The Trump Administration: The Clusterfuck Continues (Part 2)

[Monty]

@dtilque

My guess is that Hegseth ordered them to decline. If so it qualifies as a fustercluck.

He doesn’t have to order it. He’s created a commannd climate in which everyone is afraid to offend him.

Rip van Simple forgets why he’s sitting at the Resolute Desk.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday spent nearly a full hour ranting about the new-look Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, trashing Democrats as “Dumocrats” and downplaying the sky-high inflation that his war against Iran has caused before nearly forgetting to do the one thing he’d brought reporters into the Oval Office to see.

As White House aides attempted to usher the White House press pool from the room after Trump ended the event by thanking reporters, he was reminded that he had not put pen to paper on the immigration and border funding package he’d meant to sign as top GOP congressional leaders looked on.

But when someone pointed out that he hadn’t actually signed the bill — at the signing ceremony in the Oval Office — he quickly pivoted to attacking his predecessor’s use of an autopen as he took out his bespoke Sharpie and inked a signature on the page as House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso and others watched over his shoulder.

Only the best, right, First Felon?

Former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb is running for Congress with the coveted endorsement from President Donald Trump. Generally, in the heavily Republican-leaning Congressional District 5 that spans the southeastern Valley, this is a sure fire way to win the election.

But Lamb is facing an uphill battle after an Arizona Republic investigation found him at the center of multiple controversies.

Several women have come forward accusing the sheriff of a habit of sexting and sharing nude photographs and trying to cover it up by using threats or intimidation, according to screenshots, photos and other evidence the women provided to back up their claims.

In addition, a screenshot showed that Lamb made a racist joke in response to a racial slur from a border enforcement extremist on Facebook.

Lamb, who has branded himself as “America’s Sheriff” and served as a member of The Church of Latter-Day Saints, has put the idea of reviving faith, family and freedom at the center of his campaign. Since the investigation by the Republic, he has largely avoided commenting about the controversies.

The article says “served a a member” but should have said “served as a bishop” IIRC.

OB-GYN makes vaccine recommendations which differ from Killer Kennedy’s krew. (The bolding is mine.)

A prominent OB-GYN group announced vaccine recommendations on Wednesday that differ from what the U.S. government advises.

The immunization schedule is specifically for pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding women. It aligns with prior recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, before changes were made under the Trump administration and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Earlier this year, the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists withdrew from a CDC advisory committee on vaccines because of those changes, which have spawned legal challenges.

“So now for the first time, ACOG has made the decision to formally release its own immunization schedule to provide and communicate clear evidence-based guidance and to address the growing vaccine misinformation that is circulating,” said Dr. Christopher Zahn, the OB-GYN group’s chief of clinical practice.

The new schedule has been endorsed by 13 other professional and medical societies. Some other groups, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, have also put out vaccine schedules this year that differ from the CDC’s.

Don’t even pretend the First Felon isn’t behind this bigotry.

Republican lawmakers continued their efforts to downplay and obscure the crisis of racist extremism during yet another hearing centered on the Southern Poverty Law Center.

I’ve been documenting the Republican Party’s dubious crusade against the SPLC, the organization known for assisting law enforcement with investigating racist extremist groups. The Trump administration’s recent indictment of the SPLC on allegations the group defrauded investors by financing the extremist groups they claim to fight has ramped up that attack and fits a long tradition of white conservatives denying the origins, existence or extremism of racist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan. (The SPLC has denied any wrongdoing.)

That propaganda effort continued Tuesday at a House hearing where Republicans accused the SPLC of “manufacturing hate” despite the organization having been an important partner to the federal government for decades in rooting out white supremacist extremism — a national security threat acknowledged by officials from both the Biden administration and President Donald Trump’s first administration.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan’s line of questioning left little doubt about his effort to portray the SPLC as nefarious and the impetus for various acts of racism. At one point, Jordan asked SPLC CEO Bryan Fair whether his organization’s work was “all about the money.” At another, Jordan said the SPLC’s fundraising had increased after the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017, to which Fair replied by saying the group’s funding went up after Trump became president.

First Felon shares photo with zero people; declares there are a thousand there.

Donald Trump shared a confusing Truth Social post boasting of “thousands” of people at his repainted Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, including a photo showing it deserted.

The 79-year-old president reshared an X post from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at 6:20 a.m. ET praising the renovation project that has seen the pool painted blue as part of the America 250 celebrations.

“I stopped by the new Reflecting Pool. It is simply glorious. There were a thousand people everywhere, taking pictures and just enjoying its beauty,” Lutnick posted. “Thank you President Trump for restoring our city’s national treasure.”

However, the photo shared by Lutnick and Trump during his early morning social media blitz did not show anyone enjoying the pool in Washington, D.C.

It’s definitely a cult.

Fresh off his primary win, Lindsey Graham lavished praise on Donald Trump, calling him “not far behind God” and casting him as the Republican Party’s undisputed kingmaker.

The four-term South Carolina senator made the remarks during his Tuesday night victory speech, after fending off five challengers and winning more than half the vote.

“I want to start with a bunch of thank yous. I want to thank the big guy, God. Trump comes later,” Graham told a crowd of supporters, while laughing. “Mr. President, you’re not far behind God, but we’re gonna start with him.”

And there’s even a hymn for it! (The formatting is from the link.)

Donald Trump has shared an AI music video on Truth Social featuring a song claiming worldwide adoration for him. The post went up on Saturday, which marked the 82nd anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy. The one-minute clip, which also uses an auto-tuned vocal track, is the latest instance of the president using AI to tout himself.

The video presents a series of AI-created people meant to represent people from Mexico, Italy, the Middle East, Africa, China, and India. Each segment ends with the refrain “They love Donald, Donald Trump.” An auto-tuned voice repeats the line “Everywhere I go, they love Donald Donald Trump” before closing with: “I gotta say, I love Donald Donald Trump. Might be president one day, just like Donald Donald Trump.”

Throughout the montage, Trump appears inserted into various scenes. One shot shows him riding a camel, while another shows him on a motorcycle in India, and most of it is him doing his signature dance moves.

Even L. Ron Hubbard didn’t have that level of nonsense.

So the First Felon doesn’t really care all that much about women’s sports.

For decades, one of the perks of winning a championship in a major sport was the opportunity to visit the White House and meet the president of the United States. The Las Vegas Aces celebrated their 2022 WNBA Championship at the White House with Vice President Kamala Harris, but they won’t have the chance this year.

Despite winning the WNBA Championship back in October, the Las Vegas Aces did not receive an invitation to the White House by United States President Donald Trump, a team spokesperson told USA Today. It marks the second consecutive season that the WNBA champion did not receive an invite. In fact, Trump has never invited a WNBA champion to the White House during any of the six years of his presidency.

According to USA Today, the Aces considered visiting the National Museum of African American History and Culture as an alternate way to commemorate the championship in Washington D.C. in lieu of an invitation to the White House, but they could not make it work due to scheduling conflicts.

Now Dark Falter wants to make the Web Dark.

The White House and Congress are working on a deal to clamp down on what US citizens are allowed to say online. According to new reporting by Axios, the Trump administration is negotiating with key senators in an effort to shoehorn a massive legislation package which would limit states’ abilities to regulate AI in exchange for placing broad federal limits on digital speech.

Plenty of ink has been spilled about the Trump administration’s push to revoke AI regulation from individual states. Though the White House and its allies frame this as a matter of “safety” and “national security,” the timing is telling, coming as progressive state governments move to restrict the building of AI data centers and hold tech companies liable for harms their AI systems cause.

What makes this deal particularly insidious is the trade-off at its core. Per Axios, congressional lawmakers lead by Republican Marsha Blackburn are essentially offering to surrender their ability to regulate AI in exchange for three federal censorship bills: the Kids Online Safety Act, the NO FAKES Act, and a federal age verification mandate.

While the language around these three measures suggests common-sense cyber regulation, activists say they really amount to a massive censorship regime that is fundamentally anti-democratic.

Secretary of war crimes isn’t good at weeding out. (The bolding is mine.)

Neighbors at a Texas Air Force Base say that they have seen poisonous snakes and scorpions hiding in waist-high weeds and grass in base neighborhoods where landscaping crews have not worked in over a month.

Families at Lackland Air Force Base, which is home to Air Force basic training, shared photos with Task & Purpose of waist-high grass that residents say has been allowed to grow by base housing officials since the first week of May.

“The last time they mowed in my neighborhood was 4 May,” one resident told Task & Purpose. “The grass overall is overgrown, but in most places it’s at least 2-5 feet tall.”

Task & Purpose spoke to three residents, all of whom requested anonymity due to fears of retaliation. Each reported similar conditions in two of the bases’ largest neighborhoods for enlisted housing.

“Residents have already had an uptick in snakes in their yard with multiple coral snakes. The flies and mosquitoes are bad,” said one resident.

Criminal pardoned by the First Felon commits crimes.

Jake Lang, a far-right influencer who was criminally charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection but was later pardoned by President Trump, was arrested in Dallas, Texas, on a state charge of making terroristic threats.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, 31-year-old Lang was arrested Tuesday after getting off a flight in Dallas on one third-degree felony count of making a terroristic threat. He was booked into the Dallas County Jail.

The charge comes after photos and videos showed Lang outside the Collin County courthouse several times this past week during the murder trial for teen Karmelo Anthony.

A jury Tuesday found Anthony guilty of murder in the April 2025 stabbing death of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a track meet in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, and he was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Anthony’s family told CBS News on Wednesday that Lang had allegedly threatened to shoot Anthony in the head if he was not convicted of murder.

&

Lang’s arrest marks his latest run-in with law enforcement since receiving a presidential pardon last year.

He was arrested last week in Frisco, Texas, on a trespassing charge. In March, he was also arrested in St. Paul, Minnesota, on allegations of vandalizing a sculpture on the front steps of the Minnesota Capitol that read “prosecute ICE.” Lang’s trial in that case is scheduled for next month.