Trump spends weekend in full dictator mode—plus golf

President Donald Trump thrust the country even further into a constitutional crisis over the weekend with a series of blatantly illegal actions that left legal scholars sounding alarm bells about the future of the United States.

Not only has Trump declared speech he doesn’t like to be illegal, he is even ignoring court orders as part of his deportation quest.

“Court order defied. First of many as I've been warning and start of true constitutional crisis,” Mark Zaid, a lawyer whom Trump targeted by removing his security clearance, wrote in a post on X. 

Zaid also predicted that the actions Trump took this weekend “[u]ltimately will lead to Trump impeachment proceedings” if Democrats win control of Congress.

Trump began his past weekend by baselessly accusing media outlets that do not publish universally positive news about him of engaging in unlawful activity, saying in a nakedly partisan speech at the Department of Justice on Friday, “It’s totally illegal what they do. I just hope you can all watch for it, but it’s totally illegal." 

President Donald Trump waves from the stairs of Air Force One upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on. March 17, 2025

On the same day, Trump signed an executive order targeting the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, revoking security clearances of lawyers who work at the firm, and saying he will cancel the contracts of any companies or entities that are represented by the law firm’s attorneys. 

He targeted this law firm because it hired a prosecutor who worked on former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Russia. Trump also targeted the firm because it employed a lawyer who worked at the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which successfully prosecuted Trump for falsifying business records.

Trump had already targeted two other large law firms—Perkins Coie and Covington & Burling—for similar reasons, all an attempt to try to scare lawyers out of representing people or causes Trump doesn’t like.

When Trump issued the new executive order against Paul, Weiss, a federal judge had already blocked part of Trump’s order against Perkins Coie, whose lawyers Trump tried to ban from federal buildings. U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell accused the Trump administration of illegally retaliating against the firm, which she said “sends little chills down my spine,” The Washington Post reported.

Not content with that illegality, Trump also effectively axed seven federal agencies created and funded by Congress, including the government-funded media outlet Voice of America. It was the latest time Trump ignored Congress’ directives by making the unilateral decision to cancel congressionally appropriated spending—many of which have already been overturned by federal judges. 

On Saturday, Trump invoked an 18th century law that the United States once used to shamefully lock up Japanese-Americans in internment camps during World War II, using it to justify deporting immigrants without due process.

Trump declared that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a foreign terrorist organization and an invading force, and used the Alien Enemies Act of 1798—which allows for noncitizens to be deported without due process if the president declares that the U.S. is at war—to say that anyone he deems a member of Tren de Aragua will be subject to “immediate apprehension, detention, and removal, and further that they shall not be permitted residence in the United States.”

“The United States is not at war, nor has it been invaded. The president’s anticipated invocation of wartime authority—which is not needed to conduct lawful immigration enforcement operations—is the latest step in an accelerating authoritarian playbook,” Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman, whose organization sued the Trump administration over the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, said in a news release. 

“From improperly apprehending American citizens, to violating the ability of communities to peacefully worship, to now improperly trying to invoke a law that is responsible for some of our nation’s most shameful actions, this administration’s immigration agenda is as lawless as it is harmful,” she continued.

In this photo provided by El Salvador's presidential press office, prison guards transfer deportees from the U.S., alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador on March 16, 2025.

Trump put more than 230 Venezuelans he accused of being Tren de Aragua members on a plane and sent them to a violent prison in El Salvador, where thousands of men are housed in cramped cells and are never allowed outdoors. It’s unclear if any of the men on the plane were actually members of the gang, with one lawyer for one of the deported immigrants saying that his client had been wrongfully labeled a gang member because of misinterpreted tattoos, The New York Times reported

Trump sent the immigrants to El Salvador despite a judge ordering him to turn the planes around and return the immigrants to the United States, a blatant violation of the separation of powers. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the administration did not follow the order because "[a] single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil." 

Even more disturbing is that the Trump administration then posted a propaganda video to his Truth Social profile. The video depicts the deportations, with masked jail officials mistreating the Venezuelans whom Trump sent to El Salvador, possibly never to be seen again.

And on Sunday, Trump took his lawlessness to new heights when he ridiculously declared in a batshit-crazy Truth Social post that pardons former President Joe Biden issued to members of Congress on the now-defunct committee that probed the Capitol insurrection are "VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT."

Trump said Biden’s pardons of the members of Congress are void because he baselessly claimed that Biden did not know that the pardons were issued. He appears to have based this new conspiracy theory off an article in the right-wing New York Post, which said that a “key aide” to Biden determined which orders he would sign and which would be signed by autopen.

However, from the Post’s own report:

One Biden White House source told The Post they suspect that a key aide to the then-president may have made unilateral determinations on what to auto-sign. The Post is not publishing that staffer’s name due to the lack of concrete evidence and refutations by other colleagues.

Meanwhile, as the United States delved deeper into authoritarianism, Trump was more concerned with his favorite pastime: golf.

In a move taken straight from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s playbook, Trump congratulated himself for winning a golf championship at one of his shitty golf properties in Florida, writing in a Truth Social post: "Such a great honor! The Awards dinner is tonight, at the Club. I want to thank the wonderful Golf Staff, and all of the many fantastic golfers, that participated in the even. Such fun!"

We are in seriously dark times.  

Thank you to the Daily Kos community who continues to fight so hard with Daily Kos. Your reader support means everything. We will continue to have you covered and keep you informed, so please donate just $3 to help support the work we do.

This state wants to brainwash kids about Trump’s 2020 election lie

Oklahoma's Department of Education, led by far-right Superintendent Ryan Walters, tried to sneak a provision into the state's social studies curriculum that would force teachers to teach students that there were "discrepancies" in the 2020 presidential election, the Oklahoma Voice reported on Friday.

President Donald Trump and the Republican Party have been lying for years that the 2020 election was stolen from Dear Leader. Republicans have made baseless allegations of fraud they’ve never provided any evidence for, election deniers have run for office explicitly on the platform of making sure future elections aren’t “stolen,” and Trump himself has led a successful purge of GOP lawmakers who dared admit that he was wrong for saying the election was stolen and inciting an insurrection over it. 

But the move by the state’s Education Department takes that lie to the next level, forcing it into the school’s curriculum so that impressionable kids view the Big Lie as canon, rather than being taught the actual history that Trump and his GOP defenders lied about fraud and incited a riot to help Trump remain in power despite his defeat

An election board inspector Pat Cook readies "I Voted" stickers for voters during early voting in Oklahoma City on Oct. 29, 2010.

According to the Oklahoma Voice, the new curriculum would make high school students “identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results,” including “sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters and the unprecedented contradiction of ‘bellwether county’ trends.”

The Oklahoma Voice reported that Walters absurdly claimed that the new curriculum is “not set up to either support or negate a specific outcome in the 2020 Presidential Election.”

“Our standards are designed to teach students how to investigate and calculate the specific details surrounding that (or any) election,” Walters said in a statement to the outlet. “In order to oppose or support the outcome, a well rounded student should be able to make their own conclusions using publicly available data and details.”

However, even putting the idea into kids’ heads that there were “discrepancies” in the 2020 election is a disgusting distortion of the truth and history. 

The only thing students should be taught is that Trump and his GOP defenders lied about fraud in order to explain away his loss and to spur an uprising to help keep him in office.

The new curriculum is not yet in place. According to the Oklahoma Voice, the Oklahoma Legislature has 30 legislative days to either approve or reject the change.

"If they do nothing, the proposal would take effect as written, according to state law. Gov. Kevin Stitt would have veto power if a legislative resolution lands on his desk. The current social studies standards remain in effect until new standards are approved," the Oklahoma Voice reported.

But the Oklahoma Voice reported that GOP leaders in the Legislature aren’t objecting to the new curriculum.

Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters prays on behalf of Donald Trump in a video that his administration requested in November 2024 that state schools play for students.

“As far as what’s in that curriculum, I have not looked at it yet, and so we’ll circle back and look at it and see exactly what it says,” Senate Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton said, according to the Oklahoma Voice. “But that is history. We can always talk about what happened in 2020 and why people felt like they were disenfranchised and also talk about what was good about it, what was bad about it but it’s all part of the discussion.”

Walters has a long history of using the state’s school system to pander to Trump.

In November, Walters tried to force schools to show a video in which he criticized the “radical left” and “woke teachers’ unions,” and asked students to pray for Trump—a blatant violation of the separation of church and state. 

And in another violation of the separation of church and state, Walters also tried to purchase 55,000 Bibles for Oklahoma schools, and ensure that one of the Bibles the state could purchase was the Bible that Trump endorsed and profited off of. On Monday, the Oklahoma State Supreme Court blocked Walters from being able to purchase the books.   

Thank you to the Daily Kos community who continues to fight so hard with Daily Kos. Your reader support means everything. We will continue to have you covered and keep you informed, so please donate just $3 to help support the work we do.

Trump cuts off military aid to Ukraine—just like Putin wants

President Donald Trump on Monday once again came to the aid of murderous Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, cutting off over $1 billion in military aid the United States was set to provide Ukraine to help the country beat back Russia's violent invasion.

Trump halted the aid even though the money had been appropriated by Congress—adding to the trend of him ignoring Congress' power of the purse.

Trump's move unequivocally benefits Putin, whose incursion into Ukraine threatens all of Europe.

Ukrainian servicemen collect damaged ammunition on the road at the front line near Chasiv Yar town, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, on Jan. 10, 2025.

“I feel betrayed, but this feeling is not really deep for some reason. I was expecting something like that from Trump’s side,” a Ukrainian soldier fighting in Russia’s Kursk region told the Associated Press of Trump’s aid pause.

Trump paused the aid because he is angry at Ukraine for not rolling over and letting Putin take over its land, which is what Trump has been advocating for in his demand for "peace." 

His rage at Ukraine took an ugly turn on Friday, when Trump berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. Trump paused the aid because he wants Zelenskyy to apologize for the Oval Office spat, even though it was Trump and Vice President JD Vance who were the instigators.

But abandoning Ukraine and helping Russia could be politically disastrous for Trump, according to a new poll conducted by Civiqs for Daily Kos.

While Trump has blamed Ukraine for starting the war, the poll found an overwhelming 76% of registered voters say Russia is responsible for starting the conflict. Even a majority of Republicans (62%) say Russia is responsible for starting the war.

What's more, a plurality of voters (49%) say that it’s "very important" for the security of the U.S. that Ukraine wins the war, with another 13% saying it's “better” for Ukraine to win. Only 1% of voters think it's important for U.S. security that Russia wins.

Russia, meanwhile, is cheering Trump’s moves, a sign they feel his decisions are helping them in the conflict. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov even said that Trump’s decisions “largely coincides with our vision.”

Democrats are slamming Trump for ignoring Congress and siding with Putin over an American ally.

"This is *illegal,*" Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania wrote in a post on X of Trump's pause on aid to Ukraine. "Congress appropriated these funds to support our allies in Ukraine who are fighting for their lives[.] Every dollar of aid must be released immediately. Trump’s disrespect for the rule of law is disgraceful and un-American."

Others sought to remind Americans that it's not the first time Trump has paused aid to Ukraine.

In fact, Trump paused military assistance to Ukraine in his first term, after the country refused to follow his orders to launch a politically motivated investigation into then-presidential candidate Joe Biden. That pause is what led to Trump’s first impeachment.

Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California

"Some of us remember the last time Trump paused aid to Ukraine ..." Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California, who ran the first impeachment effort against Trump, wrote in a post on X.

However, Republicans are cheering Trump for cutting off aid.

"By cutting military aid to Ukraine, President Trump is driving a knife right through the foreign policy UniParty. We should all be thankful for that," Rep. Brandon Gill, Republican of Texas, wrote in a post on X.

The Republican response is angering Democrats, who are not optimistic that GOP leaders will push Trump to do the right thing and assist Ukraine in its existential battle.

"Let's remember—congressional Republicans held up Ukraine aid for over six months, allowed for Russia to go on the offensive. So even before Donald Trump was president, congressional Republicans were not doing the things necessary to support the most vital fight in defense of democracy in the world today," Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said in an appearance on MSNBC. "So I'm just gonna be honest with you—I don't have a lot of faith that Republicans are gonna do anything except just offer some mild criticism of Vladimir Putin."

Murphy added, “We’re going to need for them at some point to support additional defensive aid for Ukraine—more weapons, more economic aid—and they weren’t willing to do that before Donald Trump was president, I’m not sure why they’d be willing to do it now, when Donald Trump is literally taking Russia’s side in this conflict.”

Thank you to the Daily Kos community who continues to fight so hard with Daily Kos. Your reader support means everything. We will continue to have you covered and keep you informed, so please donate just $3 to help support the work we do.

McConnell announces he’s done taking a dump all over democracy

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the former Senate Republican leader who is in large part responsible for helping destroy American democracy, will announce on Thursday that he is not running for reelection, the Associated Press reported

“Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate,” McConnell will say in a speech on the Senate floor, according to prepared remarks obtained by the AP. “Every day in between I’ve been humbled by the trust they’ve placed in me to do their business here. Representing our commonwealth has been the honor of a lifetime. I will not seek this honor an eighth time. My current term in the Senate will be my last.”

It’s hard to pinpoint the worst things McConnell has done in office, because he’s done so many horrendous things. McConnell is responsible for breaking the Senate, weaponizing the filibuster to keep legislation from passing.

He is also responsible for stealing not one but two Supreme Court seats from Democratic presidents. In 2016, McConnell gleefully blocked former President Barack Obama from being able to fill the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, refusing to give Obama’s nominee a hearing, let alone a vote on the Senate floor because he said it was too close to an election. Then in 2020, he conveniently said that rule no longer applied when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, confirming Donald Trump’s pick to fill Ginsburg’s seat just eight days before the 2020 election.

It wasn’t just the Supreme Court that he helped stack. McConnell blocked dozens of Obama’s lower court nominees, holding those seats vacant so that Trump could fill the seats after he was elected. And he shepherded through Trump’s judicial nominees, including ones that were blatantly unqualified.

Even more galling is that when Trump won a second term in November, McConnell then cried foul when federal judges decided to no longer retire to keep Trump from choosing their replacements, accusing them of playing politics with the judiciary.

Trump and McConnell

“They rolled the dice that a Democrat could replace them, and now that he won’t, they’re changing their plans to keep a Republican from doing it,” McConnell, the master of playing politics with the judiciary, said in a speech on the Senate floor.

McConnell stepped down from GOP Senate leadership in 2024, saying it was time to pass the torch.

“One of life’s most underappreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter,” McConnell said in February 2024. “So I stand before you today ... to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.”

Since then, he’s seemingly found his spine, criticizing Trump’s worst impulses and voting against Trump’s unqualified and dangerous Cabinet nominees, including now-Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and now-Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Yet McConnell voted for Trump in 2024, even though he thought Trump was, in his own words, a “stupid … narcissist.”

And Trump wouldn’t even be in the Oval Office now if McConnell had done the right thing in Trump’s 2021 impeachment and voted to convict Trump of inciting the insurrection at the Capitol and bar him from running for the presidency again. 

McConnell believed Trump was responsible for the attack, saying that the insurrectionists, “were provoked by the president and other powerful people, and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like.”

But McConnell voted against convicting Trump, and did not work to convince other Republican senators to vote to ban Trump from seeking federal office in the future.

Ultimately, McConnell has been a menace in American politics. He will not be missed.

Thank you to the Daily Kos community who continues to fight so hard with Daily Kos. Your reader support means everything. We will continue to have you covered and keep you informed, so please donate just $3 to help support the work we do.

Check out the GOP’s pathetic excuses for Trump’s lawlessness this week

Another week of Donald Trump's presidency is in the rearview. And like the two weeks before it, it was filled with lawless actions, lies, and ridiculous behavior that Republicans lined up to defend.

Trump threw Ukraine under the bus and appears likely to let murderous Russian dictator Vladimir Putin seize control of the sovereign nation. He also fired more independent watchdogs, let more corrupt politicians off the hook, slashed grants to medical research, and he even said he might ignore court rulings blocking his unlawful actions.

And like the pathetic lapdogs they are, Republicans defended every move.

After multiple federal judges of all ideological stripes blocked some of Trump’s executive actions, Republicans pushed the country further into a constitutional crisis by backing Trump when he suggested he’ll ignore those court orders and do whatever he wants.

“It seems hard to believe that a judge could say, ‘We don’t want you to do that.’ So maybe we have to look at the judges. ‘Cause I think that’s a very serious violation,” Trump said on Tuesday.

Trump likely got this idea from his own vice president, who wrote in an X post on Feb. 9 that judges shouldn’t be allowed to stop the president’s executive power. 

“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” he wrote.

And other Republicans agreed with the false statement that the courts are not allowed to check the president’s power—when that’s exactly what the Constitution dictates.

“Of course the branches have to respect our constitutional order but there’s a lot of game yet to be played. This will be appealed, we’ve got to go through the whole process, and we’ll get the final analysis. In the interim, I will say that I agree wholeheartedly with Vice President JD Vance, my friend, because he’s right,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said during a news conference on Tuesday.

Later that day, he said that the courts should back off of Trump altogether.

“I think that the courts should take a step back and allow these processes to play out. What we’re doing is good and right for the American people,” Johnson told reporters, specifically referring to the cuts co-President Elon Musk is trying to make with his fake agency, the Department of Government Efficiency.

Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah

"I don't believe judges, courts have the authority or power to stick their nose into the constitutional authority of the president,” Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said.

“These judges need to back off and get out of the way of what the executive branch is doing to administer the government,” Roy said on Fox News.

Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah also expressed agreement that courts don’t have the power to challenge Trump’s executive orders.

“These judges are waging an unprecedented assault on legitimate presidential authority, all the way down to dictating what webpages the government has. This is absurd,” he wrote on X.

Rep. Darrel Issa, Republican of California, claimed that “nowhere in our Constitution is a single federal judge given absolute power over the President or the people of the United States.”

But, of course, the Supreme Court ruled in the landmark 1803 Marbury v. Madison case that the judiciary has the power to declare laws or actions unconstitutional. 

On the other hand, Sen. Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota seemed to acknowledge that ignoring court orders is wrong, but he simply couldn’t bring himself to criticize Trump.

“I think what you're seeing right now is the natural give and take between branches of the government,” he said.

A handful of other Trump sycophants went a step further, saying that they would launch an impeachment effort against the judges who block Trump's actions.

“I’m drafting articles of impeachment for US District Judge Paul Engelmayer. Partisan judges abusing their positions is a threat to democracy. The left has done ‘irreparable harm’ to this country. President Trump and his team at @DOGE are trying to fix it,” Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona wrote on X, referring to the federal judge who blocked Musk from accessing Treasury data.

And Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia wrote on X that he is backing Crane’s efforts.

“The real constitutional crisis is taking place in our judicial branch. Activist judges are weaponizing their power in an attempt to block President Trump’s agenda and obstruct the will of the American people. [Crane] and I are leading the fight to stop this insanity,” he wrote.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia called for the impeachment of another federal judge who blocked Trump’s freeze on congressionally appropriated federal funds.

“This judge is a Trump deranged Democrat activist. Below is proof he is not capable of making good decisions from the bench. He should be impeached,” Greene wrote on X.

Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio backed those efforts, saying the judges blocking Trump’s actions “should be mocked and ignored while articles of impeachment are prepared.”

“These clowns are undermining every lower court, leaving the sole burden on SCOTUS. This is not sustainable. Sadly, excesses in judicial and executive authority are a symptom of the real problem: Congress keeps failing to take action. Time for #DeedsNotWords,” he wrote on X.

Meanwhile, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, once a fierce defender of watchdogs, was fine with Trump axing the inspector general of the U.S. Agency for International Development who said that Trump's unlawful shuttering of the agency let hundreds of millions of dollars worth of food aid go to waste. 

Grassley said that he "should have been fired," and gave Trump a workaround to make the firing legal. 

"I'm just trying to make the president's job easier," Grassley said, completely ditching his past watchdog advocacy to bow down to Trump.

Other GOP lawmakers chose Trump over their own constituents, who are being directly harmed by the president’s actions.

Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio said that Trump’s decision to drastically cut back National Institutes of Health funding for medical research institutions is a good thing, even though it would decimate institutions in his own state and beyond.

“Well, I think what happens is the president is exactly right. I think if you ask the average American if we were spending a billion dollars to cure childhood cancer, how much of the billion dollars would go towards during childhood cancer? They’d probably say a billion. The idea that 60% goes to indirect cost and overhead is insane. And so I applaud the president,” he told the Bulwark

And Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri said that Trump's funding freeze, which is hurting farmers who are not being paid for contracts, is just a "little bit disruptive."

“But that's what this administration promised whenever they were coming to Washington,” Smith said on CNN, “is that they would be disruptive.”

Rep. Jason Smith dismisses farmers in his state who are getting stiffed by the US government not fulfilling contracts: "Right now it's a little bit disruptive, but that's what this administration promised whenever they were coming to Washington is that they would be disruptive."

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-02-11T17:38:10.608Z

Thank you to the Daily Kos community who continues to fight so hard with Daily Kos. Your reader support means everything. We will continue to have you covered and keep you informed, so please donate just $3 to help support the work we do.

Republicans are back to playing dumb, as Trump does the unforgivable

Fearing the wrath of Dear Leader, congressional Republicans are either refusing to comment on Donald Trump's disgusting pardons of violent Capitol insurrection convicts, or are flat-out lying about what Trump actually did to avoid having to criticize his behavior.

Hours after being sworn in to his second term, Trump gave unconditional pardons to 1,550 people who either pleaded guilty to or were convicted of crimes related to their actions at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 

According to The New York Times:

The pardons and pending dismissals also covered more than 600 rioters were charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers at the Capitol, nearly 175 of whom were accused of doing so with deadly or dangerous weapons including baseball bats, two-by-fours, crutches, hockey sticks and broken wooden table legs.

Trump also commuted the sentences of members of right-wing militia groups the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who were convicted of seditious conspiracy for their roles in planning and encouraging violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021—leading to the release of those men from prison.

But multiple members of the House and Senate, including Republican congressional leaders, told reporters on Tuesday that they couldn’t make a judgement on the blanket pardons Trump issued because they haven't read up on them yet—the least believable lie on earth.

“I haven’t gone into the detail,” Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said.

SEN RICK SCOTT: “If you violate the law you should be prosecuted.” ABC: “What about those [Jan 6 rioters] who assaulted police officers and then were pardoned by the president?” SCOTT: “I haven’t gone into the detail.” pic.twitter.com/TlIU4sidCn

— Jay O'Brien (@jayobtv) January 21, 2025

“I don't know all the cases. I certainly don't want to pardon any violent actors. But there's a real miscarriage of justice here so I'm totally supportive of it,” Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin told Fox News reporter Chad Pergram, apparently unaware that Trump pardoned violent actors.

Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said he wouldn't be for pardoning the violent insurrectionists, but wouldn't comment because he "didn't see" if Trump did that.

Republican Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota knew that Trump issued pardons, but played dumb about what they entailed.

“My understanding, there was a range of actions that he took. And I guess I want to look and see what those are,” Hoeven said

Other lawmakers straight-up lied about the pardons, saying Trump issued them on a "case-by-case basis." 

“We’re not looking backwards, we’re looking forward,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told CNN’s Manu Raju, adding, “I think they were case-by-case.”

Meanwhile, a number of GOP lawmakers refused to comment at all on the pardons, or tried to shift the conversation to former President Joe Biden’s preemptive pardons of his family members, who were likely to be harassed by the Trump administration.

“Republican senators are physically shrugging when reporters ask them what they think of Trump pardoning January 6 defendants,” Haley Byrd Wilt, a Capitol Hill reporter for the nonprofit news outlet NOTUS, wrote in a post on X.

Former Sen. Marco Rubio, who is now Trump's secretary of state, said he wouldn't comment.

"I'm not going to engage in domestic political debates," Rubio told NBC News.

In another interview with CBS, Rubio refused to comment again, saying “I work for Trump.”

“You said the images of the attacks stirred up anger in you. You said the nation was embarrassed. How do you reconcile that with the pardons?” RUBIO: “I work for Trump.” pic.twitter.com/enD3dJQRwW

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) January 21, 2025

“I assume you're asking me about the Biden pardons of his family,” Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa told Semafor’s Burgess Everett—a ridiculous whataboutism. “I’m just talking about the Biden pardons, because that is so selfish.”

Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Jim Banks of Indiana also tried to pivot to talking about Biden’s pardons.

“You've seen President Biden's preemptive pardons. Pardons of his own family. The power presidential pardons is one granted to a president and there's really no role for the Congress … it's the president's prerogative,” Cornyn said.

The pardons go against what Trump's own vice president said just a few days ago that Trump would do. 

“If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned,” JD Vance said in a Jan. 11 appearance on “Fox News Sunday.” 

WATCH: @JDVance lays out President-elect Trump’s pardon process for January 6th participants. Tune in tomorrow for the rest of Shannon's exclusive interview with Vice President-elect JD Vance. pic.twitter.com/RvqXrL6rO3

— Fox News Sunday (@FoxNewsSunday) January 11, 2025

To be sure, a few Republicans criticized Trump.

“I’m disappointed to see that and I do fear the message that is sent to these great men and women that stood by us,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, one of the few Republicans who’s actually stood up to Trump in the past, said.

"Anybody who is convicted of assault on a police officer, I can't get there, at all. I think it was a bad idea," Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, said.

“Well I think I agree with the vice president,” Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told Semafor, referring to Vance’s belief that violent insurrectionists shouldn’t have been pardoned. “No one should excuse violence. And particularly violence against police officers.”

Of course, we don’t want to praise anyone for doing the bare minimum and speaking the truth about Trump’s awful actions.

And McConnell is largely to blame for the fact that these pardons took place at all, as he refused to convict Trump in the impeachment trial in January 2021, allowing Trump to run for president again.

Thank you to the Daily Kos community who continues to fight so hard with Daily Kos. Your reader support means everything. We will continue to have you covered and keep you informed, so please donate just $3 to help support the work we do.

Infamous Jew-hating racist Mel Gibson gets ‘special’ job from Trump

Donald Trump is appointing three washed-up actors to serve as "special ambassadors" to Hollywood, including the notoriously racist and antisemitic Mel Gibson.

"It is my honor to announce Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone, to be Special Ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California," Trump wrote in a Thursday post on Truth Social. "They will serve as Special Envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK—BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE! These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest. It will again be, like The United States of America itself, The Golden Age of Hollywood!"

Choosing Gibson to serve as whatever this is ... is certainly a choice.

In 2004, Gibson’s movie “The Passion of the Christ” was panned as antisemitic for depicting Jews as responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion. 

Then in 2006, Gibson went on an antisemitic tirade during a drunk driving arrest in Los Angeles.

According to a police report, "Gibson blurted out a barrage of anti-semitic remarks about 'fucking Jews'. Gibson yelled out: 'The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.' Gibson then asked: 'Are you a Jew?'"

Gibson later apologized, saying, “I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot. Hatred of any kind goes against my faith.” 

But as the saying goes: in vino veritas

Then in 2010, audio tapes were released in which Gibson was heard verbally abusing Oksana Grigorieva, his then-girlfriend and the mother of one of his children.

"You look like a fucking pig in heat, and if you get raped by a pack of [N-words], it will be your fault," he screamed at her. Gibson also threatened her, saying on tape, "I am going to come and burn the fucking house down ... but you will blow me first."

That Trump would choose someone so vile to serve his administration in any capacity at all is despicable.

But it’s also random.

Maybe Trump thought of the “Mad Max” for this ridiculous made-up role because he saw Gibson’s Jan. 10 appearance on Fox News, where he spread paranoid theories about the raging wildfires in Southern California.

“I can make all kinds of horrible theories up in my head, conspiracy theories and everything else,” Gibson told fellow bigot Laura Ingraham. “But it just seemed a little convenient that there was no water, and that the wind conditions were right and that there were people ready and willing and able to start fires, and are they commissioned to do so or are they just acting on their own volition?”

Gibson: I can make all kinds of horrible theories up in my head… But, it just seemed a little convenient that there was no water… and that the wind conditions were right and that there were people ready and willing and able to start fires and are they commissioned to do so.. pic.twitter.com/1x2iZUBdub

— Acyn (@Acyn) January 11, 2025

Gibson also appeared on podcast bro Joe Rogan’s show, where he claimed to know people with Stage 4 cancer who were cured after taking ivermectin, the horse deworming pill COVID deniers are bizarrely obsessed with. Ivermectin does not cure cancer

In a karmic twist, Gibson later revealed that his Malibu home was burning down while he was yakking it up with Rogan in Texas.

As for the other two men Trump appointed as “special” ambassadors, Voight is a vocal right-winger who has long backed Trump and bizarrely called for President Joe Biden’s impeachment. And Stallone has also emerged as a MAGA minion, ridiculously comparing Trump to George Washington

Appointing these three clowns to somehow tell Trump how to fix Hollywood feels more like the latest attack on California from the notoriously fame-hungry incoming president.

Trump has spent the past week spreading disinformation about the deadly wildfires that have ravaged homes and communities in the Los Angeles area. Even worse, Trump is threatening to withhold recovery funding from the state. 

Hey Trump—just leave the people in and around Hollywood alone for once. 

Donate now to support Southern California relief efforts

Elon Musk admits what we all knew: DOGE can’t cut $2 trillion

Donald Trump's co-president, Elon Musk, admitted on Wednesday that he probably can't cut $2 trillion from the federal budget as he had promised, running into the political reality everyone told him existed but that he refused to accept because he’s a billionaire who thinks he knows better than everyone else.

In an interview with Mark Penn, the contemptible political strategist who once backed Democrats but now has become a Trump defender, Musk said that his toothless Department of Government Efficiency advisory committee can probably cut only half of the original $2 billion he promised to slash.

"I think if we try for $2 trillion, we’ve got a good shot at getting $1 [trillion],” Musk said in the interview, which aired on Musk's disinformation platform X. “And if we can drop the budget deficit from $2 trillion to $1 trillion and free up the economy to have additional growth, such that the output of goods and services keeps pace with the increase in the money supply, then there will be no inflation. So that, I think, would be an epic outcome.”

When asked what specific things he'd cut, Musk offered nothing concrete.

“It’s a very target-rich environment for saving money. … It’s like being in a room full of targets—you could close your eyes and you can’t miss,” Musk said, a metaphor so stupid he almost sounds like his buddy Trump.

Experts always said Musk's $2 trillion goal was unattainable.

Elon Musk, left, and Donald Trump attend a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 5, 2024.

The entire federal budget in fiscal year 2024 was $6.75 trillion, with massive chunks of it spending that is either legally or politically impossible to cut, including Social Security, Medicare, defense spending, and debt service.

“Our federal budget is about $7 trillion a year. And I still think that they're talking about that $2 trillion number with serious purpose, that that's what they're looking at. And it would be unimaginable that we could find $2 trillion in savings out of seven in one year," Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonprofit Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told NPR in November.

Even finding $1 trillion in cuts, as Musk now says he can achieve, will be extremely hard.

Of the discretionary spending Congress appropriates each year, more than half goes toward national defense, while “the rest to fund the administration of other agencies and programs,” according to the Treasury Department. “These programs range from transportation, education, housing, and social service programs, as well as science and environmental organizations.”

According to an analysis from the CRFB, “in order to achieve balance within a decade, all spending would need to be cut by roughly one-quarter and that the necessary cuts would grow to 85% if defense, veterans, Social Security, and Medicare spending were off the table.”

What’s more, Musk admitted in October that slashing the budget would require "hardship" for the American people. And given that members of Congress are accountable to voters, they are unlikely to slash spending for programs that their constituents could punish them for.

This isn't the first promise Musk and Trump are backtracking on after the 2024 election.

Trump recently admitted he probably can't bring grocery prices down—arguably the key reason Trump was elected in November. "It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard," Trump said in an interview with Time magazine.

The American people were sold a bag of goods that they'll never get.

You can help ensure that Daily Kos remains the paywall-free home for our shared fight for democracy and justice. Daily Kos is supported by readers like you. Can you chip in today?

McConnell’s still whining about Trump—even though he voted for him

Outgoing Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell once again sat for an interview in which he crapped all over Donald Trump, warning that the president-elect’s foreign policy ideas pose a danger not only to the United States but to the whole world.

In an interview with the Financial Times, McConnell said Trump and the Republican Party's isolationist views are a threat, as “the cost of deterrence is considerably less than the cost of war."

“To most American voters, I think the simple answer is, ‘Let’s stay out of it.’ That was the argument made in the ’30s and that just won’t work,” McConnell told the Financial Times. “Thanks to [Ronald] Reagan, we know what does work—not just saying peace through strength, but demonstrating it.”

Yet in that very same interview, McConnell admitted that he voted for Trump anyway.

“I supported the ticket,” McConnell said, refusing to even utter Trump's name.

What’s more, McConnell declined to say whether he should have done more to stop Trump from becoming president for the second time. McConnell had the chance to prevent Trump from running for president again during the Senate impeachment trial over Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021. McConnell voted to acquit Trump, even though he said Trump was responsible for the insurrection at the Capitol that sought to overturn the free and fair election of Joe Biden.

It's not the first time McConnell has spoken ill of Trump. In October, excerpts from a McConnell biography were released in which McConnell called Trump “stupid,” a “narcissist,” and a “despicable human being." 

Yet despite thinking Trump is an awful person, McConnell endorsed Trump's 2024 comeback as he made those same attacks against the leader of the Republican Party.

“It is abundantly clear that former President Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee for President of the United States. It should come as no surprise that as nominee, he will have my support," McConnell said in March.

But McConnell's hypocrisy is not a surprise. Earlier in December, McConnell accused federal judges of playing politics by reneging on their decisions to retire in order to prevent Trump from choosing their replacements. But McConnell wrote the book on playing politics with the courts, as he stole a Supreme Court seat from former President Barack Obama, as well as a number of other judicial seats on lower courts. 

He also blocked a bicameral commission to probe the Jan. 6 insurrection, even though he believed Trump was responsible for the riot that led to the assault of more than 140 law enforcement officers.

While McConnell won’t be part of Senate GOP leadership next year, he is sticking around Capitol Hill. He claimed to the Financial Times that without the constraints of being in leadership, he will now push back on Trump and his own party’s isolationist policies.

“No matter who got elected president, I think it was going to require significant pushback, yeah, and I intend to be one of the pushers,” McConnell said.

But given that he’s always capitulated to Trump, color us skeptical. 

Campaign Action

Senate leader vote could indicate troubles ahead for Trump and MAGA

Rick Scott of Florida was ousted from the race for Senate Republican leader on Wednesday, losing on the first ballot of the race to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Scott garnered just 13 votes from the 51 Republicans voting in the first round.

His poor performance came even as Scott had the endorsement of MAGA loyalists, including Elon Musk, the freak right-wing billionaire who is acting as a sort of shadow president-elect. And let’s not forget MAGA media personalities like racist 9/11 truther Laura Loomer, Russia apologist Tucker Carlsonbigot and misogynist Charlie Kirk, and plagiarist and Russia's useful idiot Benny Johnson.

“Rick Scott for Senate Majority Leader!” Musk wrote in a post on X, after Scott endorsed Trump’s demand to allow him to make recess appointments for his administration to bypass the Senate’s advice and consent role.

“Rick Scott of Florida is the only candidate who agrees with Donald Trump,” Carlson wrote in a post on X. “Call your senator and demand a public endorsement of Rick Scott."

"A vote for Rick Scott is a vote to END the anti-Trump rot of Mitch McConnell in the US Senate,” Johnson said on X. “Thune and Cornyn are a continuation of McConnell's total failure."

Those endorsements led Trump supporters to flood the phone lines of Senate Republicans, demanding that GOP senators vote for Scott in the leader race.

Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, one of the dumbest senators in history and a Scott supporter, said his office "phone has been ringing off the wall” from MAGA faithful who wanted Scott as leader.

But Scott, who was cocky in the run-up to the vote declaring that he was going to win, couldn't translate that into a victory among Senate Republicans. 

Republicans instead chose Sen. John Thune, the South Dakota Republican who currently serves as minority whip.

Thune won on the second ballot over Sen. John Cornyn of Texas by a vote of 29 to 24, Punchbowl News’ John Bresnahan reported.

Of the three men running, Thune has the rockiest relationship with Trump. Thune slammed Trump after the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021—though Thune ultimately voted against convicting Trump in the second impeachment trial for inciting insurrection. 

“What former President Trump did to undermine faith in our election system and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power is inexcusable,” Thune said at the time.

Trump was so angry at him for that remark that Trump called on Thune to face a primary, though he easily beat it back. The Wall Street Journal, however, reported in October that Thune has since been working to mend his relationship with Trump.

MAGA world is already threatening Thune to jump when Trump asks.

Kirk wrote on X: “John Thune is Senate Majority Leader. He has a short window to show us he will support President Trump, fill his cabinet, confirm his judges, and pass his agenda. If he does, we will support him. If he doesn't, we will work to remove him.”

Thune now replaces noxious Kentucky Republican McConnell, who announced in February he was stepping down from his leadership role but not the Senate itself.

McConnell is largely responsible for obliterating norms in Washington. He helped Republicans steal two Supreme Court seats from Democrats as well as a number of other federal judgeships he held vacant when Barack Obama was in office. He also used the filibuster to obstruct at a historic level and squandered the opportunity to rid the country of Trump when he refused to convict him in the Jan. 6 impeachment trial, among other things.

Campaign Action