Tammy Bruce: "The work of the President of the United States — thank god for him — is going to make sure that this is not a lost opportunity. We can say this simply by having watched him most of his adult life in some capacity, but certainly with what he's given up and… pic.twitter.com/sjnhbrW0Hf
“The work of the President of the United States — thank god for him — is going to make sure that this is not a lost opportunity. We can say this simply by having watched him most of his adult life in some capacity, but certainly with what he’s given up and sacrificed to be the leader of this country … I know to trust him. I know to not second guess him … I’m grateful that he’s the one making the decisions.”
Bravissimo!
Does everyone know about Tammy Bruce? She is the living example of the perfect GOP opportunist. She started as a liberal lesbian fighting for women’s rights, working in L.A radio. She soon saw the opportunities on the right and turned herself into a token LGBT wingnut, worked her way up to Fox and now the state department. Her performance there really does rival Baghdad Bob during the Iraq war.
But she’s been shameless for decades now. Nothing affects her grasping, desperate ambition.
The National Security Council is dysfunctional and the rest of the national security apparatus has gone rogue. I’m sure it’s not a problem:
When the Pentagon recently launched a review of a landmark security pact with Australia and the United Kingdom, the move blindsided many key officials elsewhere in the U.S. government.
The decision, it turns out, was a unilateral move by the Pentagon championed by its policy chief Elbridge Colby. The official goal of the review is to see if the pact, AUKUS, which involves selling nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, is in line with President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda.
But many officials at the State Department, the White House-based National Security Council and others who are tasked with making the many-layered agreement a reality weren’t told in advance that the review would happen or what its parameters were. Many of their counterparts in Canberra and London were caught off guard, too.
The episode — described to me and my colleagues Jack Detsch and Paul McLeary by three people familiar with the situation — is an example of how dysfunctional the national security policymaking process has become under Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who in early May became acting national security adviser.
Since Rubio took over the NSC, he has shrunk its staff by more than half. It now has fewer than 100 people, according to a person familiar with the NSC process. Arguably more importantly, Rubio has imposed changes to what’s called “the interagency process” — a key function of the NSC that involves coordinating policy and messaging across government agencies and departments.
That process, two people told me, is now one in which important meetings aren’t held, career staffers are often in the dark about what’s expected of them and some people or their institutions try to take advantage of power vacuums. I granted many of those I spoke to anonymity to discuss internal administration dynamics.
There’s no need to panic. Donald Trump is in charge and he’s got everything under control. As he has said many times, he’s very smart and knows more about everything than anyone who has ever walked this earth so it’s all good.
She said it twice and he didn’t get it. It’s hard to believe he didn’t hear it because she had a mic.
Very weird.
But then, what else is new?
Trump: “They don't let us use water. Do you have any problems with water? No, we have so much we don't know what to do with it. You know, it comes down from heaven, right?"🤡 pic.twitter.com/pqoPDrUVe4
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) July 2, 2025
Trump: "President Obama was a terrible president. President Biden was the worst president. President Bush… I don't give him high marks either. I give Trump very high marks."
Trump: ‘Japan won't take rice, and yet they desperately need rice, but they won't take rice. They won't take other products that we have. They need rice so badly, but they won't take rice’
The former agent, Jared L. Wise, is serving as a counselor to Ed Martin, the director of the so-called Weaponization Working Group, according to people familiar with the group’s activities.
Mr. Martin, a longtime supporter of Jan. 6 defendants, was put in charge of the weaponization group in May after Mr. Trump withdrew his name for a Senate-confirmed position as the U.S. attorney in Washington. His nomination faltered in part because of the work he had done as an advocate and defense lawyer for people charged in connection with the Capitol attack.
Even in a Justice Department that has often been pressed into serving Mr. Trump’s political agenda, the appointment of Mr. Wise to the weaponization task force was a remarkable development. His selection meant that a man who had urged violence against police officers was now responsible for the department’s official effort to exact revenge against those who had tried to hold the rioters accountable.
It remains unclear exactly what role Mr. Wise will play as Mr. Martin’s adviser. But one person familiar with the working group’s activities said that Mr. Martin was proud to have Mr. Wise on his team, adding that there was no better person to serve on the weaponization task force than someone who had experienced the federal government being weaponized against him.
There is so much going on there that I’m not even going to attempt to break it all down. It’s enough to simply say that this makes sense in Trumpland. I can only imagine what these people have in mind.
Is this what they thought they were voting for last November? Because it’s certainly what Trump said he was going to do:
The most powerful man in the world and the richest man in the world squared off again this week as the One Big Boondoggle finally made its way through the senate where, as with the House, it passed with only one vote. After Elon Musk posted a number of provocative posts, Trump finally weighed in on Truth Social threatening to destroy Musk’s businesses, later telling the press that his former bestie “shouldn’t be playing that game with me.” And then he went even further.
As everyone knows by now, Musk has been apoplectic about the deficit and raising the debt ceiling for months now. The first big blow up between the two came just a few days after Musk’s rather tepid send-off in the oval office when he exploded on X calling Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill “a disgusting abomination” and telling the House Republicans “shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.” Trump said Musk was just mad because the bill repeals the EV mandate and subsidies and it escalated from there, culminating with Musk accusing Trump of hiding the Epstein Files because he is in them and Trump accused Musk of being a “big time drug addict.” It was glorious.
The two former BFFs decided to call a ceasefire but apparently Musk just can’t get past his dismay over this legislation. He blasted off another post this past week decrying all the “insane spending” and declaring America “the PORKY PIG PARTY.” He called for “a new political party that actually cares about the people” and vowed to back primary challengers against every Republican who voted for it saying “they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”
Anyone who campaigned on the PROMISE of REDUCING SPENDING , but continues to vote on the BIGGEST DEBT ceiling increase in HISTORY will see their face on this poster in the primary next year pic.twitter.com/w13Qkm2e1A
Having found that cutting spending is easier said than done Musk apparently thought the GOP congress would rebel and refuse to raise the debt ceiling and slash spending even more than they did in this budget. It just goes to show how very naive he is about American politics.
Trump finally responded, claiming that Musk is only upset about the EV mandate and threatened to end his government contracts:
Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa. No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!”
This all just sounds like more childish tantrums from two very spoiled, rich and powerful men with poor impulse control and it is. It’s possible but highly unlikely that Musk will spend the kind of money it will take to start a third party and he’s certainly not going to primary every Republican who voted for the bill. But it’s quite interesting that this rift seems to have made him start to question some of his assumptions about politics.
For instance, he seems to have belatedly realized that the Republicans have decided to Make America Great Again by reliving the past instead of looking to the future:
The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!
Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future. https://t.co/TZ9w1g7zHF
In the last few days he’s indicated some surprise at the regressiveness of the tax cuts and he asserted that a provision of the bill (later removed by the parliamentarian) that rescinded funding for enforcement of contempt of court orders was actually done to pave the way for more presidential abuses of power. He pointed out that all the conspiracy theories insisting that undocumented workers are getting health care that’s denied to citizens is not true and he even admitted that he shouldn’t have waved that chainsaw around because it lacked empathy. (There’s no word on whether his actual destruction of USAID and the possible deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, most of them children, “lacks empathy”)
I would not assume that Musk has suddenly become enlightened, however. One might have thought that as an immigrant himself, Musk would have some of that empathy for the immigrants who are being terrorized by Trump’s draconian mass deportation policy too. But as far as we know he’s still a big believer in The Great Replacement Theory which holds that Democrats are importing foreigners to replace the Real (white) Americans, destroy the culture and seize permanent political power. He might want to rethink that one too.
This week it was reported that the Department of Justice issued a memo announcing that it is planning to revoke the citizenship of naturalized citizens — at the discretion of U.S Attorneys — in order to “advance the Administration’s policy objectives.” They claim that they will “prioritize” those who “pose a potential danger to national security” which they will apparently define on a case by case basis.
Elon Musk is very much involved in U.S. national security so he might want to watch his back. Donald Trump said on Tuesday that they ought to take a look at deporting him:
Reporter: Are you going to deport Elon Musk?
Trump: We'll have to take a look. We might have to put DOGE on Elon. You know what DOGE is? The monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible? He gets a lot of subsidies. pic.twitter.com/6I0OAIv7Js
This talk of revoking birthright citizenship and deporting naturalized citizens is going to have an effect on the way Americans think about this. It’s quite clear that citizenship is no longer any guarantee of being free from the threat of deportation. In fact, Trump himself said this just yesterday at the Florida prison camp (which he said he would like to replicate in states all over the country.)
Trump calls for deporting US citizens: "We also have a lot of bad people that have been here for a long time … many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here too, if you want to know the truth. So maybe that'll be the next job." pic.twitter.com/zQDOlqjB3u
He’s now threatening to deport anyone he doesn’t like, basically.
Trump is not going to deport the richest man in the world, of course. He wants him to keep his money here even if he personally can’t stand him anymore. (And if he tried, Musk could just buy himself an island somewhere and relocate his businesses to a friendlier country.) But it’s telling that he feels free to openly threaten him with it anyway.
It’s always tempting to assume that Trump is just popping off like that proverbial old guy at the end of the bar ranting about what he’d do if he were in charge. But Trump actually is in charge and it pays to remember that as he celebrates the possibility of immigrants being eaten alive if they try to escape the new “Alligator Alcatraz” he proposed building an alligator-filled moat beneath his border wall during his first term. At this point I wouldn’t bet on Trump not following through with any of his ruthless, inhumane policies, even if I were Elon Musk. When it comes to that sort of thing, it’s promises made, promises kept.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) told reporters that casting the deciding vote in the Senate to pass Donald Trump’s godawful budget bill was “agonizing.” Critics rained contempt on her, citing the amount of Alaska exemptions and pork drafters included to soothe her agony:
“Do I like this bill? No,” Ms. Murkowski, who appeared to be quietly seething as she was questioned about her vote, told NBC News. “But I tried to take care of Alaska’s interests. But I know that in many parts of the country, there are Americans that are not going to be advantaged by this bill.”
‘Not going to be advantaged” is weasel for “harmed.”
Given the menace and death threats looming over anyone who gets in Trump’s way, Murkowski may have felt she may as well get something for caving in a way that harms Americans in every other part of the country. With the Senate vote margin so slim that Vice President J.D. Vance had to cast a tie-breaking vote, Murkowski must have felt too vulnerable to stick her neck out.
What happens in the U.S. House if more Republicans oppose passage now that the Senate-amended package is in their laps? Could there be safety in numbers for resisters?
What they’re saying: “Our bill has been completely changed. … It’s a non-starter,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) bemoaned to reporters on Tuesday.
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) said in a post on social media that he will introduce an amendment to the Senate bill that would delete all its text and replace it with the version passed by the House in May.
One House Republican, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Axios there are “well over 20” GOP lawmakers threatening to vote against the bill.
Over 20 GOP lawmakers threatening is not 20 with enough spine to say no. In the end they always cave after some performative handwringing. It remains to be seen whether any House members’ performances will top Murkowski’s.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), who chaired the Freedom Caucus between 2019 and 2022, told Punchbowl News on Tuesday: “I’m talking to colleagues and I don’t know anyone who’s happy.” Also on Tuesday, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) dismissed claims that the Senate bill was fiscally responsible as “garbage.” The pushback from House Republicans comes despite Trump threatening GOP members of the House that they could “suffer the consequences” if they don’t pass the legislation expeditiously.
Speaker Mike Johnson, however, has heard his master’s voice and vows to obey his commands:
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) acknowledged the revolt within the House Republican Conference, but insisted he was focused on passing the Senate bill verbatim, so it could advance directly to President Trump’s desk without having to go back to the Senate. He added he would “do everything possible” to pass the Senate version ahead of Republicans’ self-imposed July 4 deadline.
“I’m not happy with what the Senate did to our product, but we understand this is the process. It goes back and forth. And we will be working to get all our members to yes,” Johnson told reporters Tuesday.
Hope may not spring eternal but may show its head now and again. If enough of these characters stick together, they may assemble enough spines to defy Trump and live to bad-legislate another day.
Swag on sale at the Florida Republican Party web store. “Florida’s gator-guarded prison for illegal aliens. Surrounded by swamps & pythons, it’s a one-way ticket to regret. Grab our merch to support tough-on-crime borders! Limited supply—get yours before the gators do!”
Its fans call the immigrant concentration camp Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) set up in just days in the Everglades “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Within hours of the first news reports, folks at Bluesky were calling it “Alligator Auschwitz.” We shouldn’t minimize the cruelty of a Nazi death camp. But the two have more than a little in common.
“This kind of performative fascist cruelty is not new, or unique to the reign of Donald Trump,” Walsh writes. She reminds readers of Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio’s desert tent prison. But now we have Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wearing her Rolex to a photo op in front of bare-chested prisoners stacked like cordwood at the infamous CECOT prison in El Salvador.
Donald Trump said upon visiting Florida’s airstrip prison on Tuesday, “Pretty soon, this facility will handle the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet.”
Consider the Alligator Alcatraz gear on sale (above) by the Florida Republican Party before deciding who are the most vicious people on the planet.
With so much attention on his public feud with Harvard University, it could be easy to miss the creative ways Trump is expanding his attack on higher education through the reconciliation package. Here’s a shortlist:
To decrease education spending by a meager $300 million over 10 years, the bill will deeply limit loan deferment and cancellation plans.
Senators voted to completely end the grad PLUS loan program for graduate and professional students, which comes with a fixed interest rate and helps students afford “education expenses not covered by other financial aid,” according to the Department of Education.
Graduate students have a lower cap for borrowing from the federal government under the package passed by the Senate.
Barbara R. Snyder, the president of the Association of American Universities, said in a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) that the reconciliation package would likely keep students from pursuing higher education.
“AAU remains concerned that the arbitrary student loan thresholds set by the Senate combined with changes to other existing loan programs…will limit a student’s ability to pursue studies at the institution of their choice, especially for students with the highest financial need,” Snyder said.
Why bother with higher education when the jobs available will be dangerous, low wage manual labor anyway?
The Treasury and Commerce Secretaries say this is the American Dream.
This comparsion in the NYTimes today is pretty stark. China is racing ahead to be a high-tech exporter of 21st century technologies, while the US is doubling down on being a petro-state exporting the technologies of the 19th century: https://t.co/70sBY8T441pic.twitter.com/lRGr5lrS1Y
“In the fields, I would say 70% of the workers are gone,” she said in an interview. “If 70% of your workforce doesn’t show up, 70% of your crop doesn’t get picked and can go bad in one day. Most Americans don’t want to do this work. Most farmers here are barely breaking even. I fear this has created a tipping point where many will go bust.”
[…]
In the vast agricultural lands north of Los Angeles, stretching from Ventura County into the state’s central valley, two farmers, two field supervisors and four immigrant farmworkers told Reuters this month that the ICE raids have led a majority of workers to stop showing up.
That means crops are not being picked and fruit and vegetables are rotting at peak harvest time, they said.
One Mexican farm supervisor, who asked not to be named, was overseeing a field being prepared for planting strawberries last week. Usually he would have 300 workers, he said. On this day he had just 80. Another supervisor at a different farm said he usually has 80 workers in a field, but today just 17.
This is going to have an effect on everyone’s food costs:
Over a third of U.S. vegetables and over three-quarters of the country’s fruits and nuts are grown in California, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The state’s farms and ranches generated nearly $60 billion in agricultural sales in 2023.
Trump is saying that they’re “working something out” with the farmers who will “take responsibility” for the undocumented agriculture workers. I’d guess that will likely be some indentured servant concept like there has been in the past. But after what we’ve seen happening all over the country, including in the fields of California, I have to wonder if that will make a difference:
Of the four immigrant farmworkers Reuters spoke to, two are in the country illegally. These two spoke on the condition of anonymity, out of fear of being arrested by ICE.
One, aged 54, has worked in U.S. agricultural fields for 30 years and has a wife and children in the country. He said most of his colleagues have stopped showing up for work.
“If they show up to work, they don’t know if they will ever see their family again,” he said.
You can bet they’ll also be worried that their families will be picked up and thrown into detention while they’re working.
This is the inevitable result of Trump’s immigration terrorism.
