Politics

President Donald Trump and one of his administration’s best-known bigots have turned to social media to recruit people to join up with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. The ICE recruitment drive is occurring as the agency faces harsh criticism for its thuggish approach to immigration enforcement, including abducting people and intimidating law-abiding citizens. “We need MORE courageous men and women to, MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday night. “Join ICE now. We will take GREAT care of you, just like you take care of us!” The message was echoed by infamous bigot Stephen Miller, who serves as the White House deputy chief of staff.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers wait to detain a person on Jan. 27 in Silver Spring, Maryland. “Do you want to deport criminal invaders from the United States? The newly-passed Big Beautiful Bill provides extraordinary incentives for new ICE hires,” Miller wrote on X. ICE has been under fire for the way it has executed Trump’s mass deportations. The agency has deployed masked agents to harass people around the country, in some instances lying to get access to targets. ICE raids even have students afraid of being swept up while attending classes. The backlash to Trump’s immigration action has led to a loss of support in what has traditionally been an area of political strength. A YouGov poll released earlier this month found that just 35% of Latinos approved of the job he’s doing as president, while 62% disapproved. That drop came as Trump and his team ramped up deportations, including sending military forces to Los Angeles to carry out protection for ICE raids. The thuggish behavior from the agency has emboldened racists to dress up and impersonate ICE agents, and criminals are doing the same around the country. ICE is the most visible way in which the public is being faced with the Trump deportation agenda. And they don’t appear to like what they see—so is it any wonder that Trump and his team now have to troll social media to scrape up new recruits?

Even by the standards of the Trump era, recent developments at the Department of Health and Human Services show an agency spinning out of control. It’s a perfect storm of craven stupidity over there, helmed by a mercurial Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.—and it’s profoundly dangerous to the health of the American people.  News broke on Tuesday that Vinay Prasad was out as the head vaccine regulator at the Food and Drug Administration. Prasad made it a whopping 10 weeks or so before leaving to spend more time with his family. No, really. That’s what the HHS spokesperson said.  “Dr. Prasad did not want to be a distraction to the great work of the FDA in the Trump administration and has decided to return to California and spend more time with his family,” the official statement claimed. Somehow you never see real, non-mocking invocations of more “family time” in the wild.  In a better world, the news that Prasad, who got his FDA gig because he is an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist, was forced out by right-wing crackpot Laura Loomer for being insufficiently conspiratorial would just be an amusing opportunity for all of us to engage in a little schadenfreude. But we live in the here and now, so the chaotic jockeying as to who can be more anti-science affects us all.  You’d think comparing pandemic-era restrictions to Nazi Germany would count for something, but noooooo. Loomer was mad because apparently, Prasad was a “Progressive Leftist Saboteur Undermining President Trump’s FDA.” Also per Loomer, Prasad admitted to stabbing a Trump voodoo doll to curse Trump.  Given that tapping Prasad was already deep into disqualifying levels of conspiracy, it’s hard to think of who could be worse. What if it is Lyn Redwood, Kennedy’s former colleague at Children’s Health Defense? He already named her to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices after he fired all the actual experts. BRB—gotta google whether the head vaccine regulator has to be an actual doctor or not.  Not content to oust the whole of ACIP, Kennedy is reportedly branching out and may soon be removing all the members of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Sure, the USPSTF is made up of experts on preventive measures like diabetes screening. And you’d think Kennedy, with all his pretense that he would be focusing on chronic disease prevention, would want to talk with some experts about how to do that, but nope. Per The Wall Street Journal, Kennedy wants to remove the task force members because they are too woke. Sigh.   Related | RFK Jr. keeps finding new ways to push dangerous anti-vax crusade Well, who knows if there will even be any funding left for anything health-related. No, literally … who knows? Around the close of business Tuesday, via a footnote in a document from the Office of Management and Budget, people learned that the National Institutes of Health would be freezing all funding for science research—all of it, except for internal costs like staff salaries, until the end of the federal fiscal year in September. But less than five hours later, the administration released the roughly $15 billion in funds with the risible explanation that they had been held back as part of “a programmatic review of NIH funding.” All of this follows on the heels of Kennedy booting two of his own hand-picked aides a couple of weeks ago. As with Prasad’s ouster, the whole thing sounds cringingly, grimily messy. Reportedly, Kennedy’s chief of staff Heather Flick Melanson tried to fire deputy chief of staff for policy Hannah Anderson, but bungled the firing so badly that it resulted in her own firing as well. When reached for comment, Melanson said she wasn’t fired, but had resigned.  So, what gets you tossed from Kennedy’s HHS is botching the proper steps to fire an appointed employee. What gets you rewarded?  Being a systemic and dangerous purveyor of medical misinformation. The mass firings and illegal office shuttering that have happened under Kennedy are openly chaotic. But these smaller things—the palace intrigue of who’s in and who’s out—affect us all. America’s health is in the grips of the least-informed, most capricious people imaginable.

A cartoon by Tim Campbell. Related | Guess who’s reportedly named in the Epstein files

Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s far-right superintendent of public instruction, responded to a pornography scandal by suggesting he was the victim of a massive Republican-led conspiracy to remove him from office. Two members of the state board of education accused Walters of displaying sexually explicit images of women on a TV screen connected to his computer during an executive meeting this past Thursday. “These board members have a lot to answer for, and so does the governor of the state of Oklahoma. Did he direct these board members to lie about me?” Walters said of Gov. Kevin Stitt, a fellow Republican, during a press conference on Tuesday. “What exactly directives were they given?” “We have had our name cleared by both [Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services] and the sheriff’s office,” Walters added, though the sheriff’s office leading the investigation says that’s a lie. “There is nothing scandalous that I was a part of whatsoever,” Walters claimed, before threatening the witnesses and the media outlets reporting on the matter.  YouTube Video The allegations against Walters came from board members Ryan Deatherage and Becky Carson, who attended the meeting in question. Deatherage and Carson were both appointed to the board by Stitt.  On Friday, Senate Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton and Senate Education Chairman Adam Pugh, both Republicans, announced that the Office of Management and Enterprise Services will lead an investigation into the “bizarre and troubling” incident. “The accounts made public by board members paint a strange, unsettling scene that demands clarity and transparency,” Paxton said. “Senator Pugh and I appreciate the quick action by OMES to help coordinate through this situation to get details on exactly what happened. More transparency is essential before strong conclusions can be drawn.” Walters’ rise in the GOP has been fueled by his religious extremism and his efforts to manipulate Oklahoma’s public education system into a vehicle for election denialism. All of his moves have come at the expense of public school safety and education in Oklahoma, which ranks 48th in the nation in education, according to U.S. News & World Report.

Rich criminals sure are enjoying a heyday in President Donald Trump’s second term. The latest person to benefit from the Trump administration’s approach of rewarding big donors—who also happen to be major criminals—is Andrew Wiederhorn, chair of FAT Brands.  On Wednesday, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles dropped 2 criminal cases against the fast food mogul. Was it newly discovered evidence that accounted for Wiederhorn’s good fortune? Heavens, no. It was what gets people off the hook these days: being a Trump donor. Acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli is overseeing this particular travesty. Essayli has been on somewhat of the same employment journey as his equally unqualified compatriot on the East Coast, Alina Habba. And just like Habba, Essayli is clinging to his gig by appeasing Trump—which means treating his donors favorably.  Acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli Wiederhorn had been charged under the Biden administration for concealing $47 million in income and, in a separate case, possessing a gun despite being a convicted felon. He also allegedly forgave himself about $65 million in loans. The Internal Revenue Service spent 15 years trying to collect back taxes from Wiederhorn, who owed more than $7 million by March 2021.  Having a company that was found guilty of criminal tax fraud and other companies that were fined $364 million in civil fraud, and being personally convicted of 34 felonies for falsifying business records, Trump was always going to inexorably let financial felons off the hook. Indeed, that’s been a major feature of the first few months of Trump’s second term, where pardons and other favors have been doled out to people like reality TV grifters Todd and Julie Chrisley; Virginia sheriff and bribe enthusiast Scott Jenkins; Nevada’s worst politician, Michele Fiore, who stole from a fund honoring a slain police officer to pay for plastic surgery; and crypto bro Justin Sun. Now Trump’s corruption is benefiting Essayli, who has used his office to charge politicians and judges who are perceived to be thwarting Trump’s agenda.  It’s always a good sign when the top law enforcement officer of a major metropolitan area uses his job to harass political opponents.

GOP Rep. Nancy Mace took a break from creepily posing outside public restrooms on Monday to announce that she will launch a bid for governor in her home state of South Carolina, joining a crowded Republican primary that is shaping up to be a race measuring who can kiss Dear Leader’s butt the hardest. “On Monday, August 4th, Nancy Mace will deliver a major address on the future of South Carolina,” Mace wrote in a post on X. “President Trump needs America First governors. South Carolina needs a fighter. Join us for the official start of a new South Carolina FIRST golden era. Mace, who has sought to gain ground with bigoted MAGA voters by pulling anti-trans stunts in restrooms, proudly declaring herself a “transphobe,” and praising Trump’s evil immigration agenda, would be the latest Republican to enter the open-seat governor’s race. Fellow GOP Rep. Ralph Norman already announced his bid, as have Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and state Attorney General Alan Wilson. A poll released Sunday by the South Carolina Policy Council found a tight race with no clear leader. Mace is in first with 16%, followed by Wilson at 15%. Evette is in third with just 8%, followed by Norman with 6%. Rep. Nancy Mace greets President Donald Trump as he arrives to address a joint session of Congress at the Capitol on March 4. Donald Trump’s endorsement will loom large in the primary, as whomever he chooses would automatically catapult into front-runner status. It’s why the GOP candidates will likely heap gobs of nauseating praise on their autocratic idol—and Mace’s announcement shows she’s already trying to embrace Trump. “South Carolina deserves a bold, America First Governor who will be unafraid to stand alongside President Trump and hold the line,” Mace wrote in a post on X on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Norman was downright giddy to be the subject of a positive Truth Social post from Trump, and had previously posted an awkward photo of himself with Dear Leader for Trump’s birthday in which he called Trump “a bold leader who puts America First and isn’t afraid to take on the swamp.”  Evette’s campaign website features Trump’s big orange face as the splash image, while Wilson declares on his campaign website that he “is fighting for the MAGA agenda in court and standing with President Trump to protect our conservative values and keep South Carolina safe!” Ew.  Related | Nancy Mace’s attempt at transphobic gotcha question gloriously backfires Mace, for her part, will be the seventh conservative lawmaker to forgo a run for their House seat in order to run for governor of a deeply Republican state in 2026. It’s a sign that Republicans fear they will lose their House majority, as candidates who think their party is in for a rough election cycle often forgo reelection to their congressional seats. Ultimately, while the primary will likely be a race to the bottom with the contenders debasing themselves as they praise Trump and compete to prove they’re the most virulently anti-immigrant and anti-trans candidate, there is one silver lining to this field: Mace will not return to Congress, no matter the outcome of the primary. That’s because the election is taking place in 2026, and Mace cannot run for Congress and governor at the same time. So, good riddance, Nancy. Don’t let the bathroom door hit ya on your way out of Washington.

President Donald Trump can’t keep accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein off his mind. During a press conference on Friday, Trump whiffed a softball question about a Fox News report that FBI Director Kash Patel recovered secret documents related to the probe of Trump’s connections to Russia during the 2016 election. Instead of addressing the question directly, Trump ranted vaguely about his own administration’s inability to release its files on Epstein. “Well, I want everything to be shown. You know, as long as it’s fair and reasonable, I think it will be shown. And it should be shown. And I think [Patel] feels that way. And I think [Attorney General] Pam [Bondi] feels that way,” Trump said, seemingly mishearing or misunderstanding the question. “The whole thing is a scam. It’s a scam set up by the Democrats, and they love talking about it,” Trump added. “You know, if they had anything, they would’ve done it the week before the election. … They controlled the file. The Democrats controlled it. [Former FBI Director James] Comey and all the, you know, sleazebags, every one of them that you read about all the time. And I guess they got some problems now having to do with yet a different scandal.” YouTube Video In order to distract from his ongoing failure to deliver the long-promised Epstein files, Trump’s cronies have scrambled to concoct an embarrassingly baseless conspiracy theory involving Russia and former President Barack Obama.  But new polling suggests that the American public is not buying what the White House is selling about the Epstein files. And each seedy new revelation linking Trump to the convicted sex offender seems to only deepen public doubt. Trump, whose mind has long been a fantasy land of made-up facts, seems increasingly fixated on one thing these days: Epstein. 

A cartoon by Clay Jones. Related | You won’t believe Trump’s latest spin about Epstein scandal

Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri is back to his angry Republican populist cosplay, this time backing President Donald Trump’s latest half-baked idea: sending millions of Americans checks that would be funded by tariff revenues. The lawmaker has introduced legislation to make that a reality— all while railing against the idea that “rich” Democrats might get those checks, as if that’s the real injustice buried in this mess. “Well, you wouldn’t give it to everybody, you’d give it to the working people,” Hawley said on Trump loyalist Steve Bannon’s podcast. “You’d give it to our people. I mean, you know, the rich people don’t need it … what I mean by that is all those Democrat donors of Wall Street, all these hedge fund guys, who all hate the tariffs, by the way.” Hawley’s American Worker Rebate Act would send $600 to every American, with income caps at $75,000 for single filers and $150,000 for those who file jointly.  As I’ve said before, sending checks to taxpayers is smart politics. It’s baffling that Democrats insist on hiding their help inside the tax code, turning simple wins into complicated accounting exercises. That kind of political timidity has cost the party respect and trust. Related | Trump has a knack for good politics—and Democrats should copy it Trump, of course, originally pitched tariffs as a way to reduce the national debt. He claimed foreign countries would be footing the bill, and that tariff revenue would help balance the books. Instead, Americans got higher prices on everything from clothes to cars—with worse still to come—and the debt ballooned by trillions. But no one actually cares about the national debt, and least of all the Republicans who pretend to. Now Hawley wants to repackage that fallout as free money and act like he’s doing people a favor. Amazingly, Hawley’s math actually checks out. At $150 billion in tariff receipts, divided across the roughly 76% of the population that would qualify, the result is about $607 per person. So $600 fits the math. But will an extra $50 a month move the needle as living costs continue to skyrocket? Maybe on the fringes. But it doesn’t come close to offsetting the economic damage of Trump’s chaotic tariffs and his plan to deport the agricultural workforce keeping food prices stable. And that performative outrage over rich people getting checks? Please. The entire point of Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill, which Hawley backed, was to shovel massive tax cuts to the wealthy at everyone else’s expense. As journalist Judd Legum pointed out, using budget modeling from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Americans making $51,000 to $93,000 get an average tax cut of around $845. Those making under $50,000—the folks Hawley pretends to champion—will now pay $700 to $1,000 more in taxes. Even with the proposed rebate, they’re still underwater. And as for those terrible rich people who dared to vote for Democrats—the ones Hawley insists shouldn’t get a dime? They’re walking away with tax cuts ranging between $6,000 and $390,000. So yeah, they don’t need a piddly $600 check. Hawley and his Dear Leader Trump already made sure they were more than taken care of. If Hawley cared about fairness, he would’ve made this argument when Trump’s tax bill passed—when wealthy, blue-state Americans got the real benefits, and poor red-state Americans got the shaft. But of course, that would’ve meant opposing Trump. Instead, Hawley stayed loyal. And his reward? Trump called him “a second-tier senator” for a separate bill that would ban Congress members, the president, and vice president from stock trading. Oh well.

A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know. Trump brags about hiking prices for Americans “WELCOME TO THE GOLDEN AGE,” he says as no one can afford food or rent. New poll finds Trump in hot water over Epstein scandal The “pedo president” is having a hard time weaseling out of this one. Trump administration steps up its heinous war on trans people They have their eye on the nation’s biggest threat: trans kids. Trump and his favorite white supremacist beg people to join ICE Have experience tormenting your neighbors? Interested in tearing apart families? Apply now! Cartoon: Nothing but air In one ear … As GOP moves to rig the map in Texas, Democrats gear up for a fight “Trump knows he can’t win the midterm election fair and square. So he’s trying to rig the rules.”  Trump’s FDA chief proves he’s absolutely clueless about public health Shocker: Another Trump team member has no idea what he’s doing. Click here to see more cartoons.