The Avengers
Keeping up with all of Trump’s week one moves was hard. This NYT (Gift Article) piece places many of the moves in context. The context is revenge. In Exacting Retribution, Trump Aims at the Future as Well as the Past. “Taken together, the moves send a clear signal that Mr. Trump feels unconstrained about punishing the disloyal, that he is potentially willing to go further against his enemies than he had pledged on the campaign trail and that there will be a price for any opposition to come.”
+ “Hegseth, just days after his historically narrow confirmation vote, promised to roll back diversity programs, use the military to block migrants from entering the United States illegally and hold the Biden administration accountable for perceived foreign policy failures. He begins his assignment as what the White House has lauded as a long-overdue ‘disrupter.'” Pete Hegseth, Trump’s Pentagon ‘disrupter,’ vows swift action. The confirmation of the wildly flawed and inexperienced Hegseth marked another sad moment in a nauseating national slide, but I should focus on areas of common ground. As soon as I heard Hegseth was confirmed, I got drunk. It’s worth noting that Mitch McConnell was one of the three GOP senators to vote against Hegseth. That’s how far the GOP has shifted. Mitch McConnell is now a moderate.
+ Trump Dump: Trump administration launches nationwide immigration enforcement blitz (Note the initial focus on blue cities/states). White House says Colombia agrees to take deported migrants after Trump tariff showdown. (Keep in mind that Colombia has taken deported migrants before. What they balked at was how the deported migrants we’re been treated and transported.) Could there be an image more representative of 2025 America than Dr Phil filming migrant arrests? Trump’s firing of independent watchdog officials draws criticism. (Criticism isn’t going to stop moves like this, even when they’re unlawful.) And, over the weekend, Trump made the poorly received suggestion that we move Gaza-based Palestinians to neighboring countries and “just clean out that whole thing.” (Interrupting Kamala rallies was the most backwards protest movement in the history of protest movements.)
