Donald J. Trump is a sick man. In evidence, read what he posted on Truth Social shortly after the death of Robert Mueller, III, the former FBI director and one-time Special Counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election and other matters, was announced earlier today.

Trump viciously attacked Mueller’s investigation in 2018, describing it as a “witch hunt” and wrote:

“Russia, Russia, Russia! That’s all you heard at the beginning of this Witch Hunt Hoax... And now Russia has disappeared because I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected.”

He aslo denied Russia helped him get elected in 2016, claiming, “No, Russia did not help me get elected. You know who got me elected? I got me elected. Russia didn’t help me at all.”

Mueller, Trump claimed, was angry with Trump for not appointing him for a second term as FBI Director and later described Mueller and his team of investigators, "some of the worst human beings on Earth".

Mueller, like former Special Counsel Jack Smith, Liz Cheney, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Alvin Bragg, and dozens of others, saw evidence of crime and investigated it. Trump was the target of those investigations. He was convicted of 34 felonies in one case and avoided trial in others.

Trump reacted to the death of Robert Mueller in a way one imagines gangsters reacting when prosecutors or police chiefs died. Trump celebrated Mueller’s death.

How will the “Christians” that often seem to worship react to Trump’s most-unchristian-like words? Do members of Trump’s cabinet, including Attorney General Bondi, support Trump’s disgusting comment? (No need to speculate how current FBI Director Kash Patel will react.)

Trump hit a new low today, assuming of course that he did not force a 13-year-old girl to have oral sex with him, as was being investigated by the police in connection with Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes. President Donald J. Trump denies these allegations, just as he denied, and condemned the findings of Mueller, Jack Smith, and various prosecutors.

Donald Trump may escape accountability for any any of the crimes he has been accused of (and plenty of activity likely to be identified as criminal in future years), but history will not exonerate Donald Trump.

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Trump’s man on the ground in Minneapolis, Tom Homan, has announced that ICE will withdraw 700 ICE agents from the city. That sounds like good news. It is, sort of, but once you learn that 2000 will remain, it doesn’t.

Read about the news here.

I wonder if this (see photo below) had anything to do with the Trump administration decision.

Mr. President, a 25 percent withdrawal is NOT ENOUGH. Thank You very much.

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For a man who will celebrate his 80th birthday in a little more than five months, Donald J. Trump moves fast. With a conquest of Venezuela already under his belt, a takeover of Greenland likely only weeks away, he is threatening Cuba to “make a deal.”

Here’s what the President posted this morning:

Especially notable is that before urging “a deal,” Trump announced that oil and money will not be going to Cuba. This appears to clarify what Trump means by a deal. He is not talking about the terms and conditions for Venezuela to continue to provide economic assistance to Cuba, he is talking, most likely, about regime change.

Will the restoration of Cuba as a de facto American colony be part of the Trump-orchestrated celebration of America’s 250th Birthday? (I would suggest that Trump might propose making Cuba a state, but suspect Trump would prefer the number of Spanish-speaking persons in the U.S. to decrease, not increase.)

Biting off too much?

If Adolf Hitler were alive today and advising Trump on foreign policy, he likely would caution the President not to bite off more than he can chew. A two-front war for Germany in the 1940s (popularly called World War II) did not go well for the Third Reich.

It is likely that Trump’s Secretary of State, the man he once called “Little Marco,” is urging Trump to “take action” in Cuba. The President is likely receptive to Secretary Rubio’s advice because it is consistent with the “Donroe Doctrine” and Trump’s dream of an American Golden Age. Trump, likely aware of American interests in Cuba in 1959, when Fidel Castro toppled Cuba’s then corrupt government.

Will Trump seek to compensate American interests who had their hotels, casinos and brothels nationalized by Trump? And more importantly, will Trump gather prominent American companies involved in the hospitality business, including The Trump Organization, to restore Cuba to what it was before Castro took over?

Stay tuned

Expect speculation, like mine, to continue in the immediate future. We will know soon enough what Trump, when he is not finalizing plans to "reimagine” the White House, advising NFL owners to hire a recently fired coach, and hoping that the public will forget Epstein and his files, is planning.

© Copyright 2026. John Dean, all rights reserved.

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Let’s let self-designated “Secretary of War” speak for himself. The former Fox News weekend anchor posted an announcement that he is launching disciplinary action against former Navy Captain and NASA astronaut, and current U.S. Senator, for appearing in a video that reminds U.S. military personnel of their obligation to disobey illegal orders.

The post, made on X on January 5, was reported on by The Washington Post. The text is below:

Six weeks ago, Senator Mark Kelly — and five other members of Congress — released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline. As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice. And the Department of War — and the American people — expect justice.

Therefore, in response to Senator Mark Kelly’s seditious statements — and his pattern of reckless misconduct — the Department of War is taking administrative action against Captain Mark E. Kelly, USN (Ret). The department has initiated retirement grade determination proceedings under 10 U.S.C. § 1370(f), with reduction in his retired grade resulting in a corresponding reduction in retired pay.

To ensure this action, the Secretary of War has also issued a formal Letter of Censure, which outlines the totality of Captain (for now) Kelly’s reckless misconduct. This Censure is a necessary process step, and will be placed in Captain Kelly’s official and permanent military personnel file.

Captain Kelly has been provided notice of the basis for this action and has thirty days to submit a response. The retirement grade determination process directed by Secretary Hegseth will be completed within forty five days.

Captain Kelly’s status as a sitting United States Senator does not exempt him from accountability, and further violations could result in further action.

These actions are based on Captain Kelly's public statements from June through December 2025 in which he characterized lawful military operations as illegal and counseled members of the Armed Forces to refuse lawful orders. This conduct was seditious in nature and violated Articles 133 and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to which Captain Kelly remains subject as a retired officer receiving pay.

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We have come to expect the worst from Donald Trump when it comes to social media posts. The President does not hesitate to call his perceived political enemies or critics names or to suggest they be imprisoned, deported, or institutionalized.

Naively, I thought the President could go no lower. I was wrong.

I checked Truth Social this morning to see what the President might have to say about the murder of director, actor, and progressive activist Rob Reiner and his wife. What I found sickened me. The President writes:

A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS. He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!

Here’s an image of the post. This is not fake news.

I suspect that one of Trump’s handlers may take down the post later this morning, but I encourage you to read it closely.

The President is not a man with an ounce of empathy or decency. Contrast this post with the reaction of Democrats after the attempted assassination of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

House Oversight Committee Democrats have released the first 19 photos from a massive new batch of photographs from the Epstein estate. Jeff really liked to take pictures of his guests and workers (what should the underage girls be called other than victims?).

The 19 pictures may be seen here.

Disgusting:

There is trouble ahead for POTUS. He will not have a jolly holiday season.

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The pictures are disturbing, but the destruction of the East Wing of the White House signifies more than just the construction of an enormous ballroom. Like a dog urinating to mark its territory and to leave a message for other dogs, the ballroom is part of President Trump’s effort to create a legacy.

What do you think? Was the ballroom needed?

The President does not own the White House. Was his decision to demolish part of the existing White House (the East Wing) and replace it with a huge ballroom lawful?

And, was he authorized to undertake the project, even if, as he claims, it is being paid for with private funds?

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Despots have little use for legislative bodies because legislatures embody democracy and limit the power of executives. President Trump has chosen an attorney general who has been a principal agent for his exercise of autocratic executive power. That attorney general is Pam Bondi.

Yesterday, Bondi testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Several senators came prepared with questions. They left the hearing without answers. Bondi refused to answer questions about the Epstein files, the bombing of suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Tom Homan’s alleged acceptance of a $50,000 bribe, the deployment of the National Guard in several cities, and the firings of career prosecutors who disagreed with Trump's policies on legal grounds. She also launched personal attacks against several Senators, all of them Democrats.

The Washington Post reported:

She [PamBondi] accused Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) of lying about his military record to win elections, insinuated Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) supported antifa and questioned campaign donations Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) received which Republicans have since sought to link to a donor tied to Epstein.

At one point, she angrily dismissed Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) when he asked whether Trump had consulted with her before his deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago, a city Durbin represents.

“I wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate President Trump,” Bondi shot back. “If you’re not going to protect your citizens, President Trump will.

Watch the entire hearing here. Watch Bondi’s exchange with Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) here. Watch video of the most heated exchanges of the hearing here.

Do you find Bondi’s performance inappropriate and disturbing? I do.

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An excerpt from the President’s 72-minute address to the collected generals and admirals held at Quantico on September 30th tells us a lot about the President’s state of mind. But what does it tell us?

Read this excerpt—a short, somewhat out of context piece of a very long speech—I wonder what you think?

We were not respected with Biden. They looked at him falling down stairs every day. Every day, the guy’s falling down stairs.

I said it’s not our president. We can’t have it. I’m very careful. You know, when I walk downstairs for -- like I’m on stairs like these stairs, I’m very -- I walk very slowly. Nobody has to set a record, just try not to fall because it doesn’t work out well. A few of our presidents have fallen and it became a part of their legacy.

We don’t want that, need to walk nice and easy. You don’t have to set any record, be cool. Be cool when you walk down but don’t -- don’t bop down the stairs. So, one think with Obama, I had zero respect for him as the president, but he would bop down those stairs -- I’ve never seen, da da da da da da, bop, bop, bop, he’d go down the stairs, wouldn’t hold on. I said, great, I don’t want to do it. I guess I could do it, but eventually bad things are going to happen and it only takes once.

But he did a lousy job as president. A year ago, we were a dead country. We were dead; this country was going to hell. We were dead in every way, from immigration to miliary. We didn’t have the weapons, we had given everything to Ukraine, we had nothing. And by the way, I have to tell you, now, as you know, I went over and I met with NATO.

Should we worry?

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In the President’s own words, published on his social media website on September 15, 2025:

Today, I have the Great Honor of bringing a $15 Billion Dollar Defamation and Libel Lawsuit against The New York Times, one of the worst and most degenerate newspapers in the History of our Country, becoming a virtual “mouthpiece” for the Radical Left Democrat Party. I view it as the single largest illegal Campaign contribution, EVER. Their Endorsement of Kamala Harris was actually put dead center on the front page of The New York Times, something heretofore UNHEARD OF! The “Times” has engaged in a decades long method of lying about your Favorite President (ME!), my family, business, the America First Movement, MAGA, and our Nation as a whole. I am PROUD to hold this once respected “rag” responsible, as we are doing with the Fake News Networks such as our successful litigation against George Slopadopoulos/ABC/Disney, and 60 Minutes/CBS/Paramount, who knew that they were falsely “smearing” me through a highly sophisticated system of document and visual alteration, which was, in effect, a malicious form of defamation, and thus, settled for record amounts. They practiced this longterm INTENT and pattern of abuse, which is both unacceptable and illegal. The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW! The suit is being brought in the Great State of Florida. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

I’m no expert on Turning Point or Charlie Kirk, but I suspect Kirk would have disapproved of this lawsuit.

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The United States bombed Iranian nuclear facilities last night. President Trump called the strikes a success. The attack, threatened repeatedly by Trump to persuade Iran to “unconditionally surrender” and end its efforts to develop a nuclear weapon, involved the use of a 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator capable of destroying facilities deep underground.

The news of the American attack eclipses in importance other current events on which I had planned to comment. I have been following the news this morning from The Washington Post and on various television channels.

It appears there were no American casualties in the attack. Secretary of Defense Hegseth is expected to provide more detailed information about the attack this morning at 8:00 a.m. Eastern.

Trump has warned Itan not to retaliate for the attack. Let’s hope the Iranians acquiesce to his warning.

That’s it for now. Pray for peace.

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The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has suspended the injunction against President Trump’s tariffs. This is not a surprise, but the Court of International Trade’s judgment that the Trump administration acted illegally in imposing worldwide tariffs in April got the President’s attention.

Earlier this evening, May 29, the President of the United States posted an insane rant on his social media site. To the best of my knowledge, it is, in part, a comment on Timothy Rief, the judge he appointed to the Court of International Trade. I cannot confirm this—I am not a psychiatrist—but I wonder what Judge Rief might be thinking if he reads this:

The U.S. Court of International Trade incredibly ruled against the United States of America on desperately needed Tariffs but, fortunately, the full 11 Judge Panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Court has just stayed the order by the Manhattan-based Court of International Trade. Where do these initial three Judges come from? How is it possible for them to have potentially done such damage to the United States of America? Is it purely a hatred of “TRUMP?” What other reason could it be? I was new to Washington, and it was suggested that I use The Federalist Society as a recommending source on Judges. I did so, openly and freely, but then realized that they were under the thumb of a real “sleazebag” named Leonard Leo, a bad person who, in his own way, probably hates America, and obviously has his own separate ambitions. He openly brags how he controls Judges, and even Justices of the United States Supreme Court — I hope that is not so, and don’t believe it is! In any event, Leo left The Federalist Society to do his own “thing.” I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations. This is something that cannot be forgotten! With all of that being said, I am very proud of many of our picks, but very disappointed in others. They always must do what’s right for the Country! In this case, it is only because of my successful use of Tariffs that many Trillions of Dollars have already begun pouring into the U.S.A. from other Countries, money that, without these Tariffs, we would not be able to get. It is the difference between having a rich, prosperous, and successful United States of America, and quite the opposite. The ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade is so wrong, and so political! Hopefully, the Supreme Court will reverse this horrible, Country threatening decision, QUICKLY and DECISIVELY. Backroom “hustlers” must not be allowed to destroy our Nation! The horrific decision stated that I would have to get the approval of Congress for these Tariffs. In other words, hundreds of politicians would sit around D.C. for weeks, and even months, trying to come to a conclusion as to what to charge other Countries that are treating us unfairly. If allowed to stand, this would completely destroy Presidential Power — The Presidency would never be the same! This decision is being hailed all over the World by every Country, other than the United States of America. Radical Left Judges, together with some very bad people, are destroying America. Under this decision, Trillions of Dollars would be lost by our Country, money that will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. It would be the harshest financial ruling ever leveled on us as a Sovereign Nation. The President of the United States must be allowed to protect America against those that are doing it Economic and Financial harm. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Trump’s tariffs are now “in the courts,” as are his violations of the right to habeas corpus, imposition of penalties on Harvard and others without due process, and much more.

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?

©Copyright 2025 John Dean, all rights reserved.

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The House has passed Trump’s Big Beautiful bill, sending the legislation to the Senate.

House Freedom Caucus budget hawks, with two exceptions, caved.

At 8:23 a.m. this morning, Trump posted this on Truth Social:

Trump did not note that the 1,116-page bill increases the national debt. Here is the last page of the bill:

Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY), one of the two Republican “no” votes, commented during debate on the bill:

This bill is a debt bomb ticking. Congress can do funny math, fantasy math, if it wants, but bond investors don’t.

If this increase in the debt limit is included in the final legislation passed by the Senate (likely but not guaranteed), Republicans will not face another vote on it until after the 2026 mid-term election.

Earlier in the week, Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA) died. Had Connolly lived and been able to vote this morning, the bill would not have passed. Unless, of course, one of the two Republican “no” votes switched,

The entire bill text and the committee report explaining it are available here.

© Copyright 2025 John Dean, all rights reserved.

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Should you happen to encounter Donald Trump, say at an Ultimate Fighting Championship or in a Tesla dealership selling Model Xs, don’t tell him you disagree with his renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”

I would also be careful in questioning Trump’s decision to refuse to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man deported by the now-infamous El Salvadoran prison by mistake. The action could result in wrongful and illegal punishment. And if you challenge it and win in court, including the Supreme Court, that may not help you.

On April 8, a Trump-appointed Federal District Court Judge, Trevor N. McFadden, ordered the White House to allow AP back into the Oval Office and prohibited the White House from denying news organizations access to the White House based on disagreement with the President’s viewpoints. In part, the Court ordered:

1. Defendants [The White House] shall immediately rescind the denial of the AP’s access to the Oval Office, Air Force One, and other limited spaces based on the AP’s viewpoint when such spaces are made open to other members of the White House press pool.

2. Defendants shall immediately rescind their viewpoint-based denial of the AP’s access to events open to all credentialed White House journalists.

3. This preliminary injunction shall remain in effect until further order of this Court.

4. This preliminary injunction issues without the requirement of any security bond.

Lest anyone conclude that Judge McFadden is a deranged, Marxist lunatic who should himself be deported to El Salvador with no due process rights, read the Judge’s decision. In part, it reads:

Today, the Court grants that relief [ordering AP to be admitted to the White House to cover the news]. But this injunction does not limit the various permissible reasons the Government may have for excluding journalists from limited-access events. It does not mandate that all eligible journalists, or indeed any journalists at all, be given access to the President or nonpublic government spaces. It does not prohibit government officials from freely choosing which journalists to sit down with for interviews or which ones’ questions they answer. And it certainly does not prevent senior officials from publicly expressing their own views. Case 1:25-cv-00532-TNM Document 46 Filed 04/08/25 Page 1 of 41 2

No, the Court simply holds that under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists—be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere—it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints. The Constitution requires no less.

The Judge’s order is not a “nationwide injunction” of the type that Republicans are condemning as one of the worst judicial decisions in American history. That is worth noting.

Read the entire 41-page court order here.

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Ross Ulbricht looks like a nice guy. How courteous of him for thanking “a truly great American President” who “cares about freedom and second chances.”

I did not know who Ulbricht was. I had not heard of him. Why was he put in prison? Here’s what I found:

Ross Ulbricht, aka “Dread Pirate Roberts,” was sentenced Friday in federal court to life in prison in connection with his operation and ownership of Silk Road, a hidden website designed to enable its users to buy and sell illegal drugs and other unlawful goods and services anonymously and beyond the reach of law enforcement between January 2011 and October 2013.

Ulbricht created Silk Road in January 2011, and owned and operated the underground website until it was shut down by law enforcement authorities in October 2013. Silk Road emerged as the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet, serving as a sprawling black-market bazaar where unlawful goods and services, including illegal drugs of virtually all varieties, were bought and sold regularly by the site’s users. While in operation, Silk Road was used by thousands of drug dealers and other unlawful vendors to distribute hundreds of kilograms of illegal drugs and other unlawful goods and services to more than 100,000 buyers, and to launder hundreds of millions of dollars deriving from these unlawful transactions.

Ulbricht deliberately operated Silk Road as an online criminal marketplace intended to enable its users to buy and sell drugs and other illegal goods and services anonymously and outside the reach of law enforcement. Ulbricht sought to anonymize transactions on Silk Road in two principal ways. First, Ulbricht operated Silk Road on what is known as “The Onion Router,” or “Tor” network, a special network of computers on the Internet, distributed around the world, designed to conceal the true IP addresses of the computers on the network and thereby the identities of the networks’ users. Second, Ulbricht designed Silk Road to include a Bitcoin-based payment system that served to facilitate the illegal commerce conducted on the site, including by concealing the identities and locations of the users transmitting and receiving funds through the site.

Mr. President, why? Aren’t you the same guy denying due process to hundreds of suspected gang members who were arrested based on their tattoos?

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Republicans in the Senate may have encountered in insurmountable obstacle to giving President Trump his “Big, Beautiful Bill” to extend the expiring 2017 tax cuts and increase spending for border security and defense while at the same time not dramatically increasing the national debt: Obstacle is economics.

Ever hear the phrase, “Numbers don’t lie?” Unfortunately, they can if Republican Senate leadership gets their way. They are asking Senate Parlimentarian to allow the extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts without assuming any cost associated with making them permanent.

Budgeteers estimate extension of the Trump Tax cuts costs $4.5 trillion or more over 10 years. A Senate Budget Resolution increasing the national debt by that amount is not likely to pass the Senate.

The dishonest solution is to get the Senate Parlimentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, to lie. She would rule it costs nothing to extend the tax cuts by using what is called “a current policy baseline.” I call it budget fraud.

In 2017, when the tax cuts were enacted, they were “sunsetted” in 2025 in order to reduce their costs. Had the tax cuts been permanent, the cost of that legislation would have been prohibitive.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) will call the lie “budget accounting” or “budget scoring,” but anyone who has worked on Congressional budget legislation knows that “budget scoring” is vulnerable to manipulation.

Democrats do it too.

It would be convenient if budget fraud were the exclusive domain of Republicans. It’s not. Both Democrats and Republicans do it, which doesn’t make it right.

An example of Democrats’ enaging in what I call budget fraud is the bill that enacted ObamaCare. In order to meet the budget requirements for the bill, the legislation included “reform” of the federal student loan programs consisting of having the federal government rather than banks and non-profit lenders make student loans. Savings of $8.7 billionwere “scored” for the reform, enough to put ObamaCare over the top.

What is known as the Federal Direct Student Loan Program was subsequently recognized as a disaster. Loan forigveiness programs and defaults resulted in the loans not being repaid. President Biden exacerbated the problem by forgiving billions in student loans.

What was supposed to be multi-billion savings proved to be costs of hundreds of billions of federal dollars.

Trump and MAGA don’t care about the national debt.

Senate Repubicans now plan to engage in more budget fraud. Thus far, a handful of Senators are crying foul. Will Trump manage to bully them into line?

Looking for evidence that the Trump agenda is built on huge federal deficits? Look no further than the “Big, Beautiful Bill.”

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It was with Langer’s words in mind that I read a social media post earlier today by President Donald Trump. The President proudly reposted a statement by a NASA spokesperson implying that Trump deserves the credit for “rescuing” the two astronauts who were stranded on the International Space Station after NASA determined that their Starliner Spacecraft was too dangerous for their return trip.

I was especially interested in the Fox News report on the astronauts’ return. Are we to believe that had Trump not been President, the astronauts would have been permanently abandoned in space? That sounds like nonsense because it is nonsense.

More importantly, spokesperson Bethany Stevens’ statement is a prime example of a big lie.

I wonder, how many people are ready to believe that President Biden was so indifferent to the lives of two astronauts that he had decided to abandon them?

Enough said.

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When the President announced the “termination” of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), I struggled to understand why. Effectively ending USAID did not make sense. My understanding of its history and operation was that it was an essential part of American world leadership and had saved hundreds of thousands of lives across the globe by distributing food aid, medicines, technical assistance, and encouraging democracy and human rights.

President Trump’s Executive Action on USAID has been in effect for more than a month. Immediately after it was issued, I intended to write a piece on the agency and the ramifications of shutting it down and firing its employees. However, given the cascade of other Trump/Musk actions that followed January 20, 2025, I never got around to it.

Last week, I learned that one of my neighbors on the Eastern Shore of Maryland had written a Letter to the Editor that had been published in the Spy Newspapers. Sangeet Chowfla, the former president and CEO of the Graduate Management Admissions Council, authored the letter. Chowfla currently teaches at the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University.

The letter was better than anything I could write, so I sought permission to reprint it here in the hope that more people would read it.

Dear Editor,

There’s a strange sickness in this country—where we dismantle what works, just because some rich loudmouth decides it’s “wasteful.” And now, USAID—the agency that has helped millions of people around the world while keeping American farmers, contractors, and businesses employed—is on the chopping block.

You’d think small-town Marylanders wouldn’t care. But let me tell you—USAID buys American. It buys our corn, our wheat, our equipment. It opens markets that our farmers depend on. Without it, those opportunities disappear, and guess who takes our place? China.

USAID partners with the University of Maryland’s eastern shore and college park campuses to deliver its life saving care. It also works with Johns Hopkins, 16 Maryland farmers and another 11 nonprofits in our state. All in all, nearly $1 Billion was spent in Maryland by USAID. These businesses and workers are all affected.

Do not be fooled that USAID only spends money abroad. Its total budget is less than 1% of the federal budget and only 0.13% of US GDP. It literally saves lives around the world, projects US soft power and SPENDS MOST OF ITS MONEY AT HOME.

Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, you know better. Don’t let Elon Musk’s Twitter tantrums dictate U.S. foreign policy. Stand up. Defend USAID. Because a strong, self-reliant America doesn’t shrink from the world—it leads it.

Sincerely,

Sangeet Chowfla

Oxford MD

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The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, two militia groups central to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, had a good day yesterday. President Trump gave complete pardons to the leaders of both groups as well as approximately 1500 other people involved in the January 6 insurrection. Individuals who attacked police officers, broke windows, and sought to hang Vice President Pence will walk free under Trump’s pardon.

Why did Trump issue the pardons? He wants to rewrite history. As documented in the criminal indictments brought against Trump and the report of the House Select Committee on the January 6, 2021 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, after his 2020 defeat, Trump sought to retain the presidency by force and fraud. He summoned the crowd of thugs that marched to the Capitol on January 6, urged them to “fight,” and refused to direct them to stand down once the violence started.

Trump’s shameful and criminal actions on January 6 and his dereliction of duty after the assault on the Capitol started was Trump’s presidential legacy, at least until he won the 2024 election. His win last November, in Trump’s delusional mind, allows him to rewrite the legacy of his first term.

Trump called the January 6 insurrectionists “patriots” for more than two years, starting his rewrite of history as soon as the initial disbelief and shock of the Capitol attack began to wane. The chief perpetrator of the attack—Trump—repainted himself as a victim as Trump accused “antifa,” Nancy Pelosi, the FBI, communists, and others of orchestrating the attack. Trump claimed his innocence after his indictment and, going further, characterized the Special Counsel charged with investigating the January 6 attack as “deranged.”

Trump’s rebranding exercise, despite its obvious falsity, was believed by Trump followers and created skepticism about the events of January 6 on the part of others. Thousands of hours of video evidence, confessions by rioters themselves, and other evidence were accepted as “fake.” Trump became a hero to his followers. But the history of his treason remained—More than 1500 people had been arrested for an attack on the Capitol that resulted in the deaths of more than four police officers and hundreds of injuries to others.

In granting the pardons, Trump acted like one might expect a convicted felon to act—he wants America to forget history.

Unfortunately for Trump, America will not forget January 6 and the shameful action he took yesterday. Trump will be remembered for embracing the violence brought on his behalf and for thanking criminals who broke the law in a failed attempt to keep him in power.

The second Trump presidency will not end well. He has assembled a team of underqualified people, many with skeletons in their closet, and surrounded himself with oligarchs. He has also launched a “shock and awe” blizzard of executive orders, intended as much to intimidate as to change policy.

Did America enter “a Golden Age” on January 20, 2025? Did you feel “liberated” yesterday?

Were you embarrassed and ashamed of America yesterday? I was.

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