Roughly a week after Donald Trump started his second term as president, the U.S. military issued an order to three freight airlines operating out of Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and a U.S. base in Qatar: Stop 11 flights loaded with artillery shells and other weaponry and bound for Ukraine.
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 U.S. 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 White House, the Pentagon and the State Department — couldn’t provide answers. Within one week, flights were back in the air.
The verbal order originated from the office of Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, according to TRANSCOM records reviewed by Reuters. A TRANSCOM spokesperson said the command received the order via the Pentagon’s Joint Staff.
The cancelations came after Trump wrapped up a January 30 Oval Office meeting about Ukraine that included Hegseth and other top national security officials, according to three sources familiar with the situation. During the meeting, the idea of stopping Ukraine aid came up, said two people with knowledge of the meeting, but the president issued no instruction to stop aid to Ukraine.
The president was unaware of Hegseth’s order, as were other top national security officials in the meeting, according to two sources briefed on the private White House discussions and another with direct knowledge of the matter.
Asked to comment on this report, the White House told Reuters that Hegseth had followed a directive from Trump to pause aid to Ukraine, which it said was the administration’s position at the time. It did not explain why, according to those who spoke to Reuters, top national security officials in the normal decision making process didn’t know about the order or why it was so swiftly reversed.
He clearly did that completely on his own.
We’re lucky he didn’t start a war. It easily could have happened. And if you ever wondered if Hegseth would carry out an unlawful Trump order or back a dangerous escalation without question, we have our answer. In fact, after reading this we have to worry that either one of them might do that.
Dr. Strangelove really was prophetic. Without the laughs.
I don’t care how strong you are, just sitting there listening to this monstrous gibberish diminishes you.
Trump to Carney: "You see the new and improved Oval Office. As it becomes more and more beautiful with love and 24 karat gold. That always helps too." pic.twitter.com/0ERlJvqmbN
Trump: "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." pic.twitter.com/bwpl6YGbqE
Trump: "President Obama — and if he wanted help I'd give him help because I'm a really good builder — he's building his library in Chicago, and it's a disaster. And he said something to the effect of 'I only want DEI. I only want woke.' He wants woke people to build it. Well,… pic.twitter.com/cMpNKAlZwE
Trump: "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… pic.twitter.com/I4VWuhJOkj
Carney to Trump: "There are some places that are never for sale … 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." pic.twitter.com/B9zVjwGPa7
It’s embarrassing for every American that Carney even had to answer that. But I honestly hated to hear him flatter Trump early in the meeting, calling him “transformational.” I guess you have to do that — it’s just words — but it made me sick to hear it.
No altering “the rules of an election after the fact“
Good news from the laboratory of autocracy known as the Tar Heel State. A federal judge (and Trump appointee) has declared yet another GOP-led effort to disenfranchize voters unconstitutional (Democracy Docket):
In a victory for voters, a federal court has halted Republican Judge Jefferson Griffin’s efforts to overturn an election and disenfranchise thousands of voters. A federal judge has ordered the state to certify Democratic Justice Allison Riggs’ victory.
The decision comes exactly six months after Election Day and was handed down by a judge appointed by President Donald Trump.
“Today, we won,” Justice Riggs said in a statement following the ruling. “I’m proud to continue upholding the Constitution and the rule of law as North Carolina’s Supreme Court Justice.”
Riggs defeated Griffin by 734 votes, a figure that stands up after two recounts.
Griffin tried to disqualify ballots from overseas military voters and U.S. citizens born abroad who voted under long-standing state law. The North Carolina Supreme Court and North Carolina Court of Appeals initially ruled that those voters must cure their ballots by providing photo ID after the fact, or their votes would not count. The federal court has now ruled that changing the rules after the election was unconstitutional.
Judge Richard E. Myers II, a Trump appointee, ruled that the process violated equal protection because it treated some voters differently than others in the same situation.
“The cure process offends equal protection principles because it treats overseas military and civilian voters casting ballots in certain counties differently than others who are identically situated,” the court ruled, finding the process to be “inconsistent with the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment” and therefore could not proceed.
The court has ordered North Carolina to finalize the results based on the original vote count, securing Justice Riggs’ seat on the State Supreme Court.
The Griffin campaign has told a reporter it is “reviewing the order and evaluating next steps.”
“Permitting parties to ”upend the set rules” of an election after the election has taken place can only produce “confusion and turmoil [which] threatens to undermine public confidence in the federal courts, state agencies, and the elections themselves,” the judge ruled.
How long before we hear GOP calls for the impeachment of Judge Meyers?
The ruling is on hold for seven days to give Griffin time to file an appeal (more time than the Trump administration gives its abductees).
Rick Hasen (Election Law Blog) quotes the court’s key finding:
The court concludes that the retroactive invalidation of absentee ballots cast by overseas military and civilian voters violates their substantive due process rights, and that the cure process violates their equal protection rights. The court further concludes that the lack of any cure process for individuals erroneously designated as Never Residents violates their procedural due process rights and represents an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote. Based on those conclusions, the State Board may not implement the stated cure process or “remove” the votes of all Never Residents “from the final count of the 2024 election for Supreme Court Seat 6.”
But this isn’t over yet. A couple of wrinkles (WRAL):
Griffin’s legal team was reviewing Myers’ order Monday night and evalulating [sic] the next steps, according to Paul Shumaker, a spokesman for the Griffin campaign.
A spokesman for the state elections board declined to comment. The board has strenuously opposed Griffin’s efforts to throw out the votes, accusing him of undermining basic democratic principals [sic], but it’s now undergoing its own political upheaval. For most of Griffin’s challenge the five-member board had a 3-2 Democratic majority. But a separate court ruling last week handed control of the board over to Republicans, following a new law passed by Republican lawmakers last year.
It’s still unclear what posture the new GOP majority on the elections board will take toward this case, particularly if Griffin appeals and the case continues on in court. But its new leaders have scheduled a meeting Wednesday to discuss and possibly vote on legal matters, among other topics.
One of the new Republican Board members is former state Senator Bob Rucho. You’ll remember him (NC Newsline):
Rucho is a Matthews dentist and former state senator who, among other things, oversaw partisan gerrymandering as the chair of the Senate Elections Committee and helped shepherd the infamous 2013 “Monster Voting Law” through the Senate – a law whose voter ID provision, according to a federal court, sought to suppress the participation by Black voters with “surgical precision.”
Rucho’s new Board colleague is Francis X. Deluca, not as well known outside North Carolina:
Jane Mayer profiled Art Pope in a 2011 expose for The New Yorker entitled “State For Sale.”
Hasen adds:
I expect any appeal would be rejected. Although part of the due process portion of the court’s analysis rests on Bush v. Gore, and not every court would agree on reading Bush v. Gore in this way, the due process arguments are nonetheless extremely strong even without relying on that case. And the equal protection arguments are even stronger.
Griffin’s appeal would be to the 4th Circuit, a majority Democrat-appointed court friendly to voting rights cases, attorney Marc Elias notes, the same court that struck down Rucho’s voter ID law. Griffin can appeal of an adverse ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, Elias says, but it’s not the kind of case he believes SCOTUS would agree to hear.
But I believe Griffin will have no choice but to appeal so long as his party stands by him, as I noted in April:
Griffin is fighting for his party’s goal at the risk to his political life. Likely at the instigation of shadowy Republican strategists, he’s spent months trying to overturn his election loss by throwing out tens of thousands of constituents’ votes from all parties. The effort has raised his statewide name recognition, and not in a good way. If he loses here, Griffin would need voters he’s pissed off to vote for him when he’s up for reelection to the North Carolina Court of Appeals in 2028. Meaning, if he loses this case he’s toast.
Donald Trump’s second-term accomplices, people such as Stephen Miller, Russ Vought, Elon Musk, JD Vance, and Pam Bondi, have written themselves into a very dark chapter in American history, one their children and grandchildren will find shameful. Pray that it’s not our final chapter.
Then there is Marc Elias. It’s not boasting — braggadocious, as the criminal occupying the Oval Office might say — when attorney Elias speaks of standing up to the Trump administration in court. Because he’s done it again and again, successfully. So successfully that Donald Trump calls him out publicly as a nemesis.
“Deadline White House” on Monday invited Elias to address the cowardice many Americans have shown in the face of Trump’s efforts to bully and intimidate them like a mob boss into “bending the knee.” Trump seeks, former Trump fixer Michael Cohen wrote, “to take over an entire nation and run it like it was his personal company — like the Trump Organisation, in fact.” It is what Trump most admires about Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
In pursuit of that level of autocratic power, Trump and his antidemocratic allies claim authorities from “the school of constitutional denialism,” former federal Judge J. Michael Luttig told host Nicolle Wallace. The Constitution does not provide any remedy at all, Luttig said, save impeachment for a president who denies his responsibility to uphold it. Republicans in the House and Senate long ago pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to Trump and Trumpism, not to the Constitution. They see no need for any remedy.
Elias called out legal colleagues who have kowtowed before Trump and soiled their reputations and dignity. He was one of only two lawyers who would appear in the “60 Minutes” installment on Sunday that examined in scathing fashion Trump’s relentless attack on the rule of law. Trump calls Elias “a thug.” For Elias, that’s a badge of honor.
On Monday, however, Elias did more when Wallace asked what it was like to be in the vanguard of those defending our democracy. Alluding to the McCarthy era (and worse), Elias said he might have “blended into the furniture” like the attorneys who capitulated. He chose not to. He then challenged average Americans to ask themselves if they are really the kind of people they think they are [timestamp 6:04].
I grew up the grandson of immigrants who came to this country because there was no where else in the world that would take them. And I guess I always believed when I learned in school that the minister in Germany who said “they came for the trade unionists and I wasn’t a trade unionist, so I didn’t say anything, and then they came for the communists and I wasn’t a communist, so I didn’t say anything, and they came for the Jews, and I wasn’t a Jew, so I didn’t say anything, and then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out.”
I believed when people said that they would never be that person who did nothing, that they were telling the truth. I believed that when people would read about the Civil Rights movement, and the appalling silence of the good white people, as Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. said, that when we all said we would never be that silent person, that we would do something, we would speak out, I always believed that that’s what we would all do.
So, to be honest with you, it never occurred to me when Donald Trump came along, and when democracy was being threatened, it never occurred to me that when I stepped forward that everybody else wasn’t stepping forward with me. And sure, it has become clear that that is not true in the legal profession as much as it should be. But all that’s causing me to do is to say, well, I got to step a little further front than I even was planning on. Because there’s no there’s no world in which it’s going to be okay to capitulate to a man who says that he doesn’t know whether or not the president of the United States needs to uphold the Constitution.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has gone full conspiracy buff. In a recent interview with Dr. Phil, the Secretary of Health and Human Services vowed to combat the entirely fabricated threat of chemtrails.
Dr. Phil, whose full name is Phil McGraw, hosted a town hall interview with RFK Jr. on his namesake show Primetime, which aired this Monday (the show is part of Dr. Phil’s self-founded streaming network Merit Street, but also appears on YouTube). At one point, Kennedy fully endorsed an audience member’s fears about chemtrails, appeared to blame another government agency for their existence, and said he would do everything in his power to stop them.
Even among conspiracy theories, the logic underlying chemtrails is especially stupid. The theory goes that planes have been secretly seeding the skies with all sorts of chemical weapons that have been poisoning people for decades—weapons that conveniently leave behind easily visible trails. Some people claim these chemicals are also—or instead—being used to modify the weather.
In truth, these trails are the product of condensation that usually happens when jet fuel exhaust—mostly made out of water vapor but also containing small particles of soot—mixes with cold, humid air at high altitudes. In other words, they’re basically just temporary clouds made out of ice crystals (natural clouds are more often composed of water droplets). They’re formally known as contrails, short for condensation trails.
That reality hasn’t stopped a sustained segment of the population from believing otherwise. According to a 2017 study, about 10% of Americans fully believe in the chemtrails conspiracy, with another 20% to 30% agreeing it might be somewhat true. At the time, the study found that belief in chemtrails wasn’t significantly different across different political affiliations. But more recently, the conspiracy theory—like RFK Jr. himself—seems to have drifted to the right (the one-time environmental lawyer initially ran for the U.S. presidency in 2024 under the Democratic Party, then ran as an independent, and eventually endorsed the Republican candidate Donald Trump)
This has always been one of the dumbest conspiracy theories out there. I confess, I thought it was even too dumb for Bobby Jr. Obviously, nothing is too dumb for him and I should have known that.
It may be true that Kennedy has moved right with his conspiracy mongering. But sadly, he is a creature of the woo-woo left which has now horseshoed itself to the wingnut conspiracy mongers. None of this would be particularly concerning — people can believe what they want to believe — but this man has a tremendous amount of power and he’s going to kill people.
I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Trump says he’s going to put a 100% tariff on all foreign film production and his little lackey Lutnick added last night, “we’re on it!” Nobody knows how it would work or what it means. It tanked media companies’ stock this morning though, so the Mad King showed his power and that no doubt made him feel oh so good.
According to Politico, Academy Award-winning actor Jon Voight came up with the idea to impose 100 percent tariffs on foreign films — a plan which Trump announced on Truth Social Sunday night.
Politico’s Megan Messerly and Melanie Mason report that Voight — who, along with Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone, was appointed a “special ambassador” to Hollywood back in January — has been pushing the tariff scheme:
State Sen. Ben Allen, a Los Angeles-area Democrat who is a key player in the tax credit negotiations, said he heard from Jon Voight, one of Trump’s appointed ambassadors to Hollywood, several days ago about the possibility of new tariffs.
A person close to the White House, granted anonymity to share details of internal conversations, also attributed the new tariff policy to Voight.
Apparently, there had been talks with various players in Hollywood about tax incentives and other inducements to keep more production in America. Nobody was talking about tariffs. But apparently Voight and Trump think it’s the best way to get that done — because Trump and cultists like Voight now, believe that tariffs are the most lethal weapon the US has to punish and coerce people into doing what they demand they do.
Update —
Lutnick shits on Canada ahead of tomorrow's meeting: "They have basically been feeding off of us for decades upon decades upon decades. They have their socialist regime and it's basically feeding off of America … why do we do our films in Canada? C'mon! … I just don't see how… pic.twitter.com/xUlIBehKxN
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday slammed U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign against American higher education as she unveiled a half-billion-euro plan to attract foreign researchers.
“The role of science in today’s world is questioned. The investment in fundamental, free and open research is questioned. What a gigantic miscalculation,” von der Leyen said. “Science has no passport, no gender, no ethnicity or political party.”
Appearing alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at Paris’ storied Sorbonne University on Monday, von der Leyen said the “Choose Europe for Science” initiative would put forward a €500 million program from 2025 to 2027 to attract foreign researchers to “help support the best and the brightest researchers and scientists from Europe and around the world.”
Macron said the country would commit another €100 million from the France 2030 program to woo researchers and make Europe a “safe haven” for science.
“There can be no lasting democracy without free and open science,” he said.
This is very sad for America. But Europe is nice and if I were a scientist I would take them up on the offer in a heartbeat. What we are doing to scientific research is criminal. It’s clear that we are entering into an American dark age, a sort of Maoist cultural revolution. Scientists, intellectuals, academics and the like are no longer welcome here. Read what the Treasury Secretary wrote in his WSJ op-ed today if you don’t believe me:
Trump says he will set the prices for all imported goods. He tells us we'll have 5 pencils and like it. Now we have the Treasury Secretary talking about preventing the "spiritual degradation of the working class."
Still from an AI video posted by Trump to his Truth Social feed
The Israelis are actually going with Trump’s plan. And they’re saying so. They are going to raze all of Gaza and put everyone who refuses to emigrate in what can only be called a ghetto. Then comes the fab resort.
Israel has set President Trump’s visit to the Middle East next week as a deadline for a new hostage and ceasefire deal, with a massive ground operation to commence if no deal is reached, Israeli officials say.
Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a plan Sunday night to gradually reoccupy all of Gaza and hold it indefinitely if no deal is reached by May 15. Plans for the operation call for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to flatten any buildings that remain standing and displace virtually the entire population of 2 million people to a single “humanitarian area.”
The alternative to remaining in the humanitarian zone is for Palestinians to leave the enclave “voluntarily” for other countries “in line with President Trump’s vision for Gaza,” an Israeli official said.
Such departures could hardly be considered voluntary, and no country has agreed thus far to accept displaced Palestinians. Israeli officials claim there are ongoing negotiations with several countries on that front.
Many Israeli officials see this operation as a nuclear option and would much prefer a deal in the next two weeks.
Trump is not currently playing an active role in efforts to reach a ceasefire and has effectively given Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a green light to do as he sees fit, Israeli officials say.
The return to full-fledged war would come after Israel already cut off all supplies of food, water and medicine for civilians in Gaza after the ceasefire broke down two months ago.
[…]
They are actually calling the proposed camp/ghetto a “humanitarian area.” You can’t make this stuff up.
They may be using the Trump “vision” for Gaza as a playbook but he’s got bigger crypto-fish to fry right now:
Trump will travel to the Middle East starting Monday for a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Trump is not currently expected to visit Israel. U.S. and Israeli officials say the ongoing war in Gaza is the primary reason. “Nothing good can come out of a visit to Israel at the moment,” one U.S. official told Axios.
U.S. and Arab officials involved in the preparations for the trip said Gaza is not a top priority for Trump, and he’s expected to focus on bilateral issues and investments.
“The optics around president Trump’s visit to the region in the context of the war in Gaza are very bad. He made a big splash pushing for a ceasefire before his inauguration and got it done, but three months later the situation in Gaza is worse,” an Arab official said…
The officials said the Trump administration isn’t pressing Israel at all and made clear to the Egyptian and Qatari mediators that a temporary deal along the lines White House envoy Steve Witkoff laid out two months ago, backed by Israel, is the only game in town.
Trump has basically washed his hands of the whole thing. It’s too hard. In fact, all these thorny global problems are too hard. If it can’t be solved by charging someone more money or threatening to cut off support if they don’t bend the knee, Trump just doesn’t know what to do.
He’ll no doubt be pleased to see that Bibi wants to realikze his “vision” to fully demolish Gaza and put up an international resort. I’m sure he and the boys will get their taste. It was his idea, after all. For the moment, though, he’s much more interested in what the Saudis, Qataris and Emeratis have to offer. IYKWIM
I don’t know how I missed this in the polling tidal wave of the last week or so but it is a doozy:
Relatively few voters regret their decision in November; however, three in ten non-voters regret not turning out to vote last fall.
Nearly all Americans who voted for Kamala Harris (95%) and Donald Trump (92%) are satisfied with their decision to vote or how they voted, as well as 85% of those who voted for another candidate.
Thirty-one percent of non-voting Americans say they regret their decision not to vote, compared with 56% who say they are satisfied.
That seems like a lot to me. And guess what the regretters think about Trump?
Among all non-voters, 54% view Trump as a dangerous dictator, compared with 39% who view him as a strong leader. Among non-voters who regret their decision not to vote, 68% view Trump as a dangerous dictator, compared with 30% who view him as a strong leader
Those are the missing voters and they are the people the Democrats need to stay engaged this time and vote every chance they get until this country is purged of MAGA. I don’t know what it will take but they’ve got to make sure these folks turn out.
