This Weekend in Politics, Bulletin 211

… Trump essentially threatened to fire AG Pam Bondi if she didn’t immediately indict his political enemies. He then appointed one of his former personal lawyers, Lindsey Halligan, to serve as US Attorney in VA after he forced the resignation of his previous appointee because he concluded there was insufficient evidence to indict NY AG Letitia James for mortgage fraud.

… He started with this post on Truth Social: “Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, ‘same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam “Shifty” Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.’ Then we almost put in a Democrat supported US Attorney, in VA, with a really bad Republican past. A Woke RINO, who was never going to do his job. That’s why two of the worst Dem Senators PUSHED him so hard. He even lied to the media and said he quit, and that we had no case. No, I fired him, and there is a GREAT CASE, and many lawyers, and legal pundits, say so. Lindsey Halligan is a really good lawyer, and likes you, a lot. We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”

… Then this: “Pam Bondi is doing a GREAT job as AG of the United States. She is very careful, very smart, loves our Country, but needs a tough prosecutor in the Eastern District of VA, like my recommendation, Lindsey Halligan, to get things moving. What we don’t need is a Democrat Endorsed ‘Republican.’ I will be nominating Lindsey Halligan to be the US Attorney in this very important part of our Great Country. She will be Fair, Smart, and will provide, desperately needed, JUSTICE FOR ALL!

… “It is my honor to appoint Lindsey Halligan as US Attorney for the E. District of VA. Lindsey is a tough, smart, and loyal attorney, who has worked with me for a long time, including in the winning fight against the Weaponization of our Justice System by Crooked Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats, which she witnessed firsthand when she stood up for my rights during the Unconstitutional and UnAmerican raid on my home, Mar-a-Lago. She is extremely intelligent, fearless and, working with Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche, has the strength and determination to be absolutely OUTSTANDING in this new and very important role.”

… He then made his last post with this: “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”

… Halligan was one of Trump’s former attorneys, has zero experience as a criminal lawyer, and is generally a complete dunce and full MAGA cultist. So he fired his own US Attorney because he found there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Letitia James, replaced her with his personal attorney, and then threatened Bondi publicly that if she doesn’t start indicting his other political enemies she will be gone next. Real Banana Republic stuff.

… Trump was asked about it today as he headed to board AF1 to attend Charlie Kirk’s memorial service in AZ: Q - “Are you criticizing Pam Bondi? Trump: No, I just want people to act. They have to act and we want to act fast. You know, they were ruthless and vicious. I was impeached twice. I was indicted 5 times. We have to act fast one way or the other, one way or the other. They're guilty. We have to act fast. We have to do it now.”

… Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) was asked about it on CNN: Q - “He's asking his AG in a public way to go after his political enemies. You're okay with that? Mullin: What we know is President Trump is very open and transparent with the American people and he speaks his mind. That's what his supporters love about him.”

… Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT): "The question today is when is enough enough for Republicans? I was very glad to see Ted Cruz stand up and say what is simply true - it is unconstitutional and deeply immoral for the president to jail or silence his political enemies. Next week, we need every Republican in the Senate and House not only speaking up, but going to Trump and telling him that they are not gonna let him get away with this massive new contraction of speech. This is a decisive moment for the country."

… NYT: “Tom Homan was recorded in Sept 2024 accepting a bag with $50,000 in cash in an undercover FBI investigation, which was later shut down by Trump admin officials. The cash payment, which was made inside a bag from the food chain Cava, grew out of a long-running counterintelligence investigation that had not been targeting Homan.”

… “Homan’s encounter with the undercover agents, recorded on audiotape, led him to be investigated for potential bribery and other crimes, after he apparently took the money and agreed to help the agents — who were posing as businessmen — secure future govt contracts related to border security. After Trump took office this year, DOJ officials shut down the case. Emil Bove, a former senior DOJ official and onetime personal attorney for Trump who is now a federal appeals court judge, expressed skepticism about the case.”

… Megyn Kelly: “We DO NOT CARE. Don’t bother Tom Homan he’s a national treasure.”

… PERSIST founder Rhonda Elaine Foxx responded to Kelly: “You dragged Lisa Cook to hell and back. For fraud allegations that were proven wrong. This tweet is the codification of your bullshit. You don't believe in anything. You're just a bigoted spin doctor who sells herself to the highest bidder.”

… Trump: “I think we have a bigger announcement coming I hope on Monday. It's so big. We can't let people keep doing this. I don't want to wait any longer. If it's wrong - it's not going to be wrong but if it is wrong, it's fine. We're going to have an announcement on autism.”

… This has to be coming from RFK Jr. And it is certainly batshit crazy whatever it is. At least we have something to look forward to this week!

… Right-wing conspiracies seeking to tie prominent Democrats or Israel to the Kirk assassination are all over the internet, and Kash Patel pledged to have the FBI investigate every one of them: “I am committed to ensuring the investigation into Charlie Kirk’s assassination is thorough and exhaustive, pursuing every lead to its conclusion. The full weight of America’s law enforcement agencies are actively following the evidence that has emerged, but our efforts extend beyond initial findings. We are examining every facet of this assassination.”

… “We are meticulously investigating theories and questions, including the location from where the shot was taken, the possibility of accomplices, the text message confession and related conversations, Discord chats, the angle of the shot and bullet impact, how the weapon was transported, hand gestures observed as potential ‘signals’ near Charlie at the time of his assassination, and visitors to the alleged shooter’s residence in the hours and days leading up to Sept 10, 2025.”

… “Regarding specific details, such as questions about the plane that allegedly turned off its transponder after departing from an airport near the assassination site, we can share updates when answers are confirmed. After interviews with the pilot and consultation with the FAA, we determined the transponder was not turned off. Incomplete flight data in rural areas caused the apparent gap. The entire FBI mourns the loss of Charlie Kirk. We will not rest until justice is served, and our investigation into this assassination will continue until every question is answered.”

… NBC: “The federal investigation into the assassination of Charlie Kirk has yet to find a link between the alleged shooter Tyler Robinson, and left-wing groups on which Trump and his admin have pledged to crack down after the killing. One person familiar with the federal investigation said that ‘thus far, there is no evidence connecting the suspect with any left-wing groups. Every indication so far is that this was one guy who did one really bad thing because he found Kirk’s ideology personally offensive.”

… Rep. Jasmine Crockett told CNN why she voted against the resolution honoring Kirk: "The rhetoric that Charlie Kirk continuously put out there was rhetoric that specifically targeted people of color. I was gonna honor somebody who decided that they were gonna negatively talk about me and proclaim that I was somehow involved in the 'great white replacement'? Yeah, I'm not honoring that kind of stuff. It's unfortunate that more of my colleagues even on my side of the aisle couldn't see the amount of harm that this man was attempting to inflict upon our communities."

… AP: ”California became the first state to ban most law enforcement officers, including federal immigration agents, from covering their faces while conducting official business under a bill that was signed Saturday by Gov. Gavin Newsom and swiftly denounced by Trump admin officials.”

… Newsom: “The impact of these policies all across this city, our state and nation are terrifying. It’s like a dystopian sci-fi movie. Unmarked cars, people in masks, people quite literally disappearing. No due process, no rights, no right in a democracy where we have rights. Immigrants have rights, and we have the right to stand up and push back, and that’s what we’re doing here today.”

… Two Australian doctors in Gaza just posted this video on TikTok: “70-80% of our patients are kids and pregnant women. There is no water, no food. We were not allowed to bring in baby formula. There’s no equipment. No soap. We’re treating patients on the floor. Mass casualties after mass casualties. It’s a nightmare, bombing after bombing. We’re making this video because we could die at any moment. The number of dead bodies arriving is ridiculous. Can someone please stop this terror and horror?”

… Time: “The Pentagon released new restrictions for journalists covering the DOD this week, requiring them to sign a pledge not to gather or report on information that has not been authorized for release—even if it is unclassified. Those who do not obey the new rules, the Pentagon said, risk having their press credentials revoked. 90 reporters credentialed to cover the Pentagon will also be restricted from several floors of the building unless they have a govt escort, which heavily restricts the movement of journalists who, for the most part, were previously able to walk the halls.”

… Longtime Pentagon press corps members and press freedom groups roundly condemned the move, characterizing it as an alarming shift away from decades of precedent set by previous admins. Kevin Baron who covered the Pentagon for 15 years: “It's 100% an intimidation tactic. It's 100% an attempt to kill transparency and funnel all public information through the govt, which goes against every constitutional principle of free speech you can imagine.”

… Seth Stern of the Free Press Foundation: “It’s fundamentally un-American. This policy operates as a prior restraint on publication which is considered the most serious of First Amend violations. The govt cannot prohibit journalists from public information merely by claiming it’s a secret or even a national security threat.”

We make the entire Weekend Bulletin available to free subscribers while about the first 30% are available to everyone on the daily Bulletins during the week. If you missed the last Bulletin you can find it here. Thank you to everyone for sharing my work and subscribing.

One comment to the last Bulletin asked me to post a photo of the stuff I bought this weekend at the Common Ground Country Fair of Made in Maine products. Here it is. Some cheeses, honey, hot sauce for oysters, veggies, pastry flour, and birch syrup. Made a lobster and mushroom risotto last night with all Maine ingredients except the Vialone Nano rice from Italy. A birch syrup vodka tonic with it. Made a chicken pot pie from scratch today will all Maine ingredients. The key to both were homemade (lobster and chicken) stocks.

… Trump continues to insist that the US is going to go back into Afghanistan. He posted: “If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!”

… Trump was asked about it today: Q - “Are you ruling out troops on the ground to get Bagram back? Trump: We won’t talk about that. We are talking now to Afghanistan and we want it back and want it back soon, right away and if they don't, you are going to find out what I'm going to do.”

… Former Sec of State spokesperson Ned Price: “On a single Sat in Sept: 1) Trump instructed his AG to go after specific political enemies. 2) We learned that his DOJ ended an investigation into his border czar, who was caught on camera taking a $50k cash bribe. 3) His Pentagon top brass threatened to expel journalists who report info not cleared by them. 4) His WH spoke to a shady deal that will see TikTok in the hands of a consortium of GOP mega-donors. 5) Trump threatened ‘bad things’ if we don't re-take Bagram AFB. 6) His most senior counterterrorism official is in a Twitter spat with Laura Loomer. None of this is normal. All of it is so dangerous and corrosive to our democracy.”

… NYT: “The clandestine deployment of elite US Special Operations forces to the Caribbean suggests that strikes or commando raids inside Venezuela itself may be in the works.”

… Former CIA agent Marc Polymeropolous: “We running head first into some crazy lethal shit in the Caribbean - with no debate, no congressional oversight, no authorities, a broken DOD legal system, and sadly, a public that seems only to care about the price of an egg, with no memory of how this stuff goes way sideways. Let’s also note that I love covert action (truly), was a practitioner during my entire career in the sandbox, but MOST importantly, it was all done legally and under real authorities and a shit ton of congressional oversight. Big big big difference now.”

… Pete Doocy just interviewed Trump for Fox: Q - What is the worst business to be in right now - the captain of a cartel drug boat or late night talk show host? Trump: They’re both in trouble.”

… Sen. Chuck Schumer posted this: “BREAKING: Hakeem Jeffries and I are demanding a meeting with Trump on his decision to shut down the federal government because of the Republican desire to continue to gut the health care of the American people.”

… Trump was asked about Schumer’s “demand”: Q - “Will you meet with Democratic leaders to talk about how to avoid a shutdown? Trump: I will, but they don't care about crime. They want to keep men in women sports. They want all this stuff. They don't change. They haven't learned from the biggest meeting they've ever taken, just about. I'd love to meet with them, but I don't think it's going to have an impact.”

… Sen. Adam Schiff to Meidas: “Kash Patel’s claim that was the most astounding was that the Epstein list has only one name on it — Jeffrey Epstein. So after years of saying there was a secret list of very high-profile clients, he now wants the American people — including the MAGA base — to believe, ‘No, there was actually only one name, and that was Epstein.’ We now have someone incompetent running the FBI.”

… The Mirror: “Child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell strolls to a yoga class in the cushy new lock-up where she is serving a 20-year stretch. The images have infuriated her victims – who were already angry at her move to the soft jail dubbed Camp Cupcake just 3 years into her sentence. The decision broke US prison rules which state that a sex offender cannot serve their time in a minimum-security facility like Fed Prison Camp Bryan, Texas.”

… “Her transfer from a run-down prison in Tallahassee, FL, came just 7 days after she spoke favorably of Trump’s notorious friendship with her pedophile ex Jeffrey Epstein. Today we picture Maxwell for the first time in her new lock-up, taking morning strolls across the manicured grounds. Over 4 days, we watched as she walked from her block to her clerical job or to work out.”

… “She rarely acknowledged another inmate, keeping her head down under her umbrella. Dressed in prison-issue grey sweats, she cuts lonely figure as she wandered off to a yoga class with a rolled-up mat under one arm. A prison source: ‘She never goes anywhere without her umbrella. Even when it’s dark, she’s got it with her.’”

… Reuters is reporting that US DOD has informed European diplomats that it will end long-running military assistance to NATO countries bordering Russia, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and others on the eastern flank. Key Details: Funding Cut to Zero starting next fiscal cycle. US aid for training, equipment, and weapons purchases under programs like the Baltic Security Initiative will be eliminated.

… Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) on CNN: “In response, the House voted by voice unanimously to INCREASE Baltic Security Initiative spending. The Pentagon is out of step and at odds with Congress on this. The Undersecretary for Policy has a 1930s world view. The only people happy with him is Putin and his team.”

… Q - "How do you think that Reagan would view how Trump is dealing with Putin? Bacon: "It'd be bad. Reagan stood up to Gorbachev. I don't see the moral clarity right now."

… Economist Justin Wolfers: “A critical part of the President's new $100,000 charge for H1-B visas: The Admin can also offer a $100,000 discount to any person, company, or industry that it wants. Replacing rules with arbitrary discretion. Want visas? You know who to call and who to flatter. Lemme spell it out. Trump's only leverage over Jimmy Kimmel and ABC came from FCC regulation. His direct power over H1-B visas gives him similar leverage over tech, higher ed, and others.”

… WaPo: “Monthly home sales have recently bottomed out, reaching lows last seen after the Great Recession in the early 2000s. Americans aren’t leaving their jobs or getting new ones. Hiring has stalled considerably this year, with employers adding 88,000 jobs in the past 3 months, roughly one-third of last summer’s count. And Census data shows that Americans are generally moving less — to new homes or cities — than they have in decades.”

… “For the Americans who have locked in low mortgage rates and are happy in their jobs, economic inertia may not be a problem. But for many others — including recent graduates and the unemployed — the lack of opportunities is making it difficult to find a foothold in this economy.”

… Jessica Riedl with the conservative Manhattan Institute: “Consumers have been increasingly paralyzed by economic uncertainty, tariffs, rising inflation, chances of a recession — and a quarter-point change in the Fed Funds Rate rates isn’t going to solve those problems. There are much larger headwinds holding back the economy that must be addressed first.”

… Economist Allison Shrivastava: “Job-switching is so fundamentally important to an economy’s health. You really do need churn: That’s the best way for workers to get better wages and to move labor where it needs to go. Right now we’re in a stagnant place where people can’t progress in their careers.”

… Rep. Don Bacon: “We have a company that makes combines. They are moving all their manufacturing to Europe because of the tariffs. That's hundreds of jobs right there. The President speaks of trade deals but not a single country has bought more corn or soybeans. Tariffs aren't working.”

… WaPo: “Working-class Americans, already up against waning wage growth and rising housing and electricity costs, are easily burned by any increase in grocery prices and tariff-fueled increases on household staples, apparel and furniture, according to recent Moody’s Ratings report. They’re increasingly dipping into their savings, racking up more debt, and pulling back on discretionary spending, according to recent govt data, analyst reports and retail executives.”

… “Meanwhile, those in the middle- and upper-income tiers are being more strategic about when to make big purchases, buying in bulk and shopping at cheaper retailers. Walmart, Dollar General and Dollar Tree have told investors that they’ve picked up share among wealthier consumers looking for bargains. And sales in the luxury sector are weakening as customers grow increasingly fed up with brands charging higher prices without notably improving quality and offering compelling new merchandise.”

… NYT: “In the 1970s, Hamburger Helper became a staple on American dinner tables as families, strained by inflation and soaring beef prices, looked to turn a pound of ground beef into an entire meal. These days, those same pressures are why the flavored pasta mix is coming to the rescue again. While most food companies are seeing declines in consumer demand for their products, sales of Hamburger Helper are up 14.5% in the year through Aug.”

… “And it’s not just Hamburger Helper. Sales of foods commonly purchased by consumers when financial times get tough are on the rise, according to industry analysts. Purchases of rice are up 7.5% this year. Distressed shoppers are also buying more cans of tuna, salmon and sardines. Sales of beans and boxes of macaroni and cheese are also strong, based on data from the research firm Circana.”

… Trump’s Golden Age.

… PA Gov Josh Shapiro on NBC: "I was on a Spanish language radio program in the Allentown area just the other day. The host was asking me a bunch of questions about the work we're doing, and he said something really chilling to me - that he now has to think about what topics he's going to discuss because he's fearful he might offend federal regulators of the president."

… The (UK) Telegraph summarized Trump’s recent visit: “That was the strangest state visit I have ever seen. In truth, it was not a state occasion at all: it was a private visit with the Royal family and the PM, with a parade thrown in. The glorious, perfectly orchestrated pageantry made it seem even more surreal. This was the sort of show normally intended for public display. There were the marching bands with their flawless precision and the procession of ceremonial carriages whose windows are designed to allow a view of their esteemed occupants waving to jubilant crowds. But there was no waving because there were no crowds. It looked like a rehearsal with the principal actors practising their parts.”

… “No one in his entourage, apparently, thought it odd that the legendary carriages which transported him in circles around the castle grounds were going from nowhere to nowhere. But whoever in Westminster conceived and orchestrated this extraordinary grovel knew exactly what they were doing. The most powerful man in the world was given not just the greatest day out ever, but the personal affection and approval which he requires in apparently limitless amounts.”