Politics

The Trump administration has been deporting immigrants to random countries, and they couldn’t be more proud. On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security’s Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin boasted on X that “a safe third country deportation flight to Eswatini in Southern Africa has landed,” with 5 immigrants aboard. “This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back,” she wrote. “These depraved monsters have been terrorizing American communities but thanks to Trump and [Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem], they are off of American soil.” To back up the assertion, McLaughlin posted some photos of the alleged barbarians, along with their criminal convictions. Of course, their names are not provided, so as per usual, there’s no way to fact check the now-standard assertion that the people being deported are the very worst of the worst.  King Mswati III of Eswatini Similarly, when the Trump administration deported immigrants to South Sudan, McLaughlin made an almost identical statement, saying that it was necessary because “no country on earth wanted to accept them because their crimes were so uniquely barbaric.” Just as the Trump administration decided it was fine to deport people to South Sudan despite warning people not to travel there because it’s too dangerous, it’s also content to ignore government reports on the human rights crisis in Eswatini.  The State Department’s 2023 report found “significant human rights issues” in Eswatini, including torture by the government, extrajudicial killings, lack of independence of the judiciary, trafficking, and child labor. Of course, neither immigrants nor their lawyers have any idea what exactly they will endure, but the report detailed overcrowding, nutrition deficiencies, lack of health services equipment, and gang violence in Eswatini’s prisons.  A spokesperson for the Eswatini government confirmed that the 5 immigrants are imprisoned in “isolated units” and that both Eswatini and the U.S. government will work with the United Nations to “facilitate the transit” of the men to their countries of origin.  It’s not entirely clear what that means, as it makes it sound like somehow the Trump administration deported people to Eswatini only to work jointly with that country to eventually send them home. Of course, that does not at all seem like the intent. According to a report from The New York Times report last month, the Trump administration has explored these trafficking arrangements with dozens of countries, many beset by violence, poverty, and human rights abuses. And of the 58 countries the administration has approached, many are covered by or are being considered for President Donald Trump’s latest travel ban.  Related | Rubio callously revokes visas for entire country over US mistake So it’s too dangerous to allow people from those countries into the United States, but it’s totally safe and cool to send people to their prisons. And in case countries were on the fence, the State Department told diplomats that these countries could possibly evade the travel ban if they take deportees.  We can expect much more of these blatant human rights violations, thanks to the Supreme Court blocking a lower court order requiring immigrants to have a reasonable chance to challenge their deportations. Now, people can be deported to any random country of Trump’s liking with as little as 6 hours’ notice.  The conservatives on the Supreme Court knew full well that their decision would open the floodgates to these evil actions. They just don’t care.

A cartoon by Tim Campbell. Related | Republicans block Epstein files release as they bow to Trump

After weeks of infighting, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday night ordered the withdrawal of roughly 2,000 National Guard troops from Los Angeles—about half of the total force stationed there—amid mounting political backlash over their controversial presence. “Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement. The move marks a major scaling back of a military operation that began in early June, after a wave of immigration raids triggered citywide protests. President Donald Trump had federalized the California National Guard and dispatched 4,000 troops, along with more than 700 active-duty Marines, in one of the largest domestic deployments in recent history. Protesters gather near the metropolitan detention center on June 9, in downtown Los Angeles. The White House initially signaled a 60-day mission, but it’s unclear why the drawdown began ahead of schedule—or how long the remaining forces will stay. What’s clear is that the decision follows intense criticism from state and local Democrats, who slammed the mobilization as a politically motivated show of force. By mid-June, most protests had quieted down, and Mayor Karen Bass lifted a curfew she had imposed in parts of downtown Los Angeles. But the troops remained. According to The New York Times, National Guard members were seen standing with rifles outside federal buildings and maneuvering through Los Angeles traffic in armored vehicles, raising alarm in immigrant communities already rattled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity. Trump’s decision to activate the Guard without California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s consent was unprecedented—it marked the first time a president had federalized National Guard troops over a governor’s objections since 1965. California sued, with Attorney General Rob Bonta calling the move unconstitutional and an infringement on state authority. But a federal appeals court rejected the challenge, ruling that Trump had “exercised his statutory authority.” Despite the legal defeat, California officials kept the pressure on. Bass and other leaders demanded a full withdrawal and framed the issue as one of state sovereignty and civil rights. “This happened because the people of Los Angeles stood united and stood strong,” Bass said Tuesday. “We organized peaceful protests, we came together at rallies, we took the Trump administration to court—all of this led to today’s retreat.” Newsom, meanwhile, called the deployment an “assault on democracy” and accused the White House of targeting “people who are least able to defend themselves.” Related | Trump and his minions keep lying about heinous ICE raids caught on camera The military has insisted that troops are not authorized to arrest civilians, only to detain individuals who pose a threat to federal personnel or property until law enforcement can take over. Still, the heavy presence has altered daily life in parts of the city, particularly immigrant-heavy neighborhoods. One LA-area mayor, Arturo Flores, a Marine veteran, described the actions of ICE and the presence of troops as a “campaign of domestic terror” and “psychological warfare.” The drawdown is a meaningful shift, but not a full retreat. About 2,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines remain in the region. Los Angeles is still under military watch, but for the first time since the deployment began, there’s a sense that the end may finally be in sight.

Newly uncovered documents detailing the process of building Florida’s so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” immigrant detention facility show that equipment meant to be used to respond to natural disasters was diverted to the right-wing project. Talking Points Memo examined the contracts between vendors and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration, uncovering one with Baker’s Electronics & Communications Inc. that refers to an “Atlas trunked radio system,” which is used by public safety agencies for communication. The document indicates that the system was “pulled” from an existing disaster preparedness platform and sent to “Alligator Alcatraz.” The contract also indicated that the system had to “be back-filled to prevent a response gap during hurricane season given the unknown duration of detention center operation.” Flooding is seen in Florida following Hurricane Irma in 2017. No U.S. state has more hurricanes than Florida. The storms, flooding, and other destruction associated with such weather events have taken thousands of lives over the years. Despite Florida’s need for an extensive preparedness infrastructure, the contract appears to prove that the right’s pet project took priority instead. In addition to concerns about diverted emergency equipment, recent reporting from the Miami Herald revealed that several contractors involved in the facility’s construction were also donors to DeSantis and the Florida GOP. The detention facility is operating similar to a black site, run by the state government with little to no oversight. The reasons for why people are being detained are hidden from the public, and those inside are not informed of the terms of their incarceration. The state is receiving funding from the Trump administration as a reward for operating. Democratic officials in Florida recently sued the state after they were denied entry to conduct standard oversight. The DeSantis administration is notoriously secretive and has threatened the press over investigations into the governor’s wife, Casey Desantis. The tactic echoes the Trump administration’s approach at the federal level, where Democratic lawmakers have been arrested while trying to investigate ICE detention facilities. “Alligator Alcatraz”—a brand that Florida Republicans have now monetized with merchandise—is a manifestation of Trump’s previously expressed desire for an inhumane immigration detention facility.  He and other leading Republicans have expressed glee at the prospect of violating human rights—and they’re clearly willing to hobble emergency response systems for the opportunity to do so.

Though the so-called Department of Government Efficiency doesn’t grab as many headlines as it did in its Elon-Musk-led heyday, its workers cling like wood ticks on various agencies and continue to have access to a staggering amount of data.  Take the Department of Agriculture.  On Tuesday, Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin wrote a letter to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on behalf of Wisconsin farmers, expressing the legitimate concern that letting DOGE rummage around in USDA databases of private data seems not great. Baldwin also pointed out that DOGE also has access to the National Payment System, giving it control over billions of dollars in loans and payments to farmers.  Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, shown in February. DOGE intrusion “not only breaches [farmers’] privacy, but also raises serious concerns about the future of USDA payments, our nation’s food security, and the consolidation of farmland and processing operations,” Baldwin wrote. This project seems to be led by a DOGE bro named Jordan Wick. Who is Jordan Wick? Surely someone with deep experience in agriculture, the intricacies of farm finances, and/or government payment systems? Oh, heavens no. He’s a 28-year-old former software engineer for Waymo, the self-driving car company. Yes, the very same Waymo that just recalled over 1,200 vehicles because they were prone to crashing into barriers, which is really not what you want in a taxi.   Nonetheless, Wick appears to have unprecedented access to USDA data. A source provided NPR with access logs revealing that Wick can see all the private, personal, and financial information at USDA, and can change or cancel payments and loans. He has access that no one else at USDA has. Even those tasked with the professional responsibility of explaining why Wick needs this level of access can come up with only a series of buzzwords. The “USDA Efficiency Team”—which is apparently what they’re calling the burrowed-in DOGE kids now—is reviewing “many loans, guarantees, and payments” for supposed fraud and national security concerns, per a USDA spokesperson.  Why? Because “the abuse of USDA systems and data centers is a serious issue,” said a USDA spokesperson, and the DOGE team has been “immensely supportive due to their unmatched skillset in protecting our data and ensuring those that use their positions to access systems to defraud American taxpayers.” It’s unclear if the spokesperson is accusing farmers or USDA employees of defrauding American taxpayers, but let’s talk about that “unmatched skillset” part. What skillset, exactly? Wick’s past experience programming self-driving cars? Or perhaps the spokesperson meant Wick is a genius at keeping data safe. Well, except for the part where he may have been a part of DOGE’s illegal exfiltration of National Labor Relations Board data.  Letting Wick determine what contracts and payments are valid will probably go as well as when the government let a different DOGE bro review Department of Veterans’ Affairs contracts. The bro wrote an AI program—or rather, he co-wrote it with another AI. Said new AI program then was turned loose in the VA systems, where it promptly and incorrectly determined that over 1,000 contracts were worth $34 million apiece, when some of them were worth more like $35,000.  These tech kiddies don’t have an “unmatched skillset.” They don’t even have a normal baseline skillset for the jobs they have barged into. The Trump administration’s project of firing all federal workers with specialized knowledge was bad enough, but it’s just adding insult to injury that we now have to pretend that random software guys understand the inner workings of government far better.

A cartoon by Clay Jones. Related | Musk’s anti-woke AI chatbot goes full Nazi—then gets shut off

President Donald Trump is reportedly going to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a likely illegal move to end the bank’s independence and install a new chair who would carry out Trump’s demand for an insanely low 1% interest rate. According to a White House official, Trump met with a group of GOP lawmakers Tuesday night to discuss a crypto bill and whether he should fire Powell. “The president asked lawmakers how they felt about firing the Fed chair. They expressed approval for firing him. The president indicated he likely will soon,” the official said. Trump even showed the lawmakers a letter he drafted to fire Powell, according to The New York Times. One of the GOP lawmakers present was Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, who posted on X Tuesday night that Powell’s firing was “imminent.” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell “Hearing Jerome Powell is getting fired! From a very serious source,” Luna wrote after her meeting with Trump, later adding, “I’m 99% sure firing is imminent.” And on Wednesday, other GOP lawmakers publicly egged on Trump to give Powell the axe. “Today’s a great day to fire Jerome Powell,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama wrote on X. But Trump, who has been railing on Powell for months, claimed on Wednesday that he isn’t firing him. “He’s doing a lousy job, but no, I’m not talking about that,” Trump told reporters. “Fortunately we get to make a change in the next, what, eight months and we’ll pick somebody that’s good.” And though Trump said that he hasn’t fully ruled out firing Powell, he added that it’s “highly unlikely” that he will. In yet another sign of his cognitive decline, Trump went on to tell reporters that he “was surprised he was appointed—surprised, frankly, that Biden put him in and extended him.” In actuality, it was Trump who appointed Powell in 2017. YouTube Video Banking experts say that if Trump does fire Powell, it will have devastating impacts for the economy. “We believe the market reaction would be large. The empirical and academic evidence on the impact of a loss of central bank independence is fairly clear: In extreme cases, both the currency and the bond market can collapse as inflation expectations move higher, real yields drop and broader risk premia increase on the back of institutional erosion,” Deutsche Bank head of FX research George Saravelos wrote in a memo. When Trump seemed likely to fire Powell in April, stock markets plummeted as investors panicked. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost nearly 1,000 points in a single day, and the S&P 500 and NASDAQ each lost nearly 2.5% of their value amid the reports. Related | Trump thinks insulting Fed chair will fix broken stock market—somehow The similar situation happened after news broke Wednesday that Trump is again considering firing Powell, who has said that he is not leaving and that firing him would be against the law. But Powell’s term expires in May 2026, at which point Trump will be able to choose his successor. Democrats, meanwhile, are questioning the timing of Trump’s latest outburst against Powell. “Trump is willing to destroy the independence of the Fed and tank bond markets if it would get you to stop talking about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein,” Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois wrote on X. We’ll see if it works.

The lights are on at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau across the street from the White House, and employees still get paid. But in practice, the bureau has been mostly inoperable for nearly six months. CFPB employees say they essentially spend the workday sitting on their hands, forbidden from doing any work by directive from the White House. The bureau is supposed to be helping oversee the nation’s banks and financial services companies and taking enforcement action in case of wrongdoing. During its 15-year existence, the CFPB has returned roughly $21 billion to consumers who were cheated by financial services companies. Related | Fraud victim ‘not hopeful’ for refund after Trump wrecks consumer protection agency Instead, its main function now seems to be undoing the rulemaking and law enforcement work that was done under previous administrations, including in President Donald Trump’s first term. One current employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the directive forbids staffers from speaking publicly about their jobs, said outsiders would be amazed at how little work is being done. Employees are reluctant even to talk to one another, out of fear that a conversation between two employees would be considered a violation of the directive. Another employee described the drastic shift in mission, from trying to protect consumers to doing nothing, as “quite demoralizing.” To gain an understanding of what is happening inside the CFPB, The Associated Press spoke with 10 current and former employees, as well as bankers and policymakers who used to interact with the bureau nearly every day but now say their emails and voicemails go into a black hole. The agency’s press office doesn’t respond to emails. Related | Agency that targets corporate crooks shuttered by Trump—of course The CFPB took a lighter approach to its mission in Trump’s first term but continued to pursue enforcement actions. Under President Joe Biden, the agency took an expansive view of its authority, targeting profitable practices by banks such as overdraft and credit card late fees, as well as investigating companies over credit reporting and medical debt. The bureau also turned a spotlight on Big Tech companies that have made inroads into financial services. For example, the CFPB ordered Apple to pay $89 million in fines and penalties for problems related to the Apple Card. Banks and the financial services industry felt the Biden CFPB acted too aggressively, particularly with a proposal to cut overdraft fees to $5 from the industry average of $27 to $35. The bureau estimated the move would save consumers roughly $5 billion a year. The proposal was overturned by Congress in April with Trump’s backing. Once Trump 2.0 began, the bureau became a main target of the Department of Government Efficiency, then run by Elon Musk, who posted on X that the CFPB should “RIP” shortly after DOGE employees became embedded at the agency. Through the bureau’s acting chief, Russell Vought, the White House issued a directive that CFPB employees should “ not perform any work tasks. ” Russell Vought at the White House on July 7. The administration then tried to lay off roughly 90% of the bureau’s staff, or roughly 1,500 employees. Courts have blocked those layoffs, but there is a feeling inside the bureau that the court rulings are only a temporary reprieve. Companies that committed wrongdoing, or had open investigations, have lobbied the bureau and the White House for their punishments to be rescinded. Last month, the CFPB rescinded an agreement under which Navy Federal Credit Union agreed to pay $80 million to settle claims that it illegally charged overdraft fees to its members, who include Navy servicemen and women, and veterans. In mid-May, the agency scrapped an order for the auto financing arm of Toyota to pay customers a total of $48 million for illegally bundling products onto car buyers’ auto loans. “Companies are lining up to get out of repaying harmed customers,” said Eric Halperin, former enforcement director at the bureau, who resigned earlier this year. The Associated Press sent a list of questions to the White House regarding President Trump’s vision for the CFPB. The White House did not respond. While the lack of new initiatives and the scuttling of old ones frustrate employees the most, they also note that even everyday tasks have largely fallen to the wayside. A report from the office of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the senior Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, found that the bureau is uploading roughly 2,200 complaints a day to its complaint database, compared to the roughly 10,500 complaints it was doing in the months before Trump took office again. Warren came up with the idea for the bureau when she was a law professor at Harvard University. The bureau did take an enforcement action on Friday. The pawn shop chain FirstCash Inc. agreed to pay $9 million to settle claims that it charged excessive interest rates on loans to armed service members, in violation of the Military Lending Act. FirstCash operates more than 1,000 stores. The bureau is going to be even further diminished in the coming months. The new budget law signed by Trump earlier this month cuts the CFPB’s funding by roughly half, meaning the bureau will be forced into mass layoffs. Senate Democrats are looking for ways to restore that funding. In the meantime, employees go about their mundane routine: They continue to check their email once or twice a day to see if any of their previous work has been slated for being undone. They wait to be laid off. The only constants are the silence from bureau political appointees or the “mini funerals” that happen every Friday, when another batch of employees who have decided to leave the bureau voluntarily have their last day. “I don’t think I’ll ever work in public service again,” said one current employee, who has been looking for a new job for the past three months.

The scandal over President Donald Trump’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files issue is not going away. As his MAGA base rails against the Justice Department and congressional Republicans attempting to bury the issue, Democrats are amplifying their criticisms of the chaotic state of affairs. On Tuesday, House Republicans voted as a bloc, 211 to 210, and defeated a Democratic effort to compel the government to release information on Epstein, a convicted sex offender who was charged with trafficking minors. The result echoed the outcome of a Monday vote in the House Rules Committee that also kept Epstein information under wraps. For years, Republicans have campaigned on the claim that when in power, they would reveal the government’s Epstein information, including the contents of his purported client list. But the Justice Department, led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, has now claimed the information they touted isn’t there and that further information would be withheld. The stance has led to unusual criticism of Trump from MAGA supporters. Democrats are now mocking the apparent Republican cover-up and calling for transparency. “Did anyone really think the sexual-predator president who used to party with Jeffrey Epstein was going to release the Epstein files?” Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia asked at a rally on Saturday. YouTube Video Rep. Katharine Clark, the Massachusetts Democrat who serves as House Minority Whip, released a video on Wednesday, calling for the release of the files. “The Republicans are fighting with themselves over what? The Epstein files,” she said. Noting that Trump and Republicans are backtracking from their previous promises on the material, Clark asked, “What is the administration hiding?” Release the files. — Katherine Clark (@whipkclark.bsky.social) 2025-07-15T23:00:30.397Z Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington echoed the question in a post of her own, asking, “What are they hiding?” Kendall Witmer, rapid-response director for the Democratic National Committee, slammed the GOP vote in a statement: “Republicans talked a big game about releasing the Epstein files during the campaign, and now they are chickening out. It doesn’t matter how the GOP tries to spin it—either they lied to the American people to get elected, or they are lying now to protect Donald Trump from any accountability for his long association with an infamous sex trafficker.” “There’s no excuse for blocking the release of the Epstein files,” Rep. Judy Chu, Democrat of California, noted. “The public has a right to know who enabled his heinous crimes. Republicans are blocking Americans from the truth.” Jeffrey Epstein, shown in March 2017, in a photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry. Democratic Rep. Dwight Evans of Pennsylvania accused Republicans of “choosing to protect a morally corrupt and crooked President and his administration.” Trump fumed over the issue in a Wednesday morning rant posted to his Truth Social platform. He accused Democrats of pushing a “SCAM” that “we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.” “[M]y PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker,” Trump lamented. “[A]ll these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the Fake News and the success starved Dems, is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax. Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!” Apparently, his own family is a part of the “hoax.” His daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, recently told a right-wing YouTube show that the administration needs more “transparency” on the Epstein issue. Republicans have spent years fostering a conspiracy culture, but now that they control the government, that focus is ripping them apart—and Democrats are giving them hell for it.

Winston Smith Democracy dies in the dark. The post The Light That Failed appeared first on The Nation.