The Trump Administration: The Clusterfuck Continues (Part 2)

[Monty]

@DWMarch

who has a vendetta against butterflies?

The campers at High Pines?

He’s cavalier and he’s wrong.

White House border czar Tom Homan said Thursday he’s “sure” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have detained U.S. citizens, “but we don’t deport them.”

Homan told reporters outside the White House that U.S. citizens have “nothing to fear.”

“We deport people that are going to be deportable,” he continued. “We arrest people that will be deportable based on suspicion. Have U.S. citizens ever been shortly detained based on suspicion? I’m sure. I’m sure.”

If ICE officers determine that someone is “not the guy we’re looking for, you are released,” Homan said before adding, “But we don’t deport U.S. citizens.”

Cancún Cruz explains the swindle.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz suggested the so-called Trump accounts for American children are part of an effort to revamp Social Security, a sensitive political subject long regarded as the “third rail” in U.S. politics.

Last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act created allowed parents and other authorized individuals to open tax-advantaged savings accounts for any child under 18 with a Social Security number.

During a panel discussion at the Milken Institute’s Global Summit on Monday, Cruz pointed out he wrote that part of the legislation, noting that half of Americans don’t own stocks and can’t benefit from decades of compounding growth.

For 50 years, he added, U.S. conservatives have been trying to mimic Australia’s superannuation program, which requires employers to pay into an employee’s investment fund to be accessed upon retirement as a way to reduce reliance on public pensions. Cruz described a U.S. version as Social Security personal accounts.

“Here’s the dirty little secret: Trump accounts are Social Security personal accounts,” he said.

Republicans tried to make changes to Social Security during President George W. Bush’s second term but retreated amid pushback on the politically charged topic.

Retirees and soon-to-be retirees have long been a potent voting bloc that instill fear in lawmakers, especially those contemplating any adjustments to Social Security and Medicare.

“How did we get it done this time? Because we gave the money to babies and so the old people didn’t get pissed,” Cruz said.

Rip van Simple loves her country but screw being polite to her or even answering her question.

President Donald Trump blew off a member of the foreign press in mid-question by exclaiming “I love South Korea!” and moving on to the next reporter.

During the short-lived “Operation Freedom” this week, Trump took a jab at the Republic of Korea in a post claiming Iran attacked one of their ships and suggesting they should “join the mission”:

Iran has taken some shots at unrelated Nations with respect to the Ship Movement, PROJECT FREEDOM, including a South Korean Cargo Ship. Perhaps it’s time for South Korea to come and join the mission! We’ve shot down seven small Boats or, as they like to call them, “fast” Boats. It’s all they have left. Other than the South Korean Ship, there has been, at this moment, no damage going through the Strait. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Caine, will have a News Conference tomorrow morning. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

The president took questions from reporters on the South Lawn of the White House as he departed for Sterling, Virginia on Friday, during which a South Korean reporter pressed him on the claim. But Trump interrupted her before she could finish:

REPORTER: Mr. President, South Korea– You said a Korean ship was attacked by Iran, but Iran has denied this is (INAUDIBLE). Do you share with–

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I love South Korea!

The South Korean outlet Asian Business Daily noted the “off-topic” response:

According to reports from AFP and other foreign media on the 8th (local time), President Trump was asked by reporters at the White House in Washington, D.C., “You said a Korean ship was attacked by Iran, but Iran has denied this.” To this, Trump gave an off-topic answer, saying, “I love Korea.”

The liar’s preacher says the liar knows the Bible better than the Pope.

One of Donald Trump’s most loyal and long-standing evangelical supporters believes the president knows the Bible better than the leader of the world’s largest organized religion.“It looks like President Trump has a better understanding of what the Bible teaches about the role of government than the pope has,” Pastor Robert Jeffress said on Fox News on Friday, speaking on the topic of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Thursday meeting with the pontiff.

We’ve joked about it before and now it’s true. This fake administration is now an actual reality show.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s new reality show, filmed with his family over the last seven months, has sparked criticism amid high gas prices, in addition to raising ethics questions.

Duffy said that costs for the five-part series titled “The Great American Road Trip,” which will air for free on YouTube ahead of America’s 250th birthday, were paid for by a nonprofit, the Great American Road Trip Inc., and that “zero taxpayer dollars were spent on my family.” He said his family did not receive a salary or production royalties.

The project’s sponsors, according to its website, include Boeing, Shell, Toyota, United Airlines and Royal Caribbean — all companies that intersect with the Department of Transportation.

“As everyday Americans struggle with the price of gas and raise concerns about airline safety, the Secretary announces that he spent work time going on a road trip that appears to have been funded by the very industries his agency oversees,” Donald K. Sherman, the president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in a statement.

This show brings Duffy and his wife, Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy, back to their entertainment roots. The pair, who have nine children together, met while filming the MTV reality show “Road Rules: All Stars.”

Rip van Simple gives a vocabulary lesson.

California Governor Gavin Newsom took aim at President Donald Trump’s mental acuity after the president veered into a peculiar aside about the difference between “sea” and “see.”

Trump made the remark during a White House Mother’s Day event on Wednesday, slipping into the tangent while discussing crime.

“You see drug traffic coming into our country is way down,” he told a crowd of military mothers gathered in the East Room. “And by sea, by sea, by ocean, by the water.”

“You know a lot of people say ‘what do you mean by sea?’ Is it see, like vision? No it’s sea, S-E-A,” the 79-year-old president continued.

Shortly after, Newsom took to X to mock the president and challenge him to a cognitive test, mimicking the all-caps, combative style Trump often uses on Truth Social.