Today in Politics, Bulletin 125. 5/6/25

… 764,000 people lost money on Trump’s crypto scam according to data provided by analytics firm Chainalysis to CNBC: “Most of the wallets that lost money held smaller amounts of the token, according to the firm’s on-chain analysis. Crypto wallets are accounts that store the keys you need to access and use your cryptocurrency holdings.”

… And guess what, Trump and the con artists and grifters in his orbit made a killing off the rubes: “Chainalysis said that while around 2 million wallets have bought into the token, 58 wallets made more than $10 million apiece, totaling roughly $1.1 billion in gains.”

… 58 people made millions. 764,000 lost money. MAGA!

… Melania Trump also got in on the action. Financial Times reported that that a small handful of unknown individuals made millions in a few days after Melania announced her crypto scam the day before the inauguration. 24 accounts bought $2.6 million in tokens 2 minutes before they went live, then 81% of their purchases were sold within 12 hours at windfall profits. One person bought $681,000 of Melania crypto 64 seconds before the existence of the project was made public and sold it for $39 million hours later.

… The initial 24 investors in early made a combined $350 million in sales. FT: “The entities that launched the coin — which are separate to the wallets that traded in it prior to the official announcement — have so far withdrawn profits of $64.7 million from fees and primary sales.”

… Trump met with Canadian PM Mark Carney in DC today. Right before the meeting, Trump posted that it was pretty much going to be a big waste of time: “I very much want to work with him, but cannot understand one simple TRUTH — Why is America subsidizing Canada by $200 Billion Dollars a year, in addition to giving them FREE Military Protection, and many other things? We don’t need their Cars, we don’t need their Energy, we don’t need their Lumber, we don’t need ANYTHING they have, other than their friendship, which hopefully we will always maintain. They, on the other hand, need EVERYTHING from us!”

… Trump led off the meeting bragging to Carney about how he has been busy transforming the Oval Office into Mar-a-Lago North: "You see the new and improved Oval Office as it becomes more and more beautiful with love and 24 karat gold? That always helps."

… Trump was asked why he still hasn’t made any trade deals yet: "Everyone says, 'When, when, when are you gonna sign deals?' We don't have to sign deals - they have to sign deals with us. We don't care about their market. They'll either say, 'Great,' and they'll start shopping, or they'll say, 'Not good.' That's okay. You don't have to shop. We don't have to sign deals. We could sign 25 deals right now if we wanted. We don't have to sign deals, they have to sign deals with us.”

… Treasury Sec Scott Bessent admitted that China has still not even called them to negotiate: “China, we have not yet engaged in negotiations as of yet.”

… Donnie No Deals then demonstrated why he has no idea how international trade works: "We're gonna put down the price that people are gonna have to pay to shop in the US. Think of us as a super luxury store. A store that has the goods."

… Carney was asked about Trump claiming his country would become our 51st state: "The president is in real estate, so he knows there are some places that are never for sale - like the White House, Buckingham Palace. I can tell you having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign, it's not for sale. It won't be for sale ever."

… Trump responded: “Never say never.”

… Carney looked thrilled to be there.

… After the meeting was over, Carney was asked outside by a reporter: “I was watching your face during the meeting - what was going through your mind when the President talked about erasing the border?” Carney: “I’m glad that you couldn’t tell what was going through my mind.” Reporter: “Oh, I could.”

… Trump then veered off topic to talk about how he saved California: "I always liked Gavin. I have a good relationship with him. I just got him a lot of water. I sent in people to open up that water. We just got him a lot of water. If they would've had that water and done what I said to do, they wouldn't have had the fires in Los Angeles."

… He also claimed that the US was going to stop bombing Yemen because the Houthis supposedly agreed not to attack any ships in the Suez, which they haven’t done since December before Trump’s bombing began: "The Houthis have announced to us at least that they don't want to fight anymore. They just don't want to fight. And we will honor that. And we will we will stop the bombings. And they have capitulated."

… Axios: “A senior Israeli official said the U.S. didn't notify Israel in advance of Trump's announcement of a truce with the Houthis: ‘We didn't know about this. Trump surprised us."

… Sky News: “Pakistan says it has been attacked by India in three locations. India says its armed forces hit ‘terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed.’”

… Trump said thousands of times that Russia never would have attacked Ukraine if he was president. He also said Hamas would’ve never attacked Israel if he was president. He said he would end both wars 24 hours after taking office and it wouldn’t even be difficult to do. Meanwhile, wars continue in both places, we’ve been bombing Yemen for two months, threatening to invade Greenland, Panama, and Canada, and India and Pakistan are now at war.

… Reuters reported that Pete Hegseth inexplicably halted a shipment of weapons to Ukraine being flown out of Dover Air Force base and a base in UAE right after he was nominated for SecDef. He stopped 11 flights loaded with artillery shells and other weapons: “In a matter of hours, frantic questions reached Washington from Ukrainians in Kyiv and from officials in Poland, where the shipments were coordinated. Who had ordered the US Transportation Command, known as TRANSCOM, to halt the flights? Was it a permanent pause on all aid? Or just some?”

… “Top national security officials - in the WH, the Pentagon and the State Dept - couldn’t provide answers. Within one week, flights were back in the air. The verbal order originated from the office of Pete Hegseth. The president was unaware of Hegseth’s order, as were other top national security officials in the meeting. The cancelations cost TRANSCOM $2.2 million.”

… Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) issued a statement about Hegseth cutting 20% of all general officers: “I have always advocated for efficiency at DOD, but tough personnel decisions should be based on facts and analysis, not arbitrary percentages. Eliminating the positions of many of our most skilled and experienced officers without sound justification would not create ‘efficiency’ in the military – it could cripple it. Secretary Hegseth has shown an eagerness to dismiss military leaders without cause, and I will be skeptical of the rationale for these plans until he explains them before the Armed Services Committee.”

… Reed at the confirmation hearing for Anthony Tata to be one of Hegseth’s new deputies at DOD: “Mr. Tata, your history of controversial and divisive statements is well documented. Prior to your last nomination, you publicly called President Obama ‘a terrorist leader,’ and said that then-CIA Director John Brennan deserved to be executed. More recently, you made unsubstantiated claims that there are, quote, ‘mutinous discussions’ within the military ranks to sabotage President Trump, and you called for a complete purge of Pentagon leadership, including firing all 4-star general officers and senior career civilian employees.”

… The US Supreme Court issued an order allowing Trump’s ban on transgender persons serving in the military to take effect while litigation and appeals are pending.

… Hegseth at a speech today in FL to troops: “We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind. No more pronouns, no more climate change obsessions, no more emergency vaccine mandates, no more dudes in dresses. We are done with that shit.”

… RFK Jr. fired another 200 employees of the National Institutes of Health. 50 of them worked at the National Cancer Institute. The move follows the dismissal of about 10,000 employees last month. One fired employee to CBS: "We thought the worst was behind us, and we were transitioning into this new phase, and the rug was just pulled out from underneath us."

… Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD): “No one voted for less cancer research or fewer air traffic controllers. Donald Trump is taking a chainsaw to essential government functions.”

… Kristi Noem at a press conference today to Dear Leader: "Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you so much for dreaming big dreams and doing unprecedented things. Your entire life you have stood for doing things that other people thought they couldn't do and accomplishing unprecedented events and achievements."

… It sounds like Ed Martin’s nomination as DC US Attorney is not going to happen as his confirmation hearing was left off the Judiciary Committee calendar this week, which makes it virtually impossible for him to be confirmed before his interim appointment expires on May 20.

… CNN asked Chair Chuck Grassley why Martin wasn’t on Senate Judiciary schedule: “All I can say is, as the chairman of the committee, I want to put people on the agenda, that I can help the President be successful in his nominees. And that's all I can say at this point.”

… It later came out that the reason is that Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) decided not to vote for Martin: “At this point I’ve indicated to the WH I won’t support his nomination. If Martin were being put forth as a U.S. attorney for any other district except the district where January the 6th happened, I’d probably support him. But not in this district.”

… Martin represented several J6 defendants and made a number of inflammatory statements about Capitol Police along with many other crazy things. He also referred to his office as Trump’s law firm.

… Sean Davis, CEO of The Federalist: Has Lara Trump indicated any interest in running for Senate in North Carolina? I imagine she’d be tough to beat in a primary, especially if she’s running against someone with a history of obstructing Trump.”

… Mollie Hemingway, Editor of The Federalist: “It does sound insane. It can't be true that ‘Republican’ Thom Tillis is working hard against Trump voters so that Judge James Boasberg, of all people, will get to appoint the next U.S. Attorney.”

… Sen. Majority Leader John Thune to Semafor: “That would suggest that he's not probably going to get out of committee. Obviously we would cross the bridge if and when we came to it, but it sounds like he's got problems at the committee."

… The Senate Judiciary Committee has 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats. A majority is required to advance a nomination. Tillis flipping makes it 11-11, which would fail.

Just a reminder there is no Bulletin tomorrow since I have my podcast Uncovered live at 4 ET. We do a deep dive into the Top 10 stories of the week where I try to provide additional info about each that hasn’t been widely reported on by mainstream media. I will post the link tomorrow. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.

… Steve Bannon was ranting at Tillis on his podcast: “He cites J6 as his reason! This is another outrage. Here’s the problem, up there in the House and Senate, you got a handful of guys who are MAGA. There’s maybe 30 total out of the House and Senate. The rest have been just drafting off Trump for years, and they’re going to flip as soon