Politics

President Donald Trump really, really wants everyone to stop talking about his dead friend and fellow convicted felon, Jeffrey Epstein. Fortunately for Trump, he runs the whole of the government and has nourished the resentful and conspiracy-addled thinking of the very worst people among us, which is why we’re getting a one-two punch of stupidity. First, there’s House Oversight Chair James Comer who has subpoenaed most everyone Trump has ever fixated on under the pretense that they are the real criminals who shielded Epstein—not Trump, his actual longtime friend. Then, over at the Department of Justice, we’ve got Attorney General Pam Bondi pursuing an entirely different theory, which is that everyone conspired to fake evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election after Trump won the 2016 election. Yeah, it doesn’t hold together, but go with it.  Over on X, which is apparently still where official government pronouncements are made even after Trump’s falling out with owner Elon Musk, Comer is bragging that his sham of an Oversight Committee has issued subpoenas to compel the following people to be deposed as part of his attempt to get to the bottom of the Epstein scandal: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: October 9 Former President Bill Clinton: October 14 Former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland: October 2 Former FBI Director James Comey: October 7 Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr: August 18 Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: August 26 Former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions: August 28 Former FBI Director Robert Mueller: September 2 Former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch: September 9 Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder: September 30 That is quite the list. Not one, not two, but six attorneys general, a couple of FBI directors, Trump’s 2016 election rival and her husband, and a former president. Has anyone inquired as to whether Trump’s incredibly sweet and vast presidential immunity deal applies to any other presidents before Comer tries to compel Bill Clinton’s testimony?  The notion that Comer also needs to depose two of Trump’s former attorneys general as part of this quest is especially odd. Are they expected to have somehow conspired on their own, out of sight of Trump, to protect Epstein? If Comer was sincere about learning who in the first Trump administration ensured Epstein was protected from the consequences of his actions, he’d be deposing Trump’s former Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta, who gave Epstein that sweetheart deal in 2007 when Acosta was the U.S. Attorney for Florida. But if Comer talked to Acosta, he might learn something real and true, so that’s not going to happen.  With the exception of Alberto Gonzales, who was attorney general under George W. Bush, this list of ostensible Epstein protectors seems to dovetail pretty nicely with the list of people Trump also believes conspired to rob him of the legitimacy of his 2016 election. Gonzales is presumably there as a fig leaf, as he was attorney general when Acosta cut Epstein the “deal of a lifetime.” Even so, a serious investigation would still call Acosta, but Comer is not serious.  Related | Trump has Epstein files on the brain as presser goes off the rails Apparently, former President Barack Obama’s attorneys general were in on the Epstein cover-up, but not Obama himself? And the same is somehow true for George W. Bush? But when it comes to the Clintons, the right just can’t help itself. Every conspiracy leads back there.  While Comer stages this dog-and-pony show to find the real Epstein-adjacent criminal, Bondi is taking the laboring oar on pursuing Trump’s other unhinged conspiracy theory: that evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election was falsified to hurt Trump. Okay, hang on, because this gets both dumb and confusing.  Bondis is empaneling a federal grand jury, upon a criminal referral from Gabbard, who issued an incredibly confusing press release about her triumph:  On Friday, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard revealed overwhelming evidence that demonstrates how, after President Trump won the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton, President Obama and his national security cabinet members manufactured and politicized intelligence to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump. Wait, what? So the current working theory of the director of National Intelligence is that somehow, following Trump’s victory, everyone then conspired against Trump by inventing the story of Russian interference in the 2016 election. As a basis for that weird claim, she offers a whole bunch of random emails that predate Trump’s 2016 win, so whatever. It’s also not clear how Obama officials could have helmed the “years-long coup” against Trump since all of them were out once Trump took office. Gabbard has also called for Obama to be prosecuted, which again raises the question of whether presidential immunity will apply to anyone but Trump. Let’s say Obama had embarked on a scheme to discredit Trump, and he did so by conferring with his appointees, like his attorney general. That’s pretty much exactly what the Supreme Court said constituted an official act for which Trump was immune.  Just as with Epstein, Trump knows full well what occurred during the 2016 campaign and how much Russia gave him a helping hand. In 2018, he said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “responsible” for Russian interference in the 2016 election. But for Trump to admit the scale of that assistance would destroy his fragile ego, which needs constant soothing about how he is the best and most winningest guy.  If only Trump could bring this level of attention to bear on a pedophile felon—but hey, that guy used to be his pal. You can only ask a man for so much.

Anyone who’s clamoring for President Donald Trump to bring down inflation and right the economy will have to keep waiting, since his administration is focused on more important things—like bringing back Confederate monuments. The National Park Service announced on Monday that the Trump administration is reinstalling a statue of Albert Pike, a Confederate general from Arkansas who wanted to expel free Black people from his state, in Washington, D.C. The statue, which sat near the U.S. Capitol, was removed in 2020 after being toppled by protesters. According to NPS, the statue is being reinstated to support “both the Executive Order on Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful and the Executive Order on Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History, which direct federal agencies to protect public monuments and present a full and accurate picture of the American past.” Protesters topple the statue of Confederate Gen. Albert Pike in 2020. But this isn’t the only way that Trump is honoring Confederate traitors. Unqualified and reckless Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth restored the names of Confederate generals on military bases in July, a move hailed by Racist in Chief Trump. “Can you believe they changed that name in the last administration for a little bit? We’ll forget all about that,” Trump said during a speech in North Carolina at Fort Bragg, named after Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg. What’s more, Trump is also seeking to extort the D.C.’s NFL team into changing its name from the Commanders back to the Redskins, a racist slur against Native Americans. While Trump focuses on resurrecting statues of racist traitors and making sports team names racist again, a YouGov survey released Tuesday shows that 21% of Americans want him to instead focus on inflation and rising prices. But instead of doing that, Trump is instating insane tariffs that are spiking inflation and paralyzing the job market—leading to fears of stagflation and a painful recession that will be 100% his doing. The YouGov poll also found that just 34% of Americans approve of the way Trump is handling inflation and skyrocketing prices. As for the Pike statue, Democrats lambasted the Trump administration’s decision to resurrect the tribute to the Confederacy. “Why is Trump focusing on reinstalling confederate statues instead of lowering costs for American families?” Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware wrote on X. But Eleanor Holmes Norton, a congressional delegate representing D.C., said that she will reintroduce legislation to have the monument removed. “NPS’ decision to restore and reinstall the statue of Confederate Albert Pike is indefensible,” she wrote on X. “Pike served dishonorably, misappropriated funds, and was ultimately imprisoned by his fellow troops. I’ll reintroduce my bill to remove the statue.”

Sean Duffy has entered the new age space race for America to be the first country to lay claim to our neighbor just outside of the ozone layer. The MTV former reality star and the newest interim head of NASA is already conjuring up grand ideas just weeks into his new gig—nuclear reactors on the moon.  “The first country to do so could potentially declare a keep-out zone which would significantly inhibit the United States from establishing a planned Artemis presence if not there first,” Duffy said during a press conference Tuesday. As for who we’re racing, the “Real World” alumni said it’s our old pals China and Russia. “Since March 2024, China and Russia have announced on at least three occasions a joint effort to place a reactor on the Moon by the mid-2030s,” Duffy explained in a separate directive. “Cleared for landing” by Jack Ohman While entering a questionable geopolitical race against our adversaries is one thing, just Duffy’s appointment to the position alone has turned some heads. After all, it wasn’t too long ago that the man who is now overseeing NASA in addition to the Department of Transportation was juggling his own Federal Aviation Association crisis.  Earlier this year, pilots and air traffic controllers lost communication for minutes due to technical issues at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. Following massive budget cuts and layoffs, the FAA was dealing with delays and a spike in safety concerns that are still not completely resolved. And while Duffy should be looking in one direction to make sure everything is running as smoothly as possible, Politico reports, his new laundry list at NASA has politicians on Capitol Hill concerned.  “How does he figure out what the priority is? Is it the FAA, which has all kinds of problems, or NASA, which has all kinds of problems?” Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, who is a former astronaut, told the outlet.  Sen. Ted Cruz, who likes Duffy, admitted that he is hoping for a prompt full-time replacement.  And as long as TV star Duffy has the reins in NASA, the balance at the U.S.’s hub for scientific and space exploration has others worried as well.  Related | Trump wants to go to the moon, but he’s sending NASA to the dump With NASA’s budget for scientific research nearly halved in the name of cutting “woke” projects, more senior officials have also said their goodbyes to the program. In July, over 2,000 NASA officials—including seasoned astronauts and scientists—announced their exit from the program as Trump’s administration slashed the budget.  In other words, as Duffy takes his stand at NASA’s head, the question of how many space experts are actually around to make decisions is at the forefront of many others’ minds. 

Let it never be said that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is not loyal to her friends.  The Georgia Republican out here pleading former Rep. George Santos’ case, trying to get President Donald Trump to commute his sentence and free him from his grueling confinement, which has lasted … about 12 days. And without naming names, she’s happy to insinuate that far worse criminals than Santos still roam the halls of Congress.  Before diving into the merits of whether Trump should grant Santos mercy, let’s speculate about whom Greene could be referring to.  Fortunately, GovTrack, a government transparency group, maintains a database about legislator misconduct. Maybe Greene is referring to Rep. Andrew Ogles, the Tennessee Republican so eager to stay in Trump’s good graces that he wants to amend the Constitution so Trump can serve a third term. Ogles is the subject of an ethics complaint thanks to a discrepancy in his financial disclosures. Ogles also possesses the Santos-like penchant for inflating his resume.  Former Rep. George Santos arrives at federal court for sentencing on April 25 in Central Islip, New York. Or maybe Texas’ Troy Nehls? In 2024, the Office of Congressional Ethics found that Nehls may have made illegal campaign disbursements and appears to not have provided complete financial disclosures. Nehls still has his job, though, and little has happened with that complaint.  And thanks to the GOP controlling the House, Rep. Wesley Hunt and Rep. Ronny Jackson, both of Texas, are still hanging about despite the OCE determining that they had violated campaign finance standards.  According to Greene, Santos’ sentence is unfair because a seven-year prison sentence for  “campaign-related charges” is too much, so she’s asking the Office of the Pardon Attorney to urge Trump to commute Santos’ sentence. Of course, her characterization of Santos’ crimes is incorrect. Santos deceived donors, spent campaign funds on personal items, inflated the amount of donations he received so he could qualify for funds and assistance from the national GOP, did some identity fraud by charging donors’ credit cards without their authorization, committed some unemployment insurance fraud, and lied to the House. However, Greene might be in luck: The extremely morally flexible Ed Martin now runs the Office of the Pardon Attorney. So she probably has a shot at getting this request in front of Trump’s eyeballs at the bare minimum.  Former Rep. Michael Grimm, shown in June 2018. It’s somewhat surprising Trump hasn’t already pardoned Santos, since Trump apparently loves to pardon people who have committed crimes that remind him of his own crimes. He’s already granted clemency to 16 corrupt politicians, including former New York Rep. Michael Grimm, who hid income and lied on his tax forms, and Michele Fiore, a former Las Vegas city council member, for her diversion of donations for a memorial to a slain police officer to her own plastic surgery needs.  It isn’t like Trump is unaware of Santos’ plight, either. Last Friday, Trump mentioned he had the power to pardon Santos, musing, “He lied like hell, and I didn’t know him. … But he was 100% for Trump. I might’ve met him. Maybe, maybe not, but he was a congressman and his vote was solid.” It’s the same weird preemptive statement he made about his authority to pardon convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, reminding the world that he’s perfectly happy to pardon the scuzziest people, given enough incentive.  And that might be Santos’ problem. He lacks the ability to provide Trump with the kind of incentive that woos him into pardons. Sure, Santos is notorious, but he’s not a reality star like Todd and Julie Chrisley, who, thanks to Trump, are free and clear of their 2022 convictions for fraud and tax evasion. And Santos didn’t donate millions to a pro-Trump campaign fund.  Ever the inveterate liar, Santos even had to lie about this. Per Santos, his pardon was a done deal, but then House Speaker Mike Johnson “blocked” it, which is not a thing. The presidential pardon power is absolute, not subject to veto by the speaker of the House. Santos knows this, but he likely just can’t stop himself.  Meanwhile, Greene will continue her efforts to free her friend. Greene and Santos could be a dynamic duo once again, cozying up side-by-side in Congress to spin conspiracy theories together. Now all they need is Trump. 

On Monday, GOP Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina appeared on “Fox & Friends,” taking time away from denying the existence of racism to promote his new book and offer a watered down theological take on President Donald Trump’s disastrous second term.  “When ordinary people stand up and respond to the call of God, extraordinary things happen. Think about President Trump. Two assassination attempts. We must believe Daniel II talks about, ‘he chooses the leaders,’” Scott said, referring to the Bible’s Book of Daniel. “We must believe that there is something unique and specific that God wants to accomplish, and he chooses the people. They have to say, ‘yes, of course,’ free will still matters, but there’s no way you can look at the last 2 years of this country’s history and not come to one conclusion: God is still at work in America, and he’s not finished.” YouTube Video Scott’s misogynistic brand of morality has been on full display for some time. He has repeatedly allowed the biblically compromised Trump to humiliate him in exchange for political proximity to a man whose Christian credentials are laughable at best. As Trump’s chaotic stewardship of the United States sends his already waning popularity to new lows, Scott and other Christian nationalists appear even more dedicated to their cult leader—who plays golf on Easter.

PoliticusUSA is independent news that will not bend the knee to anyone. Please support us by becoming a subscriber. Subscribe now The United States has a lot of problems right now. Job growth has virtually come to a halt, and inflation and prices are both on the rise. Tariffs are killing the economy. Voting rights are under attack, and the country is running out of immigrant labor due to the administration’s immigration policy. Good thing the country has a president who is on top of things with his finger on the pulse of what matters most. PoliticusUSA is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Wait. What’s Donald Trump doing on the White House roof? Video: Yes. That was Trump on the White House roof, making weird hand gestures and yelling at reporters, as he claimed to be inspecting the site of the “new” White House Rose Garden. Many have said that Trump was on the roof as part of his latest effort to distract from the Epstein files, but Trump could have just as easily been trying to distract from the terrible economy, rising inflation, and lousy jobs report. There are multiple options that Donald Trump needs to distract the country from right now. Trump is pulling out of his old look at me reality TV star tricks to try to generate distractions, but they aren’t working anymore. After a decade of this sideshow, the American people have seen it all before. The gimmicks are getting more desperate. The word scared is being thrown around more and more often to describe this president. Trump was probably doomed to fail no matter what, but the stench of fear never makes a president successful. What do you think about Trump on the roof? Let’s discuss it in the comments below. Leave a comment

PoliticusUSA is 100% reader-supported news that cares about you, not the billionaires. Please help us by becoming a subscriber. Subscribe now The Solar For All program was part of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. The program was set to provide $7 billion in grants to low and middle-income homeowners to help them afford solar panels for their homes. The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that they were illegally canceling the congressionally appropriated program and trying to claw back the grant money that was supposed to go to low and middle-income Americans. PoliticusUSA is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wrote the Solar For All legislation, and he blasted Trump for illegally canceling the program: I introduced the Solar for All program to slash electric bills for working families by up to 80% — putting money back in the pockets of ordinary Americans, not fossil fuel billionaires. Now, Donald Trump wants to illegally kill this program to protect the obscene profits of his friends in the oil and gas industry. That is outrageous. Solar for All means lower utility bills, many thousands of good-paying jobs and real action to address the existential threat of climate change. At a time when working families are getting crushed by skyrocketing energy costs and the planet is literally burning, sabotaging this program isn’t just wrong — it’s absolutely insane. We will fight back to preserve this enormously important program. Trump is blatantly owned by the fossil fuel industry, as evidenced by the fact that fossil fuel companies gave him millions during the 2024 campaign through his super PAC, and since taking office, Trump has done nothing on energy policy beyond hindering renewable energy and promoting fossil fuels. Behind Trump’s babbling about windmills and lies about renewable energy is an agenda that is determined to set America back decades in terms of energy independence and job growth. Trump is doing much more than complaining about windmills. The president is taking steps to make electric and heating bills more expensive by denying the American people cheaper sources of energy. Trump is also killing jobs in the green energy sector. Presidents can’t unilaterally kill programs. The courts have ruled repeatedly against Trump when he has tried to do this. Now the president is trying to make your utility bills more expensive, all to benefit his wealthy donors in the fossil fuel industry. What do you think about Trump making energy more expensive for working-class people? Share your thoughts in the comments below. Leave a comment

PoliticusUSA needs your support. Please help us by becoming a subscriber. Subscribe now After Democrats won a surprise vote on the House Oversight Committee to subpoena the Epstein files, it was inevitable that House Republicans would turn the subpoena into part of their Trump protection effort, and House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) followed through. Here is the list of people that the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed in relation to their Epstein investigation: Department of Justice Records: August 19 Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr: August 18 Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: August 26 Former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions: August 28 Former FBI Director Robert Mueller: September 2 Former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch: September 9 Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder: September 30 Former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland: October 2 Former FBI Director James Comey: October 7 Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: October 9 Former President Bill Clinton: October 14 Everyone on the list besides the Department of Justice is an enemy or critic of Donald Trump. It is obvious from the list that the Oversight Committee Republicans are planning to turn the Epstein investigation into a deflection of blame from Donald Trump. There are no current Trump administration officials on the subpoena list. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who promised the Epstein client list and then claimed that it doesn’t exist, isn’t on the list. FBI Director Kash Patel, who has spent years talking about the Epstein files, also isn’t on the list. Read more

Chris Lehmann A new analysis shows that if you give $100 to an appeal run by a leading Democratic Party vendor, only $1.60 will actually go to the campaign. The post Those Constant Texts Asking You to Donate to Democrats Are Scams appeared first on The Nation.

The email arrived at 10:55 p.m. on Friday, July 25, with an upbeat subject line: “Big News: Key Federal Title Funds Set to Release Next Week.” It was sent by North Dakota’s schools superintendent, Kirsten Baesler, who is awaiting confirmation to become an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Education, the very agency that had been holding back the funds in question—more than $5 billion—from school districts for weeks. “Thank you for your advocacy, patience, professionalism, and persistence as we’ve waited for these essential funds to flow,” Baesler wrote to local school leaders. Like their peers across the country, North Dakota educators had grown dismayed as the congressionally approved money, one of the largest federal-grant programs for K–12 students, had been held up. Some had spent the summer pondering layoffs and sweating over spreadsheets. “Hopefully, this development will provide greater clarity as you move forward with budget planning for the upcoming year,” Baesler reassured them. She signed the message, “With relief and gratitude.” That an incoming official of the Department of Education was touting the importance of federal dollars for a heavily Republican state underscores the conundrum that President Donald Trump faces in his attempt to dismantle the agency. On the campaign trail, Trump’s promise to “send education back to the states” was often greeted with applause, and the Supreme Court has allowed the president to go ahead with his plans to gut the Education Department. But the four-week funding freeze—and the backlash it sparked—showed that cutting popular programs for schoolkids can be as unwelcome in Trump country as it is in coastal cities. [Quinta Jurecic: The Supreme Court won’t explain itself] “After months of being told to ‘wait it out,’ districts are now supposed to pick up the pieces and act like everything’s fine,” Steven Johnson, the superintendent of Fort Ransom School District, in southeastern North Dakota, told me. “I’ve got to be honest—this doesn’t sit well out here. You can’t freeze money that was already allocated, leave schools hanging through hiring season and budget planning, and then expect us to just be grateful when it finally shows up. Rural folks don’t like being jerked around.” While the funds were frozen, an informal alliance emerged between rural and big-city educators who pushed back against the president. Lawmakers from some of the reddest parts of the country opposed the funding pause too, an early warning signal to the White House as it weighs plans that might further disrupt the public-education system. If the Trump administration’s decision to abruptly cut off the funding began as a trial balloon, it ended as a cautionary tale. In arguing for the dismantling of the Education Department, Trump has asserted that America’s schoolchildren have fallen further behind their global peers since the department’s creation, in 1979. This is correct, but his proposed solution of sending education “back to the states” has always been a bit misleading. The federal government accounts for only about 10 percent of K–12 funding; states and localities cover the bulk of the cost. Still, the money that the administration withheld last month—which initially totaled about $6.8 billion—is significant. It represents more than 7.5 percent of the Education Department’s current budget. The funds pay for after-school programs, teacher training, English-learner services, migrant-education grants, and STEM activities. Many schools rely on the money to pay educators and run summer programs. Educators across the country first learned on June 30 that the money was being frozen, just hours before it was supposed to be released. In a three-sentence email, the Department of Education told states that it was withholding the funds to conduct a review, “given the change in Administrations.” The unsigned message came from noreply@ed.gov and offered no details on what the review entailed, how long it would take, or whether the money would ultimately be released. The closest thing to an explanation came from the Office of Management and Budget, which asserted in a statement that the funds had previously been used to “subsidize a radical left-wing agenda,” support LGBTQ programming, and “promote illegal immigrant advocacy.” Schools immediately began to feel the impact of the missing funds. In Cincinnati, administrators were forced to cancel orders for new curriculum materials and pause some services for students learning English. Some teachers in Fargo, North Dakota, learned that their annual $500 bonus was abruptly being cut. Officials in California, which had been expecting almost $1 billion from the federal funds, abruptly paused operations for a teacher-training program. Back-to-school planning was affected too. In the nation’s second-largest school district, Los Angeles, officials braced for “impossible choices” such as potentially having to shut down after-school tutoring or lay off school counselors, the district’s superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, told me. “For us to organize and budget and prepare for a school year impacting 540,000 students—in addition to 70,000 adult learners—we need to know what our recurring revenues are,” he said. Johnson, whose hometown of Fort Ransom, North Dakota, has a population of 2,200 and is 70 miles from the nearest Walmart, made the same case when he spoke with me from his cattle ranch. “If we don’t hire staff between such-and-such a date, we’re not going to get them,” he told me. “So the delay tactics already have hurt.” In a survey conducted last month by the School Superintendents Association, a group that advocates for more federal support for K–12 education, hundreds of school-district leaders from across the country similarly reported that they were planning to lay off teachers and cut classroom programs if the hold on funds persisted into August. [David A. Graham: What does the Department of Education actually do?] In Washington, lawmakers from both parties began to relay these concerns to the White House. In a July 16 letter to OMB Director Russell Vought, Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia joined nine other Republican senators—including lawmakers from six of the 10 states Trump carried by the largest margins in November—to urge the administration to release the money immediately. The senators noted that Congress