Today in Politics, Bulletin 380.
… Trump’s DOJ is about to create a $1.7 billion slush fund to pay J6 criminals and his henchmen a fortune out of your tax dollars. ABC: “Trump is expected to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS in exchange for the creation of a $1.7 billion fund to compensate allies who claim they were wrongfully targeted by the Biden admin.
… “The commission overseeing the compensation fund would have the total authority to hand out approximately $1.7 billion in taxpayer funds to settle claims brought by anyone who alleges they were harmed by the Biden admin’s ‘weaponization’ of the legal system, including the nearly 1,600 individuals charged in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack as well as potentially entities associated with Trump himself.”
… “The arrangement would be an unprecedented use of taxpayer dollars with little oversight. Under the terms of the potential settlement agreement, Trump would have the authority to remove members of the commission running the fund without cause, and the commission would be under no obligation to disclose its procedures or decision-making process for awarding more than a billion dollars.”
… “The proposed creation of the compensation fund has led some admin officials to raise ethical concerns about the arrangement - stemming not only from Trump suing his own govt but also having control of an entity that can freely hand out $1.7 billion to his allies.”
… Rep. Jamie Raskin to Meidas: “It’s illegal, unconstitutional, and outrageous. Congress controls the spending of money from the federal govt, and we never voted to establish a $1.7 billion fund to pay off insurrectionists and his extremist private militias, and we would never spend money on that. So it needs to be blocked. It’s an absolute corruption and prostitution of the Judgment Fund.”
… AOC to Drop Site News: “It’s corruption. The judge basically said they wanted to dismiss the case, so they created this contrived settlement in order to enrich themselves.”
… Rep. Pete Aguilar to Meidas: “This shouldn’t surprise anybody. This is a guy who pardoned 1,500 insurrectionists, and now, as part of that commitment to them, he wants to give them a check. It’s terrible, but this is exactly who he is.”
… WSJ: “Boeing and Toyota donated $1 million each to help fund a new reality-television inspired show starring Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy with his family on a road trip. ‘The Great American Road Trip’ features the Duffys traveling throughout the US in a video series celebrating the country’s 250th birthday. Costs were covered by a nonprofit backed by big companies his agency oversees, including Boeing and Toyota.”
… WaPo columnist Drew Harwell: “The maker of jets that crashed and killed everyone onboard and the carmaker fined tens of millions for mishandled recalls have suddenly decided to sponsor their top regulator’s reality show purely for the love of the open road.”
… Trump concluded his embarrassing trip to China where he betrayed every campaign promise he made regarding China, signaled his willingness to sell out Taiwan for soybean contracts, and came across as a fawning fanboy of Xi Jinping. These were some of his comments to various people on his final day:
Hannity: “Do you think you made progress? If you’re not going to sign this big agreement after meeting for hours, do you feel the foundation was laid? Trump: Sure. This time is bigger than last time. They’re going to do a lot of soy beans from our farmers.”
On his campaign promise to force Chinese citizens to divest from US farmland holdings: “You want to see farm prices drop? If you want to see farmers lose a lot of money, take that out of the market.”
… Trump at a 2024 campaign rally in PA on Chinese buying US farmland: “You can’t do it. We don’t want you buying our land. We don’t want you taking the land off the market.”
On his campaign promise to “aggressively” reduce the number of Chinese student visas: “500,000 students—good students. I could tell them I don’t want any students. It’s a very insulting thing to say to a country. They would then immediately go out and start building universities all over China. If you want to see a university system die, take a half a million people out of it.” It’s a very insulting thing to tell a country, ‘we don’t want your people in our schools.’”
“Xi is going to order 200 jets from Boeing. I think it was a commitment. Sort of like a statement.”
… Boeing’s stock plummeted 4% on that announcement. That’s because China was expected to order 500 jets based on previous negotiations with the company. But Trump is trying to spin this as a win by him.
Trump walking through the garden with Xi at the Zhongnanhai compound to interpreter: “Ask the president - other prime ministers and presidents - does he bring them here?”
He wants to be a special boy so badly. He’s desperate for autocrats to love and respect him. Such a needy fragile child easily manipulated and rolled. And Xi brought Putin there, Barack Obama and others. But Trump wants to be able to say 1,000 times that Xi would only bring him there because of their “special relationship.”
“If Biden came to China, I don’t even think he would get a meeting with President Xi.”
On Xi: “If you went to Hollywood and looked for a leader of China to play a role in a movie. He’s Central Casting. He’s very tall—especially for this country. They tend to be a little bit shorter.”
Hannity: “People worry about China having nefarious intentions. Trump: Honestly, you know, they do things to us and we do things to them.”
Q: “What about the arms sales to Taiwan? Trump: I’ll make a determination over the next fairly short period. Q: You’re not necessarily gonna go ahead? It was your proposal. Trump: I’ll make a determination.”
Q: “Would the US defend Taiwan if it came to it? Trump: I don’t want to say. That question was asked to me today by President Xi. I said, ‘I don’t talk about it.’”
… Speaker Mike Johnson was asked about it: Q - “Should Trump have been more committal when it comes to Taiwan? Johnson: I’ve been really busy the last couple days, so I haven’t seen the exact readout on how that discussion went.”
On Iran’s new leadership: “I think they are actually much more reasonable in many ways. Smarter than the first tier and the second tier who are no longer with us.”
On retrieving enriched uranium in Iran: “I don’t think it’s necessary except from a public relations standpoint. I think it’s important for the fake news that we get it.”
Q: “You saw the reporting on Iran’s missile capability, missile launchers that have remained. Is that accurate? Trump: It’s NYT fake news. The missile launchers are probably 80% gone.”
… It was a report by US military intelligence.
To NYT’s David Sanger: “I had a total military victory. But the fake news, guys like you, write incorrectly. You’re a fake guy. We had a total military victory. I actually think it’s sort of treasonous what you write. You should be ashamed of yourself. I actually think it’s treason.”
… Iran Foreign Minister Araghchi: “If they want to go back to war, it’s up to them. They have tested us. They can test us again. But the result will not be any different.”
Q: “Who are you going to endorse in the Texas Senate race? Trump: I’m looking at it. I think the Democrats have a weird, weird candidate. 6 genders, a real hit on Jesus. This guy is bad news. He was a vegan.”
… Trump posted: “When President Xi very elegantly referred to the US as perhaps being a declining nation, he was referring to the tremendous damage we suffered during the 4 years of Sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden Admin, and on that score, he was 100% correct. Xi was not referring to the incredible rise that the US has displayed to the world during the 16 spectacular months of the Trump Admin.”
… Sure, dude. Xi is openly mocking Trump but he can’t accept that his autocratic hero denigrated his presidency so he has to impute Xi’s comment to Biden. Lame, but typical Trump.
… Conservative commentator Bonchie who writes for RedState.com: “I know the MAGA influencer accounts are busy posting fire emojis, but this China trip looks like a dud. We got a non-binding Boeing order, less than half its original size, and some vagaries about soy beans. China got profuse praise, concessions on trade, support for buying our farmland and 500,000 student visas, AI chips, and the softening of demands around Iran.”
… “Sorry, I can’t lie to you and tell you this was a good result. Scream at me if you must. Oh, yeah, we also gave in on not pledging to sell weapons to or defend Taiwan.”
… There were no women in either the US or Chinese delegations during the talks.
… CNN: “The health official who led the public response to the Hantavirus outbreak has little background in public health and previously was a penile implant specialist who hosted a podcast where he questioned the 2020 election and compared the Biden admin to Nazi Germany.”
… “Brian Christine, an Alabama urologist who was confirmed last year as Asst Secretary for Health once hosted a podcast called ‘Common Sense,’ where suggested George Soros and the World Economic Forum may have used the pandemic to shut down small businesses, urged listeners to watch the debunked election fraud film ‘2000 Mules,’ and said he opposed abortion even in case of rape or incest.”
Reminder there is no Bulletin tomorrow because I’m off Saturdays. We are going on a challenging hike in a very remote area in northern Maine way off the grid. Once we get there on long dirt roads the hike is 8 hours with 9 waterfalls so hopefully we survive it. If so, I will be back with the weekend Bulletin on Sunday.
If you missed the last Bulletin, you can find it here.
… Mike Johnson: “The president has declared Operation Epic Fury to have concluded, and now we’re working on the next project, which is getting the Strait of Hormuz open. We don’t expect that to be a warfare activity, so to speak. So we’ve got to allow the admin time to negotiate these things. I don’t think Congress needs to get in the way of the admin.”
… Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY): “I’m going to say this real slow for Mike Johnson: The Iranians control the Strait of Hormuz BECAUSE of Epic Fury. They have this leverage
