This Weekend in Politics, Bulletin 77

… Trump had a confrontation with Maine’s Gov. Janet Mills, who took no shit from Mango Mussolini. Trump signed an executive order banning trans athletes from women’s sports. The NCAA said they would follow his directive. Mills then said that it is up to each high school and youth sports league’s sanctioning body to determine player eligibility, so she will let them decide for their leagues.

… Trump: “The NCAA has complied immediately. That's good. But I understand Maine - is the governor of Maine here?

Janet Mills: Yeah, I'm here.

Trump: Are you not gonna comply?

Mills: I'm going to comply with state and federal law.

Trump: You better do it because you're not gonna get any federal funding at all.

Mills: See you in court.

Trump: Enjoy your life after governor because I don't think you'll be in elected politics.

… Janet Mills was elected the first woman DA in Maine history. She was elected the 1st woman AG in ME. She won election to state House and was reelected 3 times. Then she became the 1st woman Governor of Maine - winning her election by 20 points. She was then reelected in 2022 by 13 points. In other words, Mills is far more popular in ME than Trump will ever be.

… Right after that meeting, the Dept of Education announced it was launching a Title 9 investigation of Maine.

… Mills: “I imagine that the outcome of this politically directed investigation is all but predetermined. My Admin will begin work with the AG to defend the interests of Maine people in court. But do not be misled: this is not just about who can compete on the athletic field, this is about whether a President can force compliance with his will, without regard for the rule of law that governs our nation. I believe he cannot.”

… Trump said he would like to model the current US economy after the robber-baron era of predatory monopolists, who used child labor and kept workers in poverty and squalor while they built palatial mansions: "We were the richest relatively - think of this - from 1870 to 1913. That was our richest. Because we collected tariffs, we had so much wealth. Of course, now we give all our money away to transgenders - everybody gets a transgender operation."

… Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum responded to Trump’s executive order designating drug cartels as terrorist organizations: “If cartels are terrorists, then those supplying their weapons—over 74% of which come from the US (citing US DOJ stats)—should be held accountable for aiding terrorism. In response, Mexico will expand its lawsuit against US gun manufacturers and Mexico will impose the harshest possible punishment on foreigners involved in arms trafficking or any form of interventionism in Mexico.”

… Elon Musk had OPM send an email to all federal employees ordering them to respond with everything they accomplished that week or they will be automatically terminated: “Consistent with President’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

… Federal employees were ordered to provide “5 bullets of what you accomplished last week.”

… Everett Kelley, president of the American Fed of Govt Employees: “It is cruel and disrespectful for federal employees to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life. AFGE will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country.”

… Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) - “This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk - except he isn’t even the boss, he’s just a dick. I bet a lot of people have had an experience like this with a bad boss - there’s an email in your inbox on Saturday night saying, ‘Prove to me your worthiness by Monday or else.’”

… Trump posted on Truth Social about Musk: “I would like to see him get more aggressive.”

… The head of many federal agencies followed up Musk’s email to instruct their employees to ignore it. That included the State Department, FBI, FEMA, IRS, the NOAA, the CDC, and the Department of Energy.

… Kash Patel: "All FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information. The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures. When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses."

… State Department - “The State Department will respond on behalf of the department. No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Dept chain of command.”

… Elon Musk today: “A large number of responses have been received already. These are the people who should be considered for promotion.”

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… Bloomberg says that the FDA is rehiring some workers that Musk fired. One of the agencies bringing back fired employees is the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, which oversees medical devices and digital health products and was gutted.

… Sen. Susan Collins told CNN she is concerned about Musk firing so many people: "I'm very concerned about the impact on the state of Maine, on everything from our national parks to biomedical research. So this is a big problem."

… She isn’t going to do anything about it, but she is concerned.

… Trump explained again why he agreed with President Musk’s decision to terminate all remote work by federal employees: “Work from home is such a scam. If I worked from home my golf handicap would be so low. I would be so good I’d try to get on tour.”

… Prominent Yale History Prof Timothy Snyder: “Something is shifting. They are still breaking things and stealing things. And they will keep trying to break and to steal. But the propaganda magic around the oligarchical coup is fading. Nervous Musk, Trump, Vance have all been outclassed in public arguments these last few days. Govt failure, stock market crash, and dictatorial alliances are not popular. People are starting to realize that there is no truth here beyond the desire for personal wealth and power.”

… Musk responded to Snyder: “I’m tempted to call this guy a retard, but I won’t because I’ve used that word too many times.”

… After threatening federal employees, AOC, Eric Adams, and many other people around the country, Deportation Czar Tom Homan is panicking because his numbers are way down. This time he may be in for more than he bargained for by threatening Boston: "The police commissioner of Boston - you said you doubled-down on not helping the law enforcement officers of ICE. I'm coming to Boston. I'm bringing hell with me."

… Bostonians are not the most welcoming to visitors who trash talk their city. Should be interesting.

… Kristi Noem explained at CPAC that Trump is the one who wanted DHS to spend $200 million in TV ads touting his deportations, telling the audience what Trump said to her: “We’re not going to let the media tell this story, because the media will never tell the truth. We’re going to run a marketing campaign to make sure the American people know the truth of what you’re doing. I want you in the ads, and I want your face in the ads. But in the first ad, I want you to thank me.”

… Melania Trump returned to the White House for one of her rare contractually-obligated appearances with her beloved husband. It was her first time there since inauguration day. She flew in for the annual black-tie bipartisan governors’ ball on Saturday night and left. Trump: “She worked very hard on making sure that everything was beautiful. And she’s very good at that.”

… WaPo reports that ticket sales for Kennedy Center events have plummeted 50% since Trump fired the entire board and put himself in charge.

… Several artists have already canceled their scheduled appearances, with others considering backing out. Author Louise Penny: “As soon as what amounts to a coup happened with Trump, there was absolutely no way I was going to do it. It was a painful decision, but it was not difficult. I have pulled out. It was going to be a career highlight. But there are things far more important than that. When this Kennedy Center thing happened, it was just so obvious. There was no decision to be made. There was no question. And there was no doubt, no regret. It was at least something I could do.”

… Adam Weiner, lead singer of the band Low Cut Connie: “At the end of the day, if I don’t feel good about walking into a building to put on a show, I’m not going to do it. I feel bad for the people who have worked there for many years and the people who booked us. I hope that it returns to its former mission. But currently, it’s an institution that I’m not interested in supporting or offering my show to.”

… Weiner has many fans who are Republicans: “When you speak of social impact, sometimes not performing can have more impact than performing. In this case, I really stand by our decision because I feel like it’s been more impactful to pull out than to do the show. It says to me that there’s a lot of people out there — I’d say the majority of people out there — who were waiting for artists to step forward and say, ‘Fuck this.’”

… NY Post reports than huge numbers of Canadians are cancelling their vacations to the US and moving them to other locations. The US Travel Assn estimated this will cost the US economy $2.1 billion and 14,000 jobs based on the number of cancelations so far. One Canadian mom of 4: “With each passing day of more annexation threats, our family decided we have to cancel our March break Florida trip.”

… Canadian airline analysts estimate that flights to the US this spring from Canada will be down 25%. Statistic Canada reports that the number of Canadians returning from the US by car was down 15,000 in January, the first drop since covid hit in early 2020.

… The state expected to be hardest hit is Florida, which has always been the most popular travel destination for Canadians. This year the Ft. Lauderdale area expected 1.3-1.5 million Canadian visitors, spending $950-975 million. Not anymore. Stacy Ritter, CEO of Visit Ft. Lauderdale: “Canadian snowbirds are part of the fabric of this community all winter long, and have been for decades – at least 50 years.” She told the Post she’s been fielding emails from regulars who said they’re not coming back. “It felt like a gut punch. It makes me want to cry.”

… Elon Musk’s lawyers responded to a filing by his new baby mama, MAGA influencer Ashley St. Clair, who filed a paternity and child support lawsuit against him. Musk accused St. Clair of a “pregnancy plot” to entrap him, which he says she planned for years to get impregnated by him for financial reasons.

… As part of the filing, Musk posted messages between St. Claire and influencer Isabella Moody, who has turned on her friend to side with Musk: 'I wasn’t going to post these, but now that Ashley St. Clair has leaked her private signal messages with Elon Musk after lying and saying she ‘wanted privacy’, here’s more evidence Ashely planned to baby trap Elon. She sent me these text messages in May 2023 when she first met Elon and started sleeping with him:

“Elon followed me. I need his rocket babies.”

“I'll take one for the team, seduce Elon, get in a rocket to see what's up.”

“I need a caption to seduce Elon Musk.”

… In her filing, St. Claire requested a paternity test since Musk refuses to publicly acknowledge it: “I did not have sexual intercourse with any other male during the time the child was conceived. I am requesting an order for genetic testing to determine the paternity of the child.”

… Her filing included texts from Musk to St. Claire on why he wouldn’t come to see his baby: “I get credible death threats every day. I’m #2 after Trump for assassination. If I make a mistake on security, he will never know his father.” St Claire asked him why he refused to sign the birth certificate. Musk responded: “Necessary for now. Only the paranoid survive. The threat level will reach insane levels. Loose lips sink ships.”

… Perfectly normal stuff. Good thing he isn’t running the government.

…WaPo reports that Leland Dudek, who was just named head of the Social Security Administration, was under investigation for improperly sharing information with Musk’s DOGE people when he got the big promotion. The people investigating Dudek were fired, and Dudek was put in charge of the agency despite the fact that he is completely unqualified.

… Dudek was an IT data analyst working in a small anti-fraud office. There were several dozen more senior members of the agency to Dudek when he was promoted by Trump to be in charge.

… When Dudek was under investigation, he posted: “They want to fire me for cooperating with DOGE. I confess. I helped DOGE understand SSA. I mailed myself publicly accessible documents and explained them to DOGE. I moved contractor money around to add data science resources to my anti-fraud team. I confess. I asked where the fat was and is in our contracts so we can make the right tough choices.”

… Staffers at Yosemite National Park hung an upside-down American flag Saturday on the side of famous 3,000 granite cliff ‘El Capitan’ to protest 11 staffers fired by Musk. Maintenance mechanic and disabled vet Gavin Carpenter to the SF Chronicle: “We’re bringing attention to what’s happening to the parks, which are every American’s properties. It’s super important we take care of them, and we’re losing people here, and it’s not sustainable if we want to keep the parks open.”

… Yosemite staffers typically live in housing provided by the park, so some of the employees also lost their residences. From the group who hung the banner: “The purpose of this exercise of free speech is to disrupt without violence and draw attention to the fact that public lands in the US are under attack. The Dept of the Interior issued a series of orders that position drilling and mining interests as the favored uses of America’s public lands, and threaten to scrap existing land protections and conservation measures.

… “Firing 1,000s of staff regardless of position or performance across the nation is the first step in destabilizing the protections in place for these great places. These losses, while deeply personal and impactful, may also be invisible to visitors and members of the public. So we are shining a spotlight on them by putting a distress flag on El Capitan in view of Firefall. Think of it as your public lands on strike.”

… Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the DOGE's mass firings of government workers is a good thing: “We're gonna re-privatize this economy like President Trump promised."

… Ron Desantis has sued Target for selling Pride month merchandise. His newly appointed AG filed a federal lawsuit against Target, claiming that they “misled investors” by promoting the merchandise, which he argues hurt their overall sales as conservative customers boycotted. The lawsuit claims Target violated the Securities Exchange Act by failing to disclose “the known risks” of its Pride month initiatives to stockholders.

… FL AG James Uthmeier: “Corporations that push radical leftist ideology at the expense of financial returns jeopardize the retirement security of Florida’s first responders and teachers. My office will stridently pursue corporate reform so that companies get back to the business of doing business — not offensive political theatre.”

… Desantis then posted on X: “Florida is where woke goes to die!”

… The results of CPAC’s straw poll are in for who they prefer as their presidential nominee in 2028: JD Vance - 61% Steve Bannon - 12% Ron DeSantis - 7% Marco Rubio - 3% Elise Stefanik - 3% Donald Trump Jr. - 2% Tulsi Gabbard - 2% Vivek Ramaswamy - 2% Sarah Huckabee Sanders - 1% Rick Scott - 1% Kristi Noem - 1% Nikki Haley - 1% Greg Abbott - 0% Undecided - 4%.

… But they had different plans for 2028 in one of the meeting rooms.

… SecDef Pete Hegseth explained why he was firing all of the of top Judge Advocate General lawyers in the military: “We want lawyers who don’t exist to be roadblocks to anything that happens."

… NYT reports that Joy Reid’s show on MSNBC is being canceled as part of several programming changes from the new president Rebecca Kutler. The final episode is expected to be this week. Reid’s time slot will be occupied by a rotation of three people temporarily: Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele, and Alicia Menendez.

… Rachel Maddow, who has returned on a temporary basis to host her show full time again, will not be replaced by previous host Alex Wagner in April when Maddow will return to one day a week. The Times reports that Jen Psaki is a likely candidate to replace Wagner in the Maddow time slot.

… Kid Rock has reportedly ended his engagment with Audrey Berry. This comes shortly after Page Six published photographs of him getting into a taxi with Lauren Boebert at 2:30 AM leaving a party. A source told US Weekly: “He is venturing into the dating pool.”

… The Texas Dept of State Health Services says that 90 new cases of measles were reported last month in the northwest part of the state. At least 77 of them were children. In Gaines County, where 57 of the Texas cases were reported, vaccine exemptions have gone up in the last few years substantially. Texas officials reported that in 85 of the 90 cases the people were unvaccinated.

… CBS reports that the area is home to a large Mennonite community, which typically have low vaccination rates due to the group's religious beliefs. Albert Pilkington, CEO of the Seminole Hospital District told the Texas Standard: "We respect everyone's right to vaccinate or not get vaccinated. That's just what it means to be an American, right?"

… WSJ Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov: “With a sophisticated network of profilers and psychological experts on his side, Putin used his phone calls with Trump to maximum effect.” One former Trump admin official told him: “I think one of the interesting dynamics here is that Putin doesn’t speak English to him. Putin will go on these long missives and there’s no way for Trump to intervene because he’s waiting for the translations. It’s an interesting quirk. You have to hear out the full thing before you can respond. So he’s taking in all the points and Putin’s carefully crafted narrative for him.”

… Sen. Markwayne Mullin was asked by NBC if it is important for Trump as president to sometimes be critical of Vladimir Putin for his actions: “That’s up to the Russian people.”

… The life expectancy of Russians who criticize Putin is relatively short.

… Mullin was also asked if the US should stay in NATO: “If it’s in our interest. Right now, NATO has not always been playing in our best interest. And when it's not in America's best interests anymore, then we should relook at things.”

… Journalist Stuart Dowell, who covers Poland: “Poland has spent 30 years building its foreign policy around a strong US alliance. Yesterday, that foundation cracked. President Duda flew across the Atlantic for a planned hour-long meeting with Trump. He got 10 minutes. This wasn’t just bad optics. It was a humiliation. Poland has positioned itself as America’s most loyal ally in Europe. But when Trump is reshaping US policy on Ukraine and NATO, Poland was given barely a moment of his time. For years, Poland’s security strategy rested on unquestioning faith in the US alliance. That strategy is being dismantled day by day.”

… Polish PM Donald Tusk: “This is nothing to laugh at. Let's be serious, because the situation is getting really serious.”

… Fox Host Maria Bartimoro to Trump’s NSA Mike Waltz: “Can you at least acknowledge that Russia is the aggressor here? Waltz: Well, you know what? Who would you rather have going toe to toe with the likes of Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Xi or anyone else - Biden or Trump? He's the deal maker in chief.”

… In other words, no. Nobody in the Trump Admin is ever allowed to acknowledge that Putin was the aggressor by invading Ukraine.

… Trump’s Special Envoy and Putin pal Steve Witkoff on Fox: "The war didn't need to happen. It was provoked. It doesn't necessarily mean it was provoked by the Russians. There were all kinds of conversations back then about Ukraine joining NATO. That didn't need to happen. It basically became a threat to the Russians."

… Rep Jim Himes (D-CT) on Trump trying to extort Ukraine: "It just looks like an episode of The Sopranos. 'Give us your minerals or we're not gonna help you fight a bloody butcher.' I mean, is this really what we want the greatest country in history to be known for - some mafia thing? This president is standing with the bad guy."

… Sen. Chris Von Hollen: "European allies and others around the world who believe in freedom and democracy are wondering if this is just rhetoric or a real shift. My warning to them is I think this is reality. I think Trump is much closer ideologically to Putin and other autocrats than he is to democratic countries."

… Kristi Noem responded to Musk showing up at CPAC with a chainsaw by posting a video of herself blasting a flamethrower into a big pile of junk with this caption: “Hey Elon Musk, I have a flamethrower if you need help cutting AND burning the government waste!”

… AZ AG Kris Mayes to Meidas Touch: “Let’s talk about that visual of Musk with the ridiculous chainsaw. I don’t think he’s ever actually used a chainsaw in his life. I don’t know what that was—some lame attempt to make himself look manly. But what he’s doing is devastating people’s lives. Here in AZ, we now have firefighters being laid off - hotshot crews being laid off right before wildfire season. The funding freeze meant we couldn’t continue efforts to go after the Mexican drug cartels and fight the fentanyl crisis. It’s insane. Our rural hospitals are put at risk, our Head Start programs, Meals on Wheels—and yet there goes Musk, bragging about it with his chainsaw at CPAC or wherever he was. It’s just nonsense.”

… NBC reports that Trump is expected to name FBI Director Kash Patel to also serve as the head of the ATF, which will certainly make the NRA happy. Last month, Lauren Boebert filed a bill that was co-sponsored by several other Republicans to abolish the ATF. Boebert: “I cannot imagine under any circumstance where the ATF serves as an ally to the 2nd Amendment.”

… Hakeem Jeffries said he is looking to find a few Republicans in swing districts who are hearing from their constituents to join with Democrats on the budget: "This budget is a betrayal of working-class Americans. We only need 3 House Republicans -- there are 215 Democrats in the House - we only need 3 to stand up on behalf of their constituents, and that is going to be an ongoing effort over these next few days, to identify those individuals."