Three months into the beginning of Trump II, one prominent House Democrat is issuing a warning to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and other authoritarian leaders around the globe who may, in cozying up to President Trump, help facilitate America’s own decline into autocracy: this won’t last forever.
It’s a bleak but practical message as Democrats seize on the moment to protest the Trump administration’s rejection of due process and judicial order in carrying out Trump’s mass deportation agenda. Up until this moment, Democrats have struggled to effectively raise hell over Trump’s lawless first few months back in the White House as his billionaire pal goes on a rampage through the federal government and elected Republicans do everything they can to cede their checks on the executive branch.
Rep. Jame Raskin (D-MD) is one of a few Democrats in his state who is aggressively countering the Trump administration as it refuses to take steps to return Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is married to a U.S. citizen and whom the Trump administration admitted, under oath, that it had wrongfully deported to El Salvador. The Trump administration has refused to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, despite a Supreme Court unsigned opinion earlier this month that ordered the White House to do just that.
Since then, Bukele and Trump have both, in dark theatrics, washed their hands of the situation, with the Trump administration claiming it cannot tell El Salvador what to do and Bukele claiming that returning Abrego Garcia to the U.S. without an order from the Trump administration would be equivalent to “smuggling.” It’s little more of a gesture of good will between the two ambitious yet sorta still wannabe dictators (both of whom have described themselves as such).
“President Bukele, who’s declared himself a dictator, and the other tyrants, dictators, autocrats of the world have to understand that the Trump administration is not going to last forever,” Raskin said during an interview with MSNBC’s Jen Psaki Sunday. “We’re going to restore strong democracy to America, and we will remember who stood up for democracy in America and who tried to drive us down towards dictatorship and autocracy. So I’m glad that Chris Van Hollen showed exactly where America is. And we’re not afraid of any dictator anywhere.”
Hegseth Fallout Continues
After the New York Times reported this weekend that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared secret information about the Yemen attack in yet another Signal group chat, backlash over Hegseth’s ability to lead the Pentagon continued to unfold on Monday, in increasingly contradictory ways. A sampling of headlines:
- ‘Politico: An amateur person’: GOP Rep. Bacon says Hegseth should go
- NPR: The White House is looking to replace Pete Hegseth as defense secretary
- Fox News: Leavitt skewers NPR for ‘fake news’ report claiming Trump is seeking new Secretary of Defense
- Reuters: ‘Disruptor’ Hegseth’s unsettled Pentagon starts turning against him
- Hegseth could ‘implode on his own’ even as Trump sticks by him
Leadership Would Rather Not Talk About It
In another sign that they’re aware of how deeply unpopular their planned cuts to the social safety net will be, House GOP leadership reportedly privately told members of the Republican conference to avoid drawing public red lines over Medicaid cuts that will be included in the upcoming reconciliation package, Punchbowl reports.
House Republicans’ budget resolution of course directs the House Energy & Commerce Committee to find $880 billion in cuts, most of which will have to come from Medicaid, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
But House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and the rest of leadership — who have made intentionally vague promises that only amorphous “waste, fraud and abuse” will be cut out of the largely popular program — would rather do anything but talk about cuts to Medicaid. Especially when vulnerable Republicans, who are trying to save face with their constituents, are giving them a hard time.
That’s likely why the letter a dozen House Republicans sent to House GOP leadership and Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY) last week was vague, leaving the door open for their usual obfuscation around what “reforms” actually mean.
— Emine Yücel
DOJ Considers Reversing Navarro’s Conviction
The Department of Justice is considering whether or not to try to reverse trade adviser Peter Navarro’s 2023 conviction for criminal contempt of Congress, according to reporting from the Washington Post.
It’s the latest way in which Trump’s DOJ is working to reward MAGA allies and punish the President’s perceived political enemies.
Navarro was found guilty in September 2023 for ignoring subpoenas for records from the congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
In a Truth Social post from December of last year, after Navarro served his four-month prison sentence, Trump described Navarro as a “a man who was treated horribly by the Deep State.”
According to court filings from this month, reviewed by the Washington Post, Trump’s nominee for D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin asked the court to postpone oral arguments in the case “to enable the Department of Justice to reexamine its position on the executive-privilege issues implicated in this appeal.”
— Khaya Himmelman
In Case You Missed It
Newly Minted DOJ Employee Michael Caputo Keeps Posting ‘Antifa’ Death Fantasies Online
Trump Admin Ends Up In Odd Position Of Defending ACA Against Attempt To Slash Free Services
SCOTUS Freezes Alien Enemy Removals In Rare, Urgent, Late-Night Order
SCOTUS Has No One To Blame But Itself For Alien Enemies Act Mess
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
Rampin’ Up, Baby! That Thiel Start Up Hunting the Motherlode Contract is Inside Treasury
What We Are Reading
Trump May Soon Offer a Motherhood Medal, an Idea Popularized in Nazi Germany
Harvard Sues Trump Administration Over $2.2 Billion Funding Freeze
I just want to know how J.D. Vance killed the Pope. Polonium? A confession about the couch-fucking? We need to know now.
“Democrats Warn Bukele and Other Autocrats”
Yeah, now watch the Republicans squeal about “politics stops at the water’s edge” and “you don’t make Foreign Policy – that’s up to The President!” … Or up to any random Republican on the street. Them’s the rulez.
Trump lets slip the fact he doesn’t believe in due process for those he seeks to kick out:
Bukele is a fool to keep going along with Trump. The next Democratic president is likely to treat him as the war criminal he is.
I know everyone has to wax eloquent about the late Pope. If I see an article about it written by someone named Francis X. something I know it’s from a catholic author. Pope Francis has passed and in the next few days he will be lauded as some kind of transformative figure. Most young people brought up as Catholic will not return to the Church in their lifetime. The various scandals, especially, the abuse of kids will not go away. The fact that he did little to address it remain.