This Weekend in Politics, Bulletin 57

… Tommy Tuberville says it’s Biden’s fault that Trump can’t end the war in Ukraine quickly like he promised: “This has been handled so badly by the Ukrainians and by NATO and the US that Putin has got a foot in the door in doing whatever he wants to. Why would he want to negotiate with anybody? Say it’s a football game and you’re up 3 touchdowns. Why would you want to do some kind of deal when you’re winning. The guy is winning.”

… Right. Putin, who said he was going to win the war in 3 days, has hundreds of thousands of casualties 3 years later, with no end in sight, billions of dollars in destroyed equipment, dozens of his best generals killed, had to bring in North Koreans to fight for him, and an economy and currency in the toilet, is really winning because the US and Ukraine were so terrible, and that’s why Trump can’t end the war like he promised. Makes sense.

… Trump-loving Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) sent out a panicked, urgent letter to Homeland Security urgently begging them not to deport Cuban, Venezuelan, and Nicaraguan migrants in her district because many of them may have legitimate asylum claims. I guess she believed Trump when he said he was only going to deport “the criminals.”

… JD Vance, who said two weeks ago that “obviously” Trump would not pardon J6ers who assaulted police, has now changed his tune after Trump obviously did it: “I think he made the right decision. Violence against a police officer is not justified. But that doesn’t mean that you should have Merrick Garland’s DOJ expose you to an incredibly unfair process. He rectified a wrong. I stand by it.”

… So, violence against police is never justified, but then he justified it. On we go …

… Trump announced an executive order that will allow ICE agents to enter school classrooms and churches to hunt for migrants.

… ABC asked Trump’s Deportation Czar Tom Homan why it was necessary for ICE to hunt for migrants in schools: What criminals are hiding in schools? Middle schools, elementary schools - are you going to go into those?” Homan: “How many MS-13 gang members are aged 14-17? Many of them.”

… Homan then responded on Newsmax to the Pope’s criticism of the order: “Lemme give a message to the Pope guy. I’m a lifelong Catholic. I was born a Catholic. I’ve been through Catholic doctrine. Look, you oughta concentrate on fixing the Catholic church. He’s got big problems here.”

… JD Vance was asked by CBS for his response to the Catholic Church’s condemnation of Trump’s executive orders that allow ICE to go into churches and schools looking for migrants: "The US Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive more than $100 million to resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns or are they worried about their bottom line?"

… Trump Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a Press Release on migrant deportations to Colombia. And spelled Colombia wrong.

… CBS reported that the US Air Force has removed all material on the role of black and female pilots during WWII from its training programs to comply with Trump’s executive order on DEI. Spokesperson for the AF said "immediate steps" were taken to remove material to "ensure compliance" with the order. Lessons on the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of around 1,000 WWII black pilots, were removed. They flew hundreds of missions during the war.

… Lessons on Women Air Force Service Pilots, or WASPs, have also been removed from lesson plans. The female pilots transported new planes bound for fighting overseas from the factories where they were produced to military bases near the coast.

… Rep. Mike Turner says either Mike Johnson was lying when he told him that Trump wanted him removed him as Chair of the House Intel Committee, or Trump is lying about it, but one of them is definitely lying: “When I had the conversation with the Speaker, he said an element included concerns from Mar-a-Lago. But he’s since walked that back. Trump’s staff has been in touch with me and said that was not the case.”

… Turner: “He told me that he wants to take the Committee in a different direction. I’m a little concerned about that because his ‘different direction’ indicates pursuing the elusive ‘Deep State’. But my concern is that the focus of the Committee should be on national security, which is what my focus has been.”

… Trump said he wants to take all 2.2 million people in Gaza and ship them to other Arab countries: “I’d like Egypt to take people. And I’d like Jordan to take people. You’re talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing.”

… He said he talked about his idea with King Abdullah of Jordan on Saturday and would discuss it today during his phone call with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Pretty unlikely that they will agree because: 1. Both support an independent Palestinian state; 2. They don’t want 2 million Palestinian refugees in their countries.

… Trump said there is really no point to the Palestinians remaining in Gaza because it is “literally a demolition site, almost everything is demolished and people are dying there so I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location.”

… Trump then ended Biden’s hold on 2,000 pound bombs being shipped to Israel.

… Disgraced former Rep. Matt Gaetz is now selling hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. He posted on his X page: “When I got covid, I used hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. But it wasn’t easy to find! Be prepared with (name of company) and get yours today. American made. Use code MATT10 for a discount.”

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… Sen. Mike Lee responded to news stories and video clips of white nationalist Patriot Front marching at the anti-abortion ‘Walk for Life’ event in DC by claiming that they were undercover FBI agents who were sent there to make pro-lifers look bad: “100% feds. Might as well display their badges.” Just a reminder that: 1. This is now Trump’s FBI; 2. Mike Lee is psychotic.

… Trump continues to eradicate everyone who might be a check on his planned corruptions and abuses, this time firing 17 non-partisan, independent Inspectors General at government agencies. The move violates federal law, which states that Congress must be provided with written notice by the president 30 days before they intend to remove any IG.

… But Trump’s firings of IGs were effective immediately. The other disturbing part of these is that the IGs were fired on Friday night and the Trump Admin never issued any public statement about it. WaPo was informed by two sources who had knowledge of the move and was first to report it. WaPo noted that many of the IGs who were fired were appointed during Trump’s first Administration.

… Hannibal Ware, Chair of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, said that this is a shocking move since IGs are non-partisan and not political in any way: “They are appointed, by law, without regard to their political affiliation and, during their tenures, they work effectively across Administrations and with Congress, without regard to political party.”

… Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer: “Yesterday, in the dark of night, Trump fired independent IGs at important federal agencies across the administration. This is a chilling purge and it’s a preview of the lawless approach Trump and his administration are taking far too often as he’s becoming president. This is a glaring sign that it’s a golden age for abuse in government and even corruption.”

… Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, who had always been a strong advocate for non-politicized, independent IGs, seemed surprised and dismayed that Trump violated the law with this move: “There may be good reason the IGs were fired. We need to know that if so. I’d like further explanation from President Trump. Regardless, the 30 day detailed notice of removal that the law demands was not provided to Congress.”

… Sen. Elizabeth Warren: “Trump conducted a purge of independent watchdogs in the middle of the night. IGs are charged with rooting out government waste, fraud, abuse, and preventing misconduct. Trump is dismantling checks on his power and paving the way for widespread corruption.”

… Ranking member of House Oversight Rep. Gerry Connolly: “This is a coup to overthrow legally protected IGs. Replacing IGs with political hacks will harm every American who relies on social security, veterans benefits, and a fair hearing at IRS on refunds and audits.”

… Rep. Jasmine Crockett: “The orange man’s purge of the Inspectors General isn’t just illegal—it’s a direct attack on our democracy and puts the safety of every American at risk. This reckless move must be reversed, and my Oversight Democratic colleagues and I demand that he comply with the law, no excuses.”

… Former DOJ official Eric Columbus: “1. Only Reagan fired all of the IGs, which caused big firestorm and no POTUS has repeated it. 2. After the 2008 enactment of the 30-day congressional notice provision, there has only two non-Trump IG firings: one each by Obama and Biden. 3. Trump hired many of the IGs he just fired!”

… But Lindsey Graham was asked on Meet the Press if Trump broke the law: “No. Well, technically yeah. So I’m not, you know, losing a whole lot of sleep over it. I just want to make sure he gets off to a good start. He won the election. What do you expect him to do? Just leave everybody in place in Washington? This makes perfect sense to me."

… Sen. John Barrasso proves that Republicans are just going to let Trump do whatever the hell he wants and won’t say a word about it: "Well, sometimes IGs don't do the job that they are supposed to do. Some of them deserve to be fired, and the president is gonna make wise decisions on those."

… But Trump never said how they weren’t doing their job when he fired them. In fact, he never made any statement at all about it. The law says a president must give detailed written reasons to Congress 30 days before. But Graham and Barrasso are just saying that part of the law doesn’t matter anymore. It mattered last week, but not this week.

… Usually Republicans post Bible verses on Sunday morning before going out and violating most of the Ten Commandments throughout the week. But “christian conservative” Rep. Tim Burchett posted this instead: “I’ve often wondered would it be rude if Snoop Dogg and his homie Dr. Dre came by with a gang of Tanqueray and I didn’t partake because I don’t drink?”

… Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) says that Biden’s SecDef Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chair Mark Milley should be recalled to active duty and court-martialed because they “politicized” the military and “we have the most powerful military in the world, and we have not won a war in 80 years. Those guys need to be court-martialed for their disgraceful conduct. They’ve broken the military.”

… Fox host Jesse Watters ridiculed Doug Emhoff for going grocery shopping with Kamala Harris: “What kind of husband goes grocery shopping with his wife?” I have done all the grocery shopping and cooking in my house for many years. And I make everything from scratch and organic. Tonight I made fresh pesto with basil I picked off the plant and fresh pasta. Once you have eaten fresh pesto with fresh pasta, you can never go back to the boxes and jars of stuff.

… Oathkeepers leader Stewart Rhodes was a guest in the VIP box at Trump’s rally this weekend. His 22 year sentence for seditious conspiracy was just pardoned by Trump.

… Elon Musk addressed a rally of the far-right German AfD party, which he is supporting in their elections in two weeks: "It's good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything. Children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great-grandparents. There is too much focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that."

… While I agree that people who were not even born when their grandparents did terrible things should not be punished or ostracized because of the sins of their ancestors, but the fact that Germany has confronted their past in an honest and introspective way has resulted in the longest period of non-aggression and peace for that country in many centuries. It isn’t about guilt, it is about never forgetting and learning from the darkest chapters of your past.

… Michael Flynn was asked at a conference why Trump didn’t appoint him to his Admin like he promised many times: “I’m operating like a Striker on a soccer field.” I guess this means that he is claiming to his QAnon fans that he is secretly operating behind the scenes across multiple agencies. I think Trump got a healthy dose of Flynn over the past few years down at Mar-a-Lago and finally concluded that Flynn is too wacky for even this Admin. We’ll see. For now, he’s General Striker.

… Trump says his tariffs are going to bring in so much money soon we won’t have to pay any taxes: “How about no taxes, period? We could do that. If the tariffs work out, that could happen. The tariff system made so much money. It was when we were the richest from 1870-1913. Then we came in with the income tax. We don't want others to pay, so let's have our people pay. Then you had the depression in 1928, 1929.”

… He really, truly is the world’s biggest moron.

… Sen. Marsha Blackburn claims she knows the real reason why Democrats don’t want Kash Patel for FBI Director: “I think they are very fearful of Kash Patel, because Kash Patel knows what Adam Schiff and some of the others did with Russia collusion. And they know that he knows the dirt on them, if you will. And I think they are fearful of what he's going to do and what he's going to reveal and what he's going to make known to the American people.”

… I saw the Bob Dylan movie yesterday. I thought it was really good. It was clever the way they made it heavy on the songwriting and light on the dialogue - like Dylan himself. He did most of his talking through his music, and this movie told his story by using his poetry, music, and complicated relationships with people in his life. Timothée Chalamet also put on an Oscar-worthy performance and deserves the nomination he received.

… My only issue was I thought the portrayal at the end of Pete Seeger (Ed Norton) was a bit unfair. He was a prince of a guy, passionate and brave activist, incredible songwriter for other artists, but was portrayed at the very end as someone who was antagonistic to Dylan when he went from acoustic to electric. Seeger explained in an interview years later that he was upset that amps were turned up so loud at the Newport Festival that you couldn’t hear the words to Dylan’s new song Maggie’s Farm, and he thought the lyrics were really profound and wanted people to hear them. The sound guy told him that is what the band wanted and Seeger was upset because he thought it was tragic because the instruments were drowning out Dylan’s singing.

… Lindsey Graham said on NBC that he disagrees with Trump’s pardons of J6 defendants who assaulted police: “Pardoning the people who went into the Capitol and beat up a police officer violently I think was a mistake, because it seems to suggest that’s an OK thing to do. There are a lot of people who supported President Trump - law enforcement - that didn’t like this.”

… Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO): "You cannot tell me that releasing militia leaders, insurrectionists, and criminals back onto the street because it's what you did to placate your political base makes us any more safe. It's creating an environment that gives permission to extremists to be more bold."

… Crow was asked if Biden pardoning his family members makes it harder for Democrats to criticize Trump for his J6 pardons: “That was the decision of an outgoing president to try and protect his family. You have an incoming president and those around him who are repeatedly threatening his family. That is the story here. Trump has doubled-down, tripled-down on threats against Biden, threats against his Admin’s officials, simply for doing their jobs. And Trump continues to threaten political opponents.”

… Sen. Adam Schiff on Mike Johnson and Trump’s comments that CA will not get aid without conditions: "When Mike Johnson's state was hit by Katrina, I fought to get aid. California has given more to the recovery of other states than any other state in the Union. You do not want to go down this road.

… But Trump instructed Gov. Gavin Newsom and CA Fire Chiefs on what they needed to do: "The trees are loaded with water. They suck that water out of the ground. It's called management of the floor. We shouldn't be in a position where you have tumbleweed that's dry as a bone. Even tumbleweed can be nice and green and rich and it's not gonna burn. You don't even have to remove it. It's not gonna burn. But it's just dry. So I hope you can all get together and say I'm so happy with the water that's gonna be flowing down."

… Former Republican Fred Wellman responded: “The dumbest motherfucker on Earth is president.”

… When LA Mayor Karen Bass said that homeowners could begin to rebuild as soon as all the hazardous waste was cleared from their properties, Trump responded: "You mentioned hazardous waste. Well hazardous waste - what's hazardous waste? You're going to have to define that. We're going to go through a whole series of questions on determining what's hazardous waste? I just think that you have to allow people to go on their site and start the process tonight."

… Sen. Tom Cotton told Fox that he disagrees with Trump pulling security from Pompeo/Bolton and others: “I would encourage the president to revisit the decision for those people who are being targeted by Iran as the president was targeted for assassination by Iran. As Chair of the Intelligence Committee. I've reviewed the intelligence in the last few days. The threat to anyone involved in President Trump's strike on Qasem Soleimani is persistent. It's real. Iran is committed to vengeance against all of these people.”

… Right-wing talk show host Hugh Hewitt also disagrees with Trump: “The threat from Iran against Pompeo, Hook and others is very real and ongoing. This is what concerns me and should concern the president and everyone in the country. Even Clinton hammered Saddam when he thought about hitting George H.W. Bush. That was probably Clinton’s strongest moment as president. This decision if not reversed could well be Trump’s weakest and a defining moment if the decision isn’t reversed. If God forbid anyone much less a former Secretary of State is attacked, wounded or killed by Iran it will forever tarnish the reputation and legacy of the president and Rubio.”

… Trump cultists continue to weirdly refer to Trump as their “daddy”. Rep. Byron Donalds did it last week, but this weekend actor Mel Gibson took the MAGA fetish to another level while commenting on Trump’s visit to CA: “I’m glad Trump is here. It's like daddy arrived and he's taking his belt off.”

… JD Vance was asked on Face the Nation when the Trump Admin was going to work on lowering prices: “Prices are going to come down, but it's gonna take a little bit of time.” Two weeks.

… Sen. Adam Schiff: “The president said that his top priority was bringing down the price of things. Mass deportations of farm workers in California, maybe half the workforce, is gonna drive food prices through the roof. What is his real priority?"

… Gaming experts say that Elon Musk is guilty of Gaming Stolen Valor. They are calling out Musk’s recent claims that he is a world class player on several different well-known, difficult games. DNYUZ reports that last week while Musk was playing Path of Exile 2, he was called out by users because his account indicated he had achieved one of the game’s highest levels, but he was playing like a novice.

… Gamers also noted that his account was active at times he couldn’t have been playing himself. His account showed he was playing on Monday morning while he was at Trump’s inauguration. It showed that he was logged into the game and inside of a “map,” which means that someone else was likely playing the game while Musk was at the inauguration. One gamer posted while watching Musk on TV at the Capitol: “How are you there? How are you in the Sulphuric Caverns right now, Elon?”

… Thousands of gamers on Musk’s own X platform then accused him of “boosting” his account by paying for upgrades on 3rd-party websites, or hiring people to play his accounts for him. It’s the gaming equivalent of stolen valor. Gaming analyst Rod Breslau told DNYUZ: “He wants people to really look up to him. He needs to be good at video games so that he can be cool to all of the fans, at all his tech events, to all the people that are in his tech, gamer and AI world.”

… When Musk bragged that he was one of the best players in the world at Diablo and Path of Exile on X and on Joe Rogan’s podcast, gaming pro and Musk fan Dennis Fong said he wanted to believe it was true, but then he watched Musk play: “It was obvious he had no idea what was going on.”

… Financial Times spoke to Alex Soros about the new Trump Admin: “We have to know what we’re dealing with. These people are bullies. And you fight back, you push back. I hope Marx and Hegel were right that first comes the tragedy and then comes the farce. I worry it’ll be the other way around though, that we’ll look back at Trump’s first term as farcical and this is going to be very bad and tragic for a lot of people.”

… Sen. Mitch McConnell explained why he voted against Pete Hegseth: "Effective management of nearly 3 million military and civilian personnel, an annual budget of nearly $1 trillion, and alliances and partnerships around the world is a daily test with staggering consequences for the security of the American people and our global interests. Hegseth has failed to demonstrate that he will pass this test. But as he assumes office, the consequences of failure are as high as they have ever been."

… Danielle Hegseth, former sister-in-law of Pete, made this statement after he was confirmed as SecDef: "A week ago, I was promised that my statement, on the record, would corroborate the other accusations and make a difference in key votes. But in the end, it did not. This will make women who have experienced abuse and mistreatment even less forthcoming because the men involved in the decisions leading to Hegseth's confirmation have actively perpetuated the mechanisms, including gag orders and fear of retaliation, that keep women silent."

… Lara Trump on her father-in-law’s plan to take Greenland: "He's got all of these amazing ideas. Some people think they're crazy at first, then they think about them and they're like, 'That's actually genius.' He's so much farther ahead of everyone else.”

… Danish MP Rasmus Jarlov: “Make no mistake. Denmark is never going to hand over 57,000 of our citizens in Greenland to become Americans against their will. We understand that the US is a powerful country. We are not. It is up to the US how far they will go. But come what may, we are still going to say no. I get the impression that the people behind taking Greenland from Denmark have a weird idea that they just have to rattle their sabers a little bit to get their will. You can forget that. No threats of tariffs or even invasion or anything else will make us sell our citizens and territory under any circumstances. Ever.”

… Trump on his executive order disbanding the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: “We abolished 60 years of prejudice and hatred with the signing of one order, all approved by the United States Supreme Court. We are allowed to do it because we are now in a merit-based world.”

… Dumbass Rep. James Comer tells Fox he thinks a jury will decide if Biden’s pardons are legit: “With respect to the Biden's, I don't think these preemptive pardons would hold up in court. I would like to see what jury would be sympathetic to what he said - we're pardoning you for anything you may have done over the past decade pertaining to influence peddling. That's baloney. And no jury in America would buy that, in my opinion.”

… No jury will hear it.

… Kristi Noem was confirmed as DHS Secretary. 7 Democrats who voted yes to confirm: Senators Fetterman, Kaine, Kim, Peters, Shaheen, Slotkin and Hassan.

… Clarence Thomas swore Noem in.

… Rep. Andy Biggs (R) officially announced he is running for Governor of Arizona. One of the absolute worst.

… Sen. Ted Budd has been added to the Intelligence Committee to replace Marco Rubio. He is expected to help run interference for Tulsi Gabbard at her confirmation hearing this week for Trump.

… Rep. Anna Paulina Luna filed a bill to add Trump to Mount Rushmore.

… English writer Nate White: “Someone asked ‘Why do so many British people not like Donald Trump?’ A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace - all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing - not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility - for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is - his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults - he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness. There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul.

And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege. And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a sniveling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff - the Queensberry rules of basic decency - and he breaks them all. He punches downwards - which a gentleman should, would, could never do - and every blow he aims is below the belt.

So the fact that a significant minority - perhaps a third - of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think 'Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that: 1. Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are; 2. You don't need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.”