 2025, the World Bank predicts growth of just 1.4%. It forecasts that Trump’s trade wars will cut global economic growth from 2.8% in 2024 to 2.3% in 2025.

After promising 90 tariff deals in 90 days, Trump has been desperate for a deal with China. In retaliation for Trump’s high tariffs, China tightly controlled exports of rare earth minerals and the magnets made from them, which the U.S. needs to build cars, electronic products, and missiles. Rare earth minerals are valuable minerals that are not uncommon, but are present in such small concentrations the amount of labor it takes to refine them is enormous. Most of them are currently mined in China. As Ana Swanson reported yesterday in the New York Times, late last month Ford had to close a Chicago factory temporarily and other companies have been forced to suspend some of their operations.

On Sunday, on CBS’s Face the Nation, top White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett said: “The point is we want the rare earth, the magnets that are crucial for cellphones and everything else, to flow just as they did before the beginning of April,” that is, before Trump imposed his “Liberation Day” tariffs.

Today Trump posted, “OUR DEAL WITH CHINA IS DONE,” although China simply called it a “framework” and neither Trump nor Xi has agreed to it. Malcolm Ferguson of The New Republic wrote that the proposed deal simply revives a May deal that rolled tariffs back for 90 days. Further, the rare earth deal only lasts for six months.

University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers wrote: “The US & Chinese trade negotiators have negotiated a handshake agreement to seek signoff to agree that a previously-agreed agreement was still their agreed upon agreement. (That agreement is not an agreement but a framework for seeking future agreements).” He added: “Notice that not only are we not getting a better deal, we’re not even getting back to where we were at the start of the Administration.”

Before the House Ways and Means Committee today, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump is likely to extend the 90-day pause on his tariffs with countries to whom the administration is speaking.

Meanwhile, Konstantin Toropin and Steve Beynon of Military [dot] com confirmed today that the troops Trump addressed in a partisan speech at Fort Bragg had been handpicked Trump supporters with a fit physical appearance. (One message simply read: “No fat soldiers.”) Toropin and Beynon reported: “The soldiers roared with laughter and applauded Trump’s diatribe in a shocking and rare public display of troops taking part in naked political partisanship.” They also reported that an Oklahoma-based retailer was selling pro-Trump and right-wing campaign-style merchandise at the event, a violation of military policy.

When questioned about Trump’s undermining of the traditional nonpartisanship of the military, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told the journalists: “Believe me, no one needs to be encouraged to boo the media. Look no further than this query, which is nothing more than a disgraceful attempt to ruin the lives of young soldiers.”

But a commander at Fort Bragg commented, “This has been a bad week for the Army for anyone who cares about us being a neutral institution,” speaking with Military [dot] com on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation. “This was shameful. I don’t expect anything to come out of it, but I hope maybe we can learn from it long term.”

Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee Roger Wicker (R-MS) and chair of the House Armed Services Committee Mike Rogers (R-AL) have said nothing. Ron Filipkowski of MeidasTouch, who served as a Marine, called their silence “a betrayal of their duty to the military and the Republic.”

The administration’s policies continue to gather opposition. More than 90 scientists at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, signed and another 250 supported anonymously a letter sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and NIH leader Jay Bhattacharya titled the Bethesda Declaration. The scientists used as a model Bhattacharya’s own October 2020 Great Barrington Declaration, which echoed the political plan of the first Trump White House and called for ending any attempt to control Covid-19 and instead simply letting it spread.

The Bethesda Declaration said: “[W]e dissent to Administration policies that undermine the NIH mission, waste public resources, and harm the health of Americans and people across the globe.” It said the leaders of NIH and members of Congress who oversee it are prioritizing “political momentum over human safety and faithful stewardship of public resources.” They called out the politicization of research by stopping high-quality, peer reviewed grants and contracts, thus throwing away “years of hard work and millions of dollars,” risking the health of participants in studies, and damaging public trust.

They noted that some of the signers felt they had to remain anonymous while others, “due to a culture of fear and suppression created by this Administration[,] chose not to sign their names for fear of retaliation.”

Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing of Politico reported today that former Trump allies are turning on Federal Bureau of Investigation director Kash Patel and deputy director Dan Bongino. Both of them had pushed a number of conspiracy theories on right-wing media before Trump appointed them to office, and supporters expected that they would expose the “Deep State” once they were in power. But they have not released new information about the Jeffrey Epstein case, which right-wing adherents believe will show a list of people who are implicated in the convicted sex offender’s actions. Micah Morrison at the right-wing Judicial Watch wrote: “Conservative insiders are alarmed by mounting signs that Patel and Bongino have been taken hostage by the Deep State consensus and are failing to bring meaningful change to the FBI.”

Yesterday, voters in districts in Florida, Massachusetts, and Oklahoma chose state House and Senate members in special elections. G. Elliott Morris of Strength in Numbers notes that in five of the six, Democrats continued to overperform relative to their 2024 numbers.

Politico’s Lisa Kashinsky, Calen Razor, and Mia McCarthy reported today that of the 50 Republican members of Congress they surveyed, only 7 said they planned to go to the June 14 military parade in Washington, D.C. Although the parade is in honor of the 250th anniversary of the creation of the U.S. Army, the chairs of the House and Senate Armed Services committees do not plan to attend.

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), who has criticized Trump’s budget reconciliation bill, yesterday said: “I love parades, but I’m not really excited about $40 million for a parade. I don’t really think the symbolism of tanks and missiles is really what we’re all about…. All the images that come to mind are Soviet Union and North Korea.”

Today, Paul told Jordain Carney of Politico that the White House has uninvited him from the annual White House picnic for members of Congress and their families, a move that Paul learned of only when he tried to pick up the tickets and that he called “incredibly petty.” He commented that the “level of immaturity is beyond words.”

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This is how T**** negotiates. He just declares that it’s done and that the agreement is what he wants. That doesn’t work in real negotiations, though. At best, the other side just ignores the bluster. At worst, it’s seen as a hostile act and the other side either walks away or smiles and increases their demands.

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Say What Now GIFs | Tenor

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I take it you’re not in agreement with that agreement.

:roll_eyes:

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We might just have to disagree to agree.

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My understanding is that back in Aprilish he added 30% tariffs on top of existing 25% Chinese goods (most of them? Specific ones? A mix? Unsure…). In this “negotiation” apparently they are just leaving things as they are? But there’s a concerted effort to make this sound good (and also bad) probably because some percentage of even the corporate elite sees what this gets us is a not-so-great America so “yay, nothing to see here!” is the safest reaction for them.

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More “concepts of a plan”.

This is hilarious to me. These people just can’t believe the possitiliby that maybe there isn’t some grand “deep state conspiracy”. No, in actuality that the conspiracy goes so deep that “they” have now compromised Patel and Bongino! :roll_eyes: Tell me it isn’t a cult again?

He will never learn – he is simply incapable of intimidating China, especially when it’s China that holds all the power in any negotiations. They are playing him like the mark that he is. Whatever this “negotiation” ultimately ends up with, I have no doubts at all it will be a far worse situation than had he had simply done nothing at all.

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Shameful. Those 30-40% approval rates are the reason we won’t see progress or even recovery until the majority of fascists are dead. We simply cannot function when over a third of the country are willing Nazis and cultists who will throw their support behind literally any crime and atrocity the Republicans feel like committing, and they’ve proven to be immune to reason, compassion or even personal consequences that are a direct result of their terrible choices.

Yeah, I know, it’s only a poll, polls are crap, etc., but I have absolutely no trouble believing those numbers when I look around me and see how far we’ve fallen and how quickly. Fascists and their enablers are still a minority, but one large enough that they can rule, obstruct and destroy indefinitely while the rest of us watch the light grow fainter and further out of reach with every passing day. I wish I knew how we could get out of this mess without another civil war. If elections were ever even a hope at this point, the Democrats’ moronic decision to go even harder right as a response to Harris losing is killing that hope rapidly. The Republicans even seemed to have learned from the pandemic and through RFK Jr. are making sure that if another hits, it doesn’t kill only antivaxxers- because antivaxxers now get to make the choice for everyone, ensuring the maximum amount of indiscriminate death.

Just… fuck. I still can’t believe so many people WANT all of this.

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doc

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Did they learn? Last I checked, the attitudes against science, taking precautions vs. freedom to ignore risks, and belief in false promises / fake cures led to more deaths among their own base.

We’re seeing increasing numbers of them profiled in the news after being targeted by the regime (through employment, citizenship status, or funding cuts). So they aren’t immune to consequences. Others will fall victim to remedies recommended by woo-peddlers. It’s likely their numbers will continue to decrease - no matter how many ways the regime tries to get them to have more children (another way their denial of science will come back to haunt them). TBH, it’s the enablers in positions of power I’m more worried about, because :tangerine: :clown_face: won’t be here forever.

Part of me wonders if ghouls like Miller have some sort of Jonestown / Heaven’s Gate plan for their followers in case they can’t get enough sheep to follow another leader.

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They’ve learned how to make sure the rest of us die too next time, by making vaccines unavailable, creating anti-mask laws, etc. Though true enough, they can’t force us to take ivermectin or leave quarantine (I hope), so we’ve still got an advantage by possessing any critical thinking or self-preservation skills whatsoever.

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June 12, 2025 (Thursday)

At a press conference for Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem in Los Angeles today, Noem’s security assaulted Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), dragged him into the hallway, forced him to the floor, and handcuffed him as he tried to ask the secretary a question.

Senator Padilla is the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, citizenship, and border safety. That subcommittee has “oversight of federal agencies with citizenship, asylum, refugee, and immigration enforcement responsibilities.”

After the attack, Senator Padilla explained: “I’m here in Los Angeles today, and I was here in the federal building in the conference room, awaiting a scheduled briefing from federal officials as part of my responsibility as a senator to provide oversight and accountability. While I was waiting for the briefing…, I learned that Secretary Noem was having a press conference a couple of doors down the hall. Since the beginning of the year, but especially…over the course of recent weeks, I—several of my colleagues—have been asking the Department of Homeland Security for more information and more answers on their increasingly extreme immigration enforcement actions. And we’ve gotten little to no information in response to our inquiries.

“And so I came to the press conference to hear what she had to say, to see if I could learn any new additional information…. At one point, I had a question. And so I began to ask a question. I was almost immediately forcibly removed from the room. I was forced to the ground, and I was handcuffed. I was not arrested. I was not detained.

“I will say this. If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, if this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they’re doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country. We will hold this administration accountable.”

Secretary Noem implied that neither she nor her security knew who the senator was, but even if she had forgotten speaking with him in Senate hearings, a video of the encounter records him saying clearly: “I’m Senator Alex Padilla. I have a question for the secretary.” Senator or not, he did not behave in a way that suggested a threat to the secretary. The Department of Homeland Security said Padilla “chose disrespectful political theater and interrupted a live news conference” and claimed that he “lunged” toward the secretary.

Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) answered: “This is a lie. We all saw the video. The Senator clearly identified himself, and he did not ‘lunge’ toward anyone.” She added: “If these miserable propagandists will lie to you about roughing up a U.S. Senator in a room full of reporters, what won’t they lie to you about?”

The assault on Padilla comes days after the Department of Justice under Trump indicted Representative LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) on federal charges saying she impeded immigration officers outside a New Jersey detention center.

While Democratic senators and representatives are outraged, they are having little success getting their Republican colleagues to join them. House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) suggested that Padilla had charged Noem—the videos show no such thing—and suggested the Senate should censure Padilla for “wildly inappropriate” behavior.

While much focus has been on the assault itself, what Noem was saying before Padilla spoke out is crucially important. “We are not going away,” she said. “We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”

In other words, the Trump administration is vowing to get rid of the democratically elected government of California by using military force. That threat is the definition of a coup. It suggests MAGA considers any political victory but their own to be illegitimate and considers themselves justified in removing those government officials with violence: a continuation of the attempt of January 6, 2021, to overturn the results of a presidential election.

Priscilla Alvarez and Natasha Bertrand of CNN reported today that, although the Trump administration said its federalization of the National Guard and mobilization of Marines into Los Angeles was an emergency response to rioting, in fact White House officials began talking about using the National Guard and the military as support for immigration enforcement as early as February. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and officials from the Department of Homeland Security led the talks. They also want to use military facilities to hold detainees.

Andrew Gumbel of The Guardian reported today that the National Guard troops and Marines deployed to Los Angeles do not want to be caught in a political battle and are deeply unhappy about their position. Marine Corps veteran Janessa Goldbeck, who runs the Vet Voice Foundation, told Gumbel: “The overall perception was that the situation was nowhere at the level where marines were necessary.”

Yesterday, Trump’s hand-picked chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Lieutenant General Dan Caine, told the Senate that the United States is not, in fact, “being invaded by a foreign nation,” the argument Trump used to send Venezuelans to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador. Caine said: “[A]t this point in time I don’t see any foreign state-sponsored folks invading.” Asked by Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) if there was “a rebellion somewhere in the United States,” he answered simply, “I think there’s definitely some frustrated folks out there.”

Alvarez and Bertrand note that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday confirmed what California governor Gavin Newsom has been calling out: that Trump’s Saturday order activating the National Guard was not specific to California. It could apply to other states. “Part of it was about getting ahead of the problem, so that if in other places, if there are other riots, in places where law enforcement officers are threatened, we would have the capability to surge National Guard there, if necessary,” Hegseth said on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, Texas announced plans to deploy 5,000 troops, and Dionne Searcey of the New York Times reported today that Missouri’s Republican governor, Mike Kehoe, activated the Missouri National Guard as well. “While other states may wait for chaos to ensue, the State of Missouri is taking a proactive approach in the event that assistance is needed to support local law enforcement in protecting our citizens and communities,” Kehoe said in a press release.

It certainly appears as though militarization is no longer about deportations. This morning, Trump posted on social media: “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!”

This afternoon he told reporters: “Our farmers are being hurt badly by, you know, they have very good workers, they’ve worked for them for 20 years, they’re not citizens, but they’ve turned out to be, you know, great. And 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, maybe not. And you know what’s going to happen and what is happening? They get rid of some of the people, because, you know, you go into a farm and you look and people don’t, they’ve been there for 20, 25 years and they’ve worked great, and the owner of the farm loves them and everything else. And then you’re supposed to throw them out, and you know what happens? They end up hiring the people, the criminals that have come in. The murderers from prisons and everything else. So we’re gonna have an order on that pretty soon, I think. We can’t do that to our farmers and leisure too, hotels. We’re gonna have to use a lot of common sense on that.”

So if it is no longer administration policy to engage in the sweeps that are causing such chaos and sparking protests, why are Republican authorities mobilizing troops?

After today’s events, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a constitutional scholar, stood in front of the Capitol and reminded Americans: “We have no kings here, we have no queens here, we have no emperors, we have no dictators, we have no despots, and we have no serfs and no slaves and no subjects, and none of us is a subject to Donald Trump. None of us is a subject to Mike Johnson. We are all citizens, those of us who aspire and attain to public office are nothing but the servants of the people. And the minute that somebody in public office thinks that they’re a king, they’re a queen, they’re an emperor, they’re a dictator, that is time for the people to evict, eject, reject, impeach, try, convict, and start all over again, because the most important words of our Constitution are the three first words of the Constitution: ‘We the people.’”

Tonight, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer ruled that Trump broke the law when he federalized the California National Guard and that he must return those troops to the control of California governor Gavin Newsom. Breyer granted California’s request for a restraining order but delayed enforcement of his order until Friday at noon. Just before midnight Eastern Time, a panel of the 9th Circuit granted a stay that permits Trump to retain control until a June 17 hearing.

Tonight, Israel launched what it called “a pre-emptive strike on Iran, and declared a state of emergency in Israel” in anticipation of a retaliatory strike. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also currently Trump’s national security advisor, issued a statement for the White House saying that the U.S. was not involved in the strikes and that “our top priority is protecting American forces in the region.” He urged Iran not to “target U.S. interests or personnel.”

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< Walter White you’re goddam right.gif >

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Head Explode (South Park) on Make a GIF

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June 13, 2025 (Friday)

Two hundred and fifty years ago, on June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress resolved “That six companies of expert riflemen, be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia; that each company consist of a captain, three lieutenants, four serjeants, four corporals, a drummer or trumpeter, and sixty-eight privates…[and that] each company, as soon as completed, shall march and join the army near Boston, to be there employed as light infantry, under the command of the chief Officer in that army.”

And thus Congress established the Continental Army.

The First Continental Congress, which met in 1774, refused to establish a standing army, afraid that a bad government could use an army against its people. The Congress met in response to the British Parliament’s closing of the port of Boston and imposition of martial law there, but its members hoped they could repair their relationship with King George III and simply sent entreaties to the king to end what were known as the “Intolerable Acts.”

In 1775 the Battles of Lexington and Concord changed the equation. On April 19, British soldiers opened fire on colonists just as Patriot leaders feared they might. In the aftermath of that deadly day, about 15,000 untrained Massachusetts militiamen converged on Boston and laid siege to the town, where they bottled up about 6,500 British Regulars.

The Battles of Lexington and Concord made it clear the British government endangered American liberties. The Second Continental Congress met in what is now called Independence Hall in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, to address the crisis in Boston. The delegates overcame their suspicions of a standing army to conclude they must bring the various state militias into a continental organization to stand against King George III.

With the establishment of the Continental Army, a British officer, General Charles Lee, resigned his commission in the British Army and published a public letter explaining that the king’s overreach had turned him away from service in His Majesty’s army and toward the Patriots:

“[W]henever it shall please his Majesty to call me forth to any honourable service against the natural hereditary enemies of our country, or in defence of his just rights and dignity, no man will obey the righteous summons with more zeal and alacrity than myself,” he wrote, “but the present measures seem to me so absolutely subversive of the rights and liberties of every individual subject, so destructive to the whole empire at large, and ultimately so ruinous to his Majesty’s own person, dignity and family, that I think myself obliged in conscience as a Citizen, Englishman, and Soldier of a free state, to exert my utmost to defeat them.”

After they established a Continental Army, the next thing Congress members did was to name a French and Indian War veteran, Virginia planter George Washington, commander-in-chief. To Washington fell the challenge of establishing an army to defend the nation without creating a military a tyrant could use to repress the people.

It was not an easy project. The Continental Army was made up of volunteers who were loyal primarily to the officers they had chosen, and because Congress still feared a standing army, their enlistments initially were short. Different units trained with different field manuals, making it hard to turn them into a unified fighting force. Women came to the camps with their men, often bringing their children. The women worked for the half-rations the government provided, washing, cooking, hauling water, and tending the wounded.

After an initial bout of enthusiasm at the start of the war, men stopped enlisting, and in 1777 Congress increased the times of enlistment to three years or “for the duration” of the conflict. That meant that the men in the army were more often poor than wealthy, enlisting for the bounties offered, and Congress found it easy to overlook those 12,000 people encamped about 18 miles to the northwest of Philadelphia in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, for six months in the hard winter of 1777–1778. The Congress had no way to compel the states to provide money, food, or supplies for the army, and the army almost fell apart for lack of support.

Supply chains broke as the British captured food or it spoiled in transit to the soldiers, and wartime inflation meant Congress did not appropriate enough money for food. Hunger and disease stalked the camp, but even worse was the lack of clothing. More than 1,000 soldiers died, and about eight or ten deserted every day. Washington warned the president of the Continental Congress that the men were close to mutiny, even as a group of army officers were working with congressmen to replace Washington, complaining about how he was prosecuting the war.

By February 1778 a delegation from the Continental Congress had visited Valley Forge and, understanding that the lack of supplies made the army, and thus the country, truly vulnerable, set out to reform the supply department. Then a newly arrived Prussian officer, Baron Friedrich von Steuben, drilled the soldiers into unity and better morale. And then, in May, the soldiers learned that France had signed a treaty with the American states in February, lending money, matériel, and men to the cause of American independence. The army survived.

By the end of 1778, the main theater of the war had shifted to the South, where British officers hoped to recruit Loyalists to their side. Instead, guerrilla bands helped General Nathanael Greene bait the British into a war of endurance that finally ended on October 19, 1781, at the Battle of Yorktown in Virginia, where British general Charles Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington and French commander Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau.

The Continental Army had defeated the army of the king and established a nation based on the principle that all men were created equal and had a right to have a say in the government under which they lived.

In September 1783, negotiators concluded the Treaty of Paris that formally ended the war, and Congress discharged most of the troops still in service. In his November 2 farewell address to his men, Washington noted that their victory against such a formidable power was “little short of a standing Miracle.” “[W]ho has before seen a disciplined Army formed at once from such raw materials?” Washington wrote. “Who that was not a witness could imagine, that the most violent local prejudices would cease so soon, and that Men who came from the different parts of the Continent, strongly disposed by the habits of education, to despise and quarrel with each other, would instantly become but one patriotic band of Brothers?”

With the army disbanded, General Washington himself stepped away from military leadership. On December 23, Washington addressed Congress, saying: “Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life.”

In 1817, given the choice of subjects to paint for the Rotunda in the U.S. Capitol, being rebuilt after the British had burned it during the War of 1812, fine artist John Trumbull picked the moment of Washington’s resignation from the army. As he discussed the project with President James Madison, Trumbull told the president: “I have thought that one of the highest moral lessons ever given to the world, was that presented by the conduct of the commander-in-chief, in resigning his power and commission as he did, when the army, perhaps, would have been unanimously with him, and few of the people disposed to resist his retaining the power which he had used with such happy success, and such irreproachable moderation.”

Madison agreed, and the painting of a man voluntarily walking away from the leadership of a powerful army rather than becoming a dictator hangs today in the Capitol Rotunda.

It is the story of this Army, 250 years old tomorrow, that President Donald J. Trump says he is honoring with a military parade in Washington, D.C., although it also happens to be his 79th birthday.

But the celebration of ordinary people who fought against tyranny will be happening not just in the nation’s capital but all across the country, as Americans participating in at least 2,000 planned No Kings protests recall the principles American patriots championed 250 years ago.

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June 14, 2025 (Saturday)

Tonight I offer you Peter Ralston’s “Still There.”

I hope that you’ll put your own photos from the day’s protests in the comments. Let’s make a record.

[Photo “Still There”— the title a reference to the “Star-Spangled Banner”— by Peter Ralston]

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June 15, 2025 (Sunday)

Yesterday began with the horrific news that a gunman had shot two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses in what Minnesota governor Tim Walz said appeared to be a “politically motivated assassination.” State representative Melissa Hortman, who was the top Democrat in the Minnesota House, and her husband, Mark, both died in the attack at their home in Brooklyn Park, a city near Minneapolis. The gunman also shot Democratic Minnesota state senator John Hoffman nine times and his wife, Yvette, eight at their home in Champlin. The hospital reports they are in stable condition after surgery.

Law enforcement officers encountered the suspected gunman, 57-year-old Vance Boelter, coming out of Hortman’s house. He was dressed as a police officer. Officers exchanged gunfire with him before he fled, leaving behind his vehicle, which looked much like a police car. In it was a list of dozens of people he wanted to kill. They were mostly Democrats or people connected to abortion rights efforts. Law enforcement officers captured Boelter tonight.

MAGA Republicans are working hard to identify Boelter with what Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) called “Marxism” and Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) called “the extreme left,” but as investigative journalist Phil Williams of NewsChannel 5 Nashville notes, public databases show Boelter was in the past a registered Republican. His evangelical religion and his anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion stances reflect MAGA positions. Boelter’s roommate told reporters that Boelter was a “strong” supporter of President Trump.

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) noted that MAGA has been “bathed in political violence” for the last five years. Trump’s pardoning of the January 6 rioters, including those convicted of extreme violence, “became a clear endorsement of violence committed in his name.” Trump has encouraged violence and cozied up to brutal dictators, while MAGA has fetishized guns. When he celebrates violence, unhinged people listen. Murphy points out that while people of all political persuasions commit violence, no Democratic leader encourages violence as a political norm the way Trump and MAGA have done, citing “a straight line from Jan 6 to the pardons to the assault on Sen[ator] Padilla to Minnesota.”

After the shootings, Andrew Solender of Axios reported that lawmakers of both parties are concerned about their own safety as political violence increases. The Minnesota attacks happened just days after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s security guard shoved Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) to the ground and handcuffed him after he asked a question. This assault sparked apparent fury among the Democrats on Capitol Hill as they challenged their Republican colleagues—largely unsuccessfully—to speak up against the assault on a senator.

The entire Minnesota delegation to the U.S. Congress issued a joint statement on politically motivated shootings. Democrats and Republicans together wrote: “Today we speak with one voice to express our outrage, grief, and condemnation of this horrible attack on public servants. There is no place in our democracy for politically-motivated violence. We are praying for John and Yvette’s recovery and we grieve the loss of Melissa and Mark with their family, colleagues, and Minnesotans across the state. We are grateful for law enforcement’s swift response to the situation and continued efforts.”

After that start to the day, the country turned to the “No Kings” protests. In a dramatic rejection of Trump’s consolidation of power, at least five million Americans turned out for peaceful protests across the country. Cities turned out huge numbers of protesters at more than 2,000 planned events, and small towns, including those in Republican-dominated states, also boasted rallies. The mood was festive as people held signs with anti-Trump and pro-American images and slogans and sang Woody Guthrie’s famous American anthem, “This Land Is Your Land.” American flags were everywhere.

In contrast to the huge turnout for the protests, the military parade in Washington, D.C., was a bust. Although Trump had claimed it would be a celebration of the 250th anniversary of the American Army, it was also his 79th birthday and was widely interpreted primarily as a celebration of that occasion. Trump has wanted a parade since 2017, when he viewed the traditional Bastille Day military parade in Paris. At the time, he told reporters: “It was one of the greatest parades I’ve ever seen…. We’re going to have to try to top it.”

But organizers had had only two months to arrange for the parade, and the result was badly organized, with relatively few people turning out, especially after forecasts of storms that evening. Far from the crisp marching of the military parades that Trump seemed to want to top, the U.S. soldiers appeared to shuffle, leading to a social media debate over whether they had been ordered to march in an “at ease march” instead of a more rigorous step, or whether they were silently protesting. Photographers recorded empty bleachers and thin crowds. Few Republican lawmakers attended, but cameras caught Trump looking miserable and Secretary of State Marco Rubio yawning.

The contrast between the protests and the military parade suggested an important shift in political culture. The momentum and the joy, as well as the American flags, were on the side of those protesting Trump’s growing authoritarianism. Trump looked weak and discouraged, and the crowds were clearly on the side of the protesters. Today, social media, including a Russian account, got into the act of making fun of Trump’s military parade.

At the Philadelphia Inquirer, Will Bunch noted that “the flag is mightier than the tank.”

The rejection Trump faced yesterday, podcaster Jack Hopkins noted, “was a big tub of rock salt poured on his wounds of lifelong insecurity.” That profound injury to Trump’s sense of self braced observers for a lashing out of epic proportions as he tries to demonstrate that he is, in fact, powerful.

We got that anger and fear in a social media post at 8:43 p.m. tonight. In a post almost certainly not written by Trump, his account backed off on Trump’s recent retreat from mass deportations. Instead, the account said “ICE Officers are herewith ordered, by notice of this TRUTH, to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.”

The account then declared war on Democrats. The day after a gunman shot two Democratic lawmakers and their spouses in their homes, Trump’s account posted:

“[W]e must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside. These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens. These Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities—And they are doing a good job of it! There is something wrong with them. That is why they believe in Open Borders, Transgender for Everybody, and Men playing in Women’s Sports—And that is why I want ICE, Border Patrol, and our Great and Patriotic Law Enforcement Officers, to FOCUS on our crime ridden and deadly Inner Cities, and those places where Sanctuary Cities play such a big role. You don’t hear about Sanctuary Cities in our Heartland!”

The post promised ICE that “REAL Americans are cheering you on every day” and urged them to “reverse the tide of Mass Destruction Migration that has turned once Idyllic Towns into scenes of Third World Dystopia.” It doubled down on the neo-Nazi idea of “REMIGRATION” and concluded: “To ICE, FBI, DEA, ATF, the Patriots at Pentagon and the State Department, you have my unwavering support. Now go, GET THE JOB DONE! DJT”

Will Trump’s demands swing people behind him? Americans have already turned against Trump’s handling of immigration and deportations by significant margins. G. Elliott Morris of Strength in Numbers summarized the polls from June 9–13. Answering the question “Do you approve of the way the president is handling…immigration?” respondents for YouGov/Economist were the only ones to produce a majority—of just four points—saying yes. For AP-NORC, Quinnipiac, and Washington Post/GMU, the answer was no by as much as 15 points. On every other question dealing with immigration, more people opposed Trump’s policies than supported them by as much as 16 points.

Trump’s other policies are underwater—meaning more people oppose them than approve of them—as well. Only 27% of registered voters support the Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill, while 53% oppose it. As for Trump himself, a Quinnipiac Poll from June 11 showed that 38% of registered voters approve of the way he is handling the job of the presidency, while 54% disapprove. Only 30% of registered voters approved “strongly” of the way he is handling the job, while 49% strongly disapprove.

While Trump and his loyalists are trying to project an image of invincibility, their actual power seems to be faltering.

Ten years ago tomorrow, on June 16, 2015, Trump rode down the escalator at Trump Tower to a lobby filled with extras, to announce he was running for president. One reporter called his speech, in which he claimed that Mexico was sending criminals and rapists to the United States, “eccentric.”

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June 16, 2025 (Monday)

At a news conference today, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota Joseph H. Thompson, who was appointed by President Donald Trump just two weeks ago, said that Minnesota suspect Vance Boelter went to the homes of two more politicians than the two he eventually shot along with their spouses. One was on vacation with her family, and at another home, a police officer apparently scared him off.

Thompson said Boelter had “voluminous” writings that showed he had been planning the attacks for “quite some time.” “But,” Thompson added, “I have not seen anything involving some sort of political screed or manifesto that would clearly identify what motivated him. Obviously, his primary motive was to go out and murder people. They were all elected officials. They were all Democrats. Beyond that, I think it’s just way too speculative for anyone that’s reviewed these materials to know and to say what was motivating him in terms of ideology or specific issues.”

Zoe Sottile of CNN reported that Boelter is facing federal charges of two counts of stalking, two counts of murder, and two counts of firearms offenses. He is facing state charges of first-degree murder, second degree murder, and attempted murder.

MAGA loyalists have continued to radicalize in the wake of the shootings, spreading disinformation that blamed the violence on Democrats or joking about the event. Walker Orenstein of the Minnesota Star Tribune debunked the disinformation spread by MAGA loyalists, noting that Boelter was not close to Walz, who simply okayed his reappointment to a bipartisan board that then-governor Mark Dayton had put him on in 2016. According to his roommate, Boelter was a “strong supporter” of Trump.

Emily Anderson Stern and Robert Gehrke of the Salt Lake Tribune called out Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) for his behavior in the aftermath of the shootings. Lee joked about the killings and falsely blamed the violence on his political opponents, tying the shooting to Minnesota governor Tim Walz. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) responded: “This was an incredible woman, her husband, her two kids—yesterday on Father’s Day, there was no Father’s Day for them. They lost both their parents…. This is not a laughing matter, and certainly what we’re seeing is an increase in violence, and this evil man who did this—this is not a joke.”

Of Lee’s behavior, influencer George Takei wrote: “Utah voters: Are these really your values? Mike Lee is the best you can do?” After Lee pinned one of his disturbing tweets to the top of his social media timeline, Tim Miller of The Bulwark wrote: “This is less of a political matter than a sign of deep mental illness.”

As of this afternoon, Trump had not called Walz, instead describing him as “a terrible governor” and “a grossly incompetent person.”

Trump drew criticism of his own incompetence today at the meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) in Kananaskis, Alberta, in Canada. The G7 is a forum of democracies with advanced economies that includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as the European Union. During today’s meetings, Trump seemed to think the United Kingdom and the European Union were the same thing.

Trump also parroted Russian talking points, telling reporters: “The G7 used to be the G8. Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn’t want to have Russia in, and I would say that that was a mistake, because I think you wouldn’t have a war right now if you had Russia in, and you wouldn’t have a war right now if Trump were president four years ago.”

In fact, the members of the G7 kicked Russia out of the forum after Russian president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014. And former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau didn’t take office until 2015.

On Friday, journalist Dean Blundell reported that Washington insiders and observers from abroad had noticed how rarely Trump appears in public and how often he falls asleep when he does, prompting speculation that he is not physically able to do the work of the presidency. Blundell suggested Trump’s team would look for a way to get the president out of the G7 early to avoid exposure.

After today’s meetings, at which it appears the U.S. was delaying a joint statement in which G7 members called for an end to the conflict between Israel and Iran, Trump posted on social media: “Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign,” although it was Trump who pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the “Iran nuclear deal” that limited Iran’s nuclear program. He continued: “What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”

More than 9 million people live in Tehran, with more than 16 million in the metropolitan area.

Then Trump’s team announced the situation in the Middle East required the president to leave the G7 a day early.

Twelve minutes after his post about evacuating Tehran, Trump reposted a Newsmax story saying that Trump “deserves an A+ for his job performance so far,” and less than an hour later, he posted an attack on right-wing personality Tucker Carlson and then posted: “AMERICA FIRST means many GREAT things, including that fact that IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” Just before midnight, he posted an attack on California governor Gavin Newsom.

It’s unclear what Trump’s abrupt departure from the G7 indicates for events in the Middle East and U.S. involvement in them. As Brian O’Neill of The Contrarian noted, Trump had said he hoped to negotiate a deal with Iran, and indeed, talks were scheduled for Sunday in Oman when Israel launched its attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities on Friday. O’Neill notes that when Israel struck Iran last Friday without U.S. coordination, the Trump administration was left “scrambling to respond.”

Being sidelined in foreign affairs at the same time as the American people turned out in huge numbers to protest his administration and as his military parade fizzled shows Trump has less power than he tries to project.

How decisions are being made in the administration is unclear. Notably, after Trump wrote last Thursday that “changes are coming” in deportation orders because it made no sense to deport workers who had been here for a long time and were vital to farms, hotels, and restaurants, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today reversed that decision.

Carol D. Leonnig, Natalie Allison, Marianne LeVine, and Lauren Kaori Gurley of the Washington Post reported that after Trump’s post and comments to reporters, a DHS official told agents to pause raids on agriculture, including meatpacking plants, as well as restaurants and hotels. But on Sunday, DHS leadership suggested a reversal was coming because, as the journalists write, “the White House did not support” the new policy. In a call this morning, officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told agents to continue immigration raids at the businesses Trump had said he was going to protect.

This shift makes it seem as if White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, a white nationalist who insists that the U.S. must deport a million immigrants this year, is determining White House policies, just as he did on the Signal chat about the military strikes on the Houthis in Yemen when his statement that Trump wanted a strike appeared to shut down any further debate of the question.

If Trump is leaving the work of the presidency to others, his family is certainly using the prestige of the presidency to make money. In what it says is in honor of the tenth anniversary of Trump’s trip down the Trump Tower escalator into presidential politics, the Trump Organization has launched a mobile phone service. As Nikki McCann Ramirez of Rolling Stone explains, the plan is essentially another licensing deal, with the disclaimer specifying that the service simply uses the Trump name after contracting with another provider.

The announcement claims that new made-in-America gold phones will be available in September, but as David Pierce of The Verge notes, the photoshopped image of the phone and the wonky specs on it, as well as the impossible promise to make them in America within three months, mean the phone “looks both bad and impossible.” The phone, too, is simply branded with the Trump name; the family business will not design or manufacture it.

The family was evidently in a hurry to get this venture up and running. Kelcee Griffis of Bloomberg reported that the Trump Organization only applied for the trademarks for it last Thursday.

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