This retirement home comes with a whopping salary
Nick Anderson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist.
Opinion
A Trump scandal finally has the teeth to put him in real danger
Donald Trump's ability to avoid accountability for the many previously inconceivable actions he's taken as president often seemed premised on two essential elements: First, his every scandal was in the open for the world to see; if the coverup is always worse than the crime, don't bother covering anything up, which fed the second premise: Create so many scandals such that the public couldn't keep up with any one egregious abuse of the system. New revelations regarding new issues hit on a weekly basis, quickly rendering last week's outrage history.
But perhaps Trump's failsafe plan to get away with everything, from 747s to Epstein obstruction, may have just stumbled. Badly. He may have crossed a line in his lawsuit settlement with DOJ and the IRS, because this one is biting back and it now has some teeth — but not for reasons you might expect.
On Tuesday, Reuters reported that U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams threw out Trump's settlement with the IRS (as overseen by DOJ), the one that granted Trump and family full immunity from IRS investigations and crimes arising in the past and could be read as applying into the future, though that detail is irrelevant because the entire deal has just been rendered irrelevant. Judge Williams threw the settlement out on the basis that the lawsuit didn't involve two adverse parties:
"This action was never about a party seeking judicial resolution of a legal issue or a factual dispute," Williams wrote. The judge said it was instead an attempt to "provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the president and to earmark billions of dollars from American taxpayers to redress grievances not defined in the law."
Yeah. And as obvious as that might seem to the average reader, the legal system itself often plays out in ways that are not obvious, nor sensible. Still, it's not all that unusual for Trump to lose in court, and he'll likely just appeal this decision like all others — never accepting "No" as an answer, always hoping the SCOTUS bails him out. Fine. Situation normal. Or at least that situation is normal.
Where this case diverts from run-of-the-mill scandals and encroaches on representing a real danger to Trump is what might seem as a tangential detail:
Williams referred a Trump lawyer in the case and senior Justice Department officials who signed off on the settlement to state bar authorities to determine if their actions violated legal ethics rules.
Bang.
Because the referral to bar officials is not something that an appellate court can immediately cure. For our purposes, let's pretend the appeals court overrules Judge Williams and says that the deal was brought by adverse parties and is just fine. Such a ruling may save Trump's immunity from IRS investigations and actions, but it will not necessarily save Trump's lawyers from the bar association. The bar investigation may be broader and deeper than the simple legal question determined by an appellate court.
What if the bar association finds that, despite an appellate court finding that the parties were adverse, the attorneys for each side colluded with each other in a manner that did not reflect "adverse parties," but more a "team with the same ultimate goal"? And how could such a finding come about? Just spitballing here, but perhaps obliterating the attorney-client privilege in the negotiations might evidence such collusion. How else? Maybe both parties agreed to the outline of a settlement before Trump's lawyers even filed suit. Perhaps something far more technical, but just as punitive to the attorneys.
The ruling may get overturned, but that doesn't save attorneys from all possible unethical behavior within the suit.
Okay. But how does that affect Trump? It sounds like only the attorneys get punished.
True, and that's exactly how it will affect Trump. Never in history has a man lived and breathed with more reliance on attorneys than Trump. He has his own private lawyers doing his dirty business, he has lawyers working for his White House, he has attorneys seemingly doing his business at DOJ, and he even has his former private lawyers doing his business at DOJ in acting-Attorney General Todd Blanche. It is not hyperbole to say that Trump's existence as a free man, never mind president, depends heavily on attorneys always pushing his interests.
And so what if his attorneys suddenly stopped? What if this becomes a rather urgent bar association investigation and it finds collusion or other unethical behavior? What if it were found that neither side protected any sort of privilege in that collusion and, in effect, lied in the paperwork filed with the court because they weren't really in disagreement in the first place — only working toward the same goal — sign a settlement that Trump could then enforce.
What if the attorneys are disbarred for a year? Five years? (Usually, the limit, at least allowing an attorney to show enough redemption so that he or she can at least apply again.) True, simply working for Trump represents a danger in and of itself, but most of his direct employees likely rely on the presumption of a pardon on the way out the door, so as to avoid any consequences.
Disbarment is not a consequence wiped away by a pardon, and it damn sure is a consequence. Some of Trump's slimiest deals, like this one — but not at all limited to this one: look at the attorneys appearing to sell Trump pardons, look at attorneys going after Trump's political enemies. If defending bar referrals suddenly became part of the job, fewer would want the job. Indeed, far fewer would push the limits of the job, limits like possibly stretching the truth beyond imagination, limits like working as part of the White House Counsel's office, and stuff "heard" but doesn't align with what's presented to the court. Some might find themselves actually telling a few uncomfortable truths rather than hiding them out of nothing less than fear of losing their career, having entered Trump's service with dreams of enhancing it.
Wanna take it one more level? Lawyers are admitted to practice law first by a state or the District of Columbia. Yes, there is a "bar" to which one must join to practice in the federal district courts or the circuit courts, but those are relative informalities once one is admitted to a state bar, which is the predicate to practicing any law anywhere. What if, in the state bar's investigation, it actually finds a crime, perhaps fraud? (Happens all the time). To whom do you think that crime might be referred? Maybe in some cases, in a less political time, it might be referred to the FBI, but then again — it might not. It might be referred to a state bureau of investigation. And that's a problem for our Trump administration lawyers because then, not only are law licenses at issue, but so is their freedom because Trump can't pardon away that problem.
Yes, Trump lawyers have been referred to the bar before, but most of them arose out of the 2020 insanity in trying to overturn the election. Even the attempted clear political prosecutions brought about by Trump lackeys in US Attorneys' offices haven't garnered bar referrals, but even that situation would represent "abnormal insanity" in representing Trump. This particular referral falls squarely into "normal insanity" in representing Trump and his interests in the courts. Referring "normal Trump insanity" to a bar changes everything.
The very fact that this matter was a) thrown out is of now consquence, but b) Garnered a bar referral is and will likely spin the spine in any attorney, public or private, finding themselves doing Trump's dirtiest normal work.
And Trump's trek of terror through the Constitution is so contingent upon a battalion of willing lawyers that a sudden unwillingness of said lawyers, for fear of their careers, would render that trek less of terror, more just terribly inept.
This means that this loss comes with some bite. This scandal may be quickly forgotten by the public in favor of the next scandal. It will not be quickly forgotten by the lawyers charged with doing Trump's bidding. DOJ's lawyers overseeing the handling of the Epstein investigation will take notice. Trump's White House Counsel, perhaps defending Trump's day trading on inside information, will take notice. Private Trump attorneys doing deals in direct conflict of interest with the government will take notice. And so will attorneys Trump personally ordered to prosecute his political enemies.
To save their careers, they may have to decline to do the job in the first place, or at least explain the situation in its entirety to someone, someday, maybe not even that far away.
This scandal is just a bit different. And needed. This one comes with some bite, even in broad daylight.
Jason Miciak is a Rawstory Columnist, former editor of Occupy Democrats, author, political consultant, attorney, and single parent girldad. Please follow on Bluesky, and he can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com and enjoys reading the comments below.
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Latest ICE killings expose a horrifying — and unexpected — truth
I almost didn't write about Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.
He was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer on the morning of July 7, 2026, during a traffic stop in Houston, Texas.
And, as I was putting the finishing touches on this column about Lorenzo, It happened again.
On Monday, an ICE agent fatally shot a man in his 20s in Biddeford, Maine. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the individual was given an order to leave the country and "weaponized" his vehicle by driving it toward an officer before he was shot.
Does that sound familiar? Two more migrants killed by ICE, two more agency statements claiming self-defense. We can only imagine the lies and cover-ups that will try to shield the real story about what happened in Maine, the same way the lies and cover-ups are trying to hide the truth about what happened to Lorenzo.
When I first read about Lorenzo, I felt something I'm not proud of: nothing much. A disgusted shrug. And “F-ICE” under my breath. Less of a reaction than I had when Alex Pretti and Renée Good were killed by federal agents in Minneapolis in January.
Then, I moved on to the next story.
Last Friday, speaking on Morning Joe, The Bulwark Managing Editor Sam Stein elaborated on one of his social media posts where he wrote about how numb we’ve all become by treating events that in any other time — a normal time — would be front-page news. He included the death of Lorenzo.
That's when I realized what I had done to Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.
Stein's point was about how repetition doesn't make something like another senseless ICE murder smaller; it just makes us smaller for absorbing it without flinching. And I had to admit: he was talking about me.
How had I become so casual that I clicked forward before taking the time to recognize what happened to Lorenzo?
So I stopped and took a close look at what happened in Houston, because I owe that man more than a disgusted shrug. We all do.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was 52 years old. He'd lived in the United States for 35 years. He built a construction company in Houston from nothing, and on the morning of July 7, he was doing exactly what he did most mornings — driving to pick up the last of his crew before heading out to finish work on a row of houses he was building
Ominous, unmarked vehicles began following him. He wasn't even the target of the operation ICE was running that day. His family believes he panicked, not because he was fleeing federal agents, but because he thought someone was trying to steal his van and the tools that were his livelihood.
Let's stop here for a second. If you were being followed by unmarked vehicles, presumably with masked men in the front seats, what would you do? How would you react? I’ll tell you what I’d do: I’d run like hell.
Lorenzo tried, but within minutes, an ICE agent shot him in the torso. He died at the hospital. Three other men in the van, including his brother, were detained.
ICE says he tried to run over an agent with his vehicle and that the shooting was self-defense. ICE's reputation for lying is only exceeded by Donald Trump's.
And a video was released that disputes ICE’s inexcusable explanation.
This is exactly what they did with Pretti, Good and Ruben Ray Martinez, a U.S. citizen shot on South Padre Island last year, whose family's lawyers say that video contradicts the government's account.
How, for all that is good and decent, do we accept these murderous thugs' words as truth? They leap to a lie to defend themselves before any of the facts have even been investigated. That's why we know, right off the bat, that ICE and the Trump administration are lying through their teeth about what happened to Lorenzo.
On Friday, I went back and watched Lorenzo's son standing at a podium telling the public that his father did not want to be remembered as a headline. He wanted people to know his dad was a husband, a father of three, a man who built something out of nothing in this country and who worried, in his final moments, not about federal agents but about thieves coming for his work tools.
That is such a small, deeply human fear from a man who got up before dawn every day to make sure his crew got paid. But instead of stealing his tools, ICE ended Lorenzo's life, robbing his family of their husband and father forever.
When we let ourselves go numb, we forget that Lorenzo is more than a statistic in an ongoing tally of eight deaths during this wave of ICE enforcement. We can't forget that he is flesh and blood.
I think a lot of us did what I did last week and overlooked that fact. That's what makes this moment dangerous. Lorenzo's life matters, just as the lives of those who came before him — and those who will almost certainly follow, like Monday’s death in Maine, matter. They deserve the same grief and the same outrage.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was a father, a business owner, a man who spent 35 years building a life in this country. He deserved better than to become someone I scrolled past.
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The worst obsessions of demented Trump just collided in one sickening post
Donald Trump has many obsessions, as we know: his ballroom, his arch, his Reflecting Pool, his retribution campaign. Well, you get the idea.
But he has three obsessions that never sleep. That’s not meant as a pun because when he doesn’t sleep, his obsessions with trashing the old Air Force One, trashing the Obamas, and demeaning people of color don’t rest either.
On Sunday last week, all three collided in a single horrid Truth Social post. Buried inside that one sickening post is a contradiction Trump apparently doesn’t see, or doesn’t care about.
Here’s what happened. Days after his maiden flight on the new Air Force One, the $400 million Boeing 747 gifted to the United States... err... Trump... by Qatar and repainted, at Trump’s insistence, from its historic Kennedy-era blue into the loathsome Trump brand colors, Trump posted an AI-generated image of Barack and Michelle Obama boarding the old plane.
In the doctored image, the aircraft is covered in graffiti: “BLM.” “Yes We Can.” And an Arabic phrase meaning “Praise be to God.” I’ve used the words horrid and sickening, but they don’t do this piece of meme garbage justice.
Anyone who pays attention knows this isn’t a one-off. It’s the latest example in a years-long pattern of blatant racist trash aimed at demeaning the Obamas, who are far more popular, more beloved, and more respected than the gruesome Trump could ever hope to be.
In February, Trump posted, then deleted after he was forced to, an image comparing the Obamas to primates. Last month, he shared a doctored photo of the Obama Presidential Library with garbage piled on top of it. If you ask me, it was a metaphor for all the garbage Trump posts.
This demented degenerate can’t fathom the fact that Barack Obama is a better man, husband, father, president, human being, and leader. Trump has zero, none, nothing in terms of redeeming qualities.
The graffiti, using “BLM” and Arabic script as racist shorthand, is menacing, disorderly, and obscene. But there’s a second layer to this story: the sheer hypocrisy of the messenger.
Trump’s beloved, and illegally obtained, new plane exists because a Gulf Muslim monarchy handed it to him. Qatar is a Muslim nation, an Arabic-speaking nation, and it bought Trump’s affection with a flying palace. He accepted it happily, repainted it in his own colors, and boarded it like an arrogant, pretentious snob.
Yet when Trump wants to make the Obamas look foreign, dirty, dangerous, and illegitimate, he reaches for that same cultural signifier, Arabic script, and turns it into an expression of blistering bigotry.
He’s not at all uncomfortable with Muslim nations. He’s comfortable with them as patrons. As gift-givers. As grift accomplices. As sources of gold-plated jets, gold lacquer, trinkets, and glittering towers bearing his name.
What Trump is not comfortable with is Islam showing up anywhere near his political enemies, or in American classrooms, or, for that matter, in American society, without being twisted into something menacing.
Trump can’t say Barack Obama’s name without shoehorning in his middle name, Hussein, as an insult, and he did it again just last week. He was reading a children’s book on Second Lady Usha Vance’s podcast, riffing that “Barack Hussein Obama” probably wasn’t much of a basketball player.
He’s been using this crap since the birther days, trying to remind people that a Black president’s middle name sounds foreign to him.
And on Monday, mere hours before posting the graffiti meme, Trump reposted a video of Black Muslim kindergartners in hijabs celebrating their graduation, their faces fully visible, with a caption lifted straight from a right-wing account: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
The replies and comments from his vomit-inducing MAGA xenophobes were filled with calls to deport five-year-olds and ban a religious garment worn by children.
So yes, it’s a little about his feelings toward what he considers an inferior Air Force One. But in the end, it’s not really about Air Force One. It’s not really about the Obamas. And it’s not really about hijabs in a Minnesota kindergarten.
It’s about who Trump believes is allowed to look legitimate, and who he believes deserves to be marked, mocked, and degraded. A monarchy with billions to spend on him gets a handshake from his bruised and bloated hand. A former First Family and five-year-old girls in a school photo get turned into permission slips for his followers’ worst, most insidious instincts of racist rants.
Trump landed in Turkey on Tuesday, a Muslim-majority NATO ally, aboard the very plane he can’t stop bragging about. The irony will almost certainly be lost on him. It shouldn’t be lost on the rest of us.
Trump is a racist pig who will never match Obama’s character or stature, and who doesn’t mind harming innocent Muslim children.
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History will remember Lindsey Graham sucked up to Trump — nothing else
I'll say what a lot of people are thinking but won't say out loud, and that is history is not going to be kind to Lindsey Graham. Not even close.
When you strip away the tributes for Graham who died on Saturday - tributes from some but certainly not all - what's left is a 30-plus-year Senate career defined less by what Graham built than by who he was willing to become to keep his job in the end.
Did Lindsey Graham actually accomplish anything noteworthy, except his slavish devotion to Donald Trump? There's no landmark bill with his name on it that reshaped the country. No signature achievement that outlives him the way, say, his close friend John McCain’s reputation and record do.
What Graham leaves behind instead is a case study of a politician who understood exactly one thing better than almost anyone else in Washington, and that is how to do whatever it takes, at whatever cost, to keep your seat in Congress.
That instinct, or rather desperation, is what made his friendship with McCain so interesting in hindsight. For nearly two decades, Graham was McCain's shadow, one of the "three amigos" with Joe Lieberman, the guy who choked up at McCain's Senate farewell and said he did not cry for a perfect man but for one who admitted his imperfections.
McCain, whatever you thought of his politics, was the rare senator who occasionally put country over party at real personal cost. Graham spoke about that quality when referencing McCain, and never seemed to practice it himself once McCain was gone.
Because everyone in South Carolina, and beyond, knew the real Lindsey Graham, who clung to his Senate seat like a sloth to a branch. And when Donald Trump showed up, Graham found his most humiliating expression.
When he ran for president and failed, Graham among other things, called Trump a "kook." He said nominating Trump would get the party "destroyed... and we will deserve it." He later admitted he'd called Trump a "race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot" and had simply "run out of adjectives."
Then Trump won, and Graham did what Graham did best. He twisted himself in knots around Trump’s protruding derriere. He turned himself into Trump’s most reliable Senate sycophant, and that is saying a lot because the competition was, and is, fierce.
He became a fixture on Trump's golf course, bragged about how often the two talked, and as recently as this past May was on Fox News suggesting Trump deserved a prize named after himself, "the Trump Prize," for a Middle East deal that hadn't even happened yet. And will likely never happen, due in no small part to Graham.
He continued to support Trump’s epic and historic failure of a war in Iran, even saying, "I go back to South Carolina, I'm asking them to send their sons and daughters over to the Middle East."
It proved Graham would throw his own constituents under the bus - literally in this case - to keep in Trump's good graces.
For one night, though, something broke through. On Jan. 6, 2021, hours after the Capitol was overrun, Graham stood on the Senate floor and said, "All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough."
Two days later, a mob of Trump loyalists cornered him at Reagan National Airport, screaming "traitor" as police walked him to safety. For a brief moment, it looked like Graham might actually stay broken from Trump for good.
He didn't, of course. Within months, he was back in Trump's mangled hairs, and by the time Trump returned to power, Graham had made himself indispensable again as Trump’s loyal foot soldier and boot licker.
And that, above all else, is the disgraceful legacy historians are going to reckon with. At the end of his life, he was a senator who tied his name, permanently and by choice, to a president who tried to overturn a legitimate election, surrounded himself with grift and corruption, and treated the presidency as a vehicle for his own grievances.
Graham didn't just tolerate that. He amplified it, defended it, and rode on the proverbial golf cart through all of it. He wanted South Carolina sons and daughters to sacrifice themselves for Trump, and he wanted taxpayers to pay for Trump’s ballroom.
He even “jokingly” suggested Trump should be pope. But does anyone believe it was a joke?
Could Graham have spent his final years rebuilding his reputation instead? Maybe, in theory. But South Carolina was never going to turn on Trump, which meant Graham, ever the desperate survivalist, was never going to turn on him either.
It’s worth looking at some moments from the earlier parts of Graham’s career. He became a national name in 1999 as one of the House managers who prosecuted Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial, which helped carry him into the Senate in 2002.
There was the Gang of Eight immigration deal in 2013, a genuine bipartisan effort at reform that Graham helped write and that, like so much else in Washington, went nowhere.
There was real substance in his hawkish, McCain-aligned foreign policy instincts and his years-long support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia.
But his chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2019 to 2021 is far more complicated. He used it to steer through Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation in the closing days of a presidential election, cementing a 6-3 conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court for a generation.
But if there’s one moment that outlasts all the others in public memory, it’s Graham red-faced and shouting during Brett Kavanaugh’s 2018 confirmation hearing, pointing at Democratic colleagues and declaring it “the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics.”
It worked. Kavanaugh was confirmed, and Graham owns a piece of that horrific outcome.
None of that, though, is what history is going to remember him for. Lindsey Graham will be remembered as an accomplice, willing, eager, and until his last breath unrepentant, to the most corrupt president in American history.
That is the legacy he chose, over and over again, when he had every chance to choose something else. History does not forgive that kind of choice, and neither should we.
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This mind-boggling GOP cover-up will unravel everything America believes
It’s taken me more than a decade, but I think I’ve finally figured Donald Trump out.
Basically, whatever Trump says publicly, I’ve taken to assume the precise opposite is true. He says the war in Iran is going well? I’ll know it’s going horribly. He claims to know nothing about the proposed $1.776 billion slush fund? You can bet he plotted the whole thing out from scratch. He boasts that he’s been totally exonerated in the Epstein Files? You can assume he’s up to his eyeballs in guilt.
But in fact, this assumption means everything our president is involved in – and by extension the larger Republican Party – remains an uneasy, anxiety-riddled guessing game. As “The X-Files” once teased, “The truth is out there” – but good luck finding it.
This chronically unsettling point has been driven home to me this week as everyone sat vigil by Sen. Mitch McConnell’s virtual bedside wondering if he was really at death’s door as the rumor mill claimed. It wasn’t that this was at all difficult to believe, of course. The Kentucky senator’s decline had hardly been a well-kept secret, including his freezes during press conferences and concerns over consistent falls.
But it’s wrenching, if not particularly surprising, to learn that not even death can escape politicization in the 21st century. No one trusts the official narrative about McConnell’s condition because there isn’t one. So, media speculation and intense distrust naturally take hold.
And of course, it’s hardly limited to McConnell. Our president shows blotchy skin and bruised hands and a propensity to fall asleep during both public and private events, and we’re condemned for daring to question the party line that he’s in perfect health.
It’s also not restricted to the Republicans. Joe Biden’s declining mental acuity was studiously covered up two years ago, you may recall, until it all spilled out in one presidential debate.
The bottom line is that it’s perfectly understandable to imagine that we don’t really know anything and we’re always being played in one form or another. Is it any wonder we have a professional con artist in charge of things? Trump oversees an administration that’s first and foremost a self-enriching criminal enterprise, and a disturbing percentage of the American people defend it as normal and righteous.
We all believe what we want to believe at the end of the day. But during the nightmarish years when Trump has been at the forefront of our consciousness, we are consistently presented a distorted image of reality that leaves us questioning our own sanity.
In the process, the standards of behavior we consider acceptable have continued to plummet. How else to explain the choice of Graham Platner as the best the Democrats could put up as a senatorial candidate in Maine? Even before the latest sexual assault allegations that finally drove a fatal nail through his campaign, he managed to explain away a past of PTSD, alcoholism, and issues with women that at the very least rose to the level of disturbing.
Oh, and a chest tattoo that Platner claimed not to have known was a Nazi symbol.
I’m not saying people don’t deserve a second chance. But those who supported this guy had to look past enough baggage to fill a cargo hold. We still probably don’t know half of Platner’s issues because, again, we are now a society that thrives on murkiness, exclusion, deception – and keeping facts hidden from the light.
We are a culture that once seemed to value truthfulness but now favors…well, let’s just say a curated version of reality that keeps anyone who’s paying attention from believing they’re ever seeing a genuine picture.
I get that virtually every major institution has incentives to manage its image. Governments work to project competence and stability – at least, they did until this one, which favors chaos and discomfort to achieve its goals. Corporations, universities, nonprofits, sports leagues and media organizations all have reputational interests that generally supersede authenticity. This doesn’t automatically mean they’re fabricating reality, but it does mean they’re rarely neutral parties.
Second, we’ve become much more aware of every group’s self-serving incentives and image management. A generation ago, most people consumed information from a handful of newspapers and TV broadcasts. Today, we also see leaked emails, internal memos, whistleblower accounts, court filings, body-camera footage, FOIA releases, social media posts and the occasional journalistic investigation.
The public gets to peer behind the curtain and sample the dirt, but from such bits and pieces a consensus rarely emerges. More often, it just creates greater apprehension and confusion.
That’s part of the irony. What seems like greater transparency is merely an illusion and actually makes the daily turmoil feel less transparent because we keep discovering that the official story was incomplete, if not totally misleading.
Another issue is the way today’s information rewards certainty more than nuance. News organizations like the one I write columns for compete for attention. Politicians compete for votes. Social media rewards compelling narratives. Complex realities are often compressed into stories that are easier to communicate but don’t fully capture what’s going on.
It’s not necessarily a matter of everything being fake or orchestrated. Reality is often less conspiratorial and more mundane, and routine doesn’t generate clicks. Thus, it’s no surprise that sensationalism has taken to eclipsing strict accuracy.
Artificial Intelligence hasn’t helped. Twenty years ago, a photograph or video carried a strong presumption of legitimacy. That’s no longer the case. The questions now come like machine-gun fire:
- Was this generated by AI or Photoshop?
- Was it selectively edited?
- Is it missing context?
- Is the source trustworthy?
This is a significant shift from the past, because it means seeing is no longer automatically believing. In fact, often the opposite is true. AI doesn’t just increase the amount of false content. It also undermines confidence in true content.
But taken as a whole, the crime is that we’ve been conditioned to no longer believe that which once seemed beyond question. And it’s this death of everyday trust that’s most unnerving of all.
(Ray Richmond is a longtime journalist/author and an adjunct professor at Chapman University in Orange, CA.)
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This Trump henchman is about to be smoked live on TV
Of all the Donald Trump loyalists currently getting away with the biggest political cover-up in American history, Acting Attorney General Todd “Yes Sir, May I Please Have Another” Blanche is the biggest Trumpsimp of all.
Aside from publicly declaring how much he “loves” Trump (full cringe in effect), Blanche has been committing a federal crime every single day for the last 233+ days (as of this writing) by willfully violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Which was signed into law by the least transparent person to ever fall asleep behind the Resolute Desk, aka Blanche’s crush and Jeffrey Epstein’s former frenemy.
Trump’s former personal attorney never should’ve been allowed anywhere near the federal government, but let’s not get mired in the weeds of what shouldn’t be allowed regarding the entire illegitimate Trump regime, or else this article will run super long. More troubling facts have recently emerged about Blanche, including his participation in the dangerous July 4th joyride flyover, which was also a federal violation.
Blanche was a passenger aboard a vintage jet piloted by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, despite the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) initially rejecting the planes as “too risky.” Even Transportation Secretary Sean “Road Rash” Duffy, who lives in Trump’s alimentary canal when he’s not taking fully-funded road trips with his wife and nine kids, objected to the flyover because of the low altitudes. But then Blanche whined to Trump that he wouldn’t get to ride on the big airplane, so Trump gave permission.
That’s who Trump wants to be our permanent attorney general, so that our Justice Department will essentially be his personal law firm. That’s not what the DOJ is meant for, just like the AG isn’t meant to act as the president’s personal lawyer, which 1,200 former DOJ employees are reminding everyone about ahead of Blanche’s Senate confirmation hearings next week.
“Justice Connection today sent a letter to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee signed by more than 1,200 former DOJ employees spanning 14 administrations and thousands of years of collective experience, opposing the nomination of Todd Blanche to serve as Attorney General,” the announcement on its website reads, followed by a statement from Stacey Young, executive director and founder.
“Since his confirmation as Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche has shown time and again that his guiding star is fealty to the president, not the Constitution,” Young wrote. “That fealty led to the purge of thousands of experienced career employees, a loss that will have a generational impact on the Justice Department’s ability to carry out its mission and maintain credibility with the courts and the American people.”
The letter is signed by former officials who served during Republican and Democratic administrations, including U.S. attorneys who led major offices across the DOJ and the FBI. Most significantly, dozens of attorneys who worked in Blanche’s former office in the Southern District of New York signed the letter.
It’s certain to be at the center of Blanche’s two-day grilling next week from Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, along with the egregious cover-up of the Epstein Files. Blanche will need every single Republican member to vote for him before his nomination can go before the full Senate, which isn’t actually a slam-dunk for him. He’s facing serious opposition from Sen. John “Cornholio” Cornyn (R-TX) and outgoing Senator Thom “DGAF” Tillis (R-NC), both of whom have voiced “concerns” regarding Blanche’s involvement in Trump’s IRS lawsuit settlement. But he’s also walking a thin line when it comes to making a final decision, and that line is where his spine should be.
And then, as always, there are those pesky Epstein Files, which were supposed to have been released thanks to the intrepid lawyering of an actually patriotic attorney, Katie Phang.
If I could ask the not-at-all Honorable Todd Blanche questions that he would be required to answer while under oath (because he never responds to me on Twitter for some weird reason), they would be:
- Why do you love Trump more than America?
- How could you read about those unspeakable crimes against children in the Epstein Files and still choose loyalty to Trump?
- Circling back to my first question, why are you so eager to go to prison for a con man who’s never stopped grifting the American people?
- Follow-up: Are you aware of the full punishment for treason against the United States, and if so, why aren’t you testifying against Trump to get a reduced sentence?
Honestly, it’s the first question that matters to me the most. That’s also the only question all of Trump's loyalists should be asked on the record. I mean, there’s nothing you could offer me, no amount of Musk’s trillions, to turn against my country, so if any Congressional Republican chooses Trump over the United States, they should be forced to resign their seats immediately.
Not a single one of them has called for Trump’s resignation now that he’s being forced to pay E. Jean Carroll the now-$5.8 million he’s owed her for the last couple of years. There’s also the latest bombshell firing of all of the remaining non-compromised election officials because Trump can’t legitimately win an election. An email I sent to Senate Majority Leader John Thune wasn’t returned by my deadline, but it’s not like he was going to answer my questions anyway.
Todd Blanche knows they’re going to steal the midterms if they’re not stopped. Election interference is yet another federal crime he’s blatantly committing in Trump’s name, and I’m done watching them all get away with literally everything. We must keep screaming the truth about this until Democrats figure out a way to stop another steal instead of ignoring it, like they did with the 2024 Presidential election.
There used to be consequences for treason, and unlike culottes, that’s a trend I’d love to see come back this summer.
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Trump's desperate to distract America with communist fear mongering
President Donald Trump is a desperate man. With the midterms on the horizon and his approval ratings under water, he doesn’t want to talk about affordability. Nor does he want to talk about his war with Iran. And he certainly doesn’t want to talk about Jeffrey Epstein.
What does he want to talk about? Communists.
Over the last two weeks, Trump has ratcheted up his overheated rhetoric in response to democratic socialists’ victories in primary elections in Colorado, New York, Washington, DC, and elsewhere.During a speech to Christian conservatives at a Faith and Freedom Coalition convention in Washington on June 26, he called democratic socialists “animals” and said, “We have to stop this horrible threat of cancer that’s permeating our country called communism.” He went on to say that the “godless” communists in the Democratic Party pose a particular risk for Christians. “They will close your churches in this country,” he warned. “They will kill your people. And that’s what they’re about.”
It’s not as if Trump and his fellow Republicans haven’t hurled the communist epithet before, but over the past six months they have upped the ante.
Heading into the 250th birthday celebration on the National Mall, Trump continued his tirade. Speaking at Mount Rushmore on July 3, he not only besmirched Democrats, but immigrants as well. “There is now a resurgence of the communist menace in our land, including from newcomers to our country who embrace ideas totally opposed to our way of life and our great success,” he said. “...You can be a communist or you can be a patriot. You cannot be both.” He made no secret that he is trying to salvage Republican candidates’ chances in November. “America will never be a communist country,” he said. “We can only lose the midterms if we allow ourselves to lose the midterms if we are foolish, stupid, and unwise.”
Trump was only slightly more restrained on July 4 at the National Mall. After introducing a handful of World War II veterans and lauding them for their heroism, Trump ahistorically declared: “Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world, only to have that menace rear its ugly head right back here in America. We’re not going to let it happen.” (In fact, American troops, along with troops from Great Britain and communist Soviet Union, defeated fascism in World War II.)
The GOP’s Red-Baiting Tradition
It’s not as if Trump and his fellow Republicans haven’t hurled the communist epithet before, but over the past six months they have upped the ante. According to a recent Washington Post analysis of statements, social media posts, and podcasts, from January to June, they applied the word “communist” or “communism” to Democrats an average of 626 times per week, 43% more than during the same time frame in 2025.
Right-wing pundits have entered the fray, too. Megan McArdle, a self-described “right-leaning libertarian” columnist at The Washington Post, recently wrote that democratic socialist victories represent “a heady moment for the left, because socialism’s tainted brand has recovered from the vivid failures of the Soviet Union.”
Likewise, historian Arthur Herman, writing for Fox News, disingenuously equated democratic socialists’ policy agenda with that of the Soviet Union in a July 3 column. “In June, Marxist radicals calling themselves democratic socialists swept the New York City primaries...” he wrote. “...Communist-style socialism has brought poverty, mass starvation, and subsistence misery to tens of millions worldwide.”
Such attacks are nothing new. Republicans denounced Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal as “socialism” and even “communism.” In 1961, then General Electric spokesman Ronald Reagan warned that government health insurance would lead to socialism. Over the following decades, however, Republicans largely abandoned that mantra in favor of attacks on “big government” and the welfare state.
Trump is a throwback to an earlier time. In his 2020 State of the Union address, Trump attacked socialism, claiming it “destroys nations.” Like Reagan before him, he specifically denounced a “Medicare for All” proposal endorsed by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and 130 other members of Congress at the time, calling it a “socialist takeover of our healthcare system.”
During the last election, Trump often called Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris a “Marxist,” tying her to her father’s economic perspective on markets and inequality. More recently, he labeled New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, a “communist,” and dubbed Janeese Lewis George, a democratic socialist who won last month’s Washington, DC, Democratic mayoral primary, a “Communist adherent.”
Democratic socialists in the Democratic Party are not communists. If they are a member of any organization, it likely would be the Democratic Socialists of America, which does not function as a party. Communist organizations still exist in the United States, but they are politically marginal and have no representation in Congress or in any state legislature.
Americans Support Democratic Socialist Policies
Likewise, democratic socialism is not synonymous with Soviet communism, which fell apart 35 years ago. The countries that democratic socialists in America hold up as models can be found in Western Europe. They are multiparty democracies with market economies, strong unions, and robust social safety programs that include universal healthcare. Their economic models are nothing like the one-party command economy of the Soviet Union and, as I pointed out in detail in a December 2025 essay, they do a much better job of ensuring their citizens live long, healthy, and prosperous lives than the United States does.
While only about 17% of Americans have a favorable view of democratic socialist politicians, their policies are quite popular. For example:
- According to a new Economist-YouGov poll, 52% of Americans support eliminating private health insurance companies and replacing them with a national health plan. Only 30% oppose the idea.
- Public support for a higher federal minimum wage has remained strong for years. A 2021 Pew survey found that 62% of Americans supported raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, while a 2019 Pew survey found support at 67%.
- A February Pew survey found that 69% of Americans favor requiring employers to provide paid family leave. Even 59% of Republicans support it.
- Finally, 63% of Americans favor raising taxes on large corporations, according to a March 2025 Pew poll, and 58% favor raising taxes on households earning more than $400,000 annually.
Perhaps what is holding democratic socialists back is how they identify themselves. The term “socialist” just may have too much baggage. After all, many Americans still associate the word with the Soviet Union, whose official name was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, even though it was a communist dictatorship.
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist, told The Washington Post earlier this week that political labels should not be an issue. “What matters is the legislation, your proposals, the ideas before us,” she said. “How a person identifies in their economic view of the world is less important to people than if we’re making their groceries more affordable.”
Maybe. But Trump and the GOP are betting that calling Democrats “communists” will matter to enough voters to overshadow their concerns about the cost of food, gasoline, housing and healthcare. November will reveal whether that Cold War strategy still works.
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This on-air slap down suggests Scott Jennings just committed career suicide
Scott Jennings has long played the utterly insufferable and condescending "know-it-all," smugly talking over and around rather earnest liberals during CNN's analysis of the day's events. Obviously, the MAGA Mayhem team on "X" cannot get enough of him, including the equally obnoxious (at times) Joe Rogan, who simply loves the way Jennings out-testosterones his often double X'd chromosomal opponents.
But that's a normal day at the office for Jennings. This week, he put his entire career on the line over the medical status of still-wretched "Moscow-Mitch McConnell."
Just to be sure everyone is caught up, we're talking about this Mitch McConnell:
McConnell, 84, was admitted to a hospital following a medical emergency at his home. EMS recordings showed paramedics responded to a report of an unconscious person believed to have suffered a 'cardiac arrest,' with a medic reporting 'CPR in progress' at the address.
And that was over three weeks ago.
Love him or hate him, or love to hate him, neither the dismount nor the silence is a positive sign for Mitch, nor is the fact that, despite assurances from the likes of Sen. John Thune, things remain rather unclear regarding McConnell's condition. Again, according to USA Today:
On July 6, Thune spoke with McConnell on a variety of topics including national security, and the conversation was "long and substantive," a Thune spokesperson said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Scott Jennings, a former high-level staffer to McConnell before becoming the mendacious know-it-all on CNN, went way out on a limb. From the same report:
After [Kasie] Hunt asked [Jennings] to call McConnell on air, Jennings laughed and said, "I wasn't really expecting him to call this morning to be honest, so when the phone rang and I was able to talk to him, I was frankly pretty grateful. All the rumors about him being dead or brain dead or, you know... That's obviously not true because he picked up the phone and called me."
Right.
Except it's not that obviously "not true" because how hard is it to snap a picture of McConnell on the phone with these team players if such a thing was as self-proving as we're told? Moreover, there is a reason Kasie Hunt asked Jennings to call Mitch McConnell on-air, and that is likely because she doesn't believe a word she just heard.
Hold up right here to clear the air with fairness. It is entirely possible that everyone is telling the truth and that McConnell is awake and aware enough to make such calls.
But for all of you who make a living bashing the mainstream media (Some of it well-deserved), consider this, please. Prominent media members in Washington, D.C., "hear things," much of it "off the record" — which is honored as a means of securing real information from people in fear of either speculating or being caught passing along secret information. Now, consider what Hunt may be hearing off the record and try to imagine the last time a CNN host challenged a guest to prove someone is alive and sentient with a phone call on-air.
And it's not like this doesn't matter. The GOP desperately needs McConnell alive and functioning so as to avoid a Democratic governor appointing a replacement and a wide-open primary prior to what was to be a normal GOP-favoring November election.
If McConnell dies or resigns before his term ends, Governor Beshear (Democrat) would appoint a temporary replacement. There could then be a special election for the remainder of the term. By keeping McConnell “alive and engaged” past the key August cutoff (at least 20 days away), the GOP avoids triggering a special election that could introduce chaos, new candidates (including potentially Thomas Massie mounting a challenge), or give Beshear more influence over the temporary appointee.
Let's fall back to how easy it would be to put this matter to bed, so to speak. One photograph of a conscious and sentient McConnell ends all speculation. And yet such obvious proof remains not only elusive but conspicuously absent.
Yes, Sens. Thune and Boraso say they've had the same conversations, but they lie all the time; they're politicians. The bar is a little higher for those in the media, and don't you dare let your cynical side fly for an hour; there are standards, and we're talking real media, not Brian Kilmeade. This is the type that holds down evening chats.
Why anyone would watch CNN during any hour not hosted by Brianna Keilar is a question with which the reader can grapple, but for those who make the mistake, it's not like Scott Jennings hasn't played fast and loose with the truth before. Jennings once said:
"There are like almost 5 million able-bodied people on Medicaid who simply choose not to work. They spend six hours a day socializing and watching television."
Yeah, except, no. False, as judged by Politifact.
So now let's back up. Kasie Hunt - at the very least, isn't about to take Scott Jennings's word on the fact that he had a substantive conversation following Mitch McConnell's call that morning. She laid down quite the challenge, "Okay, call him on air." Jennings didn't take the golden opportunity to lay all this to rest. Perhaps a poor choice of words.
Mitch McConnell is not dead. Of that, we can be all but certain. Withholding such information in today's wired world is all but impossible. But the line between a beating heart and brain dead, or perhaps simply unconscious, isn't that tough to manipulate, and the standard is "able to serve." Politicians have a way to avoid "the lie." Hand a phone to John Thune and let him talk into McConnell's comatose body for ten minutes and e' voila: "I talked to Mitch this morning about a wide range of things." That's good enough for a politician, or let the voters of South Dakota decide it's not.
But Scott Jennings has a boss, and that boss has to at least hold on to the last vestiges of accountability and integrity on some of the last real reality television shows. The entire GOP has real motivation to lie; they want November to go just as planned. They don't want Democratic Gov. Beshar appointing even a part-time Democrat to the Senate (One who can actually run as an incumbent), and they damn sure don't want anti-establishment Thomas Massie mucking up the primary, perhaps as the GOP candidate, perhaps as an Independent, truly throwing what should have been an easy baton pass to Rep. Andy Barr into chaos.
There would be no more fitting way for Mitch McConnell to pass from this life than in a secret conspiracy to shut out the democratic process and install a GOP-favored son.
But back to Jennings. If that ffff... guy flat lied about something as provable as a phone conversation ± and Kasie Hunt has given us a major tell as to whether she believes him — there should be and likely will be major calls for his termination at CNN. And believe me, that would hurt Jennings. There is likely little better part-time work in Washington than somewhere around $500,000 a year to kick Democrats in the tummy for a few hours a day, a few days a week.
But it better happen if our working assumption remains true - that McConnell remains incapacitated to the point his staff alone is running out the clock in the ultimate "filibuster." And even if McConnell would approve of the move, and there's every indication he would, it's still a sh*tty thing to do to an "elder statesman."
To be sure, that "statesman" has done more to rip democracy out of the hands of the American people than even Donald Trump, a true enemy to the Constitution, and entire treatises will be written on how diabolically and cynically Mitch sought and retained power.
But if things are as they appear, it would sure be nice to see a McConnell "lesser" pay the ultimate price in trying to rig one last Constitutional dodge over the American people in his name.
You are on notice, Scott; best be up and up about this, or we're coming for you.
Jason Miciak is a Rawstory columnist, former editor of Occupy Democrats, political consultant, author, attorney, and single parent girldad. Please follow on Bluesky, and he can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com, and he does read and appreciate critical comments.
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Trump's colossal week from hell leaves his brags in tatters
In one week, the linchpins of Donald Trump’s shady, shoddy brand collapsed. Epically.
I’ve written before about whatever Donald Trump touches failing. This week, a soccer match, a woman's dignity, a peace deal and a reflecting pool all came back broken, peeling or on fire — all disasters that collided at the same time.
"I alone can fix this"
Trump famously said, "I alone can fix it," during his July 2016 acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, meaning America and presumably everything else he thinks is broken.
When Team USA's star striker, Folarin Balogun, picked up a red card and an automatic suspension at the World Cup, Trump decided that he alone could fix it. He stuck his bulbous nose into the fray and called FIFA’s groveling president, Gianni Infantino, to overturn it. He did.
That set the wheels in motion for a disaster of epic proportions. The world cried foul as if it didn’t hate Trump enough, and Belgium, Team USA’s opponent, got fired up about being screwed over by Trump.
The U.S. lost 4-1 and was eliminated in the Round of 16, and the world rejoiced. After the win, Belgium posted the score on social media with one simple phrase: "Overturn this."
Even when Trump gets exactly what he demands, the thing he wants still fails. By trying to fix the situation, literally and figuratively, Trump broke it into a million pieces.
'Grab them'
Trump infamously told Billy Bush on Access Hollywood in 2005 that he can assault women, i.e. "grab them ...” whenever he likes because he's a star. When the tape was released on Oct. 7, 2016, one month before the election, Trump's chances looked doomed. He went on to win anyway, despite dismissing it as "locker room talk."
Trump was caught red-handed on tape bragging about grabbing women without consent. A jury found him liable for sexual abuse. Dozens of other women have come forward with accusations spanning decades. None of it stopped him from winning the presidency twice.
Somewhere along the way, parts of both parties absorbed the wrong lesson: that character doesn't cost elections anymore, that voters will forgive almost anything if a candidate sounds populist enough on affordability.
Graham Platner is what happens when a party bets its Senate hopes on that theory. His campaign in Maine survived a chest tattoo resembling a Nazi SS insignia and resurfaced Reddit posts minimizing military sexual assault, and the progressive base mostly shrugged.
It did not survive a rape allegation from a former girlfriend, which Platner denies as "categorically untrue." Within hours of Politico's report, Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders all called on him to step aside, days before Maine's July 13 ballot deadline. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said flatly it won't spend a dime on the race if he stays in it.
Republicans made the same bet in Texas, where Ken Paxton remains the nominee despite an impeachment, a securities fraud indictment and his own wife's divorce filing alleging adultery.
And the cherry on top came Wednesday, when Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered the immediate release of a $5 million jury award, plus interest, to E. Jean Carroll, rejecting Trump's attempt to delay payment after the Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal of the 2023 civil sexual abuse and defamation verdict.
Trump’s "grab them" bad-boy image clearly doesn’t work for him, or anyone else, anymore.
'Deals are my art form'
In the introduction to the audiobook version of The Art of the Deal, Trump said, "Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals. Preferably big deals."
Well, his Iran deal, which he bragged about for weeks and cried wolf about for months, just got kicked apart like everything else Trump gets his kicks from.
Three weeks ago, Trump signed a disastrous memorandum of understanding with Iran, reopened the Strait of Hormuz and posted, "Ships of the world, start your engines." This morning, jet-lagged and cranky at the NATO summit in Ankara, he torched it.
After an exchange of strikes over the strait, Trump told reporters he believes the ceasefire is "over," called Iran's leadership "cuckoo" and "evil, sick people," and added: "I don't want to deal with them anymore. They're scum."
Oil prices jumped within minutes. Tankers are turning back mid-transit in the Strait. Roughly 6,000 sailors remain stranded in the Gulf, according to the International Maritime Organization.
A deal Trump called "complete" on Truth Social lasted three weeks before he blew it up with a slur from a podium in Turkey.
If deals are his "art form," then he presumably has his own exhibit at the Museum of Bad Art.
"I build better than anybody else. Nobody can build like me."
During a November 2025 Ingraham Angle interview on Fox News while touring his White House renovations, Trump said, "I build better than anybody else. Nobody can build like me"
Which brings us to the truly epic embarrassment of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Trump ordered it repainted "American flag blue" ahead of the country's 250th birthday, steered the work through no-bid contracts and personally drove his motorcade through the half-finished project to inspect it.
Within days of being refilled, the paint was peeling and algae had bloomed so badly that National Park Service crews were dumping hydrogen peroxide into a national monument by the bottle.
Trump blamed vandals. He's right. The vandal was Trump.
But on Sunday, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the company previously hired to restore the reflecting pool will also handle the repairs.
So the expert builder is hiring the company that botched the whole thing to fix it?
Perhaps the reflecting pool belongs in the "fix it" section. Then again, maybe all of these stories do. Trump can't fix anything or do a damn thing right. What a cuckoo.
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Trump's monumental heap of trash is enough to get organizers prison time
If you ever wondered what would happen if Fyre Festival and a political rally had a baby, Donald Trump's Great American State Fair may have provided the answer.
Billed as a celebration worthy of America's 250th birthday, the GASF — which ends Friday — may instead be remembered as a case study in how hype and wishful thinking can outrun reality.
Fyre Festival organizer Billy McFarland promised a luxury music event complete with private villas, gourmet cuisine, supermodels, and A-list performers. Instead, attendees got FEMA-style tents, total chaos, and cheese sandwiches.
Trump promised a "first-of-its-kind World's Fair on the National Mall" — an extraordinary 16-day celebration featuring state pavilions, rides, rodeos, food, major musical acts, exhibits, and patriotic displays worthy of America's semiquincentennial. Instead, visitors were greeted by empty booths, canceled attractions, a broken Ferris wheel, melting ice cream, sparse crowds, collapsing scenery… and Vanilla Ice.
In both cases, the warning signs had been flashing for months. Organizers simply chose to believe their own marketing over the logistics.
Before Fyre Festival, contractors with decades of experience warned McFarland there was no way to build the event in the time available. Before the GASF, officials from states including Michigan repeatedly questioned whether the deadlines imposed by Freedom 250 were even remotely achievable.
One email reportedly pleaded, "We're worried about the short time frame... we'd like formal approval as fast as possible if we're going to try and do this well."
It apparently went unanswered.
Meanwhile, officials from New Hampshire questioned why Freeman—the event contractor tied to Trump and hired to furnish exhibits—was quoting roughly $12,000 for little more than a table and chairs.
As reality set in, groups from both festivals began heading for the exits.
Blink-182 pulled out of Fyre Festival before opening day. Likewise, performers including Martina McBride, Bret Michaels, and The Commodores ultimately withdrew from the Great American State Fair after learning it would be associated with a Trump rally rather than the broadly bipartisan national celebration they believed they had signed up for.
Both events also generated questions about where the money was going. Fyre Festival became synonymous with investor losses, graft, and attendee funds that failed to produce the promised experience. The Great American State Fair has drawn scrutiny over the relationship between the congressionally chartered America250 commission and Freedom 250, the separate, Trump-created, nonprofit helping organize the event, along with criticism over contracts awarded to Trump-connected companies.
And in both cases, the internet did what the internet does best.
Photos of empty spaces, malfunctioning attractions, and disappointed attendees spread far faster than the organizers' promotional videos ever did.
The main difference between the two?
After Fyre Festival, Billy McFarland went to prison.
After the Great American State Fair, Donald Trump went to the World Cup.
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New normal of Trump’s America: bigotry, cowardice and blind obedience
On July 7, an Immigration Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national. According to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, Araujo “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense.” As of the time of this writing, the agency has yet to provide any evidence.
This shooting comes days after a massive surge in ICE arrests. Between June 26 and June 30, 10,000 people were reportedly detained by immigration agents.
This is a tragic story—one that we have seen many times before.
Silverio Villegas González: On September 12, Villegas González, a Mexican national, was shot and killed by an ICE agent. This occurred during the agency’s “Operation Midway Blitz” in the Chicago area.
Araujo was not the first of ICE’s victims. So long as the agency exists, he will not be the last.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) alleged that the ICE agent “was hit by the car and dragged a significant distance. Fearing for his own life, the officer fired his weapon.” DHS further claimed that the agent “sustained multiple injuries.”
These were lies. Bodycam footage collected by Franklin Park police officers show the ICE agent saying he “got dragged a little bit” and describing his own injuries as “nothing major.” Surveillance video shows that Villegas González did not drive toward or hit either agent. Several eyewitnesses further refute DHS’ narrative.
Marimar Martinez: On October 4, Martinez, a US citizen, was shot five times by Border Patrol agent Charles Exum. In a statement, DHS described this as “defensive fire.” They alleged, without evidence, that Martinez and her fellow “domestic terrorists” “ambushed” and “rammed federal agents with their vehicles.” On social media, FBI Director Kash Patel posted a video—from an unrelated incident—of a black SUV aggressively ramming an agent’s truck as “proof” of Martinez’s crime.
These, too, were lies. Bodycam footage shows the agents already had their weapons drawn as one of them turned the steering wheel toward Martinez’s car. One agent can be heard saying, “It’s time to get aggressive.”
Text messages reveal the “big time” support Exum received from then-Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks, and then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in the aftermath of this incident. Hours after the shooting, Bovino even offered to extend Exum’s retirement with CBP “in light of [his] excellent service in Chicago.” He added, “you have much yet left to do!”
In a group chat, Exum bragged about how he “fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes.”
Renee Nicole Good: On January 7, Noem alleged that Good, a US citizen, “weaponize[d] her vehicle” and “attempted to run” over ICE agent Jonathan Ross. This act of so-called “domestic terrorism” justified Ross’s lethal action.
Once again, more lies. Footage captured on that day definitively showed—from multiple camera angles—that Good was turning away from Ross as he opened fire. He was never in danger.
Six months later, her murder has yet to be properly investigated. This was always the government’s plan. The day after her death, Vice President JD Vance insisted that the officer had “absolute immunity.” A few weeks afterwards, six federal prosecutors resigned over the Justice Department’s reluctance to investigate Ross. An FBI agent who had opened a civil rights investigation into Good’s death also resigned after she was ordered to reclassify it as an investigation into an assault on the ICE agent.
To these names, there are many we can add: Ruben Ray Martinez (shot and killed), Alex Pretti (shot and killed), Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis (shot), Jesus Javier Gomez Islas (shot, left permanently blind in his right eye), Keith Porter Jr. (shot and killed), Carlitos Ricardo Parias (shot).
Trump’s bigotry, Congress’ cowardice, and the Supreme Court’s blind obedience; a government devoid of checks and balances at war with its own people—this is America after 250 years.
This is the new normal of Donald Trump’s America—federal agents flood our neighborhoods. A poorly trained, gun-happy immigration agent kills someone. The administration alleges, without evidence, that the victim was responsible. No proper investigation is conducted. No one is held accountable. A family is torn apart. A community traumatized. Rinse and repeat.
We do not yet know all the details surrounding Araujo’s death. Perhaps we will never.
For now, there are two things we can take as certainties: First, any official narrative put forth by ICE, DHS, or the Trump administration cannot be trusted. They have repeatedly lied to the public, defended their killers, and blamed the victims. In their view, if you are killed by ICE, protest ICE, criticize ICE on social media, or even write a strongly worded email to ICE, then you are the criminal. You are the “domestic terrorist.”
Second, Araujo was not the first of ICE’s victims. So long as the agency exists, he will not be the last. The next victim could be anyone. Regardless of race or legal status, we are all vulnerable to Trump’s taxpayer-funded secret police.
This is the reality that we all find ourselves in—one that is nurtured and sustained by every aspect of the federal government: the Trump administration’s militarized immigration enforcement and crackdown on political dissent; a Congress that continues, despite the deaths, to provide billions to ICE and DHS; and a Supreme Court that gives ICE agents legal immunity to racially profile minorities and that paves the way for DHS to strip noncitizens of their protection status.
Trump’s bigotry, Congress’ cowardice, and the Supreme Court’s blind obedience; a government devoid of checks and balances at war with its own people—this is America after 250 years.
On Facebook, Araujo’s son, Ronaldo Salgado, wrote: “My father has been in this country for nearly 35 years, working in construction to provide for myself, my two brothers, and my mother. He was in the process of obtaining his work permit through the legal process. He was on his way to work, picking up his workers. My father did not deserve this.”
None of ICE’s victims deserved this.
We cannot allow ICE to continue tearing families apart. We cannot continue to suffer politicians and institutions that prioritize war and violence over helping the people they are meant to serve.
Despite the dangers, we must continue to protest ICE. We must advocate for progressive candidates and policies. The situation is bleak, but things will only get worse if we do nothing. The White House will not save us. The Supreme Court will not save us. Congress, as it stands, will not save us. We must save ourselves.
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A direct Trump order is being crushed by this right-wing 'Freedom Truck' tour
Before one of the Trump-backed “Freedom Trucks” rolls into the Ohio State Fair at the end of the month, state leaders should demand that the roving 18-wheeler museum, created by right-wing propagandists, includes a disclaimer about bias.
Ohio Republicans should underscore their affinity with the president’s campaign to call out “improper ideology”— coloring America’s origin story with politically biased interpretations that cannot be trusted.
Trump has repeatedly railed against “overly ideological” presentations at the Smithsonian Institution, especially the National Museum of American History, to federally funded historical sites and national park programs, exhibits, signs, brochures.
The White House insists on “restoring truth and sanity” to the way “American history is presented and taught.”
Trump issued an executive order last year to bring “objective facts” back to that storytelling which he claims have been replaced “with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.”
Ohio’s GOP overlords must show their fealty to the EO that decrees museums “should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination.”
They can start by acknowledging the ideological indoctrination rolling into the state fair on July 26. Transparency is always in the public interest.
Such notice would at least inform thousands of unsuspecting fairgoers that these so-called Freedom Trucks heavily promote a Christian conservative narrative of American history to school visitors with ahistorical Christian Nationalist fiction.
Citizens will learn that America was uniquely founded on biblical principles and divine law. Historians dispute that slant as flat-out wrong.
The built-in bias of the gargantuan museum trucks is unsurprising considering who Trump’s Freedom 250 project tapped to create the interactive displays featured in the six mobile exhibitions crisscrossing the country.
PragerU, a far-right media organization that churns out misleading and inaccurate edutainment videos, produced the slick, digital interactives showcased in the tractor-trailers coming to select cities and states all year.
Hillsdale College, a right-wing conservative Christian college in Michigan (that also helped craft Project 2025) wrote the historical narratives that guests will read nationwide.
Many of those people won’t know (without the aforementioned disclaimer) that the traveling “Founders Museum,” pulling up in a semi to an event near you, is distinctly aligned with the political and religious right’s view of American history.
But the focus of the trucked-in production is on white men and Christianity.
For the most part, this multimedia expo steers clear of slavery, injustice, and oppression. The marginalized get only a glancing notice.
In this sanitized version of the birth of a nation, pivotal patriotic moments of the American Revolution are highlighted while the roles and historic struggle of enslaved people, Native Americans, and women are downplayed.
This immersive experience, paid for with over $14 million in taxpayer money, avoids any portrayal of America’s past or present in a negative light.
The digital romp through the revolution is largely a one-sided, feel-good, pro-American version of history with a pronounced Christian overlay.
It omits complex historical truths but gives prominence to letters on religious freedom, the faith of the Founders and religious artifacts.
It intentionally presents a skewed tribute to American greatness with passing attention to the few wrinkles in history that were ironed out in time.
The walls of the truck museums overflow with texts, QR codes, AI avatars of founding fathers and other historical figures, that all bang the drum for American exceptionalism.
The spectacle is packaged to attract mass appeal, like propaganda about America’s “golden age” was marketed to put a positive sheen on costly tariffs and a reckless Middle East war.
The roadshow starts with AI-generated videos of George Washington claiming that “our rights are a gift from God” — a statement the first president is not documented as saying — and John Adams mouthing the words of right-wing influencer Ben Shapiro almost verbatim: “Facts do not care about our feelings.”
One section in the PragerU extravaganza, called Voices of Liberty, features triumphal accounts from everyday Americans that appear to be fake.
If those narratives are manufactured, said the head of the American Historical Association, “it tells us that their approach to history is a politicized invention designed to make political arguments.”
The last thing visitors see before exiting the trucks is a video of the twice-impeached, attempted coup plotter himself thanking PragerU (for delivering a partisan vehicle to brainwash the masses) and gushing about America as “the greatest force for freedom, justice, equality and prosperity in the history of the world.”
A nearby board quotes Trump’s State of the Union address last year heralding the dawn of the “golden age” and pumping Americans to “get ready for an incredible future” (of sticker shock price hikes tied to destructive trade wars and a massive military campaign to affect foreign regime change and neutralize a potential nuclear threat — which accomplished neither).
As local communities and states get wise to the AI-generated fiction passing as historic fact — that multiple historians pan as inaccurate — many are cancelling Freedom Truck appearances after blowback from residents who complain the exhibit uses patriotism as a disguise to push white Christian nationalism mixed with Trump self-promotion.
At least 11 states have declined to participate.
Ohio has already hosted one tractor-trailer museum in Chillicothe and will do so again at the state fair in Columbus.
A transparent disclaimer would serve Ohioans. But don’t expect it. Because not all distorted narratives “driven by ideology rather than truth” are improper depictions of history, according to Trump’s EO.
Only those that represent America’s story in full, not the extremely curated right-wing make-believe designed to indoctrinate.
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