Arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement of people with no criminal record are surging. Federal immigration agents have shot at nearly two dozen people – most of them Latino – since last year, according to The New York Times. Those include the fatal shootings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine.
Trump's psychotic CNN freakout proves he knows his demise is imminent
As the polling keeps cratering for Republicans, red districts tilting to purple, purple states turning blue, and blue states turning to midnight blue, some pundits have been saying that Donald Trump doesn't actually care about the midterms.
Jonathan Swan was on Deadline White House with Nicolle Wallace yesterday. He talked about how the book he wrote with his fellow New York Times columnist Maggie Haberman makes this case. When Trump isn't on the ballot, he essentially has no interest. There’s that and, as Swan said, Republicans telling him that when his name isn't on the ticket, they lose.
That may explain why he's made it clear he wants to make the midterms relentlessly about himself. There is no one more selfish on the planet than Trump, and when a selfish person doesn’t get their way, we all know what happens next.
What happens next is something I think the pundit might be missing, and that is the psychological toll of a cratering GOP and how Trump’s help is backfiring. Obviously, because he’s Donald Trump, he’s not being told the real truth about what’s happening, so when he sees the opposite on cable news or reads about it, he thinks it’s all lies.
However, even Trump can’t be that stupid or obtuse, so deep down, seeing that the impending disaster is due to the fact that America is done with him, he lashes out.
On Friday, Trump posted on Truth Social that he was banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, "effective immediately," accusing them of "constant 'reporting' FAKE NEWS." "Media Outlets shouldn't be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they're covering the President of the United States," he wrote, warning that more outlets could be added to the list.
Think about what has to be happening in his lunatic mind for that sentence to make sense to him. Trump is watching these networks, reading Politico, and seeing coverage of these polls, and the historically atrocious numbers that are genuinely disastrous for his party, and concluding it must be fake. Not just disparaging. Fake, one of Trump’s trifecta of favorite words that include tariffs and groceries.
His lashing out can only be about the polls and nothing else, because if you’re addicted to cable news and political sites like I am, you know that is the only thing that everyone is talking about right now. That and Trump’s obsession with the Kennedy Center.
So his media ban is not the reaction of someone who's checked out. That's the reaction of someone who is watching the walls close in — and can't process what he's seeing.
Trump surrounds himself with sycophants who tell him what he wants to hear, not what he needs to hear, and when they do have to deliver bad news, they deliver it in the simplest, most digestible terms possible.
We saw this literally illustrated this week when an AP photographer caught Trump on Air Force One studying a poster board about demolishing part of the Kennedy Center. His aides give him happy picture books and not detailed briefing books.
It's not hard to imagine his own people doing the same thing with polling data: rejiggering it, dumbing it down, telling him it's not so bad. And probably, “Sir, they're teeny weeny bit weak because you’re not on the ballot.”
And then he turns on CNN or MS NOW, or opens Politico, and sees the opposite. Real numbers. Real trend lines. And because they contradict what he's been told, he decides they must be lying.
And then he goes crazy!
I've come to firmly believe Trump is showing signs of cognitive decline, some real deterioration in how he processes information that contradicts his preferred version of reality. And banning news organizations that report accurately on how badly his party is polling is a trigger.
So, what happens when a man who cannot tolerate being told the truth stops being able to distinguish "teeny tiny bad" from "false"?
People ask me a lot if Trump will get worse as his term progresses. They can’t imagine the answer could be yes, but my answer is always yes. Always.
When you have a man convinced he's surrounded by liars, a rabid narcissist, an unstable idiot, and when you combine all that with authoritarian instincts and a shrinking grip on reality, he will do whatever it takes to suppress the criticism he can't process.
Thus, silencing the press should not be a surprise, made even more so because that’s one of the first moves in an authoritarian society.
We're already watching at the Pentagon, which is exactly why soldiers have had to leak photos of damage from strikes in the Middle East rather than trust it would ever be reported through official channels, because the media is being blocked. It's unable to report bad news.
None of this is normal, and none of it is really about CNN or MS NOW or Politico. Seriously, it’s not. It's about a psychotic madman who cannot metabolize the fact that his party may be about to get wiped out in November, all because no one likes him. Not even a teeny-weeny bit.
I think it’s time for Jack Nicholson to visit the White House and tell Trump, "You can't handle the truth!" Well, I wish it was that easy, or if that would make Trump come to his senses, but he’s too far gone for that.
I've stopped trying to predict exactly what Trump will do next. But I'm certain of one thing: when a deranged and demented maniac starts to come apart, we haven't seen anything yet.
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A Trojan horse threatens to turn America into a puppet nation — and it's inside the gates
As a veteran, the oath I took to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, did not come with an expiration date. National security is not solely the responsibility of the military or even law enforcement. It begins with ensuring a government of, by, and for the people cannot be bought by the ultra-wealthy or left vulnerable to foreign influence.
A nation whose elected officials are propped up by foreign countries and shadow entities is not a sovereign nation, but a puppet. It is time to cut the strings.
As we mark Constitution Day this Sept. 17, I ask my fellow veterans to put that oath into practice through active civic participation. Take action to stand up for a country that is not run by the highest bidder.
Our nation’s Founders anticipated this exact vulnerability. George Washington called foreign influence “one of the most baneful foes of republican government,” while Thomas Jefferson warned that preserving liberty required constant vigilance against corruption and outside interference.
Unchecked dark money and foreign-backed interests are pouring into our elections, bending public policy toward priorities that do not serve the American public. Veterans, working families, and everyday citizens are being drowned out by massive financial influence from masked donors we cannot match.
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Here in Maryland, State Board of Elections filings reflect the same reality we see nationwide: Out-of-state funding and deep-pocketed donors dominate campaign finance, sidelining Marylanders. But this is not just a Maryland problem, and it is not one that we can solve alone. We need a national response.
According to an Ipsos Poll, Americans across the political spectrum agree that campaign spending is not speech that should be unregulated. Voters overwhelmingly agree that citizens and their elected representatives should be the ones setting the limits, without the Supreme Court sweeping away those protections. In 1976, in Buckley v. Valeo, the Supreme Court determined that spending unlimited money on political campaigns is protected as free speech. In 2010, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission extended that “right” to corporations.
If money in politics is free speech, then most everyday Americans have no voice at all. Billionaires and corporate entities can spend sums in a single cycle that the vast majority of us will never see in a lifetime.
Americans of all political persuasions are uniting behind a clear objective: passing a constitutional amendment that restores the power to regulate election money to Congress and the states. The movement is real, and the moment has arrived.
The For Our Freedom Amendment, championed by American Promise, achieves exactly that by authorizing state and federal oversight of “contributions and spending in campaigns, elections, or ballot measures.” It has been introduced in Congress and needs active support to reach the floor for a vote.
Why is an amendment necessary? There are only two ways to overturn the Supreme Court: Wait for the court to reverse its own precedent, which is not happening here, or use the mechanism we learned about in high school civics, a constitutional amendment. The ultimate check and balance.
This Constitution Day cannot pass without notice. Having pledged our lives to defend this Republic, veterans hold both the standing and the moral obligation to demand a higher standard. We did not serve this country only to watch foreign wealth and billionaire mega-donors choose our leaders for us.
Fellow veterans, we no longer wear the uniform, but our duty is not finished. Our time standing in formations may be over, but our oath to the Constitution never expires. While we served, many of us were unable to be engaged in politics. That time has passed; we are home, and we are still serving, and we cannot do this alone.
Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: info@marylandmatters.org.