Mediaite reports on the latest GOP 2028 tea: When President Donald Trump sat down for an interview with Fox News last month, anchor Bret Baier asked what should have been a softball question: “Do you view Vice President JD Vance as your successor, the Republican nominee in 2028?” Trump’s response was glaring. “No, but he’s very capable,” the president said matter-of-factly. “I mean, I don’t think that it, you know, I think you have a lot of very capable people. So far, I think he’s doing a fantastic job. It’s too early, we’re just starting.” Well! That’s quite a denial. However, according to Mediaite, people around Trump weren’t surprised because he’s really grooming his number one son, Don Jr to run. Yes, you read that right. Three high-level sources told Mediaite that Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son and an omnipresent MAGA evangelist across the internet, is seriously considering a run for president in 2028.
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Trump welcomes Putin, abandons liberal democracy Donald Trump’s Oval Office ambush of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (with a strong assist from J.D. Vance) was embarrassing and shocking in perhaps equal proportions. The convicted felon now occupying the White House got there with the approval of not even half of American voters (and only 64 percent of them) and with a little help from a “friend” of his and an enemy of democracy: Russian president Vladimir Putin. Trump immediately set about surrendering U.S. leadership in the post-WWII order. He has in fact already dismantled it. As obsessed as Mr. America First is with winning, the real winner of the 2024 presidential elections was Putin, writes Franklin Foer in The Atlantic. The Oval Office shouting match was a fist-pump moment for Putin signifying his “ultimate victory,” the moment when “the United States, became his most powerful ally.” Except Foer’s conclusion is only true if one accepts (as the felon-who-would-be-king does) that Trump is the state. The other half of U.S. voters would strenuously disagree.
Trump 2.0 might as well use bombs and arson If citizens feel whipsawed by the contradictions and backpedaling by Trump 2.0 policy malfeasance, it is hardly surprising. It’s not just the obvious intention to privatize government services things ought to be public (and not-for-profit), it’s the threat those privatizing efforts pose to “Americans’ health, safety, and economic security,” writes Heather Cox Richardson. Social Security is a perennial target for the right, and is once again. Trump 2.0 will sabotage it, collapse it, then argue that Republican dysfunction by design is reason to kill it: In another blockbuster story that dropped yesterday, the Social Security Administration announced it will begin to withhold 100% of a person’s Social Security benefits if they are overpaid, even if the overpayment is not their fault. Under President Joe Biden the agency had changed the policy to recover overpayments at 10% of monthly benefits or $10, whichever was greater.
Center-right French senator Claude Malhuret gave a speech last week that was heard around the world. He’s an epidemiologist and former leader of Doctors Without Borders. This one’s for the history books. Europe is at a crucial juncture of its history. The American shield is slipping away, Ukraine risks being abandoned, and Russia is being strengthened. Washington has become the court of Nero: an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers, and a buffoon on ketamine tasked with purging the civil service. This is a tragedy for the free world, but it’s first and foremost a tragedy for the United States. [President Donald] Trump’s message is that being his ally serves no purpose, because he will not defend you, he will impose more tariffs on you than on his enemies, and he will threaten to seize your territories, while supporting the dictators who invade you. The king of the deal is showing that the art of the deal is lying prostrate. He thinks he will intimidate China by capitulating to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but China’s President Xi Jinping, faced with such wreckage, is undoubtedly accelerating his plans to invade Taiwan.
Don’t look to the elites to step up. They’re all running for cover. This article in the NY Times surveys the cowardly retreat overtaking American elites both public and private. More than six weeks into the second Trump administration, there is a chill spreading over political debate in Washington and beyond. People on both sides of the aisle who would normally be part of the public dialogue about the big issues of the day say they are intimidated by the prospect of online attacks from Mr. Trump and Elon Musk, concerned about harm to their companies and frightened for the safety of their families. Politicians fear banishment by a party remade in Mr. Trump’s image and the prospect of primary opponents financed by Mr. Musk, the president’s all-powerful partner and the world’s richest man.
NBC News reports: As U.S. and Ukrainian officials prepare to meet in Saudi Arabia this week, President Donald Trump has privately made clear to aides that a signed minerals deal between Washington and Kyiv won’t be enough to restart aid and intelligence sharing with the war-torn country, according an administration official and another U.S. official. Trump wants the deal, which would give the U.S. a stake in Ukraine’s mineral resources, signed. But he also wants to see a change in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s attitude toward peace talks, the officials said, including a willingness to make concessions such as giving up territory to Russia. Trump also wants Zelenskyy to make some movement toward elections in Ukraine and possibly toward stepping down as his country’s leader, the officials said. Elections in Ukraine have been paused under the country’s constitutional provision for martial law, which has been in effect since Russia invaded in 2022. I don’t think there’s any doubt about Trump is up to.
You’re losing Congressional Democrats’ “protest” during Donald Trump’s marathon speech had all the impact of a Demotivational poster. That’s leadership from Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer. Punchbowl News: Earlier on Thursday, Jeffries and party leaders brought in some of the most vocal rank-and-file Democrats – including Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) – to berate them for their recent behavior. The members-only meeting was called by Jeffries, we’re told. Tuesday’s debacle, as well as the ongoing clashes between progressives and moderates inside the House Democratic Caucus, isn’t Jeffries’ fault, of course. But it is his problem. And it shows little sign of cooling off right now. That may be because Frost and Crockett didn’t come to D.C. to be punching bags. They came to fight, just what the Democratic base demands. Jeffries and Schumer came to get along. Their idea of defending constituents is holding a press conference. Holding up signs on sticks and wearing pink shirts isn’t much better.
Elon Musk’s dream of going to Mars failed when the second Starship rocket in 2 months blew up over the Caribbean diverting airplanes throughout the area and offering some spectacular fireworks and lots of detritus falling in the ocean. You have to wonder if Musk was minding the store instead of blowing up the federal government, he’d have better luck. Musk’s philosophy behind building these starships, which he has on an accelerated schedule in order to meet his deadline of sending a manned mission to Mars by 2030, is something he calls “rapid iterative development” the goal being to build prototypes quickly and put them on the launchpad with a willingness to blow them up. Sound familiar? Unfortunately for us, a willingness to blow up government doesn’t just destroy a hunk of metal, it destroys tens of thousands of lives. Not that he cares about that. As he told podcaster Joe Rogan last week, “the fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit.
The Dean of Georgetown Law School responds to that MAGA freak show of a DC US Attorney Ed Martin’s threat to not hire any Georgetown lawyers unless the school ends all “DEI” programs:
pic.twitter.com/AMrSYRuyen Is there ANYTHING more douchey than an FBI Excecutive? This is James Dennehy who said he was going to "DIG IN" in order to resist a simple and lawful request from DOJ to hand over case information. He was also leaking info as a "whistleblower" to Corey… — Kyle Seraphin (@KyleSeraphin) March 7, 2025 His letter to the staff: All, Late Friday, I was informed that I needed to put my retirement papers in today, which I just did. I was not given a reason for this decision. Regardless, I apologize to all of you for not being able to fulfill my commitment to you to serve as ADIC NY for at least two years.