A Busy Busy Week in Trump Outrages

Last week’s No Kings protest rallies were among the largest in US history, with an estimated 7 million participants in 2,700 cities. Donald Trump denied he was a king, though he posted mocking AI slop of himself wearing a crown—the crudest of which showed him flying a fighter plane and dumping feces on No Kings demonstrators.              

Regardless, he certainly continues to act like a king—and an increasingly despotic and corrupt one. He pardoned crypto multi-billionaire Changpen Zhao, who pleaded guilty to charges of failing to conduct an effective money laundering program. Evidence presented showed he allowed his crypto exchange, Binance, to be used for money laundering by drug dealers, human traffickers and terrorists.

Zhao mounted a vigorous campaign for a pardon, working with friends of Trump’s sons. Trump claimed (not very credibly) that he didn’t know Zhao, who promoted Trump’s crypto company. Trump claimed he pardoned Zhao on the recommendation of “a lot of very fine people” who said what he did “was not even a crime” and that he was a victim of the Biden administration’s “war on crypto.”

King Donald also defunded Congress-approved major projects in Democratic states. And he used exaggerated estimates of urban unrest in Democratic cities to deploy federalized National Guards and masked thuggish ICE agents, and used the government shutdown to order mass firings of federal employees.

If that wasn’t enough, he suddenly tore down the entire East Wing of the White House to build himself an immense $300 million ballroom, almost double the size of the rest of the White House. He’s certain to decorate it with gaudy gold leaf, as he has his Oval Office.

He’s violating his own promise to build a separate building and not alter the White House structure. He ignored protocols for advance approval by several agencies such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation. When Harry Truman remodeled a structurally unsafe White House starting in 1949, he sought approval of several agencies.

He’s convinced a host of private companies—many with business involving the government—to finance the project so he could say no taxpayer funds were involved. But the move  raises ethical concerns either that the private money was extorted or that the contributors are buying special treatment from the government.

By 53-23 percent, Americans oppose tearing down the East Wing, with 24% undecided.

Trump also wants to build a triumphal arch near the Lincoln Memorial, ostensibly to mark the nation’s 250th birthday, but also to be another memorial to himself, already nicknamed the Arc de Trump.

He also ordered lethal attacks on alleged Venezuelan “narco ships,” killing 40 passengers so far, and proposed attacks inside Venezuela without a declaration of war, constitutionally a Congressional responsibility, or a Congressional authorization. Nor has he justified the attacks with public proof that the vessels are actually carrying narcotics. He has also moved an aircraft carrier task force into the Caribbean. And he’s ordered attacks on alleged narco ships in the Pacific.

Trump’s Royal Wrecking Ball Court

Meantime, Trump’s Royal pretensions have been enabled and endorsed by the conservative majority on the US Supreme Court, committing outrages of its own. The worst will be the overturning of the last major section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which prohibited racially discriminatory gerrymandering and encouraged creation of majority-minority House districts.

In oral arguments this month, the conservatives indicated they would strike down the VRA’s Section 2 on the grounds that its protections needed to be time-limited and that race should never be considered in voting rights cases, just as the Court has barred it in affirmative action cases.

The elimination of majority-minority Congressional districts will have an obvious political effect. There are such districts (now held by Democrats) in 10 mostly-Southern states, so that elimination of them could result in a Republican gain of 19 seats in the House, likely enough to keep Republicans in power and sustain slavish GOP obedience to King Trump.

The idea that protecting Black and Hispanic voting rights is no longer needed is totally wrong. Just look at the states which are gerrymandering black majority districts out of existence: 8 of 10 were Confederate in the Civil War.

And consider how persistent the gaps remain between whites and blacks in annual and lifetime income (for blacks, 68% of whites and 63% for Hispanics), wealth (for white families $188,200, black $24,000 and Hispanic $36,050). Also life expectancy, home ownership, dependency on federal food programs and educational attainment. The gaps are wider in the former Confederate states than in the rest of the country.

In Louisiana, the state at issue in oral arguments, whites comprise 57% of the state’s population but hold 83% of its House seats. In the 11 states of the Old Confederacy, whites comprise 61% of the population but hold 80% of House seats. If the Supreme Court decides as its oral argument statements suggested, it’ll be a step back toward Jim Crow.

In numerous other cases, the Supreme Court majority has gone out of its way to support the Trump point of view, often rejecting the findings of lower courts.  The Court majority seems to have adopted the “unitary executive” theory of US governance, which gives the President absolute power over government agencies, even those set up by Congress to be independent, the Federal Reserve excepted.

And historically often it expounds its pro-Trump decisions without customary oral arguments, full written briefs and signed opinions, using the so-called “shadow docket.” The cases on the docket usually get there by “emergency” appeals by the Trump administration to reverse adverse rulings by lower courts and in all but a few cases (such as Trump’s attempt to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook) the Court sides with Trump—26 times this year so far. Past administrations have appealed on an emergency basis only a few times in four years, if at all.

The Court has upheld Trump’s dismantling the Department of Education, overturning a lower court’s ruling that mass layoffs violated statutory mandates. It also overturned a lower court’s ruling against racial profiling by ICE officers in Los Angeles despite counter arguments that it violated constitutional protections.  And, in 2021 it permitted Texas’s draconian abortion law to take effect.

The Court’s consistent right-wing tilt has legitimately undermined public confidence in its fairness. A recent Gallup poll showed that by 57% to 43% the public has an unfavorable view of the Court, down from 80% favorable in 1999 and an average of more than 60% from 1972 to 2020. Only 38% of Independents view the Court’s decisions as “mostly fair and unbiased.”

And still more…

ICE

• Keeping track of the worst recent ICE outrages, on Oct. 4, a masked Border Patrol agent shot Miramar Martinez five times during an ICE operation in Chicago. Her injuries were serious, but not fatal. Authorities claim she blocked an official vehicle with her car, but video evidence contradicts this. She faces a trial for attempting to assault a police officer.
• In New York City’s Chinatown district on Oct. 21, masked federal agents tackled vendors on Canal St. and used riot shields and batons to subdue protestors. Fourteen people were arrested, 9 immigrants charged with immigration violations, and crimes including counterfeiting, robbery and drug offenses, according to the Department of Homeland Security and five protesters for assaulting officers or blocking vehicles. Rep. Dan Goldman, the local Congressman, condemned the raid as “lawless terror” inasmuch as several of those arrested and detained for up to 24 hours were US citizens or legal residents.  
• In Portland, OR, on Oct. 12, a peaceful protester playing a clarinet was thrown to the ground, arrested for assaulting an officer and held without bail.

Racist “Banter”

• In keeping with Trump’s vulgarity and malice, Young Republicans across the country exchanged anti-Semitic, anti-Black, misogynistic and pro-Hitler messages on the site Telegram—among 28,000 leaked to Politico. Vice President J.D. Vance dismissed the incident, saying “kids do stupid things” and “I’m not going to join the pearl-clutchers” But many of those involved were not “kids,” but adult state YR chairs, national committee members and Congressional aides. Moreover, those who did not participate in racist exchanges saw them and evidently did not condemn them.

Healthcare

• Democrats are refusing to support re-opening the government unless Republicans include an extension of subsidies to help Obamacare clients pay their premiums, cancellation of Medicaid cuts in the GOP “Big Beautiful” budget bill and cuts to SNAP poor peoples’ food assistance. Republicans want to reopen the government now and negotiate on the health care cuts later, but Democrats don’t trust Trump&Co. to negotiate in good faith.
  
  Here’s what’s at stake: the ACA subsidies end at the end of this year, but notices of the cuts go out late this month and the enrollment period begins in November.

If ACA subsidies are not extended, premiums will rise 30% to 75% for 17-20 million enrollees, depending on age, income level and whether states have passed an extension of Medicaid benefits. Middle income families face premium increases of $2,400 to $4,900 a year. Ten states, mostly Southern, did not expand Medicaid, so an elderly adult in such a state might face a premium increase of $17,000. More than 4 million people are expected to lose coverage. Medicaid cuts are expected to cause 7.8 to 10.5 million people to lose coverage. Up to 13 million people could lose food benefits, especially immigrants, low-income workers, children and disabled adults.

Extorting the Government

• Trump has the gall to attempt to get the Justice Department to pay him $250 million to cover his legal and other expenses arising from Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russia’s attempt to sway the 2016 election in his favor and the FBI’s search of Mar a Lago for classified documents he secreted there. Whether he gets the money is up to Deputy Attorney Gen. Todd Blanche, Trump’s former defense lawyer, or Associate Attorney Gen. Stan Woodward, who represented Trump’s co-defendant in the classified documents case. They are hardly independent officials inasmuch as Trump has command of DoJ.

Tariffs

• Trump’s tariffs are driving up prices across autos, furniture, food and other consumer goods, with economists estimating a $2,400 to $4,900 annual hit for middle-income families and proportionally more for lower-income families. The tariffs are expected to bring in $300 billion in government revenue this year and $4.5 trillion in 10 years if they persist that long at current levels.

The Penn Wharton Budget Model shows that while tariffs raise substantial revenue, they’ll lower GDP by 6% and wages by 5%. A Pew poll shows that only 31% approve of Trump’s tariff policies and 68% disapprove.

Shutdown Pain

• More than 50 million workers will lose income if the government shutdown persists—750,000 furloughed federal workers, 5.2 million employees of federal contractors, 42 million SNAP recipients who’ll lose benefits if the shutdown doesn’t end by November (because the Department of Agriculture, which manages SNAP, will be shut down) plus 2.4 million to 3.1 million small business and service workers whose jobs depend on government and contract workers’ spending.

$40 Billion For Hist Friends in Argentina

• Despite all the hardship created by the government shutdown, Trump’s budget cuts and tariffs, Trump is proposing to give Argentina $20 billion to help an ideological ally, President Javier Milei. Milei has fired tens of thousands of government workers, privatized state-owned industries, cut the federal deficit from 5% to near zero and reduced inflation from 300% to below 40%.    Trump is also proposing to quadruple purchases of Argentine beef to lower beef prices in the US (now $6.32/pound for ground beef.) That’s enraged US ranchers.

Meantime, he’s imposed up to 50% tariffs on Brazil as punishment for its prosecution of another Trump ally, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who mounted an unsuccessful Jan. 6-style revolt to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election.